A dust storm accompanied by high velocity winds, that lashed parts of Uttar Pradesh late Sunday evening, has left 19 dead, taking the state's toll on account of thunder, storm and lightning to 63, officials stated on Monday.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday demanded the immediate removal of National Women's Commission chief Yasmeen Abrar. The demand came in the wake of Abrar's allegations that women were disrobed and paraded naked by the UP police in Bhatta Paraul village of Greater Noida. Bhatta Paraul has been in the eye of a storm since the villagers clashed with the police to demand better compensation for the land acquired by the state government.
Deadly thunderstorms and lightning struck parts of Uttar Pradesh early on Saturday morning, killing 42 people and leaving 50 injured.Strong winds lashed parts of eastern and central UP at approximately 5 am, uprooting trees, bringing down lamp-posts and knocking down hoardings. In some areas, the thunderstorms were followed by a brief but heavy downpour too.Strong winds lashed state capital Lucknow, but no casualties were reported there.
Taking serious note of the allegations about atrocities on farmers in Bhatta Parsaul village in greater Noida, the Allahabad High Court on Friday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government, seeking a reply within the next 30 days.
The Allahabad high court on Friday directed the Enforcement Directorate to investigate charges of money laundering against Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Amar Singh, saying that the matter needed a thorough probe as it had "national ramifications". The court gave the direction while dismissing a petition filed by the former Samajwadi Party general secretary, who had challenged an FIR lodged in Kanpur nearly two years ago.
Stung by the frontal attack launched by the top Congress leadership against her, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has hit out at both Congress President Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul.
The Uttar Pradesh government is all set to challenge Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to prove his allegations about women being raped and 74 people being burnt alive in Bhatta Parsaul village of Greater Noida. To refute Rahul's charges, he raised several vital questions -- "How is it that not one villager talked about killings and rape until Rahul Gandhi surfaced in Bhatta Parsaul? After all, so many journalists have visited the area days before Rahul did."
Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly and former Uttar Pradesh minister Anand Sen was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the abduction and murder of a young girl in Faizabad nearly three years ago.Sen's driver Vijay and a close friend Seema Azad were also awarded life imprisonment for being involved in the murder. The sentence was announced by a special trial court presided by Judge Matambar Singh.
Reacting sharply to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's sweeping allegations about 'rape' and 'mass murder' of farmers in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday termed it as a 'bunch of lies.'
Popular farmers' leader and founder president of Bhartiya Kisan Union Mahendra Sigh Tikait, who died of bone cancer on Sunday morning in Muzaffarnagar, had led over a dozen major movements in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, fighting for the cause of farmers.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party has strongly refuted All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh's sweeping allegations about massacre of farmers by the Uttar Pradesh police in Greater Noida's BhattaParsaul village, where a violent clash had ensued between cops and protesting local farmers earlier this month.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's disguised entry to the troubled spot in Greater Noida, where local farmers are on a warpath against 'inadequate compensation' for their acquired land, has put the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh on the back-foot.
They might have been fighting in the courts for ages to stake their respective claims over the much-debated Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, but the rivals have heartily welcomed the view taken by the apex court on the issue.
In a frontal attack on the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress on Saturday pointedly blamed the Mayawati government for the prevailing backwardness and poverty in Bundelkhand area.
Even as a sudden and acute health problem prevented him from coming to Varanasi for a rally, social activist Anna Hazare chose to keep his date with the masses by addressing them via telephone on Friday.
Blaming non-Congress governments for the prevailing backwardness in Uttar Pradesh, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Friday urged the youth of the state to get into politics to transform the country's most populous state.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday extended its order for maintaining status quo at the disputed Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya till August 31.The earlier status quo order was set to expire on May 31.While a special appeal against the high court verdict on the issue is pending before the Supreme Court, an application was moved by the Faizabad commissioner, seeking an extension of the status quo before the special high court bench.
Social activist and Gandhian Anna Hazare has assured local organisers that he would try to fly down to Lucknow for the proposed rally at Jhule Lal Park along the banks of the Gomati river on May 1. Hazare was admitted to a Pune hospital after he complained of excruciating pain in the knees on April 26.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took the Uttar Pradesh government by surprise when he appeared at the National Rural Health Mission office in Lucknow, seeking information under the Right to Information act.
A probe by the Government Railway Police has found loopholes in the version given by athlete Arunima Sinha, who lost her leg after being thrown out of a train by robbers in Bareilly.Dismissing the investigations, the 23-year-old national level football and volleyball player said she was being "mentally harassed" by the police. "The investigations point out that Arunima was disturbed and she either attempted suicide or met with an accident," said an official.
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