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New Delhi: Union Minister for Culture and Tourism G Kishan Reddy was admitted to the AIIMS here on Sunday.
He was brought to the hospital around 10.50 pm following complaints of chest congestion, sources said.
The Union minister has been admitted to the Cardiac Care Unit of the Cardio Neuro Centre, they said.
More details awaited.
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#Kishan #Reddy #admitted #AIIMS #chest #congestion #complaints #Report
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )
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Srinagar, Mar 27: Amid complaints of pesky power cuts during Sehri and Iftaar time from various parts of Kashmir, Kashmir Power Development Corporation Ltd (KPDCL) Monday said that the department was supplying record electricity during the fasting month and the cuts were the result of huge load shedding at peak hours.
Pertinently, the government had promised adequate electricity this Ramadan and issued directions to the department. However, consumers from different parts of the Valley continued to complain of erratic power supply during Sehri and Iftari times.
As per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the locals from Srinagar and other districts of Kashmir said that the Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) has failed to bring respite from the unscheduled power cuts to the people during the holy month of Ramadan.
The people are being pushed to the wall, especially at the peak times, Sehri and Iftaari, they said.
However, the locals rue the absence of the facility, saying that the people are being forced to reel under darkness at Sehri and Iftaar times.
The locals from Prang, Kangan, Akhal, Chattergul, Kachnabal, Najwan, Wayil, Prang, Barwalla Nunner and Main Town Ganderbal said they are getting electricity for merely 5 to 6 hours in a day, thus leaving the consumers here to lurch at large, adding that the concerned department, however, is acting as mute spectator.
Manzoor Ahmad, a resident of Ganderbal, said that despite paying hefty electricity bills, the department has failed to ensure adequate electricity to them, adding that the locals are being pushed to the wall by forcing them to reel under darkness.
Besides Srinagar, South Kashmir areas Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag, Awantipora, Tral, Keller, Zainapora, Harmain, Pampore, Kakapora, Rajpora, Litter, Dooru, Pahalgam, Ashmuqam, Kokernag, Verinag, Bijbehara, Mattan, Seer and north Kashmir areas including Sopore, Baramulla, Lalpora, Tangmarg, Bandipora and many areas of district also witness the unscheduled power cuts at present.
Meanwhile, the consumers demanded the government to look into the matter and ensure that the adequate electricity is supplied to them especially during Sehri and Iftaar times.
Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) Chief Engineer, Javaid Yousuf Dar, however, told KNO that the department has supplied the highest ever electricity to the consumers on the first day of Ramadan at 1893 MWs.
“The demand usually remains high during the peak hours and we have been supplying best to our consumers. 1850 MWs are being supplied on a regular basis during the peak hours, but as the demand remains high, the curtailments have to be done,” he said.
He added that less curtailment is being ensured to supply better electricity to people. He, however, said that since people use electricity one time i.e. during Sehri by switching on all appliances, huge load shedding is witnessed in some areas which leads to power cuts. “The situation will improve by Eid,” he said.
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#complaints #pesky #power #cuts #Sehri #Iftaar #KPDCL #supplying #record #electricity #peak #hours
( With inputs from : roshankashmir.net )
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SRINAGAR: The Commission for Joint Electricity Regulation for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has introduced regulations for setting up consumer grievance redressal forums and appointing an ombudsman to tackle electricity-related issues faced by consumers. The implementation of these regulations will enable the establishment of forums and ombudsman to address and resolve the grievances of consumers in the region.
The JERC announced through a notification that distribution licensees must establish electricity consumers’ grievance redressal forums at the company level to address the grievances of complainants. These forums will provide assistance to consumers who have concerns related to non-supply, disconnection of supply, new service connections, meter-related issues, and billing-related issues. The regulations further state that licensees must ensure that consumers have a remedy in case of delay or failure to redress their complaints.
These Forum(s) shall settle the grievances of the consumers within a period of 30 days normally and not exceeding 45 days in any case, the regulations further state.
The Forum shall be headed by the Managing Director of the licensee, the Director Finance of the licensee, an independent member, and not more than four as consumer/prosumer members.
The independent member shall be an individual possessing a minimum bachelor’s degree preferably in engineering ( electrical /mechanical/ electronics/ computer )/ law/ public administration/ journalism/ economics /political Science or equivalent having at least 5 years of experience in power sector related matters.
The members as consumer and prosumers representatives shall be appointed by the licensee with the consent of the Commission who have attained the minimum age of 35 years and who have been consumers /prosumers of licensees.
The Regulations state that the Commission may appoint the electricity ombudsman or ombudsmen to discharge the functions as mandated under the Electricity Act-2003.
“The Commission may appoint or designate electricity ombudsman or ombudsmen separately for each licensee or a common electricity ombudsman or ombudsmen for two or more distribution licensees considering factors such as the number of representations received, disposal of representations within the specified time limit, ease of access for the consumers and the geographical area,” the regulations further state.
According to the regulations, a complainant may prefer a representation before the ombudsman if he/she is aggrieved by the non-redressed of the grievance by the Forum within the period specified.
The complainant can approach the ombudsman if he /she is not satisfied with the order passed by the Forum, and if he/ she is aggrieved by the non-implementation of the Forum’s order by the licensee. (KNO)
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#Consumer #Forums #Ombudsman #ElectricityRelated #Complaints
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )
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SRINAGAR: The Department of Tourism has registered 251 complaints of various nature from tourists and visitors in respect of violations of J&K Tourist Trade Act-1978/2012 by respective service providers even as 247 of these were settled and fine to the tune of Rs. 21.95 lakh was recovered from the erring service providers.
The Department, during this one year, also ensured refund of Rs. 11.82 lakh from respective service providers in favour of prospective tourists for having charged them arbitrarily or not providing them the services for which they were charged.
The Department has taken a series of recent initiatives to bring transparency and promptness in addressing any complaints from the tourists. Separate monitoring teams have already been set up at all destinations comprising respective Resort Officers, representatives from Development Authorities and Tourist Police.
This is in addition to a central monitoring team comprising senior officers to check the compliance of J&K Tourist Trade Act and ensure that tourists are treated in a manner befitting to the hospitality traditions of the place, they feel safe and in no way have any complaints of cheating, touting, overcharging.
The Department of Tourism has advised all tourism service providers to desist from any sort of cheating or overcharging from the tourists. The Department has made it amply clear that relevant provisions of J&K Registration of Tourist Trade Act-1978/2012 and other penal laws would be invoked in case of deviant stakeholders.
Secretary Tourism, Sarmad Hafeez along with Director, Tourism Kashmir, Fazlul Haseeb during a recent review meeting of the Department had given clear instructions for close monitoring by Resort Officers in this regard and not to allow any single service provider to damage the reputation of the whole tourism sector or genuine service providers.
A spokesman of the Department said though it was good that we are witnessing a bumper season of tourist arrivals, it was incumbent upon the stakeholders and the Department to ensure that tourists are attended decently, properly and charged fairly for the services they utilize so that they return back with memories as beautiful as Kashmir is known for.
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#Tourism #Department #Registers #Complaints #Cheating #Act #Violations
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )
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New Delhi: As incidents of violence against minority communities in the past few years across the country have seen a spike, what specifically raises eyebrows is the fact that a bulk of complaints, or 71 per cent of total complaints and petitions received by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in the past five years are related to the Muslim community alone.
Uttar Pradesh has been the only state for the last five years, from where the maximum number of complaints related to the Muslim community have been received by the commission.
According to the Ministry of Minority Affairs’ data, of the total 10,562 complaints received by the commission related to all the minority communities, namely Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists between 2017-18 and 2022-23 (till January 31, 2023), 7,508 pertain to the Muslim community alone. This is 71 per cent of total complaints received by the minorities’ panel from all the minority communities.
As per Section 9(1) of the NCM Act, 1992, among its various other functions, the commission is required to look into specific complaints regarding deprivation of rights and safeguard of minorities and taking up such matters with the appropriate authorities.
The complaints now being received by it are mostly related to police atrocities, service matters, minority educational institutions and encroachments to religious properties.
Reports are sought from the concerned authorities under the Union and state governments. On receipt of the reports, the commission makes appropriate recommendations to the respective authorities for redressal of the grievances.
A closer analysis of the data pertaining to the total complaints received in the last five years by the NCM, a majority of them come from the Muslim community.
In 2017-18, of the total 1,498 complaints received by NCM, 1,128 of them or 75 per cent of the complaints came from the Muslim community. Of these, 529 complaints were from Uttar Pradesh alone from Muslims.
Similarly in 2018-19, 1,344 complaints of the total 1,871 complaints (72 per cent) received by the commission, belonged to the Muslim community. Here, too, Uttar Pradesh led with 810 complaints from the Muslim community.
This pattern could also be seen in 2019-20, when 73.7 per cent of the total complaints received by NCM, were from the Muslim community, with Uttar Pradesh leading with 728 complaints.
In 2020-21, too, 75.5 per cent or 1,105 out of the total 1,463 complaints received by the panel pertained to the Muslim community, with 646 from Uttar Pradesh alone.
In 2021-22, 68 per cent of the total complaints came from the Muslim community to the NCM, 659 being from Uttar Pradesh.
During the current fiscal (2022-23) till January 31, 2023, the NCM received 1,984 complaints, of which 1,279 or 64.4 per cent came from the Muslim community, with 662 from Uttar Pradesh.
According to the Ministry’s data, complaints received by the panel from other minority communities have been very few during the last five years, if the figures are to be compared to those sent by the Muslim community.
However, with maximum complaints lodged with the NCM coming from the Muslim community and that, too, mainly from Uttar Pradesh, which is easily miles ahead of other states in terms of sheer number of complaints received from there, indeed shows the growing level of intolerance towards a particular community, especially in a state considered to be one of the most politically conscious and significant.
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#Minorities #panel #received #maximum #complaints #Muslims #yrs
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )
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Bengaluru: The Karnataka Lokayukta police on Friday raided the Bangalore Development Authority’s office following many complaints and public grievance petitions against the agency.
According to a senior Lokayukta officer, the teams swooped down at the BDA office here in the morning and carried out searches in six different sections of the agency with several files being scrutinised.
Later speaking to reporters, Karnataka Lokayukta Justice B S Patil said the searches were conducted following many complaints flooding the Lokayukta office.
“We will investigate the cases in a systematic way, so that people should not face such problems in future. We have to investigate the previous cases and streamline things for future,” Justice Patil said.
“We are scrutinising all the files. We will open all the pending cases even if it takes 12 midnight or 1 am. We will bring out everything,” the Lokayukta said.
Refraining from sharing the details, Justice Patil said this was not the right time to share details and asked people to wait for the right time
“We are in the process of investigation. We will not share the details. We will only tell you that our team has come and started investigation. We will seize all the documents and conducted searches if required,” he added.
According to sources in the BDA, there were complaints of large-scale irregularities in the BDA with regard to some layout formation, distribution of plots, land acquisition processes and denotification of acquired land.
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#Karnataka #Lokayukta #raids #BDA #office #complaints
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )
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New Delhi: The Centre has notified three grievances appellate committees that will address users’ complaints against social media and other internet-based platforms.
According to the notification, each of the three GACs (grievances appellate committees) will have a chairperson, two whole-time members from different government entities and retired senior executives from the industry for a term of three years from the date of assumption of office.
The first panel will be chaired by the chief executive officer of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ashutosh Shukla and Punjab National Bank’s (PNB) former chief general manager and chief information officer Sunil Soni have been appointed as the whole-time members of the panel.
The second panel will be chaired by the joint secretary in charge of the Policy and Administration Division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Indian Navy’s retired Commodore Sunil Kumar Gupta and Kavindra Sharma, former vice-president (consulting), L and T Infotech, have been appointed as the whole-time members of this panel.
The third panel will be chaired by Kavita Bhatia, a senior scientist at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Former traffic service officer of the Indian Railways Sanjay Goel and former managing director and chief executive officer of IDBI Intech Krishnagiri Ragothamarao have been appointed as the whole-time members of the third panel.
The notification is part of the tighter IT rules, notified in October 2022 for setting up government-appointed GACs.
The objective of establishing the GACs is to settle the issues that users may have against the manner in which social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters.
After the notification of the IT rules for social media, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that compliance with rules and laws was not a “pick-and-choose” or “cherry-picking” option for the platforms.
He had cautioned that if and when rules are not followed, the “safe harbour protection” that these platforms enjoy falls away.
The provision of safe harbour under IT laws gives internet platforms — social media, e-commerce etc. — protection from the content posted by users.
“The government looks at the internet through the prism of keeping it safe and accountable for 120 crore digital nagriks (digital citizens). Safe and trusted internet is an integral part of the trillion dollars digital economy goal,” the minister had said.
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#Grievances #appellate #committees #probe #complaints #social #media #firms
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )
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“It does not help us. It doesn’t help the party … to have this divisiveness and to share it in public,” said Lee Saunders, a member of the committee and a labor union president. “We should never talk like that within the DNC.”
Last week, the New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told POLITICO that losing his state’s first-in-the-nation primary status “had never been broached to us by anybody of influence within the party,” including by “anybody in a top position at the White House.” Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan have also taken to the cable news airwaves and op-ed pages to express their disappointment and frustration at the change.
“I was also taken aback and, quite frankly, shocked that this was somehow unexpected,” said Leah Daughtry, another DNC member. “I have been at every rules meeting, and to my recollection, it has come up at every single meeting that we have had.”
The DNC reopened the party’s presidential nominating calendar earlier this year, requiring all states, including those who have long held early positions, to apply or reapply for that status. This came after the current lineup faced criticism for failing to reflect the racial diversity of the Democratic Party. In December, the DNC’s rules committee voted nearly unanimously for Biden’s slate of recommended states, booting Iowa from the early states and further elevating South Carolina.
On Wednesday night, the rules committee voted to approve extensions for both New Hampshire and Georgia to comply with requirements to be early Democratic states, after both states have failed so far for different reasons. Georgia, for its part, has a far more difficult path to changing its primary date, as the Republicans in charge of state government there have shown little interest in bucking the Republican National Committee’s current slate of early states, which includes Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
New Hampshire, meanwhile, has also resisted these changes, arguing that pushing South Carolina before New Hampshire conflicts with their state law, which requires New Hampshire to set its primary date before any other in the country.
The new calendar will go to a full vote before the DNC in Philadelphia next week.
On Wednesday night, DNC members attacked the century-old state law that is New Hampshire’s primary defense for maintaining its first-in-the-nation status.
“Hanging their argument on this 100-year-old privilege, for me as an African American woman, is quite disturbing in as much as this law was passed even before Black people had the right to vote,” Daughtry said.
Mo Elleithee, another DNC member, also noted that while New Hampshire has technically represented the first primary, “let’s be real — it has been viewed as the second in the nation contest” after Iowa, which traditional held a caucus.
“Based on our proposal, it is still the second-in-the-nation contest,” Elleithee continued.
New Hampshire’s sole defender on the committee, Joanne Dowdell, reiterated the arguments that New Hampshire Democrats have made publicly about why they are unable to comply with the DNC’s requirements, especially expanding its voter access laws with a Republican-controlled legislature and GOP governor.
“The reality of having a bill pass … it doesn’t exist in this Republican-led majority,” Dowdell said, noting that the DNC has “put New Hampshire Democrats in a no-win position.”
She also suggested that if Biden “declines to file in the New Hampshire primary, he may lose the first presidential primary in 2024,” which would “create an unnecessary distraction” in his reelection campaign. It’s an implicit acknowledgment of potential party sanctions that might be levied against New Hampshire, should it still hold its contest before South Carolina.
“This is not how any of us would like to kick off a reelection campaign,” she added.
Hours before the committee met, the University of New Hampshire released polling, taken earlier this month, showing Biden with just 18 percent support for a 2024 Democratic presidential primary bid, losing to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has 23 percent support (and who, to be clear, is not challenging Biden for the nomination). In the poll, Biden is tied with Warren, who also earned 18 percent support and is not running for president.
Even though Dowdell sought further discussion of sanctions, urging the committee to lay out what they might be, the committee did not continue the meeting. Instead, they voted to adjourn.
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#DNC #members #fire #Hampshires #complaints #primary
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
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New Delhi: Delhi Police said on Wednesday that they have received cross complaints from both Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNSU) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) a day after high drama prevailed on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Tuesday night, with JNSU members alleging that they were attacked with stones while watching a controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A senior police officer said they have received cross complaints from JNUSU and ABVP, which are being looked into, adding that further action will be taken accordingly.
Two students have alleged that they were harassed and assaulted by the JNU students’ union members. However, the claims were rejected by JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh.
Ghosh claimed that ABVP members threw stones at a gathering watching the BBC documentary, and the two complainant, both ABVP members, were not harassed.
A section of students under the banner of JNUSU had distributed pamphlets for the screening of the documentary at 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Several students had gathered at the JNU students’ union office for the screening of the BBC documentary.
However, the electricity connection at the JNUSU office was snapped on Tuesday and students said that they were watching the documentary on their cellphones when stones were pelted on them.
Gaurav, a second-year post-graduate student and an ABVP member, claimed that he was assaulted by JNUSU members though he did not pelt stone on them.
“Me and my friend were going for tea when we noticed a gathering of several people on the campus. Soon, we were surrounded by some students who grabbed me and even dragged me. I am a heart patient and have anxiety issues. But still they harassed me,” said Gaurav.
Late on Tuesday night, scores of students had also marched to the Vasant Kunj police station to lodge a complaint against the alleged stone pelters while raising slogans against the JNU administration.
The JNU administration was of the view that “such unauthorised activities on the campus may disturb peace and harmony” in the university. However, even after the warning, when the students remained adamant, the university administration decided to disconnect electricity and internet connection.
The varsity had earlier stated that no prior permission was sought from the JNU administration for the screening of the documentary.
Meanwhile, ABVP’s JNU unit president Rohit Kumar said the students’ body “welcomes the instructions to stop the screening of the documentary”.
“The BBC has been working to tarnish the image of India by making documentaries with fake agenda,” he said.
The Central government had earlier termed the BBC documentary as propaganda against the Prime Minister and the country.
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#BBC #docu #screening #Police #receive #cross #complaints #JNUSU #ABVP
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )