tadepalligudem l saturday l august 10, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION India sets up panel to monitor situation on Bangladesh border The five-member high-level committee will be led by Ravi Gandhi, Additional Director General, Border Security Force (BSF), Eastern Command TOP BSF, LPAI OFFICERS IN THE COMMITTEE Hindus feel unsafe, want to enter India The four other committee members are Maninder Pratap Singh Pawar, the BSF’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) for the South Bengal frontier; Patel Piyush Purusottam Das, the IGP for the Tripura frontier; Sanjeev Gupta, member (planning and development) of the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI); and Vivek Verma (secretary of the LPAI), according to a govt release ■ The committee would be in touch with the authorities in Bangladesh to ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals, Hindus, and other minority communities living there, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said ■ The home ministry’s action follows intelligence reports that large groups of Hindus are planning to enter India to escape attacks on them in Bangladesh 469 Estimated number of People killed in the recent protests in Bangladesh CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI SC stays hijab ban imposed by Mumbai college S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Friday partly stayed a circular issued by a Mumbai college that prohibited female students from wearing ‘hijab, burqa, cap, and naqab’ on the campus, saying girl students have the freedom to choose what to wear. Terming the restrictions imposed by the college authorities as unwarranted, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar asked the Chembur Trombay Education Society which runs the N G Acharya , and D K Marathe College, whether it would ban ‘bindi’ and ‘tilak’ also on the campus. Justice Kumar asked senior advocate Madhavi Divan, appearing for the society how was , the college empowering the girl students by issuing such a circular. “Girl students must have the freedom of choice in what they wear, and the college can’t impose bans,” the bench said. The SC, however, clarified that burqas would not be permitted inside the classrooms and that no religious activities should occur on campus. The SC also warned that its interim order should not be misused, adding that the educational society has the right to appeal in case of any perceived misuse. During the hearing, the bench was told the college’s decision was aimed at preventing students from revealing their religion. To this, the court said: “The person’s religious identity can be revealed by his/her name and not by the clothes he/ she wears.” Divan said the circular was not limited to ‘hijab, burqa or naqab’ but extended to ripped jeans and other such attire. Justice Khanna said: “Yes, you may be right that no burqa can be allowed to be worn by girls inside the classroom and no religious activities can be permitted on the campus.” The bench issued notice to the society and sought its response by November 18. Govt ducks creamy layer bullet Cabinet says no concept of creamy layer for SC/ST quota in principles laid down by Ambedkar P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi In a significant move, the Centre on Friday said it will not implement the Supreme Court’s proposal of carving out the creamy layer within the reservations for Scheduled Castes (STs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday . Announcing the decision, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwani Vaishnaw said that there is no concept of creamy layer in SC/ST reservation under Baba Saheb Ambedakar’s principles. “The Cabinet has taken a well-thought decision that the provisions for SC/ST reservations will be in tune with Ambedkar’s principles,” he said. “In the Cabinet meeting chaired by PM Modi today, we discussed the issue of the SC ruling on sub-categorisation and creamy layer in detail. The Cabi- Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets a delegation of SC/ST MPs, in New Delhi | PTI The Cabinet’s well-thought decision is that the NDA government is committed to the constitutional principles laid down by Dr Ambedkar — Ashwani Vaishnaw, Minister of Information and Broadcasting net’s well-thought decision is that the NDA government is committed to the constitutional principles laid down by Dr Ambedkar. There is no concept of creamy layer in SC and ST reservation under Ambedkar’s principles,” he said. The decision is on expected lines as the Modi government is facing pressure on the creamy layer issue from allies and from within the party NDA ally LJP’s . chief Chirag Paswan has already announced that he will file a review petition against the ruling in the Supreme Court. The thinking within the government is that the implementation of the creamy layer will further alienate the backward community from the BJP. In the 2024 general elections, the BJP suffered major losses especially MINISTER of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Friday introduced the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in the Lok Sabha, proposing simultaneous and successive nominations of up to four nominees for each bank account. The move is aimed at offering greater flexibility and convenience for depositors and their legal heirs, especially concerning deposits, safety lockers and articles in safe custody . S u c c essive nomination means having multiple nominees in a particular order. If the first nominee is not available for claiming the funds, the second nominee is called on, and so forth. Simultaneous nomination means multiple bonanza for panchayats to celebrate i-day The State government has increased allocation of funds to panchayats to celebrate Independence Day. Minor panchayats will get `10,000 and major panchayats `25,000, which is a 100% hike | P4 Govt to revamp secretariat system S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada The State government is contemplating revamping the village/ward secretariat system. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is said to have directed officials to focus on utilising the services of all the employees working in the secretariats effectively after learning that the previous YSRC regime failed to make proper use of human resources. Informing that the government will continue the existing setup of village/ward secretariats, sources revealed that express read NDA yet to finalise nominee for MLC bypoll Vijayawada: Suspense continues over the finalisation of the NDA candidate for the MLC bypoll to Visakhapatnam Local Authorities’ Constituency. The NDA has set up a six-member committee to study its actual voter strength | P4 1.26 lakh staff in secretariats About 1.26 lakh employees are working in 10,960 village and 4,044 ward secretariats in the State though 11 and 10 employees are working in each village and ward secretariat, some are found to be bearing the workload, while others do not have enough work. Against this backdrop, the Chief Minister is said to have suggested the officials to continue those having work with the secretariats and to allot other staff to the departments they h ave b e e n d e s i g n a t e d originally . As per the planning, which is at preliminary stage, it has been proposed to continue VROs, ANMs, women protection secretaries, digital assistants and welfare secretaries with the village secretariats. Panchayat secretaries will be allocated to the Gram PanchayP4 ats. Alla Nani quits active politics E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Rajamahendravaram F orm e r d e p u t y c h i e f minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, popularly known as Alla Nani, has resigned from the YSRC primary membership stating that he is quitting ac- tive politics. On Friday, the former MLA from Eluru, sent his resignation to YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy . The three-time former MLA informed Jagan that he decided to quit active politics due to P4 personal reasons.  Coming, up to 4 nominees per bank account DIPAK MONDAL @ New Delhi in Uttar Pradesh after the backward community and Dalits voted against it. In a majority ruling last week, the Supreme Court has allowed state governments to sub-classify SC/STs to advance the cause of affirmative action while suggesting that states devise a policy to exclude the creamy layer from the SC/ST categories. On Friday a delegation of BJP , MPs belonging to SC/ST communities met Modi and submitted a memorandum on the issue. After the meeting, BJP MP and former Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste wrote on X that the PM assured he would not implement the creamy layer proposal. Echoing similar views, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal told the Lok Sabha on Friday that the recent reference to the creamy layer in the sub-classification of SC/STs is an observation by an SC judge and not part of the decision. nominations with deposits divided into pre-defined proportions. In case of the simultaneous nominee, the bill says the nomination must explicitly mention the proportion of deposits in percentage in favour of each nominee. The nominations must be made for the whole amount. The bill proposes to amend the RBI Act, 1934; the Banking Regulation Act, 1949; the State Bank of India Act, 1955; the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970; and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980. The bill also has enabling provisions to transfer unclaimed dividends, shares, and interest or redemption of bonds to the Investor Educa- Govt, oppn cross swords on co-op banks We are not touching any aspect of the cooperatives other than that which claims under the name of banking — FM While the Opposition alleges the move to allow a Central cooperative bank director to sit on the board of a state co-op bank is to undermine the latter, the government says it is to improve the efficiency and synergy of cooperative banks tion and Protection Fund, allowing individuals to claim transfers or refunds from the fund, thus safeguarding investors’ interests. The bill proposes to extend the tenure of directors in cooperative banks from 8-10 years. However, the proposal to allow a director of a Central cooperative bank to serve on a State cooperative bank board has come under criticism with Congress MP Manish Tewari saying the power to legislate cooperatives vests with state governments. In response, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government is not touching any aspect of the cooperatives other than those which come under purview of the banking regulations. Girl sold by father for `50k rescued after four years E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Rajamahendravaram AAP leader Manish Sisodia greets supporters after his release from Tihar jail following his bail in the new excise policy scam, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI Sisodia gets bail after 17 months ported by record. Just 13 and 14 applications were filed by him in the CBI and ED matSeventeen months after ters respectively it said. , he was arrested for alleged “Taking into consideramoney laundering linked to tion the huge magnitude of the Delhi excise policy scam, the documents involved, it former deputy chief minis- cannot be stated that the acter Manish Sisodia on Fri- cused is not entitled to take day walked out of a reasonable time Tihar jail after the for inspection of Supreme Court the said documents. granted him bail. In order to avail the Relegating the “It appears that right to fair trial, appellant to again the trial courts and approach the trial the accused cannot the high courts atbe denied the right court and tempt to play safe in to have inspection thereafter the matters of grant of of the documents high court and only thereafter bail. The principle including unrelied that bail is a rule this court, in our upon documents, view, would be and refusal is an exthe bench said. ception is, at times, making him play a Sisodia, the bench game of Snake followed in breach,” said, has been deand Ladder a two-judge bench prived of the right SC bench led by Justice B R to speedy trial. “The Gavai said. right to speedy trial While rejecting the trial is a sacrosanct right. Recentcourt’s position that Sisodia ly in the Javed Gulam Nabi was responsible for delaying Shaikh case we dealt with the process, the bench said, this angle and we noted that bail can’t be rejected as a when court, state or agency punishment. As for the trial cannot protect the right to court’s claim that he kept speedy trial then bail cannot various documents, the be opposed saying that crime bench said it was not sup- is serious,” the court said. S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi A 4-year-old girl, who was sold for `50,000 by her biological father when she was a newborn, was rescued and shifted to the Child Care Home in Rajamahendravaram on Friday . Giving details of the sordid incident, East Godavari District Collector P Prasanthi said Korrevu Adilakshmi (35) of Thurpugonegudem delivered a baby girl at Rajamahendravaram government hospital on October 30, 2019. Eight days after the birth of the girl, Korrevu Appa Rao, the biological father, sold the newborn to a childless couple for `50,000 in an inebriated condition. ANMs Chikkala Anuradha and P Gangamma were involved in fixing the deal with the childless couple. Appa Rao, who fled with the money returned home recently , . When Adilakshmi questioned her husband about their missing daughter, he spilled the beans. Later, the couple approached the Collector, and on her directions, Child Protection Officer Rajkumar and Women and Child Welfare Project Director Vijayakumari conducted an inquiry into the incident, and found that the girl was with a city-based couple. The girl was rescued and shifted to the Child Care Home in the city She will be handed . over to the biological mother after completing the formalities, said the Child Protection Officer. Rajanagaram police registered a case against the couple for illegal adoption of the girl. Appa Rao and the two ANMs, who are working at Rajanagaram now, were also booked for selling the newborn.