Dharmasthala mass burial: SIT probe transparent, says Dinesh Gundu Rao; minister accuses BJP of twisting facts for political mileage
SIT
) was carrying out an impartial and transparent probe into the alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala, without any pressure, to uncover the truth.
He told reporters that the Home Minister would present a detailed reply in the Legislature Session on Monday, and the chief minister was also likely to make a statement. 'Our intention is very clear – the truth should come out,' he said.
Rao accused the
BJP
of attempting to gain political mileage from the issue. 'They did not react initially, but now, as facts are emerging, their focus is on how to exploit the matter for political gain.
BJP has continued its old strategy of using religious issues for political benefit,' he alleged.
Dismissing BJP claims that the SIT probe had hurt the sanctity of the Dharmasthala temple, Rao clarified that only forest areas had been dug, not the temple premises. 'The BJP is twisting facts and bringing a bad name to the temple. No devotee will lose faith so easily. There is no need to project the matter in this manner,' he said.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
11 Foods That Help In Healing Knee Pain Naturally
lovemyfamilymag.com
Undo
Citing the Paresh Mesta case, Rao said the BJP had previously engaged in 'malicious campaigns' and continued to follow the same approach. On the complainant speaking to national media, he said necessary legal action would be taken.
When asked about the government's decision after digging 17 locations in Dharmasthala, Rao said police would act on the information received. 'It is not an easy task to dig inside a forest during the rains.
The police have been doing their job efficiently without interference. The government and police will act only on facts, truth, witness accounts, proof, and evidence. Only the Home Minister can reveal the next step,' he said.
Rao also clarified that several individuals and organisations, including the Left parties and Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari D Veerendra Heggade, had suggested the formation of an SIT.
'I had initially proposed that Dakshina Kannada police conduct the investigation, but the SIT was formed to address all public concerns,' he said.
On additional complaints being submitted to the SIT, Rao said the officers concerned would decide on them. Regarding the expenses of the probe, he said, 'When we want clarity, we cannot comment prematurely. The team has capable officers.'
Stay updated with the latest local news from your
city
on
Times of India
(TOI). Check upcoming
bank holidays
,
public holidays
, and current
gold rates
and
silver prices
in your area.
Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with
Happy Independence Day wishes
,
messages
, and
quotes
!
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
6 minutes ago
- Indian Express
GoM meeting on GST reforms next week, tight timeline for Council's nod
The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Rate Rationalisation is set to meet in the coming week to discuss the proposal on next-generation GST reforms Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday. The GoM has ministers from six states: Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka. While the proposal was shared with the ministers from the six states a day before the PM's Independence Day address, the Department of Revenue in the Union Ministry of Finance will make a presentation to the GoM when it meets, sources said. Sources in the Union Finance Ministry said they were confident the GoM and later the GST Council would find merit in the proposal. Internal calculations by the Department of Revenue in the Finance Ministry suggest that gross GST revenues under the proposed two-pillar rate structure of 5 per cent and 18 per cent will not be lower than what it is now. Giving a broad idea of the proposal, sources said most of the products and services would be placed in either of the two rates — 5 per cent or 18 per cent. Goods and services used by the common man, or as inputs by farmers, small entrepreneurs and MSMEs, will attract the lower 5 per cent duty. This will reduce the tax burden and is expected to drive consumption. Most other goods and services will attract the 18 per cent rate, they said. Sources said that in categorising goods and services as sin and demerit goods and bracketing them under the special rate of 40 per cent, the Department of Revenue has kept in mind the country's 'social ethos'. At present, there are multiple rate slabs — 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent — and a compensation cess ranging from 1 per cent to 290 per cent that is levied on sin and luxury goods such as cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, pan masala, tobacco and cigarettes. With loans taken by the Centre to pay compensation cess to states getting recouped and fully repaid by November-December, the cess rates on goods are proposed to be subsumed at this special rate of 40 per cent, sources said. But on some goods like tobacco, the tax incidence is substantially higher than 40 per cent; the government is aware of this, and a separate mechanism may be arrived at in due course, the sources said. Though there might be an initial impact on revenues, the gains from higher compliance and consumption are expected to offset the losses, they said. Against a tight timeline, the Centre is learnt to have factored in at least three meetings of the GoM before a final proposal is put before the GST Council, the apex decision-making authority on aspects of the indirect tax regime that was introduced in 2017. Indications are that a rollout is being targeted well ahead of Diwali, since the industry needs time to reconcile to the new rate structure and any disruption ahead of the festive season would need to be avoided. 'In the eight years of GST, there has so far been patchy tinkering of tax rates and slabs. That piecemeal addressing of problems with the tax regime has only complicated the structure further and has ended up with a system that is even more complicated and layered than what was originally envisaged. What we are doing now is a holistic revamp of the tax system with two main rates that will be the two pillars of the tax regime,' said the source 'This structural reform to the tax regime would be accompanied by process reforms that include sorting out registration issues and problems with refunds, and changes in how automated notices are generated to make the interface smoother,' said the source. As per the proposal, the government is looking to implement pre-filled returns to reduce manual intervention, eliminate mismatches and compliance burden due to multiple notices. Changes will also be made on the refunds front, with the proposal aiming to provide a major portion of refunds within a fixed number of days and enable automated processing of refunds for exporters and those with inverted duty structure. 'In Income Tax, the tax department keeps your TDS (tax deducted at source) amount for one year and pays you the refund after your return filing. But since they pay fast, the taxpayer feels happy about it. In GST, there are refunds that are given three times or four times a year. But people still complain. Now, the crucial difference here is that in the case of GST, the timing is crucial, since it (the refund) is working capital for the enterprise. So, there is a need to make the processes faster. All these will be part of the process reforms,' the source said. The Centre is learnt to have factored in at least three meetings of the Group of Ministers (GoM) before a final proposal is put before the GST Council. Indications are that a rollout is being targeted well ahead of Diwali, since the industry needs time to reconcile to the new rate structure and any disruption ahead of the festive season would need to be avoided. The multiplicity of rates in the current GST regime, officials said, had triggered problems of implementation, confusion of interpretation, and disputes. 'So, we wanted to make it simple. Ideally, one tax rate would have been the best solution, but it is not practical. Currently, we have five rates, alongside the exempt items and special rates for items such as jewellery or diamonds. Now we would have two rates (5 per cent and 18 per cent). The third rate (40 per cent) is exceptional. You need to justify why something should go there. Currently, 28 per cent is part of the structure. 40 per cent in the new regime is not. That is the difference,' the source said. The PM's announcement has to be seen in the context of it being a proposal for states to consider, the source said. 'A reform like this should have everybody on board for it to work best. The GoM on rate rationalisation has been working on this issue for the last four years… The Centre has now taken a leadership position on this, and put this proposal for consideration of the panel,' a source said. The Centre, sources said, is convinced of the buoyancy from the rate rationalisation taking care of the worries stemming from revenue loss, unlike an earlier attempt in 2018 when rate cuts did not result in revenue gains. 'There were problems then (2018), since it (the cut) led to inversions in duty rates in multiple sectors and that led to some amount of gaming of the system by players to avail of input tax credits. Evasion grew… This move to revamp the rate structure (now) is to avoid inversions and inversions-related problems,' an official said. 'Technically, the states should be convinced. Politically, one has to see how they respond,' the official said.
The Hindu
6 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Congress releases list of 71 district presidents in M.P.; OBC leaders given maximum representation
The Congress on Saturday (August 16, 2025) released a list 71 district presidents in Madhya Pradesh, with a sizable 20-odd being those from the OBC category, followed by Dalits and tribals. Senior party leader Digvijaya Singh's MLA son and former State Minister Jaivardhan Singh has been made Guna district president, a Congress leader said. Other Backward Classes account for around 49% of M.P.'s population. The ruling BJP, incidentally, has had OBC chief ministers in the state since 2003, including Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and incumbent Mohan Yadav. The Congress' list has four women. These are Vijaylaxmi Tanwar, who has been made Agar Malwa district president, Pratibha Raghuvanshi in Khandwa city, Sunita Patel in Narsinghpur and Saraswati Singh Markam in Singrauli. A Congress leader said Omkar Singh Markam has been appointed Dindori district president, Priyavrat Singh has been given the post in Rajgarh and Harshvijay Gehlot has been made as Ratlam rural chief. They are all former State Ministers. In Bhopal, Praveen Saxena and Anokhi Man Singh Patel were retained as city and rural presidents, respectively. Eleven former legislators have been made district presidents. From the minority community, Arif Iqbal Siddiqui replaced Maqsood Ahmed in Satna as city chief. In all the party has retained 18 district presidents, including Nanesh Choudhary (Barwani), Ravi Naik (Khargone), Prakash Ranka (Jhabua), Nareshwar Pratap Singh (Shajapur), Mukesh Bhati (Ujjain city), Mohit Raghuvanshi (Vidisha), and Rajeev Gujarati (Sehore). In Burhanpur, Congress leader Hemant Patil resigned from all party posts after being denied the rural district president's position. He was the district Congress spokesperson as well. "I will remain a worker," he told PTI. His is the first resignation following the announcement of the list. There are leaders from the SC/ST categories as well as two Muslims, two Jains, one Sikh in the list, another Congress leader added. "The list has come in line with the vision of Rahul Gandhi who wants participation of all communities, especially OBCs, SCs and STs. Gandhi has been advocating caste-based census to end economic and social disparity," he said. The list released by AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal has come two months after Mr. Gandhi kicked off his party's 'Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan' (organisation rejuvenation campaign) in Madhya Pradesh. On June 3, Mr. Gandhi held back-to-back meetings here with party functionaries as part of preparations for the 2028 M.P. assembly polls. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP swept all 29 seats in MP, including Chhindwara, the home turf of senior leader and former chief minister Kamal Nath. The Congress has been out of power in MP since 2003, except for a brief 15-month period between December 2018 and March 2020 under Mr. Nath. The Nath government collapsed after several MLAs, most of them loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia, quit and joined the BJP. The BJP retained power with a huge majority in the 2023 assembly polls.
Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
Kerala CM slams PM Modi for praising RSS in I-Day speech
T'puram: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for praising RSS in his Independence Day speech. He stated that giving credit to RSS and V D Savarkar for Indian independence was a denial of history. Vijayan said it was a dishonour to the independence struggle that the Prime Minister chose Independence Day itself to eulogize those who worshipped the British. RSS was banned in connection with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, and Savarkar faced conspiracy charges related to the murder, the chief minister said. Any amount of ridiculous efforts to whitewash an organization like RSS would not work. The conspiracy behind such an exercise was clearer in the Union petroleum ministry's Independence Day poster, featuring Savarkar above Gandhiji, he added. "It shows the panic of those who fear the history of the freedom struggle," Vijayan said in a statement. "Indians joined the national independence movement beyond caste, religion, dress and language differences. RSS played the role of bystanders then. They openly opposed the fundamental ideological concepts of the freedom movement. Instead of the unity in diversity that Indian nationalism upholds, they promoted a Hindutva nationalism based on majority communalism. On Nov 26, 1949, when the Constituent Assembly gave final approval to India's Constitution, the RSS mouthpiece, Organizer, editorialized that Manusmriti should be upheld instead of the Constitution," the chief minister said. Vijayan said Savarkar boycotted the Independence Day celebrations on Aug 15, 1947. It was this same Savarkar whom the Sangh Parivar is now projecting as a leader of the freedom struggle. RSS, which stood aloof throughout the phases of the freedom struggle, is now engaged in creating false narratives to claim a role in the national movement. "What respect do those who called for observing Aug 14 as a day of Partition horror have for Independence Day?" he asked. The nation must stand united against any attempt to bury the history of humanity and mutual respect and replace it with hatred, he added. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
