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“Manoj Jha is a learned person. He has not given any such statement which is objectionable. Jha poem has not hurt any caste or community. He has not targeted anyone. He has pointed out the right things in public,” Lalu Prasad said while launching the book named “Sadak Se Sansad Tak” of his old friend and socialist leader Shivanand Tiwari in Patna.

“Shivanand Tiwari is a fearless person who is never scared of anyone. He was born in an upper caste family but he always became a voice of minority, and of deprived sections of society,” Lalu Prasad said.

He said that he and Bihar Chief Minister had separated in the past but now are united. “The communal forces are dictating terms in the country. They are trying to change the constitution of the country which is not a right thing,” Lalu Prasad said.

--IANS

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Visiting the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh to kick-start his party’s campaign,the former UP Chief Minister, on the second day of his visit, reached Chhatarpur district of Bundelkhand region, closely connected with Uttar Pradesh. He held a meeting with party workers and reviewed the poll preparations.

During a press conference in Chhatarpur, he targetted the BJP over the recently-passed Women Reservation Bill and challenged the BJP to give 33 per cent tickets to women in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

"If the BJP really wants to give reservation to the women, it should give 33 per cent tickets to in Madhya Pradesh and if not do so, then it will be clear that BJP has passed this Bill for its political agenda only and it be considered that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cheated the people this country," Akhilesh Yadav said.

Meanwhile, he also said that his party will contest the Assembly elections in MP with the concept "PDA - (Pichde (backward class), Dalits, and Alpsankhyak (minorities)”. He added that his PDA alliance will try to give 20 per cent tickets to the women in Madhya Pradesh.

Asked about the INDIA bloc, Akhilesh Yadav said alliance's aim is to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha elections. Asked if the SP will support the Congress in the state, he said: "Congress was short of majority in 2018 and SP was first to support. But, SP will contest elections on its own."

Akhilesh Yadav also said that people of Madhya Pradesh have decided to change the government and this time, the SP will win more seats than previous elections in Madhya Pradesh. Later, Akhilesh along with other party leaders had 'pattal bhoj' at a Dalit's home in Chhatarpur.

On Wednesday, he addressed a poll rally in Sirmour Assembly constituency of Rewa district, bordering Uttar Pradesh, and hit out at the ruling BJP over crimes against Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) people in Madhya Pradesh.

SP has fielded former BJP MLA Laxman Tiwari from Sirmour.

The SP has so far declared its six candidates in two lists and third list of candidates is likely to be released soon, according to a SP leader in Rewa.

--IANS

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The arrested individual has been identified as Bharat Soni, a resident of Ujjain.

Earlier on Thursday, Ujjain SP Sachin Sharma said that a total of five suspects were detained for questioning.

One of them was detained on Wednesday, while four were detained on Thursday.

Sharma said that the victim hails from Satna district.

Meanwhile, the main accused who had been apprehended, tried to escape from police custody and collided with a cemented wall following which he was admitted to a government hospital, police Inspector Ajay Kumar said.

Interacting with the press, the police officer said when the accused was taken to the crime spot, he tried to escape.

"He (accused) ran away from the spot. However, the police personnel chased him. In the mean time, he collided with a cemented wall and got injured," Kumar said.

He further said one of the cops chasing the accused also got injuries but eventually, the accused was overpowered.

When asked if the accused sustained injury due to police firing, Kumar denied, saying: "He collided with a cemented wall."

"Victim's family has lodged a missing complaint on September 24. The girl has traveled from Satna to Ujjain," SP Sharma said.

The incident has sparked a political controversy in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

The opposition Congress has questioned the law and order situation under the BJP government in the state.

AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who is leading the Congress' campaign in the poll-bound state of MP, slammed the BJP government for the incident.

--IANS

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Besides Rao and his son, former BRS lawmaker Vemula Veeresham also joined the Congress.

Kharge, inducted the BRS leaders in presence of Telangana Congress unit chief A Revanth Reddy here at his residence, 10 Rajaji Marg.

The Congress has been campaigning aggressively come to power in the southern state, which has been ruled by the BRS (earlier TRS) since it came to existence in 2014.

--IANS

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More than four months after commencing the work on its first project at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park (KMTP) in Warangal, it laid the foundation stone for the second cluster at Seetharampur in Rangareddy district near Hyderabad.

Kitex, which is the second-largest manufacturer of infant wear in the world, is setting up this cluster with a capacity of seven lakh garments per day.

The company thus intends to create a Guinness record. The plant will come up on 250 acres with an investment of Rs 1,200 crore. It will employ more than 11,000 people directly, more than 80 per cent of which will be women employees.

The entire investment will be operational by December 2024.

Minister for industries KT Rama Rao along with his ministerial colleagues P Sabitha Indra Reddy and P Mahender Reddy participated in the ground-breaking ceremony.

Kitex’s first investment project in Telangana is coming up at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park, Warangal where construction of a similar sized integrated fibre-to-apparel manufacturing cluster is ongoing in full swing and expected to commence operations by December 2023.

The company is investing Rs.1,600 crore in the Warangal plant. The cluster, spread over 200 acres, will employ more than 15,000 people directly, more than 80 per cent of which will be women employees. Kerala-based Kitex signed MoU with Telangana government in 2021 to invest Rs.2,406 crore in the state. --IANS

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She will be here for two days to investigate the matter.

Speaking to reporters, Sundar said that she would meet the students involved, police personnel and college authorities in connection with the case, and understand it.

"I am here to investigate the problems faced by the students and get to the bottom of this shocking incident," she said.

The police in Karnataka have lodged an FIR against three Muslim girls of a college here for allegedly filming Hindu female students while they were using the restrooms.

Minister for Women and Child Welfare Laxmi Hebbalkar, who is also in-charge minister of Udupi district, said on Wednesday that the police have registered an FIR in connection with the case.

"I have instructed the district Superintendent of Police to initiate action as per the provisions of law,"she said.

Hebbalkar further stated that strict action would be initiated against the accused individuals.

"No one is above the law," she said.

--IANS

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The opposition BJP and Hindu groups in the southern state have criticised the police for "harassing the activist instead of initiating action against the Muslim girls who recorded the objectionable videos".

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Tuesday sought to know "if the police were sent to the residence of the woman activist to instill fear?"

"In democracy, police harassment is given for speaking the truth, Udupi police, what is happening? DGP and IGP should initiate action against the district superintendent of police. If he wants to pursue politics, let him tender resignation and join politics," Yatnal said.

Rashmi Samanth, the woman activist, reacting on the incident, posted on social media: "I'm from Udupi and nobody is talking about Alimatul Shafia, Shabanaz and Aliya who placed cameras in female toilets of their college to record hundreds of unsuspecting Hindu girls. Videos and photos were then circulated in community WhatsApp groups by the perpetrators."

The post has gone viral and triggered a debate in the communally sensitive coastal Karnataka region.

The police have been accused of entering her house in the night on Monday and repeatedly questioning and torturing her family members.

Adhitya Srinivasan, counsel for Samanth, said: "At around 8 p.m. on Monday, a group of policemen visited the residence of Rashmi Samanth. As she was not at home at the time, it was her parents who were questioned by the police and repeatedly asked about Rashmi's whereabouts."

Yashpal Suvarna, a BJP legislator from Udupi, said: "I don't know whether there is a video clipping or not, action must be initiated after taking suo moto case. The act of police going to Rashmi Samanth's residence and torturing her family can’t be tolerated."

Meanwhile, Udupi SP Hakay Akshay Machchindra clarified that since Rashmi Samanth had tweeted about the incident, her account had been inspected and the police spoke to her family members in this connection.

The incident of the three female students of a college belonging to a minority community being suspended for recording videos of Hindu girls in college restrooms was reported last week.

The incident took a communal turn with allegations surfacing on girls belonging to the minority religion recording the personal videos in restrooms and sending them to male students.

It was also alleged that these male students, also belonging to the minority community, would go on to make the videos viral on the social media.

According to sources, some Hindu girls also questioned the accused female students in the campus leading to arguments and confrontation.

--IANS

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Party State Organizing Secretary B.T. Naganna, who participated in the protest meeting organised by the Aam Aadmi Party's women's wing, demanded resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to reign in the situation in Manipur.

Speaking to the reporters, she stated instead of suppressing the class conflicts in the strife-torn state, the Centre is encouraging violence for the sake of vote bank politics. Even though the Home Minister was on a five-day visit to the state, the violence could not be brought to an end.

Two months ago, the miscreants who stripped, raped and paraded women, are yet to punished.

"The Centre's strategy to cover up the incident is shameful. Suspending our party's MP Sanjay Singh for the entire term without discussing it in both the Houses of Parliament was an 'anti-democratic' and 'anti-constitutional' move. Today, world guru Narendra Modi, who has put India to shame in front of the world, should immediately apologise to the people of the nation and resign," Naganna demanded.

President of the Women's Unit, Kushala Swamy said that women are not safe in the country. The BJP central government, which is protecting the despicable people who sexually assaulted women, needs to be removed from the country.

"If you look at the support that MP Brij Bhushan got in the recent rape accusation by a wrestler, it is a tragedy that the central government, which is only protecting the corrupt, is now engaged in protecting the rapists as well.

"The true colours of the BJP which pretend to worship Mother India and protect the culture are exposed now. The people of the country will teach them a proper lesson in the coming days", she said.

Senior party leader Vijay Sharma, media spokesperson Usha Mohan, Prakash Nadungadi, Sushma Veera, Hariharan, Gopal, Mahadevaswamy, Farid, Feroze Khan, Jyotish Kumar, Maria, Mahalakshmi, Suhasini Paniraj, Pushpa Keshav and many other women leaders and activists participated in the protest.

--IANS

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The state government has sanctioned the allotment of 2.45 lakh square meters of land for the establishment of the GIDC estate in Mudetha, Deesa taluka.

GIDC, a key player since 1962, has already established 239 industrial townships encompassing an 41,000-hectare land, housing over 70,000 plots, and accommodating more than 50,000 industrial units.

In October last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had virtually initiated the groundbreaking ceremony for multiple industrial parks, including four Tribal Industrial Parks in Valia (Bharuch), Amirgadh (Banaskantha), Chakaliya (Dahod), and Vanar (Chhota Udaipur).

Alongside these, the ambitious project also includes the Agro Food Park at Mudetha (Banaskantha), Sea Food Park at Kakwadi Danti (Valsad), and MSME Park at Khandivav (Mahisagar).

--IANS

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The court, while contemplating contempt charges, granted them until August 9 to demonstrate tangible action and results in enforcing traffic and parking laws.

The rebuke came after a tragic accident on SG Highway, where a speeding car killed nine people and injured 13 others.

The court cited the police's failure to penalise offenders as the reason behind rampant lawlessness. The ongoing litigation on traffic regulation and management for five years further fueled the court's ire.

The bench emphasised that lawbreakers must fear consequences, urging regular and voluntary enforcement of laws.

"E-challans and cameras alone won't suffice... wrong-side driving demand stricter measures," the court said, expressing frustration at the state's inaction and reluctance to implement traffic laws, and threatening to initiate action for filing false affidavits.

As lawyers representing the authorities urged more time to demonstrate results, the court emphasised enforcing the law and training officers to curb violations and set August 9 as the deadline.

--IANS

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