Regional

Guwahati, Sep 18 (IANS) A day after Assam Police arrested 17 Bangladeshi nationals from Biswanath district for violating visa norms by indulging in religious activities, DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta said on Sunday that the state government has written to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) flagging repeated occurrence of such incidents.

The DGP said that many Bangladeshi clerics have already been barred from entering Assam for repeated violation of visa regulations.

"In lower Assam and in the Barak Valley area, there is a tendency to invite Bangladeshi clerics on tourist visa for religious preaching. These clerics often violate the visa norms and try to radicalise the Muslim youth of Assam in the name of religious preaching," he added.

On Saturday, Assam police had arrested 17 Bangladeshi nationals from Biswanath district for indulging in religious activities by violating visa norms.

Biswanath district SP Nabin Singh informed that the Bangladeshi nationals were camping in the Baghmari area under the Jinjia police station for the past few days. They carried out religious preaching in the riverine areas that fall in the district's interior parts.

The Bangladeshi nationals had entered India through the Coach Behar border in West Bengal in August and from there they went to Assam's South Shalmara district. The group was headed by religious teacher Ashraful Alom, who is a resident of the Sherpur district in Bangladesh.

After the police warned them to stop religious preaching in the area, the group left but returned to the state after a few days. This time, they went to Biswanath district and started religious preaching in the riverine areas.

Mahanta said: "We had earlier told the Bangladeshi clerics that the police will be strict next time. Though they entered India on tourist visa, the group never visited the tourist spots in the state."

"Radicalisation through religious preaching is neither good for Assam, nor for the country," he added.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) The re-appointment of John Varghese as the Principal of St Stephen's College does not fulfil varsity rules or UGC norms and is thus invalid, the Delhi University has said.

The varsity's Joint Registrar, in a letter to the St Stephen's governing board Chairman P.C. Singh, said that norms were violated, making the re-appointment of Varghese flawed and invalid, and the University is bound not to recognise Varghese as the Principal.

A copy of the letter was also sent to the Secretary of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

St Stephen's was required to abide by the rules set by the UGC in the matter, the Joint Registrar wrote.

The Delhi University had earlier told the college that keeping Varghese as the Principal after his term ended was invalid.

It had noted that Varghese took over as Principal on March 1, 2016 and the decision of the college's supreme council to re-appoint him for another term was against the varsity's rules.

According to the rules, the term of the Principal of St. Stephen's or other constituent colleges is five years and a second term is only possible by following the necessary selection process.

In a letter, DU's Assistant Registrar had said that the varsity's ordinances have no provision of extending the tenure of a Principal by another term, though they provide for a further term by means of the duly laid out recruitment process, as per the UGC norms. However, the college's supreme council openly violated this.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 18 (IANS) Estranged AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O. Panneerselvam has urged the state government to close schools as flu-related cases are on the rise in the southern state.

He called upon Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to immediately intervene in the matter and take steps to close down schools to prevent the spread of the disease.

In a statement issued on Sunday, OPS, as Panneerselvam is popularly known, said that it is the duty of the state government to maintain public health, pointing out that hospitalisation of children is on the rise in the state.

The former Chief Minister said, "The Tamil Nadu government should declare holidays in schools for some time and postpone the exam schedule till the time the cases come down. The government should take steps to create awareness among the people about the flu and make the necessary medicines available to them."

He also said that doctors have warned people above 60 years of age to be careful. OPS said that schools in Puducherry have already been shut till September 25 due to the spread of flu cases in the Union Territory.

--IANS
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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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