Police storm Jamia Islamia campus as anti-CAA protest turns violent

Agencies
December 15, 2019

New Delhi, Dec 15: Hours after violence rocked south Delhi on December 15, police said the situation was under control and they have detained some of the people who had allegedly indulged in arson and vandalism during a protest against the amended citizenship law.

They said police entered the Jamia university campus to only control the situation, after protesters indulged in violence near New Friends’ Colony area in south Delhi on Sunday afternoon.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said four buses and two police vehicles were torched during the protest, adding six policemen were also injured. He said stones were pelted from inside the varsity at police personnel, forcing them to use teargas to disperse the “violent mob“. Mr. Biswal said some people have been detained but did not give details.

Both the Jamia Millia Islamia students’ community as well as the Teachers’ Association have disassociated themselves with the violence and arson that took place near the university on December 15 afternoon.

Escorted by police, youths could be seen coming out of their hostels with their hands raised. Some of them claimed the police also entered the library and “harassed” the students.

Jamia Chief Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan claimed that Delhi Police personnel entered the university by force without any permission and beat up staff members and students who were forced to leave the campus.

University vice-chancellor Najma Akhtar said students who were inside the library have been taken out and are safe. Ms. Akhtar condemned the police action.

“The Delhi Police has gheraoed Jamia students in the library. We do not subscribe to the bus burning incident which happened but those who did it were not from the varsity but outsiders. Innocent students are being targeted,” claimed a student who did not wish to be named.

Some others alleged that students have been detained by the police, but there was no confirmation from the Delhi Police, which said they were focusing on bringing the situation under control.

Three state-run buses and a fire tending vehicle were set afire by the protesters during the violence and arson in New Friends’ Colony.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal spoke to Lt. Governor Anil Baijal and urged him to take all steps to restore normalcy.

Mr. Kejriwal said the Delhi government is doing everything possible at its end to restore peace. “Spoke to Hon’ble LG and urged him to take all steps to restore normalcy and peace. We are also doing everything possible at our end. Real miscreants who caused violence shud be identified and punished (sic),” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted.

In an earlier tweet, he said any sort of violence is unacceptable. “No one shud indulge in violence. Any kind of violence is unacceptable. Protests shud remain peaceful,” he said.

Schools in southeast Delhi to remain closed on December 16

All schools in southeast Delhi area will be closed on December 16 in view of the situation, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced.

“In Delhi’s south east district areas including Jamia, Okhla, New Friend's Colony and Madanpur Khadar, all government and private schools will remain closed tomorrow. Delhi government has taken the decision in view of the current situation,” Mr. Sisodia tweeted in Hindi.

Earlier, students claimed that “certain” local elements had “disrupted” their protest and indulged in violence.

Sources said that as police tried to disperse the protesters by using baton change and firing teargas shells, some of the “outsiders” ran towards the campus and tried to hide there.

The Jamia Millia Islamia students’ body issued a statement said they had nothing to do with the arson and violence.

"We have time and again maintained that our protests are peaceful and non-violent. We stand by this approach and condemn any party involved in the violence. We have maintained calm even when students have been lathicharged and some women protesters badly beaten up. Media personnel are a witness to these events. Violence by certain elements is an attempt to vilify and discredit genuine protests" said the statement.

In an official statement, the university said that the protest was not organised by Jamia Mllia students. "The violent incidents ocurred during the protest organised by the people of nearby areas and not by JMI students," it said.

Jamia Millia has already declared winter vacation and postponed semester examination after the December 13 incident. A large number of students staying in hostels have left and Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar appealed to the students to maintain peace.

Meanwhile, Jamia Teachers Association appealed to students to keep away from “direction-less” protest led by local political leaders. It said an emergency meeting of extended Executive Committee has been called in the JTA office on Monday to “discuss the misuse of Jamia’s name in the protests,” it said.

DMRC closes stations, roads blockaded

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) closed the entry and exit gates of the Sukhdev Vihar Metro station in view of the violent protests.

Entry and exit gates of Jamia Millia Islamia, Okhla Vihar and Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh have also been closed with no trains halting at these stations.

The clash disrupted traffic in the area with several vehicles stranded on roads for hours.

The Delhi Traffic Police said in a tweet that the vehicular movement was closed from Okhla Underpass to Sarita Vihar due to the agitation. Vehicles coming from Badarpur and Ashram Chowk were diverted to alternative routes due to the blockade.

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News Network
February 28,2020

Feb 28: National oil marketer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Friday said it is ready to supply low emission BS-VI fuels from April 1 and that there will be a marginal increase in retail prices.

The largest oil supplier has spent over Rs 17,000 crore to upgrade its refineries to produce the low-sulfur diesel and petrol, the company's chairman Sanjiv Singh told reporters here.

Without disclosing the quantum of price increase, Singh said, “there will definitely be a marginal increase in retail prices of the fuels from April 1 when the whole country will be run on new fuels, which will have a sulphur content of only 10 parts per million (ppm) as against the present 50 ppm.

“But let me assure you, we will not be burdening the consumers with a steep hike,” Singh said.

He said, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) have invested Rs 35,000 crore to upgrade their refineries, of which Rs 17,000 crore have been spent by IOC alone.

Earlier this week, the sell-off bound BPCL said it had invested around Rs 7,000 crore for the same. ONGC-run HPCL has not so far disclosed its readiness for BS-VI supplies or its capex on the same.

HPCL had said from February 26-27 it was ready with BS-VI fuels and that it would sell only the new fuels from March 1.

IOC switched to BS-VI fuel production a fortnight ago and all its depots and containers are ready now, Singh said.

However, he said some remote locations, where the intake is very low, will take some more time to switch. But the company is planning to drain out the entire BS-IV stock and replenish the new fuels at such locations, he added.

Further, it has been reported that the companies will have to increase prices by 70-120 paise a litre, but Singh said, to arrive such a weighted average is not possible given the complexities of each refinery.

He, however, asserted that the price hike will not be a burden on consumers.

We are not looking at this investment from a pure return on investment basis, but this is a national mandate and we have done it.

Having said that, all those countries that moved to low emission fuels are charging higher prices; and from April 1, our prices will also be benchmarked against Euro VI prices as against the present practice of the cost-plus model, Singh concluded.

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News Network
February 29,2020

New Delhi, Feb 29: India’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in more than six years in the last three months of 2019, with analysts predicting further deceleration as the global Covid 19 coronavirus outbreak stifles growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The gross domestic product (GDP) data released yesterday showed government spending, private investment and exports slowing down, while there is a slight upturn in consumer spending and improvement in rural demand lent support.

The quarterly figure of 4.7% growth matched the consensus in a Reuters poll of analysts but was below a revised - and greatly increased - 5.1% rate for the previous quarter.

The central bank has warned that downside risks to global growth have increased as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, the full effects of which are still unfolding.

Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government has taken several steps to bolster economic growth, including a privatisation push and increased state spending, after cutting corporate tax rates last September.

In its annual budget presented this month, the government estimated that annual economic growth in the financial year to March 31 would be 5%, its lowest for last 11 years.

Modi’s government is targeting a slight recovery in growth to 6% for 2020/21, still far below the level needed to generate jobs for millions of young Indians entering the labour market each month.

The annual GDP figure for the September quarter was ramped up from an earlier estimate of 4.5%, while the April-June reading was similarly lifted to 5.6% from 5%, data released by the Ministry of Statistics showed on Friday.

Capital Investment Drop

In the December quarter, private investment grew 5.9%, up from 5.6% in the previous quarter, while government spending rose by 11.8%, against 13.2% in the previous three months.

However, corporate capital investment contracted by 5.2% after a 4.1% decline in the previous quarter, indicating that interest rate cuts by the central bank have failed to encourage new investment. Manufacturing, meanwhile, contracted by 0.2%.

“It appears growth slowdown is not just cyclical but more entrenched with consumption secularly joining the slowdown bandwagon even as the investment story continues to languish,” said Madhavi Arora of Edelweiss Securities in Mumbai.

Many economists said that the government stimulus could take four to six quarters of time before lifting the economy and the impact of those efforts could be outweighed by the global fallout from the coronavirus epidemic that began in China.

“The coronavirus remains the critical risk as India depends on China for both demand and supply of inputs,” said Abheek Barua, chief economist at HDFC Bank.

Indian shares sank on Friday for a sixth session running, capping their worst week in more than a decade. The NSE Nifty 50 index shed 7.3% over the week, while the Sensex dropped 6.8%, the worst weekly declines since the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Separately, India’s infrastructure output rose 2.2% year on year in January, data showed on Friday.

A spike in inflation to a more than 5-1/2 year high of 7.59% in January is expected to make the RBI hold off from further cuts to interest rates for now, while keeping its monetary stance accommodative.

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News Network
February 12,2020

New Delhi, Feb 12: The Centre on Wednesday said the NRC data in Assam is safe even though some technical issues were visible and that will be resolved soon.

The Union Home Ministry clarification came in view of reports that data of the final list of the National Register of Citizens has been made offline from its official website.

"The NRC data is safe. Some technical issues are in visibility on cloud. These are being resolved soon," a home ministry spokesperson said.

The data was not available for a couple of days and it created panic in the public, mostly among the people excluded from the list as the rejection certificates were yet to be issued.

NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma accepted that the data has been made offline, but refuted the allegation of any "malafide" intent in it.

The cloud service for the huge set of data was provided by IT firm Wipro and their contract was till October 19 last year. However, this was not renewed by the previous coordinator.

So, the data got offline from December 15 after it was suspended by Wipro, Sarma said.

He said the state coordination committee had decided to do necessary formalities in its meeting on January 30 and wrote to the Wipro during the first week of February.

"Once Wipro makes the data live, it will be available for public. We hope people will be able to access it in the next 2-3 days," Sarma said.

The complete detail of exclusion and inclusion of bonafide Indian citizens in the NRC was uploaded on its official website http://www.nrcassam.nic.in after the final list was published on August 31, 2019.

The final NRC was published by excluding 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

After the earlier NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela relinquished the charge on November 11 following his transfer to home state Madhya Pradesh on a direction from the Supreme Court, Sarma was appointed in his place on November 9.

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