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Dehradun: Three bodies were recovered on Sunday from the Tapovan tunnel following a seven-day operation to rescue around 30 people trapped in it after a flashflood-hit Joshimath area of Chamoli district, senior officials said. These are the first bodies to have been recovered from the tunnel where people were at work when the calamity occurred last Sunday. The recoveries take the toll in the disaster to 41. A massive search and rescue operation has been underway in the tunnel at Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project site. NDRF Commandant RK Tiwari said the three bodies recovered on Sunday were found in the Adit tunnel where muck clearing has been going on. Two of the bodies have been identified. One of the deceased hailed from Narendra Nagar in Tehri district and another from Kalsi in Dehradun district, Chamoli District Magistrate Swati S Bhadauria said She said a helicopter has been kept ready at the site to provide medical help to survivors, if any. The NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad

A Delhi Police team on Saturday arrested a 21-year-old climate activist in the Greta Thunberg 'toolkit' case. The police have reportedly alleged that the activist, Disha Ravi, 'shared' and 'spread' the toolkit about the ongoing farmers' protest, which was later mentioned by Thunberg in a tweet. Disha is a co-founder of  Fridays For Future , a global movement questioning political inaction over climate change. According to a report in The News Minute , the police have accused Disha of contributing written material for the toolkit. An FIR in this regard was filed on 4 February under charges of sedition, criminal conspiracy and promoting hatred. This is the first arrest that has been made in the case. Disha is a Bachelor of Business Administration graduate from Bengaluru's Mount Carmel College. She works as a culinary experience manager with Good Mylk company, and was working from home when she was picked up by the police, according to a report in The

Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh): Fourteen people, including eight women and a child, were killed and four others injured when a mini bus collided with a lorry in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh early on Sunday, police said. The incident took place at around 4 am when a group of people hailing from Chittoor district of the state were travelling in the mini bus towards Hyderabad, a senior police official told PTI . They were all on their way to Ajmer in Rajasthan, he added. Preliminary investigation suggests that the driver of the bus lost control and the vehicle first crashed against the road median and then rolled to the other side of the road hitting a lorry, the official said. The injured have been hospitalised and the condition of two is stated to be serious, police said. from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/37dz5KC Press Trust of India

Chandigarh:  Taking suo motu notice of the matter pertaining to jailed labour rights activist Nodeep Kaur, the Punjab and Haryana High court has issued a notice of motion to the Haryana government, seeking its reply by 24 February. Kaur, lodged at Karnal jail in Haryana, is facing three cases that include charges of attempt to murder and extortion. The 23-year-old activist is a member of the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan and is a resident of Giadarh village in Punjab's Muktsar district. Along with others, she was arrested for allegedly gheraoing an industrial unit and demanding money from the company in Haryana's Sonipat district on 12 January, the Haryana police had earlier said. While taking up matter through video conference on Friday, Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi observed, "Complaints dated 06.02.2021 and 08.02.2021 have been received through e-mail regarding illegal confinement of Nodeep Kaur, Dalit Labour Activist by the Haryana Police." Haryana's Additional Ad

New Delhi: The vaccination drive against COVID-19 picked up the pace on Saturday as 1,856 healthcare workers, who had received their first shots on day one of the exercise four weeks ago, turned up to get their second dose. However, the turnout for the second dose was about 43 percent only. Under the nationwide mega vaccination drive launched on 16 January, a total of 4,319 (53 per cent) health workers, against a target of 8,117, were administered the shots at 81 centres across the city on day one. According to doctors, the second dose is to given to a beneficiary after a gap of 28 days. On Saturday, a total of 13,768 beneficiaries received vaccine shots and administering of the second dose began for healthcare workers who had received the first jab 28 days ago, a senior official said. "Out of the total number of healthcare workers, 1,856 received second dose today and 3,530 got the first jab. Also, 8,382 frontline workers also got their first shots today," he said. Th

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Saturday took strong exception to the stationing of three armed security personnel at her home in the National Capital, wondering whether she was under "some sort of surveillance" and asked Delhi Police chief to withdraw them. Our brave young men sign up for the BSF to guard India’s borders - using them for durwan duty outside my home is a bit silly, isn’t it, @CPDelhi , @MHAIndia pic.twitter.com/LViFEu2HOt — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) February 13, 2021 In the letter to Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava, she said the station house officer (SHO) of Barakhamba Road police station had come to meet her at her residence on 12 February and shortly "thereafter, around three Border Security Force personnel armed with assault rifles had been deputed outside her house". Sirs- I request you to kindly remove the personnel immediately @CPDelhi , @cp_delhi , @barakhamba pic.twitter.com/INWGnVLv9F — Mahua Moit

Jammu: The NIA on Saturday filed a supplementary chargesheet against a former Jammu and Kashmir policeman, who deserted the force and joined the Pakistan-based terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen, for his alleged involvement in attacking a CRPF convoy in 2019, an official said. Naveed Mushtaq Shah, an ex-constable of Jammu and Kashmir police, had decamped with arms and ammunition in 2017 when he was posted as a guard at the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Budgam, an official of the premier investigation agency said. After deserting the force, he joined the outlawed Pakistan-based and Kashmir-focused Hizbul-Mujahideen terror group and became an active terrorist, according to the NIA official. The chargesheet was filed against Shah before a special NIA court in Jammu under sections of the Remote Procedure Call (RPC), the Explosive Substances Act, the Jammu and Kashmir Public Property (Prevention of Damage) Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA. The case relates to

The first leg of the Budget session of Parliament ended with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking in the Lok Sabha on 'reforms' and the push for 'self-reliance'. Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday stated that the Centre will "definitely" restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir "at the appropriate time". Shah was addressing MPs during the debate on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021. The Bill was later passed by the Lower House through voice vote. The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 8 March on Friday. Both Houses of Parliament will reconvene for the second leg of the Budget session on 8 March. Earlier, in her reply in the debate on the Budget in the Lok Sabha on Saturday, Sitharaman said that the government had been pursuing reforms to achieve "sustained long-term growth" despite the COVID-19 pandemic. She added that the Centre is seeking to make India "one of the top eco

Srinagar: PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday claimed that she was placed under house arrest ahead of her visit to the family of Athar Mushtaq, one of the three alleged militants killed in an encounter in Parimpora locality in Srinagar in December last year. "Placed under house arrest as usual for trying to visit the family of Athar Mushtaq killed allegedly in a fake encounter. His father was booked under UAPA for demanding his dead body. This the normalcy GOI wants to showcase to the EU delegation visiting Kashmir (sic)," Mehbooba said on Twitter. She also uploaded a video of her interaction with her security staff at her 'Fairview' residence in the Gupkar area in Srinagar. Placed under house arrest as usual for trying to visit the family of Athar Mushtaq killed allegedly in a fake encounter. His father was booked under UAPA for demanding his dead body. This the normalcy GOI wants to showcase to the EU delegation

The Reserve Bank of India has declared the RBI Assistant Final Result 2019. Candidates can check the final result on the official site rbi.org.in. The RBI has released separate result PDFs for different states. The RBI main examination was conducted on Sunday, 22 November, 2020. According to the official notification on the RBI website, appointment of the candidates is subject to their being found medically fit and fulfillment of other terms and conditions as stipulated in the advertisement. In the absence of required certificates / documents, candidates may not be appointed in the Bank. Here's how to check the RBI Assistant Final Result 2019: Step 1: Candidates need to visit the official RBI website rbi.org.in. Step 2: Once there, they need to click on the RBI Final Result 2019 link available on the homepage. Step 3: Candidates will be redirected to a new page which will have the list of provisionally selected candidates for different places. Step 4: Candidates will h

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will allow Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main aspirants to choose the dates on which they want to appear for the entrance examination. According to a report in The Indian Express , the facility is being offered as the JEE Main May attempt is coinciding with several state and CBSE board examinations. The agency will reopen the application forms in May, the report adds. As per the official NTA notification , candidates appearing in JEE Main had brought to the NTA's notice that Class 12 exams conducted by the CBSE and various state boards and the JEE Main examination are going to be held during the same period. Keeping in view the interest of the candidates and two avoid a clash between the two exams, the NTA will open the application form of JEE Main 2021 from 3 May to 12 May for the May test. The notification further adds that candidates appearing for the Class 12 Board examinations as well as JEE (Main) will be required to provide informat

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday defended the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and said that the Union Territory will get its statehood at an appropriate time. "Nowhere in the Bill has it been said that Jammu and Kashmir will never get its statehood. Jammu and Kashmir will get statehood at an appropriate time," Shah said, replying to a discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill. Slamming some Opposition members for their claim that the proposed law negates the hopes of the region getting back its erstwhile statehood, Shah said the region's Union Territory status is temporary. He then took a swipe at the Congress and other regional parties, saying Article 370 was a temporary provision but they continued with it for over 70 years before the Modi government annulled it in August 2019. Shah also told the Lok Sabha that the Modi government has done more for Jammu and Kashmir since Article 370 was scrapped in August 2019 than t

Valentine's Day is celebrated every year on 14 February. The date is also called Saint Valentine's Day as well as the Feast of Saint Valentine. While broadly celebrated as a day dedicated to love, it has its origins as a minor Western Christian feast day in honour of Christian martyr Saint Valentine. As per a report in BBC , St Valentine was a priest from Rome in the third century AD. Emperor Claudius II, who was known to be embroiled in several conflicts and wars, had been struggling to maintain a formidable army. Claudius believed that men in his empire were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families. As a result, he banned marriages among his subjects because he thought that married men were incompetent soldiers. Valentine felt that the rule was unfair and thus broke it and arranged marriages in secret. When the emperor found out, Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death. He was executed on 14 February around the y

The Central Selection Board of Constable, Bihar has released the schedule for release of the e-admit cards and constable written examination on its official website csbc.bih.nic.in. As per a report in Hindustan Times , the board will conduct the CBSC constable recruitment written examination on 14 March and 21 March. The examination is being conducted for direct recruitment of 8,415 Constable vacancies. The report adds that the admit cards for the recruitment examination will be released on 25 February. A report by The Times of India mentions that candidates will not be sent the admit card via post. The written examination is being held for candidates who applied for posts of Constable in Bihar Police / Bihar Military Police / Special Integrated India Reserve Corps / Bihar State Industrial Security Corps by Central Selection Board (Constable Recruitment). To appear in the examination at the centre, candidates will have to produce e-admit card along with a photo identity card like v

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, responding to a discussion on the Union Budget in Parliament, lambasted the Congress party on Saturday. She termed former finance minister P Chidambaram's criticism of the financial document 'verbose', while calling the party's former president a 'doomsday man'. Sitharaman heaped praise on the Prime Minister for leading the country in times of pandemic with a 'clear-headed approach'. However, she did agree to allocate more funds to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme if needed, a common point of criticism made by several MPs across political lines. Sitharaman defends Budget, promises more funds for MGNREGA if needed Defending the Union Budget 2021 after a detailed discussion on the same in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said the Union Budget 2021-122 has set the pace for India to become 'Aatmanirbhar'. The minister also said the challenges of the pandemic did not deter government from unde

The Department of Pre-University Education, Karnataka has released the time table of pre-university certificate (PUC) annual examination. The schedule has been released after the department received objections from students and parents, thus making them change the exam schedule for PUC-2 students from 24 May to 16 June. The exams had earlier been scheduled to take place from 24 May to 10 June, reported The New Indian Express . State primary and secondary education minister Suresh Kumar stated that they had announced the tentative timetable on 29 January, 2021 and had given a week's time for students and parents to raise their objections. He added that a few students and parents approached the department directly about the clash of final exams with other competitive exams and hence they had to rework the schedule and re-announce the final timetable for PUC-2. Kumar added that the SSLC final exam timetable will be announced very soon as well. He stated that the Karnataka State Sec

The Board of School Education, Haryana (BSEH) has cancelled the first year and second year DElEd re-appear exam 2021. The exams were scheduled to commence from 19 February, but stand cancelled due to administrative reasons, board chairman Jagbir Singh has announced. The board will announce the new exam dates soon . A two-year programme to train teachers, the DElEd exam will see differently-abled candidates getting service of amanuensis and extra time of 20 minutes in an hour in each exam. While the first year re-appear exam were to continue till 12 March , the second year exam were supposed to be concluded on 13 March. The exam will be conducted in a single shift from 2 to 5 pm, while from 2 to 4 pm for exams from 3 to 12 March. According to an earlier report , candidates will be allowed to appear in the examination on the production of a valid admit card with a scanned photograph. Calculators and mobile phones are not permitted in the examination hall and if found UMC will be regis

New Delhi: “The right to protest cannot be anytime and everywhere”, the Supreme Court said as it dismissed a plea seeking review of its verdict passed last year in which it had held the occupation of public ways during the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh here was “not acceptable” The top court said there may be some spontaneous protests but in case of prolonged dissent or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public place affecting the rights of others. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Kirshna Murari said, “We have perused the review petition and record of the civil appeal and are convinced that the order of which review has been sought, does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its reconsideration”. The bench, which has passed the order recently, said it has considered the earlier judicial pronouncements and recorded its opinion that “the Constitutional scheme comes with a right to protest and express dissent but with an obligation t

New Delhi: The number of healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated against COVID-19 has reached 77.66 lakh on the 28th day of the countrywide inoculation programme, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. The cumulative number of healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated against COVID-19 till 6 pm on Friday is 77,66,319 as per the provisional report, the ministry said. These include 58,65,813 healthcare workers (58.9 percent of the target number) and 19,00,506 frontline workers (21.2 percent of the target beneficiaries) whose vaccination started on 2 February, it said. "A total 2,61,309 beneficiaries were vaccinated till 6 pm on Friday across 35 states and UTs. These include 50,837 HCWs and 2,10,472 FLWs as per provisional figures," the ministry said, adding that the final report would be completed by late night. Ten states which recorded the highest number of vaccinations on Friday are Uttar Pradesh (68,135), Maharashtra (24,946), Madhya Pradesh (21,897), Jammu an

14:01 (IST) Parliament LATEST updates BJD questions need to bring in ordinance BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab noted that the ordinance was brought in three weeks before the current sitting of the Lok Sabha was set to begin. "Why this hurry?' he asked. He also questioned whether all central laws are being implemented in the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. "Have they been useful in improving the lives of people in these regions?" "Cadres prefer Delhi, Chandigarh or Goa. No one wants to go to northeast or Andaman and Nicobar Islands. You have clubbed Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh with this. There should be a rule that they must work there at least for a specific number of years," he said.. 13:54 (IST) Parliament LATEST updates RSP says normalcy not restored in Jammu and Kashmir yet RSP MP NK Premachandran questioned the government about its assurance that the statehood status of Jammu and Kashmir will be restored. "You haven't restored norm

The Himalaya is an active transcontinental mountain chain in Asia, growing at a few millimetres per year. Over millions and millions of years, a snail-paced tectonic push has brought this mountain to its current towering stature. As the jagged mountain peaks would testify, the dynamic Himalayan landscape is also subjected, in equal measure, to the erosive forces of climate that are constantly at work to wear them down. In all its environmental and landform complexities, the Himalayas are a product of a dynamic balance between the invisible natural processes at work in the region, and the tension exerted by these forces or their agents, often, in the form of earthquakes, avalanches, and floods. The Himalayas contain the largest volume of snow and ice outside the Polar Regions. The ‘Third Pole’, as it as also referred to, has a huge repository of glaciers – the point of origin of some of Asia’s major rivers. It is also a prime regulator of the general global climate, and Asia in particu

Nagpur: Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, who is serving life term in Nagpur Central Prison for Maoist links, has tested coronavirus positive, a jail official said on Saturday. Along with him, three other inmates of the jail were found to have contracted the infection, he said. "GN Saibaba tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday. He will be taken for a CT scan and other tests, after which doctors will decide whether to shift him to the Government Medical College and Hospital for treatment," jail superintendent Anup Kumre said. Earlier this week, gangster Arun Gawli and four other inmates of Nagpur jail had tested positive for the infection. Saibaba is wheelchair-bound with 90 percent physical disabilities. In 2017, a court in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli had convicted him and four others for Maoist links and indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country. Ever since his conviction, Saibaba is lodged in the Nagpur jail. from Firstpost

Ahead of the Assembly polls in Kerala, the opposition UDF on Saturday got a shot in its arm with a faction in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a constituent in the ruling LDF, announcing its decision to part ways with the CPM-led alliance and join the Congress-led  front. Mani C Kappen MLA, who is heading the faction, said he would attend the 'Aiswarya Kerala' Yatra led by senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala when it reaches his constituency Pala in Kottayam district on Sunday. Kappen, who won the Pala seat as an LDF candidate in the bypoll held in 2019, claimed support of seven district presidents and nine state office bearers of the NCP. He revolted against the state LDF leadership following the reported move by the CPM to hand over Pala Assembly seat to Kerala Congress (M)-led by Jose K Mani which recently joined the ruling front after severing its decades old alliance with the UDF. Talking to reporters, Kappen expressed hope that the UDF will take his faction i

Tapovan (Uttarakhand): Security personnel drilled a hole on their way to a possible location of over 30 people trapped inside the sludge-choked Tapovan tunnel, making a headway at last in the prolonged rescue efforts. However, efforts were afoot on Saturday to widen the hole so that a camera could be inserted into the tunnel to get a clue of the trapped men, officials said. Drilling of a 12-metre-long hole of 75 mm diameter in the intake adit tunnel to its inside has been successful, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Tapovan, General Manager, R P Ahirwal said. "This is a good sign as there is no water or slush pressure observed in the silt-flushing tunnel," he said in a release. "However, the camera could not be inserted due to the presence of slush. Drilling of a larger diameter hole has been planned now. Meanwhile mucking from the intake adit tunnel is in progress. The diameter of bore hole shall be 250-300 mm," he said. The marathon rescue operation

It was only a virtual press conference, but it encapsulated both the venom and the defiant hope that characterise the world of inter-faith couples today. As half-a-dozen inter-faith couples opened up about their experiences at a Zoom meet on Friday, two voices interrupted them. The first, belonging to Dr Waleed Mallik, warned a couple from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh that he would get them locked up under the "love jihad" laws passed in these two states. The second, Mithila Thakur, spewing expletives, said he had taken down the names of every couple present at the meet. Mallik also warned Asif Iqbal, co-founder of Dhanak of Humanity, a Delhi-based organisation that has helped 1,300 inter-faith and inter-caste couples since 2012, to stop doing this work and helping "ka****" (expletive used for circumcised men, ie Muslims). A strange threat to emanate from a man carrying a Muslim name! The virtual press conference had been organised by Dhanak; the couples who

One of the most prominent figures in India's freedom struggle, Sarojini Naidu, also known as the 'Nightingale of India' was a political activist and poet. It was her prowess in poetry which earned her the moniker. Sarojini was born in a Bengali family in Hyderabad on 13 February, 1879 and was eventually drawn towards Indian National Congress' movement to liberate India from the British. She went on to become a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was subsequently appointed President of the Indian National Congress in 1925. After India gained independence in 1947, Naidu was appointed as the governor of the United Provinces, which is today known as Uttar Pradesh. With her appointment, she became India's first woman governor . Naidu had been imprisoned a number of times with Mahatma Gandhi while participating in India's freedom struggle. In 1942, while Gandhi was leading the Quit India Movement, the British government imprisoned her for almost two years . She wrote s