Teacher Arrested Over Transfer; What RTI Reveals On Chief Minister's Wife
NEW DELHI: A teacher who asked for a transfer to Dehradun after 25 years to be with her children was turned away by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat, suspended and even arrested on charges of shouting and misbehaving at a public meeting. Turns out, Mr Rawat's wife, also a teacher, managed a transfer from a tough region within four years and has been in Dehradun without a shift for 22 years.
An RTI or Right to Information query has revealed that Sunita Rawat started working at a primary school in Paudi Gadhwal in 1992. In 1996, she was transferred to Dehradun and has since never been transferred, even after a promotion in 2008.
Uttara Bahuguna, the 57-year-old teacher who paid heavily for her argument with the Chief Minister at his public interaction on Thursday, has been working at a school in Uttarkashi for 25 years and is desperate to shift to Dehradun to be with her children after her husband's death.
But an official said she can't get an out-of-turn transfer.
"More than 58 people are posted in remote areas for longer duration than her. Her number is only 59th. The transfer is done only turn-wise," said Bhupinder Kaur Aulakh, School Education Secretary of the state.
Ms Bahuguna had met with the Chief Minister once before. Yesterday, she told him after so many years at what she felt was a remote outpost, she wanted to live with her children. "I don't want my children to be orphans in Dehradun. My situation is such that I can't leave my children or the job," she told him.
The back-and-forth grew heated as Ms Bahuguna insisted that the Chief Minister give her justice.
"I never signed up for exile all my life," Ms Bahuguna said. Annoyed, the Chief Minister asked her to "mind her language" and then shouted, "Suspend karo ise abhi (Suspend her immediately). Arrest her."
In a video clip, the teacher is seen screaming at the Chief Minister and shouting "thief, cheats" as she is led out of the meeting.
Uttara Bahuguna was arrested on charges of "disrupting an important gathering". She was let off in the evening.
"I lost my husband in 2015 and my children stay here (Dehradun). I can't leave my children here," Ms Bahuguna said today, breaking down.
"You can see in the video. He got angry when I demanded justice. I feel helpless. Is this what I get for working honestly and diligently for years? So I called them thieves. I will tell the truth even if god comes before me.
courtesy : ndtv.com
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
