The comments came a day after Adityanath addressed a rally in minority-dominated Malda district where he alleged that cattle smuggling and ‘love jihad’ were continuing unabated in the state.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday of misleading the people in West Bengal and said the party would campaign in favour of the TMC for the Assembly election.

The comments came a day after Adityanath addressed a rally in minority-dominated Malda district where he alleged that cattle smuggling and “love jihad” were continuing unabated in West Bengal and the Mamata Banerjee government was endangering national security by indulging in “appeasement” politics.

In a statement, Yadav said the BJP wanted to come to power in the state by spreading “confusion and propaganda” during the Assembly polls.

“The Samajwadi Party will not allow this conspiracy of the BJP to succeed,” he added.

He alleged that Adityanath was “misleading” the people and appealed to the voters not to fall prey to the designs of the BJP, which “indulges in politics of hate”.

“It’s in the interest of democracy to be cautious of it (BJP),” the SP leader said.

Yadav said SP vice president and former minister Kiranmoy Nanda would conduct an election campaign in support of the TMC in the state.

Incidentally, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had also met TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee two days ago.

“West Bengal is home to a large number of Hindi-speaking people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand,” he had said, adding the RJD’s stand is to provide “full support” to Banerjee.

The high-stakes elections in West Bengal, poised to be a tough contest between the TMC and the BJP, will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29.

Votes will be counted on May 2.

They said an unidentified person called the 112 emergency response number of the Uttar Pradesh police at around 9 am and claimed that a bomb was kept inside the monument.

NEW DELHI/AGRA: The Taj Mahal complex in Agra was vacated on Thursday morning following a hoax bomb call, officials said.

They said an unidentified person called the 112 emergency response number of the Uttar Pradesh police at around 9 am and claimed that a bomb was kept inside the monument that is conserved by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and protected by armed personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

The Uttar Pradesh police immediately informed the CISF personnel, who asked the visitors to vacate the premises of the iconic 17th-century monument and launched anti-sabotage checks around 9:15 am.

“Nothing suspicious has been found and the checks are almost done,” a senior CISF officer said in Delhi.

The hoax call has been traced to Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh, another officer said.

MUMBAI: Petrol price can go down to Rs 75 a litre across the country if brought under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), but there is a lack of political will, which is keeping Indian oil product prices at one of the highest in the world, economists at SBI said on Thursday

Diesel will come at Rs 68 a litre and the revenue loss for the Centre and states will be only Rs 1 lakh crore or 0.4 per cent of GDP, according to the calculation by the economists made under the assumption of global crude prices at USD 60 a barrel and exchange rate at Rs 73 per dollar.

At present, every state has its own way of taxing fuels, while the Centre also collects its own duties and cess. Petrol prices have touched Rs 100 per litre in some pockets of the country and concerns are being expressed about the high taxation which is making the fuels dearer.

The SBI economists said bringing petrol and diesel under the goods and services tax is an unfinished agenda of the GST framework and getting the prices under the new indirect taxes framework can help.

“Centre and states are loathe to bring crude oil products under the GST regime as sales tax/VAT (value added tax) on petroleum products is a major source of own tax revenue for them. Thus, there is lack of political will to bring crude under the ambit of GST,” they said.

At present, states choose to levy a combination of ad valorem tax, cess, extra VAT/surcharge based on their needs and these taxes are imposed after taking into account the crude price, the transportation charge, the dealer commission and the flat excise duty imposed by the Centre, they explained.

Assuming for the crude prices and dollar rate, transportation charges at Rs 7.25 for diesel and Rs 3.82 for petrol, dealer commission of Rs 2.53 for diesel and Rs 3.67 for petrol, cess of Rs 30 for petrol and Rs 20 for diesel which will be divided equally between the Centre and states, and GST rate at 28 per cent, the economists came at the final price estimates.

It said that a growth in the consumption – diesel going up 15 per cent and petrol by 10 per cent – has been used to assess the Rs 1 lakh crore fiscal impact of getting petroleum prices under GST. An increase of USD 1 in the crude oil prices will push up the petrol price by around 50 paise and diesel prices by around Rs 1.50, and bring down the overall deviation by around Rs 1,500 crore under the baseline scenario, it said.

States, which have the highest share of tax revenues at present, will be the biggest losers if the system shifts to GST, it said, quickly adding that such a move will help consumers pay up to Rs 30 less.

Interestingly, the simulation exercise suggests that when crude oil price declines by USD 10 per barrel, Centre and states could save close to Rs 18,000 crore, if they keep the petrol prices at baseline prices without passing the benefit to consumers, which is higher than the savings of Rs 9,000 crore when the crude prices go up by a same measure.

“We thus recommend the government build up an oil price stabilisation fund which can be used in bad times for compensating revenue loss by cross subsidising fund saved from good times, without hurting the consumer,” it said.

For the LPG cylinders, the economists proposed an increased and graded subsidy may be provided to poor consumers which can be tapered off over a period of, say, 5-years. Meanwhile, the note said the latest revenue and expenditure numbers could lead to lowering of fiscal deficit to 8.7 per cent in FY21, down from 9.5 per cent in the revised budget estimates.

They said that it is highly likely that the Government might cancel its Rs 49,000 crore borrowing planned in the last fortnight of March.

Addressing a webinar on the implementation of the Union Budget provisions in the education sector, he said the new National Education Policy has encouraged the use of local language

NEW DELHI: Doors are being opened for talented youth in several sectors such as space, atomic energy and agriculture as limiting knowledge and research is a big injustice to the country’s potential, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.

Addressing a webinar on the implementation of the Union Budget provisions in the education sector, he said the new National Education Policy has encouraged the use of local language and now it is the responsibility of all academics and experts of every language to prepare the best content available in the country and the world in Indian languages.

This is definitely possible in this era of technology, he asserted.

Modi said education, skill, research and innovation were the second biggest focus of budget after health.

“The Union Budget has broadened our efforts to link education with employability and entrepreneurial capability,” he said.

As a result of these efforts, India today is among the top three countries in terms of scientific publications, Modi said.

Limiting knowledge and research is a big injustice to the country’s potential, the prime minister said.

“With this thinking, doors of several sectors such as space, atomic energy, DRDO, agriculture, are being opened for our talented youth,” Modi said.

To build a self-reliant India, confidence in the youth of the country is important, he said, asserting that confidence only comes when the youth has complete faith in their education and knowledge.

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has formed a four-member high-level committee to conduct a probe into an incident where girls were allegedly stripped and forced to dance by policemen at a hostel in Jalgaon, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Wednesday.

The minister made the announcement in the state Assembly after the issue was raised by opposition members.

BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar targeted the Maharashtra government, suggesting it was not serious over the issue.

According to media reports, some girls from a hostel in Jalgaon complained that people from outside and policemen were allowed to enter the facility on the pretext of a probe and some girls were forced to strip and dance.

A video clip of the same has also surfaced.

“It is a very unfortunate incident. A four-member high-level committee of officials has been formed to conduct a probe into it. they have been asked to submit a report in two days. Action will be taken as per rules after the report is submitted,” Deshmukh said.

Before the minister made the announcement, Mungantiwar said the incident is very serious.

He alleged the government was only taking note of such an incident and called for stricter action.

Replying to him, Deshmukh said, “All information about the incident is being taken.

The entire video recording and other documents are sought and statements are being recorded.

” Strict action will be taken as per rules after gathering all the information, he said.

Objecting to it, Mungantiwar said the police already have all the information about the incident.

” If the police machinery is not going to take information after spending Rs 15,000 crore, why this government (is needed then)?” the BJP leader said.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said there is a video clip (of the incident) and it would have been a different case had it been just a news report.

The video clip of a girl being forced to dance after stripping her is a serious matter, he said.

“Our expectation is that you take immediate action sensitively,” the leader of opposition said.

The person is being interrogated to ascertain whether he has any link to the two BJP leaders who were recently arrested in a drug seizure case.

KOLKATA: The Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police has seized over five kg of heroin, worth Rs 25.09 crore in the international market, from West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district and arrested a person in this connection, a senior officer said on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, the STF sleuths conducted a search operation at Rasulpur Bazar in Memari on Monday night and recovered the contraband from the drug peddler’s vehicle, he said.

“We had information about the person that he would come to deliver the drugs to an agent. We recovered 5.08 kg of heroin from his possession and seized his vehicle,” the officer said.

A case has been registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he said.

The person is being interrogated to ascertain whether he has any link to the two BJP leaders who were recently arrested in a drug seizure case, a source in the Kolkata Police said.

The police had arrested BJP youth wing leader Pamela Goswami and two of her associates after 90 gm of cocaine was allegedly found in her handbag and concealed in the car they were travelling.

Following Goswami’s accusation that she was “framed” by her party colleague and BJP state committee member Rakesh Singh, the Kolkata Police nabbed him and another person from Galsi in Purba Barddhaman district while they were trying to escape.

BHOPAL: Religion is no barrier in attainment of spiritual knowledge. Mushariff Khan from Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district is a perfect example of this. The Class VIII student can recite shlokas from the Bhagavad Gita with élan, much to the delight of her parents and teachers.

Mushariff started learning the holy Hindu scripture as part of memory retention training, and now she and her parents are proud that she has imbibed the best tenets of another religion.

The talented girl has learnt by heart 500 out of the total 701 shlokas in the Bhagavad Gita, using the memory retention technique taught by her Abacus and Vedic Mathematics teacher Rohini Menon.

“Mushariff is one of my best students. I gave her three options to showcase her memory retention technique: memorising the entire dictionary, the entire Constitution of India or the Bhagavad Gita. To the surprise of us all, she opted for learning the Bhagavad Gita. She started learning when she was in Class VI and has so far memorised 500 Sanskrit sholkas,” Menon told this newspaper.

Menon said many of her other students, too, have tried to learn the shlokas from the Bhagavad Gita, but only Mushariff has succeeded in memorising 500 shlokas till now and is determined to learn and understand the remaining ones, too.

Mushariff, whose father is a Mathematics teacher and mother a housewife, had joined the short course of Memory Retention under Menon two years back.

“After doing the short course, I wanted to do something unique and different. I chose to memorise the Bhagavad Gita because my mother has always taught me that ‘out of your house, you are a just a human being and not an individual following a particular religion’. My parents permitted me to learn the Bhagavad Gita as they wanted me to gain knowledge of every religion,” said Musharraf.

Proud of Mushariff’s achievement, her mother Zeenat Khan said, “Yes, we are Muslims. But we want to bring up our daughter in a manner that she grows up to be a noble human being ingrained with the best tenets of every religion.”

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Women has taken suo moto cognisance of the alleged thrashing of an elderly woman by TMC supporters in West Bengal.

Shova Majumdar, mother of BJP leader Gopal Majumdar, was allegedly attacked on Saturday by workers of the ruling party, which has dismissed the allegation as “false”.

Police, however, claimed that the mother of the BJP supporter was not attacked and that her face was swollen owing to some ailment.

“The NCW has come across a Twitter post regarding an old lady who has allegedly been assaulted by supporters of a political party as her son supported different political party,” according to a statement on Monday.

ALSO READ | Bengal: BJP alleges party worker’s mother thrashed, police say her face swollen due to ailment

The commission has taken cognisance and Chairperson Rekha Sharma has written to the director general of police for taking action in the matter to avoid recurrence of “such incidents in the future”, it said.

The apex women rights body has also written to the chief election commissioner and has sought a detailed action, the statement added.

A police officer of Barrackpore Commissionerate had said that BJP activist Gopal Majumdar was attacked by some miscreants on Saturday in North Dumdum in the Nimta police station area.

Majumdar’s mother claimed that she and her son were beaten up by TMC “goons” and that they threatened her son not to disclose the incident to anyone.

The matter is being investigated and those behind the incident are yet to be identified as they were wearing masks.

The incident is being probed from all angles, including political rivalry and family dispute, the officer had said.

ALIGARH: The postmortem report of the teenage Dalit girl, whose body was found here on Sunday, has not indicated any clear evidence of rape and found that she was strangulated to death, a senior official said here.

Five persons have been picked up by the police for questioning in the case, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Muniraj G told mediapersons on Monday night.

The body of the 16-year-old girl was found in a field in Akrabad area here following which villagers clashed with police and indulged in stone pelting.

Inspector Pranendra Kumar was injured in the attack.

The postmortem report has not indicated any clear evidence of rape, the SSP said.

He said that in view of the inconclusive evidence the police has decided to conduct further microbiological tests using vaginal swabs.

“The proceedings of the postmortem were videographed. There were multiple injury marks on the body of the victim who died due to strangulation,” the SSP said.

An FIR has been registered under IPC 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and POCSO Act.

Earlier, on Monday when the body was handed over to the family for last rites, a large group of protestors collected at the the house of the victim and blocked traffic on the main Agra road.

The SSP said efforts are on for giving adequate financial compensation to the victim’s family.