10 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza’s Deir al-Balah: Civil defence

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) Trouble continues to mount for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Okhla, Amanatullah Khan, as a joint team of the Delhi Police and the Crime Branch is conducting raids to apprehend him.

Police sources claim that Khan’s arrest is imminent, following allegations of obstructing law enforcement operations.

The Delhi Police have registered an FIR against the lawmaker, accusing him of interfering with a Crime Branch operation in Jamia Nagar.

The FIR cites multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 221, 132, and 121(1), which pertain to harbouring offenders, obstructing public servants, and conspiracy against the state.

On Monday, the Crime Branch launched a raid in Jamia Nagar to capture Shahbaz Khan, a criminal wanted for attempted murder and a declared Proclaimed Offender. However, during the operation, Amanatullah Khan allegedly intervened, enabling Shahbaz Khan to escape.

According to police officials, Khan and his supporters deliberately obstructed the police operation, leading to chaos.

Law enforcement sources claim that when the officers attempted to detain the AAP leader for obstructing their work, a heated argument broke out between him and the police team. Amid the commotion, Shahbaz Khan managed to flee from police custody.

Authorities also allege that Khan and his supporters assaulted police personnel during the confrontation.

“Following the scuffle, two officers were sent for medical examination, though no serious injuries were reported,” a Crime Branch officer stated.

Following the altercation, the police filed a complaint against Amanatullah Khan, and legal proceedings are going on. The police have stepped up efforts to locate and arrest him, with raids being conducted at multiple locations.

Amanatullah Khan is a prominent AAP leader who has been representing the Okhla constituency since 2015. In the recently-concluded Delhi Assembly elections, he secured a third consecutive victory, defeating BJP candidate Manish Chaudhary by a margin of 23,639 votes. Khan garnered a total of 88,392 votes, while Chaudhary received 65,304 votes.

Khan is also among the Delhi MLAs with the highest number of criminal cases.

–IANS

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Mumbai, Dec 27 (IANS) Top Opposition leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and other parties in Maharashtra paid glowing tributes to the late former Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh, who passed away late Thursday night.

State Congress President Nana F. Patole, CWC Member Vijay Balasaheb Thorat, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, General Secretary Dr Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Aaditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar and others condoled the passing of Dr Singh.

Patole described him as a great economist and brilliant scholar “who laid the foundations for India’s strong economy” during his long administrative and political career”.

Expressing deep grief over Dr Singh’s passing, Pawar said the nation has lost “one of its greatest economists, a visionary reformist, a global statesman whose departure is an unbearable loss”.

Thackeray Jr recalled Dr Singh’s personal and political achievements, “how PMs can be truly humble, graceful and dignified despite the very many achievements marked out against their name and tenure”, and how for youth born in the 1990s, the opening up of India to the world and vice-versa was like growing up in a decade where each day was new”, putting India truly on the world map.

Prakash Ambedkar lauded Singh’s intellectual brilliance and as a parliamentarian who always listened and assessed what his contemporaries had to suggest/add. “When we raised questions on liberalization and how the subsequent competition could severely hit SMSEs, he was quick to correct his policy measures and reinvent it to support and protect them,” recalled Ambedkar.

Thorat said India has lost a world-class economist who built a strong India that could compete with the whole world, and he took the first steps to change the direction of the Indian economy through financial reforms from 1991 onwards as the Finance Minister. “As the PM (2004-2014), he stressed on social and economic reforms, raised his voice to protect the rights of commoners, announced a nationwide farm loan waiver in 2008, launched the National Employment Guarantee Scheme, Right To Information, Aadhaar Card for, the Direct Transfer of benefits to bank accounts, Food Security Act, Right To Education, etc,” said Thorat.

Dr Awhad recalled the days when the whole world shunned India, but it was Dr Singh who converted an economic disaster into an opportunity to build India, “and in his passing not only India, but the whole world has lost a scholarly economist and academician”.

“With his experiences as a top bureaucrat, FM, then PM, Dr Singh truly shaped Indian economy with unique decisions, bold ideas, despite the difficult times the nation experienced, and made it into the world’s second fastest growing major economy in 2007 with 9 per cent growth,” said Dr Awhad.

Raut said that current PM Narendra Modi is reaping the benefits of the hard work and dedication of ex-PM Dr Singh, “who was a renowned economist, a sincere leader whose contributions to nation-building will forever be cherished”.

Chaturvedi said her ‘heart broke on hearing the news of Dr Singh’s passing’, how he hugely believed in the power of youth contributing to politics, with his encouragement, kind words, blessings that made her entire political journey worthwhile.

Pawar said that Dr Singh was “a godly soul who embodied humility, forbearance, tolerance and compassion, and as the architect of modern India’s economic reforms, his legacy will forever inspire generations to come”.

Dr Awhad said, “The then Opposition used to criticize him for being ‘a quiet PM’ but he remained busy by never compromising on his integrity for the sake of the country”, and clinched deals like the India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement (2005), showing the whole world and India that he was a strong economic Gibraltar.

Other leaders like M. Arif Naseem Khan, Atul Londhe, Kishore Tiwari, Sushma Andhare, Clyde Crasto, also lauded Dr Singh and his exemplary services to the country for over six decades in various capacities, including as Reserve Bank of India Governor.

–IANS

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Imphal/Aizawl, Jan 7 (IANS) Women voters outnumbered the male voters in the electoral rolls of four northeastern states – Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh – where overall gender ratio was much higher than the national average, officials said on Tuesday.

The final electoral rolls of the four northeastern states, released by the Election Commission of India on Monday as part of a Special Summary Revision 2025, showed women outnumbering men.

Against the national gender ratio of 948, the gender ratio in the electoral rolls of Manipur is 1,070, followed by 1,066 in Mizoram, 1037 in Arunachal Pradesh and 1028 in Meghalaya.

According to election officials, women voters during the past many years surpassed male electors in the electoral rolls of Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

The national gender ratio on the electoral rolls increased from 940 in 2023 to 948 in 2024, the officials said.

In Manipur, Chief Electoral Officer Pradeep Kumar Jha said that like all previous electoral rolls, 10,61,979 women voters outnumbered the male electorate of 9,92,140 in the final electoral rolls.

He said that as per the final electoral rolls, the gender ratio stands at 1,070 as compared to 1,069 in the draft electoral rolls, published on October 29, 2024.

The CEO said that the elector population ratio is recorded at 55.37 per cent as compared to 54.84 per cent in the previous draft rolls.

The total number of voters in Manipur as per final electoral rolls is 20,54,387 showing a net increase of 19,727 with 10,61,979 women voters, 9,92,140 male voters and 268 third gender.

In Arunachal Pradesh, out of the total number of 8,91,518 electors in the state, 4,37,609 are male voters, 4,53,905 women, and four third genders.

State’s Joint Chief Electoral Officer Liken Koyu said, as per the final electoral rolls of 2025, there has been an overall increase of 0.99 per cent in the number of electors compared to last year’s total voters.

In Meghalaya, where a matrilineal society exists, out of the total number of 22,69,512 voters, 11,50,599 are female voters, 11,18,907 male electors and six third-gender voters.

In Mizoram, 4,48,925 women electors outnumbered the 4,20,888 men electors by 28,037 voters. Election officials in Aizawl said that in the final electoral rolls, the voter count increased by 1.5 per cent for 2025, showing 8,69,813 voters.

Out of Mizoram’s 11 districts, Mamit district is the lone district where male voters exceed women – by 576. In the last Assembly election in Mizoram, held in November 2023, the state scripted history as for the first time, three women candidates were elected to the 40-member Assembly in one go.

Poll winner Zoram People’s Movement (ZMP) candidate Lalrinpuii won from Lunglei East constituency and her party colleague and television presenter Baryl Vanneihsangi was elected from Aizawl South-3 seat. Pravo Chakma of the Mizo National Front (MNF) won from the West Tuipui seat.

In the November 7, 2023 Assembly elections, 174 candidates, including 16 women, fought the polls while in the last Assembly elections in 2018, a total of 209 candidates, including 18 women, contested.

In the 2013 Assembly polls, 136 candidates, including six women aspirants contested the polls. None of the women candidates had won in the 2013 or the 2018 polls.

In Mizoram, the first woman elected to the legislature (Mizoram was elevated to Union Territory status in 1972 with a 30-member legislature) was L. Thanmawii of People’s Conference (PC), led by former Chief Minister Brig. T. Sailo (retd), from Serchhip constituency in 1978.

K.Thansiami of the same party was the second woman elected to the Assembly in 1984, followed by Lalhlimpuii of the MNF who was inducted as the first woman minister in 1987 in the government headed by the then Chief Minister Laldenga, a militant leader-turned-politician.

Lalhlimpuii was a minister for 19 months before the government was toppled in the latter part of 1988.

In the 2023 Assembly polls in Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura, women’s electoral performances were slightly better than in the previous elections.

In most of the societal and domestic aspects, women in most of the northeastern states are in a leading position but when it comes to the political and governance domination, the women are sidelined.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujitchakrabortyne@gmail.com)

–IANS

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