Modi also hailed the world's largest vaccination programme being carried out in India against COVID-19
Keshav Prasad Maurya's election from Sirathu in Kaushambi will be among the keenly watched contests in UP. If he and the BJP win, will he be luckier this time?
Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at various border of Delhi for almost four weeks now as formal talks between the government and representatives of farmers' unions remained deadlocked with protesting peasants refusing to accept anything less than a repeal of the newly enacted laws.
Bad policing claimed yet another life in Uttar Pradesh on Monday when a teenaged boy succumbed to injuries sustained in merciless beating by cops in a rural police station of Ghazipur district, about 350 km from Lucknow.
Schumer and Menendez said the months-long demonstrations have been met with orders from the central government and local authorities to shut off internet access in protest areas, cut off water and electricity supplies for the tens of thousands living in protest camps, and impede the work of journalists reporting on the protests.
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
These 22 farm bodies were among 32 farmer organisations in Punjab which participated in the over-a-year-long protest against the three central farm laws.
A four-member Central Bureau of Investigation team, probing the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam, conducted raids at the district hospital in Ghazipur for the second consecutive day on Thursday and questioned Accredited Social Health Activists workers involved in the 'Safe Motherhood Programme'.
Asked if the efforts of the government should have been more in providing relief right now than managing their own image and perception, the National Award-winning actor said it is important for the government to rise to the occasion and do things for the people who elected them.
Heavy fog engulfed parts of Delhi with the minimum temperature settling at a notch below normal.
Besides Uttar Pradesh, the other six states where bird flu is confirmed are Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat.
The 61-year-old, who was administered the oath of office by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal at a simple function in the Raj Bhavan, also said he wants to accelerate development in the union territory, carved out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir last year.
Angry protesters allegedly forced the two vehicles to stop and set them on fire.
The protesting farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been at the border points of the national capital for almost 40 days now, braving the bone-chilling cold weather in the region.
It is "absolutely clear" that the new laws will finish government mandis (wholesale markets) and private mandis where big corporates will sell and buy will have monopoly, he claimed.
"We do not aim change in power (at the Centre). The government should do its work. We want it to repeal the farm laws and ensure law on MSP," he said.
Farmers said the agenda of the meeting should also include amendments to be made and notified in the Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020 to exclude farmers from its penal provisions.
In a show of strength, hundreds of women are expected to drive tractors at 'Kisan Gantantra Parade' on Republic Day, as a large number of farmers opposing the new agriculture laws will enter the national capital under a high security cover.
The Delhi police's Special Cell has lodged an FIR under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and sections of the IPC dealing with sedition to investigate the violence at Red Fort in Delhi on January 26.
'The government knows our demands and knows well about our peaceful demonstration. It can address our concern and we will be gone'
Here are some of the key farmer leaders who fronted the protests.
"A full repeal of three central farm laws and enacting legislation for remunerative minimum support price for all farmers were reiterated as the pending demands of the movement," said the release signed by Krantikari Kisan Union leader Darshan Pal.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused Modi of getting pictures clicked in corporate offices while farmers are protesting on Delhi roads.
From the Republic Day violence to Lakhimpur Kheri incident and terms such as 'toolkit' and andolanjeevi entering the Indian political lexicon, it was controversies galore during the year-long farmers' movement against the contentious agri laws.
The Congress also stepped up the offensive against the government by launching an online campaign in support of the farmers' agitation, with party leader Rahul Gandhi accusing the government of betraying the farmers for benefitting their 'corporate friends'.
A day before the crucial talks between the Centre and the protesting farmer unions, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday said the government is ready to consider any proposal other than repeal of three farm laws, the key demand of the farmers.
'If our demands aren't met, then, we will hold tractor march on January 6 and also on January 26'
Mayawati added that the BSP's relationship with the SP is never going to end and she will try to ensure that their relationship stays intact.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked the Bharatiya Janata Party why are they preventing peasants from coming to Delhi to raise their demands.
On International Women's Day, hundreds of women took to streets while raising slogans of "kisan ekta" (farmer unity) and some broke into nonchalant rhythmic steps of 'bhangra'.
Modi should call an emergency Parliament session and repeal these acts, said the SAD chief, adding that people have the final say in a democracy.
Referring to the "mountains of garbage" at the three landfill sites -- Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa-- the court said no action has been taken by authorities, including the office of the LG due to which Delhi was facing the serious problem.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of the agitating unions, is meeting on Sunday to decide on the next course of action, including on the MSP issue and the proposed daily tractor march to Parliament during the upcoming Winter Session, SKM core committee member Darshan Pal said.
Scores of protesting farmers from Punjab and Haryana on Saturday took out protest marches against the Centre's three farm laws even as police used a water cannon to disperse cultivators as they broke barricades at the Chandigarh-Mohali border.
Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, which is spearheading the protests at Delhi border points, distributed handbills in Hindi to commuters on the Jaipur-Delhi Highway near Haryana-Rajasthan borders, where hundreds of farmers have been camping for almost past three weeks now, to convey their apology, and also reiterate their demand for legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price.
The Delhi Transport Corporation and cluster buses resumed services with social-distancing norms and safety measures in place like use of sanitisers and masks to check the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Farmer unions opposing the Centre's new agri laws on Wednesday rejected a suggestion by police officers to hold their proposed January 26 tractor rally on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway instead of Delhi's busy Outer Ring Road, sources said.
Addressing a press conference at a protest site on the Singhu border, they said the "super bandh" made the government open its 'eyes and ears'.
The 45-year-old actor, a vocal advocate for a clean environment, on Monday shared a post by Extinction Rebellion, a global climate movement, on the social media site.
'The people of Uttar Pradesh have already made up their mind to puncture the Samajwadi Party's cycle, kick away the Bahujan Samaj Party's elephant, and remove shadows of the already-vanished hand of the Congress.'
