Tag: seeks

Chicago shooting: Father of injured Indian student seeks government help

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Hyderabad: A student from Telangana studying in Chicago was critically injured by some armed miscreants during a robbery on Sunday night in Princeton Park.
After the incident, the father of the victim Sai Charan, on Tuesday, said that he got the information Monday night regarding the attack.
The father of the victim, Srinivas said, “The incident happened when Charan and another person along with him were coming back home from Walmart. They were stopped at the parking lot. After they were stopped at gunpoint, Charan and the other man gave all the money to them. After going a little far, the armed man fired at two people.”
Charan was injured and the other person with him died in the shooting incident.
“At present, Charan is in ICU but in what condition we don’t know. So we urge the government to do the needful with the reports and visa process to see our son. We are in shock, the whole family is in shock, and everything has changed in a day,” Srinivas said.
“We request the government to help us seek reports of the incident,” he added.
Earlier, Sunday night, one of the two people, was shot during an armed robbery in Princeton Park on the South Side has died, Chicago police said Tuesday morning.
Devsish Nandepu Hyderabad, 23, of Chicago died just after 4 am on Monday morning at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He had been shot in the armpit and taken to the hospital in critical condition during the incident.
According to the abc7, Devsish Nandepu and a 22-year-old man were near a parking lot about 6:55 pm Sunday in the 8400-block of South Holland Road when a dark-coloured vehicle approached and two occupants exited before demanding the pair’s property at gunpoint, Chicago police said.
Another incident was witnessed on Friday, where an Indian-origin man from Gujarat named Pinalkumar Patel was shot and killed in his driveway on Thoroughbred Lane, American web portal AOL reported.

According to the officials, a group of masked gunmen assaulted Patel’s family including his wife, Rupalben, and his daughter, Bhakti. They were also shot, as per Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said was an assault by a group of masked gunmen.
Bibb County sheriff officials said deputies responded to reports of a shooting on Thoroughbred Lane at 11:01 pm Friday.
When deputies arrived, they found 52-year-old Pimalkumar Patel, his wife and their child all with gunshot wounds in the driveway of their home, according to AOL.
Deputies were told that Patel began shouting at the assailants before they shot him and his family and rode away in a car that was waiting across the street.
Patel was shot multiple times. His wife and daughter were shot in their legs and as of Friday were said to be in stable condition.
It was unclear in the report whether the masked group intended to rob the family, though the assailants were not said to have taken anything from the victims.
The investigation is ongoing. Deputies asked for help identifying a car seen on a surveillance camera across the street from the shooting, as per the report in AOL.
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#Chicago #shooting #Father #injured #Indian #student #seeks #government
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 26, 2023
Telangana education minister seeks relief from illegal mining charges

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Hyderabad: Telangana’s education minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy is seeking relief from illegal mining charges brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
While contesting the orders of the Special CBI Court in Hyderabad, Sabitha filed a criminal revision petition in the Telangana High Court on Tuesday.
The CBI court had rejected discharge applications submitted by Sabitha, AP IAS officer Y Srilakshmi, and former AP Mines and Geology director VD Rajagopal in October 2022.
The defendants claimed that they were only doing their jobs and had not committed any crime.
The CBI charged them with assisting mining baron G Janardhan Reddy in illegally extracting iron ore on the AP-Karnataka border and exporting it.
Sabitha, in undivided AP, was the mining minister while Krupanandam and Srilakshmi were working as secretaries in the industries and mines department respectively when they were charged with conspiring with Janardhan Reddy and his OMC.
The petition will likely be heard in a few days.

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#Telangana #education #minister #seeks #relief #illegal #mining #charges
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 25, 2023
Kolkata: SFI seeks permission to air BBC documentary on Modi at Presidency university

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The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) of Presidency University in Kolkata has asked for permission from the university’s administration to show the controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Gujarat riots in 2002 on January 27 at 4 pm.
This comes as several students gathered at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union office in New Delhi on Tuesday for a screening of the documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ claimed the varsity administration cut power and internet to stop the event, prompting them to stage a protest after stones were thrown at them.
The Fraternity Movement, a students’ group at the University of Hyderabad also held a special screening of the first episode of the documentary on Saturday.
The SFI at Presidency University said it has sent an email to university officials to reserve the badminton court on campus, where the documentary will be shown on a large screen. The university administration has yet to respond to the request.
What is the BBC documentary on Modi?
The new two-part documentary series of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) ‘India: The Modi Question‘ focuses on the 2002 Gujarat riots that killed thousands and left millions homeless, especially in the Muslim community, and the role played by the then chief minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The documentary which is aired only in the United Kingdom looks at the escalating tension between the Muslim community and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as Hindu right-wing organisations – Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The first part of the two-part series, reportedly reveals ‘never-seen-before’ or ‘restricted’ documents in detail. These reports were never published to the public.
The summary of the report mentions statements such as “extend of violence much greater than reported”, “widespread and systematic rape of Muslim women”, “violence politically motivated”, “aim was to purge Muslims from Hindu areas”, “their systematic of violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing”.

Speaking to the BBC, former foreign secretary, Jack Straw (2001-2006) said he was personally involved in the investigations as the data and results provided were alarming.
“I was very worried about it. I took a great deal of personal interest because India is an important country with whom we (the UK) have relations. And so, we had to handle it very carefully,” Straw told the BBC, adding, “What we did was establish an inquiry and have a team go to Gujarat and find out for themselves what had happened. And they produced a very thorough report.
What was India’s response?
The BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi was criticised harshly by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday.
It was described as a ‘propaganda piece’ with bias intended to advance a specific ‘discredited’ narrative.
“The documentary is a reflection on the agency that has made it. We think it is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, lack of objectivity, and continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible. Can’t dignify such a film,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
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#Kolkata #SFI #seeks #permission #air #BBC #documentary #Modi #Presidency #university
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 25, 2023
Morbi bridge collapse: Municipality seeks docs seized by SIT to reply to Gujarat govt’s notice

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Morbi: The Morbi municipality has appealed to the Gujarat government to return documents seized by a special investigation team (SIT) probing the collapse of a bridge in the town so it could respond to the government’s show-cause notice asking why the civic body should not be dissolved over the tragedy, which claimed 135 lives.
All the documents are with the government-appointed SIT and the Morbi municipality does not have any document, an official from the civic body has said.
The British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi collapsed on October 30, 2022. The Gujarat government last week issued a show-cause notice to the Morbi municipality asking why it should not be dissolved for failing to discharge its duties.
In the notice, the state Urban Development Department directed the civic body to submit a written clarification in the form of a general body resolution by January 25.
The bridge was maintained and operated by the Oreva Group as per an agreement signed with the Morbi municipality.
The 52-member Morbi municipality held a meeting on Monday and passed a resolution urging the government to return documents seized by the (government-appointed) SIT so it could respond to the government’s show-cause notice, the civic body’s vice president, Jayrajsinh Jadeja, told reporters after the meeting.
All the 52 elected representatives of the Morbi Municipality are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power in the state.
“Since all the documents are with the SIT and the Morbi municipality does not have any document, the municipality passed a resolution urging the government to return them as soon as possible so that it could reply to its notice,” Jadeja said.
In the notice, the Urban Development Department said the previous contract to operate the bridge expired in 2017.

Between 2018 and 2020, the Oreva Group had written several letters to the Morbi municipality warning about the dilapidated condition of the bridge and also cautioned that a serious accident may occur if the bridge remains open to the public in such a condition.
However, the civic body did not take cognizance of such warnings by the company, the notice said.
Moreover, the municipality did not take any concrete action to take over the bridge from the company in 2017 after the completion of the contract and remained inactive despite knowing the situation of the bridge, it said.
Notably, the state government had on December 13 told the Gujarat High Court, which took cognisance of the tragedy on its own and registered a public interest litigation (PIL), that it had decided to dissolve the municipality. The court had turned down the plea of the civic body members to be impleaded as a party in the case.
Nine persons, including four employees of Ajanta Manufacturing (Oreva Group), have been arrested so far in the case.
They include two managers and as many ticket booking clerks of the Oreva Group that was managing the British-era bridge.
The SIT had cited several lapses on part of the Oreva Group in repairs, maintenance and operation of the carriageway.
A Gujarat court last week also issued an arrest warrant against Jaysukh Patel, managing director of the Oreva Group, after getting an application for the same from police under section 70 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Patel, who is not named as an accused in the FIR, had moved the Morbi sessions court on January 20 for anticipatory bail fearing arrest in the bridge collapse case. The hearing was adjourned till February 1 as the public prosecutor was not present.
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#Morbi #bridge #collapse #Municipality #seeks #docs #seized #SIT #reply #Gujarat #govts #notice
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 24, 2023
Japan power company seeks to raise household electricity prices by 30%

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Tokyo: The Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) said that it has applied to the government to raise its regulated electricity rates for households by around 30 percent from June in response to surging energy prices and the yen’s weakening.
The rate hike application, following five other major power companies which have already filed for the government’s approval to raise prices by between 28 percent and 46 percent from April, reflects a deteriorating business performance due to soaring prices of fossil fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and thermal coal for power generation, reports Xinhua news agency.
Japan’s Industry Ministry will examine details of TEPCO’s cost reduction measures and decide on the actual rate increase.
Tomoaki Kobayakawa, president of TEPCO, told reporters at a press conference that the company would have problems ensuring stable supplies of electricity if it leaves the situation as it is.
“We don’t want to place a burden on our customers, but we’ve made the tough decision,” he said.
The hike in the regulated rates would be the first for TEPCO since 2012 when it raised the rates in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
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#Japan #power #company #seeks #raise #household #electricity #prices
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 24, 2023
HRDA seeks action against practice of unregistered doctors
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Hyderabad: The Healthcare Reform Doctors Association (HRDA) has requested the Telangana State Medical Council (TSMC) to take prompt action against unregistered medical practitioners and quacks (unqualified persons) who use and prescribe scheduled drugs.
The association further submitted a sixth set of 39 prescriptions issued by quacks and requested information on actions taken on previous sets.
The HRDA further warned of holding a Praja Arogya Parirakshana Sabha at the Dharna Chowk in Indira Park in February if the council fails to provide information or take action within a week.
HRDA’s Demands
Constituting district-wise Anti-Quackery committees as promised by health minister T Harish Rao.
Issuing a notification for TSMC elections as per a TS High Court order.
Increasing pay for MBBS mid-level healthcare providers.
Strengthening primary healthcare by allocating more budget for increasing PHCs, CHCs, and area hospitals.
Issuing a notification for specialist doctors under Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad hospitals.
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#HRDA #seeks #action #practice #unregistered #doctors
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )
January 23, 2023
Biden accused of hypocrisy as he seeks extradition of Julian Assange

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Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists detained around the world while the US president continues seeking the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain to face American espionage charges.
The campaign to pressure the Biden administration to drop the charges moved to Washington DC on Friday with a hearing of the Belmarsh Tribunal, an ad hoc gathering of legal experts and supporters named after the London prison where Assange is being detained.
The hearing was held in the same room where Assange in 2010 exposed the “collateral murder” video showing US aircrew gunning down Iraqi civilians, the first of hundreds of thousands of leaked secret military documents and diplomatic cables published in major newspapers around the world. The revelations about America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including alleged war crimes, and the frank assessments of US diplomats about their host governments, caused severe embarrassment in Washington.
The tribunal heard that the charges against Assange were an “ongoing attack on press freedom” because the WikiLeaks founder was not a spy but a journalist and publisher protected by free speech laws.
The tribunal co-chairperson Srecko Horvat – a founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 whose father was a political prisoner in the former Yugoslavia – quoted Biden from the 2020 presidential campaign calling for the release of imprisoned journalists across the world by quoting late president Thomas Jefferson’s dictum that “our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost”.
“President Biden is normally advocating freedom of press, but at the same time continuing the persecution of Julian Assange,” Horvat said.
Horvat warned that continuing the prosecution could serve as a bad example to other governments.
“This is an attack on press freedom globally – that’s because the United States is advancing what I think is really the extraordinary claim that it can impose its criminal secrecy laws on a foreign publisher who was publishing outside the United States,” he said.

“Every country has secrecy laws. Some countries have very draconian secrecy laws. If those countries tried to extradite New York Times reporters and publishers to those countries for publishing their secrets we would cry foul and rightly so. Does this administration want to be the first to establish the global precedent that countries can demand the extradition of foreign reporters and publishers for violating their own laws?”
Assange faces 18 charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents, largely the result of a leak by the former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison but released after President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017. Manning has testified that she acted on her own initiative in sending the documents to WikiLeaks and not at the urging of Assange.
The tribunal heard that the accuracy of the information published by WikiLeaks, including evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses, was not in question.
Assange is a polarising figure who has fallen out with many of the news organisations with whom he has worked, including the Guardian and New York Times. He lost some support when he broke his bail conditions in 2012 and sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning over sexual assault allegations.
The US justice department brought charges against Assange in 2019 when he was expelled by the Ecuadorians from their embassy.
Assange fought a lengthy legal battle in the British courts against extradition to the US after his arrest, but lost. Last year, the then-home secretary, Priti Patel, approved the extradition request. Assange has appealed, claiming that he is “being prosecuted and punished for his political opinions”.
Assange’s father, John Shipton, condemned his son’s “ceaseless malicious abuse”, including the conditions in which he is held in Britain. He said the UK’s handling of the case was “an embarrassment” that damaged the country’s claim to stand for free speech and the rule of law.
Lawyer Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA employee who was imprisoned under the Espionage Act for revealing defence secrets to the journalist James Risen, told the Belmarsh Tribunal that Assange has little chance of a fair trial in the US.
He said: “It is virtually impossible to defend against the Espionage Act. Truth is no defence. In fact, any defence related to truth will be prohibited. In addition, he won’t have access to any of the so-called evidence used against him.
“The Espionage Act has not been used to fight espionage. It’s being used against whistleblowers and Julian Assange to keep the public ignorant of [the government’s] wrongdoings and illegalities in order to maintain its hold on authority, all in the name of national security.”
The tribunal also heard from Britain’s former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who said the continued prosecution of Assange would make all journalists afraid to reveal secrets.
“If Julian Assange ends up in a maximum security prison in the United States for the rest of his life, every other journalist around the world will think, ‘Should I really report this information I’ve been given? Should I really speak out about this denial of human rights or miscarriage of justice in any country?’” he said.
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#Biden #accused #hypocrisy #seeks #extradition #Julian #Assange
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 21, 2023
Italy seeks Russian oligarch whose seized yachts disappeared from Sardinia

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Italian authorities are on the hunt for a Russian oligarch after two of his luxury yachts that were seized under EU sanctions mysteriously disappeared from a port in Sardinia.
A public notice informing Dmitry Mazepin, the billionaire owner of a mineral fertiliser company, of the penalties against him over the alleged illegal removal of the vessels has been issued by the town hall of Forte dei Marmi, the Tuscan coastal resort where the oligarch owns a home.
The yachts, both called Aldabra but featuring maritime flags of two different countries, went missing from the Sardinian port of Olbia within weeks of each other last summer.
They were seized last March after Mazepin, who is the father of the former Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin, was named on the sanctions list a few weeks after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It is the first case in Italy of a Russian with assets frozen in the country who has managed to dodge EU sanctions.
An investigation led by Olbia’s finance police found that the first vessel, said to be worth between €700,000 and €1m (between £613,000 and £876,000), left Olbia in June and made a stopover at the small port of Bizerte in Tunisia.
The second yacht is known to have left Olbia for Savona, a port in the northern Italian region of Liguria, before heading to Turkey. The current whereabouts of the yachts and their owner is unknown.
Police said Mazepin hired a foreign company, which in turn hired a Sardinian captain to move the yachts away from Italy.

The intermediary company and captain have both been hit with fines of up to €500,000. Mazepin faces the same penalties.
A police source said that he is fiscally resident in Forte dei Marmi, a popular destination for Russian oligarchs before the war in Ukraine, as he owns a villa in the town, hence why the notice was issued there.
A villa in Sardinia owned by Mazepin is also among the Russian-owned assets frozen across the island. Mazepin bought the villa, called Rocky Ram, from Carlo De Benedetti, an Italian businessman and former owner of La Repubblica newspaper.
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#Italy #seeks #Russian #oligarch #seized #yachts #disappeared #Sardinia
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 20, 2023
Centre seeks state’s report on ‘Azad Kashmir’ question in Bengal’s test-paper

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Kolkata: A day after a row erupted in Bengal over the recently-released compilation of test-papers for secondary examination released by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Examination (WBBSE) having a question on ‘Azad Kashmir’, the Centre on Wednesday sought an explanatory report from the state government on this count.
WBBSE releases the test-paper compilation every year, which contains Class 10 final test examination (pre-board) questions of some leading schools. The compilation acts as a suggestion for the candidates appearing for the Class 10 board exams.
However, page 132 of this year’s test-paper carried a question paper of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Vidyamandir, Malda, with a question that asks the students to point out ‘Azad Kashmir’ on the map.
Sources in the state government said that a communique from the Union Education Ministry has reached the state secretariat, seeking an explanatory note from the West Bengal education department on this count.
In the communique, it has been stated that the matter of ‘Azad Kashmir’ is an extremely sensitive issue and the Union government does not recognise ‘Pakistan occupied Kashmir’ as ‘Azad Kashmir’.
“The Education Ministry has sought clarification from the state government as to how such a sensitive issue managed to find a place in the test-paper,” said a state education department official, who refused to be named.
Meanwhile, sensing the gravity of the matter, the state education department has already initiated an internal probe into the matter. Sources said that a total of nine teachers have been identified and cautioned in the matter by the WBBSE.
Out of the nine teachers cautioned, six are members of the board’s history syllabus committee.

A letter of caution has also been forwarded to the headmaster of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Vidyamandir, whose question paper carrying the controversial question on ‘Azad Kashmir’ featured in the test-paper.
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#Centre #seeks #states #report #Azad #Kashmir #question #Bengals #testpaper
( Disclaimer: With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 18, 2023