Category: NATIONAL NEWS

Thousands of people defied curfew in Guwahati on Thursday and took to the streets, prompting police to open fire, even as protests against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill intensified in Assam.Police said they had to open fire in Lalung Gaon area in Guwahati after stones were hurled by protestors. The agitators claimed that at least four persons were injured in the shooting.Police also had to fire in the air in several other areas of the city, including the Guwahati-Shillong Road which turned into a war zone as protestors vandalised shops…

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Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday moved the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha, saying Indian Muslims “were, are and will remain Indian citizens” Moving the bill that provides Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Shah said minorities in the three nations do not get equal rights The population of minorities in these countries has reduced by as much as 20 per cent, either by way of elimination or because they migrated to India, he said, adding that these migrants did not get rights…

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The BJP is confident of the passage of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha which will be introduced in the upper house on Wednesday, sources said on Tuesday. The bill piloted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah was comfortably passed in the Lok Sabha on late Monday night as the ruling BJP enjoys a clear majority in the house. Sources in the party said that the legislation will also sail through the Rajya Sabha as the ruling NDA has the numbers. As per the calculations of the…

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The ruling BJP swept the by-elections winning 12 of the total 15 seats, helping the four-month-old B S Yediyurappa government to retain majority in the Assembly. Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah and State Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao quit their posts after the party posted a poor show, winning only two seats, as against the 12 it had held of the 15 which went to the bypolls on December 5. Both tendered their resignations to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, “citing unsatisfactory results.” The Congress managed to win only Hunasuru and…

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In one of the worst fire accidents in the city, 43 people were killed after a massive blaze ripped through a four-storey building housing illegal manufacturing units in north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi area on Sunday morning, police and fire officials saidMost of the people working in the units were fast asleep when the fire broke out in the second floor of the building in the early hours and 30 fire tenders were pressed into service, fire officials saidA preliminary probe suggested that short circuit triggered the blaze, they saidNearly 150…

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Around 12.35 per cent polling was recorded till 9 am on Saturday in the second of the five-phase Jharkhand assembly elections that began in 20 constituencies.The voting commenced at 7 am amid tight security arrangements, officials said.Polling in 18 seats will end at 3 pm, while voters in Jamshedpur (East) — where Chief Minister Raghubar Das is in fray — and Jamshedpur (West) constituencies can exercise their franchise till 5 pm, an Election Commission (EC) release said.Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon (Sisai), Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda (Khunti) and BJP’s…

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A 16-year-old girl was allegedly stabbed to death by a spurned lover in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district, police said on Tuesday. The accused, Shivkumar Choudhary (24), has been arrested, Gohalpur police station’s inspector Praveen Singh said. Choudhary had earlier professed his love for the girl, but she rejected his proposal, he said. On Monday evening, the accused entered the teen’s house in Kudwari village when her parents were out for some work and her brother was playing outside, the official said. The victim’s brother saw the accused entering the house…

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BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday set a 2024 deadline for implementing the hugely divisive NRC across the country, asserting “each and every” infiltrator will be identified and expelled before the next general election.Notwithstanding the admission by some BJP leaders in West Bengal that apprehensions over the NRC had cost the party dearly in the recent bypolls there, the Union Home Minister told poll rallies in neighbouring Jharkhand that the nation- wide exercise will be conducted despite reservations voiced by opposition parties.”Today, I want to tell you that before the…

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Delhi Congress leader Arvinder Lovely alleged on Friday that nearly 40-45 per cent unauthorised colonies in the national capital will not be regularised due to a notification issued by the BJP-ruled Centre.The Narendra Modi government got a bill passed in the Lok Sabha to regularise 1,731 unauthorised colonies, but 40-45 per cent of them cannot be regularised as they are near the Yamuna riverbed or historical monuments, Lovely claimed.Regularisation of these colonies was barred according to a notification issued by the Centre last month, he said at a press conference.”Around…

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Maharashtra CM-designate and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan here on Wednesday. Thackeray, to be sworn-in as CM on Thursday, was accompanied by wife Rashmi, an official said. The Shiv Sena chief will be the first from the Thackeray family to be sworn in as the chief minister. The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress on Tuesday named Thackeray as their chief ministerial face. The three parties have claimed support of 166 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. Devendra Fadnavis resigned as CM on…

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