Six booked for forging community certificates in Salem

Six booked for forging community certificates in Salem

The alleged forgery came to light when revenue officials conducted an inquiry following several petitions at the Madras High Court.

Published: 20th March 2021 03:15 PM 

By Express News Service

SALEM: Six persons including a medical college student and a government staffer were booked for allegedly faking ST community certificates on Friday.

The alleged forgery came to light when revenue officials conducted an inquiry following several petitions at the Madras High Court. The pleas were filed separately by R Suseela and S Jayanthi, both residents of Kolathur, seeking ST community certificates for their children claiming that they were part of the Konda Reddi community.

After the court directed the district administration to look into the matter, revenue officials found that the documents were allegedly faked. While Suseela’s community certificate did not match government records, Jayanthi had allegedly produced a fake ST certificate to secure a medical seat for her daughter. Meanwhile, V Saranya, a resident of Thokkanampatti, allegedly created a fake ST certificate to secure a government job. Based on complaints from VAOs, the Salem rural police filed cases against the women and their family members.

Meanwhile, members of the community claim that they were wrongfully denied community certificates by revenue officials as they were mistaken for the Reddiar community, who belong to the BC category. Speaking to Express, Sanjeev of Kolathur Block Konda Reddis Welfare Association said that the community members had been denied ST certificates since 1989. "Tahsildars issued the certificates until 1989, after which the power was transferred to RDOs. Since then, revenue officials who come for field inspection, mistake us for the Reddi community,” he said, adding that Kondi Reddi people live in Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Tirunelveli districts. Around 100 people from the community have also planned to contest in the Mettur Assembly constituency to highlight the issue, out of which 38 have filed their nominations so far.

As the certificates were denied to the community, the members had to approach the Madras HC. "Since 1989, ST community certificates have been issued to only 42 persons after approaching court,” he said. In 2019, although the court had ordered the issue of community certificates for 38 people, the revenue department has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against that High Court order, he added. “The certificates were not faked. They were issued by revenue officials only."

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‘Can’t donate blood for two months after first vax shot’

‘Can’t donate blood for two months after first vax shot’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai  20.03.2021 

Those who take the Covid-19 vaccine cannot donate blood for nearly two months. The National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) has recently released guidelines stating that one cannot donate blood from the day of taking the first dose of the vaccine till 28 days after the second dose.

Since there is a minimum gap of 28 days between the two doses, the period one cannot donate blood stretches up to a minimum of 57 days. The NBTC issued a notification on March 5 stating, “28 days post vaccination deferral after the last dose of Covid-19 vaccination, irrespective of the type of vaccine received”.

Dr Sunil Gupta, director of NBTC, told TOI a technical research group has taken the decision based on existing recommendations concerning blood donation and vaccination. “The group has studied the donation gap that exists after one is vaccinated with an inactivated as well as live attenuated virus and thought 28 days was a safe window,” he said. He added while none of the vaccines currently given in the country are live, the 28-day gap was decided since there have been reports of fever, body pain, among other post vaccination after-effects.

Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine that contains the killed coronavirus virus, while Covishield is a recombinant vaccine that has a small piece of the virus’s DNA.

A senior blood transfusion expert questioned the deferral period saying if none were live vaccines why stop people from donating blood. “In the US, there is a deferral time of 2 weeks only for those vaccinated with a live attenuated virus and not an inactivated one such as Covaxin,” he said. Dr Gupta said the deferral period may be reviewed as and when more evidence emerges.

The sparrow can still fly home to us

TIMES EVOKE

The sparrow can still fly home to us

20.03.2021 

March 20th is World Sparrow Day. But, as the little bird vanishes alarmingly across the world, Diwakar Sharma of WWF India writes in Times Evoke about why the sparrow is becoming so rare — and how we can still save it:

Born in Delhi, I remember a time when house sparrows were a part of every childhood. During March and April, their chirping sounds would fill our homes as they fed on wheat grains being cleaned in courtyards or hopped cheerfully across windowsills. March-April being breeding season for these sparrows, it was common to see them building their little nests in our homes — indeed, it was a thrill to carefully place a toppled-over chick back in its nest, despite dire warnings by our parents that the grown sparrows wouldn’t accept chicks which had been touched by human hands (they usually did; the warnings aimed to stop fascinated children from disturbing these nests).

Then too, in the 1970s and ’80s, Delhi was expanding but there were still patches of natural grasslands that provided a habitat for these birds. Twenty years later, I found sparrows were visible in the city but in much smaller numbers. I was lucky enough to see sparrows nesting in my house windows in the early 2000s. But this lasted only two years and the sparrows didn’t return thereafter.

It is tragic that a species so strongly associated with human habitation, which partly evolved with us and can live in urban or rural settings, is now suffering because of human activities. The house sparrow became associated with humans 10,000 years ago, often following us as we moved to new locales. A ubiquitous companion, the sparrow wasn’t always welcome.

In China, in the 1950s, sparrows were declared pests due to their feeding on crops and were destroyed in huge numbers. Later, it was discovered that sparrows had been controlling the insects that then damaged the crops and caused widespread famines.

But sparrow populations have been consistently declining in different parts of the world. In London, sparrows have almost disappeared, their absence linked with industrialisation growing from the mid-19th century. As locomotives replaced horse carts, the little sparrow lost its share of the grain which spilled from these carts when the horses fed. Research now shows a 55% decline in sparrow populations in Europe, 58% in rural Britain and 95% in London. In India, the ‘eBird’ survey shows house sparrow populations have declined by 45% across six metros. Natural causes like predation and avian malaria have contributed — but human-induced factors have had far greater impact. These include radiation from mobile phones and towers, a shortage of nesting sites caused by changing urban building design and a dwindling supply of insects due to the loss of grasslands, monoculture cropping and the heavy use of pesticides. A recent study indicates that the emission of toxic compounds like methyl nitrite from unleaded petrol could also have affected sparrow populations.

In many countries, this little bird, facing multiple existential challenges, has been categorised as threatened. As part of global efforts to save it, World Sparrow Day was announced on 20th March and in 2012, the house sparrow was declared Delhi’s state bird. But we need more than nominations and labels to bring sparrows back. A lot is still possible — we can provide safe nesting places for sparrows by placing artificial nest boxes around homes. We can also improve our knowledge of the habitat these birds need. Currently, due to a belief that only woodlands fight climate change, afforestation drives eat away grassy stretches. But the house sparrow doesn’t inhabit woodlands, which consist of dense trees. It is a creature of grasslands, large swathes of grasses and shrubs. Afforestation therefore must only be undertaken in areas that had forests to begin with. In other locations, grassland management should be adopted to preserve the natural ecosystem.

Any change in the health of an ecosystem reflects in changes in its biodiversity — the decline of the sparrow indicates that the health of Delhi’s environment is deteriorating. This is a warning bell for Covid-19 has shown that environmental well-being and human health are intricately linked. We need to do more to protect nature. There is reason to hope too — sparrows have been sighted recently in outer Delhi, across Dwarka and Najafgarh. A possible reason could be a change in the numbers of mobile towers. But sparrows still face challenges like urban construction edging them out. We need to solve these issues with a focus that lasts beyond World Sparrow Day, to every day which can be brightened by the chirping of this energetic little bird.

Times Evoke presents a unique space for readers to express their thoughts on the environment. Write in to: timesevoke@timesgroup.com

40-yr-old jumps into zoo’s lion pit in Kolkata, escapes with minor injuries

40-yr-old jumps into zoo’s lion pit in Kolkata, escapes with minor injuries

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata:20.03.2021 

A 40-year-old man, reportedly mentally unstable, miraculously escaped with his life suffering only minor injuries after he scaled a wall and jumped into a lion enclosure at the Alipore zoo on Friday morning. Gautam Guchait, who reportedly just wanted to “set the big cat free”, had injuries and cuts in his legs when a lion attacked him, before zoo officials managed to lead the animal away.

Guchait, a resident of East Midnapore’s Patashpur, had left home four days ago, said police. “We spoke to him. He said he loved to see wild animals in the wild, and hence wanted to set the lion free,” an officer said.

Alipore zoo director A K Samanta said the lion was sitting at the northernmost corner of the enclosure, when Guchait jumped in, around 11am. “Since the lion was at the northern side, our security guards, too, were there, keeping an eye on the crowd,” he said.

“This person, wearing an orange robe, started climbing the enclosure wall from the other side and stood on top of it. Though our alert guards opened the lion shelter doors soon after spotting the man on top of the wall, he jumped. Once in, he couldn’t stand straight and started crawling towards Viswas, the lion, who attacked him with its paw,” he added.

It was only because of the alert zoo staff that Guchait escaped a worse fate.

CJI Bobde to retire, Centre asks him to recommend successor

CJI Bobde to retire, Centre asks him to recommend successor

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:20.03.2021 

Setting the process for change of guard at the top of the judiciary in motion, the Union government on Friday wrote to Chief Justice S A Bobde, who retires on April 23, to recommend the name of his successor, a convention that has been followed since the collegium took over the process of selecting judges in the 1990s.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to CJI Bobde requesting him to nominate his successor, who would be appointed as the 48th CJI, official sources said. Justice N V Ramana, the senior-most among SC judges, is in line to succeed Justice Bobde as the next CJI.

As per convention, the CJI recommends the name of the senior-most SC judge as successor a month ahead of his retirement. So it is expected that CJI Bobde will recommend Justice Ramana’s name as his successor by March 23, sources said.

The memorandum of procedure for appointment of CJI says “appointment to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be of the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office”. It says the law minister, at the appropriate time, would seek the recommendation of the outgoing CJI for the appointment of the next CJI. “Whenever there is any doubt about the fitness of the seniormost judge to hold the office of the Chief Justice of India, consultation with other judges as envisaged in Article 124  (2) of the Constitution would be made for appointment of the next Chief Justice of India,” the MoP provides.

“After receipt of the recommendation of the CJI, the law minister will put up the recommendation to the prime minister who will advise the President in the matter of appointment,” it says. Justice Ramana, who is slated to become the next CJI, will have a tenure of one year, four months and three days.

As per convention, the CJI recommends the name of the senior-most SC judge as successor a month ahead of his retirement, and hence, it is expected that CJI Bobde will recommend Justice Ramana’s name as his successor by March 23, sources said

Kerala police register case against ED for coercion, conspiracy

Kerala police register case against ED for coercion, conspiracy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Thiruvananthapuram:  20.03.2021 

The crime branch of Kerala police has registered a case against Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers who are probing the gold smuggling case, on the basis of the statements of two female civil police officers.

In the FIR submitted on Friday to the judicial magistrate court in Kochi, the crime branch has invoked IPC Sections 116, 120-B, 167, 192, 193 and 195-A for conspiracy, intimidation and forcing to give false statements against the Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The crime branch had earlier conducted a preliminary inquiry, in which statements of 18 persons, including that of Swapna Suresh, the key accused in the case related to gold smuggling through diplomatic channels, was recorded. TOI has learnt that a special team will be set up to probe the case.

The state had received legal advice from the director general of prosecutions that a case should be registered against the ED sleuths who had interrogated Suresh in jail. The government had sought legal advice based on the report of the investigation team that had probed the leak of Suresh’s voice clip.

Woman civil police officers Siji Vijayan of Palarivattom police station and S Rejimol of Kadavanthra police station, who were allegedly on duty while the ED sleuths interrogated Suresh, had stated before the probe team that the ED officers were compelling Swapna to give a statement against the chief minister.

HC refuses to stay ED summons to Mehbooba in money laundering case

The Delhi high court on Friday refused to stay the latest summons issued to former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti by the enforcement directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and justice Jasmeet Singh said they are not granting any relief to the PDP president, who has been served notice to appear at the ED headquarters in the national capital on March 22.

Representing the ED, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said Mufti just has to appear before the officials. ED had earlier summoned Mufti for March15 but has now sought her presence on March 22. TNN