ASSAM TO DISBAND MADRASA, SANSKRIT BOARDS
The BJP-led government in Assam will soon disband the State Madrasa Board and hand over the academic part of it to the Board of Secondary Education. The Sanskrit Board will also be dissolved, state Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on 9 May. “To mainstream Madrasa education, we are disbanding the Madrasa Education directorate and making it part of the Secondary Education directorate,” Sarma tweeted. “The Madrasa Board too will be dissolved and the academic part will be handed over to the Board of Secondary Education,” he said in another tweet.
Sarma’s announcement came a little over five months after he had asked madrasas to stop remaining shut on Fridays and shift their weekly off-day uniformly with other educational institutions to Sunday.
4 INJURED AS COMMUNAL VIOLENCE BREAKS OUT IN CHAIBASA
At least four people, including two police officers, sustained injuries as communal clashes broke out in Jharkhand’s Chaibasa town on 9 May. Police said two youths received bullet injuries in the clash while officer-in-charge of Mufassil police station Digvijay Singh and assistant sub inspector Nagendra Kumar Singh were hit by stones. To prevent further flare up, West Singhbhum district administration clamped section 144 in the town, prohibiting assembly of more than four people in the area.
Police also detained unspecified number of people on charges of rioting. Trouble started when two groups of youth from Hindu and Muslim communities had a heated argument over parking of bikes in Gawalapatti area of the town a couple of days ago, sparking tension in the area
FEAR LOOMS LARGE AMONG DALITS IN SAHARANPUR’S GHOST VILLAGES
The rubble of damaged Dalit houses tells the story of fear and arson that had engulfed Shabbirpur and turned it into a ghost village after a violent clash with Thakurs five days ago. The men have either fled to safer places or are attending injured family members at Saharanpur’s district hospital while the women are left to pick the broken pieces of their lives.
Subhash Chandra Dubey, Senior Superintendent of Police, Sahranpur said 25 houses were set on fire, but Dalits of the village 25 km from Saharanpur insist 55 houses and five shops were burnt down on May 5 after a Thakur youth was killed in caste clashes. Relatives of affected Dalit families fear more attacks after the terror allegedly unleashed by Thakurs.
POLICE ASK MAN TO REMOVE COMMUNALLY SENSITIVE POSTER
Accusing members of a community in the neighbourhood of harassment, a resident of Kachcha Haata in Aminabad has put up a poster outside his house that reads, “Hindu pariwar palayan ko majboor”, a report said on 8 May. When a national daily spoke to other Hindu Families in the vicinity, however, they said they had never experienced any communal discord. The area is mostly commercial and families of different communities have been living together from more than 80 years.
Rahul Garg, who has alleged he is being harassed by his neighbours from the minority community for the past six months, said he was being pressurised to sell his house where his family has been living for 70 years. Officer in charge of Aminabad police station Ashwini Pandey said Garg created unnecessary sensation in the locality.
AAP STEPS UP ANTI-EVM PROTEST, DEMONSTRATES HOW EVMS CAN BE MANIPULATED
Hundreds of AAP workers on 11 May blocked a road outside the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi, protesting against alleged tampering of Electronic Voting Machines and demanding use of VVPAT-equipped EVMs for future elections. Delhi Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai, who is among the protesters, said “manipulation” of EVMs was “killing democracy”. “We demand that the questions that have been raised regarding EVMs are resolved. Questions were raised in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab etc, so we want to appeal to the ECI that they give us their machine and we will show them by hacking it. Secondly, we want that the Supreme Court’s 2013 order of conducting elections by VVPAT should be implemented, and third, voting machine and the slips should be tallied,” Rai was quoted as saying.
Two days earlier, on 9 May, at the special Delhi Assembly session convened by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party demonstrated how the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can be “manipulated”.
4 TEACHERS SUSPENDED FOR NEET DRESS CODE EXCESSES
Four teachers in Kerala were on 9 May suspended for getting a National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test candidate to remove her inner wear before letting her enter the test hall on 7 May. In Delhi, the Central Board of Secondary Education described the teachers as ‘overzealous’ and promised not to put candidates through such humiliation again. TISK English Medium School suspended teachers Shafeena, Sheeja, Bindu and Shahina for a month. NEET is held across India to determine admissions to medical and dental colleges. Insensitive enforcement of dress regulations had triggered a furore on Sunday.
The CBSE directed the principal of the Kannur school to tender “an unconditional apology” to the girl who had to discard her bra after a metal hook set off an alarm. Speaking in the Assembly, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said the police would act against the excesses. Legislators from all parties condemned the incident in Kannur.
TECHIE VINIT HELD FOR SENDING HOAX TERROR ALERTS
The Karnataka Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a 36-year-old IT professional, Vinit Shah, in Bengaluru for allegedly emailing at least four hoax terror alerts to the Maharashtra ATS and the Mumbai police, a report said on 10 May. Shah had been sending ‘alerts’ since January this year and had, in April, warned of a chemical attack. After checking his email details and the Internet Protocol (IP) address, the Maharashtra ATS informed the Bengaluru ATS about Shah’s location, following which the man was arrested.
According to official, Shah had in January this year sent an email to the Mumbai police from Bengaluru about a group of terrorists who were planning to attack six prominent places in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Security was subsequently beefed up accordingly but nothing happened. In the month of March, he sent some emails asking the authorities to increase security in the city. At the end of the April the same person sent an email to Mumbai and Bengaluru police falsely claiming that chemical attack would soon occur in Mumbai as well as in Bengaluru.
KANPUR YOUTH ALLEGES ‘HARASSMENT’ BY NIA
A youth from Kanpur has reportedly written to the Chief Justices of Supreme Court and Allahabad High Court, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the National Human Rights Commission and the UP DGP, accusing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of “harassing” him for close to two months. He has alleged that the agency summons him to its Lucknow office every three days, making him sit there all day on the “pretext” of questioning him over “links with terror suspects”.
In his complaint, 27-year-old Mohammad Atif wrote that the NIA would be responsible if “anything happens to him or his family.” His brother Mohammad Aquib claimed Atif last visited the agency’s office on May 5.
Muzaffar, Danish Akhtar and Syed Mir Hussain had been arrested by Madhya Pradesh police soon after the train blast.
MAHARASHTRA PASSES LAW TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS
On April 7, both Houses of the Maharashtra State Legislature passed a law to protect journalists, making it the first State in the country to pass such a law. It was the result of a relentless struggle for several years by mediapersons who faced attacks in the line of duty, the Mumbai Press Club and the Patrakar Halla Virodhi Kriti Samiti (Action Committee Against Attacks on Journalists).
In its statement of objectives, the Maharashtra Mediapersons and Media Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2017, explains that a special law was required to defend journalists.