In this district you need to get permission for running WhatsApp group

Agencies
July 1, 2018

Jammu, Jul 1: In a bid to curb the spread of rumours via social media platforms, the Kishtwar district administration near here has asked the netizens having WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages to get their antecedents verified by police and seek their permission within ten days to continue running them.

In a stern measure, the netizens have also been asked to give an undertaking to the authorities that they would be personally responsible for the contents uploaded on their social media platforms and be liable to face legal consequences for possible breach of law by such contents.

The order, issued by District Development Commissioner (DDC) Angrez Singh Rana on Friday, has also warned netizens that they may be liable to prosecution under various laws, including anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, besides other penal provisions like the IT Act, the Ranbir Penal Code and the Cyber Crime laws.

The officials said the order was issued by the DDC in response to a letter written by Kishtwar's Senior Superintendent of Police Abrar Choudhary to him on June 22.

The letter by the SSP said a large number of WhatsApp groups including news group have come up in the district and have often been found transmitting and circulating "rumours, false information and unconfirmed or half-baked information in the form of videos, audios and text material resulting in every apprehension of law and order problem." 

“In order to prevent any untoward incident or law and order situation in the district, there is an immediate requirement to prevent the circulation of false information and rumours through WhatsApp news or other groups and other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter etc," the officials said, quoting the DDC's order.

“While the freedom of expression through social media is important, the same comes with a responsibility and reasonable restrictions. Therefore, social media group administrators with the ownership of the group should be ready to bear the responsibility,” the officials said quoting the order. 

The officials said through the order the district magistrate has asked each WhatsApp group administrator to register his or her group with NIC's district office in-charge within 10 days and furnish an undertaking to own responsibility for the content uploaded on the social media platforms.

The order asked the group administrators to deny any baseless information with the potential to cause religious disharmony on the group and forthwith remove the member for uploading such content, take a screenshot and report the same to the nearest police station, the officials said.

They said the order warned action against the group administrator in the event of inaction on his or her part and would be liable for action under law in case any untoward incident or law and order situation arises due to the unconfirmed information. 

The order also warned "action under relevant provisions of law including the IT Act, the Ranbir Penal Code, Cyber Crime law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and any other law in force at the time of the violation," the officials said.

On the procedure for seeking permission to run any group or page, the officials said the interested person need to apply to the district magistrate through concerned district NIC officer.

The district magistrate would seek a report of character and antecedent through the SSP concerned and a clearance report by state CID organisation, the officials said, adding that an individual interested in forming a WhatsApp news or other group would have to submit a declaration as well, they said.

In the declaration form, the applicant will have to declare that he or she would provide details of all the members of the group or page including those living abroad and will be personally accountable for any information uploaded on the group or page.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curative petition of two death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case on January 14.

A five-judge Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petition filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.

The duo had moved a curative petition in the top court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber.

If it is rejected, they are legally bound to move a mercy petition. It is filed before the President who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.

The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition.

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News Network
January 22,2020

New Delhi, Jan 22: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has assets worth Rs 3.4 crore, an increase of Rs 1.3 crore from 2015, according to his election affidavit.

Kejriwal's total assets were worth Rs 2.1 crore in 2015.

The cash and fixed deposits of Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal increased from Rs 15 lakh in 2015 to Rs 57 lakh in 2020.

A party functionary said Rs 32 lakh worth cash and fixed deposits have been received by Sunita Kejriwal as voluntary retirement benefits while the rest are savings.

The cash and fixed deposits of the chief minister increased from Rs 2.26 lakh in 2015 to Rs 9.65 lakh in 2020.

There was no change in the value of immovable assets of his wife while Kejriwal's immovable assets' worth increased from Rs 92 lakh to Rs 177 lakh.

The party functionaries said increase in Kejriwal's immovable assets' worth is due to the increased valuation of the same asset as in 2015.

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News Network
February 17,2020

Feb 17: Chinese authorities on Monday reported a slight upturn in new virus cases and 105 more deaths for a total of 1,770 since the outbreak began two months ago.

The 2,048 new cases followed three days of declines but was up by just 39 cases from the previous day’s figure. Another 10,844 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals, according to Monday’s figures.

The update followed the publication late Saturday in China’s official media of a recent speech by President Xi Jinping in which he indicated for the first time that he had led the response to the outbreak from early in the crisis. While the reports were an apparent attempt to demonstrate the Communist Party leadership acted decisively from the start, it also opened Xi up to criticism over why the public was not alerted sooner.

In his speech, Xi said he gave instructions on fighting the virus on Jan. 7 and ordered the shutdown of the most-affected cities that began on Jan. 23.

The disclosure of his speech indicates top leaders knew about the outbreak’s potential severity at least two weeks before such dangers were made known to the public. It was not until late January that officials said the virus can spread between humans and public alarm began to rise.

New cases in other countries are raising growing concerns about containment of the virus.

Taiwan on Sunday reported its first death from COVID-19, the fifth fatality outside of mainland China. Taiwan’s Central News Agency, citing health minister Chen Shih-chung, said the man who died was in his 60s and had not traveled overseas recently and had no known contact with virus patients.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an experts meeting to discuss containment measures in his country, where more than a dozen cases have emerged in the past few days without any obvious link to China.

“The situation surrounding this virus is changing by the minute,” Abe said.

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the country is “entering into a phase that is different from before,” requiring new steps to stop the spread of the virus.

Japan now has 413 confirmed cases, including 355 from a quarantined cruise ship, and one death from the virus. Its total is the highest number of cases among about two dozen countries outside of China where the illness has spread.

Hundreds of Americans from the cruise ship took charter flights home, as Japan announced another 70 infections had been confirmed on the Diamond Princess. Canada, Hong Kong and Italy were planning similar flights.

The 300 or so Americans flying on U.S.-government chartered aircraft back to the U.S. will face another 14-day quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in California and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The U.S. Embassy said the departure was offered because people on the ship were at a high risk of exposure to the virus. People with symptoms were banned from the flights.

About 255 Canadians and 330 Hong Kong residents are on board the ship or undergoing treatment in Japanese hospitals. There are also 35 Italians, of which 25 are crew members, including the captain.

In China’s Hubei province, where the outbreak began in December, all vehicle traffic will be banned in another containment measure. It expands a vehicle ban in the provincial capital, Wuhan, where public transportation, trains and planes have been halted for weeks.

Exceptions were being made for vehicles involved in epidemic prevention and transporting daily necessities.

Hubei has built new hospitals with thousands of patient beds and China has sent thousands of military medical personnel to staff the new facilities and help the overburdened health care system.

Last Thursday, Hubei changed how it recognized COVID-19 cases, accepting a doctor’s diagnosis rather than waiting for confirmed laboratory test results, in order to treat patients faster. The tally spiked by more than 15,000 cases under the new method.

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