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Ahmedabad: Tuesday marks Maha Ashtami or Durgashtami, the eighth day of Navratri. It is also one of the most auspicious days for the Bengali community celebrating Durga Puja. This year, more than 25 Durga Puja venues are hosting grand celebrations in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, bringing both Bengalis and non-Bengalis to enjoy a slice of festivities with fun, food, and cultural events.Anal Mukherjee, secretary of the Bengal Cultural Association (BCA) at Ahmedabad Kalibari, told TOI that about 5,000 devotees are expected to be served bhog prasad on Ashtami. "We saw good participation in cultural events such as chhau dance. The celebrations will culminate on Dashami with sindoor khela," he said. This is the 88th year of Durga Puja celebration in the city; festivities at Kalibari have been held since 2018.Highly ornate pandals, showing the goddess in all her glory, have been erected at venues of the Sabarmati Durgotsav Committee, Karnavati Bangiyo Porishod, Chandkheda Bengal Cultural Association, Bengali Youth Culture Association, Jagatpur Bengali Cultural Association Pujo, and Bangiyo Antariksha Sanskriti Samiti, among others. Prantik Chakraborty, president of the celebrations at SAC-Isro Colony, said this is the maiden Durga Puja celebration for the SAC-Isro and PRL scientists in the city. "We amalgamated science with spirituality and created a unique flavour of puja for the community in the city," he said.Sanat Kumar Chattopadhyay, secretary of the Purbasha Cultural Association in Gandhinagar, said that Ashtami will be celebrated with 'Abhyuthanam', which fetes culture and heroism. It is the association's 37th puja celebration. Organisers braved fickle weather on Sunday and to ensure devotees got to celebrate the cultural and spiritual significance to the fullest.
NEW DELHI: Axiom-4 crew members, including Shubhanshu Shukla, were welcomed with hugs and drinks as they stepped into the International Space Station on Thursday. The newly launched spacecraft -- the fifth in the Dragon series and named Grace -- successfully completed a soft docking with the International Space Station at 4.01pm while orbiting above the North Atlantic Ocean."At 6:31 am EDT (4:01 IST) on Thursday, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station for the fourth private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory, Axiom Mission 4," the National Aeronautics ...Read More >
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 27 (ANI): A female student was allegedly gang-raped inside a law college in Kolkata's Kasba on Wednesday evening. The police have arrested all three accused within 24 hours. The three accused, named as Monojit Mishra (31), Zaib Ahmed (19), and Pramit Mukhopadhyay (20), were former students or staff members of the same law college. Also Read | Student Gang-Raped at South Kolkata Law College: Police Arrest 3 Youths for Sexually Assaulting Young Woman Inside Law College. According to the police, the accused named in the FIR will be produced before the A.C.J. ...Read More >
Kolkata: Bengali-speaking migrant workers were facing "persecution" in BJP-governed states and being branded Bangladeshis, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Samirul Islam said on Monday."These migrant workers are being detained without any police records. Authorities are not even contacting the state govt to verify their citizenship. What, then, is the motive of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah?" Samirul, who is also chairman of West Bengal Migrant Worker Welfare Board, said on X.Trinamool posted the same from its official X handle."Do they intend to punish Bengal in this illegal way -- bypassi ...Read More >
Ludhiana, Jun 8 (PTI) Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Sunday asserted that his party will win the Ludhiana West assembly bypoll, scheduled to be held on june 19, with a "record margin". "Congress practically has no competition here", he claimed. Warring, who is also the Ludhiana MP, said that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was badly mistaken that the Congress would allow it to abuse power and misuse the official machinery for the elections. "First of all, we will not let any misuse of the official machinery and second, in case any official is found to be misusing ...Read More >
Goa: TV actor couple Puja Banerjee and Kunal Verma have found themselves in the legal hotseat after the Goa Police filed a FIR against the couple for allegedly abducting and extorting money from Bengali filmmaker Shyam Sunder Dey, officials said on Saturday. An FIR was first filed at Panache police station in Kolkata on June 12 based on a complaint by Dey's wife, Malabika, against the actor couple. However, since the alleged incident took place in North Goa, the case was later transferred to the Calangute Police, a police official told PTI. As per the FIR, the accused seized the victim's two ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday extended the term of the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Ravi Agrawal by one year, an official notification said.The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the re-appointment of Agrawal, an IRS officer of the 1988 batch, as CBDT chairman for one year from July 1 this year to June 30, 2026, on contract basis.Agrawal took over as the CBDT chairman from Nitin Gupta in June 2024 after Gupta's extended tenure ended. Agrawal has been a member of CBDT. He was member administration and had served as DG investigation in Delhi. The gover ...Read More >
Chandigarh: Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday said the state govt was consistently working to provide better resources to the doctors and quality healthcare services to the citizens.He mentioned that medical colleges were being established in every district.While there were only six medical colleges in 2014, the number has now increased to 15, and nine new colleges are under construction. As a result, MBBS seats in the state increased from 700 in 2014 to 2,185, at present. The state govt aims to increase the MBBS seats to over 3,400 by 2029, said Saini.The CM was addressing a ...Read More >
Jhansi: A family in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, has become the centre of a shocking case involving extramarital affairs, gold theft, and murder. Police have uncovered the alleged conspiracy behind the murder of 60-year-old Sushila Devi.The probe led to the arrest of her younger daughter-in-law, Pooja Jatav, along with Pooja's sister, Kamla. Both women are currently in judicial custody. On Tuesday night, police nabbed Kamla's boyfriend, Anil Verma -- who had been absconding since the killing. Verma was shot in the leg by the police during a police encounter. The incident occurred on the morning of ...Read More >
Puri: Lord Jagannath and His Siblings Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra were adorned with 208 kg gold ornaments during the 'Suna Besha' ritual on chariots Sunday, an integral part of the annual Rath Yatra festival in Puri. The devotees can have 'darshan' of the deities from 6.30 pm to 11 pm, said the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA). According to temple sources, the deities adorn around 30 different designs of ornaments which include gold, diamond, silver and other precious metals. "Initially, around 138 designs of ornaments were used during the era of King Kapilendra Deb in 146 ...Read More >
Amritsar: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey from Jharkhand has claimed that Britain assisted India in executing the 1984 Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, stoking a new controversy.In a post on X on Monday, Dubey alleged that then PM Indira Gandhi "launched an attack on the Golden Temple in collaboration with Britain", with British Army officers present in Amritsar.He uploaded a classified British document, "Sikh Community", claiming that on Feb 23, 1984, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office mentioned in a letter that the Indian govt had sought British advice over a plan to remove Si ...Read More >
New Delhi: Three Indian citizens vanished mysteriously in Tehran. Darkness closed in as hope seemed lost. A ruthless Pakistani gang with potential links to ISI snatched them away, casting a shadow of fear. But relentless Indian diplomats refused to back down. Against all odds, a daring rescue mission ignited. Now, the captives are free, and a chilling game of espionage comes to light. The Punjab-based trio - Amritpal Singh from Hoshiarpur, Jaspal Singh from SBS Nagar and Hushnapreet Singh from Sangrur - had landed in Iran on May 1. Promised a clandestine route to Australia via Dubai and Tehra ...Read More >
Guwahati (Assam) [India], June 28 (ANI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on his visit to the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati on Saturday shared the development project aimed towards making the trip to the temple more accessible and time-efficient He said, 'A ropeway will be constructed from Kamakhya station to Kamakhya temple and another ropeway will be constructed from Sonaram field to Kamakhya temple. Work on both ropeways is going on. The process of floating a tender has already been done. A feasibility study for many other ropeways is going on.' The construction of both ropeways to ...Read More >
Srinagar- Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said foreign countries were told clearly during the post-Operation Sindoor diplomatic outreach that in case of a fresh provocation, India would repeat its action. Speaking at a discussion at the Ahmedabad Management Association, Tharoor said Indian delegations which visited foreign countries in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor managed to convey that India acted with restraint and responsibility. "In other places, we actually were able to get some very high-placed people to say not only that they respected and supported India's right of self- ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], November 28 (ANI): India has expressed its concern over the escalating incidents of violence against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and desecration, and damage to their places of worship, and has also called on the interim government there to ensure the safety of minorities. In a response to question asked by RJD MP AD Singh, Minister of State for Ministry of External Affairs, Kirit Vardhan Singh in a written reply to Rajya Sabha, stated that the "primary responsibility" for the protection of life and liberty of all citizens of Bangladesh, including minorities, "rests with ...Read More >
Digha: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed concern over the confinement of 100 Bengali-speaking migrant workers in Odisha. Banerjee said that she has asked chief secretary Manoj Pant to talk to his Odisha counterpart to resolve the issue. "I got information that 100 migrant workers are being held captive in Odisha's Cuttack. Some of our people are held at Balasore PS as well. Why are these incidents happening daily," Banerjee asked. "Why are they targeting Bengal? The migrant workers with valid documents are confined or detained. Every day, similar incidents are happenin ...Read More >
New Delhi: Alleging "blatant misuse" of agencies to defame its leaders, AAP on Thursday questioned why the first information report filed against former Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Satyendar Jain was being kept under wraps and "selective" press notes were being leaked to the media.Bharadwaj, who is Delhi AAP convener, alleged that only two former ministers were named in the case without any reasonable cause while all the officers of the health and public works departments, who were actually responsible for executing the hospital projects, were spared. "Is the FIR so baseless that BJP ...Read More >
Kolkata Rape Case: Following the alleged 'gang-rape' of a law student in Kolkata, political tensions have risen. The Trinamool Congress acknowledged that the main suspect is associated with its student wing. However, they assured that this connection would not hinder his receiving the harshest punishment. The incident occurred at South Calcutta Law College, involving Monojit Mishra, a 31-year-old lawyer and former student, along with two current students. The accused, Monojit Mishra, is linked to the Trinamool Congress' student wing. The BJP has circulated images showing him with prominent pa ...Read More >
Guwahati (Assam) [India], June 28 (ANI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on his visit to the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati on Saturday shared the development project aimed towards making the trip to the temple more accessible and time-efficient He said, "A ropeway will be constructed from Kamakhya station to Kamakhya temple and another ropeway will be constructed from Sonaram field to Kamakhya temple. Work on both ropeways is going on. The process of floating a tender has already been done. A feasibility study for many other ropeways is going on." The construction of both ropeways to ...Read More >
Puri (Odisha) [India], June 28 (ANI): Adani Group Chairperson Gautam Adani, along with his family, took part in the annual Rath Yatra celebrations of Lord Jagannath in Puri on Saturday and also offered 'Prasad Seva' to devotees. Accompanied by his wife Priti Adani and son Karan Adani, the industrialist participated in the rituals associated with the procession of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Goddess Subhadra. Also Read | Christy Martin Biopic: Sydney Sweeney Says She 'Didn't Care' About Getting Hurt While Filming Fight Scenes With Co-Star Katy O'Brian. "I have got everything from Lo ...Read More >
The shooting of the Telugu film 'The Paradise' began on June 21Actor Nani joined the Hyderabad set on SaturdayA 40-day shooting schedule is underway featuring lead cast The shooting of Telugu actor Nani and director Srikanth Odela's The Paradise' commenced on June 21. The actor joined the team on Saturday in Hyderabad. The makers of 'The Paradise' announced the latest development with a photo of the actor from the movie sets. 'The Paradise' has been making headlines ever since it was announced. ...Read More >
DHARMAPURI: For the third time in the past two months, a wild leopard wandered into a private farmland near Valaithottam village near Palacode and hunted chicken raised by a local farmer. Locals are increasingly distressed and urged the forest department to take steps to relocate the leopard. Over the past few months, there have been several reports of leopard sightings in forest areas near Palacode, particularly in Valaithottam village, near the forest's fringe. There have been two instances when the leopard attacked farmlands, taking away a domestic dog and a chicken. On Saturday, the leop ...Read More >
Bengaluru, June 29 (PTI) Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday said the government would respond in accordance with the law to the High Court notice regarding the proposed 'Cauvery Aarti' near the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) reservoir in Mandya district. The Karnataka High Court had issued the notice on Friday in response to a petition challenging the event, citing potential ecological and safety concerns. "Whatever it is, we will respond as per the law. No one will obstruct prayers. Some have concerns, and the government will do what's necessary to address them... we conduc ...Read More >
MADURAI: Likening the custodial murder of Ajith Kumar in Tiruppuvanam to an 'organised crime by police where the state kills its own citizens,' Madras high court lambasted the Tamil Nadu police and said the action against the perpetrators should be more stringent than in normal murder cases.A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice A D Maria Clete pointed to 44 external injuries on the person of Ajith Kumar and said no part of the body was spared by the delinquent cops. "Even an ordinary murderer would not have inflicted such kind of injuries," the bench said on Tuesday.The natur ...Read More >
Mumbai, July 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) Actor Hrishikesh Pandey known for his role as Inspector Sachin in the popular CID franchise, shared his views on the ongoing Marathi language debate in Maharashtra. Talking exclusively with IANS, he shared that while it is admirable to respect one's local language, it is not easy for everyone to learn a new language quickly. When asked about his views on the growing pressure in Mumbai about speaking Marathi, Hrishikesh stressed that we should promote living with harmony instead of language politics. Speaking to IANS, he said, "Marathi is Maharashtra's pride, ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], July 7 (ANI): Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare & Rural Development, Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday inaugurated the 11th edition of the India Maize Summit, organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in association with (IIMR) Indian Institute of Maize Research. Speaking at event, Chouhan emphasized that 'Farmers' sewa is our mool mantra,' reaffirming the government's commitment to farmer-centric policies. He outlined a multi-pronged strategy to boost maize production, and increase farmer incomes, while ensuring environme ...Read More >
Vijayawada: ISKCON Vijayawada's Sri Jagannath Swamy Rath Yatra Maha Mahotsavam, known as the largest Rath Yatra in South India will be held from June 27 to 29, said ISKCON Mandir President Chakradharidas. The programme will begin at 1 pm on Friday with Rath Puja and will proceed with great pomp and grandeur amidst cultural programmes by local and foreign artistes and chanting of Harinama by devotees. Rath Yatra Mela Mahotsavam will be organised every day from 5 pm on an area of 3.5 acres in a most magnificent and heart-touching way. This year, a special programme called 'Sumangali Subhadra' w ...Read More >
Puri (Odisha) [India], June 27 (ANI): A large number of devotees gathered at the Jagannath temple in Puri as the grand annual Rath Yatra festival began on Friday morning. People from across the country arrived to witness the grand chariots of the three deities, Lord Jagannath, his brother Lord Balabhadra, and sister goddess Subhadra, at the Gundicha temple, where the deities reside for a week and then return to Jagannath temple. Speaking to ANI, Pooja Anand, a devotee from Mumbai, shared her emotions while witnessing the yatra for the first time. 'I have come from Mumbai. It is an out-of-thi ...Read More >
New Delhi: The razing of a Durga temple in Dhaka's Khiliket area has cast a long shadow over India-Bangladesh ties, reviving questions about the safety of religious minorities in post-Hasina Bangladesh. With reports attributing the demolition to pressure from radical Islamist groups, the incident on Thursday represents a potential inflection point in India's foreign policy approach toward its eastern neighbour. "We understand that extremists were clamouring for demolishing the Durga temple in Khilkhet, Dhaka," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a regular media ...Read More >
Kolkata: Fourteen years after Ritesh Kumar Shaw -- a garments trader from Burrabazar -- attempted to murder his wife in front of their four-year-old son, a Barrackpore court on Friday sentenced him to life imprisonment for orchestrating the crime to claim insurance benefits.Santonu Chakrobarty, public prosecutor-in-charge, told TOI that the accused shot his wife, Madhumala Shaw (40), after he made an insurance policy of Rs 1 crore in her name and named himself as the nominee. Cops said Shaw planned the attack, assuming his wife would die. He then lodged a false complaint at Khardah Police Stat ...Read More >
Puri: Despite travel uncertainties due to recent conflicts in some parts of the world, people from Europe and elsewhere have reached Puri to witness the annual Ratha Yatra of the sibling deities.As non-Hindus are not allowed inside the 12th-century Jagannath Temple, the Ratha Yatra provides a rare opportunity for devotees across the world to see the deities in their full glory atop their majestic wooden chariots."Back home, we are surrounded by uncertainty and fear. But here, I found peace. I came because this is my only chance to see Lord Jagannath. He comes out for the whole world. This is v ...Read More >