Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill 2023 passed in LS amid chaos

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) Amid chaos and confrontational scenes between the treasury and opposition benches, the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2023 through voice vote.

The bill proposes to decriminalise various offences in 42 laws including minor ones that invite jail term.

It was passed within half an hour after a short discussion, which saw participation of only three MPs, one each from BJP, BSP and YSR Congress, amid vociferous protests by Congress-led opposition, who were seeking the Prime Minister's presence in the House on the Manipur situation. In fact, the opposition members became more vociferous when Union Minister Piyush Goyal was replying to the discussion on the bill, shouting: "Piyush Goyal go back!"

The opposition's belligerent attitude towards Goyal was a result of his confrontation earlier in the day with Congress leader, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Meanwhile, Goyal said while

Woman priest, 3 sons held for suspected human sacrifice of 14-yr-old boy in Odisha

replying to the discussion, that the legislation's aim is to reduce the compliance burden on individuals and businesses, to fulfill the twin objectives of ease of doing business and ease of living for the citizens.

It will amend almost 113 imprisonment clauses in various pieces of legislation, governing matters pertaining to the environment, air pollution, housing, and money laundering among others.

"It will remove all obstructions related to businesses and instil confidence among small businesses. Several laws will be decriminalised after the passage of this bill," the minister said.

Gujarat: PM Modi inaugurates international airport in Hirasar

conditions of every social class and region.

Bhubaneswar, July 31 (IANS)

The Odisha police have arrested a traditional healer and her three sons for allegedly killing a 14-year-old boy in the state's Angul district, police said on Monday.

a tree in Baruni forest area, which sparked off tension in the area and the people a police vehicle afire in protest. They also staged a road blockade on KiakataAthamallick road, which was lifted after police assurance of action in the matter.

Rajkot, July 27 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated an international airport near the city of Rajkot in Gujarat.

The airport has been constructed at an expenditure of Rs 1,405 crore and is situated in Hirasar village, about 30 km from Rajkot. The airport spans over an expanse of 1,025.50 hectares (2,534 acres), with 1,500 acres being allocated for the airport’s construction by the Airports Authority of India.

The Prime Minister said that the Central government has continued its efforts in last 9-years to ameliorate the living

He emphasised on the commitment of ‘Sushasan’ or good governance and underlined the considerable strides made in poverty reduction, referring to a recent report that revealed 13.5 crore citizens rising above the poverty line in the past halfdecade, creating a burgeoning neo-middle class.

Prime Minister also said that the government is commitment to enhance connectivity. He said that while only 4 Indian cities had metro networks in 2014, now over 20 cities have the metro connectivity.

“Growth in the number of airports from 70 in 2014 to more than twice that number now and modern trains like Vande Bharat are operating across 25 routes,” the PM Modi said.

The Prime Minister said that enhancing ease of living and quality of life are high on the government’s agenda and also acknowledged the numerous challenges previously faced by the public, including long queues at hospitals and utility payment centers, difficulties with insurance and pension, and complexities in filing tax returns. These issues, he said, have been addressed by the Digital India initiative, which has simplified mobile banking, tax filing, and other services.

The new Hirasar International Airport, featuring a 3,040 metrelong and 45-meter-wide runway is capable of accommodating 14 aircraft simultaneously.

It was first conceptualised in 2017 when the Prime Minister conducted the ground-breaking ceremony.

Siddaramaiah instructs to amend K’taka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation Byelaw

Bengaluru, July 27 (IANS) Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday instructed to prioritise the effective implementation of comprehensive Development Plan for Mining Sectors. The Chief Minister has also directed the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation to amend the byelaws of the Corporation to make the Chief Minister the Chairman of the Governing Body to enable it to effectively implement the action plan of the Comprehensive Development Plan for Mining Impact Zones (CEPMIZ) in mineaffected districts as approved by the Supreme Court. He inspected the functioning of the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration

Corporation. 466 villages of 4 districts that is Bellary, Vijayanagar, Chitradurga and Tumkur have been declared mine-affected in the State.

The Supreme Court has sanctioned and approved an action plan with estimated cost of Rs 24,996.71 crore for the development of these villages.

As per the order of the Supreme Court, Justice Sudarshan Reddy, retired judge of Supreme Court has been appointed as the supervising authority to oversee the approval and implementation of the projects. The authority has so far spent a total of Rs 7634.96 crore in 4 districts. 317 proposals are approved. In order to quickly prepare the rest of the proposals and get approvals, the CM directed to set up an engineering cell in these four districts and prepare action plan swiftly under the guidance of the District in-charge minister and Deputy Commissioner. The Chief Minister pointed out that there is ample opportunity to develop the mine-affected villages by utilizing this project and directed the officials to maintain the quality of the works. Forest Minister Ishwara Khandre, Horticulture and Mines and Geology Minister S.S. Mallikarjun, Chief Minister's political secretaries Dr. K. Govindaraju and Naseer Ahmed, Additional Chief Secretary to CM Dr. Rajneesh Goel, ACS to Government and Development Commissioner E V. Ramana Reddy and other senior officers were present in the meeting.

The deceased has been identified as Sanchit Biswal of Subarnapur village under Kiakata police station in the district. The arrested are -- woman priest Ritanjali Bagh -- and her three sons -- Dibyaranjan, Soumyaranjan and Jyotiranjan.

According to locals, Sanchit was not keeping well and her mother Basanti took him to Mangala Kothi, a special worship place for Goddess Mangala which was run by Ritanjali Bagh, to seek blessings on July 22. Sanchit and his mother were made to sleep in separate rooms in the Kothi that night. The next morning, the boy was found missing.

The family members launched a frantic search for him. Unable to find him anywhere, Basanti lodged a missing complaint at Kiakata police station and a case was registered on July 24.

On July 28, the mutilated body of Sanchit was found hanging from

The police have conducted a postmortem of the body and sealed the Mangala Kothi.

“We have arrested the lady and her three sons in this case. The arrested persons have partially confessed to this crime. We are waiting for the post-mortem report and scientific examination report,” said Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra, SP, Angul.

The police will seek remand of the accused for further investigation in the murder case, he said. When asked about the human sacrifice angle in this case, the SP said that at this stage, without any scientific evidence, it is not possible to accept or deny it.

"After analyzing the post-mortem report, details of injury marks and opinion of the doctors and cause & time of death, we can give any conclusive opinion," he added.

Manipur violence : Two journalists among 27 people missing

Imphal, July 27 (IANS) At least 27 non-tribal persons, including two journalists, two minors and two women, are missing in violencehit Manipur, sources said on Thursday.

The two missing journalists of local media are Atom Samarendra Singh, 47, and Yumkhaibam Kirankumar Singh, 48. These 27 persons, some of them remained missing since May, some in June, and remaining from July and they are residents of Imphal West, Imphal East, Tengnoupal, Bishnupur, Kangpokpi, Thoubal, and Kakching districts. The missing cases were reported in various police stations. The ages of the missing persons ranged between 17 years to 47 years.