13:20 Sabarimala: Section 144 imposed ahead of temple opening:
In an attempt to avoid violence and unrest in Sabarimala temple, which is slated to open for a special religious ceremony on November 5, the state administration has deployed scores of police personnel in Pamba and surrounding areas.
Speaking to ANI, Inspector General Ashok Yadav said that around 1500 police personnel have been deployed from Pamba to Sannidhanam.
Furthermore, the Pathanamthitta district administration has imposed Section 144 in Sannidhanam, Pamba, Nilakkal, and Elavunkal till November 6.
Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) prohibits any assembly of five or more people in an area where it has been imposed.
Every member of such ‘unlawful assembly’ can be booked for ‘engaging in rioting’, the maximum punishment for which is three years.
As a precautionary measure and to avoid any untoward situation, the state security forces have also issued movement orders restricting devotees and media persons from travelling beyond a certain point.
The route will be fully open for all on November 5.
The Sabarimala Temple and surrounding areas witnessed a string of protests in October over the apex court’s decision to quash restrictions on the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 into the holy shrine.
More than 3000 protesters have been arrested so far for instigating the violence that broke out in the state, while around 529 cases have been registered across the state.
As per reports, the Kerala high court has also directed the state government to report on police action after the violent protests erupted at Sabarimala in October. — ANI
12:25 Ram Temple construction in my dream: Uma Bharti:
Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharti has advocated the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and said she is ready to provide any assistance required from her end.
Calling the construction of the temple as her ‘dream’, Bharti told ANI, “I have actively participated in Ram Janambhoomi Andolan. Hearing of a case is also underway in connection with it on me and L K Advani Ji, and I am proud of it.
“The construction of Ram Temple is my dream and whatever initiative is required from my end I am ready for it.”
Amidst demands for an ordinance to permit the construction of the temple before the Supreme Court pronounces its judgement in the Ayodhya title suit, Union Minister P P Chaudhary opined that a law can be made in case of judicial delay.
“Ram Mandir should be constructed, the case is in the Supreme Court and we want it to be decided quickly. I can’t say about the government, but my personal opinion is that if there is a judicial delay then a law can be made,” he said.
On October 29, the apex court had adjourned the hearing of the case until January 2019.
The court was hearing petitions challenging the Allahabad high court verdict of 2010, which stated that the disputed land in Ayodhya should be divided into three parts for each party – the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. — ANI
11:20 Modi is anaconda who is swallowing CBI, RBI: Andhra minister :
In a remark that could trigger a political row, Andhra Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Saturday likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to an ‘Anaconda’.
“Who can be a bigger anaconda than Narendra Modi? He himself is the Anaconda that has swallowed all the institutions. He is swallowing up institutions like the CBI, the RBI,” said Ramakrishnudu.
Reacting to Anaconda remark against Modi, state BJP president Kanna Lakshminarayana said TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu was the “king of corruption” and fears that his alleged corruption would be exposed now.
“N Chandrababu Naidu is the king of corruption and will stoop to any level. The man who passed a resolution in the NDA meeting in 2017, that Modi should become prime minister again is now trying to portray the latter as a culprit,” said Lakshminarayana.
Krishnudu was recently in news after he faced backlash for asking the cash-starved Andhra Pradesh government to pay his personal medical bills for a root canal treatment he had taken in Singapore.
Under public pressure, Krishnudu had to return the Rs 2.88 lakh to the government.
11:18 Minor girl gangraped inside ICU in UP:
A minor girl who was admitted in an intensive care unit of a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly was allegedly gangraped by a hospital staffer and four unidentified men.
A Singh, superintendent of police-city said, “Victim narrated her ordeal after she was shifted to the general ward. A case has been registered and the investigation is underway.”
Police further informed that the girl was admitted to the hospital after she was bit by a snake and was put on the ventilator in the ICU ward of the hospital.
However, later was shifted to the general ward, it was then she informed others about the hapless incident, the police said.
Singh said that the police immediately reached the spot after learning about the incident and lodged an FIR and commenced an investigation. — ANI
10:33 In UP, cows get radium bands to avoid accidents :
In a bid to reduce road accidents caused by stray animals, Uttar Pradesh police has started a drive of tying radium bands on the horns and necks of stray cattle.
The reflective tapes ensure long-distance visibility, especially caused by fog during the winters.
Talking about the initiative , Superintendent of Police Dharamvir Singh, told ANI, “There has been an increase in road accidents of stray cattle during the night. So we decided to tie radium bands on their horns and belts on their necks to save them and avoid accidents.”
This move comes with the onset of the winter season when numerous cows lose their lives or get injured as a result of coming in contact with vehicles due to the lack of visibility.
Tying radium bands will make it easier for vehicle drivers to spot the cattle from far away and hence help in averting such unfortunate accidents. — ANI
10:07 Shah Rukh’s late-night birthday bash stopped by Mumbai cops:
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday bash at a restaurant in suburban Mumbai was stopped by police in the early hours of Saturday for allegedly breaching the time limit.
A police official said that restaurants in the city can not operate beyond 1 am, but the party was continuing well after that.
Khan had reportedly called his close friends in the tinsel town for his53rd birthday celebrations at the swanky restaurant in Bandra.
Loud music was playing when police came visiting, the official claimed.
No case has been registered in this regard, he said. — PTI
10:02 Bofors was only corruption, Rafale also about national security: Bhushan:
Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan said Saturday that the Rafale fighter jet deal involves both financial corruption and compromise with national security, unlike the Bofors scam.
Addressing a press conference in Raipur, Bhushan said, “Not only corruption was committed but national security has also been compromised (with the Rafale deal)…Bofors scandal was a Rs 64-crore commission scam, but there was no issue of compromise with national security. In Rafale scam, there is commission scam of Rs 20,000 crore in which national security has (also) been compromised.”
He was asked whether the Rafale issue is comparable to the alleged scam in the purchase of Bofors howitzers during the Rajiv Gandhi government’s tenure in 1980s.
Bhushan, along with former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, has moved the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into the Rafale deal.
The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the Centre for pricing details of the 36 Rafale fighter jets India is buying from France in a sealed cover within 10 days in response to PILs. — PTI
09:38 Rahul wanted to slander me, my father: Kartikey Chouhan to court:
Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s son Kartikey Chouhan submitted before a court in Bhopal on Saturday that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi deliberately linked him with the Panama Papers leak.
Kartikey recorded his statement before Special Judge (for cases against MPs and MLAs) Suresh Singh in the defamation case filed by him against Gandhi.
The court fixed December 17 as the date for submission of evidence in support of the complaint, Kartikey’s lawyer Shrey Raj Saxena told PTI.
Gandhi made the statement deliberately to defame Kartikey and his father who is the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh since 2005, Saxena quoted the chief minister’s son as telling the court.
The Congress chief clarified later that he named Kartikey out of confusion, but did not tender an apology, the lawyer told the court.
At a Congress rally at Jhabua in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, the Gandhi scion had alleged that Kartikey’s name figured in the Panama Papers leak, a global investigation into offshore money-laundering entities.
However, the next day the Congress chief said he named Kartikey Chouhan out of “confusion”.
On October 30, Kartikey filed a defamation case under sections 499 and 500 of the IPC, against Gandhi. — PTI
09:27 15 killed in 31-vehicle pile-up on Chinese highway:
A highway pile-up involving at least 31 cars killed 15 people in northwest China’s Gansu province, officials said, leaving dramatic scenes of twisted and burnt-out wreckage.
The pile-up occurred on Saturday after a heavy truck lost control and crashed into a line of vehicles waiting at a toll station on the Lanzhou-Haikou Expressway, state-run China Daily reported on Sunday.
Officials said another 44 people were injured in the pile-up at the toll station which is close to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu.
Investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, the report said.
Last week, 13 people were killed after a fist fight between a woman passenger and a driver caused a bus to plunge from a bridge into the mighty Yangtze River in southwest China.
Deadly road accidents are common in China, where traffic regulations are often flouted or go unenforced.
Violations of traffic laws were blamed for nearly 90 per cent of accidents that caused deaths or injuries that year. — PTI
08:54 Killing of tiger in Maharashtra should be treated as a wildlife crime: PETA India:
Animal rights body People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India Saturday said the killing of a tiger as part of an operation in Maharashtra should be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime and termed it a “dark day” for the nation.
PETA India said the tiger Avni was killed “illegally to satisfy a hunter’s lust for blood”, in contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act.
Tigress Avni, believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 13 people in Maharashtra in the past two years, was shot dead in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra on Friday night as part of an operation, police said Saturday.
“Avni was killed illegally satisfying a hunter’s lust for blood, plain and simple, in possible contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act and the guidelines of National Tiger Conservation Authority.
“She may not have died instantly but slowly, through pain and blood loss, and likely in front of her now orphaned and vulnerable cubs,” said Meet Ashar, Lead Emergency Response Coordinator, PETA India.
Ashar said “this matter must be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime”.
“Whether sanctioned by the state or not, nobody can be above the law. This is a dark day for our nation and we must hang out heads in shame now, and again if this killing goes unpunished,” Ashar added.
In September this year, the Supreme Court had said Avni could be shot at sight, which prompted a flurry of online petitions seeking pardon for the tigress.
For more than three months, Forest Department officials were planning to catch her with the help of latest technology.
Trained sniffer dogs, trap cameras, drones and a hang-glider, expert trackers, sharp-shooters and around 200 ground personnel were roped in for the task, officials said.
The Forest Department Friday carried out the operation in Borati with the help of sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, they said.
“Urine of another tigress and American perfume was spread in some part of the compartment, following which Avni came by sniffing it,” one of the officials said. — PTI
08:52 TMC delegation reaches Assam to meet kin of victims killed by militants:
A delegation of Trinamool Congress leaders today reached Assam’s Tinsukia district to meet the family members of those who were killed by suspected militants.
Led by Derek O’ Brien, the TMC parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha, the team comprises the party’s Lok Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur, Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haq and MLA Mahua Moitra.
Unidentified gunmen in battle fatigue shot dead five individuals, including three members of a family, near Kheronibari village in Tinsukia district on Thursday night.
On Friday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed anguish over the killings and said an “environment of violence” was prevailing in the country.
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee demanded a court-monitored inquiry and called for the resignation of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal over the incident.
A TMC delegation of six MPs had gone to Silchar on August 2 to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens on July 30 but was stopped at the airport.
They were not allowed to leave the airport and were sent back the next day. — PTI
08:31 Modi a hero on a white stallion with upraised sword: Tharoor:
Congress MP Shashi on Tharoor Saturday mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a “hero on a white stallion with an upraised sword in his hand”.
Tharoor had waded into a controversy at the Bangalore Literature Festival Sunday last by claiming that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling” and “you cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either”.
A criminal defamation complaint had been filed against him in a Delhi court earlier in the day for his “scorpion” remark.
Tharoor again took a swipe at the prime minister, calling him “a hero on a white stallion with an upraised sword in his hand saying I know all the answers”.
“Modi is a one-man government and everybody dancing to what he says,” he said at an event organised by an industry body, adding India now has the “most centralised PMO” in history.
“Every decision is taken by the PMO (prime minister’s office). Every file has to be sent to the PMO for approval,” he claimed.
On the next parliamentary election, Tharoor said that there will be both pre-poll and post-poll alliances between the Congress and other opposition parties, but Congress president Rahul Gandhi “may not be” the prime ministerial face.
The coming Lok Sabha election is important in that it will deny the Bharatiya Janata Party a second term in power, the Congress MP said.
He said the decision on the prime ministerial face of the Congress alliance would be a collective one and “it may not be him (Gandhi). The Congress has a broader notion of a leader unlike the BJP. We had people like Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram and others having tremendous track record”.
Gandhi is the unquestionable choice of Congress workers as their leader. “If free and fair elections are held among the Congress workers, Rahul Gandhi wins hands down,” the Congress MP said.
Continuing his criticism of the Modi government, Tharoor said, “We are having a top-down, over-centralised and inefficient government running the country and there is nothing positive in the Indian economy.”
“Demonetisation was a bad idea implemented badly and GST was a good idea implemented badly,” Tharoor said.
He said that the Indian stock is down across the globe. “The rupee was heading towards the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ (a reference to a BJP panel comprising its elderly leaders),” he quipped and later clarified that the BJP panel had leaders above the age of 75.
He said that communalism, cow vigilantism and mob lynching have been so extreme that India had never seen such “bizarre politics in the past”.
“There are damning statistics to prove that,” he added.
Source: Rediff