Regional

Chandigarh, Nov 18 (IANS) Eyeing Gujarat elections, the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government on Friday approved the notification for implementing the old pension scheme (OPS) in Punjab, directly benefitting more than 1.75 lakh government employees.

A decision to this effect was taken in the meeting of the council of Ministers held under the leadership of the Chief Minister here.

Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the government has approved the OPS for its employees currently covered under New Pension Scheme (NPS), fulfilling a long-pending demand of employees of the state.

This will directly benefit more than 1.75 lakh employees currently covered under NPS. In addition to this, 1.26 lakh employees are already covered under the existing OPS.

The scheme is aimed at safeguarding the future of government employees and recognising their contribution towards the state. In order to ensure that the scheme being introduced is financially sustainable for the exchequer in the future also, the government will be contributing proactively towards creation of a pension corpus which will service the pension in future to the beneficiaries of the scheme.

This contribution towards the pension corpus will be Rs 1,000 crore per annum initially and will gradually increase in future.

Besides, the current accumulated corpus with NPS is Rs 16,746 crore for which the state will request Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of the government of India to refund this amount for effective utilisation at its end.

--IANS
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Chennai, Nov 18 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has requested External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to take steps for the release of Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday night.

In a letter sent to the Minister on Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said, "The Sri Lankan Navy's continued acts of infringement upon the traditional rights of our fishermen in the Palk Bay seems to pose a challenge to India. I request that diplomatic steps be taken so that such an incident does not recur."

Stalin said that even after repeated appeals and representation and intervention from India, the Sri Lankan Navy continued with the arrest of Indian fishermen, mostly from Tamil Nadu. The Chief Minister said that around 100 mechanised boats are impounded by the Sri Lankan Navy.

He also said that the arrest of Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu and impounding of boats by the Sri Lankan Navy has shattered the lives of many people across the coastal belt of Tamil Nadu.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Nov 18 (IANS) With the arrest of six people, the Karnataka police on Friday claimed to have busted an antique smuggling racket here and seized 7.5 kilograms of 21 articles made in ancient ivory.

Those arrested have been identified as Himmat Singh from Haryana, Praveen Sambiyal from Punjab, Abdul Kayoom and Mohammad Rafeeq from Mysuru, Mohammad Israr aka Babu and Amjad Pasha from Bengaluru.

According to police, the accused were arrested in Bengaluru while waiting in a car for customers. "The articles were carved out of ancient ivory of elephants, prices of which cannot be evaluated in terms of money," they said.

The antique articles include knife with ivory handle, door handles of different designs, statues of elephants, walking sticks, 20 erotic art works based on Kama sutra and another amber art piece where scorpion is embossed alive.

The case is being detected by Bengaluru City Central Crime Branch (CCB) Women Protection Wing. The Bengaluru Police Commissioner Pratap Reddy has appreciated the efforts of the police in detaining the gang.

Further investigation is on.

--IANS
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Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Nov 18 (IANS) A Lingayat seer has embarked on a door-to-door campaign to raise funds for a school building in Ghattaraga village on the banks of river Bhima near Afzalpur in this district.

Dr Shivananda Mahaswami, attached to Sonnda Mutt, has taken a lead to collect funds for the school by knocking every door.

The present high school building is on the verge of collapse.

Though the ruling BJP government has released funds for rebuilding, but as the land belongs to the Muzrai department, the construction is not allowed. Though the villagers tried to bring this technical impediment to the notice of authorities on many occasions, their problem was not addressed.

According to the villagers, they had planned a procession to meet the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, when he recently visited Kalaburagi. But the district administration assured them of looking into the matter and got the procession plans cancelled. However, later, they conveniently forgot the matter.

Later, the villagers approached Dr Mahaswami with the same request which he readily accepted and started the "Akshara Jolige" campaign urging people to donate for knowledge.

Dr Mahaswamy has been visiting houses of people in the region with the villagers. The people cutting across the lines of castes and religion are welcoming swamiji and donating whatever they can after offering him pada pooja (feet worship of guru).

The villagers explained that through this initiative more than Rs 25 lakh had been collected. Local Congress MLA M.Y. Patil had agreed to donate one acre of land and many have come forward to offer donations.

The campaign will be run for two more days and it is aimed to collect Rs 60 lakh donations. The villagers are also organizing religious programmes to collect funds.

Dr Mahaswamiji stated that the initiative aims at purchasing a total of five acres of land. The villagers plan to build a school campus on three acres and two acres will be handed over to the Revenue department for construction of other buildings.

The present school building is located in the jurisdiction of Muzrai department and they are not allowing construction of new buildings. The children are facing problems in learning in a dilapidated building, hence donations are collected from devotees, swamji explained.

Ghattaraga village has no government land and land needs to be purchased from private parties. Kalaburagi Deputy Director for Public Instruction (DDPI) stated that there is no provision to purchase land for schools. If anyone hands over the land, the schools will be named after them.

At a time when disturbing incidents are being reported from across the state, the initiative by all villagers under the leadership of seer is being appreciated.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS) Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 3 national highway (NH) projects worth Rs 1,206 Crore in Siliguri on Thursday.

Addressing the gathering, Gadkari said that the inaugurated projects include 2-lane ROB in replacement of Level Crossing at km 615.5 of NH-31 (Oodlabari) and would give significant boost to international connectivity and ROB in lieu of Level Crossing at km 661.100 on NH-31 (Maynaguri). He said that it would help reduce accidents due to improved safety features and bring down travelling time and distance.

Gadkari said that the development of these projects will lead to industrial and economic growth in West Bengal as well as in the eastern parts of India with significant inroads towards the agriculture sector.

Giving a major fillip to traffic decongestion in Siliguri, the foundation stone was laid on Thursday for the development to 4/6-laning of NH-31 (New NH-10) with both side service roads from km 569.258 to km 581.030 (end of AH-02 project on NH- 31 near Shivmandir to Sevoke Army Cantonment). It would boost connectivity to North Eastern India & neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Nov 17 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday announced that he will order a comprehensive probe into the alleged voters' data theft scandal and maintained that the Congress' demand for him to resign was "ridiculous".

Reacting to the party's allegations of stealing voters' data for political gains, Bommai said that Congress has gone bankrupt with ideas.

"Let the truth come out. I am handing over the case for a comprehensive probe. Right from the first direction of the Election Commission, everything will be probed," he said.

The Chief Minister said that Election Commission will give responsibility to undertake a sweep programme for local organisations and BBMP.

In turn they will hand over the work to NGOs and this is not the first time that NGOs are given such work. It was also given in during the tenure of Congress in 2018.

Regarding the demands of his resignation, Bommai stated that if that was the case, the Congress Chief Ministers should have tendered their resignations thrice.

"This is a baseless allegation," he added.

Meanwhile, a Congress delegation met the Commissioner of Bengaluru Pratap Reddy and submitted a complaint against Bommai and others regarding the scandal.

The Congress has alleged that the ruling BJP government is stealing the data of voters and indulging in election fraud through a private agency.

The party accused Chief Minister Bommai, BBMP Special Commissioner Tushar Girinath and the Election Commission of operating as one team to steal voters' data.

It further charged that the BJP workers in the state have been roped in to manipulate electoral rolls.

The BJP workers have been hired on contract basis by a private agency, given identity cards by the authorities to carry out the fraud, according to the BJP.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Nov 17 (IANS) The Congress unit in Karnataka on Thursday alleged voter ID scam by the state's ruling BJP and demanded Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's resignation, as well as a probe into the scam by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka.

In a joint press conference at the KPCC headquarters in Bengaluru, the state's party in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, opposition leader Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar said that they would lodge a criminal complaint regarding the matter.

"The government is stealing the data of voters. The ruling BJP is indulging in election fraud through a private agency. Bommai, in-charge minister, BBMP Special Commissioner Tushar Girinath and the Election Commission are operating as one team to steal voters' data," Surjewala stated.

Shivakumar charged that thousands of BJP workers in the state have been roped in to manipulate electoral rolls.

"The BJP workers have been hired on contract basis by a private agency, given identity cards by the authorities to carry out the process of voter ID renewal," he charged.

In Bengaluru alone, about 17,000 to 18,000 such identity cards are given, he said, adding that the BJP workers are going door to door and mapping the voters.

"They are marking empty houses, studying voters' political affiliations and coming up with a voters' list to win elections."

Article 324, 325, 326 of the Indian Constitution and Section 28 of Representation of People's Act specify that only the government officers can carry out the task of handling issues related to voters list, Shivakumar said and added that the rules have been violated by ruling BJP and bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah claimed that all this is being done on the behest of the Chief Minister.

"He (Bommai) should be arrested. He should resign as he has no moral right to continue as he is at the helm of affairs. This kind of conspiracy, theft never happened by the Chief Minister himself in the history of Karnataka," he said.

KPCC Campaign Committee Chairman and MLA, M.B. Patil said that initially it was done in Mahadevapura constituency in Bengaluru.

"Now, BJP has taken the exercise in the entire Bengaluru and all 224 Assembly constituencies of the state."

Shivakumar further alleged that through the fraud ways, the votes of minorities, SC/STs and Other Backward Classes were being taken out of voters list.

"The BJP workers are mapping political inclinations and taking out their names or shifting their names to other wards. Voters from other constituencies are being brought and settled in empty houses to aid BJP candidates."

He demanded that thousands of BJP workers who were given identity cards by the government should be arrested, and complete data collected should be sieged.

"Who permitted a private entity to act on behalf of election commission and BBMP? How the government orders dated January 29 and August 28 were issued giving authorisation to this private entity?

"Why was an advertisement not ordered to be issued by Bommai who is also in-charge minister, BBMP or the Election Authority before giving the election work to a private party?" Surjewala queried.

"How was a private entity permitted to collect personal voter information like caste, religion, gender, mother tongue, marital status, Aadhaar number, phone number, address, voter id number, email address of voters? Is it not a clear cut theft bridge of privacy and fraud played upon innocent voters?

"Can personal data of voters uploaded by a private entity authorised by the government on its private app digital Samiksha, which supposedly is used by political parties MP, MLA, corporators and aspirants for political usage on payment?" he further questioned.

--IANS
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Meerut, Nov 17 (IANS) Two labourers from West Bengal were killed and six others injured after an under-construction electricity tower collapsed on them in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut.

The incident took place on Wednesday in the outskirts of Ajrana village under the Mundali police circle.

The deceased have been identified as Mohd Hasrat, 25, and Mohd Azmal, 24, both residents of Gouripur area of Bengal's Malda district.

All injured persons also belong to West Bengal.

According to the police, the incident occurred when top part of the tower was being assembled and the process of laying an electricity line from Kasauti to Gulawathi area in Bulandshahr was in progress .

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem.

SSP Rohit Singh Sajwan said: "A probe is being conducted. Further action will be taken on the basis of the report."

--IANS
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Lucknow, Nov 17 (IANS) A four-month-old infant suffering from a rare congenital condition called congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), successfully underwent a complex surgery at the King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow.

The baby, a resident of Rae Bareli, was operated upon on November 10 and discharged on Wednesday.

He was experiencing breathing difficulties was brought to the paediatric department of KGMU on November 9.

The examination revealed left side of the boy's diaphragm was not developed properly. Due to this, the small intestine of the boy compressed lungs, making breathing difficult.

"A microscope was put in his chest to perform reconstruction of diaphragm," said Dr J.D. Rawat from the paediatric department.

He said such rare congenital anomalies occurs in one out of every 10,000-15,000 live births and major challenge was to give anaesthesia as lung was already compromised.

"We were not sure whether he will be able to come out of unconsciousness and will be stable after the surgery. However, the surgery was successful and the child is stable and recovering well," he added.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Nov 16 (IANS) The Karnataka government is preparing to clamp down on the unethical practice of conducting unnecessary C-section deliveries in government hospitals, Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K. Sudhakar said on Wednesday.

"A committee will be formed to monitor and check unnecessary C-section deliveries in district and taluka government hospitals," he told the media in Tumkur.

Noting that C-section deliveries should generally remain within 20-40 per cent of the total deliveries, the minister said that such operations should not be recommended in cases where normal delivery is feasible.

"If this is being deliberately done we will take strict action to stop this. The District Surgeon should have a weekly meeting with all department heads on every Friday and address any issues that they may be facing. DC is also being directed to regularly visit district hospitals," he said.

The minister said that 438 Namma Clinics are being established in the state and 288 of them are ready.

"The CM will dedicate the Namma Clinics to public this month and Tumkur will get 10 Namma Clinics. The women clinics will be named Ayushmati Clinic," he said. The namma clinics are neighbourhood clinics fashioned on the lines of the Mohalla clinics in Delhi.

Sudhakar also handed over a cheque of Rs 10 Lakh to the elder daughter of the pregnant woman who lost her life after she was denied treatment in the Tumkur district hospital. The woman was turned away from the hospital for not possessing identity documents. She later died while giving birth to her twin boys at her home. "The amount will be kept as a fixed deposit which can be used for her future after the girl attains 18 years," the minister said.

--IANS
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