Friday, December 26, 2025

At least 14 people die as bus falls in to deep gorge in Uttarakhand

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Tehelka Web Desk
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A state road transport bus carrying over 29 passengers fell in a 300 -meter deep canyon on Thursday killing at least 14 people, near Kirgani on Rishikesh-Chamba-Gangotri highway in Tehri district of  Uttarakhand.

The bus was on its way to Haridwar. Around 16 injured passengers had been removed from the bus, out of which six passengers seem to be serious. The rescue team led by SDM, Tehri, had reached the spot and all injured were taken to nearby Government hospital in Chamba

However, District Magistrate, Tehri, Sonika has said, the serious passengers will be sent to a higher centre.

“Rescue machinery was immediately put into action at the district as well as the state levels. The helicopter is in the process of airlifting victims. District magistrate Sonika is at the accident site, monitoring the rescue and relief work,” said secretary (disaster) Amit Singh Negi.

According to reports, the bus driver lost control and fall in wreckage formed on the road where work for the all-weather char dham road is on.

Chief Minister TS Rawat has announced an amount of Rs 2 lakh for the family of dead passengers Rs 50,000 for the injured passengers.

Rajasthan Government relaxes two-child policy for state government employees

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Tehelka Web Desk
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The Rajasthan cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, on Wednesday relaxed the two-child policy for state government employees, scraping the clause entailing compulsory retirement on birth of the third child.

Rajendra Rathore, Rajasthan’s Parliamentary affairs minister, said in a press briefing, “The Rajasthan state cabinet has decided to remove the provisions under Rajasthan Civil Services (Pension) Rules 1996, Section 53(a) which entails compulsory retirement of an employee on birth of a third child.”

“In our state, all the schemes pertaining to family planning have been implemented properly. Moreover, there is an improvement in the birth rate in the state in the past couple of years,” Rathore further added.

Nearly 13 proposals for investments worth Rs 6,000 crore in various parts of the state were also approved, adding these projects will generate thousands of jobs in the state in sectors such as cement, mining, textiles, distillery and beverages, plastic manufacturing, agro processing, BPO, auto parts etc, Rathore confirmed during the press briefing.

The Cabinet approved many proposals including, the State Cooperative Bank’s proposal to take loan worth Rs 5,000 crore from the National Cooperative Development Corporation for the state’s crop loan waiver scheme, under which Rs 5,077 crore have been waived to benefit 16.56 lakh farmers.

Security forces kill seven naxals in an encounter in Chhattisgarh

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Tehelka Web Desk
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Representational image

At least seven naxals were gunned down on Thursday in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s, Bijapur district.

According to the State Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (anti-naxal operations) Sundarraj, the battle took place at around 6 am in the forest near Timinar and Pusnar villages along the border of Bijapur and  Dantewada districts, when a joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) was out on an anti-Maoist operation.

While they were cordoning off jungles of Timinar and Pusnar villages, the exchange of fire broke out between the two sides, he said.

“After guns fell silent, bodies of seven Naxals, including three women, were recovered from the spot,” also two Insas rifles, two .303 rifles, one .12 bore gun and a few muzzle-loading guns were also recovered from the spot, the DIG said.

Further details are yet to come, he added.

PM Modi addresses residents of newly electrified villages via video conferencing

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Tehelka Web Desk
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday alleged that The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government failed miserably in providing electricity across the country, when was in power at the centre from 2004 to 2014,

Prime Minister was interacting through video conferencing with the villagers from different parts of India, whose houses have been electrified after his government came to power.

“In 2005, the then Congress government promised to electrify every village by 2009. The then president of the ruling party went a step ahead and said that they will bring electricity to every home. Needless to say, none of that happened during their long tenure,” Prime Minister Modi said.

He was saddened that after years of independence, still there are villages across the country that continue to live without electricity

“It has been 70 years since we attained independence, but 18,000 villages did not have electricity connections. This was quite unfortunate,” he said.

Prime Minister Modi praised NDA government for fulfilling not only its 2015 promise of providing electricity in various villages and towns but also reforming the distribution systems across the country.

Assam Police arrest BJP MP’s daughter, 18 others in APSC cash-for-job scam

By
Sunny Sharma
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Assam Police on July 18 arrested Pallavi Sharma, daughter of BJP MP RP Sharma, and 18 other government officers in Guwahati in connection with the cash-for-job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).

“So far 63 officers have been arrested in the case. Today, we have arrested 19 officers, out of which eight are women,” Surajeet Singh Panesar, Additional Superintendent of Police of Dibrugarh Police confirmed.

The senior police official said, “It was found that these people committed fraud as the handwriting in the test and that in their answer sheets did not match.”

Police had earlier identified 25 officers of the 2015 batch who had bribed APSC officials to get jobs through doctored answer scripts. Among them, 13 officers belong to Assam Civil Service, three from Assam Police Service and rest are in allied services.

The Dibrugarh Police, had summoned the 19 officers after forensic tests of their answer sheets indicated anomalies.

After the probe reports Sharma alleged foul playing and said, “There is a political conspiracy against me. The probe has been selective.”

The mentioned 19 officers were selected in the examination conducted by the then APSC chairman   Rakesh Pal. Pal was arrested on November 4, 2017 after the arrest of two other members, Samedur Rahman and Basanta Kumar Doley, in connection with the case.

Jammu and Kashmir: Fresh batch of over 2600 pilgrims leave for Amarnath Yatra

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Tehelka Web Desk
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Representational image

A fresh batch of 2,617 pilgrims on Thursday left the base camp to undertake the annual yatra to the Amarnath shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas.

The pilgrims left in in the early hours in a group of 81 vehicles under tight security and would be reaching the twin base camps of Baltal in Ganderbal and Pahalgam in Anantnag districts later in the day, the officials said.

1,830 pilgrims from the latest batch of 2617 are performing the yatra from the traditional 36 km Pahalgam track, while 787 have chosen the shorter 12 km Baltal route. 

The 60-day yatra commenced from the twin routes in the valley on June 28 and is scheduled to conclude on August 26.

Members from Delhi’s Citizens4trees meet Environment Minister

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Tehelka Web Desk
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Initiator of Citizens4trees, Prerna Prasad along with its tree patrolling team met Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on July 18 at Delhi Secretariat.

Minister Imran Hussain ordered an immediate inquiry into the illegal felling of trees on receiving their complaint regarding the violation of High court order. He also connected the vigilance team of Citizens4trees to DCF South who is incharge of giving permissions for tree cutting.

“The patrolling team has filed four police complaints over a period of two weeks and no action has been taken on them and neither a FIR has been filed,” said Prerna Prasad.

Delhi Environment Minister had given an order to file FIR against violation of High court and NGT order.

The team comprising of Prerna Prasad, Veer Mahendra Singh and Balram Chaudhary apprised the Minister about flouting of Delhi High Court and NGT directions by the construction agencies. Despite the NGT’s clear directions that even the debris should not be moved, the agencies are dumping debris on roots and trunks of the trees thus choking them and eventually using JCB machines to remove the debris and destroying the trees while doing that.

The High Court and NGT stay order is being openly violated by NBCC and all other agencies. Different ways are being adopted to kill the trees. They are not cutting it directly but murdering it in different ways either by putting acid or chopping their branches or putting debris on them, said a member of the night patrolling team, Citizens4trees.

“We will also be meeting Minister of Environment, Central Govt and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Central Govt and demanding them to take strict action against these violations,” said Prerna.

Lok Sabha set to discuss No-confidence motion on Friday

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Tehelka Web Desk
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Lok Sabha on Friday will hold discussion on no-confidence motion against NDA government, brought by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and supported by other opposition parties.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced in the House during the first day of the Monsoon session on Wednesday that the discussion will be followed by voting on the same day.

“The House will take up the debate (on the motion) on Friday, July 20th. The discussion will be held for the full day, followed by voting on it,” said Mahajan.

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi said in a statement that her party has enough numbers for voting.

In reply to Sonia Gandhi’s statement, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said, “I think such over confidence will serve no purpose. We will show clear majority on July 20. We will win comfortably and show our strength to the opposition”.

However, TDP President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu on Sunday wrote letters to non-BJP, non-Congress parties’ presidents and Parliamentary party leaders looking for support on a no-confidence motion against Narendra Modi party over demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh

In addition to this Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday announced that all opposition parties have come to a accord to move the Vote of No Confidence Motion in the Monsoon Session.

Apex Court seeks guidelines on blacklisting corrupt realtors

By
Tehelka Web Desk
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The Supreme Court (SC) on July 18 directed the Union of India to come up with proper guidelines within the time frame of two weeks to blacklist those builders, contractors and architects who are found to have constructed buildings against the sanctioned plan.

The SC said that the sealing and demolition of unauthorised constructions in the national capital will continue.

The court has passed the verdict after the Centre said that it had not asked the authorities in Delhi to stop the sealing drive against illegal constructions.

A SC division bench, headed by Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur told the Centre that hereafter, owners of illegal or encroached constructions would only be given 48 hours show cause notice as to why the building should not be sealed or demolished.

The apex court was informed today that Municipal Councillor, Mukesh Suryan, Chairman of Najafgarh wards committee, had allegedly prevented officers from carrying out sealing drives in the area, to which the top court sought his personal presence.

The bench also asked the Najafgarh authority to file an affidavit on the allegation that Deputy Commissioner Vishwendra Singh was transferred at the behest of Municipal Councillor Suryan.

The concerned authority, however, submitted in court that it was a routine transfer matter.

The sealing of commercial establishments under Delhi Master Plan 2021 started on January 7 from Khan Market on the orders of a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. 

ED files supplementary charge sheet in 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper scam

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Tehelka Web Desk
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 18 has filed a supplementary charge sheet in the 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper bribery scam against former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi, his two cousins, lawyer Gautam Khaitan, two Italian middlemen and Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland.

The charge sheet will be taken up for consideration on July 20.

The charge sheet is filed through special public prosecutor N K Matta, and accuses Tyagi brothers, including S P Tyagi, Khaitan, Italian middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke and Finmeccanica of money laundering of around 28 million Euro.

The ED, in its charge sheet, states that money has been laundered through multiple foreign companies which were used as fronts to route the kickbacks.

These firms have drawn the money in the name of consultancy contracts to Interstellar Technologies Ltd and others and these funds were further transferred to Dubai-based UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings Ltd in Dubai.

Currently Shivani Saxena, an active director of UHY Saxena is under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and is in judicial custody.

On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.

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