The PM talked about the matter at the National Ganga Council (NGC) meet held in Kanpur last month.

NEW DELHI: With assembly polls due in three heartland states — Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh — in three consecutive years beginning 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants people’s representatives from the BJP to take the Ganga route to win the hearts of the people.On the lines of the public outreach of Union council of ministers to Jammu and Kashmir, the PM has recommended preparation of roster for night stays in villages along the holy river by Union ministers, chief ministers and elected representatives. Also on the agenda is rath yatras to encourage people’s participation.        

The PM talked about the matter at the National Ganga Council (NGC) meet held in Kanpur last month. He recommended organising rath yatras and padyatras and including topics such as river rejuvenation and water conservation in school/college curriculum. 

“The 2,500-km stretch of Ganga may be suitably divided and the Union ministers may be requested to visit a particular stretch, stay in villages, participate in cleanliness drive, undertake educational and public outreach programmes and motivate the public at large. State ministers, MPs, MLAs, eminent local persons may also be invited to join and contribute towards Ganga rejuvenation. Chief Ministers may also independently decide to stay on the banks of Ganga for few days,” said Modi, according to minutes of the meeting accessed by this newspaper. 

The Niti Aayog has been tasked to develop a framework to all Ganga districts focus areas for monitoring various developments under the Namami Gange Programme on the lines of the Aspirational Districts Progarmme. A competitive ranking framework will also be developed to evaluate the performance of the Ganga river districts, towns and villages.   

According to sources, the idea is to reach out to maximum people who live on the banks of the river and sending a message that the country cared for them. Bihar, West Bengal and UP are electorally key states for the BJP. The Union water resources ministry will also reach out to two non-BJP ruled Ganga states — West Bengal and Jharkhand — to carry forward the work. Union Jal Shakti Ministry has been asked to set up a digital dash board for effective and real time monitoring of work done for Ganga cleaning.  “Special campaigns be undertaken in Ganga villages through interventions of different ministries and departments. This will, in turn, motivate the villagers to be more responsible towards Ganga and its conservation,” read the minutes.

At several places, including in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh and in Lucknow, women have been leading the protest against the law, alleging it is discriminatory and fearing it targets the Muslim.

KANPUR: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday criticised the ongoing protests against the new citizenship law, saying it is “shameful” that the men sitting in the comfort of their homes have sent the women and children out on the streets to agitate.

Addressing a rally in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Kanpur, Adityanath said, “These people do not have courage to participate in the protests themselves. They know if they indulge in vandalism, their property will be seized. Now what have they done?” 

“They started making the women sit at roads. The children have been made to sit. It’s such a big crime that the men are sleeping under the quilt and the women are made to sit at roads. It is shameful,” he said.

At several places, including in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh and in Lucknow, women have been leading the protest against the law, alleging it is discriminatory and fearing it targets the Muslim community.

Some of the protests turned violent in Uttar Pradesh last month in which about 20 people died and the Adityanath government cracked down on those who indulged in arson.

The UP government issued notices to the protesters, seeking compensation for the damage they caused to the public property.

The central government has defended the law, saying it grants citizenship to religious minorities escaping persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and who have come to India by December 31, 2014.

It has reassured people that the new law does not take anyone’s citizenship.

On Wednesday, Adityanath also accused the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Left parties of doing politics at the cost of the nation.

“Those who do not know what the CAA is are staging sit-ins. If you go and ask anyone why are they sitting on ‘dharna’, they will say the men of the house feel that they have become so incompetent that they cannot do anything, so they want the women to go and sit on ‘dharna’.

“For them, the country is not important. The Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis are not important. Now, for the Congress, even the Christians are not important. And they have said the protests will continue against the CAA until the ISI agents are given entry into India,” he alleged, adding, “This is a shameful statement made by Congress leaders”.

He said protesting peacefully is everyone’s right but if a person damages public property, “we will recover the damage caused from that person’s property and will punish them so that the next generation remembers it.”

“I would like to say from the soil of India, and especially from the soil of Uttar Pradesh, that if pro-Azadi slogans are raised here in the name of protests, like there used to be in Kashmir, then it will come in the category of sedition and stringent action will be taken by the government,” Adityanath said.

Nobody will be allowed to hatch a conspiracy against India while living in India, he added.

The TMC’s declaration comes amidst mounting criticism by the major anti-BJP parties in the state for not passing a resolution opposing CAA.

KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress on Tuesday announced that it will bring a resolution against the amended Citizenship Act in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on January 27, the third such move after the Kerala and Punjab Houses against the contentious law.

The TMC’s declaration comes amidst mounting criticism by the major anti-BJP parties in the state for not passing a resolution opposing CAA.

State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said the TMC had submitted a resolution under rule 169 to the Assembly Speaker on January 20, which will come up in the house on coming Monday.

Faced by a lot of “rumours and canards” from the fellow opposition parties over its position regarding CAA and National Population Register, Chatterjee said they “do not need lessons from others on how to continue its fight against CAA-NPR-NRC.”

“We have submitted a resolution to the speaker on January 20 regarding it. The resolution against CAA will be placed in the state assembly on January 27. Our government in principle is opposed to CAA,” Chatterjee said.

He said they would appeal to all the opposition parties to extend support to the resolution so that its approved unanimously.

Adoption of the resolution in the house would not be a difficult task considering the fact that Mamata Banerjee’s party on its own enjoys an overwhelming majority in the 295- member Bengal assembly.

The development comes just a day after West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had said that an anti-CAA resolution would be placed in the assembly very soon.

When asked whether the government was also mulling to move to the Supreme Court to challenge the law, Chatterjee said “the government and the party will fight it out on the streets and then take a call, if needed, whether to move a court or not”.

Kerala and Punjab assemblies have already passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

If the resolution is adopted, West Bengal will the third state to do so.

The Left Front and the Congress have been criticising the TMC government for not adopting a resolution against the CAA.

The West Bengal state assembly has earlier passed an all-party resolution, baring BJP, against NRC in September last year.

In January this year, during a one-day special session, opposition Congress and Left Front wanted to bring a resolution against CAA.

But their demand was turned down by the government, drawing sharp criticism from both the parties which had termed TMC as “B team” of the BJP in Bengal.

Banerjee’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata on January 11 had further sharpened the charge of a “political match-fixing between the two parties”.

The TMC had trashed the allegations as baseless.

Congress and the Left Front have welcomed the TMC’s move to bring the resolution as a “positive step”.

Praising the initiative, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Abdul Mannan of the Congress said it’s better than the TMC realised the necessity for such a resolution.

“When we had said, they had opposed it. But it’s better TMC has decided to bring it, at least they have realised the need for such a resolution,” Mannan said.

Left Front Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakraborty said “we want an anti-CAA resolution be passed but, would not take a call unless and until we have a look at the resolution brought in by the TMC government”.

BJP legislature party leader Manoj Tigga said they would oppose the move as it is “unconstitutional” to bring a resolution against a law (CAA) which has been passed in the Parliament.

The new legislation to give citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the Centre four weeks to respond to pleas challenging the validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said it will set up a five-judge Constitution bench to hear the petitions.

While making it clear that it will not grant any stay on the CAA without hearing the Centre, a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde restrained all high courts from hearing pleas on CAA till it decides the petitions.

The bench said it will hear petitions pertaining to Assam and Tripura separately as the problem with CAA in these two states is different from rest of the country.

“The petitions concerning Assam and Tripura as well as matters related to Uttar Pradesh, which is going ahead with the implementation of CAA without framing any rules, can be dealt with separately,” the court said.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that the government has been given copies of around 60 pleas out of the 143 petitions. He said it wanted time to respond to pleas which have not been served on it.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal urged the bench to put on hold operation of CAA and postpone exercise of the National Population Register (NPR) for the time being.

The court said it will not grant any stay on CAA without hearing the Centre on the matter. “Will pass order on granting any interim relief to petitioner opposing CAA after four weeks,” the bench said.

The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.

President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on December 12, turning it into an Act.

Several petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the CAA, including by RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.

Several other petitioners include Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGOs ‘Rihai Manch’ and Citizens Against Hate, advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.

New Delhi, Jan 21: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to why he or his government did not accept his suggestion of the PM holding an open debate with five critics of the amended Citizenship Act and let people draw their own conclusion.

“I had suggested that the PM should select five of the most articulate critics and hold a Q&A session with them. Why doesn’t the PM/Government accept the suggestion?

“Let five critics of CAA-NPR debate the PM. Let the event be televised live. And let the people draw their own conclusions,” he said on Twitter.

In another tweet, he said, “HM (home minister) has dared the Opposition to debate CAA. Is that not what the Opposition, jurists, academics, writers, artists, students and youth have been doing since Dec 12?”

Accusing the opposition of “misleading” people on the amended citizenship law, Amit Shah threw a challenge for the debate to Rahul Gandhi (Congress), Mamata Banerjee(Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav(Samajwadi Party) and Mayawati(Bahujan Samaj Party).

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh’s statement came after he had stated that 50 lakh Muslim infiltrators will be identified and chased out of the country if needed.

COOCH BEHAR: Amid anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of India (NRC) protests across the country, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday said that two crore Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators have entered India and no Bangladeshi Muslim will be allowed to stay here.

“Two crore Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators have entered India, one crore is in West Bengal and one crore have spread across the country. We will not allow any Bangladeshi Muslims to stay here. If their names are in voters’ list then it will be removed,” said Ghosh during a public rally.

His statement came after he had stated that 50 lakh Muslim infiltrators will be identified and chased out of the country if needed.

Addressing a rally in the North 24 Parganas district, he had said, “50 lakh Muslim infiltrators will be identified, if needed they will be chased out of the country.”

Cornering West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for opposing Citizenship Amendment law and NRC, he said, “Firstly, the names of Muslim infiltrators will be removed from voters’ list then didi (in reference to Mamata Banerjee) cannot appease anyone.”

He said there will be a reduction in the number of votes to Banerjee in the 2021 state assembly elections following the process of removing infiltrators’ names from the voters’ list.

“Once this is done didi’s votes will be reduced and in the coming elections, we will get 200 seats, she will not even get 50 seats,” he said.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

Jharkhand Dhanbad, known for its rich coal reserves and industries, is the second-most polluted city in India, according to the report based on analysis of PM10 data from 287 cities.

NEW DELHI: The coal-belching town of Jharia in Jharkhand continues to be the most polluted city in India, while Delhi has made marginal improvement in reducing its air pollution level, according to a Greenpeace India report released on Tuesday.

Delhi is the 10th-most polluted city in India, according to the report.

The city was at the eighth spot a year ago, according to the report for that year.

Average annual levels of PM10, particulate matter less than 10 micrometres in diameter that can enter the lungs and even the bloodstream, in Jharia was 322 micrograms per cubic metre in 2018, more than six times the safe limits of 0-60, according to the report.

Jharkhand Dhanbad, known for its rich coal reserves and industries, is the second-most polluted city in India, according to the report based on analysis of PM10 data from 287 cities across the country.

The annual average of PM10 levels in Delhi reduced from 240 micrograms per cubic metre in 2017 to 225 in 2018.

Lunglei in Mizoram is the least polluted followed by Meghalaya’s Dowki, according to the report.

Six of the top-10 polluted cities are in Uttar Pradesh — Noida, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Allahabad, Moradabad and Firozabad.

The Greenpeace report also said 231 of the 287 cities recorded PM10 levels above 60 micrograms per cubic metre on at least 52 days in 2018.

The Central Pollution Control Board has identified 0-60 µg/m3 as a safe limit for PM10 levels under National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

“For NAAQS, pollution data for 104 days covering all seasons is collected. It is done to maintain uniformity in data collection,” according to Dipankar Saha, former head of the CPCB’s air quality lab.

In 2015, the Environment Ministry identified 102 cities as “non-attainment” cities (which do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards) under the National Clean Air Programme that aims for a 20-30 per cent reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations by 2024, Avinash Chanchal, one of the two authors of the report said.

Ideally, all these 231 cities are non-attainment cities and should be included in NCAP, he said.

“Based on 2018 data, West Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa have 36, 21, 21, 20 and 15 non-attainment cities respectively,” the report said.

The report also said pollution levels across much of the country are so high that even a 30 per cent reduction will still leave levels above NAAQS.

 The Centre has approved creation of 2,000 posts in the CISF, the force that is mandated to ensure security at vital installations, including airports, atomic installations, metro networks.

 NEW DELHI: The Centre has approved creation of 2,000 posts in the CISF, the force that is mandated to ensure security at vital installations, including airports, atomic installations, metro networks.The Central Industrial Security Force guards about 60 civil airports in the country and has an elite VVIP security wing under its command called the Special Security Group (SSG). The Union Home ministry has recently given approval for the creation of about 2,000 posts in the CISF, a senior home ministry official said on Tuesday.

With the sanctioned posts, from constables to the inspector level, the CISF can raise two more battalions (1,000 personnel each) within the next two years, the official said. The current strength of the CISF is about 1.8 lakh personnel.

The CISF guards civil airports, nuclear plants, power stations, vital government buildings, Delhi Metro besides a host of other key installations. Centre is also all set to hand over the security related duties at Srinagar and Jammu airports to the CISF by the end of this month. The CISF will replace the J-K Police.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta asked the state government to inform the court about the decision taken by it under Article 161 of the Constitution.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu government to inform whether a decision has been taken by it on a mercy petition of a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The apex court also pulled up the Centre for filing a similar status report on a probe done by a CBI-led Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) into unravelling a larger conspiracy behind the killing of the former prime minister.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta asked the state government to inform the court about the decision taken by it under Article 161 of the Constitution.

The article gives a governor the power to pardon a person who has been proved guilty in court.

The top court was hearing the plea of 46-year-old A G Perarivalan, who has sought suspension of his life sentence in the case till the MDMA’s probe is completed.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Perarivalan, said though the state has taken a decision on his mercy petition but his application is pending with the governor.

The MDMA was set up in 1998 on the recommendations of the Justice M C Jain Commission of Inquiry which had probed the conspiracy aspect of Gandhi’s assassination.

It is headed by a CBI official and comprises officers from the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and the Revenue Intelligence, among other agencies.

The top court told the Centre: “Can you tell us what the difference (is) between the status report filed in April 2018 and November 2019. There is no difference at all.”

“We have gone through all of your status reports filed in the case,” it said.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for Centre, said the government has not received any response to the letters rogatory (LR) sent to Sri Lanka and other countries.

The Supreme Court had on January 14, expressed its displeasure over the latest status report filed by the MDMA on its probe.

It said it wanted to know about the progress made in the ongoing investigation in the past two years.

On November 5 last year, the apex court had sought within four weeks the latest status report from the MDMA.

It had said the latest report should also include the status of letters rogatory (LRs).

Perarivalan’s counsel had earlier said his role was only limited to procuring nine-volt batteries, which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) that had killed Gandhi.

On March 14 last year, the apex court had asked the MDMA to file a status report with regard to a LR sent to Sri Lanka for examining one of the accused, Nixon alias Suren, who is lodged in the Colombo jail.

The top court had dismissed a plea of Perarivalan seeking recall of the May 11, 1999, verdict upholding his conviction.

It had said the material brought on record before it does not inspire confidence to interfere with the verdict in which Perarivalan and three others were initially awarded death sentence, which was later commuted to life term.

The CBI had earlier submitted that Perarivalan had even visited Jaffna in Sri Lanka in the first week of June 1990, besides attending a public meeting along with other conspirators which was addressed by former prime minister V P Singh on May 7, 1991 in Tamil Nadu.

Perarivalan’s counsel had submitted that he was just a 19-year-old when the incident took place and had no knowledge of what he was doing and for what purpose the batteries were purchased.

Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally.

Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed.

Gandhi’s assassination was perhaps the first case of suicide bombing which had claimed the life of a high-profile leader.

In its May 1999 order, the top court had upheld the death sentence of four convicts — Perarivalan, Murugan, Santham and Nalini — in the assassination case.

In April 2000, the Tamil Nadu governor had commuted the death sentence of Nalini on the basis of the state government’s recommendation and an appeal by former Congress president and Rajiv Gandhi’s widow Sonia Gandhi.

On February 18, 2014, the top court had commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment, along with that of two other prisoners – Santhan and Murugan – on grounds of a delay of 11 years in deciding their mercy pleas by the Centre.

Tina reached the Clock Tower on Sunday, where hundreds of women were sitting on protest against the citizenship laws, and spent time talking to the women.

LUCKNOW: Tina Yadav, the 14-year-old daughter of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, was seen participating in an anti-CAA rally here a few days back.

Tina reached the Clock Tower on Sunday, where hundreds of women were sitting on protest against the citizenship laws, and spent time talking to the women.

She was accompanied by her friends. Since she is still not a well known celebrity, no one noticed her presence. It is only when her photo went viral on Tuesday that the matter came to light.

Sources said that since some of Tina’s friends were a part of the protests, she had gone to meet them and even sat with them for some time.

This is the first time that the former Chief Minister’s children have participated in a political event and that too on their own.