Page 412 - Social Issues

Five rights activists held in nationwide swoop (Roundup)

Police on Tuesday arrested five human rights activists and alleged Maoist sympathizers, including Left ideologue Varavara Rao, in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima riots in Maharashtra.

Police raids on Left-wing activists brazen attack on democratic rights: Yechury

Condemning the police raids on prominent Left-wing activists in several states, the CPI(M) today accused the BJP-led Centre of "attacking the democratic rights of people" in a bid to shield the real culprits of Koregaon-Bhima violence. Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, Faridabad and other places and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outraged protests from human rights defenders. "This is a brazen attack on democratic rights and liberties. The BJP government is desperately trying to protect the culprits by harassing civil and human rights activist. This is very dangerous trend for our democracy," CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters in Kolkata. The searches were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune on December 31 last year. "Ever since the Bhima Koregaon violence on

Not remotely linked to police allegations: Teltumbde

Human rights activist Anand Teltumbde, whose house was today searched by the Maharashtra police as part of multi-city raids, said he was not even remotely connected to the allegations levelled against him. The raids were conducted by the Pune police on the homes on those suspected of having Maoist links at several locations across the country. Sources in the Goa police said a team from the Maharashtra police searched Teltumbde's residence in Sankhalim village,40km from here, today, but left soon as he was not at home. Asked to comment on the police action, Teltumbde, a professor of data analytics at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), said he is not even remotely connected to the allegations levelled against him. "What reaction shall I give to you? There is nothing. We are not even remotely connected to the allegations that they have been levelling against us," he told PTI over the phone from Mumbai, "Whatever are my opinions, they are in public domain. What reaction

2 women journalists sexually assaulted in Noida, NCW seeks report from police

Taking cognisance of a Facebook post detailing the alleged sexual assault of two women journalists in Noida, the National Commission for Women (NCW) today sought the details of the matter from the city's senior superintendent of police. According to the Facebook post by one of the women, she and her colleague were sexually assaulted by a man last night on their way home in Noida. In her post, the woman alleged that the police did not act fast, which allowed the assaulter to escape. "The NCW has taken cognisance of a Facebook post detailing the shocking incident of police apathy following the sexual assault of two women journalists in Noida," an official said. "The commission strongly condemns this incident and has written to senior superintendent of police, Surajpur, for details of the matter," she added. A copy of the letter has been shared with the office of Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, the official said.

Crackdown disturbing, threatens core human rights: Amnesty, Oxfam

The nationwide crackdown on activists, advocates and human rights defenders is disturbing and threatens core human-rights values, Amnesty International India and Oxfam India said in a joint statement today. The response came hours after the Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. It sparked a chorus of outraged protests from several lawyers, academics and authors, some of whom termed the move "absolutely chilling" and others saying it amounted to a "virtual declaration of emergency". "Today's arrests is the second of such crackdowns on rights activists, advocates and journalists who have been critical of the state. All these people have history of working to protect the rights of some of India's most poor and marginalized people. Their arrests raise disturbing questions about whether they are being targeted for their activism," said Aakar Patel, executive director, Amnesty ...

Maharashtra police chief gets three-month extension in 'public interest'

Maharashtra's police chief D D Padsalgikar was today given a three-month extension in service in public interest, according to an official order. Padsalgikar was due to retire on Friday. The development comes on a day the Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension in service of Padsalgikar, the Director General of Police (DGP), Maharashtra for a period of three months beyond the date of his superannuation, August 31, 2018, in public interest, the order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. Padsalgikar is a 1982-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. He took over as the state police head on June 30 this year.

Kejriwal pulls up health, PWD officials over shortcomings in Kondli mohalla clinic

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today pulled up senior officials of the health department and the PWD after he found "shortcomings" at a mohalla clinic in Kondli area. After a surprise visit to the clinic, Kejriwal, in a meeting, directed officials to install CCTV cameras in the clinic to monitor the upkeep of the centre and its proper functioning. During the visit, he was accompanied by Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, senior officers of health and the public works departments. According to a government statement, the chief minister also checked the medicine availability registers and pulled up health department officials over non-availability of some medicines at the clinic. "The health department was also pulled up over tests not being done at the centre. Kejriwal also pulled up the public works department (PWD) officials over the non-functioning of the air condition and problem in the main door of the clinic," it stated. During the meeting with officials concerned, the ..

'Hate in the streets' has no place in Germany: Merkel

Chancellor Angela Merkel today condemned violent far-right protests that degenerated into attacks against foreign-looking people, saying "hate in the streets" has no place in Germany. After the fatal stabbing of a German man, 35, allegedly by a Syrian and an Iraqi, thousands of protesters marched in the eastern city of Chemnitz for two straight days, some chasing down people they believed were immigrants. Police reported assaults by extremists against at least three foreigners on Sunday, while investigations were opened in 10 cases of the protesters performing the illegal Hitler salute. At least 20 people were injured on Monday as pyrotechnics and other objects were hurled by both far-right demonstrators as well as anti-fascist counter-protesters in the city. "What we have seen is something which has no place in a constitutional democracy," Merkel told journalists. "We have video recordings of (people) hunting down others, of unruly assemblies, and hate in the streets, and that has ...

Pune Police arrest five Maoist sympathizers nationwide

For a second time in five months, Pune Police on Tuesday raided alleged Maoist sympathizers across the country and arrested five top activists, some of whom are also human rights advocates.

Maharashtra police chief gets 3-month extension

Maharashtra's police chief D D Padsalgikar was today given a three-month extension in service, according to an official order. Padsalgikar was due to retire on Friday. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension in service of Padsalgikar, the Director General of Police (DGP), Maharashtra for a period of three months beyond the date of his superannuation, August 31, 2018, in public interest, the order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. Padsalgikar is a 1982-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. The development comes on a day the Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least four of them for suspected Maoist links.

RBI employees' 2-day mass leave to paralyse banking operations

The two-day mass casual leave on September 4 and 5 called by the United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees (UFRBOE) is likely to paralyse operations of the central bank and other major lenders across the country. "UFRBOE has called the mass casual leave on September 4 and 5 which will be participated by all officers, paralysing the central bank's functions for two days," UFRBOE member and All India Reserve Bank Employees Association General Secretary Samir Ghosh told reporters here. The main demands of the forum are providing an option to contributory provident fund (CPF) retainers to switch over to pension scheme, and grant of additional provident fund (APF) to those recruited in the bank from 2012. "In October 2017, RBI Governor Urjit Patel formally wrote to the government, quoting extensively from the Parliamentary Committee report, that RBI would like to improve pension and provide option, which the government most unceremoniously declined," a UFRBOE ...

Maneka asks Indian envoy in Spain to send abandoned Indian girl back home

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi today asked the Indian envoy in Spain to take necessary steps to send back an Indian girl who was abandoned by her foster parents in the country. She was reacting to a recent media report according to which a Spanish couple had abandoned the 13-year-old girl they adopted from an agency in Madhya Pradesh after they were allegedly deceived about her age. The couple was reportedly told that the girl was seven-year-old at the time of adoption earlier this year. Noting that the ministry is in the process of "fixing" the responsibility for the "lapses" which happened on the part of the child care institution in Bhopal, Gandhi asked Indian Ambassador to Spain D B Venkatesh Varma to contact the girl immediately and take necessary steps to send her back to India. "While we are in the process of fixing the responsibility for the lapses which happened on the part of the Child Care Institution in Bhopal, I am worried about the state of the girl

WB CID probing suicides blames on 'Momo Challenge'

The West Bengal CID today said it is probing the cases of alleged suicide blamed on online game 'Momo Challenge' and most of the messages received by people inviting them to play it were "fake". There is no reason to panic or to connect the recently reported suicide cases in West Bengal to 'Momo Challenge', state CID DIG (Operations) Nishat Pervez told newsmen here. All the numbers from where the messages were sent to the people in the state to play the Momo Challenge were based abroad and an investigation has been initiated into it, he said. "Almost all of the messages received by the people so far asking them to play the Momo Challenge are fake because there is no link leading to the game. There must be a link which will take the person receiving the message to the game. Fake messages can be created and that is what has happened," Pervez said. Nobody in the state has so far reported anything about receiving links leading them to play the Momo Challenge, he said. "We have not ...

Raids a brazen attack on democratic rights, reminiscent of infamous Emergency: Left parties

The CPI(M) today lodged its strong protest against the police raids on several civil and human rights activists and left intellectuals, and said it constituted a brazen attack on democratic rights and civil liberties. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau demanded withdrawal of the cases against these activists and their immediate release, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation said the move was "reminiscent of the infamous Emergency" of the 1975. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation said the arrests and raids are an attempt to brand all dissenting voices as "anti-national" and intimidate them as the parliamentary polls draw near. Two Left-wing activists Varavara Rao and Sudha Bhardwaj were arrested today as the Pune police carried out searches at multiple places in various states on the residences of people suspected to have Maoist links, a senior police official said. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence at Maharashtra's .

Police targeting Dalit rights activists post Koregaon: CPI-M

Condemning arrests of various activists and journalists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha, the CPI-M on Tuesday alleged that the police have been targeting Dalit rights activists an intellectuals after Bhima Koregaon riots.

UAE at forefront of women empowerment

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has adopted a powerful stance in empowering women, setting new standards based on a model drawn from the vision of founding father of the Arab country, late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.This approach perpetuates in the current leadership's vision for the future, whereby women stand as active partners and contributors in the country's development process.The UAE Constitution guarantees equal rights for women and it is leading the way in a number of regional and global indexes on gender equality and women's achievements, education and literacy, women's employment.The country's Constitution supports the participation of Emirati women in decision-making, a core component of economic empowerment. In December 2014, the UAE Cabinet adopted a decision imposing the appointment of women on the boards of directors of all institutions and government agencies, setting the proportion of female representation at 15 per cent in government institutions.In 2015, the .

Bachchan to give Rs 2.5 crore to families of martyrs, farmers

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan today said he would be donating Rs 1 crore to the families of martyrs and an additional Rs 1.5 crore to waive off loans of farmers. The 75-year-old actor said he wanted to do something for the families of martyrs. "Just yesterday, we got a list of 44 families from the government. We have prepared 112 demand drafts to the value of Rs 1 crore to take care of the families," Bachchan told reporters here. "There is a system in the government. Sixty per cent of the amount has to go to the wife, twenty per cent to the father and twenty per cent to the mother... Like this, we have divided the amount for 44 families of martyrs," he added. The actor said he was also pained by the farmers' suicide and has decided to pitch in. "I have always been bothered by reading about farmers' suicides. Many years ago, I was shooting in Vizag and read that farmers who had loaned Rs 15,000, Rs 20,000 or Rs 30,000 and couldn't pay back and were committing suicide... I came back and ...

Given the right to larger families, Chinese may hold off

China's moves to combat an ageing population by relaxing decades-old curbs on family size have hit an unexpected snag: many parents are no longer interested in having more babies. The government has indicated it will scrap its policy which limits the number of children per family through tough fines -- and sometimes through forced abortions and sterilisations. The world's most populous country introduced its one-child policy in 1979 and last tweaked it in early 2016, raising the limit to two children as the nation scrambled to rejuvenate a greying population of some 1.4 billion. But the pent-up demand for more children has ebbed, experts say. Couples have increasingly delayed having even one child as they devote more time to other goals, such as building their careers. The skyrocketing cost of raising children in booming China has also given many prospective parents pause. "Lots of people want to have a second child, but the biggest problem is the financial burden," said a mother in ..

Pune Police arrest Maoist sympathizers nationwide

For a second time in five months, Pune Police on Tuesday raided alleged Maoist sympathizers across the country and detained several activists, officials said here on Tuesday.

Egypt's Sunni authority says all sexual harassment 'forbidden'

Egypt's highest Sunni Muslim authority has said there can be no justification for sexual harassment, in a country where many people often blame women themselves for the widespread problems they face. In a statement Al-Azhar blasted all forms of harassment as "a forbidden act and deviant behaviour" and said "the one who carries it out is a sinner". "Criminalising sexual harassment must be absolute and free from any condition or context," the statement released yesterday said. "Justifying sexual harassment with the behaviour or clothing of the woman is a misunderstanding, for sexual harassment is an assault on the woman and her freedom and dignity," it said. Some 60 per cent of women in Egypt said they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment during their lifetimes in a 2017 report from UN Women and Promundo. Three-quarters of men and 84 per cent of women polled said that women who "dress provocatively deserve to be harassed". The divisions have been highlighted by a recent ...