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  • LAC standoff | Working with China to resolve border issue peacefully, says India

    No traction for U.S. President Donald Trump’s mediation offer; Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, however, did not respond to questions about whether Chinese troops remained in areas patrolled by India, particularly in the Galwan valley.

    Indian and Chinese sides remain “engaged” through diplomatic and military channels in Delhi and Beijing and at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in order to resolve the situation along the boundaries in Ladakh and Sikkim, the government said on Thursday.

    Indicating that India would not accept U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between the two countries, it said the matter was being discussed bilaterally.

    “We are fully engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve the issue,” said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava when asked about Mr. Trump’s assertion that he had conveyed to India and China his willingness to “mediate or arbitrate” on the “raging border dispute” between them.

    Position of PLA troops

    While giving no details of the nature and extent of the standoff, which has been going for weeks, the MEA said the contact between both sides on the issue included talks in “Delhi and Beijing”. The spokesperson, however, did not respond to questions about whether Chinese troops remained in areas patrolled by India, particularly in the Galwan valley.

    “India is committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas with China and our armed forces scrupulously follow the consensus reached by our leaders and the guidance provided. At the same time, we remain firm in our resolve to ensuring India’s sovereignty and national security,” Mr. Srivastava said.

    The MEA’s comments came a day after the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the situation at the LAC was “stable and controllable”. While declining to comment on the Chinese statement, the MEA spokesperson said the issues would be resolved according to five agreements on border management signed by India and China between 1993 and 2013.

    “Indian troops take a very responsible approach towards border management and strictly follow the procedures laid out in various bilateral agreements and protocols with China to resolve any issue that may arise in the border areas,” said Mr. Srivastava in the most extensive comments made by the government thus far. “The two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations which may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and continue to remain engaged through these channels,” he added.

    The issues with China are likely to be a part of other diplomatic discussions for the government as well.

    Speaking at the weekly briefing for journalists, the spokesperson confirmed that the Prime Minister will hold a virtual summit with Australian Premier Scott Morrison on June 4, where a number of bilateral and regional issues would be discussed. The two leaders are expected to announce a long-pending agreement on the reciprocal use of military bases between them. The two leaders will also discuss strengthening the Indo-Pacific partnership, where sources said China’s recent moves in the South China Sea, as well as the ongoing standoff at the LAC are likely to be discussed.

    Meanwhile the MEA is also preparing for another virtual summit between Mr. Modi and the leaders of the European Union, which had to be put off in March this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a video conference with his EU counterpart Josep Borrell to discuss the agenda for the 15th EU-India summit, “which will be held as soon as possible,” a press release issued by the EU in Brussels said.

    “[Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Borrell] also discussed relevant foreign policy topics, including Afghanistan, China, and Iran,” said the statement.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • Recovery of 45-kg IED laden vehicle at Pulwama

    NIA to conduct probe, entire plot to be investigated: Security officials

    Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency(NIA) is all set to have yet another huge assignment of probing the recovery of 45 kilograms laden private car detected and destroyed by the police along with other security agencies at Ayegund area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

    The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar in the presser has said that militants were planning a major strike against security forces by carrying out a massive fidayeen attack. The car, he said, had 45 kilograms of explosives fitted in it which when destroyed, went up to 15 meters up above the ground.

    Police sources said that this was similar to what Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit did on February 14 last year that left 40 CRPF men dead. “The explosive material used by the militants in the car destroyed today was same that of what Jaish had used in last year’s fidayeen attack.

    Militants had used ammonium nitrate, gelatin sticks and huge quantity of RDX last year’s suicide attack at Lethpora, and same material was used in the car that was destroyed today,” they said. The IGP also named similar material used by the militants in the car destroyed.

    A top police official confirmed to news agency KINS that today’s case has been handed over to NIA that will investigate the entire plot—”how militants got such a huge explosive material, where the car was prepared, whose car was it actually, how they managed fake number plate that of an two wheeler belonging to a person living in Kathua, how many militants were involved in the act and who supported the militants in preparing the car for the attack” the official said.

    “It will be a similar probe to that of last year’s Lethpora attack. NIA nailed almost all militants of Jaish and even OGWs including a woman who had provided logistic support to fidayeen Adil Dar, who blew himself up after ramming the explosive laden car into the CRPF convoy,” the official disclosed, requesting anonymity.

    NIA teams will rush to the spot early morning tomorrow, take samples, and also check the vehicle that was damaged by the Bomb Disposal Squad to supplement the probe.

    The IGP Kumar in a press conference stated that it was a joint plot by Hizb and Jaish militants and the suicide attacker jumped two Naka’s after security forces fired a few warning shots and later left the explosive laden vehicle at Ayegund, Rajpora and fled from the spot.

    However, the development has sent security agencies into a tizzy as questions are being raised what if the militant would have succeeded in his plan and how car was fitted with huge quantity of explosive material despite heavy presence of security forces in South Kashmir. (KINS)

  • 6 persons discharged from quarantine center test positive, probe ordered

    Pulwama: District authorities here on Thursday ordered a time-bound inquiry regarding discharging six persons from a quarantine center in Tral without waiting for their test report which came out to be positive later.

    In this regard, officials told GNS that a committee headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner has been constituted. Deputy CMO and BDO Tral are its members, they said.

    The committee shall submit its report to the Authorities within a period of 3 days.

    Pertinently, a few days ago a group of returnees having travel history from outside J&K were quarantined at Tral and were subsequently sampled for COVID-19.

    CMO Pulwama said that sampling, quarantining and discharge of returnees is to be done as per the government order and is the domain of Block Medical Officer and his medical teams.

    Upon preliminary verification it was surfaced that BMO Tral has “negligently” discharged 6 persons from the quarantine Centre without waiting for their test reports, he said.
    While taking cognizance of the matter, Deputy Commissioner Pulwama Dr Raghav Langer ordered the probe into the matter.

    He said such “sheer negligence” on the part of BMO Tral has made hundreds of lives vulnerable with a looming potential to spike a new series of infections in the district.

    He said Special teams were deputed overnight to the respective areas for quarantining of potential contacts and subsequent sampling of the same. He said that preterm discharging has made the lives of their family members and other contacts vulnerable. (GNS)

  • Nirmala Sitharaman launches facility for instant allotment of e-PAN based on Aadhaar

    The facility is now available for PAN applicants who possess a valid Aadhaar number and have a mobile number registered with Aadhaar.

    PTI

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday launched a facility for instant allotment of online PAN on furnishing of Aadhaar details.

    The Budget 2020-21 had proposed to launch a system under which Permanent Account Number shall be instantly allotted online on the basis of Aadhaar without filling up the detailed application form as it sought to further ease the process of PAN allotment.

    In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday formally launched the facility for instant allotment of PAN (on near to real time basis).

    “This facility is now available for those PAN applicants who possess a valid Aadhaar number and have a mobile number registered with Aadhaar. The allotment process is paperless and an electronic PAN (e-PAN) is issued to the applicants free of cost,” the CBDT said.

    The ‘beta version’ for instant allotment of PAN on trial basis was started on February 12, 2020 on the e-filing website of the Income Tax Department. Since then, 6,77,680 instant PANs have been allotted with a turnaround time of about 10 minutes, till May 25, 2020.

    As on May 25, 2020, a total of 50.52 crore PANs had been allotted to taxpayers, out of which around 49.39 crore were allotted to individuals and more than 32.17 crore linked with Aadhaar.

    The last date for the PAN-Aadhaar linkage is June 30, 2020. For generation of instant PAN, the applicant is required to access the e-filing website of the Income Tax Department, provide her/his valid Aadhaar number and then submit the OTP received on the Aadhaar registered mobile number.

    On successful completion of the process, a 15-digit acknowledgement number is generated. If required, the applicant can check the status of the request anytime by providing her/his valid Aadhaar number and on successful allotment, can download the e-PAN.

    The e-PAN is also sent to the applicant on her/his e-mail ID, if it is registered with Aadhaar, the CBDT said.

    “The launch of the Instant PAN facility is yet another step by the Income Tax Department towards Digital India, thereby creating further ease of compliance for the taxpayers,” the CBDT added.

  • BJP plans ‘digital rallies’ to mark Modi govt. anniversary

    General secretary Bhupendra Yadav said this at a video presser, while reiterating that the BJP “stood with the general public in the fight against COVID-19”.

    The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get creative over how to mark the first anniversary of the second successive Modi government with the party deciding to hold a month-long campaign of “digital rallies” in every district in India beginning on June 1.

    Party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav said this at a video presser, while reiterating that the BJP “stood with the general public in the fight against COVID-19”.

    “Our party workers have undertaken relentless relief work distributing 19 crore food packets and more than four crore dry ration kits,” he said.

    Giving details about the first anniversary of second Modi government, Mr. Yadav said that the party will hold digital rallies across the country, and all the seven wings of the party will hold 500 digital rallies in their respective fields.

    BJP president J.P. Nadda will also address party workers through Facebook Live on the occasion, he said.

    The party will reach out to people with a letter written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking about self-reliant India and the achievements of the government, and will distribute it to 10 crore families, Mr. Yadav said.

    When asked about the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, Mr. Yadav, who is also the party’s in-charge for the State, said that it was for the Election Commission of India to decide when and how polls should be held.

    “As far as the BJP is concerned, the party has been preparing for the elections and will use new technologies for campaigning and communicating with the people,” he said.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • Out of 49,679 samples 48,894 tested negative: Director SKIMS

    Srinagar: Over 45,000 people have been tested negative for Covid-19 at Kashmir premier health care Institute SKIMS Soura here in Srinagar city.

    Divulging information about the Covid-19 cases, Director SKIMS, Dr Abdul Gani Ahangar told news agency KNT that since the outbreak of Coronavirus, 49,679 samples were tested at SKIMS, out of which 48,894 were tested negative. He said a large number of Covid-19 suspected patients were found negative and the current trend shows an improvement in the recoveries of Coronavirus positive patients.

    “Total number of samples tested at SKIMS till date stand at 49,679 out of which 48,894 were tested negative, while 785 were found positive,” he said.

    Dr Ahangar said that 51 patients who were tested positive for Coronavirus have been discharged from quarantine wards while number of patients who were tested negative and discharged from quarantine wards till date is 417.

    “Since the outbreak of this deadly disease, 482 patients infected with Covid-19 were admitted in the hospital.”

    He said so for five deaths occurred in the hospital due to this disease. (KNT)

  • No train or bus fares for migrants, orders SC

    Shelter, food and water to be provided by originating State at notified places

    The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that stranded migrant workers will not be charged train or bus fares for their journey back home to their villages.

    The fare would be pooled between the State from where their journey originated and the destination State. Shelter, food and water would be provided by the originating State at notified places to workers waiting for their transport home.

    During train journey, railways would be in charge of providing them nourishment. Similarly, States through which they passed by buses would take care of their food and water.

    Those found walking should be escorted to the nearest camps where they should be looked after.

    When Solicitor General Tushar Mehta wondered aloud whether this would encourage more people to walk, the court said dryly that they were already walking home. Many had decided to walk because they got no word from officials even after registering for a transport back to their villages.

    The court ordered the States to set up help kiosks.

    ‘Give numbers’

    Besides these interim directions, the court also sought details from the government on the number of stranded workers, plans for their registration and transportation. A hearing has been scheduled for June 5.

    A nearly three-hour hearing through video-conferencing witnessed the court question the government about its “lapses” in providing adequate food, shelter and transportation to thousands of migrant workers.

    The Centre maintained that workers were “locally instigated” to walk home. Mr. Mehta said the government machinery from the safai karmachari to the Prime Minister were selflessly battling an “unprecedented crisis”. He blamed the “prophets of doom” and “armchair intellectuals” for stirring trouble and weakening the resolve. He questioned their patriotism. He said the court should not be allowed to be made into a political platform.

    But the Bench restricted itself to asking the government basic and factual questions like who paid for the workers’ journey home; who took care that they do not starve during journey; was somebody monitoring the process; and how many more days would be needed to take them all back to their homes.

    ‘Uniform policy needed’

    The court asked why certain States had turned away migrant workers from their borders. There was need for a concrete and uniform policy between the Centre and the States and among the States as regard to the migrants’ crisis.

    “Look to the future. How much time do you need to transport migrants workers? What is the monitoring mechanism to ensure food and basic necessities? It is not that the government is not doing enough but concrete steps need to be taken. Hard reality is that there is need for a mechanism to tackle the crisis”, the court observed.

    Mr. Mehta said approximately one crore migrant workers have been transported home. There were also many who had decided to stay back. The States would be better suited to provide more details about them.

    “Some isolated incidents” were being highlighted to portray the government’s efforts in bad light. Migrant workers were stopped from going home in the initial days of the lockdown to arrest the spread of the virus. Over 3,700 special trains had carried migrants since May 1. Nearly two lakh of them were transported to their homes everyday by 187 trains. Over 45 lakh workers and their families have been shifted through road.

    Appearing for Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi said the Centre still did not have a nationwide action plan to tally the exact number of migrant labourers stranded in various parts of the country. He said the government should work with the grass roots administrative mechanism, including the district and panchayats, to create lists accurately identifying the stranded workers.

    Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said migrant workers left government relief camps to walk home because of lack of “minimum standards” of food, water and shelter in them as required under the Disaster Management Act. “What food was provided to them? Pulses is not the answer. Where will they cook all this?” he said.

    Senior advocate Indira Jaising said only 3% of the trains were being used now and there were four crore migrant workers waiting to go home.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • Donald Trump threatens social media shutdown over Twitter fact-check label

    Twitter for the first time added fact-check labels on Mr. Trump tweets after he made unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting.

    Reuters

    U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to regulate or shut down social media companies for stifling conservative voices, a day after Twitter attached a warning to some of his tweets prompting readers to fact check the President’s claims.

    Without offering evidence, Mr. Trump again accused such platforms of bias, tweeting: “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”

    The President, a heavy user of Twitter with more than 80 million followers, added: “Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”

    Mr. Trump’s threat to shut down platforms like Twitter Inc and Facebook was his strongest yet within a broader conservative backlash against Big Tech. Shares of both companies fell.

    Twitter for the first time added fact-check labels on Mr. Trump tweets after he made unsubstantiated claims on Tuesday about mail-in voting, attaching a blue exclamation mark alert to warn his claims were false, having been debunked by factcheckers.

    In a pair of early morning posts on Wednesday, the Republican President again blasted mail-in ballots. In a third tweet he threatened “big action” against Twitter.

    Twitter and Facebook declined comment on Mr. Trump’s tweets.

    In recent years Twitter has tightened its policies amid criticism that its hands-off approach had allowed abuse, fake accounts and misinformation to thrive.

    Tech companies have been accused of anti-competitive practices and violating user privacy. Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon face antitrust probes by the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and a U.S. congressional panel.

    The Internet Association’s interim President and Chief Executive Jon Berroya said in a statement that online platforms do not have a political bias and they offer “more people a chance to be heard than at any point in history.” The trade group counts Twitter, Facebook and Google among its members.

    Authority or not?

    It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Trump has the authority to shut down the companies. The American Civil Liberties Union said the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution limits any action Mr. Trump could take to regulate social media platforms.

    Separately, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a suit brought by conservative group Freedom Watch and right-wing YouTube personality Laura Loomer against Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple alleging they conspired to suppress conservative political views.

    Republican and Democratic lawmakers, along with the Justice Department, have been considering proposed changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for the material their users post.

    Such changes could expose tech companies to more lawsuits or significantly increase their costs.

    The White House is considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anti-conservative bias on social media, according to recent news reports.

    Twitter’s dramatic shift on Tuesday prompted Mr. Trump to accuse it of interfering in November’s presidential election, while its rival Facebook left Mr. Trump’s post on mail-in ballots untouched on its platform on Tuesday.

    In his tweets Mr. Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots will lead to vote fraud, forgeries and ineligible voters getting ballots.

  • BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hospitalised after coronavirus symptoms

    He is admitted to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon, hospital sources said on Thursday

    PTI

    BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra has been admitted to a private hospital in Gurgaon after he showed symptoms of coronavirus, sources said.

    He is admitted to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon, hospital sources said on Thursday.

    The BJP leader has shown symptoms of COVID-19, a source said.

    Patra is one of the most visible BJP faces on news channels. He is also very active on social media and posted several tweets on Thursday as well.

  • Locust attack: About 90,000 hectares hit in 20 Rajasthan districts

    The locusts initially entered Rajasthan from Pakistan

    PTI

    About 90,000 hectares in 20 districts of Rajasthan have been affected due to the locust attack, an official said Thursday.

    Swarms of locust have moved from Sri Ganganagar, Nagaur, Jaipur, Dausa, Karauli and Swai Madhopur towards other areas in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh after the authorities conducted operations to tackle them.

    Crop over 4,000 hectares in Sri Ganganagar and 100 hectares in Nagaur have been destroyed.

    Around 90,000 hectares in 20 districts have been affected in the state due to the locust attack, said Om Prakash, Commissioner of the Agriculture Department. He said the department carried out locust control operations on 67,000 hectares.

    Swarms of locust can travel up to 150 km a day with a speed of 15-20 km per hour and since there is no standing crop in the fields, they are targeting trees and other available vegetation, the official said. He said the non-availability of standing crops is the reason behind their movement from Pakistan to India.

    Talking about the locust control operations, he said 800 tractors with mounted sprayers are being used to neutralise locusts. About 200 teams are involved in daily survey and farmers are being given free pesticides.

    Swarms of locust had recently entered some residential areas of Jaipur and settled on trees and walls. After a few hours, the insects moved towards Dausa.