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HC rejects plea seeking formula of petrol pricing

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New Delhi The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed an application seeking direction to the Centre to disclose the formula on the basis of which daily prices of petroleum and diesel are fixed.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao refused to interfere with the government policy on fixing petrol prices.

The court was hearing an application, filed by Delhi-based designer Pooja Mahajan. Her advocate A. Maitri sought direction to call the records from the government, including oil companies to disclose the formula and furnish details on the basis of which the daily fuel prices are fixed.

The petitioner said that people were suffering irreparably because these prices were being enhanced on presumption.

Maitri said that the oil manufacturing companies were selling their old stock of petrol and diesel at enhanced prices while admittedly the said stock was purchased at a cheaper rate.

As per official claims, petrol and diesel prices are fixed on account of increase in international prices. Admittedly, international price of crude oil is fixed on barrel basis, the plea said.

The application was filed on the pending public interest litigation by the petitioner in which she has sought direction to the central government to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel as it is a policy matter which involved larger economic issues.

The court has asked the government to consider an earlier representation pending before it on price rise of petrol and diesel.

Mahajan had filed a similar plea in July but the high court had then directed the Centre to treat the PIL as a representation.

The petitioner has sought a directive to the Centre to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel in line with the Essential Commodities Act.

(IANS)

Controversy over cash shower on Congress MLA in Mumbai

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Senior Congress legislator Naseem Khan on Tuesday courted controversy as a video clip showing him being showered with currency notes at a religious event here went viral.

During a visit to a ‘bhajan’ event organised by the Bhanushali community, Khan was welcomed by several people by showering currency notes on him. The Congress leader is seen smiling as he entered the venue in Chandivali in Andheri East last week.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari demanded to know how so much cash was thrown around freely and demanded a probe. Khan claimed a political conspiracy behind the clipping.

Congress sources claim the clipping could be the handiwork of a faction within the party’s Mumbai unit, especially as attempts are on to dislodge Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam from the post.

The clipping surfaced the day Nirupam met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded reservation in education and jobs for over 30 north Indian communities living in Maharashtra for decades.

Khan and Nirupam are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively and are wooing north Indian voters in Mumbai.

Khan maintained it is a custom with the community to welcome their guests in this manner and that all the cash thus collected is donated for religious activities like constructing or maintaining cow shelters.

“Every community has different traditions or customs. How can I challenge these? It is all the more surprising as even leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena from the community were openly showering cash to welcome the guests,” Khan told IANS.

(IANS)

Jharkhand needs NRC: CM

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With BJP deciding to focus on identity issues in the coming elections, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das says there is need for a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in his state also to check infiltration from Bangladesh because Hindus have become a minority in some districts.

He also favours job reservations on the basis of economic backwardness and called for a consensus on the issue.

“We will take all Bangladeshis out one by one. There is no doubt about it. In Pakur, Hindus are now in a minority. Bangladeshis are more than 50 per cent in Pakur while the numbers have increased significantly in Sahebganj, Godda and Jamtara districts. We will implement NRC in Jharkhand,” Das told IANS in an interview during a visit organised by the BJP’s Good Governance Cell.

The Jharkhand government has approached the union Home Ministry in this regard and is waiting for its response for initiating the exercise.

The Chief Minister accused the political parties of patronising Bangladeshi infiltrators across the state and said the issue needs to addressed at the earliest.

“It is very unfortunate that Congress has been doing votebank politics even after 67 years of our independence. All these problems are due to Congress’ votebank politics. They did politics for breaking the country while we (BJP) are doing politics to unite the country,” he said.

He alleged that Sahebganj, Pakur, Godda and Jamtara are the worst-hit districts where hundreds of illegal migration of Bangladeshi infiltrators has taken place in Jharkhand.

Seeking job reservations on the basis of the economic criteria, the chief minister demanded a national-level discussion on the issue to evolve a consensus.

“I am in favour of reservation on the basis of economic condition. In society, everybody is not rich. It is not that all those belong to upper caste are rich. I am in favour of it. There are poor people in every society. The issue needs to be discussed and a consensus needs to be evolved, he said.

The Chief Minister also backed the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ but rejected any advancing of dates for the Assembly polls in Jharkhand along with the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Assembly polls are scheduled in Jharkhand six months after the Lok Sabha polls.

“I am also in favour of one nation, one election. The Prime Minister has given a call for debate on the issue. An atmosphere in its favour must be created by debate and discussion. It is not that we want and they want. It’s a matter of consensus. It needs to be passed by parliament. If a consensus is evolved, there may be simultaneous polls of Lok Sabha and Assemblies in 2024, he said.

Asked whether he would go for Assembly polls together with Lok Sabha polls, he said: our election will be at its scheduled time and Lok Sabha elections will be at its scheduled time. There are no ifs and buts. Why would I go for early polls. My condition is not bad.”

The Chief Minister said that there would be no impact of the grand alliance in 2019 and claimed that the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi would again emerge victorious.

“Whether it is alliance or grand alliance (mahagathbandhan), we are not worried at all. Can oil and water mix together? Even when you mix oil and water together they will still separate. Our focus is on strengthening the organisation. We have a leadership like Modiji, on whom the people of the country have strong faith.”

(IANS)

Enforcement Directorate registered one more case against D K Shivakumar

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D K Shivakumar, water resources minister of Karnataka is in trouble again. Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered and FIR against him for possession of illegal currency to the tune of Rs eight crore in a flat in the city.

Shivakumar, who heaved a sigh of relief on Saturday, September 16 for having secured a bail from the special court of economic offences, is facing the possibility of an arrest in this fresh case registered by the ED.

In addition to Shivakumar, FIR is also registered against Anjaneya Hanumant, staff and Rajendra, former staff personnel of Karnataka Bhavan in the city.

Income Tax (IT) department had registered four cases against Shivakumar and others for evading tax with regards to the illegal currency that was found in a flat in the city. However, the court had granted conditional bail to all the accused in these four cases.

“We are ready to face any inquiry. We have got all the documents. We are ready to answer the questions of the ED within the framework of law,” said D K Suresh, MP and brother of Shivakumar.

PTI

US police ‘using Tiger Text app to conceal evidence’

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Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has discovered that a self-deleting messaging app called Tiger Text has been adopted by at least one US police department, which may have used it to share sensitive and potentially incriminating information that they wouldn’t want disclosed to a court.

Current and former officers from the Long Beach Police Department in Southern California have told Al Jazeera that their police-issued phones had Tiger Text installed on them.

The Tiger Text app is designed to erase text messages after a set time period. Once the messages have been deleted, they cannot be retrieved – even through forensic analysis of the phone.

The police officers who spoke with Al Jazeera said the confidential messaging system was used to share details of police operations and sensitive personnel issues.

Two of the officers claimed that they were also instructed by their superiors to use the app to “have conversations with other officers that wouldn’t be discoverable”.

They said they understood this to include exculpatory evidence that could be potentially helpful to attorneys in both civil and criminal proceedings against the department.

It’s a claim that the Long Beach Police Department denies.

But the officers say they were not surprised by the instructions, claiming that the discovery process within the police department was never on the “up and up”.

“I find it odd that we have a communication system that circumvents everything that we are supposed to be doing,” said one officer who is still with the department.

But “nothing surprises me working there”.

‘Institutional cover-up’
According to the research group Mapping Police Violence, the Long Beach Police Department ranked fifth in the nation for officer-involved shootings per capita in 2015.

Civil rights lawsuits have resulted in the city of Long Beach paying out tens of millions of dollars to the families of those shot.

One former police officer said he suspects this is what motivated the department to adopt the application.

“There have been a number of officer-involved shooting cases that have hurt the department,” he said.

“This is a way for them to conceal and get away with some of the negative things that affect their liability with these cases.”

Mohammed Tajsar, a lawyer with the ACLU, told Al Jazeera that he was shocked by the officers’ claims.

“If the department brass instructed members of the force to use Tiger Text to shield from the public the disclosure of sensitive messages about investigations into police killings, then this is an institutional cover-up of the highest order, designed to protect a department that is notorious for killing people,” Tajsar said.

Al Jazeera obtained financial records from the Long Beach Police Department that indicate that the Tiger Text system has been in place since at least 2014, with over 100 police personnel using the app.

More than 100 police personnel at the Long Beach Police Department have been using Tiger Text since 2014 [Al Jazeera]
One document from the City of Long Beach Purchasing Division describes the app as “a secure messaging platform for criminal investigations and confidential communications.”

All the officers Al Jazeera spoke to asked that their identity be kept confidential for fear of reprisals from the police department.

They say that the Tiger Text app was set to delete messages after a few days and that it was distributed to officers in specialised details and to all senior officers above the rank of lieutenant.

The ACLU believe that by using the app, the Long Beach Police Department could be breaking laws that require the preservation of records and the rules that require their disclosure during legal cases, potentially putting thousands of court verdicts at risk.

Al Jazeera’s investigation into the use of Tiger Text found that the Georgia Department of Corrections also began using the application in 2013.

But lawyers for the department quickly decided that its use would likely violate Georgia law, possibly breaching the state’s records retention legislation and most likely leading to court discovery violations.

Insufficient evidence
One Long Beach police officer told Al Jazeera that while he was working within the Department, he witnessed Tiger Text being used during an investigation into the police shooting of Jason Conoscenti in the Alamitos Beach neighbourhood in 2014.

The officers involved in the shooting were cleared of any wrongdoing after prosecutors found insufficient evidence to bring charges.

Al Jazeera spoke to several lawyers who have litigated against Long Beach. None were aware of the police department’s use of the Tiger Text app.

Nikhil Ramnaney, a deputy public defender with the Law Offices of the Los Angeles County Public Defender said his office might now be forced to review all Long Beach cases since 2014, adding: “I don’t know what information is in those Tiger Texts, it could be exculpatory, it could lend to practices that are unconstitutional or even illegal.”

In response to AJ Jazeera’s investigation, Long Beach Police Department said it “complies with all laws related to discovery, and any information relevant to a specific investigation would be documented and provided according to legal requirements”.

The department said it uses the Tiger Text application “to communicate confidential crime scene information, victim information, and personnel matters between department management personnel, as well as employees in specialised details”.

Joanna Schwartz, an expert on police litigation at the UCLA School of Law believes it is difficult to predict the legal problems that the use of a self-deleting app will bring for the Long Beach Police Department.

“The use of Tiger Text by the police makes it more difficult to bring winning civil cases against them and effectively to defend criminal cases. The immediate question is; is this the kind of police department that the City of Long Beach wants to have?”

Aljazeera

Typhoon Mangkhut toll reaches 74 in Philippines

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The death toll in the Philippines due to super typhoon Mangkhut increased to 74 on Tuesday as rescue teams continued to search for dozens of people buried in an abandoned mine due to landslides.

According to the latest figures provided by the National Police, 55 people were missing and 74 injured due to the strongest typhoon of the season, which lashed parts of Luzon island on the northernmost tip of the Philippines on Saturday, reports Efe news.

The highest number of casualties was reported from the mining town of Itogon in Benguet province, where massive floods and landslides buried a gold mine and four barracks where some miners and their families had been living illegally.

President Rodrigo Duterte visited the families of the victims in Itogon on Monday and handed over a cheque for 45,000 pesos ($832) to each of them, apart from providing material for basic necessities and aid for the last rites of the victims.

Three days after the passage of the devastating Mangkhut, more than 20,000 people remained displaced from their homes while an estimated 590,000 people have been affected by the storm.

Currently the four worst-hit provinces Abra, Benguet, Cagayan and Ilocos Norte have been declared to be in a state of calamity due to the scale of the damage caused by the typhoon.

Indian-American researcher awarded $6.5Mn to identify cancer biomarkers

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The US National Cancer Institute has give the “Outstanding Investigator Award” to Professor Arul Chinnaiyan, from the University of Michigan, and $6.5 million in funding over seven years, to identify cancer biomarkers to improve diagnosis and develop new targeted therapies.

“The field of precision oncology continues to evolve with the overarching goal of providing cancer patients with enhanced diagnostic and prognostic capabilities and better treatments,” Chinnaiyan, said in a statement, late on Monday.

“This grant will help us identify new biomarkers and understand their biological roles in cancer progression,” he added.

A pioneer in precision oncology, Chinnaiyan in 2010, launched the Michigan Oncology Sequencing (Mi-ONCOSEQ) programme.

Mi-ONCOSEQ is a research protocol for sequencing the DNA and RNA of metastatic cancers and normal tissue to identify alterations that could help drive treatment.

The programme includes a precision medicine tumour board in which experts discuss each case.

Chinnaiyan’s lab has also analysed the global landscape of a portion of the genome that has not been previously well-explored — long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs).

Earlier, considered as the dark matter, new evidence suggests that lncRNAs may play a role in cancer and that understanding them better could lead to new potential targets for improving cancer diagnosis, prognosis or treatment.

Chinnaiyan’s lab has also identified and explored several lncRNAs that could be promising targets for future therapy.

“We want to further characterise the dark matter of the genome. Some of these lncRNAs will certainly be very useful as cancer biomarkers and we think a subset are important in biological processes,” Chinnaiyan noted.

“We hope to make it commonplace for patients to have a molecular blueprint of their tumour to guide treatment choices.”

Mumbai-born Mahesh Bindra hopes for 2nd term in NZ parliament

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With his first three-year term as a Member of Parliament in New Zealand behind him, Mumbai-born Mahesh Bindra is biding his time for the next phase of his engagement in his adopted country’s public life.

“With some luck I might get a second term, but irrespective of that I enjoy being part of politics in a democratically vibrant country,” Bindra told IANS on the sidelines of the recently-concluded World Hindu Congress in Lombard near here where he was a special invitee.

Travelling to New Zealand with his wife and three children in 2002, Bindra has attained a position of political prominence after becoming an MP in 2014. From being a principal correctional officer at the Mount Eden prison, which then had 400 inmates, Bindra’s career took a political turn when he asked a tough question of Winston Peters, leader of the controversial New Zealand First party who is also the country’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, at a public gathering.

Peters and his party had the reputation for race-baiting and Bindra being an outspoken man wanted to find out the truth for himself. A candid exchange with Peters prompted the latter to invite Bindra to join the party and consider politics. “I come from a political family. My father was an active member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. When Peters asked me to consider a political career it seemed like a natural progression,” he said.

He became a member of NZ First in 2006 over cautions of fellow Indian immigrants, many of whom thought Peters and his party were racist. “I studied the party’s policies closely. In fact, Peters even asked me to make policy suggestions over immigration. My many interactions told me that the perceptions of NZ First being racist were unfounded and in fact Peters and others were open to suggestion,” he said.

When he first contested for parliament from the Mount Roskill constituency in the city of Auckland in 2011, he got 419 votes and was placed 21st on the party list. It was only after he began rising steadily that in 2014 he was elected to parliament under New Zealand’s rather complex electoral system. Although his first term ended last year, there are strong expectations that he will return in 2020.

During his term as MP, Bindra was appointed spokesman for Corrections, Customs, Ethnic Affairs and Land Information New Zealand.

In a country where the aboriginal Maori population constitutes about 15 percent of the total of 4.74 million people, Bindra won their hearts when he took his oath in the Maori language apart from English. He said the Maori members were “overcome” by his gesture. “I told them it was my way of respecting and acknowledging the original inhabitants of New Zealand,” he said.

Bindra said he is conscious of the fact that the Maori make up more than 50 per cent of the prison population and wants to continue his engagement to address the often unjust legal system. “Race relations in New Zealand are, by and large, healthy, but we have our own challenges. As an immigrant, I feel it is my duty to play my part in improving them, especially for the Maori people,” he said.

Bindra sees himself as a long-term politician dedicated to represent New Zealand in “the best possible way I can”. He believes that Indians in their adopted countries around the world must get involved in politics at all levels “because that is the best way to assimilate and get heard”.

(IANS)

Migration from Kerala declined 11% in 5 years: Study

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Factors like the declining population in the 19-25 age-group and stagnant wages in the Gulf countries could be responsible for migration from Kerala declining 11 per cent between 2013 and 2018, a new study says.

“Of the 2.1 million emigrants (from Kerala in the Gulf and elsewhere), 15.8 per cent are females. However, there is a reduction of 3 lakhs migrants, which is one-tenth of the number of migrants in 2013. In 2018, we reached a stage where migrants figures shown a negative growth of 11.6 per cent,” S. Irudayarajan, who led the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2018 told reporters here on Monday.

The survery is the eighth in a series of studies on migration undertaken by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) since 1998. CDS is an internationally renowned, self-governing institution known for its cutting edge research in applied economics and topics germane to socio-economic development. It was established in 1971 by the late Professor K.N. Raj, considered the archistect of India’s First Five-Year Plan (1951-56), and a former Vice Cancellor of Delhi University, with whom he was associated for 18 years.

Explaining the reason for the decline Irudayarajan said it could be due to the cumulative effects of the demographic advances which have decreased the population in the migration-prone age-group (15-29 years) as Kerala attained replacement fertility level in around 1987.

“Wages in the Gulf economies have not improved after the global economic crisis. This has led to lower savings, de-motivating them to migrate. Another reason is wages in the domestic economy have increased compared to other states,” said Irudayarajan.

Explaining further he said the price of oil, on which the Gulf economy is based has been declining since 2010.

“Although the last one year has seen a slight increase in oil price, the growth of the Gulf economy has suffered a major setback. Due to nationalisation policies such as Nitaqat and recently introduced family taxes in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies appear to be not that conducive for current and prospective migrants,” Irudayarajan noted.

The study was conducted through a survey of 15,000 households from January 1-March 31 and was funded by the Kerala government’s Department of Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs.

The study notes that 89.2 per cent of the total migrants from Kerala are in the Middle East countries.

In 2013 while there were 20.70 lakh migrants in the Middle East, the figure fell to 18.93 lakh in 2018.

The remaining 10 per cent of the emigrants are concentrated in the other countries like the USA, the UK, and Australia.

In 2013 there were 8.9 lakh in the UAE while in 2018 it stands at 8.30 lakh, followed by 5.22 lakhs in Saudi Arabia and falling to 4.87 lakh in 2018.

In Qatar, there has been an increase from 1.06 lakhs in 2013 to 1.86 lakhs in 2018 but in Bahrain there has been a fall from 1.49 lakhs in 2013 to 0.81 lakhs in 2018.

The study found that one in every fifth household in Kerala has a migrant, while among religious groups, one in every third household is a Muslim, one in five household is a Christian and one in 10 households is a Hindu.

The estimated total annual remittances to Kerala have been placed at 85,092 crore.

“Of the total remittances at state level, Malappuram district receives 21 per cent, followed by Kollam (15 per cent), and Thrissur (11 per cent),” added Irudayarajan.

Concluding his findings, he said the long history of migration from Kerala to the Gulf is in its last phase.

“However, remittances to the state have increased. This is due to the fact that Keralites’ in the Gulf have climbed the social ladder and are earning higher wages, allowing them to remit more. Thanks to the weakening rupee, families remit more. The KMS 2018, has also confirmed that the migration from Kerala is falling and return of migrants is on the rise,” added Irudayarajan.

On the study of return migrants as estimated by KMS 2018, it is 1.29 million, which is about 60 per cent of the number of emigrants.

“The KMS 2018, would be an invaluable pointer for further policy formation in terms of international migration and also employment schemes of the government. The last 20 years of KMS proved that almost 40 per cent of total remittances to the state were used by emigrants in land, housing and its assets.

“With the recent devastating floods, and the massive loss of physical capital and land value, migration can be conjectured to increase at least in the short run. We expect the trend will change after the floods as migration will play major role as a livelihood option for the New Kerala, where we expect further migration and remittances. This requires another quick assessment by the Government of Kerala,” said Irudayarajan.

(IANS)

Americans don’t trust Trump: Indian-American Congresswoman

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Americans are recognizing that they don’t trust the US President who has maintained that he knew nothing about what was went on in his campaign, Indian-American Congressman Pramila Jayapal has said.

Her comments came after Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges last week.

He also agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigations about the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“You see people recognizing they don’t trust the President. They believe that Bob Mueller is doing a good job and that the investigation should continue. People are saying, look, this is outrageous,” the first Indian-American woman elected to the US House of Representatives told CNN on Sunday.

“This level of corruption, greed, some of the individual charges that are outlined in the Manafort, charging document really show that this guy (Manafort)… is in jail because of jury tampering.

“When you think about this, it isn’t just the individual pieces that we’re seeing, but what we’re seeing is top advisers, people who ran the campaign, the campaign manager, the deputy campaign manager, the President’s personal lawyer who have all pleaded guilty.

“… And you have to begin to wonder how it could possibly be the case that the President knew nothing about what was going on,” asked Jayapal.

She praised Muller for doing a “great investigation”.

“I think Bob Muller has been doing a great investigation. I think he was just handed the keys to the castle, not just with Manafort but also with Michael Cohen.”

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating election laws and said he had been directed to do so by the President. He had also admitted paying hush money to two women to keep them from talking about their affairs with Trump during the presidential campaign.

“They (people) see the chaos of the last 18 months. They don’t want it. They don’t like shattering of norms. What does a person who has the biggest bully pulpit of the White House do? They don’t like the tweets that come from the President, contesting what happened in (Hurricane) Maria,” Jayapal said.

She said that people want Trump to be focussed and to be presidential, but “he is none of those things”.

“In addition to that, people are not seeing their own lives changing. Healthcare is the number one issue on the table.

“When you look at what Republicans have done to undermine healthcare costs, to drive premiums up, to strip pre-existing, the ability to qualify for healthcare with pre-existing conditions, these are things that Americans care about. They do not see healthcare getting better,” she said.

(IANS)

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