Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that the budget will be presented in the Legislative Assembly today despite the lockdown in the national capital as the government needs the House’s approval to spend money in the forthcoming financial year.
“The budget will be presented in the Delhi Legislative Assembly today. This is necessary to do despite the lockdown in Delhi as the government will not be able to spend the money from April 1 without passing the budget,” he tweeted (translated from Hindi).
आज दिल्ली विधानसभा में बजट पेश किया जाएगा। दिल्ली में लॉकडाउन होने के बावजूद ये करना आवश्यक है क्योंकि बजट पास किए बगैर सरकार 1 अप्रैल से पैसे खर्च नहीं कर पाएगी।
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has appealed to the people to stay indoors in the view of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Lockdown starts in Delhi from today. Appeal to all of you until it is very important not to leave the house! They themselves will be safe and others will also be safe. Stay alert stay safe. #IndiaFightsCorona,” LG Delhi tweeted.
आज से दिल्ली में लॉकडाउन शुरू।
आप सभी से अपील है जब तक बहुत जरुरी न हो घर से न निकले!
खुद भी सुरक्षित रहेगें और दूसरो को भी सुरक्षित रख पायेंगे।
सतर्क रहें सुरक्षित रहें।#IndiaFightsCorona
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the total number of novel coronavirus cases in India has gone up to 396. The national capital has reported 29 confirmed cases.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced a complete lockdown in Delhi from March 23 till March 31 for the prevention and containment of COVID-19.
The Delhi police has imposed section 144 of CrPC which prohibits assembly of four or more people in one place till March 31.
Punjab, the Union Territory Chandigarh and seven districts of Haryana were put under a lockdown on Monday, a day after the authorities decided to enforce it as an emergency measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The Haryana government notified lockdown in the districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat, Panipat, Jhajjar, Rohtak and Panchkula till March 31.
All essential and emergency services were exempted from the shutdown which would remain in force till March 31, officials said.
During the lockdown, all commercial establishments, shops, factories shall remain closed except those dealing in essential commodities such as food, grocery, medicines, etc.
Other essential services such as water supply, sanitation, electricity, banks, ATMs shall be maintained, officials said.
There will be no public transport services, including operation of taxis and auto-rickshaws, except transport of all kinds to and from hospitals, airports, railway stations, bus terminals in Punjab and Haryana.
In Punjab, the department of transport may operate a few services of state transport undertaking to ensure essential services, it added.
All inter-state bus services would remain shut in Punjab and Haryana. All public transport service would also remain suspended in UT Chandigarh.
Punjab and Haryana have so far reported 21 and 12 positive cases of coronavirus respectively while in Chandigarh, the number of positive cases was six.
There will be restrictions on public gathering at one place under Section 144 of CrPC, officials said, adding any person found violating the restrictions shall face action.
In Punjab, extra police force would be deployed in all the districts to ensure implementation of restrictions.
E-commerce (delivery) of all essential goods including food, pharmaceutical and medical equipment, take away/home delivery restaurants/eateries have been exempted from the restrictions, officials said.
The government has advised companies to implement ‘Work from Home’ policy for their staff to encourage ‘social distancing’ to curb spreading of Coronavirus infections. The Maharashtra chief minister announced lockdown of all non-essential shops and offices in Mumbai. As part of relaxations in compliance requirements, the corporate affairs ministry has allowed companies to conduct board meetings through video conference and other audiovisual means till June 30. Long holiday, I mean, it’s time to be at home with all bars, cafes/lounges, hair salons and beauty parlours closed till 31 March or till further orders. Traders across India will keep their establishments shut on Sunday in response to the Prime Minister’s call for a self-imposed ‘Janata Curfew‘. About 40 crore employees of traders will remain at home on the day. Some of the essential services that will be excluded from the shutdown are providing drinking water, banking services, telephone and internet services, railway and transportation services, food, vegetables and groceries, hospitals, medical centers and medical stores and electricity.
Mumbai’s life is very fast as compared to any other city. There is no difference between day, night/early morning. That’s the reason, people feel very safe and and are never fearful. How can Corona restrict their spirits? Whoever stays in Mumbai works hard. There is noise everywhere – roads, streets, lanes, malls, restaurants and sometimes even temples. This noise leads to something entering your mind all the time thereby keeping it busy – something as basic as a vehicle honking. The noisy external environment also makes it easy, natural and complimentary to have a noisy internal environment (read mind) which is then always restless and feels busy and fast. Although the situation is not any different in other major cities of the country and the number of corporate headquarters in Mumbai.
All of a sudden when they are slapped with forced home arrest, they simply don’t feel good about it. There is lack of enough open space and congested houses. This city, for the population density and the activity levels, has very little open space where people could just go for a walk or just sit in peace. These things can have an immense calming effect and thereby slowdown is the internally bubbling energy. Almost all major cities in India and internationally have natural environments like beaches, parks, gardens, waterfronts, etc. but to reach all these is restricted by the government at this moment. Your immediate social circle needs an outlet to be together.
The Mumbaikar is always held high for his/her undying spirit, may it be a bomb blast, heavy rains or some calamity, they find their ways to live it to the fullest. When holidays are forced, they opt for holiday homes. Small get-togethers, party and prayers with close in family and friend circle. In the last few years, long weekends have become everyone’s favourite time to travel. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of people who choose to head out for quaint local getaways whenever a weekend break comes around. In fact, this trend has re-introduced vacations back into the priority list helping people de-clutter their minds and bond better with their families. Taking the advantage of forced leave, Mumbaikars already moved in nearby destinations for spending quality time with friends and family. All the holiday homes, private properties and bungles are booked. The owners have given lucrative offers with masks and sanitisation facilities largely being a need-based activity. Looking at how Mumbaikars want to make the most of their long weekend breaks, the organisers offer unmatched choices for a perfect weekend break based on people’s travel interest – be it for adventure, spending family time or for spiritual quest. This trend of holidaying over long weekends is driven by an increase in domestic spends, internet penetration and the availability of an array of weekend getaways and travel choices. Most of the Mumbaikars prefer to get out of town whenever the long weekend arrives.
Irrespective of students, servicemen, working professionals, we all crave for a holiday and some break from routine. Students get holidays from school whereas professionals and servicemen get holidays from their offices. These breaks help us to regain all the lost energy! When we forget what life is, weekends give us the scope to enjoy the life to the fullest. It gives us the opportunity to look at our lives in new ways. We all need some time to spend with ourselves only. One who has a family, spending good times with family is a must-to-do! Some utilise this time by doing some constructive work while some prefer for complete relax! And, if we suddenly get a surprise in form of extended weekends, like Coronavirus break, Well, that’s like ‘Dene wala jab bhi deta, pura chappar phad ke deta’.
Mumbai maids too travel to their nearby villages, it’s difficult to find a domestic help when you are at home and have many things to address. There is no mali, no maid, no driver, no assistance all are equally scared to get back on their job and if you are given a forced holiday, why wouldn’t they hesitate to take the advantage of the situation. In such challenges, the choice remains in going for a holiday. Mumbai might have been stalled, but Mumbaikar is living life to the core.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the Nation on March 19, announced about Janta Curfew that will take place today (22 March) in the backdrop of Coronavirus pandemic. The Janta Curfew is a self imposed and self regulated activity that will start from 7 in the morning till 9 in the evening. And between this time, no one should step out of their homes except those people in essential services.
When AV contacted Mr Venu Gopal a bungalow owner in Karjat Ladiwali he said, “My villa is built for the purpose of renting it out for picnic, party or shoots. Since malls, cinema and other public entertainments are closed due to Coronavirus, people are rushing to holiday homes with their family and friends. If you get into details, all the nearby areas of Mumbai are hundred per cent booked.”
When we asked how do you ensure hygiene and protection, he said “Our houses are highly hygienic and people coming here are alert citizens. Still, we have kept all the options ready by providing masks, sanitisers and clean environment. It’s like staying in house.”
About 40 crore employees of traders will remain at home on the day. Besides this, Modi has also appealed to the business community to take care of the economic needs of their employees by not deducting their salary, if they are not able to come to work.
Vikas Kumar Gunjan an IT professional said, “The lockdown is announced for people’s safety but they are roaming on Juhu beach and other tourist places. Local trains are overcrowded than ever. Ironically people are taking advantage of this opportunity to spend their time in picnic and tour. National park to Chowpatty every where there is rush.”
The Coronavirus has grabbed the headlines all over the world and affecting nearly thousands of people around the globe. Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, the Maharashtra government has ordered to shut down all malls, gyms, schools, restaurants etc. Even the state government has advised private companies to implement ‘Work from Home’ policy for their staff to encourage ‘social distancing’ to curb spreading of Coronavirus infections.
Vipin Gaur a senior journalist said, “Mumbai is closed for a reason, but here no one wants to understand its seriousness. Government should keep public places shut such as beaches and parks. There should be restrictions on public transport usage.”
The government has urged people to step out of house in the coming few weeks only if extremely necessary and work from home as much as possible. On one hand, after the government order, the streets of Mumbai and other adjourning parts of the City seems fully empty with the scare of the dreaded Coronavirus. On the other hand, some people give a damn to it.
On the conditions of anonymity, a picnic guide and arranger told AV, “People cannot stay home if you force them to. In Mumbai, they have small flats and limited options open to them. How long can one watch TV or entertain themselves? Almost all private bungalows in Palghar, Karjat, Badlapur, Wada, Mahabaleshwar and the other side of Virar are booked. People silently moved with their family and friends and are having a good long weekend.”
According to our sources, all farm houses and private bungalows situated on the outskirts of Mumbai such as Palghar, Karjat, Badlapur are packed to capacity. People are travelling along with families to these destinations to spend their forced vacation. They have organised small get-togethers, party and prayers with close- in family and friend circle. In the last few years, long weekends have become everyone’s favourite time to travel. Since there is lack of open space in Mumbai, people are going to these weekend getaway destinations.
“Their passports were fake. An offence was registered with Sahar police station and Unit VII of the Crime Branch began parallel probe. The probe revealed that the man’s real name was Hitesh Patel and the woman’s Mitaben Patel,” officer said.
“They were told by the accused that getting a visa for England would be tough because of the Patel surname, so they got fake passports made. The two were charged Rs 15 lakh per passport. Three members of the gang, Manish Ghogri (36), Amit Agrawal (41) and Bhavesh Shah (40), have been arrested,” officer added.
Police recovered 14 passports, 11 PAN cards and other documents from the three, who confessed during questioning to having sent 15 people from Gujarat to UK using this modus operandi, the official said.
Nearly seven years, three months and three days after a young medical student Jyoti Singh was gang-raped, brutally tortured and left to die in a moving bus in Delhi, the four adult convicts – Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma who took part in the heinous crime were hanged till death at 5.30 am on Friday in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi was calm when her daughter’s killers were finally hanged, it was a long struggle. Earlier, less than two hours ago at around 3:30 am on Friday, the Supreme Court of India dismissed their final petition against the death sentence. Before moving the Supreme Court, the convicts had petitioned the Delhi High Court too on the midnight of Thursday-Friday where their lawyer cited the Coronavirus outbreak for the lack of proper documents with the hurriedly filed appeal. A third court had already declared that they had run out of all legal options of stopping their execution. All the four criminals – Akshay Thakur (31) Pawan Gupta (25) Vinay Sharma (26) and Mukesh Singh (32) – were hanged at the Tihar Jail where they had spent the last few hours in isolation. This is the first time in the history of India that four convicts were hanged at the same time. They refused to eat and were awake the entire night. The jail was on lockdown throughout the night and no prisoner in Asia’s largest jail did sleep. There was anxiety, fear and pain of death on those four faces and the other inmates were restless with mixed emotions. Most people in the country obviously wanted the guilty to be punished. However, there are also those who share the view of Mulayam Singh Yadav and don’t really see rape as a crime but just an act of boys having fun.
Those who support death penalty in crimes like rapes, serial murders, torture leading to death, child trafficking, terrorism are treated as terrorists by those who don’t. These people are quite glad about the verdict. This group is glad about the judgement but partially agree with the punishment. Among those who see rape as a serious crime, everyone agrees that the guilty need to be punished. They just disagree whether a person can be killed by the state for any crime at all or should ‘Life Imprisonment’ be the maximum possible punishment. The same happened with these four. Majority of Indian’s wanted these four to be hanged. Similarly, the jail inmates too had difference of opinion. Till the last moment, the four filed multiple petitions over the past few months managing to stall their execution thrice at the eleventh hour. Several “dummy executions” had been carried out by the hangman Pawan Jallad as petitions stalled the execution repeatedly.
Nirbhaya’s rape and murder was undoubtedly one of the worst rape cases to have happened in India. In those 50–60 minutes, humanity, as we know it, was murdered. There were total of six people who committed this crime. One of them committed suicide in police custody while one other was released on 20 December 2015. The reason being that he was a minor (17 yrs 6 months old) on the day of committing the dreadful act. Imagine, he fell 6 months short of being a criminal. It disgusts me to the core that someone actually was able to exploit the loophole in our law to get this criminal out unharmed. He is at large and who knows, what he is up to. This juvenile was one of cruelest person among the rest. Hope he must have got a lesson for life after seeing his four partners in crime hanged. His plunge however triggered a big change. Our laws were modified and now a criminal won’t be considered juvenile if (s)he is found to be more than 16 years old. This amendment could not hold this juvenile for hang-till-death but the rest got the harshest punishment.
When all the other legal options were exhausted for the Nirbhaya convicts, the Tihar Jail administration asked them to apply for a mercy petition. Here it is so that even if one convict applies for mercy plea in the Nirbhaya case, it applies to all. Mark that the convict or his relative can only submit the mercy plea when the review appeal has been turned down by the SC and the punishment has been upheld. Now the mercy plea is based upon certain grounds on which the grant of pardon is requested. However, these grounds may or may not have value in the eyes of the law but they certainly hold ground for the release by the President. While it appears that the President has the discretion of whether to grant mercy or not, the advice of the cabinet binds his decision and he has to consult them before passing any decision. Even in 2014–15, the SC marked out that since there is no particular outer limit of time, deciding the duration till which mercy plea has to be disposed of, it surely intervene to seek the earliest disposal in case of a delay and in the Epuru Sudhakar case, it also quoted that the mercy plea decision is not a mere prerogative for the President and his decision can be subjected to judicial review in case of extreme arbitraries though however there is no legality in the Constitution challenging the decision of the President. Also, commutation is possible if the mercy petition was kept for a long delay.
Now, the process involves the forming of a mercy appeal within 7 days by the Jail authorities and then, passing it through the Governor to the President. The appeal is subsequently examined by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cabinet while also taking the view of the State concerned and after that, the recommendation is made to the President who then authorises. Since the process contains so many steps and legalities, it is normally bound to take time and any irregularities in that would mean a Constitutional bypass on the terms of Article 21 which specifies that, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”. Also, the SC has pointed out that any convict has the right to seek legal remedy till his last breath on the basis of Article 21 and it should be respected. In the Nirbhaya case, the mercy petition was rejected since the case took the country by storm and now with the Hyderabad case in limelight, this government would be hell bound to show that they don’t treat crimes against women leniently. Finally justice prevailed, the rapists got hanged.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
Such is the impact of pandemic Coronavirus on the people of the state and particularly Mumbai, that the State Government was forced to take strict steps that would help the people in general. Accordingly, the government designated the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to take necessary action to control crowds on the roads. The BMC, on its part has announced that all shops located in several localities of Mumbai will remain shut on alternate days indefinitely in order to regulate crowds on roads. However, the BMC has exempted all grocery and medical stores from the order. The officials have passed the order to avoid crowding and implement social distancing.
The closure of shops on alternate days is being observed in areas like Dadar, Mahim, Dharavi, Bandra, Khar and Santa Cruz, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said in a statement on Thursday. In a separate order, it also extended the restrictions to areas of Mulund East and West.
The situation at Kandivali is tense as all shops are shut and no hawkers are to found on the roads. This is the effect of the crowd controlling measure announced by the Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika that was issued yesterday. Hotels, restaurants, bars and shops remained shut in the city. Banks, grocery shops and medical stores remained open.
The announcement reads:
Whereas the Government of Maharashtra, in exercise of the power conferred under section 2, 3 & 4 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 has framed regulations for prevention and containment of COVID-19 under No. Corona 2020/CR/58 Aarogya-5 dated 13th March 2020.
AND WHEREAS under rule 10 of the said Regulations, the Municipal Commissioner is authorized to take measures for containment of COVID-19.
AND WHEREAS Shri Praveen Pardeshi, Commissioner of the Municipal of Greater Mumbai has been designated as the Empowered Officer.
AND WHEREAS Assistant Municipal Commissioner of MCGM is authorized by the Municipal Commissioner/Empowered Officer to take any measures so as to control the crowds on road to contain the spread of Coronavirus.
I SANJAY R KURHADE, Assistant Municipal Commissioner of MCGM R/South ward in exercise of said power conferred upon me, hereby direct under rule 10 of the said regulations to implement following commitment measure in Kandivali (West) are of R/South ward in order to avoid crowding in public places and exercise social distancing for avoiding spread of COVID-19 that all Shops & Establishment (except Medical Stores, & Grocery Shops) will be closed till March 31.
The Delhi High Court rejected the petition of Indian stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on March 20, The petition was to challenge the flying restrictions imposed on him by most domestic airlines. The HC turned down Kamra’s petition by disapproving his conduct in the flight, “This kind of behaviour certainly cannot be permitted,” the Court said.
Recently, Kamra was prohibited by five domestic airlines for disturbing Arnab Goswami, a well-known face in the electronic media for his high decibel TV debates in January on an IndiGo flight. The restrictions was later followed by a directive by the aviation ministry.
A Mumbai-based comic artist known for his critical views against the right-wing politics, especially on government-linear media houses, Kamra was prohibited by Spice Jet, IndiGo, Air India, and GoAir after he posted a video on his encounter with Arnab Goswami criticising him on his stand.
The ban on Kamra triggered criticism from his followers and others who certainly recalled how Republic TV reporters heckled opposition leaders in public places and even on flights.
“Offensive behaviour designed to provoke and create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable and endangers safety of air travellers. We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned,” Union Civil Aviation Minister H S Puri wrote on Twitter.
An investigation is conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA to see whether the companies violated any rules regarding the ban on Kunal Kamra. However, the Captain of IndiGo flight had written a letter questioning the ban and saying he had not been consulted.
Meanwhile, Kamra demanded a public apology and Rs 25 lakh for “causing mental pain and agony,” and also demanded for the revocation of its six-month ban.
Finally justice was served. After seven years long battle, all four accused of Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case were hanged today at the Tihar jail. The pre-dawn execution took place less than two hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the final petition of the convicts.
Here the question that arises is why did the court take so long to deliver justice? “Undoubtedly, it was delayed but we got justice. Today, she got justice and girls of the country got justice. I want to thank everyone, the judiciary, the government and every citizen for this,” answered Asha Devi mother of the victim.
The crime took place on December 16, 2012 when a 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh later came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, boarded a bus in Delhi along with her male friend. Once the woman and her friend boarded the bus, they were assaulted by a group of six people.
She was assaulted and tortured with an iron rod before being dumped for dead, naked, bleeding and her intestines spilling out. Nirbhaya and her friend had been dumped from the bus naked on the street. However, she survived long enough to identify her attackers, but died a few days later in a Singapore hospital.
Soon after the news came out, the entire country especially in the national capital was shaken by the act and the crime then grabbed the headlines all over. Thousands of people took to the streets demanding justice for the victim. The outrage over her death led to the passage of tough laws against sexual violence including death penalty for rape in some cases.
There were totally six accused out of which one (Ram Singh) was found dead in his jail cell and also one who was minor was freed after three years in a reform home.
According to a report, all the four accused Mukesh Singh (32) Akshay Thakur (31), Vinay Sharma (26) and Pawan Gupta (25) were hanged at Tihar Jail where they spent the last few hours in isolation in separate cells barely eating or drinking. They hardly slept and refused the last meal or had any last wish. Ironically, one of them begged for his life as he was being led to the gallows.
Soon after the accused were hanged, Asha Devi mother of 2012 Delhi gang rape victim said, “As soon as I returned home from the Supreme Court, I hugged the picture of my daughter and said today you will get justice.”
“Justice has prevailed,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted after all the convicts were hanged. Beside Modi, many other major personalities tweeted about the same –“Finally justice delivered,” they exclaimed.
Justice has prevailed.
It is of utmost importance to ensure dignity and safety of women.
Our Nari Shakti has excelled in every field. Together, we have to build a nation where the focus is on women empowerment, where there is emphasis on equality and opportunity.
Today all the accused were hanged, it did not create much of an impact neither on the people nor on the accused people who are still committing such heinous crimes.
When AV contacted Abbas Kazmi on this, he said, “I’m among those group of lawyers who are totally against of capital sentence. Secondly, it should not be delayed so long. So keeping in mind, the conscience of the society, especially with regards to victim, the delay is highly condemnable.”
“The matter was pending with the Supreme Court, so it must have gone through the entire procedure which must have taken long. The initial stage could have gone through the fast track. But SC as you know, there is no special fast track court as far as SC is concerned. Fast track courts are at the trail level mostly,” he added.
If we go by the statistics, then every hour in every corner around the globe, women are either being raped, molested or killed by people. Have you all ever given it a thought why such crimes against women are rising? Why is the conviction rate poor? Why not the government is using fast tracks courts in such crimes?
After all the accused were hanged on Friday, rights group Amnesty International India said that the death penalty is never the solution towards ending violence against women, calling the execution of the four Nirbhaya case convicts a “dark stain” on India’s human rights record.
Since August 2015, India had not executed anyone and it is unfortunate that four men were executed in the name of tackling violence against women. All too often lawmakers in India hold up the death penalty as a symbol of their resolve to tackle crime.
Avinash Kumar, Executive Director, Amnesty International India said, “The death penalty is never the solution and today’s resumption of executions adds another dark stain to India’s human rights record. Indian courts have repeatedly found it to be applied arbitrarily and inconsistently. Far-reaching procedural and institutional reforms are the need of the hour”
The government has asked the Supreme Court to make it harder for convicts in such brutal crimes to use legal loopholes to stall their sentence. However with the crimes against women rising, it doesn’t seem what the government has asked for?
As the year 2020 rolls on, Pakistan reported the first murder of journalists in the Indian subcontinent. All other countries in the subcontinent have evaded killing of any scribes in the last two months. Around the globe at least nine journalists have been killed till date this year on the line of their duties, where the highest number of casualties is reported from Iraq (3) followed by Syria (2), Pakistan (1), Somalia (1), Nigeria (1) and Paraguay (1). Contrary to it, the vast (also populous) country India witnessed only one casualty last year improving in its journo-murder index where 49 scribes lost their lives on the duty hours around the world. Except Pakistan and Bangladesh, India’s other neighbours namely Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Tibet (under China), and Bhutan could evade any incident of scribe’s murder during 2019.
Pakistan reported the mysterious death of Aziz Memon in Mehrabpur locality of Sindh province on 16 February. Memon used to work for the privately-owned KTN television and Sindhi-language daily Kawish. Threatened by local politicians last year for his media reporting, Memon was found dead in an irrigation channel near to his residence. Last year, the country lost four scribes (Aman Ullah Gharro, Ali Sher Rajper, Mirza Waseem Baig and Zafar Abbas) to assailants last year. Afghanistan witnessed the murder of Javid Noori, Shafiq Arya, Rahimullah Rahmani, Sultan Mohammad Kairkhah and Nader Shah Shebzadeh, whereas Bangladesh reported the suspected murder of online journalist Ihsan Ibn Reza Fagun in 2019.
According to International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Mexico tops the list with 10 incidents of journalist’s killings last year, followed by Afghanistan ( 5), Syria (5), Pakistan (4), Somalia (3), Yemen (2), Philippines (2), Brazil (2), Haiti (2), Honduras ( 2), Iraq (1), Haiti (1), Nigeria (1), Northern Ireland (1), the Philippines
(1), etc.
India as a whole witnessed the incidents of nine journo-killings in 2019, but only one incident emerged as a case of targeted murder. Andhra Pradesh based journalist K Satyanarayana (45) faced the fate because of his performances as a working journalist. The committed reporter of Telugu newspaper Andhra Jyothy was hacked to death by miscreants at Annavaram village of East Godavari district on the night of 15 October. Local scribes informed that Satyanarayana was targeted in an earlier occasion too.
Others who were killed this year include Jobanpreet Singh (Punjab’s online journalist was killed in police firings on 19 December), Vijay Gupta (Kanpur-based scribe shot dead by close relatives on 29 October), Radheyshyam Sharma (Kushinagar-based journalist murdered by his neighbours on 10 October), Ashish Dhiman (Saharanpur-based photojournalist shot dead along with his brother by neighbours on 18 August), Chakresh Jain (Shahgarh-based freelance journalist died of serious burn injuries on 19 June), Anand Narayan (news channel contributor of Mumbai murdered by miscreants on 4 June), Nityanand Pandey (magazine editor in Thane killed by an employee on 17 March).
Kerala-based journalist K Muhammed Basheer lost his life on 3 August as a government officer driven vehicle mowed down him. Bihar’s scribe Pradeep Mandal was targeted by miscreants on 28 July, but he survived luckily. He contributed a number of news items against the local liquor mafia for Dainik Jagaran and invited enmities from the goons. Guwahati-based scribe named Naresh Mitra died on 9 December after sustaining head injuries in a mysterious accident inside the city. Otherwise, the trouble-torn northeastern region has once again evaded murder of any journalist in two consecutive years. Tripura reported the murder of five media persons in 2013 and 2017, whereas Assam and Manipur witnessed the last killing of media persons (Dwijamani Nanao Singh from Imphal and Raihanul Nayum from Dhubri) in 2012.
Till the recent time, the region was a breeding ground for insurgents fighting against New Delhi with demands for self-rule to sovereignty. Both the States were once severely affected by the militancy, where over 30 separatist armed outfits went on with disruptive activities including extortion, kidnapping, and killings. The year 2017 was recognized as a deadliest year for working journalists in India as 12 scribes (Hari Prakash, Brajesh Kumar Singh, Shyam Sharma, Kamlesh Jain, Surender Singh Rana, Gauri Lankesh, Shantanu Bhowmik, KJ Singh, Rajesh Mishra, Sudip Datta Bhaumik, Naveen Gupta and Rajesh Sheoran) were either murdered or reported killing in suspicious situations. Among the casualties, Tripura reported two incidents of journo-murder (Shantanu and Sudip Datta) that year. Earlier 2013 emerged a dangerous year for Indian scribes with 11 casualties including three media employees (Sujit Bhattacharya, Ranjit Chowdhury and Balaram Ghosh) from Tripura.
Various national and international media rights bodies including Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), etc came out with separate reports on journo-murders in 2019 and rightly continue raising voices for due probes and punishments to the culprits.
(The author is a northeast India based media activist)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
Prime Minister 
A racket involving sending people from Gujarat to 
The Delhi High Court rejected the petition of Indian stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on March 20, The petition was to challenge the flying restrictions imposed on him by most domestic airlines. The HC turned down Kamra’s petition by disapproving his conduct in the flight, “This kind of behaviour certainly cannot be permitted,” the Court said.
