Kabul, Sep 2,2021: The Taliban have assured Afghan Sikhs that they will be provided a safe passage to come to India, following the meeting between India’s Ambassador in Qatar, Deepak Mittal, and the head of Taliban’s Political Office in Doha, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.
This was revealed in a statement by Vikramjit S Sahney, president World Punjabi Organisation, on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Indian Ambassador to Qatar held a meeting with the senior Taliban representative at the Indian embassy in Doha, on the request of the Taliban side.
The discussions focused on the safety, security and early return of Indian nationals stranded in Afghanistan. The travel of Afghan nationals, especially minorities, who wish to visit India also came up in the talks, a statement said on Tuesday.
Sahney, in a press statement on Wednesday, said that 180 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus who were taking shelter in the Kate Parwan Gurdwara in Kabul have returned to their homes in Jalalabad, Ghazni and Kabul and very few of them remain in the gurdwara.
He said that these Afghan Sikhs and Hindus had a narrow escape from the suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on August 26 that killed at least 200 people, including 13 US troopers.
“It is to be stated that these Afghan Sikhs had a narrow escape from the bomb blast that happened last week at Kabul airport, that upon starting of firing we had advised them to return to the Gurdwara at about 2 a.m.,” Sahney said.
He said that his organisation is in touch with the India’s Ministry of External Affairs over the remaining Afghan Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan and an evacuation plan is being chalked out “in the next 10 days or so” to enable these Sikhs to visit India on pilgrimage on the occasion of the 400th birth anniversary of Shri Guru Teg Bahadur.
He said that this has been conveyed to the Taliban representatives who have accepted it “in principle” and “have assured that they will provide full security for these Afghan Sikhs to travel to Kabul airport and then to India”.
Separately, Sahney said that a meeting has been convened on Friday in New Delhi with various Afghan representatives in India to chalk out a programme for rehabilitation of 250 Afghan Sikh and Hindu refugees under the programme ‘My Family My Responsibility’. Besides, the rehabilitation programme of 520 Afghan Sikh and Hindu families in the capital will also be reviewed, he added.
Sahney announced that free skilling at the world class Skill Centre in Hari Nagar, Delhi, will be extended to all Afghan Muslim refugees too in addition to the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, in view of the protest by Afghan refugees that they don’t have jobs and the means to earn their livelihood.
Sahney added that the World Punjabi Organisation and the Sun Foundation are committed to save lives and livelihoods of all Afghan refugees irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
New Delhi, Aug 20,2021: President Ram Nath Kovind has given assent to the OBC Bill, passed by Parliament unanimously in the recently concluded Monsoon Session, sources said on Friday.
With the President’s signature, the Bill has become law restoring the powers of the states and Union territories to have their own list of OBCs. According to the sources, the legislation was signed on Wednesday.
The Constitution (One Hundred Twenty Seventh) Amendment Bill was passed unanimously by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. While Opposition parties had been protesting over the Pegasus snooping controversy, new farm laws, price rise and other issues in both Houses, they agreed to debate and pass this legislation.
On May 5, the Supreme Court, in a judgment, said only the Centre has the right to update the OBC list. The Bill was then brought to nullify the effect of the order and restore the powers of the states to identify backward class groups.
Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh), August 12,2021: Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officials informed that the number of corpses recovered from the landslide site of Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur has climbed to 13.
“We have located the remnants of the bus and one body has been recovered from the site,” Deputy Commandant of ITBP Dharmender Thakur told the media personnel here.
Thakur also said that the rescue operation was halted last night because of another landslide hit in the area and resumed at 3:30 in the early morning on Thursday and it is underway.
A 30-seater Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus, a truck and four cars were among the vehicles that came under the rubble, as the landslide hit the Reckong Peo-Shimla Highway around 12 noon on Wednesday.
The HRTC bus, which was moving from Murang to Haridwar was believed to have fallen into the Sutlej river after rescue officials could not locate it under the debris. As per ITBP spokesperson Vivek Pandey, over 30 people were said to be travelling in the bus.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those who were killed and Rs 50,000 for those injured in the tragedy.
President Ram Nath Kovind also expressed his anguish at the deaths in the landslide. “It is sad to hear that many people have died and others are in danger due to landslides in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh. I express my condolences to the bereaved families and pray for full success in the relief and rescue work.”
Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah both spoke to chief minister Jairam Thakur and assured of all possible help in the rescue and search operations.
Aurangabad/Mumbai, Aug 11,2021: Maharashtra Minister of Public Works Department (PWD) and Chairman of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Maratha Reservation Ashok Chavan said that the central government had a great opportunity to ease the court battle of Maratha reservation by relaxing the 50 per cent reservation limit while amending the constitution regarding the rights of the states.
However, he lamented that the Center had lost this opportunity.
In his official statement, he stated that the 127th Amendment passed in the Lok Sabha. Chavan welcomed the bill. Despite the stalemate in Parliament on a number of issues such as Pegasus, the Centre’s Black Agriculture Act, all the Opposition parties discussed this important bill and co-operated with the Center.
However, the central government could not have shown such rationality. Union Minister for Social Justice Dr Virendra Kumar said that the center would’ve considered relaxing the reservation limit in due course. But it was a golden opportunity to think and decide in Parliament, he said .
How much longer did the Maratha community have to fight a court battle, he asked.
It was easily possible for the center to facilitate the court battle for Maratha reservation.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had instructed Congress group leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary to take a stand for this. He is the MP from West Bengal. But he was adamant in favor of Maratha reservation and relaxation of the 50 per cent reservation limit. Shiv Sena MPs Vinayak Raut, Prataprao Jadhav, MP of NCP. Supriya Sule, Congress MP Balubhau Dhanorkar also fought hard for Maratha reservation. But the central government did not take it seriously.
Mr Chavan further said that it was unfortunate for Maharashtra that not a single Maratha MP from BJP in Maharashtra uttered a word in this regard in the Lok Sabha, he added.
New Delhi , August 10,2021: Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Tuesday said that the Central Government had proscribed the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Daesh as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Rai said, “Some instances of individuals from different states including Kerala having joined is have come to the notice of Central and State Security Agencies. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the States Police have registered cases against such individuals and have taken action as per law.”
He further stated that “The primary responsibility for Public Order’ and ‘Policing’ rests with the State Governments. However, in matters such as terrorism, the Central Government assists the State Governments in acknowledging it as the shared responsibility. Intelligence and Security agencies of the Centre and States work in tandem to keep a close watch on the elements involved in terrorist acts and take action as per law.”
“The Central Government has also proscribed the Islamic State (IS) Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Daesh as a Terrorist Organization under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967,” he added.