Category: NATIONAL NEWS

The fate of the contentious triple talaq bill continued to hang in a balance on the penultimate day of the winter session of Parliament today, with the Rajya Sabha witnessing a rancorous debate between the government and the opposition over whether to refer it to a Select Committee. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley contended the resolutions moved by the opposition to send the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill to a Select Committee were not according to the rules. The Congress suggested that the face-off could be resolved if…

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An Indian Air Force helicopter, carrying three service personnel on board, made an emergency landing at a Madhya Pradesh Police ground here today due to a technical glitch, but all were safe, a police officer said. The chopper, which took off from the IAF’s Gwalior base, was on a routine sortie, Bhind Superintendent of Police, Prashant Khare told PTI. “The helicopter carrying three IAF personnel, including the pilot, made an emergency landing at the local Special Armed Force (SAF) ground,” he said. The chopper landed at 3 pm at the…

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today described the bill on triple talaq as “defective”, saying it would do Muslim women more harm than good. She accused the BJP of trying to “do politics” with the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha recently. “We did not oppose the triple talaq bill because we are for women. I know many Muslims who abide by the law. This bill, brought by the BJP government, is a defective one. “Instead of protecting the Muslim…

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Rahul Gandhi will next week embark on a visit to Bahrain, his first foreign trip after becoming Congress president, during which he will address a convention of NRIs and is likely to meet the country’s prime minister. According to party sources, Gandhi will be the state guest of the Kingdom of Bahrain and will address NRIs settled there on January 8. He will leave for Bahrain on January 7 and is likely to return on January 9. The NRIs settled there have invited him. Gandhi is also likely to meet…

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Rajinder Khanna, a former chief of the country’s external intelligence agency RAW, was today appointed the Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA), according to an official order.He headed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) from December 2014 for a fixed two-year period. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the appointment of Khanna as the Deputy NSA on re-employment and on contractual basis, according to the order issued by the personnel ministry.Khanna is at present Officer on Special Duty (Neighbourhood Studies) in the National…

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Eight days after being sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani today assumed charge of his office at Gandhinagar. Before assuming the office for the second consecutive term, Rupani visited Swaminarayan temple at Vadtal in Kheda district and took blessings from the head priest Rakeshprasadjee Maharaj and some other saints, an official release said. Earlier on December 26, the newly-elected BJP government under Vijay Rupani was sworn-in at a grand ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. Visitors thronged Rupani’s office to greet…

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The Centre has undertaken a special project to connect all the border posts along the Sino-India frontier with roads, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today as he reviewed the operational preparedness of a forward ITBP unit here. Singh ringed in the new year with the troops of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at this border post located at a height of 11,614 feet in Uttarakhand, where the mercury dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius today. This was the first time a home minister or a senior Union minister paid…

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Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, who had welcomed 2017 at a slum in Todapur area in New Delhi, will revisit it to celebrate the New Year’s Eve tonight. Tiwari will visit the Gas Godown Jhuggi Basti in Todapur and spend an hour with the children at the slum, said a Delhi BJP statement. He will also visit the Yamuna Bazar and stay there till midnight to ring in the New Year with the residents, it said. Last year, Tiwari had stayed at the Gas Godown slum as part of his…

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A piercing cold wave swept across the hilly states in north India even as a blanket of fog covered the plains, hampering the movement of air, rail and road traffic today. In Delhi, more than 150 flights were delayed, around 50 diverted and 20 canceled as the season’s “worst” fog reduced visibility to a meager 50 metres at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Hundreds of flyers were left stranded as no flights could take off between 7.30 am and 11.05 am, according to an airport official. The minimum required visibility…

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