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Dissent in poll-bound Himachal against Agnipath scheme, paper leak scam: Congress working chief (IANS Interview)

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There is a strong resentment in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme for four-year contractual recruitment in the defence recruitment.

The BJP government led by Jai Ram Thakur is riddled with scams, ranging from the recruitment of police personnel to issuance of fake degrees at a price tag of Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

The main opposition Congress has been in full ‘battle gear’ to take head-on the ruling government in the assembly polls likely in November.

These were the views of two-time Congress legislator Rajinder Rana, who has learnt political lessons for years from his once-mentor and BJP’s two-time chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, to whom he “taught” lesson by defeating him in the 2017 assembly elections.

He had defeated BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Dhumal in a straight contest by 1,919 votes in Sujanpur, the seat the latter was asked to contest from.

In an interview with IANS here on Wednesday, Rana, who is one of the party’s state working Presidents, said there is strong resent among the youth and people of Himachal Pradesh, who felt proud to serve the nation by donning an army fatigue, against the contractual recruitment in the armed forces.

“In my constituency, every third house has a family member in the armed forces. In some house, there are two-three family members serving the nation,” Rana, a known social worker in the area who was once the election manager of Dhumal and he knows his family well, told IANS.

He said people of the Himalayan state, where there is 16 lakh unemployed, want to serve the nation owing to lack of work opportunities in the state. “They are also sturdy to serve the armed forces.”

“The Agnipath scheme is a fraud with the people of the state. There is a strong dissent even among parents of aspirant soldiers as you are going to employ a soldier at the age of 17-18 years when he has not even completed his education. At the age of 21-22, 75 per cent of them will be sent home without any social security incentive, including pension. We protest this scheme and it will be our main election issue,” realtor-turned-politician Rana, who won Sujanpur seat in Hamirpur district for the first time in the 2012 assembly polls as an Independent candidate by a margin of 14,116 votes, told IANS.

The hill state has around 1.20 lakh serving defence personnel and almost equal number of ex-servicemen largely settled in Una, Kangra, Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Mandi districts.

A large number of protesters tried to reach Dharamsala town in Kangra district where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to hold a roadshow on June 16, but were stopped by police several km before the venue.

The Congress is also eyeing to strengthen its vote bank against the resentment of government employees against the new pension scheme.

Rana said after the re-introduction of old pension scheme in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the Congress in the state, if it returns to helm, will bring the old pension scheme.

The old scheme was done away by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime in December 2003. The national pension scheme took effect from April 1, 2004.

Around one lakh employees staged a protest in Shimla early this year, demanding scrapping of the new pension scheme. They say when it comes to financial benefits of the legislators, the government takes quick decision but when it comes to old pension benefits the employees, the government cites fund crunch.

There are about 2.25 state government employees, including about 30,000 contract, part-time, daily wage and para workers. The highest number of employees are employed in the education, public works, irrigation and public health, police and health departments.

Rana, who vacated the assembly seat and unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Hamirpur as a Congress nominee, said the leaked paper of the constable recruitment examination is one of the biggest scams in the country.

The scam is currently being investigated by the CBI and is likely to put the ruling BJP government in embarrassment in the run-up to the assembly polls.

So was the multi-crore fake degree scams by Manav Bharti University in Solan.

“Police records say 43,000 fake degrees were sold by the university across the country. In reality, the number of fake degrees could be 4 to 10 lakh,” said the Congress legislator, who holds allegiance with party veteran and six-time Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh.

“The fake degree scam could be of over Rs 20,000 crore,” he added.

The fake degree scam was unearthed in February 2019, a year after the University Grants Commission (UGC) received an anonymous complaint about the alleged sale of more than 5 lakh degrees by two private universities in Himachal, Manav Bharti University in Solan and APG in Shimla.

The Congress will soon announce a toll-free telephone number to get feedback from the public about the programmes to be included in its election manifesto.

“The Congress is totally united to take head on the ruling BJP. A strong anti-incumbency wave against the state ruling BJP — evident from the loss of three Assembly and one parliamentary seat in the October 2021 bypolls — will be seen in the assembly polls too.

“Also the state has been seeing a two-party system. A handful rebels from both the Congress and the BJP have been emerging from time to time, but after failing to mark their presence on the larger political landscape,” said Rana, adding the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is nowhere in the picture in the state.

Mumbai Press Exclusive News

Mumbai Dandoshi Court dismisses Sameer Wankhede’s defamation case against Bads of Bollywood, Delhi High Court dismisses case

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Mumbai: IRS officer Sameer Wankhede has filed a defamation case against The Bads of Bollywood in the City Civil Court, Mumbai, Dandoshi. Wankhede had earlier filed a case in the Delhi High Court against The Bads of Bollywood, Netflix, Meetha and other agencies, which the court had dismissed saying that the matter was not within its jurisdiction, so Wankhede should file a case in Mumbai in this matter, after which the court has allowed Sameer Wankhede to file a defamation case in Mumbai. Today, Sameer Wankhede has officially filed a case against film actor Shah Rukh Khan’s company Red Chillies Entertainment and related social media platforms and has demanded damages. Earlier, Wankhede had demanded a compensation of Rs 2 crore and this compensation he is going to pay as a donation to the cancer hospital Tata Memorial Hospital.

Sameer Wankhede had arrested Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia Cruise drugs case, after which Wankhede has been his target. In Bollywood, Wankhede has been criticized. In Bads of Bollywood, Sameer Wankhede has been described as a clown officer and an actor has been presented as his likeness, in which this character has committed a crime due to Sameer Wankhede’s malice and prejudice. Not only that, he has desecrated the national emblem and phrase by pointing his finger and saying “Satyamev Jeete”. The court accepted the petition in this matter for hearing and ordered the parties concerned to be present to file their reply on February 12 and has also issued summons, due to which Shah Rukh Khan, Aryan Khan and Red Chillies Entertainment and other parties concerned have been shocked. In the petition, Wankhede has demanded compensation along with the removal and deletion of the controversial parts of the film.

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Crime

Mumbai: Court Relies On Dying Declaration, Acquits Husband And Other Relatives In 2018 Dowry-Linked Murder Case

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Mumbai: The sessions court has convicted two brothers for setting their sister-in-law ablaze while she was sleeping in Shivaji Nagar in March 2018. The two, Tejim Shaikh and Kafil Shaikh, were found guilty based on the victim, Farida Shaikh’s dying declaration and sentenced to life imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, the accused were residing with Farida and her husband Aftab Shaikh in Rafiq Nagar, Shivaji Nagar, due to work-related reasons. It was alleged that Farida was under physical and mental pressure following the death of her three-month-old daughter and was subjected to harassment over an insufficient dowry.

As per the case registered with the Shivaji Nagar police, a quarrel broke out on March 6, 2018, after Farida allegedly refused to allow Aftab to join his brothers. Later that night, around 2am, Farida felt kerosene being poured over her. She stated that Tejim was pouring the kerosene while Kafil stood nearby, and that Kafil then set her on fire with a matchbox.

Aftab later tried to extinguish the flames and rushed her to Rajwadi Hospital. Farida suffered burn injuries over about 92-95% of her body. Her statement was recorded by police during treatment, followed by a formal dying declaration before a Naib Tahsildar. She succumbed to her injuries on March 11, 2018, after which the accused were booked for murder and dowry harassment.

The defence argued that Farida had committed suicide by pouring kerosene on herself and challenged the dying declaration. However, the court rejected the claim and relied on her statement.

The court did not accept allegations of cruelty against the other family members, noting that they were vague and lacked specific details. It also acquitted Aftab, observing that Farida had not accused her husband of any role in the incident and had instead stated that he attempted to save her after she was set on fire.

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Crime

Maharashtra Shocker: Man Arrested For Killing 6-Year-Old Daughter To Meet Two-Child Norm For Panchayat Polls

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Hyderabad: A man from Maharashtra killed one of his three children to overcome the two-child norm to contest the upcoming Panchayat elections in that state.

Pandurang Kondmangale, a resident of Kerur village in Mukhed taluka of Maharashtra’s Nanded district, pushed her six-year-old daughter into a canal in Telangana’s Nizamabad district.

Nizamabad Police on Monday announced the arrest of Pandurang (28) and village sarpanch Ganesh Ramachandra Shinde.

Nizamabad Police Commissioner P. Sai Chaitanya told media persons that the body of a girl was found in the Nizam Sagar canal in Yedapally a few days ago. The investigation led to her identification as Prachi (6), a resident of Kerur village in neighbouring Nanded district of Maharashtra.

Police picked up her father for questioning. He tried to mislead the police by stating that she was undergoing treatment at a health centre. When grilled by the investigating officer, he confessed to killing the child.

What he revealed during the questioning was shocking for everyone. Pandurang, who runs a barber shop in his village, was keen to contest the upcoming Panchayat elections. As he had a three-year-old boy and twin girls aged six, he was ineligible to contest in view of the two-child norm for candidates contesting local body polls in Maharashtra.

He consulted his friend and current sarpanch of the village, Ganesh Shinde how to overcome the norm. They conspired to get rid of one of his children, Prachi, the elder of the twins.

According to police, they initially considered putting Prachi up for adoption. But that would not have served the purpose because she would still be registered as his child in the birth certificate.

Pandurang also thought of abandoning the child, but was worried about the consequences in the event of her return. They then conspired to kill the child and make it seem like an accident.

As Nizamabad district is only a few kilometres away from his village, Pandurang took Prachi on a motorcycle to the Nizam Sagar canal. He pushed her into the canal and fled. Some villagers who were working in the field nearby heard something plunge into the water and rushed there to find the girl’s lifeless body floating in the canal. They alerted the police, which launched an investigation.

The girl’s pictures were circulated widely on social media. Someone from the Maharashtra village identified Prachi when they saw her photo as the display picture on the WhatsApp number of one of the police personnel.

A police team reached the village and began an investigation, which led to the arrest of Pandurang and the sarpanch.

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