NC Digest: The Stories That You Must Not Miss Today

• Farmers’ Suicides Have Doubled, Not Their Income: Sena To BJP

The Shiv Sena today hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s farmers’ outreach programme and said that only farmers’ suicides, and not their income, have doubled. Modi had spoken on Wednesday, via video-conferencing, to farmers in 600 districts nationwide, as part of a farm outreach programme, in which he highlighted how his government had doubled the agriculture budget to Rs 2.12 lakh crore and how it was working towards doubling farm incomes. Read more here.

• Bank With Amit Shah As Director Recorded Deposits Worth ₹745.59 Cr In First 5 Days Post-DeMo Announcement, Reveals RTI

The Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB) had deposited old ₹500 and ₹1000 currency notes worth ₹745.59 crore in merely five days after the November 9, 2016 demonetisation announcement was made, an RTI reply revealed. Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) president Amit Shah is a director with the bank, according to the official website. Several news websites first reported and then took down the report on Amit Shah mysteriously. Read more here.

• Bihar: Fake Certificate Racket Busted; 149 Individuals Appointed On The Basis Of Fake TET Certificates

A racket of recruiting teachers on the basis of fabricated certificates was busted on Thursday in Purnia district of Bihar. A total of 149 individuals were fraudulently recruited at different blocks and panchayats across the district. Out of the 149 individuals, 96 were posted at Banmankhi block and 53 others at Rupalee block. Interestingly, four individuals with the same name were appointed with four different schools on the basis of the same Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) Certificate in the district. Read more here.

• New India? A Young Couple Pulled From Motorbike And Beaten In Assam

In Assam’s Goalpara district, a group of people on Sunday pulled a young couple from a motorbike and thrashed them at a public place. The police have initiated a suo-moto case against the group on Tuesday terming it as a case of “moral policing”. DGP Kuladhar Saikia said, “We didn’t receive a complaint, but we took suo-moto cognisance of the case and have arrested main accused, the probe to nab others is underway.” Read more here.

• Madhya Pradesh: Railway Line Construction Started In 2010; Deadline Missed Repeatedly

Even after eight years, the third railway line between Habibganj and Bina is still under construction. The deadline for this project was set for December 2013. The project to construct 143.7 kilometres of the railway line between Habibganj-Bina was initiated in the year 2010, during the tenure of P.K. Aggarwal, the then Divisional Railway Manager (DRM).  Read more here.

• Gujarat: Two Men Thrashed On Suspicion Of Being Child Lifters

In the latest such violence triggered by circulation of messages on social media, two men were allegedly thrashed today by a mob in Gujarat’s Devbhumi-Dwarka district on suspicion of being “child-lifters”, police said. The video of the purported assault which occurred in Okha town is doing rounds of the social media.  Read more here.

• Madhya Pradesh: No Toilets For Women Officers In 60% Police Stations

The Madhya Pradesh government is not putting any effort in constructing washrooms for women officers at police stations across the state. The Shivraj Singh Chauhan government has shown insensitivity towards the women workforce by not constructing restrooms and toilets in 60 per cent of the police stations across the state. Read more here.

• Govt’s ‘Make In India’ Function Caused Damage To Mumbai Beach: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court today said the government’s ‘Make In India’ function at Girgaon Chowpatty beach in south Mumbai in 2016, which had to be abandoned after a huge fire gutted the stage, caused “considerable destruction and damage” to the beach. It also asked the Maharashtra government to repair and restore the damaged portions of the beach within two months. Read more here.

• Read The Full Text Of The Letter Submitted By Four Supreme Court Judges To The CJI

Dear Chief Justice, it is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this Court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and the independence of the High Courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the offices of the Hon. Chief Justice of India. Read more here.

• Panama Papers 2.0: PVR, Airtel, Oberoi Group Owners And Others Linked To Offshore Companies

The new set of ‘Panama Papers: Aftermath’ documents released on Thursday highlight offshore financial dealings of several Indians, including Ajay Bijli, owner of PVR Cinemas, Kavin Bharti Mittal, CEO of Hike Messenger and son of Airtel promoter Sunil Mittal and Jalaj Ashwin Dani, son of Asian Paints promoter Ashwin Dani. The fresh revelations came to light when The Indian Express released the documents, in collaboration with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. Read more here.