UIDAI launched the Aadhaar in the form of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) card in October.
UIDAI launched the Aadhaar in the form of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) card in October this year. Just like your debit or credit card or PAN card, you will be able to carry the PVC Aadhaar card in your wallet. UIDAI puts it as ,"Loaded with the latest security features, your Aadhaar is now more durable, convenient to carry, instantly verifiable offline." UIDAI allows residents of India to get their Aadhaar letter reprint on PVC card by paying nominal charges of ₹50. Residents who do not have registered mobile number can also order using non-registered or any alternate mobile number. In fact, one person can order Aadhaar PVC cards online for the whole family, using his or her mobile number.
UIDAI in a recent tweet wrote, "You can use any mobile number to receive OTP for authentication, regardless of the registered mobile number in your Aadhaar. So, one person can order Aadhaar PVC cards online for the whole family. Follow the link https://residentpvc.uidai.gov.in/order-pvcreprint to order now."
Here's the tweet:
#AadhaarPVCcard
— Aadhaar (@UIDAI) November 11, 2020
You can use any mobile number to receive OTP for authentication, regardless of the registered mobile number in your Aadhaar. So, one person can order Aadhaar PVC cards online for the whole family.
Follow the link https://t.co/TVsl6WZqlp to order now. pic.twitter.com/ivoaQ7QgAN
How to order PVC Aadhaar card?
> Go to the link: https://residentpvc.uidai.gov.in/order-pvcreprint
> Fill in your Aadhaar Number or Virtual Identification Number or EID to order Aadhaar card.
Aadhaar card comes with security features i.e. Digitally signed Secure QR code, Hologram, Ghost image, Guilloche pattern etc.
> Click on 'send OTP.' You can order Aadhaar card using your registered mobile number or Alternate mobile number to receive OTP.
> Aadhaar preview is available on use of registered mobile only. Preview of Aadhaar card details is not available for Non-registered mobile based Order.
> Time-Based-One-Time-Password (TOTP) can also be used via m-Aadhaar Application.
> After submitting the OTP, you will need to make the required payment and your PVC Aadhaar reprint will be ordered.
Police in Assam’s Sivasagar district have rescued four minor boys following allegations from local residents that they were about to be sacrificed by the father of one of the boys.
While reports in local news channels claim that the father of one of the boys wanted to sacrifice his own son and the sons of his brother on the advice of a witch doctor with the hope of getting some hidden treasure, police say there is no evidence of an attempted human sacrifice yet, but are investigating.
“A police team was sent to Demowmukh following reports that some human sacrifice was about to take place there. We have taken the four boys into our custody on Saturday night for their safety,” said Amitava Sinha, superintendent of police, Sivasagar.
“The allegations of attempted human sacrifice are yet to be confirmed. Apart from hearsay, there is no concrete evidence about such a crime. According to the locals, the father of one of the boys wanted to sacrifice them. On questioning, the father said they were planning some exorcism ritual,” he added.
An FIR on the incident has been lodged by local residents and police have detained two persons Jamirul Hussain and Shariful Hussain, fathers of the minor boys, for further interrogation.
The activists stopped vehicles carrying meat items meant for the big cats housed in the zoo. They blocked the roads leading to the zoo for several hours before allowing authorities to take the food items inside.
Opposing the slaughter of cows, several Hindu activists on Monday protested against serving beef as part of diet to tigers and other big cats in the Assam state zoo located in Guwahati.
The activists stopped vehicles carrying meat items meant for the big cats housed in the zoo. They blocked the roads leading to the zoo for several hours before allowing authorities to take the food items inside.
“The vehicles carrying meat for the zoo inmates were stopped briefly by some miscreants. We had to call the police to disperse them. There’s no issue regarding supply of meat to the animals now,” said Tejas Mariswamy, divisional forest officer (DFO), Assam state zoo.
Established in 1957 and spread over 175 hectares in the middle of Guwahati in the Hengrabari reserve forest, Assam state zoo, which has 1,040 wild animals and birds of 112 species, is the biggest zoo in the Northeast.
At present, the zoo has 8 tigers, 3 lions, 26 leopards and other small cats like leopard cat, jungle cat etc.
The zoo is a big attraction among people in Guwahati and others from across the region, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been closed for the public since March this year.
Mizoram home secretary Lalbiaksangi, in a letter to Tripura home secretary BK Sahu, said that any activities could deteriorate law and order at the interstate border.
The Mizoram government sought stoppage of construction of a temple and all sorts of activities within the disputed Tripura-Mizoram interstate border near Phuldungsei village where 130 people were identified in Mizoram’s voters’ list almost two months back.
Traditionally, Phuldungsei village as a whole has been accepted as part of Tripura despite the eastern side of the village falling into Mizoram’s side.
Mizoram home secretary Lalbiaksangi, in a letter to Tripura home secretary BK Sahu, said that any activities could deteriorate law and order at the interstate border.
According to the letter, the Mizoram government got reports that Songrongma of Tripura, a local indigenous organisation, is attempting to construct a temple at the disputed interstate border village near Phuldungsei at Thaidawrtlang, Mamit district. There are reports of organising community work on October 19 and 20.
“Since any activities within the disputed interstate border can result in law and order problems, it is requested to kindly intervene and issue necessary instructions to the concerned district administration for the immediate and indefinite stoppage of the proposed construction,” the letter read.
No comment from Tripura government is available on the issue.
Located in Kanchanpur sub-division of North district of Tripura, Phuldungsei village has a population of over 600.
Kanchanpur sub-divisional magistrate Chandni Chandran in August informed her higher officials that 130 people of the village, who have ration cards of Tripura, were included in Mizoram’s voters’ list.
Chandran stressed on demarcating the exact boundary between the two neighbouring states incorporating the entire village in Tripura. Shortly after it, the state government ordered a probe into the matter.
The Assam-Mizoram border remains tense after a farmhouse was allegedly torched and plantations destroyed by the Karimganj district administration of Assam in Mizoram’s Mamit district along the inter-state border, a police officer said.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when a farmhouse, belonged to John Zolawma of Thinghlun village in Mamit district bordering Assam’s Karimganj district, was torched by officials of the district administration, police and forest department from Karimganj, the Mizoram Police officer said.
Apart from burning the farmhouse, they also destroyed more than 1,000 betel nut plants and other vegetables in two farms owned by John Zolawma and Ben Davida, he said.
The officer said Mamit district deputy commissioner and superintendent of police (SP) visited the site on Saturday to take stock of the situation.
The police officer said an FIR has been registered at Kanhmun police station and personnel of the 4th Indian Reserve Batallion are currently camping in the area to avoid any further arson.
Mizoram DGP SBK Singh has communicated his Assam counterpart over the phone regarding the matter.
Meanwhile, state chief secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo convened a meeting with top officials of the home department and police over the incident on Saturday, an official said.
The meeting vehemently blamed the Karimganj district administration of Assam for its “provocative act”, he said.
He said the state government will write to the Union home ministry and the Assam government to inform about its grievances.
The state’s apex students’ body, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) on Saturday held an emergency meeting over the incident.
The meeting blamed the district administration of Karimganj in Assam for the incident and decided to rebuild the farmhouse, MZP president B. Vanlaltana said.
“The meeting took the incident seriously and considered it as a grave insult and impudent contempt to the people of Mizoram,” he said.
He added that the students’ body also agreed to give monetary assistance to the two victims.
In a statement, Mizo Students’ Union (MSU) also strongly blamed the Karimganj district administration for the incident and alleged that apart from torching the farmhouse and destroying plantations, Assam officials and police “intimidated” local volunteers, who are guarding inter-state border to prevent the spread of Covid19.
The students’ body demanded compensation for the victims.
Officials of Karimganj district administration could not be contacted over the incident.
The border dispute between Mizoram and Assam is a long-pending issue, which has remained unresolved till date.
Three Mizoram districts of Kolasib, Aizawl and Mamit share about 123km long border with south Assam’s Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts.
Several dialogues held since 1995 to resolve the border dispute have yielded little result.
The last border stand-off took place in March 2018 at Zophai or Karchurthal area near Bairabi town in Kolasib district along the Mizoram-Assam border when the functionaries of MZP attempted to re-construct a wooden resting shed, which was destroyed by the Hailaikandi district administration, there.
More than 60 people, mostly students were allegedly injured when Assam police resorted to lathi-charge and gunfire to disperse the protesting students.
The border dispute, however, was put under control with the intervention of the Centre, which asked both the Mizoram and Assam governments to maintain a status quo till issues are resolved.
Source: NeNow.in
Protest and journalism are criminal acts, Parliament is irrelevant, duties supersede rights,and profanity flows from the ordinary.
On October 8, Justice Sanjay Dhar of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court delivered a judgement that was remarkable in its ordinariness: it restated the law, common sense and the basic tenets of – what was once – the world’s largest democracy.
The case he was called to adjudicate upon was a two-year-old story in the Times of India. The headline read: “Stone pelters in J&K now target tourists, four women injured.” It was ordinary journalism, but it led to a criminal case against the reporter for “making or publishing a statement or rumour creating fear or alarm”.
The freedom of the press, said Justice Dhar, could not be imperiled on “grounds that are unknown to law” and “reporting of events, which a journalist has bona fide reason to believe to be true, can never be an offence”.
Yet, this is what journalism in India has become: an offence against the state.
Journalists in Kashmir bear the brunt of this belief, as they are hectored, threatened, beaten and imprisoned; it is state policy, explicitly stated, to discourage journalism that is “against the national interest”. In Uttar Pradesh, it is unstated but state policy nevertheless to file criminal cases against journalists who do their jobs when the government does not want them to. It was little wonder that earlier this year, India ranked 142 of 180 countries on a global press freedom index, behind countries such as Myanmar, South Sudan and Afghanistan.
In Uttar Pradesh, over the past year, journalists have faced criminal cases for reporting on things as prosaic as a derailed train to a protest; the spectre of arrest hangs over the executive editor of this website for reporting the failure of a government programme; another journalist has been in prison for 24 days over a tweet; and a day before Justice Dhar delivered his judgement, a journalist from Kerala and three others were arrested and charged with sedition and India’s now-notorious anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The circumstances of their alleged crime were mired in ordinariness – they were headed to Hathras, which the Uttar Pradesh government has declared a site of international conspiracy, and they, the police said, were conspirators.
I mention journalism because its wellbeing is a test of democratic health (by that measure, of course, India is floundering, given the state of its largely sensation-seeking, government-loving media), but these outrages are not limited to journalism. They come thick and fast every day, as peace activists, professors, students and anyone opposed to the government and its Hindu-majoritarian narrative are questioned, interrogated, threatened or simply imprisoned without bail for investigations that never appear to end or are slapped with cases that may never stand the test of law.
As for the law, it is being reduced to, at best, a tool to be manipulated, or, at worst, little more than a joke. It has been corrupted by the government, the police and the courts beyond reasonable measure.
Last week, Stan Swamy, 83 and the oldest Indian to be charged under the UAPA, was arrested. A life-long advocate of Adivasi rights and bulwark against their oppression, Swamy is a Jesuit priest, who, a writer once said, “had made people his religion”. His arrest was the 16th in what has come to be known as the Bhima-Koregaon case, a vast, dubious enterprise of defamation and criminalisation that began as a supposed plot to kill the prime minister – an accusation never mentioned since – and degenerated into a vast conspiracy with no credible proof and no sign of trial.
In the blink of an eye, India has been dragged from flawed but functioning democracy with reasonably robust institutions to the doorstep of great-leader autocracy. Every disfigurement of the law leads to another, often greater in severity, straining the credulity of the justice system and pushing it further into disrepute and disrepair. Every corrupted precedent encourages another until everyone encourages the profane, even those who promise to stand against it.
In Congress-run Rajasthan, on October 1, criminal conspiracy charges were filed against a journalism for reporting that the deputy chief minister’s phone was tapped. A week later, party leader Rahul Gandhi announced that if India had a free press and functioning institutions, Narendra Modi’s government would fall.
Indeed, Justice Dhar’s judgement was not a sign of hope. It was an anachronism, a whisper from the past, a straw in a changing wind. On the day that he delivered a reminder of India’s fading democratic norms and constitutional rights, the Supreme Court declared that the freedom of speech and expression was the “most abused right in recent times”.
This
is a court that has almost entirely allied itself with the government
and its narrative. As many legal scholars monotonously point out – to no
effect – the Supreme Court has placed in cold storage urgent matters,
from the controversial new citizenship law to illegal detentions in
Kashmir. Far from placing fundamental rights at the centre of its
jurisprudence – as every constitutional court should –
the Supreme
Court has increasingly turned to preaching about Modi’s pet theme,
fundamental duties (inserted into the constitution during the Emergency
by India’s first autocrat, Indira Gandhi).
Some fundamental duties have been quietly weaponised and embedded into the emerging enterprise of criminalisation of speech and expression, particularly one related to protecting “sovereignty, unity and integrity”. It is as vague as the interpretation of laws deployed to restrict fundamental rights and push the narrative of one nation, one people, one religion and whatever other façade of unity the government declares as the national interest.
In the pursuit of this alleged national interest – which is anything but – any perversion of democracy is acceptable. We have witnessed the slow throttling of Parliament, which has gone from a house of robust debate to a rubber-stamp of the ruling party. We have witnessed the willingness of the bureaucracy, the police and judges to be enforcers of not the constitution but the writ of the ruling party and its narrative.
We are witnessing the distinct signs of a democratic twilight. But none of it would be possible without our collective and widespread acceptance, complicity and apathy.
Samar Halarnkar is the editor of Article-14.com, a project that tracks misuse of the law and the hope it offers.