Category: NATIONAL NEWS

In what is seen as a show of strength, nearly 60 Congress MLAs gathered at the residence of new state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu here on Wednesday, amid a suspense over a possible truce between him and CM Amarinder Singh. Sidhu and Amarinder Singh has been at loggerheads for the past some time, with the Amritsar (East) MLA recently attacking the CM over the desecration cases. The chief minister was also averse to his appointment as the state Congress chief. After Sidhu’s elevation, the CM had said that he…

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The DRDO successfully flight-tested the new-generation Akash surface-to-air missile system from an integrated test range off the Odisha coast on Wednesday. The defence ministry said the missile was test-fired at around 12:45 pm from a land-based platform and that the “flawless performance” of its weapons system was confirmed by the complete flight data. The new variant of the Akash missile (Akash-NG) can strike targets at a distance of around 60 km and fly at a speed of up to Mach 2.5. “The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested…

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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked BJP MPs to proactively counter the opposition’s misleading charges on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and hit out at the Congress, saying it is in a coma and is unable to digest the BJP coming to power. Addressing a meeting of BJP parliamentary party, the prime minister said that the government was willing to hold discussions in both Houses of Parliament, but the opposition was showing the most irresponsible behaviour. Facing flak from the opposition on his government’s response to the pandemic,…

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The union territory of Puducherry logged 42 fresh coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours, the first time in four months it came down below the fifty mark. The 42 new infections took the overall tally to 1,19,745, Director of the Department of Health S Mohan Kumar said on Monday. He said this was the first time after more than four months that Puducherry recorded less than 50 new cases. The Puducherry region reported 36 of the fresh cases, followed by Karaikal (three), Yanam (two) and Mahe (one). They were…

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Twenty five people died in house collapses triggered by landslides following incessant overnight rains in Mumbai, which caused severe water logging and disruption of suburban train services and vehicular traffic in the financial capital on Sunday, officials said. The Western Railway and Central Railway briefly suspended suburban train services in Mumbai after the heavy rains, and many long distance trains were terminated or regulated at various stations, officials said. Seventeen people died as a compound wall came crashing down on some houses located on a hillock after a landslide, a…

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 India recorded 38,949 new COVID-19 cases, which took the infection tally to 3,10,26,829, while the death toll reached 4,12,531 with 542 more fatalities, according to Union health ministry data updated on Friday ? The active cases have declined to 4,30,422 and comprise 1.39 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 97.28 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed It said that a decrease of 1,619 has been recorded in the number of active cases in a span of 24 hours The…

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Wednesday reviewed the progress of India-supported development projects in the archipelagic nation and expressed satisfaction at the rapid pace of implementation despite the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. Modi spoke over the phone with Solih and assured him of India’s commitment to supporting the Maldives in the fight against the pandemic. On his part, President Solih thanked Prime Minister Modi for India’s cooperation and support in the fight against the COVID-19, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a…

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 Flash flood triggered by heavy rains swept away buildings and cars at tourist spots as bad weather also led to the closure of the airport here. The district administration also instructed tourists to postpone their visit to Dharamsala in view of the heavy rains. A drain near Bhagsu Nag in upper Dharamsala adjoining Mecleodganj changed its course owing to heavy rains, sweeping away four cars and several bikes, video clips showed. A government school building at Bhagsunag was also damaged and adjacent hotels there were inundated, it showed. “Due to…

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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday unveiled a policy aimed at stabilising the population in Uttar Pradesh and reducing maternal and infant deaths in a time-bound manner as he termed rising population a “hurdle in development”. The Uttar Pradesh Population Policy 2021-2030, unveiled on the occasion of World Population Day, also aims at bringing down the gross fertility rate among women to 2.1 by 2026 and to 1.9 by 2030. A few days ago, a draft bill on population control was put up on the website of the Uttar Pradesh…

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The Maharashtra government has appointed a high-level committee headed by state DGP Sanjay Pandey to probe the phone-tapping allegations levelled by state Congress chief Nana Patole. State intelligence department commissioner and additional police commissioner (special branch) will be part of this three-member panel. During the two-day monsoon session of the state legislature held earlier this week, Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil had made the announcement about setting up a high-level inquiry while speaking in the Legislative Assembly. Patole has claimed that his phone was tapped during 2016-17 when he was…

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