India

Chennai, Oct 19 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said that the state government was coordinating with the Uttarakhand government for bringing the bodies of the three Tamil residents, who were killed in the helicopter crash at Kedarnath.

Seven people, including the pilot, were killed when the choppers crashed on Tuesday.

Stalin said that the Tamil Nadu government officials were in touch with the Uttarakhand government officials and steps were being taken to bring the bodies of the Chennai natives back to the city.

The relatives of the three have already left for Kedarnath to bring the bodies back.

The deceased are Premkumar Vanchinathan (63), his wife Sujatha Premkumar (56) who are from Santham colony, Thirumangalam. The cousin of Sujatha, Kala Ramesh (55) was the third Tamil who got killed in the chopper crash.

Kala's husband, Ramesh had driven down to Kedarnath instead of boarding the helicopter and survived the crash.

The helicopter, which was operated by a private company, burst into flames at Dev Darshini in Garuda Chitti, Rudra Prayag immediately after it took off from Kedarnath helipad. The incident occurred on Tuesday at 11.45 am.

The Tamil families had left for Kedarnath on a pilgrimage trip organised by a private tour operator on October 12 from Bengaluru.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday visited veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge's residence and congratulated him on winning the party presidential poll with a huge margin.

Kharge, the first non-Gandhi president in over two decades, was declared winner after he garnered 7,897 votes against his rival Shashi Tharoor who could secure only 1,072.

A total of 416 votes were declared invalid.

Soon after the result was declared, Kharge's supporters broke into dance and burst crackers outside the AICC headquarters here.

He is likely to take charge next week a day after Diwali (October 23).

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday congratulated veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge on winning the party presidential polls with a huge margin.

Kharge, the first non-Gandhi president in over two decades, was declared winner after he garnered 7,897 votes against his rival Shashi Tharoor who could secure only 1,072.

A total of 416 votes were declared invalid.

Soon after the result was declared, Kharge's supporters broke into dance and burst crackers outside the AICC headquarters here.

He is likely to take charge next week a day after Diwali (October 23).

--IANS
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Chennai, Oct 19 (IANS) Tamil actress Kajal Aggarwal, who is also mother to a six-month old baby, on Wednesday said that motherhood was the most challenging and rewarding job she'll ever have.

Taking to Instagram, the actress, in a touching post to her son, wrote, "I can't believe how fast the past six months have gone by or the profound change that has taken place in my life.

"I've gone from a scared young woman holding a wriggling mass on her chest and wondering how she was going to care for it to now fulfilling mommy duties and learning as I go along.

"Of course, balancing full time work and ensuring I never compromise on my time, attention, love, nurturing care for you- is extremely challenging, I wouldn't want it any other way and I never imagined enjoying, so much, these fleeting moments of babydom!

"You now roll on the floor, swinging left to right, tummy and back - it seemed to happen overnight. You've had your first cold, first bump on the head, first time in the pool, the ocean and you've started tasting foods.

"Your dad and I joke that you'll be going off to college next week because time is advancing so quickly. You've left the helpless newborn you were such a short time ago, behind already!

"I'm in awe of how you take in each little moment of life and often overwhelmed at the great responsibility God has blessed me with, being your mother! It's as they say, the most challenging and rewarding job I'll ever have. Happy half way to 1, my love, my baby Neil."

--IANS
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Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 19 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the BJP has the objectives of maintaining caste hierarchy, ensuring that women remain subservient to men and dividing India along regional lines.

The Congress MP was interacting with mediapersons at Adoni in Kurnool district during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.

He alleged that Congress has got two-three objectives. "It's first objective is to maintain caste hierarchy and eventually kill the Constitution, second make sure women are always subservient to Indian men and third is to divide India along regional lines," he said.

Rahul claimed that the views of Congress are diametrically opposed to BJP's objectives. "We want to protect the Constitution. We want to protect the rights of women and we bring communities and religions together. That is what Bharat Jodo Yatra is aimed at and it is doing this successfully," he said.

The Congress leader said people had started asking what is the need for violence hatred, why should we hate each other and why should we kill each other. These questions are being asked as a result of Yatra, he said.

Alleging that the hatred and violence being spread in India and the country is being divided, he said that the Yatra's aim is to unite the country again and to stand up to the violence.

"We are getting an opportunity to connect with people through Yatra. We are learning a lot," he said while evading a direct reply on why Congress was losing elections.

Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Congress party represents every single Indian person. "It does not discriminate between caste, community, religion and state. It is everybody's party. We defend the rights of poor people, rights of farmers, labourers, medium businesses and we want to bring harmony to the nation. Unlike most parties, Congress listens to people and has free and fair elections inside it. It has a culture of listening and carrying people along. Have ever heard of anybody publicly dissenting in BJP. Can you dissent in the YSR Congress or TDP. Dissent is not tolerated. These are dictatorships. Congress party is the only democratic and open minded party in the country," he said.

Replying to another query, he alleged that BJP's policies completely destroyed the strengths of the Indian economy. "Job creation in our economy has always happened on the back of small and medium business and a strong agriculture sector. Demonetisation and GST have destroyed both the systems. For the first time in their lives, farmers are paying GST on farming inputs. Ask any small business, they will tell you about devastation. Lakhs of small businesses have gone out of business and this has crippled job creation," he said.

The Congress MP also alleged that during the BJP rule there has been massive transfer of wealth from poor and middle class to a handful of rich people. "Third richest person in the world is an Indian. He is a close associate of the Prime Minister, a friend of the Prime Minister. Everybody knows how he became third richest. These people have access to the entire banking system while farmers can't access it. These people can have unlimited debt. The entire economy is crippled. Lot of work has to be done to bring the economy back to life," he said.

"The idea whether a strong or weak rupee is good or bad has more nuances. There are advantages of a strong rupee and there are disadvantages. Both those have to be taken into account," he said when asked about the falling value of Indian rupee against the dollar.

Rahul said the Congress party's idea of GST was one unifying tax. He claimed that their vision of GST was a tax that would develop out of a conversation with the states.

"The BJP imposed GST without a conversation with states. They have forced the GST. They have five different levels of GST. It is not there anywhere in the world. We are against the basic design of GST. We will bring GST, one simple tax after conversation with stakeholders. We are confident we can give a GST that will actually simplify people's lives," he said.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) Congress central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry has rejected the allegation levelled by team Shashi Tharoor regarding the party presidential poll, and said there was no basis of the complaint as there was no specific allegation.

He said on Wednesday that they have prepared a detailed reply on their allegations and said the letter should not have been leaked to the media. There were only two complaints about two ballot boxes during the counting, he said.

Mistry said, "Shri Mallikarjun Kharge and Dr. Shashi Tharoor were the candidates of the election of the President of Indian National Congress. The polling was held on 17th October, 2022 and counting took place today, i.e. 19th October, 2022 in the presence of the authorised Agents of the contested candidates. The total votes polled are 9,385. Mallikarjun Kharge got 7897 votes, Shashi Tharoor 1072. Invalid votes 416 Votes

"As per the Article XVIII (d) of the Constitution of Indian National Congress, I hereby declare Shri Mallikajun Kharge elected as President of Indian National Congress," he said.

--IANS
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Srinagar, Oct 18 (IANS) A hybrid terrorist belonging to terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), who lobbed a grenade in which two non-local labourers from Uttar Pradesh were killed in Harmen area of South Kashmir's Shopian district, has been arrested, Police said on Tuesday.

"Hybrid terrorist of proscribed terror outfit LeT, Imran Bashir Ganie of Harmen area, Shopian, who lobbed grenade arrested by Shopian police. Further investigation and raids are going on," Jammu and Kashmir Police quoting Additional Director General Police (Kashmir zone), Vijay Kumar tweeted.

The deceased victims were identified as Monish Kumar and Ram Sagar, both of whom are residents of Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj.

Soon after the attack, police parties reached the spot and an operation was started.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Oct 18 (IANS) Ahead of Diwali, the Uttar Pradesh government has announced an increase in dearness allowance and dearness relief of its employees and pensioners from 34 per cent at present to 38 per cent from July 1.

In a tweet on Monday midnight, the Chief Minister's office said, "Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to increase the rate of dearness allowance and dearness relief from the present 34 per cent to 38 per cent with effect from July 1, 2022, keeping in mind the wider interest of the state employees and pensioners/family pensioners."

Further details are awaited.

--IANS
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Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 18 (IANS) The 15-year-old rape victim, who was allegedly raped by a relative and then set on fire, succumbed to her burn injuries during treatment at the Saifai Medical College hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah, police said.

The girl was raped three months ago by a relative, who lives in the same village, police added.

On October 6, when she complained of a pain in her stomach, her mother took her to a community health centre where the doctor declared her pregnant.

When the victim's mother raised the matter with the mother and sister of the accused, they offered to get her married to the alleged rapist and took the girl with them.

On October 8 late evening, the accused allegedly set the girl on fire with petrol.

Superintendent of Police (SP), Kamlesh Dixit said that the girl was rushed to a community health centre hospital from where she was referred to the Saifai Medical Collage with critical burn injuries.

The victim's parents told mediapersons that they had been getting threats from the accused, and were forced to cremate their daughter in Etawah on Monday instead of the village where they live.

The SP said that the police have arrested the accused and his mother, while his sister, alleged to be complicit in the crime, is still absconding.

--IANS
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Farrukhabad (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 18 (IANS) On the complaint of a class 9 girl student in Nawabganj of Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad district, the school principal has been booked under the POCSO Act and other sections of the IPC, police said.

The girl had accused the manager-cum-principal of locking her up in a room and chopping off her hair.

The student, along with her family, also met Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Subhash Chandra Prajapati and complained about the matter.

The girl warned that she will end her life if stern action is not taken against the accused.

The student alleged that the accused had chopped off the hair of other girls in the past.

According to the complainant, the accused had made it mandatory for all the girls to make two braids but when she went with one braid, the principal chopped off her hair.

Merapur police station Inspector, Digvijay Singh said that on the basis of the complaint, a case has been registered against the accused principal, Sumit Yadav, under the IPC's sections 354-A (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures) and 342 (wrongful confinement) and the provisions of the POCSO Act.

"Efforts are on to arrest the accused principal," he added.

--IANS
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