In this district you need to get permission for running WhatsApp group

Agencies
July 1, 2018

Jammu, Jul 1: In a bid to curb the spread of rumours via social media platforms, the Kishtwar district administration near here has asked the netizens having WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages to get their antecedents verified by police and seek their permission within ten days to continue running them.

In a stern measure, the netizens have also been asked to give an undertaking to the authorities that they would be personally responsible for the contents uploaded on their social media platforms and be liable to face legal consequences for possible breach of law by such contents.

The order, issued by District Development Commissioner (DDC) Angrez Singh Rana on Friday, has also warned netizens that they may be liable to prosecution under various laws, including anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, besides other penal provisions like the IT Act, the Ranbir Penal Code and the Cyber Crime laws.

The officials said the order was issued by the DDC in response to a letter written by Kishtwar's Senior Superintendent of Police Abrar Choudhary to him on June 22.

The letter by the SSP said a large number of WhatsApp groups including news group have come up in the district and have often been found transmitting and circulating "rumours, false information and unconfirmed or half-baked information in the form of videos, audios and text material resulting in every apprehension of law and order problem." 

“In order to prevent any untoward incident or law and order situation in the district, there is an immediate requirement to prevent the circulation of false information and rumours through WhatsApp news or other groups and other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter etc," the officials said, quoting the DDC's order.

“While the freedom of expression through social media is important, the same comes with a responsibility and reasonable restrictions. Therefore, social media group administrators with the ownership of the group should be ready to bear the responsibility,” the officials said quoting the order. 

The officials said through the order the district magistrate has asked each WhatsApp group administrator to register his or her group with NIC's district office in-charge within 10 days and furnish an undertaking to own responsibility for the content uploaded on the social media platforms.

The order asked the group administrators to deny any baseless information with the potential to cause religious disharmony on the group and forthwith remove the member for uploading such content, take a screenshot and report the same to the nearest police station, the officials said.

They said the order warned action against the group administrator in the event of inaction on his or her part and would be liable for action under law in case any untoward incident or law and order situation arises due to the unconfirmed information. 

The order also warned "action under relevant provisions of law including the IT Act, the Ranbir Penal Code, Cyber Crime law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and any other law in force at the time of the violation," the officials said.

On the procedure for seeking permission to run any group or page, the officials said the interested person need to apply to the district magistrate through concerned district NIC officer.

The district magistrate would seek a report of character and antecedent through the SSP concerned and a clearance report by state CID organisation, the officials said, adding that an individual interested in forming a WhatsApp news or other group would have to submit a declaration as well, they said.

In the declaration form, the applicant will have to declare that he or she would provide details of all the members of the group or page including those living abroad and will be personally accountable for any information uploaded on the group or page.

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News Network
November 10,2024

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has warned that disciplinary action will be taken against those officials who change the land mutation records and serve eviction notices to farmers under the Waqf Act.

In a letter, the Revenue Department Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar Kataria reminded all regional commissioners and deputy commissioners in the districts that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently had a meeting following complaints about certain land properties being made in favour of the Karnataka Board of Waqfs.

In the meeting it was decided that all the directions issued previously by any government office or authority to change the mutation records has been withdrawn, the letter said.

It added that all the notices served in the past have also been withdrawn and no action should be taken against the farmers who are cultivating on the said land.

On the directions of the chief minister, the previous letters and the latest reminders served on November 7 to the farmers and land owners have been withdraw, the letter said.

"The officials who served reminder-2 despite the chief minister's direction will face appropriate disciplinary action," Kataria said in his letter.

He said he has been instructed to strictly implement the chief minister's direction.

The fresh direction was issued in poll-bound Karnataka, where bypolls to three crucial assembly segments are due on November 13.

Some farmers in Honwad village in Vijayapura in north Karnataka had alleged last month that they were served eviction notices as the Waqf Board claimed rights over it.

Subsequently, complaints started in pouring in from some other parts of the state.

BJP leader Tejasvi Surya on October 25 alleged that Karnataka Waqf Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan directed the deputy commissioners and revenue officials to register lands in favour of the Waqf Board within 15 days, which resulted in confusion.

On Surya's request, the Chairman of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Jagdambika Pal visited Karnataka on November 7 and met farmers in Hubballi, Vijayapura and Belagavi districts who had alleged that their lands were marked as Waqf properties.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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News Network
November 21,2024

adani.jpg

Shares of Adani Group companies lost about $28 billion in market value in morning trade on Thursday after US prosecutors charged the billionaire chairman of the Indian conglomerate in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.

Gautam Adani's flagship company Adani Enterprises tumbled 23 per cent, while Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green, Adani Power, Adani Wilmar and Adani Energy Solutions, ACC , Ambuja Cements and NDTV fell between 20 per cent and 90 per cent.

Adani group's 10 listed stocks had a total market capitalisation of about $141 billion at 0534 GMT, compared to $169.08 billion on Tuesday.

US authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, and develop India's largest solar power plant project.

Adani Green in a statement on Thursday said the US Justice Department had issued a criminal indictment against board members Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani and the Securities and Exchange Commission had issued a civil complaint against them.

The US Justice Department also included Adani Green board member Vneet Jaain in the criminal indictment, it said.

Adani Green's units had decided not to proceed with the proposed US dollar denominated bond offerings due to developments, it added.

"Investors will shy away from Adani Group stocks ... and that's what this sharp selling is signifying," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of retail equities research at SMC Global Securities.

"This could hurt the credibility of the group and maybe borrowing costs will rise," he said.

The indictment comes nearly two years after US shortseller Hindenburg Research alleged that Adani had improperly used tax havens and was involved in stock manipulation, allegations the conglomerate denied.

Also in early Asian trading on Thursday, Adani dollar bonds slumped, with prices down 3c-5c on bonds for Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone. The falls were the largest since the Adani Group came under a short-seller attack in February 2023.

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