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By N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe
New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANSlife) A train journey is perfect for anyone looking for a fascinating way to experience southern India. Such trips make a wonderful way to get closer to the rich culture and heritage. Although trains are usually associated with cities, Sripad Vaidya, Co-founder & COO, Confirmtkt handpicked five destinations with wide-reaching scenic beauty that one can marvel at when travelling by train.



Kollam - Sengottai

The train journey from Kollam to Sengottai will be a fulfilling experience for travellers who like to explore offbeat places. The railway line connects the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu through these two junction points. Passengers witness several lush green forests, clean & swiftly flowing rivers, and hills throughout the ride. Along the way, they pass a heritage bridge and a national highway built above and below the tracks. Train journey ensures travellers get to see Kerala's natural beauty, making it the most picturesque trip ever.

Ooty to Coonoor

People who want to enjoy train travelling near the hilly areas of the south must not miss Ooty to Coonoor train journey. Both of these destinations are popular among visitors for their picture-perfect scenic beauty.


These two hill stations are located in Tamil Nadu and are connected via a special toy train. The tracks connecting Ooty to Coonoor are part of Nilgiri Mountain railways, which have been honoured by UNESCO due to their impeccable uniqueness and raw beauty. The best part of the train journey is it takes passengers through the tea plantations of Ooty and mountains covered with greenery.

Chennai to Rameshwaram

This train journey is one-of-a-kind in its own way. Aside from giving a nature trip, it also takes people through a mythological journey. The railway connecting Chennai to Rameshwaram runs over Pamban Bridge, famous as India's first bridge. Natives believe that Pamban Bridge was built by Lord Rama while searching for Goddess Sita, who Ravana abducted. The bridge links the Mandapam region in India with Rameswaram and Pamban Island. Though the rail ride is only 2.2 Km long, its surroundings and religious background make it one of the best life experiences.

Kanyakumari to Trivandrum

The train ride between these two destinations in south India is like a slideshow of the rich plantation practices of the country. In this two-hour-long train journey, travellers pass through many luxuriant plantations of green tea, coconut groves and farms of a variety of spices. Take the train ride via Island Express; it covers the natural splendours of the path and gives the opportunity to experience the local life of the south up close.

Best train services for South Indian trips

Aside from regular railway expresses, one can sweeten their journey to the south by booking a ride with some renowned train services. These are:

. Golden Chariot
. Golden Chariot Southern Splendour
. Maharajas' Express Southern Jewels
. Maharajas' Express Southern Sojourn
. Deccan Odyssey Jewels of Deccan.

These trains put the luxury of the passenger as their top priority. The trip package offers private and comfortable accommodation, porterage services, an onboard butler, meals, drinks and snacks free of cost. Travellers also enjoy off-train excursions, WiFi, and even a lounge and bar are part of these luxurious trains' facilities. On some routes, guests can smell the spicy aromas of India and see the mystical waterfalls, lush plantations, and wildlife. Once on the journey, one will truly feel like they have discovered an entirely new continent. Hence, it's time to experience the splendour of south India's train journeys yourself rather than searching for them on the internet.

(N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe can be contacted at lothungbeni.h@ians.in)

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday released the Common University Entrance Test (CUET-UG) results.

About 20,000 students have scored 100 percentile in 30 subjects in these examinations taken for admission to undergraduate courses.

According to NTA, the highest number of 100 percentilers were in English at 8,236, followed by Political Science (2,065), Business Studies (1,669), Biology (1,324) and 1,188 Economics.

As many as 2,92,589 students appeared in these examinations from Uttar Pradesh, 1,86,405 from Delhi, while only 583 students from Meghalaya took the exams.

The result has been released on NTA's official website where the students can view and download their marks from. The result of the examination will be available on the website for 90 days.

Notably, the examinations were conducted for admission in 91 universities, including all the central universities of the city. Now that the results are out, the universities and colleges will prepare their cut-off list.

While the series of tests began on July 15, the sixth and final phase was completed on August 30. A total of 14.90 lakh students had registered themselves and around 60 per cent attempted it.

Besides, CUET-UG exams were also conducted in foreign cities like Muscat, Riyadh, Dubai, Manama, Doha, Kathmandu, Sharjah, Singapore and Kuwait.

In India, the tests were conducted in 444 centres spread across 239 cities.

This time, admissions in all central universities, including Delhi University, are based on the CUET scores only. Delhi University is the largest central university in India with about 80 departments under its umbrella. These include postgraduate degree, PhD, certificate courses, degree courses etc.

It has about 79 colleges offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Every year, more than 70,000 students take admissions in these colleges and departments for graduation in science, commerce and humanities.

Among the minority educational institutions, Jamia Millia Islamia has also decided to implement CUET for admission to several undergraduate courses from the current academic session 2022-23.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has ordered St. Stephen's College, Delhi to adopt the admission process on the basis of CUET.

--IANS
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Los Angeles, Sep 16 (IANS) More than 14.6 million children in the US have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

More than 340,000 of these cases have been added in the past four weeks. Nearly 6.7 million reported cases have been added in 2022, according to the report.

For the week ending September 8, nearly 83,300 child Covid-19 cases were reported, but the reported cases are likely a "substantial undercount" of Covid-19 cases, according to the report.

There is an urgent need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects, said the AAP as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

"It is important to recognise there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children's health, but importantly we need to identify and address the long-lasting impact on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth," the AAP added.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 15 (IANS) The ruling BJP in Karnataka had the last laugh on Thursday as the controversial anti-conversion Bill got smooth passage in the Legislative Council amid a walkout by principal opposition Congress party.

The Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill 2021 was tabled by home minister Araga Jnanendra and passed by voice vote after prolonged debate. The opposition Congress party which has been vociferously opposing the Bill, walked out of the Council ahead of the voice vote.

Although the controversial Bill had earlier been cleared by the Legislative Assembly in December 2021, the ruling BJP opted for the Ordinance route in May this year, as it did not have the numbers to steer it through the 75-member Legislative Council. However, with the BJP enjoying a majority in the Upper House after the Council elections in July this year, it decided to table the contentious Bill on Thursday.

Karnataka's version of the Bill is seen as more stringent than in other BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Home minister Araga Jnanendra said conversions are becoming rampant through unfair means.

The Bill aims to protect one's right to freedom of religion and prohibition of unlawful conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means.

The Bill includes provisions for compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh to be paid by the accused to those who were forced to convert. In cases of mass conversion, punishment ranges from 3-10 year imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs one lakh.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday said that convicts who have spent 10 years in jail, and their appeal has not yet been heard, should be granted bail unless there are any compelling reasons to deny this, while remission should be considered for those who have completed 14 years in prison.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and A.S. Oka said the court is of view that those persons who have completed 10 years of their sentence, and their appeal would not be heard soon, and if there are no extenuating circumstances, such prisoners should be enlarged on bail.

Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, appointed as amicus curiae, informed the top court that affidavits were filed, as per its earlier orders to the six high courts to conduct the exercise of identifying life sentence convicts.

The top court said firstly, the convicts who have undergone more than 10 years imprisonment, unless there are reasons to refuse bail, be granted bail.

It further emphasised on identification of cases where convicts have completed 14 years of custody, then their case can be referred to the government for considering premature release.

The bench said the premature release issue should be decided within a fixed time, irrespective of whether appeals are pending or not.

Agarwal, analysing the HCs data, submitted that there are 5,740 cases appeals by accused in custody, which includes division bench appeals and single bench appeals.

After hearing the submissions, the bench said the authorities concerned should undertake the exercise on urgent basis and also need to keep in mind the objective of decluttering jails where convicts are in custody, without hearing of the appeals.

The top court gave four months to various high courts and state legal services committees to identify the cases and scheduled the matter for further hearing in January next year.

The top court was hearing a batch of petitions of life convicts in jail whose appeals are pending before various HCs.

The top court was informed that in Bihar, there are 268 convicts, whose cases are being considered for a premature release. And, the Allahabad High Court has the highest pendency of appeals, with 385 convicts having undergone more than 14 years of custody.

--IANS
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Panaji, Sep 15 (IANS) Alleging that the ruling BJP paid Rs 30 to 40 crores to Congress MLAs to defect, Congress Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao on Thursday questioned why Income Tax, and Enforcement Directorate is not looking into the BJP's "misuse of money power".

Addressing a press conference in the party office here, Rao, who arrived in the coastal state after 8 Congress MLAs merged into BJP on Wednesday, said that the conspiracy was hatched by the BJP in collusion with former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and former Leader of Opposition Michael Lobo.

"We had named both of them earlier too, though Lobo was CLP (Congress Legislature Party) leader and Kamat was a former Chief Minister. We named them because they were the mastermind behind this whole episode of splitting the CLP.

"These eight MLAs have not gone for development of constituencies or for Goa. They have gone for power, money and (avoid) threats of agency for whatever wrong they have done," he said.

"Around Rs 30 to 40 crores have been given to them. Some of them will become ministers now. Who is funding BJP to purchase MLAs, why IT and ED is not looking into these issues, when BJP is misusing money power," Rao questioned.

The Congress leader said that the BJP's intension is to have no opposition in country. "For that they are targeting the Congress. Their number one enemy is Congress. The BJP has engineered this defection using immense money power, agencies and political pressure," he said.

"BJP is destroying democratic fabric of this country. Bharat Jodo Yatra is to fight such menace like politics of hate, politics of using money, using all institutions to grab power at any cost," he added.

Noting that the Congress had filed disqualification petitions against Lobo and Kamat before the Assembly Speaker, he said: "That is not been heard, it is another matter. But today, truth has come out, that for selfish reasons, for sake of power, sake of money or for whatever other reasons, these MLAs who have benefitted from Congress party, who held positions in Congress, have defected for personal selfish reasons."

Rao said that it is very sad day for democracy and for politics of Goa also.

"Unfortunate development for Congress party also. During last election we had specifically told people of Goa that we will ensure that our elected MLAs will not defect and when we selected our candidates, all of them voluntarily had said that they will not betray Congress, whatever may happen. They have not only betrayed people of Goa but have also betrayed god," he said recalling oath taken before god by these leaders.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 15 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided several locations in Mumbai and Gujarat's Kutch in connection with an alleged fraud of Rs 428.50 crore in the Canara Bank, an official said on Thursday.

Following a complaint lodged by Canara Bank, the CBI registered a case against company, PSL Ltd and its director Ashok Yoginder Punj, Alok Yoginder Punj, Rajender Kumar Bahri, Chitranjan Kumar Jagdishchadra Goel, and other known and unknown persons including public servants.

As per the Canara Bank's complaint, between 2009-2016, the accused entered into a conspiracy to cheat the bank through sanction of various credit facilities and misrepresented books of accounts.

They are charged with alleged misutilisation of the funds of the bank and diverting the receivable from its debtors, diverting the loans for projects to other purposes, thus, causing an alleged loss of Rs 428.50 crore to Canara Bank.

The CBI sleuths raided seven locations in Mumbai and Gujarat at the premises of the accused resulting in the recovery of incriminating documents and other articles.

--IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 15 (IANS) AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday categorically said the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra is being done not for opposition unity, but to strengthen the Congress party.

"This yatra is being undertaken for strengthening the Congress party at all levels and this is not done for opposition unity. All parties at one point or the other has been trying to weaken the Congress. Only if the Congress is strengthened, can the opposition gather strength," said Ramesh.

Rahul Gandhi is leading the yatra that began from Kanyakumari on September 7 and will travel on a straight route and will cover over 3,750 kms through 12 states and reach its destination at Kashmir in 150 days.

For the yatra, Thursday is a rest day and it will resume from Kollam on Friday morning.

Ramesh took on the CPI-M in Kerala and said it's the A team of the BJP and barring the Congress party, including the Left all have joined hands with the BJP at one point or the other.

"Nationally, the CPI-M wants to support the Congress but in Kerala it's in a tie up with the BJP and is being done to weaken the Congress. If they want to support us, they can do, but in Kerala they won't. Just see their top leaders (Modi and Vijayan) they are the same in style and operations as they do not listen to anyone. The legendary Communist EMS Namboodiripad once said that to defeat the Congress, they will join hands with even the 'devil' and they did it in 1989," said Ramesh.

In reply to a question on Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ramesh said those who are leaving the Congress party are those who have got everything from the party.

"Then, there is another group who are vulnerable and just see the former Assam chief minister after he left the party, there has been no single probe done. In Goa, the BJP has been trying its best for a while and they did it now to deflect the growing acceptance that this yatra has evoked. The eight MLAs which left the Congress in Goa were corrupt people and now when they are put into the BJP washing machine, they will now come out like my kurta which is spotless white," said Ramesh.

The yatra now resumes from Kollam on Friday morning and will move on to Alappuzha and will be in Kerala for another two weeks and by then it would have covered 453 kms spread over 43 assembly and 12 Lok Sabha constituencies in 19 days.

Ramesh clarified that the yatra will go through Uttar Pradesh for 5 days and not two as is being reported in the media.

"Even Superman (56 inch chested person without naming Modi) would not have been able to reach Gujarat in 90 days. We decided the present route taking into account security and geographical reasons and moreover any other route taken would not turn out to be padyatra, as some other modes of transport would have to be taken. Moreover along with his yatra, there are numerous yatras being undertaken by the Congress party in states where the Bharat Joda Yatra is not passing through," added Ramesh.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 15 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate has issued a summon to Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar in connection with a money laundering case.

Reacting to the ED move, the senior Congress leader, who is currently busy making arrangements for the arrival of Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in the state, questioned the timing of the summon.

"In the midst of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the ongoing Assembly session, they have again issued me a summon to appear before the ED. I am ready to cooperate with the probe, but the timing of this summon and the harassment I am made to go through is coming in the way of discharging my constitutional and political duties," Shivakumar, who is in Mysore, tweeted on Thursday.

Even as the Karnataka Assembly session is underway, Shivakumar has been busy making preperations for the arrival of Bharat Jodo Yatra in the state.

In August this year, a Delhi court had granted bail to Shivakumar and other accused persons in connection with a 2018 money laundering case registered by the ED.

According to the financial probe agency, Shivakumar, who was a minister in Karnataka during the Congress regime, had generated huge amount of illegal and unaccounted cash and a criminal conspiracy was hatched with other co-accused persons for tax evasion and the tainted cash was transported from Bengaluru to Delhi.

The Income Tax Department had conducted search and seizure operations on August 2, 2017 at various properties in Delhi belonging to the accused persons, seizing unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 8,59,69,100, the probe agency had said.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) The Congress Election Authority Chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Thursday clarified that there was no flaw in the electoral system, and from September 20, two days ahead of the notifications for the party president's election, the delegate list will be made available to the candidates at the party office.

The clarification came after five of its MPs wrote to make the delegate list public.

The five MPs had written to Mistry expressing concern about the 'transparency and fairness of the party chief's election, and had sought that the list of PCC delegates that make up the electoral college be provided to all electors and potential candidates'.

In reply to these MPs, Mistry said that any delegate, who has the QR-based card, was an eligible voter and each candidate can get the proposer amongst the delegates and require 10 proposers.

Mistry said in reply, "For the first time, we are issuing QR-code based identity cards to all the delegates across the 28 states and nine Union Territories that have Congress committees. Those who want to file a nomination should check if they have a delegate identity card available with them. Only people with valid identity cards will be allowed to sign the nomination papers for the position of Congress President."

Appreciating the concern for free, fair and transparent election, Mistry said that the first avenue open for any delegate to file a nomination for the Congress President's post is -- they can look for the names of the 10 supporters (delegates) in their state at the Pradesh Congress Committee office.

"The name and the serial number are available in the state list. The nomination signed by 10 supporters (delegates) will be sufficient for validity of the nomination," Mistry said.

After the election of the president, the Congress delegates will vote for the CWC members, which are 12 in numbers while 11 are nominated by the Congress President. Mistry clarified that there was consensus in election of the PCC delegates except in Andaman where election was conducted by the CEA, the new President will have authority to nominate new state presidents wherever resolutions are moved to authorise the incoming president.

--IANS
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