Month: March 2022

Days after the BJP retained power for the second consecutive term in Uttar Pradesh, the swearing-in ceremony, sources said, of the new government is likely to take place after Holi.

Uttar Pradesh’s acting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will visit Delhi on Sunday, sources added. He will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda.

Adityanath on Friday tendered his resignation to Governor Anandiben Patel at the Raj Bhavan in Lucknow.

Following the massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Adityanath on Friday held a meeting with his ministerial colleagues at the party office in Lucknow.

Adityanath, a monk-turned-politician, won his first-ever Assembly election by a margin of 1,03,390 from Gorakhpur Urban constituency, defeating the Samajwadi Party candidate Subhawati Upendra Dutt Shukla, who secured 62,109 votes in the recently-concluded UP Assembly elections.

Adityanath will be the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.

Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Saturday expressed gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government for evacuating four Nepali nationals from war-torn Ukraine under ‘Operation Ganga’.

“Four Nepali nationals have just arrived in Nepal from Ukraine via India. Thank you Prime Minister @narendramodi and the Government of India for the assistance in repatriating Nepali nationals through the #OperationGanga,” tweeted Deuba.

Notably, amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, Indian authorities, along with rescuing Indian citizens in the war-torn country, are also extending their help to the foreign nationals stranded there.

Earlier, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had also expressed gratitude towards PM Modi for rescuing Bangladeshi nationals stranded in Ukraine under ‘Operation Ganga’, according to government sources.

As per the sources, India had rescued nine Bangladeshis from Ukraine.

Further, a Pakistani student, Asma Shafique, who was also rescued by the Indian authorities, had thanked the Indian embassy in Kyiv and PM Modi for their support.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Friday lauded authorities who facilitated the smooth conduct of ‘Operation Ganga’ launched by the Government of India to bring back students from war-hit Ukraine.

Notably, India has evacuated over 20,000 of its citizens from war-hit Ukraine under ‘Operation Ganga’. (ANI)

Kerala reported 1,175 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

According to the state government health bulletin, the state has 10,511 active cases.
It said 1,612 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours. The bulletin said 27,093 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. Of the new cases, 142 have been hospitalised.

With two more fatalities due to the disease, the death toll has gone up to 66,762 in the state.

India reported 4,194 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of 0.52 per cent, according to Health Ministry.(ANI)

Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal on Friday said that Rs 10 crore has been earmarked in the state budget to help students who returned from conflict-torn Ukraine continue their studies.

The minister said 3,123 people of the state have returned safely from Ukraine through various flights, including 15 chartered flights amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

He said the state government will provide necessary assistance to recover lost certificates and other valuable documents and to help them continue their education.

According to the Kerala government, these special efforts will function under the leadership of NORKA (Non-Resident Keralites Affairs) to coordinate these activities. NORKA will prepare a list of students studying abroad from Kerala.

Balagopal also sought the Central government’s help for the continuation of studies of the students who returned to India from war-hit Ukraine and expressed the need for an inter-government dialogue. (ANI)

Slamming the BJP over the delay in the announcement of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party not to cry like Congress.

“Stop crying like Congress. If you have the courage then don’t run away, fight (contest MCD elections) with us. It will be a big achievement for you if you will be able to get even 10 seats,” said Sisodia.

Sisodia’s comment came after Union Minister Smriti Irani accused the Delhi government of depriving the MCD employees of Rs 13,000 crores.

Her statement comes after Kejriwal held a press conference earlier in the day expressing disappointment at the postponement of municipal corporation elections in the national capital, stating that doing so “weakens the democratic system.”

“Today Kejriwal held a presser (on MCD polls delay in Delhi) I want to ask him… Does he know that Nagar Nigam had sought reforms last year? Delhi government has purposely deprived MCD employees of Rs 13000 crores. Kejriwal chooses to empty the Nagar Nigam treasury,” Irani said while addressing a press conference here today.

The Union Minister also said that Kejriwal should deposit Rs 13,000 crores in MCD’s bank account.

Earlier, State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava said that the Centre has deferred the announcement of polling dates for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election after the central government raised a few issues that are yet to be legally examined by the Election Commission.

He also informed that the Centre was planning to introduce a bill in the budget session of Parliament to unify the three municipal corporations of Delhi.

He further said that they were about to announce the dates, but now it will take another five to seven days to announce them. (ANI)

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Friday accused the Delhi government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of depriving the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) employees of Rs 13,000 crores.

Her statement comes after Kejriwal held a press conference earlier in the day expressing disappointment at the postponement of municipal corporation elections in the national capital, stating that doing so “weakens the democratic system.”
Taking a dig at Kejriwal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said he “chooses to empty the Nagar Nigam treasury.”

“Today Kejriwal held a presser (on MCD polls delay in Delhi) I want to ask him… Does he know that Nagar Nigam had sought reforms last year? Delhi government has purposely deprived MCD employees of Rs 13000 crores. Kejriwal chooses to empty the Nagar Nigam treasury,” Irani said while addressing a press conference here today.

The Union Minister also said that Kejriwal should deposit Rs 13,000 crores in MCD’s bank account.

“He stopped funds for sanitation workers, even stopped fund flow for parks’ maintenance in Delhi,” she alleged.

Irani came down heavily on Kejriwal on his statement of an “AAP wave in Delhi” and said, “A leader who gets less votes than NOTA in Uttar Pradesh, lost deposit on 55/70 seats in Uttarakhand claims there’s AAP wave.”

Kejriwal, earlier in the day, had questioned the BJP of not unifying the three corporations of the MCD.

“People are questioning the move. Since seven-eight years, the BJP is in power at the Centre. If they wanted to unify the three MCDs, why didn’t they do it? An hour before the announcement of the date of the MCD polls, they decided to unify them and thus delayed the polls. People are saying that this is just an excuse. BJP felt that it will drown in the AAP’s wave in Delhi,” the Delhi CM said.

Earlier, State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava said that the Centre has deferred the announcement of polling dates for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election after the central government raised a few issues that are yet to be legally examined by the Election Commission.

He also informed that the Centre was planning to introduce a bill in the budget session of Parliament to unify the three municipal corporations of Delhi.

“As central government raised few issues that are yet to be legally examined by us, we will not be able to announce MCD election dates as of now. We will take some more days. We have to conduct the elections before May 18,” Srivastava said.

He further said that they were about to announce the dates, but now it will take another five to seven days to announce them. (ANI)

Indian youth boxers Vishwanath Suresh and Anand Yadav produced gritty performances to make their way into the finals at the 2022 ASBC Asian Youth and Junior Boxing Championships in Amman, Jordan on Friday.

Securing victories in almost similar fashion against respective Uzbek opponents, Vishwanath and Anand (54kg) raised their games at a crucial time and tilted the results of intensely-fought matches in their favour.
Vishwanath (48kg) confirmed his second successive final appearance at the prestigious continental tournament after beating Miralijon Mavlonov by a split 4-1 decision. On the other hand, in the thrilling bantamweight semi-finals, Anand gave his all to secure a tough 3-2 win over Abduvali Buriboev.

The last edition’s silver medallist Vishwanath will look to change the color of his medal when he takes on Kyrgyz boxer Ergeshov Bekzat in the final while Anand will fight against Eljay Pamisa of Philippines.

Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Raman who ended his campaign with a bronze medal following a 0-5 loss to Uzbekistan’s Khujanazar Nortojiev in the 51kg semi-final.

Later in the evening, three more Indian youth boxers, Vanshaj (63.5kg), Deepak (75kg), Aman Singh Bisht (+92kg), will play their respective semi-finals.

Indian boxers have secured 18 medals in the youth section, 12 in women and six in men categories. Among women, seven have sealed finals berths at the tournament where both the age groups of men and women–youth and junior–are being played together.

In the junior boys’ section, Yashwardhan Singh and Rishabh Singh Shikharwar registered contrasting wins in the semi-finals late on Thursday night while five other boxers, Jayant Dagar (54kg), Chetan (57kg), Jackson Singh Laishram (70kg), Dev Pratap Singh (75kg), Gaurav Mhaske (+80kg), exited with bronze medals after losses in the Last-4 stage.

Yashwardhan (60kg) outperformed Kazakhstan’s Alexey Khavantsev 5-0 while Rishabh (80kg) secured a close 4-1 win against Choibekov Azim of Kyrgyzstan.

The tournament has been witnessing a strong competition in presence of 352 boxers from 21 countries including India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The finals will be played on March 13 and 14. (ANI)

Actor Shama Sikander is all set to take a big step with her beau James Milliron.

Before exchanging vows with James, Shama recently had a pink-themed bachelorette party with friends.

The ‘Ye Meri Life Hai’ actor took to Instagram and shared a glimpse of her pre-wedding bash.

Shama looks pretty in a white satin robe with ‘bride’ written on the back. She also wore a headband which has ‘bride’ written on it.

“Finally getting the Bridal vibes…. What a beautiful bachelorette Thank you all my lovely bridesmaids you all made my day,” she captioned one of the posts.

Reportedly, Shama and James’ wedding will take place in Goa on March 14. (ANI)