JDU, BJP Leaders Skip Each Other's Iftar Parties in Bihar

Agencies
June 3, 2019

Patna, Jun 3: Hours after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expanded his Council of Ministers on Sunday, BJP and JDU leaders skipped the ''iftar'' party hosted by each other.

JDU had organised an ''iftar'' party at Haj Bhavan. However, no BJP leader was present on the occasion, sources said. RJD ally and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi did participate in the ''iftar.''

BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi also organised an ''iftar'' party in which no JDU leader was present.

RJD leader and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi also hosted an ''iftar'' party at her residence in Bihar capital Patna. Several leaders of the grand-alliance including Jitan Ram Manjhi and Shivanand Tiwari attended the event.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expanded his Council of Ministers on Sunday, with the inclusion of eight new faces from the JDU.

Ashok Chaudhary, Shyam Rajak, Laxmeshwar Prasad, Bhima Bharati, Ram Sevak Singh, Sanjay Jha, Neeraj Kumar and Narendra Narayan Yadav were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Lalji Tandon at Raj Bhavan.

Negating the claim that there is a rift between BJP and JD (U) over the allotment of only one ministerial berth in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new cabinet, newly-inducted minister Shyam Rajak told ANI: "National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is intact. People are merely spreading rumours."

Echoing similar sentiment, another JD (U) leader Neeraj Kumar who also took an oath today, had said: "JDU will never leave NDA."

"Ministry formation is the prerogative of the Chief Minister. I have performed all the responsibility given to me by my party. I am glad that Nitish Kumar chose me," he added. Former Bihar unit Congress chief Ashok Chaudhary, who was inducted in the cabinet today, also instated that NDA coalition is intact.

The JDU on May 30 decided to not be a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new Cabinet, saying it would not accept the BJP's offer of only one ministerial berth.

"They (BJP) wanted only one person from JD(U) in the Cabinet. So, it would have been just symbolic participation. We informed them that we do not need it (Cabinet berth)," Mr Kumar had said.

The JDU chief, who later attended PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony, said: "It is not a big issue. We are fully in the NDA and are not upset at all. We are working together. There is no confusion."

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, JDU won 16 seats in Bihar, while the BJP bagged 17. Despite being a part of the NDA, the party was also not part of the last central government.

The BJP, however, is sharing power in Bihar with its leader Sushil Kumar Modi as the state's Deputy Chief Minister.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

New Delhi, Jul 29: The new National Education Policy (NEP) approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday is set to usher in a slew of changes with the vision of creating an education system that contributes directly to transforming the country, providing high-quality education to all, and making India a global knowledge superpower.

The draft of the NEP by a panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Kasturirangan and submitted to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal when he took charge last year. The new NEP replaces the one formulated in 1986.

Some of the key highlights of the New Education Policy are:-

The policy aims to enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, scientific temper, creativity, spirit of service, and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, among others.

It identified the major problems facing the higher education system in the country and suggested changes such as moving towards multidisciplinary universities and colleges, with more institutions across India that offer medium of instruction in local/Indian languages, a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education, among others. 

The governance of such institutions by independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy has also been suggested.

Under the suggestions for institutional restructuring and consolidation, it has suggested that by 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students, and by 2030 each or near every district in the country there will be at least one HEI.

The aim will be to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in HEIs including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035.

Single-stream HEIs will be phased out over time, and all will move towards becoming vibrant multidisciplinary institutions or parts of vibrant multidisciplinary HEI clusters.

It also pushes for more holistic and multidisciplinary education to be provided to the students.

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News Network
May 30,2020

May 30: A total of 513 domestic flights carrying 39,969 passengers were operated in India on Friday, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday.

Domestic services resumed in India after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus lockdown. Indian carriers have operated a total of 1,827 flights till Thursday -- 428 on Monday, 445 on Tuesday, 460 on Wednesday and 494 on Thursday.

Puri said on Twitter on Saturday: "Day 5. 29th May till 2359 hrs. Departures 513. 39,969 passengers handled. Arrivals 512. 39,972 passengers handled." A departure is counted as a flight during the day.

During the pre-lockdown period, Indian airports handled around 3,000 daily domestic flights, aviation industry sources said.

In February, when the lockdown was not imposed, around 4.12 lakh passengers travelled daily through domestic flights in India, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data.

Airports in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu have been allowed to handle a restricted number of daily flights as these states do not want a huge influx of flyers amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases.

While domestic services resumed in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, they restarted in West Bengal on Thursday.

Though domestic flight operations across the country began on May 25, they could not be restarted in Kolkata and Bagdogra as the West Bengal machinery was involved in relief and restoration work after cyclone Amphan's devastation.

A total of 16 asymptomatic passengers on seven different flights, including 13 who travelled by IndiGo, have tested positive for COVID-19 since the resumption of domestic air services.

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News Network
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: Just an hour ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Arvind Kejriwal invited the people of Delhi again for his oath-taking ceremony at Ramlila Maidan today.

Referring himself as "son of Delhi", the AAP convener today tweeted saying, "Delhiites, your son is going to take oath as Delhi chief minister for the third time. You must come to bless your son".

The AAP national convener will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row.

Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to take oath along with other ministers at Ramlila Maidan.

On Saturday, Kejriwal, through a tweet, has said that autorickshaw drivers, students, teachers, doctors, labourers, etc will be the "chief guests".

The guest list put out by the AAP includes ''Delhi ke Nirmata''- people who contributed to the development of the city during the last five years.

These include Sumit Nagal, a Delhi government school student and an international Tennis player, Laxman Chaudhry an auto driver, Manu Gulati a teacher and "one of the many architects of Delhi Governance Model", Dalbir Singh a farmer, Ratan Jamshed Batliboi - the architect of the famous Signature Bridge among others.

By winning 62 seats by cashing in on the plank of development, his party nearly repeated its 2015 performance, sweeping the Assembly polls in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which had fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015''s tally of three seats. The Congress failed to open its account in the second successive election.

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