Top stories on November 22 in a capsule
Union cabinet approves Kartarpur corridor from Punjab to Pakistan
The Union Cabinet declared to build the Kartarpur corridor from Dera Bana Nanak in Gurdaspur, Punjab to the International border of Pakistan on Thursday. After the announcement, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted on his microblogging site Twitter, “The Katarpur corridor will provide smooth and easy passage to pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib throughout the year. The government of Pakistan will be urged to reciprocate and develop a corridor with suitable facilities in their territory.” The matter of Kartarpur corridor came into limelight after Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu visited Pakistan on Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's oath ceremony. On his return to India Sidhu mentioned that Pakistan General Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa conveyed that Pakistan might open a corridor to Kartarpur. On Thursday Pakistan announced that it will start the construction of Katarpur corridor on the Guru Nanak birthday. The Katarpur corridor construction was first proposed in 1999 during Atal Bihar Vajpayee tenure.
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Maharashtra: Farmers march to Azad Maidan over loan waiver demands
At least 7000 farmers and tribals arrived at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai as a part of the Lok Sangharsh Morcha on Thursday to stage a protest on various issues like farm loan waiver, drought compensation and demanding the transfer of Forest Rights Act to tribals. A delegation of farmers met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis late evening, as reported by Hindustan Times. Several political parties Janta Dal-United, Aam Aadmi Party and Shiv Sena joined their hands with the farmer agitation against the state government. The Lok Sangharsh Morcha general secretary Pratibha Shinde said, “We will not leave Azad Maidan until our demands are met. We will decide our further course of action after meeting the chief minister.” The farmers started their march from Mulund Octroi Naka on Wednesday morning.
With PDP only to save Jammu-Kashmir, won't ally polls: Omar Abdullah
Hours after Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik, National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah and BJP state chief Ram Madhav engaged in a war of words. Reacting to Madhav’s allegation that the NC along with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress are claiming stake to form a government with the help of Pakistan, Abdullah said, “I dare him to prove the allegation….or man up!” on microblogging site Twitter. The NC chief also lashed at Governor Satyapal Malik for saying that he is not in favor of any government as ‘horse trading’ of MLAs are happening everywhere. Abdullah also declared that he has allied with political rival Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP in the state from current mess but they won’t be allying for polls. The J&K assembly which dissolved on Monday evening after Governor Malik received proposals from Mufti's PDP and Sajjad Lone's People's Conference to form the government.
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Man who was on Jet Airways flight that lost cabin pressure suffers permanent hearing loss
A passenger who had boarded the ill-fated Mumbai-Jaipur Jet Airways flight on September 20, lost his hearing permanently after the airlines had forgotten to maintain the cabin pressure in the aircraft. Mukesh Sharma, a Ph.D. researcher from the the University of Aveiro, Portugal had boarded the (9W 697) flight when minutes after he suffered from nose bleeding and hearing loss along with 30 others in the 166 passengers group. “The reports revealed that I have suffered a permanent hearing loss….While speaking on phone, I use my left ear as the right one is most affected,” Sharma was quoted by Hindustan Times. As per a report by Economic Times, none of the passengers have received a compensation and are now seeking to file a case against the airlines.
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SC dismisses plea to conduct polls on ballot papers
The Supreme Court refused to hear petitions on use of ballot paper instead of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections on Thursday. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the petitioner NGO Nyay Bhoomi's request and said, “Would there be no problem if ballot papers are employed for voting? Every machine and system can be tampered with because they are manned by human beings". Earlier the opposition parties stated their doubts over the reliability of EVM machines due to the malfunctioning of some of them during elections and alleged that the ballots paper are more transparent than the EVM machines.
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