Latest news with #ChandraShekhar
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Indian Express
Vehicles without a FASTag will no longer be allowed to enter Tirumala, temple management says
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the Sri Venkateswara temple in Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati district, said that vehicles without a FASTag will no longer be allowed to enter Tirumala. Officials said the TTD is also considering allowing only electric vehicles entry into Tirumala in the future. Thousands of devotees visit Tirumala every day in private vehicles and taxis. 'Many individual car owners driving up to Tirumala may not have a FASTag for various reasons. We are issuing an advisory that they should get it before coming to Tirumala. If they do not have it, they should take the help of the facility at Alipiri,' an official said. The TTD said, 'In order to provide better safety standards, prevention of overcrowding and transparent services to the devotees arriving in various vehicles at the Alipiri check point, FASTag will be made mandatory for the vehicles entering Tirumala from August 15.' A facility that issues FASTags have been set up at the Alipiri checkpoint in collaboration with ICICI Bank, officials said. 'It is once again informed that the vehicles without FASTag will be allowed to enter Tirumala only after obtaining the FASTag facility here in the shortest possible time. Devotees are requested to cooperate, or they will not be allowed to enter Tirumala,' the TTD said. The announcement comes as the temple is witnessing over 90,000 devotees on some days, with the TTD finding it difficult not only to manage the pilgrims, but also the incoming traffic. The TTD is also preparing to implement stricter pollution control rules, and allow only battery-operated vehicles into Tirumala. The TTD is encouraging taxi operators to switch to EVs. On Tuesday, a devotee from Bengaluru, Chandra Shekhar, donated two battery buggies worth Rs 11 lakh to the TTD. The board, which has set up some EV charging stations, is in the process of setting up more, officials said. The TTD and the Andhra Pradesh State Transport Corporation are also switching to operating only electric buses to and from Tirumala and Tirupati. In efforts to achieve net zero emissions, the TTD is also allocating its lands at Tirumala and Tirupati to organisations like the New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh for the establishment of EV charging stations and battery swapping stations.
India Today
4 days ago
- India Today
Where have Gurugram's river and hills gone?
Decades before Delhiites jammed NH-48 and Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road to flock to Gurugram for their offices or nightlife, parties, and booze, the cluster of 'grams' southwest of the capital, set on the Aravalli slopes with forests scattered around, was home to ashrams, farmlands, ponds, and seasonal streams flowing down from the world's oldest mountain range. In the 1970s and 1980s, famed yoga guru Dhirendra Brahmachari and even Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar chose Gurgaon as a quiet corner for peace. But all that was before the century turned. It was before the new millennium rolled in, and the rustic retreats gave way to a booming, ever-swelling urban sprawl, which is now full of civic mess that makes the moniker "Millennium City" feel like a question mark. It is hard to imagine that a river and many seasonal streams once flowed through Gurugram, contributing nearly 65% of Haryana's income tax collections and hosting tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and a number of Fortune 500 companies, often finds its streets waist-deep in water, thoroughfares turned into canals, roads drowned, manholes left gaping, live wires hanging dangerously, cars adrift, and commuters trapped in gridlocks that can stretch from four to eight the transformation of Gurgawan — from its ashram days of Aravallis, rivers, and streams — into a glass, steel, and concrete sprawl was a sharp turn, the scene today is of an even sharper twist. Residents, having spent crores on apartments and lakhs in taxes, step out of gated high-rises only to wade through knee-deep water on the city's pried Golf Course Road, whether the rain is 50 mm or 150 mm. So where did Gurugram's rivers, Aravalli hills, and jungles vanish? What became of the Sahibi River?The forests were felled and flattened, rivers and wetlands encroached upon, their spaces claimed for the post-liberalisation boom. Businesses thrived, Gurugram prospered. But this "development" came at a hefty price. The civic chaos the city faces today is a direct outcome of the gradual dismantling of its natural environment, once defined by the Aravallis, their green cover, a number of lakes and bundhs and the Sahibi River. Vehicles struggle through a flooded section of the Delhi-Ajmer Expressway in Gurugram. (PTI Image) WHO KILLED GURUGRAM'S WATER LIFELINE, SAHIBI RIVER?The Sahibi River, once a seasonal lifeline flowing from the Aravallis in northern Rajasthan's Sikar, passed through Haryana into Delhi. It still flows, but now it's been reduced to what is called the Najafgarh drain in the Sahibi River was an integral part of Gurgaon's hydrology. Along its course once lay wetlands, ponds, and riparian ecosystems, such as the Basai Wetland, Masani Barrage, and a chain of village ponds that sustained farming in the region. Fragments of which still survive, though greatly the two stretches of the Sahibi within Haryana, running along Gurugram's northwestern boundary, are described as "ecologically dead".It is polluted, encroached upon in places, and is cut off from its natural water sources. The Masani Barrage (in Rewari district) has been largely dry since the late 1980s, because of declining rainfall, upstream diversions, and unchecked construction along the Sahibi River's the destruction extends beyond the main Basai village, Gurugram district, five of its six ponds were paved over in just 12 years. They disappeared by 2019, noted a Hindustan Times report from that ponds had been buried under residential sectors, a school, or poisoned by industrial effluent. Google Street View and Google Earth imagery show the Sahibi River's narrow stretch at the Gurgaon-Delhi border, choked with hyacinth and caked with dirt. (Images: Google Street View and Google Earth) Without these water bodies, Gurugram's natural drainage and groundwater recharge systems have been under immense strain. Concretisation of surfaces and stormwater drains in Gurugram has worsened the situation in the rainy season, when excess water that should have been collected in these waterbodies is now left trapped on roads and open spaces in the concrete anyone responsible for the mess that Gurugram has become?In response to a starred question from Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda on the civic woes of Gurugram, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar said that while urban planning is the function of urban local bodies (ULBs) or urban development authorities, the Centre supplements the efforts of the states through financial and technical week, Khattar, in an answer in the Parliament, said that the unique topography, featuring the Aravalli hills to the east and the Najafgarh drain to the northwest, was the reason for instances of waterlogging in Gurugram."The elevation difference of about 78 metres between the Najafgarh drain and the Aravalli hills has created a natural gradient for water flow, which was historically controlled through a series of bunds constructed in the late 19th century, such as Chakarpur, Jharsa, Wazirabad, and Ghata bunds. However, rapid urbanisation has rendered many of the bunds obsolete and reduced pond networks, impacting the traditional drainage system," Khattar said in response to Hooda's excess water, which once flowed northwest along Gurugram's natural gradient to reach the Sahibi, no longer makes it there. As a result, the river (which is now essentially a drain) isn't recharged, and the water ends up stagnating on the concrete streets, with little earth left to enable 2018 Gurgaon Flooding Report and NIUA hydrological mapping conclude that Gurgugram's urban drainage plan ignored natural flow patterns. That's why even light rain turns the planned sectors into waterlogged the Sahibi River has died a slow death, the Aravalli hills to the east and north, and the green cover over it, have been dealt a faster blow. This topographic map shows Gurugram's natural 76-metre slope descending from the Aravalli hills in the southeast towards the Sahini River Najafgarh drain in the northwest. (Image: Elevation API from OpenStreetMap) ARAVALLIS, ONCE A NATURAL SHIELD OF GURUGRAM, IS NOW UNDER SIEGEadvertisementLike the waterbodies, the ancient range of the Aravallis, the oldest in the world, once shielded Gurugram from desertification, filtered its air, and housed leopards, hyenas, and native tropical dry deciduous thorny a Supreme Court ban on mining in parts of the Aravallis in Gurugram, Nuh, and Faridabad since 2009, illegal extraction of stone and sand remains rampant. Several environmentalists and citizens' pressure groups have urged the government to designate the Aravallis a no-go zone with strict enforcement and restoration of degraded sites, but state compliance has been Gurugram's Sonha, illegal stone quarries have flattened hillocks, causing permanent damage to the Aravalli range, as documented in a 2019 Down To Earth investigation 2020, an entire Aravalli hillock was reportedly flattened to build an approach road for farmhouses being constructed in Bandhwari, around 1.5km off the Gurugram-Faridabad highway. It was the second reported disappearance of a hill in that section of the range since 2018, when the Supreme Court learnt that one-fourth of the Aravalli hills in neighbouring Rajasthan had vanished. Firefighters attempt to douse a fire at Gurugram's Bandhwari landfill, located in the Aravallis, where pressure groups have long demanded a dumping ban and no-go zone status. (Image: PTI) In June, a 33-foot-wide illegal concrete road was laid in Basai Meo (in adjoining Mewat district), to aid mining inside a protected zone, The Times of India the 582 recorded cases of illegal mining in Aravallis, there has been just one conviction, reported the Business Standard in 2023. Multiple NGT and Supreme Court orders have demanded online complaint systems, CCTV monitoring, and district-level action plans to safeguard what remains of the Aravallis, but enforcement remains ecological cost has been severe. Deforestation has invited dust storms from the Thar, accelerated desertification, depleted groundwater, and raised the NCR's already dangerous air pollution REVENUE WINDFALL, DEVELOPMENT SHORTFALLOnce a semi-arid agricultural area, Gurugram has morphed into one of India's wealthiest urban centres. It hosts the Indian offices of several of the Fortune 500 companies, tech giant Microsoft, and serves as headquarters for giants like Coca-Cola, BMW, Hyundai, and Cargill. Gurugram also boasts India's third-highest per-capita income and adds the highest tax money to the Haryana government's the wealth, residents face infrastructure that businessman-columnist Suhel Seth condemned as "slum-like"."It's bizarre. The richest people live in slum-like environments," Seth July, former Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor called out Gurugram's civic authorities over poor waste management, sharing photos that revealed the grim reality of Sector 44's streets. Gurugram is an urban mess. At one moment its potholes, another a waterlogged underpass, and often choking air thick with smoke. (Images: PTI) Gurugram has turned out to be a city of governance failure, masked by skyscraper Servant and IRTS officer, J Sanjay Kumar, said that replacing concrete with green cover, protecting wetlands, and allowing water to seep into the ground is the key to preventing urban flooding, something Noida has done better than Gurgaon."Remove the concrete jungle, let water percolate. Plant trees to absorb excess water. Protect wetlands which store water. Only solution to prevent urban flooding. This is the reason Noida has better conditions than Gurgaon. Noida has at least better green cover than Gurgaon," Kumar posted on X last positive and corrective measures are taken, things are to remain as they have been for a decade the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) rolled out an AI-driven property tax recovery mechanism, pulling in Rs 200 crore so far, including Rs 95 crore in July alone, according to a report in The Times of India. But as the concerns naturally follow, many argue this windfall must turn into real development, not yet another case of wasted journey from a quiet suburb under the shade of the Aravalli to a global corporate hub came at a steep price. The cost has been the erasure of its own rivers, wetlands, and hills. The urban floods, heat islands, and dust-laden air aren't random crises. They're the echoes of large-scale environmental dismantling. There's still a chance to fix what's been damaged. But bold steps must be taken now, before these changes become irreversible.- EndsMust Watch
The Print
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Rajya Sabha secretariat to hold lecture series in memory of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar
Dhankhar, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chair, said a one-time fellowship will also be given in memory of Chandra Shekhar. Talking to reporters here after paying tributes to Chandra Shekhar on his death anniversary, he said Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Harivansh will head the committee to start the lecture series. New Delhi, Jul 8 (PTI) Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday said the Rajya Sabha secretariat will soon commence a lecture series in memory of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar. 'Fellowship is given one time so that there can be compilation of all activities and works of such a great leader, and they would be published in the shape of a book. That again will be coordinated by the committee that looks after the memorial lecture in the memory of Chandra Shekhar,' he said. He described Chandra Shekhar as one of the greatest sons of India who stood for democratic values. Recognised as a 'Young Turk', he worked for inter-party democracy, Dhankhar said. 'He was a fearless politician. A politician who always acted like a statesperson. He did not care for his personal liberty and comfort when it came to Bharat's nationalism, and he always made us proud,' the vice president said. Chandra Shekhar was born on April 17, 1927 in Ballia, and passed away on July 8, 2007. He served as prime minister from November 1990 to June 1991. PTI NAB DV DV This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Hindustan Times
03-07-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Incidents of cyber-crime low, officials tells House panel
Government officials have claimed in a Parliamentary panel meeting that incidents of cyber-crime are low although lawmakers were not entirely convinced and sought new measures, stronger laws and more focus in rural areas where financial literacy and awareness campaigns are limited, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named. Incidents of cyber-crime low, officials tells House panel In the home affairs panel meeting, the Union finance ministry's Department of Financial Services (DFS) told the lawmakers that for every ₹ 10,000 of transaction only 9 paisa is fraud—which is a very 'low level' . But MPs, cutting across party lines argued that government agencies must strengthen their financial and digital literacy drive in rural areas where a vast section of the population receives government aid digitally through direct benefits transfer. According to one of the people cited above, a government official, TDP's Krishna Prasad Tenneti and others raised the issue of the vulnerable population and pointed out that at least 65% of the Indian population lives in rural areas. While appreciating DBT (direct benefits transfer), the lawmakers, the official added, pointed to the importance of educating people on being safe online. ASP KR lawmaker Chandra Shekhar, Congress' Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, and BJP's Soumitra Khan were among the other members who spoke about the same issue. Some lawmakers argued that parking proceeds of cybercrime abroad is a matter of national concern. According to the NCRB data, 50035, 52974 and 65893 cyber crime cases were registered across the country in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. The NCRB has not released its data since then. The officials informed the lawmakers that on June 30, the Reserve Bank of India asked all Scheduled Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks, and Co-operative Banks to integrate the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) developed by DoT into their systems. This is a risk-based metric that classifies a mobile number to have been associated with Medium, High, or Very High risk of financial fraud, according to a government press release issued on Wednesday. In 2023, a RBI report to the standing committee on finance had said that a number of steps including a threshold for transactions in new accounts, a Central 'negative registry' of the accounts of known fraudsters and a standard operating procedure to stop the downstream flow of funds once a fraud is reported have been suggested by Indian banks to stop online frauds. The two-day meeting on 'Cyber Crime - Ramifications, Protection and Prevention' of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs started here on Wednesday. Officials from Department of Financial Services, Public and Private banks, Department of Telecommunications Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY); and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), MeitY briefed the MPs. The panel is headed by BJP's Radha Mohan Das Agrawal. On Thursday, the panel invited external affairs ministry officials, and CBI and NIA officials to discuss the issue. The Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the 'Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre' (I4C) to deal with all types of cyber crime in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Time of India
2 palanquin-bearers from J&K carrying pilgrim killed in landslide on Kedarnath trek route
Dehradun: Two palanquin-bearers from Jammu and Kashmir died on Wednesday after a landslide struck near Jungle Chatti along the Kedarnath trek route. They were carrying a pilgrim at the time, who survived with minor injuries. Three others, including two more palanquin-bearers and a pilgrim from Gujarat, were injured after being knocked down into a gorge by the falling debris. Nitin Kumar and Chandra Shekhar, both from Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir, died after falling in the gorge. The injured, Sandeep Kumar, 22, and Aakash Chitriya, 40, also from Doda, and Nitin Manhas, 16, a pilgrim from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, were rescued and taken to the Base Hospital in Srinagar for treatment. District disaster management officer, Nandan Singh Rajwar, said, "Huge boulders fell from the hillside with immense force around 11.20am. Local police, the SDRF, and the district administration rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation." A staff member from the Rudraprayag district disaster management office added, "All five were first brought to Gaurikund, and the three were then shifted to Base Hospital." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo The Kedarnath valley has experienced heavy rainfall in recent days. Jungle Chatti, located 4 km from Gaurikund, is a known landslide-prone area on the 16-km trek to the shrine. Heavy rain last Sunday had also triggered landslides in the area, leading authorities to halt the yatra for a day as helicopter services remained suspended after the chopper crash near Kedarnath that killed seven people. During the 2024 monsoon, portions of the Jungle Chatti trail were washed away and took weeks to repair. In light of recent incidents, the district administration has urged pilgrims to check weather forecasts before starting their journey and to proceed with caution. Since the start of the Char Dham yatra, around 130 people have died, with most deaths caused by health complications such as cardiac arrest. Over 60 of those fatalities occurred on the Kedarnath route alone.
