Browsing: India
TOI correspondent from Washington: In the summer of 1976, a Kanpur-born teenage engineering student from BITS Pilani stood in the lobby of the US embassy in New Delhi after being denied a student visa for the third time. His father, who had accompanied him, refused to leave. He had seen the photo of the consular officer in the lobby, gleaned that he was out for lunch, and decided he would wait to buttonhole him to ask why his son was being denied the visa despite confirmed admissions to three universities and all documentation in order. The persistence worked. Half a…
Hyderabad: Former minister T Harish Rao objected to the proposal of setting up Telangana Rythu Power Distribution Company Limited (TGRPDCL) and asked the Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission (TGERC) to reject the licence application.In his letter to TGERC on Wednesday, Harish Rao stated that electricity was one of the core reasons behind the Telangana movement, along with water, funds and jobs. He recalled that the power sector reforms implemented during the united AP regime had led to the Basheerbagh firing incident and that K Chandrasekhar Rao had resigned from the deputy speaker post and launched the second phase of the Telangana…
Two of the accused arrested in Similipal with melanistic tiger skin Riyan.RamanathBhubaneswar: Similipal Tiger Reserve authorities on Wednesday revealed that the sub-adult male melanistic tiger, whose hide was seized recently, had been killed on its fringes in the first week of Feb.However, the authorities are still not able to identify the big cat from the hide’s stripe pattern.The melanistic tiger skin was seized from three people who were arrested on May 21.“From interrogation of the arrested people and corroborating their version with the local intelligence, we found that the melanistic sub-adult male tiger was killed in Feb first week. Besides…
Mysuru: Leader of opposition in the council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on Congress, accusing it of betraying the dalit community for decades.Speaking to reporters, he alleged that Congress denied dalits the opportunity to become chief minister and used them only as a vote bank for over 70 years.Referring to internal political developments in Congress, he claimed that the high command has now initiated leadership change discussions, but said replacing Siddaramaiah with DK Shivakumar would make no difference to dalits. Narayanaswamy asserted that only the BJP could genuinely make a dalit chief minister and said, “Miracles happen…
LUCKNOW: In an anti-terror operation, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have busted a suspected sleeper cell allegedly operating at the behest of Pakistan’s intelligence agency and linked to Pakistani gangster Shahzad Bhatti. Four suspects were arrested during a joint operation in Saharanpur, police said on Wednesday.The accused have been identified as Mehkar, a resident of Saharanpur; Gagandeep and Buri Singh, residents of Muzaffarnagar; Shahrukh, a resident of Saharanpur; and Musharraf, a resident of Haridwar. Officials said the accused were allegedly part of a network attempting to recruit and radicalise Indian youth…
Bettiah: A police team investigating a complaint of illegal land encroachment in Mathiya village under Shikarpur police station area in West Champaran district was allegedly attacked by villagers on Wednesday, leaving three cops injured.According to police, sub-inspector Ravishankar Prasad, guard Sandhya Kumari, and Abhishek Kumar were injured in the attack and they have been admitted to Narkatiaganj sub-divisional hospital.The police said the team had gone to the village following a complaint lodged by Parvati Devi, a resident of Mathiya. In her complaint, she alleged that some people had illegally encroached upon the pathway in front of her house and had…
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Four CPI(M) workers were arrested on Wednesday night for allegedly attacking a vehicle carrying Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials during protests outside the residence of former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram.According to police, 12 people had been identified for their alleged involvement in the attack on ED officials, while search operations were continuing and more arrests were likely.The protests erupted after the ED carried out searches at 10 locations across Kerala in connection with the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) case, according to news agency ANI.The searches were conducted at multiple locations, including Vijayan’s rented residence in…
TMC MLA Dilip Mondal in police custody Debabrata.MohapatraBhubaneswar: West Bengal police on Wednesday arrested TMC MLA Dilip Mondal from a beachside hotel in Puri for alleged involvement in cases related to intimidation and threats against BJP workers during the recently concluded assembly elections.Mondal was rounded up from the hotel lobby by a joint team of West Bengal and Puri police just as he was preparing to check out and shift to another hotel in Baliapanda area.“We provided all necessary assistance to West Bengal police in tracing the suspect, who had checked in (at the hotel) with an associate on Tuesday,”…
Irfan Solanki, aides booked after clash at Kanpur goat market KANPUR: Former Samajwadi Party MLA from Sisamau, Irfan Solanki, and his associates have been booked on charges of assault and intimidation following a clash at a temporary goat market at Halim Ground in Chamanganj, police said on Wednesday.The incident created tension in the area, with traders and local residents gathering at the market and raising slogans against the former MLA. Protesters also blocked the market gates for several hours, demanding strict police action, before officials intervened and brought the situation under control.Solanki, however, denied the allegations and claimed that he…
Mysuru: The Heritage City is set to witness the launch of the country’s first full-length AI-assisted Kannada non-fiction book on Friday. The Kannada translation of ‘My Name Is Gauhar Jaan! The Life and Times Of A Musician’, authored by historian Vikram Sampath will be released by Mysore MP Yaduveer Wadiyar.The Kannada edition marks a pioneering milestone in Indian publishing as the first full-length book in the country to be translated using Bengaluru-based start-up’s TransLit technology, with only minimal human intervention in editing and proofreading.The book chronicles the extraordinary life of Gauhar Jaan of Kolkata (1873-1930), the legendary Hindustani classical musician…