Regional

Bengaluru, Sep 9 (IANS) Mysuru prince Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar has remembered late Queen Elizabeth's visit to Bengaluru in her younger days and shared a video of her visit on his social media.

Yaduveer stated: "The Buckingham Palace released a statement confirming the passing of H.M The Queen Elizabeth. We convey our condolences."

"We remember her visit to Bangalore where she toured the city and the Lalbagh Gardens alongside my grandfather H.H Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar, Maharaja of Mysore."

The well shot video shows Queen Elizabeth alighting the aircraft with queenly demeanour and poise, and meeting the senior Wadiyar.

The video also shows how thousands of people gathered on either sides of the road and cheered for her. Queen Elizabeth tours the Lalbagh botanical garden in the city and waters the plant.

Sources said that the video was shot during her visit in 1950, when Late Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar was the Governor of Karnataka. Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar, a lover of democracy, readily agreed for merger with the Indian Union.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Sep 9 (IANS) The secondary education department in Uttar Pradesh has decided to provide online spoken English training to teachers of government colleges.

This is an attempt to strengthen English education in the state.

The course is designed to provide an environment of English language and give ample practice of listening and speaking the English language.

The course will benefit 30,000 teachers and over one crore students enrolled in UP secondary schools from class nine to 12.

Developed by the English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI), Prayagraj, a unit of UP State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the online English course has 132 modules of 10 minutes each.

ELTI principal Skand Shukla said, "This course is different from the existing courses in the private sector in providing knowledge of essential grammar, syntax, common errors and conversation-practices and also following the general Indian English based on the British pronunciation."

The modules are interactive in nature and there is an assessment at the end of each course module.

Vikas Srivastava, deputy director, said, "With English as the world language, it is important to make teachers proficient. The spoken English course will be beneficial to teachers from across the streams - science, commerce and humanities. "

Secondary education director Sarita Tiwari has asked district inspectors of schools (DIOS) and joint directors to ensure English teachers in their districts and divisions undergo the training.

--IANS
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Patna, Sep 9 (IANS) After the three day visit to Delhi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday returned to Patna and went straight away to Rabri Devi's residence to meet former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Kumar believes that his Delhi visit was successful. He also said that the BJP is trying to destroy the country.

"I am doing my job to unite the opposition leaders and my efforts will continue. I firmly believe that the opposition leaders will be united soon and every one will contribute in fighting against the BJP. The decision on the Prime Ministerial candidate will be final in two to three months. At present, I am not the Prime Ministerial candidate of the opposition parties," Kumar said.

"We believe in work and are doing the development works in Bihar. The fertility rate of Bihar was 4.3 in the beginning when I took charge of Bihar, and now it has reached to 2.9 due to the education of girls. We will also work for the country. We work, we do not do publicity," Kumar said.

"BJP is now a changed party. It is not the BJP, which it used to be during Atal Ji's day. The policies and narratives of BJP has changed now," he said.

After returning to Patna, Kumar apprised Lalu Yadav about the outcome of meetings with different opposition leaders in Delhi.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 8 (IANS) DMK organising secretary and MP R.S. Bharathi Thursday said that 50 AIADMK legislators were in touch with his party for joining the DMK.

He was responding to the AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami's comment on Wednesday that 10 DMK MLAs, who are fed up with the policies and corporatisation of the party, were willing to join the AIADMK.

Bharati said that 30 district secretaries and two MPs of the AIADMK were also in touch with the DMK leadership.

In an apparent retort to the AIADMK leader, Bharathi asked Palaniswami to reveal the names of the DMK MLAs who were willing to join the AIADMK. He said that once Palaniswami reveals the names of the DMK MLAs who were in discussions with the AIADMK, then he would disclose the names of the AIADMK MLAs who were in touch with the DMK.

To the allegations by Palaniswami that Udayanidhi Stalin, the son of M.K. Stalin, was calling the shots in the DMK, Bharathi said that Udayanidhi was only doing the role of an MLA. He rebuked Palaniswami and asked him as to how late Jayalalithaa brought Sasikala to the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Bharathi said that several AIADMK MLAs, including Palaniswami had "prostrated before Sasikala". Bharathi asked as to what authority Sasikala was calling shots as a de facto Chief Minister during the AIADMK regime.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 8 (IANS) In a move being interpreted as extending its outreach to the marginalised sections of society, the BJP government in Karnataka has announced monetary aid for SC/ST patients suffering from rare and high-cost treatment diseases.

Making the announcement on Thursday, Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar said, "Aid for several types of diseases is currently being provided under the Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka Scheme. However, certain rare and high-cost diseases that are not covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme and for such diseases where there is no facility to provide treatment in government hospitals, monetary aid for it will be provided by the state government through Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust using unspent Scheduled Caste Sub Plan/Tribal Sub Plan fund allocation."

The state government plans to dip into unspent allocations to the tune of Rs 23.18 crore to fund the new scheme.

The government will provide Rs 10,000 for positron emission tomography scan, Rs seven lakh and Rs 21 lakh for autologous and allogenic bone marrow transplant, respectively, and Rs 1.5 lakh for robotic surgeries, under the scheme.

"Karnataka government under the leadership of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is building upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji's dream of helping the poor and vulnerable through the Ayushman Bharat Scheme. Patients who belong to the SC/ST communities will be greatly benefitted as aid is being extended to even rare and high cost diseases," said the Health Minister.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 8 (IANS) The sleuths of National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday raided the residence of the National Secretary of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), Riyaz Farangipet in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka in connection with the Phulwari Sharif terror module case of Bihar.

Sources initially said that the NIA raids were conducted in connection with murder case of BJP activist Praveen Kumar Nettare. But, now it is being reported that the raids are a follow up of the information that Akthar Parvez and retired police officer Mohammad Jalaluddin made during their interrogation in the Phulwari Sharif terror module case in Bihar by the NIA.

The officers were conducting searches at his residence located near B.C. Road at Perlia in Bantwal taluk.

Sources said that Akthar and Jalaluddin revealed their connection with Riyaz Farangipete during the investigations.

Sources stated that the raids have been conducted in connection with the gathering of evidence on spreading hatred as well as links to create terror in the region. More details are yet to emerge in the case.

--IANS
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Jaipur, Sep 8 (IANS) A baby swapping case was reported at a women's hospital in Jaipur's Sanganeri Gate area due to alleged negligence of hospital administration.

Looking at the seriousness of the matter, a DNA test will be conducted to identify the respected parents.

Meanwhile, the newborn babies have been kept in the nursery under the supervision of the hospital administration and are being fed from mothers milk bank.

Once the DNA test report comes, it will be known which child belongs to which parent.

Meanwhile, the doctors confirmed that this is the first case of its kind when a DNA test is being done to resolve the confusion.

Hospital Superintendent, Dr. Asha Verma said: "On September 1, Reshma, a resident of Ghatgate, Jaipur, and Nisha, a resident of Karauli, delivered babies. Meanwhile, due to a misunderstanding on the tag, both the children were exchanged. Three days later, i.e. on September 3, when the hospital administration came to know about their mistake, they informed the families of the children. Reshma's family went angry on this matter and they refused to take the child. After this dispute, both the newborn children were kept in the hospital's nursery and a committee of 6 doctors was formed to solve the matter.

"Initially, the hospital administration collected blood samples of both the children and their parents. On the basis of its investigation, it was identified that the boy's mother is Nisha and the girl's mother is Reshma. Reshma's family refused to accept this conclusion made after blood sample testing.

"The investigation committee got the blood sample tested again, and yet again, on the basis of the report, the girl turned out to be Reshma and the boy of Nisha's. However, this time too Reshma's family members refused to adopt the girl and demanded a DNA test.

"Now, the committee has recommended. We have sent the matter to the Lalkothi police station and the DNA test will also be done by the police."

Other doctors have also said that the DNA test is the only option to resolve the dispute.

The report of this investigation is expected in the next few days.

While Reshma already has two girls, Nisha is mother to one boy.

--IANS
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Rajpipla (Narmada), Sep 8 (IANS) Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat's statement has sparked a controversy after he called Hindus hypocrites.

He made this statement on Wednesday in the Poicha village of the Narmada district while addressing a seminar on 'Organic Farming In Nature's Lap'.

State's two leading newspapers have quoted Governor Acharya Devvrat: "People chant 'Jai Gau Mata', but they keep cow in their stable till she is giving milk. Once she stops giving milk, they abandon her on roads. That is why I say Hindus are bigots number 1. Hindu religion and cow are interlinked, but here people chant 'Jai Gau Mata' out of selfishness."

He stated further: "People visit temples, mosques, church, Gurudwara, to pray to God, so that God will bless them. I announce that if you return to organic farming, God will be automatically happy with you. I, with scientific evidence, am saying that with the use of chemical fertiliser you are killing cattle. If you go for organic farming, then you will give life to cattle."

--IANS
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Kanyakumari, Sep 8 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi started walking for 3,570 km-long 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' here on Thursday. He was accompanied by party General Secretary, Organisation, K.C. Venugopal and others.

The yatra will traverse 12 states and 2 Union Territories while party leader K.C. Venugopal said: "We have not involved the poll-bound states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh."

However, all the party's state organisations will take a separate padyatra in their respective states for one month while all the blocks took out a padyatra on Wednesday.

The party's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' will have Gandhi and his companions meeting select group of people from 7 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. everyday while it will be mass connect programme in the evening. All the yatris, including Gandhi, will rest in specialised containers and the end of the day.

Ahead of the yatra, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday has said that this will be turning point of Indian politics and will mark a new beginning.

--IANS
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Bhadohi, Sep 8 (IANS) A local BJP leader and 21 others have been booked after a man died after they allegedly thrashed him at his house, Bhadohi police said.

The police said seven people were detained and additional force deployed in the area to avoid any untoward incident.

An FIR has been registered against BJP leader and Nagar Palika chairman Ashok Kumar Jaiswal over the alleged incident that took place in Rasuliat Khan locality of Katra Bazar on Tuesday night.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) Rajesh Bharti said an argument broke out between two parties when one Mustaqueem's goat strayed into his neighbour Sandeep's house.

Later in the night, Jaiswal and others allegedly barged into Mustaqueem's home when the family was asleep and started thrashing them, the officer said.

Mustaqueem later died of internal injuries suffered during the assault.

--IANS
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