Akshita Kapoor

[ad_1] West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee rolled out on Tuesday the roadmap for filling up the 24,203 school positions left empty after the Calcutta HC's and Supreme Court's SSC rulings and also announced the creation of 20,000 extra jobs in schools.The process will start on May 30 (a day before SC's May 31 deadline) with a recruitment advertisement and will end with counselling (to start Nov 20). This is the Mamata Banerjee administration's biggest school recruitment drive till date."Besides the 24,203 vacant posts, additional vacancies have been created to recruit 11,517 teachers for Classes IX and X, 6,912 vacant posts have been created for teachers for Classes XI and XII, and 1,571 vacancies have been created for Group C and Group D posts. The total vacancies are 44,203," Banerjee said."There are many cases […]

[ad_1] Former president of Wrestling Federation of India Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh upon his arrival at Ayodhya airport. (PTI Photo) AYODHYA: Laws meant to protect people from harassment are misused as a weapon against opponents, former chief of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and ex-MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said Tuesday. He was speaking a day after a Delhi court accepted a police closure report in a Pocso sexual harassment case against him.In an apparent show of strength, over 10,000 supporters and more than 100 SUVs had gathered at Ayodhya airport to accord a grand welcome to Brij Bhushan, who affirmed his faith in the judiciary and asserted that "truth can be troubled but not defeated".The former BJP MP urged govt to take preventive steps to prevent misuse of such laws. "I have great faith in Lord Hanuman, the judiciary […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: India has finalised a new 'programme execution model' for the indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter called the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), under which private firms can also bid for the project along with defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL).The new model approved by defence minister Rajnath Singh, which aims to accelerate prototype development and induction of the AMCA through a 'robust' domestic aerospace industrial ecosystem, marks a radical departure from the country's long-standing policy of fighter production being solely the preserve of HAL.The defence ministry expects HAL, which has been facing major flak for the huge delay in production of the fourth-generation Tejas Mark-1A jets, to bid for the AMCA project in partnership with one or more private players, officials told TOI.The defence PSU, after all, "already has its hands full" with the planned production of 180 Tejas […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea challenging an order of the Bombay high court which had declined to stay the construction work for a passenger jetty and terminal facilities project near the Gateway of India.A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih noted that the high court is seized of the matter and is slated to hear it on June 16."Something good is happening for the city. Everybody opposed the coastal road. Now you see what the benefit of the road is: A person from South Mumbai can reach Versova in 40 minutes. Earlier, it used to take three hours," CJI B R Gavai observed. The bench sought to know whether the authorities have got the necessary clearances for the project. Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for […]

[ad_1] Prime Minister Narendra Modi PM Modi on Tuesday amplified the resolve to use water from Indus river system for India, saying provisions of the "badly negotiated" Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) were prejudicial to the country's interests and did not let people here even use the share that was earmarked for them."I would like to tell the younger generation how this country was ruined. A closer look at IWT will leave you shocked. It was decided that the dams built on the rivers of J&K would not be cleaned. Desilting would not be done. The lower gates for clearing sediments were to remain shut. For 60 years, these gates were never opened. As a result, the reservoirs could effectively use only 2-3% of their storage capacity," Modi said.His remarks at a gathering in Gandhinagar to celebrate 20 years of 'Gujarat […]

[ad_1] MUMBAI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that with Operation Sindoor, the Narendra Modi govt had taught a lesson to those who had violated India's security.Referring to the IAF strikes on the nine terror camps in Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, Shah said: "...Ek chutki sindoor, which is important to our mothers, sisters... we have shown the importance of the Sindoor. There were ten crore online searches for the meaning of Sindoor... we went into their home and destroyed their hideouts."Speaking in Gujarati during the 50th anniversary celebrations of Laxmi-Narayan Temple at the Madhavbaug complex in Bhuleshwar here, Mumbai-born Shah referred to the achievements of the Modi govt, which had completed 11 years on Monday. "This Gujarati son (Modi) has been focused on the development of the country... we have become the fourth largest economy, made the country […]

[ad_1] SpaceX's mega-rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase. (Pic credit: AP) After a series of setbacks, SpaceX launched its mega Starship rocket once again on Tuesday evening, aiming to complete its most ambitious test flight yet, deploying mock satellites and splashing down in the Indian Ocean.The 403-foot (123-meter) Starship lifted off from Starbase, SpaceX's launch facility at the southern tip of Texas, marking the ninth demonstration of the company's next-generation spacecraft. For the first time, the test flight featured a reused booster, which separated mid-flight and headed for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike past launches, there were no attempts to recover the booster using the giant "chopsticks" landing arms at the launch site.Tuesday's mission had several firsts. Starship was tasked with releasing eight dummy satellites, stand-ins for SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites, during its flight, a […]

[ad_1] KOLKATA: Pet owners must ensure their animals do not harm others, Calcutta high court has said in a recent order, turning down a man's plea to quash a criminal case pertaining to a dog attack on a neighbour."The potential gravity of a dog attack on a human, capable of causing serious injury or even posing a threat to life, cannot be overstated. Therefore, a pet owner is undeniably duty-bound to exercise a certain degree of care and take sufficient steps to prevent their pet from causing harm," Justice Uday Kumar said in his order on May 23.The pet owner from Sonarpur, on Kolkata's outskirts, was charged under Section 289 of IPC, pertaining to "negligent conduct with respect to animals". This followed a complaint from the neighbour alleging he was attacked by 10-12 of the man's pet dogs on the […]

[ad_1] CUTTACK: Orissa high court has granted a 26-year-old rape accused one-month bail to marry a 22-year-old woman he is accused of raping when she was 16, observing that their relationship was consensual, not forced or exploitative."The allegations, though serious in their statutory framing, arise out of a consensual relationship between two individuals who are very close in age and shared a personal bond prior to the filing of the present case," Justice S K Panigrahi said in the bail order uploaded on Monday. The man was jailed under Pocso Act in 2023 on the woman's complaint that he had maintained physical relationship with her since 2019 on the promise of marriage. She complained that she had become pregnant twice in 2020 and 2022, and both times he forced her to terminate the pregnancy.The man had recently moved court for […]

[ad_1] KOLKATA: Three senior resident (SR) doctors who were the prominent faces of the RG Kar movement have allegedly been given 'punishment' postings in Bengal, sparking a row.A large section of the medical community has accused the Mamata Banerjee government of 'witch-hunting' by flouting the counselling process, while TMC said it can't allow the protesters to cash in on the movement.On Tuesday, junior doctors went to seek clarification from officials in Kolkata. Denied the audience, they said they will protest against the 'injustice'. Senior doctors' bodies like Association of Health Service Doctors, Service Doctors Forum and Medical Service Centre have come forward to support them. Health officials refused to comment.According to norms, all PG medical students must serve a bond posting for three years after completing the course. The final year PG results were published on Feb 28 and the […]