Monday Six Gaza hostages killed shortly before they were to be rescued 02 September, 2024 Israel said it recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel. The hostages were killed just as the Israeli forces were about to rescue them epaper.morningstandard.in More pressure on Netanyahu to reach deal facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard ukraine war russia thwarts massive bombing Russian air defences intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over Moscow and nine over the surrounding region A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Page 9 P o l i t i c a l g a me AAP says councillor ‘kidnapped’, BJP rubbishes claim an u p v e r ma @ New Delhi In a dramatic turn of events on Sunday the AAP accused , the BJP of “kidnapping” its Bawana councillor Ramchandra briefly a claim , vehemently refuted by the saffron party . According to the ruling party leaders, Ramchandra was “kidnapped” on Saturday night and taken to the BJP office, where he was threatened with being framed in cases involving the ED and the CBI. In a social media post, the AAP leader’s son asserted the involvement of a former BJP councillor in the crime. Ramchandra, who returned home in some time, re p e at e d t h e s e cl a i m s in a video message shared by AAP. “Five-six people came to my house in a car in the morning and took me to the BJP office. I was released after my party put pressure. Being a true soldier of Arvind Kejriwal, am not afraid of ED or CBI,” he said. The AAP claimed that af- ter mounting pressure through social media, Delhi Police got the councillor released within two hours. MLA Dilip Pandey said that the BJP, in collusion with Delhi Police, got AAP councillor kidnapped. “T he BJP kidnapped the AAP councillor in broad daylight and released him only after the party leaders pressured the Delhi Police through social media,” he added. Dismissing the allegations as baseless and false, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva accused the AAP leaders of making unsuccessful attempts to create confusion among the public. The councillor is home making videos claiming someone has taken him away, he said, adding that there is no mention of any name, no details of where he was taken, or who dropped him off at home. S a c h d ev a h a s u r g e d the Delhi Police to thoroughly investigate the video and take legal action against the guilty . Formula 4: Chennai lights up for Night street race The Indian Racing League’s main events painted a poignant picture of the city with drivers cruising through the track on Sunday. A look... Hugh Barter (C), Ruhaan Alva (L) and Abhay Mohan (R) won the round 2 of the Indian Racing League held in Chennai on Sunday | special arrangement l New Delhi l J8.00 l PAGES 12 The news is expected to put renewed pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate with the Hamas. Thousands took part in a rally in Jerusalem on Sunday demanding that the government secure the release of remaining hostages. Israel’s largest trade union, representing some 8,00,000 workers, has called a general strike on Monday | P9 08 End the culture of adjournments in courts, reduce case delays: Murmu President calls for measures to change the public perception that judiciary lacks sensitivity ‘National level hiring for judicial services’ @ New Delhi Barter shines bright As the event got underway on Sunday, Hugh Barter of Godspeed Kochi, with a timing of 19:42:952, came first in the round 2 of the first race in the Formula4 street race. Ruhaan Alva of Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers clocked 19:50:251 to come second, while Abhay Mohan of Bangalore Speedsters with 20:09:021 came third Aqil headlines race 2 Aqil Alibhai from Black Birds Hyderabad (30:03.445) won the race 2 of the round 2 later in the evening. Alibhai finished ahead of Divy Nandan of Ahmedabad Apex racers (30:03.704) and Jaden Pariat of Bangalore Speedsters (30:04.413) to secure the top spot. It spectacle for fans with racers swiftly moving through the track under lights while the routine life continued in the city Express read 2 die as militants open fire in Manipur NIA official’s daughter found dead Two persons were killed, and six others, including a journalist, were injured in Manipur on Sunday when suspected militants fired indiscriminately and carried out “drone bombing”. The violence broke out around 2.30 pm at Koutruk in the Meitei-majority Imphal West district. A woman and a male villager, both from the Meitei community, lost their lives in the heavy shelling, which also damaged houses. | P8 The 19-year-old daughter of a senior IPS officer with NIA in Delhi was found dead in her hostel room at Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University in Lucknow on Saturday night. According to authorities, the LLB student attended dinner at a varsity event and returned to her hostel. Around 10, the matron found her unconscious on the floor. Reports claimed that she was suffering from a congenital disease. After attacking Centre, Tyagi quits as JD(U) spokesperson Rama s hanka r @ Patna R A J ES H K U M A R T H A K UR CALLING for a change in the ‘culture of adjournments’ in courts, President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday said inordinate delays in judicial decisions in heinous crimes such as rape may give the impression that judiciary lacks sensitivity. “Many people cannot even imagine the suffering that poor people face due to the culture of adjournments. Every possible measure should be taken to change this situation,” she said at the valedictory session of the two-day National Conference of District Judiciary . Stressing the importance of speedy and fair justice delivery , the President said longstanding pendency and backlog of cases is a big challenge before the judiciary She lamented that . the poor people from villages are afraid to go to court. “They become a participant in the justice process of the court only under great compulsion. Often they tolerate injustice silently because they feel that fighting for justice can make their lives more miserable,” she said. Hostages rescued so far. Israel estimates more than 100 hostages remain in gaza President Droupadi Murmu, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal at National Conference of District Judiciary, in New Delhi | PTI For many commoners, travelling from their village to the court becomes a cause of mental and financial stress. The culture of adjournments hurt such people the most, President Murmu said. On the flip side, the rich and the well-connected are not affected in the same way “It is a . sad part of our social life that in some cases, the well-off people roam around fearlessly and freely even after committing a crime. Those who are victims of their crimes remain scared and terrified, feeling as if they were the ones who had committed the crime,” she noted. Stressing on the need to have wider consideration on the children of women in prison, she said: “The children of women, who are in prison, have their entire lives lying ahead. Our priority should be to assess and improve what is being done for their health and education.” Describing pendency and Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Sunday batted for a national-level recruitment process for judicial services, saying the time has come to move beyond the “narrow walls of regionalism and statecentred selections”. Speaking at the event, Minister of State for Law Arjun Ram Meghwal said clubbing of similar cases may help reduce pendency in the courts backlog of cases as a big challenge before the judiciary, the President said programmes such as special Lok Adalat week should be organised more frequently to clear the backlog. “All stakeholders have to find a solution by giving priority to this problem,” she said. She also advocated for making arrangements to provide judgments in the local language as local conditions can help in achieving the ideal of taking justice to everyone’s doorstep. 25 dead as heavy rains batter T’gana and Andhra Pradesh for second day Express News Service @ Khammam/Mahabubabad /Hyderabad/Vijayawada As many as 10 people, including N Ashwini, a young scientist with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research died and hundreds are stranded in floodwaters as torrential rain battered Telangana for the second consecutive day on Sunday . Four more people were washed away in Warangal and Khammam districts, and rescue teams are searching for them. More than 115 villages across Telangana have been cut off from the outside world as the roads leading to them have been completely damaged, the state government said. While rain ravaged the entire state, the erstwhile Khammam and Warangal districts were the worst hit, with Tirumalayapalem mandal recording a massive 52.1 cm rainfall in just 24 hours, most of it falling early Sunday morning. Over 120 people were stranded in floodwaters, mostly in the erstwhile Khammam district. Khammam town and Manuguru were badly hit with many seeking refuge on the top of their houses hoping Residents of Vijayawada’s Singh Nagar locality wade through flood water after the breach of Budameru canal on Sunday | Prasant Madugula for rescue as water levels continued to rise. Videos showed at least nine stranded on Munneru bridge in Khammam town. Rains also impacted road and rail connectivity National high. ways were overflowed with rainwater and a railway track on the busy Vijayawada—Kazipet line, part of the New Delhi-Chennai Grand Trunk route, was washed away at Tallapusapally village, on the outskirts of Kesamudram in Mahabubabad district. The entire village of Nallela in the district was inundated around midnight on Saturday due to a sudden increase in the intensity of rainfall. Meanwhile, the toll in rainrelated incidents surged to 15 in Andhra Pradesh. While three children drowned in Prakasam district, a middle-aged man from Srisailam Colony in Gollapudi died as he tried to escape from an inundated under-construction building. The road link between Andhra and Telangana was cut off with rainwater overflowing in Kodad. Vijayawada remains flooded. Senior Janata Dal (United) leader and former Member of Parliament K C Tyagi, who criticised various policies of the Centre, resigned as the JD U) national spokesperson on Sunday The party appointed Rajiv . Ranjan Prasad as his replacement. The party said Tyagi will continue as ‘political advisor’. Tyagi said he is resigning due to personal reasons and there is nothing more to it. “Nothing should be read from my resignation. Earlier, too, I had requested to be relieved of organisational responsibility,” he said adding that he has not been able to do justice to the post of national spokesperson “due to other work”. Sources in the JD (U) said Tyagi’s frequent attacks on the Central gover nment’s policies such as the Unif o r m C iv i l Code, the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, and the lateral entry, were seen by many within his party as unhelpful to the ties with the BJP. JD(U) parted ways with the INDIA bloc and joined the NDA in January . Some in the party were uncomfortable with Tyagi’s readiness to air his conflicting opinions when its senior leaders played it safe. His seniority meant only few leaders barring Nitish Kumar, who has of late been relying more on other party colleagues to helm organisational matters, could direct his stand. With two senior JD(U) leaders — Union minister Lalan Singh and its parliamentary party leader Sanjay Kumar Jha — representing the JD(U) in national politics, sources said there is a view that both leaders should be left to shape the ties with the BJP without frequent public interjections of Tyagi. thirsty in capital city Numerous localities in the national capital are dealing with contaminated water as treatment plants are abysmally under-performing. To top it all, the Delhi Jal Board, responsible for producing and distributing drinking water in the city, is facing a severe financial crunch | P4 No road, tribal taken to hospital in cloth stretcher GST revenue growth slips into slow lane; August collection `1.75 lakh cr B Thipperudrappa @ Chikkamagaluru Without motorable roads, hospital and other basic facilities, tribals had to carry a sick 19-year-old youth in a makeshift cloth stretcher to Konegodu village in Samse Gram Panchayat limits of Kalasa taluk in Chikkamagaluru district recently The youth died in . the hospital. The video of the youth being carried in the cloth stretcher has gone viral on social media sites. Recently, the deceased, Avinash, belonging to a Scheduled Caste community seriously fell , ill. His relatives from the hamlet, where eight tribal families live, carried him in the makeshift stretcher till a motorable stretch and then to a hospital in Kalasa town. During their jour- Relatives carry the 19-year-old youth in a makeshift cloth stretcher | Express ney they had to cross a narrow , footbridge carrying Avinash. At the hospital, the teenager did not respond to treatment. Later, it was an arduous journey back again to these tribals. An ambulance carrying Avinash’s body reached till a point from where his relatives had to trek back again. The body was placed in a cloth stretcher and carried till their hamlet. They had to walk for 2 km through a narrow path before reaching their hamlet, where the last rites were conducted. For villagers of Konegodu, the Samse-SK Megal road is the nearest motorable stretch, which is 2 km from their hamlet. In between, they have to cross small streams, which are in full flow during the rainy season. They have to make do with footbridges to cross these rivulets as there are no solid bridges connecting their village. The villagers said they have made repeated pleas to concerned department officials and elected representatives to provide them with proper roads and other facilities, but nothing has been done. Konegodu is one of a few villages in Kalasa taluk that do not have any facilities, like roads, hospitals, school, electricity and bridges. Another village, Singsar, which is inside the Kudremukh National Park, too lacks any basic amenities. D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi GROSS GST collections in August 2024 grew 10% to `1.75 lakh crore year-on-year. However, a quick analysis shows the growth in GST mop-up shows fatigue. In July 2024, the gross collection increased 10.3% to `1.82 lakh crore, while in August 2023, it had risen by 11% to `1.59 lakh crore. The slowdown in net collection was even more prominent with August mop-up rising a mere 6.5% to `1.50 lakh crore. This is on account of a 38% rise in refunds. In July the net GST , collection was up 14.14%. In FY24, gross collections grew by 11.65%, and in the pre- vious year, by 21.5%. Between April and August 2024, gross GST revenue grew only 10%. The fall in collection could be an effect of higher base effect as well as moderation in economic activities as was evident from the first quart e r G D P n u m b e r s, which came in at 6.8% compared to 8.2% in the year-ago period. T h e s l ow g row t h should also worry policymakers, who have been contemplating rationalising GST rates amid public outcry over high GST on essential goods. Pratik Jain, partner, PwC India, says both gross and net collections have been a tad lower than what the government was expecting. “The GST Council may want to look into this, in the context of expected GST rates rationalisation,” he said. Moderation in GST revenue growth could also be on account of large states like Tamil Nadu (7%), Gujarat (6%), Bihar (8%), Rajasthan (5%) and West Bengal (6%) showing single-digit growth. Andhra Pradesh reported a 5% fall. According to Manoranjan Sharma, chief economist at Infomerics Ratings, it is difficult to record a consistently high growth rate on a constantly rising and much higher base.
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