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Watch: Bus drivers sent by Priyanka Gandhi to ferry stranded migrants to UP protest against stale food, raise anti-Congress slogans

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Watch: Bus drivers sent by Priyanka Gandhi to ferry stranded migrants to UP protest against stale food, raise anti-Congress slogans

The Congress party suffered more embarrassment on Wednesday after the bus drivers deployed by Gandhi-scion Priyanka Gandhi to ferry migrant labourers, protested against the Congress and raised anti-Congress slogans at Bharatpur-Agra border.

According to ABP News, the bus drivers protested against the Congress party, especially the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government after they were given stale food. The drivers protested against ill-treatment by the Congress government and raised anti-Congress slogans at the Uttar Pradesh-Rajasthan border.

These drivers have been deployed by the Rajasthan Congress government to ferry stranded labourers in the state, as promised by Priyanka Gandhi, who has claimed of sending 1,000 buses to ease the migrant crisis. Reportedly, these drivers have been stuck at the borders since three days and the drivers alleged that there was a shortage of food. They were either not given food or if given it was stale, ABP News reports.

“We are here to protect children, people who are stuck. But, we are made to die here. Don’t we have children, family too?” asked a driver. None of these drivers are either wearing protective masks or maintaining social distancing.

Priyanka Gandhi’s list of fake buses

A political war has broken between the Congress party and BJP after the list of ‘buses’ sent by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming to be that filled with migrant workers stranded at Delhi-UP border contained blacklisted numbers, cars and even three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.

On 16 May 2020, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted a letter wherein she has written to UP government seeking permission to ply 1,000 buses for migrant workers. 

Following the incident, it was also found that fitness certificate and insurance of several buses included in the list have expired. Therefore, a case of forgery and fraud for the purpose of cheating was registered against the Congress leaders. An FIR against Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s secretary Sandeep Singh and Ajay Kumar Lallu for cheating and forgery in connection with the same.

Minutes after Uttar Pradesh police registered FIR against Priyanka Gandhi’s aide Sandeep Singh and UP Congress president Ajay Lallu in the matter related to buses being run by the Congress party to move migrants, the Congress run Rajasthan govt took retaliatory action by filing a counter-FIR against senior officers of the Uttar Pradesh government. 

Congress Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh takes a dig at her own party for the migrant bus row, praises UP CM Yogi Adityanath

OpIndia Staff
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Congress Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh takes a dig at her own party for the migrant bus row, praises UP CM Yogi Adityanath

Congress Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh has taken to Twitter to criticise her own party for the farce it created over the ‘list’ of buses sent to the Uttar Pradesh Government. In a tweet today she condemned Congress for playing petty politics at the time of such a disaster. She wrote that in the list of 1000 buses provided by Congress, a staggering 297 vehicles are junk buses, 98 of it are auto-rickshaws or other vehicles like trucks and ambulances and 68 vehicles are without papers.

She castigated her party for making a joke of the critical situation the country is in doe to the coronavirus outbreak. She wondered why didn’t Congress ask for buses from its ruling states like Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra if they are unable to arrange the number of buses committed to UP government by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

In her subsequent tweet, Aditi Singh wonders when almost 1000 students belonging to Uttar Pradesh were stuck in Kota, Rajasthan, where were these buses? Why didn’t the Congress then come ahead to arrange buses for these children stranded in its ruled state?

She goes on to praise Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath for being empathetic towards these students and arranging for buses to bring them back to Uttar Pradesh, unlike the Congress. She claims that when the Rajasthan CM proved incompetent in arranging conveyance for the stranded children, Yogi Adityanath intervened and immediately arranged for buses to ferry the children from Kota back to Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan CM had also praised Yogi Adityanath for this, claims Aditi Singh.

Congress had sought disqualification of Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh 

It is pertinent to note here that Congress leader Aditi Singh had earlier too had miffed her party members after she defied the party call to boycott the special assembly session called by the BJP in UP Assembly to discuss sustainable development goals defined by the UN in October last year. Singh’s chutzpah had irked the Congress party to an extent that it had sought her disqualification in November last year after issuing a show-cause notice against her.

The list of buses provided by Congress to ferry migrant workers in Uttar Pradesh was erroneous

Following the media reports that said that the ‘list of buses’ provided by Congress to ferry migrant workers in Uttar Pradesh was erroneous and included autos, trucks and two-wheelers, the Uttar Pradesh government had officially acknowledged that the data they received from the Congress party indeed include details of such vehicles. According to a letter written by the Lucknow RTO department to Police Commissionerate Lucknow, a staggering 170 vehicles out of the list of 1049 are not buses as claimed by the Congress party.

The letter addressed to the Police Commissionerate Lucknow categorises the different types of vehicles based on the list of buses provided by the Congress party. The analysis of the 1049 registration details of the vehicles revealed that 31 of them were registered as autos/three-wheelers, 69 of them as ambulances/school buses/trucks and there were no details available for 70 vehicles. Furthermore, it added that a vehicle with registration number RJ 51 PA 0288 was added in two lists.

In addition, the preliminary inspection of 492 vehicles provided in the list of buses sent by the Congress party revealed that fitness validity of 59 vehicles has expired, while insurance of 29 vehicles have lapsed. Apart from this, the inspection of the data disclosed that three vehicles with registration numbers- HR 55 A 4949 (Goods carrier), RJ 02 PA 1238 (Motor cab) and UP 83 T 1006 (auto-rickshaw) did not belong the bus category.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra issues clarification

After the above letters of the UP govt went viral on social media, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to Twitter to defend herself. She said that in the inspection by UP govt, it has been found that there are 879 buses in the list of 1049, thereby admitting that the rest 170 are not buses.

The Congress general secretary also alleged that UP govt has kept more than 500 buses blocked for several hours, and now more than 300 buses are arriving on the Delhi border. “At least let these 879 buses run”, she said. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also assured that her party will provide a new list of 200 buses by tomorrow, and will make the buses available. “Inspect that list also”, she added.

UP government had agreed to Congress offer of buses

On Monday, the Uttar Pradesh government had accepted Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s offer of providing 1,000 buses for migrant workers. The UP administration has written to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to submit the details of the buses along with drivers and co-drivers so that the process can be started. On 16 May 2020, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted a letter wherein she had written to UP government seeking permission to ply 1,000 buses for migrant workers. Accordingly, the Congress party had submitted a list of buses they intend to use with the UP government.

But in a major embarrassment to Congress, the list of ‘buses’ sent by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming to be that filled with migrant workers stranded at Delhi-UP border contains blacklisted numbers, cars and even three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.

Pakistanis find fresh love for Turkey, trend ‘Boycott UAE’: Indians grab popcorn as Twitter sees a meme fest

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistanis find fresh love for Turkey, trend ‘Boycott UAE’: Indians grab popcorn as Twitter sees a meme fest

Some Pakistanis have found a new love for Turkey. Probably due to the lockdown and the recent popularity of Turkish TV shows in Pakistan, especially Ertugrul, which depicts the Turkish caliphate, has many Pakistanis hyperventilating over the dreams of an Islamic mega-kingdom led by Turkey where they hope Pakistan will gain some much-desired prominence.

However, the spark for the ‘Boycott UAE’ also came from the recent diplomatic tensions between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Tensions have raised between Turkey and the UAE over the Libyan crisis as both countries are supporting the two opposing sides for a power-struggle in Libya.

One user named Ali Keskin, who claims to be a both Pakistani-Turkish claimed that UAE remained silent on Kashmir issues, however, Turkey will never remain silent and supports Pakistan unconditionally. He also claimed that some Pakistani friends are protecting them against UAE.

The person named Keskin insisted that Turkey is Pakistan’s friend and UAE is not. He is hell-bent of inciting Pakistanis to even leave their jobs in UAE, to show their love for Turkey. Pakistan’s dependence on UAE was even reminde to him by an UAE citizen.

It looks like Keskin’s hatred for UAE stems from his hatred for India. In his past tweets, Keskin is seen calling for boycott of Indian products, TATA cars, and even asking female tourists not to go to Indian because India is ‘unsafe’ for women.

Soon, other Pakistani social media users began to attack UAE for their support for India and called for a boycott of UAE.

Another social media user claimed that UAE was the silent terrorist in the Muslim world, and India used UAE as a tisho (tissue) paper.

Some very emotional Pakistanis feel that Turkey and Pakistan are not just brothers, but twin brothers.

Some Pakistanis have even tried to make Keskin understand that Pakistan needs UAE and the conflict with Turkey should actually be amicably be solved between UAE and Turkey. But Keskin is having none of it. Photos of Pakistani PM Imran Khan becoming a car driver to honour Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan from the airport are all over Twitter.

Laughter riot on Twitter

Twitter users, however, went ahead to treat poor Pakistanis with some reality check. Many social media users were quick to react to the delusional trend ran by Pakistanis to vent out their anger against UAE. Several netizens took to Twitter to share their views on Pakistan ironically asking the world to boycott UAE, a country upon which Pakistan is heavily dependent for finacial aid.

A parody account mocked the Pakistanis stating that they should first sell their kidneys to repay the loan they have availed from UAE and then call for a boycott against UAE.

Another user mocked Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to say that who would drive cars if Pakistanis boycott UAE.

One Indian even reminded Pakistanis of their constant denial of their actual cultural and ethnic heritage and their sad attempts to gain relevance in their world by pretending to be Arabs one day and Turkish on the next day.

So far, it is the Indians who are having the most fun watching Pakistanis enthusiastic become overnight the ardent worshippers of Turkey.

It is rather ironical of Pakistani to call for a boycott of the United Arab Emirates, a country which has come to the rescue of the terror-state every time it has run out of money. Barring billions of money Pakistan government has received from the UAE, there are millions of Pakistanis who have been settling in the Emirates for a very long time now.  

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan elected as WHO Executive Board chairman, to take charge on May 22

OpIndia Staff
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Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan elected as WHO Executive Board chairman, to take charge on May 22

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is at the forefront of India’s battle against Chinese epidemic coronavirus, is all set to take charge as the chairman of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board on May 22.

According to the reports, Dr Harsh Vardhan will succeed Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan, who is the current chairman of the 34-member WHO Executive Board. The proposal to appoint India’s nominee to the executive board was agreed by the 194-nation World Health Assembly on Tuesday.

Union Minister Harsh Vardhan was India’s nominee as the WHO’s South-East Asia group, that had unanimously decided last year that India will be elected to the executive board for a three-year term beginning May. Reportedly, the post of the chairman will be held in a rotation for one year among regional groups. It was earlier decided that representative of India will be the Executive Board chairman for the first year starting Friday.

Dr Harsh Vardhan will now be required to chair the Executive Board’s meetings and also will work closely with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is facing a lot of heat for mismanaging the coronavirus crisis.

Not a full time assignment

The appointment, however, is not a full time assignment but the minister will just be required to chair the Executive Board’s meetings. The Executive Board is composed of 34 individuals technically qualified in the field of health, each one designated by a member state elected to do so by the World Health Assembly. All the members of the executive board are elected for three-year terms.

The Board meets at least twice a year, once in January, and second one May, immediately after the Health Assembly. The main functions of the Executive Board are effect to the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly, to advise it and generally to facilitate its work.

The appointment of Dr Harshvardhan to the WHO comes at a time when the UN-specialised body has been facing a lot of criticism over its failure to limit the Chinese pandemic coronavirus crisis. There are growing calls, including by US President Donald Trump, to investigate how the coronavirus originated in China’s Wuhan city and subsequent failure by Beijing and WHO to communicate to the rest of world regarding the pandemic.

‘Sanghis’ rape dead bodies, masturbate naked before their daughters while chanting Jai Shri Ram: Congress leader takes political discourse to a new low

OpIndia Staff
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‘Sanghis’ rape dead bodies, masturbate naked before their daughters while chanting Jai Shri Ram: Congress leader takes political discourse to a new low

With Priyanka Gandhi facing massive embarrassment over political gameplay gone wrong in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress party has now resorted to openly indulging in bigotry and Hindu hatred.

Yesterday, the Uttar Pradesh government had exposed the fake claims of Priyanka Gandhi, whose list of ‘1,000 buses’ to the state government turned out to be a fake list of dozens of blacklisted autorickshaws, and two-wheelers instead of real buses.

Perhaps unable to cope with the massive political embarrassment, Haryana Congress leader Pankaj Punia took to Twitter to vent out his anger against UP CM Yogi Adityanath and his government.

Pankaj Punia’s tweet

Taking to Twitter, the Haryana Congress leader wrote,”Congress just wanted to help migrant workers reach home, and was willing to spend money for it, but the ‘Bisht’ government started politicising the matter. Only Sanghis wearing Bhagwa (saffron) can do such neech (lowly, disgraceful) activities.

Punia’s hatred of Hindus was evident in the nest line of his tweet. He further wrote, “These people, (BJP and its supporters) are the ones who exhume corpses and rape them. They get naked in front of their daughters and masturbate while chanting Jai Shri Ram slogans.”

The blatantly anti-hindu, and hateful tweet of Punia soon created a controversy. Thousands of social media users condemned the usage of such filthy language and pointed out the plunging standards of Congress’ politics.

Punia brazens it out

Punia, however, was quite confident of his tweet. He went on a twitter spree of liking and retweeting the tweets of Congress supporters. He had even shared tweets where his supporters had shared that he has stated nothing wrong and the allegations are absolutely correct.

Punia has since deleted his tweet and has just tweeted that he did not want to hurt sentiments, and his allegations was regarding the ‘incident’ in Gargi College.

Punia’s latest tweet

However, Punia has not explained why he had added ‘Bisht government’ if his attempt was to highlight the so-called incident in Gargi College. It is notable here that Congress leaders use the surname ‘Bisht’ as an insult towards UP CM Yogi Adityanath, because his birth name before he took up Sanyas, was Ajay Singh Bisht.

Congress leaders, ironically, get very upset when someone uses the Maino surname for their president Sonia Gandhi, whose original Italian name is Antonia Maino.

The reality of Gargi College ‘incident’

Punia’s fake claims pertain to a so-called incident in Delhi’s Gargi College earlier this year, where many leftist handles and communist groups had run propaganda that many ‘saffron-flag holding BJP supporters’ had arrived at an event at Gargi College and had molested girl students while chanting Jai Shri Ram slogans.

Delhi police’s investigation and examination of CCTV footage had found no basis for such claims. Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma’s investigative report stated, “Delhi police have confirmed that so far not one CCTV footage has shown any of the accused holding Saffron flags or any kind of flags.”

While the college had admitted to security lapse, Delhi Police had confirmed that all ‘outsiders’ were either students of other colleges or friends invited by Gargi College students.

Congress resorts to personal attacks

Congress IT cell worker Gaurav Pandhi on Tuesday resorted to personal attacks against country’s noted folk singer Malini Awasthi. Attacking Malini Awasthi and her husband Awanish Kumar Awasthi, who is currently Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Chief Secretary, Pandhi said that senior IAS officer was behaving like ‘BJP’s Shakhaboy’ against the poor migrant workers.

Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Congress had decided to bully and threaten India TV journalist Sushant Sinha with an FIR for criticising Priyanka Gandhi’s list of ‘buses’. The Uttar Pradesh Congress had targetted Sinha by referring to him as fake news peddler and said that a case will be filed against him in Rajasthan.

Priyanka Gandhi’s list of ‘buses’ to Uttar Pradesh government

On 16 May 2020, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted a letter wherein she had written to UP government seeking permission to ply 1,000 buses for migrant workers. The Uttar Pradesh government had accepted Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s offer of providing 1,000 buses for migrant workers and asked the list of drivers and co-drivers of these buses so that the UP government can make use of them in bringing back the migrant workers.

Yesterday, UP govt confirmed that Congress has submitted a list of 1049 buses, but surprisingly, the list includes auto-rickshaws, trucks, ambulances etc, while details of many vehicles were not available. Priyanka Gandhi also conceded that there are only 879 buses in the list of 1049, and added that a new list of 200 buses will be furnished on Wednesday.

Uttar Pradesh Bus Row: Priyanka Gandhi aide Ajay Lallu arrested, bus drivers chant anti-Congress slogans complaining about poor quality food

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh Bus Row: Priyanka Gandhi aide Ajay Lallu arrested, bus drivers chant anti-Congress slogans complaining about poor quality food

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu was arrested on Tuesday by Agra Police in connection with the protests held by Congress leaders over movement of migrant workers in the ‘buses’ provided by Congress on instructions of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi. He was dragged and removed by UP Police from the Agra-Rajasthan border where he was sitting on a dharna demanding the ‘buses’ Congress had arranged be allowed to enter the UP border.

A case has been registered under sections 188 and 269 of the Indian Penal Code and Epidemic Act in the Fatehpur Sikri Police Station.

As per reports by ABP News, the drivers of the buses arranged for by Congress also chanted anti-Congress slogans.

List of buses by Congress contained incorrect details

The list of buses submitted by the Congress party on Monday contained many incorrect details, as they included auto-rickshaws, ambulances, trucks etc, while details of many vehicles were not available. An FIR has been lodged at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow against Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s secretary Sandeep Singh and Ajay Kumar Lallu for cheating and forgery in connection with the same.

Read- Prove your allegations or face legal action’: Folk singer Malini Awasthi to Congress IT cell worker after he maligns her and her IAS officer husband

The list of buses submitted by the Congress party contained many incorrect details, as they included auto-rickshaws, ambulances, trucks etc, while details of many vehicles were not available. It was also found that fitness certificate and insurance of several buses included in the list have expired. Therefore, a case of forgery and fraud for the purpose of cheating have also been registered against the Congress leaders.

FIR war

Minutes after Uttar Pradesh police registered FIR against Priyanka Gandhi’s aide Sandeep Singh and UP Congress president Ajay Lallu in the matter related to buses being run by the Congress party to move migrants, the Congress run Rajasthan govt took retaliatory action by filing a counter-FIR against senior officers of the Uttar Pradesh government. FIRs have been registered against Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi and the DM of Agra on the complaint of Congress party. They have been accused of allegedly threatening and cheating Congress leaders arranging buses to carry migrants to Uttar Pradesh.

Cyclone Amphan: Over 4 lakh evacuated in Bengal, 1 lakh in Odisha as the two states brace for the landfall later today

OpIndia Staff
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Cyclone Amphan: Over 4 lakh evacuated in Bengal, 1 lakh in Odisha as the two states brace for the landfall later today

The cyclone Amphan, which is scheduled to make a landfall between West Bengal’s Digha and Bangladesh’s Hatiya on Wednesday afternoon, has already initiated massive storms, and rainfall in areas of Northern Odisha and Bengal.

The super-cyclonic storm is said to be the most intense and strongest cyclone over the Bay of Bengal in the 21st century and the joint-most intense cyclonic storm this year, along with the Cyclone Harold that formed over the South Pacific in April. The landfall is expected to bring winds at the speed of over 265 mph.

As per the latest data released by the Indian Meteorological Department, the Cyclone Amphan is presently about 120 km away from the Odisha port city of Paradip, 240 km South of Digha and 395 km southwest of Khepupara.

Over 5 lakh people evacuated in Bengal and Odisha

Coastal regions in Odisha, and Bengal have been facing strong winds and heavy rainfall since yesterday.

41 NDRF teams have been deployed in 7 districts of West Bengal and 6 districts of Odisha. West Bengal has evacuated over 4 lakh people from coastal regions while Odisha has evacuated over 1.1 lakh people.

While the main impact of the super cyclone is yet to be felt, severe winds and rain has already caused damage in coastal areas. Trees have been uprooted in Odisha’s Bhadrak district and Digha has been witnessing very high tides.

Exactly a year after cyclone Fani

It is notable here that exactly a year ago, the Odisha coast was hit by another severe cyclonic storm Fani. Though the effective disaster management steps undertaken by the state and central government had ensured minimal casualties, the loss of property, agriculture and businesses had been extensive.

The 1999 super cyclone that had hit Odisha coast remains till date the strongest cyclonic storm. It had taken hundreds of lives and had battered the state of Odisha. It was the strongest cyclone not just in Bay of Bengal, but in the entire North Indian Ocean region.

PM chaired a meeting to review response measures

As Cyclone Amphan intensified into a super cyclone, a high-level meeting to review the response measures adopted by the affected state governments was chaired by PM Modi. The Prime Minister took stock of response preparedness and the evacuation measures adopted by the NDRF.

FIR war: Rajasthan police register retaliatory FIR against UP Addl Chief Secretary and Agra DM after UP police registered FIR against Congress leaders

OpIndia Staff
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FIR war: Rajasthan police register retaliatory FIR against UP Addl Chief Secretary and Agra DM after UP police registered FIR against Congress leaders

Minutes after Uttar Pradesh police registered FIR against Priyanka Gandhi’s aide Sandeep Singh and UP Congress president Ajay Lallu in the matter related to buses being run by the Congress party to move migrants, the Congress run Rajasthan govt took retaliatory action by filing a counter-FIR against senior officers of the Uttar Pradesh government.

As per reports, FIRs have been registered against Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi and the DM of Agra on the complaint of Congress party. They have been accused of allegedly threatening and cheating Congress leaders arranging buses to carry migrants to Uttar Pradesh.

This development came just around an hour of reports that UP police have booked Congress leaders Sanddep Singh and Ajay Lallu accusing them of cheating a forgery. The case was filed after the list of buses submitted by them to the UP govt contained several other vehicles like Auto-Rickshaws, Ambulances, Trucks etc. UP police also had stopped the buses run by the Congress party at the UP border near Agra, saying that the buses were run without obtaining the permissions we required as per lockdown guidelines issued by the union home ministry.

After the buses were stopped, the Congress leaders and their workers had staged a sit-in protest at Agra-Rajasthan border in Uncha Nangla area earlier in the day today. Following the protest, Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu was removed by police. A video had appeared where Ajay was seen carried by some police personnel. UP police had clarified that they have not arrested the UP Congress chief, he was only removed from the spot and later an FIR was registered.

Read- Prove your allegations or face legal action’: Folk singer Malini Awasthi to Congress IT cell worker after he maligns her and her IAS officer husband

Congress provided an erroneous list of buses to UP government

On 16 May 2020, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted a letter wherein she has written to UP government seeking permission to ply 1,000 buses for migrant workers. Heeding Ms Vadra’s letter, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday accepted Congress General Secretary’s offer of providing 1,000 buses for migrant workers. The UP administration has written to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to submit the details of the buses along with drivers and co-drivers so that the process can be started. Accordingly, the Congress party had submitted a list of buses they intend to use with the UP government.

But in a major embarrassment to Congress, the list of ‘buses’ sent by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming to be that filled with migrant workers stranded at Delhi-UP border contains blacklisted numbers, cars and even three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.

Coronavirus lockdown: Temples in Tamil Nadu appeal for relaxation in electricity bills

OpIndia Staff
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Coronavirus lockdown: Temples in Tamil Nadu appeal for relaxation in electricity bills

Various temples in Tamil Nadu have requested waiving off electricity bills citing revenue loss due to coronavirus lockdown that was implemented two months ago. It is also claimed that priests and employees are not getting any salary during this period.

There are more than 8,000 such temples in the state where worship is being conducted on a daily basis but once in a day. Hence the temples are not being able to meet up the expenses. So the temples have appealed to the state government to waive off the electricity bills.

Temples are a source of livelihood for many

Tamil Nadu temple Priest Association has stated that temples are not only are places of worship but also a source of employment and livelihood for many including those who sell flowers at the doorstep of temples.

President of State unit P Vasu said, “Not only the priests and employees of temples but also the flower sellers or pooja thali vendors who depend on temples for their livelihood are facing the worst situation due to lockdown.”

Temples are closed since 24 March

The temples are closed since 24 March. During this time no one is allowed to enter the temple premises, only the priest is performing the daily worship. Other activities are also banned in the temples.

The Tamil Nadu Rural Temple Priest association has appealed to the government to increase the amount for meant for relief for the temple employees. Also, the association has sought relaxation for the electricity bills of the low-income temples.

Priests are being given relief amount

The local body has requested that the rural temple priests welfare board alone has more than 65000 members whose COVID-19 relief amount should be increased.

Vasu said that the priests of the village have been provided relief of only 1,000 from the government. However, it should be noted that this amount is not distributed equally.

Buses for migrant workers: Priyanka Gandhi’s aide Sandeep Singh and UP Congress president Ajay Lallu booked for forgery and cheating

OpIndia Staff
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Buses for migrant workers: Priyanka Gandhi’s aide Sandeep Singh and UP Congress president Ajay Lallu booked for forgery and cheating

An FIR has been lodged at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow against Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s secretary Sandeep Singh and Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu for cheating and forgery in connection with the list of buses that the Congress party had submitted with the UP govt to carry migrants to the state. The Congress leaders have also been charged with running buses carrying migrants to Uttar Pradesh without obtaining necessary permission as per rules.

The list of buses submitted by the Congress party contained many incorrect details, as they included auto-rickshaws, ambulances, trucks etc, while details of many vehicles were not available. It was also found that fitness certificate and insurance of several buses included in the list have expired. Therefore, a case of forgery and fraud for the purpose of cheating have also been registered against the Congress leaders.

The FIR have been filed under sections 182, 420, 467 and 468 of the IPC.

Uttar Pradesh police also said that the Congress party moved the buses carrying migrants to the Uttar Pradesh border without obtaining the necessary passes. According to the union home ministry guidelines, one needs to apply for permission for inter-state movement of buses, and buses can be run only after such permissions are granted. As hundreds of buses arranged by the Congress party had reached the UP border, they were denied entry by the state police due to lack of permission. This had caused the Congress workers to stage a sit-in protest at Agra-Rajasthan border in Uncha Nangla area earlier in the day today.

Following the protest, Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu was removed by police. A video had appeared where Ajay was seen carried by some police personnel. UP police had clarified that they have not arrested him, and only removed him from the spot.

Congress provided an erroneous list of buses to UP government

On 16 May 2020, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted a letter wherein she has written to UP government seeking permission to ply 1,000 buses for migrant workers. Heeding Ms Vadra’s letter, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday accepted Congress General Secretary’s offer of providing 1,000 buses for migrant workers. The UP administration has written to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to submit the details of the buses along with drivers and co-drivers so that the process can be started. Accordingly, the Congress party had submitted a list of buses they intend to use with the UP government.

But in a major embarrassment to Congress, the list of ‘buses’ sent by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming to be that filled with migrant workers stranded at Delhi-UP border contains blacklisted numbers, cars and even three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.

UP government confirmed the list of buses provided by Congress was incorrect

According to a letter written by the Lucknow RTO department to Police Commissionerate Lucknow, a staggering 170 vehicles out of the list of 1049 were not buses as claimed by the Congress party. The letter also included categorisation of vehicles based on the list of buses provided by the Congress party. The analysis of the 1049 registration details of the vehicles revealed that 31 of them were registered as autos/three-wheelers, 69 of them as ambulances/school buses/trucks while there were no details available for 70 vehicles. Furthermore, it added that a vehicle with the registration number RJ 51 PA 0288 was added in two lists.

However, after the letters of the UP govt went viral on social media, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to Twitter to defend herself. She said that in the inspection by UP govt, it has been found that there are 879 buses in the list of 1049, thereby admitting that the rest 170 are not buses. The Congress general secretary also alleged that UP govt has kept more than 500 buses blocked for several hours, and now more than 300 buses are arriving on the Delhi border.

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