Posts Tagged ‘Lucknow’
Written by admin on 10 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 10 (IANS) Five members of a marriage party were killed and three others critically injured in Uttar Pradesh Monday when their vehicle crashed into a tree, an official said.
The incident took place at Dashahra village in Sant Kabir Nagar district, 240 km from here, when the driver lost control of the jeep and hit a tree, the state home department spokesman said.
The driver of the jeep Sadanand and passengers Pankaj Rai, Digvijay Rai, Isram Maurya and Parmatma Pathak were killed on the spot.
The condition of the injured, who had been admitted to hospital, was described as critical.
Tags: Lucknow
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Written by admin on 10 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 10 (IANS) In a bizarre incident, a 14-year-old boy was beaten to death by cricketers during a game Sunday at Lakhimpur Kheri, police said. The boy, a spectator of the game, was beaten for poking fun at a fielder who missed a catch.
The match was played at Shuklapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, about 130 km from here. The deceased boy, Simran, had clapped in derision after a fielder missed a catch.
The boy’s father, Raziullah, a mason, lodged an FIR with the local police that two boys from the neighbourhood, Anas and Yaseer, players in the match, had beaten his son with sticks and iron rods. According to the complaint lodged by his father, Simran had lost consciousness after being beaten, and was rushed to CHC medical facility by other spectators. He was declared dead at the hospital.
Saumitra Yadav, additional superintendent of police (ASP) Lakhimpur Kheri told IANS that the boy was apparently killed during the cricket match. “We are collecting accounts of witnesses, and will arrest the guilty soon,” Yadav said.
Tags: Lucknow
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Written by admin on 10 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 10 (IANS) Two students from Lucknow have sent a legal notice to Press Council of India chairperson Justice Markandey Katju for his comment at a seminar last week that “90% of Indians were idiots.”
The notice to Katju was sent by law student Tanaya Thakur and her brother, Class XI student Aditya Thakur.
Both said they found the comments hurtful: “We are deeply hurt and humiliated by Justice Katju’s words,” the duo said Monday, adding that Justice Katju’s statements “would depreciate the reputation of India and its citizens”.
“A person of Justice Katju’s stature should have deliberated on the implications of his statement,” they told IANS, and sought a public apology from the former Supreme Court judge.
The students said that if a public apology was not forthcoming, they would move the court in a month’s time.
At a seminar in New Delhi last week, Justice Katju had claimed that at least 90 percent of Indians are “idiots”, easily be misled by mischievous elements in the name of religion.
“I say ninety percent of Indians are idiots. You people don’t have brains in your heads… It is so easy to take you for a ride,” he was quoted as saying at the seminar.
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Written by admin on 08 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 8 (IANS) A day after the Uttar Pradesh government announced a new state advisory price (SAP) for sugarcane, the opposition Saturday accused Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of compromising on prices because of the sugar lobby.
The state government Friday announced a SAP for sugarcane at Rs.275-290 per quintal for the current year.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a state-wide demonstration on the decision.
State BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpayi told IANS that the government announcing SAP two days after the assembly was adjourned smacked of a conspiracy against farmers and cane growers.
“What is the point of declaring it (SAP) after the assembly? They knew if they did not give a good price when the winter session was going on, they would have been put on the mat,” he said.
Bajpayi said the stand of the ruling Samajwadi party (SP) was paradoxical since it was staging a walk out in the Lok Sabha over paddy purchases while it was pushing cane growers in Uttar Pradesh to the brink.
The BJP wanted SAP to be fixed at Rs.400 per quintal, he said.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president and MP Nirmal Khatri too said the SAP was “indeed a disappointment”.
“We regret to say that this is not going to help cane growers who have huge pending payments from sugar mills from last year’s crushing season,” he said.
State president of Rashtriya Lok Dal Munna Singh Chauhan told IANS that the SAP had exposed the SP leadership and their “crocodile tears for farmers”.
“This is a joke on cane growers. They will not even be able to take out the money they had put into the crop, forget profits,” he said.
However, UP Cooperative Sugar Mill Federation Managing Director R.P. Arora lauded the support price and said it would benefit sugar mill owners as well cane growers.
The previous Bahujan Samaj Party government had paid Rs.240-250 per quintal as SAP for sugarcane.
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 07 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 7 (IANS) Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Friday said he shared an emotional bond with the people of his parliamentary constituency as he asked party workers to begin work for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and propagate the UPA’s good work and people-friendly schemes.
In his meetings with party workers at different places in Amethi, he said he shared an emotional bond with the people there.
“I have an emotional bonding with people here and that is why I am drawn to Amethi every now and then,” he said. The relationship is family like and not political, he added.
Gandhi patiently heard the problems faced by them and asked them to forget the past and begin work for the 2014 general elections.
Stressing that he wanted to carry forward the work left behind by his father and late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said unemployment would be tackled very soon and hoped that opening of Malvika Steel in Jagdishpur and an ordinance factory in Munshiganj would create jobs.
He also exhorted party workers and people of his parliamentary constituency to make the best use of Rajiv Gandhi Industrial teaching Institute at Teekarmafi, the Indira Gandhi Nursing school in Munshiganj and Rajiv Gandhi Petroleum Institute and also spread word about development initiatives taken by the Congress in the region.
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 07 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 7 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party (SP) government Friday announced the state advisory price (SAP) – price at which sugar mills in the state are supposed to buy the cane from farmers – at Rs.275-290 per quintal for the current year.
A statement issued on behalf of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that Rs.290 per quintal price had been fixed for early variety crop while Rs.280 per quintal was for the normal crop.
For the sub-standard crop, the farmers would be entitled to Rs.275 a quintal.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government led by Mayawati had kept the SAP at Rs.240-250 per quintal.
The decision by the state government would mean that sugar mill owners will have to cough up Rs.21,000 crore as price for the sugarcane purchased through farmers – a sum Rs.3,300 crore more than the total amount paid to farmers in the last financial year.
The Akhilesh Yadav government has also increased the transport expense deduction by Rs.3 to Rs 8.75 per quintal this year.
The delay in announcing the SAP had led to vocal protests by all opposition parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, BSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). They accused the state government of ganging up with sugar mill owners and working against the interest of cane growers of the state.
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 07 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 7 (IANS) Traffic across toll plazas in Uttar Pradesh resumed Friday after the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) withdrew its 37-day-old agitation by farmers in the wake of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav promising to look into their demand of free toll plaza-access across the state.
Akhilesh Yadav invited a BKU delegation to meet him in the state capital Dec 13.
Government officials had been negotiating with the agitating BKU activists and their leader Rakesh Tikait throughout Thursday. A “deal” was made following a phone call from the chief minister’s office wherein the activists were informed that Akhilesh Yadav had agreed to meet them and would look into their “justified demands”.
The message from Akhilesh Yadav was communicated to BKU leaders by Meerut District Magistrate Vikas Gothalwal and Senior Superintendent of Police K. Satya Narayan.
The agitating farmers then allowed traffic to pass through the Sivaya toll plaza on National Highway (NH) 58. By midnight, officials told IANS, toll was being charged on vehicles.
As news of the negotiation and the chief minister’s assurance spread, farmers ended their seige of toll plazas at Bijnore barrage, Saharsawa in Saharanpur and in Gorakhpur.
Earlier, the Western Toll plaza management had filed a petition before the Allahabad High Court seeking damages for the losses on the toll plaza due to the farmers’ agitation. The hearing of the case is listed Dec 11.
Officials said the petition spurred the government into action and principal secretary (home) asked district officials to find a solution to the impasse.
District officials Thursday had pasted recovery notices worth Rs.11.8 crore at houses of 11 BKU and farmer leaders. The state government softened its stand when farmers threatened mass self-immolation if action was taken against their leaders.
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 07 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 7 (IANS) More than 16 bogies were gutted when a major fire broke out Friday on a goods train carrying petrol and headed for Gonda from here, officials said.
The fire was noticed near the Jarwal railway station in Bahraich around 3 a.m. By the time the train was stopped, the fire had spread.
The driver of the train attempted to put on emergency brakes as a result of which some bogies of the goods train overturned. Gusty winds stoked the fire further. More than a dozen fire tenders were rushed to the site to douse the blaze, said a police officer.
Railway officials from the nearby Colonelganj railway station rushed to the site. Residents from nearby Newli Purva village also came to help.
As a result of the incident, the schedule of more than 40 trains on the busy Lucknow-Howrah route has been disrupted. Two trains were cancelled, while seven trains have been diverted, said a railway official.
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Written by admin on 06 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 6 (IANS) The protests by famers in Uttar Pradesh led by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), seeking free access at all toll bridges in the state, is spreading fast and wide.
The farmers Thursday threatened to capture the toll plazas at two other points in Firozabad and Moradabad.
On Wednesday, they took over the Gorakhpur toll plaza and opened it for free to all vehicles.
They also seized the Sivayan toll plaza on national highway 58. They are already holding on to the Dasna toll plaza for the fourth day. The union also holds the Shahjahanpur toll plaza.
The BKU has also preponed a maha panchayat meeting, initially set for Dec 18. It would now be held at Meerut Dec 8 at the Sivayan toll plaza.
The farmers want free movement across the toll plazas in Uttar Pradesh.
In a letter to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the BKU had demanded that since most toll roads were built on land acquired from them, they should be made toll free.
The farmers have been protesting against the toll tax on the Yamuna Expressway for more than a month and say that it was just a matter of time before they lay seize of toll plazas across the state.
BKU leader Chowdhary Rakesh Tikait warned the Samajwadi Party government not to think of arresting them.
Farmer leaders say if Tikait was arrested, they would resort to mass self-immolation.
Tikait has claimed he has received a telephonic threat demanding that his men vacate the toll plazas or face dire consequences.
“This is a bizarre situation. On the one hand the government is inviting industry and on the other it is not acting against unreasonable demands of such people,” rued an industrialist.
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 06 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 6 (IANS) Even as the Uttar Pradesh government drags its feet on several projects ahead of the Maha Kumbh in January, it has gone into overdrive to lay out the red carpet for thousands of mediapersons, from India and around the world, who will gather in Allahabad for the mega religious congregation.
The event, being held after 12 years, starts Jan 14 and ends March 10. Around 40 million people are expected to attend.
According to information and public relations department officials, elaborate arrangements are being made for the media jamboree of around 4,000 national and 3,000 international journalists expected to descend on the city from next month.
The government has approved pitching of 100 Swiss cottage tents for the international media and 150 for the Indian media.
While deliberations are on whether to charge international media for the services, journalists accredited by the state government are likely to get free luxury stays in the tents.
A mouth-watering vegetarian menu – including Indian, continental and other dishes – is being planned to cater to the palate of the journalists.
Two cafeterias each for the national and international media are being proposed where food will be made available 24×7 on payment basis, an official privy to the preparations told IANS.
Other than this, a media centre, enough to accommodate 600 mediapersons, will also be set up on the banks of the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers.
In addition, a press conference hall wherein visiting dignitaries and VIPs will be able to interact with the press, broadband connections, 50 computers with internet facility, 10 printers, 10 scanners and many telephone lines and faxes are also being lined up.
For the audio-visual media, a sound-proof studio for recording and uplinking will also be provided.
Officials say three 24×7 cameras would be installed from which footage would be uplinked on an FTA (free-to-air) basis.
In addition, five hi-tech editing machines would be provided for television crews and one FTP (file-transfer-protocol) server would also be established in the media centre.
Live video streaming through eight static high-definition cameras mounted at various ‘ghats’ has also been approved.
To “enable the world to see what a delight Maha Kumbh is” the information department is also going ahead with plans to have 10 watchtowers near the Sangam Nose (vantage point for photography) wherein electronic media and photojournalists would be allowed.
Arrangements are being made near this place for parking of 25 OB (outside broadcasting) vans “to ensure round-the-clock live coverage of the bathing days”.
Ashok Kumar Sharma, media in-charge for the Maha Kumbh, told IANS that the arrangements would be in place by the end of this month.
He also said that application forms for mediapersons who want to cover the congregation have been uploaded on the department’s website.
“All efforts are being made by the government to make the event a hassle-free experience for visiting mediapersons,” he said.
Chief Secretary Javed Usmani and Principal Secretary (Information) are said to be monitoring the Kumbh preparations on a daily basis.
While the Maha Kumbh is held every 12 years, Kumbh Melas are held every four years, alternately at Allahabad, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
Tags: Lucknow
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Written by admin on 05 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 5 (IANS) An activist in Uttar Pradesh has sought registration of a first information report against officials of Rural Engineering Department over regularities pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
In her application at a police station here, Nutan Thakur said the official auditor CAG’s report on the department’s working from 2007-12 presented anomalies in the category of criminal offence.
She said the CAG verified 25 percent of the work and found an irregularities of over Rs.1,401 crore.
Talking to IANS, Thakur alleged that while police had accepted her application, they refused to give her a receipt.
She would now approach the Lucknow senior superintendent of police to get the case registered.
According to the CAG report, Thakur said, all standards, rules and regulations were flouted leading to financial irregularities resulting in heavy loss to the government exchequer.
For instance, as per the government’s guidelines, an administrative sanction is given first followed by financial and technical sanctions, said Thakur’s complaint.
The department gave technical sanction in 1,098 cases worth Rs.298.07 crore before the administrative saction. In many cases, contractors were appointed and rates fixed before any process was initiated and later on, sanctions were given through back-dating, it said, citing the CAG report.
In a central rural road laying scheme, it was necessary to make the the department the project implementing unit (PIU) but in case of 47 road projects worth Rs.131.91 crore, outside organisations were made PIUs, it added.
Similarly, against the government rules of not giving any financial power to ‘prabhari’ (ad hoc) employees, many such people were granted financial powers, it said, adding that in most cases, tender rules were also flouted.
Similarly 3,090 contracts worth Rs.671.35 crore were allotted
through single-window system, which was against the rules, the complaint said.
In Aligarh, Azamgarh, Bijnore, Faizabad, Lalitpur, Moradabad and Sitapur districts, no completion report was sent in 2,461 contracts worth Rs.474.46 crore, Thakur’s complaint said.
Tags: Lucknow
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Written by admin on 05 December 2012
Lucknow, Dec 5 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Wednesday selected a consultant for the development of the proposed 24.5 km Agra inner ring road – aimed at easing the traffic within the city, an official said.
The project will be developed through Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
“This road is aimed at easing the traffic within the Agra city, which has seen incremental rise in incoming vehicles after Yamuna Expressway became functional,” Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anil K. Gupta said.
M/s Casta Engineers Pvt. Ltd. of New Delhi will be required to expedite the technical feasibility and financial viability study among other things.
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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