Thousands of doctors called off their strike in Maharashtra on Monday after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan promised to accept their key demands. Some members of Maharashtra Association of Gazetted Medical Officers (MAGMO) were on hunger strike since July 1, leading to suspension of healthcare services in the state. “Today, we have called off the strike after the chief minister expressed his opinion to us,” said Doctor Rajesh Gaikwad, chief of MAGMO.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Monday said he will again meet Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and urge her to expedite the process of bringing back 39 Punjabis trapped in the Mosul region of conflict affected Iraq.
Badal gave this assurance to a delegation of family members of the Punjabis taken hostage or who are stuck in Iraq. The family members met Badal here Monday.
Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Beni Prasad Verma on Monday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the recent clashes in Kanth area of Moradabad, saying that it was aimed at “diverting” people’s attention from the “failures” of the NDA government.
The Prime Minister has to take the blame for the violent clashes over the removal of a loudspeaker from a temple, Verma told newspersons here.
Violent protests erupted on Friday in Kanth area after the police tried to stop some people from holding a ‘mahapanchayat’ over the issue.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu Monday assured power producers that he would use his good offices at the centre to get gas for power projects lying idle in the state.
A delegation from the Association of Power producers led by its president Ashok Khurana and including Anil Ambani of Reliance ADAG met Naidu at his camp office here.
The delegation said there was an urgent need of gas supply to gas-based plants with a capacity of 2,233 MW which were idle without gas supply and also another 4,061 MW capacity plants for lack of allotment.
The third batch of workers from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Monday returned from war-torn Iraq.
As many as 84 men from the two Telugu-speaking states who were part of a group of 186 Indian evacuees returned home by a special flight, officials said.
The evacuees landed in Delhi in the early hours of the day. The workers from the two states were brought to Andhra Pradesh Bhavan by the officials on the direction of Satish Chandra, resident commissioner of Andhra Pradesh Bhavan.
After making necessary arrangements, the evacuees were sent to Hyderabad by three flights.
The counsel of the Darul Uloom Deoband, Shakeel Ahmed Syed, on Monday said that the Supreme Court not only allowed the continuance of Shariat courts, but also disposed off the writ petition filed to stop parallel courts from functioning.
A 7-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by her three minor neighbours in Paschim Vihar area of west Delhi, police said on Monday.
The incident took place on July 3 when the three boys, who also reside in the same locality, took the victim to a nearby park on the pretext of giving her a mango and allegedly raped her there.
Police have taken all the accused, aged between 10 and 15 years, into custody and produced them before the Juvenile Justice Board.
In a comment loaded with sarcasm, BJP on Monday said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had wanted to do a lot of things during his tenure but “so many super PMs” had prevented him, triggering protests from Congress members.
Participating in a debate on price rise in Rajya Sabha, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the NDA government has inherited a legacy of inflation and the nation was debt-ridden to the extent of Rs 25,000.
He termed the previous UPA government as one of corruption, scams and unchecked inflation.
Former Shiv Sena MP and journalist Bharat Kumar Raut today said the late supremo of the party, Bal Thackeray, embraced Hindutva as a strategy because the politics on the issues of Marathi-speakers was not paying off.
“In 1985, Bal Thackeray realised that Marathi is a good cause for popularity, but it does not have elective merit. On the plank of Marathi you cannot win elections. Then he realised that the bigger plank would be Hindutva. So it was a well-calculated move and he embraced Hindutva…And won the subsequent elections,” said Raut, a former Rajya Sabha member.
Under fire for making controversial ‘shoot and rape’ comments, Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal might not show up in the ongoing Parliament budget session as he has been hospitalised following ‘high blood pressure’.
Doctors at a south Kolkata super-speciality private hospital said that the MP was admitted in an emergency condition last night after he complained of a sudden spurt in his blood pressure.
Bhagyanagar Gas Ltd (BGL), a joint venture of GAIL (India) Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, said today that after the recent GAIL gas pipeline blast at Nagaram in East Godavari, CNG supplies to retail outlets in Hyderabad and Kakinada have been suspended.
A press release issued by Bhagyanagar Gas Ltd, which is which is authorised to operate in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Kakinada, said that compressed natural gas (CNG) supply from GAIL to the BGL mother station in Vijayawada is likely to continue as it is through a different pipeline.
Pope Francis begged forgiveness today from the victims of clergy sex abuse as he held his first meeting with several abuse survivors but another victim called the gathering nothing more than “a PR event.”
The Vatican quoted Francis as expressing personal “sorrow” in his homily at a private Mass with six victims for the “sins and grave crimes” of clerical sex abuse against them.
Francis pledged “not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not,” and promised that bishops “will be held accountable.”
Two ULFA (anti-talk) faction terrorists were killed in an encounter with a joint team of the Army and Assam Police.
According to an Army official release, the two militants were killed Sunday night at Dakurbhita in Goalpara district.
The joint team also recovered two US-made pistols, live ammunition and three extortion notes from their possession.
The terrorists had demanded extortion money from a number of businessmen in Goalpara district and were involved in several terror acts, the release said.
—PTI
Prices of food items are under control and there is no need for panic, the government declared on Monday in the Rajya Sabha which took up an impromptu discussion on inflation on the opening day of the Budget session after the opposition pressed for it.
The short-duration discussion saw the government put all the blame for the current situation on food prices as also the recent hike in railway passenger fares and freight and diesel prices on the previous UPA government, saying it had inherited a “legacy” from it.
RSS leader and incharge of its media and public relations Ram Madhav has been deputed by the Sangh to work in BJP where he is expected to be given a role by the new party President.
According to sources, another RSS leader Shiv Prakash has also been deputed by the Sangh to work for the party now. Prakash was a regional ‘pracharak’ of RSS in western Uttar Pradesh, a state where BJP had put up a splendid show in recent Lok Sabha elections.
Star Indian batsman Virat Kohli has described England as ‘one of the toughest venues for sub-continental teams’ but said they are focussed on putting up a strong performance in the five-Test series to start the transition of the young Indian team to a good quality side.
The opening Test begins on Wednesday here, as both teams started their preparations today at Trent Bridge.
“This tour is right up there with South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. I would say these are the four places where sub-continental players do want to perform well. I too have that in my mind,” said Kohli.
CBI today carried out lie detector test on the fathers of the two cousin sisters from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh who were allegedly raped, killed and their bodies found hanging from a tree even as the victims’ family objected to the move of the agency.
CBI sources said the fathers of the rape victims, a family member and a witness have been brought to undergo polygraph test at Central Forensic Science Laboratory in CGO complex here.
The Government Degree College, Kukatpally is starting two new groups at degree level from this academic year. The courses are: B.A Journalism and BSc Maths, Statistics and Computer Science.
Nizam College invites applications for admission into BCA of three-year duration and MSc (IS) of two-year duration courses at Nizam College for the academic year 2014-15.
In a pressnote here on Monday, Nizam College principal stated that those who passed Intermediate in any combination are eligible for BCA and BCA graduates are eligible for M.Sc. (IS).
Two of the witnesses listed by industrialist Ness Wadia whose statements he wants to be recorded in the molestation case filed by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta against him, were not cooperating, while the rest were yet to be identified and contacted, according to police.
“When two of them (witnesses) were contacted, they said they were not the persons listed by Wadia. (But) We do not think that we contacted wrong persons,” said a police officer privy to the investigation.
The list provided by Wadia on July 2 has names of nine witnesses, but their job profiles are not mentioned.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, often accused of not taking interest in Parliamentary proceedings on Monday actively took part in the party’s protests in Lok Sabha against price rise.
Rahul, who always sits in the back benches, stood on the aisle joining other Congress and Opposition members who stormed the Well, disrupting normal business of the House.
Opposition members continued slogan shouting against hike in prices of food as well as petrol, diesel and LPG besides rail fare hike and Rahul stood in the aisle during the entire period.
The RGI Airport Custom Officials at Shamshabad Airport has seized 467 Grams of Gold from two passenger.
Union Minister Uma Bharti today hit back at former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh for his remarks that the NDA government is trying to make Ganga cleaning effort a “Hindutva project”, saying Congress should spare the river from communal politics.
21st century kids standing in a museum, looking at a Egyptian mummy with 1227BC written below.
1st kid: What does that mean?
2nd kid: Must be his BBM pin…
YSR Congress Chief and Leader of the Opposition in Andhra Pradesh, YS Jaganmohan Reddy today criticized that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was making mockery of democracy by encouraging defections.