Category Archives: National

National, Politics

Om Birla vs K Suresh: First LS Speaker election as INDIA puts forth nominee

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 Opposition candidate K Suresh will be contesting against NDA’s Om Birla, in a first-ever election for the Speaker post since independence

PTI, New Delhi, Jun 25, 2024 : The ruling BJP-led NDA on Tuesday maintained its streak of continuity in its third term by fielding previous Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for the crucial parliamentary position again, but its bid for a consensus was thwarted by the opposition which forced an election by nominating Kodikunnil Suresh as its candidate.

    The opposition’s last-minute decision to go for a rare contest came after senior BJP leaders did not agree to its precondition that the INDIA bloc must be offered the post of Deputy Speaker in lieu of supporting Birla, who is the clear favourites in case of an election.
    A brief interaction involving Congress leader K C Venugopal and DMK’s T R Baalu from the opposition side and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and J P Nadda, who is also the BJP president, at Singh’s office in Parliament to evolve a consensus ended in acrimony as both sides stuck to their position.
    Both opposition leaders walked out, with Venugopal accusing the government of not following the “convention” of an opposition candidate for the Deputy Speaker’s position and announcing the decision to field a candidate against Birla.
    Union ministers Piyush Goyal of the BJP and Lalan Singh of the JD(U) accused the opposition of resorting to pressure politics and putting forth preconditions despite senior ministers’ assurance that its demand will be considered when the time to pick the Deputy Speaker comes.
    “There can be no pressure politics,” Union minister and JD(U) leader Lalan Singh told reporters, while Goyal said democracy cannot be run on preconditions.
     The scheduled day for picking the Speaker is Wednesday and if an election occurs, it will be only the third time in Lok Sabha’s history, official sources said.
    With the NDA having 293 MPs in its kitty and the INDIA bloc 233, numbers clearly favour Birla in Lok Sabha, which currently has 542 members after Rahul Gandhi resigned from one of the two seats he was elected from. At least three independent members also support the opposition.
     The NDA is hopeful that some unaligned parties, including the YSR Congress having four MPs, will also back Birla.
    BJP sources claimed that the Congress has been the main aggressor on the issue and some other INDIA bloc members are not very keen on a contest.
    If Birla, the BJP MP from Kota, is elected, it will be fifth time that a Speaker would serve beyond the tenure of one Lok Sabha. Though Congress leader Balram Jakhar is the only presiding officer to have served two complete terms extending seventh and eighth Lok Sabha.
    A third-term MP, Birla is also a three-term former Rajasthan MLA and has risen through the ranks in the BJP. Suresh, his rival for the Speaker’s post, is a eighth-term MP from Kerala and hails from a Dalit community.
    If a division of votes takes place in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, then paper slips will be used as the electronic system is not operational yet in the new Lok Sabha where members are still in the process of being allocated their seats.
    Seasoned BJP leader Rajnath Singh had taken the lead in reaching out to opposition parties over the issue as Birla emerged as the NDA’s consensus choice and met its senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
    Suresh said it is not about winning or losing, but about a convention that Speaker will be of ruling party and deputy speaker from the opposition.
    “Last two Lok Sabhas, they denied us deputy speaker’s post because they said you are not recognised as the opposition. Now we are recognised as the opposition, (and) deputy speaker post is our right. But they are not ready to give us. Till 11.50, we were waiting for reply from government’s side but they did not give any reply,” he told reporters.
    Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said this has come barely 24 hours after the prime minister advocated consensus in running the country.
    “Convention has been that the Speaker is elected unanimously and the deputy speaker’s post goes to the opposition,” Ramesh said.
    He accused Prime Minister Modi of breaking this tradition.
    “It is actually no surprise. He has still not woken up to the reality of the 2024 poll verdict which was a PPM defeat for him–personal, political and moral,” he posted on X.
    Sources said more than 10 sets of nominations (called notices for motion) were filed in support of Birla’s candidature, including from Prime Minister Modi, Union ministers Shah, Singh and Nadda, and members of BJP allies like TDP, JD(U), JD(S) and LJP (R).
    Three sets of nominations were filed in support of Suresh.
    Known of its knack of springing surprises, the BJP leadership chose to stick to Birla in line with its decision to retains its old hands in key positions.
    Though the Speaker is independent of political and executive control, realpolitik considerations are often the driving force behind the choice for the Chair which is the nerve centre of Parliament’s functioning.
Crime, National

Amid NEET, NET exam mess, UPSC moots AI-based CCTV surveillance to prevent cheating

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PTI, Jun 24, 2024 : Amid NEET and NET exam controversies, UPSC plans to implement AI-based CCTV surveillance and facial recognition to prevent cheating. It has invited bids for solutions including Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication, facial recognition, and QR code scanning of e-admit cards, along with live AI CCTV monitoring during exams. 

Amid the raging controversies involving alleged irregularities in NEET, NET exams, the country’s premier recruitment body UPSC has decided to use facial recognition and Artificial Intelligence-based CCTV surveillance system to prevent cheating and impersonation in its various tests. It has recently floated a tender to invite bids from experienced public sector undertakings to devise two tech solutions — “Aadhaar based fingerprint authentication (else digital fingerprint capturing) & facial recognition of candidates and QR code scanning of e-admit cards” and “Live AI-based CCTV surveillance service”– to be used during the examination process.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), a Constitutional body, conducts 14 major exams — including the prestigious civil services examination to select officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and Indian Police Service (IPS) — besides a number of recruitment tests, interviews every year for induction to Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ posts of the central government.
An estimated 26 lakh candidates are expected to appear in such recruitment, conducted at a maximum of 80 centres in Leh, Kargil, Srinagar, Imphal, Agartala, Aizawl and Gangtok, among other major cities.
“The UPSC attaches great importance to the conduct of its examinations in a free, fair and impartial manner. In its endeavor to fulfill these objectives, the Commission intends to make use of the latest digital technology to match and cross-check the biometric details of the candidates and to monitor various activities of the candidates during the examination to prevent cheating, fraud, unfair means and impersonation,” read the tender document dated June 3, 2024.
Accordingly, the Commission has desired to incorporate Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication (else digital fingerprint capturing) and facial recognition of candidates, scanning of QR Code of e-admit cards and monitoring through live AI-based CCTV video surveillance, it said.
The move is aimed at strengthening the examination process and eliminating the possibility of malpractices by the candidates.
The selected service provider will use the data provided by the UPSC for Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication of candidates and facial recognition during the exam, according to the scope of work mentioned in the tender document.
“Provision should be made for a real-time attendance monitoring system through secured web server. System should have provision for real time monitoring of the enrolment activity along with GPS coordinates against every enrolment and time stamp to ensure that enrolment is done during the stipulated shift,” it said.
The Commission said that facial recognition should be performed in a completely stateless transaction of two images — one provided during the online registration and the other captured on the day of the exam.
The UPSC said that it has decided to implement CCTV/video surveillance with recording and live broadcast systems to monitor various activities of the candidates and other persons deployed to conduct the Commission’s examinations at the various centres/venues across the country under a secure environment.
“The service provider has to install adequate number of CCTV colour cameras in every classroom (minimum 1 CCTV camera for 24 candidates), entry/exit gate and control room (where pre-examination sensitive material will be kept and opened and post-examination sensitive material will be packed) of every examination venue,” the document said.
The UPSC said that the service provider will install one CCTV camera for every 24 candidates at each exam hall/room “subject to the condition that at least 1 CCTV camera is installed in every room irrespective of candidates being less than 24.”
In case of the exam hall/room having more than 24 candidates, one CCTV camera for every 24 candidates shall be installed ensuring that the CCTV camera to candidate ratio is not less than 1:24 and that there are zero blind spots, it added.
The AI-based video system need to be capable of generation of alerts “if any movement is detected at entry/exit gates during examination,” and “if the furniture inside the classrooms is not properly arranged.”
It will also alert the authorities “if the cameras are offline or are tempered (sic) by masking or black screen,” “if there is any movement in classrooms 1 hour before or after the exam” and “if Invigilator is not moving even after the specified time/inactivity is detected in Invigilator’s movement,” the tender document said.
The AI should raise red flags at incidents which would indicate cheating, unfair means, absence of invigilators etc, it added.
The date of closure of the bid document is July 7, 1 pm. The bid will be opened on the same day at 1.30 pm.
The development by the UPSC assumes significance as the Central government faces heat over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of UGC-NET — (University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test) — which determines the eligibility of Indian nationals for Assistant Professor and Junior Research Fellowship — and in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG, a medical entrance.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is looking into the allegations of malpractice in both the UGC-NET and NEET-UG exams conducted by the National Testing Agency.
National, Politics

CBI takes over 5 cases of alleged malpractices in NEET-UG from Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan

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Over 2 dozen students detained during march to Parliament
The CBI has re-registered one case each from Gujarat and Bihar and three cases from Rajasthan as its own FIR

PTI, New Delhi, Jun 24 2024 : The CBI has taken over the investigation of five new cases of alleged malpractices in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG that were being probed by police in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar, officials said on Monday.

They said the central agency has re-registered one case each from Gujarat and Bihar and three cases from Rajasthan as its own FIR, while it is also likely to take up another case from Maharashtra’s Latur.
Barring the case from Bihar, the other four appear to be isolated incidents of impersonation and cheating by local officials, invigilators and candidates, the officials said.
The CBI has already registered its own FIR in connection with the case on a reference from the Union education ministry to conduct a comprehensive probe, they said.
After taking over these new cases, the CBI is now probing a total of six cases pertaining to alleged irregularities in NEET-UG, the officials said.
ALSO READ: ‘Abolish NEET, restore state-led exams’: Mamata Banerjee writes to PM Modi
NEET-UG is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
The examination was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad. Over 23 lakh candidates appeared for the test.
The first CBI FIR was registered on Sunday, a day after the ministry announced it would hand over the probe into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam to the central agency, a demand raised by a section of students protesting in several cities.
“The ministry of education has requested the CBI to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities, including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust and destruction of evidence by candidates, institutes and middlemen,” a CBI spokesperson said earlier.
The role of public servants, if any, connected with the conduct of the examination and also into the entire gamut of events and the larger conspiracy will also be under the scanner, officials have said.
Crime, National, Northeast

Manipur: Fresh gunfight breaks out between armed men

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PTI, Imphal, Jun 23, 2024 :  A fresh gunfight broke out between armed men belonging to two warring communities in Manipur, police said.


The incident took place after some armed persons opened fire towards Thamnapokpi and Lamlai areas in Imphal East district from hilltop positions in adjoining Kangpokpi district around 10.30 pm on Saturday, a police officer said.

Local village volunteers returned fire and security forces rushed to the area to bring the situation under control, he said.

The gunfight stopped after an hour and no casualties were reported, the officer said.

More than 200 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and hills-based Kukis since May last year.

India Tv, 23 June 2024 : In the latest development in violence trapped Manipur, fresh clashes broke out between the armed men in two communities, the police said.



The incident that took place on Saturday, saw some armed miscreants firing towards the Thamnapokpi and Lamlai areas in Imphal East district. The shots were fired from hilltop positions in the adjoining district of

.

The gunfight took place at around 10:30 pm on June 21, the police said. According to the police, local village volunteers did retaliatory firing while the security forces rushed to the site to bring the situation under control. An hour later guns silenced and no casualties were reported.


Jiribam violence



Earlier on June 7, violence erupted in largely peaceful Jiribam after a lifeless body of Soibam Saratkumar Singh (59) was recovered. He was suspected to have been killed by the militants, officials said. Agitated by this, locals set a few abandoned structures on fire which was followed by the imposition of curfew in the area.

Jiribam, which has a diverse ethnic composition comprising Meiteis, Muslims, Nagas, Kukis and non-Manipuris, had remained unaffected by the ethnic strife till the unfortunate incident. Meanwhile, suspected militants had also torched two police outposts, a forest office and at least 70 houses, prompting the authorities to transfer the superintendent of police.


Additionally, a contingent of more than 70 state police commandos was airlifted from Imphal to Jiribam to assist security personnel in their operations against militants. After the Jiribam violence, more than 200 people were moved to relief camps in Manipur. Meanwhile, people also crossed stare borders to reach Assam’s Cachar district.


Notably, the ethnic violence started in Manipur in May last year. Since then, more than 200 people have lost their lives and thousands have been rendered homeless between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and hills-based Kukis.