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Bihar: Mohammad Babul’s wife had an affair with her brother-in-law, planned husband’s murder

OpIndia Staff
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Bihar: Mohammad Babul’s wife had an affair with her brother-in-law, planned husband’s murder

In a heinous incident in Bihar’s Purnia district, a woman planned the murder of her husband and in order to pursue a romantic relationship with her brother-in-law. The brother-in-law, Mohammad Chand, along with three of his henchman, abducted and murdered the woman’s husband Mohammad Babul, according to Bihar Police.

On Monday, the victim Mohammad Babul was kidnapped from his cycle repairing shop at Kaliganj, allegedly by Mohmmad Chand, the brother-in-law and lover of Ristana Khatun, Mohammad Babul’s wife. As per reports, Chand and three other accomplices abducted Babul in a Scorpio car and took him to Tulsikuriya village in Dhamdaha, where they murdered strangulated Babul before dumping his body in a bush, about 50 km away from the original kidnapping spot.

Bihar Police then traced Chand’s location through his mobile phone to Pirpainti in Bhagalpur, from where he was arrested. Ristana was the next person to be arrested and was located at her in-law’s house at Kaliganj in Purnia.

Wife confesses to planning the murder, had affair with brother-in-law

Ristana Khatun then confessed to the police, admitting to asking Mohmmad Chand to murder Babul—who she married just about eight months ago. Ristana wanted to marry Mohammad Chand after Babul was killed and out of the way. The Police also seized the Scorpio car which played a part in the kidnapping

“During the interrogation, Ristana confessed to having planned the killing of her husband with Mohammad Chand. It was her adulterous relation, which led to Mohammad Babul’s murder,” said Purnia SP Daya Shankar.

The victim’s body was sent to Purnia district hospital for a post-mortem, according to the police. “Police are carrying out raids to arrest three persons who were allegedly involved with Mohammad Chand in the kidnapping and killing of Mohammad Babul,” the SP added.

James O’Keefe to sue as Twitter suspends accounts days after Project Veritas exposed CNN Technical Director making shocking claims on video

OpIndia Staff
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James O’Keefe to sue as Twitter suspends accounts days after Project Veritas exposed CNN Technical Director making shocking claims on video

US journalism venture Project Veritas has made a series of exposes of the CNN news network in the USA. CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester went on five Tinder dates with a Project Veritas agent where he made a series of shocking revelations including how they ran a dedicated propaganda campaign against former President Donald Trump and how they hyped the COVID-19 pandemic for better ratings. Now, Twitter has suspended the accounts of Project Veritas and their founder James O’Keefe.

Reportedly, Twitter has responded to queries about why the accounts of Project Veritas and Keefe were suspended. According to reports, Twitter has said, “The account was permanently suspended for violating the Twitter Rules on platform manipulation and spam.”

Author and Editor-at-large of @TPostMillennial, Andy Ngo, took to Twitter to post a statement issued by James O’Keefe after both accounts of Project Veritas and Keefe were suspended.

James O’Keefe of Project Veritas in his statement said that he will be suing Twitter for defamation since they had claimed that he was running ‘multiple fake accounts. Saying that the claim by Twitter was false and defamatory, James O’Keefe said that Twitter ‘will pay’ for their decision to ban them based on this fake claim. He further said that the complaint will be filed on Monday.

American conservatives are outraged about the blatant suppression of free speech by Twitter and how big-tech seems to be colluding with big media to suppress voices that bring out the uncomfortable truth. Twitter and its tyranny have been apparent not just in the USA but also in several other parts of the world, including India.

Revelations against CNN made by Project Veritas and James O’Keefe

After the ‘first part’ of the release which showed CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester admitting that CNN ran a dedicated propaganda campaign against then US President Donald Trump, another video was released by Project Veritas where the technical director admits that the news network hyped up the Covid-19 death figures and hoped for more deaths to drive up its ratings.

The technical director also admits that there is nothing such as unbiased news “It just doesn’t exist,” he said. He also says CNN provides a platform to only those people who will peddle the narrative the network wants them to peddle.

Canada: Liberal MP apologizes for getting caught naked during Zoom call, opposition MP says ‘in great shape, but control camera’

OpIndia Staff
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Canada: Liberal MP apologizes for getting caught naked during Zoom call, opposition MP says ‘in great shape, but control camera’

A lawmaker from Canada, who was left red-faced after showcasing himself stark naked on a Canadian Parliament Zoom conference call, has now apologized to his colleagues.

William Amos, a Liberal MP who represents the Pontiac constituency in Quebec, was caught covering his private parts with a mobile phone, completely naked between the flags of Canada and Quebec, as his laptop switched on during the virtual conference.

The picture of the indecent moment

The 46-year old MP apologized profusely on Twitter, writing, “I made a really unfortunate mistake today & obviously I’m embarrassed by it. My camera was accidentally left on as I changed into work clothes after going for a jog. I sincerely apologize to all my colleagues in the House. It was an honest mistake + it won’t happen again.”

Under the “Rules of Order and Decorum” of the Canadian Parliament, there is no dress code requirement for sitting in on a debate, but if the exposed MP chose to address the conference in his state of exposure, he would breach the House of Commons guidebook. According to the Rules, a male speaker “must be wearing contemporary business attire” such as jackets, shirts and ties.

Amos’s indiscretion was initially broadcasted only on an internal Canadian Parliament feed, leaving the people of Canada initially unaware of their MP’s major faux pas.

Opposition MP Claude DeBellefeuille though, brought up the incident through a point of order after the question period was concluded, suggesting that parliamentary decorum requires male MPs to wear a jacket and tie in addition to a shirt, underwear, and trousers.

“It may be necessary to remind the members, especially the male ones, that a tie and jacket are obligatory, but so are a shirt, boxer shorts, or pants,” she said in French.

“We have seen that the member is in great physical shape, but I think members should be reminded to be careful and control the camera well,” she added.

The Canadian Parliament has been operating in a hybrid manner since May of last year because the physical-distancing measures imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic forced a reduction in the number of politicians and staff working in person in the Parliament Most MPs are participating in proceedings virtually via Zoom since then, with only a small number attending in person.

Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada and Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, is yet to comment on this story.

Exclusive: How Maharashtra wasted thousands of tonnes of pulses, in the middle of the pandemic, sent under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana

Nupur J Sharma
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Exclusive: How Maharashtra wasted thousands of tonnes of pulses, in the middle of the pandemic, sent under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana

The state of Maharashtra, governed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, has been the worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Maharashtra has had upwards of 3 million positive cases and even in the second wave, the worst-hit state in India is Maharashtra. Under the circumstances, the central government and the state governments were expected to work closely to implement welfare schemes that could help the needy sail through difficult times. However, the Maharashtra government seems to have failed at that.p

MLA Mulund, Mihir Kotecha, put out a video of the massive wastage of Chana Dal/pulses in Maharashtra due to the bad policies of the state, especially Chagal Bhujhbal who is serving as Cabinet Minister of Food and Civil Supply, Consumer Affairs in Government of Maharashtra.

In the video posted by Kotecha, he says that the pulses that have now got infested and spoilt have been lying there since August/September. According to him, since October, 1,800 kg Dal have been spoilt in this shop itself. In other places, 3,00,000 kg chana dal has been spoilt. For the past three months, he says that the Maharashtra government, especially Chagan Bhujbal, are extremely busy responding to him. According to him, Rs 180 crores worth of pulses have now gone to waste in Maharashtra.

Further, OpIndia accessed a note by the Government of India that shows how the Maharashtra government delayed in writing to the central government about the leftover pulses with the state, allocated under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, while other states got their permission to avoid wastage.

In the note, it is detailed that in the beginning of the distribution of pulses, the Department of Consumers Affairs, through various Video Conferences (VC) with the States/UTs, had instructed the following to avoid spoilage of pulses:

  1. In the video conference held on 22nd July 2020, it was decided that the balance pulses/chana whole under PMGKAY-1 and Atma Nirbhar Bharat lying with the States should be utilized against the distribution under extended PMGKAY-2
  2. In the joint video conference held on 2nd September 2020, it was decided that any leftover quantity of foodgrains/pulses which remain undistributed shall be adjusted with subsequent allocation/lifting of the whole chana under the ongoing PMGKAY-2. This was again reiterated in the VC held on 22nd September and States were asked to inform NAFED accordingly about their adjusted allocations so that spoilage could be minimized.

Interestingly, according to the note, in the video conference held on the 26th of November 2020, Maharashtra had informed the central government that they had 910 MT under PMGKAY-1 and 804 MT under Atma Nirbhar Bharat was left-over with the state and therefore, the central government should make adjustments in the subsequent release of pulses under PMGKAY-2.

After this, a special request by Maharashtra had also delayed the allocation of pulses under PMGKAY-2. Maharashtra had specially requested to distribute processed chana dal and therefore, the allocation was delayed by a bit.

Further, after the allocation of pulses under PMGKAY-2, the states were informed on the 18th of December 2020 that they are to give the central government an audit to inform them of the distribution done and the number of pulses left with the state. Subsequently, after several reminders, other states did sent their audits to the central government and asked permission for the utilisation of the left-over pulses with them.

Here is a table of when the other states requested for the utilisation of left-over pulses.

Part of the GOI note

While the central government gave their approval to the other states to utilise the left-over pulses, Maharashtra was left behind, and not for the fault of the central government.

While the central government informed states and requested an audit of numbers on 18th December and other states managed to send in their requests to utilise left-over pulses latest by March 2021 (Congress ruled Rajasthan, Left ruled Kerala, and AAP led Delhi), Maharashtra delayed the request even further.

According to the note by the Government of India, Maharashtra wrote a letter to the central government on the 6th of April 2021that 6441.922 MT of pulses/chana whole is leftover quantity under PMGKAY I & II and ANB. The central government further received the letter on the 8th of April. The approval by the central government came on the 13th of April and the response to the Maharashtra government was sent on the 15th of April 2021. Per this permission by the central government, Maharashtra was informed it may utilize 6441.922 MT of the leftover quantity of pulses /chana whole for distribution among National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiary households through various welfare schemes/ programmes run by the Government.

What is extremely relevant in this case is the fact that while the Government of India had asked the state to provide details of left-over pulses on 18th December 2020 itself, Maharashtra waited till April 6th 2021 to tell the central government about the left-over pulses, thousands of metric tonnes that too. In the meantime, it is apparent from the video that several thousand tonnes of the pulses, that should have benefitted the needy under harsh conditions of a pandemic, have gone to waste and have been deemed unfit for consumption.

In the time of a pandemic, the Maharashtra government must provide an answer as to why thousands of tonnes of pulses seem to have gone to waste and why the Maharashtra government waited for months, from December to April, to write to the central government about the utilisation of left-over pulses.

Aaj Tak to air public apology on 23rd April for sharing fake news on Sushant Singh Rajput, pay Rs 1 lac fine: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Aaj Tak to air public apology on 23rd April for sharing fake news on Sushant Singh Rajput, pay Rs 1 lac fine: Details

Aaj Tak, the Hindi channel of the India Today group, has been asked by the NBSA (News Broadcasting Standard Authority) to air a public apology on their channel on the 23rd of April for spreading fake news about Sushant Singh Rajput. Aaj Tak has also been asked to pay a fine of Rs 1 lac for the same. This decision comes after the NBSA rejected the review petition that had been filed by Aaj Tak in the case.

Earlier, on October 6th 2020, NBSA had held that AakTak had violated broadcast norms by airing fake news about late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. It was this order that Aaj Tak had appealed, however, that appeal was rejected today.

Following the rejection of appeal, NBSA has asked Aaj Tak to air an apology on the 23rd of April at 8:00 PM.

The apology that they have to air live, translated in Hindi, is as follows:

Aaj Tak apologises that while reporting on the incidents relating to the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput, we had run certain tweets on the Aaj Tak channel and wrongly reported the screenshots calling them real and attributing them as the actor’s last tweets. By doing so, we have violated Clause 1 of the “SpeciZc Guidelines Covering Reportage” relating to “Accuracy” which states that information should be gathered first-hand from more than one source, if possible; reports received from news agencies should be attributed and where possible be verified; allegations should be reported accurately as made and errors of fact should be corrected at the earliest, giving su[cient prominence to the broadcast of the correct version of fact(s)

Order by NBSA against Aaj Tak and the fake news against Sushant Singh Rajput

The News Broadcasting Standard Authority (NBSA) has slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Aaj Tak, the Hindi-language news channel of the India Today group for telecasting fake tweets relating to actor late Sushant Singh Rajput. It has also asked the broadcaster to air an apology admitting on national television that it did not conduct the due diligence required prior to telecasting the tweets and attributing them to the late actor.

Aaj Tak had published an elaborate piece on late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s “last tweets” on June 16, two days after the actor was found dead in his house in Mumbai. Aaj Tak had also tweeted the article from its official Twitter account. The Tweet where the news channel shared the link of the emotionally charged report on these “tweets” where the late actor allegedly hinted taking his own life were subsequently deleted. Aaj Tak later took down its report without clarification. An archived link of the tweet can be viewed here.

India gets ready to fight with the second wave of COVID-19, several states impose tougher restrictions

OpIndia Staff
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India gets ready to fight with the second wave of COVID-19, several states impose tougher restrictions

After months of showing a downward trend, India is once again experiencing a fresh spike in the COVID-19 cases. Breaking all past records, India registered its biggest-ever single-day spike with 200,739 fresh cases today. With this, India’s active Covid-19 tally shot up to more than 1.41 crore cases.

This unprecedented second wave has compelled many states to impose lockdown like restrictions to limit the movement of the people and thus bring down the infections being caused by the deadly contagion.

Below are the state-wise details of COVID-19 restrictions:

Maharashtra

Though several states in the entire country are recording an alarmingly high number of coronavirus cases, the situation in Maharashtra is the most worrisome, with the state alone accounting for almost 45% of the total cases in the country. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday (April 13) announced that there will be no lockdown in the state but lockdown like restrictions will be imposed from 8 pm on Wednesday, April 14 for at least 15 days.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 have been imposed till May 1, and no person will be allowed in a public place without any valid reason. All establishments, public spaces, activities and services will remain closed, except for essential services that will remain open between 7 am and 8 pm on working days. 

Shooting for films, serials and advertisements will remain closed, and only 25 people will be allowed at marriages.

Public transport, including trains and bus services, and essential services like groceries, vegetable shops, fruit vendors, dairies, bakeries, confectioneries, all types of food outlets and public utilities, will be open.

The CM said that a total of 2 lakh police personnel will be on the streets of Maharashtra to enforce the curfew. An additional force of 13,200 home guards and 22 companies of State Reserve Police Force, including three companies for Mumbai and two for Pune, will be deployed as per requirement.

Delhi

Similarly, the Delhi government on Thursday announced stricter curbs to curtail the recent influx of COVID-19 cases in the national capital. Addressing the media, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that a weekend curfew will remain in effect from 10 pm on Friday till 6 am on Monday. The weekend curfew comes in addition to the 8-hour night curfew already in effect in the national capital.  

Shopping malls, gyms, spas and auditoriums will remain closed till April 30. Meanwhile, cinema halls will be allowed to operate will 30 per cent capacity. Restaurants will not be allowed to provide dine-in service and only home delivery of food will be allowed during the new curbs.

Further, essential services will be allowed during the weekend lockdown and people going to weddings, which are already planned, will be provided with curfew passes.  

Kejriwal added that one weekly market per day per municipal zone will be allowed to operate to arrest spread of coronavirus.

Karnataka

The cumulative caseload in Karnataka’s Bengaluru surpassed the 5 lakh mark on Wednesday with 8,155 new infections. To control the scourge the BJP government in Karnataka has announced several other stringent measures apart from the already imposed night curfew in some cities.

The state government had earlier announced a 10-day night curfew, starting from April 10, from 10 pm to 5 am in Bengaluru, Mysore, Mangalore, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Tumkur and Udupi-Manipal.

Bengaluru police have decided to ban the use of swimming pools, gyms, party halls, and other such amenities in apartment buildings within the city.

The government said that travellers coming from states like Kerala, Punjab, Maharashtra and Chandigarh will be required to carry a negative RT-PCR report.

The number of telephone lines operated by Bengaluru’s municipal body the BBMP will be doubled soon to enable more public access to the 24-hour Covid-19 helpline operating in the city.

Odisha

The Odisha government has also tightened the Covid restrictions in the state and announced to impose night curfew in urban areas across the state starting tomorrow.

According to the latest information, in 10 districts bordering Chhattisgarh, namely Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri, the State government changed the timings of night curfew. As per the decision, the night curfew in the urban areas in these districts would be from 6 pm to 5 am tomorrow. However, the night curfew timings for rural areas in these 10 districts will remain unchanged from 10 pm to 5 in the morning.

Also, night curfew will come into force in urban areas of 20 more districts including Bhubaneswar and Cuttack from 9 pm to 5 am from tomorrow.

In another major decision, the Odisha government decided to impose a weekend lockdown in the urban areas of these 10 bordering districts from April 17.

Uttar Pradesh

On Monday (April 12), the Uttar Pradesh government imposed a night curfew in Shravasti district of the state from 9 pm to 6 am till April 18.

A night curfew has also been imposed in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Allahabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bareilly and Muzaffarnagar districts and the Lucknow Municipal Corporation area of the state.

Madhya Pradesh

In view of the rising cases of COVID-19, the Bhopal ‘Crisis Management Group’ on Monday (April 12) decided to impose a ‘Corona Curfew’ in the city.

The Corona curfew will be imposed from April 13 to April 19, till 6 am, reported ANI.

Daily activities will, however continue inhindered. Inter-state & inter-district movement of essential services will also be allowed in the state.

Gujarat

A night curfew will be imposed in 20 main cities of Gujarat from 8 pm to 6 am till April 30. All gatherings, rallies or meetings have been banned.

These cities include – Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagarh, Gandhinagar, Anand, Nadiad, Mehsana, Surat, Morvi, Patan, Godhra, Dahod, Gandhidham, Bharuch, Surendranagar, and Amreli. 

The Gujarat High Court held that all kinds of gatherings, including political functions, should be controlled or stopped. The Sabarmati Ashram has also been closed for visitors.

Jammu and Kashmir

A night curfew has been imposed in urban areas of eight districts, namely, Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam, Anantnag and Kupwara.

Blast from the past – Now The Print journalist’s complicated relationship with math gets exposed, video goes viral

OpIndia Staff
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Blast from the past – Now The Print journalist’s complicated relationship with math gets exposed, video goes viral

The Print journalist Jyoti Malhotra seems to like getting mocked over bizarre statements. Recently, she expressed her confusion about how Remdesivir (a drug to treat Covid-19) can come under the Chemical & Fertilizer ministry. She was heavily trolled on social media for her bizarre confusion after she was explained that the department of of pharmaceuticals comes under this ministry, not health ministry like she was assuming. Amidst all the funny tweets, a few Twitter users remembered how she confused the number of digits in a million.

In April, Malhotra had a conversation with Shamika Ravi, Former Member PM’s Economic Advisory Council, over the lockdown situation in India amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. They were discussing how the policy environment is different in every country. Shamika said, “Policy environment is also not static. Every country is responding to this emergency. So even in the Chinese case where the expectation was for a million patients, eventually they had 85,000.”

Malhotra interrupted Shamika and said, “but not so far away from a million,” and left Shamika in sort of a shock for a second. The blunder in the calculation was let go for the moment, but someone has rightly said, “If something is on the internet, it will remain on the internet forever.” Once Malhotra’s blunder over Remdesivir went viral, netizens started posting the clip where she got confused over the number of digits in a million.

The Print explanation made no sense

In the description section of the video, The Print mentioned, “*Correction: At 2:34​, Jyoti Malhotra meant [to] say 850,000 instead of 85,000. Error is regretted,” which makes no sense. Shamika clearly said 85,000. In no way Jyoti would have meant to say 850,000. As per available data, China had a total of 1,03,000 cases. Even now, it is not even close to a million that was predicted.

The Print’s ‘correction’ makes no sense

A million is FAR from 85,000

For those who are not aware International Number System, it is different from the Indian Number System. In India we use One (1), Ten (10), Hundred (100), Thousand (1,000), Ten Thousand (10,000), Lakh (100,000), Ten Lakh (10,00,000), Crore (1,00,00,000) and so on. On the other hand, in International Number System, they use One (1), Ten (10), Hundred (100), Thousand (1,000), Ten Thousand (10,000), Hundred Thousand (100,000), One Million (1,000,000), Ten Million (10,000,000), Hundred Million (100,000,000), One Billion (1000,000,000) and so on.

Now, when Shamika said Eighty-Five Thousand (85,000), it has five digits. The prediction for China was of one million cases (1,000,000) which have seven digits. In the Indian Number System, we call it Ten Lakh (10,00,000). When Jyoti said it 85,000 was not far from One Million, she was absolutely wrong. She might have confused it with One Lakh, and in that case, it would have been true. However, Jyoti missed the “not too far” by over Nine Lakh cases.

Despite getting bail, former JNU student and Delhi anti-Hindu riot accused Umar Khalid to remain behind bars

OpIndia Staff
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Despite getting bail, former JNU student and Delhi anti-Hindu riot accused Umar Khalid to remain behind bars

A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to Delhi anti-Hindu riots accused Umar Khalid in an FIR registered against him on 25th February 2020 for his involvement in the violence in the Khajuri Khas area of northeast Delhi. This was the second FIR (FIR No. 101/2020) under which Khalid has been formally arrested on 1 October last year.

While granting bail to the former JNU student, additional sessions judge Vinod Yadav ordered that Khalid would have to furnish a personal bond of Rs 20,000 and appear before the court on each and every hearing of the case. He was instructed to furnish his mobile number to the SHO, PS Khajuri Khas upon his release from the jail and would ensure that the mobile is in working condition and further he should also get the ‘Arogaya Setu’ app downloaded and installed in his mobile phone.

Umar Khalid granted bail under only one FIR registered against him

However, it becomes imperative to recollect here that Umar Khalid has been granted bail under FIR 101 that was registered against him on 25 February 2020. This particular FIR was connected to the violence in the Khajuri Khas area of northeast Delhi and is being investigated by the Delhi Police crime branch. This is the second FIR under which Umar Khalid was formally arrested. 

When this FIR was registered, Umar Khalid was already in custody under FIR 59, where, along with other charges, the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) had also been invoked by the Special Cell of Delhi police.

Since Khalid has not yet been granted bail under FIR 59, he will continue to be lodged in jail.

Khalid and his role in Delhi Riots

Khalid was arrested by the police on September 14 for his alleged involvement in the horrific Northeast Delhi riots. He was summoned by the police for investigation and was later arrested. In a charge sheet filed by the Delhi police and admitted by the court, it is alleged that Khalid had hatched the conspiracy of the anti-Hindu Delhi riots along with his friends during the visit of US President Trump to India. Khalid had allegedly met the former AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain and another accused Khalid Saifi to assure logistical support during the riots through his contacts in the PFI.

Migrant workers returning from Maharashtra due to curfew allege extortion by police

OpIndia Staff
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Migrant workers returning from Maharashtra due to curfew allege extortion by police

Migrant workers returning to their home states from Maharashtra are now complaining of alleged extortion by the Maharashtra Police. The migrant workers are fleeing Maharashtra mostly because of the 15-day lockdown measures imposed by the Uddhav Thackeray government.

“We are returning to our homes because there was the problem of earning livelihood after curfew announcement. I had migrated back last year also during lockdown but returned after the situation improved. This time too, like the last year, the police extorted heavily from us,” a taxi driver said.

“We are coming from Pune. There a travellers bus took Rs 2,500-3000 per ticket from them. Still, they made us get off the bus at the Maharashtra border and asked to board these two vehicles. The Police and transport department at the Border Checking Point overlooked the jeeps,” said Sanaullah Khan, a migrant worker returning from Maharashtra.

More than 50 migrant workers were located near the Indore bypass, crammed up in two jeeps on their way to Jabalpur. These workers were rescued by Indore’s Rau Thana police, along with an NGO.

“Besides food and a place to rest, doctors and medicines are also available for those who come here. If the need arises, we provided help from the hospital. People coming here are in need of food and shelter as they are were tired. That is why, with the help of the police administration we set up this tent to provide them some relief to the migrant,” said Shailesh Kumawat, a social worker.

On Tuesday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government announced the imposition of Section 144 for the entire state in order to combat the ever-rising number of COVID-19 cases. This extreme step has caused panic in the migrant worker communities living in Maharashtra, causing them to flee the state back to their own respective states of origin due to the fear of losing their livelihoods.

Mukesh Ambani sends aid to Maharashtra to help fight Covid-19, supplies oxygen from his refineries for free

OpIndia Staff
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Mukesh Ambani sends aid to Maharashtra to help fight Covid-19, supplies oxygen from his refineries for free

A company official of Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., which operates the world’s biggest refining complex in Gujarat, informed today that the refinery has started supplying oxygen from Jamnagar to Maharashtra at no cost due to acute shortage faced by the state.

The official who asked not to be identified due to the company’s internal policy informed that Reliance is diverting some oxygen streams meant for its petroleum coke gasification units after making it suitable for medical use.

Eknath Shinde, the Urban Development Minister of Maharashtra had shared about the development of the state receiving 100 tons of gas from Reliance through a Tweet.

The announcement was made by Shinde following a review meeting at the Linde plant in Taloja in Navi Mumbai over the growing demand for oxygen in the metropolitan region and Pune.

Maharashtra is facing a shortage of oxygen because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases. Many people who are severely affected by the coronavirus have dangerously low levels of oxygen and are required to administer with supplemental oxygen.

Parallelly, a network of nitrogen supplying tankers is used to pick up the slack to ensure there is no logistical issue. All the tankers will be granted sufficient police protection and provided with priority on the roads, Shinde said.

Besides, instructions are also issued to the administration to make sure that private establishments that supply oxygen to hospitals are asked to augment their capacities in the coming days. In addition, all tankers used to plying nitrogen will be used to transport oxygen from the plants to the hospitals.

The minister has asked all district collectors to analyze the demand regularly and ensure an adequate supply of oxygen based on their requirements.

In another attempt to ensure enough oxygen supply, the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. has built up a stockpile of 20 tons of oxygen at its Kochi refinery in southern India that it is supplying to bottlers for medical use, a company official said.

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