Breaking News, September 3

West Bengal reported 193 fresh COVID-19 cases and two deaths due to the disease in the last 24 hours, the state health department said on Saturday.

National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Saturday met Maharashtra Director General of Police Rajnish Seth and other top police officials at the state police headquarters in south Mumbai. Doval reviewed the security preparedness of Mumbai during the meeting at the DGP office, said a police official.

Hoping for double-digit growth in GDP in this financial year, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the nation is on a strong wicket when compared to others, and is responsive in terms of extending hand-holding to the required sections. Speaking to media persons here, she quoted reports saying the country has a zero percent chance of slipping into recession.

Over 1,200 new constables have been recruited in the Himachal Pradesh Police after a retest following a paper leak in March. A total of 69,405 candidates had taken the written test for recruitment of constables in the state police on July 3, of them 1,214 candidates have got selected, police said in a statement issued here on Saturday.

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it conducted raids at premises of online payment gateways such as Razorpay, Paytm and Cashfree in Bengaluru as part of a money laundering case against some instant app-based loan dishing entities "controlled" by Chinese persons.

The Congress on Saturday accused the Centre of being "insensitive" to the pain of the common people due to a "back-breaking" price rise and alleged that taxes on almost everything have risen under the BJP government except for corporate tax. Ahead of Sunday's 'Mehngai par 'halla bol' rally of the party at the Ramlila Maidan here, party general secretaries K C Venugopal, Ajay Maken and Jairam Ramesh hit out at the Modi government for its "wrong policies" and alleged it was busy "buying MLAs" and toppling governments led by opposition parties instead.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Saturday said the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led government has allegedly failed to protect the minorities and maintain peace and law and order in Punjab. Referring to the incident of vandalism of a church in Tarn Taran district, Majithia said ensuring law and order is the prime responsibility of the government, but it has “continuously failed” on this front.

The Delhi excise department has started opening liquor shops at metro station premises with an eye on better sales owing to high footfall in the area, officials said Saturday. Over half a dozen liquor shops have been opened at Metro stations with big premises, including in Badarpur, Dwarka, Karol Bagh, Rajouri Garden and Mundka, a senior Excise department officer said.

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday advised Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to avoid a face-off over the annual Dussehra rally of the Shiv Sena. Both the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the rebel faction headed by Shinde have sought the Shivaji Park ground here as the venue for the annual Dussehra rally of the party.

The flood on August 30 which brought parts of Bengaluru to its knees led to a loss of about Rs 225 crore on a single day, the Information Technology and banking companies said in their letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai seeking his attention to address the "appalling infrastructure" of the city.

A 26-year-old man allegedly hanged himself in Maharashtra's Palghar district which prompted his mother to end her own life soon after, police said on Saturday. The tragic incidents took place at Kandre Bhure village on Thursday afternoon, said an official of Kelwa police station.

The body of a man suspected of having killed his two children in Warora tehsil in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district was found in a village in nearby Wardha district on Saturday, a police official said. Asmit Kamble (8) and Mishti (3) were found dead in their house in Warora on Friday evening by their mother Pranita, and police had placed Sanjay Kamble (42) as a suspect as he was absconding, the official said.

Odisha's Covid tally rose to 13,28,244 on Saturday as 174 more people, including 13 children, tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said.

Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Rahi on Saturday sat on a protest outside the District Magistrate office alleging that the administration has served notices to around 170 villagers for illegal possession of land without any investigation.

A court here has issued a contempt notice to the Delhi Police Commissioner in a case of alleged gangrape of a woman and said "the narration and sequence of events in the case depicted a sordid and pathetic state of affairs in the administration of Delhi Police." The court was hearing the bail plea of an accused in the case and noted that an FIR was registered at Sangam Vihar police station almost 36 days after the victim woman filed a complaint before the Station House Officer (SHO).

A video in which senior BJP MLA Aravind Limbavali is purportedly seen scolding a woman, who posed questions regarding a land encroachment in the city and tried to hand over a petition to him, has gone viral. The opposition Congress hit out at the BJP government in the state over the video clip. Congress state President DK Shivakumar on Saturday condemned Limbavali's behaviour, saying he is not eligible to be a legislator. The BJP government in the state cannot remain in power, he said.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Monday a plea seeking directions to authorities to ensure adequate security at hospitals and medical centres to prevent attacks on doctors and healthcare workers by relatives of patients and others. A bench of Justices S K Kaul and Abhay S Oka is likely to take up the matter. The plea filed by the Delhi Medical Association and Dr Satyajit Borah, who is the president of Assam State Branch of Indian Medical Association, also seeks directions to the Centre and states to have a distress fund to grant compensation to the victim or family of the deceased healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, in such violence.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appealed to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Gujarat to work for his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) while staying in the ruling party. Kejriwal said BJP workers should continue to get "payment" from the BJP but work for AAP "from inside". Addressing a press conference in Rajkot on the final day of his two-day visit to poll-bound Gujarat, Kejriwal said BJP workers will benefit from all the "guarantees" promised by him to people when his party comes to power in the state. "We do not want BJP leaders. The BJP can keep its leaders. BJP's 'panna pramukhs', workers in villages, booths and talukas are joining us in droves. I would like to ask them what the BJP gave them in return for their service in the party even after so many years?" the AAP national convener asked.

Legendary cricketer Brian Lara was appointed as the Head Coach of SunRisers Hyderabad.

A two-year-old girl was killed and her parents and a minor sister were injured when a water tanker hit their motorcycle in Bhiwandi city in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Saturday. Police have registered a case of culpable homicide among other charges under the Indian Penal Code against the tanker owner Pramnath Bagal and the driver Jairam Jaiswal, who was at the wheel at the time of the accident on September 1. The two-year-old girl, Khatija Khan, succumbed to her injuries while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Mumbai on Friday, police said. Prima facie, the truck didn't have a valid permit but Bagal allowed Jaiswal to drive. 

Three labourers were killed and one got injured when they came under granite stones they were shifting to a loader at a construction site in Jagatpura area here, police said on Saturday. The incident occurred on Friday evening when the labourers were engaged in the shifting of stone slabs. Two of them died on the spot while one succumbed in a hospital today, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Chaksu) KK Awasthi said on Saturday. The deceased were identified as Pradeep, Sunil, and Ajay, police said. The labourers were engaged in the construction of a private hospital. 

The IIT-Delhi has effected a 30-per cent reduction in the tuition fee for the new batch of M.Tech students following recommendations of a committee set up by the director, after a section of students staged a silent protest over "fee hikes". The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) issued a statement after the silent protest staged by the students on the campus against the "recent fee hikes" in several courses. "The fees have been reduced for those who joined during the second semester 2021-22 or later. The tuition fee and other charges have been reduced significantly. The M.Tech full-time tuition fee has been reduced from Rs 25,000 per semester to Rs 17,500 per semester," the statement said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will on Saturday (September 3) inaugurate the 30th southern zonal council meeting of the south Indian states and Union Territories in Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Ministers and Ministers of other southern states- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana- and Lieutenant Governors of the southern Union Territories of Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands will take part in the meeting. The council meeting will discuss matters of interest among the states and also between the states and the central government, a release issued by the Chief Minister's office (CMO) said.

The national capital woke up to a generally cloudy sky on Saturday, recording a minimum temperature of 26.8 degrees Celsius, one notch above the normal for the time of the year, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin said. The maximum temperature is expected to settle at 38 degrees Celsius, it said. According to the bulletin, there will be a cloudy sky throughout the day. The relative humidity recorded at 8.30 am was 40 per cent, the bulletin said. The air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded in the moderate (106) category around 9 am, data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) showed.

READ FULL DETAILS HERE

At least eight migrants were found dead in the Rio Grande after dozens attempted a hazardous crossing near Eagle Pass, Texas, officials have said. US Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials made the discovery Thursday while responding to a large group of people crossing the river following days of heavy rains that had resulted in particularly swift currents. US officials recovered six bodies, while Mexican teams recovered two others, according to a CBP statement.

A large number of birds were killed due to the reckless cutting of a tree for a road development work undertaken by the National Highway Authority (NHA) in Kerala, a video of which has gone viral on the social media. The incident was reported from Randathani area in this district. The video of the felling of the tree which resulted in the killing of many birds has gone viral on social media since Thursday, prompting state PWD minister P A Mohammed Riyas to seek a report from the NHAI. The video, which was shot in the first week of August shows a huge tree being felled using an excavator. Numerous birds from the tree were seen being smashed to the ground as the tree fell, many of them chicks.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday directed officials to form 'Uttar Pradesh State Capital Region' along the lines of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) keeping future requirements in mind. Adityanath held a review meeting of the Housing and Urban Planning Department, Housing Development Council and all urban development authorities through video conferencing at his official residence on Friday, an official statement said. Due to continuous-coordinated efforts, the state capital Lucknow is today being equipped with state-of-the-art urban facilities. People from different cities want to come here and make it their permanent residence, the chief minister said during the meeting.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has decided to launch a mass movement with the support of Sikh organisations regarding the release of Sikh prisoners who have completed their jail terms. The SGPC said the movement will start from September 12, when protests will be organised outside the deputy commissioners' offices in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. At a meeting of all SGPC members held at the Teja Singh Samundri Hall on Friday, resolutions were passed regarding the release of Sikh prisoners. It was also announced "to deal with full power" against a petition filed by an individual in the Supreme Court regarding the minority status accorded to communities.

Two POCSO courts on Friday sentenced two men to undergo imprisonment for abducting and repeatedly raping minor girls in Rajasthan's Bundi and Jhalawar districts. Siyaram Meena (26), a resident of Khanpura area in Jhalawar, was awarded life term for raping a 17-year-old girl in Hindoli police station area of Bundi three years ago. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 2.15 lakh on him. Meena had abducted the girl from her grandmother's house in May 2019 and held her captive and repeatedly raped her for three months, public prosecutor Rakesh Thakur said. Hindoli police rescued the girl in August and arrested the accused, however, he was released on bail. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court judge Salim Badar on Friday held Meena guilty of abduction, sexual exploitation and rape under sections of the Indian Penal Code and POCSO Act. The court ordered that Rs 2 lakh of the fine should be given to the victim as compensation.

A teacher and a headmaster of a private school here have been arrested for allegedly assaulting of a student, police said. The police said the family of the student and another teacher of the school have registered separate FIRs in connection with the incident. Circle Officer, Ringus, Kanhaiyalal said during the school's prayer meeting, Class 12 student Ashish Tetwa was allegedly slapped by his teacher Pradeep for not following instructions to stand in line properly.  When the student objected to this, the headmaster Sagarmal and Pradeep took him to the room and thrashed him, the victim's family members alleged. The incident took place on Wednesday and a case was registered later that night, police said. Kanhaiyalal said both the teachers have been arrested. Another teacher of the school has lodged a case against the student, alleging that he slapped him that day, he said, adding that both the cases are being probed. 

The Biden administration has announced a more than USD1 billion arms sale to Taiwan as US-China tensions escalate over the status of the island. The USD1.09 billion sale includes USD355 million for Harpoon air-to-sea missiles and USD85 million for Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, the State Department said. The largest portion of the sale, however, is a USD655 million logistics support package for Taiwan's surveillance radar program, which provides air defence warnings. Early warning air defense systems have become more important as China has stepped up military drills near Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said after the report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) was released, efforts are being made to defame the state. He said it would be appropriate to compare the figures of 2019 and 2021 as there was a lockdown in 2020. Gehlot said despite the policy of compulsory registration of FIRs in Rajasthan, the number of incidents of crime registered in 2021 was about 5 per cent less than that of 2019, while 17 states and Union territories, including Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttarakhand, registered more crimes. In a statement, he said Gujarat registered an increase of about 69 per cent in incidents of crime, Haryana recorded a 24-per cent hike and Madhya Pradesh a 20-per cent increase.

Two top American senators have condemned the display of a bulldozer at the India Day Parade in Edison, New Jersey, last month. Offices of senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker this week met a delegation of the Indian-America Muslim Council, New Jersey chapter of the CAIR, and several groups of the community who are up against the display of a bulldozer during the popular India Day Parade in Edison City. The Muslim groups alleged that bulldozers have become a symbol of hate crime, and claimed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath uses these machines selectively to target certain communities. The charge has been strongly refuted by the government concerned.