1. Monsoon Fury Has Mumbai Reeling: 26 Dead as Walls Collapsed, Pune Toll Stands at 6
Heavy rain continued to lash parts of Maharashtra on Tuesday, 2 July, leading to at least 31 deaths in Mumbai and surrounding areas, including 26 in two separate incidents of walls collapsing in Kurar and Kalyan. In Pune, six people were killed in a wall collapse — the second such incident in the city in four days.
Officials said at least 23 people were killed in Kurar’s Pimpripada area, on the fringes of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, when a wall collapsed on hutments early in the morning. Many others are feared trapped in the debris. In Kalyan, three people died after a wall collapsed.
(Source: The Indian Express)
2. Rohit Ton, Bumrah Yorkers Fashion 28-Run Win; Bangladesh Knocked Out
Jasprit Bumrah bowled two perfect yorkers to end Bangladesh’s resistance as India marched into the World Cup semifinals in Birmingham on Tuesday, 2 July. A target of 315 was very challenging but Bangladesh, who managed 286 in 48 overs, were not daunted.
They fought hard and never let the run rate get out of control. But losing wickets regularly did not help their cause. And then, there was Bumrah.
India (314/9) failed to put up the total they should have after a fabulous 180run opening stand between Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
(Source: The Times of India)
3. PM Modi on Vijayvargiya Junior: No Matter Whose Son, Behaviour Unacceptable
Sending a stern message to the rank and file of the BJP days after party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s son Akash was arrested for assaulting a public official with a cricket bat in Indore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, 2 July, said that arrogance and misbehaviour will not be tolerated irrespective of “whoever it may be, whoever’s son he may be”.
The prime minister made the remarks at the first meeting of the parliamentary party after the BJP returned to power with a landslide. Earlier, at the first meeting of the Council of Ministers, Modi had disapproved of a minister’s tweet on iftar gatherings.
At least three MPs who attended Tuesday’s meeting held at the Parliament Library Building, told The Indian Express that Modi said that those who had welcomed Akash after he was released from prison on bail should also be punished.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Reprieve for Vijay Mallya as UK Court Allows Extradition Appeal
Controversial businessman Vijay Mallya was handed a lifeline by the England and Wales high court on Tuesday, 2 July, when it permitted him to appeal against the 3 February order of home secretary Sajid Javid to extradite him to India.
Facing charges of financial offences running into over Rs 9,000 crore, Mallya, who lost in the Westminster Magistrates Court after a year-long trial in December 2018, will now not be immediately extradited but will be able to mount further legal challenges in the high court.
Justice Leggatt and Justice Popplewell rejected four grounds put forth by Mallya’s defence team but upheld one that questioned the magistrates court’s findings on alleged misrepresentation by Mallya and his companies in securing loans from IDBI.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. AAP Extends Timings of Mohalla Clinics
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the Capital is extending the timings of some of its mohalla or neighbourhood clinics, and in effect starting a second shift in them to cater to excessive demand.
From next month, at least 40 mohalla clinics across Delhi, each seeing visits by at least 150 patients a day will be open from 7 am to 7 pm, six days a week, according to a senior official from Delhi government’s health department who asked not to be identified.
Mohalla clinics offer basic out-patient treatment for fever, pain and other common ailments between 8 am and 1 pm six days a week. In 2018, the 189 mohalla clinics across the city treated 5.6 million patients.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. UP Move to Add 17 Castes in SC List Wrong: Central Govt
The Centre on Tuesday, 2 July, described Uttar Pradesh’s decision to include 17 other backward class (OBC) groups in the list of Scheduled Castes (SCs) as “unconstitutional” and pointed out that proper procedure was not followed by the Yogi Adityanath government in pushing through with the move.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Union minister for social justice and empowerment, Thawar Chand Gehlot, said that including OBC castes in the list of SCs is the exclusive domain of Parliament. He also sought a status report from the Adityanath government and asked it to send a proposal to the Centre on the matter.
Gehlot’s statement came in response to a submission made by Satish Chandra Misra of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) during Zero Hour, a period when members can raise issues of importance without prior notice to the chairman of the Upper House.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. Govt Proposes Rs 74K Cr Bailout for BSNL, MTNL
The government is considering a Rs 74,000-crore bailout plan for the bleeding state-owned telecom companies BSNL and MTNL.
The strategy involves offering a handsome exit package to thousands of employees, including an additional 5 percent compensation (ex-gratia) to make the VRS attractive, while providing for 4G spectrum and capital expenditure. BSNL is the country’s biggest loss-making PSU (estimated Rs 13,804 crore in FY19), while MTNL was third with a loss of Rs 3,398 crore. Only Air India has a higher loss than MTNL.
If the package goes through, the two telecom PSUs will overtake AI as the biggest drain on the national exchequer.
(Source: The Times of India)
8. US Senate OKs NATO-Like Ally Status for India
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Notwithstanding differences on trade and commerce with India, US lawmakers and the Trump regime are on course to “upgrade” New Delhi to a status on a par with Nato allies, with the Senate last week passing a legislative provision to this effect.
Part of the National Defense Authorisation Act for fiscal 2020, the Amendment appended by Senate India Caucus Co-Chairs Senator John Cornyn and Senator Mark Warner to NDAA provides for, among other things, increased US-India defence cooperation in areas of the Indian Ocean in maritime security, counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and humanitarian assistance.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. RSS Media Arm Honours Group That Branded Citizens Anti-National
A group of men who went after those they called “anti-national” and claim they got them arrested, suspended and, in one case, fired from a job won an RSS affiliate’s badge of honour — for social media journalism.
Indeed, the proof of the achievement they flaunt is telling.
These include a letter from a Guwahati college suspending an assistant professor; a letter from a Rajasthan university suspending four Kashmiri students, all girls; a Twitter post that led to an arrest in Jaipur; a letter from a Greater Noida engineering college suspending a Kashmiri student; and a Facebook post that led to the arrest of an undergraduate student in Katihar, Bihar.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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