Mumbai : Actor Sanjay Dutt says spending days in prison broke his ego, but made him a better person.

“My confinement days have been nothing less than a roller coaster ride. To look at the positive side, it has taught me a lot and made me a better individual,” Sanjay Dutt.

“Staying away from my family and my loved ones was a challenge. During those days, I learnt how to keep my body in perfect shape, used trash cans and mud pots in place of weights and dumbbells. We also used to have a cultural function every six months in jail where I taught convicts serving out life sentences to mouth dialogues, sing, dance and express themselves through skits. 

“These people became my family during the hard times and came to encourage me when I was giving up,” he added. 

Sanjay, who had made a rocking debut in Bollywood with “Rocky” in 1981, put his personal life in jeopardy through drug addiction, and his life took a turn for the worse when he was arrested for illegal possession of weapons and was convicted.

The actor, 58, was arrested for illegal possession of arms in a case related to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, in which over 250 people were killed and several hundred were injured. 

Sanjay’s fans will get to see a glimpse of his life with Rajkumar Hirani’s film “Sanju”, in which Ranbir Kapoor will be seen living his life. A particular scene in the trailer had in fact shown Ranbir in a helpless state due to an overflowing toilet in jail. The scene has reportedly been deleted from the film.

A father of three, Sanjay says the court battle definitely transformed him as a person.

“The time I spent in jail made me realise a lot of things. It broke my ego,” Sanjay said.

It was in February 2016 that Sanjay walked out of jail completing his prison-term for illegal possession of arms.

Recounting the moment, he said: “The day I was released after the final verdict, it was the happiest moment of my life. I was missing my father (Sunil Dutt). I wish he was alive to see me free… he would have been the happiest person. We should never forget our family, they are the pillar of strength always.”

Jammu : Hours after bad weather along both north and south Kashmir routes on Thursday halted the Amarnath Yatra, it resumed following improvement in weather around afternoon.

Authorities allowed pilgrims to move towards the Cave Shrine from north Kashmir’s Baltal base camp although the Yatra continued to remain suspended from Pahalgam base camp in the south.

Earlier an official said: “It has been raining along both Baltal and Pahalgam treks to the Cave Shrine since early morning. All the pilgrims are safe. They have been advised not to proceed till the weather improves.” 

The Amarnath Yatra was officially started early on Thursday, after batches of pilgrims started their progress to the camps on Wednesday.

The MeT has forecast rain and thundershowers in the valley for the next 48 hours till Saturday.

A total of 3,425 pilgrims left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu in two batches at 3.55 a.m. and 4.20 a.m. amid tight security for the two base camps.

Thursday’s batch included 2,679 males, 592 females, three children and 151 Sadhus, the police said.

The 60-day long Amarnath Yatra will end on August 26, coinciding with the Shravan Purnima festival.

Stressing on the security arrangements made for the Amarnath Yatra, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra on Thursday urged the pilgrims to have faith in the armed forces.

Vohra, who is also the chairman of Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board (SASB), told the pilgrims that they should have confidence in the security forces.

“There won’t be any difficulty in the yatra,” Vohra said. 

In 2017, eight pilgrims were killed and 13 others injured in the attack on an Amarnath yatris bus.

The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of using the 2016 surgical strike carried out in Pakistan as “political fodder” to gain votes and listed many similar strikes done in the last two decades to assert this was not the first action of its kind.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala’s comments came a day after the release of the video footage of the Indian Army’s surgical strikes in September 2016 when troops crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to attack terror hubs in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Surjewala told reporters that BJP President Amit Shah had “dishonoured” the 70-year-long history of bravery and sacrifice of the armed forces by making a “disgraceful statement” on October 7, 2016 that the “Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years”.

Stressing that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and her predecessor Sonia Gandhi supported the armed forces and the government in the 2016 action, Surjewala said the Army had conducted strategic surgical strikes “with utmost precision and effective penetration” at different times in the last two decades.

He listed eight “surgical strikes” conducted prior to 2016. 

“We are proud that our forces successfully conducted multiple surgical strikes over the last two decades, particularly post 2000 — January 21, 2000 (Nadala Enclave, across Neelam river); September 18, 2003 (Baroh Sector, Poonch); June 19, 2008 (Bhattal Sector, Poonch); August 30 to September 1, 2011 (Sharda Sector, across Neelam river Valley in Kel); January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra Checkpost); July 27 to 28, 2013 (Nazapir Sector); August 6, 2013 (Neelam Valley); January 14, 2014; September 28 to 29, 2016.”

He said the Modi government sought credit for the sacrifices of the soldiers but had “utterly failed” to provide the direction, vision and policy for dealing with Pakistan and checkmating Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. 

“No wonder the apathy and incapacity of the Modi government has resulted in the sacrifice of 146 soldiers, more than 1,600 ceasefire violations by Pakistan and 79 terrorist attacks post September 2016,” Surjewala said.

“Doublespeak of the Modi government and the BJP’s stand is reflected in the stepmotherly treatment of our armed forces, both in terms of providing for security apparatus as also in slashing their budgetary allocation.” 

Surjewala alleged that Army Vice Chief Sarath Chand was “forced” to say that 68 per cent of all equipment was vintage. 

“On account of budgetary cuts, procurement from ordinance factory is being reduced from 94 per cent to 50 per cent, which will force our soldiers to buy uniforms, combat dress, belts and shoes on their own.” 

Surjewala said the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence highlighted lack of money for emergency purchases by Armed Forces after the Uri terror attack, the surgical strike and the Doklam standoff with China.

Five people were killed and two others injured when a man armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades stormed into the newsroom of a community newspaper chain in the US state of Maryland, prompting law enforcement agencies to provide protection at the headquarters of all American media organisations.

The suspect, identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was taken into custody after the targeted attack on Thursday at the office of the Capital Gazette located in Annapolis, reports The New York Times. 

The attack has been deemed as the deadliest day for journalism in America in several years.

Ramos had a long history of conflict with the daily, which produces a number of local newspapers along Maryland’s shore.

He lost a defamation case against the paper in 2015 over a 2011 column he contended defamed him. The column provided an account of Ramos’s guilty plea to criminal harassment of a woman over social media.

“This person was prepared today to come in, this person was prepared to shoot people,” The Washington Post quoted Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf said. 

“His intent was to cause harm.”

The police said all of the victims killed were Capital Gazette employees: Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters. 

Fischman and Hiaasen were editors, McNamara was a reporter, Smith was a sales assistant and Winters worked for special publications, according to the newspaper’s website.

Four of the victims died on the spot while the fifth was pronounced dead at the University of Maryland Medical Centre.

The shooting began at about 3 p.m. in the office building just outside downtown Annapolis, The Washington Post reported.

Ramos entered the building with a shotgun and looked for his victims, the police said. 

The police, who arrived at the scene within a minute of the reported gunfire, apprehended Ramos found hiding under a desk in the newsroom.

Gazette reporter Phil Davis described the scene as a “war zone” and a situation that would be “hard to describe for a while”.

After his arrest, Ramos refused to cooperate with the authorities or provide his name. He was identified using facial recognition technology, a law enforcement official told The New York Times.

President Donald Trump tweeted: “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” CNN reported. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan said: “The senseless attack on a Maryland newspaper today is sickening. God bless these journalists. We pray for them and their families tonight.”

Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said that violence against journalists was unacceptable. 

“Newspapers like the Gazette do vital work, and our thoughts are with them amid this unconscionable tragedy,” he added.

The Capital Gazette, which has an editorial staff of 31 people, had a daily circulation of about 29,000 and a Sunday circulation of 34,000 as of 2014.

Commonly referred to as the Capital, the paper was founded in 1884 as the Evening Gazette.

The paper promotes itself as one of the oldest publishers in the country, with roots dating to the Maryland Gazette in 1727.

Virtually setting the party’s campaign agenda for next year’s general election in West Bengal, BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday launched an all-out attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress, and claimed his party would win more than 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The Trinamool rubbished his charges and claims.

Shah charged the Mamata Banerjee government with resorting to massive violence and atrocities against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, and said people would oust it from power in the near future.

Claiming his party has made massive inroads in West Bengal over the past four years, he said at a public meeting here that the saffron outfit would become the “number one” political force in the state by winning more than 22 Lok Sabha seats.

“BJP was in fourth position in West Bengal in the 2014 elections and now it has successfully emerged as the second largest party. In the 2019 elections, BJP will become the number one party in Bengal by winning more than 22 Lok Sabha seats,” Shah said.

He raised the number to 23 after people at the meeting responded with a big “yes” when Shah asked whether BJP would win the Purulia seat.

Referring to the recent rural polls in the state, the BJP chief claimed more than 20 of their activists were killed during the election process and claimed the party will not let the bloodshed of its workers go in vein.

Shah said his party’s new government in Tripura has stopped infiltration from Bangladesh, and urged people of Bengal to elect BJP at the state’s helm to achieve the same.

Accusing Trinamool and Banerjee of failure to curb infiltration, cross border smuggling of drugs and for rise of ‘Syndicate raj’ in Bengal, he said: “Tell me friends can the Mamata government stop the Bangladeshi infiltrators from entering West Bengal? 

“Tell me if they be stopped or not? If you people want to stop the infiltration, uproot this Trinamool Congress government and bring in the BJP government here. Only then the Bangladeshis can be stopped from entering Bengal.” 

Shah also took a swipe at Banerjee for her initiatives in forming an anti-BJP alliance in the country ahead of 2019 general elections and said she should instead focus on saving Bengal as land has started slipping from beneath her feet.

“Now, Mamata Banerjee is trying to cobble up a grand alliance. She is trying to bring together people across the country. I want to tell her, Mamata di, surely you can try to build a grand alliance, we also want a good and open election. We have no problem with the grand alliance.

“But first try to save your party in Bengal. The ground is slipping from under your feet,” Shah said with a mocking smile.

Soon after Shah’s speech, Trinamool went all guns blazing to counter him. Banerjee herself kept mum, but fielded heavyweight ministers to respond to the BJP chief.

Dismissing Shah as an “empty vessel that sounds much”, Trinamool Secretary General and state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said: “People would give him a ‘befitting reply’ for trying to foment lawlessness in West Bengal”.

Going a step further, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra called BJP a “terrorist type of organisation”, and accused it of establishing a “neo emergency” in various parts of the state.

“He is a rioter leader. He has taken part in a riots,” said Mitra about Shah.

“The way Amit Shah is trying to foment lawlessness in Bengal, people will respond in 2019. BJP will be thrown out of power at the centre,” said Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim.

Touted as the biggest economic reform since Independence, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was supposed to replace the complex indirect tax system prevalent in the country with a more simplified, uniform regime.

As its roll-out completes one year on June 30, it can be argued that while India has come a long way from a complicated taxation system, with over a dozen different taxes and many more cesses, GST is still far away from an ideal taxation regime.

Also, the one year journey of the GST has not been a smooth one either with glitches and teething problems experienced from day one. While many of those glitches were addressed by a proactive government, some still remain to be resolved including simplification of return filing and further rationalisation of tax rates.

According to NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar: “GST has put the economy on a completely different paradigm now because more and more pressure will be on people to register under GST and bring their economic activity into the formal sector.”

It is not enough only to analyse the one year journey, but it is important to understand the future roadmap.

While many economist would argue that an ideal GST structure should have a universal coverage and a single tax rate, most would also agree that it was not practical for a country like India with vast economic disparities. This is a stand the government has also maintained often giving the example that “a BMW car and a Hawai ‘chappal’ (flip-flops) can’t be taxed at the same rate”.

However, having six different rates — 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent apart from some items being taxed at zero per cent and gold at 3 per cent — makes India’s GST one of the most complex in the world, something acknowledged by the World Bank in its biannual India Development Update report.

“To make things worse, petroleum products, power and real estate have been kept outside the GST ambit,” the report noted.

It added that not only India has one of the largest number of tax slabs, but at 28 per cent, it has the highest standard GST rate in Asia and the second highest in the world after Chile.

Soon after the new indirect tax system was rolled out, NITI Aayog Member Bibek Debroy — who is now also the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council — had told TIS that “India is a long way off from the ideal GST structure and it may not get there anytime in the near future”.

Favouring a maximum of three GST rates with all items covered, Debroy had said that starting with seven rates, “depending on how you count it”, has put India in a situation where it may not get to the ideal GST.

Fast forward to present. The economy is still grappling with the rather high multiplicity of tax rates while also debating bringing petroleum products, electricity and other items into the GST net with little clarity in the picture.

While there has been expression of intent by the government to merge some of the tax slabs, there has been little progress on that front so far.

Right from the first day of the roll-out on July 1 last year, there were technical glitches appearing on the GST Network portal causing a lot of hardship to taxpayers in registering on the network. There were often instances of the portal not being able to take the load of last-minute rush to file returns, forcing the government to postpone the filing deadlines several times.

The glitches also led to export refunds piling up, resulting in a grave situation of cash crunch for exporters, whose working capital was getting blocked.

However, to address this, the government initiated two special fortnight-long drives (extended by a few days later) to process pending refunds — one in March and another in June — clearing a major portion of the backlog while some still remains.

To address the GST network issues, the GST Council has set up a five-member ministerial panel headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi to oversee its functioning and smoothen the process.

“GST is a very huge and complex exercise and one has to be honest that it could be implemented better and the details could have been (better) thought through,” the NITI Aayog’s Kumar told TIS.

While there was consensus that no reform could be undertaken without some glitches and teething problems, which could be addressed as we go along, one major concern was that GST might lead to some loss of revenue, especially for the states.

This fear almost came true when GST collections fell for two consecutive months from over Rs 92,000 crore (later revised to Rs 95,132 crore) in September to Rs 83,346 crore (later revised to Rs 85,931 crore) in October, and Rs 80,808 crore (later revised to Rs 83,716 crore) in November.

This prompted the GST Council in its December meeting to prematurely roll out the e-way bill mechanism for inter-state movement of goods from February 1 to plug gaps and check tax evasion.

The e-way bill portal crashed on Day One prompting the government to extend the trial period and eventually postponing the roll-out to April 1.

According to the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman, in a country like India, which is proud of its IT sector, there is hardly any excuse for the IT systems not to work.

However, when the system was rolled out the second time on April 1, the technical issues were sorted out and infrastructure boosted enough for a smooth implementation. The revenue collections also picked up subsequently crossing the Rs 1 lakh crore mark in March (collected in April) — which was, however, attributed to the financial year-end effect — and then again showing credible buoyancy in April when it crossed the Rs 94,000 crore.

Kumar said now that the GST has stabilised, it would give a massive fillip to economic activity.

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said earlier this week that GST had now entered a “smooth phase” with good tax compliance. He added the priority of the government would now be simplification of tax return forms.

Deloitte India Partner Prashant Deshpande said while GST has resolved the issues of multiple taxable events and double taxation, there are some concerns which still need to be addressed.

“On the legislation side, GST can be improved by extending it to petroleum products, electricity, land and building which are currently taxed under old laws… The number of tiers in tax rate structure are required to be reduced to resolve classification issues,” Deshpande told TIS.

On the execution side, he added, prime concern is the GST compliance infrastructure “which is complex and cumbersome” which needs to be replaced with “a simple and robust compliance system”. 

It would a while before such a system comes into effect.

Lucknow : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday offered floral tributes at the ‘samadhi’ and ‘mazaar’ of the 15th-century saint Kabir Das at Maghar in Sant Kabir Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh.

Modi became the first Prime Minister to visit Maghar, where the mystic poet and saint breathed his last in 1518.

Dressed in white kurta and choodidaar payjama, the Prime Minister was flanked by the saffron-robed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditytanath and priests at the shrine as he took a round of the place. He was gifted a ‘angawastra’ and some literature on the saint. 

Later, addressing a public gathering which drew thousands of locals and followers of the saint, Modi pointed out how Kabir became great not by his birth but by his ‘karma’s (deeds).

He began his address in Bhojpuri dialect, pleasing the gathering which cheered him. He said he had long wished to be at the shrine but could not and now that he was here, he was elated and was overwhelmed.

Mr. Modi said that Sant Kabir Academy, to be built at a cost of about Rs. 24 crore, would create an institution to preserve the legacy of Sant Kabir, as well as regional dialects and folk arts of Uttar Pradesh.

Prime Minister size that Sant Kabir represents the essence of India’s soul. He broke the barriers of caste, and spoke the language of the ordinary, rural Indian, Shri Narendra Modi added.

Making a strong statement against political opportunism, the Prime Minister recalled Sant Kabir’s teaching that the ideal ruler is one who understands the feelings and suffering of the people. He said Sant Kabir had criticised all social structures which discriminated among people. In this context, the Prime Minister mentioned the various schemes of the Union Government which seek to empower the poor and underprivileged sections of society, such as Jan Dhan Yojana, UjjwalaYojana, insurance schemes, toilet construction, and direct benefits transfer. He also mentioned the increase in pace in various infrastructure sectors such as roads, railways, optical fibre network etc. He said the Union Government is working to ensure that all parts of India receive the fruits of development.

“I have also seen the caves where Sant Kabir, Guru Nanak and Guru Gorakhnath held spiritual parleys,” he said.

His own government was driven by the basic tenets of equality and uplifting the poor, all of which were dear to Kabir.

Earlier, due to the flooding of the Gorakhpur airport runway, the Prime Minister’s aircraft landed in Lucknow where he was welcomed by Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Adityanath and others.

Bengaluru : Claiming that he had honestly tried to repay bank loans since 2016, beleaguered tycoon Vijay Mallya on Wednesday denied his offer to settle the dues was linked to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.

“It is incorrect that my settlement offer before the Karnataka HC was motivated by the latest chargesheet under the media reported Fugitive Ordinance. I always had honest intentions to settle and there is ample proof,” tweeted Mallya, a day after he broke silence on defaulting bank loans.

The May 27 Ordinance gives the law enforcing agencies powers to attach and confiscate the proceeds of crime and properties of economic offenders like bank defaulters or bank fraudsters fleeing the country, and is aimed at deterring economic offenders from evading the process of law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, a probe agency official told IANS here.

The 62-year-old liquor baron, who fled the country on March 2, 2016, has been living in London since then despite summons from Indian courts and law enforcement agencies to appear before them for trial in various related cases.

“I am asked for comment on being labelled a fugitive economic offender. When I have placed assets on the table before the Karnataka High Court in excess of the bank claims, how can I be an economic offender? The fugitive part falls away,” said Mallya in another tweet.

Referring to some people asking him why he chose to make a statement at this time, he said he did so because he and his United Breweries Holding Ltd (UBHL) have filed an application before the high court on June 22, setting out assets worth Rs 13,900 crore.

“I made my media statement concurrent with my settlement offer now and was unable to make such an offer before due to various circumstantial changes about the value of my assets available,” he tweeted.

He stressed the chargesheets of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate allege criminality with no intention to repay banks although he had been making efforts to settle since 2016.

“As I have placed everything before the high court, where is the malafide? Are banks interested in repayment?” he asked.

Admitting that the government, courts and banks were rightfully concerned about public money loaned to his now defunct Kingfisher Airline by the state-run banks, Mallya said he showed to the high court having assets in excess of the banks’ claims and requested their sale under its supervision.

“The government wants to recover money loaned by the state-run banks. It used CBI and ED to attach and recover. I have placed all assets before the high court and submitted for sale. Banks should be very happy. But if the same CBI and ED object, what do I do?” he asked.

Regretting that the official narrative seemed to question his intentions, Mallya also denied delaying tactics or any agenda to score brownie points.

“What needs to be appreciated is a bona fide offer and commitment placed before the high court. Let Justice play its part,” he pointed out.

Responding to the comment of Minister of State for External Affairs M. J. Akbar that he had years to repay the loans, Mallya said his settlement initiatives date back to 2016.

India has trashed the recent poll titled ‘The world’s most dangerous countries for women 2018’ that claimed India as the most dangerous country for women.

This proclamation by Thomson Reuters Foundation is based on an opinion poll, rather than any reports or data, a statement issued by the Ministry of Women and Child Development said here while questioning the methodology of the survey.

“Reuters has used a flawed methodology to arrive at this claim. The ranking is based on a perception poll based on responses to simply six questions. The results are not derived from any kind of data and are solely based on inherently subjective opinions. Further, the poll has been conducted with 548 respondents, which have been defined by Reuters as ‘experts focused on women’s issues’. However, information on their designation, credentials, country of expertise or qualifications is not available thus reliability is an issue. The methodology given by the organisation also includes ‘policymakers’ as one of the respondents’’ the statement pointed out.

No information or opinion has been sought from this Ministry regarding this poll.

The six questions posed as part of the poll cannot fairly be applied to all countries. Such as the age bar for defining child marriage is different in every country, mutilation as a means of punishment, female genital mutilation, and stoning are not practiced in India.

Further, it is due to open data sharing, a consultative policy formulation process and transparent systems of the government that problems affecting women can be highlighted. There is open communication of the government with the media, researchers and NGOs thus creating the opportunity for public debate. The strong public discourse and independent media in the country are able to openly discuss sensitive issues of violence against women and debate is encouraged. It is due to this open system that issues of women are highlighted in India, thus perhaps building the perception that the situation in the country is particularly bad, the Ministry has pointed out.

The poll has collected opinions of 548 persons on healthcare, discrimination, cultural traditions, sexual violence, non-sexual violence and human trafficking. India is far ahead of many countries in most of these areas and has also seen significant improvement in indicators when compared with its own performance in previous years. Therefore, the ranking of India is a surprise and clearly inaccurate.

For example, as per Sample Registration Survey (SRS) released in June 2018, India has registered a significant reduction of 22% in Maternal Mortality Ratio since 2013. Further, sex ratio at birth has significantly increased across the country, pointing to a drop in sex selective abortions.

On the economic front too there has been huge progress – over 45.6 lakh SHGs have been promoted across the country for women’s livelihood with over Rs. 2000 crore available in their revolving funds. More than 1.26 crore bank accounts have been opened under SukanyaSamruddhiYojana to ensure financial inclusion of girls and more than half the Jan Dhan bank account holders in India are women. In primary and secondary levels of education, India has achieved Gender Parity with equal enrolment of girls and boys. It is thus not accurate to say that women in India lack access to economic resources, the statement said.

There is positive data in the areas of violence too. There has been a drastic reduction in child marriage over the years, with reports of marriage in the age group of 0-9 years now being nil. Further, the percentage of women age 15-19 years who were already mothers or pregnant has dropped from 16% in 2005-06 to 7.9% in 2015-16.

Quoting NCRB data, the statement said that 38,947 cases of rape have been registered in the year 2016. In the year 2014 and 2015, 36,735 and 34,651 cases were reported. The increase in reporting is a result of the favourable environment for women to access police authorities. Further, the rate of rape in India stands at 0.03 per 1000 population whereas US has reported a much higher figure of 1.2 rapes per 1000 population. The cases of acid attack are only incidental in the country and as mentioned earlier, practices of stoning, female genital mutilation etc. are not seen here. India can thus not possibly be the worst in the world in terms of violence.

Data on bonded and forced labour is also dropping drastically and the reports of crime are being dealt with seriously. Trafficking will also be comprehensively addressed through the recently prepared Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018.

Despite data to the contrary, the usage of an opinion poll to peg India as the most dangerous country for women is clearly an effort to malign the nation and draw attention away from real improvements seen in recent years, it said.

Ever since the unfortunate incident of 2012, the entire country has been alert about the safety of women and ensuring their equality at home, in the economy and in society at large. The government has been taking a lead in this direction.

The recently enacted Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2018 have provided more stringent punishment for rape, have broadened its definition and included new offences such as acid attack, stalking, sexual harassment, voyeurism, disrobing and sexual violence against boys below 18 years of age. Amendment in The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has also broadened the definition of child in need of care and protection to include those children who are at imminent risk of child marriage. The Act also allow juveniles (16 years or older) to be tried as adults for heinous offences like rape and murder.

State Governments are increasing representation of women in police to 33% of the total strength, to make the force more women-friendly. Institutional support mechanisms have also been put in place like 193 One Stop Centres and Women Helplines in 31 States to provide 24 hour emergency and non-emergency response including police assistance, legal aid and legal counselling, medical aid, psycho-social counselling, temporary shelter etc. The institutions have provided support to over 12 lakh of women in the past ~3 years.

The bill making instant triple talaq a criminal offence has been approved which grants equality to Muslim women and is a powerful measure for women’s empowerment.

To ensure women have equal opportunities, loans worth Rs. 2,25,904 crore have been extended to 7.88 crore women entrepreneurs, under the MUDRA Yojana. Over 50% of the certifications provided under the PM KaushalVikasYojana have been to women. More women are joining the workforce and starting to control economic resources. Over 5 lakh women Directors currently appointed in companies, which is highest ever number in India.

Under PMAY (Urban), houses are being allotted in the name of the female head of the household or joint name of male head and wife. In PMAY (Grameen), this is being done where government land is allotted, and encouraged in other cases. Over 2 lakh houses for women sanctioned under PMAY (Grameen). The right of women to ancestral land is also being encouraged.

The government has further launched multiple scholarships with special focus on education of girl child in secondary as well as higher education which are showing significant positive outcomes. Dropout rates have come down dramatically and more women are carrying on their education to college level and beyond, the statement added.

Maternal health has also shown significant improvement with concerted efforts having been made by the government. In a major step, maternity leave has been extended to 6 months so women do not lose their jobs or income due to pregnancy. Cash incentives are also being given to mothers across the country to encourage them to register pregnancies, deliver in hospitals and access pre and post-natal care.

These efforts have shown results and the life of the average Indian woman is far improved from a decade ago. She is also in a much better position than a number of women in other countries around the world. Facts clearly show that the opinion of India as the most dangerous country for women is not a reflection of reality.

New Delhi : The National Capital Region may face a blackout as the coal reserves with the Delhi government were only for a-day-and-a-half, said Power Minister Satyendar Jain who has written to Union Power Minister R. K. Singh regarding the same.

In the letter, Jain informed the minister about the coal supply shortage to the NCR power plants — Dadri, Jhajjar and Badarpur.

“Since June 19, the coal stock is continuously declining and has reached approximate 90,000 MT on Wednesday, which is only one and a half days requirement,” Jain wrote adding that the “situation is extremely critical”.

The reason he gave for the shortage is the non-availability of transportation rakes with the railways.

Jain requested Singh to “intervene personally and take up the matter with the Railways for providing rakes on priority for transportation of coal to these power plants to avoid blackout in Delhi”.

While addressing the media on Wednesday, Jain said that ideally power plants should have a reserve coal stock for 15 days.

He also said that the power demand was high during this season.

It was the second time in the season that such a warning was issued. In May also, the issue had arisen as the coal reserves of the national capital had been reduced to a day.