Issue 381 Final 1st to 38th Pages Final M

38 25/12/2020 NEWS LITERATURE POLITICS FASHION ART & CULTURE KIDS RELIGION FILMS
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Bhim Army to contest
UP panchayat polls
Azamgarh :
After Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP), now
the Bhim Army has
announced that it
will field candidates
in the 2021
panchayat polls in
Uttar Pradesh.
Bhim Army
c h i e f
Chandrashekhar
Azad said that he
decided to contest
the panchayat elections
as "atrocities
on Dalits were
increasing in rural areas" of the
state. He also accused the Yogi
Adityanath government of "settling
scores with the opposition"
by targeting their supporters and
expressed concern over law and
order in UP. The panchayat elections
are likely to be held in
March-April 2021. The term of
present panchayats will expire
this month. Chandrashekhar,
whose political outfit is now
known as Azad Samaj Party,
Dirty money continues
to LAND in UK
from Pak : Report
Islamabad : A British government
report has revealed that illegal money
from Pakistan has continued to make
its way into the UK and vice-versa,
without any hindrance as "corrupt foreign
elites continue to be attracted to
the UK property market, especially in
London, to disguise their corruption
proceeds".
The report titled "National Risk
Assessment of money laundering and
terrorist financing
2020", released by the
UK's Treasury and
Home Office, has
mentioned countries
including China,
Pakistan, Hong Kong,
Russia and United
Arab Emirates (UAE) as the top
hotspots from where the most flow of
money is processed and routed.
"The UK continues to have close
economic links to Pakistan, including
significant remittance flows between
both jurisdictions, which according to
estimated equated to approximately
$1.7 billion in 2017," the report
revealed.
"Economic and cultural ties also
enable and disguise illicit funds to be
transferred between the UK and
Pakistan, including through illegal
informal value transfers," it added.
The report maintained that high
profile people from Pakistan are buying
high value assets in the UK and
elements from UK are buying high
value assets in Pakistan, using their
"dirty money".
"Criminals continue to purchase
high value assets, such as real estate,
precious gems and jewellery to launder
illicit funds which are transferred from
Pakistan to the UK and vice-versa.
"This includes proceeds from corruption
and drug-trafficking," the
report added. It also said that the risk
of case-based money laundering from
the UK to Pakistan via smuggled cash
and Money Service Business (MSBs)
also persists.
In 2017, Pakistan
was nominated to the
global watchdog on
terrorist financing and
money laundering, the
Financial Action Task
Force (FATF) list of
jurisdictions with strategic anti-money
laundering and counter-terrorist
financing deficiencies, called the grey
list. The UK, being a member of the
FATF, has stated that it continues to
closely monitor for sustained and timely
efforts from the Pakistani side.
"The UK also continues to support
Pakistan, including with capacity
building assistance, to help Pakistani
authorities meet their commitments.
"Joint operations between the
National Crime Agency and Pakistani
authorities to tackle illicit finance
threat have benefited from good levels
of cooperation," the report added.
However, the revelations in the
report raises serious questions over
Pakistan's claims of successful curb on
money laundering and terrorist financing.
pointed out that the panchayat
elections were a precursor to the
2022 Assembly elections. The
Bhim Army chief, who arrived
here to meet the Azamgarh
District Magistrate over alleged
delay in providing medical help
to a Dalit village head killed
recently, had heated arguments
with policemen before his meeting
with the officer. "People
should be given due respect in a
democracy. The treatment meted
out to me here proves that officials
are threatening people," he
told reporters.
Attacking the BJP,
Chandrashekhar said that while
Union Home Minister Amit
Shah is taking part in road shows
and election rallies in West
Bengal, Parliament's Winter
Session has been cancelled on
the pretext of coronavirus.
"The Union government is
doing this to avoid opposition
questions as it does not have
answers to them," he remarked.
More areas in ENGLAND under tight
restrictions as new Covid variant found
London : British
Health Secretary Matt
Hancock announced that
more areas of the East
and South East of
England will be put into
Tier four restrictions, the
highest level, while
revealing that a new variant
of the novel coronavirus
has been found in
Britain.
To curb the spread of
COVID-19, Sussex,
Oxfordshire, Suffolk,
Norfolk, Cambridgeshire,
parts of Essex that are not
currently in Tier Four,
Waverley in Surrey and
Hampshire will all enter Tier
Four from Boxing Day, Hancock
said at a virtual press conference
from the Downing Street on
Wednesday, Xinhua news
agency reported.
Bristol, Gloucestershire,
Somerset, Swindon, the Isle of
Wight, the New Forest and
Northamptonshire, as well as
Cheshire and Warrington, will
enter Tier Three.
Under the new tougher measures,
residents in Tier Four areas
must stay at home, with limited
exemptions. People are also
urged to work from home when
they can.
Hancock also said that another
new variant of the novel coronavirus
has been detected in
Britain, and two cases have been
reported so far.
This new variant is "yet more
transmissible" and the development
is "highly concerning," he
said.
Both people had travelled to
South Africa, where the variant
has been linked to a surge in
cases, the BBC reported.
Cases and close contacts of
cases found in Britain are being
quarantined, and the British government
is placing "immediate
restrictions" on travel from
South Africa, according to
Hancock.
Anyone who has been in
South Africa in the last fortnight
and anyone who has been a close
contact with someone who has
been in South Africa in the past
two weeks must quarantine
immediately, he said.
The press conference was
held after British ministers met
on Wednesday morning to hammer
out plans to combat a rising
number of infections in the
country.