Jasveen Sangha, South Asian drug dealer known as the 'Ketamine Queen' charged in connection to Matthew Perry's death
Jasveen Sangha has been arrested in connection to actor Matthew Perry's death.
The 41-year-old was charged in an 18-count superseding indictment in relation to distributing ketamine to the Friends star in the weeks before he died aged 54.
Sangha - who was allegedly known throughout North Hollywood as a dealer to celebrities - was nicknamed the 'Ketamine Queen' because of her prolific activity. She is charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, maintaining a druginvolved premises, possession with intent
to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute ketamine, and five counts of distribution of ketamine.
Just hours before she was arrested by police in Los Angeles on August 15, Jasveen Sangha was boasting about her new haircut and color on her social media. Sangha shared her lavish lifestyle, allegedly funded by her narcotics dealing, all over Instagram - where she posted snaps from her vacations to Mexico and Japan.
Mission ER closed for fourth time this month as Fraser Health tries to cover shifts
On Tuesday at 10:26 p.m., Fraser Health sent out a notice informing Mission residents that “due to physician staffing challenges” Mission Memorial Hospital’s emergency department would be closed overnight and reopen at 8 a.m. This is the second ER closure the hospital has faced in a week and the fourth so far this month, with the health authority referring to them as “temporary service adaptations.” In response, a Mission councillor and the hospital’s former medical director have spoken out about the frustrating nature of the closures and how the province needs to renew its efforts to hire new
doctors and incentivize physicians to fill shifts in rural communities.
12% of India’s tested spice samples fail quality, safety standards
Nearly 12% of tested spice samples failed to meet quality and safety standards, according to data obtained by Reuters of tests by Indian authorities after several countries took steps over contamination risks in two popular brands. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India conducted inspections, sampling and testing of mixed spice blends after Hong Kong suspended sales of some blends of the MDH and Everest brands in April over high levels of a pesticide. Britain then tightened controls on all spice imports from India, while New Zealand, the United States, and Australia have said they were looking into issues related to the brands. MDH and Everest have said their products are safe for consumption. Their spices are among the most popular in India — the world’s biggest exporter, producer, and consumer of spices.
Cellphones will be banned in schools starting next month
Read more at Page 10...
“When we hear that 175 doctors were called to try to fill positions and nobody wants to come and that they’ve offered incentives for doctors to come in and do ER shifts, I don’t know what the answer is to that,” explained Mission Coun. Carol Hamilton. She said council has met with Health Minister Adrian Dix and local MLAs Bob D’Eith and Pam Alexis in an effort to fix the problem but knows it is important for the city to keep its “foot on the pedal” when it comes to advocating for a solution.
Gunman targets Sikh activist behind contentious Canadian referendum
As Sikh activist Satinder Pal Singh Raju and two associates drove along northern California’s I-505 freeway earlier this month, a white car sped up behind them, then swerved into the lane to their left. That’s when someone in the other vehicle started shooting, a hail of bullets striking Raju’s pickup truck but miraculously touching no one inside.
“When the first shot was fired, I got nervous and ducked. Another round of shots came. In the meantime, our car skidded off the highway,” Raju, who helped organize a contentious Sikh independence referendum in Canada, told the National Post.
Read more at Page 7...
The start of school will look a little different for some students as several Canadian provinces have introduced cellphone bans for the 2024-25 school year. The bans vary by jurisdiction but they all have a similar aim: to restrict cellphone use in classrooms to cut down on distractions and encourage safe social media use. But as September nears, there's some confusion about the bans themselves, let alone how they will actually be enforced — and by whom. "A lot of teachers welcome that there will be fewer distractions in the classroom, but many teachers are worried about the policing of it falling on them," Joel Westheimer, a professor of democracy and education at the University of Ottawa, said. He cautions that many teachers are worried about the realities of enforcing rules on cellphone use which, he notes, is both pervasive and addictive. Studies have also shown that kids who spend hours a day on their phones scrolling through social media show more aggression, depression and anxiety.
Labour minister steps in to prevent National railway strike
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has exercised his powers under the Labour Code to send the two sides in the national rail strike to binding arbitration. MacKinnon stepped in Thursday on the first day of an unprecedented lockout by the country’s two largest rail companies, asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose final, binding arbitration. He’s also asked the board to order the railways to resume operations under the terms of the current collective agreements until new deals are in place. But he couldn’t say when trains will start moving and the disruption will end for business and for thousands of commuters in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. “If you’re sensing any lack of clarity on that from me,
it’s because there’s an independent agency tribunal involved here who must follow their own process,”
MacKinnon said Thursday. “Obviously, I’m acting at a very early stage here and hoping they will act with similar dispatch. I assume that the trains will be running within days but, again, I want to be deferential to the process that will unfold here.”
MacKinnon said the collective bargaining process is up to the companies and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union. After months of increasingly bitter negotiations, shipments at Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC) ground to a halt Wednesday night as talks broke off.
man charged with breaking into home, groping woman
The Surrey RCMP says charges, including of sexual assault, have been laid against a 24-yearold man after a woman reported being attacked by a stranger in her Newton home last month.
Mounties previously reported that a woman said she was woken up by a stranger groping her in her home around 3:15 a.m. on July 20. The woman screamed for help, at which point the suspect left. According to the RCMP, Jatinder Singh was arrested in connection with this incident on Aug. 16. He was charged with break and enter and sexual assault, and released on a number of conditions. They include having no contact with the victim; not being within 50 metres of
where the victim lives, works, attends school, worships, or happens to be; not being within 50 metres of where the alleged incident happened; and not possessing any weapons or knives. Executive Director of the Battered Women’s Support Services Angela Marie MacDougall says the conditions imposed on Singh are far from adequate. MacDougall says this kind of violence ranks on “the high end of seriousness” and one that every woman fears.
“This is the kind of crime, the kind of sexualized violence, that we expect the state to take extremely seriously,” she said.
Criminal legal system is gambling with the lives of girls and women.”
Billions in federal contracts awarded to ‘Indigenous’ enterprises without verification
he Canadian government awarded billions of dollars in contracts earmarked for Indigenous enterprises without always requiring bidders to prove that they were First Nations, Métis, or Inuit, a Global News investigation has found.
A program that now helps Indigenous businesses land more than $1.6 billion in contract awards annually, the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB), used to rely largely on an honour system, said Anispiragas Piragasanathar, a spokesman representing federal departments.
In 2022, ISC tightened the requirements by demanding documentation from new applicants, Piragasanathar said. He did not explain why.
The Trudeau government has directed billions of dollars to Indigenous businesses over the past two years, but never addressed the PSIB’s underlying problems, according to a collaborative investigation between Global News and researchers at First Nations University of Canada.
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), which currently vets applicants, and the departments that preceded it going back to 1996, did not always demand status cards or other documents from vendors until 2022, according to Piragasanathar’s statement. “In years past,” he explained, “businesses were required to sign an attestation” that they were Indigenous. They also faced the possibility of an audit, he said.
BC ended 2023 fiscal year with $5B deficit
British Columbia has ended the fiscal year with a deficit of about $5 billion, some $900 million lower than the most recent forecast, but higher than last year’s budget had called for.
The last official look at the province’s finances before the October election says higher revenues from vehicle insurer ICBC were offset by lower revenues from natural resources. The final $5.035 billion deficit for the year ending March 31 is lower than the $5.9 billion forecast last quarter, but higher than the $4.2 billion originally predicted in the 2023 budget.
A statement from the Finance Ministry says the public accounts show the province spent
a record $1.1 billion on wildfire management, exceeding the budgeted amount by $401 million. It says increased spending on “priority services” including health, education and housing also contributed to the deficit exceeding the budget figure. Finance Minister Katrine Conroy says it’s the “wrong approach” to respond to fiscal challenges with deep cuts to services.
“With a slower world economy and a growing population, we cannot afford to have a deficit of services,” she says in the statement.
The public accounts show B.C.’s economic growth was 1.6 per cent, which the ministry says outpaced the national average.
Delta pushes for funding for special port police to tackle drug smuggling
Delta Mayor George Harvie says he had no choice but to turn to his municipal colleagues for support to push for funding for port police to tackle organized crime on the waterfront.
Harvie said in an interview Thursday that he hopes a Delta resolution will be endorsed at next month’s Union of B.C. Municipalities convention
pushing for “a shipping container levy … to reestablish dedicated resources to police ports and waterfronts.” The resolution calls on the B.C. government to work with the federal government and port communities to deal with the issue.
Delta has been lobbying for the re-establishment of some form of dedicated police force at the Port of Vancouver sites, including Deltaport — the largest container terminal in Canada.
Harvie sent a report he commissioned on the infiltration of organized crime at the Port of Vancouver to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last fall. “We’ve received nothing back from them. Absolutely nothing. It’s very disappointing.”
He said the prime minister’s office acknowledged receipt of the report and said it would be sent to the appropriate ministers.
“But the ministers have been bounced around so much that nobody’s really taking it on as a real problem,” Harvie said. “It is just not resonating [in Ottawa] at all. It’s not one of their priorities. It should be in my opinion. It should be for public safety, for public health for Canada.”
The shipping industry should be paying for policing at the port – not taxpayers, Harvie said, adding that a small per-container fee of $20 or so would not be a burden to shippers.
Ph: 604-591-5423
Fax: 604-591-8615
editor@theasianstar.com
Editor: Umendra Singh
Marketing and Sales: Ravi Cheema 604-715-3847
Shamir Doshi 604-649-7827
Harminder Kaur 778-708-0481
Parminder Dhillon 604-902-2858
Pre-Press: Iftikhar Ahmed
www.theasianstar.com
Publication Mail Agreement No 428336012
Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept.
By Michael Taube : Canada’s Senate used to be an important body of sober second thought. The upper chamber previously acted as a check on the House of Commons to ensure that elected officials didn’t acquire absolute power and overstep any political boundaries.
Unfortunately, the Senate has become a pale imitation of its former self. Multiple accusations of scandal, wasteful spending and feeding at the public trough have destroyed its once-stellar reputation. It’s also largely turned into a rubber stamp for Parliament and permanent resting ground for patronage appointments.
Canada’s two newest Senators, Charles Adler and Tracy Muggli, are proof of this.
They’ll be sitting as Independents because, in 2014, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau eliminated the Liberal Senate caucus. However, this move was an essentially meaningless stunt when you look more closely at the make-up of the parliamentary groups in the Senate. The Independent Senate Group, the largest voting bloc in the Senate, is made up of Liberal appointees who often vote along party lines. The Progressive Senate Group, the thirdlargest bloc, is also made up mostly of Liberals who do the same. Even the second-largest group, the Canadian Senators Group, includes several loyal Liberals.
The South Asian Business Association (SABA) of B.C. held a very successful 15th annual open golf classic tournament at the Hazelmere Golf & Tennis Club in Surrey on Thursday August 15. Funds raised during the event will go towards charitable causes
Poor handling of SkyTrain budget blowout hurts BC NDP in election year, say experts
At 1:02 p.m. on Thursday, a press release landed in the inboxes of B.C. journalists.
“Better transportation coming south of the Fraser as Surrey Langley SkyTrain approaches fall construction,” read the title. The press release, from the B.C. Ministry of Transportation, named the three companies awarded the contracts to build the line, and then, a bombshell: “The cost of the project, now $5.996 billion, has been updated in response to market conditions.”
There was no mention of the project’s previous budget — $3.94 billion, confirmed in December as the B.C. Transportation Investment Corp. was set to finalize bids for the 16-kilometre Expo Line extension — nor was there mention of its previous expected completion date, as the press release revealed a new date, a full year later, in late 2029. The explanation for the $2 billion price increase
was familiar.
“Rising inflation costs and key commodity escalation, supply-chain pressures and labour-market challenges” were to blame, according to the press release. A similarly vague justification was given in September 2023 when the cost of the new Surrey hospital ballooned by $1 billion and its expected completion date was delayed two years.
Communications experts and democracy watchers say the way the B.C. government released the information — and the shopworn explanation for the cost increase — threatens to undermine public confidence in the NDP government as a provincial election approaches. Several accused the government of treating taxpayers, who are on the hook for the $6 billion project, like children who might fail to recognize or understand the massive cost increase and its implications.
Gunman targets Sikh activist behind contentious Canadian referendum
Continued from Page 1...
“There was a field nearby and we abandoned the car and ran toward the field for our safety.” Almost immediately, Raju says, he thought of his close friend Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh leader in Surrey, B.C., who was not so lucky, dying in a carefully planned June 2023 shooting. RCMP have charged four men with his murder, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that Indian government agents were behind the hit. In the U.S., meanwhile, the FBI charged a man with plotting to assassinate Canadian-American lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — whose group Sikhs for Justice is spearheading the referendum — under the direction of an Indian government
employee. Now Raju and Pannun are alleging the latest shooting was another assassination attempt orchestrated by India, though no perpetrator has been arrested or motive revealed. “It’s an incident that is not stand-alone,” charged Pannun. “It is part of that trans-national repression that has been unleashed by the (Prime Minister Norendra) Modi regime, especially after he won the election this year.” Raju said he is “100 per cent sure” that Indian agents are behind the apparent attempt on his life, saying he knows of no one else who would want him dead. Trudeau’s allegation of Indian involvement sparked a diplomatic furor with Modi’s government at one point forcing many of Canada’s diplomats out of the country.
Surrey man arrested after ramming police vehicle
Police say one man has been arrested after a police vehicle was rammed in Surrey Wednesday.
In a release, the Surrey RCMP says they were called just before 2 p.m. with a report of a “suspicious vehicle” in the area of 146 Street and 108 Avenue.
Mounties say when officers arrived they saw the vehicle, a blue Ford Explorer SUV, and “attempted to make contact with the driver.” But the SUV allegedly rammed the police vehicle and tried to run from the scene.
“While attempting to flee, the SUV caused a collision with a civilian vehicle that was stopped
in traffic,” Mounties said. RCMP says the car was driving dangerously into oncoming traffic.
Officers stopped the SUV near the intersection of King George Boulevard and 108 Avenue, but the driver tried to run on foot. The police caught him and “deployed a conductive energy weapon” before taking the suspect into custody.
South Asian man convicted of killing two gets statutory release, but with conditions
A Richmond man convicted of killing his mother-in-law and a teenager in a house fire nine years ago is out on statutory release, but will be required to live in a residential facility because of a high risk to reoffend, said the parole board.
Surjit Singh Dosanjh was found guilty of manslaughter after lighting a fire at a fourplex in the 10000-block Cornerbrook Crescent in April 2015, killing his mother-in-law, identified in sentencing documents as E.L., and a teen whose identity is covered by a publication ban.
During the 2018 trial, Dosanjh’s common-law wife L.L. testified she ended their relationship a month before the fire. She said Dosanjh refused to accept the relationship was over and threatened her and vandalized her car. Dosanjh was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment, which worked out to eight years and eight months after time served. He is now out on statutory release,
which allows offenders to serve the last third of their sentence in the community. But the parole board imposed a residency requirement on Dosanjh due to his history of violence, “pro-criminal” values and behaviour, the gravity of his offence, and the threat he poses to future partners. “You are assessed as a high risk for intimate partner violence,” it said in a July 31 decision, adding his risk appeared to have increased during his time in prison. The board said it looked at other means of managing the risk Dosanjh posted to society, including increased management, curfews, and special written instructions, but found them inadequate. The board noted that Dosanjh, who lost family members in a war and lived in an orphanage until he was adopted by relatives, had a difficult childhood. He immigrated to Canada at age 11, and met his L.L. in his teens. The relationship was turbulent and marked by verbal and emotional abuse, said the decision.
A poll released on Tuesday shows the B.C. Conservative Party ahead of the ruling B.C. NDP for the first time, as an October election looms.
According to a poll taken by Mainstreet Research between Aug. 15-18, 39 per cent of decided voters will support the Conservatives in the Oct. 19 provincial election, followed by the NDP at 36 per cent.
B.C. United has 12 per cent of the decided vote according to the poll, followed by the B.C. Greens at 11 per cent. The percentage of undecided voters identified by the poll was nine per cent.
Earlier this month, pollster Leger released its Government of B.C. Report Card that found a previously sizable lead held by the B.C. NDP had been almost completely eroded by the Conservatives. “As the fall election approaches, the latest Leger polling data indicates that the previously
substantial lead held by the B.C. NDP under the leadership of David Eby (42 per cent) has been all but erased due to the significant gains made by John Rustad and the Conservative Party of B.C. (39 per cent) where support has risen 13 points since March 2024 (26 per cent). While the B.C. NDP still appears to be maintaining a stable support base, the Conservative Party of B.C. has been rapidly capturing support from undecided voters and exB.C. United supporters,” a Leger statement read. It went on to say that support for Kevin Falcon’s B.C. United had fallen significantly between March and August 2024. “The dramatic rise in support levels for the Conservative party can be attributed to five main factors. Firstly, the increases in awareness, approval ratings and voter support of (leader) John Rustad have been significant across all age groups and genders.
APPLIANCES REPAIR SERVICE
The recent announcement that 800 new seats are coming to Surrey’s overcrowded Fleetwood Park Secondary school by 2029 is welcome news, but it doesn’t address the city’s overall classroom shortage, critics say.
“The 800 seats, if they were built in the next year, would be a major thing,” said Cindy Dalglish, a parent and education advocate. “My concern comes with the fact that it’s going to take five years, and by then the need is going to be even greater.”
Last Friday, the provincial education ministry announced a $78.6-million investment for a four-storey addition to the school, saying it was needed to meet growing demand. The project,
plus previously announced expansions at three other Surrey high schools, are expected to create 2,300 new seats between 2027 and 2029.
“As one of B.C.’s fastest-growing communities, it’s more important than ever that we invest to bring the much-needed classrooms that students need to Surrey schools,” said Jagrup Brar, the MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood. “This new addition will benefit families in our community for decades to come.”
The investment at Fleetword Park will include additional classroom space, Indigenous and neighbourhood learning and meeting areas, and child-care spaces.
But last year alone the Surrey student population grew by 3,089 students, according to the school board. There is no sign that Surrey’s rapid growth, which has the district expecting 2,400 new students a year for the foreseeable future, is slowing.
Lizanne Foster, president of the Surrey Teachers’ Association, said despite the extra spaces there is still a “vast chasm between what is needed by the district and what is going to be provided by the government.”
Canadian man repeats 2020 Walmart grocery order in 2024 — the price difference is shocking
Canadians are well aware of sky-high grocery prices, but just how much have they increased over the years? One shopper decided to find out by comparing a Walmart grocery order from 2020 to the same one today.
In a post on Wednesday, Reddit user MrCrix said they found their oldest Walmart order from 2020 on what looks to be the Instacart app and duplicated it to see how much prices have gone up for the same order since. The shopper shared the results on r/povertyfinancecanada, and it was shocking, to say the least.
added to the cart, and the remaining 12 had to be manually added.
“[The] oldest order I have is November 30, 2020. For 22 items, I paid $145.87. That included all the fees and a $10 tip,” MrCrix wrote in the replies.They repeated the order in the present day, but only 10 items were automatically
“The reason for this is that the packaging sizes changed,” the Redditor explained. “For example Wheat Thins went from 200g to 180g, Kraft Dinner used to have a five pack, but now only have a four pack.” That’s already a sign of shrinkflation. MrCrix checked out the present-day order with a $11.15 tip; the grand total was $214.72. That’s a difference of $68.91, or a price hike of 47.2% from 2020. “That also did not include a $3.99 delivery fee that I got taken off because it was a promo,” they wrote.“So, essentially, it is now 50% more expensive to order the exact same items, with lesser volume from Walmart than it was 3.5 years ago.”One Reddit user shared their own experience with shrinkflation.
Mission ER closed for fourth time this month as Fraser Health tries to cover shifts
Continued from Page 1...
Dr. Andrew Edelson, co-chair of Missionbased health care advocacy organization
Mission All Together for Healthcare and Mission Memorial’s former medical director, said it was only a matter of time before the
hospital experienced closures.
“The closures were inevitable,” he said. “There’s a drastic shortage of emergency room doctors everywhere, and so Mission, like other small towns, suffers. We suffer because of geography.”
50 cents increase in wages
Employers and employees should know that the national minimum wage for the 10 sectoral wages have increased by 50 cents effective from the first day of this month.
Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations, Agni Deo Singh said the wages would further increase by another 50c from April 1, 2025 for both the formal and informal sectors.
He said all employers covered under the National Minimum Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2022 and the 10 sectoral industries covered under the Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2022 should make the necessary changes to their wages records.
“Employers are required to display the written notice
of the increased wage rates in their workplaces informing the workers of the increase,” Mr Sigh said.
The ministry’s Labour Standards and Compliance Team, he said, would continue to conduct inspections on the implementation of the first tranche wage increase to all workplaces in Fiji.
“Failure by employers to display these regulations warrants a $100.00 penalty by enforcement officers of the ministry.
“In an occurrence where an employer fails to comply with the fixed penalty notice, on conviction is liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding 2 years or both, and for a corporate body a fine not exceeding $50,000.
Death penalty is not the solution to rising drugs problems – Human Rights Comm
The Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission strongly advocates for strengthening policies, laws, and judicial processes in Fiji rather than adopting extreme measures such as the death penalty, as suggested by the Minister of Women, Children, and Social Protection, Lynda Tabuya, to combat drug trafficking. Commission Chair, Pravesh Sharma says the Commission is of the view that the death penalty is not the solution to the rising drugs problems.
He says the Government should conduct baseline research to determine why our people are engaging in drugs, and then put in place
Sharma adds we must work towards rehabilitation of addicted people; and prevent drugs from entering Fiji.
He says we also need to strengthen our border security, raise awareness, and educate our people about the impacts of drugs.
The Commission Chair says Section 8 of the 2013 Constitution states that every person has the right to life, and a person must not be arbitrarily deprived of life. Sharma says Fiji has come a long way in abolishing the death penalty in 1979 because it is a serious violation of human rights, in particular the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or
Punjab Government initiates steps to appoint regular VCs at 2 tech varsities
Days after a war of words between former Governor Banwarilal Purohit and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over ad hoc Vice-Chancellors running most of the state universities, the state government has finally moved to appoint regular VCs at two technical universities. Officials aware of the matter said the CM had given the go-ahead to the appointment of regular VCs at Sardar Beant Singh State University, Gurdaspur; and Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University, Ferozepur.
The Department of Technical Education and Industrial Training has been asked to put up files pertaining to the two universities. The board of governors of the respective university will approve the search committee to shortlist candidates before the CM sends the panel to the Governor-cum-Chancellor of the universities.
Singh State University, Gurdaspur, and Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University, Ferozepur. The files pertaining to the two universities were pending with the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). The Department has sought clarification from the government whether it wants to appoint regular VCs or go for the proposed merger of the four technical universities.
Of the four such universities, namely IK Gujral Punjab Technical University (PTU), Kapurthala; Maharaja Ranjit Singh PTU, Bathinda; Sardar Beant Singh State University, Gurdaspur; and Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University, Ferozepur; the ones at Bathinda, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur have officiating VCs.
The additional charge of PTU-Bathinda was given to its Dean, Faculty of Sciences, Dr Sandeep Kansal after the matter of non-appointment of VC reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
At present, VC of IK Gujral PTU Dr Susheel Mittal holds the additional charge of Sardar Beant
After the Ferozepur and Gurdaspur universities were set up during the tenure of the previous Congress government, the issues of their financial viability and the need of four universities in a small state like Punjab were raised. Since 2021-2022, the government has been giving an annual grant of Rs 15 crore to the Gurdaspur and Ferozepur universities.
A four-member committee of experts set up by the government to decide the fate of the two universities had reportedly proposed making the Ferozepur and Gurdaspur universities the campuses of Maharaja Ranjit Singh PTU and IK Gujral PTU, respectively.
This, it said, would ensure better academic exposure to the faculty and students of the merged universities. Now, the issue has been settled with the government asking for the appointment of regular VCs.
Nabha jailbreak mastermind Ramanjit Singh 'Romi' extradited from Hong Kong
The mastermind behind the 2016 Nabha jailbreak Ramanjit Singh was arrested on Thursday after his extradition by authorities in Hong Kong in an operation coordinated by the CBI and the Punjab Police, officials said.
Singh, also known as Romi, who was facing an INTERPOL Red Notice, was flown in by a Punjab Police team and arrested on arrival in Delhi, they said. The officials said Romi, 29, was the key conspirator in the Nabha jailbreak incident in which six hardcore criminals, including two terrorists, managed to escape.
The extradition proceedings against Romi, a resident of Bangi Ruldu village of Bathinda, were initiated in 2018. He had been residing at Kowloon in Hong Kong.
“The Global Operations Centre of Central Bureau of Investigation has coordinated with
Punjab Police and INTERPOL NCB- Hong Kong for the return of a Red Notice Subject Ramanjit Singh from Hong Kong to India on August 22,” a CBI spokesperson said in a statement. He said the CBI got a Red Notice issued against Singh from the INTERPOL General Secretariat on March 22, 2017, at the request of the Punjab Police.
'Justice and medicine cannot go on strike', says Supreme Court; urges doctors to resume work
“Justice and medicine cannot go on strike. Can we go and sit outside the Supreme Court now?” the supreme Court wondered on Thursday as it urged the doctors protesting against the rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata to resume work. As lawyers representing various associations of protesting doctors complained of disciplinary and coercive action by the authorities, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud assured them that no adverse/coercive action will be taken against them if they returned to work.
“If doctors have resumed duty, we will prevail upon the authorities not to take any adverse action. But they must first come back
to work. Otherwise, the people who need their services the most are deprived of their services. That's the only concern. How can public health infrastructure run if doctors don't resume work?” the Bench noted.
“If they are not on duty, the law will have to follow its course. How can we tell the administration to take a course that is not correct?” said the Bench – which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.
The top court issued several directions on safety of doctors, norms for protests, rights of protesters as also the West Bengal Government after it was told that doctors were ready to resume work but wanted security measures such as CCTV cameras at entrance of hospitals and hostels.
“We direct that the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Health engages with the Chief Secretaries of the State and Director Generals of Police to ensure that the State Governments and UTs put into place such basic requirements pending the report of the National Task Force to have address the concerns of doctors over their safety,” it said, adding states should take remedial measures in two weeks.
As Modi visits Poland, PM Tusk eyes stronger defence industry ties with India
WARSAW - Poland wants to deepen its cooperation with India in the defence industry, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday, as Warsaw seeks to benefit from New Delhi's drive to modernise its armed forces and diversify away from Russian suppliers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Warsaw en route to Kyiv, where he has said he will "share perspectives" on the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
The trip follows Modi's July 8-9 visit to Moscow which drew criticism from the U.S. and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as it coincided with a lethal Russian strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv.
"It is no coincidence that we talked about intensification in terms of the defense industry," Tusk told a news conference alongside Modi in Warsaw. "We are ready as Poland to take part in the modernisation of military equipment."
Poland has been one of Ukraine's staunchest supporters since Russia's 2022 invasion, while India has remained neutral.
Nevertheless, cooperation concerning the defence industry was high on the agenda for the first visit to Warsaw by an Indian prime
minister in 45 years, officials said.
New Delhi had historically relied heavily on Moscow for defence supplies but in recent years has sought to diversify, a process that has intensified since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A Polish official who declined to be named told Reuters that India had a lot of Soviet-era equipment such T-72 tanks which Poland was able to repair or refit, creating an opportunity for cooperation.
Modi said that India is willing to offer its help to end the conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia. "India firmly believes that no issue can be solved on a battlefield," Modi said. "We support dialogue and diplomacy for the quick restoration of peace."
How Ukraine war killed hope in India's 'Diamond City'
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, residents of Surat, India could not have imagined that a war thousands of miles away would lead to a suicide problem in their community.
Surat — a city in the western state of Gujarat — is the hub of India's diamond industry, which employs over 600,000 people.
Workers in Surat are responsible for cutting and polishing 80% of the world's diamonds, according to industry statistics.
Surat's diamond industry was already facing many problems — floods in Africa, falling demand from the West, stuttering exports to China — when the war began in February 2022.
What followed was a massive wave of Western sanctions against Russia, which also included Russian diamonds, and Surat was suddenly facing a deep financial crisis.
Opposition members question provisions of Waqf Bill as Parliament panel holds first meeting
The Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill held its marathon first meeting on Thursday amid objections by opposition MPs over a host of provisions as the Union minority affairs ministry made a presentation in the proposed law.
Sources said BJP members in the meeting lauded the proposed amendments, including the provisions which seek to empower women. There were occasional heated exchanges during the meeting but members from various parties sat for several hours, recording their views on the provisions of the Bill, offering suggestions and seeking clarifications.
In his brief comments to reporters, Committee Chairperson Jagdambika Pal described the meeting, which went on for over six hours with a lunch break, as “fruitful”. It was one of the longest meetings held by a parliamentary panel in recent times, a member claimed.
The next meeting will be held on August 30, and the panel is likely to hear views of various state Waqf bodies, sources said.
There was a view among the members across various parties, some of them said, that the minority affairs ministry was not “adequately prepared” to address the queries raised in the
to scratch.
BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) said the Muslim community's concerns should be addressed and called for wider consultations, they said, adding that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also pitched for holding broad deliberations.
The members who attended the meeting included the BJP's Sanjay Jaiswal, Aparajita Sarangi, Tejasvi Surya, Dilip Saikia and Gulam Ali; Congress party's Gourav Gogoi and Naseer Hussain; TMC's Kalyan Banerjee, YSR Congress' V Vijaysai Reddy, AAP's Sanjay Singh, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, A Raja of the DMK, LJP's Arun Bharti and TDP's Lavu Srikrishna Devarayalu.
Several opposition members questioned various clauses of the bill and their rationale, including the move to empower district collectors in deciding on the ownership of a disputed property, and to have non-Muslim members on Waqf boards.
Later in a post on X, Reddy said he opposed the bill due to concerns expressed by various stakeholders. The bill is not acceptable in its current form, he said, adding that he will submit his “dissenting” note to the committee.
Congress, National Conference seal deal for all 90 Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir
In a significant political development, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah announced on Thursday that an alliance with the Congress was finalised for all 90 Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, which is going for its maiden Assembly polls after being reorganised into a Union Territory.
The announcement follows a meeting between Abdullah, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at the National Conference chief’s residence. “We had a productive meeting in a cordial atmosphere. The alliance is confirmed, and God willing, it will function smoothly.
We will sign the agreement, covering all 90 seats,” Abdullah told reporters.
The Assembly elections in Jammu
and Kashmir will take place in three phases on September 18, September 25, and October 1, with the results set to be announced on October 4. Gandhi, during his address to party workers in Jammu, also said, “The coalition is taking place and I hope that in whatever way the coalition forms, our soldiers, workers and commanders get due respect.”
Earlier in Srinagar, he said it was the first time since Independence that a state had been downgraded to a Union Territory (UT).
“This has never happened before. UTs have become states but it is the first time that a state became a UT. We are very clear in our national manifesto as well that it is a priority for us that the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh get their democratic rights back,” he added.
