Breaking News, March 24

Calcutta High Court to pronounce the order tomorrow on Rampurhat, Birbhum incident. A PIL was filed demanding an inquiry by a central agency. Presently, SIT is investigating the case.

Had a productive meeting with members of the Sikh community. We had extensive discussions on various subjects, tweets PM Modi.

Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2022 to be introduced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Lok Sabha tomorrow, 25th March 2022.

There was a time when the capital Srinagar didn't get electricity for 22 hours, now rural areas are getting electricity supply for that long. By 2026 J&K will become self-reliant in electricity generation, said L-G Manoj Sinha at an event in Srinagar.

We'll make 10 lakh houses in a year and have allocated Rs.10,0000 crores for it. We'll ensure that in next 3 years none of the poor will live in makeshift huts and slums, said CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met a delegation of Sikh intellectuals in Delhi.

"We discussed the drug addiction issue in Punjab with PM Modi. At present even young people from well-to-do families are getting addicted to drugs. He further asked us to raise the issue on a larger level," said Damanjit Kaur Sandhu, Member, Expert Panel National Commission For Women.

"We had a conversation with PM Modi regarding the welfare of Sikhs and the well-being of society as a whole. Sikhs of Delhi have a special respect for PM Modi for the way he formed an SIT and got the culprits of 1984 Sikh riots behind the bars," Harmeet Singh Kalka said.

We have decided to implement Uniform Civil Code in the state. The state cabinet unanimously approved that a committee (of experts) will be constituted at the earliest & it will implemented in the state. This will be the first state to do so, said Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami.

'The Appropriation Bill, 2022' passed in the Lok Sabha. 

Jammu & Kashmir has witnessed destruction for the last 30 years. Thousands including women, children, the elderly and security personnel have lost their lives. Till the time people are having guns & grenades killings will take place though they're dwindling, said Dilbag Singh, DGP, J&K.

BJP's Yogi Adityanath elected as the Leader of the Legislative Party in Uttar Pradesh. He will take oath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for his second term on Friday.

Speaking in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that there will be no privatisation of railways. 

Verbal argument ensued in Karnataka Assembly on Thursday over CLP leader Siddaramaiah's remark over RSS during a discussion on law & order in the state.

Nepal has adopted the unified payment interface developed by India for digital transactions, a government periodical said in its latest edition. Earlier this year, Bhutan also launched a BHIM-UPI based payment service for digital transactions, as per the article tweeted by PIB on Thursday. "Many countries praised the CoWin app, which was created for vaccination during the first COVID period and Nepal has now adopted India's UPI for digital transactions. It will bolster interoperable real-time person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions," the article said.

Chief Justice NV Ramana on Thursday paid tributes to former Chief Justice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, who died at a hospital here on Wednesday evening. Justice Lahoti was 81 years old. Before the beginning of the proceedings of the day, the Chief Justice while paying the tribute said: "His passing away is a jolt to the entire legal fraternity. Justice Lahoti will always be remembered as a fearless and independent judge." Justice Ramana said he extends his deepest condolences to the family and friends on behalf of his brother and sister judges in this hour. He added that a full court reference will be held later. Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave also expressed his condolences on behalf of the Bar. Dave said Justice Lahoti was one of the finest Chief Justices. The Chief Justice courtroom observed a minute's silence as a sign of respect to Justice Lahoti. Justice Lahoti was born on November 1, 1940 and enrolled as a lawyer in 1962. In April, 1977, he was recruited directly from the Bar and appointed as a district and sessions judge.

The South East Delhi Police on Thursday said that they have arrested a woman drug peddler for allegedly supplying smack in the capital. More than 200 grams of smack valued at Rs 29 lakh was recovered from her. Esha Pandey, DCP of South East Delhi, said that the accused woman was identified as Raheema. A case in this respect was lodged with the New Friends Colony Police Station. "To curb the sale of contraband in the area, a team was constituted to nab the active drug peddlers. On March 22, the team received information that a lady would come near Taimur Nagar, NFC to sell psychotropic substances to an unknown person. Responding to the tip-off, the team laid a trap and nabbed the accused," the police said. Upon search, she was found containing a small plastic packet filled with smack weighing about 229 grams. An FIR under sections 21/61/85 of the NDPS Act was registered against her. The police is further looking into the matter.

Police have detained four juveniles for allegedly beating two minor boys to death following an old dispute over plucking of mangoes in Chhattisgarh's Balodabazar district, an official said on Thursday. The partially decomposed bodies of two boys, aged 7 and 8, were found in a field at a village on Tuesday, two days after they went missing from outside their houses, police said. On Wednesday, four juveniles, aged 11, 12 and 14 years, all from Chakarbai village under the Kasdol police station limits, were detained in connection with the murder case registered after the recovery of the bodies, Balodabazar Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar Jha. During the investigation into the case, the police came to know that the two victims were last seen on Sunday leaving the village while going to take bath in a river with other children from the village, including two of the accused, he said.

The BSP has become the 'B' team of the BJP, Rajasthan Minister Govind Ram Meghwal said on Thursday, hitting out at Mayawati for demanding President's rule in the state alleging that the Congress government had failed in protecting Dalits and adivasis. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati had also cited various cases of atrocities against Dalits and adivasis in Rajasthan to buttress her point. "I have seen the Mayawati's statement. She has become a 'B' team of the BJP. Dalits are disillusioned with Mayawati and she had a major role in the tremendous victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh," Meghwal told reporters. The BJP, which won 255 seats in the polls to the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly to storm back to power, is in opposition in Rajasthan.

Backed by buoyant aviation market, India needs 2210 new aircraft over the next two decades, a senior official of Airbus said on Thursday. The fleet could comprise 1770 new small and 440 medium and large aircraft, Head of Airline Marketing India and South Asia, Airbus, Brent McBratney said. He also said India needs 34,000 additional pilots and 45,000 technicians by 2040. Passenger traffic in India is expected to grow at 6.2 per cent during the next two decades, he said, while speaking to reporters.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested a village 'talathi' (revenue officer) and her personal assistant in a case of bribery here in Maharashtra, the ACB said on Thursday. A man who lost his stall in floods had applied for compensation with the revenue office at Sahad village in Kalyan town here. The village talathi, Amruta Pramod Badgujar (38), and her PA Ananta Bhaskar Kante (35) allegedly demanded Rs 15,000 from the man to get him the compensation, the ACB said in a release. The man lodged a complaint with the ACB's Thane unit which laid a trap and caught the PA while accepting the bribe amount at the revenue office in Sahad on Wednesday, it said.

It was a sunny morning in the national capital on Thursday and the minimum temperature was recorded at 21.2 degrees Celsius, four notches above the season's average. "There will be mainly clear sky during the day. The maximum temperature of the day is likely to settle around 36 degrees Celsius," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. It said that the maximum temperature is likely to increase in the days to come. The maximum temperature on Wednesday settled at 35.7 degrees Celsius, five notches above the normal.

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 475.4 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6.10 million and vaccinations to over 10.83 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 475,487,321 and 6,104,135, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 10,835,408,732. The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 79,844,364 and 974,827, according to the CSSE. India accounts for the second highest caseload at 43,012,749.

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The Delhi Police on Wednesday clarified that it has not issued any direction against giving reservation in hotels to those furnishing identity cards from Jammu and Kashmir. The statement comes after a purported viral video on social media shows a man allegedly being denied reservation in hotel as he is from the union territory. In a series of tweets, the Delhi Police stated, "A purported video is viral on social media wherein a person is being denied hotel reservation due to his J&K ID. The reason for cancellation is being given as direction from police. It is clarified that no such direction has been given by Delhi Police. "Aggrieved person in the video while posting the same on YouTube has stated that he stayed in the same area in another hotel and it was a lame excuse given by the hotel." "Some netizens are trying to discredit the image of the Delhi Police through willful misrepresentation of the video in circulation which can attract penal action," it further mentioned.

A 34-year-old college dropout has been arrested for posing as an Ayurveda doctor and "practicing" in a health clinic in suburban Malad, a police official said on Wednesday. According to the official, the arrest was made recently as a part of a joint operation by the Dindoshi Police and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s P/North Ward. The accused, identified as Sukesh Gupta, had been "practicing" in the Shivshahi area of Malad for the past four years, he said. The civic body had been verifying the qualifications of doctors in its jurisdiction after coming across instances where people with fake medical degrees were found treating patients and prescribing medicines.

In order to improve road safety, two black spots in the city have been redesigned on the lines of the Zero Fatality Corridor model, officials said on Wednesday. Tactical Urbanism (TU) trials at Burari Chowk and Gandhi Vihar black spots have been introduced. The two sites had witnessed 18 and 10 road crash deaths respectively between 2018 and 2020. This is the third tactical redesign trial in New Delhi, with the two previous ones having been conducted at Bhalswa and the Rajghat Intersection. TU trials are temporary, quick and relatively low-cost interventions, which test out urban design, transportation planning and infrastructural changes for improving road safety for all road users, especially the most vulnerable, like pedestrians, cyclists and other non-motorised transport users. The trials were launched by SaveLIFE Foundation with support from HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company and in close partnership with the Delhi Traffic Police and the Delhi Transport Department.

Former Chief Justice of India Ramesh Chandra Lahoti died at a hospital here on Wednesday evening, family sources said. He was 81 years old. Justice Lahoti was appointed as the 35th chief justice of India on June 1, 2004. He retired on November 1, 2005. He was a former independent director on the board of directors of the Press Trust of India (PTI). He was appointed as arbitrator by the Government of India in the Rs 20,000 crore high-profile tax dispute case with telecom major Vodafone. Born on November 1, 1940, he joined the Bar in Guna district in 1960 and enrolled as an advocate in 1962. He was recruited directly to the bench in April 1977, from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a district and sessions judge.

The Odisha government on Wednesday ordered compulsory retirement of six officers, official sources said. The number of officials ordered either compulsory retirement or dismissal increased to 164 since 2019 with the fresh order, they said. These officials were either "inefficient" or had corruption cases pending against them, they added. Among the six officers were a chief engineer, three executive engineers and two block education officers, the official sources said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday directed officials to transform 17 city forests in the national capital to "world-class level" city forests."These world-class city forests will be developed in an area of about 3000 acres across 17 locations of Delhi. A detailed plan will be chalked out and submitted to the Chief Minister in 15 days," reads an official statement on Wednesday.As part of the Mukhyamantri Park Saundaryakaran Yojna, 1,500 parks are being transformed in collaboration with 450 Resident Welfare Association (RWAs) under a unique community parks initiative.Parks, spread over an area of 500 acres, are being developed by the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society in collaboration with local RWAs, NGOs and MLAs.

A 32-year-old man allegedly hanged himself to death and his daughter was also found dead in the same room in northwest Delhi’s Metro Vihar Phase-2 area, police said on Wednesday. On Tuesday afternoon, the police were informed by a person that his uncle and daughter have hanged themselves. Upon reaching the spot, the police found the body of Suresh on a bed after he was pulled down by family members in the house, a senior officer said. His 10-year-old daughter was also lying dead on the same bed. She did not have any injury mark or sign of strangulation. She might have died before Suresh, police said. Four to five years ago, the girl had fallen from the second floor of the building and her treatment was going on. She was also suffering from bouts of 'fits', the senior police officer said. Due to these neurological problems, Suresh had to leave his job and stayed at home for her care. His wife Ram Devi worked in a vegetable market as a cleaner. It is early to conclude that the father had killed his daughter before suicide, police said. Bodies of both have been kept in hospital mortuary for post-mortem, the police added.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday alleged that main opposition BJP was trying to destabilise his government and using social media and news channels to spread lies. Soren, in his 1.5-hour-long speech in the assembly amid ruckus by BJP members, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi told lies to an international media outlet claiming that states benefited from Ayushman Bharat without any expenditure whereas in reality, states have to bear 40 per cent expenses of the scheme. He accused the BJP of not developing Jharkhand during its 14 years of rule in the state, and accused the Centre of step-motherly treatment towards the state. Soren claimed that BJP's pride after winning the Uttar Pradesh elections, will soon be punctured. He claimed that the saffron party had won 100 seats in the northern state by slim margins.