'BJP's attempts to divide have been defeated'

News Network

December 24, 2019

New Delhi, Dec 24: With the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance set to form the government in Jharkhand, several opposition parties on Monday linked the mandate to the CAA and the NRC, saying people have demolished "arrogance" of the BJP, which attributed its defeat to local issues and "internal strife" in the state.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's working president Hemant Soren, the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, said with the electoral mandate, a new chapter begins which will prove to be a milestone.

Speaking to the media, he said the opposition partners will meet to chalk out the strategy for the future.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance's victory in the Jharkhand Assembly polls was of "extreme contemporary importance" and asserted that the people have defeated the BJP's attempts to divide the society on caste and religious lines.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi congratulated the party, its coalition partners and workers on the decisive victory of the alliance in Jharkhand, while party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the people want to hear from the government on employment, bread, water, forest, land, farming and trade, but the BJP tried its best to "divide the people to hide its failed politics".

"Today the public's answer has come. Congratulations to all the members of the grand alliance. Congratulations to Hemant Soren. Congratulations and love to the Congress workers," she said in a tweet in Hindi.

Meanwhile, outgoing Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das took responsibility for the electoral verdict, saying it was his defeat and not of the BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Soren for the victory and extended his best wishes to the alliance while BJP president Amit Shah said his party respects the mandate of voters and also expressed his gratitude to the people of Jharkhand for giving the BJP a chance to govern the state for five years.

In his tweets after the BJP lost power in the state, Modi said his party would continue serving it and raising people-centric issues.

With the polls outcome clearly giving a majority for the Soren-led alliance, Congress leader P Chidambaram said the BJP is not unbeatable and urged opposition parties to join forces against the ruling saffron party.

Congratulating Soren, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said people have faith that he would fulfil their aspirations.

Banerjee also said that elections were held amid protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed countrywide NRC, and extended good wishes to the "brothers and sisters" of the neighbouring state for voting in favour of the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance.

The Sharad Pawar-led NCP said people of Jharkhand have demolished the "arrogance" of Modi and the saffron party president Shah.

The Shiv Sena, which recently severed ties with the BJP, said the Jharkhand polls have shown that people are not buying the saffron party's politics based on sentimental issues like the National Register of Citizens.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Jharkhand results appeared to be a verdict against the NRC and the CAA, and reflected the public reaction to the "arrogance" of the BJP visible across the country.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo also said the BJP leaders have "aggressively" campaigned in the last two phases of the Jharkhand Assembly polls, raising the issues related to the CAA and the NRC.

"Inability of local leadership to convince the electorate for repeat of the mandate and internal strife within the party also appeared to have a significant fall out. A detailed analysis will be done," he said.

BJP's face in the state Das faced a challenge from his former cabinet and party colleague Saryu Roy, who left the party after being denied ticket from Jamshedpur (West) seat. Roy contested the poll from the Jamshedpur (East), a seat held by Das five times, as an Independent and was leading by a huge margin.

"We have seen that local elections are increasingly influenced by the performance of the local government and local factors," Rao said, referring to recent assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra besides Jharkhand.

Asked about the impact of the CAA on Jharkhand elections, BJP vice president Shivraj Singh Chouhan said state elections are fought on different issues and rejected suggestions that the Jharkhand elections was a litmus test for the Act.

Congress General Secretary in-charge for Organization K C Venugopal said the results were a "substantive and clear mandate against divisive and disruptive political actions" of PM Modi and BJP.

The people of Jharkhand have rejected the anti-people and anti-constitutional policies of the BJP, he said in a statement.

Instead of talking about development in respective states or issues of common people, the BJP and PM Modi were trying to fool the people by their narrow minded divisive political actions and sectarian agenda, he alleged, adding that people of Jharkhand have given a befitting reply to them.

The AICC in-charge for Jharkhand, RPN Singh, said, "PM Modi and Union Home Minister Shah tried to divert the attention of people away from fundamental issues but people did not get swayed."

Reiterating that Soren of JMM will be the CM as declared earlier, Singh said Jharkhand results are a defeat of the BJP's "arrogance and diversionary tactics".

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1,540 cooperative banks to be brought under RBI's supervision: Javadekar

News Network

June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Over 1,500 urban and multi-state cooperative banks will be brought under the supervisory power of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday.

"Government banks, including 1,482 urban cooperative banks and 58 multi-state cooperative banks, are now being brought under supervisory powers of Reserve Bank of India (RBI); RBI's powers as they apply to scheduled banks will apply for cooperative banks as well," Javadekar said at a press conference, through video conferencing.

"The decision to bring 1,540 cooperative banks under RBI's supervision will give an assurance to more than 8.6 crore depositors in these banks that their money amounting to Rs 4.84 lakh crore will stay safe," he added.

The Minister of Information and Broadcasting further said that the Union Cabinet has approved a scheme "for interest subvention of 2 per cent to Shishu loan category borrowers under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, outstanding as on March 31, 2020, for one year to eligible borrowers."

The Minister also said that the Union Cabinet has approved the declaration of Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh as an international airport.

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109 children sexually abused every day in India in 2018

News Network

January 12,2020

New Delhi, Jan 12: As many as 109 children were sexually abused every day in India in 2018, according to the data by the National Crime Records Bureau, which showed a 22 per cent jump in such cases from the previous year.

According to the recently released NCRB data, 32,608 cases were reported in 2017 while 39,827 cases were reported in 2018 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

POCSO Act, 2012 is a comprehensive law to provide for the protection of children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography. It requires special treatment of cases relating to child sexual abuse such as setting-up of special courts, special prosecutors, and support persons for child victims.

As many as 21,605 child rapes were recorded in 2018 which included 21,401 rapes of girls and 204 of boys, the data showed.

The highest number of child rapes were recorded in Maharashtra at 2,832 followed by Uttar Pradesh at 2023 and Tamil Nadu at 1457, the data showed.

Overall crimes against children has increased steeply over six times in the decade over 2008-2018, from 22,500 cases recorded in 2008 to 1,41,764 cases in 2018, according to the NCRB data from 2008 and 2018.

In 2017, 1,29,032 cases of crime against children were recorded.

Priti Mahara, Director of Policy Research and Advocacy at CRY – Child Rights and You (CRY) said, that while on the one hand, the increasing numbers of crimes against children are extremely alarming, it also suggests an increasing trend in reporting which is a positive sign as it reflects people's faith in the system.

"It also provides a direction in which government interventions must be made and evidence needs to be created. While some major efforts have been taken to ensure child protection, a lot more is needed to see expected results on the ground," Mahara said.

In percentage terms, major crime against children during 2018 were kidnapping and abduction which accounted for 44.2 per cent followed by cases under POCSO, which accounted for 34.7 per cent, the data showed.

A total of 67,134 children (19,784 male,47,191 female and 159 transgender) were reported missing in 2018. During the year 2018, a total of 71,176 children (22,239 male, 48,787 female and 150 transgender) were traced, the NCRB data said.

As many as 781 cases of use of child for pornography or storing child pornography material was also recorded in 2018, more than double that of 2017 when 331 such cases were recorded, the data showed.

The state-wise segregation of crimes against children reveals Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Bihar accounted for 51 per cent of all crimes in the country, the data said.

While Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 19,936 recorded crimes against children (14 per cent of total crimes), Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are the close second and third with 18,992 and 18,892 crimes registered respectively.

The report also showed that cases of sexual harassment in shelter homes against women and children reportedly increased by 30 per cent, from 544 cases recorded in 2017 to 707 cases in 2018.

Mahara suggested that financial investments must be adequately increased with a focus on prevention of crimes against children and the identification of vulnerable children and families.

"Strengthening community-level child protection system is also a key to prevention. While there is growing evidence of the precarious lives that children in India are leading, it is essential that this evidence is used to effectively inform policy and programme initiatives," she said.

As many as 501 incidences were also recorded under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, a 26 per cent jump from 2017 when 395 cases were reported under the Act.

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Here's the first phase flight plan for return of Indian nationals stranded abroad

coastaldigest.com news network

May 5,2020

Newsroom, May 5: Following the union government's nod, preparations are afoot to bring back Indian nationals stranded abroad from May 7 onwards.

According to sources, in the first phase from May 7- 14, the government would allow more than 60 “non-scheduled, commercial” flights to operate from about 12 countries to India to bring back 15,000 citizens. At least half of those flights will be from the Gulf region, including UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, while the rest would bring passengers from the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Bangladesh.

The flights would be spread over 10 States identified as having the largest numbers to return, with Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi (NCR) receiving the maximum number of flights.

A meeting held at the Ministry of Civil Aviation looked specifically at flights, mainly operated by Air India, while it awaits a final plan from countries where Indians need to be airlifted from. The first flights planned at present are from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha, flying directly to Kozhikode and Kochi.

While the full estimate of Indians needing to return home could cross ten lakhs (a million), with more than two lakhs having registered to return from the UAE alone, officials said their return would be “prioritised and staggered”.

Flight plan for return of Indian nationals stranded abroad: