Concerns raised over Toll Plaza construction near Sooralpady Masjid

Tumakuru: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara announced on Sunday that the much-anticipated caste census report will be formally discussed at a special meeting of the state Cabinet scheduled for April 17. The meeting will focus on the findings and recommendations of the report, which has recently been circulated among ministers.

Speaking at Tiptur in Tumakuru district, Parameshwara noted that the caste census was conducted to ensure equitable access to essential services, education, and employment for downtrodden communities.

“The Congress government, between 2013 and 2018, spent crores of rupees to gather caste-based data from 1.37 crore families,” he said. “However, implementation was delayed by successive governments for various reasons.”

He emphasized the need for careful and informed deliberation and urged political leaders to avoid commenting on the report without studying it. “Nearly 80 per cent of the information in the report is accurate,” the Home Minister said, reinforcing the document’s credibility.

The Cabinet’s decision following the April 17 meeting could have far-reaching implications on Karnataka’s reservation policy and social equity framework.

New Israeli strikes have killed over a dozen people, including seven children, in the besieged territory as the regime is pressing ahead with its bloody military onslaught against Palestinians.

Gaza's civil defense agency said the bodies of 10 people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the al-Farra family home in central Khan Younis.

Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in the city. 

Moreover, one Palestinian was killed and four others were wounded following an aerial attack on a group of civilians in Rafah.

In central Gaza, Israeli drones struck a group of civilians in Deir el-Balah, following which a number of casualties were transferred to the al-Aqsa Hospital.

Two more people killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a group of civilians in the al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

On Friday morning, the Israeli military released an “urgent and serious” evacuation notice for residents living in various neighborhoods east of Gaza City.

The United Nations on Friday said its analysis of 36 recent Israeli strikes in Gaza showed only women and children were killed and decried the human cost of the war.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani cited an April 6 strike on a residential building of the Abu Issa family in Deir al-Balah, which reportedly killed one girl, four women, and one four-year-old boy.

Even the areas where Palestinians were being instructed to go in the expanding number of Israeli "evacuation orders" were also being subjected to attacks, she said.

Israel has said its troops are seizing "large areas" in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.

The UN rights office warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders are resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"Let us be clear, these so-called evacuation orders are actually displacement orders, leading to displacement of the population of Gaza into ever shrinking spaces," Shamdasani said.

"The permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territories amounts to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and it is a crime against humanity."

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Shamsadani said between March 18 and April 9, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people.

"In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children," she said.

"Overall, a large percentage of fatalities are children and women, according to information recorded by our Office," she added.

New Delhi, Apr 6: President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday gave her assent to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was passed by Parliament earlier this week.

Murmu also gave her assent to the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal) Bill, 2025.

"The following Act of Parliament received the assent of the president on April 5, 2025, and is hereby published for general information: The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025," the government said in a notification.

Parliament early on Friday approved the Bill after the Rajya Sabha gave its nod to the contentious legislation following an over 13-hour debate.

The discussion witnessed staunch objections from opposition parties, which termed the Bill "anti-Muslim" as well as "unconstitutional", while the government responded that the "historic reform" would benefit the minority community.

The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha with 128 members voting in favour and 95 opposing it.

It was passed in the Lok Sabha early on Thursday, with 288 members supporting it and 232 against it.

Parliament had also approved the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal) Bill, with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod. The Lok Sabha had already given its assent to the Bill.

After the president gave her assent, it has also become a law.

Congress MP Mohammad Jawed and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday challenged the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in the Supreme Court, saying it violated constitutional provisions. 

Jawed's plea alleged the Bill imposed "arbitrary restrictions" on Waqf properties and their management, undermining the religious autonomy of the Muslim community.
The petition, filed through advocate Anas Tanwir, said it discriminated against the Muslim community by "imposing restrictions that are not present in the governance of other religious endowments".

Jawed, the Lok Sabha MP from Kishanganj in Bihar, was a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Bill and alleged in his plea that it "introduces restrictions on the creation of Waqfs based on the duration of one's religious practice".

In his separate plea, Owaisi said the Bill took away from Waqfs various protections accorded to Waqfs and Hindu, Jain and Sikh religious and charitable endowments alike.

Owaisi's plea, filed by advocate Lzafeer Ahmad, said, "This diminishing of the protection given to Waqfs while retaining them for religious and charitable endowments of other religions constitutes hostile discrimination against Muslims and is violative of articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion."