India

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking analysis of a link between watching internet porn and sex crimes, including child abuse.

A bench of Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat said child sex abuse is a crime by itself and police investigation into individual cases would show whether or not viewing of pornography had triggered the crime.

It observed a judicial declaration from the apex court that porn on the Internet has led to child sex crimes would be like giving a go-ahead to online surveillance. "What you are advocating may be surveillance and collection of data," the bench told senior counsel and BJP leader Nalin Kohli, who was the petitioner-in-person.

During the hearing, Justice Bhat cited a US Supreme Court verdict in connection with a question of banning the Internet to a certain class in order not to give them access to porn. He said one of the judges there observed 'We cannot set the house on fire to roast a pig'."

The top court said the government has sufficient resources to deploy to ensure that criminal material is not uploaded on the Internet.

The bench queried Kohli whether the court should intervene, if petitioner's final goal is that such material should not be uploaded, and added that this is a tiger and if it gets loose, the problem is at what point the court would control it.

Kohli cited an incident in Assam where a direct link was found between pornography and sexual assault on a minor girl. To this, the bench said: "The issue of the link between viewing pornography and crime is individual case specific."

The plea sought a direction to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) to collect data in a time bound from all the state police organisations on the specific issue of investigations revealing a direct link between viewing of pornographic material and acts of rape.

After hearing arguments, the top court declined to entertain the plea and Kohli withdrew the petition.

--IANS
ss/vd

Bhubaneswar, Sep 12 (IANS) As many as 2,231 missing persons were reunited with their families during a 10-day special drive conducted by Odisha Police, the police said on Monday.

The police in coordination with the Crime Against Women and Children Wing (CAW&CW) of the Odisha crime branch carried out the drive from September 1 to 10 to trace missing persons.

Out of the total persons traced, 1,536 are female and 390 are male. The police traced 305 minors, including 272 girls, during the drive, the state crime branch informed in a tweet.

On the other hand, the state transport authority (STA) in association with the police has conducted a drive against drunk driving from September 7 to 9.

During the three-day drive, a total of 599 people were found driving under the influence of alcohol, of which 222 drunk drivers were arrested in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, an official said.

Similarly, 338 driving licences have been confiscated for suspension. A total of 455 prosecution reports (PRs) have been submitted to courts for further action.

Besides, 1,568 other cases have been detected for violation of Motor Vehicles Act, against whom 1,532 e-challans have been issued.

Despite a set of strict laws and regulations, drunk driving continues to be one of the major reasons behind road accidents in India. As many as 246 road accidents took place in Odisha in 2021 due to drunken driving, claiming the lives of 79 people besides injuring 151 others.

The amended Motor Vehicles Act says that in the case of drunken driving, first-time offenders will face imprisonment up to six months and/or fine up to Rs 10,000 and the second offence can lead to up to two years' prison term and/or fine of Rs 15,000.

--IANS
bbm/arm

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) The Union Health Ministry will start a mega drive for voluntary blood donation 'Raktdan Amrit Mahotsav' from September 17 to October 1, which is National Voluntary Blood Donation Day.

As per official source, the mega drive aims to collect 1.5 lakh unit of the blood on the first day of the drive on September 17, breaking the previous world record of highest blood donation in a single day. September 17 also coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday.

Currently, India has the capacity to store around 1.5 lakh units of blood. However, if the number of the people exceeds, then blood will not be taken but he/she will be given the participating certificate. The registrations have also begun for voluntary blood donation on the Aarogya Setu portal under the 'Raktdaan Amrit Mahotsav' which invites people to donate blood and be a part of Prime Minister's mission for humanity.

The campaign is being launched to increase the awareness about the need of regular non-remunerated blood donation and to ensure availability, affordability and accessibility of blood and its components to all, an official said. Presently, there is a huge gap between demand and supply of the blood. As per 2021 statistics, the demand and supply ratio was 1.46 vs 1.25 crore units. The data of people registered for donating blood on Aarogya Setu App will be made accessible to blood banks or organisations conducting the drive through the e-RaktKosh web portal, the source said.

The Nikshay Mitra initiative launched by the President on September 9 has seen total enrolment of 1,78,443 TB patients and 1667 Nikshay Mitras (donor) so far, the source added. He said that for the effective engagement of the community in eradicating TB, the Health Ministry was implementing the community support to TB patients - Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan.

Nikshay Mitra (Donor) for this programme includes co-operative societies, corporates, elected representatives, individuals, institutions, non-governmental organisations, political parties and partners who can support by adopting the health facilities in state, district, block and peripheral health care facilities. The minimum duration for the support will be one year and the maximum will be three years. The Nikshay Mitra will provide nutritional support, diagnostic and the vocational support to the patients under the programme.

--IANS
avr/uk

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Counsel representing petitioners challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment on hijab on Monday told the Supreme Court that women who wear hijab must not be looked upon as caricatures, and when wearing of a turban is not objected to, then why object to this head covering?

Senior advocate Yusuf Mucchala, representing some petitioners, submitted that women who wear hijab must not be looked upon as caricatures and they must be looked at with dignity. He said they are strong-willed women and nobody can impose their judgement on them.

As a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia queried that if his main argument is that it is an essential religious practice, Mucchala said his argument is that it is his right under Articles 25(1)(a), 19(1)(a) and 21, and on a conjoint reading of these rights, his fundamental rights are violated.

"What is the crime these little girls are committing? Putting a piece of cloth on their head?"

He added if wearing of a turban is not objected to and it shows that there is tolerance for diversity, then why object to the hijab.

Mucchala said two rights are given -- freedom of religion and freedom of conscience -- and they complement each other and added that the high court should not have gone into issue whether hijab was an essential religious practice by interpreting the Quran, as it did not have the expertise in the field.

The bench replied that it had no option, as the petitioners claimed it to be essential religious practice. Mucchala said whether hijab is a fundamental right or not is applicable here and the question here is not about religious denomination but an individual's fundamental right.

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, representing some petitioners, submitted that one would wear a prescribed uniform, but the question is whether a person can wear anything more which is important for her culture.

As the bench asked Khurshid what was his view on hijab being an essential religious practice, he said it can be seen as religion, conscience, and culture, and also can be seen as individual dignity and privacy.

Khurshid added that there is no binary like obligatory and non-obligatory in Islam. "What is in the Quran is obligatory," he said. He added that revelations in the Quran are not man-made, they are the word of God, which came through the Prophet and it is mandatory.

He also said he will not say uniform must be dispensed with, but there is something in addition with the uniform which should be permitted.

He submitted that the idea of unity in diversity comes from this preservation of composite culture, and added that one of his clients is a Sikh woman, as some of them have started wearing turbans, the issue may arise for them too.

Khurshid also distinguished between burqa, hijab, and jilbab through pictures, and emphasised on the importance of cultural identity.

"Ghoonghat is considered very essential in UP or north India. When you go to the gurudwara, people always cover their heads. This is culture."

He further added that in mosques in some countries, people don't cover their head, but in India people wear a head cover, and this is culture.

After hearing detailed arguments, the top court scheduled the matter for further hearing on September 14.

The apex court is hearing submissions on the fourth day against the Karnataka High Court's judgement of March 15 upholding ban on hijab in pre-university colleges.

--IANS
ss/vd

Mumbai, Sep 12 (IANS) A clinical trial conducted at the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) has indicated that a simple, low-cost intervention can drastically increase the cure and survival rate among breast cancer patients, top officials said here on Monday.

The landmark multi-centre clinical trials were conducted in women undergoing breast cancer surgery and it emerged that injection of a commonly used drug around the tumour - just prior to surgery, on the operation table - could drastically enhance the cure and survival rate of the patients on a long-term basis.

Director of TMC, Rajendra Badwe, who carried out the trials, presented the results at the ongoing European Society of Medical Oncology Congress in Paris on Monday, and simultaneously TMC's professor Sudeep Gupta addressed the media on the findings in Mumbai.

The trial outcome shows that the injection needs no additional expertise, is affordable, barely Rs 100 per patient, but can result in saving at least 100,000 lives of breast cancer patients annually worldwide, said Badwe.

In comparison, expensive, targeted drugs costing over Rs 10 lakh per patient have shown far less benefits in early breast cancer patients, as per the study titled 'Effect of Peri-Tumoral Infiltration of Local Anaesthetic Prior to Surgery on Survival in Early Breast Cancer'.

Spearheaded by Badwe, the study was conducted on 1,600 women planning to undergo early breast cancer surgery at 11 cancer centres in India, including TMC, over 11 years from 2011-2022, said Gupta.

"This is the first study of its kind globally showing a sizable benefit by single intervention prior to surgery. For scientists, it opens a window of peri-operative intervention to modulate the environment of cancer in such a way as to prevent its deleterious reaction to the surgery," Badwe told the Paris conference.

Gupta said in Mumbai that the inexpensive and immediately implementable treatment in breast cancer can be practised by any surgeon who treats the disease, as shown from a large randomised trial, which is the 'gold standard' of evaluating the worth of new treatments.

Detailing on the study, the duo said half the patients (out of the 1,600) were part of the 'control group', who received standard surgery followed by the usual post-operative treatment comprising chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy as per guidelines.

The other half was the intervention group, who received an injection of a common local anaesthesia agent, 0.5 per cent lidocaine, all around the tumour just before the surgery, and later underwent the same post-operative treatment as given to the control group.

After treatment, the patients were regularly followed-up for several years till the cut-off date of September 2021 to compare the cure and survival rates between the control group and the local anaesthesia group.

"As expected, there was no toxicity of lignocaine in patients who received it (the injection). The six-year disease-free survival was 81.7 per cent in the control group and 86.1 per cent in the local anaesthesia group for a 26 per cent relative reduction in the risk of a relapse or death - considered significant in statistical terms.

Similarly, the six-year over survival rate was 86.2 per cent versus 89.9 per cent in the two groups for a 29 per cent reduction in death risk with the local anaesthetic injection, again critically important, said Badwe.

His earlier research suggested a window of opportunity just prior to, during and immediately after surgical removal of the primary cancer when anti-cancer interventions could reduce the risk of development of disseminated Stage 4 metastatic cancer during the patient's lifespan.

The institutions where the clinical trials were conducted are: TMC Mumbai, Kolhapur Cancer Centre, Sterling Multi-speciality Hospital, Pune, and Siddhivinayak Ganapati Cancer Hospital, Sangli (all Maharashtra); All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Max Superspeciality Hospital (both Delhi); B. Borooah Cancer Centre, Guwahati; Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Hyderabad; Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute, Ahmedabad; Malabar Cancer Centre, Thalassery (Kerala); and North-Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health & Medical Sciences, Shillong.

--IANS
qn/arm

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has now officially confirmed the pan India raids which were conducted at 50 locations in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and the Delhi-NCR region to dismantle and disrupt the emerging nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers and traffickers based in India and abroad.

"The NIA crackdown followed the launch of investigations against this nexus by the NIA after the re-registration of 2 cases, earlier registered by the Delhi Police, on August 26. A few of the most desperate gang leaders and their associates based in India and abroad, who are spearheading and carrying out such terror and criminal activities were identified and booked," said the official.

The official said that the recent sensational crimes and extortion calls by criminal syndicates and gangsters to businessmen, professionals including doctors had created panic among the people. These gangs were using cyber-space to publicise these crimes to create terror among the public at large.

The NIA learnt during it's investigations that such criminal acts were not isolated local incidents but there was a deep rooted conspiracy involving terrorists, gangsters and drug smuggling cartels and networks, who were operating from both within and outside the country.

"Many gang leaders and members have fled India and were now operating from foreign countries, including Pakistan, Canada, Malaysia, Australia. The ongoing probes by the NIA in cases being investigated by the Agency, such as the killing of Shaurya Chakra Awardee Comrade Balwinder Singh in Punjab also revealed that most of these conspiracies were being hatched from inside the jails of different states and were being executed by an organised network of operatives based abroad," the official said.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that these gangs were carrying out target killings to terrorise the public to extort money for running and promoting their criminal syndicates and activities. These gangs were also raising funds through smuggling of drugs and weapons.

In its ongoing efforts to dismantle these transnational terror and crime networks, the NIA conducted searches at 50 locations in Fazilka, Faridkot, Muktsar Sahib, Moga, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Mohali district of Punjab, East Gurugram, Bhiwani, Yamunanagar, Sonepat and Jhajjar districts of Haryana, Hanumangarh and Ganganagar districts of Rajasthan and Dwarka, Outer North, North West, North East and Shahdara districts of Delhi-NCR.

"Searches were conducted today morning at the premises of Goldy Brar (Canada), Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, Varinder Pratap alias Kala Rana, Kala Jathedi, Vikram Brar, Gaurav Patyal alias Lucky Patyal (who was earlier arrested in Armenia), Neeraj Bawana, Koushal Chaudhary, Tillu Tajpuria, Amit Dagar, Deepak Kumar alias Tinu, Sandeep alias Bandar, Umesh alias Kala, Irfan alias Cheenu Pahalwan, Ashim alias Hashim Baba, Sachin Bhanja and their associates.

"During the searches, six pistols, one revolver, one shotgun, have been seized, along with ammunition. Apart from the above, drugs, cash, incriminating documents, digital devices, details of benami property, threat letters have also been seized by the NIA.

"Further investigations will continue to dismantle these terror networks as well as their funding and support infrastructure," said the official.

--IANS
atk/bg

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that India is rapidly moving towards joining the three armed forces and efforts are on to have common logistic nodes so that the resources of one service can be made available to the other in a seamless manner.

"We are rapidly moving towards connectivity of all three services," Singh said, adding that "Our effort is to have common logistic nodes so that the resources of one service can be seamlessly made available to other services."

The Defence Minister spoke of the necessary synergy and fusion between civil and military stakeholders, and stressed that the presence of representatives from different sectors from both sides shows the "commitment" to achieving the goal that India envisions.

In the programme organised at Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantonment, he said that logistics is one of the sectors which has benefited the most from this collaboration.

Addressing the seminar on Army Logistics here, the Union Minister said that India has made rapid progress in the rail sector and more than 9,000 km of lines have been doubled in the last seven years. He said in the five years before 2014, the figure was only 1,900 kms.

--IANS
akr/kvd

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that milk production in the country has gone up to 210 million tonnes from 146 million tonnes in 2014, which is an increase of 44 per cent.

Addressing dignitaries after inaugurating the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit 2022 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Modi said that as compared to 2 per cent production growth at the global level, India is clocking 6 per cent growth in milk production.

He informed that the government is working on developing a blanched dairy ecosystem where challenges of the sectors are being addressed along with a focus on increasing production.

"Extra income for the farmers, empowerment of the poor, swachhta, chemical-free farming, clean energy and care of the cattle is interlinked in this ecosystem," he informed.

The Prime Minister pointed out that unlike other developed countries of the world, the driving force of the dairy sector in India is small farmers. India's dairy sector is characterized by "production by masses" more than "mass production", he said.

India is the largest milk-producing country on the basis of the efforts of these small farmers with one, two or three cattle. This sector provides employment to more than eight crore families in the country, Modi informed.

He reiterated that there is a huge network of dairy cooperatives in India and one cannot find such an example in the whole world elsewhere.

The Prime Minister further informed that these dairy cooperatives collect milk twice a day from about two crore farmers in more than two lakh villages in the country and deliver it to the customers. He underlined the fact that there is no middleman in the entire process, and more than 70 per cent of the money that is received from the customers goes directly into the pockets of the farmers.

"No other country has this ratio in the whole world", he added, while underlining the efficiency of the digital system of payment in the dairy sector and said that it has many lessons for other countries.

--IANS
ans/dpb

Ayodhya, Sep 12 (IANS) The cost of construction of the grand Ram temple is expected to be around Rs 1,800 crores.

Champat Rai, general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, told reporters that this was a revised estimate.

He said this after a meeting of the trust on Sunday evening.

The Trust also finalised its rules and regulations in the meeting that was presided over by Nripendra Misra, chairman of the Ram temple construction committee.

"After several revisions, we have reached this estimate. Even this might go up," Rai said about the construction cost.

The Trust has also decided to use white marble in construction of the idol of Lord Ram.

Idols of several other deities of the Ramayan era will also come up at the Ram temple.

"Rules and regulations of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust have been finalised. We have been working on it for the past several months," Champat Rai said.

The construction of the temple is expected to be completed by December 2023 and Lord Ram is expected to be seated in the sanctum sanctorum by the Makar Sankranti festival in January 2024, Rai said.

He also said 14 of the 15 trust members attended the meeting.

--IANS
amita/shs

Varanasi, Sep 12 (IANS) Prohibitory orders under Section 144 have been imposed in Varanasi, ahead for the verdict by the district judge on the maintainability of the suit seeking worshiping right at Shringar Gauri and other deities in Gyanvapi mosque compound, filed by five women plaintiffs.

Varanasi Commissioner of Police (CP) A. Satish Ganesh said that a fool proof security plan is in place for Monday.

He said that police and paramilitary forces will also be deployed in and around areas having mixed population.

Claiming that patrolling vehicles will be positioned at strategic points, the official said quick reaction teams have been formed to act in case of eventuality. Any bid to disturb the law-and-order situation would be dealt with strictly, Ganesh said, appealing to people not to get misled by rumours.

Following the directive of the Supreme Court to decide the maintainability of the case 693/2021 on priority, the district judge had started the hearings on May 20.

With final submissions by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid -- the mosque management committee -- and advocates of the five women plaintiffs seeking worshipping rights at Shringar Gauri in Gyanvapi mosque compound on August 24, the hearing on maintainability of case 692/2021 Rakhi Singh vs state of Uttar Pradesh and others had concluded at the court of district judge Ajay Krishna Vishvesha.

--IANS
amita/shs