SC to hear plea against govt’s FCRA move

 SC to hear plea against govt’s FCRA move

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

21.01.2022

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea for quashing of the Centre’s decisionsby which it has refused to renew or cancelled FCRA registration for close to 6,000 NGOs and listed the case for hearing on January 24. A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar agreed to the plea for early hearing on a  petition filed by US-based NGO Global Peace Initiative which was founded by an Indian and has branches across the world and works closely with many NGOs, including the Missionaries of Charity. It passed the order after Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde and lawyer Pranjal Kishore, appearing for the petitioner, mentioned the matter. The organisation, founded by Kilari Anand, submitted in the apex court that NGOs played a crucial and important role in reaching out to people and helped the country during the Covid pandemic which had been duly acknowledged by the government and the Prime Minister’s Office and cancellation of the licenses of close to 6000 NGOs at this juncture will hamper relief efforts.

To honour KGMU doc who died of Covid, US assn declares award

 To honour KGMU doc who died of Covid, US assn declares award

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

21.01.2022

Lucknow: The American Association of Endodontists (AAE) has announced to honour late Dr Anil Chandra on the occasion of his birthday on January 27 through “Dr Anil Chandra Memorial FTEDG (Full Time Educator Development Grant) award” to be given annually in his name. It is the first memorial award in the world by AAE which is named after an educator.

Dr Anil Chandra, a Fellow of the American Academy of Dentistry, and a Covid warrior succumbed to Covid-19 in April 2021while serving his patients during the pandemic outbreak in Lucknow. He was the Dean of Dental Faculty and a senior professor in the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics at King George’s Medical Uni-versity in Lucknow at the time of his death. Dr Chandra’s illustrious career as a dental educator and endodontic includes a global network of clinicians he mentored during teaching of dentistry  and graduate training; numerous publications and awards; and appointments at North American universities. He held four patents, edited three Indian dental journals, and served extensively in leadership roles in addition to giving presentations at dental conferences around the world. He was a passionate academician for advancing access to specialty training and endodontic education.

Dr Chandra is remembered by his students as a soft spoken, kind hearted teacher, ever willing to help and guide them selflessly and remains an inspiration to the dental fraternity to advance their professional and personal lives.

SC extends women’s right to parents’ property to before ’56 2020 Order Gave Daughters Same Rights As Sons

 SC extends women’s right to parents’ property to before ’56

2020 Order Gave Daughters Same Rights As Sons

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Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

21.01.2022

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday conferred daughters with equal right to father’s property even prior to codification of Hindu personal laws and enactment of the Hindu Succession Act in 1956 and said that the law of inheritance would apply to partition of properties even if the father had died intestate before 1956.

A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari gave the judgment and said self-acquired properties of a person, who died intestate in 1949, would devolve on his sole daughter, despite the man admittedly living in a joint family, and could not have passed on to the deceased person’sbrother on the basis of the survivorship law in force prior to 1956 and upon his death to his children. Justice Murari said, “Since the property in question was admittedly the self-acquired property of Marappa Gounder, despite the family being in state of jointness upon his death intestate, his sole surviving daughter Kupayee Ammal will inherit the same by inhe- ritance and the property shall not devolve by survivorship. ”

The SC had in August 2020 ruled that daughters will have inheritance rights equal to those of sons in the properties of fathers, grandfathers and greatgrandfathers right from the codification of the Hindu laws in1956.

Air India to resume US ops from today

 Air India to resume US ops from today

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

211.01.2022

Mumbai: The troubles for passengers booked on US bound Air India flights seems to be over, at least for now.

On Thursday evening, AirIndia tweeted that its India-US operations will follow the normal schedule from Friday. Air India had cancelled eight return flights on Wednesday and six on Thursday due to air safety concerns over the deployment of 5G communications in North America. On Thursday, the airline operated three relief flights out of India carrying the stranded passengers.

Later in the day, Air India tweeted: “Flight operations to/from destinations in USA were affected during the last two days. We would like to inform our passengers travelling to/ from destinations in the USA that effective 0001 ho-urs of 21st January 2022 normal flight operations will recommence to/from USA. ”

The impasse was resolved after Air India received clearance from aircraft manufacturer Boeing to operate its Boeing 777 aircraft to the US, said an Air India spokesperson. The first Boeing 777 flight from Delhi to New Yo rk departed at 7. 45am, followed by Chicago flight AI-127 at 2. 25pm and San Francisco flight AI-17 at 3. 36pm. “The flights would have departed in the morning itself, but passengers had to undergo Covid tests as their earlier tests expired,” said the airline official. But passengers, especially those based in the US booked to fly to India, continue to battle rescheduling problems.

Aggrieved passengers unable to reach the airline customer service took to social media to ai r their woes.

75-year-old gets 5 years in jail for abusing 6-yr-old

 75-year-old gets 5 years in jail for abusing 6-yr-old

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

21.01.2022

Hyderabad: For sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl, a 75-year-old man was convicted by a local court in LB Nagar on Thursday. He received 5 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Rachakonda police said that on January 30, 2020, Neredmet police received a complaint from the victim’s family that the neighbour sexually violated their daughter.

The police after investigating the case filed the chargesheet and during the trial based on the statement of the victim and the other evidence produced by the prosecution, the court convicted the man. He was directed to undergo 5 years of rigorous imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs1,000.

When the victim and her sister were playing outside their house at 7. 30 pm on January 30, the accused  lured the victim by offering her a snack.

When victim went with the convict to his house, he sexually abused her.

Man held for molesting toddler

Hyderabad: A 25-year-old construction worker arrested for sexually abusing a two-and-half year old girl at a construction site in Hayathnagar on Wednesday night. The accused is a painter working at an under-construction apartment complex in Hayathnagar. According to police, he came to the city from Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday and the manager of the construction site has provided him accommodation at the worker’s huts. The accused was handed over to the police and a case was registered against him under the POCSO Act.

TNN

Non-payment of dues to 12 colleges causing hardships to staff: DUTA

 Non-payment of dues to 12 colleges causing hardships to staff: DUTA

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

21.01.2022

New Delhi: Raising the recurrent issue of non-release of grants by the Delhi government for payment of teachers’ salaries in the 12 Delhi University colleges that the government funds, DU Teachers’ Association on Thursday said that a system of discrimination was continuing within the university.

DUTA members said that while the government spokeabout Delhi’s educationmodel elsewhere, it was shying away from paying its employees.

Addressing a press conference, DUTA president AK Bhagi said, “The employees and their families are going through a tough time. In the absence of salaries for months, they cannot run their homes due to great financial distress, that too in the tough times of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Is this the education model of the Delhi government where the employees’ salaries are delayed and denied?”

“These unjustified fund cuts for two years ha-ve resulted into the deficit of the tune of Rs 4 to 34 crore in different colleges and therefore, there is pendency of salaries and other allowances ranging from two to six months,” Bhagi explained.

The association also claimed that the state government has kept “shifting excuses” behind the delayed release of grants and the fund cuts.

“At times, they say that the money collected from the students’ fund should be utilised while in some other instances, they say that there is financial mismanagement in the colleges. However, despite several audits taking place, nothing substantive has emerged to prove the same. Delhi government seems hell-bent to turn these colleges into financially sick institutions or shift forcibly to self-financing mode with a higher fee structure. There also seems to be a strong apprehension about attempts by the government to take away the colleges to some state university like the College of Arts,” Bhagi said.

There was no response from Delhi government officials on the issue.

Govt Caps RT-PCR Rate At ₹300, Home Collection At ₹500

 Govt Caps RT-PCR Rate At ₹300, Home Collection At ₹500

Testing At Govt Centres Stays Free

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Sidhartha.Roy@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:The Delhi government on Thursday slashed the maximum price of RT-PCR tests at private laboratories from Rs 500 to Rs 300 and reduced the cap of Rs 700 for home collection and tests to Rs 500. The maximum rate for rapid antigen tests (RAT) at privateen fixed at Rs 100 instead of Rs 300. Tests conducted at government establishments remain free.

Government sources said the decision had been taken to help Delhiites and also increase the number of tests. A further reduction is possible soon, a source added. The order comes into effect immediately and all charges are inclusive of all taxes.

Private laboratories will also collect samples from testing sites as requisitioned by the chief district medical officer or a government hospital, states the order issued by the health department. In case the RT-PCR samples are collected by government teams and picked up from the collection sites by private laboratories as requisitioned by the district authorities, the charges will be Rs 200, and if samples are col- lected by private laboratory teams for government and processed at their labs, the maximum charge will be Rs 300.

The RT-PCR test at Genestrings Diagnostics, which operates the Covid testing labat the Delhi airport, will also cost Rs 300 following the order. “(There is) no (further) change in rapid RT-PCR test price since the re- cent reduction from Rs 3,500 to Rs 2,900,” Genestrings Diagnostics COO Chetan Kohli said.

The government order also states all laboratories will process the samples within 12 hours, with all positive results being updated on the portal of Indian Council of Medical Research within 30 minutes of samples being processed, followed by updation of all negative results within 24 hours of receiving the samples.

The order also directs all laboratories and hospitals to display the revised rates at a prominent place within 24 hours.

The government had capped the maximum price of RT-PCR at Rs 2,400 in June 2020, then slashed it to Rs 800 in November 2020 and further to Rs 500 last August.