Rediff.com's Sahim Salim visits UP's Lakhimpur Kheri district where an eleven-year old girl Sonam was found dead in a village police station last week. While the girl's family alleges foul play on the part of policemen, the officials try to shrug responsibility.
While protesters wait for the farm laws to be repealed in Parliament, everyone at the Singhu echoes one sentiment: That they will remember this one year spent in protest at Singhu till their dying day. Nitin Kumar reports
The BJP in New Delhi targeted top Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over their party colleague's controversial remarks, questioning their silence on the matter.
The seat sharing formula reached between the BSP and SP is not on the basis of who emerged stronger in the previous election.
The party has left Mainpuri, described as its "safest" seat, for Mulayam Yadav, who is the MP from Azamgarh right now.
'About 90 per cent of our netas have no loyalty and will go with the winner.'
In the backdrop of the ongoing farm protests, back into public consciousness in the aftermath of the recent Lakhimpur Kheri episode, smaller parties are expected to not only enliven the election theatre, but also queer the pitch for the Opposition.
'I told Rahul: "You have to become president. Taalne se nahin hoga (you can't avoid the responsibility any longer)".' 'Rahul said: "I will think about it".'
He accused the previous governments of being sluggish on implementing railway projects and said the work of ambitious eastern and western dedicated freight corridors expedited only in the last six-seven years.
'Outside the core voter base of upper caste Hindus, there is a large section unhappy with the performance of the BJP.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should for once express grief in Parliament over the death of around 750 farmers during the months-long anti-farm law protests at Delhi's borders, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said on Saturday.
Two days ahead of Rahul Gandhi's scheduled visit to Kheri, some of senior leaders from Uttar Pradesh, mainly from Samajwadi Party, on Saturday joined the Congress.
The SC said where is the question of going on protest once a party has already approached the court challenging the validity of the laws.
Critics who cannot stop gloating, pronouncing Modi to be a lame-duck prime minister, may be making a huge mistake, predicts Virendra Kapoor.
'It's like the BJP is mocking people: Do what you want, we'll still win.'
"You take any section of society be it Dalits, weavers or Brahmins, everybody has been exploited. The administration of Yogi Adityanath ji is working completely against the 'vichaar' (thoughts) of Guru Gorakhnath," she said at a rally, taking a swipe at the BJP leader who is also the head of the prominent Mutt in Gorakhpur named after Saint Gorakhnath.
Five persons, including four children, were drowned and eight others went missing after a boat capsized on Monday in the Sohali river in Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh.
Even though it was stated that no action would be taken against the senior leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi, they say that the retaliation had already begun, reports Aditi Phadnis
Tharoor had so far maintained a silence since the letter appeared in the media and was heatedly debated at the Monday meeting of the Congress Working Committee, which urged Sonia Gandhi to continue as party president and bring about organisational changes.
The death toll from the Uttarakhand glacier disaster rose to 31 with five more bodies being recovered, officials said on Tuesday as multiple agencies raced against time to reach about 30 workers trapped inside a tunnel in a power project site and 175 people remained missing.
Police said there was a dispute between Chaudhary and Kaushal over money.
Though a number of Jat leaders and farmers said they would vote against the BJP in the upcoming panchayat election, slated for April, they remained non-committal on supporting opposition parties in the assembly polls next year.
Several states of the country are battling grim flood situations that have affected lakhs of people and have also resulted in loss of life and property.
The Amarnath yatra was suspended on Saturday due to closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in the wake of a landslide triggered by heavy rains in Udhampur district of the state.
It has also been decided to suspend the interstate bus services till March 31, the officials said. The decisions have been taken at a high-level meeting attended by chief secretaries of all states and the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary to the prime minister.
Police appointed an inspector general to probe into an unverified letter that surfaced on social media, purportedly written weeks before his death by Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra. It had alleged links between the Chaubeypur station officer and the gangster.
At least 28 people have so far lost their lives in rain related incidents in Uttar Pradesh whereas a population of five lakh in some 600 villages of the state has been affected because of it.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday held Bharatiya Janata Party responsible for the defeat of Constitution Amendment Bill on Lokpal.
The drastic move on Tuesday night followed soon after police announced the transfer of a DIG, who till recently was the senior superintendent of police in Kanpur.
A full-grown tiger was trapped on Wednesday after being on the prowl in the neighbourhood of Lucknow for exactly 108 days.
Bharatiya Janata Party's ongoing "Jan Swabhimaan Yatra" is proving to be the last nail in the coffin of the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh, said party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
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.
The National Rural Health Mission scam in Uttar Pradesh has turned murkier with another health official found murdered at his home, the fifth victim in the last one year after the alleged bungling of over Rs.10,000 crore of central funds surfaced.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Friday accused policemen of raping and killing the Lakhimpur teenager, even as the Uttar Pradesh government filed a status report before the Allahabad high court on the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department probe into the incident. The commission, which had visited Lakhimpur Kheri recently to inquire into the death of the 14-year-old girl in Nighasan police station, spoke to the parents of the victim.
The condition of two of the eight injured, referred to Nagpur, is critical, the official said.
Dodging the police and media alike in Uttar Pradesh, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi eventually surfaced suddenly in Nighasan town of Lakhimpur-Kheri district, about 170 km from Lucknow, to call on the family of the minor girl who was brutally done to death in the local police station premises exactly 19 days ago.
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada has said state-run oil companies have the freedom to fix petrol prices, but the government will step in if rates shoot up "indiscriminately".
Even as two of the three accused cops were still at large, the Uttar Pradesh government was planning to now book three doctors for destruction of evidence in the case of alleged rape and murder of 14-year old Sonam inside the Nighasan police station premises in Lakhimpur-Kheri district, about 170 km from Lucknow on June 10.
In a brazen act, a young attendant at a toll plaza in Gurgaon was shot dead by passengers in a car a little past midnight when he asked for the toll fee of Rs 27 from them, police said on Friday.
No loss of life was reported in the incident.
