Author: Indmedia

Barnala: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Punjab chief secretary and the director general of police (DGP), seeking a detailed action taken report within two weeks on the police lathicharge on protesting sanitation workers in Barnala last week.Taking cognisance of a complaint alleging excessive use of force, the rights panel said the allegations, prima facie, pointed to a violation of the workers’ human rights. The complaint alleged that police used unwarranted force against sanitation workers, including women, who were peacefully protesting on Jul 22 over demands for regularisation of services, better wages and job security.A…

Lucknow: Veteran journalist, author and academic Mehru Jaffer, whose writings captured Lucknow’s cultural, literary and spiritual heritage, died in Goa on Wednesday. She was 75. She is survived by her two sons, Ali and Jaffer. Her burial is scheduled for Friday after they arrive from Austria.Born and raised in Lucknow, Jaffer was among the city’s pioneering women journalists.During a career spanning over four decades, she worked across journalism, academia, publishing and films, documenting Lucknow’s history, architecture, literature and composite culture.She began her career with National Herald before joining The Pioneer in Lucknow and later India Today in New Delhi and…

PATNA: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Thursday alleged that the Bihar Police had picked up several of his supporters at the behest of the ruling BJP, claiming it “fears losing the Bankipur assembly bypoll.”Making his electoral debut from the Bankipur seat, Kishor made the allegation just hours before voting was set to begin in the bypoll, which was necessitated by BJP president Nitin Nabin’s resignation. “I have been camping here for the past few hours, and the police is unable to divulge whereabouts of more than 16 of my supporters who have been rounded up, ” Kishor told…

Governor Haribhau Bagde interacts with vice-chancellors of state universities Jaipur: Governor Haribhau Bagde Wednesday directed vice-chancellors of state universities to adopt villages and make them drug-free as part of a comprehensive campaign under the Centre’s Nasha Mukt Bharat initiative.Chairing a meeting with vice-chancellors, Bagde said universities should identify villages and areas with a high prevalence of substance abuse and undertake targeted awareness and intervention programmes. He also called for action against narcotics trafficking around university campuses.“Individuals selling narcotics near university campuses must be identified. Special campaigns should be launched to identify and apprehend those involved in drug trafficking and luring…

Nagpur: Stepping up its attack over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, City Congress president Praful Gudadhe on Wednesday alleged that around 500 BJP office-bearers and workers from outside Nagpur were unofficially participating in Election Commission’s voter verification exercise and operating from Hyderabad House, which houses the CM’s Nagpur secretariat.Addressing a news conference, Gudadhe claimed the workers were initially accommodated at MLA Hostel and were being transported every day in six buses to different Assembly constituencies across the city, where they allegedly assist in voter verification despite having no authorised role in Election Commission’s exercise.As per Gudadhe, after completing…

Devotees throng a mutt in the city on Guru Purnima on Wednesday Varanasi: Ashrams and mutts across Varanasi witnessed a massive influx of devotees on Wednesday as thousands of followers gathered to seek the blessings of their spiritual gurus on the auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima. As part of the celebrations, thousands of devotees took holy dip in the Ganga.In view of the heavy rush at ashrams, mutts and ghats, the district administration imposed traffic restrictions and diversions at several locations in the city and adjoining areas, including Shakteshgarh near Chunar in Mirzapur district.Even before sunrise, the ghats were crowded…

Actor and former Trinamool Congress MLA Soham Chakraborty Kolkata: Actor and former Trinamool Congress MLA Soham Chakraborty faces new legal trouble after a businessman lodged a written complaint against him at Tollygunge’s Charu Market police station on Tuesday.The complainant alleged that he invested Rs 68 lakh in 2021 in Soham’s film, initially titled ‘Manikjor’ and later released as ‘Paka Dekha’. Despite commercial success, Soham allegedly stopped responding when asked for profit shares and failed to share revenue from satellite rights. The businessman further accused Soham of intimidation and issuing death threats when repayment was demanded. Soham is yet to respond.This…

Quote of the day by Tiger Woods (Getty Images) Watching a champion perform can make success look effortless, as though it were simply handed to a lucky few at birth. Tiger Woods pushed back on that idea directly. “Talent is something you are born with, and a skill is something you develop,” he said. “99% of what you need to succeed in golf are skills.” Talent might give someone a starting point. What actually determines how far they get is what they choose to practise and refine every single day after that, a lesson that Woods himself spent decades proving…

Australia is taking Telegram to court over its alleged failure to remove “pro-terror” material, including video of the Christchurch shootings, the country’s eSafety commissioner has said.Julie Inman-Grant, who last year led Australia’s world-first ban on social media for under-16s, said the platform faced a fine of up to to A$54.6m (£28m, US$38m) for failing to comply with its safety obligations under the Online Safety Act.The platform had left content “linked to some of the most notorious acts of known extremist violence in recent history” online long after it had been put on notice, she alleged.”This should concern all of us,”…

Against him stand those who think Britain’s hostility to cooling has curdled into a type of masochism.David Lawrence, of the Centre for British Progress think tank, puts it plainly: we don’t tell people to insulate their homes in winter and then skip the radiators. So why insist shade and shutters are enough in summer?He points out that air conditioning is standard now in offices, hotels and shops, “but we don’t expect it for schools and hospitals – which is kind of odd, because those are places where millions of people are every day”, and where heat measurably dents concentration, learning…