Regional

A delegation of party MLAs and senior leaders led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda and state party chief Chaudhary Udaibhan made these demands at a memorandum given to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya here.

Later talking to the media, Hooda said he had visited many flood-affected districts and the BJP-JJP government’s apathy and negligence came to the fore in the hour of crisis.

In the memorandum, the party demanded an immediate survey of the loss of crops.

It also sought steps to rehabilitate those who have been displaced or their houses have been damaged.

Food items and fodder for the cattle should also be distributed to the needy people.

The Congress noted that there is also a fear of spreading diseases due to flood water. Also immediate and long-term measures should be taken to prevent the recurrence of such disaster in the future.

“Sarpanches of many villages told me that villagers had been asking the government to get drains cleaned, but for the past almost two years, the government is ignoring this demand. Similarly, sewerage systems are not cleaned in cities. The people of the entire area are suffering because of this,” Hooda said.

According to him, with Dadupur Nalvi Canal no longer there, a large part of north Haryana has come in the grip of floods.

“The BJP government, however, de-notified the Dadupur Nalvi Canal as it came to power. By doing this, the government did injustice by snatching the scheme which proved to be the lifeline for the area during the disaster,” Hooda added.

--IANS

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Preliminary reports indicate that it is of a wild elephant which was buried about three weeks back, but tests would be ascertained to find out if any chemicals were used to speed up the process of decaying.

The estate owner is on the run, even as the Forest and Police officials are on his trail.

State Forest Minister A.K.Saseendran said that a probe has begun and it has to be ascertained what had happened - if the elephant was hunted or if it was buried after it was found dead. “

Appropriate action will be taken after ascertaining the real cause of death,” he said.

Meanwhile, it is speculated that the wild elephant might have got electrocuted and after it died, it was buried there. A portion of the tusks are also reported missing.

--IANS

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Tajinderpal heaved his best throw of the day on his second attempt to retain his continental title. He started with 19.80m and followed it up with 20.23m. However, he did not go for the rest of his four attempts and limped out of the event with a groin injury.

On the other hand, Mehdi Saberi of Iran bagged the silver medal with a 19.98m throw while Kazakhstan's Ivan Ivanov claimed the bronze with 19.87m.

The 28-year-old Toor has participated in seven competitions in 2023, winning gold medals in all of them. The Indian also won the gold medal at the last edition of the Asian championships held in Doha four years ago. He claimed a silver at the 2017 edition held in Bhubaneswar.

Tajinderpal, who is also the reigning Asian Games champion and Asian indoor championships gold medallist, holds the Asian and national record of 21.77m set in Bhubaneswar last month.

Meanwhile, Parul Chaudhary won her first gold medal at the Asian championships, claiming the top podium in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.

The 28-year-old had won bronze in the 5000m race in 2019 but had missed the podium twice in the 3000m steeplechase. She finished fourth in 2017 and fifth in 2019.

Parul clocked 9:38.76 to win her race in Bangkok ahead of the Republic of China’s Xu Shuangshuang (9:44.54) and Japan’s Reimi Yoshimura (9:48.48). India's Priti claimed the fourth spot in 9:48.50, an olympics.com report said.

On the other hand, the 19-year-old Shaili Singh claimed silver in the women's long jump event with a 6.54m effort. Shaili, who won silver at the 2021 world U20 championships, produced her best effort with her first attempt and was leading the leaderboards at the halfway stage.

Japan's Sumire Hata, the reigning Asian indoor champion, came up with a personal best of 6.97m on her final attempt and went on to win the gold medal. Zhong Jiawei of China pipped India’s 2022 national champion Ancy Sojan for third place, clearing 6.46m. Ancy Sojan could manage only 6.41m.

The men's 3,000m steeplechase saw India's Bal Kishan finish fourth with a timing of 8:46.98. Mohammed Nurhasan pulled out of the race midway and did not finish (DNF).

The three medals on the third day took India's tally to nine at the Asian championships which include five gold medals. Earlier, Hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker and middle-distance runner Ajay Kumar Saroj topped the podium on Thursday.

--IANS

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Maderna has been frequently visiting her Assembly constituency in Osian in Jodhpur district, and her followers are regularly tweeting videos to highlight her trips.Maderna has also retweeted many such videos.

In one of the videos that has gone viral, she could be seen suggesting people to go for power theft. While assigning tasks to the people, she says that they can put cable on wire to get electricity; however, the power line might trip, she says, to which the people sitting near her laugh out loudly.

--IANS

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In case of Ghosh’s Lok Sabha constituency of Midnapore in West Midnapore district, BJP’s performance has been pathetic in all the three tiers of the panchayat system.

At gram panchayat level, the BJP managed to secure victory in only 217 out of the 1,326 seats, while the ruling Trinamool Congress swept the poll with 1,047 seats. While the saffron party bagged just 11 out of the 199 panchayat samiti seats, its candidates drew a blank at the zilla parishad level.

BJP insiders, however, feel that it would be wrong to forecast the fate of Ghosh, currently the national vice-president of the BJP, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections based on the panchayat poll results.

“The panchayat areas which come under the Midnapore Lok Sabha constituency are just part of the entire area. A major part of the area under this Lok Sabha constituency comes under three municipalities -- Egra, Kharagpur and Midnapore -- where the BJP has strong presence.

"In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when Ghosh won by a margin of around 89,000 votes, he got the maximum lead from these three municipal areas,” pointed out a state committee leader of the BJP.

Similar is the case of Majumdar’s Lok Sabha constituency of Balurghat in South Dinajpur district, where the performance of the BJP in the panchayat polls has been far from satisfactory.

At the gram panchayat level, BJP's tally stood at 276, whereas Trinamool bagged as many as 784 seats. At the panchayat samiti level, BJP won just 21 seats as against Trinamool's 142, while all the 16 zilla parishad seats went in favour of the ruling party.

Here too, BJP insiders maintained that the panchayats are just part of the Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency, where the party has a strong presence in the areas under the municipalities.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Majumdar had won by a margin of over 33,000 votes.

--IANS

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The court, which took cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI recently, directed the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP to appear before it on August 14.

The CBI filed the third charge sheet in the sensational case on June 30. It named Avinash Reddy, cousin of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, as accused number eight. The central agency has included Avinash Reddy’s father Y. S. Bhaskar Reddy and their associate Uday Kumar Reddy as the sixth and seventh accused, respectively.

The third charge sheet focused on the role played by the trio in the killing.

The CBI also added Vivekananda Reddy’s former Personal Assistant and Yedula Prakash, son of a cook in the deceased’s house, as suspects-cum-accused.

The CBI charged that both Avinash and Bhaskar Reddy conspired to eliminate Vivekananda Reddy because they were irked by his move to bring in Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s mother and sister as rivals to Avinash.

Bhaskar Reddy was arrested by the CBI on April 16, two days after the arrest of Uday Kumar Reddy.

Meanwhile, all the accused lodged in Chanchalguda Jail in Hyderabad were produced in the CBI court on Friday. The court extended their judicial custody till August 14. Avinash Reddy was granted anticipatory bail by the Telangana High Court on May 31.

The Telangana High Court had also ruled that in the event of the petitioner's arrest by the CBI, he shall be released on bail on executing a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh with two sureties for a like sum each. On June 3 when Avinash Reddy came to the CBI office, he was arrested but was immediately released on bail after he completed the formalities as per the High Court order.

Vivekananda Reddy, brother of former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and uncle of Jagan Mohan Reddy, was murdered at his residence in Pulivendula on March 15, 2019, weeks before the elections. The CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court while hearing a petition of Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Suneetha Reddy, who raised suspicion about some relatives.

--IANS

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The woman is a resident of Kodwadeh village under Jhajha block in the district. She has four children and is also facing an economic crisis. Now, the woman and her husband are demanding compensation for negligence.

“We have four children and are facing an economic crisis. I underwent an ultrasound two months ago and the result has returned positive,” the woman said.

“I underwent sterilisation operation on November 17, 2022 at a medical camp organised by a referral hospital in Jhajha. After finding out that I am again pregnant, I went to the referral hospital and informed the medical officer there. We have also conveyed the matter to the district civil surgeon as well,” she said.

“We have received a complaint about a woman becoming pregnant after undergoing sterilisation operation eight months ago. We have constituted a medical board to examine the negligence. There is also a provision of compensation in such cases at the government level,” said Mahendra Pratap, civil surgeon of Jamui.

--IANS

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He said the financial assistance would help people affected by rainfall and resultant floods that had hit various parts of the state this week.

Heavy rains and cloudbursts have triggered flooding, landslides, collapse of home and bridge that have severely disrupted access even to basic amenities.

Sharma said SJVN will always remain in forefront in assisting the government's efforts in relief measures.

"We stand by the people of the state in this hour of distress and express our solidarity and support to the ongoing relief and rehabilitation efforts. We hope that the funds will aid the people as they rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the recent floods. I also appeal everyone to generously donate to help the needy to tide over the calamity," said Sharma.

He also expressed grief over the loss of life and property due to landslides and flash floods.

Earlier, SJVN employees have voluntarily donated their one-day salary amounting to Rs 55 lakh to the CM Relief Fund.

--IANS

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The complaint also named her husband.

The police have arrested the husband and launched a hunt for the father who has disappeared after the lodging of a police complaint. According to police, the 16-year-old victim hailed from Hyderabad.

As per the complainant, her father Sreenu had taken her to his mother's place in Karnataka's Kalaburgi district on June 13. He took her to the village temple the next day and got her married to Shivasharanappa.

The girl claimed that she was forced to get married even as she flatly refused the proposal. And the man, knowing well that she is a minor, got married to her.

On June 15, Shivasharanappa brought her to Bengaluru and locked her up in the house in Bellandur. He tried to force her for physical intimacy but she managed to ward him off by stiff resistance.

On July 12, the girl had called 112 emergency helpline and complained about her plight. The police rushed to the spot and she was rescued and taken to the police station.

Police have slapped the cases against her father and husband under the provisions of Sections 9 and 12 of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act and Section 12 of the Pocso Act as well as Section 34 of IPC.

The husband has been sent to judicial custody and further investigation is on.

--IANS

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M. Tirupathi Reddy, a local leader of BJP in Alwal area on the city outskirts, was not seen since Thursday afternoon.

He is suspected to have been kidnapped by unidentified persons.

A resident of Kushaiguda, he had gone to the Tahsildar office for land related work. His mobile phone was also switched off since Thursday afternoon

The family members of the BJP leader alleged involvement by local MLA and his his henchmen. His wife Sujatha alleged that they were under extreme pressure to sell their land at Alwal at a low price.

She said that politicians who have lands abutting their property were pressuring them to sell it.

She was worried about his safety. Sujatha claimed that her husband was tense and worried for the last few days.

He had told her that he was facing threats to part with the land.

He also voiced apprehension that if he refused to sell the land, he might be harmed.

On a complaint by Sujatha, police registered a case and launched an investigation.

He was reportedly last spotted at Gachibowli, where he was seen getting off from an auto rickshaw.

A police officer said that they have no clue which indicates that he was kidnapped.

--IANS

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