Sonia leads impressive roadshow in Varanasi, cuts short after falling ill

Jan 28: Hindu temple processions with an elephant adorned in ornaments carrying the idol, with percussionists and devotees walking side by side, are no new sight in Kerala. However, a similar procession in Kerala's cultural capital, Thrissur, turned heads. Hundreds of Muslims were seen holding hands and clearing traffic to help the procession move smoothly.

Muslims made way for the passage of a Hindu temple procession during their protest against Citizenship Amendment Act(ACT) in Thrissur on Saturday, January 25.

Various Muslim organisations had organised a mass protest in the Swaraj ground in the town. On the same day, the local Bhaktapriyam temple's procession was also taking place. Stuck in a dilemma, the temple authorities approached the police and the Muslim organisations to find a solution. The Muslim organisations then promised to help proceed the temple procession without any obstacles.

Nearly a thousand people who had turned up for the protest volunteered to clear traffic and control the crowd so that the temple procession could smoothly pass through the town.

A video of the procession was shared on Facebook by the Thrissur City Police on Saturday, which showed Muslims holding hands on either side of the procession to make way.

"Humanity is bigger than religion. That's the lesson the residents of Thrissur are giving to the country. Thrissur is truly the cultural capital of Kerala," read the caption of the post in Malayalam. The video soon went viral and was viewed by over 36k views.

Bengaluru, Mar 4: The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the state government in connection with the denial of retirement benefits to a retired deputy commissioner of commercial taxes who had fought against the illegal iron ore lobby.

Justice G Narendra also directed the state to respond to the notice before March 9, stating the reasons for withholding the officer’s retirement benefits.

Advocate Ramananda, appearing for the retired officer Josephat Andrews, explained that the single-judge bench also warned the government of stringent action.

Petitioner Josephat Andrews said his retirement benefits amounting to Rs 25.88 lakh were being withheld since 2014.

In 2009, Andrews detected a huge scam involving Vijaya Leasing, a company associated with former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. Immediately he wrote to his higher officials explaining to them how the department was owed Rs 1,400 crore in taxes by the company. Immediately after that, Andrews was transferred to Bengaluru.

The media exposed the scam in 2012. Thereafter, to harass the officer, Andrews was served notice for allegedly not conducting an inspection of M/s Vijaya Leasing, which was controlled by the family of then tourism minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, on July 11, 2012.  He was discharged by a full departmental enquiry.

The petitioner was issued a second show cause notice on Jan 29, 2014 on the same charges. Before his retirement, he was docked two increments, denied promotional benefits and his pension was reduced without following due process.

He was served yet another notice with charges that he did not inspect goods vehicles, and an order was passed on April 30, 2019 reducing his pension by 5 per cent, an unprecedented punitive action.

This order was quashed by the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT), which also ordered payment of retirement benefits to Andrews within five months. However, the benefits were not released to him.  

“Rule 214 of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (KCSR) make it clear that no enquiry can be held four years after an officer’s retirement.  Belying all statutory rules and precedents of the Supreme Court, Josephat Andrews’ retirement benefits were withheld for five years. Andrews therefore approached the High Court,” advocate Ramananda explained.

Josephat Andrews recalled to Deccan Chronicle that although mining activity was in full swing in 2008, the commercial tax department maintained that it had nothing to do with mining. “I travelled to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bellary to investigate. I found tax evasion of thousands of crores. When I visited M/s the Vijaya Leasing facility – it was operating from an old oil mill premises–within 20 minutes I got calls from Ali, a person claiming to be the personal assistant of Gali Janardhan Reddy. He told me to get out of the premises as it belonged to his boss. Then calls came from minister Sreeramulu and MLA Nagendra. 

Within minutes 200-300 rowdies gathered around the building and my superior asked me to come back. Instead of filing a police complaint and forming a special team to deal with the situation, the department transferred me to Bengaluru,” he explained.

Talking about the High Court directive, Josephat Andrews said, “I have suffered a lot. Instead of getting a reward for increasing revenues by Rs 2,000 crore, I was punished.”

Mangaluru, May 5: Even though India is all set to bring back Indian nationals stranded abroad through special commercial flights, no flights have been arranged for the repatriation Kannadigas stuck in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the first phase (May 7 to May 14). However a few flights will fly from Saudi to Kerala and Delhi.

The government is likely to introduce flights from Saudi Arabia to Karnataka (Bengaluru and Mangaluru Airports) in second or third phase.

Fill the Form

All Indian nationals in Saudi Arabia who seek repatriation are supposed to fill form in the following link: https://t.co/K5Hbmr4cFP 

Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh has clarified that the purpose is only to collect data and no decision has been taken yet regarding resumption of flights.

High airfare

Even though some GCC governments paid the ticket fares to bring back their citizens, the government of India has clarified that it will not pay the ticket fares of Indian nationals stranded abroad. It is predicted that tickets on repatriation flights from Saudi Arabia to India could be costlier than regular airfare.

Only asymptomatic can travel 

As per Standard Operating Protocol, medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight. Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel. During the journey, all these passengers would have to follow the protocols, such as the health protocols, issued by the ministry of health and the ministry of civil aviation," it said in a statement.

Mandatory quarantine

The govt has made elaborate arrangements to conduct medical test on arrival at the Airports. As per plan, based on medical check-up, passengers will be categorised as group A/B/C. Later, they will be quarantined for the mandated days

Respective district administrations have taken steps to quarantine people returning from outside India. Marriages halls, general halls and hostels are being identified for the quarantine.