CURRENT AFFAIRS
11 October 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Hathras victim’s family to appear in court on October 12 amid tight security.
The Family members of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who died after allegedly being raped by 4 men in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh will appear before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court amid tight security on October 12. On 10 October, the Superintendent of Hathras Police, Mr. Vineet Jaiswal has said that the district judge of Hathras has been appointed as the nodal officer for the appearance of the Hathras the family member of the victim before the high court. The police and district administration are working on an elaborate plan in this regard as to how many family members will go and when they will depart from Hathras. The Hathras police will be responsible for their security and a detailed plan is being made. 60 security personnel have been deployed and 8 close circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed at the house of the alleged gangrape victim in her village in Bulgarhi area here to ensure the safety of her family members, according to police. The Hathras SP said a register of visitors was being maintained by policemen at the entry of the house. Shocked by the alleged gang-rape and murder, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had on October 1 summoned top government officials to the court. A division Bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Jaspreet Singh had ordered the Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary, State police chief and an Additional Director General of Police to appear before it on October 12 to explain the incident.
B) FIR must on complaints relating to sexual offences against women, Centre tells States.
The Centre has directed all States and Union Territories to compulsorily register cases on complaints relating to sexual offences against women. If a crime is committed outside the jurisdiction of a police station, Zero FIR (First Information Report) should be booked on information of such cognizable offence. In a circular to Chief Secretaries issued on Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said even with stringent provisions in law and several capacity-building measures undertaken, any failure of the police to adhere to these mandatory requirements may not augur well for the delivery of criminal justice in the country, especially in the context of women safety. The MHA called for issuing instructions to all concerned to ensure strict compliance with provisions in the law and also monitor progress in the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) to make sure that suitable follow-up action is taken for charge-sheet of the guilty in a timely manner.
C) Rahul targets Modi again on VIP aircraft with tweet on non-bulletproof trucks for jawans.
On 10 October, Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi again on the purchase of a VIP aircraft by tweeting a 2-minute video clip. In the video clip, jawans in a truck were complaining how their lives were being put at risk by ferrying them in a non-bullet-proof vehicle. He said that the Jawans are being sent in non-bulletproof trucks to become martyrs, while a ₹8,400 crore plane for the Prime Minister. Is this justice? Neither the date of the video nor its location is known but jawans were complaining that they were being sent in a non-bullet-proof vehicle when even a bullet-proof vehicle in their area was also not sufficient to protect them. Gandhi has targeted Modi for the second time in 2 days over the purchase of the VIP aircraft. On 8 October, he tweeted to show the number of essential items the government could have purchased for soldiers posted in Siachen-Ladakh with the amount spent on the aircraft.
D) T.N. rebuts allegations against Mullaperiyar dam panel in Supreme Court.
The Tamil Nadu government has rebutted allegations made in the Supreme Court that the Supervisory Committee for Mullaperiyar Dam abdicated its duties to evaluate the safety of the structure and water levels. The State countered allegations that the Supervisory Committee constituted by the top court in 2014 has delegated its duties to a sub-committee. The court had in September sought a reply from the State on a petition filed by Joe Joseph and office-bearers of the Kothamangalam block panchayat in Kerala expressing their apprehensions about the lack of proper supervision of water levels in the over-a-century-old dam located along the Periyar Tiger Reserve. The State explained that the sub-committee is chaired by the Executive Engineer, Central Water Commission (CWC), with headquarters in Kochi. It has members from both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The sub-committee periodically inspects the dam, collects data on seepage, collects water samples from the lake and seepage water, conducts water quality tests on them and reports the details to the Supervisory Committee. The sub-committee is only assisting the Supervisory Committee. This cannot be called the delegation of the authority of the Supervisory Committee, the affidavit argued.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) China has deployed 60,000 soldiers on Indian border: Mike Pompeo.
China has amassed more than 60,000 troops on the northern border of India, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said as he hit out at Beijing for its“bad behavior and the threats it poses to the Quad countries. The Indians are seeing 60,000 Chinese soldiers on their northern border, Pompeo told The Guy Benson Show in an interview on 9 October after his return from Tokyo, where he attended the second Quad ministerial with his counterparts from India, Japan and Australia. He again repeated the assertion on Fox News. They have stacked 60,000 soldiers against the Indians in the north. When the Australians had the temerity to ask for an investigation of the Wuhan virus and where it began, something that they know a lot about, the Chinese Communist Party threatened them. They even bullied them. The Foreign Ministers from the US, Japan, India and Australia had met in Tokyo on Tuesday in what was their first in-person talks since the coronavirus pandemic began.
B) Pakistan Opposition parties accuse Army of rigging 2018 elections.
For the first time, the 2 major Opposition parties of Pakistan have come out openly against the powerful military of the country. They are accusing it of rigging the 2018 elections that brought Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party to power. In past, the political leaders have only indirectly pointed out the involvement of the military establishment in the political affairs of the country but this is the first time that the leaders of the 2 main Opposition parties which are the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N). Former prime minister and PML-N supremo Sharif, who is in London since November last year and is facing a number of corruption cases, has fired the first salvo at the inaugural meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement. It is an alliance which was formed by the Opposition parties last month to oust Prime Minister Khan. Mr. Sharif alleged that the military rigged the elections of 2018 in order to bring the current Prime Minister in power. His allegation sparked an angry response from Khan, who said that Sharif was playing a very dangerous game by humiliating the military and intelligence services. After Sharif, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday accused the military of rigging the 2018 elections.
