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Chennai, Feb 9 (IANS) Dalit activists have taken up the case of a 37-year-old Dalit man being asphyxiated to death while cleaning a septic tank in an apartment building at Kannabiraman street in Coimbatore.

Activist and leader of Dalit rights movement Meenakumari Sunil told IANS that manual scavenging is against the law.

“It is against law and we will take those who engaged the man for manual scavenging to the court,” Meenakumari said.

Mohanasundaralingam (37) was engaged in cleaning the sewage tank of an apartment in Kannabiraman Mill road near Sowripalayam in Coimbatore on Thursday.

While Mohanasundarlingam was supervising the cleaning, two of his accomplices, Raju and Guna went inside the sewage. Ramu fell inside the sewage tank and Mohanasundarlingam also entered the tank to save Ramu; while Ramu was pulled out to safety, Mohanasundarlingam collapsed and was immediately taken to the local hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Mohansundaralingam hails from Thiagi village in Ramanathapuram and the Dalit organisations in the area took up the cause of his death.

Meenakumari said that manual cleaning was abolished by law long back and added that those engaging people for this inhuman act must be brought to book.

She said that the activists including a group of advocates have met the family members of the deceased Mohanasundaralingam at Coimbatore General Hospital where his postmortem will be conducted on Friday and assured them that they would take legal recourse and stand with the family of the deceased person.

The Dalit rights activist told IANS that as per the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavangers and their Rehabilitation Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, those who have engaged the deceased and his accomplices for manual scavenging will face stringent legal action.

--IANS

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Guwahati, Feb 9 (IANS) At least 4.5 lakh new voters in 18-29 year age group have been added to the electoral roll in Assam, officials said on Friday.

According to Assam’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anurag Goel, the total electorate in Assam was 2,43,01,960. Of these, 1,21,79,538 were male and 1,21,22,602 female.

He said, “This time, 7,26,783 new voters were added to the electoral roll in the state. Out of these new voters, around 4.5 lakh are young voters in the age group 18-29 years.”

The officer also said that due to deaths, 7,27,291 voters' names were also deleted from the electoral roll.

The state election commission published a draft electoral roll on December 8, 2023. However, 508 more voter names were deleted after their death.

Goel said that if any person finds his or her name missing from the rolls, he or she can still apply through Form 6, in online or offline mode. He advised people to check the electoral roll available on the state election commission’s website as well as in respective district election offices.

According to the final photo electoral roll, the Amri Assembly constituency has the lowest number of 96,542 electors in the state and Dalgaon constituency has the highest number of electors among the Assembly seats, with 2,97,846 electors.

It was also mentioned that the lowest number of 8,92,789 electors is in the Diphu Parliamentary Constituency while the highest number of 26,43,403 electors was in the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat.

--IANS

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Chennai, Feb 9 (IANS) Krishnagiri district collector (DC) in Tamil Nadu will conduct an inquiry into the alleged lack of eggs in the noon-meal scheme of a tribal school in the district.

There have been complaints that Irular (ST) students of the Panchayat Union School in Kadambakuttai in Krishnagiri school were not receiving mandatory eggs along with their noon-meal since the past couple of weeks.

It may be noted that Kadambukuttai in Krishnagiri district is an Irular settlement and teachers are deputed to the school from Kelamangalam since June 2023. There were instances of teachers, who were deputed from Kelamangalam, not reaching the tribal settlement school.

The noon-meal organiser of the Kadambakuttai school, Devarajiamma when contacted told IANS that there was regular supply of 180 eggs every month with a fortnightly supply of 90 eggs at a time and that this was the required quantity of eggs for the school.

However the supplier said that as the person who used to supply eggs was not available since Monday and hence the shortage of eggs. Devarajamma said the issue would be sorted out on Friday.

Meanwhile, Krishnagiri District Collector K.M. Sarayu told IANS that she would look into the issue and conduct a detailed inquiry.

K.R. Amudham, social activist and researcher on the education among the tribal children told IANS that the issue was grave and that those responsible should not be allowed to go unpunished. He said that nutritious noon meal scheme was directly proportional to the increase in percentage of school enrollment of Irular tribes and added that stringent punishment must be meted out to those responsible.

--IANS

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New York, Feb 9 (IANS) Indian-American doctor Amish Shah has stepped down from the House of Representatives in the US state of Arizona to focus on his congressional campaign.

The first Indian-American to serve in the Arizona legislature, 46-year-old Shah announced his run as a Democrat last year from the state's 1st Congressional District, which is presently held by Republican David Schweikert.

"With mixed emotions, I resigned as your House Rep this week to pursue my Congressional campaign. Serving at the State Legislature was an incredible honor, offering diverse perspectives. As a Congressional candidate, I am eager to bring our collective values to the national stage," Shah wrote in a post on X.

Along with Shah, an emergency physician for over 15 years, at least six other candidates are seeking a Democratic-run from the district, which covers parts of Scottsdale and northern Phoenix.

The top issues Shah is running on include education, healthcare, and voting rights, and according to his website, he wants fair wages for workers, universal healthcare, and abortion access.

Thanking Shah for his service and leadership, the Arizona House Democrats said on X: "Worth your time. @DrAmishShah bids a fond and thoughtful farewell to his House colleagues. Dr Shah, who is running for Congress, resigned today after 5 years in office and a tremendous track record of bi-partisan legislation".

Shah’s departure leaves three empty Democratic seats in the House amidst the legislature’s bill season, Arizona-based KGUN9 news channel reported.

Shah said in a release that he raised more than $530,000 from individual donors in the opening quarter of his congressional campaign, and over 75 per cent of these donors were from Arizona.

According to his campaign statement, he has made a name for himself with his unique brand of door-to-door campaigning, having visited over 15,000 households, and to date, he has had more bills signed into law than any other Democrat currently in the Arizona legislature.

"Giving back is a core value for me. Because of the sacrifices of my parents, who both came to this country from India to pursue a better life, I was able to become a doctor... and be the first Indian-American to serve in the Arizona legislature," Shah said in an earlier statement.

Born and raised in Chicago, Shah's parents were engineering students who immigrated from India in the 1960s.

He attended Northwestern University in Evanston and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

He graduated from the Northwestern University Medical School as part of the Honors Program in Medical Education.

Outside of his medical practice, he founded the first Arizona Vegetarian Food Festival as a philanthropic endeavour to promote healthy eating.

He was named the 2022 Women's Health Care Champion Legislator of the Year by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology for his work protecting reproductive rights.

He also received the Nursing Hero Award in 2022 from the Arizona Nurses Association and the President's Award for Mental Health Advocacy from the Arizona Psychiatric Society.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) The national capital on Friday recorded a minimum temperature at 6.8 degrees Celsius, three notches below the seasonal average, the India Meteorological (IMD) Department said.

Until last week, the temperature was hovering around 12 degrees, and on Thursday, minimum temperature was recorded at 8.2.

IMD's Wednesday forecast showed that the maximum temperature was likely to hover around 22 degrees, with the minimum at around 7 degrees again.

IMD said that there will be "mainly clear sky" throughout the day.

Although the sun shines brightly during the day, Delhiites seem to have no relief from chilly breeze, and many were observed gathering around bonfires to stay warm at night.

Air quality at 9 am at several stations across the city fell under the 'satisfactory' and 'moderate' category, surprisingly, after days of being in the 'very poor' and 'severe' category.

In the Anand Vihar area, at 9 a.m., PM2.5 levels were recorded to be in the 'poor' category standing at 218 and PM10 reached 289, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The Air Quality Index (AQI) between zero and 50 is considered 'good'; 51 and 100 'satisfactory'; 101 and 200 'moderate'; 201 and 300 'poor'; 301 and 400 'very poor'; and 401 and 500 'severe'.

The Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport (T3) recorded PM2.5 levels at 84, which is counted as 'satisfactory' and PM10 at 117, falling under 'moderate' category.

Dwarka Sector 8 witnessed PM2.5 levels at 193, and PM10 was at 312.

--IANS

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Chandigarh, Feb 9 (IANS) A delegation led by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Friday reached Nanded to join the protest over the proposed amendments to the Nanded Sikh Gurdwara Sachkhand Sri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib Act, 1956, by the Maharashtra government.

Other members of the delegation comprised Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Daljit Singh Cheema and SGPC general secretary Rajinder Singh Mehta. The delegation will join the protest being organised by Hazur Sahib ‘sangat’ against the amendment passed by the Maharashtra Cabinet.

The Takhat Hazur Sahib in Nanded in Maharashtra is one of the five Takhats (high temporal seats) of Sikhs and is of great historical importance as the 10th Guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, passed away there.

The decision to amend the Act that will increase the number of the government’s nominees to the religious body’s board has drawn criticism from SGPC president Dhami who said it was “sad, condemnable and a direct interference” in Sikh affairs “which cannot be tolerated”. He has now written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, seeking an appointment to discuss this issue.

Akali Dal leader Cheema said the state government has opened a way to directly nominate 12 out of total 17 members of the board.

“The number of members sent by the SGPC has been reduced from four to two and nomination of Chief Khalsa Diwan of Hazuri Sachkhand Diwan has been abolished. Similarly, two Sikh MPs who used to be members of the board has also been denied this right in the new amendment,” he wrote on X.

“It’s clear that the state government is going to take full control of the gurdwara board which can’t be tolerated by Sikh community. SAD urged the Maharashtra government to immediately roll back the amendment,” he added.

The Global Sikh Council (GSC), a confederation of national-level Sikh organisations, has called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene. It warned that such unilateral decisions of the government, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, constituted a gross violation of Sikh gurdwara affairs and would not be tolerated by the Sikhs.

In a statement, GCC President Kanwaljit Kaur highlighted the “consistent disregard” shown by the ruling dispensation in Maharashtra towards Sikh sentiments.

--IANS

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Lucknow, Feb 9 (IANS) Four Lok Sabha seats, a berth in the union cabinet, two berths in the state cabinet and one seat in the UP legislative council - with this on its platter, the Rashtriya Lok Dal is all set to switch sides and join the BJP-led NDA.

A clear indication of RLD joining the NDA is that RLD MLAs will now join the BJP MLAs on their Ayodhya visit on Sunday.

A senior BJP leader said, "Our party is offering them Baghpat, Mathura, Hathras, and Amroha. The party leadership has refused to give them Muzaffarnagar and Kairana. We are even offering Bijnor and Saharanpur. The modalities are still being worked out."

RLD leaders said there had been issues over the SP wanting its leaders to contest some of these seven seats on their symbol. Among these seats is Kairana, where the SP wanted to field Iqra Hasan, the sister of SP MLA Nahid Hasan.

"This policy of 'our candidate, your symbol' is not acceptable to us now. This is against the coalition dharma and amounts to back-seat driving," said a senior RLD leader, admitting that this was a major factor in souring of relations between SP and RLD.

Meanwhile, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday, while speaking to reporters in Varanasi, did not provide a clear answer on the future of the SP-RLD partnership.

"The BJP knows how to break parties and when to take whom. The BJP also knows how to cheat. You have seen how cheating happened in the recent Chandigarh mayoral elections. The BJP knows how to buy parties. It is not by coincidence that the BJP has become the biggest party. They know where to send ED, CBI, and the IT department," he said.

Akhilesh also appeared to dissuade the RLD from joining the NDA. “Jayant Chaudhary is an educated person and he understands politics well. I am hopeful that he will not let the fight for farmers and prosperity of UP be weakened,” he said.

If the RLD quits the INDIA alliance, it will further weaken the beleaguered alliance in UP an give a major boost to the BJP in western UP.

Seat sharing between SP and Congress, meanwhile, is still in the realms of uncertainty.

Sources in the BJP also confirmed progress in the talks between the two parties.

--IANS

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Seoul, Jan 15 (IANS) North Korea said on Monday that it successfully test-fired a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) carrying a hypersonic warhead the previous day as part of regular activities to develop powerful weapons systems.

The missile loaded with a hypersonic manoeuvrable controlled warhead was launched on Sunday afternoon in a bid to verify the warhead's gliding and manoeuvring capabilities and the reliability of newly developed multi-stage high-thrust solid-fuel engines, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The KCNA did not disclose the missile's flight distance or time and other details.

The Missile General Bureau said the test is part of the agency and its affiliated defence science institutes' "regular activities for developing powerful weapon systems," according to the KCNA.

North Korea also said the test-fire "never affected the security of any neighbouring country and had nothing to do with the regional situation."

South Korea's military said on Sunday that it detected the launch from an area in or around Pyongyang at about 2:55 p.m., and the missile flew approximately 1,000 km before splashing into the sea.

It marked the North's first missile launch since the firing of a solid-fuel Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile on December 18.

--IANS

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Sanaa, Jan 15 (IANS) The US and the UK have conducted a new strike on Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV has reported.

The strike conducted on Sunday evening targeted the Jad'a mountain in the Alluheyah district in the northern part of the city, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the report.

The strike was the latest in a series of similar air raids carried out by US and British warplanes in the past three days.

The US and the UK have stated that the strikes came in an attempt to deter the Yemeni Houthi group from launching further attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, a vital waterway for global trade.

The Houthis said that their operations in the Red Sea aimed to prevent what it called "Israeli-linked ships" from passing through the Red Sea until Israel ends its attack and siege on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, the Houthis said the recent airstrikes on their positions by the US and the UK would not deter them from continuing attacks on Israeli targets, vowing to launch more strikes soon.

Hodeidah, under the control of the Houthis, is a lifeline for delivering humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Yemen, which has been mired in a civil war since 2015.

--IANS

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Helsinki, Jan 15 (IANS) The volcanic eruption in Iceland has taken a turn for the worse as a new fissure opened quite close to the town of Grindavik. Magma from the new fissure was just 20 meters from the nearest building, an evacuated industrial structure.

Thorvaldur Thordarson, a volcanologist, told Icelandic radio RUV that the worst-case scenario is that the upper crack that opened on Sunday morning will calm down, and the new lower one will take over. He said it "does not look good", even though the fissure is still small, Xinhua news agency reported.

Fannar Jonasson, mayor of Grindavik, described the situation to RUV as ominous. "This is a new situation compared to this morning," he said. "There is little else to do but to wait and see what will happen and where the lava will lead in the future in the next hours and days."

Lava has reached a highway not far from the town. A defensive wall was built across the road, and the lava is flowing along it, as reported by RUV. Emergency workers were able to remove essential equipment to avoid losing them to the magma.

At least two houses had caught fire by late Sunday afternoon. Benedikt Halldorsson, an expert in earthquake activity at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told RUV, "It is not possible to imagine anything worse than an eruption in a settlement and lava flowing onto houses."

Linda Karen Gunnarsdottir, chairperson of the Animal Protection Association of Iceland, said there are sheep in at least five properties. Animals were evacuated in December, but people have brought them back. "Of course, they weren't supposed to be there," she told RUV.

According to RUV, the eruption does not affect flights to and from Keflavik Airport.

--IANS

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