‘Great loss for all of us’: President Droupadi Murmu mourns Manmohan Singh’s demise

Kolkata, Dec 20 (IANS) Officials of investigating agencies probing the rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, are now trying to track the roots of this menace in a section of public distribution system (PDS) dealers in West Bengal.

Sources said that preliminary investigation has revealed such errant PDS dealers constitute the base of the pyramid structure in the racket of the creation of fake passports.

Explaining the modus operandi of the crime, the sources said that once an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant steps into the Indian side and contacts the agents of such rackets, the process of creation of fake ration cards for the infiltrator begins.

The agents of such rackets contact the local PDS dealers for the list of ration cards that expired recently because of the demise of the cardholder concerned or for not collecting rations allotted for that card for a long time. Thereafter, one such particular card was selected and based on that, a general diary on its misplacement was filed.

Later, based on that general diary, the expired card was revived showing the illegal infiltrator as the beneficiary of the card. Thereafter, the chain system of the next lines of creation of fake Indian documents starts first with EPIC cards, followed by PAN and AADHAAR cards and finally fake passports.

The sources said errant PDS dealers’ involvement was the base of the pyramid structure of this menace and involving a section of the Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) was the peak of the same structure.

So far five persons have been arrested in West Bengal in connection with such fake passport rackets of which two, Dipankar Das and Deepak Mondal, are contractual POPSK staff.

–IANS

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Jaipur, Dec 24 (IANS) Efforts were on to take out three-year-old Chetna, who fell into a 700-ft deep borewell in Kiratpura in Rajasthan’s Kotputli with the rescue team now using the ‘hook technique’, said officials on Tuesday.

Locally termed “Jugaad”, the rescue teams will try to pull out the girl with the help of a hook attached to a rod.

The child fell in the borewell on Monday and got stuck at 150 feet. Since then the rescue team has managed to bring her up by 40 ft with this hook technique.

NDRF-SDRF senior officers are supervising the operation from outside the borewell. Within the first hour, Chetna was pulled up about 15 feet. An ambulance is on standby in case of an emergency. She had been pulled up 40 feet till the time of filing this report, said officials.

According to NDRF in-charge Yogesh Meena, Chetna had been stuck around 154-155 feet in depth. After lifting her by about 1.5 feet, the surrounding soil shifted. A J-hook (umbrella system) was attached, and an L-band was positioned to prevent her from sliding back down. The girl is trapped at a point where the soil ends and hard stone begins, making it challenging to pull her out. However, efforts continue to secure the L-band around her.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Brijesh Chaudhary assured that all possible measures are being taken to rescue Chetna safely, and the operation has been ongoing throughout the night. Due to wet soil and some swampy conditions below, the operation is facing some hurdles. However, a ring has been placed beneath her to assist in the rescue, and she is being supplied with oxygen.

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) Sub Inspector Ravi Kumar emphasised that all agencies involved — NDRF, Civil Defence, and local authorities — are putting in their best efforts to rescue Chetna. Historically, similar operations were carried out by the Army, but now the NDRF and Civil Defence have sufficient resources to handle such situations, he said.

Chetna fell into the borewell while playing around 2 p.m. on Monday.

The girl has been stuck in the borewell, enduring hunger and thirst. Despite two failed attempts, the rescue teams succeeded on the third try, using an improvised technique. Before proceeding, the authorities obtained permission from Chetna’s family, acknowledging that the administration wouldn’t be held responsible if the child got hurt during the rescue.

At this point, Chetna’s rescue from the 700-foot borewell seems imminent, as the team continues to employ the “Jugaad” method to bring her to safety, said officials.

–IANS

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Parbhani (Maharashtra), Dec 16 (IANS) Many areas of Parbhani town and district observed a peaceful shutdown (bandh) on Monday after the alleged accused in last week’s violence — after a statue of Dr B. R. Ambedkar was desecrated — died under mysterious circumstances in judicial custody (JC) on Sunday, December 15.

The state-level bandh call was given by Republican Sena President Anandraj Y. Ambedkar, while his elder brother and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Y. Ambedkar and other Dalit parties/groups including Republican Party of India (A) President and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, Republican Party of India (K), supporting. Communist Party of India (M) leaders Ashok Dhawale and Uday Narkar have also extended support to the bandh call.

Rattled by last night’s development — on the eve of the Maharashtra Legislature Session starting in Nagpur on Monday — the Parbhani police said that accused-arrested Somnath Vyankat Suryavanshi, was admitted to a hospital following chest pains. However, the deceased man’s supporters and Dalit parties have pointed accusing fingers at the law enforcers claiming he succumbed to severe thrashing by the police after his arrest on December 11.

As soon as news of the death of labourer-cum-law student Suryavanshi, 35, spread, the police deployed tight security at various sensitive locations, even as the Republican Sena late on Sunday announced a peaceful sit-in protest outside Parbhani Collectorate plus a bandh on Monday.

Late last night, Prakash Y. Ambedkar demanded a proper post-mortem of the deceased in a government hospital with fully equipped departments like forensics, CT-MRI scans, pathology, etc., and the entire exercise should be video-graphed. The VBA chief on Monday said that the demand has been accepted and the autopsy report is likely to be available, and he reached Parbhani, to assess the situation, with a motto of ‘we will fight for justice’.

“The custodial death of Somnath Suryavanshi — a Bhim Sainik belonging to the Wadar community — in Parbhani is gut-wrenching, sickening and intolerable to say the least. What is more deplorable is that his death happened in JC despite his bail application being approved,” said a grim Prakash Ambedkar.

On December 10, an unidentified person vandalized a copy of the Constitution in the hands of Dr Ambedkar’s statue outside Parbhani Railway Station, sparking tensions that degenerated into massive violence for the next couple of days. Subsequently, the perpetrator of the act was identified as one ‘disturbed’ person named Sopan Pawar.

Later, the Parbhani Police swooped down and booked or arrested around 300 locals, mostly Dalits including Suryavanshi, who was nabbed on December 12 and died in JC barely in 72 hours.

Taking umbrage at the incident, Union Minister Athawale urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to order a thorough probe into the custodial death, dismissal of the concerned police officials, a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for Suryavanshi’s family, and withdrawal of police cases filed against all the accused in last week’s violence, and sparing those people who were not involved in the mayhem.

RPI(K) President Sachin Kharat urged the masses in Parbhani to observe a peaceful shutdown, where the situation is being personally monitored by ICP (Nanded Range) Shahaji Umap and other top police officials.

–IANS

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