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.
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.
Vijay Rawat, brother of India's first chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat who recently died in a helicopter crash, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.
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.
A Border Roads Organisation team will be stationed in Joshimath to monitor the yatra on a day-to-day basis and ensure immediate treatment of cracks on roads or any other problem that might arise, the chief minister said.
Addressing the concluding session of the two-day meeting of the Vishva Hindu Parishad's (VHP) Kendriya Margadarshak Mandal in Haridwar, Dhami said, "Uttarakhand shares its borders with two countries (China and Nepal). A particular community had illegally encroached land and raised structures in the border areas of the state which are being removed as part of a drive."
Singh said the Modi government has changed the approach adopted by previous governments that the border areas are buffer zones between the plains and the potential adversary.
The meeting, which began around 10:30 pm on Thursday, lasted for more than four hours and was held at the party's headquarters in New Delhi.
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.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday reviewed relief and rescue operations with senior officials of the government after returning to Dehradun from on-site inspection of Joshimath landslide area gave directions for forming a coordination committee immediately at the government level under the chairmanship of the Additional Chief Secretary and at the local level under the chairmanship of the Commissioner Garhwal.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
One of the highlights at the Pushkar Mela is the stylish mustache competition, where competitors in colourful traditional attire show off their moustaches.
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 draft will be examined, studied and discussed before it is tabled in the assembly on February 6, he said.
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.
Five minor Hindu girls were allegedly sexually exploited and blackmailed by Muslim accused in the Beawar district of Rajasthan.
Former Uttarakhand CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat alleged that the state government wants an immediate discussion on the UCC bill despite nobody having a draft copy of it.
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.
Forty-one Border Road Organisation labourers working to clear snow near the high altitude border village of Mana in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district were trapped under an avalanche on Friday.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shaurya Doval has said he has never expressed desire to contest elections but is open to the idea if the party decides to field him.
Dhami will continue as the Uttarakhand chief minister, the BJP said on Monday, ending the 11-day suspense over it.
As rescuers in India on Tuesday successfully pulled out all 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel in Uttarakhand after 16 days, the global media hailed the rescue operation and provided live coverage of the dramatic development.
The two-time CM, who had also been the Rajasthan Governor, died at a Lucknow hospital on Saturday after prolonged illness.
'Even, nature looks cheerful today. A cool wind has stirred up the leaves and trees. The weather is good. We are hopeful'
The team consisted of trainee mountaineers from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and their trainers.
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.
Twelve people, including three of a family, were killed and six injured in heavy overnight rains that triggered flooding and house collapse as several rivers swelled in Uttarakhand, officials said on Thursday.
'If this was not tokenism, why is the central government not bringing the UCC, why is a small state like Uttarakhand doing so?'
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 curfew was imposed and the administration issued shoot-at-sight orders after stone-pelting incidents, torching of vehicles and a mob surrounded the local police station following the anti-encroachment drive.
Hours before the ceremony, Saini visited the Valmiki Bhawan and offered prayers at a gurdwara and the Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula.
The BJP expelled Harak Singh Rawat from the primary membership of the party for six years on Sunday amid speculations that he was joining the Congress.
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.
Jaymal Singh Negi mentioned that his brother informed him about the trapped men engaging in yoga and exercises inside the tunnel.
A packed beyond capacity bus carrying passengers returning to work after Diwali fell into a deep gorge in Uttarakhand's Almora district on Monday, killing at least 36 of the over 60 people on board.
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 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.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Friday said no progress has been made since Thursday in drilling through the debris at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand to rescue 41 trapped workers but assured that the drilling by auger machine will start soon.
The decision was taken in a high-level review meeting chaired by principal secretary to prime minister PK Mishra.
Shiv Menon will most likely be questioned in two-three days.
