From The Newsroom: Lalu Prasad, Hemant Soren to fight Bihar polls together; DGCA warns airlines against repeating mid-air chaos

In your evening news brief, From The Newsroom, DGCA warns airlines against repeating mid-air chaos; ahead of NEET exam, a 19-year-old medical aspirant died of alleged suicide; Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren meets RJD president Lalu Prasad and said they will fight Bihar polls together.

Here are the top news of today, Saturday: September 12, 2020:

Cracking the whip, the civil aviation regulator on Saturday warned airlines that a repeat of the mid-air chaos witnessed on the Chandigarh-Mumbai IndiGo flight could lead to suspension of operations on the sector for two weeks.

"...it has been decided that from now on any such violation occurs on any such scheduled passenger aircraft – the schedule of the flight for that particular route shall be suspended for a period of two weeks ... and shall be restored only after the airline has taken all the necessary punitive action against those responsible for the violation," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in an order.

The DGCA had issued a notice to IndiGo airlines for the unruly scenes onboard the Chandigarh-Mumbai flight on Wednesday that ferried actor Kangana Ranaut and a posse of media personnel.

IndiGo had responded to the DGCA that its cabin crew on the aircraft in question had followed all the requisite protocols and documented the matter in the post-flight report.

However, the DGCA reminded the airlines of Rule 13 of the Aircraft Rules that state “no person shall take any photograph except in accordance with and subject to the terms and conditions of permission in writing granted by the Director-General, a Joint Director General, a Deputy Director-General or the Director of Regulations and Information of the Civil Aviation Department.”

Kerala on Saturday witnessed widespread violent protests by various opposition parties and their youth wings demanding the resignation of state Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel who was quizzed by the Enforcement Directorate officials on Friday.

Several workers, including BJP state spokesperson B Gopalakrishnan, were injured in police action against the protests in front of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. Protest marches were staged in all districts by Congress, Youth Congress, BJP and Yuva Morcha workers. While Jaleel is maintaining a silence over the row, the opposition parties came up with fresh allegations.

Congress alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is protecting Jaleel as he could have also received illegal benefits through Jaleel. Hence the government has lost moral responsibility to continue to be in power, said the Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala

A 19-year-old medical aspirant died of alleged suicide here on Saturday, apparently 'apprehensive' over the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET), police said. The victim, identified as Jothisri Durga, was found hanging at her residence and a purported suicide note left behind by her said she was 'apprehensive' though others had high 'hopes' on her, they said. The death, which comes days after another medical aspirant in Ariyalur in the state also allegedly committed suicide, drew sharp responses from Tamil Nadu political parties opposed to NEET, even as Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam of the ruling AIADMK expressed shock over the incident. DMK President M K Stalin said NEET "is not an exam at all." Taking to Twitter, Palaniswami expressed grief over the "sad" incident and said students have many avenues to taste success and them resorting to such extreme steps was distressing.

Over 15 lakh candidates are expected to appear in medical entrance exam NEET on Sunday which will be conducted amid strict precautions in view of the COVID1-9 pandemic, according to officials of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

In order to maintain social distancing, the NTA has increased the number of exam centres from originally-planned 2,546 to 3,843, while the number of candidates per room has been reduced from earlier 24 to 12.

The crucial National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), which is a pen and paper based test unlike engineering entrance exam JEE, has already been deferred twice in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The exam was originally scheduled for May 3, but was pushed to July 26, and then to September 13.

A total of 15.97 lakh candidates have registered for the exam.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren met RJD president Lalu Prasad in RIMS here Saturday and said they will fight Bihar polls together. Soren spent more than an hour with Prasad at RIMS Director's bungalow, where the RJD leader is staying. Coming out of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Soren told reporters, "we will fight Bihar elections together." He said the former Bihar chief minister's health is better now. RJD is a partner in the coalition government headed by Soren in Jharkhand. Besides JMM, the Congress is also part of the government in the state. Asked on how many seats the JMM will field its candidates in Bihar where polls are due in October-November, Soren said "wait for some more time to know who will enter the poll fray from where." It may be noted that JMM had recently demanded 12 seats in Bihar under Grand Alliance. But, the RJD which heads the opposition grouping there, had indicated that it would spare not more than 2-3 seats to the Jharkhand based regional party.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday held a crucial meeting with BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda on seat-sharing among the NDA alliance partners for the assembly elections in the state. Nadda, who was accompanied by party colleagues like Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, national general secretary and state in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and state president Sanjay Jaiswal, called on Kumar at his official residence 1, Anney Marg. The JD(U) national president, who was accompanied by key party aide Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, accorded a warm welcome to Nadda, who hails from Himachal Pradesh but was born and brought up in Patna. At the meeting which lasted for more than half an hour, the leaders of the two parties are understood to have discussed the key issue of seat-sharing among alliance partners in the NDA, which also includes Ram Vilas Paswans Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). The BJP leadership is also understood to have assured Kumar that it will intervene and iron out the differences that have of late cropped up between the JD(U) and the LJP on account of the belligerent stance adopted by the latters young president Chirag Paswan.

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