Congress General Secretary in charge Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said that the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi will be travelling abroad for her medical check-up along with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

“Congress President Sonia Gandhi, along with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, will be travelling abroad for medical check-ups. Party MP Rahul Gandhi will address ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ rally in Delhi on September 4,” Ramesh said in a statement. Party MP Rahul Gandhi will address the ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ rally in Delhi on September 4.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will also visit her ailing mother before she returns to Delhi, he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi met the newly elected President of India Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.
Sonia Gandhi paid a visit to President Murmu amidst the ongoing internal differences in the Congress party.

Recently, Congress senior leader Anand Sharma announced his resignation from the chairmanship of the party’s steering committee for the state, saying he was left with no choice after the continuing exclusion and insults.

Meanwhile, the AICC in charge of Himachal Pradesh, Rajeev Shukla was sent to pacify him. After his meeting with Anand Sharma, Shukla travelled to Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi.

Reportedly, Sonia Gandhi recently tested positive for Covid-19.

The Delhi government, in a historic step on Tuesday, handed over letters of appointment to 11 women drivers joining Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) as bus drivers.

The letters of appointment were handed over by Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot in the presence of Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra, Managing Director Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS) Rajesh Agarwal and other senior officials. The first batch of 11 women will now start their career as bus drivers and have been deployed under various depots of Delhi Transport Corporation.

The appointment of women as bus drivers has come in the backdrop of the Delhi government’s consistent effort to induct women as bus drivers under its city transportation fleet. Many women have also come out and spoken about willingness to become bus drivers in the state public transport services.

Gahlot, on the occasion further stated, “I want to thank all women today being handed over the letters of appointment today, for their courage to take up bus driving as career choice and becoming a role model for society. I am very hopeful that they will inspire more women to become bus drivers with Delhi’s Transportation fleet. I am very hopeful that with more women driving Delhi Government’s buses, the public transportation in the city will become safer and passenger friendly. I wish them the very best for the future.”

In February, the Delhi government had relaxed the norms and eligibility criteria to recruit women as drivers within its bus operations. It reduced minimum height criteria from 159cm to 153cm and ‘experience criteria’ for induction as bus drivers to one month for women applicants. The step increased opportunities for women employment within the combined fleet strength of approximately 7370 buses in the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System (DIMTS). The move also opened the doors for women to be employed within the 15000 strong workforce of bus drivers within the state public transportation.

New Delhi, Aug 24: India logged 10,649 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,43,68,195, while the active cases declined to 96,442, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The death toll has climbed to 5,27,452 with 36 fatalities which includes four deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.22 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.59 per cent, the ministry said.
A decline of 64 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
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 the one-crore mark on December 19.
The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. It crossed the four-crore mark on January 25 this year. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Aug 23: The Congress on Tuesday officially launched the website and tagline for the pan-India ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ scheduled to begin on September 7 from Kanyakumari.
It said that the aim of the yatra is to unite India; to come together and get the country back on its feet.
Veteran leaders Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh jointly launched the detailed programme of the event.
After being kick-started on September 7, the yatra will pass through 12 states and culminate in Jammu and Kashmir – spanning a distance of nearly 3,500 kilometres in a time period of about 150 days.
Senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, will actively participate in the march. Those who are unable to join physically, will help spread its message by organising events and participating in online campaigns.
People from all walks of life will join it at various points, and march together. It will be a celebration of India’s unity, a festival of hope that will come alive with musical programmes and contests that anyone can participate in.
“This is an open invitation to all to join and walk with us. India belongs to all of us. ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is for all.” the party said.
Economically, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the party said, adding that the common people are distressed by sky-rocketing inflation and unemployment.
Kisans and Khet mazdoors are being buried under debt. The assets of our country are being sold to crony capitalists at a huge loss.
“Socially, people are being divided on the basis of caste, religion, region, language, food, dress,” the party alleged, adding that every day, a new conspiracy is hatched to make one Indian fight another. There is a growing sense of insecurity, especially among women.
It said politically, today the voices of people are being suppressed and our Constitutional rights are being crushed. Efforts are being made in a systematic manner to subvert our Constitution, dismantle our institutions, hollow out our democracy, and destroy our unity and fraternity.
State governments elected by the people, are being destabilised by money power and misuse of agencies. “The states are not getting the tax money owed to them by the Union government on time. Dalits, adivasis, backward classes are being deprived of their basic rights-jal, jangal and zameen”.
The Party said to tackle this is to come together, hold hands, and understand the power of unity.
“We must start a movement to get rid of the politics of division and hate, strengthening social harmony along the principles of ‘Unity in Diversity’ and ‘Sarva Dharma Sambhava’,” it said. (Agencies)

New Delhi, August 23: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Navy successfully flight tested the Vertical Launch Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Odisha on Tuesday.
The flight test was carried out from an Indian Naval Ship against a high-speed unmanned aerial target for the demonstration of a vertical launch capability.
The missiles, equipped with indigenous Radio Frequency (RF) seeker, intercepted the target with high accuracy. The VL-SRSAM system has been indigenously designed and developed by the DRDO.
During the test launch, the flight path and vehicle performance parameters were monitored using flight data, captured by various range instruments such as Radar, Electro-optical tracking system (EOTS) and Telemetry systems deployed by ITR, Chandipur.
The launch was monitored by senior scientists from various DRDO labs involved in the design and development of the system such as Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad and R&D Engineers, Pune. (Agencies)

New Delhi, Aug 23: The Supreme Court Tuesday struck down one of the provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act of 1988, which provides for the punishment of a maximum jail term of three years or a fine or both for those indulging in benami’ transactions.
The apex court termed the provision unconstitutional on the ground of being manifestly arbitrary .
“We hold section 3(2) of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 as unconstitutional,” a bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices C T Ravikumar and Hima Kohli said.
Section 3 of the statute deals with the issue of Prohibition of benami transactions and its impugned sub-section (2) says: Whoever enters into any benami transaction shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine or with both.
The verdict came on the appeal of the Centre challenging the Calcutta High Court judgement in which it was held that the amendment made in the 1988 Act in 2016 would be applicable with prospective effect.
The 1988 Act was made to prohibit benami’ transactions and the right to recover property that is held to be ‘benami’. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Aug 23: The Delhi High Court Tuesday dismissed a plea by Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Shah Watali, arrested by the NIA in connection with a terror funding case, seeking bail on the ground of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watali had approached the high court challenging a trial court’s order which had denied him bail in the case last year but had taken note of his medical condition that he was suffering from various ailments including diabetes, hyperthyroidism, and piles.
The trial court, early this year, had directed that Watali be kept under house arrest at his Gurugram residence till further orders for his medical treatment. On Tuesday, a bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal perused the status report filed by the authorities and noted that Watali was being regularly treated and receiving prescribed medicines and that his condition was stable and satisfactory.
“As of date, it cannot be said that the COVID-19 situation was still prevalent. The life returning to normalcy would even apply to prisoners who are in custody,” the bench said. While dismissing Watali’s appeal against the trial court order, the bench directed that he be put under house arrest in his Gurugram residence till further orders and that he will be allowed to be taken to hospitals or diagnostic centers for conducting any tests, if recommended.
The high court further said that in case he is admitted to a hospital, the venue of house arrest will be shifted from his residence to the hospital and during that period, he will be allowed to meet only his immediate family members and lawyer.
“After the conditions mentioned in the order dated January 31, 2022, and the fact that the appellant was in custody in his own home, the appeal challenging the order dated 15 May 2021 declining bail to the appellant is rendered infructuous and is dismissed accordingly,” the bench said.
The NIA arrested Watali in August 2017 for his alleged links to a Jammu and Kashmir terror financing case involving Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. The agency had carried out raids on his premises and that of other suspects.
Watali, Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudeen and nine others have been accused by the NIA of ”conspiring to wage war against the government” and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir valley.
The NIA has said in its charge sheet that the probe was based on scientific and oral evidence, which had ”conclusively established that for carrying out all these terrorist and subversive activities, the gang of the accused persons is receiving funds from Pakistani agencies through hawala conduits such as accused Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali and others and also raising funds by generating illegal profits from LoC barter trade by doing under-invoicing and cash-dealings”.
In its charge sheet, the NIA has alleged that Watali received money from accused Syed, ISI of Pakistan, the Pakistan High Commission here, and from a source in Dubai. (Agencies)