Mysuru, Feb 14: Citing the coronavirus scare prevalent in the city, hotel owners have urged the civic corporation to shut down roadside food vends, calling them a risk to public health.
A team of the city Hotel Owners Association, led by president C Narayanagowda and honorary secretary Ravindra Bhat, met mayor Tasneem Bano and MCC commissioner Gurudatta Hegde on Tuesday and urged them to implement the high court’s ban on street food vending.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the association said it had raised the poor hygiene at such joints amid the coronavirus threat and increasing incidence of chikungunya and malaria in the city. There is no check on the ingredients or water used and the cleanliness of the kitchens and cooking staff, they pointed out. Many of the joints operate near drains and public urinals and don’t have running water for washing or cleaning utensils, they said. Besides, the vends dump unsegregated garbage and compromise pedestrian safety by blocking pavements, they alleged.
“As this involves the livelihood of the vendors, I will take a decision after discussions with the commissioner and elected representatives,” the mayor said while pointing out that MCC had issued identity cards to the vendors after collecting details about them and their stalls. She said the health and education standing committees would also be consulted.
Commissioner Hegde said MCC was planning to move the vendors to designated hawking zones to ensure their livelihood was not affected. He explained that any drive to remove the vends was fraught with law and order problems. “False cases have been filed against MCC officers whenever they conducted drives against footpath food vendors in non-hawking zones. We will consult with the city police commissioner before taking any steps,” he said.
We, the undersigned express our solidarity with Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, renowned scholar, journalist and presently Chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission.
We strongly condemn the continued media trial and targeting of Dr Zafarul Islam Khan for his Facebook post thanking Kuwait for expressing solidarity with Indian Muslims. In his Facebook post, he mentioned the appalling deterioration of human rights of Indian Muslims who have been targeted by Hindutva bigots. A few politicians with ulterior motives and news channel anchors known for spreading bigotry and Islamophobia have mischievously sought to misinterpret his statement and ridiculously label him as anti-Hindu and anti-India.
He has only reiterated what many citizens of India, public figures, international institutions, various European governments, the United States of America and United Nations human rights mechanisms have repeatedly underlined their concern at the increasing human rights abuse and violations of religious minorities in India.
Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a man of integrity. He is a scholar who is known to stand up for constitutional freedoms and values.
His work as the Chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission has been warmly applauded by human rights activists and NGOs across different faiths. His timely interventions on problems of minorities in Delhi have made him a respectable figure among not only Muslims but Sikh, Christians, Jains and Parsis. He is a humanist in the truest sense of the word.
The hateful propaganda against Dr Khan is one more illustration as how certain Indians fail to differentiate between Hinduism, a religion and Hindutva which is a supremacist political ideology.
Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a leading Indian intellectual whose niche area is Islamic studies and Arab world. He enjoys great respect in the Arab and Muslim world for his understanding and knowledge. He is an alumni of the esteemed Jamia Al-Azhar and Manchester University.
Dr Khan is known for taking bold public positions. He was the first Muslim scholar in the world who denounced ISIL, which later became IS or ISIS. He issued a statement opposing the barbaric crimes of ISIL (IS or ISIS) and Boko Haram against minorities. He takes strong stands against extremism of all sorts. That makes him a prominent critic of RSS.
Dr Khan is a scholar ambassador and earned international prestige for the India. Any attack and targeting of him, is actually an insult to Indian constitution and ethos.
We demand the appropriate authorities of the Government of India take strong legal action against those who are distorting Dr Khan’s Facebook post, and spreading vicious false propaganda against him.
Signed by:
Swami Agnivesh
Mohammad Adeeb
Arun Kumar (Prof)
Zafar Jung
Kamal Faruqui
Annie Namala
Kavita Krishnan
Subhash Gatade
Jawed Naqvi
Indu Pratap Singh
Avinash Kumar
Iftikhar Gilani
Anil Chamadia
Xavier Dias
Denzil Fernandes (Dr)
Irfan Engineer
Faisal Khan
John Dayal (Dr)
Mujtaba Farooque
Ravi Nair
Abubakr Sabbaq (Adv)
Gopal Menon
Bilal Khan
Ashok Choudhury
Jaffer Latief Najar
Mujahid Nafis
Aseem Sundan
Poojan Sahil
Ankur Otto
Mariya Salim
Tanweer Alam
Juned Khan
E M Abdul Rahiman
Aditi Dutta
Devika Prasad
Ameeque Jamei
Suhaib Ansari
Gurminder Singh
A C Michael
Neelima Sharma
Aftab Alam (Dr)
Dhruva Narayan
Syed Saif Ur Rahman
Tanweer Fazal (Dr)
Thouseef Madikeri (Dr)
N.D. Jayaprakash
Salahuddin Ansari
Satyajeet Nambiar
Suhail KK
Abu Sufiyan
Sujata Madhok
Tariq Khan
Violin Mathew Benjamin
Shamsul Islam (Prof)
Sreedhar Ramamurthi
Mohd. Shahid (Prof)
Anand Vivek Taneja (Dr)
Kush Kumar Singh (Dr)
Mangla Verma
Vipul Kumar
Waquar Hasan
Braham Prakash
Abdul Rashid Agwan
Fawaz Shaheen
Guman Singh
Mohammed Hafeez Ulla
Kp Sasi
Mushfique Raza Khan
Partha S Banerjee
Gautam Majumdar
S.Q. Masood
Aiman J Khan
M. K. Faizy
Tasleem Rehmani (Dr)
Mohammed Shafi
Lenin Raghuvanshi (Dr)
Malik Motasim Khan
Kripal Singh Mandloi
Labeed Shafi
Qamar Intakhab
Raees Ahmed Siddiqui
Laeeq Ahmed Khan
Anthony Arulraj
Sadiq Zafar
Biju Gopidasan
George Pulikuthiyil
Mohd Abdullah
Mohd Sorab Hussain
Mukunda Kattel
Sandeep Pendse
Paul Newman
Ovais Sultan Khan
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 9: Kerala has sanctioned the setting up of 28 fast track courts for speedy trial in rape cases and other cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
State Social Justice and Women and Child Development Minister KK Shailaja said the state government has decided to set up POCSO courts to ensure that the culprits get the punishment they deserve. She said the decision has been taken in the wake of rising violence against women and children.
"The Union Law Ministry has recently sanctioned the opening of 28 POCSO fast track special courts in Kerala at the request of the state government. The project will be implemented jointly by the High Court, Law and Home Departments under the leadership of the Department of Women and Child Development," the Minister said.
The four courts are alloted in Thiruvananthapuram district, three in Thrissur and Malappuram districts, two each in Kollam, Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Kannur districts.
The Minister informed that POCSO courts are jointly established by the central and state governments and according to the High Court data, 12,234 POCSO and rape cases are pending in the state.
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We are already facing lot of problems here without food and money.
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