Rediff readers tell us how they celebrated the festival amidst the pandemic.
At least 38 people have been killed and 18.6 lakh affected by floods in Bihar as major rivers continue to overflow after crossing the danger mark at several places in the state. The district-wise break-up of deaths are Muzaffarpur (1), Saharsa (3), Gopalganj (2), Madhepura (1), West Champaran (4), Bhojpur (10), Purnia (1), Madhubani (2), Katihar (2), Samastipur (2), Vaishali (4), Bhagalpur (4) and Lakhisarai (2), according to State Disaster Management sources.
A government official in Lucknow said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased migrants and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured.
According to state government data, the first 10 months of last year -- January to October 2020 -- witnessed 2,649 murders in Bihar, an average of nearly nine murders a day.
A four-year-old boy, resident of a village located 60 km away from Bihar's capital Patna, has been accused of murder.Alok Pandey, who is yet to join a primary school, has been charged by the police in Bhojpur district for assaulting and seriously injuring his neighbour, who died on his way to the hospital.The case has been registered despite the fact that as per Section 82 of the Indian Penal Code, the police cannot file a criminal case against a child below the age of seven.
Flood victims have been fighting for survival and living in temporary shelters nearby railway tracks with lack of food items. They are yet to get any help from the government, reports M I Khan.
Half-way through the polls, the fight has become more personal.
A Bihar court has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray for allegedly making uncharitable and inflammatory remarks against Biharis in his party mouthpiece 'Saamna'. Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate (Bhojpur) Rakesh Pati Tiwari ordered issuance of the NBW against the Sena founder after Thackeray failed to appear before him in compliance with his July 7 order.
A total 4.16 lakh people have been evacuated so far from the 12 flood-affected districts of Buxar, Bhojpur, Patna, Vaishali, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar.
Family members of the victims say they have been denied justice even 16 years after the incident in which 58 Dalits were butchered allegedly by upper-caste Ranvir Sena men. M I Khan reports
Guidelines have been issued by the Commission for safe conduct of the electoral exercise in the midst of the raging COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines include lowering the maximum number of voters for a polling booth from 1,600 to 1,000, staggering the polling hours and extending postal ballot facility to those above 80.
A man was killed and six others were injured, one of them seriously, in a bomb blast inside an advocate's chamber in the district court premises in Ara on Friday. Bhojpur police superintendent Sunil Kumar said the crude bomb was tied to the waist of the man and exploded when he entered the chamber and was about to take a seat. The six -- four lawyers and two clients--present in the chamber were injured in the blast, he said.
PM Modi is scheduled to visit Bihar on August 18 to lay the foundation stone of a four lane road in Bhojpur district and will also address a BJP rally in Saharsa district.
Twenty-three per cent or 244 candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, it said. Serious criminal cases are non-bailable offences with over five years of imprisonment.
Suraj Singh, who allegedly shot dead Bharat Lal Prasad, officer in-charge of Udwant Nagar police station in Bihar's Bhojpur district in 1977, was arrested from his native Karisat village late on Monday night, Superintendent of Police Umesh Kumar said on Tuesday.
It is yet to be known how the Al Qaeda propaganda material made its way to Bihar.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced an ex-gratia of four lakh rupees to the kin of those killed in the incident.
The police however, are maintaining that the fire was an accident.
Vinay Pathak talks about his latest movie Dasvidaniya and the five things necessary to become a successful actor.
Biharis can confidently decide whether they want to follow Badlav Se Bhadiya Bharosa (Trust is Better than Change) or Badaliye Sarkar, Badaliye Bihar (Change the Government, Change Bihar), asserts Asmita Bihari.
The incident might be the result of a struggle between CPI-ML and Ranvir Sena for establishing supremacy in Ara, the police said.
Inarguably the biggest gainer in the Grand Alliance, the CPI-ML, often working in the margins of mainstream politics, had 19 candidates in the fray, most of them students and youth leaders.
Over a 1000 rebels attacked troops guarding a telecommunications tower at Bhojpur, 250 km east of Kathmandu.
The four-day long Chhath festival ended on Thursday with millions, braving the chill and taking a dip in the river to offer prayers to the rising sun.
'You are talking as if Patna has been the only place which has suffered on account of heavy rain. What happened in Mumbai and America when these places were battered by similar downpour?'
RJD MLA Dinesh Bhai has threatened to immolate himself if he does not get to keep his assembly seat.
Asma Khatoon is devastated that her husband is a Pakistani spy.
Swirling waters inundated 12 districts in the state.
The minister was on his way to Motihari to attend PM Modi's rally. He never made it.
BJP backed to the hilt Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its leader in the state and rebuffed a rebellious Chirag Paswan, while acknowledging his Lok Janshakti Party as an ally 'at the Centre'. At a press conference which was attended by top leaders of the JD-U headed by Kumar and the BJP, it was made clear that 'only those who accept the chief ministers leadership will be deemed to be a part of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar'.
The bodies of the four soldiers of Bihar regiment, who were killed after "heavily armed terrorists" ambushed an Indian army patrol along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, arrived in Patna on Wednesday night. Their funeral will take place at their respective villages on Thursday, a police official said.
The last journey of the five jawans martyred in the attack by Pakistan soldiers began in the evening from Poonch town with Army officers laying wreaths on their caskets.
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
Floods have ravaged 12 of the 37 districts in the state -- the worst-affected being Patna, Vaishali, Bhojpur, Khagaria and Samastipur districts.
Outgoing Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vikram Kunwar on Sunday backed party MP R K Singh's sensational claim that the BJP was "selling" tickets to criminals and alleged that he.
A total of 113 examinees have been expelled for using unfair means in the state.
An unaccounted cash of Rs 12.36 lakh was on Thursday seized from a car registered in the name of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA's husband in the state capital during a special drive in view of Bihar assembly elections.
The Ganga has crossed the danger mark in West Bengal, Bihar and neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh where Yamuna river is also in spate, while heavy rainfall has created a flood-like situation in some parts of Rajasthan where six persons have died so far.
Four persons have died in Bihar since Monday in rain-related incidents due to the 'peripheral effect' of Cyclone Phailin, taking the death toll in the state to 14.
Bihar government has sounded alert in 28 flood-prone districts following a warning issued by Indian Meteorological Department in the wake of Cyclone Phailin that pounded Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.