Category: NATIONAL NEWS

BJP leader Choudhary Lal Singh today defended his participation in a rally supporting the accused in the Kathua rape and killing case, saying that it was meant to defuse the situation and restore normalcy. Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, BJP ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir coalition government, yesterday tendered their resignations after facing criticism for their participation in the event. The issue would be decided in the Legislative Party meeting today. “We had gone to defuse the situation created due to migration one and half months back. We told…

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first health centre under Ayushman Bharat Scheme here today. He also inaugurated the first phase of the Bastar Internet scheme under which a 40,000-km-long network of fibre optics cable would be spread across the seven districts of the tribal region. The districts are Bijapur, Narayanpur, Bastar, Kanker, Kondagaon, Sukma and Dantewada. Modi, who is the first prime minister to visit the tribal district of Bijapur, also inaugurated a new rail line and a passenger train between Gudum and Bhanupratapur, bringing north Bastar region on…

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Maintenance and repair work has started at Taj Mahal and other monuments here which were damaged in Wednesday’s storm and heavy rains, officials of the Archaological Survey of India said. A brass finial, a minaret, some black marble pieces, in addition to scores of trees were damaged in the Taj Mahal. Minor damages were reported in the Agra Fort, Sikandra and Fatehpur Sikri, Bhuvan Vikram, superintending archaeologist, told PTI. Our men are working on it and the condition has been reviewed to take appropriate measures, he said. The 17th Century…

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Top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his ministerial colleagues and party MPs and office-bearers, observed fast today to protest the washout of the second phase of Parliament’s Budget Session, for which they have blamed the Congress. While many, including Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh , kept to their work while fasting, several ministers, among them Prakash Javadekar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal, travelled to different parts of the country to sit on fast and attack the main opposition party. BJP president Amit Shah joined his party…

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said her government will not allow law to be obstructed and justice will be delivered in the rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old Bakerwal girl in Kathua district. The rape-and-murder of the nomadic Muslim Bakerwal community girl has created a controversy after lawyers in Jammu called for a shutdown yesterday, demanding the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “The Law will not be obstructed by the irresponsible actions & statements of a group of people. Proper procedures are…

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Union minister Upendra Kushwaha today said that those who had stopped his cavalcade in Vaisali district during the ‘Bharat Bandh’ yesterday were a section of the upper class people opposed to reservation. However, most of the people supported social harmony and vowed to go ahead with his party’s programme to press for the demand for adequate representation of all sections of society in the judiciary, he said. Kushwaha, president of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), said on April 9 that the party would launch a country-wide programme, ‘Halla Bol…

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The BJP today kicked off a series of programmes aimed at reaching out to Dalits and backward sections of society with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that his government is working to realise the visions of Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar and social reformer Jyotiba Phule. The party observed the birth anniversary of Phule, who is venerated — especially by Dalits and backwards — for his relentless struggle for social reforms, as ‘Samta Diwas’ (equality day) today. It will launch the ‘Gram Swaraj’ campaign on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14.…

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The Delhi Police will take the three arrested accused in the CBSE Class 12 Economics paper leak case to Una in Himachal Pradesh to reconstruct the sequence of events and question some more people there, sources said. The special investigation team of Delhi Police’s Crime Branch yesterday arrested three staff members of the DAV School in Una in connection with the case. “The trio will be taken to Una, possibly tomorrow, to reconstruct the entire scene. The investigation so far has revealed that the paper was leaked from there, although…

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Congress leader Digvijay Singh today concluded his over six-month-long ‘Narmada Yatra’ along the banks of the holy river in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district. Singh, 70, his wife Amrita, and former MPs Rameshwar Neekhra and Narayan Singh Amlabe, along with their several supporters, reached the Barman ghat of the river this morning after covering a distance of nearly 3,300 km on foot. At the ghat, Singh and his wife performed various rituals associated with the completion of his “religious and spiritual” exercise. A large number of people, including former Union ministers…

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Jitu Rai underlined his status as one of India’s premier shooters by winning the 10m air pistol gold medal before Mehuli Ghosh settled for the women’s 10m air rifle silver by forcing a shoot-off with a perfect final shot of 10.9 in the Commonwealth Games today. The World Championship silver medallist Rai shattered the Games record in the finals with a score of shot 235.1 to comfortably finish on top with compatriot Om Prakash Mitharval giving him company on the podium with a bronze medal. Defending champion Apurvi Chandela added…

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