India's political landscape is ablaze with activity! From the ongoing debates surrounding the new farm bills and their impact on rural India, to the upcoming state elections shaping the national narrative, the stakes couldn't be higher. Key political figures are maneuvering strategically, with alliances shifting and power dynamics constantly in flux. The opposition's challenge to the ruling party is intensifying, sparking vigorous debates on crucial policy matters including economic reforms and social justice initiatives. Parliamentary proceedings are filled with heated exchanges, reflecting the deep divisions within the nation. This evolving political climate directly impacts the lives of every Indian citizen, influencing everything from economic opportunities to social welfare programs. Stay informed about the latest developments in Indian politics, from crucial legislative decisions to grassroots movements, by exploring Abtak.com for in-depth analysis and breaking news updates. Understanding the intricacies of our political system is crucial; stay engaged, stay informed, and stay ahead.
New Delhi: The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) issued a public notice on Sunday, requesting citizens to report any instances of storing, selling, manufacturing, or bursting firecrackers within Delhi. The notice is based on the permanent firecracker ban implemented by the Delhi govt on Dec 19, 2024, in accordance with Supreme Court guidelines."In compliance with the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India order dated Nov 4, 2024, the govt of NCT of Delhi issued a direction under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 on Dec 19, 2024, for imposing a complete ban on the manufacturing, storage, selling (including delivering through online marketing platforms), and bursting of all kinds of firecrackers in the National Capital Territory of Delhi throughout the year with immediate effect," said the public notice. It asked individuals, organisations, and institutions to comply with the direction.The notice specified that violators would face legal consequences and encouraged people to report infractions through various channels. These include the govt's noise pollution grievance portal - ngms.delhi.gov.in, the 'Green Delhi' application, the dedicated helpline 155271, or the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) - 112.A senior DPCC official said the notice was circulated to enhance public awareness, following SC directives.
Chandigarh, June 26 (UNI) The Shiromani Akali Dal today accused Punjab's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of "violating the law" by registering a disproportionate assets case against senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia without holding either a preliminary or regular probe. The SAD also charged the ruling AAP with indulging in "political vendetta to gag" Majithia as well as divert attention from the failure of its 'Yudh Nashean Virudh' drive. Addressing a press conference here, senior leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundar, Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema alleged the AAP governm ...Read More >
New Delhi: Several Opposition parties Friday denounced RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's call to review the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble, terming it a "deliberate assault" on the soul of the Constitution. The attack came a day after the RSS proposed reviewing the two words, saying they were included during the Emergency and were never part of the Constitution drafted by BR Ambedkar. While the Congress saw it as a "deliberate assault" on the soul of the Constitution and claimed the RSS-BJP had never accepted Ambedkar's Constitution, the CPI(M) said the demand expo ...Read More >
Kozhikode (Kerala) [India], June 28 (ANI): CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby on Saturday has strongly criticised recent remarks by RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, who called for the removal of the words "secularism" and "socialism" from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. Speaking to ANI, Baby said that the CPI(M) Polit Bureau had already issued a statement condemning the RSS's position. Also Read | Kolkata Rape Case: BJP Forms Fact-Finding Team To Probe Gang-Rape Case of Law Student, West Bengal Education Minister Seeks Report From Authorities. "Socialism and secularism are ...Read More >
New Delhi: The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) put out a public notice on Sunday and asked the city residents to report any cases of firecrackers being stored, sold, manufactured, or used in Delhi. The decision came after a blanket ban put in place by the Delhi government on December 19, 2024, based on the direction of the Supreme Court. The notice said, "As per the order from the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India dated November 4, 2024, the Delhi government gave directions under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, on December 19, 2024. The order puts a complete ban on ...Read More >
Himachal Pradesh faced nature's fury. Bridges collapsed in Shimla, Lahaul, and Spiti. Cloudbursts and flash floods caused widespread damage. Over 300 roads closed, disrupting travel. A police post swept away, shops damaged. No casualties reported yet. Orange alert issued for more heavy rain. The state has suffered significant financial losses this monsoon. Many people have died in rain-related incidents. Several bridges were washed away in Shimla and Lahaul and Spiti districts, while over 300 roads, including two national highways, have been closed across Himachal Pradesh following fresh inci ...Read More >
Kolkata: Cracker violations have turned out to be a concern in various pockets of the city on Dhanteras (Saturday), barely two days ahead of Kali Puja and Diwali. These violations have been reported from Kasba, Dhakuria, Baguiati, New Town, Salt Lake, Phoolbagan and New Alipore. The seizures of illegal firecrackers had become more than double in the past 48 hours, police said on Saturday. The cops will intensify the crackdown on firecracker violators on the day of Diwali (Monday) by forming special teams to raid the city. "In case of use of banned crackers, we may not provide bail from police ...Read More >
New Delhi/Noida/Gurgaon: As the legal sale of green firecrackers opened Saturday, crowds thronged markets, examining and bargaining, reviving a pre-Diwali ritual that was paused in recent years because of ban. However, conventional crackers, far more numerous and easily available than the green ones, were selling freely across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurgaon, flouting SC orders.TOI reporters who went across NCR found certified green crackers, known by their QR codes with licensing details, were available in the main markets, but so were banned conventional crackers with green labels and f ...Read More >
Ranchi: Union Minister Giriraj Singh launched a sharp attack on the Congress party during a press conference at the BJP office in Ranchi, marking the anniversary of the Emergency. He called the Emergency declared on June 25, 1975, by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi a "dark day" in India's democratic history. Indira Gandhi Betrayed Democracy, Says Singh Giriraj Singh recalled that the Allahabad High Court convicted Indira Gandhi for electoral malpractice on June 12, 1975. Instead of resigning, she clung to power, and after failing to secure relief from the Supreme Court, declared Emergency ...Read More >
Bengaluru Power Cuts: Citizens of Bengaluru brace yourself for long hours of power outages from June 29 and June 30. More than 100 areas will be impacted as BESCOM undertakes its quarterly maintenance work in various of its division. Bengaluru Power Outages June 29: According to the update by BESCOM on its X handler, there will be power outages in Kittaganahalli, Palasandra, Saptagiri, Maruthinagar, Sankapur, Raghavendra Nagar, Goolarivee, Baddihalli, Kesaramadu, C.M Badawan, Kalalli and SKS village on June 29 from 10 am to 5 pm. BESCOM's executive engineer has appealed to consumers to coop ...Read More >
Sushila Karki, former chief justice of Nepal and a likely frontrunner for the country's interim premiership, has drawn attention for her husband's role in a plane hijacking 52 years ago. Ms Karki is married to Durga Prasad Subedi, a former youth leader of the Nepali Congress, whom she reportedly met while studying at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi. Mr Subedi was reporterdly part of Nepal's first plane hijacking on June 10, 1973. On board the plane was Hindi film actress Mala Sinha. ...Read More >
New Delhi: What was being discreetly sold under the table just two days ago is now out in the open. With the Supreme Court permitting the sale of green crackers, hundreds of shoppers poured into the narrow lanes of Old Delhi on Wednesday in anticipation of purchasing firecrackers. However, as per the apex court's order, the sale is officially allowed only from Oct 18 to 20.Traders are now faced with the question of implementation as well as logistics. Harjeet Singh Chhabra, general secretary, Sadar Nishkam Welfare Association, said even though the ban has been lifted, what qualifies as a 'gree ...Read More >
Jodhpur/Jaipur: In a sharp escalation of political wrangling, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot Friday accused BJP and RSS of harbouring a long-standing agenda to amend India's Constitution. His remarks came in response to controversial statements made by RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, who suggested changes to the Preamble.Speaking in Jodhpur, Gehlot cited multiple Supreme Court judgments, including the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case, to emphasise the legal sanctity of the Constitution's Preamble. "This interpretation was further fortified in 1976 by then Prime Minister In ...Read More >
India's top court on Wednesday permitted the use of some firecrackers in New Delhi during the Diwali festival, easing a blanket ban even as the capital battles unhealthy winter air pollution. The Supreme Court said the controlled use of the less-polluting "green firecrackers" -- developed by federal research institutes to reduce particulate and gas emission -- would be allowed for limited periods between Saturday and Tuesday. During Diwali, a major Hindu festival of lights, widespread bursting ...Read More >
Gangtok (Sikkim) [India], October 18 (ANI): The Sikkim Pollution Control Board on Saturday issued an order prohibiting the manufacturing, sale, and bursting of all types of sound and light-emitting firecrackers in the state ahead of Diwali, which falls on October 20. The Sikkim Pollution Control Board on Saturday issued an order prohibiting the manufacturing, sale, and bursting of all types of sound and light-emitting firecrackers in the state ahead of Diwali, which falls on October 20. In its order, the Pollution Control Board urged citizens to refrain from using firecrackers and single-use ...Read More >
The Sikkim Pollution Control Board (SPCB) on Saturday issued an order banning the manufacture, sale, and use of all types of sound- and light-emitting firecrackers in the state ahead of Diwali, which falls on October 20. In its directive, the SPCB urged citizens to avoid firecrackers and single-use plastics, promoting eco-friendly alternatives such as light displays and other environmentally conscious ways of celebrating the festival. Meanwhile, in Aligarh, the firecracker market has opened ahead of Diwali, with shoppers gradually visiting stalls at Numai Ground. Various firecrackers are on ...Read More >
Chennai: Deepavali was celebrated with usual fervour across Tamil Nadu, despite heavy rainfall, on Monday. People woke up early, wore new attire and burst crackers to mark the Festival of Lights. The Tamil Nadu government, citing a Supreme Court judgement of 2018, has said people may burst firecrackers for two hours--between 6 am and 7 am and from 7 pm to 8 pm. With rains playing spoilsport, people are forced to burst crackers in breaks between spells of rains. It also said bursting of firecr ...Read More >
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], August 4 (ANI): Actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan made strong remarks on the necessity of education while addressing a gathering at the Agaram Foundation event in Chennai. Education is the only weapon that can break the chains of dictatorship and Sanatan, the Rajya Sabha MP said on Sunday. Kamal Haasan added, Dont take anything else in your hands, only education. We cannot win without it, because the majority can make you lose. Majority Fools (Moodargal) will make u lose; knowledge alone will seem defeated. That why we must hold on to it (Educat ...Read More >
VARANASI: Nepal's first woman PM (of an interim govt), Sushila Karki, has an MA in political science from Banaras Hindu University in 1975, and a husband from the same university who carried out Nepal's first hijacking. Durga Prasad Subedi, the husband, was one of three men who commandeered a Royal Nepal Airlines de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft in 1973 that had Bollywood star Mala Sinha among the passengers. Speaking fondly of Karki (73), Prof Dipak Malik, a retired BHU professor and former director of Gandhian Institute of Studies, said: "We have had a cordial relationship with her sin ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) Ahead of Diwali, authorities have issued 103 temporary licenses for the retail sale of NEERI-approved green firecrackers at designated locations across the city till Saturday, officials said. The district authorities, in collaboration with Delhi Police, have formed patrolling teams headed by area sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) to ensure full compliance with the Supreme Court's guidelines regarding the sale and use of approved firecrackers, officials added. A total of 159 applications were submitted for temporary licenses to sell green firecrackers. Of these, 103 ha ...Read More >
Gurgaon: Two days after a law student died and his friend suffered critical injuries when a car knocked them down as they stood near railing on the service lane of Delhi-Jaipur highway in the early hours of Tuesday, a civil engineer was arrested on Thursday.Mohit (31), an employee of a private company in the city, told police that he got drowsy while driving. He is staying at a PG facility in Sector 14.The student who died, Harsh Singhal (25), was a resident of Om Nagar colony. His friend Abhishek Kumar (23), who is from Shanti Nagar in Sector 11, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday backed RSS's suggestion to restore the Preamble of the Constitution, saying that this is the right time to remove the legacies of the Emergency, including the words "secularism" and "socialism."While launching a book titled The Emergency Diaries: Years That Forged a Leader at the state BJP headquarters in Guwahati, Biswa said that these words were not part of the original Constitution and should be dropped, as secularism goes against the Indian idea of Sarva Dharma Sambhava, and socialism was never part of India's original economi ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday criticised the Emergency and the Gandhis for suspending fundamental rights, in what is seen as another poke at the Congress leadership after defying the party on the Union govt's global outreach on Operation Sindoor and statements lauding PM Narendra Modi.The remarks targeting Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi in an article on an English website and a Malayalam daily in Kerala appeared to ruffle feathers in Congress, but the party maintained a silence, even though Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore, without naming, dubbed Tharoor a "BJP parrot ...Read More >
New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday said the "whole problem" relating to stray dogs in Delhi-NCR was a result of "inaction" on the part of local authorities which did "nothing". The new bench, which was constituted to adjudicate the suo motu matter of stray dogs post a verdict by a different bench ordering their relocation from streets to shelters, comprises Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria. The three-judge bench heard senior advocate Kapil Sibal, among others, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta before reserving its verdict on the interim prayer for a sta ...Read More >
New Delhi and its sprawling metropolitan region -- home to more than 30 million people -- are regularly ranked among the world's most polluted capitals, with acrid smog blanketing the skyline each winter. Cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic. But pollution has also spiked due to days of fireworks set off to mark Diwali, the major Hindu festival of lights, which culminates on Monday night. The Supreme Court relaxed this month a blanket ban on fireworks over Diwali to allow the use of the less-pollut ...Read More >
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government's policies and decisions were aimed at boosting India's strength and unity in line with the Constitution, while the opposition Congress had "tasted blood" by repeatedly wounding it.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government's policies and decisions were aimed at boosting India's strength and unity in line with the Constitution, while the opposition Congress had "tasted blood" by repeatedly wounding it. Replying to a t ...Read More >
Haridwar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sakshi Maharaj on Sunday demanded that hotel, dhaba and eatery owners on the Kanwar Yatra routes should display their names and identities on boards outside their business establishments. The owners, who hide their identities under fake names, on the Kanwar Yatra routes should not be spared, he told reporters here. "Tampering with faith of the Hindu devotees during the Kanwar Yatra will not be tolerated," said the Unnao MP. The food shops on the Kanwar Yatra routes should have a board outside with the names of their owners clearly written on them, h ...Read More >
Violators face legal action under Environment Protection Act The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has announced a comprehensive and immediate year-round ban on the manufacture, storage, sale, and bursting of all types of firecrackers within the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. This new directive, issued as a public notice on Sunday under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, applies to all individuals, organisations, and institutions, requiring strict compliance. ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) The sale of green firecrackers began in the national capital on Saturday after the Supreme Court allowed their sale and use under certain conditions, bringing cheer to traders who reported a steady flow of customers through the day. Traders who had applied for licences to sell eco-friendly firecrackers received approvals earlier in the day. Markets across the city, including Sadar Bazaar, saw increased activity as residents rushed to them to make their purchases. Paramjeet Singh Pamma, president of the Sadar Bazaar Traders' Association, said traders were prepared to mee ...Read More >
Shimla, Jul 17 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed the state government to remove encroachments on forest lands, including the fruit-bearing trees, all across the state and not limit it to some areas. The order was passed by a division bench consisting of Justices Vivek Thakur and Bipin C Negi on Wednesday after the Advocate General placed on record fresh instructions issued by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, informing that 2,456 apple and other fruit trees have been felled from forest lands in Chaithla village, and 713 and 490 trees in Rohru and Kotgarh forest divisions, r ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Monday said the government plans to approach the Supreme Court to seek permission to allow the use of certified green firecrackers to celebrate Diwali in the national Capital. Reiterating the government's commitment towards taking measures to check air pollution in the city, CM Gupta said, "It will also be ensured that all green firecrackers are manufactured only by authorised institutions and have been certified and tested by competent and relevant departments." "The government believes that a balance between public sentiments and environmental ...Read More >