At least 12 more dead in UP rains; IMD forecasts downpour to continue

Twelve more people were killed and fourteen injured in overnight rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh, a senior official said Tuesday.

According to reports, three people were killed each in Gonda and Kushinagar districts, two in Mirzapur and one person died each in Bahraich, Sitapur, Meerut and Etah, Relief Commissioner Sanjay Kumar told reporters.

"Twelve people were killed and 14 injured in rain-related incidents, including in lightning strike, since Monday night," he said.

In this period, as many as 226 houses/huts were damaged and three head of cattle died, he said.

The Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains at isolated places on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, light to moderate rains and thundershowers were recorded this morning at most places in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Najibabad (Bijnor) recorded 10 cm rainfall, followed by Bikapur, Gautam Budh Nagar (9 cm each); Unnao, Musafirkhana and Ayodhya (8 cm each); Akbarpur, Jaunpur, Churk, Gyanpur, Meerut and Sambhal (7 cm each).

UP govt to rope in Amazon, Wipro, GE at 'One District, One Product' summit

To give a major push to Uttar Pradesh's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and cottage industries, the Yogi Adityanath government will exchange memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with top companies such as Amazon, Wipro and GE on Friday.

President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate the state's flagship 'One District, One Product' summit aimed at showcasing its traditional cottage industries and crafts.

On the occasion, the government will exchange MoUs with e-commerce major Amazon, Wipro, GE Healthcare, Quality Circle of India (QCI) and India's leading bourses -- the BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE). These entities would help the MSMEs and cottage industries by providing training, branding, marketing and other institutional support.

For example, Amazon will extend marketing support to traditional industries in 9 districts, including Gorakhpur, Agra, Meerut, Varanasi, Kanpur and Aligarh. The company will showcase local products over its online marketplace and create a micro-site dedicated to the ODOP scheme.

Amnesty says Unnao paints chilling picture; BJP MLA's wife seeks narco test

Global human rights body Amnesty International's India head has said that the Unnao rape case in Uttar Pradesh paints a ''chilling picture''. She has also urged the Uttar Pradesh government to respond to the notices issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in this case and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.

The NHRC had on Tuesday sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state police chief seeking a detailed report on the custodial death of the 50-year-old man after his daughter had accused a BJP MLA and his aides of gangrape in Unnao, and asked the authorities to ensure "the aggrieved family is not subjected to further harassment".

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he hopes that the PM will observe a fast in light of lawlessness and lack of governance in Uttar Pradesh. Gandhi was referring to the Unnao rape incident which has rocked the north Indian state politically as BJP MLA named Kuldeep Singh Sengar is the accused.

Unnao rape: Adityanath demands 1st SIT report by Wednesday evening; updates

A girl's accusation that she was gang-raped by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator has triggered a political storm in Yogi Adityanath-governed Uttar Pradesh, even as police on Tuesday arrested Atul Singh, the brother of main accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, in connection with the Unnao rape case and the custodial death of the victim's father. Adityanath has directed the UP Home Department to ensure that the special investigation team (SIT), which has been formed to probe all allegations in the rape case, visits Unnao on Wednesday and submits its first report by the evening.

The arrests, however, have not appeased the state's political opposition as Samajwadi Party workers in Gorakhpur protested against the alleged rape, demanding that the BJP legislator be arrested at the earliest. Further, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over the death of the victim's father in judicial custody in Unnao and the related allegations. Meanwhile, Adityanath termed the incident unfortunate and announced that a top-ranking police official will probe the matter. Amid allegations of inaction by his state's police in the rape case and facing the shocking custodial death of the victim's father, Adityanath said that those behind the incident will not be spared at any cost.

UP bypolls: Voter turnout at 20%, BJP confident of win; top 10 developments

Voter turnout for key Lok Sabha constituencies of Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh picked up, hitting around 20% as of 12 noon. as reported by news agency PTI. The bypolls were necessitated after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats to assume their respective offices in the state government.

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is reported to have said that the UP bypolls' mandate for BJP will be as big as the Lok Sabha mandate in 2014 General elections.
ALSO READ: UP by-polls: Has SP-BSP alliance for Gorakhpur, Phulpur seats rattled BJP?
Bypolls for Bihar's Lok Sabha Araria seat and two assembly seats -Jehanabad and Bhabua- are also being held on Sunday.

The bye-elections in Bihar are being seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he exited the Grand Alliance between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and his party, Janata Dal (United).

UP by-polls: Has SP-BSP alliance for Gorakhpur, Phulpur seats rattled BJP?

On March 5, Upendra Datt Shukla, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the Gorakhpur by-poll being held today, addressed an election rally at Raptinagar. Sharing the dais with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Shukla, in his speech, said that this election symbolises a battle of honour for not just Gorakhpur but also Yogi Adityanath, whom he called the pride of the entire Hindu community.

Pointing out that Gorakhpur’s stature has recently been elevated in Indian politics, Shukla claimed that there are efforts to challenge the forces that contributed to BJP’s victories in Tripura and Gujarat. He also spoke of BJP’s promising role in the upcoming Karnataka polls next month. He urged voters to visit colonies inhabited by Dalits and OBCs and help the lotus bloom in every house.

Clearly, the prospect of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) coming together in the by-polls of Gorakhpur and Phulpur has rattled the ruling BJP. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who had first equated the SP-BSP alliance as a snake and mole coming together, described the alliance as a coalition of thieves at a rally at PP Ganj.

Adityanath govt bans loudspeakers at religious, public places in UP

Armed with a high court order, the Yogi Adityanath government on Sunday banned the use of loudspeakers at temples, mosques and other public places without permission and set January 15 as the deadline to remove the amplifiers.

After receiving flak from the Allahabad High Court over noise pollution in Uttar Pradesh, the state government also issued detailed directives on the use of permanently installed loudspeakers at these places.

The high court had last month asked the state government whether the loudspeakers or public address systems at mosques, temples, churches, and gurdwaras, among other places, were installed after obtaining a written permission from the authorities concerned.

Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said, "On the directions of the court regarding ensuring implementation of noise pollution control rules, a government order giving detailed instructions has been issued."

This practically implies that sound should not go beyond the periphery of the public or private place, Kumar said.

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End jungle raj', Siddaramaiah slams Yogi after UP CM's 'beef eater' barb

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday lashed out at his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath's earlier address in Bengaluru, and opined that the latter could "learn a lot" from him.

During Adityanath's ongoing visit to the state, Siddaramaiah tweeted, "I welcome UP CM Yogi Adityanath to our state. There is a lot you can learn from us Sir. When you are here, please visit an Indira Canteen and a ration shop. It will help you address the starvation deaths sometimes reported from your state".

Earlier in the day, Adityanath, while addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in the garden city, accused Siddaramaiah of intermixing religion and politics, thus following the footsteps of Congress President Rahul Gandhi ahead of the assembly polls in Gujarat.

He further questioned Siddaramaiah on why he was "endorsing beef eaters" if he was a Hindu.

In an earlier tweet, Siddaramaiah lashed out at the UP Chief Minister, suggesting that he should primarily focus on ending 'Jungle Raj' in his state, and retrospect upon the increasing number of deaths of children in hospitals.

"Yogi Adityanath should first get rid of Jungle Raj in Uttar Pradesh and save children who are dying in the hospital. Let us understand then", he tweeted in Kannada.

On a related note, Adityanath is scheduled to take part in the BJP-led 'Parivartan Yatra' in the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly polls.
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Gorakhpur tragedy: Yogi says lack of oxygen not cause, assures stern action

Rejecting reports that lack of oxygen supply was responsible for deaths of over 60 children in a government hospital in Gorakhpur in the last five days, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday that a committee has been set up under the Chief Secretary to go into the gas supplier's role and other lapses.

He and his Health Minister Siddharthnath Singh quoted figures of child deaths in August over a period of three years and after the BJP government came to power to claim that the deaths have occurred due to vector-borne diseases like Japanese Encephalitis highly prevalent in the region.

Flanked by Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and the state Health and Medical Education Ministers at a press conference, Adityanath asserted that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty.

He and Siddharth Nath Singh contended that there has been no death due to lack of oxygen supply to Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital, but did concede there was a problem in supply of liquid oxygen for four hours on August 10 which was made up by the system switching to cylinders.
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Yogi Adityanath to make surprise calls to catch UPs truant 'babus'

Uttar Pradesh government 'babus' used to playing truant for an afternoon siesta or meeting an old friend will now risk getting caught as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to dial up officers' on their office landlines to check if they are present.

Uttar Pradesh's Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that Adityanath would make these surprise calls on office landlines of officers between 9 am to 6 pm.

If the officials are not able to justify their absence and explain the reasons for not being able to take the chief minister's call, there could be penalties, Sharma told a press conference today.

However, officers on field jobs will be given some relaxation, said Sharma, who is also a spokesman of the state government.

"The idea is that if the top bosses are present in office, juniors will follow their example," he explained.

In another significant decision, senior officers in the state have been ordered to immediately close their home- offices, Sharma said.

The priest-turned-politician, Adityanath, after he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh had made it clear that he expects the administration to put in long hours.

After he took over in March, Adityanath had warned that anyone who had problems working at least 18-20 hours per day should take a different path.

The 44-year-old chief minister had told the officials that only those who were ready to work up to 20 hours will be able to work with him.

He has also taken measures to ensure presence of the government staff by direction that biometric attendance systems be put in place to deter late-comers.

Surprise attendance checks have been carried out in various departments to check punctuality.
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