India

By Altaf Hussain Janjua
Srinagar, Sep 13 (IANS) The Indian Army launched 'Operation Rakshak and many other such operations to wipe out the enemies in Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1998.


But the army's 'Operation Sadbhavana' in Jammu and Kashmir is for the welfare of the people. It is especially to help people in rural areas and areas near the Line of Control (LoC) where lives and property have been destroyed due to insurgency and militancy.

Under Operation Sadbhavana, the areas covered near the Line of Control include Rajouri, Poonch, Karna, Uri, Tingdar, Kiran, Nowshera, Sunderbani, Akhnur etc. It has played an important role in healing people's wounds by providing them with employment opportunities, medical and educational facilities and infrastructure development. The army has reached areas where no politician or administration man has been able to reach till date.

According to locals near the LoC in Poonch district, Operation Sadbhavana is providing necessary equipment for children's education, medical facilities, conducting medical camps from time to time, running awareness programmes, sewing 'kadhai' programme for women, various vocational courses for youth including welding, computer diploma, plumbing, bakery, motor mechanics, etc., due to which people are getting a lot of relief.

Noor Alam, a resident of Karmara, said, "Everyone living near the LoC has immense respect for the Indian Army because the only hope and support of the border residents is the army. If someone gets sick in the evening, they go to the nearby army camp for medicine or ointment and if there is a need to transport the patient to the hospital, the army even arranges for the vehicle."

Siva Singh, a border resident of Sunderbani, said, "In our region, the army has played an important role in providing employment to the youth. The army is conducting professional courses for one to three months every day, after which the youth are getting employment easily. Free driving classes are also being conducted, which enables many young people to pass the driving test and get licence."

Not only this, the army is also working in providing information to the public about various schemes being run by the Central government. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the army spread awareness about Coronavirus and delivered the required medical equipment to the local residents.

The army also takes the lead in promoting sports, organising local and traditional fairs etc.

It is also normal to hold regular meetings with respected citizens to promote mutual brotherhood and establish peace in the region. The organisation of Iftar parties in the form of Eid Milan and Ramadan is also a part of the army's Operation Sadbhavana.

Jammu-based defence spokesman Lt. Col. Devendra Anand said, "The army is trying to protect the country's borders as well as help in improving the quality of life of the border residents under this Operation. In Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Reasi, Ramban, Kishtwar, Baramulla and Kupwara, some important activity is organised every day and it is a matter of satisfaction for us. We have been 100 per cent successful in winning the trust of the people."

--IANS
altaf/arm

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Endowed with abundant natural produce, various parts of India often face the challenge of too much stubble. Making proper use of stubble, the country started making biofuels out of it.

Biofuels promote greenery and protect nature. These are not only nature friendly but also promotes the contribution of farmers in protecting the environment. This also boosts the use of alternative fuels.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a second generation (2G) ethanol plant at Haryana's Panipat.

On one side, India produces abundant paddy and wheat but its stubble is not fully utilised. The bio-fuel plant at Panipat will not only dispose off the stubble without burning it but will have multiple benefits.

Dedicating the 2G ethanol plant at Panipat to the country, the Prime Minister said: "The bio-fuel plant of Panipat will also be able to dispose off the stubble without burning it. Stubble which was a burden for the farmers, and was a cause of concern, would become a means of additional income for them. Pollution will be reduced, and the contribution of farmers to protecting the environment will increase further."

The priorities of the Central government include increasing the income of farmers as well as promoting an alternative to petrol, diesel, and gas. This plant reflects the same commitment.

This plant will reduce pollution in Delhi, Haryana, and the National Capital Region.

India needs abundant energy for growth and prosperity. Strong efforts were initiated in the last few years to become self reliant in the field of energy. The dedication of the plant is part of a long series of steps taken by the government over the years to boost the production and usage of biofuels in the country. This is in line with the Prime Minister's constant endeavour to transform the energy sector into being more affordable, accessible, efficient, and sustainable.

The 2G ethanol plant has been built at an estimated cost of over Rs 900 crore by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

Based on state-of-the-art indigenous technology, the project will turn a new chapter in India's waste-to-wealth endeavours by utilising about 2 lakh tonnes of rice straw annually to generate around 3 crore litres of ethanol annually.

Creating an end-use for the agri-crop residue would empower farmers and provide an additional income generation opportunity.

Due to the mixing of ethanol in petrol, in the last seven-eight years, about Rs 50,000 crore of the country have been saved from going abroad. And about the same amount has gone to the farmers of our country because of ethanol blending.

Till eight years ago only 40 crore litres of ethanol was produced in the country; now this production is about 400 crore litres.

The project will provide direct employment to people involved in the plant operation and indirect employment will be generated in the supply chain for rice straw cutting, handling, storage among others.

By reducing the burning of rice straw, the project will reduce Greenhouse Gases equivalent to about 3 lakh tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent emissions per annum, which can be understood as equivalent to replacing nearly 63,000 cars annually on the country's roads.

Gas is reaching through pipes to more than a crore households. The country is also working on the goal that in the next few years, more than 75 per cent of the households in the country will get piped gas.

--IANS
scor/d

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Aiming to reduce pendency in the Government, Centre will start Special Campaign 2.0 from October 2 to October 31. As part of the campaign, Minister of State, Personnel, Public Grievances Jitendra Singh will launch a portal, www.pgportal.govlin/scdpm22 in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The Special Campaign 2.0 will focus more on field/outstation offices in addition to the ministries/departments and their attached/subordinate offices. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) will oversee implementation of the Special Campaign 2.0.

Cabinet Secretary addressed all secretaries of Government of India on August 23 and DARPG Guidelines note for the same was issued on August 25.

The preparatory part will start with the launch of the Special Campaign 2.0 portal by Dr. Jitendra Singh and it will continue till September 30, when ministries and departments will identify the pendency in selected categories and finalise the campaign sites across their offices and complete necessary procedural requirements to conduct the campaign.

Every ministry/department is expected to use the portal during the preparatory phase to enter targets of their cleanliness campaign sites, files to be weeded out, and various pendency figures like MP's references, state government references etc. Until now more than 67,000 sites have been identified by ministries/departments of Government of India for conducting the cleanliness campaigns.

The Special Campaign 2022 reinforces the importance of timely disposal of references and a clean work space. The Campaign 2022 is expected to cover over 1.5 lakh Post Offices, overseas mission/posts, Railway stations and other public offices in mission mode during the month-long campaign. Training of nodal officers with respect to the portal of the Special Campaign has already been conducted by DARPG.

--IANS
kvm/uk

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif are likely to have a meeting during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which is scheduled to be held on September 15-16 at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

If it materialises, then this would be the first meeting between the two leaders.

Modi had met then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on December 25, 2015, when he had landed in Lahore in a surprise stop-over to the country while on his way back to Delhi after completing a day-long visit to Afghanistan. It was the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian Prime Minister in more than 10 years.

Meanwhile, Modi will be visiting Samarkand to attend the 22nd meeting of the SCO council of heads of state, official sources said.

The SCO is the largest regional bloc in the world comprising eight full members -- India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

The Prime Minister is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the SCO summit.

Modi is visiting Uzbekistan on the invitation of the country's President, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The SCO summit will be attended by leaders of SCO member states, observer states, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests, a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said.

At the summit, the leaders would be reviewing SCO's activities of the past 20 years and discuss various aspects related to multilateral cooperation as well as issues of regional and global importance, official sources said.

--IANS
ans/arm

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) There has been complete disengagement between Indian and Chinese forces at a key flashpoint in the Ladakh sector, government sources said on Tuesday.

The process, which started on September 8 after months of talks and 16 rounds of Corps Commander meetings, as per sources, entail both two sides moving back after their May 2020 friction. Both sides have verified their posts at LAC by the ground commanders, the sources added.

According to the sources, both India and China moved back their frontline troops from the face-off site of PP-15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in eastern Ladakh and dismantled temporary infrastructure there as part of a five-day disengagement process.

Sources close to developments averred that full details of the disengagement and the verification was done by the ground commanders.

Asked about the disengagement at PP-15 on the sidelines of an event, Army Chief General Manoj Pande had said: "I will have to go and take stock. But, it (disengagement process) is going as per schedule, and what was decided."

--IANS
miz/vd

Kolkata, Sep 13 (IANS) The streets of Kolkata turned into a virtual battlefield on Tuesday afternoon as BJP activists, marching to the West Bengal Secretariat to protest corruption issues, clashed with police.

A police vehicle was torched, while a BJP councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, an Assistant Commissioner of Police and several others, including both BJP supporters and police personnel, were injured.

At around 3 p.m., an group of BJP supporters led by party's national Vice President, Dilip Ghosh and the party's state General Secretary, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, started moving towards the state secretariat, Nabanna from BJP's state headquarters at Muralidhar Sen Lane.

As they reached central Kolkata, they came to know that Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari had been arrested and taken to the Kolkata Police headquarters at Lalbazar. At this, a section of BJP supporters from the arms, led by Chattopadhyay started marching towards the police headquarters and were able to reach its gates after breaking through the barricades.

Although the police were initially pushed back, soon a huge contingent of security personnel, led by senior officials of Kolkata Police, stopped the BJP supporters, following which clashes broke out there.

Violence also spread to the adjacent Mahatma Gandhi Road, where a police PCR van was allegedly set on fire by BJP supporters.

An ACP and BJP councillor Meena Devi Purohit, along with several others, were injured.

Mahatma Gandhi Road, being a trading hub, has a number of shops with many storing inflammable items. The burning PCR van created panic in the locality and the traders quickly pulled down the shutters of their shops. However, the fire tenders quickly rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire before it could spread further.

A police kiosk there was also vandalised by the BJP supporters.

However, BJP state President Sukanta Majumdar alleged that the PCR van was set on fire by the police only and blame put on his party supporters. Senior city officials rubbished his claims.

--IANS
src/vd

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) The Supreme Court has observed that the right to contest an election is neither a fundamental right nor a common law right and imposed Rs 1 lakh cost on a litigant who sought to contest Rajya Sabha polls without a proposer to propose his name.

A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia said: "An individual cannot claim that he has a right to contest election and the said stipulation violates his fundamental right, so as to file his nomination without any proposer as is required under the Act."

The top court noted that petitioner Vishwanath Pratap Singh filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court raising a grievance that a notification for election to Rajya Sabha was issued on May 12, to fill up the seats of members retiring from June 21 to August 1, and the last date for submission of the nomination was May 31.

"The stand of the petitioner is that he collected the nomination form but was not allowed to file his nomination without a proper proposer proposing his name. The petitioner sought his candidature without proposer which was not accepted and, therefore, he claims that his fundamental right of free speech and expression and right to personal liberty has been infringed."

Citing a judgment of Rajbala vs State of Haryana (2016), the bench said this court held that the right to contest for a seat in either of the two bodies is subject to certain constitutional restrictions and could be restricted further only by a law made by the Parliament.

Thus, the petitioner did not have any right to contest election to the Rajya Sabha in terms of the law made by the Parliament, it said, adding that the Representation of People Act, 1950 read with the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 has contemplated the name of a candidate to be proposed while filling the nomination form.

"We find that the writ petition before the High Court was entirely misconceived and so is the present special leave petition. The right to contest an election is neither a fundamental right nor a common law right. It is a right conferred by a statute," the court said.

In the order passed on September 9, the top court said, "We dismiss the present special leave petition with cost of Rs 1,00,000. The said cost be paid to the Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee within four weeks. Pending application(s), if any, stands disposed of."

--IANS
ss/uk/vd

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Amid tough global market conditions, tech giant HCL Technologies has reportedly laid off 350 employees globally, including in India, Guatemala and the Philippines, who were working on a Microsoft news project, media reports said.

According to reports, the workers, who were employed by HCL's client Microsoft's news outlet MSN, reportedly learnt that they have been let go at a town hall meeting last week.

The last day of employment is reportedly September 30 for the laid-off employees, who will receive severance compensation.

Last month, a report said that at least half of the companies worldwide are planning to lay off people, with most reducing bonuses and rescinding job offers amid the economic downturn.

As per the latest PwC 'Pulse: Managing business risks in 2022' survey released last month, in the US, 50 per cent of respondents are reducing their overall headcount, even as business leaders remain concerned about hiring and retaining talent.

More than 32,000 tech workers have been laid off in the US till July, including at Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Meta (formerly Facebook), and the worst has not been over yet for the tech sector that has seen massive stock sell-off.

In India, more than 25,000 startup workers have lost jobs since the pandemic began -- and more than 12,000 have been fired this year.

--IANS
vc/arm

Gurugram, Sep 13 (IANS) The Leela Ambience, a five-star hotel, in Gurugram on Tuesday received a bomb threat call, triggering panic in the premises, police said. However, it later turned out to be a hoax.

Police in a statement said, "A hoax call was made to a private hotel in Gurugram on Tuesday. Police reached the hotel, evacuated it and started an investigation. The caller was found to be a 24-year-old mentally ill person. He was found to be suffering from autism and he is undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Gurugram."

According to the report, more than a hundred guests were staying in the hotel.

However, after 90 minutes of search operation, it was found a hoax call.

An unidentified person had called the hotel's reception desk at around 11.55 a.m.

"It was a male voice that said a bomb will explode in the (Ambience) mall," the sources said.

The police were immediately alerted after which a dog squad and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) rushed to the spot and evacuated people from the hotel.

The BDDS checked the entire hotel and its surroundings and a search operation is currently underway, the police said.

The hotel also increased the number of security staff after receiving the call.

--IANS
str/uk

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) In the past few weeks, several shocking videos of young to middle aged people collapsing due to sudden heart attacks have gone viral.

Heart attacks, cardiac arrest and other cardiovascular diseases in large numbers of young Indians is becoming a major cause of concern.

According to cardiologists, there has been a spate of persons suffering heart attacks in their 20s and 30s over the last decade.

The findings say that Indians get heart disease 10 years earlier than their Western counterparts. As per the findings of Indian Heart Association, heart disease tends to strike Indians at an earlier age (almost 33 per cent earlier) compared to other demographics.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of IANS to understand people's views about the sudden rise in heart disease in young Indians.

The survey found that the biggest proportion of Indians, 31 per cent, believe that stress is the key reason for collapsing young hearts.

At the same, while 25 per cent of the respondents cited poor lifestyle as the main reason, 8 per cent of the respondents said that it is related to the side effects of Covid-19.

Similar sentiments were shared by both the urban and rural respondents.

During the survey, the biggest urban respondents, 35 per cent, and rural respondents, 29 per cent, blamed stress for the increase in cardiovascular diseases in young Indians.

After stress, the second largest proportion of urban respondents, 25 per cent, and rural respondents, 25 per cent, said that poor lifestyle is to be blamed.

During the survey, stress was cited as the main reason for increasing cases of heart attacks in young Indians by the respondents of different age categories.

Notably, maximum number of respondents in the age group of 35-44 years asserted that tension is killing young hearts.

Even the largest proportion of very young respondents, 25 per cent, in the age category of 18-24 years blamed stress.

After stress, the largest proportion of respondents from different age groups opined that poor lifestyle is the key reason for increase in heart disease in young Indians.

Many believe that it is related to side effects of lethal coronavirus.

--IANS
san/ksk/