NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with BJP national president J.P. Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in New Delhi. The three-hour-long meet was held to discuss the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The meeting was held at Amit Shah’s official residence in New Delhi. UP BJP chief Swantantra Dev Singh, national general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh, general secretary (organisation) of party’s state unit Sunil Bansal were also present in the meeting. According to party sources, many important issues were discussed in the meeting. Sources said that in view of the elections, the strategy for the upcoming party programmes in the coming months was discussed, including the party’s Booth Vijay Sankalp programme which is going to start on 23 August.

As per sources, through this program, the BJP plans to strengthen every booth across Uttar Pradesh.

The upcoming programmes, that are scheduled to be held by top state leaders ahead of polls, were also discussed.

Sources said that Nishad Party president Sanjay Nishad who was also present at Friday’s meeting is likely to be nominated to one of the four MLC seats lying vacant in Uttar Pradesh. Sanjay Nishad also put forward his points regarding the share of his party in the upcoming assembly elections, informed sources. Nishad Party is demanding more seats, they added. 

SRINAGAR: After Apni Party leader Ghulam Hassan Lone was shot dead by terrorists at his residence in Devsar-Kulgam on Thursday, the party president, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari, expressed profound grief over the barbaric killing of the leader.

In a statement, Bukhari termed the news as extremely unfortunate while saying that such attacks are intended to stop the current ongoing peace process in Jammu and Kashmir. “These reprehensible acts of violence are going to yield nothing but they only add to the sufferings of the people. Nothing can justify the cold-blooded innocent killing of a political worker who was just trying to resolve the pressing issues of the people of his area,” he said.

Bukhari said that his party has always reiterated that violence in any of its manifestations and motivated by any of the extremist ideologies in the world only begets violence and yields nothing positive for human civilization.

“This is a moment of utter grief and gloom for Apni Party wherein we have lost a valuable member to this insane cycle of violence. We pray for eternal peace to the deceased and endurance to the family to bear this huge and irreparable loss,” he said.

Furthermore, the Party’s senior leadership has also expressed solidarity with the bereaved family and prayed for eternal peace to the departed soul. The Party leadership unanimously urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to take a review of the security situation and implement all necessary measures to prevent such attacks on the political affiliates. ANI

Facebook and Instagram have removed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s post that revealed the identity of the parents of a minor girl who was raped and murdered in Delhi, ANI quoted official sources as saying on Friday. “Instagram and Facebook removed Rahul Gandhi’s post that revealed identity of the parents of a minor victim,” sources told ANI. Earlier on Tuesday, Facebook had issued a notice to the Congress leader in a complaint regarding a video posted on Instagram which disclosed the identity of the victim.

As per the notice, the posting of video was regarded as “unlawful” under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 288A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The move comes after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had asked Facebook to come up with the action report on the video posted by Gandhi. The child rights’ body was asked to take ‘appropriate action’ against his profile for violating the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

Earlier, Twitter had temporarily locked Rahul Gandhi’s account. Over this, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the microblogging site is a “biased platform” and follows the government’s directions.

On 1 August, a nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped and killed near the Delhi Cantonment in southwest Delhi. Delhi Police registered a case against four accused on the basis of the statement of the minor’s mother who alleged that her daughter was raped, murdered and cremated without their consent.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana on Friday said that as litigation is tedious, costly and time-consuming, and so people should go for mediation. The CJI added that this will strengthen the judiciary.

“Litigation is tedious, costly and time-consuming, so people should go for mediation. This will, in turn, strengthen our judiciary,” said CJI Ramana, while attending an event at International Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Hyderabad. On this occasion, the CJI Ramana signed the Trust Deed of the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre that is proposed to be set up at Hyderabad, in the presence of Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice R. Subhash Reddy in Hyderabad today.

While speaking on the occasion, the CJI said that in 1995, when economic reforms were first introduced in the country by former Prime Minister late P.V. Narasimha Rao, all foreign investors said they were ready to invest in the country but were apprehensive about litigations that stretch into years before resolution. Stating that this made the investors reluctant to come to India, the CJI recalled that at that point of time, Narasimha Rao initiated a new law — The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Thereafter, arbitration, conciliation and mediation procedure started. Explaining the reason behind it, the CJI said investors, both from India and abroad, were keen on doing business easily and did not want any litigation.

CJI Ramana also said that the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre proposed to be set up at Hyderabad will also include and solve Domestic and International Arbitration and cases between local investors. “There will be an efficient effort of resolving the disputes amicably in this proposed International Arbitration and Mediation Centre to be set up at Hyderabad,” he said.

On the occasion, Justice Nageswara Rao said that there are five big arbitration centres of repute in the world and they are London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris and Geneva. The International Arbitration and Mediation Centre proposed to be set up at Hyderabad will be helpful for settling cases through mediation and or arbitration.

“The advantage is that the arbitrators will be appointed by a panel from the Centre. The expert panel will be not only from the field of the judiciary, but also from various other fields, as well. The timeline and fee (for solving the cases by arbitrators) will be decided by the Centre,” Justice Rao said.

More than a year after gangster Vikas Dubey and five others were killed in alleged encounters with the Uttar Pradesh Police, a judicial commission formed on the direction of the Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the action of the police and Special Task (STF) Force teams.

The report of the three-member judicial commission constituted under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Justice B.S. Chauhan had investigated a total of eight points, including the killing of the main accused Vikas Dubey in a police encounter in Kanpur on 10 July 2020. Retired High Court Justice Shashikant Agrawal and retired DGP K.L. Gupta were included in the judicial commission.

In its investigation report the commission said that not a single witness has come forward against the claims of the police encounter of Vikas Dubey and his associates.

Vikas Dubey’s wife Richa Dubey had filed a petition in the Supreme Court claiming her husband was killed in a fake encounter, but she did not appear before the commission. The medical reports of the policemen who were injured in the encounter have been received according to their statements.

The commission has also said that the same came to the fore in the magisterial inquiry into the incidents of police encounters. The commission submitted its investigation report to the state government in April 2021 which was laid on the table on Thursday.

The commission, in its inquiry report, has referred to the collusion between Vikas Dubey, police, administration, and revenue officials. As per the commission’s report, Dubey and his gang had protection from the local police to the revenue and administrative officials. Whoever filed a complaint or case against Vikas, the police used to harass the complainant. Vikas Dubey’s name was in the top 10 criminals of the circle but not in the top 10 list of the district. This shows that he had a lot of influence in the district.

The report said that members of Dubey’s gang were involved in the peace committee of the area and used to get communal matters settled. Dubey’s wife was elected district panchayat member and their brother’s wife was elected head, but both lived in Lucknow. If a person required help in any matter, he had to meet Vikas Dubey.

Vikas Dubey was the main accused in the encounter that took place in Bikru village in the Chaubeypur area of Kanpur, in which a group of assailants opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest him in July this year. Eight police personnel were killed in the encounter. On 10 July, he was killed in an encounter after he “attempted to flee”, UP police said.

WITH ANI INPUTS

With Zydus Cadila receiving approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday, the Ahmedabad-based pharma company’s wait for a regulatory nod for its ZyCoV-D plasmid DNA vaccine against Covid-19 is finally over.

According to a press release of the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology, “The Zydus Cadila has received approval for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for ZyCoV-D today i.e 20/08/2021, the world’s first and India’s indigenously developed DNA-based vaccine for Covid-19 to be administered in humans including adults and children 12 years and above.”

“The vaccine is developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India under the ‘Mission Covid Suraksha’ and implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), ZyCoV-D has been supported under Covid-19 Research Consortia through National Biopharma Mission for pre-clinical studies, Phase I and Phase II clinical trials and under the ‘Mission Covid Suraksha’ and implemented by BIRAC. ZyCoV-D has been supported under Covid-19 Research Consortia through National Biopharma Mission for preclinical studies, Phase I and Phase II clinical trials and under the Mission Covid Suraksha for Phase III clinical trial,” it said.

“This three-dose vaccine which when injected produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a vital role in protection from disease as well as viral clearance. The plug-and-play technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is based can be easily adapted to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring,” the statement says.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had said in the Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session: “The government expects that in October-November, four more Indian pharmaceutical companies will start production of indigenous vaccines that will help to meet the domestic demand. Biological E and Novartis vaccines will also be available in the market in the coming days, while Zydus Cadila will soon get an emergency use nod from Expert Committee.”

Meanwhile, with 36,571 Covid-19 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India’s active tally has dropped to 363,605, which is the lowest in 150 days. With this, India’s cumulative count has reached 32,358,829 and the country’s active cases account for 1.12 per cent of the total cases, the lowest since March 2020.

WITH ANI INPUTS