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10 Oppn MPs suspended for ‘disrupting’ Waqf Bill discussion in Parliamentary Committee

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New Delhi, Jan 24: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on the Waqf Amendment Bill on Friday turned chaotic as opposition MPs were suspended for the entire day following a heated argument. It happened during a discussion on the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024.

At the same time, the Opposition MPs alleged that they were not given sufficient time to study the draft which was brought up for discussion.

Chaired by BJP MP Jagadambika Pal, the panel meeting was in fact set to hear a delegation led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq from Kashmir. But before the process, the meeting was disrupted by opposition MPs who raised concerns about “the speed with which the government wanted to pass the bill”, “especially considering the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections”.

As the disruption escalated, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey proposed the suspension of 10 opposition MPs for the day. The panel subsequently accepted Dubey’s proposal.

MPs namely Kalyan Banerjee, Mohammad Javed, A. Raja, Asaduddin Owaisi, Nasir Hussain, Mohibullah, M. Abdullah, Arvind Sawant, Nadimul Haque, and Imran Masood were among the suspended members. Dubey accused the opposition of using unparliamentary language. He alleged that they were trying to suppress the majority’s voice.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who appeared before the committee after the suspension, expressed his strong opposition to the Waqf Amendment Bill, stressing that the government should not intervene in religious matters. Farooq further pointed out they hoped their suggestions would be heard and implemented. The aim should be to ensure that Muslims do not feel marginalised by any proposed changes, he remarked.

Before being suspended, opposition MPs, including Kalyan Banerjee of TMC and Congress member Syed Nasir Hussain, walked out of the meeting. They accused the proceedings of becoming a “farce.” They demanded that the meeting be postponed until January 30 or 31 to allow for a detailed, clause-by-clause discussion.

Banerjee even described the atmosphere as resembling an “undeclared emergency” where the chairman was not listening to anyone.

Dubey meanwhile claimed that the opposition’s behaviour was against parliamentary traditions, and their attempts to disrupt the meeting were an affront to democratic norms.

Arvind Sawant, a Shiv Sena (UBT) MP, flayed the “hasty handling” of such an important Bill, which, according to him, could potentially cause unrest in the country. He asked as to why the Bill was being rushed through the committee process when there should be a proper discussion.

National News

21-year-old NEET protester discharged from RML Hospital after 10-day critical care

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New Delhi, July 30: A 21-year-old woman who was injured during the police action at the July 20 Jantar Mantar protest has shown satisfactory clinical recovery and was discharged from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital on Thursday.

The hospital said the decision to discharge her was taken after taking her stable condition and overall recovery into consideration.

The woman, who had participated in the protest, was brought to RML Hospital in an unconscious state after suffering asphyxia during a stampede-like situation that occurred amid the Parliament march.

Her condition had initially required intensive care and ventilatory support for several days. However, she gradually improved and regained full consciousness and independent mobility nearly ten days after being admitted to the hospital.

In its latest medical update issued on Thursday, RML Hospital said the patient had made a “satisfactory recovery following comprehensive critical care management” after undergoing treatment and rehabilitation.

“On admission, she was resuscitated in the Emergency Department and shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where she was managed on ventilatory support. Following sustained clinical improvement, she was successfully weaned off ventilatory support and, after one week in the ICU, was shifted to the Nursing Home ward for further recovery and rehabilitation,” the hospital said.

The hospital further stated that Thursday marked the 10th day of the woman’s hospitalisation and that she had reached a stable condition and was “fully conscious, alert, coherent, and hemodynamically stable” and had resumed a normal oral diet.

RML Hospital also said that she was ambulatory without assistance and had regained the ability to independently perform her regular daily activities, indicating significant improvement from the condition in which she was initially admitted.

“In view of her satisfactory clinical recovery and stable condition, she is being discharged today with appropriate medical advice and follow-up instructions,” the hospital added.

The woman was among the protesters who participated in the July 20 demonstration at Jantar Mantar, which was organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) under the banner of ‘Sansad Chalo’.

The protest was held to demand accountability from the government over the NEET paper leaks and other examination-related irregularities, along with action to address concerns raised by students.

The demonstration later turned violent when some miscreants resorted to stone-pelting, following which security personnel used mild force to disperse the demonstrators. The clashes during the protest resulted in several protesters and police personnel sustaining serious injuries.

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Recruitment scam: ABVP activists lay siege to KPSC headquarters in Bengaluru, detained

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Bengaluru, July 30: Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a protest in Bengaluru on Thursday condemning alleged irregularities in recruitment conducted by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), with several protesters being detained by police while attempting to lay siege to the KPSC office.

It can be noted that the KPSC is allegedly facing a major cash-for-jobs and OMR tampering scandal involving the recruitment of 400 Veterinary Officers, featuring leaked question papers, Rs 80 lakh bribes per seat, and the suspension of the KPSC Chairman.

The protest was led by ABVP Bengaluru Organizing Secretary Manikantha Kalasa. It was organized over allegations of large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of Veterinary Officers and Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs), which have sparked widespread concern among aspirants and the public.

As the demonstration intensified outside the KPSC office in Bengaluru, police deployed additional personnel to maintain law and order. Barricades were erected on roads leading to the office to prevent protesters from entering the premises.

During the protest, minor scuffles and pushing and bumping were reported between ABVP activists and police personnel as demonstrators attempted to breach the barricades and march towards the KPSC office. Police subsequently detained several protesters to prevent further escalation.

ABVP leaders alleged that repeated irregularities in KPSC recruitments have created anxiety among students and job aspirants across the state and demanded a fair, transparent, and impartial investigation into the alleged scams.

The alleged recruitment irregularities have become a major issue of public debate in Karnataka, with investigations currently underway. Protesters urged the state government to ensure accountability and restore confidence in the recruitment process.

Anticipating further attempts to gherao the KPSC office, police maintained heavy security arrangements in and around the premises. Extensive barricading was put in place from the KPSC office near Vidhana Soudha up to the road leading towards the CID office, restricting public access to the area.

Authorities allowed entry only to KPSC staff members and individuals with essential work at the office.

Meanwhile, candidates selected for the Veterinary Officer posts met Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara in Bengaluru and urged him to complete the recruitment process at the earliest. The candidates maintained that they had secured high marks in the examination and were selected on merit, adding that they were willing to face any investigation.

Several candidates broke down while speaking to reporters and appealed to the government to proceed with their appointments. They stated that if any of the selected candidates are found guilty of wrongdoing during the course of the probe, appropriate action may be taken against them.

The selected candidates further alleged that a large number of employees working on a contractual basis fear losing their jobs if meritorious candidates are appointed and are therefore creating hurdles in the recruitment process.

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Rs 28 crore, 15 kg gold seized in Bengal Police raid; relative of Tulu Mondal arrested

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Kolkata, July 30: After almost 24 hours of marathon raids and search operations coupled with interrogation, the Birbhum District Police in West Bengal on Thursday arrested Minar Mondal, a relative of Tulu Mondal, an influential stone-quarry owner in the district.

Following the marathon operations that started on Wednesday afternoon, the police recovered huge unaccounted cash and gold from Minar’s residence. The cops brought currency-counting machines from a local bank branch to count the cash seized.

The counting and recounting of the cash recovered was completed on Thursday morning; the total cash seizure had been found to be a little over Rs 28 crore, said a member of the investigating team.

Apart from that, he added, 15 kilograms of gold, whose estimated market value is over Rs 21 crore, have been seized from Minar’s residence.

“The estimated value of the seized cash and gold would be to the tune of around Rs 50 crore,” he added.

On Thursday morning, Minar was formally arrested, and the cops first took him to a local police station. At the same time, the police left his residence with a couple of trunks filled with seized cash and gold.

Minar will be presented to a district court in Suri later in the day, and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody.

Initially, Minar refused to answer repeated queries from the cops about the sources of such huge cash and gold. However, he finally admitted that the money and gold recovered were sourced from a syndicated crime racket, confirmed Birbhum’s district police Superintendent, Bidit Raj Bundesh.

According to police sources, last Tuesday, officials of Mohammad Bazar police station in Birbhum arrested seven dacoits. Based on the information from that dacoits’ group, the investigators found the location of the money and gold ‘mine’ in the house of Minar. Accordingly, the raids and search operations started at Minar’s residence on Wednesday afternoon, which continued till Thursday morning.

It is learnt that Minar was a bus driver in the state-run transport corporation. However, locals said he was involved in a major way with the stone-quarry business of Tulu Mondal, who again was a close confidant of Anubrata Mondal, the former Trinamool Congress district president in Birbhum.

The recovery of such a huge amount of cash and gold from his residence this morning has left his neighbours dumbstruck. In the past, the stone-quarry owner, Tulu Mondal, was accused of illegal stone mining.

Tulu Mondal’s name had also come up in the cattle smuggling case. He was under the watch of the ED in 2022. At that time, the Central investigators raided his house and office. The investigators are trying to find whether the huge cash and gold recovered from Minar Mondal’s residence were actually owned by Tulu Mondal.

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