Journalists take to streets to protest assault

February 16, 2016

New Delhi, Feb 16: Top editors of national media and hundreds of journalists today hit the streets demanding action against those involved in beating up members of their fraternity in a court complex in police presence and sought Supreme Court's intervention in protecting freedom of speech.JNUmedia

The journalists, shouting slogans against the Modi Government and Delhi Police, marched from Press Club of India to the Supreme Court and submitted a memorandum to its, Registrar, seeking cancellation of licences of lawyers involved in the assualt.

The protesters also demanded Police Commissioner B S Bassi's sacking due to alleged inaction by the security personnel at the Patiala House Courts yesterday when journalists, students and teachers of JNU where attacked by people wearing lawyers' black robes.

A separate delegation of journalists met Home Minister Rajnath Singh demanding his intervention in ensuring "accountability of the Delhi Police who watched silently as the assault happened".

The memorandum by the journalists was submitted to Supreme Court even as it agreed to hear a petition tomorrow on a plea seeking action against those involved in the violence at Patiala House court complex.

"We demand the intervention of the highest court of the land to take appropriate action against the advocates involved in the assault," the memorandum said, urging the court to direct the bar council to cancel the licences of the errant advocates.

No arrest has been made even 24 hours after the assault where Delhi BJP MLA OP Sharma was also seen beating up a CPI activist.

The journalists also said the CCTV footage of yesterday's incident should be called for and police directed to ensure protection to journalists and other media persons.

Yesterday, groups of lawyers had beaten up journalists and JNU students and teachers ahead of the hearing of the sedition case registered against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with an event at the university last week to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Anti-India slogans were also allegedly raised at the event.

Nadeem Ahmad Kazmi, Secretary General of Press Club of India, said the Supreme Court registrar told them Chief Justice of India T S Thakur will meet a delegation of journalists in a few days.

"We hope that the Supreme Court will surely protect freedom of speech because it is constitutionally mandated to do so," he said.

Senior journalist Siddharth Varadarajan slammed the Delhi Police for remaining "mute spectators" when the assault was going on.

"The manner in which the police allowed the goons to beat up jourmnalists and no action has been taken against them even after 24 hours tells you that the terrain is likely to get more and more hostile for journalism.

"There is not even a video of Kanhaiya Kumar saying anything and he has been booked for sedition and here you have a video recording of an MLA kicking and beating somebody and not even a case has been registered," he said.

In the memorandum to the Home Minister, the journalists demanded that the perpetrators of the assault be brought to book at the earliest.

"As Union Home Minister, we urge your intervention in the matter on two counts. There should be some accountability of the Delhi Police who watched silently as the assault happened.

"And secondly, as there were CCTV cameras where the incident of assault must have been recorded, we demand that the perpetrators of the assault be brought to book at the earliest," they said.

In the memorandum, the journalists also criticised Bassi for describing the incident as a "minor scuffle".

"It is a matter of concern that the Delhi Police Commissioner has dismissed the incident describing it as a scuffle. Such observations will encourage only those elements who already believe that they are above the law of the land," it said.

In the memorandum to the Supreme Court, the journalists said Delhi Police did nothing even as "brutal assault" was unleashed by lawyers on mediapersons including, on women scribes, in and outside the court room.

More than a dozen journalists were set upon by lawyers who prevented them in the discharge of their duties. The journalists had gone to cover the hearing of the sedition case against arrested JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

Comments

Curious
 - 
Wednesday, 17 Feb 2016

Silence during violence - this is Modi's tactics, same tactics was used during gujarath riots which killed thousands of muslims .

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News Network
January 23,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 23: City civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) levied a penalty of Rs 50,000 on the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) for using single-use plastic cups during the recent India-Australia one-day international match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

"Despite many awareness meetings, BBMP has found that single-use plastic cups were used during yesterday's cricket match and has fined KSCA Rs 50,000 as penalty," tweeted the civic body commissioner BH Anil Kumar.

The state cricket association treasurer Vinaya Mruthyunjaya said the civic body gave a general notice without detailed information on plastic use.

"We have been environmentally friendly for the last many years and at all gates, security has made sure no plastic or flex was allowed inside the stadium," Mruthyunjaya told media.

Mruthyunjaya said KSCA sought information from the civic body as to where the single-use plastic cups were found in the stadium during the India-Australia match.

On January 16, KSCA president Roger Binny inaugurated a plastic bottle shredder at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, in addition to other green initiatives at the cricket ground such as solar panels, sub-air system, biogas unit, rainwater harvesting and others. 

Similarly, in December 2019, BBMP cracked down on popular fast food eatery – Adyar Anand Bhavan in HSR Layout and fined the establishment Rs 1 lakh for plastic use.

In October, the BBMP fined eateries including McDonald's in central Bengaluru for using plastic.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 4,2020

Mangaluru, May 4: The district administration has set up seven check-posts to monitor those entering Dakshina Kannada from other districts and states amidst coronavirus crisis.

The check-posts are located at up seven check-posts at Talapady, Hejamady, Gundya, Jalsoor, Charmadi, Naravi and Kallugundi. 

According to Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh, all those who enter the district will be screened. Those who come from outside the district and state will be asked to remain in quarantine. 

As the relaxation is announced for 12 hours, the public should be cautious while venturing out of the house. Wearing a mask in public is mandatory in addition to maintaining social distance. 

Further, she said of the 24 cases reported in the district, only four had symptoms of breathlessness and others were asymptomatic. Of the nine active cases in the district, the condition of one patient is serious while two are likely to be discharged from hospital shortly, said the DC.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Mysuru, May 1: Four people who brought a dead man’s body from Mumbai for cremation in his native place in Mandya district in Karnataka have tested positive for Covid-19 virus, and now the administration is trying to find out if the man himself had been an undetected positive.

According to Mandya district deputy commissioner M V Venkatesh, the deceased man was a 53-year-old native of B Kodagalli of Pandavapura taluk, Melkote hobli in Mandya district. He died after suffering a heart attack at the U N Desai government hospital in Mumbai on April 23.

The cremation took place outside the man's native village after the local administration refused to allow it inside the village.

Wanting the final rites performed in his native place, the man’s family got the body embalmed and procured all the medical records and certificates from the hospital and brought it in an ambulance belonging to the Desai government hospital.

When they reached Pandavapura taluk in Karnataka on the evening of April 24, the local administration did not allow the body to enter the village but allowed the relatives to cremate it outside the village.

And since the family had come from Mumbai, the district administration quarantined all seven of the man’s relatives, and their samples were sent for testing on 28 April.

The results showed that the deceased man’s 25-year-old son, daughter-in-law, daughter, and two-year-old grandchild are positive for Covid 19. All of them have been admitted at the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences although they have no symptoms.

Deputy commissioner Venkatesh said that in the Desai hospital records in Mumbai there was no mention whether or not the man had been tested for Covid-19. “We are writing to Desai hospital to clarify if the deceased person was tested for Covid 19. It is also possible that the family got infected by the man’s son who works in the loan department of ICICI Bank in Mumbai and visits several offices in different areas of Mumbai,” he said.

The man’s ancestral B Kodagalli village now has been sealed off. Though tests done on other members of the family have come back negative, the Mandya administartions plans to repeat their tests.

So far 26 people have tested positive for Covid 19 in Mandya district.

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