Category: NATIONAL NEWS

Aarti Kalpekar was only one-and-a-half-month-old when her family house in Killari village in Latur district of Maharashtra collapsed when a devastating earthquake ravaged the region in the wee hours of September 30, 1993, just after the Ganesh festival.Aarti was sleeping with her parents and was stuck in the debris of their house following the devastating temblor.Though she and her mother survived, the quake claimed her father’s life.For her mother, Sunita, who was abandoned by her in-laws following her husband’s death, Aarti was the only reason to forget her trauma. With…

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The three-day-long hostage crisis involving employees of the Bharatiya Rail Bijlee Company Ltd (BRBCL) and their family members in Bihar’s Aurangabad has come to an end, officials said.The impasse was resolved during a meeting on Tuesday evening, where it was decided that BRBCL would supply power to villages till the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd (SBPDCL) provides electricity connection.”The deadlock has been resolved,” Aurangabad District Magistrate Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal told PTI, but refused to elaborate on the issue.Representatives of Aurangabad district administration, BRBCL and the villagers who held around…

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Flagging discrepancies in its electoral funding statement, the Election Commission Tuesday threatened the AAP with action for “prima facie failing” to follow its transparency guidelines.In its show-cause notice, the EC claimed that transactions through hawala operators were “wrongly disclosed as voluntary donations”. The EC has asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to respond to the notice “within 20 days”, failing which it will decide on the cases on merit based on the information available with it and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).Rule 16 A of the Election Symbols (Reservation…

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The panchayat and the local body polls in Jammu and Kashmir are on despite the boycott by the two main regional parties, state Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said on Monday.His comments come on a day the Peoples Democratic Party said it would boycott the elections, saying the security situation was not conducive for holding these polls.The party’s decision comes days after its arch-rival, the National Conference, announced its decision to boycott these elections until the Centre and the governor administration clarify its position on Article 35-A, which gives special rights…

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Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav was detained here Saturday when he was on his way to express solidarity with farmers protesting against the proposed Salem-Chennai Expressway project, police said.Yadav and some others were detained at Chengam in this district, they said without elaborating.The Swaraj Abhiyan leader tweeted that he was “manhandled” and pushed into a police van.”We came on the invitation of Movement Against 8Lane Way. We were prevented from going to meet farmers, phones snatched, manhandled and pushed into police van. Firsthand experience of police state in TN,” he…

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A day after the dissolution of the Telangana assembly, TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao sounded the poll bugle at a public rally here Friday where he launched a scathing attack on the Congress over its 50 years of “useless and corrupt rule”.The Telangana cabinet headed by Rao had yesterday recommended dissolution of the state assembly and the House stood disbanded the same day after Governor ESL Narasimhan accepted it.Immediately thereafter, Rao had announced party candidates for the state’s 105 assembly constituencies.Telangana has a 120-member assembly, which includes a nominated MLA.”I…

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The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference will boycott the local body and panchayat elections in the state unless the Centre takes effective steps for protection of Article 35-A of the Constitution, which is facing legal challenge in the Supreme Court, party president Farooq Abdullah said Wednesday. “The core group (of NC) unanimously decided that the National Conference will not participate in these elections unless and until the government of India and the state government clarify their positions in this regard and take effective steps for protection of Article 35-A in and…

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The Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) Tuesday lodged an FIR against revenue officials in Kishtwar district for reportedly preparing fraudulent papers for the withdrawal of undue compensation to the tune of over Rs 7.24 lakh. The case has been registered against three officials, only one of whom is presently serving, after a preliminary investigation revealed that they prepared papers to confer undue pecuniary benefits upon five persons while preparing a list of persons whose land had come under road construction in the district nine years ago, an official spokesman…

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All Congress leaders in poll-bound Rajasthan were “on the same page” and working unitedly for the victory of the party, AICC incharge of the state Avinash Pande has said amidst reports of infighting.He also said a call was yet to be taken within the Congress on whether to go in for an alliance with the BSP and other parties in Rajasthan.The AICC general secretary, however, asserted the party organisation was geared up and practically prepared on all the 200 constituencies of the state.Pande told DIN here that the party was…

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Discrimination on the basis of religion, caste or gender is unacceptable to any “nationalist” and this approach should be followed by everyone, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu said Sunday.Naidu, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman, called for deciding upon a national policy on the need for the Upper House in state legislatures, and urged political parties to evolve a consensus on the code of conduct for their members both inside and outside legislatures.He made the remarks during the launch of the book ‘Moving on…Moving forward: A year in office’. The…

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