Regional

Guwahati, Sep 18 (IANS) A man was trampled to death and five others were seriously injured by a herd of wild elephants in Assam's Baksa district, officials said on Sunday.

The incident happened at Khairani village of the district late on Saturday night.

The deceased has been identified as Ravindra Boro. The five injured persons are Dhanpati Boro, Anil Daimary, Paresh Boro, Thengona Musahari, and Sulendra Boro.

The villagers said that a herd of wild elephants from the nearby forest entered the area in search of food. The locals tried to frighten them so that they return to the jungle but, the jumbos attacked them instead.

Ravindra Bodo was badly injured. He was taken to the nearby hospital at Rangia with other five injured, but the doctors declared him dead.

Daimary's condition is said to be critical.

The locals claimed that earlier few other people also came were attacked by wild elephants and accused the Forest Department of not taking adequate measures to stop these incidents.

The villagers also complained that the crops were also regularly destroyed by the wild elephants. They have urged the state government to take look into this immediately.

"This is not the first time that an elephant has killed a man in this village, earlier also, numerous people had perished as a result of elephant attacks," a village resident said.

In Assam, elephant-human conflicts have been on a rise due to habitat loss. Environmentalists have already warned that such conflicts could get worse unless the forested areas are protected.

As per the official data, at least 229 people were killed in Assam in the last three years due to human-elephant confrontations.

--IANS
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Panaji, Sep 18 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant along with eight MLAs, who recently switched to the BJP from the Congress, will leave for Delhi later on Sunday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior saffron party leaders.

On September 14, former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Sankalp Amonkar, Rajesh Faldesai, Aleixo Sequeira and Rudolf Fernandes had jumped ship from the Congress to the BJP.

Sawant on Sunday attended a coordination meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after which he told mediapersons that he will be leaving for Delhi later on Sunday.

"All the eight new joinees and the state BJP President (Sadanand Tanavade) are also going to Delhi with me. We will meet the Prime Minister and also will try to meet Home Minister Amit Shah," Sawant said.

He added that the meeting with Prime Minister Modi has already been fixed, while the meeting with Amit Shah is yet to be finalised.

When asked whether a Cabinet reshuffle will take place after the meeting with the Prime Minister, Sawant said there are no such plans.

The BJP had 20 MLAs in the 40-member Goa Assembly, which has now gone up to 28 after recent joinings. The BJP also has the support of two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLAs and three Independent members. Hence, the total strength of BJP+allies has gone up to 33 now, while the Congress has been reduced to just three MLAs.

--IANS
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Imphal, Sep 17 (IANS) Security forces on Saturday destroyed a World War II vintage bomb, found during digging, in eastern Manipur, defence officials said.

Defence spokesman Lt Col A.S. Walia said that the bomb was recovered by locals during digging work in Kamjong district, bordering Myanmar.

On receipt of the information, security forces, with the assistance of local police, safely shifted the bomb away from populated area for disposal, and a team of the army bomb disposal unit carried out the safe disposal of 250 lbs bomb using the 'Violent Technique'.

This mechanism involved careful and technical placement of pre-calculated explosives and initiating controlled detonation to destroy the bomb.

Before disposing off the powerful bomb, a joint team of Manipur Police and paramilitary forces ensured safe evacuation of 250 residents and their various livestocks and domestic animals residing within 2 km radius from the explosion site.

The destruction of bomb was successfully done without any untoward incident due to explosion, the defence PRO said.

Northeastern India was the site of several fierce battles in World War II as Japanese forces reached Manipur and Nagaland when they invaded British India.

--IANS
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Shimla, Sep 17 (IANS) The Union Ministry of Tourism is organising a national conference of state Tourism Ministers from September 18 to 20 in Dharamsala under the chairmanship of G. Kishan Reddy, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture, to discuss issues related to development of tourism in the country.

The conference will be attended by Central ministers, Tourism Ministers from the states and Union Territories, Governors and seniors officials.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur would inaugurate the event. The conference is expected to be attended by around 250 delegates.

The conference will focus on various policies and programmes of the Ministry of Tourism, including development of tourism infrastructure, cultural, spiritual and heritage tourism, tourism in the Himalayan states, responsible and sustainable tourism, role of digital technology for marketing and promotion of tourism destinations, emerging importance of homestays in the hospitality sector, ayurveda, wellness, medical value travel and promotion of domestic tourism.

Other issues such as wildlife tourism, responsible tourism and tourism related aspects of G-20 will also be discussed along with the review of the implementation of various projects by the Ministry of Tourism.

--IANS
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Bhubaneswar, Sep 17 (IANS) As part of the celebrations of 75th year of the Orissa High Court, Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit on Saturday inaugurated 34 paperless courts in all 30 districts of Odisha.

The concept of paperless court has been successfully implemented in the Supreme Court and different high courts including in Odisha. However, Odisha is the first state in the country to launch paperless courts in all the districts.

The CJI has inaugurated the courts in a function organised at the Odisha Judicial Academy in Cuttack, in the presence of SC judges D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah and Odisha High Court's Chief Justice S. Muralidhar.

The CJI said technological advancement has become essential for the functioning of the judiciary. About the evolution of IT in Indian judiciary, he shared his experience of working as a young lawyer in the pre-IT period and the ease of work that technological advancement has ensured over the years.

He also highlighted the positive impacts of paperless courts on the environment, and said he was happy to know that the judicial officers in Odisha voluntarily came forward for the paperless courts.

Lauding the e-initiatives of the Orissa High Court, he said the court has shown the Indian judiciary a new direction, new light.

Chief Justice Muralidhar thanked the e-Committee, SC for the guidance and encouragement to the Orissa High Court in expanding the horizon of digitisation and using information technology for other initiatives like paperless courts, e-payment of court fee, virtual hearing, e-custody certificates, e-traffic challans and voluntary witness deposition centres in all the districts of Odisha.

He announced that shortly all the judicial officers in Odisha would be provided with touchscreen laptops to facilitate them to function paperless.

Stressing upon the need of paperless courts for balancing the ecosystem and its other advantages, he said paperless courts in the district judiciary of Odisha is a significant milestone for the Indian judiciary.

Justice Shah hailed the e-initiatives of the high court of Orissa and expressed hope that those would be replicated in other states.

Sharing his experiences, he said age is never a barrier in learning the use of IT which has become essential for making the justice administration friendly for all the stakeholders.

Enumerating the advantages of paperless courts, he emphasised on the need for advancement of courtroom technology.

Justice Chandrachud, who heads the Supreme Court's e-Committee said that the high court has established itself as the pioneer in implementing the decisions of e-Committee and termed its initiatives as "path-breaking" for the rest of India.

Enumerating the advantages of paperless court, he said that it is cost-effective for litigants, time-saving for lawyers, effective in space management, and makes case information easily accessible at fingertips.

Justice Chandrachud informed that about 75 lakh judgments of various high courts have been made available on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) for easy access of lawyers and judges, and real time virtual justice digital clocks have been devised for updated information about functioning of every wing of the Indian judiciary.

--IANS
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By Ravinder Singh Robin
Chandigarh, Sep 17 (IANS) Stating that India is moving strongly on the path of becoming more resilient, capable and stronger nation, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday said country's mission to become the world superpower in next 25 years has gained unprecedented momentum under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


Union Minister for Women and Child Development, and Minority Affairs was speaking at a free mega multi-specialty health check-up camp organised by Chandigarh Welfare Trust (CWT), on the occasion of Seva Diwas, as part of the celebrations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 72nd birthday.

More than 20,000 people from different parts of Chandigarh availed the benefits of 11 types of different healthcare services provided at the camp, including over 2,000 patients who were screened for various types of cancer.

Irani also donated blood at the camp and distributed certificates among 100 women who were provided skill-development training in bakery, cookery and sewing under the Sashakt Nari initiative of CWT.

The camp was inaugurated early on Saturday morning by Banwarilal Purohit, Chandigarh UT Administrator and Punjab Governor.

The mega camp provided around a dozen health services to the residents of the city including cancer detection, eye-screening, dental check-up, general health check-up, child health check-up, orthopaedics, mental health check-up and dermatology among others.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Sep 17 (IANS) Having almost completed the first stage of its investigation into the multi-crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam, which involved the inward flow of the scam proceeds, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is now set to enter the second stage of its probe, which is identifying the distribution and expenditure pattern of the accumulated proceeds of crime.

This second phase, according to CBI sources, is crucial since it would reveal more names of influential persons who are the beneficiaries of the scam.

"In any financial embezzlement of this nature, the number of names involved in the proceeds collection process are less than the number of people involved in the distribution process. For any scam, it is important for the scamsters to keep in confidence the influential people in the political and administrative set up to keep the scam under the carpet.

"Hence the involvement of influential people is more at the proceeds distribution level than in the collection level. The process of identifying the big names at the collection level is almost complete, and it is now time to identify those involved in the outward flow of the proceeds," a CBI official said.

CBI presently has three prime accused in the scam under its custody -- former state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, ex-WBSSC Chairman Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay and former convener of the commission's screening committee, S.P. Sinha.

CBI sources said that the individual interrogation of all the three has been done in phases and a lot of discrepancies have been found in their statements.

"Now that we have all three of them in our custody at the same time, we will grill them together so that any attempt to mislead us is foiled," the CBI official said.

It is learnt that Chatterjee has already started showing signs of crumbling and the investigating sleuths expect him to break down anytime and reveal more crucial information about the actual beneficiaries of the scam.

In fact, while attending the last two hearings in the matter at a special CBI court, Chatterjee broke into tears while appealing for bail, constantly repeating that he has been made a victim of conspiracy.

--IANS
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Hyderabad, Sep 17 (IANS) The Nehru Zoological Park here houses a Cheetah which was gifted by Saudi Arabia a decade ago.

During his visit to the Zoo on the occasion of CoP11 summit -2012 held in Hyderabad, Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Saud Bin Mohammed Al Saud had gifted two pairs of African lions and cheetahs.

The zoo had received the animals from the National Wildlife Research Centre of Saudi Arabia in 2013.

The female Cheetah died two years ago while the male cheetah, named Abdullah, is housed in the zoo.

Hiba, the female Cheetah, died in 2020 at the age of eight. She was diagnosed with paraplegia.

On a day when eight cheetahs from Namibia were released into Madhya Pradesh's Kuno national park by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India, the Nehru Zoological Park organised a rally.

Cheetahs were declared extinct in India about 70 years ago.

The rally was organised in collaboration with Tejaswi Vidyaranya School, Jedimetla, Rangareddy district in which about 190 students participated.

The students also took part in events like talk shows, drawing, painting and essay writing competitions. Talk show on cheetahs was conducted at the cheetah enclosure.

The programme was organised as part of Telangana National Integration Day celebrations. S.Rajashekar, Curator, Nehru Zoological Park, hoisted the national flag in the presence of the entire zoo staff.

--IANS
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Guwahati, Sep 17 (IANS) A student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati allegedly committed suicide in his hostel room on Friday night, police said.

The student hailed from Kerala and was pursuing a B.Tech course here.

A police officer of Amingaon police station informed that the body was found hanging in the hostel room, and sent for a post-mortem examination.

The reason for the student taking the extreme step is still unknown.

A statement from IIT-G reads: "It is with great sadness that IIT, Guwahati announces the untimely passing away of a final year undergraduate student of Design Department on campus on 16th September 2022."

The parents were informed by the institute and they were heading for Guwahati.

"We request everyone to respect the privacy of the family at this time of grief. The institute expresses its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the student," the IIT-G said in its statement.

Though the institute has not revealed the identity of the student, as per police sources, the deceased was identified as Surya Narayan Premkishore.

There have been several suicide cases at IIT Guwahati in the last few years.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 17 (IANS) The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) states that Tamil Nadu witnessed the second highest number of suicides in the country. Maharashtra tops the list with 22,207 suicides, and Tamil Nadu is second with a total of 18,925 suicides.

As per the NCRB data, in 2019 Tamil Nadu reported 13,493 suicides, 16,883 in 2020 and an increase to 18,925 in 2021.

Social activist and counsellor Sneha Abraham of Sradha, an NGO actively involved in the counselling of people with psychological issues, noted that there are various reasons for people to commit suicide. She said that most of the suicides in Tamil Nadu are due to domestic issues, followed by financial distress, chronic disease, failed romance, and poor results in examinations.

The study found that the average age of those who committed suicide due to family issues was between 35 and 40, while those who took their own lives because of failed love affairs were between 18 and 25 years. Students in the average age group of 16 to 21 committed suicide due to poor results and failure to crack competitive exams. Those who took their own life due to financial distress were in the age group of 28 to 45 and those who ended their lives due to chronic illness were 45 to 60.

The number of males was more than women among those who committed suicide in Tamil Nadu.

Sneha Abraham told IANS: "Several rounds of counselling are done to prevent people from committing suicide. However, according to the latest NCRB report, there is a steady increase in the number of suicides in Tamil Nadu. I feel that right from school days, there has to be proper counselling to students to make them mentally strong. Children have to be confident in life and then the tendency to commit suicide will be less."

--IANS
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