A house landlord in Karnataka’s Belagavi fired multiple shots in the air to threaten a tenant over unpaid rent on Saturday night.
The video of the incident has been doing the round on the Internet. In the video, landlord Noor Ahmad is seen firing shots in the air after the tenant failed to pay rent on time.
#WATCH Karnataka: A landlord fired shots in the air after a tenant failed to pay rent, in Chikkodi area of Belgaum district yesterday. The person was later taken into custody by the police. pic.twitter.com/8dxXA8ifcI
After the video went viral on social media websites, the Chikkodi police swung into action, filing an FIR against the man and arresting him.
The incident happened on Saturday night at around 10:30 PM when the house owner, Noor Ahmad Shapurkar entered the compound purportedly bringing a country-made double-barrel gun in his hand to threaten the tenant for the recovery of Rs 2,500 that was due.
The tenant identified as Rohini Deekshit was unable to pay monthly rent due to stringent enforcement of lockdown. The house owner had then asked the family to leave the place keeping the advance money for himself as against the non-payment of rent. However, the amount was short by Rs 2,500 for which the landlord threatened the family on Saturday night.
Soon after Noor Ahmad entered the house compound, an altercation broke out between him and the family members of the tenant. The tenant’s family claimed that they are ready to leave house in a month but unconvinced by their assurance, the irate landlord held his gun upward and pulled the trigger, firing multiple rounds in the air. As a result, a part of the roof of the house was damaged.
The PM CARES Fund was set up by Prime Minister Modi when it became evident that the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic will have severe consequences for India as well. Since then, detractors have made dubious claims to further their own petty politics. However, as the days have gone by, the benefits are starting to show.
As we had reported earlier, the central government had announced that the government will procure 50,000 ventilators with the money that have been donated to the fund. More importantly, the ventilators will be manufactured under the ‘Make in India’ programme. A total of Rs. 2000 crores was allocated for the same.
The number of ventilators to be purchased with the money from the PM CARES Fund assumes even greater significance when the number of ventilators that were available hitherto. According to estimates published by the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP) and the Princeton University, India had a total of 47,481 ventilators as of the 20th of April, 2020.
Total Ventilators available in India until April 2020 (image courtesy: @amishra77 on Twitter)
Thus, the ventilators purchased using the funds under PM CARES, the total number of ventilators in India will reach almost 1 lakh. This means, more than double the existing capacity will be added. India would more than double the number of ventilators available to the medical fraternity to combat the Wuhan Coronavirus in a matter of months. This is entirely unprecedented.
PM CARES vs PMNRF
Nevertheless, the establishment of the PM CARES Fund has attracted extensive criticism from the detractors of the Modi Government. It was claimed that the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) already existed and hence, there was no obvious need to establish another fund to combat the current crisis. But such notions are misguided.
The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was established in the year 1948. Initially, the purpose of the fund was to provide assistance to displaced people from Pakistan during and right after the partition of India. The resources of the PMNRF are now utilized primarily to render immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities like floods, cyclones and earthquakes, etc. and to the victims of the major accidents and riots. There is no provision for tackling situations such as the COVID-19 crisis in a holistic manner. The PM CARES Fund has provisions to support relief or assistance in response to a public health emergency by upgrading health infrastructure and funding relevant research and other such measures not provided for by the PMNRF.
Furthermore, the objections raised by the Congress party assumes sinister proportions when one delves into the antecedents of the PMNRF. For instance, the Board of Trustees of PMNRF included the President of the Indian National Congress in its body when it was established. It is unclear why the president of a political party should have a guaranteed membership of a relief fund named after the post of Prime Minister.
It also ought to be remembered that it was only in 1985 that the Managing Committee of the PMNRF entrusted the entire management of it to the Prime Minister. The PM was conferred with sole discretion to appoint a “Secretary of the fund” on his behalf, upon whom amongst other things, the authority to operate the bank accounts of the fund was also delegated.
Even so, the PMNRF had continued functioning without a trust deed even after it was established as a trust. Thus, essentially, it gave unbridled power to the Prime Minister without any accountability. Thus, even in this respect, the PM CARES Fund is significantly more transparent than the PMNRF. It is pertinent to note that the PMNRF is not constituted by the parliament.
The PM CARES Fund makes it clear that the trust will be apolitical and the trustees that are appointed from various sectors will serve pro bono. Th fund was created on 28 March 2020. four days after the nationwide lockdown was enforced in India due to the pandemic. It will be used for combating, containment and relief efforts against the outbreak and similar pandemic like situations in the future.
PM CARES auditor debate
Last week, Congress supporters were crying themselves hoarse about the that the auditors who would audit the PM CARES fund are pro-BJP and hence cast aspersions that the audit may not be true and fair. After posting a series of pictures of the auditor Sunil Gupta of M/s SARC & Co. with BJP leaders like PM Modi, many Congress supporters questioned the independence of the auditors.
Here are some of his pictures with senior Congress leaders.
M/s SARC & Associates has been auditing PMNRF since FY 2018-19. It will now audit #PMCARES as well.
A particularly rancid Sonia Gandhi supporter has released some pictures of Sunil Gupta of M/s SARC to say they linked with BJP. Here are some more pictures.Make up your mind. 8/10 pic.twitter.com/BAmzO9oO6N
The PM CARES Fund has the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the Finance Minister and Defence Minister in its Board of Trustees apart from others. Furthermore, the founder of the firm, Rameshwar Thakur, that was appointed to audit the PMNRF was a lifelong member of the Congress party and had even been a Union Minister. The firm was replaced in 2017 by the Government.
The premier medical research body of India, ICMR has strongly refuted the reports that were carried by several media organisations that the peak of Wuhan coronavirus will arrive in India in mid-November. Issuing a tweet in this regard from its official Twitter handle, the ICMR asserted that the news reports that attributed an ‘ICMR study’ to claim the arrival of COVID-19 peak in mid-November are false and misleading.
“The news reports attributing this study to ICMR are misleading. This refers to a non peer reviewed modelling, not carried out by ICMR and does not reflect the official position of ICMR,” while sharing a snip of a PTI article that attributed a study to the ICMR to contend that the affliction of coronavirus in India will reach a climax in mid-November.
The news reports attributing this study to ICMR are misleading. This refers to a non peer reviewed modelling, not carried out by ICMR and does not reflect the official position of ICMR. pic.twitter.com/OJQq2uYdlM
The clarification issued by ICMR came amidst a flurry of reports by various news outlets which said the coronavirus crisis in the country would reach the highest point somewhere in mid-November. The reports cited by news organisations said that according to a study conducted by researchers from an operations research group constituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in India has been delayed by eight-weeks due to strict implementation of lockdown, cautioning that the peak of the COVID-19 contagion can now arrive in mid-November amidst an acute shortage of ICU beds and ventilators.
The reports further claimed that the lockdown postponed the peak by an estimated 34 days to 76 days and helped curb the rising infection by between 69 per cent to 97 per cent, providing ample time for the authorities to prop up resources and health infrastructure.
In the case of intensifying public health measures with 60 per cent effectiveness following the lockdown, the demand for health facilities can be met until the first week of November, the ‘study’ said. Furthermore, it said that after the first week of November, there could be a scarcity of isolation beds for 5.4 months, ICU beds for 4.6 months and ventilators for 3.9 months. However, it added that the shortages were reckoned to be 83 per cent less than what it could have been in absence of stringent implementation of lockdown and augmented public health measures.
Study contained errors
According to the sources, the study carried some errors and was not validated by the ICMR. For example, the study modelled that India will be affected by 5,29,872 coronavirus cases till May 6, after the end of six weeks of lockdown, which were 47 per cent of the estimated cases in scenario of lockdown with 40 per cent effectiveness. However, according to the data from the health ministry, only 3.32 lakh cases were registered till then, much lower than the model suggested.
As Brazil surpasses the United Kingdom to become the country with the world’s second-highest death toll due to the Chinese virus, its has started vacating it’s largest cemetery at Sao Paulo, making room for other coronavirus casualties. According to reports, the Brazillian authorities have instructed the Sao Paulo’s municipal funeral service to dig up the bones of people buried in the past and store their bagged remains in large metal containers.
People who died at least three years ago in Brazil will be exhumed to make room for coronavirus casualties
Sao Paulo’s municipal funeral service said in a statement Friday that the remains of people who died at least three years ago will be exhumed and put in numbered bags, then stored temporarily in 12 storage containers it has purchased. These containers would then be delivered to several cemeteries within 15 days, the statement confirmed.
The remains of people who died at least three years ago in Brazil are being exhumed and put in numbered bags, image via OneIndia
Sao Paulo has emerged as one of the coronavirus hotspots, recording almost 5,480 deaths in a single day on Thursday. And authorities expect this number to rise after Mayor Bruno Covas has announced a partial opening up of businesses this week. Soon after, the public were seen disregarding social distancing norms and gathering in malls and crowding public transport. The experts opined that the decline in intensive care bed occupancy to about 70 per cent prompted Mayor Bruno Covas to open up businesses in the country and now that people are out in streets, the health experts fear that a surge in the number of new cases and deaths due to the infection is inevitable.
Brazil becomes the country with the world’s second-highest covid related death toll
Many health experts are of the opinion that the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil will peak sometime in August. The death toll due to the deadly pathogen has already reached 42000, making it the country with the world’s second-highest death toll as on June 12 (Friday).
Dr. Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, said Friday that the situation in Brazil remains “of concern.”
“Overall the health system is still coping in Brazil, although, having said that, with the sustained number of severe cases that remains to be seen,” Ryan said.
According to reports, the workers at Vila Formosa buried almost 1,654 people in April which was atleast 500 more than what they buried the previous month. Though the numbers for May and June aren’t yet available, it is being believed that in the recent weeks the figures have more than doubled.
Meanwhile, the remains stored in the metal containers will eventually be moved to a public ossuary, according to the statement from the city’s funeral office. Its superintendent, Thiago Dias da Silva, told media that the containers have been used before and they are more practical and affordable than building new ossuaries.
On Saturday, Brazil recorded 21,704 new coronavirus cases taking the total number of cases to 850,514 in the country. With 892 new Covid-19 deaths in the country the toll stood at over 42720 according to the heath ministry data released on Saturday, which put’s the country coronavirus mortality rate at 5 per cent.
Concerns over burial spaces have been reported in Delhi too. With increasing death toll, it has been reported that the main Muslim graveyards in the national capital may soon run out of burial spaces for coronavirus patients.
Communist Party of India (CPI) has asked Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to take over Mukesh Ambani’s Antilla and convert it into a coronavirus facility. Prakash Reddy, Secretary, Mumbai Council, in a letter to BMC made this request.
He further said that there are 22 floors in Ambani’s tower with only five family members living in it. Each family member has one floor, and 17 floors are remaining that can be turned into a quarantine center. There are many such opulent bungalows and towers that BMC can use to treat and shelter Covid-19 patients.
In his letter, Reddy claims that the BMC had recently taken over shantytowns and slums redeveloped by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to facilitate Covid-19 patients. It has sparked outrage among political sections. Reddy claimed that it is a grave injustice to the slum dwellers. “They were deprived of a dignified lifestyle for years. Now they are being asked to leave their redeveloped residences to house the Covid-19 patients. He added that if BMC continues to seize the redeveloped shanties, the residents will be forced to barge into Ambani’s house and occupy the empty space in his tower,” the letter said.
Reddy has asked BMC to take back its decision to take control of redeveloped shantytowns and chawls for quarantining virus affected patients.
In the statement, CPI leader further said that it is not right to handover vacant land and shuttered factories and mills to builders so that they can construct malls and apartments. These locations must be used to build hospitals. There are countless skyscrapers in the city that have many unoccupied flats that were bought as an investment. The government should form a plan to take over such apartments to shelter coronavirus patients.
Maharashtra has crossed 100,000 Covid-positive cases. There are 53,030 active cases in the state, with 3,950 deaths reported. Mumbai alone has almost 30,000 active cases.
The Department of Health and Human Services (DoHHS) under the Trump administration in the United States has decreed that sex will now be defined as male and female and as defined by biology. The move is a direct attack on the postmodern definitions of sex and gender which claim that there can be infinite number of genders, not just male and female, and gender is entirely independent of biological sex.
The new rule passed by the DoHHS means that the revised sex discrimination protections will now be “according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.” Nondiscrimination protections in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act bars discriminate on the basis of “race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities.”
However, due to the twisted and nonscientific definition of sex invented by the LGBTQ+ community and its ‘allies’, the rule was changed to accommodate the idea that the meaning of sex in the said act included those based on gender identity. which was defined as “male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.”
The decision by the Trump administration comes at a time when radical left-wing beliefs are running rampant among the medical community and thereby, risking the health of afflicted individuals. LGBTQ+ groups are not happy with the new decree and claim that it could jeopardise the health of people from the community.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had spent more money on transporting the household goods of its former Governor Raghuram Rajan than his salary, reported The Sunday Guardian in a recent report. The surprising figures were received in response to the Right to Information (RTI) query filed by the said newspaper. The former RBI Governor was paid an approximate salary of ₹1.69 lakhs per month during his tenure between August 2013 and September 2016.
Chicago to Mumbai and back
Reportedly, Rajan cost the RBI ₹61.2 lacs in salaries and a whopping ₹71 lakhs in the transportation of his household goods from Chicago in Illinois to Mumbai in Maharashtra and back. While an expenditure of ₹2,226,416 was incurred on shifting his stuff from Chicago to Mumbai alone, another ₹4,941,253 was incurred on transporting his goods back to the US from India. There is no specific rule that determines how the household goods of the Governor be transported to India from other parts of the world. As such, the RBI made the conscious decision specifically in Rajan’s case, after taking into account the circumstances.
Raghuram Rajan received paintings worth ₹50,000
As per the RTI query mentioned in the Sunday Guardian report, the ex-RBI Governor was presented with five paintings at the time of his farewell. Rules suggest that every Governor vacating his office is entitled to gifts worth up to ₹50,000. While Raghuram Rajan did not make any specific demand, he had indicated that 4 paintings by Govind Dumbre of 15 X 15 size and one by Gopal Adiverkar which measured 16 X 20 in dimensions, present in the Governor’s House, be gifted to him instead of corporate gifts. Even though the RBI quoted the price of each painting as ₹10,000, yet it was found that Dumbre’s paintings were being sold for upwards of ₹1 lac. An additional ₹13,474 was spent on fitting an air conditioner in the bathroom.
As report by Dainik Bhaskar states that out of the 45 acre Muslim graveyard space in Jadid Kabristan, about 5 bighas are kept for the dead bodies of coronavirus positive people. Of this space, about 75% is filled in last few weeks. Shamim, the person who handles burials of people in Jadid Kabristan told Bhaskar that the speed at which people are dying, the entire coronavirus-specific zone in the graveyard will be full in less than a week. “The Kabristan management will then have to allot more land for coronavirus positive dead bodies,” Shamim said.
The five bigha space was created after felling trees. Increase in land for burials of coronavirus positive dead bodies will mean more trees will be felled.
Shamim earns Rs 100 for every dead body buried. He was one of the first in Delhi to take responsibility of burying the dead bodies of coronavirus positive people. Since lockdown, he has buried over 300 bodies, reports Bhaskar. 25 days back he got himself tested for coronavirus at cost of Rs 4,500 from his own pockets. He informs that after the lockdown was lifted, there has been an exponential growth of number of dead bodies coming in for burials. During lockdown, about 5-6 dead bodies would come every day. However, after the lockdown has been lifted, this figure has gone up to 10-12, almost double. He said this could also be because of stressed healthcare where non-coronavirus patients are not getting sufficient treatment.
Most people from Old Delhi are buried in this graveyard. However, amid the coronavirus outbreak, bodies from all over Delhi are brought here for burial. Many of these are also brought for burial 4-5 days after their death.
Last week, Masroor Siddiqui, member of Kabristan committee in Delhi said how a graveyard in Daryaganj, which sees daily burial of about 10-12 dead bodies of coronavirus positive people may soon run out of space. About 300 bodies have been buried here since April and space for only 100-150 more dead bodies remains. The rate at which dead bodies are coming in for coronavirus positive people, the graveyard will run out of space for dead bodies by end of June.
Dead bodies of coronavirus positive people are being buried as per protocol in Delhi’s Mangolpuri, Dwarka, Khadar and Ghazipur as well. However, the number of dead bodies in Delhi Gate is much higher. About 299 bodies are buried here.
Madhya Pradesh police have initiated a probe on BJP’s complaint against former CM of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh for sharing a video of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on his twitter handle. As per the reports, Singh shared an edited version of an old video of Chouhan in connection to a statement made on liquor consumption. The case has been filed under sections 465, 501 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal Crime Branch registers FIR against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, under multiple sections of IPC, in connection with an alleged fake video regarding CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan shared by him on social media. BJP had filed a complaint against him. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/MT3QNoaUyE
Irshad Wali, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Bhopal, said, “The matter of editing an old video of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and circulating it on social media with the aim of spoiling his image has been taken seriously. The case is being investigated by registering an FIR under the Cyber Act.”
BJP delegation filed complaint
Former minister Umashankar Gupta headed the BJP delegation that submitted a memorandum to the crime branch of Bhopal Police. The complaint mentioned that Chouhan had given a statement against the liquor policy of the Kamal Nath government on 12th January 2020. What Singh shared is only an out-of-context 9-second part of the original 2.19-minute video. They demanded strict action against the Congress leader and his associates for conspiring to defame Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
काँग्रेस नेता दिग्विजय सिंह द्वारा क़ुरचित वीडियो के माध्यम से जनता को भ्रमित करने का प्रयास किया गया। भाजपा के वरिष्ठ नेताओं ने उनके खिलाफ FIR दर्ज करने हेतु एमपी नगर क्राइम ब्राँच में शिकायत दर्ज की। pic.twitter.com/YEfEdq7hqM
BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma shared the original video on his twitter handle and the deleted tweet of Digvijay Singh. Congress has not issued any official statement in this case.
Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra has stated that the concerned officials have been directed to take strict action against the persons who have twisted the CM’s statement on the liquor mafia active in the state and had shared a misleading video to malign the image of the sitting CM.
Digvijay Singh had deleted the video. Today, while speaking to media he avoided answering questions over the edited video he had shared. Instead, he stated that some tribals had accused the Shivraj government of duping them of money and added that he is planning to sit on a dharna over the issue. He added that he had not edited the video and the police should probe the person who had edited the video.
Earlier this month, two officials of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were caught spying in Delhi. The two-officials, named Abid Hussain and Tahir Hussain working in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were expelled and asked to go back to their country. Following this, the situation for Indian diplomats and other staff in Islamabad remained tense and there was aggressive tailing and surveillance. India had also asked Pakistan to ensure safety of Indian staff in the High Commission.
Update 1: Times Now journalist Nikunj Garg reports that the two officials have been abducted by Pakistan’s intelligence service, ISI.
Breaking & Exclusive @TimesNow Top Sources In The Govt Confirm To Me That Two Missing Staffers Of The Indian High Commission In Islamabad Have Been ABDUCTED BY THE ISI.
