Jaipur, (PTI) Efforts were underway by senior Congress leaders on Monday to resolve the impasse in Rajasthan after several MLAs loyal to Ashok Gehlot submitted resignation letters over a possible move to appoint Sachin Pilot as the next chief minister.

Congress observers Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken, who had waited in vain for all legislators to arrive for the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Sunday, were trying to persuade Gehlot loyalists to meet them one by one in an effort to defuse the political crisis.

The Gehlot loyalists had visited Speaker C P Joshi’s home after a long meeting at minister Shanti Dhariwal’s residence on Sunday, saying they were resigning as MLAs.

At the chief minister’s home, Gehlot, Kharge and Maken waited for all legislators to arrive for the CLP meeting.

Pilot and his supporters came but the meeting was a washout.

Gehlot loyalists claimed that over 90 MLAs had visited Joshi’s home, but the number could not be verified independently. The Congress has 108 MLAs in the House of 200.

There was no word from the Speaker’s office on the resignation letters.

Ministers Dhariwal, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas and Mahesh Joshi, along with CM Gehlot’s advisor Sanyam Lodha met the AICC observers, but the standoff continued.

On their return, sources said, they told the other loyalists that they had put forth three conditions.

They wanted the decision on the next CM to be left till after the Congress organisational election and stressed that Gehlot should have a say in picking the new CM who should be someone who stood by the veteran leader during the rebellion by Pilot supporters in 2020.

“We have submitted our resignation and are now going home. The MLAs want that any decision on the CM’s should be taken only after the election of the party’s national president,” minister Govind Ram Meghwal had said.

The loyalists said the views of MLAs should be taken into account.

“Later, whatever decision taken by the high command will be accepted,” independent MLA Babulal Nagar had said.

The aborted CLP meeting was seen as crucial step ahead of Gehlot filing his nomination for the Congress president’s post, amid speculation that the former deputy chief minister Pilot will take his place in the state.

Gehlot, seen by many as a reluctant candidate for the top party position, initially appeared unwilling to give up his CM’s post. Later, it was speculated that he would rather see Joshi — or anyone else — as CM rather than Pilot, who had rebelled against his leadership.

Gehlot had told reporters in Jaisalmer that the MLAs would pass a one-line resolution at the CLP meeting calling upon party president Sonia Gandhi to pick his successor.

But the MLAs seemed to go off script.

Before setting off for Joshi’s home, some Gehlot loyalists had said the next CM should be someone who was instrumental in saving the government during the 2020 crisis and not anyone involved in the bid to topple it, a veiled reference to Pilot.

“We are going to the Speaker’s residence and will submit our resignation,” Khachariyawas had told reporters.

Another leader, Govind Ram Meghwal, said Gehlot can shoulder both roles, that of the chief minister as well as the party’s national president.

He said if Gehlot does not remain CM, the party will face problems in winning the next Assembly elections.

“If a decision is not taken keeping the MLAs’ sentiments in mind, the government will be in danger,” independent legislator and advisor to the chief minister Lodha had said.

Gehlot and Pilot were at loggerheads over the chief minister’s post soon after the Congress won the Assembly elections in December 2018.

The high command then chose Gehlot as the chief minister for the third time while Pilot was made his deputy.

In July 2020, Pilot along with 18 party MLAs rebelled against Gehlot’s leadership. PTI

New Delhi,(PTI) The water level in the Yamuna here breached the warning mark of 204.5 metres on Monday following heavy rain in the upper catchment areas and is expected to rise further in the next two days, officials said.

The Delhi flood control room said the water level crossed the warning mark at 1 am on Monday and rose to 204.7 by 8 am.

It reported a discharge rate of 2,95,212 cusecs at 6 am from the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana, which is the highest so far this monsoon season. The flow rate was 2,57,970 at 7 am.

One cusec is equivalent to 28.32 litres per second.

Normally, the flow rate at the Hathnikund barrage is 352 cusecs, but the discharge increases after heavy rainfall in the catchment areas. The water discharged from the barrage normally takes two to three days to reach the national capital.

Authorities have not issued a flood alert yet.

Announcements are being made to caution people living in low-lying areas near the river banks about a further increase in the water level, East Delhi District Magistrate Anil Banka said.

“The water level is predicted to touch the 206-metre mark by Wednesday. A food alert will be issued when it crosses the danger mark of 205.3 metres,” he said.

Incessant rains have battered parts of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and north Uttar Pradesh over the last few days.

The catchment of the Yamuna river system covers parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

The low-lying areas near the river in Delhi are considered vulnerable to flooding. They are home to around 37,000 people.

The Yamuna had breached the danger mark of 205.33 metres on August 12, following which around 7,000 people were evacuated from the low-lying areas near the river banks. PTI 

New Delhi: Ahead of Diwali, a 33-year-old Noida shopkeeper has been arrested from southeast Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin area for allegedly carrying 21.7 kg firecrackers in his vehicle despite a ban on their sale and bursting, police said on Sunday.

The vehicle used for carrying the firecrackers has also been seized from accused Heera Lal, who runs a shop at his native place in Noida, they said.

According to the police, Lal was arrested on Friday why a police team deployed on Lala Lajpat Rai Marg intercepted his vehicle after a brief chase and recovered the firecrackers weighing about 21.7 kg.

“When he was questioned about the firecrackers, he could not give any satisfactory response initially. During interrogation later, Lal disclosed that he had purchased the firecrackers to sell them at his shop at a higher price in order to earn quick money,” said Esha Pandey, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast).

A case has been registered against Lal under section 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act at Hazrat Nizamuddin police station, she said.

On September 28, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had ordered a complete ban on the sale and bursting of firecrackers in the national capital till January 1 next year.

Cuttack, (PTI) The National Green Tribunal has imposed restrictions on the Odisha government's ambitious Bali Jatra project, for which the Cuttack district administration had “reclaimed an area of around 426 acres of the Mahanadi riverbed”, environmentalists said on Saturday..

As part of the Bali Jatra riverfront or the Barfi project, the district administration had reclaimed the floodplain zone of the river near Jobra barrage in Cuttack city by filling sand and garbage, they claimed.

According to them, the move allegedly "reduced the water retaining capacity of the barrage and posed a threat of inundation to at least 38 nearby villages".

A five-member special bench, headed by chairperson Justice A K Goel, said it was difficult to accept the state government’s plan for construction on the reclaimed land, which has been clearly established to be part of the floodplain zone.

"There's the clear anticipated danger of flooding. We're guided by precautionary principle under Section 20 of the NGT Act," the eastern zone of the NGT observed while adjudicating on an application by city-based advocate Pradip Pattnaik.

The tribunal, however, has agreed to retain the original Bali Jatra ground of 34 acres, although it falls under the floodplain zone.

This is because the ground has been used for holding the annual historic festival since time immemorial, it said.

The Bali Jatra is one of the largest open fairs in Asia to commemorate the glorious past of voyages to the islands of Indonesia by Odia traders.

"There should be no further expansion and no concretisation or compacting of the said ground," the court said.

It also directed that the remaining 392 acres of land be used for plantation of local species and the area be developed as a biological park where no commercial activity would be allowed.

The NGT said "two-thirds of the reclaimed land be developed as dense forest" and the remaining area may be used for the park and playground without any permanent or temporary constructions or any commercial activity.

"It is made clear that no concretisation of any sort will be allowed in the entire 426 acres of reclaimed land," the tribunal said, adding that due precautions for maintaining sanitation and hygiene should be made at the Bali Jatra ground.

The bench directed the state government to take necessary safeguard measures for protecting 38 riverside villages, which are likely to be affected by flood in the periphery of Cuttack city.

It also ordered that the area where the forest is to be developed may be handed over to the forest department after demarcation.

"Rest of the area may be maintained by the local body/ irrigation department, as may be decided by the state government," the bench said.

Meanwhile, Cuttack collector Bhabani Shankar Chayni said the administration will examine the NGT order. PTI

Pauri (UKD), (PTI) A BJP leader’s son who owns a resort in Yamkeshwar block of Pauri district and his two employees were arrested on Friday allegedly for killing a 19-year-old girl who had been missing for the last few days, police said.

The girl worked as a receptionist at the resort.

Pulkit Arya is the son of Vinod Arya, a BJP leader from Haridwar, and a former chairman of Uttarakhand Mati Kala Board. Vinod Arya has been granted a state minister’s rank but holds no post in the government.

Pulkit Arya, the resort owner, manager Saurabh Bhaskar, and assistant manager Ankit Gupta were arrested after they confessed to have killed the missing girl and thrown her body into the Cheela Canal, Pauri Additional Superintendent of Police Shekhar Chandra Suyal told PTI.

Initially, they tried to mislead the police, but when interrogated sternly they confessed to the crime, the ASP said.

A team has been sent to search for the girl’s body in the canal, he said, adding the case was cracked within 24 hours of being transferred from the revenue police to regular police.

The three accused were sent to a 14-day judicial custody by a Kotdwar court, police said.

A missing complaint had been lodged at a revenue police outpost after the girl was not found in her room by her parents on Monday morning. PTI 

Rewa (MP), (PTI) In a video that has gone viral on social media, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Lok Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa, Janardan Mishra, can be seen cleaning the toilet of a girls’ school in his constituency with his bare hands.

The video was shot on September 22, during the parliamentarian’s visit to the school in Khatkhari to participate in a plantation programme as a chief guest.

After seeing a dirty toilet at the school, Mishra decided to clean it himself with his bare hands using only water and without waiting for any equipment, including gloves and brush, sources said.

When asked about it, Mishra said, “Everybody should maintain cleanliness. From Mahatma Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they have given the message of cleanliness.” He said he cleaned the toilet to motivate people towards cleanliness.

In 2018 also, Mishra had cleaned the toilet of a school and a video of that act had gone viral at that time. He had also driven a garbage collection vehicle. PTI

New Delh, (PTI) Former Congress leader and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal on Friday made veiled attack at the Centre, alleging people have been living in the fear of investigating agencies, the State and the police.

Talking about the “use of religion as a weapon”, the Rajya Sabha MP said that even though it was happening all over the world, “India is an excessive example of the use of religion”.

“It’s happening all over the world. It was complete intolerance what happened in Leicester yesterday. We all know what happened there. So it’s being exported now. The real problem is, in India today those who are part of the hate speech are the collaborators of a particular ideology, the police are not willing to do anything,” Sibal said.

The former Cabinet minister was speaking at the launch of his book, “Reflections: In Rhyme and Rhythm”, published by Rupa Publications.

He added that those who give hate speeches are not prosecuted and hence, are “emboldened to give another speech of the nature”.

“Whole populations are afraid and they get mentally ghettoised. What do they do? So they are afraid. We are living in constant fear. We fear the ED, we fear the CBI, we fear the State, we fear the policemen, we fear everybody. We don’t have any trust in anybody anymore,” the politician-turned-poet said.

The 74-year-old senior advocate also criticised the judiciary, alleging the poor man cannot come to the court as he has “no money to pay the lawyers”.

“It is the fight between two corporate world in the court every day. Amazon vs Reliance, this vs that. And the poor man, he cannot come to the court. He doesn’t have the money to pay for lawyers. A guy from Kerala, from the Northeast, West Bengal, in the south, how is he going to come to the Supreme Court. He just doesn’t have the means,” he rued.

He added that people’s confidence in the justice system is waning. “Then there is the issue of fairness. What is fair? Fair is when you have great confidence that you will get justice. Lot of us believe that that confidence is waning and the general public, people of India think. People who interact with me on a daily basis, will we get justice? I cannot assure them… there is no way to help. Because the system doesn’t help them,” Sibal said.

The book launch was also attended by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Jammu & Kashmir National Conference president Farooq Abdullah.

It’s the criminal justice system which is the much worse than the other. The real people get away, and the poor people get involved. PTI

Bhubaneswar,(PTI) After a decade of struggle, the women of Odisha’s Nayagarh district lead the battle for forest rights from the front, having reclaimed what they think is theirs and winning the rights over forests resources in 24 villages.

Narrating their hardships to protect the forests, the Block-level Women Federation President in Ranpur, Shashi Pradhan said that the women of Nayagarh District see forest as a “source of their livelihood” and have been “protecting it since 1984.” “Women have been protecting and conserving these forests since 1984. People living in the villages had no idea about these rights. The women took charge and decided to hold awareness campaigns on Forest Rights Act,” Shashi said.

Community and forest resource rights were granted to Kodalapalli and Sinduria village together as they led the fight for the rights jointly.

Explaining why the forests are managed mostly by women in Nayagarh district, Shashi said that there was “mismanagement” when the forests were taken care by the men.

“There was miscommunication and huge mismanagement when the men used to manage the forests. Later, the women took over and led the fight for rights,” she said.

Another forest-dweller in Ranpur, Anita Pradhan told PTI that there were instances when people from other villages attempted to invade their forest and tried to peel the barks of the trees.

“The women of these villages always fought back. They would visit those invaders’ village, hold meeting with their block presidents and once even confiscated their vehicles when their forests were illegally invaded by them,” Anita told PTI.

On November 2, 2021, 24 villages in Odisha’s Nayagarh district had received 14 community rights (CR) and community forest resource rights (CFRR) titles.

The titles were assigned to the villages under the the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act).

“We view these forests as our source of livelihood. There’s various kinds of resources here. Be it herbs, shrubs, fruits or vegetables, we get everything from here,” another forest-dweller of Ranpur said.

Cashew cultivation is one of the primary source of income for the people living in Kodalpalli and Sinduria village, they said.

“There is at least 20 acres of land for kaju cultivation in these two forest areas. The work is primarily managed by 15 families in Kodalpalli and 7 families in Sinduria village and they manage to earn around Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per annum,” Shashi said.

She further stated that all villagers possess medical insurance cards and that, each family earn around Rs 50,000 a year only via forest-conservation and cashew cultivation. PTI 

Haridwar,  (PTI) The sanyasi akharas have refused to accept the appointment of Swami Avimukteshwaranand as the new Shankaracharya of Jyotish Peeth after the death of his guru Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati.

Shankaracharya of Dwarka-Sharda Peeth in Gujarat, and Jyotish Peeth in Uttarakhand, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati died on September 11 at his ashram in Madhya Pradesh.

Niranjani Akhara secretary and president of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad Mahant Ravindra Puri claimed the appointment of Avimukteshwaranand as the Shankaracharya is against the rules.

A meeting of all seven sanyasi akharas will soon be convened to decide the strategy for the appointment of the new Shankaracharya, Puri added.

There is a procedure for the appointment of the Shankaracharya which was not followed in the case of Avimukteshwaranand, he said.

Avimukteshwaranand was declared as the new Shankaracharya allegedly on the basis of a will prepared by Swami Swaroopanand by another disciple of his, Subuddhanand. PTI

New Delhi, (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a supplementary charge sheet against an accused in a case related to the conspiracy by Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) terrorists to kill a Hindu priest in Punjab’s Jalandhar last year.

Gagandeep Singh alias “Gaggu”, a resident of Sangat Pura Mohalla in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut, is the fifth person charged by the NIA in a special court in Punjab after taking over the investigation of the case on October 8 last year.

The agency had filed charge sheet against four accused — Canada-based chief of KTF Hardeep Singh Nijjar, his close associate Arshdeep Singh alias “Prabh”, Kamaljeet Sharma and Ram Singh alias “Sona” — on July 4.

On July 22, the NIA had announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for information leading to arrest of Nijjar.

“Investigations have revealed that the entire conspiracy was hatched by accused Nijjar and Arshdeep, both based in Canada, to disturb peace and disrupt the communal harmony (in Punjab).

“The target attack was executed by the members of terror gang with the weapons supplied by accused Gagandeep on the directions of Arshdeep,” a spokesperson of the NIA said.

The priest, Kamaldeep Sharma, was shot at and critically injured in Jalandhar on January 31 last year. PTI