Category: NATIONAL NEWS

The Winter Session of Lok Sabha on Monday began on a stormy note, with protests by the Congress and other Opposition members over various issues.Soon after oath-taking of four members and paying condolences to members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha who died in recent months, Opposition members sought to raise various issues. Within minutes of commencement of the Question Hour, around 30 members from the Congress trooped into the Well, shouting slogans and demanding that the government stop attacking the Opposition as well as foisting false cases. The members…

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 The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday favoured seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Ayodhya issue, and said it was against accepting the five-acre alternative land given for a mosque.“The land of the mosque belongs to Allah and under the Sharia, it cannot be given to anybody,” AIMPLB secretary Zafaryab Jilani told reporters after a meeting of the board here.”The board has also categorically stated that it was against taking five-acre land in Ayodhya in lieu of the mosque. The board is of…

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The first-ever Shiv Sena- NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra appears to be taking definitive shape with Sharad Pawar on Friday announcing the prospective government will complete five-year term and provide a development-oriented administration. The three-party coalition, a new experiment in Maharashtra involving outfits with diverse ideologies, will be led by the Sena, leaders in the Uddhav Thackeray-party and the NCP said, settling the contentious leadership issue that resulted in the unraveling of the saffron alliance. The three parties have already prepared a draft common minimum programme (CMP) that will guide their…

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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today allayed concerns of mounting stress on the country’s telecom sector, saying that the government was intent on ensuring that no company shuts operations due to economic unsustainability. “We want no company to shut their operations. We want everyone to flourish,” she said at a press meet in New Delhi. Ms Sitharaman was responding to questions on Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel reporting major losses in the September quarter due to statutory dues arising from a recent Supreme Court ruling.  The Finance Minister also said…

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The Shiv Sena on Thursday alleged that imposition of President’s rule in Maharashtra was a “scripted act” and took a jibe at the governor, saying he has now given parties six months to form government. It also said that former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is shedding “crocodile tears” over the imposition of President’s rule as power is still indirectly in the hands of the BJP. Criticising the governor for giving the Shiv Sena just 24 hours to stake claim and refusing it additional time to muster numbers, an editorial…

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after conducting an aerial survey of cyclone ‘Bulbul’-hit areas in North 24 Parganas, said on Wednesday that the loss incurred by the state due to the natural calamity might go up to Rs 50,000 crore.Banerjee handed over a cheque of Rs 2.4 lakh each to the family members of five people from the district who lost their lives in the calamity. Taking note of the fact that at least 15 lakh hectares of agricultural land was damaged due to the storm, she said the…

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Shouting slogans and raising banners, thousands of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students clashed with police on Monday as their protest over steep fee hike escalated, leaving HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ stranded for over six hours at the venue of the varsity’s convocation.The students of the varsity, which has seen several such agitations in the recent years, were protesting outside the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) premises, the venue for the varsity’s third convocation, which was addressed by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.The protests started in the morning…

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Cyclone ‘Bulbul’, which made landfall between Bengal and Bangladesh coasts, brought in its wake heavy rain coupled with strong winds till early Sunday, affecting normal life in several parts of the city and the coastal districts of the state. At least four people were killed in rain-related incidents in Kolkata and North 24 Parganas since Saturday, according to official reports. An employee of a renowned club in the city was killed when a branch of a cedar tree fell on him, police said. In Basirhat, North 24 Parganas, three persons…

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Devendra Fadnavis on Friday resigned as Maharashtra chief minister, five years and a week after he assumed the state’s top job, as an aggressive Shiv Sena rebuffed all attempts to form an alliance government. Fadnavis, 49, drove to Raj Bhavan and handed over his resignation to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who asked him to be the “caretaker CM” till alternate arrangements are made. The development came a fortnight after results of the October 21 Assembly elections were declared. “The alternate arrangements could be anything, be it a new government or…

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Empowering people, especially women, has been one of the most satisfying efforts of his tenure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, asserting that the support from people cutting across regions, languages, age groups and occupations has given his government a mandate “unseen for decades”. PM Modi was responding to tweets from Ray Dalio, the founder of investment management firm Bridgewater Associates, who praised the prime minister as “one of the best, if not the best, leaders in the world”. Mr Dalio also posted the video of his short interview…

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