Girl cries foul, foils 10 child marriages

“I want to study but my parents have fixed my marriage. Please help me,” a frantic call for help from a 15-year-old in Kerala not only saved her but stopped nine more underage girls from being married off. The call came from Karuvarakkundue, an impoverished village in the state’s Malappuram district, where child marriages are common and women become grandmothers even before they turn 40. Childline officials rushed to the village after receiving the call on Sunday and found nine more girls under the age of 18 were to be wedded in the coming weeks when schools close for summer vacation. The would-be grooms were not underage.

The parents of the girls, mostly daily-wagers, want to marry them off young to avoid giving a big dowry — another problem that plagues economically backward Malappuram.

Malappuram is a Muslim majority district, where the community accounts for 70% of the population. Chidline volunteers said they initially contacted the local panchayat member but she refused to intervene, fearing a backlash from the villagers.

The volunteers then sought the help of district administration and social welfare board officers, who managed to talk the parents out of the wedding plans.

“Initially, the parents resisted our move. We had to hold several counselling sessions to make them aware of the dangers of child marriage,” Childline district coordinator Anwar Karakkadan said. “Some of the parents even told us that we would have to find a suitable match for their daughters once they were of marriageable age.”

The bench said it was a “matter of common knowledge that huge amount of money was spent each year towards constructing or repairing roads and cleaning up nallahs. However, in actual reality, such an exercise is rarely undertaken properly. Instead, various parts of the city get flooded every year because the money that is supposed to be spent on repairs goes down the drain or into the pockets of officials concerned.”

“The government can’t be a helpless witness to this. What steps have been taken to monitor the activities of the corporation?” it asked.

The state, in turn, said it had appointed auditors. However, even some of these auditors had turned out to be accused in the road scam. The corporation argued that it was “trying its best to weed out such elements” from its system and had suspended the officials concerned and blacklisted contractors.

The court pointed out that earlier last year, the corporation had given out new work orders to these very contractors.

The HC was hearing a plea filed by Vivekanand Gupta highlighting serious irregularities by the BMC in the construction of roads between 2013 and 2016.

After the meeting, Fadnavis tweeted, “Union environment minister Anil Dave informed that CRZ final clearance for the coastal road project is with union government and a final notification will be issued in a month’s time.”

He also tweeted, “Decisions for Malad and other sewage treatment plants in Mumbai including discharge standards for STP will be finalised in one month.”

The chief minister had sought a final approval for the 29.2 km coastal road – stretching from Nariman Point to Kandivili — within a month, so that work on the south end of the project can begin. The project has been on the drawing board for the past five months, even after the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) cleared the revised proposal for the road and recommended them to the expert appraisal committee (EAC) on CRZ and infrastructure of the environment ministry.

“The CM was very aggressive about these pending clearances. He said it was our government notification to amend Coastal Regulatory Zone notification 2011 to allow reclamation for the coastal road. And despite that the environment ministry had been withholding project clearance,’’ said a senior official, on the condition of anonymity.

It is learnt the project will now be considered in the next meeting of the EAC on March 4.

With regards to the redevelopment of slums in CRZ areas, the Fadnavis-led government had sought relaxation of norms and made recommendations to the Shailesh Naik-led committee on CRZ. The government has sought standard SRA norms be made applicable in these areas. The redevelopment of these areas was cleared in the 2011 notification, but under stringent norms of 51% public stake to 49% private investment. The state had pointed out that the conditions were commercially unviable with not a single redevelopment project taking off.

Fadnavis said, “We requested consideration on the Naik report because owing to the earlier formula of 51:49, not a single slum was redeveloped in Mumbai. The minister has assured that obstacles for slum rehabilitation in CRZ areas will be removed soon.’’

The state had also requested that the relaxation of 15 days a year to noise pollution norms be further delegated district wise to collectors instead of being decided uniformly at the state level.

The chief minister also met Union minister Dr Mahesh Sharma with a request to delegate powers for conservation of forts, especially Raigad fort.

Fadnavis said the master plan for Raigad’s redevelopment will be approved by the Archeological Survey of India and will then be executed by the state government under the ASI supervision.

The state government has budgeted Rs 600 crore for redevelopment of Raigad fort, the capital of Maratha warrior king Shivaji, thus having a greater “I decided on Monday night that I will write this exam,” said Gaikwad, who sustained severe injuries to his face and fractured his limbs in the mishap. “I couldn’t make up my mind sooner because I was conscious of my appearance and had lost the morale to take the exams.”

On Tuesday morning, Gaikwad reached the Mumbai divisional board’s Vashi office at exam centres across Mumbai had already began writing their paper at 11:00 am.

Coming to the student’s aid, the board completed his registration and issued a hall ticket within 15 minutes. Oriental College, Sanpada, located 10 minutes away, was assigned as the exam centre.

Along with a college staffer, Gaikwad raced to the centre and entered the exam hall at 11.30 am — a minute later and he wouldn’t have been allowed inside, in keeping with the board rule that prohibits students from walking into the exam hall 30 minutes after the paper begins.

“My heart couldn’t stop beating when I received the question paper, I couldn’t believe my luck,” said Gaikwad, who wasn’t sure if he wanted to take the exam until Monday night. “I hadn’t even prepared much for the exam, but I could answer all the questions.”

Board authorities said while they were used to students being tardy in filling their registration forms, Gaikwad’s case was the first time the board registered a student and issued him a hall ticket after the exam had begun.

On Monday alone — on the eve of the exam tù he board processed 81 registrations. One student even approached them just as the office was closing around 5.30 pm. “Such late registrations occur only in Mumbai and no other division. Students here are indisciplined and not serious about the exams,” said Dattatray Jagtap, divisional chairperson. He said they have requested the government to set a deadline for exam registrations.

“I was worried as the doors didn’t shut automatically in suburban trains. The safety of passengers is our biggest concern,” she said.

“Our main aim is to support the project to ensure safe, smooth and comfortable travel,” she said.

The MUTP III involves expanding suburban rail network up to Dahanu by constructing the 3rd and 4th line between Virar-dahanu (63km) and Airoli-kalwa (4km), which will provide easier access for suburban commuters between Kalyanpanvel and doubling of Panvelkarjat (28km). The MUTP covers Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Navi Mumbai.

The other project that the World Bank will assist is the Climate Resilient Agriculture Project However its board is yet project. “We are interested in supporting the project,” Georgieva said adding, “Farmers are the most affected with climate change and this project is aimed at making them less dependent on natural resources.”

The project aims at water conservation for farming and change in farming practices to make them less dependent on natural resources of water and encourage better farm practices. It covers more than 5,000 villages in 14 districts.

The Sena’s 84 corporators and four independents supporting it visited the Konkan Divisional Commissioner’s office on Tuesday and registered themselves as a group to secure the party’s strength and avoid last-minute defections.

According to sources, the BJP may send feelers to Shiv Sena for a post-poll alliance, in the next four to five days, as it does not want a shake-up at the statelevel, with another two years to go for the next Assembly polls. Having a disgruntled ally in the state government may not help Fadnavis deliver on his development agenda, said a BJP leader.

Besides Mumbai, the saffron parties will also benefit by coming together in seven to eight zilla parishads, although in other big cities, BJP needs no help from its ally to come to power. “After a polarised contest, there will be a cooling off period between Sena and BJP. But eventually, we will come together in the BMC. With elections behind us, we now have two years to focus and complete all of state’s development projects. There is no danger to the Fadnavis government,” said Chandrakant Patil, state’s public works minister. The Sena has threatened to capture power in the BMC on its own strength, with help from Congress, other parties and independents. The close contest between the saffron parties saw BJP win 82 seats, just two less than the Sena. But, given the bitterness during campaigning, the parties have not yet opened communication channels. “Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.”

It took three hours for PWC to confirm that the presenters received the wrong category envelope. PWC said it took full responsibility and apologised to the casts and crews of La La Land

The wrestler responded , saying he might not write poems but still made the country proud .

Dutt was joined by sisters Geeta and Babita Phogat, who also took potshots at Kaur. “If you speak against nation, people will obviously not like it. Irrespective of gender, the person won’t be spared,” news agency ANI quoted Geeta as saying.

The row erupted after violence on DU streets during a protest last Wednesday with both sides , the Left-leaning All India Students Association and the ABVP, accusing each other of physical and sexual assault.

Kaur was sucked into the row after one of her older social media posts that read, “Pakistan didn’t kill my dad, war did” went viral. Kaur’s father Captain Mandeep Singh was killed in a militant ambush in Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.

She pulled out of the march in the morning but continued to hog the headlines. MOS for home Kiren Rijiju condemned those threatening her online but maintained that she was misguided.

“Those threatening or abusing her should be identified and punished and the government will ensure security for her,” Rijiju said . “She is a martyr’s daughter. His soul must be weeping that his daughter is being misguided by those who celebrate on the bodies of martyrs.”

On Monday, he had hinted left-leaning forces were “polluting” Gurmehar — comments for which Akhtar slammed him. She, however, was backed by Kargil martyr Saurabh Kalia’s family.

Politics has dominated the campus discourse over the past week and it was evident in the number of top leaders marching with students on Tuesday — a day after the ABVP took out a “Tiranga march” along roughly the same route.

“They (ABVP) cannot win this with their intellectual skill and want to replace it with violence,” Yechury told the students.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also jumped in the fray, meeting L-G Anil Baijal to press for action against people who threatened Gurmehar and were involved in campus violence.

The Delhi police cyber cell said they registered a case of sexual harassment, criminal intimidation and sending obscene materials.

Though Tuesday’s march was peaceful, two ABVP members were arrested for allegedly assaulting AISA students Commission also asked police to file a detailed report on the violence that occurred in the campus last Wednesday.

But while the mood in the DU campus appeared to be against the ABVP, the student group refuted allegations of violence and said they were facing a trial by media.

“I’m withdrawing from the campaign. Congratulations everyone. I request to be left alone. I said what I had to say. I have been through a lot and this is all my 20 year self could take. To anyone questioning my courage and bravery...i’ve shown more than enough,” she said in a social media post. The post came on a day Delhi Police tightened security around her residence following alleged threats of rape made against her online. Delhi Police requested their Jalandhar counterparts to provide adequate security to her.

“I had said ‘hey’ to them pretty much every time I’d been there and they were there. They normally came by once a week…they’d make me laugh, I’d make them laugh and go on our own ways,” he said.

“I knew a few (Indians) that I grew up with in high school…i don’t ever like to really look at it as an Indian or a Mexican or a white person or an Asian, whatever,” he added.

“We’re all human, we’re all people. That’s how it should be viewed, it shouldn’t be viewed as races or ethnicities. We’re all humans, that’s my biggest thing in life...”

Grillot said he was more grateful that he had been “able to give people hope — something that’s been missing for so long”.

“The amount of hope, that’s what’s always gonna be there and that’s what’s I’m grateful for,” he said, adding he had received hundreds of messages of support and made a “couple million” of Indian friends.

Aditi Nayar, principal economist at rating company Icra Ltd, said since the early estimates of quarterly GDP rely heavily on available data from the formal sector, the Q3 GDP growth may not be fully capturing the impact of the note ban.

“Subsequent estimates that draw from wider data sources, may well revise Q3 FY2017