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Men accused of running ‘duplicate SBI branch’ arrested

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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Three men who had allegedly been running a ‘fake SBI’ branch in Panruti were arrested on Saturday. One of them was Kamal Babu, the son of a retired female bank employee, whose father had died ten years ago.

The police said that these men had been running a duplicate SBI branch in the Panruti Bazaar area, using stolen computers, forged documents, challans, and lockers, amongst other things. They had even created a fake website for the branch. This branch had been operated by Babu, along with A Kumar (42), M Manickam (52), since the lockdown had started, assuming that they wouldn’t get caught.

This came under the radar of the police when an SBI customer had inquired about the newly opened branch to the Branch Manager. This customer had acquired a receipt from the fake branch, which they then showed to the Branch Manager, prompting him to lodge a complaint with the local police.

Following this, the police visited the duplicate branch along with bank officials and were shocked to find the setup to be exactly like the original. Speaking about this, a police official from the Panruti branch said, “Till date, we haven’t received any complaints from customers that they have lost money in this branch. When we enquired, Babu said he never intended to cheat people but wanted to open a bank for himself. However, there has been a lot of transactions between his mother’s account and his aunt’s account. A probe is underway.” An FIR was filed under sections  473, 469, 484, 109 of the Indian Penal Code.

(Source: Business Standard, Indian Express)

11 million saplings to be planted in 2020 under Cauvery Calling

By
The Commune
-

“Cauvery Calling is currently running at a project scale, we need to transform this into a movement,” said Sadhguru, Founder, Isha Foundation, speaking at the Rally for Rivers (RfR) Board meeting yesterday. The RfR Board held a virtual meeting to review progress of RfR’s two ongoing projects: Cauvery Calling in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Waghadi River Revitalization Project in Yavatmal district, in Maharashtra.

Sadhguru said, “I feel the Karnataka government has been exemplary in their support. There has been a phenomenal level of support which is translating into action on the ground.”

The Karnataka State Government will supply 70 lakh trees for the 2020 monsoon planting season through its Krushi Aranya Protsaha Yojane (KAPY) scheme.

The Cauvery Calling team is currently working in 54 Talukas of 9 Cauvery river basin districts in Karnataka along with the Forest Department to promote the KAPY scheme. The partnership involves 480 Cauvery Calling volunteers and 270 state government officers including District Collectors, IFS officers, Forest Range Officers, Joint Directors (Agriculture & Horticulture), and Taluk (Agriculture & Horticulture) Officers.

In Tamil Nadu, Isha Outreach’s nurseries have already produced 23 lakh saplings and are targeting to produce an additional 17 lakh saplings this year through their network of 36 nurseries with an overall target of 40 lakh saplings.

“It’s amazing to see that so much has been achieved during the lockdown. It is truly Isha’s speciality to do these things when even projects that have better support and financial strength are being shelved,” said Board member Mr. Pravesh Sharma, former Agriculture Secretary of Madhya Pradesh and MD of Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium, Government of India.

Despite the pandemic, the project in its first phase of sapling production, has been on track. Mr. Yuri Jain who heads Rally for Rivers informed the Board that the 2020 Cauvery Calling goal of planting 11 million trees will remain unchanged.

Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Ltd, appreciated “the tremendous assessment and effort” of the RfR team. Mr. B Muthuraman, former Chairperson, Tata Steel, said the teams have done a fantastic job despite all the limitations that we have during COVID times.

Cauvery Calling volunteers have been reaching out through social, digital and print media in a bid to reach millions of farmers.

The RfR Board also reviewed progress of the Waghadi River Revitalization Project (Waghadi Nadi Punarujeevan Prakalp) launched in partnership with the Government of Maharashtra last year.

Isha volunteers have been working in 40 villages along the 54-km stretch of river Waghadi since last year in awareness and community mobilization activities.

The Board comprises Mr. Ravi Singh, CEO and Secretary General, World Wide Fund for Nature-India; Justice Arijit Pasayat, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India; Dr AS Kiran Kumar, former Chairperson, Indian Space Research Organisation; Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Ltd, Mr. Shashi Shekhar, former Secretary, Water Resources, Government of India; Mr. Pravesh Sharma, former Agriculture Secretary of Madhya Pradesh and MD of Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium, Government of India,  Mr. B Muthuraman, former Chairperson, Tata Steel; and Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industries.

Rally for Rivers

Sadhguru launched one of the world’s biggest environmental campaigns, Rally for Rivers in 2017 in which he personally drove across 16 Indian states in a month’s time. The campaign saw the coming together of political leaders, farmers, industrialists, businessmen, students, professionals, media, culminating in the handing over of the draft policy recommendation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On 6 June 2018, NITI Aayog issued an advisory to all 29 States and Union Territories recommending implementation of the River Revitalization policy.

Cauvery Calling

The Cauvery Calling movement which was launched in September 2019 is a 12-year project with an ambition to empower 50 lakh farmers to plant 242 crore trees on their own farmlands in one-third of the Cauvery river basin area. The movement promotes tree-based agriculture that will incentivise farmers to plant high-value trees for economic gain and simultaneously restore green cover in the denuded Cauvery basin. Farmers will be incentivised to plant native tree species suitable for the land to enable water percolation to the ground.

Cauvery Calling is being implemented by Isha Outreach, which is a member of the world’s foremost conservation body, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is expected to positively impact food and water security of 84 million people in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Biden to discuss Kashmir with India if elected

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

Joe Biden’s advisor on foreign affairs Antony Blinken said that the Biden administration could potentially address the Kashmir issue with India, in addition to raising concerns about the CAA-NRC issue. In a dialogue on Thursday with the Hudson Institute, Washington, he also criticized Trump’s administration for its backfire in strategy in the Iran issue. The Biden administration, he said, would avoid “schizophrenic see-saw” of the Trump administration on Iran, which has brought the world to the brink of conflict.

In the conversation, the moderator had raised questions about India’s decisions with regard to the Kashmir issue and asked if the Biden administration will raise these concerns with India.

“We obviously have challenges now and real concerns, for example, about some of the actions the Indian government has taken, particularly in cracking down on freedom of movement and freedom of speech in Kashmir, and about some of the laws on citizenship,” said Blinken while responding to the moderator. He added that the election of Biden as President has now become a ‘likelihood’ more than a  ‘possibility’.

Blinken is the major brain behind the drafting the foreign policy at Biden’s camp. It is to be noted that he is a former deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state.

(Source: Dawn)

Congress’ Sachin Pilot flexes muscles, Gehlot govt at risk

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

Rajasthan’s Deputy CM Sachin Pilot arrived in Delhi on Saturday with 25 MLAs in a show-of-strength of sorts, seeking to meet with Congress High-Command. A loyalist of Pilot has said that they were at the NCR to meet Sonia Gandhi regarding the “step-motherly treatment given to them by the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan”.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Gehlot called a late-night meeting of his Ministers at his official residence in Jaipur on Saturday and asked all party MLAs to give a letter of support to him. This was not attended by the dozen MLAs who belong to the Sachin Pilot camp. Notably, Gehlot had only recently accused the BJP of trying to ‘poach its MLAs’. He went on to claim that they had offered his MLAs an amount ranging between Rs 10 to 15 crores, each to select MLAs from his government in an attempt to have them switch parties. Coming out in response to these accusations, the BJP had said that it was in no way responsible for the ‘infighting’ that went on in the Congress camp.

This has raised questions asking if trouble was brewing for the Congress, only months after it lost Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP. The differences between Sachin Pilot and the Chief Minister have been surfacing regularly. Last year, after the Lok Sabha elections, Gehlot blamed Pilot for his son’s defeat. “Pilot should take responsibility,” the Chief Minister had said.

Congress leaders like Kapil Sibal and Majeed Memon took to Twitter to express their concerns regarding the same.

(Sources: DNA, Republic, Business Insider)

Ramu Thatha of ₹10 meals fame from Madurai passes away

By
The Commune
-

Ramu S (fondly called Ramu Thatha), of the famous Valli Tiffin Centre near the Anna Bus Stand in Madurai, passed away on July 11, after a prolonged illness due to age. He was 91.

A native of Thirumangalam Villur village, Ramu Thatha ran a food shack near the Madurai Anna Bus Stand for over 50 years. Initially when he started, he served food for 25 paise, and gradually increased to ₹1 and ₹5 over the years to adjust to inflation. For the last few years, he has been feeding hungry stomachs cutting across sections at just ₹10. It was only in 2014 that Ramu increased the price to ₹10 upon compulsion from his customers, the Deccan Chronicle noted.

Poor people who cannot pay are requested to pay atleast ₹2. Some paid nothing at all while if someone offers ₹50 instead of ₹10, he politely declines.  He refrains from accepting payments from senior citizens unless they insist.

Ramu’s Valli Tiffin Centre did not make any special dishes. He served simple and homely meals that had a huge customer base ranging from doctors, medical students, patients and their attendants, labourers, rickshaw pullers, travellers, police and homeless people.  Knowing about him, even people from the United States had come to have a meal served by the humble Thatha. Though located at a place that is dotted with bigger eateries, hundreds would flock around his hole-in-the-wall shop during the afternoon lunch hours between noon and 3:30 PM to eat or take parcels.

His wife Puranathammal passed away in the year 2015 and he has been running the eatery solely ever since with his friend cook. What is more heartening to note is that before her passing away, he had made a promise to his wife that he will not buy ration rice. He used to purchase rice from the open market.

Valli Tiffin Centre opens sharp at 7 AM for its customers. The morning tiffin menu has Idlis, Dosais, Oothappams and Pongal all priced at ₹10, served with Sambar, Tomato and Coconut Chutneys.

Ramu facing poverty early in his childhood ran away from his home at 12 after his mother died. He worked as a waiter in small eateries in various places. At 17, he was inspired by Sage Vallalar whose ideals and emphasis on feeding the poor had a lasting impact on him. He married Purnathammal who was a good cook and settled in Madurai. Ramu and Purnathammal had started off in 1965 by selling Idli and Vadai for 10 paisa each. Purnathammal later started cooking full meals (saapaadu) and sold it for ₹1.25. Over the years, they have had a set of loyal customers and newer ones kept adding as they aged.

Ramu has outlived his two sons and a grandson. With his passing away, Madurai has lost a grandfather with a grand heart.

Source: Dinamalar, The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle

Centre gives nod to 7 researches based on Siddha for COVID treatment, Minister Pandiarajan says

By
The Commune
-

The Tamil Nadu government has been taking several measures to contain the spread of the Wuhan Virus and is leaving no stone unturned.

On Saturday (July 11), Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Foi K. Pandiarajan held a consultative meeting with a group of Siddha doctors at the Siddha Central Research Institute in Chennai’s Arumbakkam.

He said that the traditional method indigenous to Tamil Nadu has been very effective in treating the patients affected by the Wuhan virus and added that the Tamil Nadu government is committed to improving on the Siddha treatment. He mentioned that the Chennai High Court has given a chance to the government to prove it.

In light of this, the Central government has approved 7 Siddha medical research for treating the Wuhan Virus.

The Siddha treatment is being administered in COVID care centres in Tiruvannamalai and Vellore. A COVID care centre has also been set up at the Ambedkar Arts College in Vyasarpadi lying in the Tondiarpet zone which started treating patients from June 24 using the ancient method indigenous to Tamil Nadu.

80% of those affected with Wuhan virus in Tondiarpet zone have recovered.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is also taking steps to expand the Siddha treatment for COVID19 to other districts.

Worried about not being able to TikTok? Just Chill5, TN youngsters come up with alternative

By
The Commune
-

With Government of India banning 69 Chinese apps over concerns of national security and in the aftermath of the Galwan Vally clash, a group of young graduates from Tamil Nadu have come out with a new app called Chill5, meant to serve as an alternative to TikTok.

Harish Kumar (26), Soundara Kumar (28), Sandeep (25), Gokul (25) and Venkatesh (25) from Tiruppur have designed Chill5 app together which is said to have all functions similar to TikTok. The app has seen more than 50,000 downloads so far. It is said that the app uses a secure server and protects the privacy of the user.

In an interview to a Tamil news outlet Vikatan, Gokul said that most Indians are currently using apps that are made in other countries which has security concerns. “We wanted to come out with an app for the people that is secure app and Made-in-India”, Gokul reportedly said.

Gokul and other members of the team who run a web design company have already designed more than 50 websites for different clients.

“This is the first time we are making an app”, he said.

It was reported that the team started working on the app in January 2020 and registered the app in Google Playstore on June 4.

The team is clear that the app will not be a place for vulgar and violent content and the app has a report button for the same. They are designing an algorithm that will automatically delete such reported content.

The app also shows how many people have viewed a particular content.

The team will also be putting education related content for the benefit of students and teachers.

They said that their app did not have reach before the ban as many users preferred TikTok. “We were excited when the ban on Chinese apps were announced. We believe that people will support us by choosing our alternative”, Gokul says.

Source: Vikatan

DMK MLA opens fire in the middle of the road in broad day light, bullet hits passerby

By
The Commune
-

Tiruporur DMK MLA Idhayavarman on Saturday evening brandished his illegal gun and shot multiple rounds reportedly at the car of a real estate agent Kumar while travelling along the East Coast Road in which one of the bullet hit a passer-by identified as Srinivasan was injured.

The DMK MLA was reported to have been engaged in a property dispute with Kumar for a long time.  Kumar was returning after filing a police complaint at the Tiruporur police station as the DMK MLA and his father had damaged the path to reach his land when the DMK MLA along with his father and a few men surrounded the car and attacked them. During the fight, it was reported that the DMK MLA Idhayavarman took out his gun fired multiple rounds at the opponent’s car.

The bullets damaged the bonnet and windows of the car. One of the bullets hit at a passer-by named Srinivasan who was later admitted in the hospital.

While a few reports mentioned that it was the DMK MLA who fired the shots, the Times of India had reported that it was the father of DMK MLA Idhayavarman, Lakshmipathi who fired. TOI reported that it Lakshmipathi’s men were attacked with sickles during the fight.

Srinivasan’s condition was reported to be stable.

Since the incident, the hashtag #கள்ளதுப்பாக்கிதிமுக (illegal gun DMK) started trending on Twitter. 

https://twitter.com/jaibhavanikrish/status/1282019021550792707

https://twitter.com/aishuragavan93/status/1282004497972121601

BREAKING: Swapna’s sapna crashes, NIA arrests Kerala gold smuggling racket accused Swapna and aide Sandeep Nair

By
The Commune
-

Swapna Suresh, the prime suspect and alleged kingpin of the crime syndicate behind gold smuggling in Kerala has been arrested by National Investigation Agency officials in Bengaluru on Saturday night.

She along with her aide Sandeep Nair, seen as the Benami of Swapna, were arrested by the NIA on Saturday night.

Questions are being raised about how she managed to cross Thiruvananthapuram which is under ‘triple lockdown’ and Kerala when the state borders have been shut.

Opposition parties have now trained their guns towards Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who is also the Home Minister of the state. BJP Kerala President K Surendran has mentioned that CM Pinarayi Vijayan has a lot to answer. The same was mentioned by BJP National General Secretary (Org) B.L. Santhosh.

Customs personnel on Sunday seized over 30 kgs of gold contained in a ‘diplomatic baggage’ that was meant for Consulate of the United Arab Emirates in the city, at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. Swapna Suresh, a former staff working as an operational manager at the UAE consulate in the city is alleged to be the kingpin of the crime syndicate behind this failed bid to smuggle gold.

Swapna will be taken to Kochi tomorrow and produced before the NIA court.

Swapna, Sandeep, Sarith and Fazil Fareed are the four accused in the gold smuggling case that has rattled Kerala.

 

Flood and landslides lash Nepal, kill 23

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

Heavy rains lashed Nepal since Thursday, triggering floods and landslides throughout the country. Nine people were killed and more than 30 were missing in Myagdi district, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of the capital Kathmandu, where several houses were destroyed on Friday.

Most of the landslides happened in Sarangkot and Hemjan areas of Pokhara in Nepal, 200 kilometers west of Kathmandu. In the neighbouring Kaski district, seven people were killed, while another seven were killed in Jajarkot district in the far west. Several people have been reported missing post these floods, as Narayani and other major rivers in Nepal have swollen due to the continuous downpour in the last 48 hours. Nepal Army has mobilised a helicopter to bring three injured persons in the incident to Kathmandu for treatment. “We are searching for eight people who are still missing,” said Kishore Shrestha, a senior police official.

Around 43 houses have been buried in landslides in the Myagdi district, while the total loss of physical property has not been estimated yet. A municipality official said over 400 affected people have been taking shelter at community building and school building in Takam, Marang, and Ghantiwang.

The country’s meteorological agency has forecasted four more days of continuous rainfall. Landslides and floods are common in Nepal due to the June-September monsoon every year.

 

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