Morning Digest: Hyderabad Police release video of events leading to stampede at Sandhya Theatre; Kuwait signs defence MoU with India, bestows highest honour on PM Modi, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on December 23, 2024

The Hyderabad city police released a video prepared by them detailing the timeline of events that led up to the stampede at Sandhya Theatre on December 4 for Pushpa 2’s benefit show which resulted in Revathi’s death and critically injured her son Sritej.

Exhorting the Narendra Modi government to show the courage to overhaul the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime citing the “absurdity” of three different tax slabs for popcorn under the present system, the Congress on Sunday (December 22, 2024) said the current complexities in the system had thrown open several loopholes leading to tax evasion. 

On December 26, 2024, it will be three years since the Centre sent the last tranche of funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to West Bengal in 2021. Since then, the funds have been withheld by the Centre citing irregularities in implementation of the programme in the State. A set of RTI replies reveals that one of the key factors prompting the Union Rural Development Ministry’s decision was the inspection of 63 worksites out of which inconsistencies were reported in 31.

The Kuwait government bestowed its highest honour “The Order of Mubarak Al Kabeer” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Modi is on a two-day visit to Kuwait at the invitation of Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The ‘Order of Mubarak Al Kabeer’ is a knighthood order of Kuwait.

A day after the announcement of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Parbhani, BJP and Shiv Sena leaders termed the Congress’s actions as “drama” and “hypocrisy”. Mr. Gandhi is scheduled to meet the kin of two persons who died in the recent violence that broke out in the region and offer his condolence.

J&K Chief Minister cancelled all the meetings scheduled in winter capital Jammu in the wake of a harsh cold wave and growing power crisis in the Kashmir valley. After attending the national level meeting of the 55th GST Council in Rajasthan on Saturday, Mr. Abdullah on Sunday announced that he would station himself in Srinagar for the next week “to personally oversee the functioning of the Power Department and other critical services”.

As Punjab farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's fast-unto-death entered its 27th day, doctors termed his health condition "critical". Doctors attending to him at the Khanauri border protest site reiterated that Mr. Dallewal is at the risk of cardiac arrest and multi-organ failure.