New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Emphasising India’s commitment to maintaining constructive ties with Bangladesh based on mutual interests and reciprocity, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday reiterated that extradition requests of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are being examined through established procedures. “Let me say that India desires positive, constructive, and forward-looking relations with Bangladesh based on mutuality of interest and reciprocity. Our position on the pres…

Bareilly, Aug 18 (IANS) All India Muslim Jamaat President Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi on Tuesday accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav and the Muslim leaders of “so called secular parties” of “instilling fear” in the community and “spreading poison against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”.Ahead of the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the All India Muslim Jamaat President appealed the Muslim community to refrain from indulging in “politics of opposition” any…

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) When US President Donald Trump praised India’s voter identification system and cited it as an example for the United States, he put the spotlight on one of the world’s most extensive electoral frameworks. Referring to his conversation with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Trump questioned how elections could be conducted in the US without mandatory photo identification and renewed his support for the SAVE America Act, which proposes documentary proof of cit…

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to ban hanging as the mode of execution in the country, allowing the government and other stakeholders to discuss and explore other viable, scientifically proven options to “hanging till death”. A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta declined to issue any judicial mandate to replace “hanging till death”, for now.The apex court was hearing a petition filed by Senior Advocate Rishi Malhotra in 2017, challenging…

Kolkata, Aug 18 (IANS) Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy on Tuesday faced protests from a section of people and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers outside the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport near Kolkata. The protesters surrounded his car outside the city airport, waving black flags and showing shoes to the veteran Trinamool Congress leader.Slogans such as ‘Go back’ and ‘Thief, thief’ were also raised by the protesters.Later, airport authorities and police rescued Sa…

Gandhinagar, Aug 18 (IANS) The Gujarat Forest Department will deploy drones, tracking teams, and new watch towers at Palitana’s Shatrunjaya Hill to monitor Asiatic lion movement and improve pilgrim safety, Forest and Environment Minister Arjun Modhwadia said on Tuesday. The measures were discussed at a meeting chaired by Modhwadia in Gandhinagar with Jain leaders from Shri Anandji Kalyanji Pedhi, following repeated lion presence at the prominent Jain pilgrimage site in Bhavnagar district. Mini…

Kolkata, Aug 18 (IANS) State Tourism Minister Shankar Ghosh on Tuesday alleged that various tea garden lands in north Bengal were sold illegally during the Trinamool era and that the proceeds from the illegal sales went to the Trinamool party fund. He said the money was used in Trinamool’s election campaign in the state.At a press conference, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Shankar Ghosh from Siliguri demanded an investigation into the transfer of tea garden lands during the Mamata Banerjee e…

Patna, Aug 18 (IANS) The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on Tuesday announced the Teacher Recruitment Examination (TRE) 4.0, which will recruit teachers for primary, middle, secondary, and higher secondary schools. According to the notification, recruitment has been announced for 32,388 teaching posts. However, the official BPSC examination calendar mentions 46,595 vacancies for TRE‑4. Therefore, the final number of posts and the category‑ and subject‑wise vacancy details should be …

Guwahati, Aug 18 (IANS) Assam has expanded its protected forest network by 403.62 square kilometres, with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma describing the move as an unprecedented expansion of the state’s conservation landscape. Sarma, in a post on X on Tuesday, said the newly added area was almost equivalent to the size of Jaipur city and represented the biggest such addition to the protected forest network anywhere in India.He wrote that Assam is expanding India’s conservation map, highligh…

Chandigarh, Aug 18 (IANS) The Haryana government has significantly expanded employment opportunities for ex-Agniveers by providing 20 per cent horizontal reservation in direct recruitment to a specified set of posts, besides five per cent horizontal reservation in other Group-C posts and one per cent in Group-B posts related to skill specialisation. These instructions were issued by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi on Tuesday. The 20 per cent horizontal reservation will apply to the posts of Polic…