Month: April 2025

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: The Union government on Friday informed Supreme Court that deletion of a provision in the 1995 Waqf Act barring enforcement of rights over unregistered waqfs through an amendment in 2013 resulted in a massive rise in Waqf Board properties country-wide from 2,07,394 to 8,72,870 and a corresponding increase in area from 18.3 lakh acres to 39 lakh acres.Delhi Waqf Board in 2013 had just nine properties having an area of 0.03 acres. By 2025, the number of properties under its control increased to 1,047 having an area of 28 acres. This phenomenon was more accentuated in Jammu & Kashmir, where the Auqaf Board had just one property with 0.42 acres in 2013, which increased to 32,533 with an area of 31.4 acres by 2025, the Centre's affidavit said.Even in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, waqf properties […]

[ad_1] RANCHI: A Jharkhand minister facing a backlash for getting his facts in a twist and demanding Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's resignation for the April 22 terror attack in J&K's Pahalgam claimed Friday that the remark was meant to be "purely sarcastic".Higher and technical education minister Sudivya Kumar Sonu of JMM said he didn't intend to "politicise a tragedy", as accused by his critics, but to criticise the BJP-led Centre's response to security challenges. "So, why would a Congress CM of a state other than J&K "resign on moral grounds" for what he perceives as the Centre's failure? That's the irony! When those in govt are silent, I asked an unconnected person in power to resign as a token of protest...My statement was supposed to highlight the persistent silence of our country's top leadership in the face of […]

[ad_1] KOLKATA: The West Bengal government shifted out the police superintendents of Murshidabad and Jangipur on Friday. While Jangipur SP Ananda Roy has been shifted to command the Eastern Frontier Rifles unit in West Midnapore's Salua, Murshidabad SP Surya Kumar Yadav has been moved to Cooch Behar to command the newly formed Narayani Battalion. Roy is a part of the SIT investigating 138 FIRs connected with the Murshidabad violence.A Bhabani Bhawan source said DCP (Traffic-South, Kolkata) Amit Kumar Shaw would replace Roy in the SIT. Yadav was part of the probe team that was conducting raids outside the state.Shaw has been asked to take charge of Jangipur. Kumar Sunny Raj, currently SP of Ranaghat, will be the new Murshidabad SP.Earlier this month, the Shamsherganj and Suti inspectors-in-charge had been removed.The transfers come ahead of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to […]

[ad_1] LUCKNOW: Five workers lost their lives and three others sustained serious injuries after the dryer at a rice mill exploded in UP's Bahraich Friday. The incident took place around 7am when 15-17 people were working at the mill located in Gulam Alipura area, police said.Eyewitnesses said the explosion triggered a massive fire, causing thick smoke to engulf the premises. Workers started collapsing as they lost consciousness. Local residents rushed to the spot and helped evacuate the injured.Bahraich chief medical superintendent Dr M M Tripathi, confirming the deaths, said the injured were referred to the local medical college. The deceased have been identified as Ghaffar Ali (22), Bablu (27), Rajnesh (30), and Zahur Ali (55) from UP, and Bittu Shah (30) from Bihar. CM Yogi Adityanath expressed deep sorrow over the incident. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Putting up a strong defence of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, the Centre called it a secular law and accused the petitioners challenging its validity in Supreme Court of spinning a false "interference in religious affairs" narrative on mandatory registration of every waqf, including 'waqf by user'. It said this provision was more than a century old.In a 1,332-page affidavit, joint secretary in the minority affairs ministry Shersha C Shaikh Mohiddin requested SC to abide by traditional assumption of validity of a law enacted by Parliament and conduct a detailed hearing without granting any stay on operation of the law, which is to stop misuse of 2013 amendment allowing encroachment of private and govt properties. In the last hearing, SC had flagged 3 issues in 2025 law - registration documents of waqf properties, inclusion of non-Muslims in […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, an eminent space scientist, educationist and the guiding force behind India’s space and education milestones, passed away on Friday in Bengaluru at the age of 84. A former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the chief architect of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Kasturirangan had been battling age-related ailments following a heart attack he suffered in Sri Lanka in July 2023. He breathed his last at 10:43 am at his Bengaluru residence.His mortal remains will be kept at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, on April 27 for people to pay their respects. He is survived by two sons.Kasturirangan-led Isro from 1994 to 2003, a period marked by major milestones, including the operationalisation of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the successful flight-test of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. Under his […]

[ad_1] UDHAGAMANDALAM: The faceoff between Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi and the state govt took a new turn with the former alleging that vice-chancellors of state universities were 'warned' by the govt not to participate in the two-day conference of VCs convened by Raj Bhavan on Friday. The DMK govt hit back at Ravi saying the VCs skipped the conference as it was 'illegal'.While the VCs of state-run universities were absent, VCs from central universities and deemed-to-be universities participated. "Unfortunately, none of the vice-chancellors of state universities are participating. They have informed me that they have been warned by the state govt," the governor said at the conference, which was inaugurated by VP Jagdeep Dhankhar.Guv organised conference 'adamantly in violation of law': TN higher edu mantri Accusing govt of threatening some VCs, Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi said: […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Taking serious objection to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's remarks against V D Savarkar, Supreme Court virtually gagged him on Friday, warning him of suo motu action if he derided the freedom fighter and Hindutva proponent in the future. "...This is not the way you treat our freedom fighters," Justice Dipankar Datta said.A bench of Justices Datta and Manmohan granted relief to Gandhi by staying summon issued to him by a lower court, but only after giving him a history lesson and reminding him him that his grandmother Indira Gandhi too had praised Savarkar.The complaint was lodged after Gandhi, on Nov 17, 2022, allegedly described Savarkar as "receiver of pension from Britishers", and "a servant of Britishers" at a press conference in Akola, Maharashtra."Does your client know Mahatma Gandhi also used 'your faithful servant' while addressing the Viceroy?" […]