It's a problem many landlords in India face: how to get long-staying tenants to vacate.
Only this time, it is the Indian government trying to evict former ministers and other VIPs who are refusing to leave their sprawling homes that were allocated as a perk when they were in office.
On Monday, the government told the Supreme Court it is facing a major problem in repossessing state-owned homes. It says nearly 500 houses are being occupied illegally by former ministers or their relatives, former police officers and other dignitaries. The government had submitted the names of 465 offenders earlier, and 32 more names were added on Monday.
The multiple bedroom, colonial-era homes with wooded lawns in central New Delhi are prized because of their location, prestigious addresses and assured water and electricity supply, something of a luxury in the capital known for its creaking infrastructure.
Among the prominent unwanted guests of the government is K. Gill, a former police chief of Punjab credited with breaking the back of a Sikh separatist insurgency in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Another is Bihar State governor Buta Singh, a former minister who retains the government house in New Delhi although he lives in a palatial governor's mansion in Bihar's capital, Patna. He has refused to leave even though the Supreme Court had recommended in a ruling on Oct. 24 that Singh should be "thrown out."
The government has not said why it can't forcibly remove the occupants, but the reasons are many. Authorities are reluctant to embarrass well known personalities; many such as Singh are from the ruling party; some might become ministers again and penalize bureaucrats who sign the eviction orders, and some like Gill enjoy popular support and public sympathy.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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