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Ensure stipulated quantity of Cauvery waters as per CWDT award, Karnataka told

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NEW DELHI: The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Tuesday directed the Karnataka government to ensure the release of the stipulated quantity of flows as per the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT).

 According to the final CWDT award, Karnataka should release 7.35 tmcft water for the rest of December, at the interstate connecting point Biligundulu on an average daily flow of 2,744 cusecs. 

In the 91st meeting of the CWRC under the chairmanship of Vineet Gupta, the panel made a decision based on storage position, inflows and outflows of eight designated reservoirs and hydrometeorological conditions in the Cauvery basin. The next meeting will be held on January 9.  

“The state of Karnataka needs to ensure flows at Biligundulu stipulated by  CWDT,  as modified by the Supreme Court, for the remaining period of December 2023 and January 2024, when the hydrometeorological conditions in the Cauvery basin will be reviewed,” Gupta told TNIE. 

A good northeast monsoon has come as a relief to Tamil Nadu and also, the committee recognised the critical drought-like condition in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka. 

“After January 31, there is no need for extra water required as harvesting of crops would start in February in TN while Karnataka needs to maintain the environmental flow of the river,” Gupta added. The committee observed that the live storage in the four reservoirs of Karnataka is 42.546 tmcft, which is 40.69% of the total live storage. In  Tamil Nadu, it is 54.089 tmcft, which is 41.77% of the total live storage.

Karnataka issues advisory as Covid-19 cases rise in Kerala

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BENGALURU: The health department on Tuesday issued a Covid advisory with the number of cases increasing in neighbouring Kerala. According to the advisory, those aged 60 and above, and pregnant and lactating mothers should wear masks while venturing out. They should avoid visiting closed, poorly ventilated spaces and crowded areas. 

Those having respiratory problems, symptoms of fever, cough, cold and running nose should seek immediate medical help. The advisory was issued based on the Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee’s (TAC) recommendations. According to the advisory, people should maintain hygiene, including frequent washing of hands. Those unwell should stay at home and avoid meeting others, especially the elderly. People travelling overseas should be vigilant and follow precautions such as wearing masks at airports.

 79 active cases in Karnataka

 “Testing of all SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infections) cases and at least one in 20 ILI (Influenza Like Illness) cases for Covid-19 at all private and government tertiary centres, including medical colleges, should be taken up,” Health Commissioner Randeep stated.

District surveillance officers should coordinate and send positive samples with Ct (cycle threshold) value less than 25 to Bangalore Medical College and Research Centre (BMCRI). All government and private hospitals should conduct mock drills to ensure operational readiness, the circular stated. Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, who held a meeting with top health officials, said that daily testing will be ramped up to 5,000 by this weekend. Union Health Minister Mansuk Mandaviya will hold a meeting of health ministers of all States on Wednesday.

A TAC member said, “We have submitted recommendations. There is no need to panic or impose any rigid restrictions as of now. We are closely monitoring how Covid 19 variant, JN.1, is behaving. While it is spreading in neighbouring Kerala and other countries, it is not yet listed as the variant of concern.” He said there are over 70 active Covid cases in the State and based on the situation, the government will be asked to take measures.

RULES FOR NY CELEBRATIONS NEXT WEEK 
Guidelines for New Year celebrations by the Bengaluru city police will be released next week, City Police Commissioner B Dayananda has said. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he said that meetings with the other departments concerned in this regard have taken place. A final meeting will be held with the police officers attached to Bengaluru Police Commissi-onerate before releasing the guidelines, he added. The previ-ous years New Year celebrations will be analysed to ensure more precautions and security this year. New Year celebra-tions at Brigade Road and MG Road will be as usual.  “All measures will be in place to ensure safety to the public and to those participating in the celebrations,” he added.  

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah meets PM Modi seeks Rs 18K crore for drought relief

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Siddaramaiah and modi

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday and sought Rs 18,177 crore as assistance for drought relief works in the State.

Siddaramaiah urged PM Modi to direct Union Home Minister Amit Shah to hold an emergency meeting of the high-powered committee and take immediate steps to release funds to tackle drought.

Addressing reporters, Siddaramaiah said the committee headed by Shah should have held a meeting by now. “We have submitted three memorandums, but the central officials did not convene any meeting,” he added.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.609.1_en.html#goog_1032962961Advertisement: 0:02Close Player

“We placed five demands and Modi responded positively to them. We hope to get central funds at the earliest. Farmers are in distress because of drought and they need help,” he said.

In his petition, Siddaramaiah stated that the State submitted its first memorandum three months ago. The inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) made its field visits in the State two months ago. Yet, the State hasn’t received any financial assistance from the Centre. 

 Crops have failed and farmers are in distress. There is a dire need to pay “input subsidy” to the affected farmers at the earliest, the CM added. Of the 236 taluks in the State, 223 have been declared as drought-hit. Of the 223 taluks, 196 have been severely affected, the CM stated in his petition.

On the Mekedatu reservoir project, the CM said that it has been gazetted. “There is no hindrance to the project. But it is yet to get environmental clearance from the Union Government. We have completed the project estimation. Only after getting environmental clearance, we can start work. This is why we have been urging the Union Government to grant it at the earliest,” he said.

On the Upper Bhadra project, he said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a Central grant of Rs 5,300 crore and the then chief minister Basavaraj Bommai announced equal contribution from the State. The Centre should release the grant soon.

Mekedatu is a drinking water project and it will also help the people of Tamil Nadu. “This will help us get drinking water as well as generate 400 MW of power. Tamil Nadu can make use of both. We have urged Modi to help the State implement this project,” Siddaramaiah said.

State’s demands

  • Funds for drought relief works
  • 150 MNREGA mandays
  • Funds for Upper Bhadra project
  • Environmental clearance for Mahadayi, Mekedatu projects

Democracy strangulated by Modi government: Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on suspension of MPs

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NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi Wednesday alleged the government legitimate demand and said the Congress has its task cut out for next year’s general elections both as a party and as an INDIA bloc member.

Noting that the assembly election results being very disappointing is an understatement, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson urged party MPs to channel their disappointment into a positive drive for next year’s general elections.

Later on Wednesday, Congress MPs held a protest against the suspension of opposition members outside Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the Parliament complex.

Addressing party MPs at the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Central Hall of Parliament, Gandhi said, “To say that the assembly election results in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been very disappointing for our party is an understatement.”

“The Congress president has already had a first round of reviews to understand the reasons for our poor performance and to draw the needed lessons for our organization,” she said.

“We are facing enormous challenges. Yet, I am confident that our fortitude and resilience will see us through. Our ideology and our values are our guiding light at this difficult time. We must never forget that our leaders fought against insurmountable odds with great courage and fortitude to give us freedom.”

Gandhi told the MPs to “channel the disappointment into a positive drive for the coming general elections”.

The former Congress chief targeted the BJP government at the Centre over the “soaring” inflation and said the poor are suffering and economic inequalities are rising.

“There is a significant gap between the prime minister’s boasts on economic growth and ground reality,” she said.

Gandhi also said the passage of the in Parliament with a rider was an eyewash to mislead women and garner their votes. There is no time to waste and reservation for women must be implemented immediately, she said.

She said the Congress’s position on Jammu and Kashmir has been clear and consistent, asserting that full statehood must be restored immediately and elections be held there at the earliest.

NewsClick says Income Tax department virtually frozen their accounts salaries held up

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newsclick

News portal NewsClick have claimed that the company’s bank accounts have been “virtually frozen” by the Income Tax department, restricting it from paying salaries to employees and consultants. NewClick also said that it will undertake legal measures against this ” unjust” and ” cruel” action.

As of the evening of December 18, NewsClick has been unable to make any bank payments due to action by the Income Tax Department
 
Calling the move a seeming continuation of its “administrative-legal siege” by the government, which it said started in 2021 and included the confiscation of its contributors’ devices earlier this year, NewsClick said its employees now faced an uncertain future.

“Coming at the year-end festive season, this sudden action has left all our employees shocked. Since there is no indication of when our accounts will become accessible, there is uncertainty in the minds of all employees and their families, especially those who are completely dependent on salaries from NewsClick,” it said.PauseUnmuteLoaded: 5.96%Remaining Time -9:42Close Player

It said the organisation did not receive any intimation of the freezing of accounts and the staff discovered it by chance while trying to make routine payments on Monday evening.

NewsClick and its legal counsel are reviewing the developments, it said, adding that legal appeals against this “unjust and cruel” measure will be initiated at the earliest.

the editor-in-chief and founder of the portal, and administrative officer Amit Chakraborty were arrested by the Delhi Police after the October searches. They are in judicial custody at present.

Zelensky says no one knows when war in Ukraine will end

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KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that there was no end in sight to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as fatigue builds among Kyiv’s allies nearly  and the Kremlin voices growing confidence of victory elensky said he hadfrom the to mobilise as many as 500,000 Ukrainians for the army, an unpopular proposal that could hit his worsening poll ratings among Ukrainians.

His meeting with local and foreign journalists wraps a difficult year in Ukraine, with Kyiv’s forces under pressure on the front and allies wavering on military and financial backing.

“No one knows the answer,” Zelensky told reporters in response to a question of whether the war with Russia could end next year.

“Even respected people, our commanders and our Western partners, who say that this is a war for many years, they do not know,” he said.

The question of how long Western countries will provide essential support for Kyiv has grown increasingly urgent.

Zelensky last week embarked on a tour of Western countries to make the case for more military and political support as Russia’s invasion grinds closer to its two-year-anniversary in February.

But he failed to convince the US Congress to immediately approve $60 billion in support, while in Brussels, Hungarian leader Viktor Orban blocked an aid package of around 50 billion euros ($55 billion).

Zelensky said Tuesday that he wanted to organise talks with Orban to “find solutions” to their differences, and voiced confidence that Washington would follow through on aid.

“I am confident that the United States will not betray us,” he said.

But hours later, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the US Senate, said that Washington would not be able to approve new aid for Ukraine before year’s end as the two sides continued to seek a compromise.

With elections looming in the United States next year, Zelensky acknowledged that the result of the November poll could have a “very strong impact” on the course of the war, saying Republican favourite Donald Trump would “surely have a different policy” from Joe Biden.

Those setbacks on the diplomatic front come in the wake of a disappointing counteroffensive that Kyiv launched in June using Western-supplied tanks and weapons stockpiled over months.

Responding to growing weariness over the war, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday that the world had become “jaded” by the Ukraine conflict, where war crimes continue to be committed “primarily by the forces of the Russian Federation”.

In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed victory and said during a Tuesday meeting with defence officials that society had rallied behind the war effort.

Putin, who has announced he will run for re-election in March, lashed out at the West and claimed it was seeking Moscow’s destruction.

“Well, we are not going to give up the goals of the special military operation, either,” he said, using the Kremlin’s term for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Zelensky was facing growing discontent at home before becoming the global face of Ukrainian resistance after Russia’s invasion, but he is once again feeling political pressure.

Recent polling shows that the number of Ukrainians who trust Zelensky has dropped to 62 percent compared to 84 percent one year ago, when Kyiv’s forces were celebrating gains in the east and south.

The advances from this year’s counteroffensive were much more modest, with just a few villages in the south and east recaptured after months of fighting against entrenched Russian forces.

Zelensky said he had received a request from the army to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people to replenish Kyiv’s forces, but that he had told the military it “needed more arguments to support this idea”.

Hours before Zelensky was due to speak, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had foiled a drone attack on a facility in Moscow.

But a senior Ukrainian military official at the same time conceded that fighting with Russian forces in the eastern Kharkiv region was “complicated”, with Ukrainian forces outgunned and outnumbered.

In an overnight attack, meanwhile, Ukraine reported that nine people were wounded by Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson, as drones also targeted the capital Kyiv and second-largest city Kharkiv.

Despite recent setbacks, Ukrainians still overwhelmingly back both the armed forces and its commander, Valery Zaluzhny.

In a move that illustrates growing political divides, Kyiv residents have been gathering in the city centre to demand more funds to help the military reclaim territory.

Zelensky has highlighted the Black Sea as a recent success story.

Ukrainian drones have forced some Russian warships to redeploy following several successful attacks.

Ukraine also re-opened a maritime corridor for commercial cargo ships using its Black Sea ports, despite threats from Moscow that vessels using the hubs could be treated as military targets.

At INDIA meet Nitish loses cool after DMK leaders sought English translation of his speech

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reportedly lost his temper during a meeting of INDIA bloc leaders on Tuesday after DMK leaders requested for his speech to be translated into English. The DMK delegation, led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and Rajya Sabha MP TR Baalu, was present at the meeting.

According to reports, a wilfully nescient Nitish went on to say that Hindi is the national language and that everyone should learn it after Baalu had asked RJD’s Manoj Jha to translate the JD(U) President’s remarks.
When Jha reportedly volunteered to translate, Nitish rudely suggested that leaders from the South should learn Hindi and directed the RJD MP to refrain from translating.

Reports indicate that Nitish displayed dissatisfaction throughout Tuesday’s meeting amid speculation about the JD(U) chief and his party’s role in the alliance. Since the formation of INDIA, Nitish has reportedly pitched himself for the role of bloc’s convenor and is among the potential contenders for the Opposition alliance’s Prime Ministerial face.

Posters calling for assigning a big role for the Bihar Chief Minister were seen in several parts of Patna on Tuesday when the JD(U) leader was away to attend the INDIA bloc meeting. Kumar had hosted the first meeting of opposition leaders in Patna in June.

On Tuesday, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal—two likely PM aspirants in the INDIA bloc— sprung a surprise by proposing Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s name as the prime ministerial candidate, saying he can be India’s “first Dalit prime minister.”

However, Kharge reportedly turned down the suggestion and said the issue will be decided later and their first priority is to try and get a majority by working together.

Notably, India does not have a national language. 

However, it has two official languages at the national level—Hindi and English—and 22 designated official languages, including Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, as per the Eight Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

Similarly, Article 343(3) grants Parliament authority to legislate the continued use of English for official purposes, while Section 3(3) mandates the obligatory use of Hindi and English for specific purposes, including resolutions, general orders, contracts, and official papers presented to Parliament.

Many states have their official languages, and the constitution recognizes linguistic diversity by providing for the use of several languages for official purposes at the state and union territory levels.

TN CM Stalin launches flood relief of Rs 6,000 to affected families

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Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday launched the distribution of Rs 6,000 cash assistance to families affected by cyclone Michaung induced rains and flood.

Stalin gave away the cash dole to women heads of families at Velachery, one of the badly affected areas due to heavy inundation, marking the launch of disbursal of flood relief to people in Chennai and nearby areas falling under the districts of Chengelpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur.

The exercise of distribution of tokens, specifying the date and time of cash distribution at jurisdictional ration shops, started a couple of days ago. Those who have not received the token may submit applications at fair price shops to avail the cash assistance, a government press release said.

Nine people killed in blast at explosives manufacturing factory in Nagpur

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Nagpur: Nine people were killed and three others seriously injured in a blast at an explosives manufacturing factory in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district on Sunday, police said.

Nine people were killed

The incident took place at the unit, located 40 km from here, causing severe damage to the building, an official at Kondhali police station said, adding that 12 workers were present in the unit at the time of the explosion.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in a post on X termed the incident as unfortunate and condoled the death of the nine people.

The state government will provide an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has approved the decision, he said.

Fadnavis said nine people, including six women, died in the blast at Solar Industries.

It is a company that manufactures drones and explosives for the armed forces, he said.

The state government stands firmly with the families of the victims on this sad occasion, he said.

“I am in touch with the Nagpur collector and superintendent of police. The IG, SP and collector are at the site,” Fadnavis added.


Solar Industries senior general manager Ashish Shrivastav told reporters that the incident occurred in the building where boosters used in coal mines are produced.

The incident took place when sealing work of the product was going on, he said.

10 TN fishermen arrested in British overseas territorial waters handed over to Indian Coast Guard

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Thiruvananthapuram: Around 10 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were arrested earlier this month from near the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in the Indian Ocean, and tried and fined 60,000 Pounds Sterling, were on Sunday handed over to the Indian Coast Guard.

The fishermen had ventured into fishing areas in the deep sea, around 230 nautical miles near the BIOT — an archipelago of 58 islands covering some 640,000 sq km of ocean, a defence statement said.

The area is a British Overseas Territory, located approximately halfway between East Africa and Indonesia, and administered from London, the statement said.

The fishermen were arrested on December 6, tried at BIOT and fined 60,000 Pounds Sterling, it said and added that information regarding the same was communicated to the Indian Ocean Directorate of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on December 14.

The fishermen’s boat has been seized as the fine was not paid and the 10 crew were released, it said.

The fishermen have 30 days from December 12 till January 11, 2024 to pay the fine, the statement said.

They were brought off Vizhinjam on BIOT patrol vessel ‘Grampien Endurance’ and were handed over at sea to Indian Coast Guard ships ‘Arnavesh’ and ‘C 427’, the statement said.

The fishermen are expected to arrive at Vizhinjam around 10 am where they will be medically examined and interrogated by agencies concerned.

Subsequently, they will be handed over to the Fisheries Department for safe passage to Tamil Nadu, the statement added.

In a similar incident, around 35 fishermen who were arrested in September for attempting to fish near the BIOT area were released to the Indian Coast Guard on November 20.

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