Even after prohibition, farmers in the state’s Fatehabad district continues to burn stubble in the region.
The state’s Agriculture Department Director Balwant Saharan said that they have identified 180 cases of stubble burning between September 25 and October 21.
“In between September 25 to October 21, we have identified 180 cases of stubble burning. Notice has been issued against them. We are trying to create awareness among people,” Saharan said.
As autumn sets in, bringing along with it the harvesting period for Kharif crops, stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is causing deterioration of air quality in Delhi and the neighbouring National Capital Region. This, in turn, has necessitated the National Green Tribunal to implement strict norms on stubble burning.
Particles from stubble burning combined with industrial pollution and intensified with vehicle exhaust and dust envelop the region every year as winter approaches. This causes drop in wind speed.
Following the directions of the Supreme Court, the Centre had approved a large sum of money for modern tools and technology to combat the problem.
In the Union Budget 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had assured to provide assistance to the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to deal with the worsening air quality.
The decision came after Delhi’s air pollution levels spiked last year, leaving people gasping for breath.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has refused from taking up the coaching role with Real Madrid for the second time.
Ahead of Manchester United’s encounter with Juventus in the ongoing UEFA Champions League, the Portuguese manager expressed his wish to continue at United, stating that he is quite happy at the club and only thinks about the team.
“I am happy here and I would like to continue at United after my contract ends, I am only thinking about Manchester United,” Marca quoted Mourinho, as saying.
Talking about Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo, Mourinho stated that the Juventus forward is one of the best players ever and nobody can deny this.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best players ever nobody can say otherwise it is as simple as that,” he said.
Manchester United are slated to play against Juventus on October 24 in their next UEFA Champions League clash.
Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda will be conferred with the Maharshi Valmiki Jayanti Award for his contribution to the welfare of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes communities.
The award will be given by Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy at a function in Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday on the occasion of Valmiki Jayanti.
However, the former Prime Minister will not be present on the occasion as he is scheduled to travel abroad on Wednesday. Gowda informed on Twitter that he will be garlanding the statue of Maharshi Valmiki before leaving for London.
Born on May 18, 1933, Deve Gowda served as the 11th Prime Minister of India from June 1, 1996 to April 21, 1997.
Before that, he served as the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996.
CBI DSP Devender Kumar on Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging his arrest in connection with bribery allegations involving agency’s Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
The matter was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao by senior advocate Dayan Krishnan.
The court listed the plea for hearing before an appropriate bench in the post lunch session today.
The DSP has made CBI, its director Alok Kumar Verma, joint director A K Sharma and Department of Personnel and Training as parties in the case.
The plea has sought quashing of the FIR terming it as being “illegal, frivolous and malafide”.
“Issue an appropriate writ or order calling for the records of the case and other related documents and for quashing of the FIR registered against the petitioner,” the plea said, adding he has no other efficacious remedy than to approach the high court.
The CBI had yesterday arrested Kumar in connection with bribery allegations involving its second-in-command Asthana.
Kumar, who was earlier the investigating officer in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, was arrested yesterday by the CBI on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Sana, who had alleged to have paid bribe to get relief in the case.
In his statement, Sana had purportedly said that he had in June this year discussed his case with Telugu Desam Party’s Rajya Sabha member C M Ramesh who, after speaking to the CBI Director, had assured him that he would not be summoned again.
“From June onwards, I was not called by the CBI. I was under the impression that investigation against me is complete,” he is believed to have said.
The CBI has now alleged that Kumar had fabricated this statement as an “afterthought…to corroborate the baseless allegations made by Asthana against CBI Director Alok Verma to the CVC (Central Vigilance Commissioner)”.
They said the agency was also looking into the alleged role of other members of the special investigation team headed by Asthana.
Asthana, who was booked by the agency on bribery charges in an unprecedented action, had complained against CBI Director Verma on August 24, 2018.
Music maestro AR Rahman has joined the long list of celebrities to lend his support to the ongoing #MeToo movement in India.
Commending the victims who have shared their alleged sexual harassment ordeals, the 51-year-old said he would love to see “our industry become cleaner and respectful of women.”
He took to Twitter to share his views. “Been observing the #metoo movement. Some of the names have shocked me… both the victims and their perpetrators. I would love to see our industry become cleaner and respectful of women. More power to all the victims coming forward!!” read the statement.
However, the Oscar-winning composer also underscored that “we should be careful in creating a new internet justice system, in case it’s misused.”
The #MeToo movement, which began in Hollywood a year ago, took flight in India after Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of allegedly harassing her on the sets of ‘Horn Ok Pleassss’. The campaign is now gaining momentum with allegations being levelled against prominent personalities.
Over the last month, women have leveled allegations of sexual misconduct against Subhash Ghai, Alok Nath, Vikas Bahl, Kailash Kher, Chetan Bhagat, Sajid Khan, and Varun Grover, among others.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday attacked the BJP and RSS for the violent agitation at the Lord Ayyappa temple complex in Sabarimala over the entry of women of all ages into the hill shrine.
The agitation was a “planned and deliberate attempt” to create an atmosphere of tension in the state, Vijayan told reporters.
The incidents of preventing women in the 10-50 age group from offering worship at the temple and attacking media personnel, who had come to cover the historic event, was part of a conspiracy led by the RSS, he alleged.
The government has the constitutional responsibility of implementing the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all ages to offer prayers at the Sabarimala temple and no attempt to convert the complex into a “war zone” would be allowed, he said.
The temple in Sabarimala had witnessed high drama and tense moments for six days when it was opened for monthly prayers from October 17 to 22.
While maintaining that the faith of believers would be respected, Vijayan made it clear that the government had the responsibility to implement the court order.
He also charged that a “heinous attempt” was made by the Sangh parivar to communalise the state police, apparently referring to the cyber attack faced by IGPs Manoj Abraham and S Sreejith, who had been deputed to the temple to maintain law and order.
Vijayan also criticised the temple tantri, Kandararu Rajeevaru, who had said he would close the temple and go if women were allowed inside the shrine and the agitation by assistants of priests who had protested near the holy 18 steps.
Pakistan will launch an aggressive campaign against India to highlight its concerns over the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) after New Delhi failed to let Pakistani officials visit two hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir, a media report said on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Commissioner on Permanent Indus Water Commission Syed Mehr Ali Shah said the Indian water commissioner had promised on the conclusion of the August 29-30 annual meeting to arrange a visit to the 1,000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnai in Jammu and Kashmir in the last week of September.
But the visit was delayed to October 7-12 due to local government elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
Shah alleged that the Indian side did not honour its revised schedule as well, saying Panchayat elections were being held in the state after 20 years. Shah said that he wrote a letter of disappointment and then talked to his counterpart a few days ago on phone and based on that discussion he did not expect a visit soon, agencies reported.
“We do not foresee an inspection visit of (the two projects being executed by India over) the Chenab River in the near future based on my telephonic discussions with my Indian counterpart,” Shah said.
Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda said he did not want to go into a threatening mode, but would launch an aggressive campaign at home and abroad as India had seriously violated the 1960 treaty to Pakistan’s disadvantage.
Without explaining, the Minister said that he would trap India to its own bluff card because the matter also pertained to Pakistan’s security and he was in the process of consultations with stakeholders to resolve the challenges with India on a war footing.
India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory.
The water commissioners of Pakistan and India are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects’ sites and critical river headworks.
The treaty sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two countries regarding their use of the rivers. However, there have been disagreements and differences between India and Pakistan over the treaty.
China on Tuesday officially opened the 55-km-long sea bridge, said to be the world’s longest, connecting Hong Kong to Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.
President Xi Jinping inaugurated the $20 billion bridge at a special ceremony held in Zhuhai, in southern China’s Guangdong Province, attended by about 700 guests, including the leaders of Hong Kong and Macau.
It was opened with a one sentence speech by Xi, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The construction of the bridge started in December 2009 and was to be completed in 2016.
Situated in the Lingdingyang waters of the Pearl River estuary, it will be the world’s longest sea bridge, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
China claims credit for building the world’s longest bridge, the 164.8-km-long DanyangKunshan Grand viaduct on the Beijing- Shanghai high speed railway.
The bridge, which will be opened for regular traffic from Wednesday, will slash the travel time between Hong Kong and Zhuhai from three hours to just 30 minutes, it said, adding it will further integrate the cities in the Pearl River Delta.
Chinese Vice-Premier Han Zheng said the bridge would bring Hong Kong and mainland China closer in terms of economic and trade activities.
Describing the bridge as a sign of successful cooperation between the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau he said, it is a demonstration of China’s engineering capabilities.
Han, Beijing’s man in-charge of regional economic integration, said that the 55-km-long bridge could facilitate the development of “one country, two systems”, a framework that allows Hong Kong and Macau a certain degree of autonomy.
He said it was the first time the three sides had worked together on a major infrastructure project.
“It opens up all three places for greater exchange in trade and economics. It also enhances the competitiveness of the Pearl River Delta,” the Post quoted him as saying.
The bridge would help Hong Kong and Macau be integrated to mainland China, he added.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor highlighted the three cross-border infrastructure projects the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail link, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge and the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai boundary control point which will open early next year.
But, the critics have called the bridge a “white elephant” and a “blood and sweat project”, noting 10 workers have died and more than 600 were injured during its construction, the Post reported.
Additional concerns surfaced earlier this year when officials revealed that estimates for the amount of traffic expected for the bridge had been cut.
A 2008 consultancy study had predicted that 33,100 vehicles and 1,71,800 passengers would cross the bridge daily by 2030.
But the estimate was lowered to 29,100 vehicles and 1,26,000 passenger trips in a 2016 study, down 12 per cent and 26 per cent respectively, the report said.
Normal life came to a halt in Assam on Tuesday as over 40 organisations have called for a 12-hour long state-wide bandh to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.
The bandh in Assam is being observed against the meeting of Parliamentary Committee on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill with officials of home and external affairs in New Delhi. The JPC had earlier held two sittings with officials of these ministries to discuss further course of action on expediting examination of the Bill and to take evidence.
“Police personnel have been deployed wherever it was necessary,” said Joint Commissioner of Police Guwahati Degonta bora.
The Bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it would hear on November 13 the petitions challenging its Sabarimala verdict allowing women of all age groups entry into the temple.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul told lawyer Mathews J Nedumpara that it has already passed an order with regard to listing of petitions on November 13.
Earlier the court had noted that there were 19 review petitions pending in the matter, filed by National Ayyappa Devotees Association and others seeking a review of its verdict.
A five-judge constitution bench by a ratio of 4:1 had held that women of all age groups should be allowed entry into Kerala’s Sabarimala Temple.
