Regional

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 14 (IANS) Congress' Kerala unit chief K. Sudhakaran on Friday served an ultimatum to party's Perumbavoor MLA Eldhose Kunnapilly, who has been absconding for the past few days since a sexual assault case and subsequently rape charges have also been lodged against him, to give an explanation or face action.

Two-time MLA Kunnappilly faced trouble after a woman teacher here levelled serious allegations of assault, and sexual harassment against him, and after her detailed statement was taken by the Crime Branch, rape charges also have been included.

"What has surfaced now is a very serious allegation and such a thing should never be heard about someone who is in public life. Hence we have asked an explanation from him and if it doesn't come up with it before the 20th, then he will have to face disciplinary action," said Sudhakaran.

Kunnappilly's anticipatory bail plea will be heard by a court here on Saturday.

For the past few days, he has gone incommunicado as his mobile phones were switched off. Even the phones of his personal assistant and his friend were not on.

While on Thursday, in a social media post, the MLA said he has done no wrong or anything against the law, on Friday, it was reported that he had sent a text message to the complainant's friend, saying that God will punish her for cheating him, as he has done no wrong at all and he will come out of this unscathed.

The teacher approached the Thiruvanthapuram Police Commissioner last week and complained that she was assaulted by the Congress MLA at the famous tourist destination at Kovalam near here.

She alleged that she was also assaulted while travelling in a car with Kunnappilly. The woman on Wednesday appeared before the media and said for the past few months, they were allegedly in a close relationship, but after there was a change in his behaviour, she was trying to withdraw, which he was not allowing.

On Thursday, the woman presented herself before the Crime Branch, who recorded her statement.

The ruling CPI-M, in a statement issued here on Friday, said the charges against the Congress legislator are of a grave nature and appropriate steps should be taken so the victim gets justice and the Congress should seriously think if such people should be allowed to continue.

Meanwhile sources indicate that the Vigilance Department is also likely to register a case against the beleaguered legislator after the victim claimed that she was offered Rs 30 lakh by him to settle the present matter.

Now, all eyes are on Kunnappilly's anticipatory bail plea.

--IANS
sg/vd

Hyderabad, Oct 14 (IANS) Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Working President K.T. Rama Rao has reacted sharply to the Rs 22,000 crore one-time grant approved by the Union Cabinet for three oil marketing companies (OMCs) and demanded similar package or subsidy to gas users who are bearing a heavy financial burden.

Rama Rao, who is also state Industries and Commerce Minister, questioned why special packages are not offered to women who are burdened with financial distress as subsidy on gas cylinders has been scrapped and its prices have increased.

Noting that the price of a gas cylinder was Rs 400 before Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister but the price has now gone up to Rs 1,100, he said that PM Modi has positioned himself as a Vishwa Guru in terms of the cylinder prices as they are the highest in the world.

The TRS recalled that Modi had questioned the then PM when the price of a gas cylinder was Rs 400, and asked what answers he has now for the nation.

He said that the Central government offered a subsidy of Rs 827 on each cylinder in 2014, which was brought down to zero by the Modi government. The TRS leader said that the BJP government is insensitive towards the middle class whose savings plummeted in the past two years because of Covid-19 and lockdown.

The BJP government has shifted the burden of Rs 42,000 crore subsidies of last year on 39 crore gas connection holders, he said. KTR asked people to choose if they want Modi or subsidies.

He questioned why aren't problems faced by women addressed when oil companies issues are being resolved. The TRS Working President called on women who constitute half of the nation's population to take a firm decision not to bear anymore atrocities inflicted by the BJP, and said that its downfall should start from the kitchens of poor and middle class women.

--IANS
ms/vd

Jamnagar, Oct 14 (IANS) A BJP corporator in Gujarat's Jamnagar city, tired of bureaucratic delays and red tape, offered to fund an underground drainage project himself.

Following his offer, the Municipal Commissioner swung into action, sent a deputy engineer on compulsory leave and started a survey and cost estimation.

Nilesh Kagathra, who represents ward number 9 in the city, told IANS since the last six months, he has been requesting the corporation to lay an underground drainage in his ward, where a Jain temple, as well as a Lakshmi and Ganesh Temple is visited daily by hundreds of devotees - and all had to walk through overflowing drainage water from an open gutter. But the corporation's drainage department did not act on it.

"As people complain regularly, I got tired and on Thursday I made this offer. After which the Commissioner has swung into action, deputy engineer Jayesh Kamani is asked to go on compulsory leave, survey work has started from Friday morning... had the corporation not started work, i would have," said Kagathra.

He is not the only one to complain, even the Deputy Mayor has written at least three letters to the commissioner to lay down underground drainage in his ward number 11.

--IANS
har/vd

Ranchi, Oct 14 (IANS) Four children have died of Measles-Rubella in the last two months while more than 40 others are affected by the disease in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district. All these cases have been reported from the rural areas of Dhanbad. The state's health department has issued an alert while special teams have been formed to conduct operations in the affected areas.

The health department has admitted that two children have died in Govindpur in Dhanbad district and one each in Nirsa and Tundi due to Measles-Rubella. The maximum cases are from Govindpur block, where 22 children suffering from Measles-Rubella have been identified. Similarly, eight children are suffering in Nirsa, four in Tundi and three in Jharia. If the number of patients increases further, the entire district can be declared a Red Zone. At present it has been kept in the Yellow Zone.

According to experts, two doses of Measles and Rubella vaccines are given to children between the ages of 9 to 15 months. Children who have not been vaccinated are at risk of contracting the disease. District Civil Surgeon Dr. Alok Vishwakarma has said that in view of the complaints coming from different areas, instructions are being given to speed up the vaccination campaign.

Microbiologist Dr Jitendra Kumar explained that the main symptoms are diarrhoea, headache, cough, red eyes and fever along with small rash or rashes on the body of children. As soon as such symptoms appear, a doctor should be contacted. Relying on home and traditional remedies can be fatal. The best way is to vaccinate on time. Children who have not been vaccinated on time, should be given two vaccinations in a month for a period of five years.

According to the health department data, the target of immunisation of 72,327 children was set in 2021-22 in Baghmara, Balliapur, Dhanbad Sadar, Govindpur, Jharia, Nirsa, Topchanchi and Tundi blocks of the district. Of these, 48,459 children were given Measles vaccine while about 23,868 children missed out. In 2018, a special campaign for vaccination was conducted across the state. In this, only 40 per cent vaccination was done in Dhanbad district.

--IANS
snc/uk/bg

New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh will go to elections on November 12 and an opinion poll indicates that the ruling BJP seems set to retain the state.

The opinion poll conducted by CVoter for ABP News reveals that the ruling party is all set to return to power by winning a projected 46 per cent vote share and 42 seats in an assembly of 68 members. The sample size for the tracking poll was 6,245 respondents.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is proving to be a decisive factor, there are clear indications that a generational change of leadership seems to be an ongoing process in the state.

The absence of a strong new generation of leaders seem to be affecting the prospects of the Congress that should have benefited from strong anti-incumbency sentiments in the state.

Besides, the departure of the tall Congress leader Virbhadra Singh from the political scene seems to have let the Congress without a strong regional leadership.

According to the CVoter survey for ABP News, 31.9 per cent of the respondents stated that current Chief Minister and BJP leader Jairam Thakur is their preferred choice as Chief Minister. He was a surprise choice of the BJP when the party had wrested power from the Congress in 2017 and many had thought former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal would once again become the CM.

While 17.9 per cent of respondents prefer Pratibha Singh, widow of Virbhadra Singh, as the next Chief Minister, another Congress leader Mukesh Agnihotri gets 6.2 per cent of the vote.

The surprise package is Union Minister Anurag Thakur who is the preferred choice as CM for 25.7 per cent of the respondents. For a leader to be so close to the sitting CM in preference patterns of voters indicates the shape of things to come in the future.

--IANS
san/vd

Chandigarh, Oct 14 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday failed to reach a consensus over the contentious Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue at a crucial meeting on the issue held here.

After the two-hour long meeting, Khattar told the media that as directed by the Supreme Court, the meeting was held with the Punjab Chief Minister but both States reached no consensus on the construction of the SYL canal.

Outrightly rejecting Haryana government's proposal to start construction of the SYL canal, Mann categorically told the media that there "is no question of initiating this work, as the state does not have even a single drop of water to share with Haryana".

"At the time when agreement for the canal was inked, Punjab was getting 18.56 million acre feet (MAF) of water which has been now reduced to 12.63 MAF. At present, we don't have any surplus water to share with any state," he said, while interacting with the media separately.

Khattar said the Supreme Court has asked for the construction of the SYL canal, with which Punjab has disagreed. "The construction of SYL is the lifeline for Haryana," said the Chief Minister adding that now he will meet Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to brief him about this meeting.

He said earlier also a tribunal was formed to resolve the water issue, after that a new tribunal of three judges was again formed and as per the tribunal's decision, the construction of the SYL canal is necessary.

Justifying his decision not share even a drop of water with Haryana, Mann said Haryana is currently getting 14.10 MAF of water from the Satluj, Yamuna and other rivulets whereas Punjab is getting only 12.63 MAF.

He said despite being smaller in area, Haryana is getting more water than Punjab and ironically it is demanding more water at the cost of Punjab.

In wake of this fact, Mann said how can "we give water to Haryana if our own fields are starving for it".

The Chief Minister said 1,400 km of rivers, canals and rivulets have dried up in the state due to which pressure had increased on groundwater. He said currently 27 per cent of Punjab's agriculture is dependent on surface water whereas the remaining 73 per cent is being done through using the groundwater.

Mann said this has resulted in depletion of groundwater level in the state and most of the blocks have gone into dark zones.

The Chief Minister said instead of seeking water from Punjab, Haryana should give water to the state from the Yamuna river.

He further said that if Haryana really needs water, then he is ready to go with his Haryana counterpart to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for solving the issue.

However, he said before the Prime Minister the state government will reiterate its stand that Punjab does not even have a single drop of water to share with Haryana.

Mann said rather Punjab and Haryana should forcefully plead the case of water sharing from Ganga and Yamuna before the Prime Minister.

--IANS
vg/vd

Chennai, Oct 14 (IANS) The old age homes in Tamil Nadu are under scanner with state Social Welfare Department directing all the district collectors, to take stock of the old age homes in their respective districts.

A team of officials from the Vellore district administration had shut down an old age home at a village in Tiruvalam in the district, St. Josephs Hospice.

According to officials in the district collector's office, the action was initiated after the collector, Kumarvel Pandyan received a tip-off that the old age home was ill-treating the inmates and that proper food was not given to them.

During the raids, it was found that while the accommodation at the home was good, the residents complained that they were provided only porridge and the food did not include any elements with nutrition.

After the shutting down of the St. Josephs Hospice at Vellore, the state Social Welfare Department directed all the district collectors in Tamil Nadu to conduct a detailed study on all the homes in their respective districts.

While there are homes with both state and Central government registration availing fund from respective governments, complaints have come up from various corners of the state that the inmates were not treated properly at many of these homes.

While speaking to IANS, Aroghyasamy, a social activist at Tiruchendur, said, "We have been monitoring around six old age homes in the district and I can say that except for two, the rest are not performing well. There should be proper intervention from the government to bring in required correction."

In most of the old age homes that receive grants from the Central government and state governments, regular audits are taking place and in most places accounts are also perfect. However, the inmates in many homes have complained about poor living conditions and poor quality food.

Proper and regular monitoring of old age homes would help raise the standards of these homes with better food and better living conditions.

While speaking to IANS, Sundardas Ramanarayanan, social activist and director, Centre for Research and Development Studies and Geriatric care, said, "The situation in most of the old age homes are poor but if there are regular inspections and checks by the district authorities, things will definitely improve and would give solace to the old people who don't have anywhere to go."

--IANS
aal/uk

Hyderabad, Oct 14 (IANS) Telangana's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Friday submitted a report to the Telangana High Court about revision of voters' list in Munugode Assembly constituency, where a bypoll is slated to be held on November 3.

The CEO informed the court that the number of voters in the constituency stood at 2,38,759 as on October 11, 2022, and on October 12, 2018, the number of voters in the constituency was 2,14,847. Thus, there was a net addition of 23,912 voters during the last four years.

The CEO said 25,013 applications were received from new voters since January this year. Out of the new applications, 12,249 were accepted while 7,247 were rejected. The remaining 5,517 applications are pending.

The court was told that the process of additions, deletions and corrections to the voters' list will be completed on Friday.

The CEO submitted report to a bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy, hearing a writ petition filed by the BJP alleging irregularities in revision of voters' list.

The bench observed that there appears to be no unusual increase in the number of voters but made it clear that it will not pronounce orders till the final voters' list is submitted.

The court directed the CEO to submit the final voters' list and adjourned the hearing to October 21.

The court on Thursday had declined to instruct the election authorities not to declare the voters' list.

BJP secretary G. Premender Reddy, who filed the petition, alleged discrepancies in revision of the voters list.

Appearing on behalf of the petitioner, Rachna Reddy had submitted to the court that there are apprehensions about possible fake voters in the new list as nearly 25,000 voters were included in August and September.

The Election Commission's counsel Avinash Desai argued that the new voter enrollment was undertaken in a transparent manner.

He also argued that the petitioner's plea not to release the list of voters for the by-election was against statutory provisions of the Representation of People's Act under which the voters' lists are prepared.

--IANS
ms/vd

Shimla, Oct 14 (IANS) The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Friday, presided over by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, decided to provide two sets of track suits free of cost to students of pre-primary studying in government schools under the Atal School Vardi Yojna for 2022-23.

This would benefit over 50,000 nursery students.

It was also decided to increase the stipend of MBBS interns in all government medical colleges from Rs 17,000 to Rs 20,000 per month.

The Cabinet decided to open new Primary Health Centre at Somakothi under the gram panchayat of Thakurthana in Mandi district, along with creation and filling of three posts of different categories.

It decided to upgrade Primary Health Centre at Chamunda in Kangra district to Community Health Centre along with creation of posts.

The Cabinet allowed change of the nomenclature of staff nurse and ward sister to nursing officer and senior nursing officer, respectively.

It also gave an approval to upgrade Primary Health Centre at Narkanda in Shimla district to Community Health Centre.

The Cabinet further decided to open government degree college at Baga Chanogi in Mandi district.

--IANS
vg/ksk/