BELAGAVI  FRIDAY  JANUARY 29, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 14  LATE CITY EDITION CJI TICKS OFF CENTRE FOR NOT CURBING HATRED ON TV The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Centre for not checking TV programmes which instigate or impact a community REPORTS CAN’T BE USED TO INCITE VIOLENCE CAN’T CONTROL LIVE TV SHOWS, SAYS GOVT Control over certain news is essential for the maintenance of law and order, said a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde. It noted problem arises when reportage is used to incite violence. “Yesterday, you (govt) shut down internet and mobile because of farmers’ visit to Delhi. I don’t know what happened in the TV yesterday,” the court added ■ Such preventive measures are as important as providing ‘lathis’ to policemen, the bench observed ■ The SC made the comments while hearing a plea on media’s alleged biased reporting in the Tablighi Jamaat case ■ Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said govt can’t control live shows SC SAID GOVT CAN USE CABLE TV NETWORKS ACT 1994 TO CONTROL TV BROADCAST CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Centre dealing with agitators with iron hand Regular school hours in offline mode for Classes 9 to 12 from Feb 1 E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru Lookout notices against accused farmers; UP orders vacating of Ghazipur site in 24 hrs G AYAT H R I M A N I / S I D D H A N TA MISHRA/HARPREET BAJWA @ New Delhi PROCEEDING swiftly in the Republic Day violence case, the Delhi Police on Thursday issued 44 look-out circulars (LOC) against three dozen farm union leaders. They have been asked to join the probe by January 31 and directed to bring their passports along. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government started to clear the Ghazipur agitation site. LoCs are used by immigration officials to prevent accused persons from leaving the country. The process of seizure of passports has been initiated by the home ministry and is a major decision, officials said, explaining that all people who have been named by Delhi Police in the FIRs will not be carrying Indian passports till the matter is pending. Officials said the decision was taken on Thursday morn- ing by Union Home Minister Amit Shah who has been holding a series of meeting with top officials of the Home Ministry and Delhi police since Tuesday when the large scale violence took place in the national capital during the farmers tractor rally. Shah has been continuously monitoring the situation in Delhi, a home ministry official said, adding that the minister is expected to chair a second meeting on Thursday night to review the law and order situation in the capital. Union Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel on Thursday said that two brass finials on top of the minar were found missing after chaos ensued in the Red Fort complex but were later found in a damaged state. The case was transferred to Delhi police’s special cell to investigate “international angle” in the ensuing violence at Red Fort. Police has meanwhile invoked a criminal case under provisions of Unlawful Activi- Security personnel conducting a flag march at Ghazipur on the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border during the ongoing farmers’ protest against the Centre on Thursday | PTI ties (prevention) Act (UAPA) and Sedition charges in the violence took place at Red Fort. Besides the LOCs, Delhi Police has issued notice to 20 other farmer unions leaders including Yo g endra Yadav, Rakesh Tikait, Balbir Singh Rajewal Surjeet Singh Phool, Gurnam Singh Chaduni and others in connection with the violence that took place on Republic Day in the national capital. According to a senior police officer, notice has been issued to all the farmer union leaders who attended the meeting with the Delhi Police, agreed to all the 36 conditions and signed the undertaking to conduct the P9 rally on Republic Day . Oppn to boycott Prez’s House address today FIRs against Tharoor, Sardesai, Vinod Jose Noida Police have registered an FIR against 8 people including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pandey and Zafar Agha for allegedly stoking violence on Republic Day through social media by claiming that police bullets felled a tractor driver REASONS UNKNOWN NEW NIMHANS DIRECTOR MAY GIVE JOB A PASS boycotting the Presidential address. Last year, they had assembled in front of the AmbedA day before the start of the kar statue on the campus and budget session of Parliament, read the preamble of the Conover a dozen Opposition parties stitution to register their oppodecided to boycott the custom- sition to the Citizenship ary President’s address to a Amendment Act. joint sitting of both the Houses The other parties that are on Friday as a mark of solidar- signatories to the joint stateity with the farmers protesting ment are NCP Shiv Sena, AITC, , against the new farm DMK, JKNC, SP, RJD, laws. CPI(M), CPI, IUML, All-party While 16 Opposition RSP PDP MDMK, Ker, , meet on parties issued a joint ala Cong ress and Sat statement announcing AIUDF. While Lok the boycott and de“The prime minister manding a probe into Sabha Speaker and the BJP governOm Birla will the Centre’s role in the ment remain arrogant, meet floor violence on Republic adamant and undemoleaders of all Day in Delhi, the Aam cratic in their reparties after Aadmi Party and the sponse... The three the House is Shiromani Akali Dal, a farm laws are an asadjourned on former NDA ally, too, sault on the rights of Friday, Prime decided to skip the the states and violate Minister Presidential address. the federal spirit of the As for the treasury Narendra Modi Constitution. If not rebenches, the BJP has will convene an pealed, these laws will all-party issued whip to memeffectively dismantle meeting on bers, asking them to the edifice of national Saturday stay put in the Capital. food security that rests “We are issuing a upon minimum supstatement from 16 political par- port price, government proties that we are boycotting curement and the public distriPresident’s address,” an- bution system,” the joint nounced Ghulam Nabi Azad, statement read. “We believe the Leader of Opposition in Rajya government has miserably Sabha. This is the second time failed in handling the agitain a row that the Opposition is tion,” Azad said. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi B A L A C H A U H A N @ Bengaluru IN a surprise development, the Director-designate of the National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Prof M V Padma Srivastava, may not take on the assignment of heading the premier mental health institute due to some issues, top sources on condition of anonymity told TNIE. She is scheduled to take charge as the new Director on February 1 from senior professor of epidemiology and in-charge director Dr G Gururaj. The reasons for the “unprecedented” and “surprising development” are not known, the sources added. “There has been some talk in the institute to this effect, but there is no official communication on the matter so far. In fact, the arrangements for the takeover by the new director have been made and we are awaiting her arrival, though there is no communication even on that,” said an insider. “In case the new appointee does not take charge, then the Union Health Ministry will have to re-process the file on the recommendations made by the search committee on the appointment of Director, NIMHANS,” said sources. The term of Dr Gururaj as in-charge director ends on April 3.Prof Padma is the Head of Neurology All India Institute of Medi, cal Sciences (AIIMS). She was appointed as Director, NIMHANS, in December last year for a period of five years by the Appointments ComP5 mittee of the Cabinet on December 23. BORDER ROW K’taka should stake claim over Mumbai: DyCM N A U S H A D B I J A P U R @ Belagavi IN a tit-for-tat response to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s provocative statements on the boundary dispute, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi has demanded that the country’s financial capital Mumbai be made a Union Territory “until it is merged with Karnataka”. He even went on to say that Mumbai was once a part of the Bombay-Karnataka region and hence, the people of Karnataka have a rightful claim over it. The Maharashtra CM had on Wednesday said that Marathimajority areas in Karnataka should be merged with that state and Belagavi region should be declared a Union Territory till the dispute is resolved in the Supreme Court. On Thursday too, the Maharashtra government released old documents, records and photographs to bolster its claims. Speaking to a section of the media at Borgaon near Nipani on Wednesday evening, Savadi condemned Uddhav’s statements and said the Mahajan Commission had already submitted its re por t on the boundary dispute and the people of Karnataka were confident that the Supreme Court verdict will be in the state’s favour. People of this region (North Karnataka) were demanding their rightful share of Mumbai as the region was once part of Bombay-Karnataka, P7 he said. Efforts to get Mumbai merged in Karnataka state should begin now. Until Mumbai is merged with Karnataka, I demand the Union Government to declare it a UT Laxman Savadi, DyCM The State Government has decided to reopen Classes 9 and 11 (PUC-I) in offline mode along with Classes 10 and 12 from February 1. Teaching hours for Classes 9 to 12 will extend for the full day to complete the syllabus. So far, teaching hours for Classes 10 and 12 were restricted to three to four hours a day after they were reopened in the offline mode on January 1. Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar made this announcement on Thursday af- ter a meeting with Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar and the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). However, students will continue to have the option of continuing with online classes or physically attending classes (offline mode), and attendance will not be compulsory. The Standard Operating Procedures SSLC exam from June 14 The Class 10 SSLC board exam will be held from June 14 to June 25, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said. A tentative timetable too has been released. P5 Another bizarre Bombay HC ruling on minor sex assault S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I & K A N U S A R D A @ Mumbai / New Delhi The Bombay High Court has held that holding a child’s hands and unzipping pants do not fall under the definition of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. A single judge bench of Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay HC delivered this judgment on January 15 while hearing a criminal appeal filed against the conviction and sentence gave to a 50-year-old man for molesting a five-year-old girl. Days later, another order from the same judge that interpreted sexual assault provisions under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as only skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent, was stayed by the Supreme Court. Experts feel the move sets a dangerous precedent for defining sexual assault in court. (SOPs) will be sent to the schools ahead of the reopening of Classes 9 and 11. Meanwhile, Vidyagama for Classes for 6-8 will continue, and the Technical Advisory Committee will meet again in the second week of February to decide on the reopening of the other classes. Suresh Kumar said that while he was planning to suggest reopening of schools from Class 1 onwards, it was decided to first assess the physical attendance of students in the reopened classes and only then take a decision on throwing open all the P5 classes in the offline mode. EXPRESS READ Maha tops in delivering justice to people: Report New Delhi: Maharashtra has topped the list of states in delivering justice to people followed by Tamil Nadu in the year 2020, according to a report by Tata Trusts. India capable of meeting all challenges: PM Modi New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi said on Thursday that India showed last year that it is capable of taking all steps to meet challenges, be it from coronavirus or at its borders.