India

Lucknow, Sep 28 (IANS) This is the season of yatras. With the Congress busy with its 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) having embarked on its 'Savdhan Yatra', the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also announced a padyatra from Ayodhya to Prayagraj.

The yatra will tap into the youth ahead of the upcoming local body elections.

It also has definite Hindu overtones since it begins from one pilgrim centre (Ayodhya) and culminates at another (Prayagraj).

The padyatra, to be led by AAP's UP in-charge and MP Sanjay Singh, will start on October 31, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and conclude on November 10.

The 'Mehangai Bhagao, Rozgar Bachao' padyatra -- 'Saryu se Sangam Tak', will begin after taking blessings of Lord Ram in Ayodhya, said the party's state spokesperson Mahendra Singh.

He said that the party workers, supporters and common people will join in the padyatra, which will seek to raise awareness about the rising inflation in the country and the growing unemployment.

"AAP is in the process of strengthening its base in UP. In October, we will be focussing on selection of candidates. This yatra will start when that process will be in its final stage. Both issues being raised in it have a deep connect with people. Inflation has affected every single family while unemployment is a pressing issue for the youth," said Singh.

The 120-km-long padyatra will be covered in 10 days with frequent stoppages to interact with people.

Party sources said that campaigns such as padyatras have a lot of resonance with the youth and the party, which is working on establishing itself in Uttar Pradesh, this segment will be very crucial.

--IANS
amita/dpb

New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) The Centre on Wednesday banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its associates and affiliates for a period of five years in the wake of nationwide raids against the Islamist organisation by law enforcement agencies.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), the Central Government hereby declares the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its associates or affiliates or fronts including Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO), National Women's Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala as an 'unlawful association'," read a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

"Whereas, the Central Government, having regard to the above circumstances, is of firm opinion that it is necessary to declare the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts as an unlawful association with immediate effect, and accordingly, in exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 3 of the said Act, the Central government hereby directs that this notification shall, subject to any order that may be made under section 4 of the said Act, have effect for a period of five years from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette," it added.

As per the notification, the PFI is involved in several criminal and terror cases and shows sheer disrespect towards the constitutional authority of the country and with funds and ideological support from outside, it has become a major threat to internal security of the country.

"Investigations in various cases have revealed that the PFI and its cadres have been repeatedly engaging in violent and subversive acts. Criminal violent acts carried out by PFI include chopping off limb of a college professor, cold blooded killings of persons associated with organisations espousing other faiths, obtaining explosives to target prominent people and places and destruction of public property," it added.

The ban comes after the recent raids carried out at the premises of PFI members by the National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate.

On September 22, teams led by the NI) arrested 106 leaders and activists of the PFI in nearly 15 states.

--IANS
kvm/ksk/

Lucknow, Sep 28 (IANS) In a major development, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has said that it can join the opposition alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, provided the alliance partners are ready to project Mayawati as their Prime Ministerial candidate.

BSP national spokesperson Dharamveer Chaudhary said that the "ultimate decision, however, will be taken by Behenji (Mayawati)",

Chaudhary added that if the opposition parties reach out to BSP in a respectful manner and apprise the party chief of their agenda, there is no harm that the party would see in aligning with them.

"The opposition parties have no leader of Mayawati's stature. She is a big leader with a pan-India appeal," he said.

Asked about the possibility of an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav, Chaudhary said: "Mayawati ji is a much bigger leader than Akhilesh Yadav. She has been the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times, while Akhilesh has held the post only once. She also is a large-hearted eader and forgives the mistakes of others. If Akhilesh accepts her as a leader with a clean heart, we will welcome him with flowers."

Notably, the BSP was kept out of the meetings of the opposition parties called by TMC and NCP when they were to decide their candidates for the President and Vice President posts.

Mayawati had expressed her anger in public in a tweet on the opposition's behaviour.

--IANS
amita/ksk/

Srinagar, Sep 28 (IANS) Two terrorists were killed in an encounter between terrorists and security forces at Ahwatoo area in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, Police said.

"The killed two categorised Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists have been identified as Mohammad Shafi Ganie of Batpora, Kulgam, and Mohammad Asif Wani alias Yawar of Takia Gopalpora, Kulgam. Two AK-47 rifles, ammunition recovered," Jammu and Kashmir Police quoting Additional Director General of Police (Kashmir), Vijay Kumar tweeted.

It was the second encounter in Kulgam in two days. One Pakistani terrorist belonging to terrorist outfit JeM was killed in an encounter between terrorists and security forces at Batpora area in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Monday.

Tuesday's encounter started after a joint team of police and security forces received an input about the presence of terrorists in the area.

After security forces cordoned off the area, terrorists hiding there started firing drawing retaliation by the security forces.

--IANS
zi/khz/

Auraiya (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 28 (IANS) Nine persons have been arrested so far in connection with the violence that erupted in Uttar Pradesh's Auraiya district, following the death of a 15-year-old Dalit school boy being beaten to death by a teacher, police said.

The police arrested nine persons of the 35 named and 250 unknown people booked for the violence.

"A case has been registered at Achhalda police station. We have arrested nine persons accused of protesting with the dead body of the student on the road and burning and damaging government vehicles," said Auraiya Superintendent of Police, Charu Nigam.

Meanwhile, the teacher accused of beating the boy who later died, is still absconding.

The family members of the deceased boy agreed to cremate his body on Tuesday after the district administration officials assured them about adequate compensation and strict action against the accused.

The body of the boy was cremated outside his Baisauli village.

The village had witnessed violent protests when the deceased, Nikhit's body arrived. Bhim Army activists visited the boy's home.

Local residents, led by the boy's family, staged a massive protest keeping his body on the road.

The mob also set a police vehicle on fire and damaged the car of the District Magistrate, who had reached the site to pacify the protesters, the police said, adding that additional police personnel had to be called in to control the protestors.

--IANS
amita/khz/

New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) An inmate lodged at the Mandoli jail in the national capital allegedly tried to rape a 31-year-old woman doctor employed there, a jail official said.

The accused identified as Subrat Pillai (30) is already lodged in jail in two cases of crime against women and was convicted and sentenced for an imprisonment of 365 days and fined Rs 10,000.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (northeast), S.K. Sain said an information was received in Harsh Vihar police station from Deputy Superintendent of Mandoli jail regarding an incident of attempt to rape with a lady doctor of Mandoli jail.

"The victim doctor was contacted, her counselling was done through a counsellor and a medical examination was conducted," the DCP added.

The police have now registered another case against the accused under sections 376 (rape), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment), 307 (attempt to murder), 35 (When such an act is criminal by reason of its being done with a criminal knowledge or intention) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and have begun probing the incident.

--IANS
uj/khz/

New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said that they have arrested the former Deputy Registrar of Companies, Kolkata, and three others, including founding director and territory manager of private companies during further investigation of a case related to the chit fund scam.

The CBI had registered a case immediately in compliance with the Supreme Court's orders against the then Managing Director of a private company and others and taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Baliapal police station, Balasore (Odisha).

It was alleged that the accused illegally collected public deposits throughout Odisha by alluring the people with various deposit schemes falsely promising high returns and did not refund the maturity amount and thereby cheated the investors of their due amount.

The total collection of the company was nearly Rs 565 crore.

In this case, two charge-sheets were filed in 2016 and in November 2021 before the Bhubaneswar court.

Further investigation was continuing to look into the larger conspiracy, money trail and roles of regulatory authorities.

During further investigation, it was revealed that the accused (private persons) had allegedly associated themselves with the illegal ponzi schemes accused named in the FIR and also allegedly received huge pecuniary benefits for themselves out of the illegally collected deposits by the said private company.

Subha Kumar Banerjee, the then Deputy Registrar of Companies, Kolkata, had allegedly facilitated the illegal deposit collection business of the accused.

Apart from him, the CBI has arrested Lakshman Srinivasan, the then founding director of Fimshore Management Service Ltd, Swapan Kumar De and Uttam Munshi, the then territory manager of Star Health Insurance.

--IANS
atk/khz/

Washington, Sep 27 (IANS) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent public rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, saying the Indian leader spoke for the rest of world that this is not the "era for war".

However, Blinken also defended the Joe Biden administration's proposal to provide Pakistan with $450 million worth of "sustainment" package for its fleet of F-16 aircraft, ignoring Indian protests that Islamabad does not use these planes only for counter-terrorism operations, as stated by the US, but also against India.

Blinken also addressed the issue of long waiting period for visas and blamed it on Covid-related disruptions. He said the US has a plan for mitigating it for India and that it will be rolled out in a few months.

Blinken spoke to reporters along with India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar after their bilateral meeting, and a working dinner the night before.

The two officials had met last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings, most significantly for the first such meeting with counterparts from the Quad parter countries Australia and Japan -- the first Quad meeting at the UNGA, with plans to make it an annual affair deepening the institutionalisation of the platform that is witnessing a robust second-coming.

"I really want to emphasise what Prime Minister Modi said because he captured as well as anyone I've heard fundamentally what this moment is about as he said, 'This is not an era, this is not a time for war'," Blinken said, referring to Modi's comments to Putin in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

"We could not agree more," Blinken said, adding, "We saw the aggression, the threat of the aggression mounting from Russia against Ukraine last year. We warned the world about it, and we tried everything possible to avert it through diplomacy. Unfortunately, President Putin pursued his aggression nonetheless."

The Russian invasion of Ukraine had introduced a rare area of dissonance in the India-US relationship as New Delhi refused to condemn it as robustly as the US-led coalition of western nations wanted. India also stepped up its purchases of Russian oil, which, the west argued, mitigated the pain of western sanctions on Russia somewhat.

Modi's remarks to Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) meeting in Samarkand not only erased all of the disquiet felt with the Indian position in Washington, but earned India a position potentially in a peace process; Mexico has also suggested Modi should be on a peace committee.

Meanwhile, the top US diplomat seemed less impressed by India's objections to the proposed $450 million worth of spares for Pakistan's F-16 aircraft, something which Jaishankar hit out against soon after arriving in Washington for this visit. His criticism of the deal followed "concerns" conveyed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin in a phone call earlier.

"To be very clear, and it's important, this is a sustainment programme for F-16s that Pakistan has long had. These are not new planes, new systems, new weapons. It's sustaining what they have," Blinken said, adding, "We have a responsibility and an obligation to deliver, we provide military equipment to make sure that it's maintained and sustained. That's our obligation."

He added that Pakistan's programme bolsters its capability to deal with terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan and the region.

India has dismissed this claim, which was made on the grounds provided by the administration to the US Congress as justification. Jaishankar said on Sunday that no one is fooled by these claims as Pakistan has used these aircraft for purposes other than for fighting terrorists. It was used against Indians in February 2109, he said.

The two officials were bullish about the relationship though.

"Today, the United States is very international, very much more open to engage with a country like India, which is actually thinking beyond traditional alliances, which has been very effective at finding common ground with potential or actual partners," Jaishankar said in response to a question about the trajectory of the bilateral relationship.

He added: "I think the more we work together, the more we engage each other. I think many more possibilities will emerge. So very frankly, that's a long way of saying that I'm very bullish."

Echoing these sentiments, Blinken said, "No two countries have a greater ability, and I think, opportunity and responsibility to try to shape the future of the century than the United States and India as the world's two largest democracies."

He added: "That doesn't mean that we don't have differences. We do and we will, but it also means that because of the depth and quality of the dialogues we have, we talk about everything."

Jaishankar then pointed to one area of potential irritation.

"We spoke over the last two days of our commitment to practising and furthering democracy, human rights and good governance," Jaishankar said, adding, "Each country approaches the set of issues from their history, tradition and societal context. Our yardstick for judgment are the integrity of the democratic processes, the respect and credibility to the command with the people and the non-discriminatory delivery of public goods and services.

"India does not believe that the efficacy or indeed the quality of democracy should be decided by vote banks. This is an area where we look forward to a healthy exchange of views. There will be convergence and best practices that we can both profit by and perhaps even share with third countries."

India bristles as being lectured by the US on human rights and democracy, something that Washington does through the various arms of the government and the legislature.

Jaishankar has made his mind known on this issue before -- that India will not be lectured, and if it is, it reserves the right to point out the flaws of the other side as well.

--IANS
yrj/arm

Noida, Sep 27 (IANS) A fresh confrontation between people from the Tyagi community and Noida Authority erupted on Tuesday after the uprooted trees were planted again outside Shrikant Tyagi's house at the Grand Omaxe Housing Society in Noida Sector-93B.

The Noida Authority officials along with the police force rushed to the housing society soon after receiving the information about plantation of uprooted trees and issued directions for uprooting the trees again within 48 hours.

Following the authority's direction to uproot the trees, scores of people from the Tyagi community gathered outside the housing society by the evening and sat on a dharna.

The people staging the sit-in are demanding that the trees which have been planted again should not be uprooted by the authority.

A heavy deployment of police force was seen outside the society following the incident.

On August 9, Shrikant Tyagi and three others were arrested from Meerut, after a video went viral on social media in which he was seen abusing a woman at the Grand Omaxe Society.

In the video, the residents of the society also accused Tyagi of encroaching the area by planting small and large plants.

Taking action against the encroachment, the Noida Authority had razed to the ground the illegally constructed permanent structure in the common area of the housing society.

--IANS
pkt/shs

New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) The Federation of All India Medical Association on Tuesday wrote to the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, over the cancellation of INI-CET July 2022 open counselling and asked to conduct the same citing huge number of seats which will remain vacant in major clinical departments.

"This sudden decision has come as a shock to the residents of the INIs who have been eagerly waiting for new residents to join the departments to replace the residents who have passed out of the departments in the last six months. We also want to apprise you that this has led many first year junior residents to consider leaving the seat in our premier INIs and take up a seat in the ongoing NEET PG 2022 counselling so that they do not have to face the increased department workload on their own. If this happens, with the possibility of a fourth (Covid) wave in the next few months not completely ruled out, it may be catastrophic for our healthcare system," read the FAIMA letter addressed to AIIMS director.

The FAIMA said that those doctors who qualified the INICET PG entrance examination for July 2022 session were informed of the cancellation of open round of counselling for the current session through "NOTICE NO 136/2022" dated 19.09.2022 issued by AIIMS New Delhi.

It said that the decision has come as a shock to the residents of the Institute of National Importance (INI) who have been eagerly waiting for new residents to join the departments to replace the residents who have passed out in the last six months.

The FAIMA has written to the AIIMS director on behalf of residents working at various departments of INI of the country like AIIMS (New Delhi), JIPMER (Puducherry), NIMHANS (Bengaluru), PGIMER (Chandigarh), SCTIMST (Trivandrum) and 11 other AIIMS which are participating in the INI-CET 2022 counselling.

"We write to you sir, with the kind request to look into this matter urgently, as a huge number of seats are remaining vacant in major clinical departments and more than 50 per cent seats are vacant in multiple departments of various institutes. This will lead to an immense burden on the existing workforce, predominantly the junior residents who have already worked tremendously during the last three waves of the pandemic, to manage the regular clinical duties along with additional Covid duties," FAIMA said in the letter.

--IANS
avr/arm