1. Hit Twice This Year, Gunfight Erupts at Pampore Complex
Security personnel have been trading gunfire with militants holed up inside a hostel complex in Pampore which was the scene of an earlier gun battle in February this year, since Monday morning. At least one soldier has been injured in the exchanges.
Officers said they suspect two or three militants are inside the 60-room, seven-storey hostel complex of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) at Sempora in Pampore. The Army and Special Operations Group of J&K Police have cordoned off the complex to prevent the militants from escaping.
The EDI complex is less than 5 km from the Badami Bagh cantonment, headquarters of the Army’s XV Corps in Srinagar.
Source: The Indian Express
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2. China Ready for Talks on NSG but Opposed to UN Ban on Masood Azhar
Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to India, China on Monday said it is “ready” for talks with India on its entry into the NSG but defended extending a hold on India’s bid for a UN ban on JeM chief Masood Azhar, saying Beijing is opposed to anyone making “political gains in the name of counter-terrorism”.
Briefing media on Xi’s visit to India this week to take part in the BRICS Summit in Goa, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong again harped on the need to build consensus over the admission of new members in the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Read the report on The Quint.
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3. 7th Pay Commission: 7 Interest-Free Advances for Govt Employees Stopped
The government has discontinued seven interest-free advances for employees, including those for purchase of bicycle and warm clothing, in pursuance of recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.
The Finance Ministry said the bicycle advance, festival advance and natural calamity advance have been abolished. Also, advance of pay on transfer, advance of leave salary, advance for lawsuits as well as for training in Hindi through correspondence course have been discontinued.
All interest-free advances stand discontinued with the exception of interest-free advance for medical treatment, travelling allowance for family of deceased, travelling allowance on tour or transfer and leave travel concession (LTC), according to an office memorandum.
(Source: PTI)
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4. Marathwada Drought Man-Made, Not Caused by Climate Change: Study
While admitting that the region is prone to droughts, a study states that the magnitude of the last drought in Marathwada could have been reduced with proper management of crop cultivation and water usage. It cited rainfall data extending from 1871 to 2015 to assert that there have been changes in the strategies used for cultivating crops and managing water resources over the last four decades.
The study categorically stated that the flow of irrigation water, exploitation of ground water, and allocation of water for cultivating water-intensive crops such as sugarcane and pulses have to be examined properly. It also said the administration must identify and promote sustainable strategies that adapt to varying rainfall patterns in the region.
The analysis showed that Marathwada is visited by a drought nearly once in six to seven years on an average.
Source: The Hindustan Times
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5. Uttarakhand Firefights With Cash, Ration, CM Harish Rawat Visit After Killing of Dalit
“Twenty kg of rice, 10 kg of wheat and 2 kg of pulses. Sugar, oil, potatoes, tomatoes and onions, and candles. A visit by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat (on Tuesday) and announcement of Rs 10 lakh in compensation.” That was an official at the office of the District Magistrate in Bageshwar, listing what Sohan Ram’s family – his father, wife and two children – is getting as compensation.
On 5 October, Dalit labourer Ram was killed, allegedly by a government school teacher from the upper-caste Thakur community, who hurled casteist slurs before cutting his throat with a sickle, for entering and “defiling” a flour mill in Kadaria village.
The accused, Lalit Karnatak, was arrested the next day but his brother and father, who have been accused of threatening Ram’s family against filing a complaint, are absconding. It took two more days for the promised rations to reach Ram’s family, after the case was reported by local media. But on Monday, with the brutal killing triggering protests in Dehradun and Bageshwar, and the assembly elections scheduled next year, the state government has sprung into action.
Source: The Indian Express
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6. 'Don't Interfere': Jain Leaders Tell Child Rights Activists After Girl's Death
Don’t interfere in our religion, Jain elders warned on Monday as social and child rights activists called for action against the parents of a 13-year-old Secunderabad girl who died from ritual fasting for 68 days .
Top Jain spiritual leaders and elders assembled at a community hall in Koti, a commercial suburb of Hyderabad, to discuss teenager Aradhana Samdaria’s death on 3 October that triggered a nationwide debate over the community’s rigorous religious practices.
Nobody has a right to interfere in our fundamental rights to practice our religion. The filing of cases against the parents of Aradhana amounts to interfering in the spiritual matters of the community.Mangilal Bhandari, Jain guru
7. Stripped Monika Ghurde to Film Her Nude, Blackmail Her, Says Accused
Perfumer Monika Ghurde's alleged murderer Rajkumar Singh told cops that he undressed Ghurde to film her in the nude after smothering her with the intention of later blackmailing her, Goa police said on Monday. Police said they were still questioning him to ascertain if he had sexually assaulted her.
Rajkumar, 21, a native of Bathinda, Punjab, was a former watchman at Sapana Raj Valley at Sangolda, where Ghurde's body was found naked with her hands tied to the bed. He was arrested on Sunday afternoon from Bengaluru and brought to Goa by road on a transit warrant.
A senior police officer told TOI that Rajkumar, during his interrogation in Bengaluru, had said that after smothering Ghurde, he thought she was unconscious. "We still don't know whether Singh had actually filmed Ghurde," the officer said.
Source: The Times of India
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8. Special Forces Wait for New Weapons, 15 Months After Green Signal
The Special Forces (SF) operatives, who took part in the surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) to destroy seven terrorist launch pads 11 days ago, used weapons that should have been replaced with modern options following Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s instructions last June.
But the delay in implementing the procurement, estimated to be in the range of Rs 180 crore, meant that these para commandos had to make do with old-generation weapons during the strikes on 29 September –15 months after Parrikar had ordered that the modernisation should proceed on a “fast-track basis”.
According to officials, the modernisation proposal was flagged by the army during a presentation made to Parrikar following the cross-border operation in Myanmar by the 21 SF battalion last June, days after the attack in Manipur by suspected NSCN-K militants that killed 18 soldiers.
9. BCCI Calls for Special General Meeting on 15 October
The BCCI has called for a Special General Meeting on 15 October to discuss the interim order passed by the Supreme Court on Lodha Panel recommendations ahead of the next hearing on 17 October.
It will be a second SGM called by the BCCI in the last two weeks. In the last meeting, the Board had decided to implement the Lodha committee’s recommendations in part excluding the contentious ones such as a three-year cooling off period for office-bearers, one-state-one-vote and an age cap of 70 for the administrators.
In the interim order passed by the Supreme Court on Friday, it was stated that BCCI was far from lending its full cooperation to Lodha committee which has suggested sweeping reforms in the cricket Board.
Source: PTI
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