Month: June 2022

Congress to hold a ‘satyagraha’ on Sunday at Jantar Mantar in solidarity with the youth protesting against Central Government’s Agnipath Recruitment Scheme.

All MPs, CWC members, and AICC office bearers will participate in the protest.
Protests have broken out in various parts of the country against the new recruitment scheme in the Armed Forces. In some places, the protests turned violent as trains were set ablaze.

Meanwhile, one person died in Telangana’s Secunderabad on Friday as protests against the newly announced military recruitment policy, Agnipath, turned violent.

Earlier, protesters torched compartments of a train in Bihar’s Samastipur and those in another train at Lakhisarai station.

As many as 340 train services were affected on Friday due to youth’s agitation against the recently launched Agnipath recruitment scheme.

As per the latest reports by the Railways Ministry, 94 Mail Express and 140 Passenger Trains have been cancelled, whereas 65 Mail Express and 30 Passenger Trains have been partially cancelled to run in the country.

Notably, Agnipath Scheme was launched by the government, on June 14, in an effort to bring a change in the recruitment process of the Armed Forces. With the new military recruitment scheme facing a backlash by Opposition, the Centre has decided to bring a change in the upper age limit for recruiting Agniveers.

Granting a one-time waiver, the Centre on June 16, 2022, announced that the Agniveer upper age limit for recruitments via Agnipath Scheme has been extended to 23 years from 21 years.

The scheme is called Agnipath and the youth selected under this scheme will be known as Agniveers. Agnipath allows patriotic and motivated youth to serve in the Armed Forces for a period of four years. (ANI)

Hollywood celebrity Kim Kardashian, who is currently vacationing on an island, has shared new pictures with beau Pete Davidson, making netizens go gaga over them all over again!

The makeup mogul shared a carousel of photos of herself and Pete soaking in the tropical sun. In the pictures, Pete can be seen flaunting his ‘My girl is a lawyer’ tattoo as he clicks a picture of himself with Kim in the background standing on a boat.

The couple is seen enjoying their time in the ocean. In one of the pictures, the duo is also seen looking into each other’s eyes and smiling.

Kim Kardashian donned shimmering silver and black bikini, while Pete went shirtless, wearing white shorts. Kim captioned her picture ‘Stranded’ as she posted glimpses of them in the blue waters.

Fans couldn’t help but shower the couple with compliments. An Instagram user wrote, “I’m glad she found someone to do the simple things with (heart emojis)”.

Another fan pointed out how the Reality star is glowing with happiness and wrote, ” You’re happier than ever Kim”

Another one wrote, “Loving this for you kimmyyyy”.

In a post shared earlier this week, Kim gave the first glimpse of their vacation. Both Kim and Pete wore all-black holiday fits as they posed for mushy pictures together. Kim wrote, “Beach for 2” as the caption. Kim wore a sizzling black bikini as she was seen cosying up with Pete in the waters.

The couple started dating in November last year. She confirmed her relationship with Pete on Instagram in March this year. Since then, she has been posting romantic photos with the comedian on social media. The couple even attended the Met Gala together. (ANI)

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut on Saturday voiced her support to the new Agnipath scheme for recruitment into the Armed forces and she “appreciated the government for taking these initiatives”.

The ‘Dhaakad’ actor posted a story on her Instagram account today and wrote: “Many nations like Israel have made army training compulsory for all their youth, few years everyone gives to the army to learn life values like discipline, nationalism and what it means to guard your country’s borders, #agneepathscheme has deeper meanings than just getting building careers, employment or making money…”

Kangana, who has been vocal a supporter of the BJP-led central government, compared the newly launched Agnipath scheme to that of the selection process of the traditional Gurukul systems.

“In olden days everyone went to Gurukul its almost like that it’s just that they getting paid to do it, shocking percentage of youth that’s getting destroyed in drugs and PUBg needs these reforms…appreciate the government for taking these initiatives,” Kangana added.

On June 14, the Centre introduced the new Agnipath scheme for recruitment into the three branches of the armed forces, on a short term basis. Raging protests were seen across the country against the scheme with Indian Army aspirants been protesting in several states against the scheme which proposed hiring personnel for a four-year period in the armed forces, followed by mandatory retirement for at least 75 per cent of them without any pension benefits.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Kangana Ranaut will be next seen in ‘Tejas’, where she portrays the role of an Indian Airforce Officer. The film will release later this year. (ANI)

Shah Rukh Khan is now the owner of a Women’s cricket team!

Taking to Twitter to share the news, Shah Rukh Khan stated that his Knight Riders cricket team franchise now has its first women’s team. The Women’s team has been named ‘Trinbago Knight Riders’ and will play the inaugural Women’s Caribbean Premier League.
He wrote, “This is such a happy moment for all of us at @KKRiders @ADKRiders & of course the lovely set of people at @TKRiders. Hope I can make it there to see them live!”.

The Women’s Caribbean Premier League will begin on August 30 and apart from SRK’s team, the other two teams confirmed to play the series are Barbados Royals and Guyana Amazon Warriors.

Shah Rukh co-owns the Knight Riders Group with actor Juhi Chawla. Apart from Trinbago Knight Riders, they co-own three cricket teams together – Kolkata Knight Riders, Los Angeles Knight Riders, and Abu Dhabi Knight Riders.

This year, SRK missed the IPL auction that was held in February. His children Aryan and Suhana Khan along with Juhi’s daughter Jhanvi Mehta had represented the actors at the event.

Apart from cricket, SRK is gearing up to be back on screen after a hiatus of almost 2 and half years. He has three films lined up – Siddharth Anand’s ‘Pathaan’ co-starring Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, Atlee’s ‘Jawan’ with Nayanthara and Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘Dunki’ opposite Taapsee Pannu. (ANI)

Actor Janhvi Kapoor has been leaving fans drooling over her stunning sartorial choices.

After stealing the limelight in a black dress at an event recently, Janhvi now stepped out in Mumbai to promote her film ‘Good Luck Jerry’ wearing an aqua blue asymmetrical cut-out midi dress.
Taking to Instagram, Janhvi dropped a string of images of her Day 1 promotional look.

She wore a blue cut-out body-hugging dress with a thigh-high slit from the international clothing line of David Koma.

Janhvi paired it with a contrasting black bra. For the glam, she opted for minimal make-up and kept her hair open.

She also wore a pair of black square-toe stilettoes that has given a classy touch to her outfit.

“She brings the rain,” Janhvi captioned the post.

Janhvi’s dress has garnered a lot of comments from social media users.

“Wow… you look so hot,” an Instagram user commented.

“You are looking beautiful,” another one wrote.

Speaking of Janhvi’s film ‘Good Luck Jerry’, it is scheduled to release on Disney+Hotstar on July 29.

The film, set in Punjab has been produced by filmmaker Aanand L Rai’s Colour Yellow Productions Good Luck Jerry has been directed by Sidharth Sengupta and written by Pankaj Matta. The film also stars Deepak Dobriyal, Mita Vashisht, Neeraj Sood and Sushant Singh. (ANI)

Hours after explosions and gunfire were reported from a Gurudwara in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul that claimed two lives on Saturday morning, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann urged the Central government to summon the Afghan ambassador and ensure the safety of Sikhs in the region.

“Very condemnable! This isn’t the first such incident. Attacks on minorities happen every three to four months. I urge MEA and PM to summon Afghan Ambassador and give a strong message that the Government of India stands strongly for the protection of minorities,” Punjab CM told ANI.
The chief minister also requested the Centre to take up the matter with the Afghanistan government and evacuate all the Sikhs trapped in Kabul’s Gurudwara due to explosions.

At least two civilians, including a Sikh man and a Muslim security guard, died after unidentified assailants attacked a Gurudwara in Afghanistan’s Kabul city on Saturday.

Initial inputs suggested that an explosion took place outside the gate of the Gurdwara early this morning killing at least two people. Another explosion was later heard from inside the complex and some shops attached to the gurdwara caught fire. No group has claimed responsibility so far.

Meanwhile, several states in India have been witnessing violent protests by Army aspirants against the Centre’s Agnipath recruitment scheme. The demonstrators demanded its immediate rollback.

Apart from agitators, opposition parties also asked the Centre to revoke the Agnipath scheme in the interest of the youth of the country.

Mann also said that he will write to PM Modi and ask him to roll back the Agnipath recruitment scheme for the Army aspirants.

“There’s anger among youth. I’ll also write to Prime Minister, asking him to roll back this decision. Those who want to work for the country with passion should be given the chance to serve the nation and be given a pension later,” Punjab CM said.

Agnipath Scheme was launched by the government, on June 14, in an effort to bring a change in the recruitment process of the Armed Forces. With the new military recruitment scheme facing a backlash by Opposition, the Centre has decided to bring a change in the upper age limit for recruiting Agniveers. (ANI)

COVID-19 cases in India crossed the 13,000-mark for the first time after more than three months, with the country reporting 13,216 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, according to Union Health Ministry data.

After a gap of three months, the country witnessed an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases as the country has been crossing the 12,000- mark for the past two days. India logged 12,213 cases on Thursday, followed by 12,847 cases on Friday.
On February 26 this year, India recorded 11,499 COVID-19 cases.

With this, India’s active COVID-19 caseload rose to 68,108, which accounts for 0.16 per cent of the total cases.

The government data today informed that as many as 8,148 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours thereby increasing the total recoveries to 4,26,90,845. The recovery rate currently stands at 98.63 per cent.

At present, the daily positivity rate stands at 2.73 per cent while the weekly positivity rate is 2.47 per cent. The death toll increased to 5,24,840 with 23 fresh fatalities.

Under the nationwide vaccination program, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 196 crore (1,96,00,42,768) as per provisional reports till 7 am today. This has been achieved through 2,52,66,330 sessions.

So far, more than 3.56 crore (3,56,40,133) adolescents have been administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 193.53 crores (1,93,53,58,865) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far, out of which, over 12.89 crores (12,89,73,380) balance and unutilized vaccine doses are still available with them.

Amid the recent surge reported in COVID-19 cases across the country, the Health Ministry of India on June 9 urged States and Union Territories to not lower their guards and strictly maintain the COVID appropriate behaviour. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday wrote a letter to States/UTs and directed them to ramp up RT-PCR testing, surveillance, clinical management, vaccination, COVID-19 protocols and take timely pre-emptive actions. Bhushan also advised the government to follow a ‘five-fold Strategy’. (ANI)

At least 250 people have been arrested and six FIRs lodged until Friday in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the violent protests against the Centre’s Agnipath recruitment scheme.

According to a statement provided by ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar, the FIRs were lodged in Firozabad, Aligarh, Varanasi, and Gautam Buddh Nagar districts.
Among the 260 arrested, 109 people are from Ballia followed by 70 from Mathura, 31 from Aligarh, Varanasi (27) and Gautam Budh Nagar (15).

On Friday, a mob vandalised a train at the Ballia railway station in Uttar Pradesh during a protest against the Agnipath recruitment scheme.

Meanwhile, protests against Agnipath policy have left Bihar in flames when mobs set fire to dozens of railway coaches, engines and stations and torched BJP offices, vehicles and other properties.

Many Army aspirants for the armed forces are unhappy with the changes introduced under the new recruitment scheme, particularly the length of service, no pension provisions for those released early, and the 17.5 to 21-year age restriction that now makes many of them ineligible.

Following the anti-Agnipath protests, the Central government on Thursday extended the upper age limit for the Army recruitment scheme from 21 years to 23 years.

The AGNIPATH Scheme has been designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces and provide a fresh lease of ‘Josh’ and ‘Jazba’ whilst at the same time bringing about a transformational shift towards a more tech-savvy Armed Forces – which is indeed the need of the hour, the defence ministry highlighted.

The selection will be the exclusive jurisdiction of the Armed Forces. A total of 46,000 Agniveers will be recruited this year. (ANI)

As many as 340 train services were affected on Friday due to youth’s agitation against the recently launched Agnipath recruitment scheme.

The Agnipath Scheme was launched by the Union Defence Ministry on Tuesday with the intent to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces and provide a fresh lease of ‘Josh’ and ‘Jazba’ whilst at the same time bringing about a transformational shift towards a more tech-savvy Armed Forces.
As per the latest reports by the Railways Ministry, 94 Mail Express and 140 Passenger Trains have been cancelled, whereas 65 Mail Express and 30 Passenger Trains have been partially cancelled to run in the country.

The Railways have also decided to divert the route of 11 Mail Express trains for tomorrow.

As per an official statement by the Northern Railways, 12 trains which were scheduled to commence on June 17– Kamakhya-Bhagat Ki Kothi Express (15624), Darbhanga-New Delhi Bihar Sampark Kranti Express (12565), Raxual-Anand Vihar Terminal Satyagrah Express (15273), Saharsa-New Delhi Special (02563), Howrah-New Delhi Duronto Express (12273), Jaynagar-Anand Vihar Terminal Garib Rath Express (12435), Dibrugarh-Lalgarh Avadh Assam Express (15909), Alipurdwar-Delhi Jn. Mahananda Express (15483), Kamakhya-Anand Vihar Terminal North East Express (12505), Bhagalpur-Anand Vihar Terminal Vikramshila Express (12367), Varanasi-Patna Special Express (03289), and Varanasi-Barkakana Special Express (03360)– have been cancelled due to the protests.

Apart from this, another train Bhagat Ki Kothi Kamakhya Express, bearing the number 15623, which was earlier scheduled to start its journey on June 21 has also been cancelled.

During the protest, which remained active for a third day today, several trains in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana were vandalised and torched by the agitators demanding immediate withdrawal of the recruitment scheme.

Several protestors in Hyderabad set ablaze 4-5 train engines and 2-3 coaches. Divisional Railway Manager at Secunderabad railway station, AK Gupta, however, ensured that they will analyse the extent of the damage.

“Info of one person being injured. Train services temporarily halted for the safety of passengers,” Gupta said.

Similarly, a mob in the morning vandalised a train at the Ballia railway station in Uttar Pradesh during the protest against Agnipath.

Bihar, remained the most affected state due to protest as the agitation continued for the second day today and the youth disrupted the movement of trains in various districts.

Earlier in the day, the East Central Railway informed that as many as nine trains were cancelled and nine others were short terminated, while the agitating protestors torched the train coaches at Islampur railway station in Bihar’s Nalanda.

The East Central Railway also issued helpline numbers for several Railway Stations amid the protest.

Meanwhile, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw appealed to the youth to not indulge in any violent protests.

“I appeal to the youth to not indulge in violent protests and not damage the property of the Railways,” he said. (ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met his mother Heeraben Modi at her residence in Gandhinagar on her 100th birthday.

PM Modi tweeted this morning, “Took blessings of my mother today as she enters her 100th year.”

Prime Minister arrived in Gandhinagar on Saturday morning. On the occasion of his mother’s birthday, PM Modi washed her feet and sought her blessings.

Prime Minister last met her mother in March during his two-day Gujarat visit.

On the occasion of Heeraben Modi’s 100th birthday today, a road in Gandhinagar will be named after her to “keep her name alive forever and for future generations to learn lessons of service.”

Gandhinagar Mayor, Hitesh Makwana in a statement said, “PM Narendra Modi’s mother Hiraba is turning 100 years old and keeping in account the demand and feelings of the people of the state capital, it has been decided to name the 80-metre road from Raysan Petrol pump as Pujya Hiraba Marg”.

The statement further added that it was decided to rename the 80-meter road for the purpose of keeping the name of Hiraba alive forever and for future generations to learn the lessons of renunciation, penance, service and conscientiousness from it

Later on Saturday, PM Modi will be visiting the famous pilgrimage site of Pavagadh in the Panchmahal district where he will unfurl the flag after performing pooja.

According to the Gujarat information department, “After the ascent of Pavagadh in the fifteenth century, the peak of the temple was dilapidated for the last five centuries. The summit has now been redesigned with a new look.”

“First, the foundation of a large campus was laid by widening the top of Pavagadh Hill, then ancillary facilities were erected on the first and second floor of the campus. The original sanctum has been kept intact and the entire temple has been rebuilt. The main temple and the open area have been widened. In the old temple of Mataji where there was a dargah in place of the “Shikhar”. The dargah has been relocated in an amicable settlement and a new “Shikhar” has been constructed, on which the flagpole has been restored and the flag will be unfurled there,” added the official statement. (ANI)