Tezpur (Assam) , Oct 22: With the recovery of the fifth and last body, the search and rescue mission in the October 21 helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh has concluded, Army spokesperson said on Saturday.
The Indian army and Air Force Saturday ended searches after the mortal remains of fifth army personnel, on board the advanced light helicopter (AHL) that crashed on Friday was retrieved, the Public Relation Officer (PRO) (Tezpur) said today.
As per reports, three columns of army personnel were conducting the operation on foot, while one MI17 and two ALH choppers were pressed into service to trace the personnel.
The Indian Army Aviation Advance Light Helicopter (Weapon Systems Integrated) – ALH WSI based at Likabali (Assam), with five personnel on board had on Friday crashed at 10:43 am near Singging village, 25 kilometres away from the Tuting headquarters in the Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday.
The chopper had taken off from Likabali in the Lower Siang district.
Earlier the defence PRO had said that the mortal remains of the four military personnel were recovered and one was reported missing in the crash.
A court of inquiry constituted to probe the crash will focus on the ‘May Day’ call received by Air Traffic Control (ATC) suggesting a technical or mechanical failure on the chopper, officials said.
“Prior to the crash, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had received a MAY DAY call suggesting a technical or mechanical failure,” the release said. “This will form the focus of the Court of Inquiry, which has been immediately constituted to investigate the causes of the accident,” read a statement by the Defence PRO.
Previously on October 5 this year, an Indian Army pilot died in a Cheetah helicopter crash near the Tawang area of Arunachal Pradesh. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The Congress on Saturday, October 22, 2022, termed the government’s ‘Rozgar Mela’ as “eventbaazi” by the “jumla king”, asking when would the promised 16 crore jobs be provided to the youth of the country.
Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to provide two crore jobs every year while assuming power which has not been provided in the last eight years.
He said the Bharat Jodo Yatra has merely moved in four states and the government “had to admit” that unemployment is the biggest problem the country faces.
“At least, the ‘jumla king’ was forced to admit that unemployment is the biggest problem the country and the youth face,” he said in a tweet in Hindi, terming it as the biggest achievement of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“No Eventbaazi, provide employment,” he said.
‘Will continue to question PM’
He said Prime Minister Modi should tell “by when would you provide 16 crore jobs as you had promised to provide two crore jobs every year in the last eight years”.
“By when would these 16 crore jobs be provided and by when would 30 lakh vacancies in government departments be filled up. The Prime Minister would have to answer the youth of the country,” he said in a video put out on Twitter.
Mr. Surjewala said the Congress would continue to ask questions from the Prime Minister on when the promised jobs would be provided.
“Things would not move by giving merely 70,000 appointment letters and the youth of the country want jobs and the prime minister would have to answer them. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress would continue to raise this question from the prime minister during the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he said.
Prime Minister Modi on Saturday launched the Rozgar Mela drive to recruit 10 lakh people. He said the government is working towards softening the blow of the economic problems faced by several countries across the world in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fifty Union Ministers will be handing over appointment letters to nearly 20,000 people at different locations across the country under the recruitment drive. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, October 22 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, said here today that the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) is committed to meet the target of 10 lakh government jobs in next few months, as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also Minister-Incharge DoPT, was delivering his welcome-cum-introductory address at the launch of “Rozgar Mela” at which Prime Minister Modi issued 75,000 appointment letters as the first instalment of recruitment to 10 lakh government jobs.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, right from the beginning, Prime Minister Modi has given highest priority to the issues and concerns related to youth. He said, the Prime Minister has constantly sought to create new avenues and opportunities for livelihood, government jobs and income for the youth.
Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that it was Prime Minister Modi who, in his Independence Day address of 2015, gave a call for “StartUp India StandUp India”, which soon turned into a countrywide movement. The result of this is that now the number of StartUps in India has gone up from 300 to 400 in 2014 to more than 75,000 today and India ranks third in the world in StartUp ecosystem, he added.
It was again Prime Minister Modi, said Dr Jitendra Singh, who had, a few months ago, promised the nation that he would soon provide 10 lakh government jobs for the youth. Once again, the Minister said, it is evident that Prime Minister Modi does what he says and he has the capacity to make everything “Mumkin” (possible).
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the 75,000 appointment letters issued today cover nearly all the Ministries and departments in the government and their beneficiaries are spread across all the States and Union Territories of the country. He hoped that these young new recruits in the government will have the opportunity to contribute in the process of national building over the next 25 years to realise the dream of Century India in 2047.
While promising that the next instalment of appointment letters to meet the 10 lakh government jobs target will be released soon, Dr Jitendra Singh noted that today’s lot released by Prime Minister covers government posts at all levels including Grade-A, Grade-B (Gazetted), Grade -B (Non-Gazetted) and Grade-C.

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The world should remain clear that Pakistan must continue to take “credible, verifiable and irreversible” action against terrorism, India said on Friday after anti-money laundering watchdog FATF removed the neighbouring country from its ‘grey list’.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) took off Pakistan from a list of countries under increased monitoring, also known as the ‘grey list’.
“It is in global interest that the world remains clear that Pakistan must continue to take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustained action against terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from territories under its control,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
He was replying to media queries on the issue.
“As a result of FATF scrutiny, Pakistan has been forced to take some action against well-known terrorists, including those involved in attacks against the entire international community in Mumbai on 26/11,” Bagchi said.
“We understand that Pakistan will continue to work with the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) to further improve its Anti Money Laundering (AML) /Counter Terror Financing (CFT) system,” he added.

Pakistan has been taken off the ‘grey list’ in the wake of Islamabad’s “high level political commitment” in dealing with the menace and carrying out reforms in its existing monitoring mechanism, according to the watchdog.

The decision was taken by the FATF in its plenary held in Paris on October 20-21.
Later at a virtual press conference, FATF president T Raja Kumar, who is from Singapore, said Pakistan has largely addressed all the 34 items given by the FATF.
However, he said, Pakistan still needs to continue to work in this regard and the FATF encourages Pakistan to cooperate with the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group to combat financial terrorism and money laundering. (Agencies)

NEW DELIH, Oct 22: India saw a single-day rise of 2,112 new infections raising the COVID-19 tally to 4,46,40,748, while the number of active cases declined to 24,043, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
The death toll climbed to 5,28,957 with four fatalities which includes three deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated. One death has been reported from West Bengal in a span of 24 hours.
The active cases comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.76 per cent, the health ministry said.
A decrease of 994 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 case count in a span of 24 hours.

The number of active cases stood at 25,037 on Friday.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.01 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 0.97 per cent, according to the health ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,40,87,748, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent.
According to the ministry, 219.53 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020; 30 lakh on August 23; 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28; 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29; 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed one crore on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore coronavirus cases on May 4, three crore on June 23 last year and four crore on January 25 this yea

After a political row erupted over the former Union Home Minister and Congress veteran Shivraj Patil’s controversial remark that the concept of ‘jihad’ finds mention not only in the Quran but in the Bhagwad Gita and in Christianity as well, the Congress on Friday disassociated itself from the latter’s remarks and called it “unacceptable”.

At a book launch event in the national capital on Thursday, Shivraj Patil said that Lord Krishna also taught lessons of jihad to Arjun in a part of Gita in the Mahabharat inviting controversy. He also claimed that the concept of ‘jihad’ finds mention not only in the Quran but in the Bhagwad Gita and in Christianity as well.

Taking to Twitter, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Friday shared an excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Discovery of India” where the former PM talks about Geeta’s ‘universality’.

“My senior colleague Shivraj Patil reportedly made some comments on Bhagavad Gita that’s unacceptable. Subsequently, he clarified. @INCIndia’s stand is clear. Bhagavad Gita is a key foundational pillar of Indian civilisation. Here’s an excerpt from Nehru’s Discovery of India(p110),” Jairam Ramesh said.
In another tweet, the Congress leader said, “Incidentally, I learned Bhagavad Gita in my early teens and have had a life-long fascination with it as a cultural and philosophical text, with a profound influence on Indian society over the ages. I wrote about this in my book The Light of Asia: The Poem that defined the Buddha.”

“It’s said there is a lot of discussion on Jihad in Islam religion… Even after all efforts, if someone doesn’t understand clean ideas, then power can be used. It is not just in the Quran Sharif, but also in the Mahabharata of which Gita is a part,” Patil said.

“Shri Krishna also talks to Arjuna about jihad. It is not like this is only in the Quran Sharif or the Gita but in Christianity also it is written…Christ has said that I have not come here to establish peace but I have come here with sword,” Patil said.

Speaking in Hindi, the Congress leader said that “if even after explaining everything, people do not understand and they are arriving with weapons then you cannot run, you cannot call that jihad and you cannot call it wrong, this is what must be understood, there should not be this concept of making people understand with weapons in hand.”

Patil’s remarks have drawn flak from the BJP which has hit out at the Congress for “Hindu hatred” and “vote-bank politics.”

Patil who was Union Home Minister from 2004 to 2008 and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996 was addressing the audience at a book launch of Congress leader and former Union Minister Mohsina Kidwai. Among the other dignitaries present at the launch were Shashi Tharoor, Digvijaya Singh, Farooq Abdullah and Sushil Kumar Shinde.

We lost Major Mustafa Bohra in Rudra Helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh yesterday! He hailed from Udaipur , Rajasthan

NEW DELHI, October 21 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today held an interaction with Srinagar Municipal Corporators wherein he reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to strengthen grassroots democracy in Jammu & Kashmir.
The interaction was held at Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), after completion of three-day orientation programme on Urban Governance, Dr Jitendra Singh said, right from the first day, when he took over as Prime Minister in 2014, Narendra Modi has made it clear that he would bring all the peripheral regions of the country like Jammu & Kashmir and North East at par with the rest of the country.
Responding to complaints of Corporators that 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts that were applicable in Panchayati Raj System and the Municipality system in rural and urban areas are not being fully implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Jitendra Singh said, these are legacy issues and will get resolved in course of time.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the passion and intensity with which Prime Minister Modi has worked towards this goal is borne out by the fact that in order to ensure the elections of Panchayats in Jammu & Kashmir, the Prime Minister not only demonstrated an uncompromising determination but later also made history by holding the first-ever District Development Council election in Jammu & Kashmir, he said.
Today not only Jammu & Kashmir is on the fast track of development in the last few years, said Dr Jitendra Singh, but a conscious effort has been made to ensure that there is equitable development in every region.

Parvaiz Ahmad Qadri Deputy Mayor, Srinagar Municipal Corporation and 19 other Corporators including Shamima Khan, Syeda, Jameela Akhter, Sheikh Haseena, . Kulsuma Bano, Bashir Ahmad Mir, Sumaira Akhtar, Neelofar Khan, Zarina Akhter, Ghulam Nabi Sofi, Abdul Waheed Dar, Aijaz Rasool Bhat, Mohammad Saleem Bhat, Aashiq Hussain Bhatt, Mohammad Ashraf Palpori, Shri Aaqib Renzushah, Zubair Fayaz Dar and Inayat Hussain Mir interacted with Dr Jitendra Singh.