Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader on track to be the UK’s new prime minister, on Friday thanked voters and said the people of the country are “ready for change” and to “end the politics of performance”.
Starmer, 61, in his victory speech after winning from Holborn and St Pancras, said whether people voted for him or not, “I’ll serve every person in this constituency.”
According to the exit poll, which is often quite close to the final tally, Labour could win as many as 410 seats, comfortably crossing the half way 326 mark and notching up a 170-seat majority with the incumbent Tories led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak down to just 131 seats. pti
Coordinated efforts are being made to evacuate the stranded workers at the earliest from the Silkyara tunnel collapse site in Uttarakhand, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways said on Monday.
At least 40 workers got trapped after a portion of the tunnel under construction between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri national highway collapsed in the early hours of Sunday.
As part of the Chardham Mahamarg Pariyojana, the road transport and highway ministry has taken up the construction of 4.531-kilometre two lane bi-directional tunnel at Silkyara to join Gangotri and Yamunotri axis under the Radi pass in Uttarakhand and sanctioned for TPC (total project cost) of Rs 1,383 crore on March 9, 2018 for implementation by its company National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to host the UN chief and Turkey’s leader Thursday for talks on the recent deal to resume Ukraine’s grain exports, the volatile situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant and efforts to help end the nearly six-month-old war.
UN Secretary-General Ant nio Guterres arrived Wednesday in Lviv, near Ukraine’s border with Poland, where he will meet Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that among other issues, Guterres will discuss “his overall efforts to do what he can to essentially lower the temperature as much as possible with the various authorities.
Last month, Turkey and the UN helped broker an agreement clearing the way for Ukraine to export 22 million tons of corn and other grain stuck in its Black Sea ports since Russia invaded February 24.
A separate memorandum between Russia and the UN aimed to clear roadblocks to shipments of Russian food and fertilizer to world markets.
The war and the blocked exports significantly exacerbated the global food crisis because Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers.
Grain prices peaked after Russia’s invasion, and while some have since returned to prewar levels, they remain significantly higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Developing countries have been hit particularly hard by supply shortages and high prices. Even though ships are now leaving Russia and Ukraine, the food crisis hasn’t ended.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters this week that Guterres’ trip to Ukraine will allow him to see first-hand the results of an initiative that is so critically important to hundreds of millions of people.
Dujarric added that he expects the need for a political solution to the war to be raised in Thursday’s talks.
He said the three leaders will also discuss the situation at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest, which Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling.
In his nightly video address Wednesday, Zelensky reaffirmed his demand for the Russian military to leave the plant, emphasizing that only absolute transparency and control of the situation at and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for the Ukrainian state, for the international community, and for the IAEA can guarantee a gradual return to normal nuclear safety. The International Atomic Energy Agency is a UN agency.
Russia has rejected the demand.
Erdogan’s office has confirmed that he would discuss the grain deal during the talks as well as ways to end the war through diplomatic means.
Earlier this month, the Turkish leader met on the same issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In March, Turkey hosted a round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, who discussed a possible deal to end the hostilities. The talks fell apart after the meeting in Istanbul, with both sides blaming each other.
Erdogan has engaged in a delicate balancing act, maintaining good relations with both Russia and Ukraine. Turkey has provided Ukraine with drones, which played a significant role in deterring a Russian advance early in the conflict, but it has refrained from joining Western sanctions against Russia over the war.
Facing a major economic crisis with official inflation near 80 per cent, Turkey increasingly relies on Russia for trade and tourism. Russian gas covers 45 per cent of Turkish energy needs, and Russia’s atomic agency is building Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.
During their meeting in Sochi this month, Putin and Erdogan agreed to bolster energy, financial and other ties between their countries, raising concerns in the West that Ankara could help Moscow bypass the US and European Union sanctions. PTI
Vuln!! Path it now!!
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to ascertain the feasibility of enacting a stringent population control law to secure fundamental rights for citizens.
The plea filed by spiritual orator Devkinandan Thakur said there is a need to control the population explosion to secure the basic rights of the citizens as this is the root cause of all the problems.
“The facts constituting the cause of action accrued on December 10, 2020, when the Centre said that it is against the forcing of family planning and won’t take coercion action. Centre passed its obligation though ‘Population Control & Family Planning’ is mentioned in the concurrent list. Hence Centre can make laws and regulation policies to control population explosion, which is the biggest menace to democracy and socio-economic development. It has not even drafted a Bill till date.
“The injury caused to citizens, particularly women, is extremely large. The perils of population explosion on the economy and its ramifications are often discussed. But, the impact that repeated childbearing has on women are seldom highlighted outside the niche areas. Incidence of grand multiparity, which is defined as more than 4 viable births, in developing countries like India is 20 per cent while it is only 2 per cent in developed countries,” the plea filed through advocate Ashutosh Dubey said.
The plea has submitted that the right to clean air, drinking water, health, and livelihood guaranteed under Articles 21-21A, can’t be secured to all citizens without effective population control.
It has also sought directions to the Law Commission of India to examine the population control laws and population control policies of the developed countries and suggest steps in order to secure the fundamental rights.
The Centre in another petition had earlier told the top court that India is unequivocally against forcing family planning on its people and any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the health ministry had said that the family welfare programme in the country is voluntary in nature, which enables couples to decide the size of their family and adopt family planning methods best suited to them, according to their choice and without any compulsion.
The submission was made in response to a PIL filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay challenging a Delhi High Court order that dismissed a plea seeking certain steps, including the two-child norm, to control the country’s growing population.
British stars Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed are set to featuure together in sci-fi romance film “Fingernails”.
Christos Nikou, best known for the 2020 Greek-language drama “Apples”, will direct the film from a script he penned with Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis, reported Deadline.
Described as a grounded sci-fi love story”, the film is set in a world where a test has been discovered that measures whether couples are truly in love. To help couples succeed, love institutes have opened to guide them.
“Anna (Buckley) is skeptical of the positive result she’s received with her longtime partner, so she starts working in a love institute as an assistant to Trevor (Ahmed), a mysterious, dedicated instructor,” the official plotline read.
The project is backed by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films along with FilmNation Entertainment, which is also financing. Jerome Duboz will serve as an executive producer.
Buckley is known for her critically-acclaimed performances in movies such as “Wild Rose”, “Judy”, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” and “The Lost Daughter”. She currently stars in Alex Garland’s “Men”.
Ahmed recently won an Oscar for best live action short film for “The Long Goodbye” and featured in Amazon movie “Encounter”.
Vuln!! Path it now!!
Shimla/New Delhi, May 11 (PTI) Veteran Congress leader from Himachal Pradesh and former Union minister Sukh Ram died early Wednesday at a Delhi hospital. He was 94.
The Congress leader, who was airlifted and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on May 7 after suffering a brain stroke in Manali in Himachal Pradesh, died at the hospital at 1:35 am, hospital sources said.
Sukh Ram’s grandson Aashray Sharma said his body will be kept at Seri Manch in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi to enable people to pay their last respects on Thursday.
“Goodbye grandfather, the phone won’t ring now (alvida dadajee, abhi nahi bajegee phone ki ghanti),” Sharma said in a Facebook post around 2 am on Wednesday.
In another post, Sharma said Sukh Ram’s body will reach his home city Mandi on Wednesday at 6 pm.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur expressed condolences over Sukh Ram’s demise.
In a tweet in Hindi, he said, “I am grief stricken to hear the news of death of former union minister and veteran leader from Mandi Pandit Sukh Ram Jee.”
His contribution to politics was very vital and will be always remembered, he added.
“May Ishwar provide place to his departed soul at His feet and his bereaved family get strength to bear the irreparable loss,” he added.
Thakur had on May 7 provided a state helicopter for airlifting the veteran political leader to Delhi for treatment.
Sukh Ram was the Union minister of state communications (independent charge) from 1993 to 1996. He was a member of the Lok Sabha from the Mandi constituency.
He won five assembly elections and was thrice elected to Lok Sabha.
In 2011, Sukh Ram was sentenced to five years imprisonment for corruption during his tenure as communications minister in 1996. His son Anil Sharma is a BJP MLA from Mandi.
Born on July 27,1927, Sukh Ram had represented the Mandi assembly seat from 1963 to 1984. During his tenure as state animal husbandry minister, he was credited with bringing cows from Germany which led to an increase in income of farmers.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 and served as a junior minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government. Sukh Ram served as minister of state for defence production and supplies, planning and food and civil supplies.
While Sukh Ram represented the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, his son Anil Sharma contested and won the assembly seat in 1993. The Congress leader had won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in 1996, but he and his son were expelled from the party after the telecom scam.
Subsequently, they floated the Himachal Vikas Congress Party, which entered into a post-poll alliance with the BJP and joined the government.
In 1998, Sukh Ram contested the assembly elections from Mandi Sadar and won by a huge margin. His son Anil Sharma was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1998.
Sukh Ram along with his grandson rejoined the Congress right before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to get a Congress ticket for Aashray Sharam but he could not win.
Sukh Ram’s other grandson Aayush Sharma is an actor and married to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s sister Arpita.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s Mumbai unit went across to all flood prone areas and inspected the rivers, nallahs and storm water drains (SWDs) that cause the flooding in the respective areas and were shocked to find out that there is absolutely no pre monsoon de-silting done!
Merely two weeks are left for the onset of the Monsoon Season in Mumbai but once again BMC has failed to clear the rivers, nallahs and SWDs of silt and debri – which means they will overflow and once again major areas of the city will have to face floods. Even by the BMC’s own figures major nallahs and SWDs in the city are far from desilted. If the BMC’s own documents and their online tracker are to be believed only 43% of the city’s nallahs & SWDs and only 84% of Mithi River have been desilted! As per BMC large parts of nallahs including the Poisar river, Chandravarkar Nallah & 48 other nallahs have not even begun desilting. Only 28 % of South Mumbai’s nallahs and SWD’s have been desilted. Only 58% of the Eastern Suburbs nallahs and SWDs have been cleaned. Similarly in the Western Suburbs 50% of the nallahs and SWDs have not been cleaned. In total even the BMC admits it has only cleaned 55% of the city’s minor nallahs.
The shocking truth is that even these figures are fake and nowhere near ground reality!! AAP volunteers and leadership went to various spots along the Mithi and saw that the river is still hopelessly choked up at Jogeshwari, BKC, Bandra East & Kalina – this poses a major threat to all Western Suburbs. Even smaller Nallahs & SWD’s are still choked up across the city nullahs. The Eastern Suburbs are worse off as none of the nallahs have even been attempted and the 58% claim is totally fake!
“The Shivsena Government has shown complete apathy to the death and devastation caused in Mumbai year after year. In power in BMC for three decades and now in the State too, their only interest is in looting the BMC and their utter recklessness in ignoring the pre monsoon preparation is nothing short of malafide criminal intent. It is time to bury the ghost of the “Spirit of Mumbai” and file criminal charges against those responsible for the floods that we are inevitably going to face.” said Mumbai President Preeti Sharma Menon.
“The sheer lies behind the reportage of the cleaning of the Mithi River proves that there is something rotten in the BMC. There seems to be a massive nexus between the contractors cleaning the river and Municipal Authorities and they think the lives of Mumbaikars is a cheap price to pay.” said AAP Leader and Mumbai’s Riverman Gopal Jhaveri.
The Aam Aadmi Party demands that an external independent body be appointed to audit the pre monsoon preparation and all the contractors and officers who have failed to do the work and those that have misreported the figures be tried for attempted murder. And, if the city floods again this monsoon, criminal negligence cases should be filed against the Councillors of those wards. It is time that Mumbaikers put these criminals in jail!
AAP complains against alleged sexual harrassment by Dr. Manoj Patel at Nanavati Hospital, Vile Parle
Writes letters to the Dean of Nanavati Hospital and Santacruz Police Station demanding immediate inquiry and action
The Aam Aadmi Party today submitted letters of complaint to the Dean of Nanavati hospital, Vile Parle, and the Santacruz Police Station, in response to reports of alleged sexual harassment by a doctor of Nanavati Hospital on 31st March 2022. Dr. Manoj Patel, a practitioner under General Medicine has allegedly molested a girl during what was a routine health check-up. What makes this incident even more appalling, is that when the victim rushed out of Dr. Manoj Patel’s ward and publically called out the doctor’s misbehaviour; the hospital staff acted as mere bystanders, and did nothing to support the victim.
“This is a condemnable offence of an extremely grave nature, and must be met with the strictest action against the perpetrator, if the allegations of misbehaviour are found to be true. We demand that the authorities take immediate cognizance of this incident, and initiate an inquiry. It is extremely important that the sanctity of the medical profession is maintained, and no such act is ever repeated.” said Preeti Sharma Menon, National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari.
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