NEWS

A severe spike in COVID-19 cases in Mumbai and persistent talk of a “complete lockdown” there to tackle it has, like last year, made the national highway number 3 skirting past Madhya Pradesh’s commercial hub Indore a prime route for wary migrants returning home to states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The number of motorcycles, black-and-yellow mini trucks and autorickshaws, teeming with migrants, have been on the rise over the past few days on a bypass road connected to this route, popularly known as Mumbai-Agra road, eye-witnesses said on Sunday.

“The virus outbreak has once again got very severe in Mumbai. There might be a lockdown and it may, like last year, render us jobless. So we have decided to return home,” said Ramsharan Singh (40), making his way back to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh in an autorickshaw. Similar is the case with Mohammad Shadab, going back to his hometown in Bihar’s Bhojpur district.

The Election Commission of India on Thursday removed Asoke Chakraborty --- who was posted as an officer in special duty (OSD) in an ex-cadre post in the rank of an SP in Directorate of Security, West Bengal --- with immediate effect.

Ahead of fourth phase of elections in Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) has transferred three district election officers to non-election posts.

The EC wrote to the chief secretary of the state stating that district election officers (DEOs) -- Purba Bardhaman's Enaur Rahman, Paschim Bardhman's Purnendu Kumar Majhi and Dakshin Dinajpur's Nikhil Nirmal are being transferred with "immediate effect." The poll-panel further stated in its letter that these officers should not be given any election-related postings.

The three shunted officers have been replaced by Shilpa Gaurisaria, C Murugan and Anurag Shrivastava.

Three days after seeking the Assembly Speaker’s attention towards the alleged assault on legislators by police in the state legislature premises, leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday tweeted a letter that he had sent to Governor Fagu Chauhan seeking dismissal of the state government and stern action against the officials for the unprecedented violence on March 23.

In a two-page letter that was written on April 3 and posted on Twitter today, Yadav alleged that the way the government got the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, passed by the Assembly by giving a free hand to police personnel to brutally assault the MLAs was dangerous for the democracy. A video footage of the incident was also sent along with the letter.

Uttarakhand’s newly appointed chief minister, Tirath Singh Rawat, has overturned the erstwhile CM’s decision to take over the management of 51 temples in the state.

The decision came major after shrines protested the state-takeover and met the chief minister.

As many as 51 shrines, including Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, were under the direct control of the state government after Governor Baby Rani Maurya gave her assent to the Char Dham Devsthanam Management Bill that was passed during the winter session of the Assembly.

The CM’s announcement came on the sidelines of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal meeting held in Haridwar on Friday.