Hanuman flag row in Karnataka: Panchayat Development Officer suspended
Mandya (Karnataka) (PTI): Amid simmering tension in Mandya over the removal of Hanuman flag from a 108 feet tall flagpost, the Keragodu village Panchayat Development Officer has been suspended.
The order issued by Mandya Zila Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Sheikh Tanveer Asif on Monday said the permission was granted only to hoist the Indian tricolour at Keragodu village.
However, the PDO not only gave an opportunity to the people to hoist the Hanuman flag, but also did not take steps to remove it, the order said.
It was only on January 28, that the Panchayat Sub-divisional Officer along with Tehsildar and police officers removed the flag, which created a law and order problem for which the PDO was held accountable.
As the opposition BJP and its ally JD(S) staged a massive protest in Mandya against the removal of the Hanuman flag and its restoration, security was beefed up on Monday.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accused the opposition BJP and JD(S) of trying to instigate the people over the issue, with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Police on Sunday had resorted to mild lathi charge to disperse the crowd at Keragodu village, and subsequently hoisted the national flag replacing Hanuman flag in the presence of officials of the administration.
On Monday, the protestors marched from Keragodu to the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the district headquarters of Mandya, covering a distance of about 14 km, holding saffron flags amid chants of “Jai Sri Ram”. They also raised slogans against the Congress government.
BJP leaders C T Ravi and Preetham Gowda and JD(S) leaders Suresh Gowda and K Annadani joined the demonstrators.
As the march reached Mandya city, police resorted to mild lathi charge to disperse the crowd as some of the activists allegedly tried to bring down a flex board featuring the image of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other Congress leaders, according to official sources.
Later, scores of protestors gathered near the Deputy Commissioner’s office, where police were deployed in large numbers and barricades were erected.
Ravi and the JD(S) leaders along with former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy addressed the crowd.
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.
Over 17,000 people went missing in Delhi in 2024: NCRB
New Delhi (PTI): A total of 23,058 people, comprising 9,482 men and 13,576 women, were reported missing in Delhi in 2024, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Of the total, 5,491 were children below the age of 18 — 1,571 boys, 3,920 girls.
The city recorded 17,567 fresh adult missing persons cases in 2024, comprising 7,911 men and 9,656 women.
According to the NCRB data, released on Wednesday, 14,637 men, 18,238 women and six transgender persons were still missing from previous years.
At the latest count, in 2024, Delhi had a total of 55,939 missing persons cases — 24,119 men, 31,814 women and six transgender persons.
In 2024, police traced or collected 28,392 missing persons, including 12,182 men, 16,208 women and two transgender persons.
Only half of the men and half of the women who went missing could be traced.
A total of 27,547 missing persons – 11,937 men, 15,606 women, four transgender persons — were yet to be untraced by the end of the year, the data showed.
The data also revealed that 5,352 children from previous years remained untraced at the beginning of 2024.
The number of still missing boys was 1,621, and the number of missing girls was 3,729. Two transgender children were yet to be found.
After adding the pending cases from previous years, the total number of missing children cases handled in 2024 rose to 10,843.
The police traced or recovered 6,762 missing children — 2,030 boys, 4,732 girls.
The recovery rate stood at 63.6 per cent for boys and 61.9 per cent for girls, while no transgender child was traced.
By the end of 2024, a total of 4,081 children remained untraced, 1,162 of them boys, 2,917 girls, and two transgender children.
