Page 142 - Social Issues
Aurangabad DCCB chairman kills self
Congress leader and Aurangabad District Credit Cooperative Bank (ADCCB) chairman Suresh Patil allegedly committed suicide Monday by consuming poison, police said. Patil, 78, has named two activists of Congress for driving him to take the extreme step, a police official said quoting a suicide note purportedly written by the ADCCB chairman. The incident came to light this afternoon when family members of Patil saw him lying unconscious at their Samarth Nagar residence, a Kranti Chowk police official said, adding that Patil was frothing from his mouth. He was shifted to a nearby private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival, he said. Patil has been the chairman of the ADCCB for more than 40 years. His son Nitin Patil had represented Kannad assembly constituency in Aurangabad district. The official said the exact trigger behind Patil's suicide will be knwon after investigation.
Delhi govt plans to operationalise 250-300 'mohalla clinics' by March: Outcome Budget
The AAP government has projected to operationalise 250-300 'mohalla clinics' by March, the Outcome Budget of Delhi government, tabled in the Assembly on Monday stated. The second Outcome Budget of 2018-19 up to December 31, which was tabled by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Assembly, also stated that the city government's expenditure on health "grew faster than both its historical pace and the national average". "The availability of beds in hospitals of Delhi is being enhanced through remodelling and construction of new hospitals," it stated. As many as 189 'mohalla clinics' have been built till December 2018 with plans for 1,000 such facilities to be built cumulatively. The Outcome Budget stated that 250-300 'mohalla clinics' are projected to be operationalised by March 2019. The average capital expenditure per newly built mohalla clinic is Rs 20 lakh and on an average it handles 94 patients per day, it stated. A mohalla clinic is a neighbourhood facility for ...
India will not allow abuse of data to influence elections: Prasad
Social media platforms are welcome to do business in India, which celebrates freedom of ideas, but New Delhi will not tolerate any abuse of data to influence elections nor allow data imperialism, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Monday. The comments come at a time when the social media platforms have come under government scrutiny over privacy concerns and potential for their misuse ahead of general elections slated to be held by May. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has summoned Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram officials on March 6, even as it held a three-and-a half-hour long meeting with Global Vice President of Public Policy for Twitter on Monday on the issue of safeguarding citizen rights on social/online news media platforms. Refusing to be drawn into a discussion on parliamentary panel's ongoing deliberations with social media companies, Prasad said, "All social media platforms are welcome to do business in India because India offers a big, ...
Tripura Budget: Hike in social pension, free smartphones for
The Tripura government on Monday announced a hike in social pensions and other schemes, including providing free smartphones for graduates, subsidised sugar and formation of more self-help groups. Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, while presenting the state budget for the fiscal 2019-20, said the social pensions will be increased from Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 per month in the first phase for certain categories of beneficiaries. In his budget speech, the minister said sugar at subsidised rates will be supplied to households under all categories in the next financial year. Free smart phones will also be provided to students completing their graduation, he said. Dev Varma said under the Mini Dairy scheme of NABARD, 10,000 cows (2 cows per family) to women members of 5,000 families will be provided to give a boost to milk production in the state, for which the Tripura government shall provide 100 per cent interest subvention. A total of 1,867 check dams will be constructed, .
Rehabilitation homes: SC asks Chief Secys of all states to hold meeting with health ministry
The Supreme Court on Monday directed chief secretaries of all the states and Union Territories to hold a meeting in four weeks with the Union health secretary to chalk out a road map for setting up rehabilitation homes for people who have recovered from mental illness and are fit to go home but are languishing in hospitals. A bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta directed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to appoint a nodal officer to conduct the meeting. The court, while was hearing a petition filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, directed all the states and UTs to provide full data to the Ministry of Home Affairs on the status of mentally ill patients who are now fit to go home but are unable to do so. It said that the data provided by the states must include roadmap regarding setting up for rehabilitation homes and based on it the Union ministry will prepare a report to be submitted in apex court before the next date of hearing. The court warned that non
Nine detained for creating chaos in J-K's Rajouri
Nine youths were taken into custody on Monday for resorting to sloganeering and creating chaos in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, officials said. A group of nine youths, including some college students, appeared at Gujjar Mandi chowk in the Rajouri city and resorted to sloganeering and creating chaos thereby spreading panic among the people, they said. They had not taken any permission from the authorities concerned for holding any protest. The sudden sloganeering spread chaos and panic among the people, the officials said. Acting swiftly, a team of police headed by SHO Rajouri Ajaz Haider rushed to the spot took all the nine youths into preventive custody, they said.
Outcome budget: Delhi govt yet to realise target of building 8 old age homes
The Delhi government has almost completed the construction of an old age home and begun the work for another till December 2018 against the target of building eight old age homes in the city, according to the Delhi government's Outcome Budget 2018-19. The Outcome Budget 2018-19 was presented by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Assembly Monday. The report also said over four lakh senior citizens were provided monthly old age pensions till December 2018, an increase of 1.36 per cent from 2017-18. It said old age pensions in the national capital were the "highest" in the country, with an increase in number of beneficiaries and pension amount. The old age pension was disbursed to about 4.42 lakh senior citizens till December 2018 against about 4.38 lakh in 2017-18, the report said. Senior citizens in the age group of 60-69 years are provided Rs 2,000 as pension against Rs 1,000 before 2017, while those above 70 years get Rs 2,500 as pension. "Old age pension is the ...
17 lakh names deleted from electoral rolls in Maharashtra
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has deleted as many as 17 lakh names from the voters' list in Maharashtra after revision ahead of the polls, an official said Monday. Some of these names were registered multiple times or the concerned voters had died, he said. More names were likely to be deleted in the coming weeks as the process of authentication of voters was underway, the ECI official said. It was an ongoing process but picked up pace in the last one year ahead of the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections, he said. "The special drive started in January last year and around 17 lakh names were found either entered multiple times or the person was dead and the name was not removed from the list," he said. It was also found that names of many married women, who had relocated, were not deleted from the voters' list at their native places. At times, the changed names of married women were included in the lists at their relocated places without getting it ...
FCI Aravali Gypsum to set up Rs 605-cr white cement plant in Himachal
FCI Aravali Gypsum and Minerals India Ltd (FAGMIL) will set up a white cement plant in Himachal Pradesh at a cost of Rs 605 crore. The installed capacity of the plant would be 0.3 million tonne per annum and it will generate the direct employment of about 150 persons, according to an official statement. This white cement plant, which will be the fourth in the country, is expected to start operations by 2022. FAGMIL has taken up a project to establish a white cement plant near village Nohra Dhar in Sirmour district, Himachal Pradesh, at a project cost of about Rs 605 crore, the statement said. An MOU was signed on Monday in Shimla by Alka Tiwari, Chairperson and Managing Director, FAGMIL; and Manoj Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Himachal Pradesh, in the presence of state Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. FAGMIL is a central undertaking, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. It is engaged in mining and marketing of mineral gypsum ..
Jhola Phatak tragedy: Family members protest against Punjab govt
Family members of the victims of Jhola Phatak train tragedy protested against alleged betrayal by the Punjab government here on Monday.They were protesting against unfulfilment of the promises made by the state government such as jobs for the victims' families.The demonstrators shouted slogans against Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.The protesters were also seen carrying banners against the Minister and his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu."The government had promised to give jobs to the next of kin of those killed in the tragedy and bear all the expenses for treatment of the injured. However, it washed its hand off after giving Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased," alleged one of the protestors. He further complained that the treatment for the injured has cost lakhs of rupees."The government said that it would take care of the children of the victims but it didn't do so," said another protester.The accident took place in Choura Bazar near .
Turkey renews criticism of China over Uighur minority
Turkey has renewed its unusual criticism of China's treatment of its Muslim minority group, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu calling on the country to make a distinction "between terrorists and innocent people." In an address to a UN Human Rights Council meeting on Monday, Cavusoglu said Turkey recognised "China's right to combat terrorism," but urged the country to respect freedom of religion and to safeguard Uighurs' and other Muslims' cultural identities. Turkey, which shares cultural and religious ties with the Uighurs, has been the only majority Muslim country to criticize Beijing over a wide-ranging crackdown of religion and minority languages. The Foreign Ministry called China's treatment of Uighurs "a great cause of shame for humanity." Cavusoglu in his speech also criticised Israel, saying human rights violations against Palestinians have "reached an alarming level.
Digital interventions have huge potential for supporting universal health coverage: Nadda
Digital interventions have a huge potential for supporting universal health coverage, to which the government is committed, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said Monday. Speaking at the inauguration of the 4th Global Digital Health Partnership Summit here, Nadda said the entire healthcare system in India and the world was undergoing a rapid transformation. "The way we know of healthcare being delivered and accessed is poised to change for better. Digital health interventions are accelerating this transformation. It has a huge potential for supporting universal health coverage (UHC) for which the Government of India is committed," he said. Union Minister of Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad and health ministers from several countries attended the event. Prasad spoke about the use of technological innovations in transforming healthcare and highlighted various initiatives of the government towards digital healthcare. He said that India is ...
Tax free, deficit-less Rs 17,530 cr budget presented in Tripura
Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma on Monday presented a Rs 17,530.46 crore tax-free budget for 2019-20, containing several new schemes including providing two cows per family to raise milk production, free bicycles to girl students and a monthly payment to families with houses on roads to plant trees.
Deaf youth protesting in Pune allege police baton-charge
Several deaf youth protesting in Pune against the issuance of disability certificates to ineligible persons were Monday subjected to a baton charge, organisers alleged, though police claimed it was "mild force" to restrain them. Over 11,000 deaf youth had assembled in front of the Social Welfare Commissionerate in Pune on Monday afternoon when the incident happened, Pradip More, secretary, State Level Association of the Deaf (SLAD), said through an interpreter. He said their demands included the right to quality education, provision of trained interpreters for deaf students and stopping fraudulent distribution of disability certificates to able-bodied persons. "When we tried to take out a rally, the police ordered a lathi-charge in which several of our protesters were injured. They also detained some of the youth," More alleged. An official from Bund Garden police station, however, claimed the assembled youth tried to take out a rally and block the road despite having ..
Imran Khan allows registered Afghan refugees to open bank accounts in Pak
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday asked authorities to allow legally registered Afghan refugees to open bank accounts and become part of the country's formal economy. Around three million Afghan refugees are living in Pakistan and about half of them are registered as refugees and allowed legally to live and work while others are unregistered and considered illegal foreigners. "I have issued instructions today that Afghan refugees who are registered can open bank accounts and from now onwards they can participate in the formal economy of the country," Khan tweeted. He said this should have been done a long time ago. Majority of Afghan refugees fled to Pakistan in 1980s after the Soviet invasion of their country. Pakistan has been working with UNHCR for their repatriation but the plan to resettle them is slow as the refugees are not willing to go back due to security reasons. Khan started debate about giving citizenship to these refugees after he came to power last year.
Haryana Budget brings social security cover for farmers, workers
The Haryana government Monday announced new schemes to provide financial and social security cover to families of farmers and those of workers in the unorganised sector ahead of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls. Presenting a Rs 1.32 lakh crore budget for 2019-20, State Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said the government has not only tried to give impetus to economic growth but also tried to stabilise and strengthen the financial structure of the state. The budget, which did not propose any new tax, has a total outlay of Rs 1,32,165.99 crore, 14.73 per cent more than the budget for 2018-19. The major thrust of the budget for next fiscal is on sectors like education, health, rural development, skill development and industrial training, agriculture and allied activities. The minister said the BJP government in the state proposes new schemes to provide financial and social security cover to families of farmers in possession of land of up to five acres and for the families of ...
Prince Harry and wife Meghan visit equine center in Morocco
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have traveled to one of Morocco's most prestigious equestrian clubs to learn about how therapy using horses can benefit children with disabilities. The couple walked hand-in-hand as they arrived at the Royal Equestrian Sports Complex in Rabat on Monday. The royal pair walked past horses in a stable block and reached out to stroke the animals. Harry and Meghan will later watch children make pancakes using a recipe from the cookbook "Together: Our Community Cookbook." Meghan was the driving force behind the book's publication, which was worked on and raised money for survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in London. The brief visit to Morocco is expected to be Meghan's last international trip before she gives birth to the couple's first child in April.
India lacks good economic, jobs data due to informal economy: Debroy
India lacks good data on economy and jobs as it is majoraly an informal economy, Bibek Debroy, the head of Prime Minister's economic advisory panel, said Monday, while a report claimed big buoyancy in employment numbers under Narendra Modi-led government. Debroy highlighted that it is difficult to draw an inference as to what is happening on labour and employment on the basis of data gathered from the enterprises for the very simple reason that very few individuals in India work under an employee-employee kind of relationship. "We don't have very good data on economy and jobs because India is majorly an informal economy. So, therefore, we don't have a very good data whether it is employment, labour or other things, quite unlike the so-called developed countries," Debroy, also a member of the NITI Aayog, said at 'Skoch Group Summit: The Inclusion Manifesto' here. "There is a large degree of self-employment, there is a large degree of informalisation in contracts. So, the only way I can
MNS burns packets of 'Pakistani' spices in Navi Mumbai
Activists of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) burned packets of spices they claimed to have been manufactured in Pakistan and being sold to customers, in Sanpada area of neighbouring Navi Mumbai on Sunday. A MNS leader Monday said the party activists had got a tip-off that a shop in Sanpada node was selling packets of spices that are made in Karachi. "Our activists first visited the shop concerned and purchased packets of spices which were found to be manufactured in Pakistan and being sold in Maharashtra," said Navi Mumbai MNS secretary Shrikant Mane. Mane said the activists took out the packets of spices from the shop and set them on fire. "We warned the owner of the shop against selling Pakistani spices," he said. After the protest, the party activists raised slogans against Pakistan while condemning the Pulwama terror attack of February 14 in which 40 troopers of CRPF were killed in a suicide bomb strike. "We are submitting letters to the Agriculture Produce ...
'Centre keeps slashing grants to Puducherry': Narayanasamy
Chief Minister V Narayanasamy Monday alleged that grants from the Centre to Puducherry had been slashed over the years from 90 per cent to 26 per cent now Distributing artificial limbs, wheel chairs and other equipment to differently abled persons here, he said the union territory was sanctioned 90 per cent of its budgetary proposals as Central grant some years ago. This was brought down to 70 per cent and was now pegged at just 26 per cent . The government was however managing the fiscal situation efficiently and no scheme would be let to suffer for want of funds, he said. He charged the Centre with not conceding his government's plea to sanction funds for its employees to meet the expenditure caused by implementation of the Central Pay Commission recommendations. He alleged that the Centre had funds to aid the Delhi government in disbursing pension to its retired staff, but no such facility was made available to the union territory. Narayanasamy, who has been at ...