Category: NATIONAL NEWS

The nor’wester that hit the city and other districts yesterday left 15 persons dead and 50 others injured, the police said today. Of the 15, seven died in the city, six in Howrah district and one each in Bankura and Hooghly districts respectively, the police said. Nearly 50 people were injured in incidents of wall collapse, uprooting of trees and electrocution, the police said. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed the chief secretary to look into the situation and prepare a report on the damage and deaths caused by the…

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President Ram Nath Kovind today termed as “barbaric” the Kathua gangrape and murder case and said it was the collective responsibility of society to ensure such things do not happen with any girl in the country. The President spoke on the matter while addressing the 6th convocation of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University here. “It is the collective responsibility of all of us, anything like this should not happen with any girl in any part of the country”, he said, terming the incident as “heinous and barbaric”. The president…

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The BJP today said Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi should apologise for defaming Hindus “globally” and cited a telegram sourced from Wikileaks to back its demand. The BJP’s renewed attack on the Congress comes a day after a special anti-terror court acquitted rightwing activist Swami Aseemanand and four others in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case in Hyderabad. “If Congress considers India to be its own, then Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi must apologise to the whole country for defaming the great Hindu religion by trying to prove…

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Several parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and poll-bound Karnataka have reported shortage of currency and ATMs running down, which the government today attributed to unusual spurt in demand in last three months Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the “temporary shortage” in certain states is being “tackled quickly” and that there is “more than adequate” currency in circulation Jaitley, who has been away from office since April 2 due to kidney ailment, said he has reviewed the currency situation in the country “Overall there is more than…

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The Congress today attacked the Modi government over its proposal to install a chip in television set-top boxes to ascertain viewership data, dubbing the move a serious breach of privacy and the “next stage of surveillance”. Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala alleged that Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani wanted to now know what shows people watch within the four walls of their bedrooms. In a Twitter post, Surjewala referred to the Modi government as “surveillance sarkar” which had shattered to pieces the right to privacy. “BREAKING! The Next Stage…

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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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