Gabbar Singh Negi's house in the Lalpani area of the town suddenly came to life on Tuesday night as the news of the safe evacuation of 41 workers trapped at Sikyara tunnel reached his kin who had been glued to the TV set waiting the whole day for the good news.
The Uttarakhand assembly poll result has presented the Bharatiya Janata Party with a dilemma of sorts as it weighs various options after outgoing chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami who was tipped to continue in the post lost the election even as the party stormed back to power.
'Mr Modi has the power and pre-eminence in the BJP-RSS to choose how long he wants to serve, and he is definitely going to want to contest in 2029.' 'He will only be 79, as old as Donald Trump now, and fitter,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Two alleged overground workers (OGWs) were arrested for their involvement in a terror attack on an army patrol party in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, the police said.
The draft will be examined, studied and discussed before it is tabled in the assembly on February 6, he said.
The three FIRs were registered on Friday, and police stressed that there was no fresh violence and that the situation was under control.
Rajiv Gandhi, his son Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia Karan Singh, Naveen Patnaik besides celebrated authors like Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth studied at The Doon School.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Nationalist Democratic Alliance-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai.
The Indian Air Force's Chinook and MI17 helicopters on Friday joined the rescue operations in Uttarakhand to evacuate over 500 pilgrims stranded on the rain-ravaged trek route to Kedarnath, with 10 of them being airlifted in the first round.
An NDRF personnel went through the passage, pushing a wheeled stretcher tied to a rope at the end of the tunnel and was pulled back up after completing the stretch.
The chief minister will visit Joshimath on Saturday, meet the affected people and hold a meeting with officials.
For them it was a late Diwali, as the tunnel collapse happened on November 12, the day of the the festival.
The worker said there was a natural source of water in the tunnel but they had no clothes to change.
The bodies of the last four of the trapped labourers were pulled out from the site of the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday, taking the death toll to eight as authorities ended the nearly 60-hour rescue operation.
The voting will begin at 7 am and end at 5 pm after the electioneering came to an end on Saturday, 48 hours before the electorate begin casting their votes.
The minister for road transport and highways, who was accompanied by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, said the rescue operation is challenging as the soil strata in the Himalayan region is not uniform.
The avalanche hit the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath between 5:30 am and 6 am on Friday, burying the workers inside eight containers and a shed, according to the Army.
The decision was taken in a high-level review meeting chaired by principal secretary to prime minister PK Mishra.
Several Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states in the country, including Gujarat and Assam, have expressed their keenness to follow the Uttarakhand UCC as a model.
The chief minister briefed the prime minister about the rescue operations in detail and said all the trapped workers are safe with oxygen, nutritious food and water being constantly supplied to them.
The 41 workers, who were rescued from Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in a multi-agency rescue operation, kept their spirits up while trapped inside by taking morning walks and practising yoga, a rescued worker told Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Mukhwa temple in Uttarakhand, the winter abode of Goddess Ganga, and offered prayers. The visit is expected to boost winter pilgrimage and tourism in the state. Modi also flagged off a trek and bike rally and addressed a public meeting in Harshil. This comes a day after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved two major ropeway projects to Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib worth over Rs 6,000 crore.
Once implemented, Uttarakhand will be the second state after Goa in the country to implement it .
The government on Tuesday decided to set up a committee of secretaries to fast-track implementation of infrastructure projects along the border with China.
The swearing-in ceremony may take place on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states likely to attend the event, he said.
A cloudburst in the high altitude villages of Dharali in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand led to flash floods, causing damage to houses and sweeping away structures. Several people are feared buried under debris.
The team consisted of trainee mountaineers from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and their trainers.
'It is a beautiful portrait of Ek Bharat, Sreshth Bharat.'
Violators will have to pay a Rs 2,000 fine for the first offence and Rs 5,000 if they defy this order for the second time, Ujjain Mayor Mukesh Tatwal said on Saturday.
Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the Jyotish Peeth in Uttarakhand, who turned down the invitation to the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya, on Monday said Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Uddhav Thackeray is a victim of betrayal.
Just weeks before the assembly polls, expelled Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat rejoined his old party, the Congress, on Friday in the presence of former chief minister Harish Rawat.
Party sources said, "After the distribution of tickets, the BJP has decided to form teams under the leadership of all its seven MPs to reduce the possible rebellion and damage control."
The accident occurred on a turning near the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp when the driver lost control of the vehicle, plunging the bus into a 70-metre-deep gorge, Mussoorie police station SHO D S Kohli said.
The Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code Bill, which may serve as a template for other Bharatiya Janata Party-run states to enact similar legislation.
Nagnyal said 26 people were in the vehicle and most of them were residents of Delhi. Ten people died in the accident, the IG said.
In view of the safety of the passengers, the district administration stopped the passengers at Sonprayag and Gaurikund due to continuous bad weather.
Ramdev said one does not need to hide their name, but do one's work with truth and honesty.
On Republic Day the President recognised the daring rescue of 41 workers trapped in a tunnel for 17 days in 2023 by humble rat-hole miners. The award hopefully will bring the forgotten superheroes back into the light.
Her election to the post was a foregone conclusion as the main opposition Congress chose to stay out of contest.
The panel will comprise legal experts, retired people, intellectuals and other stakeholders, the chief minister announced on the last day of campaigning for the 70 assembly seats in the state going to polls on February 14.
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