Category: NATIONAL NEWS

Two terrorists carried out a ‘fidayeen’ attack on an Army camp in Jammu’s Rajouri district in the early hours of Thursday, killing three soldiers. Both attackers were gunned down in the four-hour firefight that followed. “In the early hours on Thursday, alert sentries of the Indian Army post at Parghal, in Rajouri district detected suspicious persons approaching their post taking advantage of the inclement weather and dense foliage,” PRO (defence) Jammu Lt Col Devender Anand said. He said the sentries challenged the two terrorists who lobbed grenades while attempting to…

leader Nitish Kumar on Wednesday took oath as Bihar chief minister for a record eighth time in a no-frills ceremony at Raj Bhavan, a day after snapping ties with the BJP-led NDA and joining hands with the RJD to form a Mahagathbandhan’ government. Kumar was sworn in besides RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who is likely to be designated as his deputy. A notification is likely to be issued tonight, naming him as the deputy chief minister. Other cabinet ministers will be sworn in later once the three main alliance partners —…

Preparations are in full swing in Odisha to welcome Home Minister Amit Shah who will reach Bhubaneswar on Sunday night. The twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are bedecked with posters, banners and placards of Shah, who will visit the state for the first time after becoming the home minister. Shah’s programmes will start with a visit to the Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar on the last Monday of ‘Shravana’. He will then go to Cuttack to visit Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birthplace in Odia bazaar. He will also lead a…

The Congress and the Shiv Sena on Wednesday tried to raise the issue of alleged misuse of central investigating agencies by the government in the Rajya Sabha but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu disallowed them from doing so. Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge and his colleague Deepender Singh Hooda, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and AAP’s Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha gave notices under rule 267 but they were not admitted. “You know my position. These are all notices not worth to be taken up under…

Lok Sabha MPs on Tuesday flagged that over 11.4 lakh cases are pending in family courts across the country and called for their speedy settlement. The issue came up during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which was moved for consideration by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju. Participating in the discussion, Kaushalendra Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) said the number of pending cases in family courts is increasing and stands at over 11.4 lakh. He called for a speedy settlement of the cases.…

Political leaders cutting across party lines on Monday congratulated Droupadi Murmu on being sworn in as the country’s 15th President with Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing it as a “watershed moment” for India, especially for the poor, marginalised and downtrodden. Murmu, who succeeds Ram Nath Kovind, was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana at Parliament’s Central Hall. The country’s first tribal to occupy the highest Constitutional position and the second woman in the post, Murmu is India’s youngest president at 64 and the…

 The Opposition’s vice presidential candidate Margaret Alva Saturday described the prevailing situation in the non-BJP camp as a “family quarrel”, but asserted they are clear they don’t want a one-party rule and were working to “sink the differences” and unite for the 2024 challenge. The 80-year-old Alva, who faces an uphill task in the August 6 vice presidential poll, also said the Opposition was clear in its intention that the Constitution has to be defended and democratic institutions protected. In an interview to PTI, the former governor said, “The tragedy…

The government is ready for a debate in Parliament on price rise once Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recovers from COVID-19, the BJP asserted on Wednesday and targeted Rahul Gandhi, saying he may be “unproductive politically” but should not hurt the legislature’s productivity. Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi and Smriti Irani hit out at opposition parties as both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha saw little transactions for the third straight day due to their protests on the issues of price rise and the imposition of GST on many pre-packaged and…

 Sri Lanka is facing “a very serious crisis” that makes India naturally worried, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told an all-party meeting here on Tuesday and dismissed suggestions about such a situation arising in India. Jaishankar, who made the initial remarks, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi were among the senior members of the government at the briefing, which was also attended by P Chidambaram and Manickam Tagore of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Sharad Pawar and T R Baalu and M M Abdulla of the DMK. “The reason…