Kashmir unrest

But another senior police official, who did not want to be identified since he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said such deaths trigger more anger.

“The re-emergence of local militancy is very a dangerous trend. People are emotionally involved with local boys who are in the age group of 16 to 22. Their deaths trigger more anger and prompt more youth to join militancy,” said the officer, a senior superintendent of police.

Since the beginning of a drawn-out unrest since July 2016 — when local militant leader Burhan Wani was killed by security forces — Kashmir has recorded a spike in young men joining the militancy.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti told the state assembly in February this year that in 2017, 126 men from the region joined outfits such as the Hizb-ul Mujahideen — an increase of 44% compared to the year before and highest in the seven years since such records have been compiled.

According to an official in the Jammu and Kashmir police who did not want to be named, of an estimated 240-250 militants active in the region, 140-150 are locals.

Wednesday’s deaths add to the problems of the administration led by Mufti, who is currently trying to quell anger over the gangrape-murder in Kathua. The Kathua incident is complicated by the fact that the suspects have found support from groups connected to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mufti’s coalition partner. and Gauri Grover seeking directions to municipal bodies and other state and Central authorities to take steps to prevent the spread of dengue, chikungunya and malaria.

Rainwater and fresh water collected in containers, tanks, buckets, vases and bottle caps is the breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes that spread chikungunya and dengue. The two diseases, and malaria, together sickened 9,271 people and led to 10 deaths in 2017, according to data from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which maintains annual records for vector-borne diseases. Many infections possibly go unreported since the number of hospitalisation and deaths is far fewer.

Dengue causes flu-like illness, with symptoms of headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands or rash lasting for two to seven days. Death, though rare, is from potentially fatal complications, such as dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome.

The most common symptoms of chikungunya are fever and joint pain, and patients may report headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, or rashes.

SDMC officials say they have started measures to control mosquito breeding and track infection a month ahead of schedule this year. “We have finalised a comprehensive action plan in March, which includes information, education and communication material for people, including students. From April 1, mosquito-breeding checkers started visiting houses, commercial areas and challaning the defaulters,” said Dr. BK Hazarika, medical health officer, South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Health department officials said that the civic agencies were not the only ones to blame for the spread of disease.. “The trouble is civic agencies can intervene only up to a point, but eventually people need to be proactive for breeding to stop and dengue to not reach epidemic proportions. People need to change their behaviour — how difficult is to not let water collect in and around their house?” said Yogendra Mann, director, press and information at the SDMC.

“We always get cases about a week after a spell, and if the showers continue, there may be a spurt in cases from next week,” says Dr Srikant Sharma, consultant, medicine department, Moolchand Hospital. lakh bullet-proof jackets to the army, and progress on that project wasn’t made after the panel tabled its report in Parliament in March. The panel looks at the defence ministry’s functioning and consists of MPS from different political parties.

“I want to remove doubts in anyone’s mind that nothing is happening in the ministry,” she said.

The army had told the panel that even as neighbouring China and Pakistan were modernising their militaries at a lightning pace, lack of resources was hurting the force at a time it should be prepared for a two-front war.

Army vice chief Lieutenant General Sarath Chand told the panel that Budget 2018-19 had dashed the army’s hopes and overall shortage under the capital head stood at ~12,296 crore.

Responding to another question on the military’s budget and how it has been on the decline measured against India’s gross domestic product (GDP), defence secretary Sanjay Mitra said, “Let me assure you resources are adequate at this point of time. Nearly 33% of the government’s capital expenditure is reserved for defence.” In February, India allocated ~2.95 lakh crore for military spending during 2018-19, a modest hike of 7.8% over last year’s budget of R2.74 lakh crore. The budget includes a capital outlay of ~s 99,563 crore for buying new weapons and systems, up from ~86,488 crore.

The budget breached the ~4 lakh crore-mark factoring in defence pensions (~1.08 lakh crore). The pension outlay exceeds capital expenditure. This year the budget has slipped to a mere 1.57% of the GDP.

“We fail to understand why the investigating agency instead of arresting accused persons, arrested complainant, in connection with this case,” the HC bench of chief justice DB Bhosale and justice Suneet Kumar observed, referring to the arrest of the woman’s father.

The sharing of Cauvery waters is the subject of a festering dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In its February 16 order, the top court marginally increased Karnataka’s share of Cauvery water and ordered a reduction in the allocation for Tamil Nadu. Karnataka has objected to constitution of the Cauvery board. The Tamil film industry, toplined by actor-politicians Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, observed a silent protest in Chennai recently. “It will be nice if IPL is not played this time in Chennai, understanding the plight of the farmers due to severe shortage of water,” Rajinikanth told journalists before heading to the protest site.

On Tuesday, during CSK’S opening home match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, thousands of protesters had descended upon the stadium and choked the surrounding areas. They burnt CSK team jerseys and complained about the wastage of water in the outfield at a time when the city was going through a water shortage. But the police managed to clear and sanitize a route for the players’ vehicles to reach the stadium and also to ferry them back to their hotels.

On Wednesday, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhakam (Ammk)leaderttvdhinakaran blamed the Tamil Nadu government for the violent incidents during the protest against the IPL match. He alleged that police had attacked and registered cases against those who were protesting in a “democratic manner”.

Sports marketing experts doubted whether CSK would be able to replicate its home atmosphere in a different city, but said that the loss of revenue from gate fees may not be significant.

“The single biggest concern for the team will be the kind of fan support in Chennai will be hard to replicate at such short notice,” said Harish Krishnamachar, co-founder at sports consultancy firm Sportoid. “This is CSK’S comeback year, the sponsors aren’t likely to change deals last minute. There could be minor accruals in terms of travel costs that the team will have to additionally account for,” he added.

At present, the team has 12 sponsors including the Muthoot Group, India Cements, Reliance Jio, Frooti and Peter England, among others.

Franchises in sporting leagues are based on brand loyalty and fan support which is only possible when you play at home, said Amrit Mathur, former COO of Delhi Daredevils. “The biggest loss for CSK would be that they are unable to connect with their fans. They have come back to the IPL after two years and suddenly they have lost out on the fan support in Chennai,” he said.