Regional

Ballari (Karnataka), Oct 13 (IANS) The final verdict on the hijab row is very important as its impact is not restricted to Karnataka, but for the whole country, and we must wait for it, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday.

Talking to reporters in Huvinahadagali here, he said the court was seized of the Hijab controversy and the Supreme Court bench has given a split verdict - with one judge backing the ban and the other quashing it.

Bommai said that he will give his reaction only after going through the judgement.

"There were a lot of dimensions for the hijab row. The demand of students is different and the government order is different. Since it involves national and international issues, the government is expecting a clear verdict from the court," he said.

Education Minister B.C. Nagesh stated that they welcome the Supreme Court verdict. "We will wait till the final order. It was expected that the verdict would honour the liberty of women. But, a different verdict has come," he said.

"The government will wait for the final order. Until then, there is no provision in Karnataka government schools and colleges to practice any religion as per the Education Act. The government and other schools will run as per the act," he said.

The Hijab ban will continue in Karnataka, the minister added.

"Until the final order is made, we will ensure status quo in the state. There is no provision to display religious symbols," he said.

He maintained that the apex court would uphold the verdict of the Karnataka High Court. "That does not mean I am speaking against the Supreme Court," he stated.

On assault of RSS workers by some miscreants in Haveri, CM Bommai said arrangements had been going on for last one week and those who went to see the procession route were assaulted. The police have arrested 20 persons in this connection.

--IANS
mka/vd

Bengaluru, Oct 13 (IANS) The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the state government and cab aggregator services to explore the possibility of working out a consensus on autorickshaw fares to be charged through Ola and Uber.

The state Transport Department had banned the cab aggregator services from providing autorickshaw services to the public, citing the high fares being charged.

Taking up the matter following petitions filed by ANI Technologies (Ola) and Uber Technologies, Justice M.G.S. Kamal issued the direction to the state government.

The petitioners contended that the Transport Department's orders are vague and do not provide justifiable reasons for the ban. They also said that they were not given sufficient time to respond after being issued the notice by the Transport Department.

The state government and cab aggregators have been locked in a face-off over the issue since October 6 after there was a public outcry over the hefty fares being charged for autorickshaw services by cab aggregator services. The state government stepped in followers complaints from users that the apps were charging Rs 100 for the first two kilometres also, while the government-approved fare is Rs 30.

Subsequently, on October 11, the state Transport Department barred Ola and Uber from offering autorickshaw rides.

--IANS
pvn/vd

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) A 12-year-old boy, who sustained head injuries after being allegedly thrashed by a teacher, died due to delayed hospital admission in the national capital.

The father of the Class VI student dropped him at a school in Greater Noida's Badalpur region, like any other day on October 7. However, just before the school was about to get over, he got a call from the school informing his son Prince had fallen unconscious.

He rushed his son to the nearby health clinic which referred him to a hospital. The hospital referred the child to a higher centre for further management.

However, the family rushed to Safdarjung hospital, but they didn't admit the child in absence of beds. They went to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and then to GB Pant, but the admission was denied.

According to the family, they finally got the bed for his son at LNJP Hospital. Prince was operated upon the next morning. However, the child died hours later, on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, his father said that when he inquired about the incident at the school, Prince's classmates told him that he was beaten with a cane by his teacher. He said that his son had injury marks on his chest, thighs, shoulder, back and even on his thighs.

As per the report, the child was hit on the hands with a stick thrice by the teacher as he failed in a class test.

After being hit, he fell down and started vomiting and later got unconscious in the classroom.

--IANS
avr/shb/

Chennai, Oct 13 (IANS) Tamil Nadu School education department has allotted an amount of Rs 9.8 crore under the New India Literacy Programme (NILP) and the project is aimed to benefit 4.8 lakh people in the state.

The project, according to the school education department officials, will be implemented through the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Non-Formal and Adult Education.

The scheme is launched for imparting basic literacy among adults and the idea is to ensure that every adult knows how to read and write.

As per 2011 census, 86 per cent of the men in the state have basic literacy and 73 per cent of women know how to read and write.

Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi told IANS, "In Tamil Nadu, around 50 lakh adults don't know how to read and write and we are targeting at least 50 per cent of this population to be able to read and write. In 2021-22, we targeted 3 lakh people and achieved it and during 2022-23 we are planning to equip 4.8 lakh adults, with reading and writing skills and we hope to achieve that without any difficulties."

The programme will roll out for the 2022-23 financial year from the Vellore district and the school education department is planning to equip 10,820 people in the district with basic literacy.

--IANS
aal/svn/

Hospet, Oct 12 (IANS) As BJP leaders continued their Jan Sankalp Yatra in Karnataka for a second day on Wednesday, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his predecessor B.S. Yediyurappa had breakfast at the home of Hirala Kollappa, a Dalit man, in Kamalapur village near Hospet.

The two were accompanied by Ministers Govind Karajol and Anand Singh.

The move is being seen as a damage-control exercise after it came to light on Tuesday that a BJP supporter in Chikkamagaluru district had held 14 Dalits captive and tortured them.

One of the captives, who was pregnant, suffered a miscarriage after she was assaulted.

The ruling BJP in Karnataka had on Tuesday sounded the poll bugle with its Jan Sankalp Yatra from Raichur district.

The yatra is also part of its strategy to counter Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra which is currently passing through the state.

Ahead of the Assembly polls scheduled in the first half of next year, the ruling BJP is making all out efforts to reach out to the Dalit community in the state.

On October 8, the Bommai cabinet had decided to enhance reservations for the SC/STs.

--IANS
pvn/ksk/

Hyderabad, Oct 12 (IANS) The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has strongly opposed the recommendation of a Parliamentary committee that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher educational institutes such as IITs should be Hindi.

TRS working president K. T. Rama Rao said on Wednesday that his party is against any move to impose Hindi.

He said that India does not have a national language and Hindi is one among the many official languages.

"To impose Hindi by way of mandating in IIITs and central government recruitments, NDA government is flouting the federal spirit Indians should have a choice of language and we say no to Hindi imposition," tweeted Rama Rao.

The parliamentary committee headed by Home Minister Amit Shah has recommended that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher education institutes such as IITs in Hindi-speaking states should be Hindi and in other parts of India their respective local language. It said the use of English should be made optional.

The end of compulsory English language question paper in the recruitment examinations and adequate arrangement for Hindi translation in the orders of the high courts in Hindi-speaking states are among over 100 recommendations made by the committee in its latest report.

Former member of Legislative Council Professor K. Nageshwar also said that the move is against federalism and national unity.

"Amit Shah led panel recommends mandatory Hindi medium in IITs and compulsory test in Hindi in lieu of English in central government recruitment. Should we, who speak Telugu and other Indian languages not oppose this Hindi hegemony? The move is against federalism, national unity," said Nageshwar Rao.

--IANS
ms/shb/

Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 12 (IANS) In yet another freak incident, a man playing the role of Lord Shiva in a Ramlila in Machhlishahr, suffered a massive cardiac arrest on stage and died.

The man, Ram Prasad a.k.a. Chabban Pandey, had been playing the role of Lord Shiva since the past six years. The Ramlila was stopped after Prasad's death.

The incident took place in Belasin village on Monday when 'aarti' was being performed, Ram Prasad clutched his chest and fell down.

He was immediately rushed to a nearby medical facility where the doctors declared him brought dead.

It may be recalled that in similar incidents, two artists playing Hanuman and Ravan respectively, died in the past ten days while performing in the Ramlila.

Patiram, 60, who was playing the role of Ravan, suddenly took ill during the staging of Ramlila at Aihar village in Ayodhya and fell to his death. Earlier, in the other incident, which took place in Fatehpur, Ram Swaroop died while he was enacting the role of Hanuman on stage.

--IANS
amita/dpb

Bengaluru, Oct 11 (IANS) A Dalit woman who was into her second month of pregnancy suffered a miscarriage after she was allegedly assaulted by the owner of the farm where she works over a petty issue that arose following a quarrel among the workers' children, officials said.

The incident that took place in Pura village near Janugadde in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru district has come to light on Tuesday.

According to sources, the farm owner also unleashed brutality on 14 Dalit labourers by locking them up in a room and torturing for many days in a coffee plantation.

The farm owner has been identified as Jagadeesh Gowda, the police said.

Police said a quarrel had broken out between the children of the labourers and others. When Gowda came to know about it, he allegedly assaulted the labourers and women.

Arpita, who suffered miscarriage, was also assaulted by the accused farm owner. Six Dalit families work in the accused's farm.

He had taken away mobile phones of all workers while assaulting them.

When Arpita was being assaulted, her husband tried to rescue her but he was also attacked by the accused. Arpita, who had been attacked seriously, was later taken to the hospital.

According to the health staff, she had suffered severe blood loss and miscarriage.

He mother Geetha has filed a complaint in this regard. The police have lodged a FIR in connection with the case.

The police booked a case against accused Gowda and his son Tilak under IPC Sections 504, 320 and 342.

Geetha said when she had rushed to the farm after being informed by her son-in-law about the situation there, she saw all families were locked up.

When she asked Gowda, he said they need to give him back the money they had taken as loan.

Arpita said that the accused assaulted labourers in the backdrop of the children's quarrel.

"We had decided not to go to work. The accused owner got furious and started asking back the loan amount. He came to assault us... and asked me to hand over the phone to him. When I refused, he hit me," she said.

--IANS
mka/pgh

Patna, Oct 11 (IANS) The RJD on Tuesday announced its candidates for the upcoming by-elections to the Mokama and Gopalganj Assembly seats.

RJD national General Secretary Alok Kumar Mehta, who is also a cabinet minister in Nitish Kumar government, announced Neelam Devi, the wife of Bahubali MLA Anant Singh, will contest the Mokama seat in Patna district. The seat fell vacant after Singh was convicted for possessing an AK-47 and hand grenade case, and is serving his jail term.

Neelam Devi will contest against BJP's Sonam Devi, the wife of another strong man Lalan Singh.

Following the announcement of candidates, the ground is set for a direct fight between Anant Singh and Lalan Singh in Mokama. Sonam Devi, during the 2020 Assembly election, contested against Anant Singh on a LJP ticket but lost.

In Gopalganj, the seat fell vacant after the death of sitting BJP MLA Subhash Singh. BJP has given the ticket to his wife Kusum Devi. She will contest against RJD candidate Mohan Prasad Gupta.

Anant Singh, who was produced in a local court in Patna, said: "BJP has given the ticket to 'rainy frogs' who are visible only during election. After that they disappear from the area. We will defeat her (Sonam Devi) by a big margin. She will not even save her security deposit."

In Gopalganj, the BJP may take help of Sadhu Yadav who was a former MP of Gopalganj and has good hold in the region. The Sadhu Yadav factor may hurt the RJD as there is an expectation of division in its Yadav vote bank.

--IANS
ajk/vd

By Praveen Dwivedi
Bhopal, Oct 11 (IANS) As many as 2,600 persons were so far booked for operating illegal liquor business in Madhya Pradesh under the state government's 'Nashamukti' operation that was launched on Friday.


Over 2,500 persons involved in the illegal business of drugs and liquor were detained, while over 200 people were booked under Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act. Similarly, around 200 people were booked under Tobacco Prohibition Act. As per the official information, around 2,500 locations were raided since Saturday.

Superintendents of Police (SPs) of all districts in the state, besides submitting the details of actions to the Police Headquarters in Bhopal, also uploaded it on social media accounts, mentioning that the action was carried on the direction of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Charing a meeting with senior police and administrative officials to take stock of the operation, Chouhan praised the police for strict action in all districts. "We have decided to take action against the nexus operating illegal business of liquor and other narcotics. Operation Nashamukthi has been started in many districts and it will be followed in other remaining districts in the coming days. I would thank to Madhya Pradesh Police for their efforts," Chouhan said on Monday.

Interestingly, while the ruling BJP has been busy thumping its back claiming that the government has taken action against the nexus operating illegal liquor business and narcotics, the opposition Congress has raised questions on the timing of the action.

Congress leaders said the operation came when the elections are not very far and the BJP government wants to make its good image while the fact is that the law and order situation in the state has been very poor.

The Congress also raised questions on whether the state police was waiting for a signal from Chief Minister to kick start an operation. "Action against illegal sale of liquor and drugs are daily activities of the police. Why the police should wait for Chief Minister's order to take action against illegal activities? All places where raids were conducted have not been established all of sudden. They were operational for several years. It's good that action was carried out, but the BJP government should also tell names of people who are operating these illegal businesses," said Sangeeta Sharma, vice-president of the state Congress media cell.

Reacting over the operation, former Chief Minister and Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Monday said, "The entire BJP is under the intoxication of power. They did nothing for 17 years and when the elections are nearing, the Chief Minister doing all these things to turn the attention of people from real issues."

Incidentally, the action came within a week after senior BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti announced to kickstart a two-month-long yatra as a symbolic protest against illegal activities, including the sale of liquor and drugs. Bharti would start her march against the state government's liquor policy on November 7, which would conclude by January next year.

In an attempt to make her presence felt in state politics, Bharti has been cornering Chouhan and state BJP president V. D. Sharma through the liquor policy issue, however, before she could start her movement for the same, Chouhan kicked start the mega operation.

--IANS
pd/shs