This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.
Today is the 26th of August and here are the headlines.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced today that the Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to create five new districts in the Union Territory of Ladakh. These districts include Zanskar, Drass, Sham, Nubra, and Changthang. According to the official website of the Ladakh administration, two districts made up the Union Territory — Leh and Kargil. Where Leh had six sub-divisions, Kargil had four.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of 15 candidates for the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls today. Earlier in the day, the BJP had released a list of 82 candidates, which reportedly mentioned those contesting in the second and third phases as well, which they took down shortly after its release. The elections to the 90-member J&K Assembly will be held across three phases on the 18th of September, the 25th of September, and the 1st of October. Results will be announced on the 4th of October.

According to records accessed under the Right To Information Act, The Indian Express learnt official scrutiny that lasted nine years till 2019 tracked 1,084 complaints of Government jobs being acquired on fake caste certificates. The RTI records were made available for 59 of the 93 ministries and departments under the Government. From these cases, 92 personnel were dismissed from service, records from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) show. These numbers assume significance given the Puja Khedkar case who is in the dock for allegedly presenting dodgy caste and disability certificates to secure a seat in the civil services.

The second #MeToo movement that has hit the Malayalam film industry continued to bring more actors under the shadow of alleged sexual misconduct as actor Minu Muneer alleged today that she faced physical and verbal assault from various actors, including a two-time CPI(M) legislator in Kerala Assembly. She has also accused a prominent actor of having tried to assault her at a hotel during the shooting of ‘Calender’ and ‘Nadakame Ulakam’. The actors who have been named have yet to publicly respond to these specific allegations.

At least 31 people have been killed in two separate attacks by gunmen in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province. While twenty-three people were killed in Pakistan’s Balochistan, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in the Qalat district. According to Assistant Commissioner Musakhail Najeeb Kakar, the assailants blocked the inter-provincial highway in Musakhel’s Rarasham district, offloading passengers from several buses. He added that while three of those killed were from Balochistan, the rest were from the Punjab province. Dawn newspaper reported that the gunmen further set up 10 vehicles on fire.

This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express