1. Presidential Elections: 70% Votes with Him, it’s Kovind vs Meira Today
On the eve of elections to select the 14th president of the country, which NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind looks set to sweep, Congress president Sonia Gandhi sought “a vote of conscience”, calling the contest “a clash of ideas and a conflict of disparate values”.
A total of 95 candidates filed nominations for the top Constitutional post, of which 93 were rejected on various grounds, leaving only Kovind and Opposition candidate Meira Kumar in the fray. While Kumar has support of 17 Opposition parties, Kovind is set to get nearly 70 percent of the electoral college votes.
Sonia acknowledged this in her speech on Sunday, at a meeting of non-NDA parties with Meira Kumar and the Opposition’s vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The numbers may be against the Opposition, she said, but “the battle must be fought and fought hard”. “We cannot and must not let India be hostage to those who wish to impose upon it a narrow-minded, divisive and communal vision,” Sonia said.
Source: The Indian Express
2. 17 Amarnath Pilgrims Die After Bus Falls Into Gorge
Seventeen pilgrims, including two women, were killed after a bus rolled down a gorge on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on Sunday.
Twenty-seven others, eight of them minors, were injured. “The condition of two pilgrims is critical,” a senior official told The Hindu.
A police official said the State Road Transport Corporation bus, part of the Amarnath pilgrim convoy, was carrying around 43 passengers when the accident happened near Banihal, 96 km from the Pahalgam base camp.
The bus, bearing registration number JK02V-0594, rolled down several feet and plunged into a fast-flowing stream.
Source: The Hindu
3. PM Wakes up to Cost of Thugs
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday acknowledged that violence in the name of cow protection was tarnishing the image of the country and damaging the social fabric and asked political leaders to lend their support in fighting the menace.
“Desh ki chhavi par bhi iska asar pad raha hai. Rajya sarkaron ko aise asamajik tatwon par kathor karwaee karni chahiye. Gau raksha ko kuchh asamajik tatwon ne arajakta failane ka madhyam bana liya hai. Iska fayda desh me sauhardya bigadne me lage log bhi utha rahe hain. (The country's image is also getting affected. State governments should take strong action against such anti-social elements. Some anti-social elements have adopted cow protection as a tool to spread anarchy. People engaged in spoiling social harmony in the country are also taking advantage of this),” Modi said.
The Prime Minister's strongest remarks yet against cow-vigilante groups came at an all-party meeting convened by the government and were seen as an attempt to assuage the Opposition that plans to raise the issue during the monsoon Session of Parliament that begins on Monday.
Source: The Telegraph
4. ‘Sacrifice’ Plea to Lalu for Alliance
A senior Bihar Congress leader on Sunday asked RJD chief Lalu Prasad to "sacrifice", in a clear signal that the JDU has put the onus of saving the Grand Alliance on the third partner in the coalition, while the BJP hinted once again that it is ready to support Chief Minister Nitish Kumar if he walks out.
"Nitishji is in real pain and that's why things are taking time to unfold. He will take a decision after lot of thinking," Congress leader and animal and fish resources minister Awadhesh Kumar Singh said in Hindi at his residence. "Lalu Prasadji should also heed the mood of the country; he himself says the BJP has to be stopped. Bihar has a crucial role in stopping the BJP. The way Nitishji made sacrifices to form the Grand Alliance, similarly to stop the BJP Laluji will have to make some sacrifice or the other."
This is the first time any Congress leader has come out with a statement that virtually puts the ball in RJD's court.
Source: The Telegraph
5. Displaced Families in Assam Bust Govt’s ‘No-Homeless’ Claim
Nearly 100 families taking shelter in makeshift huts along the 3km stretch of the road that connects Guwahati with Jagiroad in central Assam's Morigaon district proves the government's claim wrong that nobody has left their home in the district because of the current floods.
"It has been more than a week now that we have come here. No food item has reached us yet," 60-year-old farmer Matiram Boro told The Telegraph, with helplessness writ large on his face. He and his wife Parbati, sitting next to him, shifted to the roadside hut as floodwaters entered their home on 8 June.
The flood bulletin issued by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority says there is no shelter camp in Morigaon district though 1.78 lakh people in 233 villages have been hit by the floods.
Source: The Telegraph
6. Centre’s Proposal to States: Enact Your Own Aadhaar Acts Too
Even as a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court is set to hear challenges to the Aadhaar Act, the central government has floated the idea of state governments enacting their own “State Aadhaar Act”, on the lines of the central Act passed by Parliament last year.
The Centre made this suggestion at the national conference of state chief secretaries, organised by NITI Aayog last week. “Enactment of State Aadhaar Act” was one of the “interventions requested” by the Cabinet secretariat. Giving a presentation on the topic of “effective implementation of DBT (direct benefit transfer) in states”, AR Sihag, Secretary (Coordination and Public Grievances) in the Cabinet Secretariat, emphasised the issue twice.
The central Act makes Aadhaar mandatory for any “subsidy, benefit or service” for which the expenditure is borne fully or shared partially by the Consolidated Fund of India. This means that every welfare subsidy or benefit, from fully-funded or centrally-sponsored schemes (where states share part of the fiscal burden), is conditional on verification through Aadhaar.
Source: The Indian Express
7. After Sasikala Row, 32 Convicts Shifted Out of Bengaluru Central Prison
Amid the controversy over alleged bribery by AIADMK leader VK Sasikala for privileged treatment in Bengaluru central prison, 32 inmates were shifted out because they allegedly complained to deputy inspector general (prisons) Roopa D Moudgil on Saturday.
Sources said 21 convicts were shifted to Ballari and the rest to Belagavi on Saturday night, because they had raised issues over the functioning of the jail.
Moudgil had on Wednesday written a letter to the director general (prisons) HN Sathyanarayana Rao saying she had heard accusations that a bribe of Rs 2 crore had been paid to give Sasikala privileged treatment, such as a separate kitchen, apart from other violations.
This had led to a furore, with Rao accusing Moudgil of making baseless and wild allegations.
A probe has been ordered into the matter by chief minister Siddaramaiah. However, the issue continues to simmer.
Source: Hindustan Times
8. BJP to Send Aid to Hills, Alleges TMC Cadres Blocking Trucks at Siliguri
Announcing that it was planning to send relief materials to Darjeeling, the state BJP on Sunday alleged that Trinamool Congress cadres are blocking trucks laden with foodgrains at Siliguri, preventing them from reaching the affected region.
“People of Darjeeling are not getting foodgrains. Trinamool Congress cadres are blocking trucks carrying foodgrains to Darjeeling openly. Police is standing there and watching. This is inhuman, and violates human rights.
“We plan to send foodgrains and other edibles to the Hills soon. Our Karyakartas will get stocks of food grains… and relief materials to the Hills,” said state BJP president Dilip Ghosh.
Source: The Indian Express
9. Hospitals See Surge in Sex-Change Ops
There is a waiting list of five at central Delhi's Lok Nayak Hospital. The number may not seem large for a surgical procedure but doctors say, compared with the past, it is nothing short of a surge. The procedure in question is a sex-change operation and its growing demand in the city suggests old taboos are beginning to melt away .
Two engineers and a medical student are among those in the queue. That's not surprising, according to Dr PS Bhandari, who heads the hospital's plastic surgery division. Most such patients come from middle-class backgrounds. “Ten years ago, we would get one or two such cases in a year. But now, we are getting three to four requests every month,” said Dr Rajiv Mehta, consultant psychiatrist.
A patient requires complete psychiatric evaluation before undergoing such an operation. Dr Sameer Malhotra, who heads the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Max Hospital Saket, said he, too, had observed a rise in demand for such surgeries. Because sex-change surgery is costly in private hospitals, many patients also queue up at public hospitals, such as Lok Nayak.
Source: Times of India
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