Mother-daughter duo 'immolate' themselves during anti-encroachment drive in Uttar Pradesh
Kanpur (UP) (PTI): In a tragic incident, a 45-year-old woman and her 20-year-old daughter allegedly died after they immolated themselves during an anti-encroachment drive in a village in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Pramila Dixit (45) and her daughter Neha (20) allegedly took the extreme step in the presence of police, district administration and revenue officials, who had gone to Madauli village in the Rura area of the district to remove encroachments from a "gram samaj" land, a police official said.
Rura Station House Officer (SHO) Dinesh Gautam and Pramila's husband, Gendan Lal, sustained burn injuries when they tried to save the victims, he added.
The aggrieved family members of the women allegedly beat up Lekhpal (revenue officer) Ashok Singh, following which the anti-encroachment team members fled the spot.
The victims' family members also put forward their demand before District Magistrate (DM) Neha Jain and Superintendent of Police (SP) BBGTS Murthy for the registration of an FIR against Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Maitha) Gyaneshwar Prasad, Lekhpal Singh and others.
Additional Director General of Police (Kanpur zone) Alok Singh, along with Divisional Commissioner Raj Shekhar, visited the village.
Officials said locals had made a complaint to the DM against Lal for "encroaching" the "gram samaj" land.
The SP said officials had gone to the village to carry out an anti-encroachment drive when the mother-daughter duo immolated themselves inside their hut.
"We have reached the spot and a probe is on," the officer said.
Reacting to the incident, the Samajwadi Party (SP) blamed the "insensitive" administration for the "murders".
"Under the Yogi (Adityanath) government, Brahmin families are targeted and such incidents are taking place selectively. Like Dalits and backwards, Brahmins are also a target of atrocities of the Yogi government," the opposition party said in a tweet in Hindi.
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Hope Palestine's application for UN membership will be reconsidered, endorsed: India
United Nations (PTI): India has voiced hope that Palestine’s bid to become a full member of the United Nations, which was blocked by the US last month, will be reconsidered and its endeavour to become a member of the world organisation will get endorsed.
The US vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on a Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations last month. The 15-nation Council had voted on a draft resolution that would have recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly “that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership in the United Nations.”
The resolution got 12 votes in its favour, with Switzerland and the UK abstaining and the US casting its veto. To be adopted, the draft resolution required at least nine Council members voting in its favour, with no vetoes by any of its five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“While we have noted that Palestine’s application for membership at the United Nations was not approved by the Security Council because of the aforesaid veto, I would like to state here at the very outset that in keeping with India's long-standing position, we hope that this would be reconsidered in due course and that Palestine’s endeavour to become a member of the United Nations will get endorsed,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj said here.
India was the first non-Arab State to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974. India was also one of the first countries to recognise the State of Palestine in 1988 and in 1996, Delhi opened its Representative Office to the Palestine Authority in Gaza, which later was shifted to Ramallah in 2003.
Currently, Palestine is a “non-member observer state” at the UN, a status granted to it by the General Assembly in 2012. This status allows Palestine to participate in proceedings of the world body but it cannot vote on resolutions. The only other non-member Observer State at the UN is the Holy See, representing the Vatican.
Addressing a General Assembly meeting on Wednesday, Kamboj underlined that India’s leadership has repeatedly emphasised that only a two-state solution achieved through direct and meaningful negotiations between Israel and Palestine on final status issues will deliver an enduring peace.
“India is committed to supporting a two-state solution where the Palestinian people are able to live freely in an independent country within secure borders with due regard to the security needs of Israel,” she said.
Kamboj stressed that to arrive at a lasting solution, India would urge all parties to foster conditions conducive to resuming direct peace negotiations at an early date.
On April 2, Palestine sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting that its application for full UN membership be considered again. For a State to be granted full UN membership, its application must be approved both by the Security Council and the General Assembly, where a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting is required for the State to be admitted as a full member.
Kamboj noted that the latest conflict in Gaza has been ongoing for over six months and the humanitarian crisis that it has triggered has been increasing.
“There is also the potential for growing instability in the region and beyond,” she added.
Underlining India's position on the conflict, Kamboj said the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to a large-scale loss of civilian lives, especially women and children, and a humanitarian crisis, which is simply unacceptable. India has strongly condemned the deaths of civilians in the conflict.
Kamboj said the terror attacks in Israel on October 7 were shocking and deserve “unequivocal condemnation.
“There can be no justification for terrorism and hostage-taking. India has a long-standing and uncompromising position against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. And we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” Kamboj said.
India stressed that it is imperative that humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza be scaled up immediately in order to avert a further deterioration in the situation. “We urge all parties to come together in this endeavour,” Kamboj said, adding that India has provided humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine and that it will continue to do so.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing Gaza’s Ministry of Health data, said that from October 7, 2023, till now, at least 34,568 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 77,765 Palestinians injured.
