Kashmir girl finally gets passport

August 6, 2013

sufaira

Srinagar, Aug 6: The ‘American dream’ of a 15-year-old girl from an orphanage in Jammu and Kashmir to study in the United States is all set to come true as authorities on Tuesday issued a passport to her which she had claimed was denied earlier due to her uncle’s militant past.

“We have issued the passport of Sufaira Jan on Tuesday. Her police verification was received last evening,” Regional Passport Officer, Srinagar, Firdous Iqbal told PTI.

Sufaira, hailing from Budgam district of central Kashmir, had applied for the passport after she got a one-year US scholarship under the India-US youth exchange study programme in March.

She had claimed the CID did not clear her case for issuing passport as her uncle was a militant, who surrendered before the authorities in 1995 - three years before she was born.

“The government doesn’t understand that if my uncle was a militant in the past, and has now surrendered and lives a normal life, what is my fault? I am not a militant,” Sufaira said.

However, authorities including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had said at no level had the application of the girl been rejected and was going through the regular process.

“I am sure she will get the passport within next few days. The process is underway... we have not rejected (her application) at any level. There is nothing adverse against her in any of the reports compiled by various departments,” Omar told reporters on the sidelines of a function here on Monday.

Earlier, Omar, through social networking site twitter.com, pledged that she won’t be denied the travel document. “Needless to say she will not be denied a passport because of her uncle’s past. All such pending cases of previous denials are being cleared,” he had tweeted.

Inspector General of CID B Srinivas told PTI on Monday that the girl had applied for passport only three months ago. He said the verification has been completed and the final letter will be sent to the Regional Passport Office here in a couple of days.

“The girl in question has got clearance both from police and CID and as such no one can deny her the passport,” Srinivas had said.

The police verification in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the valley, can take months together as the personnel tasked to verify the antecedents of the applicants are often pressed into law and order duties also.

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News Network
July 2,2020

Lucknow, Jul 2: After a video showing health workers allegedly tossing bodies of coronavirus victims in a large pit in Karnataka, BSP President Mayawati on Wednesday stated that the incident is the "height of cruelty and insult to humanity".
The former UP Chief Minister demanded that the guilty must be punished.

"The tragedy that the bodies of COVID-19 victims being thrown into trenches in Ballari, Karnataka is the height of cruelty and an insult to humanity. Though incidents related to inhuman cruelty with corona patients are rampant but guilty of Ballari must be punished by the state government," Mayawati said in a tweet.

Also, in another tweet, she asked the Central government to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

"In order to check ignominy of starvation on account of long unprecedented hardship & unemployment due to coronavirus and the subsequent nationwide lockdown, the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna must continue not till November but till the end of the pandemic, this is the demand of BSP," she tweeted. 

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Agencies
February 16,2020

Lucknow, Feb 16: Resident doctors at the AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital on Sunday demanded that the charges slapped against Dr Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act be withdrawn.

Dr Khan was arrested by the UP Special Task Force from Mumbai on January 29 in connection with a speech he had delivered during an anti-CAA protest at Aligarh Muslim University on December 12.

The Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) held a protest march on the hospital campus against the slapping of the NSA against the Gorakhpur doctor after he was granted bail in connection with the alleged hate speech.

RDA president Dr Hamza Malik said the move was a "blatant attempt to crush dissent and a violation of the Constitution of india".

He said by targeting the doctor, the UP government had done a great disservice to the entire medical community.

The AMU Students' Coordination Committee also described the decision to charge Dr Kafeel under the NSA a "direct assault" on a member of the medical fraternity who is "known for his upright behaviour and a champion of free speech".

Committee spokesperson and former AMU Students' Union president Faizul Hasan said by charging Dr Kafeel under the NSA even after he got bail was "a direct violation of a Supreme Court ruling on such issues".

Hasan said Dr Kafeel's fate should serve as an eye-opener for the rest of the country regarding the democratic rights in Uttar Pradesh.

The doctor was earlier arrested for his alleged role in the death of over 60 children within an week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August 2017. Short supply of oxygen at the children's ward was blamed at that time for the deaths.

About two years later, a state government probe cleared Khan of all major charges, prompting him to seek an apology from the Yogi Adityanath government.

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News Network
March 11,2020

New Delhi, Mar 11: A doctor in Kerala on Tuesday alleged that she was sacked by the management of the private clinic she was working with for informing authorities about a non-resident Indian (NRI) patient who reportedly declined to undergo the mandatory check for coronavirus.

Dr Shinu Syamalan said the patient had come to the clinic recently with suspected symptoms of the virus.

"When he was asked whether he had visited any foreign countries, he said he was coming from Qatar. But he had not reported to the Health department about his foreign trip," she said.

When he was directed to inform about his foreign travel to the state Health Department, which has been monitoring people coming from abroad for the virus, he refused and said he was going back to Qatar, she told reporters.

Concerned over the health of the person who had high fever, Ms Syamalan informed health and police authorities.

"Officials who let the patient go abroad do not have any problem, but I have become jobless," she posted on social media.

She alleged she was sacked by the management of the clinic for reporting the matter to police and informing the public about the incident through social media and through television.

"The argument of the management is that no one would turn up for treatment in the clinic if they come to know that it was visited by patients with suspected symptoms of Coronavirus," she said.

There was no immediate reaction from the management of the private health clinic.

Official sources said the District Medical Officer (DMO) at Thrissur has complained to the collector against Shinu Syamalan accusing her of defaming health officials.

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