Salary only after precaution dose: Indore collector to staffers

 Salary only after precaution dose: Indore collector to staffers

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01.02.2022

As many as 1,678 police personnel didn’t get their January salary on the last day of the month. They make up the biggest chunk of those being penalised, followed by 1,486 employees of Indore Municipal Corporation, 1,289 personnel of other forces and 742 health employees. Among the others are 354 revenue staffers, 212 from the MP electricity board, 178 panchayat officials, 46 court staff and even 731 private employees.

The collector has ordered that their salary for January will be released only after they submit a copy of their precaution dose certificate. When the Covid vaccination  drive started, the Indore administration had identified employees of several departments as frontline workers and they were administered the vaccine in the first phase (alongside healthcare workers), the collector reminded on Monday, adding that they are supposed to take their precaution doses as well. Among the departments he listed are zilla panchayat, municipal corporation, police, security forces like BSF, cooperatives, agriculture and horticulture, apart from the health department.

Instructions had been issued to the treasury earlier to release the salaries of these employees only after they receive their due third dose, Singh said. As per official records, the In- dore treasury releases salaries of around 27,000 government employees of 45 departments. On Saturday, treasury officials compiled data on employees who have missed their precaution dose schedule. And at a review meeting on Monday, the health department said 18,831 eligible employees have received the precaution dose, and10,455 employees are yet to.

The collector has ordered that employees of private hospitals, pathology laboratories and diagnostic centres are also required to get their due precaution dose, or else their salary would be stopped by their employers. Action will be taken against private hospitals and labs if there is any neglect on this count.

TNN

2 jailed for 7 yrs in Vyapam police exam scam

 2 jailed for 7 yrs in Vyapam police exam scam

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

01.02.2022

Bhopal: A CBI court in Bhopal has convicted two persons and sentenced them to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment in a Vyapam scam in a 2013 police constable recruitment test.

The convicts have been identified as Satya Narayan Yadav, a candidate, and Laxmi Narayan Yadav, who impersonated him in the exam.

CBI had registered a case on September 2, 2015, in compliance with a Supreme Court order and taken over investigation of the case that had been registered the previous year at Jehangirabad police station in Bhopal.

The duo was among those accused of being part of a conspiracy of cheating, forgery and impersonation  in the police constable recruitment test-II in 2013, conducted by Vyapam.

It was alleged that Satya Narayan had used unfair means to pass the test, and the state police filed a chargesheet against him in the court of Bhopal chief judicial magistrate. Further investigation in the case was kept open. During the CBI investigation, Laxmi Narayan was identified as Satya’s impersonator in the examination.

A forensic report said that Laxmi Narayan’s thumb impression matched with the thumbprint on the OMR sheet that Satya was supposed to have filled.

CBI then filed a supplementary chargesheet against Satya and Laxmi Narayan on July 1, 2016, in a special court, which eventually found them guilty.

HC: Being govt employee no ground for bail in rape case

 HC: Being govt employee no ground for bail in rape case

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

01.02.2022

Bengaluru: The petitioner may be a government employee but that is not a ground to enlarge him on bail when he is accused of a serious offence like rape, the high court observed in a recent order. It denied bail to an assistant executive engineer from Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL).

Dismissing the petition filed by assistant executive engineer HN Srinivas Murthy, justice HP Sandesh pointed out that prima facie, medical evidence as well as the CrPC section 164 statement made before the magistrate disclosed the fact that he had sexually assaulted a 23-year-old woman.

The judge noted that the woman clearly stated before the magistrate that the petitioner subjected her to a sexual act against her wish and had also threatened her.

“She said her marriage had been fixed but the accused after sexually assaulting her, promised that he would marry her and also issued her a life threat.

Besides, medical evidence too is clear that her hymen was torn and the doctor is of the clear opinion that she was subjected to sexual act and material collected does not rule out the same,” the judge added.

Srinivas Murthy, who is accused of raping the woman at a homestay on September 14, 2021, had claimed he is a government employee and there had been a delay of one and a half months in lodging the complaint. According to him, the incident was alleged to have taken place on September 14, 2021, but the complaint was lodged before Kumaraswamy Layout police on November 3 and he has been in custody since November 14.

His counsel claimed no force was used in the alleged sexual act and if the petitioner continued to be in custody, it would affect his career.

Mamata blocks Dhankar on Twitter over ‘unethical acts’

 Mamata blocks Dhankar on Twitter over ‘unethical acts’

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01.02.2022

TIMES N EWS N ETWORK

Kolkata: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she had blocked governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Twitter to protest against his “unconstitutional and unethical acts” that were encouraging “BJP goondas” to kill TMC workers.

The remark was made hours after TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay approached President Kovind in Parliament with a request to remove Dhankhar from Bengal governor’s post. State Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury supported the demand.

Dhankhar was quick to respond. “Mandated under Article 159 of the Constitution to ensure none in the state ‘blocks’ constitutional norms and rules of law and those in authority, bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution,” he tweeted.

Banerjee said she was forced to block him on Twitter. “His acts are instigating BJP goondas to kill our workers,” the CM said, referring to the killing of a TMC member near Barrackpore on Saturday.

She also alleged that he was using Raj Bhavan to “snoop on Bengal and tap phones”. “Pegasus is being run from Raj Bhavan. We have an all-India Pegasus there (Delhi),” she said. “We have Pegasus in Delhi,here we have a super-paharadar (super guard) in Bengal. ” She said she had asked PM Modi many times to “remove this governor”. “An elected government has become bonded labourers to a nominated governor,” Banerjee said, alleging that Dhankhar was denying civic services to people of Howrah and Bally.

The governor and the TMC government had several run-ins in the past. For his part, Dhankhar reminded the CM on Sunday that “democracy survives on the rule of law, not the rule of an individual”. He also summoned the state chief secretary to Raj Bhavan on Monday.

Dhankhar questioned why the state government had “blocked information for two years”.

 DEADLY US DREAMS

Grooms have to pay dowry to NRI girls

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01.02.2022

Neelam Patel, a resident of Karjisan village in Kadi taluka of Mehsana district. added, “The expenditure depends on the route taken to the US. The dowry is higher if the woman has entered the US  through Canada, and lesser if she has taken the Mexico route. ”

As per estimate, the sex ratio in the Patel community is 650 to 700 females as against 1,000 males.

Arpit Patel,a residentof Kalol, said that the lack of resources in the state has forced residents of the 42 Gaam Patidar Samaj to immigrate to the US or Canada through any means possible.

“The trend of settling in the US has been increasing among community members over the past 10 years. Mainly landowners or farmers, themen are facing trouble because land parcels are shrinking and there are not many job opportuni- ties for us. So, parents look for a suitable boy from the US or Canada. While NRI families pay dowry in lakhs if the girl is already settled in these countries,even if it is through illegal means,” said Arpit.

A suitable boy? Only if you are an NRI

Girls From 42 Gaam Patidar Samaj Prefer NRI Boys

Ahmedabad: When a man enters the marriage market, he faces inquiries about his house, job, and salary. But anyone looking to marry a girl from the ‘42 Gaam Patidar Samaj’ usually needs to answer one more question: “Do you or your relatives live in the US, or at least Ca- nada?” If the answer is no, then his chances of making the match plummets. 

The skewed sex ratio and ambition to get a life partner settled abroad has led to the emergence of two new trends among this sub-sect of the Patidar community which comprises of people from 42 villages in Gandhinagar and Mehsana districts. While women prefer to marry men with NRI status, the men who are already settled in the US are paying ‘dowry’ to girls settled in the US. This usually includes the expenditure incurred by the girl’s family to help her im- migrate illegally.

One of these villages is Dingucha, a village in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar which recently came into limelight after a family of four from the village froze to death while trying to illegally cross into the US from Canada.

Bhavin Patel, a resident of Dingucha, said, “In my com- nity, if a man has not gone to the US nor has any relative abroad, then it becomes difficult for him to find a match. There are many men who have remained unmarried because they had no way of settling in the US. This is one of the reasons that some men go to the US through dangerous, illegal routes.”

According to members of the 42 Gaam Patidar Samaj, the parents of NRI men living in the US or Canada also desperately seek women who are already in the US or Canada. “We prefer to marry within the  community, but we are plagued by skewed sex ratio. This combined with the need for a partner already settled abroad means that the prospective groom’s family is ready to pay ‘dowry’ to cover the money spent by the girl’s family to send her abroad illegally. This can range anywhere between Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh,” said Neelam Patel, a resident of Karjisan village in Kadi taluka of Mehsana district.

NRIs’ custody battle: HC orders father to send kids to mother in NZ

 NRIs’ custody battle: HC orders father to send kids to mother in NZ

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01.02.2022

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: Putting an end to the battle involving an NRI couple for custody of their three children, the Gujarat high court ordered the father to send the children to their mother in New Zealand. The father had brought children to India on the pretext of attending social functions, kept them here and did not take them back to New Zealand despite an order issued by a NZ high court.

According to the case details, the couple married in India in 2010. The man had been living in New Zealand since 2002. After the wedding, the wife also joined him in New Zealand. They had a son, who was brought to India in 2015 and the father did not take him back. The couple then had twin sons,who werealso brought to India by the father in 2017 and their custody was entrusted to his mother and  sister. His wife continued to ask him to bring the children back, but the family admitted them to a boarding school in Mehsana.

The mother tried to meet the children but failed. She even approached a local court in search of her children, but her application was rejected on thegrounds that the children werein the custody of their grandmother and aunt and this was not illegal. In 2018, the woman came to know that her husband had returned to New Zealand and she followed him. She moved a New Zealand high court, which in 2019 ordered the father to return the children to New Zealand saying their removal from the country and retention in India by the father was completely illegal and wrong.

The father did not heed the NZ high court order and kept the children in India. They were shiftedto aBengaluru boarding school. The womanapproachedGujarat HC and sought their custody in 2020. Two years later, the HC held that the children’s custody should be with the mother. The judges said, “Children would need both the parents and while spouses can cease to act as husband and wife, they cannot cease to be parents ever. ”

The HC ordered the father to take the children to New Zealand within eight weeks or arrange for their return by providing air tickets.

The children’s custody should be handed over to the mother in the presence of the barrister appointed by the NZ high court.

The father has been ordered to disclose travel details, and once the children reach New Zealand, the order of the NZ HC should be followed with regard to visitation and custody.

The father has been ordered to take the children there before March 25. If the travel details are not furnished to the mother’s lawyer, it will be presumed that he has no intention of travelling and the handing over of custody to the mother should take place in the presence of the Gujarat HC registrar (judicial) by February 25.

The HC also said that the mother, if she wishes, can come down to India and take custody and the father should bear the expenses, or the mother should appoint a trusted person to take the children to New Zealand.

No clarity on fee revision for self-financed med colleges

 No clarity on fee revision for self-financed med colleges

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01.02.2022

Ahmedabad: With allocation of seats in the first round of admission for medical and dental colleges in the state underway, confusion prevails about the fees of 14 self-financed colleges.

The admission committee had already announced a fee increase for eight GMERS run colleges, but no decision has been taken for the self-financed colleges. “What has caused confusion is that candidates allocated seats are to give an undertaking that they are ready to pay the revised fees in the future,” said a source.

“While the committee is yet to fix fees for the next three years. Thus, without the committee looking at any proposal for fee revision, it is strange that candidates are to give a undertaking on the unknown revised fee amount,” said a source.

TNN