Archives for 2024

Srinagar: Passengers travelling from Delhi to Srinagar on an IndiGo flight had a horrifying experience as the plane faced a severe turbulence due to inclement weather condition, officials said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on Monday.

A video, recorded by someone on board the flight 6E 6125, shows anxious faces of the passengers. Several travellers could be heard chanting religious hymns.

A spokesperson of the airline said the flight from Delhi to Srinagar faced severe turbulent due to “inclement weather”.

“The crew followed all operational protocols and the flight landed safely in Srinagar. We regret the inconvenience caused to passengers due to the inclement weather,” the spokesperson added.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra legislative assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill providing 10 per cent reservation for the Maratha community in education and government jobs.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tabled the Maharashtra State Socially and Educationally Backward Bill 2024 in the House during the day-long special session of the legislature on Maratha quota.

The bill also proposed that once the reservation comes into effect, its review could be taken after 10 years.
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange, who is sitting on a hunger strike since February 10, had demanded that a special session be called over the issue.

The government recently issued a draft notification which said if a Maratha person has documentary proof to show that he or she belongs to the agrarian Kunbi community, the person’s ‘sage soyre’ or blood relatives too would get Kunbi caste certificates.

The Kunbi community falls in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) category, and Jarange has been demanding that Kunbi certificates be issued to all Marathas.

Maharashtra cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal has been opposing the “backdoor entry” of Marathas into the OBC quota, but is in favour of a separate reservation for the community.

Notably, the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission on Friday submitted a report on its survey on the social, economic, and educational backwardness of the Maratha community. The massive exercise covered nearly 2.5 crore families.

One of the key findings in the bill tabled by CM Shinde underscores that the population of the Maratha community in the state is 28 per cent.

Out of the total Maratha families that are below poverty line, 21.22 per cent hold the yellow ration cards. It is higher than the state’s average of 17.4 per cent.

The state government’s survey undertaken between January and February this year also found that 84 per cent of the Maratha community families do not fall under the progressed category, hence they are eligible for reservation as per the Indra Sawhney case, as per the bill Out of total farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra, 94 per cent are from Maratha families, the bill noted.

New Delhi: The NHRC has sent a notice to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) over reports that an 80-year-old man died at the Mumbai airport after he was allegedly not provided a wheelchair despite prior request to an airline and forced to walk.

Reportedly, the US-based Indian-origin man collapsed after walking for about 1.5 km on the way to the immigration area, the National Human Rights Commission said in a statement. He was walking alongside his wife, who was in a wheelchair.

The elderly couple was travelling from New York to India, the rights panel said, quoting the report.

The NHRC said it “has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that an 80-year-old man died at the Mumbai airport as he had to walk when not provided with a wheelchair despite prior request to the airline.”

The Commission observed that the content of the media report, if true, raises a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim.

It has asked the DGCA for a detail report in four weeks.

It should include the status of compensation if any, provided to the next of kin of the deceased, the statement said.

The Commission said it would also like to know the steps taken or proposed to be taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur.

“There has been a significant increase in the number of air passengers as well as the airfare, but the standard of facilities doesn’t seem to have improved proportionately resulting in several complaints reported in the media and posted on social media,” the Commission observed.

“According to the media report, there were 32 wheelchair passengers on the particular flight but there were only 15 available with accompanying staff on the ground to help them. The wife sat in the wheelchair while the husband followed her on foot and collapsed after some time. The elderly couple was travelling from New York to India,” it said.

Chandigarh: A day before the resumption of farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, Haryana Police urged its Punjab counterparts to seize bulldozers and other earthmoving equipment from the interstate border which they say protesters will use to break barricades.

These could pose a threat to the security forces deployed at the border, Haryana Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapoor said in an urgent communication to his Punjab counterpart Gaurav Yadav.

Farmer leaders taking part in the ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation on Monday rejected the Centre’s proposal for procuring three pulses, maize and cotton at the MSP by government agencies for five years and announced that they would resume their march on Wednesday.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march.

“It is reliably learnt that heavy earthmoving equipment, including proclain (digger), JCB etc., that have been further modified/armour-plated have been acquired by protesting farmers and have been deployed at the border locations where the protesters are camping right now,” the letter written by the Haryana DGP stated.

“These machines are meant to be used by the protesters to damage the barricades thereby posing serious danger to the police and paramilitary forces deployed on duty and is likely to compromise the security scenario in Haryana,” it said.

“In view of this, you are requested to take all necessary steps to immediately seize these machines from the protesting sites at the borders and take all preventive steps so that the proclain/JCB machines and other heavy machinery which may cause harm to security forces are not allowed to reach the protesting sites,” it added.

Haryana Police also requested its Punjab counterparts to strictly warn the owners or operators of such equipment to not provide their equipment to the protesting farmers as this would “amount to a criminal act and they would be criminally liable for the same”.

“The matter may be dealt (with) on top priority being matter of utmost urgency,” the letter stated.

The protesting farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march was stopped by security forces on February 13.

The farmers had also clashed with the security personnel at the two border points.