If public-spirited citizens not career politicians could be elected to civic bodies, then our nation's cities would be much better governed, writes Mahesh Vijapurkar.
A personal security officer of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday created a furore when he bent down to wipe her dusty shoes with his handkerchief during her visit to Aurayia district. The incident took place on Sunday when Mayawati was visiting Naunipur village in the district. On noticing her dusty shoes after she alighted from a chopper, PSO Padam Singh, who has been working with her for long, started wiping her shoes.
In a morale booster to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's pet project, the Supreme Court on Friday upheld environmental compatibility of the Noida park scheme, also being developed into a memorial for Dalit icon B R Ambedkar and her political mentor late Kanshi Ram.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it has complied with its directions and stopped all construction activities at the Kanshi Ram Memorial Sthal in Lucknow. The state government filed an affidavit, denying media reports that it went ahead with the construction activities at the, even after giving an undertaking on September 8 that no further construction will take place.
The Uttar Pradesh government, which had made budgetary allocation of crores of rupees for installation of statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and her mentor Kanshi Ram in the state, has said it is a wrong notion that only statues of dead persons can be installed.
Unfazed by the criticism against "overspending" on parks, statues and memorials, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has once again allocated nearly Rs 500 crore towards her dream projects in the Rs 5,461 crore supplementary budget, which was tabled before the state assembly on Tuesday.
The bus that was smashed to bits after it was hit by a train at an unmanned railway crossing in a village in Uttar Pradesh was being driven by the cleaner, not the driver, at the time of the mishap. The accident at Kanshi Ram Nagar district in the wee hours of Thursday killed 38 passengers. The bus was carrying members of a marriage party, who were on the way back to their village after the wedding.
The opposition BJP today sought to brand Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati as a "new-age Shahjahan" apparently over spending of a huge amount of money over setting up of parks and memorials in the state.
Congress today received a shot in the arm in its bid to revive the party in Uttar Pradesh with a former Bahujan Samaj Party Rajya Sabha member joining it.
Rumours of a live power line having snapped triggered the stampede. The injured have been rushed to a local hospital, a BSP spokesperson said.
Telling the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh that "you are playing with fire", the Supreme Court today directed stoppage of all further construction activities at the Kanshi Ram Memorial Sthal in Lucknow, saying its orders cannot be violated.
this is not Orissa or West Bengal or Haryana or any other part of India where villagers are protesting against acquisition of farmland for industry or special economic zones. This is Mayawati's Uttar Pradesh -- where the chief minister wants around 400 hectares from four villages to create the mother of all gardens. The strategic location of the green belt, locally referred as "picnic spot", will ensure that Mayawati's farmhouse, which she hasn't visited even once, wil
The 52-year-old Dalit woman created history by rising to occupy the highest political office of India's most populous state on her own strength. Raised and nurtured by her political mentor and BSP founder -- the late Kanshi Ram, she has created another history of sorts over these 12 months -- of demolitions and constructions.
The Lok Sabha paid tributes to Kanshi Ram and Rajya Sabha paid tributes to Lalit Suri.
People had also started gathering at Mukhtar Ansari's residence in Ghazipur and there was a large deployment of security personnel around the house.
The top court had on May 7 held that former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office.
In an effort to make a dent in the Bahujan Samaj Party's Dalit vote bank ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Lok Janshakti Party plans to launch a series of demonstrations against the "anti-people and anti-Dalit" policies of the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh.
"He is the only secular leader of our country who has worked with Mahatma Gandhi, Jai Prakash Narain and Ram Manohar Lohia, and he is the only leader who can save the nation and its people in the coming years," the SP's Assam unit general secretary Ratul Kumar Choudhury said.
'Modi 3.0 will have more balanced policies like one saw in Modi's first term.'
After many years, intricate caste calculations will dominate politics in Punjab.
Chandrashekhar said he would ensure that PM Modi is not re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Varanasi.
A strong-willed administrator, she takes quick decisions. Recently, she sanctioned the Taj Expressway, which will drastically cut the travel time from Delhi to Agra to two hours. The chief minister has also envisaged the Ganga Expressway, an 8 lane expressway, running over 1,100 km, across the entire state, from Greater NOIDA up to Ballia.
The urban development ministry has issued reminders to six former ministers to vacate their official residences in New Delhi, failing which eviction proceedings would be initiated against them.
The former UP chief minister said at this juncture that she and the entire party were in deep sorrow and could not think of anything else.
Mayawati is now gearing up for a fresh start for the 2019 general election. Unconfirmed reports from the BSP camp suggest she has already reached out to arch-rival Akhilesh Yadav, reports Sahil Makkar.
Claiming that the BJP's government's works in the three holy cities are only follow-ups of her government's initiatives, Mayawati went on to promise, in what is being seen as a subtle shift towards soft Hindutva ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, to complete all those work on time.
She lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, holding them responsible for the lack of jobs and migration from the state.
Can Jitin Prasada retain the BJP's Brahmin vote in UP?
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Saturday charged the NDA government with discriminating against Dalit icons like Kanshi Ram while awarding Bharat Ratna to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malviya.
Leaders from across parties condemned BJP vice president Dayashankar Singh for comparing the BSP chief to a sex worker.
'Unless she joins one of the coalitions, she has a bleak future.' 'The NDA option is suicidal, but INDIA could help her.'
Reacting to Yadav's statement that he wanted her to become the prime minister and that the SP had forged an alliance with the BSP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls for this, Mayawati, in a tweet in Hindi, said, 'When the SP chief could not fulfil his own dream of becoming the chief minister (of Uttar Pradesh) even after securing the votes of Muslims and Yadavs and forming an alliance with several parties, how can he fulfil the dream of others to become the prime minister.'
The four-time MLA and OBC leader joined the saffron party in presence of Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah.
Gandhi met Pawar within hours of the BJP's defeat in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.
The journey for 24-year-old Akash Anand would be much tougher, because dynastic succession goes against the grain of Dalit politics that B R Ambedkar founded.
The parties seem to have forgotten their two decade-old antagonism for a 'political revolution' which they hope would 'last long'.
Reacting to Yadav's dig at her on Wednesday, Mayawati said she has never aspired to become the President and the Samajwadi Party leader was dreaming about it to clear his path to become the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
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