NEWS

With opposition parties sharpening their knives against the BJP's backward caste strategy, the party has played its cards by appointing one of its prominent OBC (Other Backward Class) face, Dharmendra Pradhan, as in-charge of the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. In the 2014 general election, the BJP had stitched a rainbow non-Yadav OBC voter base in UP. It is now focusing on these castes by projecting its 'grand Hindu identity' even as the Samajwadi Paty (SP) and the Congress have been hosting OBC sammelans and are raking up issues like caste-based census to weaken the BJP's base.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari promised the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday that the emergency landing strips for the armed force’s planes will be developed within 15 days instead of 1.5 years. Gadkari and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday inaugurated a 3-km-long emergency landing strip here on National Highway 925 for the IAF aircraft.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) took about 19 months to construct the emergency landing strip on Satta-Gandhav stretch on NH-925 in Barmer.

“Yesterday, when the honourable IAF Chief came to me, he told me that it took 1.5 years to develop this landing strip (in Barmer),” Gadkari said in his speech here after the inauguration.

The filling work at the construction site for Ram temple in Ayodhya has been completed and the project is on schedule with the temple expected to be open to the public by December 2023 -- just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. "A review meeting on the construction of the temple in Ayodhya was held on August 27-29 where it was noted that the construction work is proceeding as per schedule and the plan to enable devotees to have darshan of Lord Shri Ram by the year 2023 seems within reach," an official involved with the construction of the temple said.

The review meeting was attended by Swami Govinddev Giriji, Treasurer-Trust; Champat Rai, General Secretary-Trust; and the Trust members Vimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra and Dr Anil Mishra. Nripendra Misra, Chairman, Construction

India has raised serious concerns and emphasised on Pakistan’s links with Taliban and other international terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, during the first detailed and extensive review of the Afghanistan crisis between New Delhi and Moscow.

The concerns were raised at a meeting between India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval and Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation. Patrushev, who was in Delhi, also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar.

The ministries of defence and external affairs as well as intelligence agencies of both countries also took part in the meeting.