Latest news with #Banu
Time of India
07-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
In Punjab, Moga village leads anti-drug campaign with cash incentives, healthy lifestyle initiatives
1 2 Bathinda: In a parallel effort to the campaign against the drug abuse by the Punjab govt – Yudh Nashia Virudh, Ransih Kalan village in Moga district has been running its own anti-drug crusade for nearly two months, titled 'Nasha Mukti da Abhiyan, Ransih Kalan Banu Punjab di Shan'. The aim is to sensitise all 452 families in the village, steering them away from any kind of intoxicants, ensuring no family member is involved with drugs. To achieve this, the village panchayat has introduced cash incentives and maintains vigilance to prevent the sale of intoxicants. The initiative is the brainchild of 34-year-old village sarpanch Preetinder Pal Singh, commonly known as Mintu Sarpanch. The panchayat announced a one-time cash incentive of Rs 11,000 for families that become drug-free and Rs 1,100 incentive as a healthy diet allowance for those overcoming addiction, in addition to providing free de-addiction treatment facilities. Nearly 29 families declared themselves drug-free and received cash incentives, with 13 making the declaration on Saturday. Additionally, 23 individuals are undergoing treatment. The 281 families from the village have been free from any kind of drugs or liquor for a long time. "We have ensured that no liquor vend is opened in the current financial year from April onwards. Chemists have been strictly instructed not to sell any kind of prohibited medicines, and general stores have been instructed not to sell cigarettes, tobacco, or energy drinks," Preetinder Pal told TOI. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Esta nueva alarma con cámara es casi regalada en Campana (ver precio) Verisure Undo He mentioned that 16 families in the village became drug-free in May, and 13 more had come forward now, receiving cash incentives from Moga deputy commissioner Sagar Seta and Nihal Singh Wala SDM Swati Tiwana. "With the efforts of the village panchayat, we are optimistic that the entire village will be drug-free soon," said village resident Kuldeep Singh. Previously, many other initiatives were undertaken in the village, including setting up a water treatment plant, moving towards becoming a plastic-free village by offering various incentives for waste plastic, providing cash incentives to farmers for not burning crop residue, and promoting Punjab's culture by opening a library. MSID:: 121693498 413 |
Saudi Gazette
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
'I was pushed across the border into Bangladesh at gunpoint'
GUWAHATI, India — Shona Banu still shudders when she thinks of the past few days. The 58-year-old, a resident of Barpeta district in India's north-eastern state of Assam, says that she was called to the local police station on 25 May and later taken to a point at the border with neighboring Bangladesh. From there, she says, she and around 13 other people were forced to cross over to Bangladesh. She says she was not told why. But it was a scenario she had been dreading — Ms Banu says she has lived in Assam all her life but for the past few years, she has been desperately trying to prove that she is an Indian citizen and not an "illegal immigrant" from Bangladesh. "They pushed me over at gunpoint. I spent two days without food or water in the middle of a field in knee-deep water teeming with mosquitoes and leeches," Ms Banu said, wiping away tears. After those two days in no man's land — between India and Bangladesh — she says she was taken to what appeared to be an old prison on the Bangladeshi side. After two days there, she and a few others — she is not sure if all of them were from the same group sent with her — were escorted by Bangladeshi officials across the border, where Indian officials allegedly met them and sent them home. It's not clear why Ms Banu was abruptly sent to Bangladesh and then brought back. But her case is among a spate of recent instances where officials in Assam have rounded up people declared foreigners by tribunals in the past — on suspicion of being "illegal Bangladeshis" — and sent them across the border. The BBC found at least six cases where people said their family members had been picked up, taken to border towns and just "pushed across".Officials from India's Border Security Force, the Assam police and the state government did not respond to questions from the on alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are not new in India — the countries are divided by a 4,096km (2,545 miles) long porous border which can make it relatively easy to cross over, even though many of the sensitive areas are heavily it's still rare, lawyers working on these cases say, for people to be picked up from their homes abruptly and forced into another country without due process. These efforts seem to have intensified over the past few Indian government has not officially said how many people were sent across in the latest exercise. But top sources in the Bangladesh administration claim that India "illegally pushed in" more than 1,200 people into the country in May alone, not just from Assam but also other states. Out of this, they said on condition of anonymity, Bangladesh identified 100 people as Indian citizens and sent them a statement, the Border Guard Bangladesh said it had increased patrolling along the border to curb these has not commented on these media reports indicate that the recent crackdown includes Rohingya Muslims living in other states too, the situation is particularly tense and complex in Assam, where issues of citizenship and ethnic identity have long dominated state, which shares a nearly 300km-long border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has seen waves of migration from the neighbouring country as people moved in search of opportunities or fled religious has sparked the anxieties of Assamese people, many of whom fear this is bringing in demographic change and taking away resources from Bharatiya Janata Party — in power in Assam and nationally — has repeatedly promised to end the problem of illegal immigration, making the state's National Register of Citizens (NRC) a priority in recent register is a list of people who can prove they came to Assam by 24 March 1971, the day before neighbouring Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan. The list went through several iterations, with people whose names were missing given chances to prove their Indian citizenship by showing official documents to quasi-judicial forums called Foreigners a chaotic process, the final draft published in 2019 excluded nearly two million residents of Assam — many of them were put in detention camps while others have appealed in higher courts against their Banu said her case is pending in the Supreme Court but that authorities still forced her to BBC heard similar stories from at least six others in Assam — all Muslims — who say their family members were sent to Bangladesh around the same time as Ms Banu, despite having the necessary documents and living in India for generations. At least four of them have now come back home, with no answers still about why they were picked up.A third of Assam's 32 million residents are Muslims and many of them are descendants of immigrants who settled there during British Khatun, a 67-year-old from Assam's Barpeta who is still in Bangladesh, says she has temporarily been given shelter by a local family."I have no-one here," she laments. Her family has managed to speak to her but don't know if and when she can return. She lost her case in the foreigners' tribunal and in the state's high court and hadn't appealed in the Supreme after the recent round of action began, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma cited a February Supreme Court direction which ordered the government to start deportation proceedings for people who had been "declared foreigners" but were still held in detention centres."The people who are declared foreigners but haven't even appealed in court, we are pushing them back," Sarma said. He also claimed that people with pending court appeals were not being "troubled".But Abdur Razzaque Bhuyan, a lawyer working on many citizenship cases in Assam, alleged that in many of the recent instances, due process — which would, among other things, require India and Bangladesh to cooperate on the action — was not followed."What is happening is a wilful and deliberate misinterpretation of the court order," he recently filed a petition on behalf of a student organization seeking the Supreme Court's intervention in stopping what they said was a "forceful and illegal pushback policy" but was asked to first approach the Assam high Morigaon, around 167km from Barpeta, Rita Khatun sat near a table which had a pile of papers on husband Khairul Islam, a 51-year-old school teacher, was in the same group as Ms Banu that was allegedly picked up by authorities.A tribunal had declared him a foreigner in 2016, after which he spent two years in a detention center before being released. Like Ms Banu, his case is also being heard in the Supreme Court."Every document is proof that my husband is Indian," Ms Khatun said, leafing through what she said was Mr Islam's high school graduation certificate and some land records. "But that wasn't enough to prove his nationality to authorities."She says her husband, his father and grandfather were all born in on 23 May, she says that policemen arrived at their home and took Mr Islam away without any was only a few days later — when a viral video surfaced of a Bangladeshi journalist interviewing Mr Islam in no man's land — that the family learnt where he Ms Banu, Mr Islam has now been sent back to his family confirmed his return, the police told the BBC they had "no information" about his Begum says she is sure her father was declared a foreigner due to a case of mistaken identity — he was also taken on the same night as Mr Islam."My father's name is Abdul Latif, my grandfather was Abdul Subhan. The notice that came [years ago, from the foreigners' tribunal] said Abdul Latif, son of Shukur Ali. That's not my grandfather, I don't even know him," Ms Begum said, adding that she had all the necessary documents to prove her father's family has now heard that Mr Latif is back in Assam, but he hasn't reached home some of these people are back home now, they fear they might be picked up again abruptly."We are not playthings," Ms Begum said."These are human beings, you can't toss them around as per your whims." — BBC
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Yahoo
'I was pushed across the border into Bangladesh at gunpoint'
Shona Banu still shudders when she thinks of the past few days. The 58-year-old, a resident of Barpeta district in India's north-eastern state of Assam, says that she was called to the local police station on 25 May and later taken to a point at the border with neighbouring Bangladesh. From there, she says, she and around 13 other people were forced to cross over to Bangladesh. She says she was not told why. But it was a scenario she had been dreading - Ms Banu says she has lived in Assam all her life but for the past few years, she has been desperately trying to prove that she is an Indian citizen and not an "illegal immigrant" from Bangladesh. "They pushed me over at gunpoint. I spent two days without food or water in the middle of a field in knee-deep water teeming with mosquitoes and leeches," Ms Banu said, wiping away tears. After those two days in no man's land - between India and Bangladesh - she says she was taken to what appeared to be an old prison on the Bangladeshi side. After two days there, she and a few others - she is not sure if all of them were from the same group sent with her - were escorted by Bangladeshi officials across the border, where Indian officials allegedly met them and sent them home. It's not clear why Ms Banu was abruptly sent to Bangladesh and then brought back. But her case is among a spate of recent instances where officials in Assam have rounded up people declared foreigners by tribunals in the past - on suspicion of being "illegal Bangladeshis" - and sent them across the border. The BBC found at least six cases where people said their family members had been picked up, taken to border towns and just "pushed across". Officials from India's Border Security Force, the Assam police and the state government did not respond to questions from the BBC. Crackdowns on alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are not new in India - the countries are divided by a 4,096km (2,545 miles) long porous border which can make it relatively easy to cross over, even though many of the sensitive areas are heavily guarded. But it's still rare, lawyers working on these cases say, for people to be picked up from their homes abruptly and forced into another country without due process. These efforts seem to have intensified over the past few weeks. The Indian government has not officially said how many people were sent across in the latest exercise. But top sources in the Bangladesh administration claim that India "illegally pushed in" more than 1,200 people into the country in May alone, not just from Assam but also other states. Out of this, they said on condition of anonymity, Bangladesh identified 100 people as Indian citizens and sent them back. In a statement, the Border Guard Bangladesh said it had increased patrolling along the border to curb these attempts. India has not commented on these allegations. While media reports indicate that the recent crackdown includes Rohingya Muslims living in other states too, the situation is particularly tense and complex in Assam, where issues of citizenship and ethnic identity have long dominated politics. The state, which shares a nearly 300km-long border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has seen waves of migration from the neighbouring country as people moved in search of opportunities or fled religious persecution. This has sparked the anxieties of Assamese people, many of whom fear this is bringing in demographic change and taking away resources from locals. The Bharatiya Janata Party - in power in Assam and nationally - has repeatedly promised to end the problem of illegal immigration, making the state's National Register of Citizens (NRC) a priority in recent years. The register is a list of people who can prove they came to Assam by 24 March 1971, the day before neighbouring Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan. The list went through several iterations, with people whose names were missing given chances to prove their Indian citizenship by showing official documents to quasi-judicial forums called Foreigners Tribunals. After a chaotic process, the final draft published in 2019 excluded nearly two million residents of Assam - many of them were put in detention camps while others have appealed in higher courts against their exclusion. Ms Banu said her case is pending in the Supreme Court but that authorities still forced her to leave. The BBC heard similar stories from at least six others in Assam - all Muslims - who say their family members were sent to Bangladesh around the same time as Ms Banu, despite having necessary documents and living in India for generations. At least four of them have now come back home, with no answers still about why they were picked up. A third of Assam's 32 million residents are Muslims and many of them are descendants of immigrants who settled there during British rule. Maleka Khatun, a 67-year-old from Assam's Barpeta who is still in Bangladesh, says she has temporarily been given shelter by a local family. "I have no-one here," she laments. Her family has managed to speak to her but don't know if and when she can return. She lost her case in the foreigners' tribunal and in the state's high court and hadn't appealed in the Supreme Court. Days after the recent round of action began, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma cited a February Supreme Court direction which ordered the government to start deportation proceedings for people who had been "declared foreigners" but were still held in detention centres. "The people who are declared foreigners but haven't even appealed in court, we are pushing them back," Sarma said. He also claimed that people with pending court appeals were not being "troubled". But Abdur Razzaque Bhuyan, a lawyer working on many citizenship cases in Assam, alleged that in many of the recent instances, due process - which would, among other things, require India and Bangladesh to cooperate on the action - was not followed. "What is happening is a wilful and deliberate misinterpretation of the court order," he said. Mr Bhuyan recently filed a petition on behalf of a student organisation seeking the Supreme Court's intervention in stopping what they said was a "forceful and illegal pushback policy" but was asked to first approach the Assam high court. In Morigaon, around 167km from Barpeta, Rita Khatun sat near a table which had a pile of papers on it. Her husband Khairul Islam, a 51-year-old school teacher, was in the same group as Ms Banu that was allegedly picked up by authorities. A tribunal had declared him a foreigner in 2016, after which he spent two years in a detention centre before being released. Like Ms Banu, his case is also being heard in the Supreme Court. "Every document is proof that my husband is Indian," Ms Khatun said, leafing through what she said was Mr Islam's high school graduation certificate and some land records. "But that wasn't enough to prove his nationality to authorities." She says her husband, his father and grandfather were all born in India. But on 23 May, she says that policemen arrived at their home and took Mr Islam away without any explanation. It was only a few days later - when a viral video surfaced of a Bangladeshi journalist interviewing Mr Islam in no man's land - that the family learnt where he was. Like Ms Banu, Mr Islam has now been sent back to India. While his family confirmed his return, the police told the BBC they had "no information" about his arrival. Sanjima Begum says she is sure her father was declared a foreigner due to a case of mistaken identity - he was also taken on the same night as Mr Islam. "My father's name is Abdul Latif, my grandfather was Abdul Subhan. The notice that came [years ago, from the foreigners' tribunal] said Abdul Latif, son of Shukur Ali. That's not my grandfather, I don't even know him," Ms Begum said, adding that she had all the necessary documents to prove her father's citizenship. The family has now heard that Mr Latif is back in Assam, but he hasn't reached home yet. While some of these people are back home now, they fear they might be picked up again abruptly. "We are not playthings," Ms Begum said. "These are human beings, you can't toss them around as per your whims." Additional reporting by Aamir Peerzada and Pritam Roy
Hans India
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hans India
CM announces Rs 10 lakh award to Banu Mushtaq, Deepa Bhasthi
Bengaluru: Literature has the power to unite society. Society should be united through literature, not divided, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He congratulated and honoured Banu at the government felicitation program organized by the Kannada and Culture Department at the Banquet Hall for Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq. 'Banu Mushtaq has increased the fame of Kannada by providing Booker to our language. He appreciated that this is the pride of the entire Kannada world. Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi, who brought fame to Kannada through their stories and translations, will be given a prize of 10 lakh each', he announced. He said that the government will provide assistance for the translation and publication of Banu's stories in English. He analysed that the strength of Banu Mushtaq's writing is that she has been recognized in society as a journalist, writer, lawyer and activist. While writing as a journalist in Lankesh's newspaper, she has also advocated for the poor as a lawyer and has received many awards, including the Rajyotsava Award, which is proof of the social essence in Banu Mushtaq's writings. Banu has the progressive courage to write against the atrocities as the voice of the girls of the Muslim community. Banu Mushtaq has taken on the responsibility of giving a humane message through literature. 'In the Kavirajamarga, there was a call to look at other religions and other ideas with compassion, Adikavi Pampa said that the human race is the only one worthy of worship, and Basavanna said, 'This is ours.' Akkamahadevi, the voice of a woman, also voiced the same'. He said that Banu Mushtaq worked as a continuation of the aspirations of all of them.
Indian Express
31-05-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
Meet the Nightingales: From providing palliative care in remote villages to caring for colleagues during the pandemic, cancer patients
Leimapokpam Ranjita Devi and her husband used to routinely hop on a scooter at odd hours to provide palliative care to patients in remote Manipur villages. Banu M R cared for her sick colleagues in the NIMHANS hostel and guest house in Bengaluru to free up beds for patients with severe Covid-19 infection. As an oncology nurse, when the concept of palliative care was relatively unknown, Major-General Sheena P D has counselled numerous cancer patients and their families on accepting the diagnosis and getting treatment. The trio was among the 15 nurses, auxiliary nurse midwives and women health workers from across India who were conferred the Florence Nightingale Award by President Droupadi Murmu on Friday. Of these awardees, four each are from the North-East and union territories, and two from the national capital. Ranjita tells The Indian Express, 'One of my seniors asked me to apply for the award, but I barely had any photographs or videos that I was required to upload as part of my nomination. However, I got this award for training other nurses at the hospital.' Having spent most of her nearly 20-year career at the Imphal-based Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranjita has many feathers in her cap over the years — from providing palliative care and training nurses in the red zone (areas in the hospital with severely ill Covid-19 patients) to setting up the protocol for the kidney transplant team at the institute and being a part of the rapid action team established after violence erupted in Manipur in May 2023. 'Since I live on campus, I frequently cover shifts for nurses who are unable to report for duty. I still remember being asked to come to the hospital on May 3 (2023). I ended up staying all night. People kept coming in with injuries the whole time,' she recalls. Before all this, Ranjita was a part of a four-member team that provided door-to-door palliative care. 'I would receive a call if a patient removed their Ryle's tube (used for feeding through the nose) by mistake or if they were in too much pain. One by one, the others moved to different teams, but they would keep referring their patients to me,' she says, adding that though the programme has been discontinued, 'this is what I am most proud of'. While Ranjita says she has never hesitated in taking care of her patients, she recalls a scare she got while seven months pregnant with her second child. 'I remember rushing to a hospital corridor at the end of my night shift to help a woman, who had started delivering her baby there. In the afternoon, I received a call and was informed that the woman was HIV positive. I had to take medicines to protect myself and my baby,' she says. Like Ranjita, Banu too has never shied away from her duties as a nurse at NIMHANS, one of the country's foremost mental health hospitals. Taking care of nearly 170 doctors, nurses, health workers and medical students during the pandemic, she says, 'earned me this award'. Banu, who specialises in taking care of patients with psychiatric and neurological conditions, manages a rehabilitation centre at NIMHANS. 'There are several patients who do not have an acute condition, but their mental ailments don't quite not allow them to integrate into society. So our centre gives them structure. They work at the centre daily, from 8 am to 4 pm, making cakes, paper, printing things, etc. They also receive some remuneration for their work,' she says. Banu is also the lead author of a study related to the pandemic, which found that the lockdown and unavailability of alcohol had resulted in fewer road accidents, though cases of domestic violence had gone up. For the study, Banu, who also worked at the hospital's neuro-emergency department during the pandemic, collected data on walk-ins with head injuries. As part of her PhD thesis, she has created a protocol to reduce and stop the use of tobacco among people with schizophrenia. 'Though we were able to get only 25% of these people to stop using tobacco for a week, the use did dip significantly,' she says. In her message to future nurses, she says, 'You don't have to be Mother Teresa, but if you become a nurse, you have to work hard with honesty and with humanity.' Major-General Sheena, who has worked 10 years as a critical care nurse and as an oncology nurse for nearly two decades, agrees with Banu's message. 'It is a job that requires a lot of dedication, devotion and diligence,' she says. Having trained as an oncology nurse at Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital and worked with cancer patients on multiple Army bases across the country, she says, 'When I started as an oncology nurse, not many were trained in the field. There was no concept of palliative care. I am happy that nurses have now started specialising in different fields, including cancer care.' Before retiring from service in April, Major-General Sheena worked at the Army headquarters for 12 years, where her duties included inducting younger nurses to the service. One of the biggest challenges for her over the years, she says, has been giving 'realistic' hope to her patients and their families. Other 'challenges', she says, included preparing her patients to deal with their therapies, and counselling families on how to support and care for cancer patients. Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government's management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country's space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University's Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor's Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More
