HC asks state not to act on sedition circular

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October 20, 2015

The Bombay High extended its interim order restraining Maharashtra government from acting on its controversial circular issued to prevent misuse of IPC section 124-A which deals with sedition.

A bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar- Joshi extended the interim order till the government files a reply to two petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the August 27 circular.

Government pleader Usha Kejriwal sought time on the ground that she had to seek instructions whether the state government would withdraw the controversial circular or issue a new one incorporating changes therein.

The judges posted the matter for hearing on November 27 and asked the government to take a stand on the issue.

One petition was filed by famous cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and three others, while the other one was filed by advocate Narendra Sharma.

Bhau Tausekar, a journalist in Tarun Bharat, intervened today to support the government circular, saying the state was empowered in extreme and rare circumstances to invoke the anti-sedition law whenever there is rebellion among people or when members of public are incited against obeying laws.

The impugned circular, which has sparked a row, has laid down certain conditions required to be considered for initiating action against a person under section 124-A of IPC.

According to the petitioners, the impugned circular of August 27 was unconstitutional and violated fundamental rights of a citizen.

Government conducts 276 raids in last 24 hours on Pulses hoarders

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

In a bid to control the spiralling prices of pulses, the Maharashtra government today conducted 276 raids in 16 districts to check hoarding and black-marketing of the commodity in the state.

Besides, the state government reimposed stock holding limits on pulses traders to improve the supply in the state. “The state government has informed that it has geared up the entire machinery in all districts and everywhere raids are being conducted to check hoarding and black-marketing of pulses,” Consumer Affairs Secretary C Viswanath said.

The Maharashtra government has informed that it has conducted 276 raids in 16 districts in last 24 hours. Maximum raids have been conducted in Pune (150), Nagpur (29) and Solapur (21), the official said, adding that the raids are going on in the rest of the districts.

The official further said that the state government has also reimposed stock limits effective from October 19.

Now in Maharashtra, corporations can hold pulses stocks up to 3,500 quintal, while traders in cities can hold stock up to 2,000 quintal and 1,000 quintal in rural areas. The state had withdrawn stock holding limits on pulses on April 23, 2015.

“As a result of these measures, the Maharashtra Food Secretary has informed that wholesale prices have come down by Rs 20 per kg today in the state,” Viswanath added.

In Mumbai, retail prices of tur dal today are ruling as high as Rs 178 per kg, urad at Rs 166 per kg, moong dal at Rs 101 per kg, masoor dal at Rs 92 per kg and gram dal at Rs 72 per kg, as per the data maintained by the Consumer Affairs Ministry.

Prices of pulses are rising unabated due to 2 million tonnes shortage in domestic production in 2014-15 crop years due to poor rains, while the Centre has taken several measures, including imports, to improve domestic availability and check prices.

HC raps government for ‘insensitive approach’ on night shelters

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

The Bombay High Court rapped Maharashtra government for delay in providing land to build night shelters for the homeless people, saying it has taken an insensitive approach on the issue.

A division bench of Justices A S Oka and V L Achiliya was today informed that the state government has rejected seven proposals forwarded by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai seeking allotment of land.

Advocate Madhubala Kajle, appearing for the state government, told the court that the civic body’s proposal was rejected as the land proposed to be allotted was very small.
Irked by the response, the High Court said, “Then allot a larger land. Nobody is preventing the government from allotting larger land.”

“Despite so many orders passed by the judiciary this is the approach of the government. We are very sorry to see this. The government has taken a completely insensitive approach,” the bench said.

The court directed state Advocate General Shreehari Aney to appear in the matter and posted it for further hearing on October 28.

The directions were passed during the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO ‘Homeless Collective’, highlighting the plight of pavement dwellers.

The petition has sought directions to the civic and state authorities to identify homeless persons and ensure adequate night shelters for them.

The petitioner maintained that for every one lakh population in a city, there should be one night shelter, as per the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).

According to that norm, Mumbai should have 207 shelters. However, only nine night shelters are operating at the moment as against 25 that were promised in 2012, the PIL said.

Keep your ‘achche din’, return people their ‘purane din’: Nitish to Modi

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

Nitish Kumar on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back ‘purane din’ (old days) of the people, as the Bihar chief minister hit back at the BJP, which blamed him for the rising prices of pulses, and asked why states ruled by it also had the same rates.

“I feel like laughing at Union ministers blaming me for skyrocketing prices of pulses. If it was so, the price of pulses should have been Rs. 200 per kg only in Bihar…

“Why it is selling at Rs 200 per kg in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh?” Kumar wondered addressing an election rally at Nalanda, his home district, in favour of Minister Shrawan Kumar.

Union Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and Food minister Ramvilas Paswan addressed a press conference and blamed Kumar for hike in prices of pulses.

In a bid to present Centre’s stand on the price rise, the two ministers blamed Kumar for decline in production of pulses in Bihar in recent years and also the state government’s failure to utilise “price stabilisation fund.”

“Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and West Bengal which used the ‘Price Stabilisation Fund’, are selling pulses at Rs. 120 to Rs. 130 per kg through retail outlets,” Singh said.

Slamming Narendra Modi government for “skyrocketing” price of pulses, Kumar sarcastically asked the Prime Minister to “keep your ‘achche din’ with you and return people their ‘purane din’ (old days).”

Seeking to make escalating rate of pulses a poll issue in Bihar, Kumar said pulses called “poor man’s meat” has vanished from plate of common man.

Kumar, who has been declared as the face of grand alliance in the Bihar poll, also raked up issue of ‘Bihari’ and ‘Bahri’ (outsider) against NDA, which is fighting the elections in the name of Modi, and exhorted people to “bid goodbye to outsiders as people have a better choice in him as a Bihari.”

Gujarat: Staff plays garba inside hospital ward; government mulls action

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

After a video surfaced on Tuesday showing medical staff of a government-run civil hospital playing garba with loud music inside a Hemodialysis ward, Gujarat Health Minister Nitin Patel has asked for action against the people involved.

The nurses and medical staff of the hospital in Sola area played garba inside a newly-opened Hemodialysis ward yesterday for patients suffering from kidney-related ailments. The matter came to light today with the video showing the event, after which Patel asked the hospital authorities to take action against the people involved in organising it.

Incidentally, the staff started playing garba, moments after Patel left the hospital premises on Monday after inaugurating the Hemodialysis ward for kidney patients.

“I have learnt that some of the medical staff of that hospital had organised garba inside the newly inaugurated ward. I have taken a serious note of it and asked the hospital superintendent to serve show cause notices to those who were involved,” said Patel.

“This new facility inaugurated yesterday is aimed at reducing financial burden on kidney patients. Instead of helping patients, the staff organised garba inside the ward, which is not proper at all,” added Patel.

In the video, around 30 female as well as male staff members, including uniformed nurses, can be seen playing garba on loud music as patients looked on while resting on their beds.

“After the minister inaugurated the new ward, some of the staff members played garba inside the ward,” said RMO at Sola Civil Hospital Dr. Dilip Patel.

According to hospital superintendent Dr H K Bhavsar, action will be taken as per government order. “These staff members did not take any permission from me to organise such an event inside the ward. We will serve show cause notices to them,” said Bhavsar.

Hardik moves Gujarat HC to set aside sedition charges

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

A day after he was arrested, Patel quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel on Tuesday moved a petition before the Gujarat High Court seeking to set aside the sedition charges filed against him in Surat.

Hardik’s father Bharat Patel moved the plea on behalf of his son through his advocate B M Mangukiya and stated that no offence can be attributed to the Patel leader.

“No offence can be disclosed by spoken words of Hardik and no overt act can be attributed to him by those words, thus no offence has been made out,” the plea said.

The plea is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow.

A case of sedition was filed against Hardik for his alleged controversial remarks instigating his community youth to kill cops instead of committing suicide.

Hardik, who was detained by Rajkot rural police ahead of the India-South Africa One-Day International on Sunday as he had threatened to disrupt the match, was arrested yesterday by the Rajkot rural police for allegedly insulting the national flag.

Just after he was granted bail last evening by a local court in the flag case, Surat police had arrested him in the sedition complaint which was filed in that city.

Surat city DCP Makrand Chauhan had filed a complaint against Hardik in Amroli police station for advising a Patel youth to kill policemen.

The sedition case was filed under section 124(A) of IPC at Amroli Police Station in Surat under which any accused, if convicted, can be sentenced to maximum of life imprisonment, while the minimum sentence is of three years.

The section reads, “whoever, by words, either spoken or written..Brings hatred or contempt, or excites disaffection towards the Government shall be punishable with imprisonment for life…Or with minimum imprisonment up to three years.”

Other IPC sections included in the FIR against Hardik are section 115 (Abetment of offence), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups, 505-2 (incite one community against another) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Uber rape accused driver Shiv Kumar Yadav convicted by Delhi court

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

Uber on Tuesday welcomed a Delhi court’s decision convicting one of its drivers for raping a 25-year-old woman executive in December last year and said the company has “learnt lessons” from the incident which had triggered a widespread outrage.

32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav was held guilty for the offences under various sections of the IPC and faces a maximum of life term which under the relevant provision means imprisonment till his remaining natural life.

“Sexual assault is a terrible crime and we’re pleased he has now been brought to justice. Safety is a priority for Uber and we’ve made many improvements, in terms of new technology, enhanced background checks and better 24/7 customer support, as a result of the lessons we learned from this awful case,” Uber India president Amit Jain said.

The incident took place on the night of December 5 in 2014 when the victim, a finance executive working in Gurgaon, was heading back to her house at Inderlok in north west Delhi.

Vandalism as a method of protest won’t be tolerated; same standards for all: Arun Jaitley

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

Sending out a strong message, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has strongly criticised the acts of vandalism as a method of protest and said that contentious issues should be debated in a civilized manner.

“The past few days have seen an extremely disturbing trend where some people have been resorting to vandalism as an instrument of registering their protest…it is quite possible that in a large country like India people have divergent views but we have a tradition on expressing our views with civility,” Jiatley said.

“Some of these issues extremely serious some can reflect on inter-community relations, others can reflect on sensitive areas such as Jammu and Kashmir. I have no difficulty if people convey contrarian views as I see essence of democracy in debate. Therefore, there has to be a proper civilized mode of discussing and debating these issues,” he said.

“What is disturbing is when these acts of vandalism are increasingly publicized, many are encouraged to use similar methods…Important that people indulging in this are strongly criticized, all right thinking sections will have to distance themselves from such methodologies,” Jiatley said, adding, “We have to have same standards for all. We all have to convey differences in restrained manner.”

The Finance Minister said people indulging in this (Vandalism) should be strongly criticised.

On the role of some BJP leader, he said, “I don’t think anybody in the BJP has resorted to these methods(vandalism). Few made statements on sensitive issues. Party president has very strongly taken it up with them, PM conveyed his views, all of them have been spoken to.”

Take safety measures to avert fire accidents

By

Mahendra Singh

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October 20, 2015

It is really very sad to see eight persons die after a fire erupted at Hotel City Kinara in Kurla. BMC officials suspect that there was a gas leak on the first floor along with a short circuit that led to a blast. Those on the first floor got trapped over there and could not rush down where there was no damage. Officials confirmed that the site where the fire occurred was actually a storage space illegally being used as service area for customers.

BMC chief Ajoy Mehta has directed all ward officials to conduct ward-wise inspections of all grade two and grade three hotels in Mumbai. These officials will inspect the NOC granted to the hotels, will ascertain if the said area is being used for the purpose listed in the NOC and if any changes have been made to the area after the NOC was granted. After the completion of this task, it will start inspection of grade one hotels. The grading system is based on points allotted after inspecting factors like cleanliness, space and fire safety. MC Additional Municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said in case any hotel is found flouting norms, immediate action will be taken.

Meanwhile, the BMC has cancelled the license of hotel City Kinara and has lodged an FIR against it. It came to light that the BMC had on two previous occasions issued a notice to this hotel for not adhering to fire safety norms. The civic body must not shed off its responsibility by saying that notice was issued to hotels.

Don Bosco is a very good training facility and I have visited here a few times. It is also the duty of the college to check the places where its students are having food. However, the prime responsibility is that of ward officer responsible for checking such things and also that of the local police. It is realized that police men are overburdened but they can undertake single check in three months. It is heartening that Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmed Javed is meeting the Maulanas with his deputies for creation of better and cordial atmosphere in the metropolis.

These days we feel lack of social leadership to guide the youth on correct path. Instead of concentrating on serious issues like drought, farmer suicides, rising population and unemployment some ministers of the NDA government is focused about irrelevant topics like meat ban. Yes, we can punish the cow slaughterer but not by mob action. There is drastic need to make the laws very strict and implement them at a faster pace to deliver justice to the victim. The conviction rate too must increase so that people will have faith in the judicial system.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed the Centre for the rape of two girls. Kejriwal once again raised his demand for control of the police force to be transferred from the Centre to his government. BJP leader Vijendra Gupta said that Kejriwal was politicising the rape of two minors by pointing a finger at the Central Government. Gupta also accused Kejriwal of trying to distance himself from the issue of women security in the city. Kejriwal is trying to malign the highest authority without doing anything himself. He can create a volunteer force out of the JNU and Jamia students and give them some incentives and recognition.

I don’t want a politician’s life: George Clooney

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Afternoon Voice

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October 20, 2015

Hollywood superstar George Clooney has ruled out a run for public office insisting he wouldn’t want a politician’s life.

The Oscar-winning actor has been involved in politics for years and currently fronts a Sudan action campaign.

Many fans believe his marriage to top human rights lawyer, Amal Alamuddin, will prompt Clooney to take a more serious interest in global and national affairs, but the movie star has no interest in becoming a state senator, reported People magazine.

“I’ve been asked about that for almost 20 years now. The answer is just no. I mean who would ever wanna live like that?

“I’m friends with a lot of those guys and I just think it’s hell. I commend people who go into public service, because it’s just such a horrible way to get elected. It’s such a horrible time while you’re in office. No, I wouldn’t want to be in politics; I have no interest in it.”