Breaking News, February 16

India's Eastern Army chief Lt General R.P. Kalita on Thursday visited forward areas and reviewed operational preparedness along borders in Sikkim where he was briefed by senior commanders about the prevailing situation on the ground. A defence spokesman said that during Lt Gen Kalita's visit in the forward areas, he interacted with the troops and complimented the soldiers for their professionalism, dedication and commitment for maintaining round the clock vigil in inhospitable terrain and adverse climatic conditions.

Bharatiya Janata Party Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj K.S. Eshwarappa's a statement about the saffron flag being hoisted at the Red Fort has become a flashpoint between the government and the opposition in Karnataka. Congress leaders staged a protest in the well of the Assembly holding the national flag and charging that Eshwarappa has insulted the Tricolour and he should be sacked from the cabinet. This led to a chaotic situation in the Assembly. Unable to continue with the proceedings, Speaker Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri adjourned the House till Thursday. The Congress has warned the BJP that if Eshwarappa is not dropped from the cabinet, a call on an overnight protest in the Assembly will be taken.

Expressing its discontent with the vacancies in the tribunals, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said some "knee-jerk" appointments were made by the Centre to fill up vacancies across the country, and the bureaucracy has been taking up the issue "lightly".

After analysing the threat perceptions during the five states assembly elections, the Ministry of Home Affairs has till now provided central security cover to 23 BJP candidates and leaders in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab till election gets over. Sources said that BJP candidate and Union Minister S.P.S. Baghel has been provided 'Z' category security cover in Uttar Pradesh by Central Industrial Security Force while other BJP MP Dr Ramesh Chand has been given 'X' category security cover.

A month after distributing hi-tech specialized hearing aids among the deaf and mute villagers of Dadhaki in Doda district, the Army has gone a step ahead and adopted the village to address the concerns of its people. The hilltop tribal village, 105 km from Bhaderwah town, is home to 105 families. Of these, 55 families mysteriously have at least one person who can neither speak nor listen. There are 78 such people in the village, of which 41 are women and 30 children aged three to 15 years.

AIADMK leader O. Pannerselvam (OPS) on Wednesday urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to oppose the 'Away from Reactor' (AFR) project coming up at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tirunelveli district of the state. In a statement, the former Chief Minister asked Stalin to take immediate steps to stop the project. OPS said: "If this facility is set up, nuclear waste from other states might be stored here at Kudankulam and this is quite dangerous. The Tamil Nadu government has the duty and responsibility to oppose the project at its initial stages."

The Dorjee Khandu Government College (DKGC) in Arunachal Pradesh has signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Delhi and the Hindu College for academic development, officials said on Wednesday. According to the college officials, the DKGC in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh signed the MoU on Tuesday under the Vidya Vistar Scheme (V2 Scheme), an initiative of the University of Delhi, to establish academic linkages between its colleges and departments with the corresponding institutes in remote areas of the country.

Raids are being conducted at multiple premises linked to Chinese telecom company Huawei across the country in connection with alleged tax evasion. A source said that the Income Tax department on Tuesday started the search operation which is still going on. The source said that the raids were being conducted in the National Capital Region (NCR), Bengaluru and some other parts of the country.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on former Managing Director and CEO of Yes Bank, Rana Kapoor's bail plea in a multi-crore money laundering case. Issuing a notice to the ED, the bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri posted the matter for further hearing on March 11. Advocates Siddharth Aggarwal and Stuti Gujral represented Rana Kapoor in the matter while Advocate Amik Mahajan appeared on behalf of the ED.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Wednesday, reached the Ravidas temple at Seer Govardhan where they offered prayers. Rahul and Priyanka had 'langar' at the temple and later also served food to the devotees as a mark of service. They interacted with other devotees at the temple later. The Election Commission had postponed Punjab elections scheduled to be held on February 14 to February 20 due to Ravidas Jayanti.

A statue of Mahatma Gandhi was allegedly vandalised by some miscreants at Charkha Park of Motihari district in Bihar.After the vandalism, proper security arrangements have been put in place in the area."Some eyewitnesses have given statements to police about the incident. A police team has been formed to apprehend the accused. Proper security arrangements are being made. A home guard has been deployed here," said Kumar Ashish, Superintendent of Police, East Champaran, Motihari. According to East Champaran District Magistrate S Kapil Ashok, the statue was installed in the park by Power Grid Corporation under CSR activity."Since this place was not handed to the administration formally, we will ask the corporation as to why proper security arrangements were not made here," added the DM. 

An official from the revenue department was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the construction of a house in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal city, an official said on Wednesday. The special police establishment (SPE) of the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta caught revenue inspector Mishrilal Agrawal (55) red-handed while accepting the bribe amount at a tea stall outside the sub-divisional magistrate's office on Monday evening, the official from the SPE said. According to the complainant Sandeep Batham, the accused official had sought a bribe from him for issuing NOC for the construction of a house on a plot in Govindpura, he said. Agrawal has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and further probe was underway, the official added.

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit Central American nation Guatemala: National Center for Seismology.

An adult male lion and a female cub were found dead in different parts of the Gir forest in Gujarat, an official said on Wednesday. The female cub was killed by another lion during infighting as per the postmortem report, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), Junagadh Wildlife Division, DT Vasavada said. The exact cause behind the death of the male lion will be known after conducting a postmortem later on Wednesday, the CCF said. Vasavada said that field staff of the Forest department spotted the carcass of the cub, aged around 1.5 years, during foot patrolling on Tuesday in the forests near Manekpur village in the Gir-Somnath district, which falls under the Gir-East division. "Nothing suspicious was found from the spot by the field staff. The carcass was then sent to the Ambardi animal care centre for postmortem. The PM report confirmed that the cub died due to injuries it received during infighting with another lion," said Vasavada.

The Central Government on Wednesday said that more than 11.88 crore unutilized COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the States and Union Territories to be administered. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, "More than 171.48 crore (1,71,48,89,260) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far through Government of India (free of cost channel) and through the direct state procurement category." "More than 11.88 crore (11,88,59,356) balance and unutilized COVID vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered," it added.

A case was registered against Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma under sections 504 and 505 (2) of IPC in  Hyderabad city following the complaint filed by TPCC president and MP Malkajgiri A Revanth Reddy for his recent father-son remarks against Rahul Gandhi, police said.

With the addition of 109 fresh coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra mounted to 7,07,425, an official said on Wednesday. These new cases were reported on Tuesday, he said. As the virus claimed the life of three patients, the death toll in the district rose to 11,852. The mortality rate is 1.67 per cent, he added. In neighboring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 1,63,168 while the death toll is 3,390, a local official added.

India logged 30,615 new coronavirus infections,  taking the country's tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,27,23,558, while the active cases dipped to 3,70,240, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The death toll climbed to 5,09,872 with 514 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily COVID-19 cases were recorded less than one lakh for ten consecutive days The active cases comprise 0.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 97.94 per cent, the health ministry said.

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West Bengal: Schools reopen for primary and upper primary classes from today after an improvement in the pandemic situation.

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The Income Tax Department conducted search operations at multiple places in Noida belonging to a real estate businessman in connection with alleged tax evasion case, sources said on Tuesday. A source said that suspicious money transactions of Rs 10 crore were detected by them following which the raids were conducted at the businessman's premises in Sectors 9 and 10. The source privy to the raid that they started the search operation on Sunday evening following the input received from various financial intelligence units, and cash, amounting to Rs 50 lakh, was seized by the officials during the raid. "A lockers of his office will be opened tomorrow (Wednesday). We have hope that we will recover incriminating documents from the said locker," said the source. The source said that the businessman couldn't give him any satisfactory answer regarding a few money transactions. He also failed to produce any documents regarding the seized cash. The IT officials have recorded the statements of the businessman and his employees in the matter. It will now summon his chartered accountant to know about his business partners. The CA will also be grilled about accounts details of the last three years and "suspicious transactions". Further investigation is underway.

Seven more people died from coronavirus in Singapore, which reported a record daily count of 19,420 cases. The infected included 241 people who came from abroad. Seven fatalities were recorded on Tuesday, taking the death toll from coronavirus complications to 913, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH). Till Tuesday, Singapore has recorded 497,997 COVID-19 cases. Rapid antigen tests detected 16,102 infections. Another 3,077 infections were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the ministry said.

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Uttar Pradesh: Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi offers prayers at Ravidas Temple in Varanasi on the occasion of Ravidas Jayanti.

Developing countries face growing risks from financial fragility created by the Covid-19 crisis and non-transparent debt, the World Bank has said in a report, urging policymakers to focus on creating healthier financial sectors. "Risks may be hidden" because the balance sheets of households, businesses, banks, and governments are tightly interrelated, according to the World Development Report 2022: Finance for an Equitable Recovery. High levels of non-performing loans and hidden debt impair access to credit, and "disproportionately" reduce access to finance for low-income households and small businesses, the report noted. "The risk is that the economic crisis of inflation and higher interest rates will spread due to financial fragility," World Bank Group President David Malpass was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The COVID-19 death toll in Ladakh climbed to 227 following a fatality in Leh, while 59 fresh cases pushed the overall tally to 27,536 in the Union territory, officials said on Tuesday. The number of active cases in Ladakh has declined to 522, which include 395 cases in Leh district and 127 cases in Kargil district, they said. While 169 people died because of coronavirus in Leh, 58 died in Kargil. One death has been reported from Leh, they said. According to the media bulletin released by the Directorate of Health Services, 59 new positive cases of Covid were reported in the UT on Monday. Out of the total positive reports, 35 were reported in Leh and 24 in Kargil.

A woman was arrested and 10 kilograms of poppy was recovered from her possession in Banihal belt of Ramban district in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, officials said. During a routine checking at Railway chowk in Banihal, police party intercepted the woman pedestrian who was on her way from Srinagar towards Jammu, they said. During the process of checking, 10 kg poppy was recovered from her possession, they said, adding that she was identified as Amarjeet Kour of Kapurthala belt of Punjab. She was arrested and the contraband was seized, they said. A case was registered in the Banihal Police Station in this regard, they added.

One person was killed and another injured in firing by forest guards when the two were allegedly felling trees illegally inside the Sonaikuchi Hill Forest near Jagiroad in Morigaon district of Assam. According to a senior police officer, two local villagers went to cut trees with axes near the Kuthori forest camp inside the jungle. The forest guards went to the site and fired several rounds after they heard the sounds of trees getting felled, the police officer said. "One of the villagers was killed, and the other was injured in the firing," he added. As the news of firing spread, villagers set ablaze the Kuthori forest beat office. They alleged that the forest guards allowed the two persons to cut the trees inside the Sonaikuchi Hill Forest after taking a bribe and later shot them. Security teams rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control after the arson, a senior police officer said.

To provide legal aid to pilgrims and international tourists coming to Vrindavan, a legal clinic has been established here, officials said on Tuesday. According to officials, the legal clinic in Mohan Bag will function under the Mathura District Legal Service Authority. “The clinic would also provide legal help to thousands of widows coming to Vrindavan,” renowned Supreme Court advocate Amita Udam Lalit said. Girls must be empowered with education, Amita Udam Lalit, the wife of Supreme Court judge U U Lalit said. Justice becomes meaningful if it protects the rights of the last person of society, Rajiv Bharti, President of Mathura District Legal Service Authority said. Old people and widows without any support need legal protection as they are a neglected lot, officials said, adding that the legal clinic was opened on Monday.