12 JAMMU THURSDAY AUGUST 13, 2020 B A C K P A G E

CMYK

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MUMBAI: MajeedMemon, a former RajyaSabha (RS) member of theNationalist Congress Party(NCP), triggered a row onWednesday, when he saidthat the later actor SushantSingh Rajput found morefame after his death by sui-cide than while he was alive.

He said Rajput is grab-bing the headlines morethan, perhaps, Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi or USPresident Donald Trump.

The NCP quickly dis-tanced itself from Memon’sstatement and said it washis personal opinion. Theparty did not support thestatement.

Memon also clarified thathis statement should not bemisinterpreted, as he, too,sought justice for the lateand popular actor.

“Rajput was not as fa-mous during his lifetime ashe is after his death. Thespace in the media he is oc-cupying nowadays is, per-haps, more than our PM orPresident of US!” Memonsaid in a series of tweets onWednesday afternoon.

“When a crime is at an in-vestigation stage, secrecyhas to be maintained. Publi-cising every development inthe process of collecting vitalevidence adversely affectsthe interest of truth and jus-tice,” he further tweeted,while criticising a section ofmedia for their dispropor-tionate coverage of Rajput’sdeath.

“The statement made byMajeed Memon on Twitteris his personal opinion andnot of the NCP. Our partydoes not endorse or support

his statement in any formor manner. He is not aspokesperson of the NCP,which must be noted by all,”said Nawab Malik,spokesperson, NCP, andthe minister for minority af-fairs minister, Maharash-tra.

“There is so much noiseon my tweet on Rajput.Does it mean that Rajputwas not popular during hislifetime or that he shouldnot get justice? Certainlynot. Misinterpretationshould be avoided. Thetweet does not in any wayinsults or belittle him,” theex-RS member clarifiedthrough another tweet.

Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) is probing thedeath of Rajput, who wasfound dead at his Bandraapartment on June 14.

Sushant was not as famous during hislifetime as after death: Majeed Memon

NEW DELHI:Twodays after the Congresshigh command brokeredpeace between Sachin Pi-lot and Rajasthan chiefminister Ashok Gehlot, theparty’s leader in the LokSabha, Adhir RanjanChowdhury said Wednes-day that the horse-tradingpolitics of BJP has been de-feated.

“Rajasthan episode hasdestroyed the myth thatBJP and its theatrics cannotbe beaten. Horse-tradingpolitics of BJP has been de-feated,” PTI quoted Chowd-

hury as saying.For over amonth, Gehlot had consis-tently accused the opposi-tion BJP of horse-trading inan attempt to bring downhis government.

The Congress has put upa united front after RahulGandhi and PriyankaGandhi Vadra ensured thatdifferences between Pilotand Gehlot did not worsen.

On Wednesday, Gehlotextended an olive branch toPilot saying that those whohad gone away from theparty are finally back andthat he hoped to work to-

gether for the benefit of thestate although it was naturalfor MLAs to be upset at thechain of events over the pastmonth.

Pilot, who returned toJaipur on Tuesday, said hehas not demanded any postfrom the party but under-lined that there should beno vendetta against MLAswho supported him on arange of issues.

The patch up hasboosted the ruling Con-gress party ahead of an As-sembly session on August14.

BJP’s horse-trading politics defeated inRajasthan, says Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

NEW DELHI:Theempty coffers and clamourfrom devotees and employ-ees has forced major shrineboards in Kerala to opendoors of temples shut sincethe lockdown in March. TheTravancore DevaswomBoard (TDB), which runs1000-odd temples in southKerala, has decided to openall shrines under its controlfrom August 17, MalayalamNew Year Day, exceptSabarimala hill temple.

The TDB feels that ifSabarimala temple isopened there will be asteady stream of devoteesfrom neighbouring statesand it will affect the ongoingCovid-19 control measuresso it deferred its decision onthe hill temple. Earlier itplanned ‘darshan’ for devo-tees who made online book-ing after furnishing Covid-free certificates, but excessenquiries forced the TDB todefer it for now.

“We are planning to openall temples with ‘GanapatiHomam’ (special offering

for Lord Ganapati) on Au-gust 17. The special offeringwill mark the auspicious oc-casion. There will be a stricttab on devotees and entrywill be restricted underCovid protocol,” said TDBpresident N Vasu, request-ing elders and children be-low 10 years to wait forsome more time. He saidthere is an estimated loss ofRs 400 crore due to closureof temples in the last fivemonths.

Though the Union Gov-ernment had eased restric-tions on religious places inMay, many temples,churches and mosques de-ferred opening in view ofbig spurt in virus cases inJune first week. Somechurches and mosqueswere opened on special oc-casions but temples re-mained closed.

After lockdown drainedits coffers badly, many tem-ple bodies took the e-routeto bolster their financialhealth but virtual offeringsfailed to catch up with devo-

tees, statistics show. Rev-enue of Sabarimala wasused to fund smaller tem-ples in south Kerala and forsalaries of 3,500-odd em-ployees of the TDB. But af-ter Sabarimala’s closure,many temple employeeswere forced to suffer salarycuts.

In another major shrine,Sree Krishna temple in Gu-ruvayur, the hundi (dona-tion box) collection everymonth was anywhere be-tween Rs 4 crore and fivecrore. Besides currency, itoften used to get gold, silverand at times diamond anddaily poojas also con-tributed enough money tocoffers. Despite big public-ity to online offerings, itfailed to attract devotees.“With devotees’ return, wehope our financial positionwill improve,” said a seniortemple official.

The church, which runsmany educational institu-tions, hospitals, and otherestablishments, also suf-fered. Most of the institu-tions are directly linked tochapels and are finding itdifficult to maintain upkeepcosts and salaries of thepeople engaged. After thelockdown, the governmenthad halted admissions andinterviews in educationalinstitutions. They also in-troduced virtual offerings totide over the crunch situa-tion but failed to attract be-lievers. Now some churchesand mosques are function-

Kerala shrines under Devaswom Board toopen next week; Sabarimala stays shut

NEW DELHI:Workingtowards better solid wastemanagement, the Uttarak-hand government has nowstarted working on theprocess of generating elec-tricity from solid waste inthe state.

Madan Kaushik, minis-ter for urban developmentin the state has asked offi-cials to make a detailedplan regarding the settingup of six plants where elec-tricity can be generatedfrom solid waste in the

state. These plants will beset up in Roorkee, Rudra-pur, Kashipur, Haldwani,Rishikesh and Kotdwar.

“A biogas plant should beset up with the help of theIndian Oil Corporation inHaridwar and a waste-to-energy plant in Roorkee.An action plan should beprepared for the upcomingplants in Haldwani, Ka-shipur, Rishikesh, Rudra-pur and Kotdwar. Alongwith making the actionplan, monitoring should be

done in all the municipalbodies for proper wastesegregation, making com-post, and other activitiesfor proper solid wastemanagement,” said theminister.

He further said that ur-ban local bodies should sellwaste to concerned depart-ments after segregation.

“After the segregation ofwaste, urban local bodiesshould get income by sell-ing material to the Agricul-ture Department and Hor-

ticulture Department formaking compost. Themoney received by the 14thFinance Commission willbe spent in Solid WasteManagement until 100%door-to-door collectionand source segmentation isdone,” said Kaushik.

As per the records of thepollution control board,around 300 megawatts ofelectricity can be generatedfrom the waste generatedin the state.

According to the latest

State of Environment Re-port released by Uttarak-hand Environment Protec-tion and Pollution ControlBoard, “It is estimated thatabout 900 metrictonnes/day solid waste isbeing generated from theurban local bodies in Ut-tarakhand. Currently, twowaste management plantsare working in Haridwar(Sarai) out of which about50% of waste is being liftedand dumped at unidenti-fied locations.”

Uttarakhand starts process of setting up 6 plants forgenerating electricity from solid waste

NEW DELHI:The In-dian Air Force (IAF) has ob-jected to the portrayal of itswork culture in DharmaProduction’s soon to be re-leased movie Gunjan Sax-ena…The Kargil Girl.

In its letter to DharmaProduction, Netflix and theCentral Board of Film Cer-tification (CBFC), IAF saidcertain scenes and dia-logues in the movie andtrailer, which were for-warded to it for viewing,were found to “portray theIAF in an undue negativelight”.

According to an initial un-derstanding, Dharma Pro-duction had agreed to rep-resent IAF with authenticityand make all efforts to en-sure the film helps to in-spire the next generation ofIAF officers.

The movie’s trailer wasreleased recently on theover the top (OTT) plat-form, IAF said in its letter.IAF said according to its in-formation, the movie is be-ing released on Wednesday.

“In the aim to glorify thescreen character of ‘Ex-FltLt Gunjan Saxena’, M/sDharma Productions pre-sented some situations thatare misleading and portrayan inappropriate work cul-ture, especially againstwomen in the IAF,” the let-ter said.

It added IAF as a servicehas always ensured the or-ganisation is gender neutraland provided equal oppor-tunities to male and womenpersonnel.

IAF has also provided a

summary of scenes and di-alogues that it considers ob-jectionable and an incorrectpresentation of the genderbias.

The letter said the pro-duction house was in-formed about the objection-able portions of the movieand advised to delete ormodify these.

“However, the produc-tion house has not deletedthe scenes but had pro-posed a media plan in therun up to the release and in-serting a disclaimer in themovie,” the letter said,adding IAF considers thesemeasures inadequate.

CBFC does not regulateOTT platforms such as Net-flix even though the infor-mation and broadcastingministry is working to pre-pare a regulatory frame-work for them. The Centrehas been looking at self-reg-ulatory mechanisms forthese platforms.

Last month, the defenceministry wrote a letter toCBFC, Mumbai, drawingattention to producers ofmovies and web series dis-torting the image of the In-dian Army and said theyshould obtain a no-objec-

tion certificate from theministry before airing theirmovies or shows.

The headcount of womenin the armed forces is up-wards of 3,300, including1,300 in IAF, but combatroles were off limits to themuntil IAF took the lead incrushing internal resistanceto grant them equal oppor-tunities in 2015, when theybecame eligible for thefighter stream.

Warships, tanks andcombat positions in in-fantry are still no-go zonesfor women, who were al-lowed to join the armedforces outside the medicalstream for the first time in1992.

The army is currently inthe process of granting per-manent commission toshort service commissionedwomen following aSupreme Court verdict. InFebruary, the SupremeCourt ruled women shouldbe considered for commandroles and all women officersare entitled to permanentcommission. It asked thearmy to give them perma-nent commission withinthree months in a majorboost to gender parity.

IAF objects to ‘negative portrayal’ of workculture in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl

NEW DELHI:RashtriyaJanata Dal (RJD) leader Te-jashwi Yadav on Wednes-day slammed chief ministerNitish Kumar over the col-lapse of the approach pathto the newly inauguratedBangra Ghat Mahasetubridge in Gopalganj. Thecollapse occurred earlier inthe day as flow from SaranDam increased followingthe damage to the dam.

Yadav’s acerbic remarkscame as CM Nitish Kumarhad inaugurated the bridgein Gopalganj through videoconferencing earlier in theday. Yadav said that thechief minister is in haste toinaugurate projects.

“On one hand, the CMwas inaugurating BangraGhat Mahasetu in Gopal-ganj, on the other hand, theapproach path to the bridgecollapsed. Same path hadcollapsed 12 days ago also.The CM is in a haste to inau-gurate new projects, what if

lives were lost in this col-lapse?” Yadav said.

This comes a month afterBihar opposition leaderstook a dig at CM Kumar aftera newly inaugurated bridge,constructed at the cost Rs263.47 crore, collapsedwithin a month of its open-ing.

A portion of SattarghatBridge on Gandak River,that was inaugurated by CMNitish Kumar in June inGopalganj, collapsed lastmonth after water flow in-creased in the river due toheavy rainfall.

‘In haste to launch new projects’:Tejashwi Yadav’s dig at CM over

another bridge fiasco

NEW DELHI:The Na-tional Investigation Agency(NIA) court in Jagdalpur hasdeclined to hand over the FIRlodged by a Congress leaderin Bastar seeking a probe inthe alleged conspiracy behindthe Jheeram Valley attack tothe NIA, for which the agencyhad moved an application inJune.

The court ruled that thecase will be investigated bythe state police. However,NIA’s counsel said that theagency will move the statehigh court challenging the or-der of Jagdalpur sessionscourt.

Twenty-seven people, in-cluding senior Congress lead-ers Nand Kumar Patel, Ma-hendra Karma, Dinesh Pateland VC Shukla were killed al-legedly in an attack by a groupof 150 Maoists in 2013. OnMay 26, 2013, the NIA regis-tered a case on this attack andstarted investigations.

Recently, on May 25, 2020,Jitendra Mudaliyar, son ofCongress leader Uday Mu-daliyar, who was also killed inDarbha Valley attack (also re-ferred to as the Jheeram Val-ley attack), registered an FIRin Bastar district with regardto the attack on the Congressconvoy. The NIA moved anapplication on June 16 in Jag-dalpur NIA court seekinghanding over of the case regis-tered by Mudaliyar to NIA forfurther investigation.

“Bastar police presented itsview point before the NIAcourt mentioning that thiscase is different from the 2013case, because the new casewould mainly investigate theconspiracy angle of the inci-

dent. On 10th of August 2020,Jagdalpur NIA court rejectedagency’s application for trans-ferring the Jheeram case (FIRregistered in May 2020) toNIA for further investigation,”Inspector General of Police,Bastar Range, Sunderaj P toldHT.

On the other hand, NIA’scounsel said the agency willchallenge the order in the statehigh court.

“We have argued that as perthe NIA Act and also the CrPC,there cannot be two FIRs for asingle offence and it fallswithin NIA’s jurisdiction be-cause the agency is already in-vestigating the matter pertain-ing to the same offence,” saidKishore Bhaduri, NIA’s coun-sel talking to HT.

Bhaduri also alleged that theNIA court had incorrectly re-lied solely on section 10 of theNIA act.

“The order was made rely-ing on section 10 of NIA act todecline handing over of the fileof FIR to NIA. The sessionscourt has omitted to considerthe implications of section 6and partially read the provi-sion under section 10 of theNIA act, which is always sub-ject to section 6. We will moveto high court,” saidBhaduri.State unit of the Con-gress party has welcomed thecourt order.“We welcome theorder of Jagdalpur court andsecondly we want to know whythe conspiracy angle shouldnot be investigated? Why NIAdoesn’t want the state policeto investigate, which will un-fold the conspiracy behindthe Darbha Valley killing,”said Congress spokespersonShailesh Nitin Trivedi.

Chhattisgarh court refuses tohand over Jheeram attack

conspiracy case to NIA

NEW DELHI:SeniorShiv Sena leader SanjayRaut said on Wednesdayhis comments about the re-lationship between Bolly-wood actor Sushant SinghRajput and his family wasbased on the informationhe has, according to newsagency ANI.

A cousin of Rajput, whowas found dead in hisapartment in Mumbai’sBandra in June, has sent alegal notice to Raut. NeerajSingh Babloo, who is alsoBharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leader in Bihar, haddemanded a public apologyfrom Raut on Mondaywithin 48 hours, failingwhich he said he will takelegal action against him.

“If there has been anykind of miss on our part, wewill think about it. But I willhave to look into it. What Ihave said so far is based onthe information I have,Sushant’s family is speak-ing on the basis of informa-tion they have,” Sanjay

Raut said, according toANI.

Raut had claimed in hisweekly column in the Senamouthpiece ‘Saamana’ thatthe actor didn’t share goodrelations with his father KKSingh. “I have received suchinformation. How manytimes did Rajput visit his fa-ther in Patna in the last fewyears?” Raut, who is Saa-mana’s executive editor,asked.

Raut also said Bihar’s di-rector general of police(DGP) Gupteshwar Pandeywas working for a political

party and alleged he tried tocontest an election on a BJPticket. “What can you ex-pect from such a policeforce?” he asked.

Rajput’s maternal uncle,RC Singh, said an attemptis being made to divert thedirection of the probe beingconducted by the CentralBureau of Investigation(CBI). Singh also said Ra-jput had a very good rela-tionship with his father andhis father had not remar-ried as alleged by Raut.

The 34-year-old wasfound dead in his home onJune 14. The case was beinginvestigated by the MumbaiPolice but the Bihar Policelaunched a separate probeafter the actor’s father filed aFirst Information Report(FIR) against his son’s girl-friend Rhea Chakrabortyand others in Patna, alleg-ing abetment to suicide. Af-ter a turf war between thetwo police forces, the probehas now been taken over bythe central agency.

Will look into it: Sanjay Raut says over apologydemanded by Sushant’s family

NEW DELHI:Light tomoderate showers were re-ported over the past 24hours in Mumbai and itssuburbs barring certain in-tense spells at isolatedplaces.

Santacruz and Colabaweather observatory, repre-sentative of the suburbs andMumbai; and south Mum-bai, respectively, have re-ceived intermittent moder-ate rainfall between 8:30am on Tuesday andWednesday.

Santacruz and Colabaweather stations reported30.7 millimetres (mm) and16.7 mm rainfall, respec-tively, which can be cate-gorised as moderate, ac-cording to IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) authorities’ classifi-cation.

IMD considers rainfallbetween 15.6 and 64.4 mmas moderate.

On Wednesday morning,negligible rainfall was

recorded at both theweather stations, but iso-lated areas across the cityrecorded a downpour.

The maximum rainfallwas recorded in the north-western suburbs of Mumbaibetween 8:30 am and 12.30pm.

Dahisar recorded 19.5mm rain, followed by Thane(18.7 mm), Borivali (15.6mm), Goregaon (15.5 mm),Malad (15.4 mm), Bhayan-der (13 mm), Powai (10.2mm), and Bandra (10.6mm).

IMD authorities havepredicted that cloud coverwith moderate rainfallwould persist coupled witha possibility of a downpourover isolated areas.

“More rain intensity hasbeen reported towards thenorth-western suburbs ofMumbai over the past 24hours. This trend is likelyto continue. Radar andsatellite images have indi-cated dense cloud cover

over the north Konkancoast, which may lead toheavy showers in theMumbai Metropolitan Re-gion (MMR), surroundingareas and the WesternGhats over the next 48hours,” said KS Hosalikar,deputy director-general(D-G), western region,IMD.

Across Maharashtra, themaximum rainfall was re-ported from Matheran(72.2 mm), followed byMahabaleshwar (58.6mm), Dahanu (43 mm),Thane (37 mm), and Mum-bai (30 mm).

Mumbai suburbs have re-ceived 63% of excess rainfallbetween June 1 andWednesday (August 12),while the corresponding fig-ure for south Mumbai is70%.

Maharashtra hasrecorded 8% of excess rain-fall at 713.1 during this pe-riod, as compared to a nor-mal of 657.3 mm.

Light to moderate showers reported in past24 hours in Mumbai, suburbs