The southwest monsoon is set to make its exit in style, bringing rains to the parched parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, as weather forecasters have picked up signs of formation of a cyclonic circulation over Bay of Bengal. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, India Meteorological Department (IMD) director general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra on Thursday junked last week's forecast of early withdrawal of southwest monsoon and announced the extended stay of the seasonal showers. "Even though we expected early withdrawal of the southwest monsoon, a cyclonic circulation over west-central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal will shift the monsoon trough southwards around September 7.
A day after a major train accident in Uttar Pradesh, railway officials in Bihar and Jharkhand are worried as nearly half of the railway crossings in the state remain unmanned in the five divisions of the East Central Railway, making them vulnerable to accidents. Railway officials of ECR believe that unmanned railway level crossings pose a serious threat to people. They have blamed the Bihar government of being apathetic to repeated requests.
"The meeting was very fruitful and we all are very happy with the outcome. I could not attend the press conference after the conclave as I had to come back to Patna. My effort is to unite all opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and now things are taking shape," the Janata Dal-United leader said.
Seven persons died in various rain-related incidents during the past 36 hours as heavy showers coupled with discharge of water from dams worsened the overall flood situation in Bihar.
A Hindu trust has changed the name of a temple, proposed to be the world's largest, in Bihar's East Champaran district from Viraat Angkor Wat Ram Temple to Viraat Ramayan Mandir in view of a controversy.
Around five lakh devotees visited the Ram temple complex on day one as it opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, a day after the consecration ceremony, according to officials.
Sonelal Gupta, a BJP leader was shot dead in Raxaul in Bihar's East Champaran district when he was returning to his residence. Gupta was a close associate of local BJP MLA Sanjay Singh.
With major rivers overflowing due to incessant rainfall, life has come to a stand-still for people in parts of Bihar and Assam.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Incensed over the Railway's decision to withdraw stoppage of several trains at Khusrupur station in Bihar, angry locals on Monday ransacked and torched the station, attacked the Intercity Express and uprooted rail lines under Danapur division, approximately 32 km from Patna. Deputy Superintendent of Government Railway Police (Patna East) Rajendra Singh said hundreds of people from nearby villages stormed the Khusrupur railway station today morning, ransacked and burnt it down
The Congress will begin the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from the violence-hit Manipur on Sunday, in what is being seen as the party's bid to set the narrative in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls and put the spotlight on issues such as unemployment, price rise and social justice.
Ashfaq Alam had been in jail for one month in connection with the crime committed in New Delhi and later came out on bail, Aluva Rural Superintendent of Police Vivek Kumar told reporters in Kochi.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday met his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal at the latter's residence in New Delhi and extended 'complete support' to him in the Aam Aadmi Party government's ongoing tussle with the Centre over the control of administrative services.
The launch of 5G services in India turbocharged mobile download speeds here, pushing the country's ranking 72 notches higher to 47th spot in Speedtest Global Index, ahead of nations like Japan, the UK and Brazil, according to Ookla. India's speed performance has zoomed up 3.59 times since the introduction of 5G, it said dubbing the country's 5G advancement as "remarkable". In this global pecking order, India ranked not only ahead of its neighbours like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, but also some G20 countries, such as Mexico (90th), Turkey (68th), the UK (62nd), Japan (58th), Brazil (50th place), and South Africa (48th place).
Bihar police on Tuesday claimed to have unearthed a suspected ISI link to target the railways with arrest of three persons in East Champaran district of the state bordering Nepal and are being interrogated to find out if they had a role in the derailment at Kanpur Dehat in November and elsewhere.
The polling in these constituencies was deferred for security reasons.
The Congress on Thursday renamed the Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-Mumbai yatra starting on January 14 as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will travel through 100 Lok Sabha segments in 15 states including Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted it will prove to be as 'transformative' as his earlier cross-country march.
In a bid to create terror and panic ahead of the polls, Maoists blew up a government middle school at Lakhisarai district in Bihar on early Thursday, just as the state was going to polls, the police said.
Sukanya Verma recaps all those events from 25 years ago.
Six Naxals were killed and eight others were arrested after an encounter with security forces in Darmaha village in Bihar's east Champaran district in the wee hours of Monday.The over 12-hour-long encounter ended at 4 am on Monday, Director General of Police Neelmani said. The bodies of all the six Naxals have been recovered and eight left-wing ultras, including three women, have been arrested. Security forces have also recovered 14 weapons besides explosives and ammunition.
One more person died in floods in Patna district, taking the toll due to inundation in Bihar to 10 even as major rivers on Tuesday showed receding trend.
Nearly two million population spread over eight districts in Bihar continued to reel under the impact of floods as the overall situation remained unchanged with major rivers, including Punpun, Bagmati and Kosi, in spate.
Over two million people in Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Saharsa, East Champaran, Supaul, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Patna, Katihar and Bhagalpur are reeling under the impact of the calamities
If Kejriwal is arrested, it will take very little for Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to summon a meeting of the assembly, direct it to elect a new leader of the House, and, if it doesn't, dissolve it and impose President's Rule, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Wednesday described as "high indiscipline" and "arbitrary" the support extended by its Nagaland unit to the newly formed government in that state where the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance returned to power.
Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Lending support for India's ambitious Nalanda University project, six countries on Thursday began the process of signing inter-government agreements to pledge their commitment for this academic institution.
Four persons, three Central Reserve Police Force personnel including an assistant commandant and a suspected Maoist were killed in an encounter in Bihar's east Champaran district on Wednesday night.
Poonam and Deepak kept the body parts of Anjan Das in a fridge and would dispose them of at different places in east Delhi.
Five teenaged boys were Sunday mowed down by a train near Goldenganj station under Sonepur-Chapra section of the East-Central Railway in Bihar, a Government Railway Police officer said.
After the death of 127 children from Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in Bihar in the last three weeks, the state government has finally woken up to the dismal situation. Delay on the part of the state government to identify the disease in time as AES and lack of awareness about the fatal symptoms have created havoc in the worst-affected districts of Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, East Champaran and Vaishali.
Waterlogging was reported from several areas in Patna city following incessant rains during the past 48 hours.
Armed Naxalites raided Banshipur railway station in Patna-Kiul section of the east-central Railway and burnt a cabin room, in Bihar's Lakhisarai district around midnight, official sources said.
The death toll in the two high intensity quakes that rattled Bihar on Tuesday rose to 19 on Wednesday, with two more deaths reported from Vaishali and Siwan districts.
Over 500 people have perished in the current spell of floods in Bihar with fresh reports of 23 deaths from six flood-hit districts on Monday as nearly 20.5 million people continue to reel under the impact of floods in 20 districts.
'The win in Assam is likely to have a ripple effect in other north-eastern states like Manipur and Nagaland which have been reluctant to embrace the BJP in the past,' says Nitin A Gokhale, the distinguished commentator on strategic affairs, who lived and reported from Assam between 1983 and 2006.
Usually, taking two wickets against a strong North Zone would leave any 17-year-old bowler with a wide smile. But Jotin Singh's smile had a tinge of nervousness.
Audi enters North East India, eyes 200 units in first year.
The death toll in Bihar floods today mounted to 64 with over 33 lakh people spread across 13 districts affected by the deluge.
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