YK MYK RAHUL HAS MATURED AS A SPEAKER SHOWING GRIT AND CONFIDENCE MARIO DRAGHI TO BE SWORN IN AS ITALY PRIME MINISTER OPINION WORLD Morning India Rs. 3 KOLKATA SUNDAY, 14 FEB, 2021 PG-12, YEAR— 7, ISSUE—269 (RNI NO: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) WEATHER TODAY MAX 28 C MIN 13 C Sky will be clear. AT A GLANCE SKILL MINISTRY ANNOUNCES ROLLOUT OF FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME IN ALL DISTRICTS NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship on Saturday said it is rolling out the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) programme in all the districts of the country. So far the programme was working across 69 districts, and the ministry "is now expanding MGNF to all remaining districts in the country," the ministry said in a statement. Fellows under MGNF will acquire academic expertise and technical competency in understanding the overall skill ecosystem along with being attached to District Skill Committees, it added. Right to protest cannot be anytime and everywhere: SC NEW DELHI: The right to protest cannot be anytime and everywhere , the Supreme Court said as it dismissed a plea seeking review of its verdict passed last year in which it had held the occupation of public ways during the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh here was not acceptable The top court said there may be some spontaneous protests but in case of prolonged dissent or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public place affecting the rights of others. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Kirshna Murari said, We have perused the review petition and record of the civil appeal and are convinced that the order of which review has been sought, does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its reconsideration. The bench, which has passed the order recently, said it has considered the earlier judicial pronouncements and recorded its opinion that the Constitutional scheme comes with a right to protest and express dissent but with an obligation to have certain duties . The right to protest cannot be anytime and everywhere. There may be some spontaneous protests but in case of prolonged dissent or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public place affecting rights of others , the bench said, while dismissing a plea by one Shaheen Bagh resident Kaniz Fatima and others seeking review of last year's verdict of October 7. The top court, which considered the matter in the judges' chambers also rejected the prayer for open court hearing in the matter. The apex court had on October 7, last year held that public spaces cannot be occupied indefinitely and demonstrations expressing dissent have to be in designated places alone. It had said occupation of public ways in the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh locality here was not acceptable . Observing that democracy and dissent go hand in hand , the apex court had said constitutional scheme comes with the right to protest and express dissent, but with an obligation towards certain duties. GOVT ORDERS REMOVAL OF ENCROACHMENTS FROM ASI MONUMENTS NEW DELHI: The Centre has ordered the removal of encroachments from the monuments and sites protected by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) across the country. Currently, there are 3,693 monuments of national importance under ASI's protection. The removal of encroachments from the premises of the protected monuments was recently ordered as per the provisions contained in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. CORONA METER INDIA TOTAL CASES: 1,08,93,075 TOTAL DEATH: 155,593 WORLD TOTAL CASES: 108,815,213 TOTAL DEATH: 2,396,053 Activists of BJP light lamp to pay tributes to the martyred CRPF personnel, who were killed in Pulwama terror attack in J&K on the second anniversary of the incident, in Bhopal on Saturday. ANI GOVT’S 2022 J&K PLAN ED LODGES FIR AGAINST EX-MD OF JUSNL Resettlement of Pandits, 25K jobs, train link RAJ KUMAR RANCHI: The Enforcement Directorate registered an FIR against former Managing Director, Jharkhand Urja Sancharan Nigam Limited (JUSNL) and Director of Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Authority (JREDA) Niranjan Kumar. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has already registered a case against him and started an investigation last year in June. During the raid, several incriminating documents were recovered from his possession. It is alleged that he held many positions without required qualification and travelled foreign countries at company expenses apart from doing irregularities in the transfer of Rs 170 crore in different accounts. A case for having assets more than his known sources of income was also registered against him. Other allegations included withdrawing salary in an illegal manner, not giving any details of property earned by wife, benefitted companies of his choice in awarding tender and changing condition of tender without the approval of board. Kumar is so influential that the previous government had not given permission to ACB to start a probe against him. NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the government has decided to resettle all displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the valley by 2022 along with creating 25,000 jobs for the people there and train connectivity to the region. The Minister said that the government provides Rs 13,000 per month to the families of 44,000 Kashmiri Pandits who have relief cards. "The government also provides free ration and has plans to settle them back in their houses in the Valley by 2022." The Home Minister was replying to the discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir R e o r g a n i s a t i o n (Amendment) Bill of 2021 in the Lok Sabha. He also allayed apprehensions of the people of Jammu and Kashmir assuring that "no one will lose their land in the Union Territory" as the government has enough land for development work. "The biggest hurdle in the industry in Jammu and Kashmir was that they did not get land if they wanted to set up any industry there. After the withdrawal of (Art)370, we changed the law of the land. Now the situation is such that the industries will be established inside Kashmir." Shah said that 25,000 government jobs will be created for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir by 2022 and that almost 3,000 jobs have already been given in the last Amit Shah misleading Matuas on citizenship issue: Abhishek Banerjee KOLKATA: Claiming that it would take 10 years to complete the COVID-19 vaccination process in the country, Trinamool Congress youth leader MP Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of misleading members of the Matua community on providing citizenship to them. Union Minister Amit Shah had attacked the Mamata Banerjee Government for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at public meetings in West Bengal on Friday, and asserted that the contentious citizenship law would be enforced after the completion of the coronavirus inoculation programme. Referring to TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi''s resignation from Rajya Sabha on Friday months before the assembly polls, Abhishek Banerjee who REFERRING TO TMC LEADER DINESH TRIVEDI''S RESIGNATION FROM RAJYA SABHA ON FRIDAY MONTHS BEFORE THE ASSEMBLY POLLS, ABHISHEK BANERJEE WHO IS THE YOUTH WING PRESIDENT OF THE PARTY AND A LOK SABHA MP, SAID, "TRIVEDI SAID HE WAS FEELING SUFFOCATED. is the youth wing president of the party and a Lok Sabha MP, said, "Trivedi said he was feeling suffocated. Let him go and get admitted to the BJP''s ICU. "Shah said that the CAA will be implemented once the COVID vaccination work is completed in the country. It will take 10 years to complete the vaccination process in the entire country. He is misleading the Matuas, Banerjee said while addressing a public meeting at Kulpi in South 24 Parganas district. Matuas, originally from East Pakistan, are weaker section of Hindus who migrated to India during the Partition and after the creation of Bangladesh. Many of them have been accorded Indian citizenship but a sizeable section of the population has not got it. The Matua community, with an estimated population of three million in the state, can tilt the scales in favour of a political party in at least four Lok Sabha seats more than 30 assembly seats in Nadia, and North and South 24 Parganas districts. It once stood behind the TMC but had supported the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Now, both the BJP and the TMC are wooing the Matua people ahead of the assembly election due in April-May. Abhishek Banerjee targeted the BJP fiercely. He said that the people of BJP think that they can buy votes, but they are wrong. The people of Bengal vote by seeing the 'jodha phool' (symbol of TMC), not money, he said. He further said that this is a fight to eradicate the outsiders who are trying to impose their culture on us. On the action of the investigating agencies, he said that even after my throat was cut, I will say Jai Bangla and Jai Mamata Banerjee. "Let me tell you that whatever happens, Mamta Banerjee will not bow her head in front of Delhi," he said. ‘India accounts for 10 per cent of global road crash victims’ WASHINGTON: India, which has one per cent of the world's vehicles, accounts for 10 per cent of all road crash victims, the latest World Bank report on road safety said on Saturday. Hartwig Schafer, World Bank's Vice President for South Asia, said the Indian government in recent years has taken significant steps to address the issues related to road safety. For India, it's one per cent of the world's vehicles and 10 per cent of the crash victims. This is something where, in particular in India, we have to pay attention, Schafer told a news agency in an interview on the occasion of the release of the report on road safety in New Delhi on Saturday. While the attention in the last year has shifted due to COVID-19, there is an interesting link between road safety and pandemic right now, he noted. Unfortunately, the road crashes have not been going down and any time 10 per cent of the capacity in hospitals is being used for the treatment crash victims, he said. Schafer said road crashes actually hit the poorest and the most vulnerable segments of the populations. "The financial impact of the crash is much more on poorer households than on better-off households. It is much higher on women who have to take care of the burden of caregiving. It is much higher on those who rely on While the attention in the last year has shifted due to COVID-19, there is an interesting link between road safety and pandemic right now. Unfortunately, the road crashes have not been going down and any time 10 per cent of the capacity in hospitals is being used for the treatment crash victims. foot and also in the informal sector," he said. However, according to Schafer, the good thing is that India was doing quite a bit on road safety. Last year, India amended its Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, which is bringing a lot of innovation in terms of financing, protection and enforcement to the fore, he said. Responding to a question, Schafer said that Tamil Nadu is one of the states which has reduced the number of crash fatalities by 25 per cent. For us in the bank, this is a major part of our engagement in the transport sector -- rural transport, urban transport -- the focus on new mobility post-COVID is something that we are doing, he said. In South Asia, he said, the World Bank is helping in road safety standards and institutional aspects of it as well. Building a safe infrastructure is one of the key aspects of addressing this major challenge, he said. We need to make sure that we have adequate roadside barriers. We need to make sure that traffic calming areas are being put in. The roads have to be safe. The vehicles have to be safe too, he said. If we don't have an appropriate vehicle inspection system then you have unsafe vehicles on the road, and it's clearly documented that unsafe vehicles are actually contributing to crashes, he said. Emergency health care facilities in the vicinity of highways make a huge difference in addressing the challenge of road safety. When we plan highways now, we need to make sure that crash victims are getting care within the first hour of the crash. That very often makes the difference between life and death, he said. STATEHOOD AT AN APPROPRIATE TIME: SHAH NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday reiterated vehemently that his government is determined to give full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at appropriate time. Asserting that "it will happen", the Minister also requested the political parties and its leaders to understand the situation of the erstwhile state which was bifurcated into two Union Territories-- J&k with a legislative and Ladakh without one. PG 7 17 months. The Minister said the 8.45 km Banihal tunnel is planned to be opened this year and that "we are also going to connect the Kashmir Valley with the railways by 2022." He stated that Jammu and Kashmir has been the top priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a lot of development projects have been taken up in the UT. Elaborating on the development measures taken in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 from the erstwhile state, the Minister said many of J&K residents, who did not receive electricity in the past 70 years, got it in the past seven months. 1ST PHASE OF BUDGET SESSION CONCLUDES NEW DELHI: The first phase of Budget Session concluded on Saturday with the Lok Sabha announcing adjournment of the House till March 8 after day-long proceedings. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till 4 p.m. on March 8 after the passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah outlining the steps taken by the Centre for the development of J&K since the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019. The House also witmessed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's fierce attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his "Hum do, Hamare do" jibe during her reply on the discussion on Union Budget 2021-2022 before the end of the first phase of Budget Session that began on January 29. After a recess till March 7, the second phase of the Budget Session will start from March 8 and will conclude on April 8. A total of 33 sittings have been slated for the next phase.