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.
'...if elections were to be held today.' 'The problem is Akhilesh is not very aggressive.' 'Had he started his campaign aggressively six months ago, the picture in UP would have been very different.'
Large dams and flood problems are campaign issues both for the Congress and Asom Gana Parishad locked in direct contest in most of the six assembly seats in THE flood-prone Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts which go to the polls on April 4.
An FIR has been lodged against a sub-inspector and two policemen for tampering with evidence. The government has also ordered a fresh post-mortem of the victim by a panel of doctors from other districts.
In worst-hit Lakhimpur district, one Govinda Bora drowned in the swollen Sesa river, under Narayanpur revenue circle, after it broke its right bank dyke inundating 30 villages, including Buraburi, Boralopar, Kathalijan and Hingia affecting around 15,000 people, officials said on Friday.
Currently, the Brahmaputra at Guwahati, Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, Goalpara and Dhubri towns, while the Barak at AP Ghat in Cachar and Badarpurghat in Karimganj are flowing above the danger mark.
While protesters wait for the farm laws to be repealed in Parliament, everyone at the Singhu echoes one sentiment: That they will remember this one year spent in protest at Singhu till their dying day.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
Each of Assam's border disputes has its own legacy of claims and counter-claims:
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.
Suspension of Internet services in ten districts of Assam was extended for 48 hours on Thursday
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.
'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".'
According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, one person was killed at Sissibargaon in Dhemaji district on Saturday.
'Outside the core voter base of upper caste Hindus, there is a large section unhappy with the performance of the BJP.'
At least nine persons, including five women, were killed and 24 injured when a bus in which they were travelling fell into a roadside ditch at Uluani in Nagaon district on Sunday.
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.
So far, 15 bodies have been recovered from the debris, while 12 persons are still missing.
Critics who cannot stop gloating, pronouncing Modi to be a lame-duck prime minister, may be making a huge mistake, predicts Virendra Kapoor.
The death toll from flood-related incidents rose to 63 today in Uttar Pradesh with the situation remaining grim in several areas, even as most parts of the northern region experienced dry weather with mercury rising by a few notches.
The Congress' Assam unit is banking heavily on party veterans to win the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, indicates a list of the 11 candidates released by the party. The party is contesting from 13 LS constituencies out of the total 14 seats. It has left one seat to its ally Bodo People's Front.Candidates from Lakhimpur and Dhubri are yet to be announced.
"I will fight for compensation, that is your right," he said.
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.
"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.
'It's like the BJP is mocking people: Do what you want, we'll still win.'
Two suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants were killed in an encounter with the army in north Assam's Lakhimpur district while two other persons were injured in a blast that rocked a small western Assam town in two separate incidents violence in the state on Saturday. Security sources informed that two suspected ULFA militants were killed following a gunbattle with a team of personnel from the 2nd Bihar Regiment.
Amid widespread protests against the citizenship bill in the state, the govt suspended Internet services to 'prevent spreading rumours'.
The rains have unleashed in Assam affecting close to two lakh people
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address, charged the government with not delivering on its various promises, including generating two crore jobs per year.
By-elections to Lok Sabha and assembly seats in the states of Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil and West Bengal passed off peacefully on Saturday amidst tight security.
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.
In the first list, over 32,000 refugees have been identified in 21 districts of the state and the exercise is going on in the entire state, State minister Shrikant Sharma added.
The flood situation in Assam turned worse on Friday with most of the people in Dhemaji district affected by the deluge and 75 per cent of Kaziranga National Park submerged.
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.
The ASDMA said more than 4.87 lakh people are currently suffering in Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Golaghat, Cachar, Dhemaji, Biswanath, Karimganj, Sonitpur, Majuli, Barpeta, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Morigaon and Chirang districts.
The high-stakes battle in the virtual Presidential-style contest between BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi with a few other regional satraps also in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections begins on Monday in six constituencies in two states in the first of the nine-phased polls.
The high-stakes battle in the virtual Presidential-style contest between BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi with a few other regional satraps also in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections began on Monday in six constituencies in two states in the first of the nine-phased polls.
Almost all states and Union Territories have extended the curbs which they first started imposing in mid-April as the second COVID wave hit the country.
