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www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Chandigarh : A passport is a must for
devotees from India visiting Kartarpur
Sahib Gurdwara, where Guru Nanak Dev
breathed his last, in Pakistan to pay obeisance.
However, a visa will not be required.
But the visitors need to get them themselves
registered online at least a month
ahead of their visit. These facts came to
light at a high-level review meeting
chaired by Punjab Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh here on Tuesday to
assess the progress of the corridor project
with a team of officers from the Centre. A
$20 service charge will be levied by
Pakistan from each visitor on passage
through the Kartarpur corridor. A state
government functionary, who was present
at the meeting, told IANS that Amarinder
Singh had suggested any other government
document like Aadhaar must be used
in place of passports for identification.
He said at the meeting the Chief
Minister asked the Regional Passport
Officer in Chandigarh to ensure a fast-track
and accessible mechanism to deliver passport
services to pilgrims on top priority. He
also asked the Ministry of External Affairs
to immediately start organising passport
camps across the state to help the devotees.
Punjab minister Sukhjinder Singh
Randhawa, who attended the meeting, told
the media on Wednesday that to facilitate
pilgrims to apply online regarding their
visit to Pakistan via the Kartarpur corridor
a website would be launched on October 4.
He said special arrangements have also
been made for people who don't have passports.
They could apply for passports by paying
a fee of Rs 1,500 at convenience centres
or post offices near them and the whole
process will be completed within one or
two days after which they will get their
passports. The Chief Minister will lead an
all-party delegation across the border to
WORLD
Passport necessary to visit
Kartarpur shrine in Pakistan
Kartarpur Sahib on the opening day of the
Kartarpur Corridor on November 9.
The delegation that will accompany the
Chief Minister to the historic gurudwara
would comprise all the 117 state legislators,
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs
from Punjab, Shriomani Gurudwara
Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) members,
as well as members of the Sant Samaj and
representatives of each recognised political
party in the state. Thereafter, 5,000 pilgrims
will be able to visit the gurduwara
every day. Construction of the 4.2 km-long
corridor is targeted to be completed by
October 31, a week before the celebrations
to mark the 550th birth anniversary of
Guru Nanak Dev. The gurudwara is located
in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab
province. It is near Dera Baba Nanak town
in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. It is a highly
revered Sikh shrine where Sikhism
founder Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years of
his life and is his final resting place.
UP IS ODF BUT PEOPLE
STILL PREFER 'FRESH AIR'
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh
was declared 100 per cent ODF
in January this year with
97,641 villages being declared
open defecation-free in 75 districts,
the scheme.
The status report in February
showed there were 36.5 lakh
left out beneficiaries (LOBs)
under Swachh Bharat Mission
we can do to change their
mindset. Even the women, who
have a toilet in the family, go
out to relieve themselves."
The proof that the toilets are
prefer to go with them in groups
to answer nature's call. It is only
during the night that we quietly
use the toilet," she says.
Another problem with those
yet it continues to remain Gramin
(SBM-G). not being used by the benefici-
who have got toilets is that of
a sordid reality in most villages.
Most newly-built toilets
Construction of toilets in the
left out families was then taken
aries is evident from the fact
that women continue to face
cleaning. "We cannot clean toilets
ourselves and I cannot
in villages are either used as up with renewed vigour. incidents of crime when they afford to employ a sweeper. It is
storerooms or kept locked up.
For verification of the ODF
declaration, the guidelines suggest
that 'at least' two verifications
should be carried out. The
Verification, officials admit,
remains mostly on paper. An
official in the Panchayati Raj
department disclosed, "People
come forward to take the
go to defecate in the open.
Barely a fortnight ago, a
woman in Rae Bareli district
had gone to relieve herself in
the open and her body was later
better to avoid using it," says
Saroj, who is a Brahmin by
caste. Bala Kumari, a social
worker in Sultanpur, has a new
reason as to why people are not
first level of verification money but refuse to use the toilet
found with her head smashed. using toilets.
should be done within three
months of declaration and the
second level - to ensure that
villages do not fall out of the
ODF status - within six months
of the first verification. A survey
conducted by the state
government in January this
year had found that lakhs of
families were still left out of
when it gets constructed. As
officials, we cannot force them
or monitor its usage on a regular
basis."
He further said, "The problem
is not construction of toilets,
it is their usage. For some
strange reason, even those who
have toilets prefer to defecate
in the open and there is nothing
Her family had a toilet but they
chose not to use it. Rae Bareli,
incidentally, has been declared
ODF as per the Swachh Bharat
Mission database. Saroj Pathak,
a resident of a village in Sarai
Mir in Azamgarh, has got a toilet
built but keeps it locked up.
"If I open the lock, other
women insist on using it. So I
"Going for defecation in
groups for both men and
women is a kind of a social outing.
In the rural interiors, you
can see women chatting happily
while relieving themselves.
This is the only time when
women go out and mingle with
each other. The same is with the
men," she explained.
1-10-2019 to 15-10-2019 23
EOW raids Delhi
Police unit, cop held
New Delhi : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi
Police has conducted raid
at the accounts section of
the DCP office in Outer
Delhi in connection with
alleged financial crimes,
amounting to lakhs,
police said here on
Wednesday.
The raid has been confirmed
by Special
Commissioner (EOW),
Satish Golcha. The
Vigilance Branch has registered
a case. A policeman
has been arrested in this case, while two people, including
a woman sub-inspector, are absconding, he added.
ISS astronauts gear up for 10
spacewalks in 3 months
Washington : In what may be called the biggest ever
marathon of spacewalks since the assembly of the International
Space Station (ISS) was completed in 2011, astronauts aboard
the space station plan to conduct 10 of them during the next
three months. The station crew will replace some of the orbiting
laboratory's solar array batteries during the first half of the
spacewalks and then refurbish a renowned scientific instrument
that explores the fundamental nature of the universe during the
final five excursions, NASA said on Tuesday.
The first of a set of five spacewalks dedicated to replacing
batteries on the far end of the station's port truss is scheduled to
begin on October 6.
The existing nickel-hydrogen batteries will be upgraded with
newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries transported to the
station aboard the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, which arrived
on September 28. These spacewalks continue the overall
upgrade of the station's power system that began with similar
battery replacement during spacewalks in January 2017, the US
space agency said.
The second half of this sequence of spacewalks will focus on
repairs to the space station's Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
While the dates for those spacewalks have not yet been
revealed, they are expected to begin in November.
Experts will discuss the details of the spacewalks in a briefing
at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on October 4.
UK HC rules in favour of India
in Hyderabad Nizam funds case
New Delhi : Rejecting arguments by Pakistan, the UK High
Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of India in a 70-year-old
legal dispute involving 35 million pounds that belonged to the
erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad and was kept in London's
National Westminster Bank.
The Fund was being held in the account of the High
Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK Rahimtoola since
September 1948. It had been the subject of earlier proceedings
in the 1950s in which the UK House of Lords set aside the proceedings
brought by the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad claiming
the fund, as Pakistan invoked state immunity.
In 2013, Pakistan began fresh proceedings in the case, thereby
waiving state immunity. A subsequent attempt by Pakistan to
discontinue the proceedings was rejected as an abuse of process
by the UK Court. On Wednesday, the Court issued a wide-ranging
judgment after analysing documentation going back more
than 70 years and embracing the law of constructive and resulting
trusts, unjust enrichment, foreign act of state, illegality and
limitation of actions, the MEA said in a statement.
The Court rejected arguments advanced by Pakistan that the
dispute was non-justiciable, either in whole or in part; that the
doctrine of illegality somehow barred recovery; or that the
claims of other parties were time barred.
The Court held that Pakistan's pleading of limitation was an
"abuse of process", and that remedies in trust law and restitution
were available against both Pakistan and the Bank.
In Wednesday's judgment, the UK High Court rejected
Pakistan's claim that the Fund had been intended as payment for
arms shipments or as an outright gift. The Court held that beneficial
ownership in the Fund as at 1948 lay with the seventh
Nizam, and that it had been held on trust to his benefit and that
of his successors in title since then.
Having found that the seventh Nizam was beneficially entitled
to the fund, the Court concluded that those claiming in right
of the Nizam i.e.India and the two grandsons of Nizam were
now entitled to have the Fund.