NEWS

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha(SKM) has condemned the Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal's statement and called it inhuman.

"Unlike the pseudo nationalism of BJP-RSS, farmers of this country are truly dedicated to protecting the country's sovereignty, unity and dignity," SKM said.

SKM condemned the fact that the government is unashamedly admitting in the parliament that it has no data of the farmers who sacrificed their lives in the ongoing movement. "The union is maintaining a blog site where such data is readily available if the government cares. It is the same callousness which resulted in the loss of lives so far," said SKM.

Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal made the remark on Saturday in Bhiwani in response to a reporter's query over the 'death of 200 farmers' during the protests.

In the last three years, the number of narcotics cases has increased by 45.42 per cent in Rajasthan. However, the government claims that high numbers of cases were detected due to their pro-activeness, the official data tables in Rajasthan Assembly revealed.

In 2018, as many as 1,878 cases were registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act), which increased to 2,589 in 2019 and 2,731 in 2020 despite the Covid-19 lockdown.

“There has been an increase in the action against illegal drug trade in the state. In the year 2018, 1,878 cases were registered in the, 2,589 in the year 2019, and 2,731 in the year 2020. It cannot be said that there has been an increase in the illegal drug trade in the state,” reads the reply stated by the government in assembly.

National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah Sunday claimed he and his family, including his father and Member of Parliament Farooq Abdullah, have been put under house arrest by authorities. The Srinagar Police, however, claimed that the "movement of VIPs and Protected Persons has been discouraged" due to the anniversary of the 2019 Pulwama attack.

"This is the 'naya/new J&K' after Aug 2019. We get locked up in our homes with no explanation. It's bad enough they've locked my father (a sitting MP) & me in our home, they've locked my sister & her kids in their home as well," Omar wrote on Twitter.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister also posted photographs showing police vehicles outside the gates of his residence in the Gupkar area of the city here.

The Centre released the 15th instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to states on Friday, February 12, to meet the GST compensation shortfall.

This takes the total amount released so far through the special borrowing window to Rs 90,000 crore, the Finance Ministry said, adding that this is in addition to additional borrowing permission of Rs 1,06,830 crore granted to the states.

"Out of this, an amount of Rs 5,516.60 crore has been released to 23 States and an amount of Rs 483.40 crore has been released to the three union territories (UTs) with legislative assemblies (Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry) who are members of the GST Council," the ministry said.

"The remaining 5 states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation," it added.