Over 150 people from ‘Govinda Pathaks’ were injured while participating in building human pyramids during Dahi Handi celebrations as part of the Janmashtami festival in Mumbai, officials said on Saturday.
“153 Govinda Pathaks were injured while building a human pyramid, out of which 130 people were treated and discharged, 23 people are still admitted and they are undergoing treatment,” Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials.
The injured were shifted to hospitals across the city on an urgent basis. Meanwhile in Thane too, officials reported that at least 64 people from the ‘Govinda Pathaks’ sustained injuries during Dahi Handi celebrations.
“In Thane district, on the day of Dahi Handi festival, around 64 people from Govinda Pathaks were injured after building a human pyramid. There were injuries reported of several people falling on the road from a bike,” said officials.
Earlier on Friday, at least 111 persons were reportedly injured from mishaps that took place in Mumbai during the formation of the human pyramid for the celebration of Dahi Handi as part of the Krishna Janmashtami festival on Friday, according to the BMC.
According to the municipal body, 23 people are receiving treatment while 88 out of 111 persons were treated and released at 9 pm. “No untoward incident has been reported,” said BMC. In Thane, the festival of Janmashtami is celebrated on a large scale, and several Dahi Handi competitions are conducted over there.
A huge crowd had gathered to see the Dahi Handi competitions across the city. Janmashtami is a Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna. As per the Hindu calendar, Lord Krishna, an avatar of Lord Vishnu, was born on the eighth day of the month of Bhadra.
The day mostly falls in the months of August or September as per the Western calendar. The festival is celebrated by offering prayers to Lord Krishna, with beautifully decorated swings, dance and music performances along with the Dahi Handi competition.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted citizens of the country on the occasion of Janmashtami. “Hearty greetings to all the countrymen on the auspicious occasion of Janmashtami.
May this festival of devotion and gaiety bring happiness, prosperity and good fortune to everyone’s life. Long live Shri Krishna!,” tweeted PM Modi today.
Aam Aadmi party will have more challenges and raids ahead of Gujarat elections 3
On Friday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s house. CBI continued its raids on 20 other locations in Delhi-NCR in connection with the excise policy case. There was unrest on social media, all those supporters of Aam Aadmi Party called it a vendetta. The Modi government is unleashing agencies against all those leaders and political parties whom they see as a threat. AAP has earned a huge fan following in Gujarat, BJP can never tolerate AAP to flourish in their home turf. BJP is also unable digest the defeat of Punjab elections
Instead of focusing on the good work done over the years, BJP is making a mockery of themselves and all the central agencies who have built a good name for themselves over the past few decades. Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister, is number one on a list of 15 accused in the CBI’s FIR on liquor policy violations.
A liquor trader paid Rs 1 crore to a company managed by an associate of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, the CBI has claimed in its FIR on alleged corruption in the framing and implementation of the excise policy 2021-22. The agency, which carried out raids at Sisodia’s official residence in central Delhi and 30 other locations in seven states and Union territories, named 13 people and two companies in its FIR registered on August 17 under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. In addition to Sisodia, who also holds the excise portfolio, the CBI has named as accused then excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, then deputy excise commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar and nine businessmen.
Several AAP supporters were detained for protesting against the CBI raid at the residence of Manish Sisodia. Meanwhile Sisodia, who is Excise Minister, has strongly denied any wrongdoing. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has also firmly backed his deputy. The CBI alleges that liquor companies and middlemen were “actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation” of the excise policy.
Unfortunately, ED, CBI and Judiciary have become frivolous to the common man. They are used to settle scores with non-BJP Party leaders by and large. Corruption in liquor sales in Delhi has been happening for the last 20 years from the days private players were allowed to open retail shops to sell liquor in Delhi in 2002-03. All the private vends used to get huge credit notes against discounts and commissions running in hundreds of crores of rupees from distributors and wholesalers for pushing their brands on retail outlets.
All these discounts and commissions the retailers get are part of corruption as it is not passed on the customers in form of discounts but goes in pocket of retailers as their profits on which they don’t even pay excise taxes as they don’t show these discounts as sales but use to get credit notes and other ways like cash kickbacks. CBI should investigate all private players who ran private vends from 2003 onwards.
People remember how CM Sri Kejriwal gave financial support to various people who served the nation. The AAP party in New Delhi gave 1 crore to gold medal winners and other winners in Olympics, Asiad or other events. AAP has extended financial support to families of martyrs in war or fight against terrorists, Covid warriors who lost lives on duty etc. Why the hell CBI is making raids for 1 crore graft charges on Deputy CM?
Dancer who wins hearts - Meet the eminent odissi dancer Rahul Acharya 5
Dance is a deep ocean and a dancer is a merely a tiny drop in that sea. It is said boodh boodh se ghat bharta hai (each drop adds to the pot) a dancer is surly aware that each drop counts. Rahul Acharya is a Bhubaneshwar based excelling, celebrated Odissi dancer and a renowned scholar who has not only won many awards and rewards but most importantly has won many hearts with his dedication to art and his optimistic outlook toward life to add to that his chiselled and super flexible physique at forty can give the younger generation of dancers a run for their money. I chatted with this supremely talented dancer who discussed everything with me about right from his devotion towards Odissi dance to his life surrendered to the rich Indian art, culture and tradition.
1 How did your dance training start and what motivated you to take up dancing?
I started training at a very young age. I was still a toddler. This was when I was three years old. My sister and my cousins would go to learn from Guruji (my Guru, Sri Durga Charan Ranbir) and since I had no one to spend time with as all of them would be gone for classes, I started accompanying them. That is how my Guru handpicked and moulded me. Coming from a family of Rajgurus, I imbibed the traditional family values and was exposed to the modern world by a bureaucratic father and an engineer mother, dance happened very naturally I guess, as I was blessed to see the temple dancers of Puri (the Maharis) from very close quarters, the way they rendered their service, their surrender, it had tremendous amount of impact on me.
2. Tell me more about your gurus and what you learnt from them?
My Guru, Sri Durga Charan Ranbir is one of the foremost surviving Gurus of Odissi. I was an extremely notorious kid and hyper energetic. The only people who had the capacity to tackle me, were my mother and my Guru. These was the only two people I was petrified of. His patience in dealing with a difficult person like me, is indeed commendable. It’s been over three decades that the Guru Shishya relationship is still intact. Guruji has a major role to play in my personal life. A true Guru in every sense, he has inculcated in me, the concept of Samarpana to dance. That is probably why I have not been able to visualize a mundane life for myself. Dance for me is Sadhana, my process of self realization.
3. How difficult is it for a male Dancer to survive in a world dominated by female dancers?
Classical dancing in India was always considered a taboo. Most of the male dancers did not come with a strong support system. In India, where patriarchy is a social norm and women were expected to be house makers, usually depended on the male members and the male members of the family had to play the role of bread winners (times have changed for good). It was much easier for females to think of an alternative career which was not so well paying. Besides dance in India resurfaced with the Devadasis, with the Anti-Devadasi act, when the temple dancers lost their jobs in temples, they were not given employment anywhere and had to carry out menial jobs to sustain themselves. The Devadasis became Manushya Dasis. How unfortunate! Post Independent India went through a deep cultural turmoil as the colonizers had created much havoc. We have forgotten that all our Acharyas have been men. They were the ones who taught the dances and trained the performers.
But as is the social taboo (things are slowly changing for good) it is still difficult to survive just as a performer as there aren’t too many stage shows and not too many takers for classical dance and not too many takers for male dancers. Unless one is exceptionally striking and has something more to offer, it is very difficult to survive as a male soloist.
Fortunately for me, I did not face such a discrimination owing to a strong academic background. I have always fared well as an academician and had a different career choice as a scientist. Dance probably had other plans for me as I had not chosen to take dance as a career. Dance engulfed me and sucked me in completely. It possessed my entire being. I have received tremendous amount of support from the dance fraternity. So I didn’t face much of this discrimination rather I was always looked upto and loved by my seniors.
4. Who do you credit your success to and who have been you biggest support in this dance journey?
Guru Ratikant Mohapatra has always been the big brother, being instrumental in shaping up my career and giving it an academic angle. My Sanskrit Guru, Pandit Nityananda Mishra has taken the pains of educating me in the theoretical aspects. My Guru, Sri Durga Charan Ranbir was the one who offered me my career, serving it on a golden platter. I just had to grab it. My pillar of strength was always my mother, Binapani Sahoo, who not only verbally supported my career but provided the finances to keep it going. Besides I was always in my own league and I never competed with anyone. I only grabbed the best and kept working on myself.
5. You are one of the rare male dancers who has a super fit and chiselled body, from where does that inspiration come?
The urge to get better and serve dance. My body is my temple and for every dancer that is the case. The body needs to be taken care of and constantly honed. As the Kathopanishad states, the body is the chariot and the Atma is the passenger. I need to keep my chariot in top shape for smoothening the journey of my Atma.
6. Tell me about your recent unpleasant encounter at the Konark festival, what happened?
It was a very unfortunate incident, where a young dancer sitting beside me was asked to vacate the chair while the programme was going on to accommodate a seat for some family member of some bureaucrat who had not even come. I raised my voice and left place and complained to the top officials of the government. How can we promote tourism in our state when we lack basic ethics of respecting our own people? Like charity, samskara begins at home. How can I claim an Atithi to be Devata if I lack the basic manners towards my own people? Are security people paid a salary to serve the family members of bureaucrats? Should the PM’s wife be treated also as a PM? This was the issue I raised.
7. How has the covid times enriched you?
No rest in the kingdom. There are miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep. Though Covid hasn’t affected me much as classes at the University, where I teach, have been going on irrespective of the lockdown. The only paradigm shift being from the real to the virtual. Working hours haven’t reduced at all and responsibilities have increased for sure.
8. What are your future plans to take Oddisi dance to more people?
To die dancing. I am only a very ordinary dancer and certainly not indispensable. There are millions like me who come and go every day. Odissi hasn’t ceased. great Gurus and dancers have come and gone, yet Odissi lives on. All I can plan is to learn to surrender to Odissi and be grateful that I am one of the chosen few to be able to surrender myself to Odissi.
Rahul Acharya is an artist who is evolved not only in his art of dance but also as a human being, his love for Odissi is absolutely infectious and when he steps on the floor, the audience can very clearly witness the hard work, the devotion and the commitment he has made to Odissi.
4-storey building collapses in Mumbai's Borivali 7
A four storied building of Saibaba nagar of borivali collapsed on friday.
Fire Brigade officials informed that the incident took place in Gitanjali building.
Further details awaited in the incident.
On June 27, another similar incident happened where a four-storey building collapsed in the Naik Nagar area of Mumbai’s Kurla. The incident claimed at least 19 lives.
Unidentified man breaks into Palghar court, attempts to steal case records 9
An unidentified person allegedly broke into the premises of a court in Maharashtra’s Palghar district and attempted to steal records pertaining to a case, police said on Friday.
Based on a complaint lodged by court officials, an offence of theft has been registered for the incident that took place on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, Palghar police PRO Sachin Navadkar said
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has registered a case against unidentified persons in connection with the yacht that was found off the Raigad coast near Mumbai with AK-47 rifles and live rounds on board, an official said on Friday.
A first information report (FIR) under sections 7 and 25 of the Arms Act has been registered against unidentified persons, and the Navi Mumbai unit of the state ATS is investigating the case, he said.
As the CBI raided the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday in connection with the excise policy probe, the Congress said that he is not surprised that the raids did not take place earlier.
“It is not surprising. We have been hearing about what has been happening in the Delhi Government for the last 7-8 years. It is surprising that the CBI raids didn’t happen earlier. Be it liquor case, construction of rooms in schools, teachers recruitment, the civil defence recruitment case or the case of the contract wherever you see, there should’ve been not one but 10 CBI raids,” Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit told media.
Dikshit alleged that Congress has always believed that the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP have worked in collusion in Delhi to damage the prospects of Congress “AAP is making money, damaging Congress and supporting BJP. Now they (BJP) might have felt they’re (AAP) not needed anymore, so all sins of AAP will come out. We’ll see if BJP strikes an agreement with them or does justice,” Dikshit, the son of the late Shiela Dikshit who was chief minister of Delhi from 1998-2013.
Sandeep Dikshit pointed out that if the AAP government is investigated then there will be no minister left in the AAP cabinet.
“I am sure that, if the raids are done with integrity and the cases go on, there will be no minister in AAP cabinet will left,” he said adding that it remains to be seen whether the BJP “will strike an agreement with them (AAP) or do justice.”
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera tweeted, “The flip side to the relentless misuse of agencies against political rivals is that even legitimate, rightful actions of agencies come under a cloud of suspicion. In the process, the corrupt get away hiding behind the ‘misuse’ argument and the honest end up paying the price.”
CBI this morning conducted searches at 21 locations in Delhi-NCR including the premises of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and the premises of former Delhi Excise Commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, over allegations of irregularities in the revamped Delhi Excise Policy that was recently withdrawn.
Sisodia in a tweet this morning said: “CBI has arrived,” and added “We are honest, building a future for lakhs of children. Unfortunate that in this country, whoever does good work is hassled just like this, that is why our country is still not number-1.”
Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal replied in a tweet saying that they will give full cooperation to the investigations.
“CBI is welcome. We will give full cooperation. Searches/raids took place earlier too, but nothing was found. Nothing will be found now too,” Kejriwal tweeted mentioning that the CBI has raided his residence on the day when the picture of the Delhi Model and Manish Sisodia appeared on the front page of America’s biggest newspaper- the New York Times.
India witnessed a single-day rise of 15,754 new Coronavirus infections taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,43,14,618, the Union Health Ministry informed on Friday. India’s active caseload currently stands at 1,01,830, which accounts for 0.23 per cent of the total cases.
The recovery rate currently at stands at 98.58 per cent wherein 15,220 recoveries were logged in the last 24 hours in the country, thereby taking the total COVID-19 recoveries to 4,36,85,535. With 47 fatalities, which include eight deaths from Kerala, the death toll climbed to 5,27,253 the data updated at 8 am stated.
Of the 4,54,491 COVID-19 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, a positivity rate of 3.47 per cent was observed. The weekly positivity rate is at 3.90 per cent. On the COVID-19 vaccination front, as many as 209.27 crore total vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
The Union Government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country.
The nationwide COVID 19 vaccination started on January 16, 2021. The new phase of universalization of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from June 21, 2021. The vaccination drive has been ramped up through availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to States and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain.
As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID-19 vaccines free of cost. In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs.
Officials of the Central Goods and Services TAX (CGST) commissionerate have arrested two proprietors of firms based in Bhiwandi in Maharashtra’s Thane district for allegedly fraudulently availing Input Tax Credit (ITC) collectively worth more than Rs 20 crore.
The arrests were made on Thursday after the fraudulent activities of the two firms were unearthed, the CGST Bhiwandi commissionerate in the Mumbai zone said.
With their arrest, the Bhiwandi commissionerate has so far held 16 persons in such crimes in the last one year, it said.
The officials busted a fake GST invoice racket, which was used to avail and pass on fake ITC of around Rs 18 crore on bogus invoices of Rs 41 crore. The proprietor of M M Buildcon/ Lambodar Buildcon was arrested under the CGST Act, it said in a release.
“Acting on specific inputs, the anti-evasion wing of the CGST Bhiwandi Commissionerate initiated an investigation against the firm.
During the probe, the firm was found to be non-existing and fake. The proprietor said that he had vacated the registered premises/godown in 2018,” it added. Even after vacating the premises, the firm continued to use the same address in all transactions, including sales and purchases, the commissionerate said.
Based on material evidence gathered during the investigation, the proprietor of the firm was arrested and sent to judicial custody till August 30, it said. This is the 16th arrest by CGST Bhiwandi Commissionerate in the last one year.
In the second case, the commissionerate busted a fake GST invoice racket involving Vishwakarma Enterprises, which was found to have availed ineligible ITC of Rs 2.57 crore through bogus invoices of Rs 14.30 crore.
The proprietor of the firm was the 15th person to be arrested by the Bhiwandi commissionerate, it said. “Acting on specific inputs, the anti-evasion wing initiated an investigation against the firm and it was found that the principal place of business was residential premises and the taxpayer has availed ineligible ITC of Rs 2.57 crore,” the release said.
Following his arrest, the accused was released on bail by the Bhiwaandi commissionerate.
This case is a part of the special drive launched by the CGST Mumbai Zone against tax fraudsters and fake ITC networks.
My dream is to connect Nariman Point in Mumbai to Delhi by an electric AC luxury bus which will cover the distance in 12 hours in near future,” said Union transport and highway s minister Nitin Gadkari as he launched India’s first electric double decker at Y B Chavan Centre on Thursday afternoon.
