How Mumbai jail's women inmates battle for water: Maneka Gandhi
New Delhi, June 6: There was a time in Mumbai's Byculla jail when only two buckets of water were allocated to 600 women prisoners for the whole day, while only five sanitary towels were issue per month to every woman, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said on Wednesday.
Speaking about the achievements of her ministry in last four years, she said on her order, officials from the ministry visited the prison only to find that the two buckets of water would not have lasted for more than 15 minutes and suitable action was taken.
She also said that a Widow's Home with a capacity of 1,000 widows was constructed in Vrindavan to provide a safe and secure place for them and will be inaugurated by the month-end.
She also informed that over 1.8 crore calls were received every year since 2014 on the Child Helpline 1098 and the number of locations where the service is operation has gone up from 279 to 435 locations from 2014.
Underscoring the importance of forensics in nabbing the culprits in sexual assault cases, the minister said special forensic kits for rape would be distributed to all the police stations and hospitals by the month of July.
"These kits would contain a complete list of evidence/samples to be collected along with the equipment required to collect the evidence. The kits would be locked and sealed before being sent to forensic labs," she said.
On the disputes in NRI marriages, the minister said her ministry is in the process of issuing orders to the Registrars that NRI marriages have to be registered within 48 hours else the passport/visas would not be issued.
The Registrars would send the details of such NRI marriages to the ministry so that a Central database can be maintained.
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US renews sanctions waiver for purchase of Russian oil
Washington (PTI): The United States has extended by a month a waiver from sanctions to allow countries to buy petroleum products from Russia, days after it ruled out renewal of the special measure.
The US Department of Treasury issued an order late Friday extending the waiver from sanctions on Russian oil that is already at sea on or before April 17 through May 16.
Earlier, the US had granted an exemption from sanctions to India for buying Russian oil for a month beginning March 5. A few days later, a similar waiver was extended to several other countries, which ended on April 11.
The general licence issued by the US on Friday does not authorise any transaction involving a person, entity or joint venture located in Iran, North Korea, Cuba, or parts of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would not be renewing the waiver for Russian oil and another for Iranian oil.
The previous waiver of sanctions had made available 140 million barrels of Russian oil already loaded on ships to global markets as prices soared against the backdrop of the US war with Iran.
"Effective April 17, 2026, General License No. 134A, which was dated March 19, 2026 and expired on April 11, 2026, is replaced and superseded in its entirety by this General License No. 134B," said the order issued by the Department of Treasury.
