The Dalit professor is a senior faculty member in the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan (SVDV) department where Khan has been appointed

VARANASI: A Sanskrit professor at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) here has been allegedly attacked by students for supporting his Muslim colleague, Feroz Khan, whose appointment to the department as assistant professor had sent students on protests since the past one month.

The Dalit professor is a senior faculty member in the Sanskrit Vidya Dharam Vigyan (SVDV) department where Khan has been appointed.

“I was sitting in a classroom when some students barged in and started abusing me in foul language. They asked me to stop supporting a Muslim’s appointment to the faculty. I felt unsafe and came out. Some of the students then hurled stones at me and later caught up with me and shoved and pushed me. I could escape because a stranger gave me a lift on his scooter,” Professor Shanti Lal Salvi told reporters here, following the Monday’s incident.

Salvi alleged a colleague had instigated the students but would not name him before the media.

“I have complained to Vice-Chancellor Rakesh Bhatnagar against a professor of the department and some students,” he said.

A student, who was a part of the group that had accosted Salvi, said they had only asked the professor to stop supporting Khan and never attacked him.

Some students of the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Sankay department have been protesting Khan’s appointment on the ground that a Muslim cannot teach Hindu religious texts, which the department’s syllabus includes.

There has been speculation that Khan may be shifted to the department of Samhita and Sanskrit, part of the university’s faculty of Ayurveda, or the Sanskrit department of the arts faculty as a compromise.

He has appeared in interviews held by the two departments, on November 29 and on December 4.

Meanwhile, no classes have been held in the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan department since November 8, the day after Khan’s appointment.

Chief proctor O.P. Rai met the student protesters on Monday and said Khan’s appointment would soon be discussed at the executive council of the university.

The semester examinations have also been postponed due to protests. “The next date of the semester examination in the department will be announced soon.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Lok Sabha and said that it is not even 0.001 per cent against minorities in the country.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Monday cleared the first test in the Lok Sabha, with 293 members voting in favour of the bill’s introduction and 82 against it.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the contentious Bill in the Lok Sabha and said that it is not even 0.001 per cent against the minorities in the country.

“This Bill is not even 0.001 per cent against minorities in the country,” Shah said in the House, amid much uproar by the opposition.

“Why do we need this Bill today? After independence, if Congress had not done partition on the basis on religion,then, today we would have not needed this Bill. Congress did partition on the basis of religion,” Shah commented while taking potshots at the opposition party.

“If any Muslim from these three (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh) nations applies for citizenship according to our law, then we will consider it, but the person won’t get the benefit of this amendment as the person has not faced religious persecution,” he further said.

“Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis and Jains have been discriminated against. So this bill will give these persecuted people citizenship. Also, the allegation that this bill will take away the rights of Muslims is wrong,” Shah said.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

Through this bill, Indian citizenship will be provided to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from the three countries to India till December 31, 2014, to put an end to them being treated as illegal immigrants in the country.

It is important to note that the Bill was passed by the Lower House of the Parliament earlier this year but lapsed with the term of the previous Lok Sabha during the first term of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government in the Centre. 

Katra, which serves as the base camp for pilgrims visiting Vaishno Devi Shrine in Reasi district of Jammu region, recorded a low of 8.2 degrees Celsius.

SRI NAGAR: Srinagar recorded the coldest night of the season as severe cold conditions continued unabated in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Sunday, an official of the Met department said.

At a low of minus 26 degrees Celsius, Drass in Kargil district of Ladakh was the coldest recorded place, while the minimum temperature in Jammu fell two degrees below the season’s average to settle at 8 degrees Celsius, the official said.

The night temperature, however, is likely to improve in the coming days under the influence of Western Disturbance which is likely to hit the region on Wednesday, bringing another spell of snow and rains.
The residents of Srinagar woke up to a dense fog and chilly conditions on Sunday with further drop in the night temperature which was 3.4 degrees below normal during this part of the season, resulting in freezing of fringes of the famous Dal Lake as well as drinking water taps in different residential areas of the city.
This year the wintery conditions engulfed the region early following moderate to heavy snowfall — first of the season — on November 7.

Drass, the second coldest inhabited place in the world, recorded a minimum of minus 26 degrees Celsius against the previous night’s 25.4 degrees Celsius, while the nearby Leh town, also in Ladakh, was reeling at a minimum of 16 degrees Celsius, the official said.ADVERTISING

Pahalgam hill resort in south Kashmir was the coldest recorded place in the Valley with a low of minus 6.3 degrees Celsius followed by the famous ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir at minus 5.6 degrees Celsius, the official said.

Katra, which serves as the base camp for pilgrims visiting Vaishno Devi Shrine in Reasi district of Jammu region, recorded a low of 8.2 degrees Celsius.

Flights cancelled for second straight day
Flight operations at Srinagar airport remained suspended for the second consecutive day as all flights were cancelled on Sunday due to dense fog causing poor visibility in the Kashmir valley, officials said. “All flights at Srinagar airport were cancelled on Sunday and no flight operations took place,” an Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said. The official said 28 flights, including those for the armed forces, were scheduled at the airport for Sunday. The airlines took the decision owing to very poor visibility, officials said.

The students said that teacher threatens them that he will fail them in the examination and they will have to bear “severe consequences” had they not fulfilled his illicit demands.

JASHPUR (Chhattisgarh): A teacher here has been accused of seeking sexual favours from girl students and chicken from other students in lieu of passing them in examinations.

The students said that teacher threatens them that he will fail them in the examination and they will have to bear “severe consequences” had they not fulfilled his illicit demands.

“He said that I have to cater to his physical needs. He was asking for a sexual favour from me. He also asked for chicken,” said a girl student.

“He said that I will have to bring chicken for him. Otherwise, the consequences would be not good for me. He also used to drop messages to me on my mobile, saying why I didn’t talk to him,” said another girl student.

“He said that he will let us copy in the examination of History if we cater to his undue demands,” said a group of girl students of Class XII.

While the teacher, when reached, denied the claim and said that he used to entertain students.

“I said nothing like that. Sometimes I just used to entertain students. That’s all,” said Bhardwaj.

Meanwhile, the District Education Officer (DEO) said that he will take strict action in the matter.

“The matter has come to my notice. I will seek a report on it. I will take action against the teacher at the earliest. The matter is very serious,” said N Kujur, DEO. 

The 27-year-old lured the girl under the pretext of playing with her and showing cartoons on television in his house and raped her.

NASHIK: A seven-year-old girl was raped on Sunday allegedly by her 27-year-old neighbour in Nashik in Maharashtra, police said.

The accused, identified as Kailas Kokani, was beaten up by angry locals in Ambad locality and handed over to police, an official said.

Kokani lured the girl under the pretext of playing with her and showing cartoons on television in his house. He then allegedly sexually assaulted her in afternoon.

The family of the girl shifted to Mahalaxmi Nagar area in Ambad only recently, the official added.

“When the girl’s mother started looking for her, she knocked on Kokani’s door to ask him whether he knew about her whereabouts. However, he didn’t open the door. His neighbours then forced him open the door and found the girl inside,” he said.

Local people then thrashed Konkani and handed him over to Ambad police who are registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the official said.

Singh, addressing a public meeting at Adityapur in Seraikela-Kharsawan district, said he had a discussion with a cross-section of people as well as political analysts after the first phase of the polls

SERAIKELA: Union minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday claimed that the BJP will form a majority government in Jharkhand after the ongoing assembly elections in the state.

Singh, addressing a public meeting at Adityapur in Seraikela-Kharswan district, said he had a discussion with a cross-section of people as well as political analysts after the first phase of the polls on Saturday.

“The feedback indicated that the BJP is going to win 9 to 10 seats out of the 13 constituencies that went to polls in the first phase yesterday. We will form a majority government in the state,” the Union Defence Minister said.

He said the BJP is gaining support of the people as it has been fulfilling its promises, like abrogating Article 370, making ‘triple talaq’ punishable under law, and announcing a “grand” Ram temple in Ayodhya, following the Supreme Court verdict.

About criticism by the Opposition on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Singh said, “Is it not our responsibility to identify infiltrators living in the country? We will neither accept them as Indian nationals nor grant them citizenship.”

The senior BJP leader, who spoke at the rally in support of party candidate Ganesh Mahali from the Seraikela seat, asserted that the NRC would be implemented across the country.

On the current economic slowdown, Singh said it is due to global cues.

He also claimed that India will become a USD 5-trillion economy by 2025.

Meanwhile, speaking at another public meeting in favour of BJP candidate J B Tubid from the Chaibasa seat, the party’s working president J P Nadda said it has changed the image and fate of Jharkhand in the last five years by providing a stable and corruption-free government.

“This election (assembly polls) is not about any individual, not to make anybody MLA or minister; this election is to change the fate of Jharkhand. You have to elect the party which can fulfil goals,” Nadda said.

“While former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee created Jharkhand, PM Narendra Modi has nourished it,” he added.

Nadda criticised the opposition Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and said it has always neglected the plight of tribals.

Singh also referred to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s phrase ‘hum do, hamare do’ about the saffron party, when two of its MPs won the Lok Sabha elections in 1984.

“From two seats, the BJP is the only non-Congress political party to achieve a clear majority in the Parliamentary polls after Independence, and it has also formed governments in majority of the states,” he said.

Seraikela and Chaibasa go to polls on December 7 in the second phase.

The air quality in the national capital turned poor on Sunday, primarily due to slow wind speed, and is likely to dip further.

NEW DELHI: The national capital’s air quality was recorded in the poor category for the second consecutive day on Monday morning, while the minimum temperature settled at eight degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average.

Relative humidity was recorded at 85 per cent.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) stood at 283 at 7.43 am and deteriorated slightly to 286 at 9.40 am.

The AQI at Faridabad stood at 242 while in Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida it stood at 142, 319 and 299 respectively.

Noida had an AQI of 280. At 9 am on Sunday, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) was 275, which falls in the “poor” category.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.

An AQI above 500 falls in the ‘severe plus’ category.

The air quality in the national capital turned poor on Sunday, primarily due to slow wind speed, and is likely to dip further.

Delhi-NCR’s air quality improved to “satisfactory” on Friday for the first time in around two months due to rains and favourable wind speed over the previous two to three days.

The petition sought directions to the companies to stop selling drinking water and other beverages in PET bottles.

NEW DELHI: A 16-year-old has moved the National Green Tribunal seeking ban on selling PET-bottled beverages by IRCTC, Coca Cola, Pepsico, Bisleri and others till they start collecting back the plastic waste generated due to their products.

The petition, which is likely to come up for hearing in the coming week, sought directions to the companies, also including Patanjali Peya Pvt Ltd, to stop selling drinking water and other beverages in PET bottles till they formulate and implement a scheme under rule 9 of Plastic Waste Management Rules for 100 per cent collection of plastic waste produced by them in course of their business.

PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is a general-purpose thermoplastic polymer which belongs to the polyester family of polymers.

The PET bottles form 10 per cent of total plastic waste created in India.

The petition, filed by Aditya Dubey, said, “The respondent companies are producing 9,49,000 tonnes of Pet Bottles every year but have not made any proper, effective and complete arrangement for management of plastic waste created due to their activities as required under Rule 9 of the Plastic Waste Management Rules which leads to plastic pollution of our environment”.

It added that the PET bottles produced by these companies are used and thrown in garbage by consumers and the same ends up at land fill sites, leading to burden on earth and damaging environment due to non-biodegradability.

“Direct the respondents to stop using PET bottles to pack water and other beverages produced by them, till they formulate and implement a scheme as required under rule 9 of Act to collect and dispose the plastic waste created by them,” the petition, filed through advocate Meenesh Dubey, said.

The rule 9 of the Act says that the primary responsibility for collection of used multi-layered plastic sachet or pouches or packaging is of producers, importers and brand owners, who introduce the products in the market.

“They need to establish a system for collecting back the plastic waste generated due to their products,” the rule says.

It also says that the manufacture and use of non-recyclable multi-layered plastic, if any, should be phased out in two years time.