President Ram Nath Kovind turns 76; vice-president, PM greet him
NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind turned 76 on Friday.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished him good health and many more years in the service of the nation on his birthday.
Kovind was born on October 1, 1945, at Paraunkh village in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
He was sworn in as the 14th President of India on July 25, 2017.
“My Heartiest greetings to Hon’ble President of India, Ram Nath Kovind Ji on his birthday today. He is known for his simplicity, high ethics and remarkable vision. May he be blessed with good health, happiness and many more years in the service of the nation,” Naidu tweeted.
Prime Minister Modi also wished the president on his birthday saying his focus on empowering the poor and marginalised sections of society is exemplary.
“Birthday greetings to Rashtrapati Ji. Due to his humble personality, he has endeared himself to the entire nation. His focus on empowering the poor and marginalised sections of society is exemplary. May he lead a long and healthy life,” Modi tweeted.
Raped woman dies during abortion in UP, doctor among four arrested
MAHOBA: A man has been arrested for allegedly raping a 20-year old Dalit woman six months ago while his father, uncle and a doctor have also been held after she died during an abortion at a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur, police said on Friday.
The woman was allegedly raped six months ago while she was working in a field but police were not informed about it.
On September 25, she was taken to a hospital due to bleeding and that is when her family members came to know that she was pregnant, a police officer said.
She died the next day at the hospital.
An FIR was registered on Wednesday against Shailendra Singh for allegedly raping her, his father Ram Narain and uncle Shiv Narain for forcing her to undergo the abortion and the doctor for performing the procedure due to which she died, the police officer said.
All the accused were arrested on Thursday evening, police said.
BJP slams Congress for ‘creating disorder, instability’ in Punjab
CHANDIGARH: BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh on Thursday slammed the Congress for allegedly creating disorder and instability in Punjab close to the Assembly elections.
He said the ugly infighting in the Punjab Congress has not only paralysed governance in the state but also exposed it to national security risks.
He said the frequent attack on the newly-appointed Punjab DGP by a section of the Congress leaders has demoralised the state police.
“This is a very dangerous situation for Punjab which has generated a sense of insecurity among people”, he said.
Chugh alleged the organisational crisis within the Congress has made Punjab a “drifting state” and it is time that the people decisively show the door to the party.
“In the state cabinet, tainted ministers have been inducted to persist with the mafia raj in Punjab and yet on the other hand some ministers have resigned even as their offices and departments are left god-forsaken,” he said.
Hours after the resignation of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief on Tuesday, Razia Sultana had stepped down as cabinet minister of the state in solidarity with the party’s senior leader.
Sidhu’s abrupt resignation triggered a fresh turmoil in the party’s Punjab unit.
Earlier, the Congress had picked Charanjit Singh Channi as the leader of the state’s Congress Legislative Party.
He was sworn in as the chief minister on September 20.
Amarinder Singh had resigned as the chief minister on September 18, after being locked in a bitter power tussle with Sidhu.
Renukacharya, Jeevaraj back as political secys to Karnataka CM Bommai
BENGALURU: Honnali MLA MP Renukacharya and former Sringeri MLA DN Jeevaraj, who had worked as political secretaries to former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, have been reappointed as political secretaries to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. However, N R Santosh, who was also political secretary to Yediyurappa, did not make it. Official notifications issued on Wednesday stated that the appointments will be with immediate effect and that Renukacharya and Jeevaraj will hold cabinet rank. Both met the CM on Thursday.
A few weeks ago, Renukacharya, a Yediyurappa loyalist, had expressed displeasure over not being inducted in the Bommai cabinet. Sources pointed out that though Bommai is working hard to strike a balance by meeting party MLAs and the central leaders in Delhi, Yediyurappa’s shadow is still evident with the appointment of his loyalists. Yediyurappa resigned as CM on July 26. Bommai kept out some of those from Yediyurappa’s cabinet and even appointed IAS officer V Ponnuraj as secretary to the CM, replacing Selvakumar who was secretary to Yediyurappa.
India reports 26,727 new COVID-19 infections cases lowest in 196 days
NEW DELHI: India logged 26,727 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,37,66,707, while the active cases declined to 2,75,224, the lowest in 196 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.
The death toll climbed to 4,48,339 with 277 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
A decrease of 1,796 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
As many as 15,20,899 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 57,04,77,338.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.76 per cent.
It has been less than three per cent for last 32 days.
The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.70 per cent.
It has been below three per cent for the last 98 days, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,30,43,144, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.
The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 89 crore.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.
It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
The 277 new fatalities include 122 from Kerala and 56 from Maharashtra.
A total of 4,48,339 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,39,067 from Maharashtra,37,794 from Karnataka, 35,578 from Tamil Nadu, 25,087 each from Delhi and Kerala, 22,892 from Uttar Pradesh, and 18,793 from West Bengal.
The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
2022 UP polls: Priyanka to spend 5 days a week in state to see ground reality
LUCKNOW: Working day in and day out to revive Congress in UP ahead of 2022 electoral battle, Congress general Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra seems to be ready with her master plan. As per the plan, she would now spare five days a week to the party in the state and spend only the weekend in Delhi.
Priyanka has reportedly prepared an elaborated plan to tour the state and stay in different districts to get the pulse on the ground.
As per the highly-placed Congress sources, Priyanka will sound her party’s poll bugle from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi on October 10. She would also supervise Congress’s ambitious Pratigya Yatra which would take off on October 17. During the Yatra, to take off from four different places in the state, the Congressmen would reach out to the common man to expose the alleged failures of the BJP government in the state.
The Yatra is likely to culminate into a big rally in Lucknow drawing senior Congress leaders including Priyanka in November.
However, reviewing the party’s poll preparedness on the third day of her current 5-day visit to UP on Thursday, the Congress general secretary participated in a meeting of the newly constituted screening committee for finalising party tickets.
It is chaired by Congress general secretary Jitendra Singh, while party MP Deepender Singh Hooda and Maharashtra Cabinet minister Varsha Gaikwad also joined it as members on Thursday.
The Congress is still collecting applications from those who wish to contest the polls and has sought suggestions from various units of the party, including the district committees. These suggestions were taken up in the meeting.
Priyanka, who is chairing meetings with the state leadership, is an ex-officio member of the committee along with state Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu, Congress Legislative Party leader Aradhna Mishra, and the party secretaries in charge of the state.
After the meeting at Kaul house in Lucknow, Priyanka met the members of the Nishad community and heard their grievances in detail at Congress headquarters. She also held a dialogue with the party’s social media handlers.
In the last assembly elections in 2017, Congress had fought in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and had won just seven seats with a vote share of 6.5%. However, SP had declined from 229 to 47, and BSP to just 19 from 80 seats. The BJP had romped home with a huge majority winning 312 of 403 seats.
Dalit students made to queue up separately during mealtime, principal booked
Amethi (UP): An FIR was registered against the principal of a government school here Wednesday for allegedly forming a separate queue of Dalit children while serving them midday meal.
The FIR was registered against Kusum Soni, Principal of primary school in Gaderi in Sangrampur area, under relevant sections of the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act after the matter was reported to District Magistrate (DM) Arun Kumar.
When the matter came to his knowledge, he ordered a probe by Basic Siksha Adhikari (BSA), who suspended the principal.
The DM had received a complaint against Soni for discriminating against kids on the basis of their caste during mealtime by making them stand in separate queues.
A detailed probe is on in the matter.
Rohingya refugee leader shot dead in Bangladesh camp
Dhaka(AP): An international representative of ethnic Rohingya refugees was shot to death in a camp in Bangladesh by unknown gunmen late Wednesday, police said.
Mohibullah, who is in his 40s, was a teacher who emerged as a key refugee leader and a spokesman representing the Muslim ethnic group in international meetings. He visited the White House in 2019 for a meeting on religious freedom with then-President Donald Trump and spoke about the suffering and persecution faced by Rohingya in Myanmar.
That same year, he was bitterly criticized by Bangladeshi media after he led a massive rally of 200,000 refugees to mark the second anniversary of the crackdown by Myanmar’s military that caused about 700,000 Rohingya, including Mohibullah, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
The unidentified attackers shot Mohibullah at the Kutupalong refugee camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, said Naimul Haque, an commander of the Armed Police Battalion in Cox’s Bazar. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead.
No groups claimed responsibility and it was not clear immediately who was behind the attack. Human Rights Watch called Mohibullah a vital voice for the Rohingya community.
He always defended the rights of the Rohingya to safe and dignified returns and to have a say in the decisions concerning their lives and future. His killing is a stark demonstration of the risks faced by those in the camps who speak up for freedom and against violence, Meenakshi Ganguly, the rights group’s South Asia director, said in a statement.
Mohibullah’s death undermines not only the struggle of Rohingya refugees for greater rights and protection in the refugee camps, but also their efforts to safely return to their homes in Myanmar. Bangladesh authorities should urgently investigate Mohibullah’s killing along with other attacks on Rohingya activists in the camps,” she said.
Amnesty International urged Bangladeshi authorities and the U.N. Refugee Agency to work together to ensure the protection of people in the camps, including refugees, activists and humanitarian workers from both the Rohingya and local community, many of whom have shared concerns about their safety.
His killing sends a chilling affect across the entire community, said Saad Hammadi, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner.
Overall, Bangladesh has been sheltering more than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar after previous waves of persecution.
Low pressure area moves to Gulf of Kutch, may intensify into cyclonic storm in Arabian Sea: IMD
Ahmedabad: The remnant of cyclone Gulab has turned into a depression, moved into the Gulf of Kutch and is likely to further intensify into a cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.
Due to this weather system, heavy rains were witnessed in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region in the last 24 hours.
The IMD has predicted heavy rains in the state’s coastal districts over the next two days.
“Yesterday’s well-marked low pressure area over south Gujarat region and adjoining Gulf of Khambhat moved west-northwestwards and emerged into the Gulf of Kutch, concentrated into a depression and lay centred there at 5.30 am today,” an IMD release said.
“It is about 50 km east-northeast of Devbhoomi Dwarka (Gujarat), 90 km east-southeast of Naliya (in Kutch) and 340 km east-southeast of Karachi (Pakistan),” the release said.
It is very likely to move west-northwestwards and intensify into a deep depression over northeast Arabian Sea off north Gujarat coast during the next 12 hours, the weather department said.
“It is then very likely to move further west-northwestwards and intensify into a cyclonic storm during the subsequent 24 hours. Thereafter, it is likely to continue to move west-northwestwards towards Pakistan-Makran coasts, moving away from the Indian coast,” the IMD said.
Heavy rainfall is expected for the next two days in the coastal districts of Jamnagar, Porbandar, Dwarka and Kutch, it said, and asked fishermen not to venture into the sea.
Due to the present weather system, Junagadh, Amreli, Dwarka, Jamnagar and Rajkot districts received heavy rains in the last 24 hours, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.
In the 24-hour period ending at 6 am on Thursday morning,Visavadar taluka in Junagadh district recorded 292 mm, Lilya in Amreli district received 141 mm downpour, while Khambhaliya and Kalyanpur in Devbhumi Dwarka distric got 140 mm and 135 mm rainfall, respectively, it added.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 546
- 547
- 548
- 549
- 550
- …
- 1752
- Next Page »