Regional

Srinagar, Dec 23 (IANS) In a major success in its anti-narcotic campaign, the J&K Police on Friday busted a big drug smuggling and peddling racket in Kupwara and Baramulla districts.

Police said 17 persons, including five policemen, a political activist, a contractor and a local shopkeeper have been arrested from Kupwara and Baramulla districts in this narcotics smuggling racket that had its origin in Pakistan.

"Muhammad Waseem Najar, a poultry shop owner belonging to Darzipura village of Kupwara district, was arrested after recovery of some narcotic quantity from his house.

"After investigation, Waseem admitted to be part of a big group of drug peddlers and disclosed names of some of his associates belonging to Kupwara district and Uri area of district Baramulla.

"In subsequent raids, 16 more persons were arrested, including five policemen, a political activist, a contractor and others. Policemen arrested were working as SPOs in the department.

"Ongoing investigation has exposed the direct involvement of Pakistan-based terrorist handlers in pumping narcotics into the Valley with the objective to destroy the local youth and their future.

"Shakir Ali Khan, a Pakistan-based terrorist handler originally belonging to Keran in Kupwara district has surfaced to be the main supplier of narcotics to his son Tahmeed Khan on this side of the Line of Control (LoC).

"On Tahmeed's confession and disclosure, two packets weighing close to 2 kgs of heroin-like narcotic substance have been recovered. Tahmeed used to transport it to Kupwara to sell it among his other arrested associates to earn huge amounts of money.

"Tahmeed's father Shakir Ali Khan first crossed the LoC in early 1990s to join terrorist ranks. After obtaining training in illegal arms and ammunition, Shakir infiltrated back and remained one of the top active terrorists of the Hizbul outfit in the Keran area.

"Shakir then again crossed over to Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

"He is presently working as a top terrorist handler involved in pushing arms, ammunition and narcotics into Kashmir Valley.

"During the last three months, about 5 kgs of narcotics valued at Rs 5 crore have been pumped into the market by the module headed by Tahmeed Khan.

"Of this quantity, about 2 kgs have been recovered during the investigation. About one kg has been peddled among the drug peddlers and addicts and about 2 kgs remain to be traced," police said.

--IANS
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Ghaziabad, Dec 23 (IANS) The Celebration 2 banquet hall in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad got reduced to ashes after a massive fire broke out in the premises on Friday morning. No loss of life or injuries were reported, said officials.

According to sources, the Ghaziabad fire department was apprised of the fire in the banquet hall, located at Arthala at around 9.30 a.m., after which six fire vehicles reached the spot and started efforts to put out the fire.

The team faced considerable difficulty in reaching the location due to narrow lanes in the area.

However, they managed to control the fire after an hour and half of work.

CFO of Fire Department, Rahul Pal said that the fire vehicles were sent to the spot after receiving information of the incident.

Pal said that no loss of life had been reported in the incident.

He added that the cause of fire will be ascertained after investigation.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Dec 23 (IANS) After a row over saffronisation of syllabus, inclusion and deletion of lessons during the syllabus review, Karnataka education department's decision to conduct public exams for Classes 5 and 8 has triggered a fresh controversy in the state.

A section of parents and student organisations have objected to the decision and expressed their fears of creating a discriminatory situation for the students.

Karnataka Pradesha Samanya Naagarikara Dhvani Vedike President S. Lakshminarayana has attacked Education Minister B.C. Nagesh over the decision. This is a decision taken at the fag end of the academic year with discretion, he said on Friday.

He further stated that this move is against the National Education Policy (NEP). This created panic among crores of parents and students. The decision must be reversed, he demanded.

The Karnataka Education department is conducting public exams for students who are studying state syllabus. The public exams are not conducted for students who are studying in CBSE schools. The exams are also not conducted in schools run by the central government. The parents are claiming that it amounts to discrimination.

The notification for conducting exams was released on December 12. Questions are raised on how the students can prepare for public exams in two months. Most of the parents who send their wards to government schools do not have any information about the development, it is claimed.

Lakshminarayana maintained that the minister Nagesh had taken the decision only to show off during the election time. Minister Nagesh had clarified that public exams for 5th and 8th class students are conducted to improve children's learning capacity.

The order in this regard stated that the decision was being made as it was getting difficult to judge the overall performance of the students under the ongoing system of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) for students studying in classes 1 and 9.

Minister Nagesh had stated that it had been observed that children are scared while writing SSLC (class 10) exams as they lack confidence and are not competent. Under the new system, children will write exams like those who appear for exams under CBSE and ICSE syllabus.

The officials maintain that the exams for students of class 5 and 8 will be like SSLC board exams but they won't be so difficult. It has been decided that no student should fail.

--IANS
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Chennai, Dec 23 (IANS) Opposition AIADMK will hold a massive protest rally at Karur on December 29 in protest against the violence unleashed on its cadres allegedly by the DMK.

AIADMK interim general secretary and former Chief Minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami in a statement said that the party workers were being attacked by the DMK cadres and the Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was remaining a mute spectator to this.

He cited the example of AIADMK Karur presidium chairman and District Panchayat member, S. Thiruvikka, who was travelling in a car with the former Transport minister, M.R. Vijayabaskar, being attacked and abducted by the DMK cadres.

The AIADMK leader, according to EPS, was attacked during the election to the post of vice president for the district panchayat. The former Chief Minister in the statement said that S. Thiruvikka was later released after the elections were over. He said that the car in which the former transport minister M.R. Vijayabaskar travelled was also attacked with iron rods.

He also said that the AIADMK Karur district IT wing joint secretary K.N.R. Sivaraj was also abducted by the DMK men and later released.

There have been several instances of AIADMK workers being attacked allegedly by the DMK workers and the AIADMK state leadership was under pressure from the local workers and leaders to conduct a protest programme.

--IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 23 (IANS) Given the ongoing tussle between Govervor Arif Mohhamad Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala is likely to ring in the new year with a plenty of political fireworks with many crucial decisions, including the Bill removing the former as Chancellor.

Interestingly, the decisions have to be taken at a time when the relations between the two leaders have hit the rock bottom.

Khan, who is travelling, is expected to be back in the New Year and the first file that he will be looking into is the Bill that has been passed by the Kerala Assembly removing him as the chancellor of 14 universities in the state.

The Bill became a necessity for the Vijayan government after Khan started throwing spanners in the functioning of the government, which was running the higher education system in the state as a department of the CPI-M, as per Khan. Vice-Chancellors, teaching and administrative jobs was being given to the party cadres, in violation of all norms.

With the Bill now before Khan, he may look into it but not sit in judgement as it is an issue concerning him. The Governor has been reiterating that he will stay away from judging matters if he is the subject.

Hence in all likelihood, if the Governor does not sign the Bill, he will lay it before the President.

However, Vijayan had dropped enough hints contradicting the media speculation that the customary Governor's address might not happen on the first day of the Assembly session in a new calendar year. To a question, he replied that the government has not decided to skip the governor's address and that a speech is being prepared.

Many are seeing it as a climb down as the Congress-led Opposition in Kerala has always been wary of the standoff between the two as they see it as nothing but a "match fixing".

Hence all eyes are fixed now on how Khan deals with the Bill as he has to make the first move. If he reads out the customary Governor's address, then the Congress's assumption that the entire standoff being "stage-managed" will turn out to be true.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Dec 23 (IANS) The Karnataka High Court has refused to quash the case lodged against a woman residing in Dubai in which she faced allegations of uploading obscene videos to the Internet through SIM card purchased in her name.

The woman, residing in Dubai for 13 years, had filed a petition seeking the quashing of the case against her in Bengaluru East Cyber Crime Police Station.

The petition was taken up by the bench headed by Justice K. Natarajan recently, which quashed the petition and asked her to cooperate with the investigating agencies.

The bench further stated that since the SIM card used for the crime was purchased in the name of the petitioner, her name was included, which did not mean that she was guilty.

The petitioner was a suspect accused and she needed to be investigated to reach the real culprits in the case. The court also stated that the petitioner woman has to appear before the investigating officers to get her name taken out from the case.

The court also stated that she will have to officially authenticate that someone had made a purchase of a SIM card in her name and it will help to file a charge sheet against the real culprits.

The case was lodged against the woman based on the information provided by the mobile service provider. The case was lodged under Section 67 and 67 (B) of the Information Technology Act.

The counsel for the woman submitted that the petitioner has been residing in Dubai for 13 years and if a SIM card was purchased in her name in Bengaluru without her knowledge, she was not responsible.

The public prosecutor argued that the investigation has to reveal the truth whether the SIM card was purchased without her knowledge or she had made the purchase and given it to the other person. In this background, the investigation should continue, he submitted.

--IANS
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Chennai, Dec 20 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday appointed former Madras High Court judge, Justice Raja Elango and advocate Kannadasan as members of the State Human Rights Commission.

The decision was taken in the selection committee meeting, chaired by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin held at the Secretariat here. Assembly speaker, M. Appavu also participated in the meeting.

Justice Elango had also served in the Andhra Pradesh High Court and later, the Telangana High Court. He was earlier the public prosecutor in Tamil Nadu.

Advocate Kannadasan hails from Tamil Nadu's Mayiladuthurai and has more than thirty years of experience of practice in civil, criminal, and human rights cases and is an expert in prisoner rights issues. He served as a public prosecutor for human rights cases from 2006 to 2011.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said the upgradation and rehabilitation work of NH-25 extension to 2-lane with paved shoulder of Ghagaria-Munabao section of District Barmer in Rajasthan has been approved under EPC mode at a cost of Rs 235.15 crore.

In a series of tweets, the Minister said the project passes through backward districts of Rajasthan. Improvement of the project route will lead to economic development of the region and congestion free traffic movement.

The project will improve connectivity to NH-68 (Jaisalmer-Barmer-Sanchor), NH-25 (Jodhpur-Pachpadra-Barmer) and NH-925 (Bakasar-Gagadiya), he added.

Gadkari said NH-25 (Ext) provides a link to Bharatmala road network running parallel to the International Border connecting Munabao-Dhanana-Tanot (NH-70). It also connects Munabao to Barmer district headquarters where several military bases are located.

He said this national highway is very important from a strategic point of view to provide logistics to Munabao along the (International Border) which is currently single lane.

--IANS
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Gandhinagar, Dec 20 (IANS) Congress MLAs staged walkout from the Gujarat Assembly in protest on Tuesday.

They alleged that the ruling party was abusing power, not following the procedures and snatching away the rights of the opposition members.

Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia while addressing the media said, "It is unfortunate that on the first day of the Assembly session, we have to stage a walkout in protest. The reason for the walkout is that the ruling party did not give enough time to discuss the vote of thanks to the Governor for his address in the Assembly."

Citing the Assembly rules, the Congress leader said normally the Speaker calls members of ruling and opposition benches to discuss the business of the House. That was not followed. In the morning, a new Speaker was elected, and in the second sitting the Governor addressed the House. Till members staged a walk, they were not provided with a hard copy of the governor's speech. Normally a vote of thanks resolution is discussed for two to three days, today it was kept only for two to three hours."

"Just because the ruling party is having a thumping majority in the House that does not mean it can bend or subvert the Assembly rules and run the House on its whims," said the Congress leader.

--IANS
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Uttara Kannada (Karnataka), Dec 20 (IANS) Karnataka BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel on Tuesday alleged that by continously supporting the terrorists, the Congress has turned into a party of "terrorists".

He was addressing the BJP leaders after inaugurating meeting of state office-bearers Murudeshwara town of Uttara Kannada district, he stated that the Congress is defending terrorists for vote bank politics.

The Congress government led by Siddaramaiah supported terrorism, drug and sand mafia. The drug mafia was contained by the BJP government headed by Yediyurappa and Bommai, he said.

"Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar thinks lightly about the Mangaluru cooker blast. The Congress State President supports divisive forces, anti-nationals and corrupt. Now, it can be called as a party of terrorists," Kateel stated.

He further stated that before independence and after independence, Savarkar is the only leader to be imprisoned. It's not only Savarkar, the Congress has also insulted Dr B.R. Ambedkar as well.

Though the Congress came to power in the name of Ambedkar, the party had never given a chance to Ambedkar to contest elections. Even after his demise, the party did not conduct proper final rites for him, Kateel stated.

The Congress is not the same it once used to be before independence. It has changed, he said.

--IANS
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