India

New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan on September 27 to attend the state funeral of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

He will also separately meet his counterpart, Fumio Kishida during the visit, it said.

Abe, Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister, was assassinated on July 8 after a gunman had opened fire at him from behind when he was delivering an election campaign speech in Nara prefecture.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and several other world leaders would be attending Abe's funeral.

According to reports, more than 6,000 people are expected to attend Abe's state funeral at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.

--IANS
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Varanasi (UP), Sep 22 (IANS) A Varanasi court, on Thursday, rejected the Muslim side's plea for allowing 8 weeks' time before going ahead with the hearing in the Gyanvapi Shrinagar Gauri dispute case.

The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for September 29.

The court also issued a notice to the Muslim side to file their objections on the application for carbon dating of the 'Shivling' by the Hindu side till September 29.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side, said that they are filing an application to demand carbon dating of the Shivling.

"We are demanding carbon dating. The Muslim side says it is a fountain, we say it is a Shivling. An independent body must investigate and ascertain this," Jain said.

"The court issued a notice over our application for carbon dating and demanded objections from the Muslim side; disposal on September 29. The court rejected the 8 weeks' time sought by the mosque committee to prepare for the next hearing," he added.

The Court further raised objections on dropping the 16 impleaders from the Hindu side, who had joined in over and above the 5 original litigants. The matter is set to be brought up during the next hearing on September 29.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) Former Union Minister Manish Tewari is also preparing to contest the Congress presidential poll, sources close to him revealed that he was in his constituency to meet the state party delegates who are the voters in the election.

Every candidate requires 10 Pradesh Congress committee delegates to propose his/her name for the candidature.

Tewari is one of the vocal critics of the Congress leadership and has demanded reforms in the party. However, there are now chances that there could be a multi-cornered contest if Tewari throws in the hat.

The Congress' central election authority on Thursday issued notification for the Congress president polls.

According to the notification, while the nomination forms will be available from Thursday, the filing of nominations will be held between September 24 and 30.

Scrutiny of nomination will take place on October 1, and the same day, a valid candidate list will be published. The last date of withdrawal is October 8 following which, a final list will be brought out. While the poll will be held on October 17, counting will take place on October 19.

Amid hectic political lobbying, there is a likely contest between Ashok Gehlot and Shashi Tharoor while Suresh Pachauri also met Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday, besides Mukul Wasnik and Pawan Bansal.

Ashok Gehlot had met Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi and the meeting lasted for two hours, after which he left for Kerala to join Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.

Sources said that Sonia Gandhi has asserted that the poll will be fair and she will not endorse any candidate. Apparently, the issue of Rajasthan was also discussed in the meeting but there is no official word on it.

Gehlot is tipped to file his nomination next week for the president's post. However, he is reluctant to leave the Chief Minister's chair in the state.

--IANS
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Bhopal, Sep 22 (IANS) Congress veteran and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh (75) is probably the oldest leader covering 24 km on foot daily along with former party president Rahul Gandhi and thousands of others as part of the ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Yatra.'

Singh, who is one of the planners of this 3,500 km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, has been accompanying Rahul Gandhi since the yatra started on September 7.

In a picture going viral in the media, the veteran leader -- who often makes headlines with his comments particularly on RSS and BJP or even the issues related with his own party -- can be seen sleeping on a mattress on the floor without a pillow with just a thin towel wrapped around his forehead.

The picture is being extensively shared by Congress leaders on social media highlighting his simplicity and calling his dedication an example for youth party workers.

A young Congress leader from Rewa, Siddharth Tiwari (Raj), who is the grandson of former Madhya Pradesh assembly speaker (late) Sriniwas Tiwari and the son of former Lok Sabha MP (late) Sundarlal Tiwari, wrote in his twitter handle, "Karma yogi don't say anything, make noise! Keep this journey going, towards new horizons. Showing the spirit of sacrifice, penance and dedication for the nation, this picture is respected. This dedication inspires all of us to sacrifice everything for the service of the country and society."

Digvijaya Singh had exhibited the same simplicity during his 192-day long "Narmada Yatra" before the 2018 Assembly elections. Then also, he used to sleep on the floor, said one of his associates, who had accompanied him during the entire 'Narmada Parikrama'.

The current photograph was captured when Digvijaya, along with some other party workers, went to rest after a day-long foot-march - "Bharat Jodo Yatra," said a MP Congress leader.

Meanwhile, alongside the "Bharat Jodo Yatra", the grand-old-party is gearing up for its president's election. The senior leader had also hinted at joining the race with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) Shashi Tharoor.

Though Digvijaya Singh has hinted at the party's presidential race for the first time, it has been doing rounds here in Madhya Pradesh for the past few weeks.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has met Umer Ahmed Ilyasi at the Kasturba Gandhi Marg mosque in the national capital.

RSS's Sunil Ambekar said it was a part of the continuous dialogue with the people.

The meeting comes on the heels of Bhagwat interacting with a group of intellectuals from the Muslim community.

In August, a five-member delegation met Bhagwat, and the meeting lasted for more than an hour. During the meeting the atmosphere in the country and measures to strengthen communal harmony were discussed in detail.

Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, who was among the Muslim intellectuals who met Bhagwat, told IANS that he had sought an appointment with the Sangh chief regarding the communal atmosphere in the country. Following which the RSS chief met the delegation in Delhi.

Speaking to IANS, Quraishi further said that both the sides (the delegation and the RSS chief) were unanimous that without strengthening the harmony between the communities, the country can neither be strong nor it can make progress. He said that in the meeting it was also agreed that all the parties should work to convince and motivate their people to strengthen the communal harmony in the country.

Besides Quraishi, other members of the delegation included former Lt. Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Lt. Gen. (Retd) Zameeruddin Shah, former MP Shahid Siddiqui and industrialist and philanthropist Saeed Sherwani.

--IANS
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Jaipur, Sep 21 (IANS) With videos showing cow carcass spread over a vast stretch of land with vultures flying over them going viral on social media, a BJP MLA and a Union minister on Wednesday questioned the state government over the lumpy skin disease scare and its impact on cattle.

While BJP MLA Chandrabhan Singh questioned a state minister on the criteria adopted to count the dead cows on the floor of the Assembly, Union Minister of State for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Sanjeev Balyan, said that of the 18.50 lakh cows infected in the country, Rajasthan alone accounts for 12.50 lakh such cows.

"It won't be wrong to say that two-third of the sick cows in the entire country are in Rajasthan," Balyan said.

In the Assembly, Chandrabhan Singh asked state Animal Husbandry Minister Lalchand Kataria if it is true that lumpy virus is spreading rapidly in the state.

"How many cows have suffered in the last five months and how many have died," he asked, adding that as per official statistics, over 50,000 cows have died.

"What is the basis of this number? Has any survey being conducted? Will the owners of the dead cows get financial aid like in Bihar and Odisha," Singh asked.

Replying to this, Kataria said, "The data has been collected by the officials in the agriculture department, patwaris and others."

Balyan, who was in Dausa on Wednesday, said, "Central teams have visited Rajasthan five times since the outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle. It is my responsibility to fulfil Rajasthan government's demand for medicines and vaccines, and I will do that. But it is the responsibility of the state government to work on the ground, which should be done. The central teams are also collecting facts by visiting the different affected areas. Now the only work left is to treat and serve the infected cows."

On state government's demand to declare lumpi virus as a national calamity, Balyan said, "First the Chief Minister of Rajasthan should be asked whether he has declared the disease as an epidemic in the state. If the Rajasthan government looks at the Prime Minister for every work that is needed to be done, why did the people make him (Ashok Gehlot) the Chief Minister? One can expect help from the Centre, but here everything is thrown into the Centre's court," he said.

"The Chief Minister is showing interest in Delhi's politics, but now there is a need to work on the ground," Balyan added.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS) With a view to streamline the functioning of Accredited Driver Training Centres (ADTCs), the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has notified amendment in its rules.

The new rules include five-year accreditation of driver training schools. The ministry also said that the syllabus for imparting training for two-wheelers has been specifically detailed to comprehensively cover practical as well as theoretical knowledge.

The trainee will be required to pass the "test of competence to drive" in order to receive the proficiency test certificate for issuance of driving licence and other provisions linked to ADTC like fees, issuance of driving license etc.

The new rules include knowledge and understanding of fuel efficient driving techniques among the training topics for those learning how to drive.

The two-wheeler driving training will be covered in multiple sessions over a span of two weeks. The theory sessions will cover traffic education, first-aid, road etiquette, causes of accidents and fuel efficiency, among others. The practical lessons include basic and skill driving practices, night driving, and driving in single and multiple lanes, among others.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS) Delhi Police's Special Cell has made one of the biggest seizures of heroin from Mumbai, with the contraband valued at Rs 1,725 crore in the international market, and arrested two Afghan nationals in this connection, a senior police official said Wednesday.

The accused were identified as Mustafa Stanikzai and Rahimullah Rahimi.

Delhi Police's Special Commissioner, Special Cell, H.G.S. Dhaliwal said in a bid to bust the entire transnational drug syndicate, the two accused, who were arrested with record quantity of 312.5 kg methamphetamine and 10 kg heroin on September 3, were put to sustained interrogation.

"Their intense questioning revealed that 17 bags containing licorice roots soaked with heroin, or 350 to 400 gm per kg (amounting to a total of approximate 345 kg of contraband) have been concealed among other bags. The total weight of the consignment was 20,000 kg which was stored at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust, Mumbai," he said in a media briefing.

It was learnt that during preliminary examination that the entire consignment had already been checked but in the process, the bags of the consignment had got damaged and the licorice roots were lying inside the container.

"As the Special Cell team, after obtaining permission from court, started to inspect each and every stick of the consignment on September 16, it was observed that the colour of some sticks of licorice roots were darker than the others," the Special CP said, adding the team was, after several hours, able to detect heroin in all the sticks that were darker in colour which ultimately led to the major drug haul.

According to Dhaliwal, the consignment was first transported from Afghanistan to a neighbouring country, from where it was shipped to a country in the Middle East to avoid detection by the agencies. From there, the consignment containing the contraband blended with legitimate import goods was further shipped to JNPT, Mumbai.

"This consignment was supposed to reach the makeshift factories based in MP, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and other states at opportune time for its further extraction and processing to get the final product heroin," he added.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS) The Indian Railways will have to make major changes in its network for the Vande Bharat trains as they consume double the electricity than the normal electric trains.

This system has been implemented in many countries where high-speed passenger trains run, including China, Japan, France and South Africa.

If the Railways plans to run Vande Bharat trains in its entire network, then major changes will have to be made in the whole network and more and more power will also be needed.

The existing overhead lines may find it difficult to meet the future demand for high-speed trains running simultaneously. Hence it has been decided to upgrade the overhead wires.

Recently, the Railways floated a tender for 1650 km track between Delhi and Mughalsarai at a cost of Rs 1,140 crore. The Railways will have to bring 247 broadgauge network completely on the electricity network by 2023. In this direction, it has been successful on a 52,247 km route till April this year, out of the 65,414 km network.

The 16-coach Shatabdi Express has a locomotive at one end which provides about 6,000 horsepower while the Vande Bharat train has eight motorised coaches which provide about 12,000 horsepower to the train. That is why, working on the network for Vande Bharat train is also a big challenge.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Sep 21 (IANS) A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday remanded former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general, Partha Chatterjee to judicial custody till October 5 for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam.

The court ordered similar judicial custody till October 5 for three others arrested in this connection namely former president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, former WBSSC secretary, Ashok Saha and former convener of WBSSC's screening committee, SP Sinha. This means that all four of them will have to spend the festive season of Durga Puja behind the bars. They will be housed at Presidency Central Correctional Home in South Kolkata.

The CBI counsel sought the permission of the court to question the four accused in the correctional home. However, the judge of the special court pointed out that there were some technical mistakes in the application of the central agency on this count and asked the CBI counsel to submit a fresh application at the earliest.

The CBI sleuths probing the matter also submitted a report on the progress of its investigation in a sealed envelope. In the report, they pointed out how Partha Chatterjee ignored several complaints against Trinamool Congress MLA and former West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) chairman, Manik Bhattacharya regarding his involvement in rampant corruption in the primary teacher's recruitment.

In this matter, CBI counsel referred to an SMS message that came to mobile phone of Partha Chatterjee complaining against Manik Bhattacharya. However, CBI pointed out, instead of acting on that complaint, Partha Chatterjee forwarded the message to Bhattacharya.

On Wednesday, Partha Chatterjee himself participated in the argument and claimed that as the-then state education minister he had no hand in the WBSSC recruitment process. "If there is a road accident, the state transport minister is not arrested," he argued.

Opposing his bail plea, the CBI counsel said that if released on bail at this juncture, Partha Chatterjee might make attempts to tamper with evidences and influence the witnesses. Finally, after hearing all parties concerned, the special court of CBI remanded all the four accused to judicial custody till October 5.

--IANS
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