Month: December 2020

Former Miss World and actor Manushi Chhillar on Wednesday said she wishes to have a “fully sustainable garden,” at her home.

Chhilar’s current pet project is to turn her terrace into a sustainable garden.

“I want to have a fully sustainable garden at my home because I think the future of complex, modern society will be all about self-sustenance and environmental-friendly living. I have started planting different kinds of trees at my home and I can’t wait to see it all come together,” the 23-year-old actor said.

“My dream garden is actually at a very nascent stage currently and it will take months of work for me to slowly bring it together,” she added.

The former Miss India who is a vegetarian wish to grow fruits and vegetables in the coming months in her home garden.

“Since I’m a vegetarian, this garden will definitely be at play for the home garden to table concept of living,” she said.

“I want to grow several varieties of fruits and vegetables in the near future and I’m quite excited to take on this journey of learning more about organic, sustainable living,” she added.

Chhillar who is all set to make her acting debut in Bollywood with Yash Raj Films’ period drama ‘Prithviraj,’ also gave a glimpse of her home garden in an Instagram post. (ANI)

All India Trinamool Congress leader, Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday resigned from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly tendering his resignation to the Speaker. There are speculations that Adhikari is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon.

Adhikari who had been disgruntled with the TMC had resigned from the State Cabinet last month. For several months Adhikari had been pursuing an ‘Ekla Cholo Rey’ (to walk alone) and was seen attending programmes in the state which did not have party’s name or symbol.

“I hereby tender my resignation as a member of West Bengal Assembly. Steps may be taken for its immediate acceptance,” Adhikari said in his letter to the Speaker.

The development comes ahead of BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the state this week.

“Trinamool Congress (TMC) is collapsing like a house of cards. Everyday someone from the party comes to us to join our party,” BJP Vice President Mukul Roy said.

“The day Suvendu Adhikari had resigned from the ministerial post, I had told I will be happy if he leaves TMC and we will welcome him. Today he has resigned from the membership of West Bengal Legislative Assembly and I welcome his decision”the BJP leader said.

While reacting on the speculations, West Bengal Minister, Firhad Hakim said, “How can someone who follows Gandhism, go to the murderer of Gandhi? I don’t believe he’ll do anything like that.”

“I don’t know what Suvendu Adhikari will do. But we grew up with Gandhism and we have to continue that way,” he further added.

BJP MP Nisith Pramanik on Tuesday had told ANI that Adhikari is likely to join the BJP soon. “The wait is about to end and we might hear the good news soon that Shubhendu Adhikari is joining BJP. Shubhendu Adhikari is a popular leader and has made important contributions towards the betterment of his constituency. If such a leader will join the BJP, the party will be prosperous. We believe that we are going to get good news soon.”

On November 27, Adhikari had resigned from his ministerial post. Following this TMC’s Sougata Roy along with election strategist Prashant Kishore and other top leaders of TMC, including Abhishek Banerjee and Sudip Bandyopadhyay had met and discussed with Adhikari.

The resignation of Adhikari, who is a prominent leader in chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, comes ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal.

Legislative Assembly elections for 294 seats of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly are scheduled to be held in 2021. (ANI)

As the Left Democratic Front (LDF) inches closer to a clear victory as counting of local body polls reaches its final leg, the Left welcomed the people’s mandate while United Democratic Front (UDF) claimed it did not lose ground and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) said it was able to make inroads in the state.

As per latest trends, the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF is leading in 516 out of the total 941 gram panchayats, according to the State Election Commission figures.

The Congress-led UDF was ahead in 375 gram panchayats while NDA is leading in 22 gram panchayats.

Out of the six corporations in the state, the LDF and the UDF were leading in three each.

CPI(M) state secretary and LDF convenor A Vijayaraghavan said the results show that people in the state did not believe the propaganda and lies spread by the opposition.

“There was a strong attack on the Left by both the Congress-led UDF and BJP-led NDA. There were attempts made even to disrupt the day-to-day operations of the state government through central agencies. The results show that people have rejected all of it and are with the Left which is implementing development works in the state,” he said.

BJP state president K Surendran alleged that vote-trading has taken place between UDF and LDF but it did not deter NDA to make big gains in the local body polls.

“NDA was able to make great achievements compared with the last election. Congress has diverted votes towards LDF, cross-voting has taken place. Particularly, in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, UDF – LDF worked together to defeat NDA. The main takeaway from the results is that UDF has lost its prominence in the state. The upcoming assembly polls will be a fight between LDF and NDA,” he said.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullapally Ramachandran claimed that UDF did not receive a big setback as being projected by the Left.

“Compared with 2015, we did not receive a major setback. We were able to hold ground in many places in the state. Our political affairs committee will meet tomorrow and will do an analysis. If anything needs to be corrected, we will do so,” he said.

The Kerala local body polls were held in three phases. The first phase saw a turnout of 73.12 per cent, while the second phase saw 76.78 and the third and final phase 78.64 per cent.

A total of 21,893 wards in 1,200 local self-governing bodies, including six corporations, 941 village panchayats, 14 district panchayats and 87 municipalities went to the polls in on December 8, 10 and 14. (ANI)

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government for ‘incompetence, poor decision-making and corrupt practices’, two days after an inquiry commission on the June petroleum crisis released its report.

The commission’s 163-page report also estimated over (Pakistani) Rs 250 billion worth of oil smuggling from Iran and noted that a wide range of operations in the oil sector were against law and rules, operating without any check and balance, reported Dawn.

“The report on the oil crisis confirms what we already knew. It was a direct result of the selected’s incompetence, poor decision making and above all corrupt practices. This is exactly why he needs to go and is on his way out,” Maryam said in a tweet on Wednesday.

“As if we had shortage of scams — sugar, wheat, LNG, medicines, and now the oil scam. All multi-billion dollars scams reflecting incompetence, poor decision-making and looting & plundering the masses to benefit selected & his cronies,” she said in another tweet.

Dawn reported that the 15-member inquiry commission on the oil crisis recommended departmental proceedings against the top hierarchy of the petroleum division, dissolution of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and a halt to the operations of refinery and oil marketing company Byco.

It said having seen the affairs of Ogra, the commission was also ‘compelled to recommend’ performance audit of all the regulatory bodies (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, Competition Commission of Pakistan and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan).

Information Minister Shibli Faraz on Tuesday said the report on the oil scam was placed before the cabinet and the prime minister has vowed to take stern action against those involved in the scandal.

The report also identified a series of malpractices, including manipulation of pricing mechanism, adulteration, misrepresentation and evasion of taxes, figure fudging and so on across the supply chain, reported Dawn. (ANI)

It is the Narendra Modi government, which followed the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission, and declared Minimum Support Price (MSP) for various farm produces by adding 50 per cent profit on the cost of the farmer, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told a gathering of farmers in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, even as the farmers’ protest in and around Delhi continued.

“The Swaminathan Committee said that the MSP should be declared by adding 50 per cent profit on the cost of the farmer. The Swaminathan Commission presented its recommendations to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2006 but the decision was not taken. But Modi government did the job of declaring MSP by adding 50 per cent profit on the cost,” Tomar said while addressing a gathering at kisan sammelan in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior district.

The rally was part of the BJP’s farmer outreach programme amid continuing protest in and around Delhi by various farmer unions against the three farm laws enacted by the government in September.

Tomar said when attempts are being made to mislead and agitate the farmers of Punjab, you have gathered in Rewa, Sagar, Gwalior, Ujjain and other places to support the farm laws. I thank all of you.” (ANI)

Known for its dismal record of animal conservation, and “trophy hunting”, Pakistan has issued a “license to kill” the houbara bustard, an international protected bird species, whose hunting is banned in the country.

Pakistan issued special permits to the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and 14 other members of his family to hunt the houbara bustard, reported Dawn.

The houbara bustard comes under the “vulnerable list” of (International Union for Conservation of Nature) IUCN. It means that the species is threatened with global extinction.

The main reasons for the houbara’s decline are poaching, unregulated hunting, along the degradation of its natural habitat.

Pakistan is also known for ‘trophy hunting’ where markhor and ibex are hunted after paying a huge amount of money. The irony is that markhor is the national animal of Pakistan and people pay to slay the pride of Pakistan.

Keeping in view its dwindling population, the houbara bustard, a migratory bird is not only protected under various international nature conservation treaties but its hunting is also banned under the local wildlife protection laws. Pakistanis themselves are not allowed to hunt this bird.

It is evident that Pakistan has used the hunting permit as a foreign policy card to influence dignitaries from oil-rich Gulf nations.

According to sources, the other hunters include the emir’s father, brother, the Qatari prime minister, an adviser, the brother of a former prime minister, and some members of the royal family, reported Dawn. (ANI)

The active Covid-19 caseload of the country stands at 3,32,002, which is 3.34 per cent of the total coronavirus cases in India, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on Wednesday.

“The ongoing trend of contraction of India’s total active cases continues. The active caseload of the country stands at 3,32,002. The share of active cases in the total positive cases has further shrunk to 3.34 per cent,” the Health Ministry said in a release.

“India has recorded less than 40,000 daily new cases since the last 17 days. In the last 24 hours, only 26,382 persons were found to be infected with COVID in India. A total of 75.84 per cent of the new cases are from 10 States and UTs. Kerala continues to report the highest daily new cases at 5,218. It is followed by Maharashtra and West Bengal with 3,442 and 2,289 new cases, respectively,” the Ministry added.

According to the Health Ministry, India also registered 33,813 new recoveries in the last 24 hours ensuring a net decline of 7,818 cases in the active caseload.

“Total recoveries have surpassed 94.5 lakhs (9,456,449). The recovery rate has also increased to 95.21 per cent. A total of 76.43 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States/UTs,” it said.

“Kerala has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 5,066 newly recovered cases. 4,395 people recovered in Maharashtra in the past 24 hours followed by 2,965 in West Bengal,” it added.

A total of 387 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours.

“Ten States/UTs account for 75.19 per cent of new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (70). West Bengal and Delhi follow with 45 and 41 daily deaths, respectively. Daily deaths in India are on a sustained decline. Less than 500 daily deaths have been registered for the last 11 days,” the Ministry said. (ANI)

As her ‘painful’ yet inspiring training journey comes to an end, Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu, on Wednesday shared a glimpse of her transformational journey from ‘Rashmi Rocket’ with fans.

The ‘Thappad’ star who is working her fingers to the bones to make her body tough for her upcoming sports flick, has wrapped up her training sessions schedule for the shoot. To treat her fans, Taapsee shared a sneak peek of her athletic drill from ‘Rashmi Rocket’, on social media.

The clip which shows the 33-year-old actor gearing up to run on the race track also features Taapsee sharing her experience throughout the journey, “It was painful. The third day of the shoot, I felt like my body couldn’t take it anymore, I just couldn’t run anymore. I have to stop the shoot for a while just be able to walk,” she said.

The ‘Pink’ star said that she hit the gym really bad for the film.

In the caption, she announced that the full video of her training journey would be out tomorrow.

Taapsee noted, “As I finish the last athletic training today for #RashmiRocket here’s the journey I was waiting to share with you all….Or rather a glimpse of it. If it makes you curious then the transformation was worth it 🙂 The full journey tomorrow,” using a grinning face with smiling eyes.

The post garnered over two lakhs of views within one hour of being posted and celebrity followers like Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Bhumi Padnekar also poured love and appreciation to her comments section.

Directed by Akarsh Khurana and co-produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Neha Anand, and Pranjal Khandhdiya, the sports-drama that chronicles the story of a girl Rashmi and her journey from a tiny village to athletic contests is expected to release sometime in 2021. (ANI)