NATIONAL HEADLINES
JNU: Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University clashed with police on Monday as their protest over fee hike on the varsity’s convocation day escalated, forcing human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ to stay inside the All India Council of Technical Education premises for over six hours.
CORRUPTION: Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has been awaiting for sanction to prosecute nearly 100 central government employees including IAS, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), has crossed four months’ stipulated time, according to the CVC.
OBITUARY: Former chief election commissioner T N Seshan, champion of election reform in the 1990s, died on Sunday following a cardiac arrest. He was 86. He shall be remembered for his no-nonsense attitude, Seshan was credited with ushering in major electoral reforms during his tenure as the 10th CEC between December 12, 1990, and December 11, 1996.
EDUCATION: YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on last week issued an order converting all the Telugu medium schools into English medium from the academic year 2020-21. Later, the orders were slightly modified to make English medium mandatory from Classes 1 to 6 and subsequently, each class would be upgraded into English medium till Class 10. “Every school will have an English lab from this year and from next year, all the government schools will have only English medium. However, Telugu or Urdu will be a compulsory subject in those schools,” he said.
BSNL: At least 70,000 employees of BSNL have already opted for the VRS scheme which was launched last week, Chairman and MD of the state-owned telecom corporation P K Purwar said today. Nearly one lakh BSNL employees are eligible for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) out of its total strength of about 150,000. BSNL has fixed its internal target for VRS at 77,000 employees, and the effective date of voluntary retirement under the present scheme is January 31, 2020.
DELHI POLLUTION: Ten coal-fired power plants near India’s capital of New Delhi are poised to miss a December deadline to install pollution control devices that would have curbed premature deaths linked to toxic emissions. Eight of the plants, whose operators include Vedanta Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Uttar Pradesh Power Corp., have yet to order the required flue-gas desulfurization units, according to the Central Electricity Authority. The units can take as long as three years to secure and install, and it’s unclear if the operators will be penalized by authorities if they miss the deadline.
- Two terrorists were neutralised by security forces in Bandipora, J&K. Forces recovered arms and ammunition from the spot after the encounter.
- Maharashtra Governor rejected request of Siva Sena to extend deadline to form government.
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
TRUMP IMPEACHMENT: Nikki Haley, the former United States ambassador to the UNO, backed US President Donald Trump, saying the President has not done anything that warrants an impeachment, which she termed as “death penalty” for a public official.
IRAQ UNREST: The United Nations top envoy to Iraq, seeking support for a roadmap to resolve massive anti-government protests, said Monday that the country’s most powerful Shiite religious leader backs serious reforms but is concerned politicians will not carry them out.
ALIBABA: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Inc said on Monday that sales for its annual Singles’ Day shopping blitz hit 84 billion yuan ($12 billion) within the first hour, up 22% from last year’s early haul of 69 billion yuan.
MEXICO-BOLIVIA: Mexico on Sunday said it was offering asylum to Bolivia’s President Evo Morales after 20 government officials and lawmakers had sought refuge at its embassy in La Paz. “Mexico, in accordance with its tradition of asylum and non intervention, has received 20 personalities from the Bolivian executive and legislature in the official residence in La Paz, so we would also offer asylum to Evo Morales,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter.
ISLAMABAD: A petition has been filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking contempt of court proceedings against the Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan for linking the release of Nawaz Sharif with a deal. Lawyer Khalid Mehmood Khan in the petition cited aviation minister and chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) as respondents.
Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary is on November 12.
RAM JANMABHUMI VERDICT:
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said one of the judges recorded separate reasons on “whether the disputed structure is the birth-place of Lord Ram according to the faith and belief of the Hindu devotees.” Justice Gogoi, said Guru Nanak, whose 550th birth anniversary celebrations are underway, had visited Ayodhya in 1510-11 AD, for a darshan.”Thus, it is found that in the period prior to 1528 A.D, there were sufficient religious texts, which led the Hindus to believe the present site of Ram Janmabhoomi as the birthplace of Lord Ram,” the judge said.
Photo credit : Ramlalla by Advocate Satadru Sovan Ghosh
