Mumbai’s Veer Mata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan welcomed two Royal Bengal Tigers (a male and a female) on Wednesday. The two apex predators were got from Aurangabad’s Siddharth Zoo under the Central Zoo Authority of India’s animal exchange programme. Though they have arrived on Wednesday, they are currently under quarantine and will soon be available for public viewing.
The pair belongs to Panthera Tigris species that are declared endangered species by organization IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).
While the tiger aged 4 years is named ‘Shakti’ while the tigress ‘Karishma’ is of six years. The pair belongs to Panthera Tigris species that are declared endangered species by organisation IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).
In exchange for the tigers, the Mumbai Zoo has sent two pairs of spotted deer and two pairs of painted storks to the Siddharth Zoo.
The Byculla Zoo had not housed any tigers since 2006 and the civic body is hoping that the new arrivals will attract more tourists.
Soon the passengers can book the ticket via app for Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) and enjoy the cashless ride. On Thursday the BEST committee cleared a proposal to include three new digital payment systems to book mobile tickets through an app to travel on red buses in future on the streets of Mumbai.
In the proposal the BEST cleared that the Passengers can make payment through Phonepe Pvt Ltd, Pay Point India Network Pvt Ltd and One97.
Currently, the BEST issues tickets through hand-held electronic machines which will now help generate e-tickets on cellphones. As per an official of BEST , they want to have more digital application service providers for ticketing via digital payment.
According to a latest report, the everyday ridership of BEST increased by almost a lakh following the introduction of a fleet of wet-leased buses. Reportedly, the daily passenger strength touched 34 lakhs thus matching the strength of the years 2014-15. Also, the BEST wants to increase its strength in many areas of the city which is operated by auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers.
Two petitions related to the hanging of the four convicts of Nirbhaya came up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Thursday when a bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna found themselves dealing with the two petitions. While one was filed by the Union government that sought separate hangings of the four convicts (Mukesh Kumar, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur) as and when their mercy petitions were dismissed by the President the other was a petition by Sharma challenging the President’s rejection of his mercy plea.
The SC reserved its verdict on Vinay’s petition and said it would pronounce judgment on Friday, when it will also hear the counsel for all four deathrow convicts on the Centre’s plea for their hangings to be separated. So, no one knows when the death row convicts will be deemed to have exhausted their legal remedies and a finality reached about the date when they will be hanged.
It may be remembered that after the SC rejected review and curative petitions of the four convicts, Pawan had filed a plea in Delhi High Court claiming to be a juvenile at the time of crime on December 16, 2012. His plea was dismissed by the court. His appeal was rejected by Supreme Court as well. Mercy petitions of other three viz Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay who invoked the President’s mercy powers for commutation of death penalty to life imprisonment were also turned down.
The Centre is challenging a Delhi HC order of February 5 declining the plea for the convicts to be hanged separately by delinking those who have already exhausted all their remedies from those who have not. The HC had set a deadline of 7 days for the convicts to exhaust all options.
The SC is aware of the delaying tactics, but can do little except hear the petitions filed through advocates as these were within the convicts’ rights. Once the seven-day period granted by the HC got over, Vinay filed a petition in the SC challenging rejection of his mercy plea by the President.
Vinay’s counsel kept repeating his arguments for two hours, leaving the judges exasperated. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta took 15 minutes to show the files of the home ministry and the Delhi government to point out that each and every aspect and fact narrated in the mercy petition were carefully scrutinised and considered.
Expressing concern over the alarming rise of criminalisation of politics, the Supreme Court(SC) on Thursday ordered that political parties should publish the criminal history of their candidates for Assembly as well as Lok Sabha polls along with reasons for selecting persons with criminal antecedents over decent people.
GM ADR Amit Verma said, “I don’t think that this move will benefit a lot because even in the earlier judgment, the SC had asked political parties to publish details of their candidates with a criminal background in newspapers, electronic media, thrice during campaigning. However, the diktat was also not followed by political parties. Even if it is mandatory, I am wary that all parties will follow this. We are not satisfied with the judgment of the SC as the main request of the PIL was to not give tickets to those candidates who have a criminal background but SC is avoiding giving that sort of a ruling.”
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat said that a political party will have to provide reasons for giving tickets to a candidate with criminal background instead of picking a person with a clean image.
As per the SC, it would be mandatory for parties to upload the details of criminal history of their candidates on their particular website, on social media and in newspapers within 48 hours of selection. The court orders, “Political parties will have to specify reasons for selecting candidates having pending criminal cases against them on their website,” it stated.
Apart from carrying details on their website, the parties must submit the same details to the Election Commission (EC) of India within 72 hours. “The reason to select candidates should be based on merit and not winnability. Winnability can’t be the only justification,” the top Court said.
The Court also mentioned that if political parties failed to give the details of their candidate or the ECI was unable to implement the directive, it would be considered contempt of Court. The judgment signified the Court’s alarm over the unimpeded rise in the accommodation of criminals often facing heinous charges like rape and murder in the political arena.
Earlier the ECI had urged the Supreme Court , that political parties should not give tickets to candidates with criminal background. ECI also said that 46 per cent of Members of Parliament have criminal records. The Supreme Court’s long strings of judgements against criminalisation of politics have hardly scratched the surface of the deep rot.
The verdict comes on contempt petitions filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and others. In her submission, Upadhyay had alleged that the ECI as well as the Central Government that no serious efforts were made to stop the criminalisation of politics despite the Court order. The petitioner had alleged that the Election Commission had not attempted to implement this order effectively.
A five-judge constitution bench in September 2018 had asked the Central government to immediately enact laws to ban those involved in serious crimes from contesting elections and becoming party officials.
The Court had earlier even ordered that candidates should publish their criminal details in newspapers, electronic media thrice during the campaign season.
After the order by SC, political leaders says it is hard for them to tell whether today’s decision on merit over winnability can be realistically enforced.
Politics and crime in India are so intimately knotted that the phrase ‘politicians with no criminal records’ might come across as an oxymoron. During 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its list of 184 candidates out of contenders among which 35( 19 per cent) of the total had declared criminal cases against themselves in 2014, according to myna.info, a website that analyses the self-sworn affidavits of the candidates who are in the fray in the Lok Sabha polls. These 35 BJP candidates with criminal records are also among the 78 candidates who have been re-nominated during this Lok Sabha as well. News18.com could not analyse other 106 candidates because they haven’t yet filed their nomination papers along with self-sworn affidavits that show the number of criminal cases registered against a candidate, if any.
The Apex court says that they must also explain why the candidates were chosen. Now the Supreme Court has put political parties on a tight leash by ordering them to publish the criminal history of their candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha polls along with reasons that goaded them to choose those with criminal antecedents over decent people within 48 hours of the selection of the candidates. A Bench led by Justices Rohinton F. Nariman ordered political parties to publish the criminal antecedents of their candidates in local and national newspapers and on their social media handles. Following this, the parties would have to file compliance reports with the Election Commission of India (ECI) or face contempt action. The judgement signified the court’s alarm over the unimpeded rise in the accommodation of criminals often facing heinous charges like rape and murder, in the political arena. It is based on a proposition made by the ECI to ask parties not to give tickets to persons with criminal antecedents for contesting elections.
The ECI has said that 46 per cent of members of Parliament have criminal records. The Supreme Court’s long strings of judgements against criminalisation of politics have hardly scratched the surface of the deep rot. Justice Nariman, speaking for the Bench in the judgment, said a move to steer politics away from the denizens of the criminal world would definitely serve national and public interest.
Thursday’s verdict is sourced from a contempt petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who sought action against the authorities and parties for not complying fully with a September 2018 judgement by a Constitution Bench that had directed parties to publish online the pending criminal cases of their election candidates.
The 2018 judgement had urged Parliament to bring a “strong law” to cleanse parties of leaders facing trial for serious crimes. Two years ago, a five-judge Bench led by the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra had concluded that rapid criminalisation of politics could not be stopped by merely disqualifying tainted legislators but should begin by “cleansing” political parties. It had even then issued guidelines, including that both the candidate and the party should declare the criminal antecedents of the former in widely circulated newspapers.
The number of candidates with criminal cases registered against them, however, is expected to rise once the remaining 106 new candidates file their nominations. According to the myneta.info, the candidate who had the highest number of criminal cases filed against him till 2014 was Hansraj Gangaram Ahir from Maharashtra’s Chandrapur constituency. There were a total of 11 criminal cases filed against him till the last Lok Sabha elections. Ahir is a member of the 16th Lok Sabha and currently serves as the MoS Home Affairs. Following him is Pratap Sarangi from Odisha’s Balasore. Sarangi had ten criminal cases filed against him. Interestingly, among other BJP candidates with criminal charges, the current Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari, also features in the list. Gadkari, till 2014, had five criminal cases filed against him. Other notable mention is Sakshi Maharaj. He had thirty four criminal cases filed against him till 2014.
In 2014, Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR), analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 542 of 543 winners in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and found that BJP led the chart with as many as 98 winning candidates (35 per cent) out of total 282 who back then were facing criminal charges. Eight out of a total of 44 candidates of the Congress were facing criminal charges. The study also found that a candidate with a criminal background was almost twice more likely to win than a candidate with no criminal background. The winning chances of a candidate with criminal background were 13 per cent while those of a candidate with no criminal background were 5 per cent. Out of the 539 winners analysed in Lok Sabha 2019, 233 MPs had declared criminal cases against themselves. This is an increase of 44 per cent in the number of MPs with declared criminal cases since 2009. The 17th Lok Sabha will have close to half of its new MPs with declared criminal cases.
The chances of winning for a candidate with declared criminal cases in the Lok Sabha 2019 are 15.5 per cent whereas for a candidate with a clean background is 4.7 per cent. This is due to the fact that the 17th Lok Sabha will have close to half of its new Members of Parliament (MPs) with declared criminal cases.
Congress MP Dean Kuriakose from Idukki constituency in Kerala has declared 204 criminal cases against himself. These include cases related to committing culpable homicide, house tresspass, robbery, criminal intimidation, etc. As per the self-sworn affidavits submitted by the candidates at the time of filing nominations, the new Lok Sabha has surpassed the previous two in electing MPs with criminal records.
Out of the 542 MPs analysed during Lok Sabha elections in 2014, 185 (34 per cent) winners had declared criminal cases against themselves while out of 543 winners analysed during Lok Sabha elections in 2009, 162 (30 per cent) had declared criminal cases against themselves. This time its close to half. Out of the 539 winners analysed in Lok Sabha elections 2019, 233 (43 per cent) MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves.
The figure is far more alarming when it comes to serious criminal cases. Around 159 (29 per cent) winners this time have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women, etc.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to allow its 22 lakh employees a five-day working week. Employees will now work 45 minutes more Monday to Friday to avail of the weekend off. The five-day week is followed by the central government, in Rajasthan, Bihar, Punjab, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Right now the working hours of government office is from 9.45 am to 5.30 pm. The same has now been extended from 9.45am to 6.15pm with a 30-minute lunch break. This includes the employees of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as well. Currently, employees would get the second and fourth Saturday off. Offices located outside BMC limits too will follow 9.45 to 6.15 work schedule.
Among those who will not be affected by the government’s decision are government dispensaries, hospitals, police, jail employees, water supply employees, medical colleges and employees, fire brigade, cleanliness employees etc.
The state government employees union has been raising the issue with successive state governments. Last week, they met chief minister Uddhav Thackeray who promised to do it provided work did not suffer.
A week later, the state cabinet approved the five day week.
According to a government press release, currently, employees have 288 working days which will reduce to 264 days. However, the working hours per day will go up from seven hours 15 minutes to eight hours per day. Employees will actually work one-day or 24 hours more every year.
It will not apply to government offices covered under the Factories Act and the Industrial Disputes Act and to those that are considered essential services. These include government hospitals, dispensaries, police, jails, water supply projects, fire brigade, conservancy workers, educational institutes both schools and colleges and technical institutes and others. Due to the five day week policy the government offices will save electricity, water, diesel, petrol.
Valentine’s Day is an international festival that celebrates the feeling of love. Though the festival commemorates the martyrdom of a Christian saint called St. Valentine, the festival as it is celebrated today, has very little religious significance. In present times, Valentine’s Day has assumed a secular and global flavour and is celebrated by people of all castes and communities. Another noticeable factor in the Valentine’s Day celebration is that the festival celebrates love in all its forms and is not just restricted to romantic love. People therefore exchange Valentine’s Day greetings with their parents, teachers, siblings, friends, sweethearts or anyone very special or close to them. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be an occasion to display love, affection and care for our families, friends and romantic partners. But today, it does not seem that way anymore, for families and friends are mostly wiped off the list, leaving only the partner in it.
Valentine’s Day started with a priest named Valentine who lived in Rome during the third century A.D. At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius II. Valentine did not like the emperor as he wanted to have a big army and expected men to join it. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families behind. Hence, not many men signed up. This made the emperor furious which led him to a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. Emperor Claudius then decided not to allow any more marriages to take place in the country. Young people thought his new law was cruel and preposterous. Being a priest, his (Valentine’s) job was to marry young couples. Even after Emperor Claudius II passed his law, Valentine kept on performing marriage ceremonies secretly. He would lead the couples into a small candlelit room. They would then whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the footsteps of soldiers who would arrive any moment and arrest them. Valentine’s time was over when he was caught one day. He was thrown into prison and told that his punishment would be death.
Consequently, many young people came to the jail to visit this priest. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. History says the men and women wanted Valentine to know that they too believed in love. One young woman who visited him was the daughter of the prison guard. She helped Valentine to keep his spirits up. She agreed that Valentine did the right thing by ignoring the emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. One day, he left his female friend a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. Valentine signed it as “Love from your Valentine”. In honor of Valentine’s heroic death, the Pope declared that February 14th would henceforth commemorate the soft-hearted St. Valentine. Today, Valentine’s Day has become an iconic day for celebrating love and spending a lot of money on various gifts for our loved ones. This is how Valentine’s Day came to be celebrated.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
A major fire broke out on Thursday morning in a commercial building in Andheri’s MIDC area. The fire broke out at the Rolta Company building located inside Rolta Technology Park based on the 22nd Street in Andheri east.
It has been reported that the first fire call that was reported at 11.30 am went up to Level-III. Visuals from the area showed dense smoke coming out of the building.
Talking of the incident, P.S Rahangdale fire brigade chief said, “The fire was confined to the server room on the second floor of the ground plus three-storey commercial structure. Dense smoke has engulfed the structure and the staircase.”
Twelve fire engines of the Mumbai Fire Brigade were at the spot and fire-fighting and search operations were on when last reports came in. It has been reported that operations to bring the blaze under control continued till late evening.
Mumbai: A level-III fire has broken out at Rolta company in Andheri East. 8 fire tenders are present at the spot, fire fighting operation is on. Search operation is also underway to rescue trapped people, if any. https://t.co/QXBlB7UteOpic.twitter.com/DXg2kmah4w
“Due to aluminium cladding, glass facade and no ventilation, situation is still intense. Firefighters are fighting fire from inside as well as outside, using special appliances and donning breathing apparatus sets,” Rahangdale added.
The Fire Brigade informed that the operation to douse flames was still on but there has been no report of any casualty or anyone being trapped in the premises. More details waited.
Looks like the police will not leave the Mumbai Bagh protesters to protest in peace. A day after cracking down on the Mumbai Bagh protesters, the police are now behind fruit sellers and locals distributing food and water to the anti-CAA demonstrators at Morland Road.
The police on Thursday served notices to several fruitsellers under the CrPC and warned them that they would be held equally responsible if something goes wrong at Mumbai Bagh.
Said a fruit seller on conditions of anonimity, that he was served notice under Section 149 (police to prevent cognisable offences) of Code Of Criminal Procedure on Thursday for selling bananas to one of the visitors who wanted to distribute the fruit among protesters on Sunday. He fears that he may face police action after the protest is over.
Most of the vendors who had been distributing food and water to the Mumbai Bagh demonstrators have stopped coming fearing police crackdown, protesters fear. The police’s intimidation tactic seems to be working even as the number of the demonstrators has come down to 60 per cent now.
The police are not only serving notices to the protesters and the vendors, but also to those who have extended their support to the Mumbai Bagh women. “Notices are being given randomly to those who came there to express solidarity with the protesters,” said an advocate who has been approached by a few protesters for legal help.
Poll-results for Delhi state-assembly giving Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) a thumping majority and Congress faring badly confirms elimination of the outfit as a national political party. The rise of Arvind Kejriwal aiming towards a probable opposition-face for top post in governance of the country in case AAP goes ahead by establishing its strong units in other states starting from UP because residents of the state are amongst most beneficiaries of free medical facilities available in Delhi at cost of money of the state’s tax-payers. Poll-strategist Prashant Kishor has once again established his expertise in AAP leading to historical victory, and can be instrumental in the party aiming to replace Congress as national outfit.
Poll-results should lead BJP to think of much-required change in state-leadership to hand over charge of Delhi to a local respectable face known for honesty even though he may have to sacrifice his present post of Union Cabinet Minister. BJP-ruled Central government should re-think its governance-strategy. It should carry forward with reformative-bills like on Population Control, Poll Reforms and Uniform Civil Code first rather than prioritizing on bills that may create controversy. Economic policies should be completely overhauled to make it user-friendly and employment-generating. Voters can never digest excuse of global recession because the party-mentor RSS always stressed on Swadeshi economic policy. Stress should be to revive ancient tradition of making people adopt to savings rather than on loans.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
2Prevention is better than cure
Coronavirus is fatal and more dangerous than the world is anticipating. Even the whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang who first highlighted about the disease in December has died of the virus. Medical teams looking after Coronavirus patients are getting infected and dying. China is a communist country and they are not disclosing to the world about the seriousness of the disease which has the potential of even wiping out the human race from the earth.
World superpowers including US need to pressurize WHO to take extensive measures to invade China by the best of medical researchers and doctors to know more about the disease to find vaccine to deal with the virus. China themselves should forget all rivalries as well as protocols to join hands with the globe to fight this deadliest virus which is life threatening. Coronavirus has no cure and prevention is the only option under the circumstances. Turning vegetarian too is healthy amidst the dangers of eating meat which has come to the forefront at the spread of Coronavirus.
S.N.Kabra
3Parameswarji: A towering intellectual
In thinker, writer, orator, scholar and director of the Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram P Parameswaran’s demise the Sangh Parivar, the RSS and Indian political and spiritual field in general has lost a stalwart who dedicated his life on Hindu and Indian spiritualism and ideology.
He was fondly called as Parameswarji by Sangh Parivar and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and worked with prominent leaders like Deendayal Upadhyaya, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani during the Jana Sangh days. Parameswaran was also a freedom fighter and served as all India general secretary of the Jana Sangh in 1960s.
He was honoured with Padma Shri in 2004 and the country’s second highest civilian award the Padma Vibhushan in 2018. Parameswarji was a prolific writer, poet, researcher and a widely-respected RSS ideologue. He was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s secretary (1967–1971) and vice president (1971–1977), as well as the director of the Deendayal Research Institute (1977–1982).
He had served the political and social spheres in Kerala and played a pivotal role in spreading the influence of the Bharatheeya Jana Sangh in the Kerala politics dominated by the LDF and the UDF. A very well known scholar, writer and orator he was attracted to Sangh ideology at a very young age and later became a ‘pracharak,’ full-time worker of the RSS in 1951 and devoted his life to it. He was wisely respected and admired by all including his political opponents. Though he was offered many posts owing to his calibre and mettle he declined all of them clearly showing his dedication to his duty and work rather than being avaricious for power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his message has said that his was a life devoted to India’s cultural awakening, spiritual regeneration and serving the poorest of the poor. Parameswarji’ will remain an immortal colossus in the political and social spheres and a role model and guide to those researching and studying on Indian spiritualism, heritage and culture. May his soul rest in peace.
M Pradyu
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Mumbai’s Veer Mata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan welcomed two Royal Bengal Tigers (a male and a female) on Wednesday. The two apex predators were got from Aurangabad’s Siddharth Zoo under the Central Zoo Authority of India’s animal exchange programme. Though they have arrived on Wednesday, they are currently under quarantine and will soon be available for public viewing.
Soon the passengers can book the ticket via app for Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) and enjoy the cashless ride. On Thursday the BEST committee cleared a proposal to include three new digital payment systems to book mobile tickets through an app to travel on red buses in future on the streets of Mumbai.
The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to allow its 22 lakh employees a five-day working week. Employees will now work 45 minutes more Monday to Friday to avail of the weekend off. The five-day week is followed by the central government, in Rajasthan, Bihar, Punjab, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Valentine’s Day is an international festival that celebrates the feeling of love. Though the festival commemorates the martyrdom of a Christian saint called St. Valentine, the festival as it is celebrated today, has very little religious significance. In present times, Valentine’s Day has assumed a secular and global flavour and is celebrated by people of all castes and communities. Another noticeable factor in the Valentine’s Day celebration is that the festival celebrates love in all its forms and is not just restricted to romantic love. People therefore exchange Valentine’s Day greetings with their parents, teachers, siblings, friends, sweethearts or anyone very special or close to them. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be an occasion to display love, affection and care for our families, friends and romantic partners. But today, it does not seem that way anymore, for families and friends are mostly wiped off the list, leaving only the partner in it.
Looks like the police will not leave the Mumbai Bagh protesters to protest in peace. A day after cracking down on the Mumbai Bagh protesters, the police are now behind fruit sellers and locals distributing food and water to the anti-CAA demonstrators at Morland Road.