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Rakshabandhan celebrated with fanfare
New Delhi, Aug 22 (ANI): People celebrated Rakshabandhan across the country with much fanfare on Thursday. On this day every year women tie threads, popularly called Rakhi, around their brothers' wrists and pray for their long life. In turn, brothers give gifts and pledge to protect their sisters' honour. As is the custom, a large number of mentally challenged and blind students visited Rashtrapati Bhavan and tied rakhis around the President's wrists. The latter distributed gifts and recited a poem. A group of girl students called upon Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's residence and greeted him with rakhis. Women belonging to various social groups also visited Vajpayee on the occasion. Mainly a Hindu festival, Rakshabandhan is celebrated by people of other communities too. It symbolises strong bonds of affection between the brothers and sisters. In the capital, women thronged the stalls selling colourful rakhis and sweets shops since early morning. Meanwhile, Indian soldiers, standing guard at the Wagah border check-post with Pakistan, had surprise visitors early on Thursday. Dozens of collge girls and housewives from nearby villages tied "rakhis" on them. "Indian soldiers save our country...I don't know how to experss myself but I love our soldiers very much, I love my brothers," said Anubhav Kalia, a college student. The soldiers too were overwhelmed by the love and affection showered on them. "Not all soldiers can go home on this festive occasion. We do miss our home. But seeing the atmosphere here I must admit that no matter whereever in the country we are deployed, we always find our sisters being with us," said Padeep Kumar, a soldier with the Border Security Force. A rakhi is made of tinsel, colourful cotton, silk, and gold or silver-twisted threads and the price ranges anything between Rs 10 and Rs 5000. The latest trend noticed this year was that of silver and golden bracelets. Over the years, the festival has undergone a number of changes. Nowadays, brothers give their sisters money and expensive gifts as opposed to the customary clothes. Even the trade has been greatly commercialised. Previously people used to buy big and colourful rakhis, but now they prefer the more elegant and expensive ones. The origin of this festival dates back to several centuries. It is said that a Hindu queen Rani Roopmati sent a thread to Emperor Jahangir requesting him to protect her from enemies. The monarch took Roopmati as his sister and sent in his army to ensure her protection. From then onwards brothers have attached great sentiments to rakhis. (ANI) Sinha rejects Pak offers of talks on Kashmir
The seven foreign ministers of SAARC countries were in Kathmandu to review the progress made in implementing a programme to promote trade and remove poverty in the region. SAARC, founded in 1985 for the economic development of one of the world's poorest regions, comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Sinha refused to comment on the offer of talks made by Inam-Ul- Haq, Pakistani junior minister for Foreign Affairs, on Wednesday. "If Mr. Inamul Haq has chosen to make some statements, let him make those statements. I will chose another time and another territory to respond to that. Not here," Sinha said. India says bilateratal contentious issues should be kept out of SAARC, a multi-lateral forum. "I think...as I said it's not helpful to the SAARC process and in any case I am not having any bilateral discussions. So why should I have bilateral discussions with him through the media," he added. The two-day meet of the foreign ministers ended on Thursday.(ANI) OrdInance on electoral reforms soon
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to top New Delhi, Aug 22 (ANI): Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Ravishankar Prasad on Thursday said the government was contemplating to bring about an ordinance for implementation of the electoral reforms. The Supreme Court had recently directed the government to implement the poll reforms as the Representation of the People Act could not be amended due to premature ending of the monsoon session of Parliament. It was followed by an Election Commission notification. The Union Cabinet had on August 16 approved the promulgation of an ordinance on electoral reforms seeking to curb criminalisation of politics. The minister said the ordinance would be issued soon. The EC notification had caused anxiety among all parties as it envisaged rejection of nomination forms of candidates if they did not give proper information about their criminal antecedents, assets and liabilities and educational qualifications. (ANI)
Jaswant pledges quick relief for Rajasthan drought-hit Go to top Jodhpur, Aug 22 (ANI): Finance Minister Jaswant Singh gave some hope to the drought-stricken people of Rajasthan as he announced that the Central government is taking all steps to provide quick relief to the area. Singh was speaking at a rather lavish gathering of people at the Jodhpur Handicraft Exporter's Association here. He was in the company of Maharaja Gaj Singh, members of his family, and other businessmen. While addressing the gathering, he said, "considering the drought in Rajasthan, the Central government is going to try its level best to send quick relief to the victims." Speaking on the theme of the occasion, Singh said that Jodhpur handicrafts have a distinct image in the world. Handcraft export now fetches Rs 700 crores. Singh made it a point to say that being the Finance Minister, he would travel to all the states but he chose to visit Rajasthan first and Jodhpur out of all the cities, the reason being the love and affection he gets from this city.(ANI)
MP dam breached, 25 dead and 75 missing
Balaghat (MP), Aug 22 (ANI): At least 75 people are missing after a dam burst under the pressure of heavy monsoon rains in Madhya Pradesh, state officials have said. The 125-year-old dam in Balaghat district in collapsed on Wednesday after it developed cracks following several days of heavy rains. At least 25 people had been washed away in the floods. The district administration has launched massive rescue operations to shift people to safer places. "The state government is providing compensatory monetary relief to the affected people. So far five million rupees has been released for distribution. People living below the poverty line would be provided housing accomodation under the Indira Aawas Yojana scheme," district collector Rajesh Rajoura said on Thursday. The breaching of the dam affected at least 13 villages of the district forcing the residents to flee. "People were shouting 'the dam has broken, run for your lives'. I was all alone in my house. By the time I came out, most of the people had left. Then accompanied by a neighbour, I too ran for my life," said Jyoti Apte, one of the hundreds of those who fled from their villages. Hundreds of houses have been completely damaged and crops worth millions of rupees inundated. People in relief camps however said they were satisfied with arrangements made by the government. "There is enough facility for food and other relief here. The administration is providing every thing on time," said Hiraman, who is now putting up in a camp. Indian Air Force helicopters have been pressed into service to evacuate flood victims and assist local administration in relief and rescue operations.(ANI)
Security of Mumbai's international airport now in CISF hand Go to top Mumbai, Aug 22 (ANI): The Industrial Security Force has taken charge of security at the Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport here. The CISF will be in charge of access control to the terminal buildings, perimeter security, anti-hijacking activities and protection of vital points and installations at the airport. Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain presided over the function on Wednesday. Until now, the state police was looking after security of the airport. "Under the civil aviation security, we had decided for CISF taking over airport security at Mumbai, a year ago. So far CISF is managing security at 42 airports across the country including at Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderbad and Bangalore. In Delhi, half of the security cover at airports is provided by the CISF. Although the Mumbai police was doing good work, it didn't have enough strength. There were merely 1200 police personnel. CISF, on the contrary, has a strength of 1,950", Hussain said after the inauguration ceremony. "We believe this is a major step for providing security at Mumbai. No other airport in the country has such a huge strength of CISF personnel," he added. With an annual volume of 1.5 million passengers and a traffic of more than a hundred thousand aircraft, the Mumbai airport is the busiest in the country. The Chhatrapati Shivaji airport has also become the 43rd airport in the country whose security is being put under the direct control of the CISF. The CISF personnel will receive on-job training lasting till September 30 this year. Headed by a senior commandant, it will work under the overall control of the Airport Director.(ANI) |
Kathmandu, Aug 22 (ANI): Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha on
Thursday ruled out bilateral talks with Pakistan on the
sidelines of the SAARC meeting in Nepal.