Guwahati, Feb 12: At least 11 people have been killed in clashes between police and tribal groups opposed to ongoing local elections in northeastern state of Assam, police said on Tuesday.
"The situation is very critical and so far we have reports that 11 people are dead and about six are injured," senior police official Bhupen Bora said.
More details are awaited.
Mumbai, Jun 30: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday demanded a ban on NaMo app alleging that it was violating privacy of Indians.
The former Maharashtra chief minister also alleged that the NaMo app, the official mobile phone application of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, surreptitiously changes the privacy settings and sends data to third party companies in the US.
"Its good that Modi government is protecting privacy of 130 crore Indians by banning 59 Chinese apps. The NaMo app also violates privacy of Indians by accessing 22 data points, surreptitiously changing the privacy settings and sending data to third party companies in the US," Chavan tweeted.
India on Monday banned 59 apps with Chinese links, including hugely popular TikTok and UC Browser, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.
The move came against the backdrop of the border stand-off with China and recent clash in Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
New Delhi, May 17: The HRD Ministry on Saturday postponed announcement of the exam schedule for pending class 10 and 12 board exams, saying the CBSE is still considering certain technical aspects before finalising the datesheet.
The ministry had earlier announced that it would notify the schedule at 5 pm on Saturday.
"CBSE is taking into consideration some additional technical aspects before finalizing the datesheets of the board exams of classes 10th and 12th, due to which, the datesheets will now be released by Monday i.e. 18-05-2020. Inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted (sic)," Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' tweeted.
The ministry had last week announced that the pending class 10 and 12 CBSE exams, which were postponed due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown, would be conducted from July 1 to 15.
However, the schedule as well as the modalities and guidelines have not been announced yet.
While class 12 exams will be conducted across the country, the class 10 exams are only pending in North East Delhi where they were affected due to the law and order situation.
Universities and schools across the country have been closed and exams postponed since March 16 when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
Later, a nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which has now been extended till May 17.
The board was not able to conduct class 10 and 12 exams on eight examination days due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Further, due to the law and order situation in North East Delhi, the board was not able to conduct exams on four examination days, while a very small number of students from and around this district were not able to appear in exams on six days.
The board had last month announced that it will only conduct pending exams in 29 subjects which are crucial for promotion and admission to higher educational institutions.
The modalities of assessment for the subjects for which exams are not being conducted will be announced soon by the board.
The schedule has been decided in order to ensure that the board exams are completed before competitive examinations such as engineering entrance JEE-Mains, which is scheduled from July 18-23, and medical entrance exam NEET, which is scheduled on July 26.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued guidelines to universities that the new academic session for freshers will begin from September while for the existing students from August.
New Delhi, Jul 21: Air India trade unions have complained to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri that the government has now turned a blind eye to the management's ethnic cleansing at lower levels through compulsory leave without pay (LWP), redundancies and wage cuts.
In a letter to Puri, the Joint Action Forum of Air India unions said, "We are deeply ashamed to say that it seems that after praising our Air Indian Corona Warriors at grand functions, respectfully, the government has now turned a blind eye to this management's ethnic cleansing of Air Indians at the lower levels, through compulsory LWP, redundancies and wage cuts."
The Joint Action Forum of Air India unions strongly opposes this Compulsory Leave without pay scheme as it is an illegal practice and is not a voluntary scheme.
"In fact the Board resolution itself empowers the Chairman and Managing Director with extraordinary powers, which seem akin to a High Court, to pack off employees on 2 years leave (extended to 5 years) at CMD's discretion or at the arbitrary whim of the Regional heads," the trade unions said.
"This said Compulsory LWP scheme violates every labour law put in place by Parliament and orders of the Supreme Court and various other courts and seeks to dispossess the lower categories workers of their legally guaranteed rights," it added.
The trade unions have pointed out that the redundancies are at the elite management cadre level and not the workers.
"We are indeed shocked that the management of Air India could prepare and formulate a scheme for compulsorily sending workers on leave without pay, which is akin to an illegal lay-off, under the garb of a Leave Without Pay, when ironically the redundancy actually lies in the upper echelons of management and not with the humble workers of Air India, who have slogged to make our Airline the treasure it is," they complained to Puri.
"It must be noted that out of 11,000 permanent employees, our management occupies almost 25% as Executive Cadre, with little or no accountability. Solely amongst the Elite Management Cadre, we have 121 top officers ranking from DGMS, GMs, EDs to Functional Directors, most of whom are either performing duplicate job functions or are indeed redundant and not to mention the retired relics serving as consultants and also the CEOs of various subsidiary companies," they added.
Trade unions said the redundancy or compulsory leave without pay scheme if any at all, has to apply only to these Executives, more so, when they do not even have protection of labour laws or Supreme Court orders.
Strangely, the topmost corporate executive cadre and the backroom Generals, have saved themselves from the axe of wage cuts, by sacrificing a piffling of a few grand, whilst the frontline warriors of flying cabin crew, engineers, ground staff have borne the biggest brunt head on, the unions said.
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