Archives for 2024

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday cancelled the recently held police constable recruitment examination following allegations of question paper leak and ordered a re-test within six months.

The state government also announced a probe into the allegations by the Special Task Force (STF).

More than 48 lakh candidates appeared in the examination conducted on February 17 and 18 across the state.

In a post in Hindi on ‘X’, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “There can be no compromise with the sanctity of examinations. Those who toy with the hard work of youngsters will not be spared under any circumstances. Strictest action is certain to be taken against such unruly elements.”

More than 240 people were arrested and detained by police across Uttar Pradesh for allegedly adopting or planning to use unfair means in the recruitment exam.

Accouncing the decision, the state home department said, “On the basis of the information and facts pertaining to police recruitment examination held on February 17 and February 18, the government, while keeping in mind the highest standards of sanctity and transparency, has decided to cancel the examination.”

“The government has directed the recruitment board to register an FIR at the level where laxity has been committed and ensure further action. The government has decided to get the matter probed by the STF. Directions have also been issued to take strictest action against the guilty persons and organisation,” it said in a statement.

According to the statement, a re-examination will be conducted within six months and UPSRTC buses will ferry candidates to the centres for free.

Reacting to the development, senior AAP leader in the state Shekhar Dixit told PTI, “There cannot be anything more saddening than leakage of examination question paper. Earlier, question paper leaks were unheard of in Uttar Pradesh… The leakage of the question paper proves that the education mafia is still very strong in the state.”

New Delhi / Chennai: S Vijayadharani, a Congress MLA from Tamil Nadu for three consecutive terms, joined the BJP on Saturday, asserting that the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very important for the country.

The development is a shot in the arm for the BJP in the southern state where it has struggled to gain ground.

Vijayadharani is the MLA from Vilavancode, which is part of the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat, a constituency the BJP has won in the past.

She posted on X her letter of resignation from the Congress before joining the BJP.

She joined the party in the national capital in the presence of Union Minister L Murugan and the party’s national secretary Arvind Menon, who is the poll in-charge for Tamil Nadu.

Vijayadharani lauded the central government for its various good schemes and lamented that some of those are not being implemented in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK-Congress alliance is in power.

A lot of great things are happening to the country, she said, praising the BJP’s focus on women.

Murugan said people from different sections of society are coming forward to join the BJP to strengthen Modi’s hand.

The BJP was unable to win any of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu in the 2019 general elections.

Vijayadharani, who is also a successful lawyer, is the first sitting MLA to join the BJP.

Prior to the 2021 Assembly election, former state Minister from the AIADMK Nainar Nagendra joined the saffron party from the southern district of Tirunelveli and he is currently the party floor leader.

The Kanyakumari district from where she hails is represented by senior BJP leader M R Gandhi from Nagercoil in the Assembly House. She joins the increasing list of legislators from the district which sent C Velayutham Pillai from the Padmanabhapuram constituency to the Assembly for the first time in 1996.

The political career of Vijayadharani, an intense debater in TV channels, spans over three decades and she is known for her sense of commitment to public service and a strong focus on welfare of the marginalised.

“Her presence will be advantageous to the BJP as she has established for herself a clean image championing the cause of the people especially the downtrodden,” a senior BJP leader said.

He confirmed that she was in touch with the senior leaders in the party before taking the final plunge to embrace the BJP.

Her conspicuous absence in the Assembly during the brief Budget session which concluded on February 22, raised eyebrows and sparked rumours of her joining the BJP. But, the new TNCC chief Selvaperunthagai denied that she was quitting the Congress.

She was first elected from the Vilavancode assembly constituency in 2011 and romped home the winner in 2016 and 2021 elections. Before joining the BJP, the 54-year-old leader was the general secretary of AICC and chief whip of the Congress Legislative Party in the Assembly.

As a legislator she has been voicing for total prohibition and was instrumental in ensuring the closure of some liquor shops in her constituency. This advocate for women empowerment has been batting for 50 percent reservation for women in civic polls.

Rescue operations underway at the pond

Kasganj (UP): Twenty-four people, including eight children, died when their tractor-trolley overturned and fell into a pond in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj district on Saturday morning, police said.

They said 15 to 20 people were injured in the accident that occurred on the Patiyali-Dariyavganj road under the Patiyali police station area when the occupants of the tractor-trolley were going to take a bath in the Ganga river.

Inspector General of Aligarh Range Shalabh Mathur said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has condoled the loss of lives in the accident and announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

“Twenty-four people died when the tractor-trolley overturned and fell into the seven to eight-foot-deep pond while the driver was trying to overtake another vehicle. Around 15-20 people were injured and have been hospitalised,” Mathur told PTI.

He added that the deceased included eight children.

“The tractor-trolley was coming from Jaithara in Etah district. I am going to the spot with the divisional commissioner (of Aligarh),” Mathur said, adding that the bodies of the deceased would be handed over to their families after post-mortem examination.

According to the police, 22 of those who died in the accident have been identified as Guddi (75), Shakuntala (70), Meera (65) wife of Digvijay, Meera (55) wife of Rajpal, Gayatri (52), Pushpa (45), Shyamlata (40), Shivam (30), Shivani (25), Anjali (24), Jyoti (24), Ushma (24), Sapna (22), Deeksha (19), Sunaina (10), Kuldeep (7), Devanshi (6), Sandhya (5), Kartik (4), Laddu (3), Siddhu (one-and-half years) and Payal (two months).

Two other bodies are yet to be identified, police said.

In a post on X, Adityanath said, “The loss of lives in a road accident in Kasganj district is extremely heart-wrenching. My condolences are with the bereaved families. District administration officials have been instructed to provide proper free treatment to all the injured. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to grant peace to the departed souls and speedy recovery to the injured.”

As locals searched for trapped children, a woman was seen wailing and searching for her child. An excavator was also pressed into action for the rescue work.

Praveen Kumar, a local involved in the initial rescue operation, told reporters that he fished out 15 bodies from the pond. “We sent the injured to hospital on whatever vehicles were plying on the road that time. The deceased were mostly women,” he said.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati expressed sadness over the incident.

In a post on X in Hindi, Yadav said, “Very sad! The news of a large number of casualties in Kasganj when a tractor-trolley loaded with devotees returning after taking a bath in the Ganga overturned in a pond is extremely sad. Save people’s lives by speeding up relief work. Wish for the speedy recovery of the injured.”

He added that the government should give appropriate compensation to the families of the deceased.

Mayawati, in a post on X in Hindi, said, “The news of the death of about 22 devotees and injuries to many others when a tractor-trolley overturned in a pond in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh is very sad. My deepest condolences to the bereaved family. The government must provide all possible help to the affected families as soon as possible.”

New Delhi: A day after investors of the troubled edtech firm Byju’s voted for a leadership change, Byju Raveendran has penned a note to employees saying he continues to remain CEO and the management remains unchanged, as he dubbed Friday’s EGM as a “farce”.

The note to employees assumes significance as it comes after Byju’s shareholders (prominent investors) on Friday voted for removing Founder-CEO Raveendran and his family from the board over alleged “mismanagement and failures” at what was once India’s hottest tech startup, but the company dug in its heels, calling the voting done in absence of founders as invalid and ineffective.

In a note to employees on Saturday, Raveendran alleged that a lot of essential rules were “violated” at Friday’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).

“This means that whatever was decided in that meeting does not count, because it didn’t stick to the established rules… It is crucial for everyone to understand the specific issues that make this EGM a farce,” he wrote.

PTI has seen a copy of the letter.

Raveendran said he firmly believes that the truth will inevitably prevail, despite the “relentless trial by the media”.

“I am writing this letter to you as the CEO of our company. Contrary to what you may have read in the media, I continue to remain CEO, the management remains unchanged, and the board remains the same,” he said, adding it is “business as usual” at BYJU’S.

“To reemphasise, the rumours of my firing have been greatly exaggerated and highly inaccurate,” Raveendran said.

Outlining what he claimed were “key discrepancies” at the EGM, he said the meeting was convened without following the proper procedure set out by the law and the company’s Articles of Association.

“To pass any resolution the meeting needs to have a proper quorum, a set of people who are mandatory. Our articles are clear on the quorum requiring the presence of at least one founder director. Consequently, any resolutions taken at the meeting are not enforceable as per law,” he said.

He also stated, “The claims made by a small group of select minority shareholders that they have unanimously passed the resolution in the EGM is completely wrong. Only 35 out of 170 shareholders (representing around 45 per cent of shareholding) voted in favour of the resolution. That in itself shows the very limited support that this irrelevant meeting received.”

BYJU’S Founder CEO Raveendran Byju, his wife and brother — the only three members on the company board as of now — stayed away from the EGM called by a group of six investors, who collectively hold more than 32 per cent in Think & Learn (T&L), the firm that operates online tuition platform Byju’s.

At the end, more than 60 per cent of the shareholders voted in favour of all the seven resolutions, which included removing the current management, reconfiguration of the board and a third party forensic investigation into acquisitions by the company, sources close to the investors said.

However, sources close to Byju’s put the number at 47 per cent on Friday.

Prosus — one of the six investors who had called the EGM — in a statement on Friday said, “shareholders unanimously passed all resolutions put forward for vote”.

Piyush Kapasia

Kota (Rajasthan): A 17-year-old JEE aspirant who went missing from his hostel here on February 13 was traced to Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, police said on Saturday.

The boy, Piyush Kapasia of Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahar, left his hostel as he was depressed over his class 12 marks. He is being brought back to Kota, they said.

Kapasia was preparing for IIT-JEE at a coaching institute here for two years. He left his hostel on February 13 but did not return. He also did not respond to his parents’ calls, following which his family reported him missing, according to police.

An FIR was registered at Jawahar Nagar police station.

Later, CCTV footage showed Kapasia standing at Kota railway station with a bag in his hands, police had said earlier.

Superintendent of Police, Kota City, Amrita Duhan told reporters on Saturday that Kapasia was found in Dharamsala and he was depressed.

After the boy was reported missing, police teams were constantly working to trace him. When the teams reached Haridwar on Friday, it was found that he had left for Dharamshala, the SP said.

Kapasia reached Dharamsala via Dehradun and Haridwar. He is being brought back to Kota by police teams, Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhawani Singh said.

The boy will be provided counselling once he arrives here, police said.

According to Kapasia’s family members, he scored 98 per cent marks in class 10 and performed consistently well in regular tests at his coaching institute in class 11. However, he did not do well in class 12 and the recent JEE-Mains.

In a similar incident, a NEET aspirant, Aryan Mitra (17) of West Bengal’s Siliguri, went missing from his hostel in Landmark City in the Kunhari police station area here on February 21, according to police.

The parents of Mitra, who was scheduled to appear for a class 12 exam on February 22, called the hostel manager when he did not respond to their calls. The hostel manager lodged a police complaint in the matter on February 22, police said.

Based on the hostel manager’s complaint, a case was registered in the matter. Police teams are searching for the boy, Circle Inspector Arvind Bhardwaj said.