Over 850 academicians from different parts of the country have strongly supported the agricultural reform laws brought by the government, saying these Acts seek to free farm trade from restrictions and enable farmers to sell their produce at competitive prices.
In a statement, the academicians who also include a few Vice-Chancellors, said that union government has repeatedly assured the farmers that these three farm laws will not do away with Minimum Support Price (MSP) “but rather free the farm trade from all illicit market restrictions, open the market beyond ‘mandis’ and further assists the small and marginal farmers to sell their produce at market/competitive prices”.
“The new laws also provide full autonomy for farmers to sell their produce. We strongly believe in the government’s assurance to the farmers to protect their livelihoods. The government is still firmly committed to delivering the principle of minimum government, maximum governance,” the statement said.
It said that the laws were brought under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of agenda for agro-reforms to benefit the farmers.
The statement said that the bills were passed in the monsoon session of the parliament “with a vibrant discussion”.
The statement said India is a country where most of the population is still dependent on agriculture for livelihood.
“We stand in solidarity with both the government and the farmers and salute their intense efforts. We all will live, progress, and develop together and peacefully,” the academicians said.
The statement comes amid continued protest by farmers on Delhi borders against the three laws – The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance & Farm Services Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
The government and farmers have held six rounds of talks so far. (ANI)
As part of the restructuring of Army Headquarters, the Indian Army has appointed a Major General-rank officer as the head of its newly created Human Rights cell.
Major General Gautam Chauhan has been appointed as the first head of the HR Cell which would be directly working under the Vice Chief of Army Staff office, Army officials said.
The new cell would be the nodal point for examining any allegations of human rights violations related to the force.
The cell will also have an Indian Police Service officer for better coordination with the state police forces during the investigation of cases.
The restructuring would also see the appointment of a Maj Gen-rank officer who would be heading the Vigilance cell to look into cases of corruption in the force.
The force got a third deputy chief as part of this restructuring exercise earlier this month. (ANI)
India on Friday lodged a formal protest with Pakistan via diplomatic channels against the vandalisation and demolition of a Hindu temple there and conveyed that the neighbouring country should investigate the matter and take strict action against those responsible, sources said.
They said Ministry of External Affairs conveyed its serious concerns to Pakistan High Commission at repeated instances of similar nature of atrocities against the members of the minority community.
” We (India) expect Government of Pakistan to investigate the matter and take strict action against those responsible for this vandalisation and demolition of the temple. Our message reiterated that Government of Pakistan, in discharge of its responsibilities, is expected to look after the safety, security and well-being of its minority communities including protection of their religious rights and cultural heritage,” a source said.
The sources said the Ministry also asked for the investigation report to be shared with it.
On December 30, a mob of over a hundred people led by local Muslim clerics destroyed and set on fire a Hindu temple in the Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A viral video clip on social media showed a violent mob destroying the walls and roof of the temple.
This act against the Hindu minority community has been widely condemned by human rights activists based in Pakistan and other parts of the world.
The mob incited by a local cleric was part of a rally organised by Jamiat Ulema-e Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), a Sunni Deobandi political party in Pakistan. In the rally, speakers delivered inflammatory speeches after which the mob stormed the temple, set it ablaze, and razed it to the ground. (ANI)
Welcoming New Year with an open heart, Bollywood actor Sonakshi Sinha extended greeting to her fans, asking them to “be grateful to 2020 for the lessons it taught us”.
The ‘Rowdy Rathore’ star on Friday shared her exquisite picture surrounded by balloons on Instagram and captioned the post as “Happy New Year everyone!”
She further added, “Lets be grateful to 2020 for the lessons it taught us, and move on to 2021 with an open heart and the will to be better! Heres to coming out stronger! Lots of love”
Sonakshi has been quite active on social media and has been updating fans on her activities by sharing pictures and videos. Earlier, she treated her fans to a stunning picture of her as she bid adieu to the year 2020. (ANI)
The international outrage at the suspicious death of Baloch activist Karima Baloch in Toronto, Canada on December 20, 2020, is growing. Protests have been held all over Balochistan, in Canada, the US and even in Bangladesh. Her death refocused light on the death of another Baloch activist and journalist Sajid Hussain in Sweden in May 2020.
Notably, both were Baloch, both had sought refuge in the west after having escaped persecution and threats in Balochistan from the ubiquitous Pak security agencies, both continued to expose the gross violations of human rights in Balochistan and both died due to drowning. The similarities can hardly be called coincidences.
In Sajid Hussain’s case, the police did not find conclusive evidence of foul play and in KarimaBaloch’s case, the initial finding is about the same, though a final report has not been made public at the time of writing. The Baloch Diaspora and many others are convinced that the deaths of Karima Baloch and Sajid Hussain were carried out by Pak agencies because their activities, statements and writings were hurting the ‘interests’ of Pakistan as defined by the army.
Apart from these two, there are other Pakistanis dissidents who have also sought refuge abroad after fleeing Pakistan where their lives were threatened and some were even kidnapped and physically abused. One example is of Ahmed Waqas Goraya who was attacked in 2020 and threatened outside his Rotterdam house. Another example is of journalist Taha Siddiqui. Having sought refuge in Paris he received multiple warnings about threats to his life.
The moot question is how has Pakistan managed to get away with such activities and how does it continue to do so?
The answer lies in the culture of impunity that has developed and even nurtured in Pakistan over the decades. If not earlier, it certainly began after the 1971 Indo-Pak war that led to the creation of Bangladesh. 195 Pakistani officers and soldiers had been identified as ‘war criminals’ for their role in the genocide carried out in the then East Pakistan. However, as a result of the ‘Delhi Agreement’ signed between India, Bangladesh and Pakistan these men and the 93,000 other POWs were repatriated to Pakistan. Whatever may have been the larger motives and objectives of the agreement, the one lesson that Pakistan and especially the army drew was that they could indulge in the most heinous of crimes, massacre millions of civilians and rape hundreds of thousands of women, but they would not be held accountable.
Reinforcing this was the fact that many of the 195 war criminals prospered on return, including making it to high positions in politics and the armed forces. The Pak army has since then institutionalized the lesson and made it part of their culture that there would be no accountability for their crimes.
This was amply demonstrated during the Baloch uprising of 1974-77 when mass killings of Baloch, including of women and children, using helicopter gunships took place under the watch of a civilian government headed by Z A Bhutto.
Fast forward to the early part of this century. Since at least 2004, the army has been carrying out a series of operations against the Baloch with the same brutality that it did in the then East Pakistan and with the same impunity. Despite Pakistan’s best efforts to keep its brutality in Balochistan under wraps, it has failed to do so due to the determination of the human rights organizations and the Baloch to bring to light what the army is doing to the people. As a result, the egregious violations of human rights have been well documented.
A report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) titled ‘Conflict in Balochistan, HRCP fact-finding missions, December 2005 – January 2006’ noted : (i) there were widespread instances of disappearances, of torture inflicted on people held in custody and on those fleeing from their house and hearth in fear. (ii) The security forces and decision-makers were completely unaccountable for the gross human rights violations in the province. (iii) There was a sharp rise in disappearances of those suspected of nationalist sympathies or links with the militants. Baloch dissidents have been the main victims of what the HRCP secretary-general described as a “barbaric and inhuman practice”. (v) There were alarming accounts of summary executions, some allegedly carried out by paramilitary forces. HRCP received credible evidence that showed such killings had indeed taken place. (vi) Despite constraints in the documentation, there was a consistent pattern of abuse of human rights in the province.
In its 2008 report, ‘Denying the Undeniable’ the Amnesty International (AI) noted that hundreds of people alleged to be linked to terrorist activities were arbitrarily detained ‘…denied access to lawyers, families and courts and held in undeclared places of detention run by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies with the government concealing their fate or whereabouts.’
The July 2011 Human Rights Watch report “We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years – Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan” starts with an account of a person who had witnessed an enforced disappearance and was told: “Even if the president or chief justice tells us to release you, we won’t. We can torture you, or kill you, or keep you for years at our will. It is only the Army chief and the [intelligence] chief that we obey.”
Not a single perpetrator of these outrages has been arrested or prosecuted; in fact, police investigators openly admit they are not even looking for anyone. As Declan Walsh put it in a March 2011 article in The Guardian titled ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War’: ‘The stunning lack of interest in Pakistan’s greatest murder mystery in decades becomes more understandable, however, when it emerges that the prime suspect is not some shady gang of sadistic serial killers, but the country’s powerful military and its unaccountable intelligence men.’ By this, the state has sent an unambiguous signal that the intelligence agencies not only have impunity to commit grave human rights violations but that it condones such egregious human rights violations.
The impact of the systematic human rights abuses carried out with impunity had made a vast number of Baloch people desperate. As the HRCP put it: In such a situation ‘a large section the Baloch youth has been driven into repudiating their allegiance to the state. When the people’s will is being broken, their voice ruthlessly stifled and their bodies charred in torture cells; where mothers are dying to hear any news of their disappeared children the state cannot expect any other reaction but one of rebellion.
Even elected chief ministers of Balochistan have publicly accused the security forces of abductions and extrajudicial killings; lawyers have told the Supreme Court that the agencies were “lifting people at will”, to little avail.
Noted Baloch watcher Selig Harrison has called these violations ‘slow-motion genocide’, which unlike the humanitarian crises in Darfur and Chechnya, have not troubled the conscience of the world yet. But, he notes “as casualty figures mount, it will be harder to ignore the human costs of the Baloch independence struggle and its political repercussions in other restive minority regions of multi-ethnic Pakistan.”
The de-humanising nature of the violence is evidenced not just in the ways people are tortured — with holes drilled in the head and bodies mutilated beyond recognition — but also in the way their bodies are discarded. One note accompanying a decomposed corpse said, “Eid gift for the Baloch”. The similarity with the threat that KarimaBaloch received is indeed chilling. One such threat warned her that someone would send her a “Christmas gift” and “teach her a lesson”.
Given what the Pakistan army has been able to get away within the country, one view is that it has now decided to expand its operations abroad. Sajid Hussain’s suspicious death was perhaps to test the waters to judge the international reaction. The silence of the investigating agencies in Sweden obviously emboldened Pakistan and so Karima Baloch became the second victim.
If true, this should start alarm bells ringing because like these two there are many Pak dissidents who have sought refuge in the west with the hope of living out their lives in safety and without fear. If the west, as a bastion of safety, fails in its primary responsibility of bringing to book the perpetrators of these crimes, it will only encourage Pakistan to carry out even more attacks on its dissidents based abroad.
If Karima Baloch and Sajid Hussain’s killings are not be in vain then the world needs to recognize what Pakistan has been doing in Balochistan for decades and how it has been flagrantly killing Baloch youth and professionals in a desperate effort to secure its occupation of the province. Pakistan would do well to heed the warning of noted human rights activist I A Rehman who said ‘if we keep treating them [the Baloch] like we treated Bengalis, the consequences won’t be any different either.’
(Tilak Devasher is a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India and the author of three acclaimed books on Pakistan. Views are personal – ANI)
Gross revenue on account of Goods and Services Tax (GST) crossed Rs 1.15 lakh crore in December, up 12 per cent in the year-ago period, the government said on Friday.
Since the introduction of GST, it is the first time that they have crossed Rs 1.15 lakh crore. The highest GST collection till now was Rs 1.13 lakh crore in April 2019.
Of the Rs 115,174 crore in December 2020, the Central GST was Rs 21,365 crore, State GST Rs 27,804 crore and Integrated GST Rs 57,426 crore (including Rs 27,050 crore collected on imports) and cess Rs 8,579 crore (including Rs 971 crore collected on imports).
The total number of GSTR 3B returns filed for the month of November up to December 31 is Rs 87 lakh, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance.
The government settled Rs 23,276 crore to CGST and Rs 17,681 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement.
The total revenue earned by Central government and state governments after regular settlement in December is Rs 44,641 crore for CGST and Rs 45,485 crore for the SGST.
“This is the highest growth in monthly revenues since last 21 months,” said the statement. The December 2020 revenues are significantly higher than last month’s revenues of Rs 104,963 crore.
“It has been due to combined effect of the rapid economic recovery post-pandemic and the nationwide drive against GST evaders and fake bills alongwith many systemic changes introduced recently, which have led to improved compliance.”
This is the third month in a row in current financial year after the economy has been showing signs or recovery post-pandemic that the GST revenues have been more than Rs 1 lakh crore.
The average growth in GST revenues during the last quarter has been 7.3 per cent as compared to minus 8.2 per cent during the second quarter and minus 41 per cent during the first quarter of financial year. (ANI)
A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital reassures potential allergic reactions to new COVID-19 vaccines but stresses that people with food or medication allergies can safely be vaccinated.
The U.S. agencies do not recommend that people with food or medication allergies avoid vaccination.
Reports of possible allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both recently approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have raised public concern.
A team of experts led by allergists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has now examined all relevant information to offer reassurance that the vaccines can be administered safely even to people with food or medication allergies.
The study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, in response to accounts of potential allergic reactions in some people following COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom, that country’s medical regulatory agency advised that individuals with a history of anaphylaxis to medicine or food should avoid COVID-19 vaccination.
After closer review of the data related to allergic reactions, however, the FDA recommended that the vaccines be withheld only from individuals with a history of severe allergic reactions to any component of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised that all patients be observed for 15 minutes post-vaccination by staff who can identify and manage such reactions.
To provide insights from allergists’ perspectives, Aleena Banerji, MD, clinical director of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Unit at MGH and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and her colleagues have summarized what’s currently known about allergic reactions to vaccines like those developed against COVID-19, and they have proposed detailed advice so that individuals with different allergy histories can safely receive their first COVID-19 vaccine.
They also outlined steps on safely receiving the second dose in individuals who develop a reaction to their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“As allergists, we want to encourage vaccination by reassuring the public that both FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines are safe. Our guidelines are built upon the recommendations of U.S. regulatory agencies and provide clear steps to the medical community on how to safely administer both doses of the vaccine in individuals with allergic histories,” said Banerji.
The experts noted that allergic reactions to vaccines are rare, with a rate of about 1.3 per 1 million people. They also determined that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine allergic reactions will have a similarly low rate of occurrence.
They stressed that vaccine clinics will be monitoring all patients for 15 to 30 minutes and can manage any allergic reactions that occur. Banerji and her co-authors recommend that individuals with a history of anaphylaxis to an injectable drug or vaccine containing polyethene glycol or polysorbate speak with their allergists before being vaccinated.
They claimed that patients with severe allergies to foods, oral drugs, latex, or venom can safely receive COVID-19 vaccines. (ANI)
Amid the start of a new decade, the agitation of the farmers against the three new farm laws has entered the 37th day on Friday.
The sixth round of talks between the Union government and the farmers’ unions took place on Wednesday. While a consensus was reached on issues related to the environment and Electricity Act, the deadlock continued on the two main demands, legal assurance on Minimum Support Price (MSP) and complete rollback of the three farm laws. The next round of talks will take place on January 4.
“All three new farm laws should be taken back,” demanded Sukhwinder Singh, a member of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee.
“We will intensify the agitation, if there is no solution on January 4,” he added.
Am agitating farmer said they have got groceries for at least six months.
“If the government think we will back off after they solve the issues related to the environment and Electricity Act, we will not,” he said. (ANI)
Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone on Friday shared first post from her audio diary to extend New Year wish to fans.
Hours after deleting all her posts from social media handles, the ‘Padmaavat’ actor shared an audio note from her audio diary for fans.
Through the audio clip Deepika wished her admirers for New Year. Introducing the social media users to her audio diary, she said, “Hey everyone, welcome to my audio diary — A record of my thoughts and feelings. You know I’m sure all of you will agree with me but 2020 was a year of uncertainty for everybody. But for me, it was also about gratitude and about being present.”
Continuing with what she is looking forward to New Year, she added, “For 2021, all I can wish for myself and everyone around me is good health and peace of mind. Happy New Year.”
With the post that accumulated more than one million views within an hour of being posted, Deepika wrote, “It’s 1.1.2021! Happy New Year Everyone! What are you grateful for…?” using red heart emoticon in the caption.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Deepika Padukone will be seen in Shakun Batra’s directorial unnamed film co-starring Ananya Panday and Sidhant Chaturvedi. Besides that, she will also be seen with her husband and Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh in their upcoming sports flick 83. (ANI)
Bollywood star Malaika Arora treated fans with a picture featuring her with beau and Indian actor Arjun Kapoor, on Friday as she welcomed New Year.
Taking to Instagram, the 47-year-old star shared a picture with her boyfriend and Indian actor Arjun Kapoor. In the picture, the couple is seen embracing each other as they pose for the camera.
Arora is seen donning a metallic themed glinted jumpsuit that she complemented with a sleek bun, while her dark red lip tint graces her whole look. Whereas, Kapoor looks dashing in a casual open buttoned shirt, which he accessorised with a metallic pyramid pendant.
The ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ star wrote, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new year ….. 2021 #eternallygrateful,” using red heart and folded hands emoticon in the caption.
The picture of the duo managed to gather more than one lakh likes within a few minutes of being posted. Several fans showered love for the two in the comments section. Indian actor Kriti Sanon also dropped a smiling face with heart-shaped eyes for the adorable snap. (ANI)
We use cookies to give you the best online experience. By agreeing you accept the use of cookies in accordance with our cookie policy.
When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Control your personal Cookie Services here.
These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features. Without these cookies basic services cannot be provided.
Cookie generated by applications based on the PHP language. This is a general purpose identifier used to maintain user session variables. It is normally a random generated number, how it is used can be specific to the site, but a good example is maintaining a logged-in status for a user between pages.
In order to use this website we use the following technically required cookies
wordpress_test_cookie
wordpress_logged_in_
wordpress_sec
These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customize. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymized and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
Cookie associated with sites using CloudFlare, used to speed up page load times. According to CloudFlare it is used to override any security restrictions based on the IP address the visitor is coming from. It does not contain any user identification information.
Cookie associated with sites using CloudFlare, used to identify trusted web traffic.
__cfruid
These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.
This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners.
This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics, according to documentation it is used to throttle the request rate - limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites. It expires after 10 minutes.
This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visited in an anonymous form.
These cookies are used by Youtube, Google, Twitter, and Facebook to deliver adverts that are relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign.
This cookie is usually associated with the ShareThis social sharing widget placed in a site to enable sharing of content across various social networks. It counts clicks and shares of a page.
