Latest news with #Rawat

Teams fan out to track elephant and calf that trampled 3, including toddler, to death

Indian Express

6 days ago

Indian Express

Teams fan out to track elephant and calf that trampled 3, including toddler, to death

Two elephants including a calf trampled three persons to death, including a three-year-old boy, in two adjacent villages in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district on Wednesday. Both incidents occurred in the Lailunga forest range under the Dharamjaigarh forest division. The elephants entered Gosadih village at around 2 am and trampled the three-year-old, Satyam Rawat, to death. At the time, Rawat was sleeping outside the hut and his parents had gone inside to get something. The elephants then strode to Mohanpur village and trampled Santara Bai Rathiya (46) and Purushottam Khadia (48). While Purushottam got stuck under the debris of his home, which was destroyed by the elephants, Santara got stuck in the mud outside the house and got trampled. Jitendra Upadhyay, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Dharamjaigarh told The Indian Express, 'One of the elephants is a female and the other is her calf. They are loners. There are a few more loners moving around and we have made special teams to monitor their movement 24/7 to ensure they do not cause further harm to villagers.' An immediate aid of Rs 25,000 was provided to the kin of each of the deceased, he said. Upadhyay said that the sarpanch of the village was also alerted around 9 pm on Tuesday of the elephant's movement in advance. The officer also said that efforts are being made to find out if the same elephant had trampled another person to death earlier this month. Over the past ten years, northern Chhattisgarh has witnessed a surge in human-elephant conflicts, with several incidents reported, according to the Forest Department officials. According to the officials, these clashes have claimed over 320 lives in the last five years alone. Similar incidents have emerged in recent years across central Chhattisgarh, particularly in the districts of Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, and Balrampur, raising concerns about escalating human-wildlife tensions.– With PTI inputs

MP calls for delisting converted tribal people from ST category

Time of India

6 days ago

Politics
Time of India

MP calls for delisting converted tribal people from ST category

1 2 3 Jaipur: In a significant move, Udaipur MP Mannalal Rawat has brought attention to a controversial demand in the Lok Sabha, calling for the removal of religious converts from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. Speaking in Lok Sabha Monday, the BJP MP advocated for applying the same criteria to STs as currently applicable to Scheduled Castes (SCs), where conversion to non-Hindu faiths leads to disqualification from constitutional benefits. Rawat, who has strong ties with the RSS-affiliated Janjati Suraksha Manch (JSM), highlighted what he termed a "legal loophole" that has persisted for 75 years. Quoting studies and reports, Rawat said converted tribals continue to receive reservation benefits in education, employment and welfare schemes despite abandoning traditional tribal customs and practices. "This is a direct blow to the rights of genuine tribal communities in Udaipur, Banswara, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh and across the country. Limited resources are being diverted to those who no longer preserve tribal identity, weakening socio-economic development efforts," he told TOI. Referring to Article 342 of the Constitution, which governs Scheduled Tribes, Rawat noted that currently does not include any disqualification clause related to religious conversion. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Could Be the Best Time to Trade Gold in 5 Years IC Markets Learn More Undo The MP, who took voluntary retirement from a Rajasthan govt service to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, alleged that Christian missionaries and other groups have been conducting forced conversions in tribal areas through financial inducements. "They have devised a formula: change your belief system but not your legal identity. This poses a serious threat to tribal culture and traditions," Rawat said. According to the 2011 Census, Rajasthan has approximately 97,000 Christians, primarily concentrated in Jaipur, Ajmer, Dungarpur and Banswara. As a key strategist for JSM's nationwide campaign, Rawat has been instrumental in organising rallies and outreach programs across several states with significant tribal populations, including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Rawat was hand-picked by senior RSS members from Udaipur to address several long-pending issues, including the contentious demand for the de-listing of converted tribal people from Scheduled Tribe benefits. The demand for de-listing converted tribal people has been a long-standing agenda of RSS-affiliated organisations, though it faces complex constitutional and social implications.

EC ‘Subjecting 2.9 Cr Voters to Rigorous Exercise to Identify Handful Illegal Immigrants': Ex-CEC O.P. Rawat on Bihar SIR

The Wire

17-07-2025

Politics
The Wire

EC ‘Subjecting 2.9 Cr Voters to Rigorous Exercise to Identify Handful Illegal Immigrants': Ex-CEC O.P. Rawat on Bihar SIR

As the Election Commission of India's contentious revision of electoral rolls in Bihar through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise continues to purify voter rolls and weed out illegal immigrants, former Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat has said that subjecting 2.9 crore voters to this rigorous exercise 'just to identify a handful of illegal immigrants, this close to the assembly elections is not good.' On June 24 the EC issued instructions for holding SIR in Bihar, stating that the last such exercise was conducted in the state in 2003. The commission, in announcing the house-to-house verification exercise, said that it had been necessitated due to various reasons, among which was the inclusion of 'foreign illegal immigrants' in the electoral roll. In an interview to The Wire, Rawat who served as CEC from January 23 to December 1, 2018, said that while the exercise being conducted by the poll body will help in identifying illegal immigrants, an intensive revision was not necessary for this purpose. 'For identifying illegal immigrants and purifying electoral rolls of these illegal immigrants, the law provides a very easy solution,' said Rawat. 'Throwing crores of voters (into this exercise) just for identifying a handful of illegal immigrants – that is not good. That's the main issue that 2.9 crore voters are subjected to this rigorous exercise where they feel hopeless just to identify a few illegal immigrants. You can identify them separately and you can do that continuously and law provides that. So, for that purpose going for intensive revision and subjecting crores of people to this kind of exercise this close to the election, I don't think this is good.' Read excerpts from the interview: 1) This is the first time that the EC seems to be conducting the SIR. The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, speaks about intensive, summary and partly intensively and partly summarily. The Election Commission's website on the other hand lists a fourth kind, called the Special Summary Revision. Is this a new exercise that the commission is doing? Under the law there are only two types of revision – summary and intensive. 'Special' is added by the Election Commission when they do not conform to the template of the revision under the law but tinker with certain elements. Intensive means house to house surveys, filling up of the forms by the BLO, among others. Since all those things have been done away with – basically pre-filled forms are being distributed – they are calling it a Special Intensive Revision. Same thing for summary revision where the general summary revision, according to the law, is that you publish the draft roll and call for claims, objections, applications within 30 days and adjudicate it in 30 days and then publish the final roll. But at times this is not available. So, they call it a special summary revision and do a truncated exercise. Special is only that much in that if it is not exhaustively having all characteristics of that revision it will be called 'special'. So they are almost the same. Not that much difference. Questions have been raised about the timing of the Bihar SIR and its proximity to the assembly elections. Is that a cause of concern? Three months is the time required for any revision. The timeline is: issue order, publish draft, call for claims and objections, hear them and then publish final rolls. In this case, after the final publication before the election, there is a very short window of one and a half months or two months. That is a cause for concern because whenever intensive revision was conducted in the past, elections were about a year or more away. So any grievance about exclusion or inclusion could get redressal through an appeal forum. But this time this gap is only 1.5 months. Our appeals fora are not that efficient in that they will dispose of all appeals in two or three days or even 15 days. They may take months. That is why there was panic among the people. Opposition parties in Bihar have said that a large part of Bihar's population are migrant workers and a lot of this exercise is digital where forms are meant to be downloaded for those who are outside the state. Could this exercise have been conducted in a manner that would ensure their inclusion? Bihar's migration is of two different types. Major migration takes place after the Kharif crop is harvested, after October-November, and they do not migrate before that. But there are people who have already migrated to Mumbai, Delhi or other big towns but want to keep their enrollment at home. These people were facing difficulty, so the Election Commission has facilitated them by saying that you can use your phone to upload your enumeration form online and the documents that you want to submit. Those born after 2004 are being asked to furnish proof of citizenship for themselves and their parents. Is this a departure from the previous intensive revisions? I cannot compare with the 2003 revision order as I did not have access to it. But earlier intensive revisions had different templates – something added, something subtracted – no two can be similar. A contentious part of this exercise is that existing electors will also have to prove their citizenship. Is that ordinarily part of intensive revisions? Everyone has to be verified under intensive revisions. But this time, the Election Commission made a distinction: because time was short, they thought it prudent that all those who find their name in the 2003 roles (when the last intensive revision was conducted) need not submit any proof. They will be deemed citizens and they can submit their enumeration forms along with the reference to the 2003 rolls and that will be good enough. These people are about 65% which means about 5 crores. But as a necessary corollary, the remaining 2.97 crores they are required to prove their citizenship and this being a very huge number, Election Commission also relaxed this. On July 6, they issued an advertisement in Bihar that even those who do not find their name in 2003 electoral rolls can submit their forms without any document (from the list of 11) which can be submitted later but before August 30. That has facilitated these people. BJP ally TDP, in its letter to the Election Commission, has said that any future SIR should make it explicitly clear that the exercise is not related to citizenship verification. The exercise being conducted now is alleged to be a citizenship verification exercise and not purification of electoral rolls. How do you see this? In a way, they are right because in 1995, the Supreme Court said in a case concerning the Election Commission that investigating, certifying or issuing orders about citizenship including deportations all lie in the domain of the home ministry and nobody else has the authority to do these kinds of activities. This was also mentioned during the Supreme Court hearing recently. There is a slight contradiction here because Article 326 says that all Indian citizens who are above the age 18 (earlier 21) will have the right to vote and enrol in the electoral rolls. Since this Article says 'all Indian citizens', the Election Commission's mandate is to enrol them. Unless they know the citizenship status how can they enrol? But the other side says that the Election Commission themselves – keeping in view the 1995 judgement of the Supreme Court – in their application for enrolment in Form 6 have not asked for any proof of citizenship and have only asked for a declaration (of being a citizen). And that declaration was taken as proof of citizenship. The Election Commission has the authority that if something is wrong prima facie with the citizenship status they could find out, collect evidence and then take legal action for false declaration. But not for investigating citizenship. This examination of citizenship in this exercise is a new development compared to previous exercises – that now the burden of proof is on the individual to prove that they are a citizen as opposed to earlier? That is a fact. The Election Commission always used to proactively enrol people without much ado about citizenship. Even in this intensive revision, Form 6 is being submitted with the declaration being enough. It seems to be a dichotomy that new registration is based on Form 6, whereas all those who are already there on the electoral roll have to submit proof. Since the proof was not available easily and time was running out so the Election Commission themselves relaxed it and said that submit the enumeration form and proof can be given later extending time to August 30. So that is a problem area. If time (for this exercise) was a year or year and half, there would have been no hue and cry. Time is short, elections are round the corner. These documents cannot be easily procured, as it is also the season of floods and heavy rain. EC said through sources that illegal immigrants from Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found through this exercise. But in 2019, the EC told parliament that only three instances of 'foreign nationals' on electoral rolls were found. Is the purification of electoral rolls going to help weed out illegal immigrants in this manner? It will help. But for identifying illegal immigrants and purifying electoral rolls of these illegal immigrants, law provides a very easy solution. Collect the prima facie evidence, issue show cause notice, ask for their reply and evidence and if you are not satisfied give them personal hearing and if you are still not satisfied delete their names. This exercise in many states goes on continuously without waiting for any revision. If you are worried about illegal immigrants, then this exercise should be made standing instruction that every state will continue this exercise of identifying and deleting their names. Because EC does this exercise for identifying migrated voters, dead voters or duplicate voters, by using different software like de-duplication software, photo recognition software – all those things are with the Election Commission and they have been doing it. Throwing crores of voters just for identifying a handful of illegal immigrants – that is not good. That is the main issue that 2.9 crore voters are subjected to this rigorous exercise where they feel hopeless just to identify a few illegal immigrants. You can identify them separately and you can do that continuously and law provides that. So, for that purpose going for intensive revision and subjecting crores of people to this kind of exercise, this close to the election, I don't think this is good.

Uttarakhand tasks NCERT with including Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana in school syllabus: State Education minister

Time of India

16-07-2025

Politics
Time of India

Uttarakhand tasks NCERT with including Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana in school syllabus: State Education minister

Uttarakhand Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat on Wednesday said that the state government has asked the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to include the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana in the syllabus of 17,000 government schools. "In a meeting of the Education department with the Chief Minister, we have tasked NCERT to include Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana in the syllabus to be taught in 17,000 government schools of Uttarakhand," Rawat told ANI. He added that until the new syllabus is introduced, students will recite verses from these texts during daily prayer sessions. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Urban Ascent by Emaar- 4 BHK Homes Starting at ₹ 5.25Cr* Emaar India Get Quote Undo "Until this is implemented, verses from the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana will be included in the daily prayer meetings in schools," he further added. Earlier on July 15, NCERT released a new textbook titled Veena, which has been developed in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The book aims to connect students with India's scientific achievements as well as its civilisational heritage. Live Events One of the chapters, Ganga ki Kahani, follows the journey of the Ganga from Gomukh to Gangasagar, covering cities such as Haridwar, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Patna, Kanpur, and Kolkata. It blends geography with cultural, spiritual, and economic insights, featuring stories of ashrams, sadhus, and the Kumbh Mela. Another chapter, AI, introduces students to Artificial Intelligence, explaining how machines learn and solve problems like humans. It is designed to encourage scientific thinking in middle school students. The Gaganyaan chapter highlights India's human spaceflight mission, describing ISRO's ambitions and the role of the humanoid robot Vyommitra. Moral and civic values are also featured. The chapter Nyay Ki Kursi explores the ideas of justice and fairness using historical figures like Raja Bhoj and Vikramaditya, while Haathi aur Cheenti teaches road safety through an animal story. Other topics in the book include Kaziranga National Park, Ajanta and Ellora caves, natural colour making, and Paralympic champion Murlikant Petkar. NCERT has started rolling out the updated textbooks for several classes. While some books have already been released, others are expected by the end of the year.

Uttarakhand Education Minister says NCERT directed to include Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana in syllabus

The Hindu