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25 MPs test Covid positive as monsoon session of Parliament begins

Opposition parties
File Photo

New Delhi (NVI): At least 25 MPs, including 17 from Lok Sabha and eight from Rajya Sabha have been tested positive for coronavirus during the mandatory tests carried out before the monsoon session of parliament began this morning.

Among the infected Lok Sabha MPs, the maximum are from BJP – 12. The YSR Congress has two MPs, the Shiv Sena, DMK and RLP one each.

The infected Lok Sabha MPs include BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi, Anant Kumar Hegde, Parvesh Sahib Singh, Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Kaushal Kishore.

According to reports, altogether 56 people tested positive during the RT-PCR Tests conducted in the parliament building complex by September 12. The figure includes officials, media persons and MPs of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

In Rajya Sabha Congress party’s Deepender Singh Hooda and Naranbhai J Rathwa, BJP’s Ashok Gasti and Abhay Bhardwaj, AIADMK’s A Navneethakrishnan, AAP’s Sushil Kumar Gupta, TRS’s V Lakshmikantha Rao and AITC’s Shanta Chhetri were found positive.

Meenakshi Lekhi, who also tested for the virus tweeted: “After the routine Parliament test for COVID & genome test it’s confirmed that I have tested positive for the virus. I am currently in good health & spirits. I request everyone who has been recently in contact with me to get tested. Together We will fight & defeat Corona.”

Sukanta Majumdar from BJP was the first to tweet about is positive result yesterday. “Requesting all those who have come in close contact with me in the last few days to monitor their health and get tested in case of any symptoms,” he tweeted.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said it has carried out testing of more than 2,500 samples of members of Parliament and other officials “on a war footing” over the weekend.

Even before the parliament session began, at least seven Union ministers and around 25 MPs and MLAs had contracted the disease, since the outbreak of the disease.

Home Minister Amit Shah, who was also treated for the virus recently, underwent a thorough medical check-up before the parliament session started.

Since the parliament session is being held amid the pandemic period, huge safety measures have been taken to prevent the infection from spreading.

The truncated 18-day monsoon session will be marked by staggered sittings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, distancing between MPs in the house, working weekends and limited visitors. Proper seating arrangements have been made as per Covid-19 protocols, apart from other safety measures.

-ARK

Hindu killed in Pak’s Sindh; atrocities on minorities continue

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New Delhi (NVI): A Hindu doctor was today murdered in Sindh Province of Pakistan where targeted killing of minorities and other heinous atrocities like abduction, rape and forced conversion of minority community girls to Islam continue unabated.

According to reports, Doctor Lal Chand Bagari was killed in cold blood, with his throat slit, in Tando Allahyar area of Sindh.

His killing comes in a series of other gruesome crimes committed against the minorities in Pakistan, with the tacit approval or complicity of the police, judiciary and politicians.

There have also been instances of non-Muslim women being traded as sex slaves with impunity in Pakistan. Such is the clout and power of those involved that the families or others who try to come to the help of the victims have to face serious consequences.

In a recent shocking case, a Hindu girl Prisha Kumari, a 9th standard student, was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married to the abductor in Gari mori village of Pir jo Kot in Sindh on September 10.

Her helpless family could do nothing as the police and administration was of no help.

In another case on the same day, a 14-year-old girl Rinsha Maheshwari was abducted for sexual exploitation by local armed men in Kadyo Ghanor village of Badin in Sindh. She was kidnapped from her home and her family members were thrashed badly.

Rinsha’s family members have since been begging for help from the authorities but no one is ready to listen in Pakistan. Now they are pleading for help from the international community.

On September 7, a Hindu man was murdered with sharp-edged tool in Bhatharo village of Mithi in Sindh.

Prior to that on September 2, a 14-year-old Christian girl was abducted, raped and forcibly converted to Islam. Her plea for nullification of her marriage was turned down by the court, which shockingly asked her to be a “good Muslim wife”.

Earlier on August 31, Muslim men attacked and thrashed members of Hindu Bheel community, including women and children, in Goth Saidaro area of Chhaccharo police station in Sindh.

Kashmiri Pandits: An unending saga of tragedy

COLUMN

It was on this day in 1989 that prominent Kashmiri Pandit and local BJP leader Tika Lal Taploo was gunned down by terrorists in a downtown area of Srinagar. Taploo, an advocate, was shot as soon as he stepped out of his residence to go to the court for work and he succumbed almost instantly, although the locals rushed him to a hospital.

It was not a one-off killing but marked unfolding of a gory and well-crafted design of Pakistan and its proxies in Kashmir where terrorism was gaining foothold.

From then on, terrorists killed, one by one and in groups, thousands of Kashmiri Pandits in a targeted manner. Many women belonging to the minority Kashmiri Pandit community were raped, before being murdered. Such targeted killings and rape crimes created an environment of extreme fear for the miniscule community of Kashmiri Pandits and they started leaving the Valley. Over the next few months, the entire Kashmiri Pandit community, with an estimated population of 4 lakh at that time, left the valley as the governments at the Centre and in the state watched as mute spectators.

Their tragedy has been worsened by the fact that even 30 years after the crimes committed against them, nobody has been punished. The gruesome killings, including massacres, and rapes have gone unpunished due to the lack of will on part of the administrations and governments of Jammu and Kashmir and failures on the part of judiciary.

Since September 14, 1989 marked the beginning of the killing of Kashmiri Pandits and their ensuing exodus, the community observes this day as the ‘Balidaan Diwas’. This practice has been going on for the last 30 years even as the community waits for their safe and honourable return to their ancestral land.

The community, which has gone through immense problems even after their displacement, continues to await concrete steps on their return to Kashmir but none has been forthcoming so far. The successive governments at the Centre as well as in Jammu and Kashmir have repeatedly said that the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley was a top priority but the results are yet to be seen. At the same time, some political parties, associations and individuals, have been cashing on this tragedy of huge magnitude.

The latest in the series is actress Kangana Ranaut, who likened herself to a Kashmiri Pandit victim after merely a shed in her office building was demolished by BMC in Mumbai. This was an example of how the biggest human tragedy of recent times is trivialised.

People like her need to be reminded that exodus of Kashmiri Pandits meant their uprooting, irreversible thus far, and not just dismantling of some exteriors of their houses. It marked rendering of lakhs of well-educated people homeless, with tents becoming their shelter for months and years. The crime against them amounted to ethnic cleansing, which in no manner can be reduced to the trivial matter of bringing down of a shed of a building.

The community has not been able to return to their ancestral land for 30 years and is still counting.

Kashmiri Pandits have been failed by everyone, be it the governments at the Centre or in Jammu and Kashmir, and their plight has been forgotten.  Their tragedy is just an issue, raked up whenever some individual, association or political party wants to earn some vested returns.

Pakistan fails to convince world of ‘press freedom’ amid media crackdown

Imran Khan

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent remarks that there is no media crackdown have further exposed the Pak government’s hypocrisy on the press freedom, especially at a time when Mir Shakilur Rehman, editor-in-chief of the Jang group, the largest media organization in the country, has been in pretrial detention since March 12 this year.

Khan’s recent “don’t mind criticism” remark also indicates the level of this hypocrisy for press freedom in the country. “I don’t mind criticism but there is blatant propaganda against the government. Unfortunately, it is the government who feels unprotected, not the media,” Khan was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

Rehman had been arrested in Lahore by the Pakistan government’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an anti-corruption agency, on charges relating to a 34-year-old property transaction, writes Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Asia division.

Rehman, 63, had requested bail on grounds of ill-health, but on July 8, the Lahore High Court denied his request. The Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council, the top elected bodies of lawyers in the country, criticized the ruling as “disappointing and painful.”

According to Brad Adams, the NAB has been widely criticised as being used for political purposes and it’s evident that the charges against Rehman were politically motivated. Rehman’s ordeal epitomizes the fast-shrinking space for dissent and criticism in Pakistan, he writes.

The Jang Group alleges that since 2018, its reporters, editors, and producers have received more than a dozen threatening letters for its critical reporting of the NAB. GEO TV, a private television channel that is part of Jang Group, was temporarily forced off the air and audience access was restricted as punishment for editorials criticizing the government.

The HRW executive director further writes that Pakistani authorities frequently use prolonged pretrial detention as a form of punishment and intimidation.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has stated that “pretrial detention should be an exception and as short as possible.”

“In Pakistan, arbitrary arrest, detention, and baseless criminal prosecutions are used as instruments of press censorship. So long as Rehman and others in the media are punished for practicing journalism, Prime Minister Khan’s statement that ‘I don’t mind criticism’ is not worth the paper it won’t be printed on,” says Adams in his report on press freedom in Pakistan.

Pakistan is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2020 World Press Freedom Index, three places lower than in 2019.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has also expressed its concern over the increasing instances of threats of violence against journalists and human rights activists in Pakistan.

In another recent case of violence against media professionals, Shaheena Shaheen Baloch, a female journalist, artist and social activist, was shot dead in Tehsil Turbat of district Kech in Balochistan.

Shaheena, who was killed earlier this month, was the host of a morning show on PTV Bolan, Chief-in-editor of the Baloch magazine ‘Dasgohar’ and an artist. She believed in gender equality and had also campaigned for women rights in Balochistan.

-ARK

Fact check: No decision taken by Govt on reopening cinema halls from Oct 1

New Delhi (NVI): A media report has claimed that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) ordered the reopening of cinema halls across the country from October 1, with the imposition of COVID-19 related guidelines.

The Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) clarified that the claim is fake and Home Ministry has not taken any decision in this regard as yet.

“Claim: A Media report has claimed that Home Ministry has ordered reopening of cinema halls across the country from 1st October with the imposition of strict regulations.

#PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. No decision has been taken by @HMOIndia on reopening the cinema halls yet,” PIB tweeted.

This fake news comes after theatre owners across northern and southern India have urged the government to allow them to reopen cinemas at least by the Dussehra weekend in October.

Cinema halls across the country have been shut since March when the country went under lockdown following the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued the Unlock 4 guidelines, under which metro trains were allowed to resume services from September 7 in a graded manner, while political, social and religious congregations of up to 100 people have been permitted from September 21.

However, no decision has been taken yet, and cinema halls, schools, colleges and other educational and coaching institutions will remain closed till September 31 until further orders.

-RJV

Kiren Rijiju lays foundation stone for sports facilities in Leh, Ladakh

New Delhi (NVI): Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju, today laid foundation stones for various sports facilities which will cost over Rs 12 crore in Leh, Ladakh.

The estimated project cost for laying of synthetic track and the football AstroTurf is Rs 10.68 crore and is scheduled to be completed by January, 2021.

Meanwhile, the construction of Gymnasium Hall in NDS indoor stadium would cost about Rs 1.52 crore and construction will be completed by March 2021.

The Sports Ministry is contemplating putting sporting culture into a policy framework. In fact, Kiren Rijiju has requested the local administration to constitute awards and jobs for local sportspersons to encourage them to participate in sporting activities.

Focusing on one of the most popular sport of the area, Ice hockey, Kiren Rijiju has asked the Ice Hockey Associations across the country to come together to get the recognition for the sport, by following the laid down procedures.

The Sports Ministry in order to promote sports in Leh, Ladakh will provide funds and the facilities meant for districts in the places suggested by the administration as Khelo India district sub centres under the Khelo India programme.

In addition to this, Rijiju has also suggested the local UT administration to send proposals to develop sporting infrastructure in places with a thousand population in Ladakh.

The aim is to develop Ladakh as another centre for high altitude training for Olympic bound elite athletes and as of now there is only one centre in Shilaroo, Himachal Pradesh, where the national hockey players are trained for important international and domestic tournaments.

-CHK

LG Manoj Sinha says massive package for J&K in final stage

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha (file photo)

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today said that a committee formed to suggest a package for the revival of business and other ailing sectors in J&K has submitted its report to the Central Government and a “big announcement” about a massive financial package will be made within a week.

Addressing a press conference at Rajbhawan here, the J&K LG said that it is not that the business of J&K has suffered for the past one year or so but the fact remains that since the past 15 or 20 years, every sector has suffered losses.

“Yes, there was a committee constituted to suggest a package. The committee has submitted its report which is with the Centre for consideration and I think within a week’s time, there is going to be a major announcement about a big package,” the LG said while replying to a query.

He said that the package would perhaps be the first of its kind for the UT and would not just cover the ailing business sector but other sectors also that have suffered in J&K so far.

During the presser, the LG also said that a probe is underway into the July 18 Amshipora encounter in Shopian at two separate levels —administration and Army— and he will make sure there is no injustice. Three youths from Rajouri were allegedly killed by forces in a “stage-managed encounter”.

Sinha also said that the administration led by him will look into the issue of frequent traffic jams on highways due to the huge convoy movement of security forces, especially the Army and the CRPF. “Give me some time, I will talk to you (media persons) on this issue,” he said.

LG Sinha also said that there will be public darbar at divisional and sub-divisional levels across the J&K UT on every Wednesday where Divisional Commissioners and DC’s will listen to the grievances of people and ensure timely redressal. “This will be on a rotational basis like in the first week, Divisional Commissioners will attend darbars at the divisional level and on the next Wednesday, they will remain present at the sub-divisional level. This process will be monitored for three months after which we will take it to block-level as well,” he said.

The J&K LG also said that the Back to Village Program—3 will commence from October 2, on the occasion of the Gandhi Jayanti. “Before that, I would like to announce here that every Panchayat halqa will get Rs 10 lakh for the various developmental works. The officers from the administration will only facilitate the works and rest everything will be done by the panchayat members themselves. The aim is to make every village in J&K a model village,” he added.

-ARK/RJV

Himalayan glacial lakes potentially in danger of outburst: Study

Chinese soldier
Representational Image

New Delhi (NVI): As many as 47 glacial lakes within the Koshi, Gandaki, and Karnali river basins of Nepal, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China, and India are potentially dangerous, the ones that could damage physical infrastructure and cause loss of human lives and livelihoods downstream, according to a new study.

A new inventory of glacial lakes in Nepal, TAR China, and India, has not only found 3,624 glacial lakes located in the three basins but also identified 47 glacial lakes that could potentially cause glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).

The study by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the United National Development Programme (UNDP), has once again rung the alarm bell of the adverse impact of climate change to the high mountain region.

With the rising temperature and climate change, high-mountains have witnessed excessive melting of snow, and most of the Himalayan glaciers are rapidly melting and shrinking.

The rapid shrinking and retreating of glaciers influence the formation and expansion of glacial lakes, multiplying the risk of GLOFs which are caused by a sudden release of water from glacial lakes that have breached their moraine dams.

According to the study, 25 potentially dangerous glacial lakes have been enlisted in China, 21 in Nepal, and one in India, which are at the risk of unleashing GLOFs — a prominent water-induced hazard for Nepal and other mountainous countries in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region.

The report pointed out that these glacial lakes need to be closely monitored for minimising the vulnerability of mountain people and protect settlements downstream in the three river basins.

Of the 47 identified potentially dangerous glacial lakes, 42 are within the Koshi basin, making it the river basin with the highest risk. The Gandaki and Karnali basins have three and two such lakes, respectively.

Likewise, out of the total 3,624 glacial lakes identified by the report, 2,070 lakes are in Nepal, 1,509 lakes in the TAR, China, and 45 lakes in India. According to the finding, 1,410 lakes are larger than or equal to 0.02 sq km, which are considered large enough to cause a glacial lake outburst flood.

“Glaciated areas have decreased in higher mountains of Nepal. Reducing glacier areas means either it is flowing down or remaining stuck somewhere in glacial lakes formation,” said Deepak KC, who coordinated the study on behalf of UNDP Nepal.

“With the temperature rising around the world, global glacier lake volume has increased by around 48 percent, an increment of lake numbers by 53 percent and total area by 51 percent between 1990 and 2018. The trend has also continued in Nepal,” he added.

While the rapid melting and the recession of many Himalayan glaciers due to climate change is leading to the formation of new glacial lakes, the enlargement of existing lakes is increasing the risk that their surrounding moraines will not be able to hold it for a long time.

-CHK

Lockdown prevented up to 29 lakh COVID cases: Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan (file photo)

New Delhi (NVI): The nationwide lockdown has helped prevent up to 29 lakh coronavirus cases and 78,000 deaths in the country, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said at Lok Sabha today.

Speaking at the opening day of the Monsoon Session, Harsh Vardhan said, “The nationwide lockdown, a bold decision by the government, is testimony to the fact that India collectively stood up to manage COVID-19.”

“It has been estimated that this decision prevented 14-29 lakh cases and 37,000 to 78,000 deaths,” he added.

He also said that the four months of the lockdown were used to create additional health infrastructure, strengthen human resources, and produce critical elements like PPE, masks and ventilators in India, adding that the country is self-sufficient now in these things.

The health minister went on to say the India has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world.

“With our endeavour to manage COVID-19, India has been able to limit its cases and deaths per million to 3,328 cases per million and 55 deaths per million population respectively, which is one of the lowest in the world as compared to similarly affected countries,” he said.

The health minister also informed that the maximum cases and deaths have primarily been reported from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Kerala and Gujarat.

“All these states have reported more than one lakh cases,” he added.

Apart from this, Vardhan stated that 92 percent of coronavirus cases in India had reported mild symptoms. “About 5.8 per cent patients required oxygen therapy and 1.7 per cent needed intensive care,” he said.

The health minister’s comments came on a day when India’s coronavirus tally crossed 48 lakh after a daily rise of 92,071 cases and 1,136 deaths. The total case tally stands at 48,46,428 with 79,722 deaths in the country.

-RJV

Army soldier’s brother goes missing in J&K’s Pulwama, family appeals him to return

Cop goes missing along with rifle from south Kashmir
Representational Image

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): Family members of a youth, who went missing last week from Tumluhal village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, today made a fervent appeal to their son to return back home.

A first-semester student of GDC Pulwama and a resident of Tumluhal Village in Lassipora area of Pulwama, Junaid Rashid Wani (20) went missing a week ago. Pertinently, Junaid happens to be the brother of an Army soldier.

Junaid’s father Abdul Rashid told NVI that they were preparing for the engagement of their other son who is an Army soldier and Junaid went to bring fodder for animals, however, he didn’t return.

“We tried to contact him but his phone came repeatedly off, after which we called all relatives and his friends but to no avail,” he said.

Rashid said that on September 10, they lodged a missing report at police station Lassipora.

 Junaid’s parents and other families members have also appealed to all militant outfits as well as the security forces in the Valley for his release.

A senior police officer said that all angles are being checked and efforts are on to trace Junaid and to reunite him with his family.

It may be recalled that Yasir Ahmed Wani, who is also the brother of a soldier and resides in Dooru area of Anantnag, recently went missing but through an audio clip, he announced that he has joined militancy. Police said that the contents of the audio were being verified.

In Junaid’s case, there is no audio clip or any other evidence that would suggest that he too has joined militancy.

-ARK

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