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Saharanpur: Curfew relaxed for 2 hours, Muslims offer Eid prayers

July 29, 2014

Saharanpu eid

Saharanpur, Jul 29: It was a quiet gathering of around 5,000 that offered prayers at the main Idgah in Saharanpur under the hawk eye of the top administrators in the riot-torn city.

Curfew was relaxed in parts of the district from 7am to 11am on the occasion of Eid. However, curfew will be in place on Ambala Road, the main access route to the Idgah, where rioters torched dozens of shops, vehicles, and even a fire station.

Authorities will allow people to come out again between 3pm and7pm.

After offering Eid's namaz, people went back in silence as the administration didn't allow anyone to stay there for long.

District authorities decided late on Monday to disallow people in large numbers to congregate at the Idgah, because of tension in the area following communal riots on Saturday.

Local Muslims were keen on praying at the Idgah despite an uneasy calm in the area after the bloody clashes between Sikhs and Muslims last week left three people dead and several injured.

In peaceful times, more than a lakh namazis come at the Idgah to offer Eid prayers, with the roads leading to the Idgah packed with people.

"By allowing us to offer prayer at the Idgah, the administration has done the right thing. It will help the city to return to normalcy soon," said Shahzad Hussain.

Riots have proved to be a real dampener for children who will have to remain cooped in their houses as the city administration allowed relaxation of curfew only between 7 and 11 in the morning.

"Eid is for kids and women and they have been the most quiet this time," said Mohammad Hussain who lives near the Idgah.

Three-year-old Abu Bakar came with his father Bilal Ahmad to offer prayers at the Idgah.

"Kheer is waiting for me at home," said the child who is yet to understand the complexities of the situation.

Top city administrators lead by commissioner Tanvir Ali Zafar were present at the Idgah ground to keep an eye on the proceedings.

"The peaceful Eid namaz will go a long way to help the city return towards normalcy. We wanted to ensure that no provocative message should come out from the Idgah," said Zafar.

Zafar said once the curfew is lifted from the city, the administration will sit with elders of Sikh and Muslim community to find a lasting solution to the land dispute near the gurdwara which started it all.

Curfew was relaxed from 10am to 2pm in the new city and from 3pm to 7pm in the old town areas on Monday.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday assured a Shiromani Akali Dal delegation that his government was committed to provide security and justice to everyone in the state and compensation would be paid to the victims of the communal clashes.

The delegation of Punjab’s ruling party that met the CM in Lucknow urged him to provide adequate compensation to Sikhs who became victims of the violence.

While the Congress is blaming the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the violence, SP has accused BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of colluding to create unrest.

BJP, on the other hand, says the real culprit is the Akhilesh Yadav government.

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News Network
August 7,2020

Idukki, Aug 7: Several people lost their lives and dozens of tea estate workers are feared trapped under soil in Kerala’s Munnar after torrential rains triggered a massive landslide on today. 

As many as five bodies have been recovered and rescue workers are fighting inclement weather to remove the debris.

According to rescue workers, four lanes of quarters and a church are buried under mud and around 80 people are feared trapped.

Seven people have been rescued so far and shifted to the hospital.

Sources said a portion of Pettimudi came crashing down on the workers colony with a deafening roar in the wee hours of Friday.

As people were sleeping in the quarters, there was little time to escape.

Further, with the Periyavara bridge being washed away, it became all the more difficult for rescue workers to reach the spot.

The construction of a new temporary Periyavara bridge however, is underway.

The bridge was previously destructed during the deluge of August 2018. Later during the north west monsoons and the south west monsoon of 2019, it suffered damage again.

The present bridge, which got damaged on Thursday after Kannimala river levels rose, was constructed under the leadership of Coir fed.

Although a new concrete bridge has been constructed near the temporary bridge in Periyavara, vehicle  movement has not been possible because the authorities are yet to build its approach via road.

The new bridge is to be constructed at a cost of Rs 4.75 crore from Devikulam MLA S Rajendran's fund.

The entire area has been cut off from outside world and communication networks have also crashed.

Teams of Fire and Rescue personnel, NDRF, revenue officials, estate workers and police are struggling to conduct rescue operations.

Meanwhile, District collector H Dhineshan said a team of rescue personnel was sent to Pettymudy after he was briefed about the mishap and search operations to locate and rescue people are underway.

Facilities have been arranged at the hospitals nearby to provide necessary treatment facilities to the people being rescued.

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Agencies
May 10,2020

New Delhi, May 10: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured audit of donations made to the PM-CARES Fund, and to share the details and the money spent with the people.

"The PM-CARES Fund has received huge contributions from PSUs and major public utilities like the Railways. It's important that the Prime Minister ensure the fund is audited and that the record of money received and spent is available to the public," he tweeted.

The #PmCares fund has received huge contributions from PSUs & major public utilities like the Railways.

It’s important that PM ensures the fund is audited & that the record of money received and spent is available to the public.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 9, 2020
His remarks came amid reports that the central government is accumulating a huge sum of money in the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund set up as a corpus to fight novel coronavirus and that the amount spent will not be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The CAG office had clarified that since the fund is based on donations, it has no right to audit a charitable organisation.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi told the media that the PM-CARES Fund should be audited and people of the country should know about the donors and the donations made.

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Agencies
January 21,2020

Kochi, Jan 21: A special court here on Tuesday sent two students, who were arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case in Kozhikode last November, to the custody of National Investigation Agency (NIA) for a day.

The NIA court ordered that the duo, who were in judicial custody till now, to be produced before it tomorrow.

In its application, the NIA had said that the accused must be interrogated on the basis of digital records and sought custody of the duo for a week.

However, the defendant argued that no new evidence had been found against the accused and therefore no custody should be granted.

During an earlier hearing, the two had told the court, "We are not Maoists. We are CPI (M) activists. The Chief Minister, who says we are Maoists, should bring proof of whom we killed and where we bombed. In the last election, we have served as CPI (M), booth agents. We are the ones who went out to vote and pasted posters for the party."

The two were charged under Sections 20 (punishment for being a member of terrorist gang or organisation), 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) and 39 (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA.

Allen and Thaha, students of law and journalism respectively of Kannur University, were taken into custody by the police from Pantheerankavu in Kozhikode on November 1 last year.

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