Latest news with #Usman
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Cong member blames police at DGR's press conference
Mangaluru: The Muslim community's anger towards the Congress govt became evident following a Congress leader's emotional outburst regarding Abdul Rahiman's brutal killing during district minister Dinesh Gundu Rao's press conference here on Saturday. Congress leader Usman Kallapu, a former chairman of the standing committee in Ullal City Municipal Council, intervened when the minister was briefing media persons about the law and order situation in the district. Usman blamed that the hate speeches made by Hindutva leaders were the immediate reason for the murder of Abdul Rahiman. However, this made Rao angry, and he took Usman to task for interfering at a press briefing. Rao asked Usman not to speak during the press briefing, and when the latter continued to blame the police failure, the minister asked party leaders to send him out of the conference hall of the Circuit House. Later, Usman Kallapu told reporters that the police should arrest those who made provocative speeches during the 'Bajpe Chalo' rally, which was organised to demand justice for Suhas Shetty. "Immediate arrests should be made for individuals inciting violence against others. I advocate for the protection of innocent lives and seek only justice. Being a Congress functionary myself, I urge the Congress govt to take action against those who provoke perpetrators of violence," he said. In fact, none of the Congress leaders from the Muslim community, who announced their resignations, attended the grievance meeting with the district minister. Shahul Hameed KK, president of the minority wing of the Dakshina Kannada District Congress, and several other Congress office bearers had announced their resignation over law and order failure in Dakshina Kannada at a meeting of Muslim functionaries held in the city on Thursday. Former opposition leader of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council, Abdul Ravoof, who also announced his resignation, said that there is no need for a meeting with the district minister. "Our demand is very clear that stringent action should be taken against all individuals who deliver provocative speeches and ensure peace," he said.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- The Hindu
Here's a new word for TV news in India
Hello readers. Are you consumers of TV news by any chance? If so, I have two questions. First of all: why? Second of all: I hope you are okay. You see friends, when it comes to TV news, all Indians find themselves in a situation that is widely known as: between a rock and a hard place. Let me explain this idiom with a real-life example. Many years ago, I had to travel to Karaikudi from Tiruchi, by bus, in order to represent my college in an inter-college football tournament. I was the back-up goalkeeper. Our original goalkeeper injured himself in one of the preliminary matches, and was forced to retire. So they immediately summoned me. So there I was. In the bus. And just shortly before reaching Karaikudi, the bus broke down. And I found myself in a rock-and-a-hard-place situation. On one side, there was the hard place: the outskirts of Karaikudi. In the height of summer. At four in the morning. On a stretch of road. With not a single other bus in sight. Just apocalyptic heat. And on the other side was the rock: a young man named Usman who was also on his way to Karaikudi to meet family or some such. We had become friends on the journey. After at least 30 minutes of waiting, there was still no sign of the bus moving. I suggested to Usman that we perhaps get out of the bus and find alternative means of transport. He said no. What if we got out, found nothing, and then couldn't get back on to the bus? Also, it was pitch dark outside. What if, Usman said, there were bandits or dacoits? Reader, the bus was absolutely heaving with people. A moist morass of humanity. If we stepped out, there was zero chance we would get our seats back. Some dastardly old man or villainous pregnant woman would immediately take it. And then we would have to stand. So there I was. Unable to get out of the bus. But also barely able to stay on the bus. And so we sat there for another 30 minutes. By this point, the bus was so hot, sweaty and sticky, that Usman was permanently fused to my right side. He has been living attached to me ever since. Usman, say hello to the readers. Usman: Hello readers. Thanks Usman, you can go back to work. (He is a Javascript developer.) Readers, this is also the situation many of you find yourselves in when it comes to consuming TV news in India. On the one hand, there is the rock: the Indian TV news industry. I want to be very sensitive here when I refer to the work of fellow media professionals and journalists. So let me choose my words carefully. Indian TV news media is like smallpox for the brain. It is a relentless stream of factual nonsense and emotional manipulation directly poured into the minds of unsuspecting viewers by total charlatans. Thereby leaving viewers in a permanent state of mental siege: an unrelenting sense of dread and fear and loathing towards something or the other. The greatest enemy of Indian TV news is the content citizen. So that, in essence, is the rock. But what about the hard place? The hard place is foreign TV news. Since Indian TV news is the absolute shenanigans, as mentioned above, you would expect to find some solace in the international TV news coverage of India. See, the problem with international TV coverage of India is that while it usually proceeds with more calm and less brain damage, it has the other issue of not knowing anything about India. So you will start seeing some coverage about some event in India, and then suddenly the foreign anchor will make references to the 'President of Uttar Pradesh' or wonder, 'How can a country with poor people afford things such as satellite, or moon landing, or chemistry?' Recently, I was watching a news bulletin on the Papal Conclave with an overseas journalist friend. And he noticed the Indian flag amongst the people in St. Peter's Square. He said: 'So funny. There is an Indian flag.' I said: 'What is funny? India has slightly more Christians than the U.K. does.' You should have seen his face, readers. All of which is to say, it is time we coined a term to capture this dilemma that Indian news consumers find themselves in. And that term is: fraudcasting. Example sentence: 'Unbearable fraudcasting about the Prime Minister's trip to London today. Indian channels have said that the U.K. is now property of India. Colonialism is avenged. American channel is discussing 'Ghandi'.' Friends, sometimes the best news is no news whatsoever. Switch it off. The writer is head of talent at Clarisights. He lives in London and is currently working on a new novel.
Business Recorder
3 days ago
- Sport
- Business Recorder
Boys badminton trials held for Punjab Games
LAHORE: Trials for the category of boys badminton for Chief Minister Punjab Games were held under the auspices of Punjab Sports Department, here at the Nishtar Park Sports Complex (NPSC) Gymnasium Hall on Wednesday. Over 50 male players from all tehsils of Lahore participated in the trials under the supervision of senior badminton coaches Tayyab Sohail, Usman and M Farid. The selected players from tehsil level will participate in district level competitions of Chief Minister Punjab Summer Games, which will provide a suitable platform to hundreds of talented male and female athletes from across the province to demonstrate their hidden sports potential. Director General Sports and Youth Affairs Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry said, "The Chief Minister Punjab Summer Games will be held at the district level from June 1 to 5". Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Time of India
3 days ago
- Time of India
Catch Me If You Can: First Hurdle Is Getting To Train, Not Boarding It
New Delhi: New Delhi Railway Station isn't just one of the busiest in the country, it is also a perennial traffic chokepoint that every railway passenger must navigate, especially during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Whether arriving via the Ajmeri Gate or the Paharganj side, passengers face severe congestion from 5 am to 6 am and from 3pm to 5 pm. Many are forced to disembark hundreds of metres from the station and drag heavy luggage down uneven roads, flanked by encroaching vendors and aggressive hawkers. The chaos has become a daily ritual, one that no traveller is spared. The consequences go beyond inconvenience. Peak-hour traffic delays can and do result in passengers missing trains. New Delhi Railway Station, popularly known as NDLS, is situated in the heart of the capital. It sees a daily footfall of 5 lakh. Nearly 400 trains arrive at and depart from its platforms. Multiple trains depart from New Delhi in the early hours. Chandigarh-bound trains include Vande Bharat departing at 8am, Kalka Shatabdi at 7.40am and Sampark Kranti at 6.25am. During the same period, trains to Lucknow start their journey, including Shatabdi Express at 6.10am. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Accounting Automation Software Might Help You To Earn More Accounting Automation Software | Search ads Undo Jaipur-bound trains like Ajmer Shatabdi depart at 6.10am. Mumbai-bound Punjab Mail starts at 5.10am. Two Vande Bharat trains go to Ambala Cant — one at 6am, the other at 5.50am. Similarly, Swarn Shatabdi goes at 7.20am. Mahananda Express heading towards Patna also goes around same time. TOI, which took a look at the chaos on Paharganj side of the station early one morning, found a predictable long queues of cars, autorickshaws and cabs on State Entry Road and Chelmsford Road. It was chaos in every direction. Passengers had to get off their vehicles at least a kilometre from the station and walk to the entrance. Almost always, cab drivers refuse to drive passengers too close to the station because they know they will get stuck. Sanjeev, who drives an Uber cab, said: "Every time we agree to drop a customer right in front of the entry, we end up losing 30-45 minutes in traffic. This delay means that we miss out on a lot of rides, so we only accommodate such requests when customers are carrying a lot of luggage, or if one of them is a senior citizen. We usually charge extra for doing that." An auto driver, who has been taking passengers at Paharganj entry for the last 12 years, said "Sometimes, the traffic pile-up starts as early as 4.30 in the morning. By 5.15, you can see this huge line of autos and cars, extending across the road. Passengers get off and run for their trains." Usman, a porter who has been working at the station for close to 15 years, said: "The congestion peaks from 5-6am and 3-5 pm. Porters end up having to go where all the cabs and cars are parked on the roads to get customers. It gets difficult for us as well to have to carry all that luggage from so far." To make matters worse, vendors had put up stalls right on the road, eating into the space of an already choked road. A passenger who came from Greater Kailash in southeast Delhi said he almost missed his 6.20am train to Kathgodam because of the traffic, "I was stuck in traffic on Chelmsford Road for almost 30 minutes. I decided to just take my suitcase and run to the station." Harsh Marwaha, a tourist from Ludhiana, said: "Despite my hotel only being five minutes away from the station. I always end up having to make the walk from the end of the road because of all the traffic. I have visited Delhi numerous times. This is a common occurrence. How difficult it must be for senior citizens and those with physical disabilities!" Auto drivers presented a different argument. Mohammed Azhar, an auto driver, said the traffic "seems very scary and chaotic, but it is always moving. It only gets stagnant when you get closer to the entry gate, when some of the cabs and cars start entering the station, instead of just dropping people outside". Chaos and congestion around a station lead to delays and these can lead to tragedies. In Delhi, boarding or alighting from moving trains has taken 216 lives and injured 93 people in 27 months. One of the main reasons passengers end up taking such risks is due to delays in entering the station. A traffic police official said: "Our officers start duty at 4.30am and stay on duty until the night to manage traffic flow. There are recommendations for the creation of a footbridge all the way to the station entry to avoid jaywalking and manage traffic flow. A request has been made to the civic agency to remove encroachments, and if possible, the route should be avoided by DTC buses." A railway official shed more light on how the utility tackles the increased footfall and congestion during peak hours, but he was unable to account much for the traffic and chaos outside the station. "The traffic outside the station is monitored by Government Railway Police and state police," he said.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Even if India blocked water to Pakistan, it would require significant infrastructure: Pak researcher
A Pakistani researcher during an interactive seminar on the Pakistan-India conflict on Sunday said that even if India blocked water under the Indus Waters Treaty, it would require significant infrastructure that would take years to build and also billions of dollars. In the wake of the horrific April 22 Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed, India had decided that the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 would be held in abeyance with immediate effect until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. The seminar held by the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) saw research papers being read out on the Pakistan-India conflict. Researcher Mohammad Usman said that if India were to stop the water flow to Pakistan, it would risk flooding its own upper regions. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Bangladesh: Unsold Sofas at Bargain Prices (View Current Prices) Sofas | Search Ads Search Now Undo "But if they stopped our water during the dry seasons, it could be a concern for us because the flow of water is lower and storage matters the most. It can affect our farmers, which could result in lower yields," Usman said. The researcher said that even if India blocked water, it would require significant infrastructure that would take years to build and also billions of dollars. Live Events He said in the case of Pakistan and India, Pakistan is the lower riparian state and India the upper riparian state. But in the case of China and India, China is the upper riparian state and India the lower riparian state. "This is especially true in Brahmaputra where China can also block India's water," he pointed out. PIIA chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan underscored the need to hear different voices, especially the voices of the youth, regarding the recent conflict. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which claimed 26 lives. India carried out precision strikes as part of Operation Sindoor on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7. It was followed by Pakistan's attempt to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10. The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions. The on-ground hostilities ended with an understanding of stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10.
