Police shoot protester, man set on fire in day of Hong Kong fury
Hong Kong: A police officer shot a masked protester in an incident shown live on Facebook and a man was set on fire Monday during one of the most violent days of clashes in Hong Kong since pro-democracy unrest erupted more than five months ago.
Protesters, who had already begun a city-wide day of action aimed at paralysing the international financial hub, reacted to the morning shooting by rampaging through train stations, barricading streets and vandalising shops throughout the day.
A masked assailant also doused a man with a flammable liquid and set him ablaze during an argument, with the horrifying scene captured on mobile phones and also posted online.
Police said a protester carried out that attack and accused black-clad "rioters" of an array of other violent acts, including throwing a petrol bomb inside a train carriage.
"Continuing this rampage is a lose-lose situation for Hong Kong," police spokesman John Tse said at a press conference in which he showed the video of the man being set alight, as well as a fire inside a train.
At the end of the business day, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam held a press conference to denounce the violence and vow it would not lead to any government concessions.
"I am making this statement clear and loud here, that will not happen," Lam said.
The footage of the shooting -- broadcast live on Facebook by a bystander -- showed a police officer drawing a pistol as he tried to detain a masked person at a junction that had been blocked by protesters.
Another unarmed masked protester then approached the officer and was shot, quickly falling to the ground. Authorities said he was in critical condition in hospital. Police chiefs defended the officer drawing his weapon and firing as a legitimate use of force given his fears for his safety.
But protesters, who for months have accused police of using excessive force and demanded an independent inquiry into their actions, were incensed.
"I don't understand why police have to use that kind of brutality to hurt innocent people... it's just out of control," a 22-year-old IT worker, who gave her surname as Chan, told AFP as she joined angry crowds to protest in the area of the shooting.
Monday's shooting was the third time protesters had been hit by live rounds fired by police. None of the shootings have resulted in deaths.
Lam said the man set on fire was in a critical condition. She described that attack as "totally inhumane". Protesters ignored her pleas for calm with further rallies in multiple locations across the city on Monday night.
Online forums used by the largely anonymous and leaderless movement also carried messages vowing another day of chaos on Tuesday.
Hong Kong has endured 24 straight weeks of increasingly violent rallies aimed at securing greater democratic freedoms from China, which has ruled the city under a "one country, two systems" framework since its handover from the British in 1997.
The British government called the latest incidents "deeply disturbing." "We are seriously concerned by the ongoing violence, and the escalation between protesters and police," said a Foreign Office spokesman, while the office of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged "calm and restraint on all sides."
The protesters are desperate to stop what they see as Beijing's tightening control over Hong Kong, and reneging on its handover commitment to allow greater liberties for the city than those on the mainland.
But Beijing has refused to give in, and instead warned it is prepared to impose even greater security measures.
Tensions in Hong Kong were already high following the death on Friday of a 22-year-old student who succumbed to injuries sustained from a fall in the vicinity of a police clearance operation a week earlier.
After a weekend of clashes and huge vigils, Monday's chaos began with small groups of masked protesters disrupting subway stations and roads during the rush hour commute.
But as footage of the shooting went viral, the protests snowballed.
During the lunchtime break in Central, a downtown district that hosts blue-chip international conglomerates and luxury retailers, police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters, many dressed in office attire and chanting "murderers".
Tear gas and rubber bullets were fired in multiple districts throughout the day, including at university campuses.
One video circulated by protesters on messaging channels showed a police officer trying repeatedly to drive his motorbike into protesters who had gathered on a road.
Police said the officer has since been suspended, the first time the force has made an announcement removing someone from active duty in relation to the protests since they began.
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Cabinet nod for Census 2027; Rs 11,718 cr sanctioned, 30 lakh enumerators to be involved
New Delhi (PTI): The Union Cabinet on Friday approved Rs 11,718 crore for conducting the Census of India, 2027, which would include the caste enumeration for the first time.
Addressing a briefing, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal to conduct the Census which will be the first digital exercise.
Around 30 lakh enumerators would be involved in the entire exercise.
The 16th edition of the Census since Independence will also provide an option of self enumeration to the citizens.
The decadal exercise which was scheduled to take place in 2021 got postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the country.
The minister said the Census will be conducted in two phases -- house-listing and housing census from April to September, 2026; and population enumeration (PE) in February 2027.
For Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the PE exercise shall be conducted in September, 2026, the minister said.
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"This will become the first-ever digital census," Vaishnaw told reporters.
Around 30 lakh enumerators will visit each and every household and canvass a separate questionnaire for houselisting and housing census and population enumeration. It will generate 1.02 crore human days of employment, the minister said.
Vaishnaw said the entire digital census system has been created as a very robust system and all personal data protection laws will be applicable. The census will collect the micro-level data of every individual and household and present a macro-level data, he added.
"Data of the micro-level will be collected from each household and a macro picture will be present. Individual data will be kept confidential while the macro-level data of the Census will be published," the minister said.
"All the Census functionaries will be paid a suitable honorarium for the work of the Census as they will be doing this work in addition to their regular duties," a government statement said.
The Census 2027 will also capture caste data electronically in the PE phase, Vaishnaw said.
In the first-ever digital Census, data will be collected using mobile applications that will be available for both Android and iOS versions.
Use of a mobile app for data collection and the central portal for monitoring purposes will ensure better quality data, Vaishnaw said.
Data dissemination will be much better and in a user-friendly way so that all queries on required parameters for policy-making will be available with a click of a button, he said.
"A dedicated portal, namely Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS), has been developed for managing and monitoring the entire Census process on a real-time basis," a government statement said.
Census-as-a-Service (CaaS) will deliver data to ministries in a clean, machine-readable and actionable format, he said.
The largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world will be done using a mobile app for data collection and the central portal for monitoring purposes will ensure better quality data.
"The current endeavour would be to make available the coming Census data at the shortest possible time across the country. Efforts will also be made to disseminate Census results with more customised visualisation tools. Data sharing to all, up to the lowest administrative unit i.e. village/ ward level," the statement said.
Houselisting block (HLB) creator web map application will be another innovation for Census 2027 which will be used by the charge officers.
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The statement said around 18,600 technical manpower will be engaged for about 550 days at the local levels which would imply that around 1.02 crore man-days employment would be generated.
"Further, the provision of technical manpower at the charge/ district/ state-level will also result in capacity-building as the nature of the job will be related to digital data handling, monitoring and coordination. This will also help in the future employment prospects of these persons," it said.
The provision of technical manpower at various levels will also result in capacity-building as the nature of the job will be related to digital data handling, monitoring and coordination.
"This will also help in the future employment prospects of these persons," the statement said.
The mammoth exercise is the biggest source of primary data at the village, town and ward-level providing micro-level data on various parameters including housing condition, amenities and assets, demography, religion, SC and ST, language, literacy and education, economic activity, migration and fertility.
The last comprehensive caste-based count was done by the Britishers between 1881 and 1931. Caste was excluded from all Census operations conducted since Independence.
The decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming Census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 30.
In 2010, then prime minister Manmohan Singh had assured the Lok Sabha that the matter of caste census would be considered in the cabinet.
However, the previous Congress-led government opted for a survey instead of a caste census, known as the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC).
The population of the country according to the Census 2011 was 1,210.19 million of which 623.72 million (51.54 per cent) were males and 586.46 million (48.46 per cent) were females.
