India – Link Punjabi

Bharat Jodo Yatra enters Palakkad district

Editor — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 07:41:53 +0000

PALAKKAD: The Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra resumed its journey on Monday from Shornur in Kerala’s Palakkad district with hundreds of party workers accompanying Rahul Gandhi in the walk.
The morning leg of the march, which entered its 19th day, will cover 12.3 km and halt at Pattambi.
The Congress party tweeted that the yatra entered Palakkad district with “excitement and hope”.
“…And we can’t wait to start this journey with you,” it said in the tweet.

Hello Palakkad,#BharatJodoYatra comes to you with excitement and hope. And we can’t wait to start this journey wi… https://t.co/U4B0Yk68Ve

— Congress (@INCIndia) 1664152200000

Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan and Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan joined Gandhi in the morning session of the yatra.
Hundreds of people waited on both sides of the road to meet Gandhi. A group of young girls presented the Congress leader with a framed drawing of himself.
“Couldn’t have asked for a better start to the Padyatra. The young minds are coming out in large numbers to bless @RahulGandhi Ji and all the Padtyatris. We owe them a brighter future. Towards achieving our goal. #BharatJodoYatra,” the party said in a tweet along with a photo of the young girls holding Gandhi’s drawing.
The Congress leader will garland a Mahatma Gandhi statue on the way to Pattambi, the party said. The yatra will resume at 5 pm and conclude at Koppam, it said.
The Congress party’s 3,570 km and 150-day long foot march started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 and will conclude in Jammu and Kashmir.
The yatra, which entered Kerala on the evening of September 10, will go through the state covering 450 km, touching seven districts in 19 days before entering Karnataka on October 1.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

SC cites Hindus’ religious assets rights to counter Waqf Act critics

Editor — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 12:49:44 +0000

NEW DELHI: As BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay challenged various provision of Waqf Act and alleged that why only Muslims be allowed to manage properties when there was no law for other religious community, the Supreme Court on Monday reminded him that there are Hindu Endowments Act framed by many states on as per which only Hindus can manage and administer religious places and their assets.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by Upadhyay contending that the Waqf Act was totally against the secularism, unity and integrity of the nation as the law was made to administer the properties of Muslims but there were no similar laws for followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jain-ism, Sikhism, Judaism, Bahaism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity.
As the petition also raised questions on the impartiality of the judicial officer who is part of the tribunal set up under law, Justice Joseph said that such contention was shocking as a judicial officer decides the case on the basis of law and asked senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the petitioner, whether he also believed so.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

One farmer dying every hour in BJP rule: Congress

Editor — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 12:46:06 +0000

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday held the policies of the ruling BJP dispensation responsible for farmers’ suicides in the country, claiming that one farmer died by suicide every hour.
Addressing a press conference in the wake of a September 17 suicide of Pune-based Dashrath Lakshman Kedari, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the farmer, in his suicide note, held “the BJP government’s policies responsible for his death and noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was concerned only with himself”.
“Dashrath Lakshman Kedari in his suicide note said he did not have any money to pay back his loans and was ending his life due to helplessness. He sought reasonable MSP (Minimum Support Price) for farm produce as a farmers’ right and blamed the policies of the incumbent government for his decision to end life,” Shrinate said.
She said as many as 10,881 people involved in agriculture died by suicide in 2021, which was 6.6 per cent of 1,64,033 suicide deaths last year.
“This means, every day 30 farmers are dying by suicide and every hour more than one farmer is dying,” she said.
Citing the National Crimes Record Bureau data, she said more than 53,881 farmers killed themselves between 2014 and 2021, which translates to 21 deaths daily.
Shrinate said it was ironic that 2022, the year by which the government had promised to double the income of farmers, was actually witnessing “barely Rs 27 average income” for them.
“Who is responsible for the dire straits of Indian farmers? The policies of this government,” the Congress leader said.
She also recalled the death of over 700 farmers during the year-long farmers agitation against the three agricultural reforms laws to allege the “government’s apathy towards farmers and the farm sector”.
Further, she said the government’s remarks before the Supreme Court that payment of MSP over and above 50 per cent of the cost to farmers would distort the market, and that the Centre’s decision not to procure the produce if state governments bought them above the MSP clearly went against the farmers.
The Congress leader said the government had “looted the farmers” by increasing diesel prices, imposing a range of GST on farm products — five per cent on fertiliser; 18 per cent on insecticides, 12 per cent on farm equipment, and 18 per cent on tractors, “pushing the production cost to Rs 25,000 per hectare.”
Quoting data from the National Sample Service Organisation, Shrinate said the average daily earnings of farmers now stood at Rs 12 as against the average loan of Rs 74,000.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Govt to give states 15L tonne of chana

Editor — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 15:09:39 +0000

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to dispose of 15 lakh tonne of chana procured under its schemes to states at a discounted rate, incurring a cost of Rs 1,200 crore. It also raised the procurement ceiling for tur, urad and masur from current 25% to 40% under the price stabilisation scheme.
While the first measure will help states utilise the subsidised chana for various welfare schemes and free up space for stocking pulses which will be procured during the rabi crop season, the second decision has been taken considering the rise in prices of the three other pulses. There are indications of the area under tur cultivation being reduced this year and that has also caused prices to rise.
The Centre will offer 15 lakh tonne chana to states at a discount of Rs 8 per kg over the issue price of sourcing state on first-come-first-serve basis. “This will be one-time dispensation for 12 months or till complete disposal of 15 lakh tonnes stock of chana, whichever is earlier.” it said.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

PM Modi pays tributes to Puli Thevar

Editor — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 15:04:11 +0000

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid tributes to Puli Thevar, an 18th century Tamil warrior who fought against the British, on his birth anniversary.

His valour and determination give inspiration to countless people, the prime minister said.
Modi tweeted, “I pay homage to the brave Puli Thevar on his birth anniversary. His valour and determination give inspiration to countless people. He was at the forefront of resisting imperialism. He always fought for the people.”

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Jharkhand crisis: Selective leaks from governor’s office creating chaos, say UPA MLAs

Editor — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 14:17:14 +0000

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NEW DELHI: A delegation of JMM and Congress MLAs met Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais on Thursday amid uncertainty over chief minister Hemant Soren‘s political future in the state.
The meeting comes days after the Election Commission recommended Soren’s disqualification in a letter to the governor over an office-for-profit case.
The group of MLAs requested the governor to declare his opinion on the matter, saying that speculations on Soren’s fate has encouraged the destablisation of a democratically-elected government.
The legislators also expressed “shock” over the “selective leaks” from the governor’s office on Soren’s disqualification as a legislator.
The delegation, in its representation to Bais, said such leaks created “chaos, confusion and uncertainty”.
It asserted that disqualification of the CM as MLA will not affect the government, as the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD coalition enjoys an absolute majority in the 81-member House.
In the Jharkhand assembly, the ruling alliance has 30 MLAs of JMM, 18 MLAs of Congress and one MLA of RJD.
Following a petition by the BJP seeking Soren’s disqualification from the assembly, the Election Commission sent its decision to Bais on August 25.
Though the EC’s decision is not yet made official, there was a buzz that the poll panel has recommended the chief minister’s disqualification as an MLA.
The Raj Bhavan is yet to announce anything on this matter. This has led to growing uncertainty among the ruling coalition about Soren’s future.
(With inputs from agencies)

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Congress president’s election mired in controversy as leaders question voters’ list

Editor — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 14:58:00 +0000

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NEW DELHI: The election to the Congress president’s post is getting mired in one controversy or the other with each passing day. In the latest row, senior party leaders have questioned the constitutionality of the voters’ list.
After veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation on August 26 and the continuous frontal attack on party leader Rahul Gandhi since then, a couple of senior leaders of the organisation have raised questions over the very veracity of the electoral roll for the president’s election scheduled to be held on October 17.
Two Congress Lok Sabha MPs – Manish Tewari from Sri Anandpur Sahib in Punjab and Karti Chidambaram from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu – on Wednesday alleged that the party’s presidential election could not be held in a free and fair manner without a transparent and well-defined electoral roll.
In a series of four tweets, Tewari, a grassroots leader, asked a few questions from Madhusudan Mistry, the chairperson of Congress’s central election authority (CEA) which is overseeing the election of party president.
Tewari said, “With great respect @MD_Mistry ji, how can there be a fair and free election without a publicly available electoral roll? Essence of a fair and free process is (that) names and addresses of electors must be published on @INCIndia website in a transparent manner. You are quoted as saying, ‘the list is not made public but if a member of our party wants to check, they can check at the PCC office. And, of course, it will be given to the candidates once they file their nomination papers’.”
Tewari told Mistry that the party’s highest decision-making body Congress Working Committee (CWC) has announced the schedule of party president’s election, not to 28 pradesh Congress committees (PCCs) and 8 territorial Congress committees (TCCs).
He asked, “Why should someone have to go to every PCC office in the country to find out who the electors are? This does not happen in a club election also with great respect.”
The former Union minister appealed to Mistry to make the voters’ list public. “In the interests of fairness and transparency, I urge your good self to publish the entire list of electors on @INCIndia website. How can someone consider running if he/ she does not know who electors are? If someone has to file his/ her nomination and gets it proposed by 10 Congresspersons, as is the requirement, CEA can reject it (by) saying they are not valid electors,” Tewari added.
Tewari is a member of G-23, a group of 23 Congress leaders who had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 demanding internal reforms in the party. He has been demanding transparency, accessibility and an overhaul of the manner in which the party’s top leadership functions.
Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, also questioned the validity of the voters’ list.
In a tweet, Karti said, “Every election needs a well-defined and clear electoral college. The process of forming the electoral college must also be clear, well defined and transparent. An ad hoc electoral college is no electoral college.”
In another tweet, he said, “Reformists are not Rebels.”

Reformists are not Rebels.

— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) 1661923321000

Replying to other tweets, Karti said, “Can anyone tell the world who are all eligible to vote and on what basis they became eligible?… Absolutely we must have primaries in every constituency, but for that we need a defined and transparent members list. Today we claim we have membership numbers which no one has ever verified.”
Tewari agreed with Karti. Tagging the latter’s tweet, he said, “My colleague in Parliament @KartiPC is spot on. For any election to be kosher, the electoral college must be constitutionally constituted. I read in the papers @AnandSharmaINC had articulated this widely shared concern in the CWC and he even publicly confirmed that he had raised it.”

MyColleague in Parliament @KartiPC is spot on. For any election to be kosher the electoral college must be constitu… https://t.co/EXb7ASslli

— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) 1661925098000

With questions being raised about the constitutionality of the voters’ list, the election of the president may itself become controversial.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Long way to go before India reverses pre-Covid ‘Modi slowdown’: Congress

Editor — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 07:35:00 +0000

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the release of GDP numbers for the April-June quarter, the Congress on Wednesday said the figure could show a jump and turn out to be a headline grabber but the real growth is lower than in 2018.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said there is still a long way to go before India reverses the pre-Covid “Modi slowdown”.
“Jumla Alert: Apr-Jun 2022 quarterly GDP figure later today could show a jump from a year ago. This headline-grabbing number will be due to low-base effect,” the Congress general secretary said on Twitter.
“Real GDP in Apr-Jun 2021 was lower than in Apr-Jun 2018! A long way to go before we reverse the pre-Covid Modi slowdown,” Ramesh also said.
The GDP numbers for the April-June quarter of 2022-23 are likely to be released on Wednesday by the government.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Alcohol use and high BMI key risk factors in India’s cancer deaths

Editor — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 07:30:59 +0000

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NEW DELHI: Smoking, alcohol use, high BMI (Body Mass Index) and other known risk factors were responsible for over 37% of cancer deaths in India in 2019, as per a new research published in the Lancet.
Globally 44.4% (4.5 million) of all cancer deaths were attributable to risk factors, says the study. The estimates are based on the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk factors Report, 2019.

According to the study, nearly half (50.6%) of all cancer deaths in men globally in 2019 (2.8 million) were due to known risk factors, compared with 36.3% all female cancer deaths (1.5 million) attributable to these factors.
Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine and a co-senior author of the study, said, “Smoking continues to be the leading risk factor for cancer globally, with other substantial contributors to cancer burden varying.”
In the study, researchers investigated how 34 behavioural, metabolic, environmental and occupational risk factors contributed to deaths and ill health due to 23 cancer types in 2019. Changes in cancer burden between 2010 and 2019 due to the risk factors were also assessed.
They found that the leading risk factors globally for cancer deaths and ill health for both sexes were smoking, alcohol use and high BMI.
The leading cause of risk-attributable cancer death for both men and women globally were tracheal, bronchus and lung cancer, which accounted for 36.9% of all cancer deaths attributable to risk factors.
This was followed by colon and rectum cancer (13.3%), oesophageal cancer (9.7%), and stomach cancer (6.6%) in men and cervical cancer (17.9%), colon and rectum cancer (15.8%), and breast cancer (11%).
Between 2010 and 2019, cancer deaths due to risk factors rose by 20.4% globally, increasing from 3.7 million to 4.45 million. Ill health due to cancer increased by 16.8% over the same period, rising from 89.9 million to 105 million DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years), the Lancet statement said. Metabolic risks accounted for the greatest increase in cancer deaths and ill health, with deaths increasing by 34.7% (6,43,000 deaths in 2010 to 865,000 in 2019) and DALYs by 33.3% (14.6 million in 2010 to 19.4 million in 2019), it added.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

‘38% of suicides in 2021 were by daily-wagers, self-employed’

Editor — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 01:33:15 +0000

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NEW DELHI: Daily wagers and the self-employed constituted nearly 38% of persons who died by suicide in 2021, according to NCRB. The share of these two categories of people in total number of suicide deaths has consistently increased since 2018 — from 32% to 35%, and from 36% to 38% — and even the actual number of such fatalities has gone up during these four years from 43,276 to 62,215.
The comparative study of the suicide data of 2018-2021 period shows there was a spike in the number of daily wage workers taking their own lives by 39% during this period — from 30,127 to 42,004. In the last two years, one in every four suicide victims was a daily wage earner. Data shows suicide by daily wage workers was maximum in Tamil Nadu and the three other states that reported high number of such fatalities were Maharashtra, MP and Telangana. If the data of suicide of daily wage workers is compared between 2014 and 2021, then the number of such deaths has more than doubled during these eight years.
So far as the suicide of self-employed persons were concerned, the comparison of the figures show that such fatalities have gone up from 13,149 in 2018 to 20,213 during 2021, an increase of nearly 54%. The category of self-employed persons include vendors and tradesmenAs per reports, the number of vendors dying by suicide has increased by nearly 40%, from 3,230 in 2018 to 4,532 during the last year. Similarly, the number of tradesmen (small businessmen) dying by suicide went up from 2,615 in 2018 to 3,699 in 2021. The main reasons for suicide across all categories across these years have been family problems, illness, love affairs and marriage-related issues.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Amit Shah’s 1st Bihar visit since break with Nitish

Editor — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 04:39:40 +0000

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Union home minister Amit Shah will visit the Seemanchal region during his two-day visit to Bihar next month, his first after CM Nitish Kumar dumped BJP to form the grand alliance government with the support of RJD, Congress and others.
Aimed at rejuvenating BJP in the state, the Union minister’s visit will combine both official and political agenda. State BJP spokesman Prem Ranjan Patel said Shah will address a rally of party workers and BJP supporters from 11 districts of Seemanchal at Purnia on September 23.
The next day, he will hold an official meeting at Kishanganj concerning the Seemanchal districts. While seven districts of Purnia and Kosi divisions along or close to the Indo-Nepal border are strategically very sensitive from the point of national security, the four districts of Purnia, Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj have a significant chunk of Muslim population. These have been on the BJP’s political map for long owing to infiltration from Bangladesh. Recently, fears have also surfaced on the likely formation of sleeper cells of militant groups in the area.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Now, Nitin Gadkari’s ‘use-and-throw’ remark stirs talk of barb at BJP

Editor — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 02:21:59 +0000

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NAGPUR: Union minister Nitin Gadkari‘s remark at an event in Nagpur last weekend about the importance of not adopting a “use-and-throw attitude” to relationships had the political grapevine linking it to his omission from BJP‘s top decision-making bodies.
“Human relationships constitute the biggest strength of a business, social work or politics…In your good or bad days, once you hold the hand of a friend, you should never let go of it,” he told a gathering of entrepreneurs at the Young Presidents Organisation’s newest South Asia chapter in Vidarbha.
The speech, a video of which has since been widely circulated, was punctuated with Gadkari’s trademark homilies. “Being successful and happy individually has no meaning. But being successful as a team is truly meaningful, because your co-workers of all ranks are a happier lot because of the collective success,” he said. While reminiscing about the old days with his friend and former Congress functionary Shrikant Jichkar, Gadkari said he had been offered an opportunity to join the party when he was a student leader, to which he responded by saying he would “rather jump into a well”.

News Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com