Hyderabad, Oct 17, 2023: In a resolute demonstration of upholding the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the 2023 Telangana State Legislative Assembly election, the Telangana police have confiscated an astonishing Rs 101 crores worth of assets, including cash, liquor, gold/silver, drugs, and freebies, within just eight days of MCC implementation.
According to a press release issued by the Police on Tuesday, the MCC came into effect on October 9, in preparation for the forthcoming Telangana Assembly Elections, which encompass 119 Assembly Constituencies and are scheduled for November 30.
With the initiation of the Model Code of Conduct, and in strict adherence to the guidelines set by the Election Commission of India, the Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana led the police in establishing a comprehensive system that included (373) Flying Squads (FS), (374) Static Surveillance Teams (SST), (95) State Internal Border Check posts, and the deployment of mobile units consisting of local police.
This collective effort aimed to combat illicit transportation of money, such as cash and precious metals, liquor, freebies, and other prohibited items.
During this extensive enforcement operation, the police successfully seized the following items between October 9 and 17, spanning the entire Telangana State:
Ne cash of Rs 55,99,26,994, liquor worth of Rs 2,60,57,004, Ganja (1234 kgs), 0.3 Ltrs – Weed Oil, 0.13 MDMA, all worth Rs. 3,42,84,275, Gold (72.06 kgs) , Silver (429 kgs) and Diamond (42.25 carrot), all worth of Rs. 38,45,44,526, Other Freebies with an estimated worth of Rs. 70,04,500.
Total Seizure with an estimated worth of (Including Cash, Liquor, Precious metals, Drugs & Freebies) Rs. 101,18,17,299.
As many as 5529 licensed arms deposited, 3 un-licensed Arms seized, Explosives — 18 Gelatin sticks, five detonators & 6 cordtex wire bundles also seized during the period.
Total Bind over cases were 5252. 17,128 persons were bound over , 845 persons were bound down.
This remarkable enforcement effort showcases the commitment of the Telangana Police in ensuring fair and transparent elections in the state.
Gaza, Oct 16,2023: The number of Palestinian deaths has risen to 2,670, with more than 9,600 injuries reported, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry.
Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesman of the ministry, said the Israeli attacks “continue with all brutality,” noting that the attacks have targeted residential neighborhoods and destroyed homes “on the heads of the residents.”
He added that rescue operations “are facing great difficulties” as a result of the massive destruction in residential neighborhoods and the roads leading to hospitals.
The Gaza-ruling Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched a surprise attack on Israeli towns adjacent to the Gaza Strip a week ago, killing more than 1,300 people in Israel and prompting Israel to launch retaliatory strikes on Gaza.
Kampala, Oct 16,2023: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday warned of retaliatory terrorist attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels following the military air strikes on their camps in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Museveni said in a statement that the military fighter-bombers on Saturday carried out the second airstrike on ADF rebels’ hideouts at four different points on the western border of Bundibugyo-Semiliki side, which killed a number of ADF members.
The previous airstrike was carried out earlier this month.
“As a consequence, the terrorists (ADF) are running from Congo, which they thought was heaven, and re-entering Uganda and trying to commit some random terrorist acts,” said Museveni.
According to the military, a group of about five armed ADF rebels on Friday attacked a civilian’s trailer truck carrying onions in Uganda’s western district of Kasese, leaving two occupants dead.
“The public is, therefore, alerted to look out for strange people that come to your area,” said Museveni. “Report them to the police that are nearest to you. Even relatives who have been away for a long time and suddenly return. They may be part of the terrorists.”
Ugandan troops, together with their DRC counterparts, have been jointly fighting the rebel group since November 2022.
New Delhi, Oct 15,2023: Former chief Election Commissioner of India Manohar Singh Gill passed away on Sunday at a private hospital in South Delhi.
The Election Commission of India issued a statement expressing condolences on the demise of MS Gill who was 11th Chief Election Commissioner.
MS Gill was an officer of the 1958 batch of Indian Administrative Services Punjab cadre was CEC during the period from December 1996 to June 2001, Election Commission said in a statement.
During his tenure as CEC, ECI successfully conducted the General Elections and General Elections to Legislative Assemblies in more than 20 states, it said.
MS Gill was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in the year 2000 for his exceptional and distinguished services as a civil servant, it said.
Bhadohi (UP), Oct 13,2023: Even as the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) is yet to decide the seat sharing formula, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Rai on Friday claimed Congress will contest all the 80 seats in the state on its own strength in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
On his way to Prayagraj from Varanasi, Rai said that Congress is preparing to contest the elections alone on all the 80 seats of the state. “With the strength of our energetic workers, we will get good results on every seat in the state. Whether the responsibility is small or big, we have fulfilled it, we are ready to face every challenge,” he said.
He said that Bhadohi district has always been a stronghold of Congress. “Many stalwarts have made the district famous in the entire country by winning elections from here,” he said.
Oct 12,2023: Egypt has discussed plans with the United States and others to provide humanitarian aid through its border with the Gaza Strip but rejects any move to set up safe corridors for refugees fleeing the enclave, according to Egyptian security sources.
Gaza, a coastal strip of land wedged between Israel in the north and east and Egypt to the southwest, is home to about 2.3 million people who have been living under a blockade since Palestinian armed group Hamas took control there in 2007.
Egypt has long restricted the flow of Gaza Palestinians onto its territory, even during the fiercest conflicts.
Cairo, a frequent mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, always insists the two sides resolve conflicts within their borders, saying this is the only way Palestinians can secure their right to statehood.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US had been holding consultations with Israel and Egypt about the idea of a safe passage for civilians from Gaza, which was hit by a massive Israeli assault in response to a deadly incursion by Hamas fighters into Israel.
Those consultations were continuing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
One of the Egyptian security sources, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters news agency that Egypt rejected the idea of safe corridors for civilians to protect “the right of Palestinians to hold on to their cause and their land”.
Right to return
Several Arab states still have camps for Palestinian refugees who are descendants of those who fled or left their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s 1948 creation.
The Palestinians and other Arab states have said a final peace deal needs to include the right of those refugees to return, a move Israel has always rejected.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that crucial life-saving supplies, including fuel, food and water, must be allowed into Gaza.
Oct 06,2023: “Jon Fosse presents everyday situations that are instantly recognisable in our own lives. His radical reduction of language and dramatic action expresses the most powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the simplest terms. It is through laureate Jon Fosse’s ability to evoke man’s loss of orientation, and how this paradoxically can provide access to a deeper experience close to divinity, that he has come to be regarded as a major innovator in contemporary theatre, the Nobel Prize’s official handle posted on X.
Who is Jon Fosse?
Fosse writes in Norwegian Nynorsk, the least common of the two official versions of Norwegian. After winning the Nobel, he said he regarded the award as a recognition of this language and the movement promoting it, and that he ultimately owed the prize to the language itself, reported Reuters.
Born in 1959, Fosse first started writing novels, switching to plays in his 30s. He went on to become one of Norway’s most-performed dramatists, and is in fact counted among the most performed of living European dramatists. His work has been translated into more than 40 languages.
Fosse has written around 40 plays, apart from novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays.
His “A New Name: Septology VI-VII”, about two painters, both named Asle but with different lives and demons and preoccupations, was a finalist for the International Booker Prize last year.
Other notable works by Fosse include I Am the Wind, Melancholy, Boathouse, and The Dead Dogs.
His writing style, characterised by simple, minimal, searing dialogue, is considered similar to Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, both of whom have won the Nobel earlier.
Fosse’s play ‘Nokon kjem til å komme’ (1996; ‘Someone Is Going to Come’, 2002) has specially been compared with Becket’s Waiting for Godot.
His themes explore the absurdity, the futility and yet the power of the human condition; everyday confusions and irresolutions; and the difficulty to form actual connections, despite — and sometimes because of — conversation.
Fosse was considered a hot favourite for the Nobel 10 years ago too. After he did not win that year, he told The Guardian in 2014, “Of course [I would like to win]. But the simple truth is that I was very pleased when the news came that it wasn’t me. Normally, they give it to very old writers, and there’s a wisdom to that – you receive it when it won’t affect your writing.”
Why not very popular in the English-speaking world?
While Fosse has been celebrated in Europe for a long time, he is not that popular in the United Kingdom or in the UK, and that has impacted his visibility in the rest of the English-speaking world, like in India.
It has been said that the UK and the US find his themes difficult to relate to, and his plays difficult to connect with. In 2014, in a review of his ‘I Am the Wind’, about two men stranded on a boat, The New York Times wrote, “…you can understand why his work might not appeal to the Anglo-Saxon sensibility, which has never been celebrated for its embrace of ambiguity. And red lights are sure to flash in the minds of certain theatergoers when they hear that the characters in “I Am the Wind” are identified as the One and the Other.”
In recent years, however, his popularity has increased in these geographies too.
Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 5,2023: The Varanasi district court on Thursday granted the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) four more weeks to submit its report on the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
The counsel of Hindu side Madan Mohan Yadav said that the court of District Judge Dr Ajay Krishna Vishvesha granted four more weeks time to the ASI to submit its scientific report on an application moved by the agency.
It may be noted that the ASI had on Wednesday moved an application in the district court seeking an extension of four more weeks to submit its report on the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi complex.
In its application, the ASI had prayed that due to debris present in the cellars (tehkhana) and dust accumulated there, it was taking time for the agency to conduct the survey and also due to intermittent rains the use of scientific instruments has become difficult.
The agency in its application had stated that the debris is being removed very carefully and systematically which is a slow process and is going to take some more time before the ground of the cellars and structural features of the existing structures are cleared for a survey as directed by the court.
The court said, “I agree with the learned counsel for ASI that because of rains, the survey work was badly affected.
I also here agree with the counsel for ASI that removal of debris and trash from the cellars takes considerable time because it is a slow process and the ASI ensures that no damage may be caused to the existing structure. Therefore, I am of the view that application is liable to be allowed.”