Home Blog Page 6343

Kerala government intervenes to stop removal of illegal crosses planted at Panchalimedu near Sabarimala: Reports

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Kerala government intervenes to stop removal of illegal crosses planted at Panchalimedu near Sabarimala: Reports

Today the Kerala government intervened to stop the removal of crosses planted by a Church on encroached land in Panchalimedu, a hill near Sabarimala. Last week a village officer had ordered to demolish and remove the crosses. An FIR has also been registered against a group of unidentified men who had placed a Trishul in front of the illegally planted crosses.

Reportedly, the Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s office directly intervened to stop the removal of the crosses. The Revenue Departement officials had previously ordered the church to remove around 14 crosses from the encroached land, the deadline which ends today.

The St. Mary’s church based at Kanayankavayal in Idukki has claimed to have installed the crosses 65 years ago. The district collector H. Dineshan has said that the crosses would not be removed, despite them being planted on revenue land, as it is a matter of faith. He also added that since this matter involved both the faiths, more pondering is required before making a decision.

Panchalimedu a sacred place for local Hindus named after Panchali/Draupadi, is believed to be a place inhabited by Pandavas during the 12 years of exile. Ayyappa devotees at times choose to climb up this hill to catch a glimpse of the Makaravilakku (holy flame).

The revenue land also includes an ancient Bhuvaneswari temple, under the Travancore Devaswom Board. The board President A Padmakumar said, “the Bhuvaneshwari Devi temple at Panchalimedu is the original location (Moolakshetram) of Valliyangattu temple. Only remnants of the temple are left at the place. We had 269 acres at Panchalimedu which we lost over a period of time. I had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister to initiate steps to recover the land. There are some issues at the place. But the board and the government had been making arrangements for Sabarimala pilgrims to view Makaravilakku from Panchalimedu every year. We have plans to retrieve the land and restore the temple”.

Yesterday, as reported by The New Indian Express, the Idukki RDO M P Vinodh said that a demolition order would be sent to the temple as well. He said, “the crosses and the temple will be demolished with support from the temple and church authorities and if they are not willing, the department will take action”. He said that it was important to remove encroachments so as to better facilitate security arrangements for the Ayyappa devotees.

Two days ago, several images went viral on Twitter that showed a Trishul being placed in front of the crosses. A group of men reportedly came in a vehicle and had placed the Trishul as a sign of protest against the Church. An FIR has been filed by the police, the men are yet to be identified.

Meanwhile, a Hindu activist Prateesh said, “There are not just 14, but hundreds of crosses at Panchalimedu. We have obtained all official records regarding the ownership of land and will file a writ petition before the Kerala High Court for removal of encroachments”.

It is being alleged that the Church was able to encroach upon these sacred lands with the help of the communist government in Kerala. Christian organisations had made a similar attempt to grab the Sabarimala lands in Nilakkal by claiming that they had unearthed a stone cross established by Jesus’ apostle Saint Thomas in 57 A.D.

Bihar Health Minister displays insensitivity, inquires about India-Pakistan match score during meeting on Encephalitis deaths

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Bihar Health Minister displays insensitivity, inquires about India-Pakistan match score during meeting on Encephalitis deaths

In a shocking display of apathy towards the rising distress over the deaths due to the outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Bihar, its Health minister, Mangal Pandey was caught on camera being more concerned about the India-Pakistan match rather than the deteriorating situation in the state.

Republic TV broke visuals showing Pandey, during a press briefing held by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of State for Health Ashwani Kumar Choubey and Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Sunday, casually asking how many wickets had been lost by India, in the presence of Vardhan and Choubey, while discussing the ongoing treatment during his visit to the state-owned Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) to review the current health situation on-ground.

While doctors were seen sitting and discussing in the same room along with other media persons, Pandey was visibly more worried about whether the match would continue or not due to the onset of rain in Manchester, UK.

The outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Bihar has become severe as twenty more children succumbed to the fever in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll in Muzaffarpur and other districts of Bihar close to 100.

Last week, Pandey had said that according to the team which was formed to ascertain the cause of this disease concluded that sleeping empty stomach at night, dehydration due to humidity and eating lychee on empty stomach were some of the primary causes of AES.

This syndrome is locally called the ‘chamki’ fever. Encephalitis, a rare disease, is an inflammation (swelling and irritation) of the brain. In most cases, a virus causes this inflammation. Most cases happen in children, the elderly, and people with a weakened immune system. It causes flu-like symptoms such as high fever, convulsions and headaches.

Breaking several days of silence, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has also today called an emergency internal meeting to take stock of the situation arisen due to the outbreak of the disease. Reports say that health department senior officials are to be present in the meeting.


Meanwhile, there are reports that a case has been filed against Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey in a court in Muzaffarpur district on charges of negligence leading to the deaths of 82 children due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the past fortnight.

Another jolt to Mamata Banerjee as TMC’s Nowpara MLA Sunil Singh, 12 councillors join BJP

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Another jolt to Mamata Banerjee as TMC’s Nowpara MLA Sunil Singh, 12 councillors join BJP

In another big blow to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, another local strongman and Nowpara MLA Sunil Singh has joined the BJP, reports ANI.


According to reports, Sunil Singh had flown to New Delhi on Sunday along with 12 Trinamool councillors of the Garulia municipality. Sunil Singh is also the chairman of Garulia municipality. Sunil Singh will join the BJP with the 12 councillors at the BJP headquarters on Monday in the presence of BJP West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya and senior BJP leader Mukul Roy.


Sunil Singh joining the BJP was on the cards after his brother-in-law Arjun Singh, who was earlier a Trinamool MLA of Bhatpara and chairman of the Bhatpara municipality, had also left the party to become a BJP MP. Arjun Singh was given BJP ticket from Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency.

Reportedly, the Garulia municipality has 21 councillors, out of which 19 were from the TMC. As 12 TMC members have decided to join the BJP, the municipality will fall into the hands of the BJP, which already has a majority in Bhatpara and Darjeeling civic bodies.

The trouble for Mamata Banerjee began after her party lost space to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the latter had won 18 seats, increasing its tally from just 2 seats in 2014 elections. Soon after the elections, the MLAs, senior TMC functionaries began to join hands with the BJP. TMC’s Bijpur MLA Shubhranshu Roy joined the party with a Congress and a CPM MLA last month.

Another TMC lawmaker Manirul Islam had also joined the saffron party in presence of BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy recently. Along with Manirul Islam, president of TMC’s youth wing Gadadhar Hazra, the secretary of the same unit Mohammad Asif Iqbal and TMC leader Nimai Das also switched sides to join the BJP.

BJP also took control over three municipalities after the councillors joined the BJP. The municipalities are, Kanchrapara, Halisahara and Naihati.

Uttar Pradesh: Now a 13-year-old boy gang raped by four men in Shahjahanpur

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Uttar Pradesh: Now a 13-year-old boy gang raped by four men in Shahjahanpur

After a series of horrific rapes and murders over the last few days, another case of child rape has been reported from Uttar Pradesh as a teen boy has been allegedly raped this time by four men of his village in the Puwaya area in Shahjahanpur, reported Times Now.

The incident took place on Saturday evening when the four accused forcibly took the 13-year-old boy to an orchard and allegedly raped him, said the police.

According to a report, the victim narrated his ordeal to his family members, who approached the police with a complaint against the four accused, identified as Rehman, Ravi, Gulli and Wasim, the officer said.

Senior police officer Jasvir Singh said a case has been registered against the four accused, who are absconding. The police have launched a manhunt to nab the culprits. The victim was sent for a medical examination.

Over the last few days, reports of crimes, especially sexual abuse against children have been on a rise in the country.

On June 9, a man named Shahnawaj was caught red-handed after he raped a 9-year old Dalit girl. Shahnawaj, a native of the town, had called the victim to his place on the pretext of giving her some clothes. As soon as the victim reached his place, he took her inside a room and allegedly raped her.

Similarly, on June 14, a 55-year-old man, Kalam Ansari was caught raping a 10-year-old girl Meera (name changed) on June 10.

In a similar deplorable incident at Aligarh, a Muslim man named Zahid had brutally choked a minor girl, Tina Sharma (name changed) to death over an argument with her family regarding a small loan amount. The brutal incident had shocked the conscience of the nation.

Zahid had brutally choked Tina with a dupatta (scarf) and hid the body in his house in a straw bag. After three days when the corpse started emitting a foul smell, Zahid threw Tina in a pile of trash. Tina’s body was completely decomposed with her eyes gouged out.

Rahul Gandhi finally arrives in Parliament, but stays true to form and goofs up while taking oath as MP

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Rahul Gandhi finally arrives in Parliament, but stays true to form and goofs up while taking oath as MP

Ending speculations, Congress president Rahul Gandhi finally arrived at Lok Sabha today after 3 PM, just in time for his turn to take oath as the MP from Wayanad constituency in Kerala.


But the oath taking by the four-time Lok Sabha MP didn’t go smooth. As can be seen on video capturing the moments, after taking oath, Rahul Gandhi forgot to sign on the register. Immediately after reading his oath statement in English, Rahul Gandhi started to walk away from the spot towards his right. While all the other MPs sat down at the table in the middle of the house after reading the statement, signed on the register kept there, and then walked towards their left to the speaker’s chair where they greeted the pro-term speaker. After that, they went behind the speaker’s chair to enter the hall from the other side, in front of the opposition benches.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDvy5jFx3WA]

But Rahul Gandhi was not in the Parliament for the whole day, and perhaps that’s why he didn’t know the protocol. When he started to walk away, a Lok Sabha official had to intervene, who stopped him and told him that he has to sign the register. Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who was sitting next to the PM’s seat on the front row of the treasury benches, was also seeing indicating Rahul Gandhi to return and sign the register. After Rahul Gandhi comes back does the same, the official again instructs Rahul Gandhi that he has to go towards the speaker, and this time the Congress president follows the instructions correctly.


https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Interestingly, the official Twitter handle of Congress posted the video of Rahul Gandhi taking oath in Lok Sabha, but they posted an edited video. The Congress party removed the part where the Congress president was leaving after taking the oath and the Lok Sabha official stopped him.

Church in Thanjavur prevents residents of Nirmala Nagar from constructing a Ganesha temple on community land

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Church in Thanjavur prevents residents of Nirmala Nagar from constructing a Ganesha temple on community land

Tamil Nadu: A few days ago, a Church in Thanjavur opposed and prevented the construction of a Ganesha temple by the residents of Nirmala Nagar. The temple was to be constructed on a plot reserved for the residents of Nirmala Nagar as ascertained by the judgement of the Madras High Court. Despite this, the Church opposes the construction claiming that it is their private property.


Reportedly, the residents of Nirmala Nagar had made all the preparations required for constructing the temple and were digging the ground to lay down the first stone. However, the Church forced them to stop the work, flaring up communal tensions. The police hoping to resolve the situation amicably arranged talks between the two communities. Currently, the Hindu Munnani is in talks with the Church and as of now, they are yet to settle the dispute.


The Thanjavur Diocese Society had filed a petition against the residents of Nirmala Nagar in an attempt to prevent the residents from using the plot. The disputed plot is divided into three parts- A, B and C and was earmarked for usage by the residents of Nirmala Nagar. The plot-A with an area of 8,057 sq.ft was used by the petitioner to build a Church. The plot-B (26,400 sq.ft.) and plot-C (30,710 sq.ft) continued to be the reserved area for community use.

The reserved plot has a playground, Municipal bore well and also a summer storage tank for storing drinking water for the residents. The residents filed an injunction suit after they found out that the Church had tried to put up a fence in an attempt to convert the reserved plot and to sell them to third parties.

The Madurai district bench of the Madras High Court in 2008 had delivered a judgement in favour of the Nirmala Nagar residents. It said that the disputed plot has been clearly used for several public purposes such as the opening of a vegetable market and the drinking water arrangements made by the Municipality. The Church knew of this fact and never objected to it before. The court also noted that as per Article 21 “Right to live with human dignity” of the Indian Constitution, which includes protection of health and right to clean environment, the disputed plot should be kept open for community use so that the children and other residents of Nirmal Nagar may have a healthy life.

Following this, the Thanjavur Diocese Society had filed a review petition in 2009. The High Court in 2017 had dismissed the petition saying that the courts had come to a clear finding that “the petitioner made an attempt to convert the plot reserved for community purpose for a private purpose”.

Several churches in India have been accused of land grabbing. In Kerala, a Church has been accused of planting crosses over the sacred forest land of Panchalimedu near Sabarimala, allegedly with the help of the communist government. Recently, a village officer has ordered that the crosses are to be demolished and removed by Monday.

West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee’s fiefdom crumbling as first doctors now teachers take to streets against state authorities

OpIndia Staff
-
0
West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee’s fiefdom crumbling as first doctors now teachers take to streets against state authorities

Trouble seems to be mounting for West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, as first the state doctors and now the state teachers, have taken to the streets to protest against the authoritarianism under Mamata Banerjee’s regime.


Today, the Mayur Bhawan island in Bidhannagar/ Salt Lake area, a municipal corporation of North 24 Parganas district, Kolkata, turned into a battlefield as unnumbered teachers heading towards the State Education Minister’ office in Bikash Bhavan were interrupted by the Bidhannagar police. Ugly clashes ensued between the teachers and the state police.

The teachers broke barricades and charged at the police who were trying to stop them from proceeding towards Bikash Bhawan to meet the Partha Chatterjee, the Minister for Education and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs of the Government of West Bengal to demand a salary hike. The police, in turn, resorted to lathi charge in order to intimidate the mob.

Though few teachers have reportedly been injured in the onslaught, they managed to reach Bikash Bhawan, and currently are protesting and sloganeering in front of the building, demanding their requirement of a hike in salary, which was promised to them by Mamata Banerjee but not yet fulfilled, is met.

On April 3, 2019, 350 government school computer had agitated with the state police in Minto Park area in Kolkata. They were also there to demand higher pay when the cops wielded lathis at the agitators turning the protest into a violent one.

Over 30000 teachers employed in Shishu Shiksha Kendras (SSKs) and Madhyamik Shiksha Kendras (MSKs) had earlier on March 7, 2019, also blocked the road to Bikash Bhavan, the office of the Education Minister, West Bengal, demanding that their honorariums be increased.

Around 10,000 SSK and MSK teachers had been agitating at Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata since March 1, protesting against the current government’s refusal to increase their honorariums since the past seven years. All Bengal Teachers’ Association has extended their support to the protesting SSK and MSK teachers.

Rekha Das Giri, an SSK teacher, or ‘sahayika’, as they are called had then said, “I have been working as an SSK teacher since 2003. Back then, our honorarium was Rs 1,000. The Left Front government gradually hiked it to Rs 5,954 by 2010. Our dearness allowance was also increased every three years. But the Trinamool Congress government has even stopped paying us the DA.”

She had also stated that, seven years ago, during the Left Front government in the state, the honorarium for the SSK and MSK teachers was Rs 5,954 and Rs 8,854, respectively. The amount has remained the same since then.

The state government’s position in West Bengal under Mamata’ autocracy, seems to be crumbling as previously the doctors and now the teachers raise their voices of dissent against the state leadership.

Congress shields the clown prince, Praveen Chakravarty becomes the scapegoat for Rahul Gandhi’s electoral disaster

Nirwa Mehta
-
0
Congress shields the clown prince, Praveen Chakravarty becomes the scapegoat for Rahul Gandhi’s electoral disaster

The Sunday Guardian article which made startling revelations that the Congress party and the party president was allegedly conned by his own team of trusted lieutenants into believing that the party was clearly winning the Lok Sabha elections and Rahul Gandhi was definitely becoming the Prime Minister of India.

The report revealed how his ‘Big Data’ head, Praveen Chakravarty billed the party Rs 24 crore for his services and has since been untraceable. Not only he ended up providing dubious and misleading data to the party president but also never gave a copy of the disc where he had collected the data, said the report. Chakravarty was the founding trustee of the dubious database with faulty ‘fact-checker’, IndiaSpend.

Since the news of his allegedly conning the Congress party went viral on social media, more and more stories and claims relating to him have since come forward. A report published by Economic Times throws more light on the same. As per the ET report, Chakravarty sent an email to the data analytics department of Congress detailing his reflections on how his shady data failed to give correct projections for Congress. Chakravarty washes his hands off the poll debacle and says how there is nothing much we (data analytics department) could have done. The mail reportedly did not mention the failure of Shakti app, Congress’ data app, from trying to read the Modi wave in the second term.

ET report mentions how Congress has become an echo-chamber where everyone concerned tells the party president what he wants to hear. As per a party functionary, about 30-40% data in an earlier variation of Shakti app was fake in Karnataka, where it was launched before the May 2018 state assembly elections. Three months later, when Shakti app was launched, focus was on volume of data collected. A competition was also held where the one who collected most data would get to meet the party President Rahul Gandhi. Without checks in place, more fake data was collected. As per the report, about 50-70% of the data collected through Shakti app was fake.

As per the report, the access to the Shakti app was tightly controlled and even within the team members didn’t know what the other member was working on. The article then states how a private individual, one William Chitla, an associate of Chakravarty’s and a Bengaluru based IT-entrepreneur along with Chakravarty was at one point calling the shots regarding Shakti app. However, as per ET, Chitla has denied having been associated with Shakti app. ET journalist who reported this story shared on Twitter the questions he had sent to Chakravarty as well but he claims he has not received any response yet.

So much was the lack of coordination that the Congress IT cell, which didn’t get any data from the data analytics team, ran its own parallel data research and even hired a British polling agency, ‘You-Gov’. The report, without naming any senior functionary within the Congress, says that Chakravarty fed the Rafale controversy into Rahul Gandhi’s head but a lot of senior leaders didn’t really follow the Rafale bogey Rahul was riding on.

Meanwhile, Robert Vadra’s relative and Congress supporter Tehseen Poonawalla took to Twitter to reveal how he had once red-flagged Chakravarty’s grip over Congress.


He even floated conspiracy theory that some people within Congress itself want Rahul Gandhi ousted and hence set him up for it.


He even suggested Rahul Gandhi’s teammates are afraid of ‘alpha humans’, perhaps referring to himself as one.


Meanwhile, after maintaining stoic silence for almost a month over social media, Praveen Chakravarty today took to Twitter to refute all the allegations in the media and said that he and his team continue to operate out of the Congress headquarters as usual.


He called these reports ‘lies’ and ‘plain rubbish’.

From the report in Sunday Guardian and the current Economic Times report and everything which is being discussed on social media, one thing comes out clearly is that the grand old party seems keen on pushing the blame on to someone, anyone except the party leadership. In Chakravarty, they seem to have found a perfect scapegoat. Rahul Gandhi is portrayed as the gullible one who got taken for a ride by Chakravarty and everyone else. How does he then expect the voters to take him seriously as a leader who could lead a country of 1.3 billion? That he is so weak that he cannot apply his own brains?

How does the so-called fake data in Shakti app and said data mainpulation by Chakravarty explain Rahul Gandhi’s loss from Amethi, a place which voted for the Nehru-Gandhi family, election after election, purely out of emotional connect? How does this explain Congress losing all the seats in Rajasthan, where the party is in power in state? And what explains the other high-profile leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily losing?

To quote Congress President himself, the emperor was naked but nobody around him had the courage to tell him.

Afternoon session of the first day of 17th Lok Sabha session is here, and Rahul Gandhi hasn’t made an appearance yet

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Afternoon session of the first day of 17th Lok Sabha session is here, and Rahul Gandhi hasn’t made an appearance yet

As the first session of the newly elected Parliament and the 17th Lok Sabha began from Monday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, a member of parliament from Wayanad constituency did not attend the parliament, raising questions over his respect for democratic values and traditions.

Rahul Gandhi, the President of the principal opposition party, was found missing during the morning session on the first day of the 17th Lok Sabha session. Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi had a meeting with senior party members in his residence, including his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi. It was reported that the Congress President may visit the parliament later in the day to take oath as the member of the parliament.

It was expected that Rahul Gandhi, being the leader of the largest opposition, would be attending the parliament in the afternoon session despite giving a miss to the most important morning session of the first day of the newly elected parliament. However, Rahul Gandhi is absent even in the afternoon session of the Lok Sabha.


Reportedly, Rahul Gandhi has now returned back to India from his week-long vacation to London. After the humiliating defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi had flown to London to ward off any criticism post the Lok Sabha election defeat.

Rahul Gandhi’s absence from the lower house was widely criticised on social media. Even Congress friendly journalists and political commentators had questioned the move. Reacting to such criticism, Rahul Gandhi tweeted to inform that he will attend Parliament today afternoon and take oath as an MP from Kerala.


https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Earlier today, President Ram Nath Kovind administered the Oath of Office to Virendra Kumar as Pro-tem Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Virendra Kumar will oversee the oath-taking of newly elected Lok Sabha members on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, as soon as a new speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha is elected, his role will cease to exist.

Interestingly, Kodikunnil Suresh, a Congress MP from Kerala, was the second member of the house to take oath after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also surprised everyone by taking oath in Hindi. It is speculated that Suresh could be the leader of the Congress Party in Lok Sabha. He was followed by senior ministers of the government to take the oath, after which MPs started taking oath state wise.

The prime minister addressed the media before the inaugural session of the 17th Lok Sabha said, “We are working to fulfil people’s aspirations. New friends will join today and they will bring new energy. The role of an active Opposition is important. The opposition need not bother about their numbers. I hope they will speak actively and participate in house proceedings.”

BJP MPs from Bengal take oath as Members of Lok Sabha amidst chants of “Jai Shri Ram”

OpIndia Staff
-
0
BJP MPs from Bengal take oath as Members of Lok Sabha amidst chants of “Jai Shri Ram”

Members of the 17th Lok Sabha took oath today in the Lower House of the Parliament. The elected representative of the Bharatiya Janata Party from West Bengal took their oaths amidst chants of “Jai Shri Ram”.


Debasree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Ministry of Women and Child Development, too, took her oath amidst rousing chants of “Jai Shri Ram” in the Lok Sabha.


“Jai Shri Ram” has become a battle cry in West Bengal with Bengalis raising the slogan in protest against the oppressive policies of the Trinamool government in the state. The BJP was able to increase its tally to a whopping 18 from a mere 2 in the previous general elections.

Political violence against those who chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become increasingly frequent too in the state. As a consequence, Bengalis have started chanting the slogan in front of Mamata Banerjee as she passes by. She has displayed a tendency of becoming overly agitated with the slogans and even had the Police arrest those who raised the slogans.

While the Mamata government is currently busy fighting Doctors on the streets, the chants being raised in the Parliament while BJP leaders from Bengal are being perceived as a symbol of the state slipping away from TMC’s hold.

1...6,3426,3436,344...7,667Page 6,343 of 7,667