The idea is to help madrasa students join the academic mainstream and prepare them for a better future.
The BJP-led NDA's nominee Droupadi Murmu on Friday filed her nomination papers for the July 18 presidential election, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over the set of papers to Returning Officer P C Mody.
Inching closer to their goal, rescuers have inserted wide pipes up to 45 metres through the rubble and will have to drill another around 12 metres to reach the 41 workers trapped inside the collapsed tunnel in Silkyara for 10 days, officials said Wednesday afternoon.
Former Union minister Prakash Javadekar and another senior party leader Om Prakash Mathur was made poll in-charge for Telangana and Chhattisgarh respectively, a party statement said.
Dalit students at a government school in Champawat district refused to eat mid-day meals cooked by an upper caste woman after a cook belonging to the Scheduled Caste was sacked.
Revamped at a cost of Rs 10 crore, Ouni village in Uttarakhand is being touted as a 'modern village' now. Nearly 40 solar street lights, two new transformers, and as many washrooms have been set up in the village, which didn't have street lights till a few months ago, reports Sarthak Choudhury.
Twenty-seven mountaineers remained missing on Wednesday after rescue workers brought 14 injured members of their team to safety, a day after an avalanche claimed 10 lives in Uttarkashi.
With the strategy working in its favour, the BJP could be encouraged to undertake similar steps in states, including Karnataka, where elections are due next year, to counter factors that might work against it.
The Uttarakhand government on Friday decided to waive for six months electricity and water bills of families and individuals affected in the subsidence-hit Joshimath.
The subsidence zone is located at central Joshimath only including the Army Helipad and Narsingh temple, the satellite images revealed.
'We humans may not have not created natural disasters, but we have definitely amplified their impact.'
Boring through the rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel was put on hold again on Thursday apparently after cracks appeared in the platform on which the drilling machine rests, in a fresh hurdle to the rescue of 41 workers trapped inside for 11 days.
The residents informed the authorities and immediately rushed to the accident site to lend a helping hand in rescue efforts.
Reacting to the statement, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary said "insulting the Sanatan Dharma again and again" has become the habit of the Samajwadi Party and its leaders.
Incessant rains lashed Uttarakhand for the second consecutive day on Monday, prompting the authorities to advise Chardham pilgrims not to proceed to the Himalayan temples till the weather improves.
'Rama is Lord God of maryada. Today's maryada is the Constitution.'
District nagistrate Ashish Chauhan said the curfew in the 25 villages will be in force from 7 pm to 6 am.
Counting for assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur was held on Thursday. Here's how the big names fared.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
Maurya made the revelation while favouring the expeditious implementation of the UCC both in the country and the state.
The Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday passed a stricter anti-conversion Bill making unlawful conversion a cognisable and non-bailable offence punishable with imprisonment for a term of at least three to a maximum of 10 years.
A high performance drilling machine was brought in Uttarkashi from Indore on Saturday to pierce through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham route and was being assembled before it is deployed to resume drilling, officials at the site said.
The Haridwar Police have added the names of Hindu leaders Yeti Narasimhanand and Sagar Sindhuraj in an FIR in connection with the case of alleged hate speech.
Former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had to face the ire of teerth purohits in Kedarnath as he arrived at the Himalayan temple on Monday to offer prayers.
Markets in Uttarakhand's Purola and neighbouring towns remained closed amid heavy police deployment on Thursday in protest against the imposition of prohibitory orders to prevent a 'mahapanchayat' that was scheduled to be held there over alleged incidents of 'love jihad'.
It is for the second consecutive year that the yatra is not being held due to the pandemic.
The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, was attended by chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 states.
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.
Opinion polls by a section of the media channels have stated that Harish Rawat is the most liked politician for the post of chief minister, way ahead of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
What some of our leaders were up to on Monday, December 12.
'These kinds of tunnels are not meant for the Himalayas.' 'Development should be good for all people and not where you make a tunnel and 40 people get trapped.'
While the opposition alliance is putting up a united front in Ghosi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand's Dumri, Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura and Uttarakhand's Bageshwar, its constituents are contesting against each other in Dhupguri in West Bengal and Puthuppally in Kerala.
Locals hold gradual land subsidence responsible for the fissures and attribute it to the widening of the national highway, violation of norms in construction works related to mandi parishad, erosion caused by the Pindar river and unsystematic flushing out of rainwater.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish at the loss of lives in Uttarakhand and noted that rescue operations are underway to help the affected.
The local administration has set up relief centres at four-five places in the Himalayan town, Garhwal commissioner Sushil Kumar said.
Amid protests by a group of residents in Joshimath, the Chamoli administration on Thursday put a ban on all construction activities in and around the 'sinking' town even as nearly 50 families staying in houses at risk have been evacuated so far.
The BJP is beating the development drum this time more loudly to overcome many other hurdles besides anti-incumbency. While the party is claiming it is looking for a much bigger victory than in 2017, BJP observers are not too sure about it, reports Shishir Prashant.
'The rocks, the geology of the Himalayas will always spring surprises.' 'It's basically force majeure and the will of god.'
