On its own or with allies the Congress has a strong presence in states that account for a total of 253 LS seats, or 20 short of the magic figure of 272 required to form a government at the Centre. So what is Mamata Banerjee talking about, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'He is as consummate a politician as anyone else which is evident considering the way in which he has placed his party and weeded out his rivals from within the party.'
All the entry and exit points of these red zones are barricaded and no one is allowed to go in and out of these areas, the official said, adding that disinfectants were also sprayed to sanitise these places.
'It is high time that we act instead of just talking about how and why the climate is changing.'
Among the key demands of agitating farmers has been a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP). The protest reached a crescendo when thousands of farmers from Punjab and elsewhere marched towards Delhi late last year and decided to block the main entry points once they were denied entry. The Centre, on its part, held 11 rounds of discussions with the protesters and even offered to amend some of the provisions without much success. With now one of their chief demands met, farmers have now moved on to force the government to concede on MSP.
Maharashtra and Punjab, which are recording a surge in new COVID-19 cases, tightened curbs on Friday and the chief minister of the western state said lockdown is an option, as India added close to 40,000 cases in the biggest daily increase in nearly four months.
The cyclone would bring light to moderate rains at most places and 'heavy to very heavy downpour' at some places on November 6.
As incessant rains lashed Mumbai and Maharashtra, life was thrown out of gear with delay in train and flight services causing great inconvenience to passengers.
"Cyclone Nisarga is likely to become a severe cyclone in the next 12 hours. It will continue to move for the next six hours in a northerly direction along the coast, after that it will re-curve as a cyclone and cross Raigad and Daman-Raigad," Aanand Sharma, deputy director, IMD told ANI.
Aarohi Pandit, the world's first woman pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean solo in a light sport aircraft (LSA), is all set to re-enact on 15th of this month India's first commercial flight flown by the legendry J R D Tata in 1932.
These elections will be remembered for the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, feels Neeta Kolhatkar.
The government and farmer unions have held 11 rounds of talks so far, the last being on January 22, to break the deadlock and end the farmers' protest. Talks have not resumed following widespread violence during a tractor rally by protesting farmers on January 26.
Hemant Shivsaran lists the number of projects the Modi government has announced since August to woo Gujarat voters.
The Centre and the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra are locked in a tussle over ownership of the land earmarked by the state for constructing the car depot which was earlier planned at Aarey Colony, a green belt in suburban Goregaon.
Senior officials, including those from a central team, were present during the night-long operation and a close vigil is being maintained on further movement of locusts, Katiyar said. Two fire brigade vehicles loaded with insecticide had been deployed in all four Jhansi tehsils besides six vehicles were kept ready at the district headquarter. Ten municipal employees with two insecticide spraying machines were posted in every block.
A 58-year-old man died after a power transformer fell on him in Raigad district. 2 people died and 3 were injured in two separate cyclone-related incidents in Pune.
Pandey expressed bewilderment over no positive response from the municipal authorities in Mumbai, whom he accused of keeping IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in virtual house arrest, despite being informed about the adverse remarks made by Supreme Court against their action.
Private weather agency Skymet said Mumbai is at 'serious risk of flooding' between July 3 and 5.
Eight people were killed and five injured in rain-related incidents across Maharashtra where several parts were lashed by heavy rains on Friday.
There are instances -- both from national and state elections -- of economic under-performers being returned to power, and also of parties being thrown out despite good performance, observes T N Ninan.
Nitin Tyagi is a young farmer in Budhagaon village of Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. A few years ago, Tyagi left his fairly lucrative job in the medical industry and shifted base to his ancestral village to look after his land and property. He opened a small shop selling farm inputs in the village and also started taking a greater interest in agricultural matters which had so far been looked after by his father and uncles. Tyagi and his brothers primarily grow sugarcane, potato and wheat on nearly 10 acres of land with sugarcane taking up most of his time and effort. Being one of the most important and lucrative cash crops of the region, sugarcane is directly linked to the fate of millions of farmers in west UP and with it, the electoral fortunes of political parties seeking their votes in the coming assembly polls.
Currently, 60 per cent of the vehicular traffic is taken care by the Western Express highway
Nine years after he sacrificed his life to capture 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, Tukaram Omble's daughter says that citizens must realise that losing security personnel is not only the family's loss but also that of the country.
The COVID-19 hospital has a 190-bed ICU, 1,536 beds with oxygen facility, an ICU for children, a 20-bed dialysis unit, a 40-bed triage and a 384-bed isolation room with a total of 2,170 beds, the MMRDA said in a release.
The train, operated by the Western Railway, began its journey at 10.32 am from Borivili station in the north of the city to Churchgate in south Mumbai.
'Storms push a lot of water into land, then there is heavy rainfall due to the cyclone.' 'Along with this, we see the gradual rising of the sea level.' 'We see this during and after the latest Cyclone Tauktae.' 'This kind of overlapping events are increasing and we do not know much about how to tackle them.'
'Where should shudra-OBCs go because of whom the nation is surviving?'
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Ayanagar weather station recorded 99.2 mm rainfall, the maximum in the city, during the 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am on Thursday.
While two persons died after a portion of a `chawl' (tenement) collapsed in suburban Malvani, two others were killed after part of an old building collapsed in south Mumbai's Fort area, civic officials said.
"Partying late night in half attire, blindly following western culture, has never been our culture," he said.
'The UPA was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. The NDA is the gang that can't stop shooting. They (the Modi government) are shooting at anybody, everybody, all directions, shooting themselves in the foot.'
Uttkarsh Chaturvedi, deputy news editor with ET Now, a leading business news channel, said he showed his press card, but that did not stop men in uniform from hitting him with sticks.
Sugarcane dues accruing to farmers rose to almost Rs 21,321 crore as of May 2021. Of that Rs 18,820 crore is for the cane supplied in the current season, which will end in September, while the remaining Rs 2,501 crore is from previous years. Of the pending sugarcane dues of 2020-21, almost 63 per cent accrues to the poll-bound state of Uttar Pradesh. The remaining are from Maharashtra and others.
The death toll due to the pandemic in Maharashtra's capital increased to 1,758 with 58 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours.
In Uttar Pradesh, the death toll due to lightning strikes rose to 42.
Significantly, the government has decided to do away stamping with indelible ink for domestic passengers arriving at different airports after COVID-19 testing.
Cyclone 'Nisarga' has made landfall near Alibaug on Maharashtra coast with the wind speed of more than 110 km per hour and heavy rainfall, leading to falling of many trees and electricity poles, a Raigad district official said.
In potentially controversial remarks, Union minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday asked his party workers to take advantage of the multi-phase polling in the state by voting twice, first at their hometowns and then at their places of work.
Experts point to the higher contribution of rural from the north for the growth reported by the region, a point endorsed by companies who've been pushing their presence aggressively there.
Malik said Congress leaders requested that the meeting be postponed to Wednesday.