Top Stories

Hyderabad, Sep 15 (IANS) Women leaders and workers of the BJP on Thursday took out a bike rally from Bhagyalaxmi temple at historic Charminar as part of Hyderabad Liberation Day celebrations.

Holding national flags and raising slogans, the participants on motor bikes marched from the historic monument to the Assembly where they offered tributes to India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Union minister for tourism and culture G. Kishan Reddy led the rally, which was organised by the BJP Mahila Morcha.

The rally passed through the busy Gulzar Houz, Patthergatti, Madina Circle, Nayapul, Afzalgunj, Siddi Amber Bazar, Moazzam Jahi Market and Nampally to reach Sardar Patel's statue in front of the Assembly building.

Kishan Reddy and other BJP leaders garlanded the statue of Sardar Patel and paid homage to him.

Union ministry of culture is organizing Hyderabad Liberation Day celebrations on a grand scale to mark 75 years of the accession of erstwhile Hyderabad State with the Indian Union.

The bike rally was part of the year-long celebrations which kicked off on Wednesday with Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan inaugurating a photo and art exhibition.

The exhibition showcases archival images associated with the erstwhile Hyderabad State and its unification with India on September 17, 1948.

The main event will be held on September 17 at Parade Grounds in Secunderabad where Union Home Minister Amit Shah will hoist the national flag and review a parade.

Personnel of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Rapid Action Force (RAF) and other central armed police forces were rehearsing for the parade.

Meanwhile, Telangana Legislative Council chairman Gutta Sukhender Reddy has alleged that certain forces were trying to create communal hatred in the name of Hyderabad Liberation Day celebrations.

Without naming anyone, he remarked that individuals holding Constitutional posts were also participating in the attempts to vitiate the atmosphere.

The government of Telangana has announced that the occasion will be celebrated as national integration day. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will hoist the national flag and address the people to launch year-long celebrations.

The state government also plans rallies by students, youth and women on September 16. A big procession is also planned in Hyderabad the next day culminating in a public meeting at NTR Stadium. The public meeting will be addressed by the chief minister and other leaders.

--IANS
ms/dpb

Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 15 (IANS) The Allahabad High Court has said that every prisoner has a fundamental right to file the bail application without delay.

The court granted bail to a person who had been languishing in jail and could not approach the court as he was financially weak and abandoned by his family after his imprisonment.

Making these observations, Justice Ajay Bhanot granted bail to one Anil Gaur a.k.a. Sonu, against whom murder case had been registered at police station Neodiya of Jaunpur district and was in jail since December 6, 2017.

According to counsel for the applicant, the applicant was not named in the FIR. There was no direct evidence against the applicant and he had no motive to commit the murder.

At best, it is a case of circumstantial evidence, he contended.

"The failure of justice in the said cases was occasioned by poverty, social exclusion, legal illiteracy, impersonal administration and denial of legal aid. Exactions of poverty are more severe than punishments in law. For them the glorious dawn of the 75th year of Independence has lost the sheen of freedom's ideals and the substance of the republic's promise," observed the court while granting bail to the applicant.

"Injustice is the birthmark of a slave nation. Justice is the birth right of a free people and our constitution says they shall have it," the court remarked.

The court also took note of the fact that there are several cases where bail applications were filed after inordinate delays because the prisoners did not have access to legal aid.

Taking a note of it, the court further observed, "The courts, too, have a duty to ensure that prisoners appearing in criminal proceedings have access to legal aid. Courts cannot remain mute spectators when legal aid is denied to prisoners in legal proceedings before them."

As per the applicant, he did not have access to legal aid to file his bail applications in a timely manner before the trial court as well as high court.

The counsel for the applicant submitted that the right of the applicant to legal aid is a fundamental right and is also a statutory right vested in him by the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.

In its decision dated September 12, the high court found that the applicant was in jail since December 6, 2017. He was able to file a bail application before the trial court in 2019, even after a delay of more than one year.

He could approach the high court for bail only in 2022 -- three years after the trial court refused him the bail.

--IANS
amita/dpb

Amman, Sep 15 (IANS) The death toll in a residential building collapse in Jordan's capital Amman rose to eight, the Public Security Department (PSD) said in a statement.

The building collapsed on Tuesday.

Rescue work is still going on, the PSD added, noting that an infant and an injured person in his 50s were pulled out from the rubble of the collapsed building and transferred to the hospital.

So far, 16 people have been injured due to the collapse, the state-run Petra news agency reported.

The Director of Civil Defence Brigadier General Hatem Jaber told Xinhua on Wednesday that rescue teams are still operating at full capacity to reach all people under the rubble, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Wednesday, the Amman Prosecutor General ordered the detention of three people pending investigation in the building collapse case.

The three include the person responsible for supervising the property, a maintenance supervisor and a maintenance technician, Petra reported.

King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday directed PSD Director Major General Obaidallah Maaytah to ensure the utmost efforts to continue rescuing those trapped under the rubble.

--IANS
int/khz/

Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 15 (IANS) Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur district made a group of Muslim pilgrims from West Bengal apologise for offering namaz by the roadside before they were allowed to continue their journey to Ajmer Sharif Dargah (Rajasthan).

A video clip, purportedly of the incident, showed some men holding their ears in a gesture of apology. A couple of them were seen doing sit-ups.

The incident took place earlier this week.

Superintendent of Police (Shahjahanpur), S. Anand confirmed that a few people from West Bengal travelling to Rajasthan in a bus were found offering namaz on the road under Tilhar police station limits in Shahjahanpur.

The Muslim pilgrims were issued challans and then left for their journey ahead, he added.

Additional Superintendent of Police, Sanjeev Vajpayee, told reporters, "Eighteen people, who were on their way to Ajmer Sharif Dargah, were brought to the Tilhar police station with the complaint that they were offering namaz on the roadside. These people were released after they gave a written apology and were issued a challan."

Local VHP leader Rajesh Awasthi, who reported the matter to police, said, "I was on my way to some place when I saw some men offering namaz on the roadside."

Awasthi added that he told them that they were in Uttar Pradesh, where offering namaz in the open was prohibited.

In a video that surfaced on social media, the VHP members were purportedly heard asking some passengers of a bus to hold their ears and apologise.

--IANS
amita/khz/

Geneva, Sep 15 (IANS) The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that future coronavirus waves are expected and that governments across the world need to remain vigilant and ready to respond to any threat that may emerge.

"We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.

According to the WHO, during the week of September 5-11, the number of new weekly cases worldwide decreased by 28 per cent over the previous week to more than 3.1 million. The number of new weekly deaths was down 22 per cent to just under 11,000.

Tedros likened the pandemic response to a marathon race.

"Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work."

Nevertheless, the WHO's experts continue to urge caution, Xinhua news agency reported.

The virus is "circulating at a very intense level around the world at the present time. And, in fact, the number of cases that are being reported to the WHO we know are an underestimate," Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said.

"We feel there are far more cases that are actually circulating than are being reported to us," she added.

"We expect there to be future waves of infection, potentially at different time points throughout the world, caused by different subvariants of Omicron or even different variants of concern," she noted.

Those future waves of infection "do not need to translate into future waves of death, because we have tools that can prevent infections," she said.

Even as the pandemic wanes, people should maintain high levels of vigilance, said Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme.

The world is fighting "a highly mutable evolving virus that has shown us, time and time again in two-and-a-half years, how it can adapt and how it can change," Ryan added.

--IANS
int/khz/

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) The reconstituted National Medical Device Promotion Council (NMDPC) under the Department of Pharmaceuticals held its first meeting in New Delhi and was updated on the steps taken up by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and the state licensing authorities for the smooth transition to licensing of class-A and class-B medical devices from October 1.

The NMDPC deliberated on the important issues of the Medtech (medical technology) industry.

The Council under the chair of the Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, has members from stakeholder departments, organisations, functions of which have a bearing on the growth of the sector and has representation from several medical device industry associations, representing the sector in India.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals presented the latest status of the various initiatives taken by it for the sector to the Council such as 100 per cent FDI in MedTech sector on automatic route, PLI scheme for medical devices, medical devices parks in four states, assistance for common infrastructure facility of superconducting magnetic coil testing facility, etc.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare (DoHFW) updated the preparedness for transition to licensing of class-A and class-B medical devices from October 1 under Medical Devices Rules, 2017. The Council appreciated the various efforts done by the CDSCO/DoHFW in rolling out the licensing process of class-A and class-B medical devices.

The Council also heard the views of the industry as well as AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) on the requirement of NABL accreditation of in-house laboratories of the manufacturers of specific medical devices on the radiation safety requirements at the manufacturing sites. The industry suggested various issues to be taken up in the subsequent Council meeting.

The Industry Associations' representatives were encouraged to actively engage with states, which were sanctioned medical devices parks by the Department of Pharmaceuticals for creating common infrastructure facilities and come forward to invest in the proposed parks to boost domestic manufacturing.

The industry's support was also solicited for the proposed National MedTech Expo, 2022, being organised by the Department in December 2022 at New Delhi's Pragati Maidan to showcase the strengths and capabilities of Indian medical devices industry involving start-ups, innovators, domestic manufacturers, hospitals etc.

--IANS
avr/khz/

New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez and Pinky Irani got involved in a heated exchange of words during the course of questioning in connection with the Rs 200 crore extortion-cum-cheating case involving multimillionaire conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar.

According to the police, Mumbai-based Irani was a friend of Chandrashekhar who had introduced him to Jacqueline.

Both were summoned by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police to join the investigation and get their statements recorded before the agency.

When the EOW team questioned Jacqueline seperately, she reportedly gave the 'right' answers to most of the questions, while giving misleading answers to a few.

As soon as the EOW confronted her with Irani, both started fighting. Now Jacqueline is expected to be summoned again next week. Sources said the EOW is now satisfied with all of Jacqueline's answers.

In the afternoon, the EOW officials had told her that she was free to go to her hotel for lunch, which she denied and instead had lunch at the police canteen.

"We have asked her to prepare a list of gifts which Chandrashekhar gave her," an official said.

--IANS
atk/arm

New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) The Supreme Court was on Wednesday told that economic criteria cannot be the sole basis to identify backwardness of a class because economic backwardness is a consequence and social and educational backwardness the cause for it.

The submission was made to a five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit, which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging validity of the 103rd constitutional amendment to provide a 10 per cent quota to economically weaker sections (EWS) in government jobs and admissions.

It was argued that the reservation under Article 15(6) and Article 16(6) is ultra vires to Article 14 as well as Article 15(4)(5), 16(4) (4A), as the reservation to the economically weaker section, ultimately, protects the interest of the general category.

It was also argued that the unequal classes in whose favour reservation is given under Article 15(4)(5) and Article 16 will be treated equally with privileged general category candidates in the matter of admission of educational institutions as well as in matters of employment, which violates Article 14 of the Constitution.

The 103rd Constitution Amendment Act, Article 15(6) and 16(6) was added in the Constitution giving reservation to the EWS of the society who are not covered by Article 15(4), (5).

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, representing some petitioners, submitted that the amendments are ultra vires to the Constitution as it violates the ceiling cap of maximum 50 per cent seats to be reserved under for the underprivileged class, as laid down in M.R.Balaji Vs State of Mysore (1963), which was affirmed by the Supreme Court in Indra Sahney's case, while holding that no provision of reservation or preference can be so vigorously pursued as to destroy the very concept of equality.

Khurshid submitted that the "class of economic weaker section" is already included in the "classes" who are protected under clause (4)(5) of Article 15 because the 'social backwardness' is the cause and not the consequence of the economic, educational, and political backwardness in society.

He submitted that the general bourgeoisie class which constitute only 30 per cent of the whole population already have 50 per cent of seats which are unreserved in which persons belonging to the classes mentioned under clauses (4)(5) cannot compete due the lack of standard of facilities and resources to which the general bourgeoisie class have privilege to avail.

Senior advocates Khurshid, and P. Wilson and advocate Ravi Verma Kumar made submission before the top court.

The bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S. Ravindra Bhat, Bela M. Trivedi, and J.B. Pardiwala, will continue to hear arguments on Thursday.

A three-judge bench of the apex court in August 2020, had referred the pleas questioning its validity to the Constitution bench. The Centre had earlier told the apex court that a 10 per cent EWS quota was introduced to promote social equality by providing equal opportunities in higher education and employment to those who were excluded due to their economic status.

--IANS
ss/vd

Hyderabad, Sep 14 (IANS) The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Telangana Police have set up a Joint Task Force camp at Chennapuram near the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border for anti-Maoist operations.

CRPF Director General Kuldiep Singh and Telangana DGP M. Mahendar Reddy on Wednesday inaugurated the Joint Task Force camp at Chennapuram in Bhadradri Kothagudem district.

The camp will be used by teams of the CoBRA, District Reserve Guard (DRG), and the Greyhounds as a launch base for anti-Maoist operations, according to a statement from the DGP's office here. The camp will prove to be a milestone in the penultimate battle against the Maoists, it added.

Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) is anti-Maoist battalion of the CRPF. The DRG is a unit of Chhattisgarh Police engaged in operations against Maoists. Greyhounds is the elite anti-Maoist force of Telangana Police.

The Joint Task Force camp is part of the coordination between the states and the CRPF in tackling Maoists.

This is likely to help all the three forces to carry out coordinated operations against Maoists on the border between Telangana and Chhattisgarh.

Though the Maoist violence has drastically come down in Telangana in recent years, the area near Chattisgarh border has been witnessing some Maoist activity. Telangana Police have stepped up the vigil to stop Maoists from crossing over into the state from Chhattisgarh.

--IANS
ms/vd

New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) after conducting raids at multiple locations belonging to payment gateways i.e Paytm and PayU in connection with a case of Chinese Loan apps, asked Paytm to freeze certain amounts from a few Merchant IDs (MIDs).

Sources said the raids were conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Lucknow and Kolkata.

The ED has not given any official comment on the matter.

On September 3, raids were conducted at the premises belonging to online payments gateways including Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments and Paytm Payment Services Ltd.

A Paytm spokesperson said that as part of the ongoing investigations of a specific set of merchants, the ED has sought information regarding such merchants to whom we provide payment processing solutions.

"These merchants are independent entities, and none of them are our group entities. We are, and will continue to, fully cooperate with the authorities, and all the directive actions are being duly complied with," said the Paytm spokesperson.

The ED has instructed Paytm to freeze certain amounts from the Merchant IDs of a specific set of merchant entities (as mentioned by the ED in its press release).

"None of the funds which have been instructed to be frozen belong to Paytm or any of our group companies. As we have mentioned before, ED continues to seek information about certain merchants from various payment service providers, and we have shared the required information," the Paytm spokesperson said.

What is the case?

The case is based on 18 FIRs registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station, Bengaluru City, against numerous persons for their involvement in extortion and harassment of the public who had availed small loans through the mobile apps being run by those entities.

"During enquiries, it had emerged that these entities are operated by Chinese persons. The modus operandi of these entities is that by using forged documents of Indians and making them dummy directors of those entities, they are generating proceeds of crime," the ED said.

The ED had said that it has come to its notice that the entities were conducting their suspected business through various Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/banks.

The premises of Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, Paytm Payment Services Ltd and entities controlled/operated by Chinese persons were covered in the search operations.

"During the search operations, it was noticed that the said entities were generating proceeds of crime through various Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/banks and they are also not operating from the addresses given on the MCA website/registered address and having fake addresses. An amount of Rs 17 crore has been seized in merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities," the ED official had said.

Meanwhile, a Razorpay spokesperson had said "Some of our merchants were being investigated by law enforcement about a year and a half back. As part of the ongoing investigation, the authorities requested additional information to help with the investigation. We have fully cooperated and shared KYC and other details. The authorities were satisfied by our due diligence process."

The search operations are in progress.

--IANS
atk/bg