"Identify Those Who Create Caste Discrimination": PM Modi In Varanasi

Agencies
February 19, 2019

Varanasi, Feb 19: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday invoked Sant Ravidas, a mystic poet of the Bhakti Movement, on his birth anniversary to urge people to end caste discrimination and identify those who promote it for "self interest".

PM Modi said caste discrimination is an impediment in achieving social harmony.

"Guruji (Sant Ravidas) had said that there should be no discrimination on the basis of caste. Till caste discrimination is there, people cannot connect with each other, social harmony is not possible and equality cannot be ensured," the prime minister said.

"Identify those who for their self-interest, create caste discrimination and promote it," he asked people, without taking any names.

The prime minister was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone of Ravidas Janmasthali area development project in Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency.

Sant Ravidas belonged to the Bhakti Movement of the 15th and 16th century. Born in Varanasi, his hyms and poems often revolved around his low social position.

His devotional songs were also included in Sikh scriptures.

Praising Ravidas, PM Modi said, "He dreamt of a society where all are taken care of. We have tried to follow this tenet during the past 4.5 years with ''Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas'' (together, development for all).

"My government focussed on panchdharma: education, income, medicine, irrigation and addressing public grievances," he said, "irrespective of caste, creed and other factors."

"Unfortunately, caste discrimination could not be removed till now. The New India will witness this change with help of youth," he said, referring to his vision of the country in the 21st Century.

At the Diesel Locomotives Works in Varanasi, PM Modi also flagged off the first electric locomotive converted from a diesel engine in the country. He also inspected it from inside.

The work on the project began on December 22, 2017, railway officials said.

PM Modi said honesty leads to happiness, "We tried to follow this (idea)" and acted against ''benami'' properties and blackmoney.

"Chalta hai'' mentality had crept in, my government tried to change it," he asserted.

On his second visit to his Lok Sabha constituency within a month, the prime minister also detailed the development and welfare works his government had undertaken.

He cited government schemes to provide free LPG gas cylinders and power connections, insurance of up to Rs. 5 lakh per family annually under the ambitious Ayushman Bharat and guarantee-free loans under Mudra Yojana.

PM Modi also mentioned the rebate being provided to individual taxpayers for income up to Rs. 5 lakh in the Interim Budget, saying, "Those who looted public money are being brought to book and honest people are being honoured".

Before PM Modi's address, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had praised him and called him "kashi putra" (son of Varanasi).

He said the prime minister ensured development projects are undertaken across the country without discrimination.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Noida, Jan 6: A fire broke out at the ESIC Hospital in Noida on Thursday morning and firefighting was underway, officials said.

The blaze broke out in the basement of the seven-storey hospital building located in Sector 24, a police official said.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the Fire Department was alerted about it around 8 am, the official said.

After that, a search was done to see if anyone was trapped in the building, he said.

The cooling process is now underway.

He said the fire had engulfed the ground, first and second floors of the building, except the basement.

Police said they received information about fire at Kaveri printing press at 2:45 am, when the manager Yogesh called them. The press owners have been identified as Atul and Anuj Goyal, residents of Sukhdev Vihar, they said.

The man who died in the fire has been identified as Phool Dev, from Bihar, who used to work as a help there. Dev went inside the building in the night to sleep before the fire started and died due to suffocation, the fire department official said.

The body has been kept at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and the post-mortem will be done once the family reaches here, police said.

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News Network
January 18,2020

New Delhi, Jan 18: Senior advocate Indira Jaising urged the mother of Nirbhaya to pardon the men on death row who were convicted for the 2012 gang rape of her daughter.

Jaising took to Twitter to make the request shortly after Asha Devi on Friday expressed her disappointment following a Delhi court postponed the date of the execution of the four convicts.

"While I fully identify with the pain of Asha Devi I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn't not want the death penalty for her. We are with you but against the death penalty," Jaisingh tweeted.

Asha Devi lashed out at Jaisingh suggesting pardon for the convicts. "I can't believe how Indira Jaising even dared to suggest such this. I met her many times over the years in Supreme Court, not once she asked for my wellbeing and today, she is speaking for convicts. Such people earn livelihood by supporting rapists, hence rape incidents don't stop," Asha Devi told ANI.

Nalini was arrested and convicted for her role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

Earlier on Friday Asha Devi had lashed out at the courts and the government stating that "the same people who had in the year 2012 gone around participating in rallies and raised slogans for women's safety are playing with the death of my daughter for their political gains. They have stopped the execution for their political gains."

The death-row convicts who were earlier slated to be executed on January 22 at 7 am are set to be hanged on February 1 at 6 am.

Asha Devi rued that the convicts got what they wished for. "I will not be satisfied until they are hanged," she added.

Four convicts, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan and Mukesh were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in the national capital on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

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News Network
March 3,2020

Chennai, Mar 3: The Madras High Court has ruled that if a working woman gives birth to a child in the second delivery after twins in the first, she is not entitled to maternity benefits as it should be treated as third child.

"As per existing rules, a woman can avail such benefits only for her first two deliveries. Even otherwise it is debatable as to whether the delivery is not a second delivery but a third one, in as much as ordinarily when twins are born they are delivered one after another, and their age and their inter-se elderly status is also determined by virtue of the gap of time between their arrivals, which amounts to two deliveries and not one simultaneous act," the court said.

The first bench, comprising Chief Justice A P Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad stated this while allowing the appeal from Ministry of Home Affairs.

It set aside the order June 18 2019 order of a single Judge, who extended 180 days of maternity leave and other benefits to a woman member of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) under the rules governing the Tamil Nadu government servants.

The issue pertains to an appeal moved by the ministry, which contended that the leave claim is by a member of CISF to whom the maternity rules of Tamil Nadu would not apply.

She would be covered by the maternity benefits as provided under the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, the ministry said.

When the appeal came up for hearing, the bench said it found that a second delivery, which, in the present case, resulted in a third child, cannot be interpreted so as to add to the mathematical precision that is defined in the rules.

The admissibility of benefits would be limited if the claimant has not more than two children, the bench said "This fact therefore changes the entire nature of the relief which is sought for by the woman petitioner, which aspect has been completely overlooked by the single judge", the bench said.

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