Bhagat Singh Koshyari

Mumbai: Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Saturday said there will be no money left in Mumbai and it will cease to be the financial capital of the country if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis are removed from the city.

The Congress criticised the governor over his statement and demanded an apology from him.

Speaking at an event in Mumbai, Koshyari said, “I tell people here that if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis are removed from Maharashtra, especially Mumbai and Thane, you will have no money and Mumbai will not be a financial capital.”

He made the statement after the naming ceremony of a chowk in Andheri, a western suburb of Mumbai.

A release issued by the Raj Bhavan said Koshyari praised the contribution of Rajasthani-Marwari and Gujarati communities in making Mumbai the financial capital of the country.

The governor said the Rajasthani-Marwari community is living in different parts of the country and also in countries like Nepal and Mauritius.

“Wherever members of this community go, they not only do business, but also do acts of philanthropy by creating schools, hospitals,” he said.

State Congress spokesman Atul Londhe slammed the governor over his remarks, saying that they smack of his hatred for the state.

He also demanded an apology from the governor.

Indian swimmer Srihari Natara

Birmingham (PTI): Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj has qualified for the finals of men’s 100m backstroke after clocking 54:55 seconds in the semi-final event at the ongoing Commonwealth Games here.

The 21-year-old finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in the medal event that will take place on Sunday.

South African Pieter Coetze, however, was the fastest swimmer across both the semi-finals, clocking 53.67s on day one of the competition.

The Bengaluru lad will now set his sights on becoming only the second Indian swimmer to bag a medal in the Commonwealth Games since Prasanta Karmakar’s historic bronze in the para-swimming event at the Delhi CWG in 2010.

At the Tokyo Olympics last year, Nataraj had become the first Indian to swim in the classification A heat. The young swimmer had clocked 54:31s to finish 27th in the men’s 100m backstroke event.

Earlier, in men’s 400m Freestyle heats, Kushagra Rawat failed to advance to the semifinals after clocking 3:57.45 to finish 14th overall.

Sajan Prakash too missed out in the men’s 50m butterfly event as he finished eighth clocking 25.01s.

Jabalpur: A video has emerged purportedly showing a police constable thrashing an elderly man and then dangling him off the platform’s edge at Jabalpur railway station in Madhya Pradesh.

As the video went viral on social media platforms and caused an outrage, authorities suspended the constable, Anant Sharma, attached to the Lour police station in Rewa district, officials said on Friday.

The video purportedly showed the constable repeatedly kicking the man, identified as Gopal Prasad, a resident of Narsinghpur district located adjoining Jabalpur. Not stopping at that, the cop then catches the 61-year-old victim by his legs and dangles him off the platform’s edge.

Superintendent (Government Railway Police) Vinayak Varma said as per preliminary investigation, the elderly man was drunk and using abusive language against policemen.

Rewa district Superintendent of Police Navneet Bhasin suspended the constable after the incident, which took place on July 27, came to light, the officials said.

Based on a complaint lodged by the victim, an FIR (first information report) has been registered against Sharma under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation), among others, they said.

Bengaluru: Karnataka on Friday clocked 2,130 fresh COVID-19 cases and four fatalities, taking the cumulative number of infections and deaths to 40,03,785 and 40,101 respectively, the Health Department said.

Also, the day saw 1,395 people being discharged, taking the total number of recoveries to 39,53,776, according to a bulletin.

Active cases stood at 9,866, the bulletin said.

Bengaluru urban accounted for the maximum number of 1,615 cases and one death.

Other districts reported infections, including 70 in Dharwad, 51 in Mysuru, 47 in Kodagu, 41 in Tumakuru, 40 in Hassan, 34 in Belagavi, 33 in Kalaburagi, 27 in Ballari and 22 in Mandya.

Other than Bengaluru, one death each was also reported in Kalaburagi, Koppal and Raichur.

The bulletin said Yadgir alone reported zero infection and nil death.

A total of 32,685 samples were tested in the State, they included 24,496 using RT-PCR methods, taking the cumulative number of specimens examined to 6.77 crore.

The number of vaccinations done rose to 11.58 crore, with 95,524 people being inoculated today, it said.

New Delhi: After a near washout of House proceedings for two weeks, Lok Sabha is likely to have a debate on price rise on Monday, followed by Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, political sources said.

Since the beginning of the session on July 18, the Opposition in both the House had been raising the issue of rising prices and GST, leading to near washout of proceedings.

The last two days of House proceedings were drowned due to “rashtrapatni” remark of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and the subsequent Lok Sabha chamber face-off between Sonia Gandhi and Union minister Smriti Irani.

Chowdhury wrote to President Droupadi Murmu on Friday and apologised to her for his “rashtrapatni” remark.

The Congress has upped the ante on Irani over the alleged heckling of Gandhi by her and BJP MPs and organised protests inside and outside Parliament and demanded that she be sacked for her behaviour.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi had this week told Lok Sabha that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has recovered from Covid and was attending Parliament. Thus, the government was willing to hold debate on price rise immediately.

Both the government and the Opposition have accused each other of “running away” from a debate on the issue.

But political sources said on Friday that normal House proceedings would resume from Monday and the debate could first take place in the lower house, followed by the upper house.

New Delhi: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday tendered a written apology to President Droupadi Murmu for his ‘rashtrapatni’ remark, a day after a political storm erupted over it.

In his letter to the President, he said he mistakenly used an incorrect word for her and it was a slip of tongue.

“I am writing to express my regret for having mistakenly used an incorrect word to describe the position you hold. I assure you that it was a slip of the tongue. I apologise and request you to accept the same,” Chowdhury said in his letter to the President.

While talking to reporters during a protest at Vijay chowk on Wednesday, Chowdhury had used the word ‘rashtrapatni” for President Murmu, that created a major political row with the ruling BJP raising the issue in Parliament, demanding an apology from him and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

With the BJP launching a massive offensive against him and Gandhi, Chowdhury said he had sought time from President Murmu and he would apologise to her personally and not to “pakhandis” (hypocrites) of the BJP.

However, it was not clear whether the President had given him time.

Proceedings in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been disrupted for the second day in a row over the remark and BJP leaders have been saying that Chowdhury would have to apologise.

The row also led to a face-off in Lok Sabha between Gandhi and Union minister Smriti Irani following which the Congress leaders accused BJP MPs including Irani of subjecting its chief to “brutal heckling, verbal assault and physical intimidation” in the lower house.

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said the probe into the murder of a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha worker will be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

One more person was arrested on Friday in connection with the killing of Praveen Nettar in Dakshina Kannada district that happened earlier this week. Earlier, two persons had been apprehended by police in relation to the case.

“We have decided to hand over the case to the NIA. It will be communicated to the Home Department. Since it is an inter-state issue (Karnataka-Kerala), we decided to hand over the matter to the NIA,” Bommai told reporters here.

New Delhi: Coronavirus infections among children and adolescents typically cause less severe illness as comparto adults, according to the WHO, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Omicron and its sub-lineages have been found in 7,362 samples while Delta and its sub-lineages were detected in 118 samples analyzed by the INSACOG from January 1 2022 to July 25, 2022 in children aged 0-18 years, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in a written reply.

Pawar was responding to a question on whether the children are getting affected by the coronavirus infection in the country and the current status of vaccination of children in the age group of 12-18 years and 5-12 years.

“According to World Health Organization, SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents typically cause less severe illness as compared to adult,” Pawar said.

As on July 26 this year, 9.96 crore first doses (82.2 per cent coverage) and 7.79 crore second doses (64.3 per cent coverage) have been administered in children between 12-18 years of age.

Vaccination below 12 years of age has not started under the national Covid-19 vaccination programme in the country, she said, adding adequate vaccine doses are made available to all states and union territories to vaccinate all eligible children.