Daily Bulletin: SC orders status quo over Karnataka MLAs case; Goa cabinet reshuffle likely today; day's top stories

SC orders status quo over Karnataka MLAs resignations, lists next hearing on 16 July   The Supreme Court on Friday restrained Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar from taking any decision till Tuesday on the resignation and disqualification of 10 rebel MLAs of the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition. Citing “weighty issues that have arisen”, the apex court said it will consider the matter on 16 July and ordered that the status quo as of Friday should be maintained. The top court said an incidental question that would arise in the matter is the kind and extent of the directions that should be issued by a constitutional court to another constitutional functionary, which in the present case happens to be the Speaker of the Assembly. [caption id=“attachment_6977731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar. Twitter @ANI[/caption] A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “In the meantime, the status quo as on today, with regard to the ten petitioners, be maintained, namely, that neither the issue of resignation nor the issue of disqualification will be decided by the Speaker.” The bench also comprising justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said, “This order has been passed by this court only to enable the court to decide the larger constitutional questions arising as indicated above. List on Tuesday, 16 July, 2019.” New Goa cabinet ministers to be sworn-in at 3 pm: CM Pramod Sawant Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said late on Friday night that he would reshuffle the cabinet on Saturday replacing four ministers and the swearing-in ceremony would be held at 3 pm. Ten Congress MLAs had on Wednesday joined the BJP increasing the strength of the party to 27 on the floor of the House. The chief minister said the three members from coalition partner Goa Forward Party and an Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte would be dropped from the cabinet. He refused to name the MLAs who would be inducted, but said all the four would be from the BJP, with three of them from the legislators who joined the party on Wednesday. Speculations are rife that former leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, Philip Nery Rodrigues and Atanasio Monserratte would be inducted in the cabinet along with Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo. Sawant said the swearing-in ceremony would be held at 3 pm on Saturday. This would the second cabinet reshuffle by Sawant since he took over as the chief minister three months ago. In his first cabinet reshuffle, Sawant had inducted MGP’s breakaway MLA Deepak Pauskar after dropping then deputy chief minister Sudin Dhavalikar. Asked why allies are being dropped from the cabinet, the chief minister said the decision has been taken as per directives of the central leadership. “I don’t want to go into details. We have taken this decision to give good governance to the people,” he said. Assam floods: Toll rises to six as situation worsens; army roped in for rescue ops The Indian Army was called for assistance in Assam as the flood situation in the state turned grim on Friday with the toll rising to six and affecting nearly 8.7 lakh people across 21 districts. Officials said the Army’s assistance was sought in Baksa district to aid the personnel of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in rescuing marooned people. Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) officials said three more persons died in rain and flood-related incidents in Golaghat and Dima Hasao districts on Friday. While two persons died in the flood at Bokakhat revenue circle in Golaghat, one died in landslide in Haflong in Dima Hasao district. It said about 8.7 lakh persons have been hit by the deluge in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Barpeta, Nalbari, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Morigaon, Hojai, Nagaon, Golaghat, Majuli, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts. “Barpeta is the worst hit with 3.5 lakh people affected, followed by Dhemaji where 1.2 lakh people are hit. They are followed by Bongaigaon where the number of affected is 62,500,” ASDMA said. Massive erosions have taken place at various places in Chirang, Barpeta and Baksa due to the floods, which has submerged a total 1,556 villages and damaged 27,864.16 hectares of crop area, embankments, roads, bridges, culverts and other infrastructure in the affected districts. The authorities are running 68 relief camps and distribution centres in 11 districts, where 7,643 people are taking shelter currently, ASDMA said. The army, NDRF and SDRF have rescued 1,160 persons in the state since Thursday and have distributed 1,281.35 quintals of rice, dal, salt and 1,493.46 litres of mustard oil, besides tarpaulin, water pouch, sanitary napkins, baby food and other essential items. Currently, Brahmaputra is flowing above its danger-mark at Guwahati, at Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur and at Goalpara and Dhubri towns, it said. Kartarpur corridor: India, Pakistan officials to meet at Attari-Wahag border on 14 July  Delegates from India and Pakistan will meet at the Attari-Wagah border on Sunday to discuss issues related to the Kartarpur Corridor, including connectivity at the Zero Point and the number of pilgrims to be allowed, government sources said Friday. “India will also raise its concerns over the security aspect,” they added. New Delhi had earlier conveyed its strong concerns to Pakistan over the presence of a leading Khalistani separatist in a committee appointed by Islamabad on the project. “The meeting will discuss modalities of the Kartarpur Corridor and related technical issues,” one of the sources said. The project will allow easy access to Sikh pilgrims from India to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan, the final resting place of Guru Nanak. “Issues pertaining to the modalities of the corridor, who can use the corridor and its facilities, how can the pilgrims move across with regards to documents required for the travel, how many pilgrims can travel will be on the agenda during the meeting,” sources said. “The meeting will take place on the Pakistani side,” they added. Serena Williams and Simona Halep chase milestones in Wimbledon final Serena Williams takes on Simona Halep in the Wimbledon women’s singles final on Saturday. The 37-year-old Williams is chasing an eighth All England Club singles crown which would see her match Australian Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 major singles titles. National pride will be at stake for Halep as she bids to become the first Romanian to win a singles title at the spiritual home of grasscourt tennis. India face North Korea in their second match of Intercontinental Cup 2019 Embarrassed by Tajikistan in the opening match, host India will be desperate for a better show when they take on North Korea in a do-or-die match of Intercontinental Cup football tournament, on Saturday. Defending champions India suffered a 2-4 defeat against Tajikistan on 7 July and the result has placed them in a precarious position in the race for the final. The top two teams will make it to the final in the four-team event. India cannot lose any match out of the remaining two if they are to qualify for the final on 19 July. Twitter planning to test ability to hide replies to tweets Twitter revealed plans to start testing a new feature that will supposedly allow users to moderate conversations that are started by them on the platform. Beginning next week in Canada as a limited trial, the feature will allow users to select replies to tweets and use a new icon from the drop-down menu to hide the ones that the user deems offensive, irrelevant or out of context. If things go to plan, a global rollout of the feature is expected sometime next month.