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Karnataka’s performance in conviction rate in atrocities against Dalits is not satisfactory: CM Siddaramaiah

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Afternoon Voice
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Siddaramaiah, Karnataka, CM, Congress, Karnataka Government
Karnataka's performance in conviction rate in atrocities against Dalits is not satisfactory: CM Siddaramaiah 2

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the performance of the state in terms of conviction rate in cases of violence against Dalits is not satisfactory. He was speaking at the annual conference of senior police officers held at the office of the State Director General of Police on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister said that if the victims are to have faith in the system, the quality of investigations into cases of atrocities must be improved. He gave instructions that a scientifically valid charge sheet should be submitted. “Put a complete stop to the incidents of violence against women and children. Punishment should be increased. Otherwise, the blame will be on the DCPs themselves for this failure,” the CM warned the officers.

“Our government has given a free hand to the police. My commitment is that we should not poke our nose in the police work. But the free hand should not be misused. It should be beneficial to the people,” Siddaramaiah said. He said that it is a bad development that police officers are eager for transfers and are also using their caste. The Chief Minister told them not to do so.

We are a secular nation. We should strengthen the aspirations of our constitution, he said. Crime cases can be reduced with the use of modern technology, he said.

Grants will be set aside in the budget for the construction of Suvarna Police Bhawan, to commemorate 50 years of Karnataka unification. The CM assured that the vacant police posts will also be filled. Home Minister G Parameshwar, Home Secretary Umashankar, State Director General of Police Alok Mohan, Chief Minister’s Secretary Trilok Chandra, Chief Minister’s Political Secretaries Govindaraju and Naseer Ahmed were present.

Earlier speaking to the media on January 15 the Chief Minister said that his government is not trying to protect any accused. He was speaking in the context of the Haveri gang rape case in which his government has been accused of poor law and order.

“We will punish whoever takes the law into their hands. Our government does not try to protect anyone. The accused have been arrested in the gang rape case and the investigation is on. No one in our government is allowed to take the law into their hands. We will take legal action. Those in SIT are also policemen. The case is being investigated and will be decided after the preliminary report is received. The home minister visited when a woman was raped in Belgaum district. I myself instructed to visit. If one part is to visit the victim and offer consolation, another part is to take legal action. We have done both” Siddarmiah said.

Ex-President Donald Trump set to face jury over sex abuse and defamation claims

By
PTI
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donald trump, court, trump, E. Jean Carroll, carroll
Ex-President Donald Trump set to face jury over sex abuse and defamation claims 4

After a big victory in the Iowa caucus, former President Donald Trump is expected in court on Tuesday to face another legal challenge: a trial to determine how much more he owes the writer E. Jean Carroll for denying that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and accusing her of lying about her claims.

Jury selection begins on Tuesday morning at a federal court in Manhattan. Opening arguments could take place by afternoon in what is essentially a second penalty phase of a legal fight Carroll has already won.

In May, a different jury awarded Carroll USD 5 million after concluding that Trump sexually abused her in a department store dressing room in spring 1996, then defamed her in 2022 by claiming she made it up after she revealed it publicly in a 2019 memoir. The jury said Carroll hadn’t proven that Trump raped her.

One issue that wasn’t decided in that first trial was how much Trump owed for comments he made about Carroll while he was still president.

Determining that dollar amount will be the new jury’s only job.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled last year that the new jury didn’t need to decide anew whether Carroll was sexually abused or whether Trump’s remarks about her were defamatory since those subjects were covered in the first trial.

Trump is expected at the trial on Tuesday, though his plans for the rest of the week have become unclear since his mother-in-law’s funeral was scheduled for Thursday. The trial is expected to last several days.

He has said he wants to testify, but if he does, there will be strict limits on what he can talk about. He did not attend last year’s trial, saying recently that his lawyer advised against it.

Because the trial is supposed to be focused only on how much Trump owes Carroll, the judge has warned Trump and his lawyers that they cannot say things to jurors that he has said on the campaign trail or elsewhere, like claiming she lied about him to promote her memoir.

Kaplan also banned them from saying anything about Carroll’s “past romantic relationships, sexual disposition, and prior sexual experiences,” from suggesting Trump didn’t sexually abuse Carroll or from implying she was motivated by ”a political agenda, financial interests, mental illness, or otherwise.” They are also banned, the judge said, from advancing any argument inconsistent with the court’s ruling that “Mr. Trump, with actual malice, lied about sexually assaulting Ms. Carroll.” Those restrictions don’t apply outside of the presence of the jury. That has left Trump free to continue posting on social media about all of the above topics—something he has done repeatedly in recent days—although each fresh denial comes with the possibility of increasing the damages he must pay.

Kaplan rejected Trump’s request to delay the trial by a week, although he said he would let Trump testify as late as Monday even if the trial is otherwise ready for closing arguments by Thursday.

Carroll, 80, plans to testify about the damage to her career and reputation that resulted from Trump’s public statements. She seeks USD 10 million in compensatory damages and millions more in punitive damages.

Trump, 77, is appealing the findings of last year’s jury and has continued to maintain that he doesn’t know Carroll, that he never met her at the Bergdorf Goodman store in midtown Manhattan in spring 1996 and that Carroll made up her claims to sell her book and for political reasons.

Regardless of his losses in court, Trump leads all Republicans in presidential primary polls and plans to spend plenty of time in court fighting the civil cases and four criminal cases against him, saying, “In a way, I guess you consider it part of the campaign.”

SC stays Allahabad HC order for court-monitored survey of Shahi Idgah in Mathura

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PTI
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shahi idgah, mosque, allahabad high court, allahabad hc, supreme court, sc
SC stays Allahabad HC order for court-monitored survey of Shahi Idgah in Mathura 6

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Allahabad High Court order that allowed a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque adjoining the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta stayed the implementation of the December 14, 2023, order by which it had agreed to the appointment of a court commissioner to oversee the survey of the mosque premises, which, the Hindu side claims, hold signs suggesting that it was a temple once.

The bench said there are certain legal issues which have arisen and questioned the “vague” application made before the high court for appointment of a court commissioner for the survey. “You can’t file a vague application for appointment of court commissioner. It should be very specific on the purpose. You can’t leave everything to the court to look into it,” the bench told senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Hindu bodies like Bhagwan ShriKrishna Virajman and others The bench said it is issuing notice to the Hindu bodies and sought their response while making it clear that proceedings before the high court in the dispute will continue.

The top court was hearing a plea of the Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah, challenging a high court order that allowed a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah.

The mosque committee, in its plea, has submitted that the high court ought to have considered its petition for rejection of the plaint before deciding on any other miscellaneous applications in the suit.

The committee had sought rejection of the plea on the grounds that the lawsuit is barred by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which puts a bar on change of character of religious places.

PM Modi releases first instalment of benefits to one lakh people under tribal welfare scheme

By
Afternoon Voice
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modi, pm modi, narendra modi, tribal welfare scheme
PM Modi releases first instalment of benefits to one lakh people under tribal welfare scheme 8

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that the country can develop only if the benefits of various welfare schemes reach all, asserting that it is his guarantee that everyone, even those in the remotest of areas, will benefit from them.

Releasing the first instalment of Rs 540 crore to one lakh beneficiaries of a rural housing scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN) via video conferencing, he said the 10 years of his government have been dedicated to the poor.

The budget of many welfare schemes for the Scheduled Tribes has risen by five times and the scholarship for tribal students has grown by two-and-a-half times in the last 10 years, he said, adding that the work is on to construct more than 500 Eklavya model schools for them, while only 90 existed earlier.

His government has exerted its full force to ensure that extremely backwards among the tribal population benefit from its every scheme, he said.

Modi also credited guidance from President Droupadi Murmu, India’s first tribal woman head of state, for the PM-JANMAN scheme, saying that as someone who has come from the same background, she often spoke about the issues facing them during her interactions with him.

Noting that Diwali is being celebrated in Ayodhya in the run-up to the consecration of Lord Ram’s idol at the temple there, he said the festival is also being celebrated at the homes of these one lakh families who have received the first instalment of funds to construct their own houses.

This is a matter of big happiness for him, the prime minister said.

More than four crore pucca houses have been built for the poor by his government, he said, asserting that those who were always ignored earlier have not only been reached out to by him but also worshipped. During the event, Modi interacted with some beneficiaries of PM-JANMAN as they highlighted the positive changes in their lives after they availed of government schemes to get access to cooking gas connections, electricity, piped water, and housing.

”It is the endeavour of our government that no one is left out of its welfare schemes,” he said.

The first instalment of Rs 540 crore was released to beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin.

PM-JANMAN was launched for the socio-economic welfare of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) on November 15 on the occasion of Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas.

PM-JANMAN, with a budget of approximately Rs 24,000 crore, focuses on 11 critical interventions through nine ministries and is aimed at improving the socio-economic conditions of PVTGs by saturating PVTG households and habitations with basic facilities such as safe housing, clean drinking water and sanitation, improved access to education, health and nutrition, electricity, road and telecom connectivity, and sustainable livelihood opportunities.

No relaxation of civil aviation safety norms, even for projects by public authority: Bombay HC

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PTI
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mmrda, mumbai airport, bombay high court, bombay hc, building, mmrda building
No relaxation of civil aviation safety norms, even for projects by public authority: Bombay HC 10

Civil aviation safety norms cannot be relaxed even for a project by a public authority, the Bombay High Court held while dismissing the MHADA’s petition against an order passed by the Union Ministry denying it permission to construct a 40-storey building near the airport.

A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata on January 10 dismissed the petition filed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) against a decision taken by the appellate authority of the Ministry of Civil Aviation in December 2021 setting a height restriction for a residential building proposed near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

The court, in its order, said the MHADA certainly cannot claim a legal, let alone constitutional, right to a taller building. ”It cannot contend that civil aviation safety standards should not apply to it. It cannot contend that merely because this is an MHADA project, it exceeding a mandated height poses no danger to civil aviation,” the court said.

The court further said it was reluctant to accept the proposition, ”one that paints quite a startling picture, of aircraft at the CSMIA weaving and swooping around an oversized MHADA tower as they take off or land”. As per the plea, the MHADA has proposed a building of a height of 115.54 meters (nearly 40 floors) for middle or low-income housing of 560 tenements. While the maximum permissible height was 58.48 meters, the MHADA filed an appeal before the appellate authority, which then granted permission for 96.68 meters. The bench, in its order, noted that there was no question of arbitrariness (in the order), and in fact, the appellate authority order was favourable to the MHADA.

”The MHADA is not being selectively targeted for the height restriction. If anything, it is the other way around,” the court said. It further stated that if any relaxation is given to the MHADA then the same relaxation would have to be given to every other developer, including a private party.

”No relaxation of civil aviation safety norms can be granted only because the project proponent is a public authority. Aviation safety has nothing to do with the identity of the developer,” the court held. While dismissing the plea, the bench said such a petition should never have been filed, especially by a responsible public authority. ”Why the MHADA needs a building of 40 floors is unexplained. But this proposed building falls within the four-kilometre radius of the airport run by the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL),” the court said.

The bench added that the Airport Authority of India has specified height restrictions that follow internationally mandated aviation safety standards and norms. ”There are no exemptions just because these are middle-income group housing schemes or because the applicant is MHADA,” the court said. The bench noted that the December 2021 order was passed by the Appellate Authority of the Ministry of Civil Aviation which presumably has at ”the forefront of its mind and decision-making processes concerns of civil aviation as paramount”.

Mumbai Police bust fake call centre duping US nationals in Andheri; 10 held

By
PTI
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fake call centre, us nationals, medicine, call centre, mumbai police, andheri
Mumbai Police bust fake call centre duping US nationals in Andheri; 10 held 12

The Mumbai police raided an illegal call centre in the western suburb of Andheri and arrested 10 people for allegedly duping US nationals on the pretext of selling them medicines, an official said on Sunday.

The crime branch raided the premises at Summit Business Bay in Andheri on Saturday and apprehended the accused, who have been booked under Section 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, he said. The fraudsters allegedly targeted US nationals through VoIP calling and posed as representatives of online pharmaceutical companies, the official said.

The accused took orders for medicines from the victims, who paid them in US dollars, and then did not deliver the medicines, he said.

The crime branch seized electronic equipment during the raid, the official said, adding that further probe is underway to find out the extent of the fraud.

Ensure cleanliness of all temples in week: Maharashtra CM Shinde tells collectors

By
PTI
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eknath shinde, cm, air quality, mumbai, air pollution
Ensure cleanliness of all temples in week: Maharashtra CM Shinde tells collectors 14

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has instructed the district collectors to undertake a cleanliness drive at all temples in the state and ensure the change is ”visible” within a week, ahead of the consecration of the Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22.

Shinde gave these instructions at a review meeting chaired by him at his official residence on Sunday.

”Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a call to keep temples clean. The district collectors in Maharashtra should undertake a cleanliness drive across all the temples and decorate them with electric lights. The change should be visible within a week,” Shinde said.

He said the District Planning and Development Council (DPDC) of every district should allocate some funds for undertaking the cleaning of temples and surroundings at regular intervals.

DPDCs can allocate funds through a special scheme, Shinde told the collectors, as per a release.

The chief minister also asked the state revenue department to appoint a nodal officer to monitor this work.

Fire breaks out at BMC School in Mumbai’s Parel

By
ANI
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bmc school, parel, fire incident, mumbai
Fire breaks out at BMC School in Mumbai's Parel 16

A massive fire broke out at a BMC school in Mumbai’s Parel on Monday morning, officials said. Around two-three explosions in the school escalated the fire, as per the officials, adding that the cause of the fire is being probed.

Officials further said there were no injuries reported or casualties in the blaze, adding that there was no one in the school because of the holiday due to Makar Sankranti. “This morning, a fire broke out in a BMC school in Parel. There was no one in the school because of the Makar Sankranti holiday. The fire spread to a hall attached to the school building. There were mattresses in the hall, which led to the further spreading of the fire. There were sockets near the mattress areas, which caught fire and resulted in 2-3 explosions,” officials said.

They said that the fire department received the call about the fire at 9.10 am. Upon receiving the word, four fire tenders and as many water tankers were deployed to the scene and started the operations to bring the situation under control.

“As of now, it is a level 1 fire (lowest level). Four fire tenders and four water tankers are on the spot,” officials said. “No injuries or casualties have been reported as of now,” they said.

Earlier during the day, a fire broke out in a 23-storey building in Mumbai’s Kandivali area, as per officials. There were no injuries or casualties reported in the fire incident.

Former Union Minister Milind Deora ends ’55-year relationship’ with Congress

By
ANI
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milind deora, deora, murli deora, congress, cong, shiv sena, south mumbai
Former Union Minister Milind Deora ends '55-year relationship' with Congress 18

Senior Congress leader Milind Deora on Sunday announced his resignation from the party’s primary membership. He is likely to join the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde this afternoon, said sources.

Milind, son of Congress veteran Murli Deora, confirmed his resignation in a post on X, and stated, “Today marks the conclusion of a significant chapter in my political journey. I have tendered my resignation from the primary membership of @INCIndia, ending my family’s 55-year relationship with the party.” “I am grateful to all leaders, colleagues & karyakartas for their unwavering support over the years,” he added.

Milind Deora has served as Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology and Shipping during the Congress tenure from 2012 to 2014. He was also a former president of Mumbai Pradesh Congress Committee.

He also expressed his displeasure over the Shiv Sena (UBT) claiming the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency, which Deora had represented earlier.

PM Modi holds roadshow in Nashik; offers prayers at Ramkund, and performs pooja at Kalaram temple

By
PTI
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nashik, pm modi, narendra modi, modi, kalaram mandir, kalaram, roadshow in nashik
PM Modi holds roadshow in Nashik; offers prayers at Ramkund, and performs pooja at Kalaram temple 20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a roadshow in Maharashtra’s Nashik, where he offered prayers at Ramkund and performed pooja at Shree Kalaram Mandir. He is scheduled to inaugurate the National Youth Festival.

During his roadshow, which started from Hotel Mirchi Chowk, PM Modi was accompanied by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and many BJP leaders.

Thousands of people thronged the roadshow route to welcome the PM. Various artists and special groups like the ones with the famous ‘Nashik Dhol’ and tribals, held performances during the event.

The nearly 35-minute-long roadshow concluded at Sant Janardan Swami Maharaj Chowk after covering more than 2 kilometres.

After the roadshow, Modi reached Ramkund, located on the bank of the Godavari River, where he was offered a traditional ‘pagdi’ (turban) by Nashik Purohit Sangh president Satish Shukla.

The PM performed ‘Jal Pujan’ and ‘Aarti’ there. He also met Annasaheb More, chief of Akhil Bharatiya Swami Samarth Gurukul Peeth, Swami Samvidnanda Saraswati of Nashik-based Kailas Math and Tushar Bhosale of the BJP’s spiritual cell.

Later, he offered prayers at the famous Kalaram temple, dedicated to Lord Ram, located in the Panchvati area. The temple is also known for a protest launched by B R Ambedkar on March 2, 1930, to seek entry for Dalits into the shrine.

Modi is on a daylong visit to Maharashtra, where he will inaugurate the 27th National Youth Festival in Nashik and later launch development projects worth over Rs 30,000 crore in the state.

The PM will inaugurate the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), named Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewee-Nhava Sheva Atal Setu, constructed at a cost of over Rs 17,840 crore. He will also address a public meeting in Navi Mumbai after the inauguration.

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