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No impact of PM Modi's message; Mahatma Gandhi's statue damaged in Kerala

Agencies
March 8, 2018

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong condemnation of incidents of vandalism of statues in different parts of the country seems to be no deterrent for the miscreants. According to latest reports, a statue of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was defaced by an unidentified person in Kerala on Thursday morning.

According to Mathrubhoomi, the Mahatma Gandhi statue at taluk office in Taliparamba in Kannur district of Kerala. The incident occurred at around 7 am on Thursday.

The report said that the unidentified miscreant broke the spectacles, damaged the garland and hurled stones on the statue. The police have launched an investigation into the case.

Meanwhile, news agency ANI reported that unidentified people poured paint on the bust of Dr BR Ambedkar at Tiruvottiyur near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

This comes a day after PM Modi strongly condemned such incidents and spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the issue.

"Incidents of toppling of statues have been reported from certain parts of the country. MHA has taken serious notes of such incidents of vandalism. PM also spoke to Home Minister in this regard and has expressed his strong disapproval of such incidents," the Ministry of Home Affairs had said in a statement on Wednesday.

The MHA also asked the states to take all necessary measures to prevent such incidents. "Persons indulging in such acts must be sternly dealt with and booked under relevant provisions of law," the MHA said.

There have been multiple incidents of statues being vandalised in various parts of the country. It started with the demolition of a statue of Vladimir Lenin with the help of a bulldozer in Tripura after Left Front’s debacle in the state Assembly elections. Another statue of Lenin was vandalised despite directives from the Centre.

Following this, a statue of Dravidian ideologue ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy was damaged in Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. Two persons – one from BJP and the other from CPI – were arrested in connection with the incident.

And this continued with the vandalism of a statue of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee in Jadavpur University in West Bengal and Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

Kochi, Jul 30: The Kerala High Court on Thursday refused to grant the extension for the stay of a 74-year-old US citizen, Johnny Paul Pierce, who had earlier said that he felt safer to remain in India than in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The single-judge bench of Justice CS Dias, which considered the writ petition, observed that the grant or extension of visa to foreign nationals fall exclusively within the domain of the Government of India (GoI) and that judicial review in such matters is minimal.

The power of the GoI to expel foreigners is absolute and unlimited, the bench said.

"In view of the categoric declaration of law by the Supreme Court, the plea of the petitioner to permit him to stay back in India cannot be accepted, as it falls within the purview of the guidelines and the discretion of the Government of India," the order said.

"The petitioner cannot be heard that the guidelines/policies/regulations formulated by the Government of India, that an American national though has been granted a visa having validity of five years has to leave India within 180 days, is irrational or unreasonable," it added.

The High Court, which was hearing a plea to permit the US citizen to stay in India for a further period of six months, said that the petitioner does not have a case that there is an infraction of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"The petitioner was well aware of the visa conditions when he arrived in India, and it is too late in the day for him to raise a grievance on the visa conditions," the bench said noting that the petitioner's love for India was heartening.

The High Court also directed the Foreigners Registration Officer to consider the petitioner's representation within a period of two weeks in accordance with the applicable guidelines and policies.

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News Network
June 8,2020

New Delhi, June 8: Only 20.26 lakh migrant workers of the targeted 8 crore such labourers have received free food grains in May and June (2020), according to data released by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

In the middle of May, as part of the Rs 20 lakh crore Atma Nirbhar Bharat package, the Modi government had announced that migrant labourers who are not covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) or any state-run PDS scheme, will receive free food grains for two months.

"Non-card holders shall be given 5 kg wheat or rice per person and 1 kg chana per family per month for the next 2 months. About 8 crore migrants will benefit from this scheme that will cost the government Rs 3500 crore,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said at a press conference following PM Modi’s announcement.

But the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Sunday, "The states and UTs have lifted 4.42 LMT (lakh metric tonne) of food grains and distributed 10,131 MT of it to 20.26 lakh beneficiaries."

It added, "The Government of India also approved 39,000 MT pulses for 1.96 crore migrant families. Around 28,306 MT gram/dal have been dispatched to the states and UTs. A total 15,413 MT gram have been lifted by various states and UTs". The state governments, the ministry added, had distributed only 631MT (metric tonnes) of gram so far.

Because of the constant movement of migrant workers, the Centre had said that the states will be responsible for identifying the migrants and subsequent food distribution.

The Centre claims it is spending approximately Rs 3,109 crore for food grains and Rs 280 crores for grams/chana under this package.

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News Network
May 12,2020

New Delhi, May 12: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was admitted to the AIIMS here after suffering reaction to a new medication, was discharged on Tuesday.

The 87-year-old Congress leader was discharged around 12:30 pm, hospital sources said.

Manmohan Singh was shifted to a private ward in the Cardio-Neuro tower on Monday night. He was also tested for Covid-19 and his results had come out negative, the sources said. The Congress leader was admitted to the hospital on Sunday evening after he complained of uneasiness.

The sources said that Singh had developed a reaction to a new medication and was admitted to AIIMS for observation and investigation.

Manmohan Singh is currently a Member of Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. He was the prime minister between 2004 and 2014.

In 2009, Singh underwent a successful coronary bypass surgery at the AIIMS.

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