Assam govt proposes law to ban 'magical healing'
Guwahati (PTI): The Assam government on Wednesday introduced a new legislation in the assembly aimed at eliminating non-scientific healing practices.
The proposed law seeks to criminalise "magical healing", conducted by individuals with malicious intent, making it a cognisable and non-bailable offence punishable by up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
The 'Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024' was introduced in the House by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika on behalf of the home and political departments held by the chief minister.
The Bill aims to bring social awakening in society and to create a healthy, science-based knowledge and safe environment to protect human health against the evil and sinister practices of ignorance.
According to the statement of objects and reasons' of the Bill, no person shall take any part in healing practices and magical healing propagation for treatment of any diseases, disorder or any condition relating to the health of a person, directly or indirectly, giving a false impression of providing treatment.
It also bars any person from taking part in any sort of advertisement relating to any kind of medicine, or remedy (directly or indirectly) relating to any false claim to cure diseases through healing practices.
"The evil practice of magical healing by any person with a sinister motive to exploit common people is a cognisable and non-bailable offence under the said Bill," the statement of object and reasons said.
The punishment will range from imprisonment of one year, which may be extended up to three years, or with a fine of Rs 50,000, or both in case of first conviction, the Bill said.
In case of subsequent convictions, a person will face imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of Rs 1 lakh or both, it said.
Vigilance officers, who will be police officers not below the rank of a sub-inspector, will be entrusted with checking such evil healing practices or magical healing, it added.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
