Citizenship Act: Violent clashes in Jamia; buses burnt

Agencies
December 15, 2019

New Delhi, Dec 15: Protest against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act turned violent in the national capital on Sunday with buses and fire engines set on fire, protesters baton charged and police entering Jamia Millia University and allegedly lobbed tear gas shells into the library where students had holed themselves up.

The students of Jamia Millia University had called for a protest on Sunday, which was joined by locals and others. Along with students, a large number of people residing in localities surrounding the Jamia Millia Islamia blocked roads and shouted slogans against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the BJP.

It turned violent as police prevented their march a section of the protesters setting on fire three buses and damaging a fire tender. A couple of motorcycles were also damaged in the fire.

The students immediately dissociated with the violence and said, "We have time and again maintained that our protests are peaceful and non-violent. We stand by this approach and condemn any party involved in the violence. We have maintained clam even when students have been lathi-charged and some women protestors have been badly beaten up. Violence by certain elements is an attempt to vilify and discredit genuine protests."

Jamia Teachers' Association also condemned the violence outside Jamia Millia Islamia and said it was not part of any such violence while appealing to students to keep away from "such directionless protest" led by local political leaders.

A University official said that police entered the campus and locked the gate while students claimed tear gas shells were lobbed inside the library. Police said they entered the campus to arrest "outsiders" who were part of the violence.

On Friday, several students were injured when they were lathi-charged by police who closed the university gates while they were about to take out a protest march to Parliament House.

On Saturday evening, the students had called off their university lockdown and declared they would hold a peaceful protest.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said any kind of violence is unacceptable and protests should remain peaceful. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation closed entry and exit gates of the nearby Sukhdev Vihar metro station due to the violent protest.

Congress-affiliated NSUI National Secretary Saimon Farooqui said protesting students were peacefully sitting on Mathura Road when policemen tried to "trouble" a couple of protesters. Following this, he said, police started the lathi-charge.

In another protest, students from the north-east protested at Jantar Mantar demanding the scrapping of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, claiming it was against the spirit of Assam Accord of 1985.

"For the BJP and its government, they are vote bank but for us they are foreigners whom the Act is going to extend citizenship. It is against the secular culture of Assam where native Muslims fought Mughals in medieval times and where surnames are shared by Hindus and Muslims now," Rukhsaar, a Delhi-based professional from Guwahati, was quoted by PTI as saying.

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News Network
May 24,2020

New Delhi, May 24: India witnessed the biggest ever spike of 6,767 positive cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 1,31,868, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As many as 147 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 3,867.
Out of the total number of cases, 73,560 are active and 54,440 have been cured/discharged and one migrated.

Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-affected state with 47,190 COVID-19 cases. It is followed by Tamil Nadu (15,512), Gujarat (13,664), and Delhi (12,910).

The nationwide lockdown imposed as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 has been extended till May 31.

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News Network
May 9,2020

May 9: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said the West Bengal government is not allowing trains with migrant workers to reach the state that may further create hardship for the labourers.

In a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state.

Referring to the 'Shramik Special' trains being run by the central government to facilitate transport of migrant workers from different parts of the country to various destinations, the home minister said in the letter that the Centre has facilitated more than two lakh migrants workers to reach home.

Shah said migrant workers from West Bengal are also eager to reach home and the central government is also facilitating the train services.

"But we are not getting expected support from the West Bengal. The state government of West Bengal is not allowing the trains reaching to West Bengal. This is injustice with West Bengal migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them," Shah wrote.

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Agencies
January 16,2020

Lucknow, Jan 16: The drive initiated by Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath government to identify non-Muslim immigrants in the state seems to have run into rough weather.

In Pilibhit, where the maximum number of about 35,000 illegal immigrants has been identified, it has now been found that information is being sought by the state government on an unverified document. A large number of families from Bangladesh settled here several decades ago.

The survey began last month even before the bill was notified. Moreover, the feedback email on the questionnaire is a Gmail ID -- [email protected] -- which is not a government server.

It is not known how the state government is drawing up the lists without having the verification criteria.

After the report was put up by a news website, Home Department officials feigned complete ignorance about the issue.

A spokesman said: "This was an unofficial and preliminary exercise to assess the number of illegal migrants in the state. The document is meant to collect basic beneficiary information. No list of potential beneficiaries has yet been sent to Delhi."

The document has eight columns asking for name, father's name, place of stay in India, and where did they come from and when. It does not mention any requirement of proof, or documents.

It also asks for a description of the kind of atrocities they faced, presumably in their home country.

The District Magistrate of Pilibhit claimed they are checking documents of the refugees, but denied any knowledge of the unsigned document.

The CAA is meant to benefit Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. The statement of purposes of the Act adds that it is meant to benefit those fleeing religious persecution from the above countries.

Comments

Abdullah
 - 
Thursday, 16 Jan 2020

Yogi is unfit to be CM as he does not know what he speaks and does.   Its unfortunate that we are such idiot as CM.    Instead of CAA we need PAA (Politician amendment act).    We need age limit of politicians to be fixed to 65 or maximum 70 years and any one coming in politics to be free from any bad doing.   No rapists/murders/looters/decoits should be allowed to contest election.   Presently 90 percent of the politicians have bad record.  Few are rapists, murders, having spent jail term etc.    

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