Akshita Kapoor

[ad_1] BENGALURU: A teenage girl eager to see her cricketing heroes. A young techie whose laptop still waits on her desk. A woman carried on shoulders by friends, gasping for life. A student found with torn clothes, his mother's cries echoing through hospital corridors.All were caught in a crushing crowd surge during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's victory parade on Wednesday, turning joy into devastation.Fourteen-year-old Divyamshika - fondly called Dimple - had watched the final late into Tuesday night, cheering for RCB. The next afternoon, she went to Chinnaswamy Stadium with her mother, aunt, and grandaunt to see RCB players celebrate their long-awaited IPL title. Around 4.50pm, crowds outside began pushing in. Caught in the stampede, Dimple was trampled."My daughter called me and kept crying, telling me to rush to Bowring Hospital. She didn't say why. My granddaughter was crushed underfoot," said […]

[ad_1] BENGALURU: Gate No. 7 - which gives a sweeping view of those coming into Chinnaswamy Stadium through the main entrance - turned out to be a death trap after rumours started floating that free tickets would be distributed there.In minutes, the gate turned into an epicentre of panic and disorder as fans who had gathered in massive numbers to celebrate RCB's first ever IPL victory fell over each other in a mad scramble for tickets."People completely lost control. It was a disaster," said Achimanya from Rajajinagar neighbourhood. Sudden rain around 5.30pm made the situation worse.The stadium has 21 stands with 13 gates. While gates 9 and 10 were reserved for state cricket association members, gates 5, 6, 7, 19 and 20 - located along the team's main entry route - saw the highest concentration of crowds. Maximum casualties were […]

[ad_1] Amid a clamour for legislative revamp of the judges-selecting-judges system, fuelled by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar's statements, CJI B R Gavai has said no reform in the collegium system could be at the "cost of judicial independence" and that judiciary should retain its primacy in appointments to Supreme Court and high courts.At a round-table in UK Supreme Court on Tuesday evening, CJI Gavai said, "There may be criticism of the collegium system, but... judges must be free from external control."CJI said SC had struck down National Judicial Appointments Commission Act in 2015 as the law attempted to dilute judiciary's independence by giving primacy to the executive in court appointments.Unwarranted interference led to collegium system, says CJI Tracing the evolution of the collegium system through two SC judgments in 1993 and 1998, the CJI said the executive had the final say […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: If Justice Yashwant Varma doesn't resign and holds on to his argument of being "innocent", he may earn the unenviable distinction of being the only judge to be removed through Parliament's removal motion, with most parties pledging "unity" on the issue of corruption, of which the three-member SC panel has found him guilty.Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said most of opposition parties favoured bringing the motion of removal, which may be introduced in the monsoon session (July 21 to Aug 12).Can't approach graft in judiciary through political prism: Rijiju Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said most of parties favoured bringing the motion of removal, which, by all accounts, may be introduced in the forthcoming monsoon session, scheduled from July 21 to Aug 12. Rijiju said Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) has sent the recommendation for the […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: The Census exercise, put on hold over five years ago due to the Covid outbreak, may start on April 1, 2026, ending with the population count to be taken with the midnight of March 1, 2027 as the reference date. The caste of each resident of the country will be recorded, in a first since the decennial headcount of 1931, as part of the exercise, which potentially holds the key to two other decisions of far-reaching significance - delimitation and implementation of women's quota in legislatures.Sources in the home ministry said the Census - the first one to capture data digitally - will follow a schedule similar to Census 2011; it will be held in two phases - the houselisting phase to be conducted non-synchronously over a 45-day period across states and UTs anytime between April 1, […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Despite achieving near-universal enrolment in primary education, India faces persistent challenges in ensuring learning outcomes and strengthening school leadership, says Unesco's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2024-25 released on Wednesday, reports . And the problem is not limited to the country. Global study: Few women leaders in edu serious concern New Delhi: "Most teachers are women, but few lead" is the central message of "Leadership in Education: Lead For Learning" section of Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2024-25, released on Wednesday by Unesco. The report highlights what is a problem across countries: under-representation of women in leadership positions at all levels of the education system - from schools to education ministries, reports Manash Gohain.Globally, women make up 57% of secondary school teachers, but in most countries the proportion of female principals lags the share of female teachers […]

[ad_1] With the political class grappling with the aftermath of the sensational discovery of huge amounts of cash at Justice Yashwant Varma's official residence, CJI B R Gavai said instances of corruption and misconduct in judiciary adversely impact public faith in the judicial system .Speaking on the topic 'Maintaining Judicial Legitimacy and Public Confidence' at UK Supreme Court, CJI Gavai said, "Sadly, there have been instances of corruption and misconduct that have surfaced even within the judiciary. Such incidents inevitably have a negative impact on public confidence, potentially eroding faith in the integrity of the system." The CJI did not mention Justice Varma, but legal and judicial quarters almost unanimously reckoned that the 'cash-at-kothi' scam could have been the trigger for his candid observations. "Path to rebuilding this trust lies in swift, decisive and transparent action taken to address these […]

[ad_1] BENGALURU: A storm of giddy, overenthusiastic fans, poor planning by officials, bad stadium management, stretched police force, shortage of time, clueless event management and lack of communication between stakeholders resulted in the tragedy at Bengaluru's Chinnaswamy Stadium.At the crack of dawn, RCB lit up social media with the big news: The champions were flying home with the trophy and would celebrate with a grand victory parade in the city. The announcement caught cops unawares as they had no communication about it. But it sent the already-electrified fanbase into overdrive.Then came the colossal collective failure: Police honchos failed to act swiftly and draw up crowd-control plans. Politicians turned the celebration into a photo-op frenzy, brushing aside warnings in their race to bask in reflected glory. Many brought their families to Vidhana Soudha to pose with the cricketers."RCB gave the city […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: “The world saw India’s strength (duniya ne humari takat dekhhi),” PM Narendra Modi said as he addressed the Union Council of Ministers on Wednesday about Operation Sindoor’s success.“The PM said it took us only 25 minutes to demolish the terror infrastructure Pakistan built over decades as part of its policy to use terrorism to hurt India,” a source said referring to the precision strikes on the intervening night of May 6 and 7 to destroy the headquarters and important facilities of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen.Modi said the conflict with Pakistan also showed the changed nature of war. “There was no movement of tanks, artillery and soldiers, and our armed forces acquitted themselves well in this new kind of warfare,” the source quoted the PM as saying.The conflict figured only briefly during the interaction that lasted almost […]

[ad_1] SRINAGAR: Mere registration of an FIR or pendency of an investigation cannot be grounds to deny or impound a passport or withhold its renewal, the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high court ruled, setting aside a Jammu CBI court’s order rejecting a retired IAS officer’s plea for release of his passport.“It is only upon the filing of a chargesheet and the court taking cognisance of the offence that it may be said that a criminal case is actually pending,” the HC said.CBI had seized the passport of Sajad Ahmad Khan during a raid at his residence Oct 12, 2021, in connection with an investigation into the illegal issuance of arms licences. The agency also confiscated his mobile phones and land documents.Khan, who had retired on March 31, 2018, appeared before CBI in Chandigarh, where he cooperated with the investigation, […]