NC Digest: Please End This Madness Of Lynching-Army Veteran Writes To Modi; Woman Lynched On WhatsApp Rumours; In This Country, Cows Are Safe But Woman Aren’t, And More

• It Takes 3 Generations To Forget, Please End This Madness Of Lynching-Army Veteran Writes To Modi (Read Letter)

Open letter from an Army Veteran to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India– You have known me since 2002 when I commanded the force which restored peace in Gujarat after the conflagration which engulfed the state. I met you several times when I was Vice-Chancellor of AMU. I expressed my anguish twice to you. Once, for the treatment meted out to me by a Member of your Council of Ministers. I told you that an old soldier, and the head of a premier University, deserved to be shown more respect and courtesy. The second time I reported that some AMU ‘parasites’ were spreading the calumny, which the media had lapped up, that I had swindled 120 Crores of University funds. Your words gave me strength and confidence. You simply said: ‘Go and tell them that I have known you for 15 years’. Read more here.

• Families Forced To Live In Open As Money Promised Under PM Awas Yojana Delayed

Forced to live under a temporary shelter for months, a father of six children, including a physically-challenged daughter, is frustrated by the apathy of authorities in Jammu and Kashmir and cursing his stars. Showkat Ali Khan has set up a shelter with polythene-covered roof in the remote Malsu village under Sarna Panchayat. He and his family live virtually under the open sky as the promised assistance under the centrally-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to build a concrete structure has not yet come. Read more here.

• In February, 2018 Jaitley Said Chinese Companies Were Behind Demand To Exempt Sanitary Pads From GST. In July, 2018 GOI Has Granted The Exemption

The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government scrapped a goods and services tax (GST) on sanitary pads on Saturday, a move which was hailed by many on social media. Sanitary pads were being taxed under the 12 per cent slab of under GST since July 2017. However, before Saturday, the BJP government had many times defended its decision to impose 12 per cent GST on sanitary pads. Former finance minister Arun Jaitley had even called the debate on sanitary napkins GST an “ill-informed debate”. Read more here.

• Uttar Pradesh: 15-Year-Old Girl Raped For Several Months

A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped here for several months by a youth, who has been arrested, police said today. The youth had raped the girl on several occasions since January and threatened to upload videos of the incidents on the internet if she reported the matter, Circle Officer (CO) Rajive Kumar Singh. Read more here.

• Madhya Pradesh: Cognitively Disabled Woman Lynched On WhatsApp Rumours Of Child Lifting

A woman was allegedly lynched by a mob near here in Madhya Pradesh on suspicion that she was a child-lifter, police said today. The woman, who appeared to be “mentally unstable”, was killed by the mob in Bhosh village under the Morwa police station on July 19, Morwa Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) K S Dwivedi told PTI over the phone. Believed to be aged between 25 to 30 years, the woman is yet to be unidentified, he said. Read more here.

• In This Country, Cows Are Safe But Woman Aren’t: Sena

Taking a dig at the BJP-led government over incidents of mob lynching, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena today said cows were safer than women in the country. “We are a part of the government but if something is wrong, we will definitely talk about it. We are friends of the Bharatiya Janata, not of any party,” Thackeray said, taking a dig at Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) name. Shiv Sena is BJP’s alliance partner in Maharashtra and the Centre. Read more here.

• Ambedkar’s Statue Desecrated In Madhya Pradesh

A statue of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar was allegedly desecrated by unidentified persons in Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur district, a police official said today. The statue, installed on outskirts of Kalisindh village, located about 28 kms from the district headquarters, was desecrated by some persons last night, Bercha police station in-charge Rakesh Nain said. Some locals informed the police after they found an arm and spectacles of the statue broken. Read more here.

• 75 Malaria, 43 Dengue Cases Reported In Delhi This Season

At least 29 cases of malaria have been reported in the first three weeks of July in Delhi, taking the total number of people affected by the vector-borne disease in the national capital this season to 75, according to a municipal report released today. Two cases of malaria were reported in February, one each in April and March, 17 in May, 25 in June and 29 till July 21, according to the report released by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which tabulates data on vector-borne diseases for the city. Read more here.

• Only One-Third States Have Notified Rules Under Disabilities Act: NCPEDP

Only one-third of India’s states have notified rules under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act since it was notified for enforcement in April last year. The first-ever 23-state National Disability Consultation on the RPWD Act, held on Thursday, revealed only about 10 out of the 29 states have notified rules after the Act was passed by both houses of Parliament during the winter session in 2016 and subsequently notified for enforcement in April 2017. Read more here.

• Government Misled Nation On Rafale Deal, Breach Of Privilege: Congress

The Congress today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of misleading Parliament and the country on the Rafale pricing issue, saying there is no clause in the 2008 pact between India and France that prevents the government from divulging price details of the aircraft. The Congress fielded its senior leaders, former defence minister A K Antony, Anand Sharma and Randeep Surjewala, who issued a joint statement claiming the prime minister and the defence minister had sought to “lie” on the floor of Parliament. Read more here.

• Is Finance Minister Sleeping? Asks HC Over Non-Functioning Of Debts Recovery Tribunal

The Bombay High Court expressed annoyance today over the non-functioning of the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT), whose premises here were closed following a fire over a month ago, and sought to know “if the finance minister of the country was sleeping” over the shutdown of a key body. The court said while Mumbai was considered the financial capital of the country, the city-based DRT, which dealt with debt-recovery cases involving banks, financial institutions and their customers, was non-functional for over a month. Read more here.