Breaking News, April 30 | HIGHLIGHTS

Ladakh Lt Governor Brig (Retd) B D Mishra on Sunday praised Narendra Modi, saying the fate of the country changed in 2014 when he took over as prime minister.  Attending a special programme here as Prime Minister Modi's monthly radio programme "Mann ki Baat" aired its 100th episode, Mishra gave credit to the prime minister for ensuring that India puts the best foot forward during its G-20 presidency and showcases its progress towards being a developed nation.

On the occasion, the L-G inaugurated a photo exhibition highlighting the topics the prime minister discussed in his monthly radio address. Addressing the gathering, Mishra said, "The fate of India changed on May 26, 2014, when he (Modi) assumed the charge of prime minister."

Union Minister for Culture and Tourism G Kishan Reddy was admitted to the AIIMS here on Sunday. He was brought to the hospital around 10.50 pm following complaints of chest congestion, sources said. The Union minister has been admitted in the Cardiac Care Unit of the Cardio Neuro Centre, they said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Kolkata to attend a cultural programme on Rabindranath Tagore on the bard's birth anniversary on May 9. Senior BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta told PTI that the invitation was extended by a cultural organisation, 'Khola Hawa' (open air), and on its request, Shah agreed to speak on the ideals of Tagore at the function.

"Amit ji is motivated by Tagore's philosophy and spiritualism. He will speak on Gurudev's influence on people of this country over the years," Dasgupta, who helms the cultural organisation, said. Many members of the organisation are members of the BJP. BJP youth leader Shankudeb Panda, who is also a member of the 'Khola Hawa', said the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, is also likely to attend the function. Panda said the event is being organised by the cultural organisation and the BJP is not behind it. Danseuse Tanusree Shankar, actor Rituparna Sengupta and singer Somlata Acharyya are also expected to attend the function.

Four children were killed in a lightning strike in Jharkhand's Sahibganj district on Sunday, police said. The incident happened at Babutola in Radhanagar police station area in the afternoon when the children, in the age group of 9-12, were playing in a mango orchard, they said.

"Four children were killed, while one was injured. The injured child is undergoing treatment at a hospital," Superintendent of Police Anuranjan Kispotta told PTI. The child undergoing treatment at the Rajmahal sub-divisional hospital is a nine-year-old girl, said doctor Uday Tudu, its deputy superintendent.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren condoled the deaths. "The sad news of the deaths of four children due to lightning in Rajmahal of Sahibganj district was received. May God grant peace to the departed souls and give strength to the bereaved family members to bear this difficult hour of grief," he tweeted.

Heavy rains accompanied by lightning, hailstorm and wind with speed of 40-50kmph are likely in parts of Jharkhand over the next two days, the weather office said. "Rain, thundershower and lightning were reported from parts of the state on Sunday, and it may continue for the next 48 hours due to a cyclonic circulation over southeast Uttar Pradesh," said Abhishek Anand, the in-charge of Ranchi Meteorological Centre.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena Sunday said 1,200 metric tonnes of garbage was removed from the Yamuna during the first phase of the river cleaning operation under the NGT-appointed high-level committee's supervision, leading to a significant improvement in key parameters. He said the second phase of the operation, which will focus on the cleaning of the Yamuna banks and desilting of midstream muck, is set to commence on Monday.
 
"Inspected 11-km Signature Bridge-ITO Barrage stretch of Yamuna on completion of the first phase of high-level committee-monitored Yamuna cleaning operations. "Happy to share, significant improvement in key parameters in Yamuna with the removal of 1200 metric tonnes of garbage from the river since work started on February 12," Saxena tweeted.

He said the success of the cleaning operation is evident from the fact that 30 motorboats could simultaneously cruise through the river for 11 km between Wazirabad and ITO. The cleaning of the Najafgarh Drain has also yielded significant results in terms of the Biochemical Oxygen Demand level coming down significantly on a year-on-year basis, the Delhi L-G said.

Delhi reports 405 fresh COVID cases and 3 deaths in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate stands at 11.2%

Thrissur, Kerala: 'Ezhunnallippu' and 'Kudamattam' rituals being performed on the occasion of Thrissur Pooram festival

Gadchiroli, Maharashtra | Three Naxalites were killed in an encounter with police in Manne Rajaram of Aheri tehsil. The encounter took place around 6 pm, the killed Naxalites had a reward of Rs 38 lakhs. Police have recovered the bodies of Naxalites, said Sandip Patil, DIG Gadchiroli.

Maharashtra reports 425 new cases, 499 recoveries and 0 death in the last 24 hours.

Delhi: Raj Niwas is open for all, anyone can come and see it anytime: Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena on being asked about allegations on the expenditure for the renovation of Raj Niwas

Kerala: Huge crowd gathers to celebrate the Pooram festival, in Thrissur.

Delhi Police Special Staff, Outer District arrested three people from the Mundka PS area, who were involved in manufacturing of spurious celphos insecticide tablets. About 5000 bottles and jars used for packing the fake celphos tablets, 1204 kg fake celphos tablets and 2000 kg urea used as raw material for manufacturing spurious celphos insecticide tablets, seized, said Harender Singh, DCP.

Death toll rises to 5 in the Bhiwandi building collapse incident in Thane, Maharashtra. Further rescue operations are underway, said NDRF.

Dogged by charges of corruption, the TMC has launched one of its biggest “cleansing” drives since its inception and a massive mass outreach campaign to rebuild its image ahead of the panchayat polls this year and Lok Sabha polls next year. The exercise comes when it has lost its national party status and its leaders are battling allegations of graft both in and outside courts. Senior leaders like former minister Partha Chatterjee, two other MLAs, and Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal were arrested in connection with cases of school jobs scam and cattle smuggling since last year.

India brought home another batch of 229 people on Sunday under its mission to evacuate stranded Indians from violence-hit Sudan. The fresh batch of evacuees arrived in Bengaluru, a day after 365 people returned from the African country to Delhi. "#OperationKaveri One more flight brings back 229 passengers to Bengaluru," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar wrote on Twitter. Under the evacuation mission, 754 people arrived in India in two batches on Friday. The total number of Indians who have been brought back home from Sudan now stands at 1,954, according to official data. The Indians were brought back from the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah where India has set up a transit camp for the evacuees. The first batch of 360 evacuees returned to New Delhi in a commercial plane on Wednesday.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Mann ki Baat' radio address has been showing a new direction to the country. Sawant was addressing a gathering in his Sankhalim Assembly constituency on the occasion of the 100th episode of the PM's radio programme. Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai attended the broadcast at a programme held in the Raj Bhavan near here. Sawant said the country has seen a sea change due to the 'Maan ki Baat' programme. “People cutting across the political and religious spectrum have been following this series which is showing a new direction to our country,” he added.

Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Mann ki Baat' radio programme helped in motivating people, enabling India to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and making the cleanliness drive a public campaign. Speaking at a programme organised at the Raj Bhawan in Bhopal ahead of broadcast of the 100th episode of the PM's radio address, Patel said Modi has made a place in the people's hearts. The governor said whatever the prime minister says during 'Mann ki Baat' has become people's “Dil ki Baat”, which has resulted in the success of the cleanliness drive.

In the 100th episode of "Mann ki Baat", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the radio broadcast is an expression of the feelings of crores of Indians and it has ensured he is never cut-off from people. ,Modi said "Mann ki Baat" gave him a solution to connect with the people and was not merely a programme but a spiritual journey for him. "Mann ki Baat has become a festival that celebrates India's positivity and people," he said.

The commerce ministry has asked export promotion councils to work on export targets for current fiscal year and chalk out a detailed road map to achieve that. According to exporters, issues related to the country's outbound shipments were discussed during a meeting chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on April 24. India's goods and services exports together touched an all-time high of USD 770 billion last fiscal year.While merchandise exports touched USD 447 billion, services exports are estimated at about USD 322 billion.

Government-funded 4G tower of Airtel started services last week in Lumpo, one of the last villages in the district near Line of Actual control in Arunachal Pradesh, paving way for access to new age digital economy for the locals. Reliance Jio, the bigger rival of Airtel, is already present till Dirang, 38 km from Bomdila-- a district between Tawang and state capital Itanagar. It expects to connect Jang (98 km from Dirang) by mid May and thereafter connect Tawang (40 km from Jang) by June-end. The telecom tower will open the local population to a host of services, officials said.

Three people were killed when their car skidded off the road and fell into a deep gorge in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Sunday. The vehicle was on its way to Karagh from Reasi town and on reaching Tote village, its driver lost control and the vehicle rolled down into more than 100-metre-deep gorge late Saturday night, a police official said. He said three people – Nasib Singh (65) of Karagh Tote, Karnail Singh (47) of Gull, Tote and Mohan Chand (32) of Devigarh – died on the spot. The rescuers had a tough time to retrieve the bodies as the vehicle also caught fire, the official said.

India saw a single-day rise of 5,874 new coronavirus cases, while the active case count dropped to 49,015 according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday. The death toll from the pandemic has increased to 5,31,533 with 25 deaths, which includes nine reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.31 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 4.25 per cent.

A 38-year-old man was rescued on Sunday morning, 18 hours after a two-storey building collapsed in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra's Thane district claiming three lives, officials said. Nine persons were still feared trapped under the debris of the structure which collapsed at 1.45 pm on Saturday at Wardhaman Compound in Valpada area, they said, adding that search and rescue operations were on. One person, named Sunil Pisa (38), was rescued at around 8 am on Sunday from the debris and rushed to the IGM Hospital in Bhiwandi, Narpoli police station's senior inspector Madan Ballal said. With this, the number of those injured in the incident has gone up to 12. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde termed the incident as "most unfortunate" and visited the collapse site as well as the injured persons undergoing treatment in Bhiwandi's IGM Hospital late Saturday night.

Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should break his silence and answers the issues raised by former Army chief General (retd) Shankar Roychowdhury over the 2019 Pulwama terror attack. "Gen (retd) Shankar Roychowdhury said the biggest responsibility for the martyrdom of soldiers in Pulwama rests with the government. The National Security Advisor, who advises the prime minister, is also guilty of lapses in security," Gohil, a Rajya Sabha MP, said on Saturday. He said the prime minister's "silence" despite the reported allegations of former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik over the Pulwama attack and the questions raised by Gen (retd) Roy Chowdhury raises many questions.

The competition between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is intensifying as the former president is scheduling a return trip to Iowa on the same day that the Florida governor was already going to be in the state that will kick off the Republican contest for the White House. A Trump campaign official on Saturday said the former president plans to be in Iowa on May 13 to headline an organising rally at a sprawling park in downtown Des Moines. That's when DeSantis was already slated to headline Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra's annual summer fundraiser in northwest Iowa and speak at a party fundraiser later that evening in Cedar Rapids. The Trump campaign official, who requested anonymity to discuss the trip before it was announced, said the Des Moines organising rally has been in the planning stage for weeks and is aimed at identifying caucus supporters and volunteers.

Studies have shown that over 100 crore people have connected to Mann Ki Baat at least once, it speaks directly to people, celebrates grassroots-level changemakers and achievements of people and has influenced people towards positive actions. The BJP has planned massive outreach to make the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat a memorable occasion. 

Apart from 22 Indian languages and 29 dialects, Mann Ki Baat is broadcast in 11 foreign languages including French, Chinese, Indonesian, Tibetan, Burmese, Baluchi, Arabic, Pashtu, Persian, Dari and Swahili. Mann Ki Baat is being broadcast by more than 500 broadcast centres of All India Radio.

An FIR was registered against Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh on Saturday over his alleged remarks against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at a rally two days ago, police sources said. The FIR was registered on a complaint filed by Congress leader and former MLA Surendra Singh Jadawat. At the BJP's 'Jan Aakrosh' rally in Chittorgarh on Thursday, Shekhawat had allegedly described Gehlot as the "Ravana of politics in Rajasthan" and asked people to "resolve to establish Ram Rajya in the state". Jadawat told PTI, "I have filed a police complaint tonight against Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat for using such derogatory language against the chief minister of Rajasthan. He tried to outrage religious feelings while addressing a BJP rally."

A 22-year-old woman was shot dead by her neighbour in suburban Mankhurd in Mumbai on Saturday evening, police said. The incident occurred in Indira Nagar locality when a fight broke out between the woman and the wife of her neighbour over some issue, an official said.

A man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbours, killing an eight-year-old and four others inside a house near Houston, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said on Saturday. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities were still searching for 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza following the shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 72 km north of Houston. He said Oropeza used an AR-style rifle in the attack, which happened shortly before midnight Friday.