Page 62 - Uttar Pradesh

Offerings in rivers: NGT allows DPCC, UPPCB to file responses in 4 weeks

The National Green Tribunal has allowed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) to file within four weeks their responses regarding throwing worship offerings in rivers Ganga and Yamuna. The tribunal was hearing a matter where it had taken suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report regarding pollution in the two rivers because of the throwing of flowers and garlands offered in puja (worship) in polythene bags in their ghats. A bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava said that DPCCs counsel failed to point out the committee's response on the issue. The bench, also comprising judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel, noted that the counsel's submissions about submitting "a fresh proper response" covering the issue within four weeks. In an order passed on March 18, the bench noted that there was a similar plea of filing its response within four weeks from the UPPCBs counsel. Allowing

LS elections 2024: BSP releases list of 16 candidates for 80 seats in UP

The BSP on Sunday formally declared its list of candidates for 16 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls. The party in-charges in some districts had earlier declared candidates at district level. The Mayawati-led party has fielded Majid Ali from Saharanpur, Shripal Singh from Kairana, Dara Singh Prajapati from Muzaffarnagar, Vijyendra Singh from Bijnor, Surendra Pal Singh from Nagina (SC seat) and Mohammad Irfan Saifi from Moradabad. From Rampur it has given ticket to Zishan Khan, Shaulat Ali from Sambhal, Mozahid Hussain from Amroha, Devvrat Tyagi from Meerut and Praveen Bansal from Baghpat, it said. From Gautam Buddha Nagar, Rajendra Singh Solanki will be the party candidate, while Girish Chandra Jatav will be in fray from Bulandshahr (SC seat), Abid Ali from Aonla, Anis Ahmad Khan alias Phool Babu from Pilibhit and Dodaram Verma from Shahjahanpur (SC), it added. Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases beginning April 19.

UP Assembly bypolls: Samajwadi Party announces candidates for three seats

The Samajwadi Party on Friday declared its three candidates for the bypolls, which will be held on four assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh along with the Lok Sabha elections. In a post in Hindi on X, the Samajwadi Party declared Avadhesh Kumar Verma as its candidate for the Dadraul assembly constituency, Rakesh Yadav from Gainsari assembly constituency and Vijay Singh Gond from Duddhi assembly constituency. The party is yet to announce its candidate for the Lucknow East assembly constituency, SP's chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI on Friday. Bypoll to four assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held in four phases simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. The four assembly constituencies where bypolls will be held are Lucknow East, Dadraul in Shahjahanpur district, Gainsari in Balrampur district and Duddhi in Sonbhadra district. On Saturday, while announcing the schedule of the assembly bypolls, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa had said

Market borrowings by Uttar Pradesh may surge 12% to Rs 5.73 trillion

State governments raise funds from the market to meet budgetary requirements by floating government securities (G-sec) and bonds bearing different maturities

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Key things to know about phase four polls

Lok Sabha polls: In the fourth stage, 96 seats across 10 states and UTs will go to polls, including the entire Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Snake venom case: Noida Police arrests two associates of Elvish Yadav

Noida Police on Wednesday arrested two associates of YouTuber Elvish Yadav over its probe into suspected use of snake venoms as recreational drugs in parties, officials said. The arrest of the duo comes close on the heels of the police nabbing Yadav on Sunday after questioning him in the case. The duo's name had not featured in the original FIR, lodged at the Sector 49 Police Station in Noida on November 3, but their links in the case surfaced during the investigation, a senior officer said. "Those arrested have been identified as Ishwar (50) and Vinay Yadav (25). Ishwar runs a banquet hall in Gurugram while Vinay is a social media influencer and close friend of Elvish Yadav," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shakti Mohan Avasthy said. "Both the accused have been booked under the same charges as Elvish Yadav, which include the consumption of drugs, organising such parties and trafficking of wildlife species," Avasthy told PTI. Elvish Yadav, the 26-year-old controversial socia

Ayodhya on track to become world's biggest spiritual destination: IHCL CEO

Indians travelling because of higher disposable income and priorities have changed: Puneet Chhatwal

Nominations for first phase of Lok Sabha polls in UP to begin on March 20

Nominations for the first phase of the seven-phase parliamentary elections in Uttar Pradesh will begin on Wednesday, an election official said. Eight parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh -- Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina (SC), Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit -- will vote in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 19. According to the Election Commission, the notification for the polls will be issued on March 20, while March 27 is the last date for filing of nominations. The scrutiny of nominations will be done on March 28 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 30. The counting of votes will take place on June 4, the Election Commission said. This time the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has announced to contest the elections alone while the Samajwadi Party has formed an alliance with the Congress and both parties are part of the opposition INDIA bloc. The Rashtriya Lok Dal has joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National

Analysing economic progress of states through budgets & advance estimates

Several states have come out with the Budgets for 2024-25 and hence advance estimates. Let us use them to analyse the economic performance or outlook of some of those states

Lok Sabha elections 2024: EC orders removal of home secretaries in 6 states

The Election Commission has ordered the removal of home secretaries in 6 states and Director General of Police (DGP) of West Bengal

Political ad spends on Google already up 9x ahead of Lok Sabha polls

BJP emerges as largest advertiser so far in 2024

Strong anti-incumbency in UP, situation very good for INDIA: SP's Ram Gopal

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav Sunday claimed there is strong anti-incumbency in Uttar Pradesh and the INDIA bloc will defeat the BJP in at least 40 seats the ruling party won last time. Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls on all seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections, beginning on April 19 and ending on June 1. The BJP-led ruling coalition won 64 seats -- BJP 62, Apna Da(S) 2 -- out of the total 80 constituencies in 2019. "There is a strong anti-incumbency in Uttar Pradesh against both the state and the central governments. The situation of the alliance will be very good in UP and we will win in at least 40 seats the BJP won (last time)," Yadav said to reporters here. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party were in alliance. While the SP secured victory on five seats, the BSP won 10. This time, the SP has joined the opposition INDIA grouping to fight the BJP-led NDA. On the electoral bonds issue, the Rajya Sabha member said, "People s

LS polls: SP ally Congress under INDIA bloc to stop BJP juggernaut in UP

The coming general election may throw some surprising results in Uttar Pradesh with the SP-BSP alliance now replaced by the SP-Congress pact under the INDIA bloc. The Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in 2019 had offered some resistance to the BJP on a handful of seats in the western and eastern parts of UP, but failed to make a big impact. With BSP supremo Mayawati deciding to duke it out alone this time, it will be up to the SP and Congress to stop the marauding juggernaut of the NDA, which has now has RLD on its side, as well as a number of caste-based regional parties in the Poorvanchal region. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and allies won 73 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The party ceded some ground in the 2019 general election, when the opposition parties scraped their combined tally to 16. Even with the conventional anti-incumbency apprehensions at work, the saffron party laid its claim on the state winning 62 seats, bolstered further by two mo

Lok Sabha elections: Key seats to watch in UP, Punjab, Raj, other states

The BJP won all four Himachal Pradesh Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it is fighting a divided Congress. The seats include these. * Hamirpur: The BJP has fielded Union minister Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur, the Lok Sabha seat he has been winning since a 2008 bypoll. CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and his deputy Mukesh Agnihotri also represent assembly segments in Hamirpur. Five of the six Congress MLAs who recently rebelled against the party were also elected from Hamirpur assembly segments. * Mandi: Members of the region's erstwhile families have tried their luck here. Himachal Congress president Pratibha Singh currently represents the constituency which also sent her husband Virbhadra Singh to Parliament in the past.

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Voting schedule extends six days longer than 2019

Polling for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be conducted in seven phases, between April 19 and June 1, followed by counting of votes on June 4

UP 'lost its identity' during tenure of previous govts: CM Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday attacked the previous governments stating that they "imposed curfews" while the double engine government "held kanwar yatras". The chief minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth Rs 513 crore in the district. "How can we talk of development and don't discuss education and health in it. Previous governments did the same. They first spoiled the system of education and destroyed the arguments for health,' he said in his address at the event. "They made businessmen and daughters insecure. Riots began to happen. The curfews and riots surrounded the state and a problem of identity crisis appeared before the youth. Entrepreneurs started leaving the state. Nepotism entered into development works and slowly this state with unlimited potential lost its identity." Adityanath went on to add, "The previous governments imposed curfews, we started kanwar yatras. They looted earnings and provided jobs to the youth

CM Adityanath, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati pay tributes to Kanshi Ram

Senior politicians, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, paid tributes to prominent Dalit leader and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversary on Friday. "Humble tributes to Kanshi Ram, who fought throughout his life for the rights and overall development of the Dalits, the deprived and the exploited, on his birth anniversary," Adityanath said in a post in Hindi on X. Paying tributes to her mentor, BSP supremo Mayawati said in a post in Hindi on X: "Immense reverence and respect to honourable Kanshi Ram, who gave strength to the caravan of self-respect that was scattered after the demise of B R Ambedkar, on his 90th birthday. The missionary goal of social transformation and economic progress he achieved for the 'Bahujan samaj' by establishing the Bahujan Samaj Party and obtaining the master key of power in Uttar Pradesh through his continuous struggle is historic and incomparable." She added that it will be a true tribute to Kanshi Ram

ED carries out searches against ex-UP Minister Gayatri Prajapati, family

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided over a dozen locations in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra as part of an ongoing money money laundering investigation against former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati and his family members, official sources said. A total of 14 premises in Lucknow and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai in Maharashtra are being covered. Raids are being carried out at Prajapati's house in Lucknow, the sources said. The money laundering case, filed by the ED in 2021, stems from an Uttar Pradesh vigilance department FIR against Prajapati and those linked to him on charges of illegal sand mining and possession of disproportionate assets among others. The central agency had in January attached four Mumbai flats and multiple land parcels in Lucknow, worth more than Rs 13 crore of Prajapati, his family members and associates. The action came after the ED conducted searches. Prajapati, while holding the post of mining minister of Uttar Prades

UP has unlimited potential, some people turned it 'bimaru': CM Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath slammed previous governments on Wednesday, saying they turned the state "bimaru (sick)" in spite of its unlimited potential. He also said there was a time when no one was ready to invest in Uttar Pradesh, but the state has now emerged as a superior destination for investment in the country. Speaking at a mega loan distribution programme of the Ministry of MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) here in the state capital, Adityanath said, "Uttar Pradesh is a state of unlimited potential.... Some people turned the state bimaru in spite of the that unlimited potential." The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said when the "double-engine" government came to power, a reference to the party being in power both at the Centre and in the state, this "unlimited potential was linked to the campaign for the country's progress and development of youngsters and entrepreneurs under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi". Adityanath said o

Vi surrenders partial spectrum in Uttar Pradesh east, West Bengal

Debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea has surrendered partial spectrum in 900 and 1800 Mhz band that were due for renewal in 2024. While the amount of spectrum surrendered by Vodafone Idea could not be ascertained, sources indicated it to be around 12 megahertz in both bands. When contacted, Vodafone Idea spokesperson said, "Upon assessing our usage and needs, we have surrendered some spectrum in both West Bengal and UP East. We remain committed to providing seamless services to our customers while also focussing on optimising for operational efficiency and future growth". Separately, in an investor presentation, VIL said it has completed the minimum roll out requirement for 5G services in 4 telecom circles, and the company has a target to cover 40 per cent of revenues population coverage with 5G in the first 24-30 months.