News on Agra & Current Affairs

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (AGRA), 31 Dec. New year comes knocking at the doors this night but instead of sending greetings and chatting across the seas while huddling close together in a cosy "cyber-cafe" in this chilly weather, love-birds of Agra are now preferring to browse the net from the safety of their homes. With police raids becoming common on cyber cafes of Agra division in connection to porn being displayed on computer screens to minor "couples" inside closed cabins, the cafe owners of Agra have decided to ban the entry of "couples" in their cafes, stripping down the doors of the cabins constructed inside their cafes as the police is not projecting the cafes as possible porn joints. Making hay at the same time, big telecom giants running broadband cafes like Satyam's "i-way" & Reliance's "webworld" have launched a publicity campaign assuring youngsters of "Safe and Secured Surfing", displaying posters, b

VIJAY UPADHYAY INDIA (ETAH) 30 Dec. After a four-year marriage a husband is seeking divorce from his wife on grounds of his impotence. Ironically, the wife seems to have no complaints about her husband's sexual competence. In this interesting family drama which came to light on Sunday, the Etah police has now decided to subject the husband's "apparatus" to a scrutiny by a medical board headed by Etah's Chief Medical Officer on January 3. According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Etah, Anand Swaroop, Neelam Dubey, daughter of Agra's Jagdish Upadhyay, married Devendra Dubey, a resident of Soron town in Etah district, in 1995. Immediately following their marriage, Devendra got a job in the local Sant Tulsi Das Inter College as a lecturer in history. In 2000, Devendra threw Neelam out of his house following a minor dispute and refused to accept her back. Not one to be put down thus, Neelam complained to the police as a result of which Devendra h

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (Agra), 29 Dec. The dust raised by the UP Tourism minister Kawkab Hamid against the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a Central government department on the issue of Yoga classes held by a US based Yoga Guru at the Taj Mahal had not even settled when the “Guru” himself has raised another uproar by slipping away quietly after issuing a disputed statement accusing the police of misbehavior. In a statement issued to the media few minutes before leaving Agra on Tuesday, the international Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhary has alleged that the Agra police had harassed him and dragged him from his hotel to the police station, denying him his fundamental rights as a US citizen. He has also charged the Station House Officer (SHO), Taj Ganj police station for making him sign on blank papers while he was in police custody. On the other hand, the Archaeological Survey of India has also accused the Agra police of being un-cooperative in this case. The Superintending Archaeolo

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA, 27 Dec. In a surprising security goof-up by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that took place at the Taj Mahal on Saturday, atleast three - four dozen foreigners, led by the International Yoga "Guru" Bikram Chowdhary practised various Yoga postures at the monument's main dome, in a semi-nude state, as the whole event was filmed by atleast three movie cameras, all in clear violation of the ASI Act. Now, to save its face, the ASI has charged Bikram Choudhary, a US national for alleged violation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, section 7 & 8 subsection (b) by conducting unauthorized commercial activities in a monument protected by the ASI. The muslim organizations have also presented the District Magistrate Agra with a memorandum alleging that the Guru had defiled the monument's sanctity. In an FIR filed on Monday by the assistant conservator of AS

VISHAL SHARMA GWALIOR, 26 Dec. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee turned 80 at a low-key function in his home-town Gwalior on Saturday, but he did not fail to point out that he's game for big league matches still. Mr Vajpayee said he only remembered his post-Pokharan birthdays since he has always wanted to see this country stand tall, braving all odds. Though the walking stick, and the slight tremble in his voice indicated that this "iron-willed" leader of Opposition is growing old, but the trademark wit showed that his mind was as keen as ever. Looking back on his long political career that included the posts of serving as a long-term Leader of Opposition and the first non-Congress Prime Minister to have lasted an entire term, Mr Vajpayee quoted from his poem Kadam Badhakar Chalna Hoga, saying a lot needed to be still done. Asked how the 80 years had passed, he snapped his fingers, saying "like that". His most cherished birthday moment was in 1998

VISHAL SHARMA GWALIOR, 25 Dec. When former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was busily receiving guests on his 81st birthday on Saturday at the local Usha Kiran Palace, two girls were crying their hearts out at the hotel gate for not being able to be among the first people to wish Mr. Vajpyee a "Happy Birthday". Sitting adamantly at the main gate-post of the hotel where Mr. Vajpayee was staying, the girls said that they had been requesting for a permission to meet Mr. Vajpayee since 8 am in the morning but the police did not allow them to enter the hotel asking them to come back at 11 am, but they decided to wait. But at 11 am, when they were told by the SPG personnel that Mr. Vajpayee could not meet them as their name was not on the "official" list of visitors, the heartbroken kids broke into tears which ultimately melted the stone-hearts of the SPG men sufficiently enough to let the girls line up at the hotel porch to greet Mr. Vajpayee as he boarded hi

VISHAL SHARMA Etah (INDIA), 24 Dec. It is the perfect analogy to the strategy adapted by the Indian Army in recruiting ex-terrorists to hunt down terrorists in Kashmir. The UP police seem to have come up with a similar concept to put a tab on the criminal activities in the state by exploiting the "experience" of notorious gangsters, building up a criminal-police interface by holding 'tea-parties of gangsters'. The Etah district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has long been"famous" for being the breeding grounds for "would-be" gangsters and notorious gangsters like Chhaviram & Mahaveera, Pothi & Alwar had once rocked this district with their terror. Political patronage extended to these gangsters had made this district the hot-spot for criminal activities and in 1982, to control this aggravating situation, the then UP Chief Minister VP Singh was even forced to send the top-cop of UP Vikram Singh as the first Senior Superintendent of Po

VIJAY UPADHYAY INDIA (ETAH), 15 Dec. The UP Police seem to have discovered a new calling! They are trying their hand at ghost-busting, butting into the domain of Tantriks. In an interesting incident, a retired Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) has commissioned the Etah police to help exorcise the "Ghosts" haunting his house. Talking to The Pioneer, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Etah, Anand Swaroop said that Retd. Subedar Major Ram Swaroop, a resident of Ambedkar Nagar in Etah has filed a written complaint with him claiming that his house is "haunted" by several ghosts who have been sent by a "Tantrik" at the bidding of a jealous neighbour. In his complaint, Ram Swaroop has alleged that said Tantrik Ramdas, who lives in the Chaprai village nearby, is blackmailing his family for money to free his house from these ghosts. The JCO claims that the Tantrik had blocked all his attempts in the past eight years to get his eldest daughter, Sushma,

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (AGRA), 14 DEC. Barely a fortnight of its "official" nomination to the "New 7 Wonders" list, the world famous Mughal Monument Taj Mahal is all set to create a record by capturing more than 97 per cent of all votes registered on the www.n7w.com website over the past week. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, a former director general at the UNESCO, has been appointed the presiding judge on the N7W expert panel that shall finally select the 21 contenders for this list, officially taking up his appointment this Tuesday, December 14th, at a formal function organized in Madrid, Spain. In a press release issued by N7W on Tuesday, Bernard Weber, the New 7 Wonders Foundation Chairman said that the huge expertise and experience of Mr Mayor sets the standard for the final stage of voting in this important campaign and following the appointment of Mr. Mayor, the names of other judges to feature in the experts panel shall be announced soon. On this occasion, Sarah Yue

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (AGRA), 10 Dec. In a most unique example of the impartial manner in which the Indian democracy operates, over 1.2 million voters of the highly caste driven and violence prone Mainpuri parliamentary constituency of the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in India shall participate in the polls being held for the third time in a year to send their elected representative in the Lok Sabha (House of Commons). The electorate of this parliamentary constituency, spread in three districts of Mainpuri, Etawah & Firozabad, shall go for polls for the third time, this time, under the close vigil of the Election Commission of India, with the deployment of 14 companies of para military forces apart from the police of these three districts. While the Mainpuri administration and the Election Commission are confident of a free and fair election this time, the locals have an entirely different view to these elections. Ghamandi lal, a resident of the Mughalpura village in the Karhal a

VIJAY UPADHYAY INDIA (AGRA), 7 Dec. Almost four decades after fighting the last war with India, top former Pakistani military commanders have termed the Indo-Pak wars of the past as "foolhardy" expressing an urgent need for thawing the ice on mutual relations. A 25-member delegation of top former military commanders of Pakistan and their families had arrived in Agra on Sunday to visit the historical monuments here. Talking to the media at Sikandra on this occasion, retired Pakistani Air Chief Marshal Zafar Chowdhary said he has the unique experience of having served in both the Indian and the Pakistan Air Force. He fought for India before independence and fought against India in the 1965 war, but he has now realised that there was absolutely no need for cross-border hostilities as most of the differences can be solved through mutual discussions. He said that there is hardly any difference in the cultures and natural diversities of both the countries and borders can on

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (Agra), 06 Dec. In the changing world scenario, the field of Journalism holds new promises & career opportunities for the young generation and it is the growing trend among youngsters of India to choose journalism as their profession, instead of entering a management school. With the advent of Print, Visual & Virtual (PVV) journalism, the demand for trained journalists is growing by the day which still needs to be fulfilled through a world-class institute. To cater this demand, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Agra has decided to revamp its journalism courses through a tie-up with the Pioneer Media School which is currently running its journalism courses in Delhi & Lucknow. Talking to mediapersons on Monday, the University V-C Prof. A.S. Kukla said that the Kanhiyalal Maniklal Munsi Institute of Hindi and Linguistics is the oldest institute of the University, running master’s courses in journalism, but the structure of these courses does not correspond to

VIJAY UPADHYAY INDIA (AGRA) 4 Dec. Ever since Philo of Byzantium compiled his declaration of the 'Seven Wonders of the World' in 200 BC, it has been the only documented and historically approved "wonders list", even though only one of these Wonders, all located in the Mediterranean basin, remains intact and there has never been any true public consensus of opinion on the last 2000 years of human achievement. Only recently, efforts have begun to compile a new list of Wonders through a massive global referendum. Shortly after the former Miss World Aishwarya Rai re-nominated the Taj Mahal on the list of Wonders being compiled on the Internet on Wednesday, the Taj Mahal has topped this list, scoring 98.86 per cent of the total votes cast during the past week, leaving the Great Wall of China far behind with just 0.14per cent votes. This is a significant achievement for the Taj, celebrating its 350th anniversary this year, keeping in mind the fact that the voting pr

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (AGRA), 3 Dec. They promise you the world and won't deliver a speck of dirt. Barely twenty-four hours after promising three-months of hot-air balloon flights over the Taj Mahal on Wednesday, the Delhi based Aero Adventure Club folded its tents and when adventure-seeking tourists reached the Taj Nature Walk in hope of a memorable ride over the Taj, they had to return disappointed, learning that the flights over the Taj simply could not happen due to a no-fly restriction around the Taj. The Delhi based Aero Club had flown the gigantic "Seven Wonders" balloon from the Taj Nature Walk on Wednesday when the former Miss World Aishwarya Rai had announced the re-nomination of the Taj Mahal to the new list of seven wonders of the world. Speaking on this occasion, Anita Yadav, the convenor of this event had announced that the "Wonder Balloon" shall be available for joy-rides at the Taj Nature Walk for three months in collaboration with the UP Tourism

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (Agra), 1 Dec. Former Miss world and Actress Aishwarya Rai shall canvass all over the globe to get the Taj Mahal on the top of the list of seven wonders of the world. Aishwarya, who had danced at the Taj in a song featuring the seven "supposed" wonders of the world, could not hide her surprise when told that the Tajmahal was not even the part of the list of modern wonders. Talking to the media persons on Wednesday at the Taj Nature Walk in Agra with the Taj Mahal forming the backdrop, Aishwarya said that when she came to know about this fact, she took up the task of campaigning among the Indians all over the world to "Vote for Taj", to make it appear at the top of the list of wonders, a position which is held at present by the Great Wall of China. The beauty queen had arrived in Agra to make the official nomination of the Taj Mahal to the list of wonders of the world. Addressing the media, Aishwarya said that she has traveled all round the

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (AGRA), 30 Nov. It is a popular belief among Taj lovers globally, that this monument of love is one of the seven wonders of the world. But surprise, surprise!! The Taj was never a part of the canonical list of seven wonders of the ancient world compiled in the engravings by the Dutch artist Maerten van Heemskerck (1498-1574) and Johann Fischer von Erlach in his History of Architecture, both created before the construction of the Taj in 1648 A.D. All the original monuments, constructed around 200 B.C., have long since disappeared from the face of the earth except the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. In fact, it is not even the part of the list of modern wonders, though both of these lists do not exist "officially". The UNESCO, being the chief patron of the architectural treasures world over, has never believed in "ranking" the monuments but none the less, it is only human to select what they think is the best. Now, people all over the world

VIJAY UPADHYAY INDIA (AGRA), 29 Nov. Reacting to the dismal performance of Indian sportsmen in world sports meets including the Olympics, the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in India has decided to make sports a compulsory subject at school & college level, to ensure an all-round personality development of the young generation of UP. Providing this information in Agra on Sunday, the UP Director of Secondary Education Sanjay Mohan said that the keeping in view the poor performance of Indian athletes and sportsmen in the sporting meets world over, the UP government had decided in April this year to include sports as a part of the state school curriculum but now it has been decided that sports should be made a separate compulsory subject from the coming academic session in July 2005 and only the students who pass this subject with a minimum of fifty percent marks, shall be allowed to continue into the next class. He said that a notification in this regard has been is

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (Agra), 28 Nov. The Indin Department of Post issued two postage stamps and first day covers on Sunday at the Agra Fort, to commemorate the 9th Aga Khan Awards for Architecture. The stamps were released by the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Shaqeel Ahmed, in the presence of The Aga Khan, hereditary spiritual leader (Imam) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and founder of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The stamps, in the denomination of 15 rupees each, depict the Agra Fort. They offer views of various architectural features, including the Khas Mahal (Private palace), which was built entirely by Shah Jahan in 1637. The Award, which has a triennial prize fund of US$ 500,000, is the world's largest architectural award. The Awards ceremony was held on the 27th of November 2004 in the gardens of Humayun's Tomb in Delhi. Addressing the extended function of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture held in Agra Fort for th

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (Agra), 26 Nov. After a long gap of two decades, the tourists may finally view the world famous Mughal monument Tajmahal by moonlight, albeit, on a premium. The Archaeological Survey of India which is the custodian of the Tajmahal has declared a hefty entry fee for both foreign and Indian tourists, though the Indian tourists shall suffer more, who shall have to pay 25 times the day tariff while the foreign tourists have been exempted from the tariff raise. It took over an year of hard labour for the UP government to get the Tajmahal opened by night, but today, when the time came to reap the fruit of this labour, the Union government was ready to make the most out of it. While the UP government declared the night-time Taj entry "Tax-Free", the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was busy selling heftily priced tickets to Indians well past the stipulated time on Friday. A strategic move of the UP government, designed to attract foreign tourists through this

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (AGRA) 25 Nov. The landmark decision of the Indian Supreme Court to allow the night opening of the Tajmahal has again raised the hopes of the tottering tourism industry of Agra, which may now expect a major boost in the tourist traffic coming to the town. The Tajmahal is seen all over the world as India’s tourism icon and the tourist traffic in Agra serves as the most reliable gauge for the foreign tourist traffic in India. For years on end, the Indian tourism industry has been dogged by the low turnout of foreign tourists largely due to the prevailing uncertainty, both in the international as well as the domestic scenario. Delivering a landmark judgement on Thursday, the Supreme Court has allowed the UP government to open the Tajmahal for five moonlit nights, barring Fridays, on an experimental basis for three months - November, December 2004 & January 2005. In the month of November, when the Tajmahal shall be opened for night viewing on 27 & 28 Novem

VISHAL SHARMA INDIA (Agra), 24 Nov. The plain copper wire entering the Indian households shall soon unleash a ‘Genie’ toprovide “unlimited mazaa” to the telecom subscribers of the country. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the leading telecom company of India, has planned to introduce Broadband services through its vast basic telephone network served through a high-bandwidth capable copperwire which shall be available in all major cities ofthe countries within the current year. Talking to the UNN, the General Manager BSNL, Agra Pradeep Kumar Srivastava said that BSNL is in the process of commissioning of a world class, multi-gigabit, multi-protocol, convergent IP infrastructure through National Internet Backbone–II(NIB-II), that will provide convergent services through the same backbone and broadband access network. The Broadband service will be available on DSL technology (on the same copper cable that is used for connecting telephone), on a countrywide basis spanning 198 cities

VIJAY UPADHYAY India (Etah) , 23 Nov. Examples of such marriages are hard to find in Indian society. A community panchayat held in Soron town of Etah district has created an uproar by arranging the simultaneous marriage of a mother and daughter to their respective lovers on the same day under the same roof, while the Etah District Magistrate has announced a prize for the daughter in order to promote widow re-marriage. After losing their husbands a few months ago, Mamta (45) and her daughter Preeti (22) married their respective lovers in Soron town of Etah district on Friday following the decision of a panchayat. Soron is reputed to be the birth place of the third avatar of Vishnu and has a major religious significance for the Hindus. Being located at the banks of the Ganga river, the Mallahs (boatmen) form a large community here and the Mallahs abide by the panchayat's decisions. According to sources, Mamta, the wife of Raghuvar,

VISHAL SHARMA India (Mathura) 21 Oct. The devotees arriving in Lord Krishna’s birthplace Mathura were in for a surprise on Sunday as the doors to more than 2000 temples of both Mathura & Vrindavan remained closed today in protest to the arrest of the Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswati, the religious head of the Hindus world over, in a criminal conspiracy. Along the banks of River Yamuna, about 56 kms from Agra and south to the national capital city of Delhi, lie the twin cities of Mathura & Vrindavan, which, being the birthplace of Lord Krishna, the religious icon of love for Hindus, are reputed to be the main pilgrimage centre for Hindus and one of the seven sacred cities in India. The history of Mathura or Brij dates back to 600 BC and this land has been in the limelight during the Mauryan era, and under the great Emperor Ashoka, and later under Kushanas too. According to Hindu scriptures, it is believed that Lord Krishna was born in a prison cell of his maternal uncle

VIJAY UPADHYAY Agra, 20 Nov. After almost a fortnight of painstakingly extracting potable water from deadly chemicals flowing in the Yamuna, the Agra water works officials have a reason to rejoice. Fifty cusecs of Ganga water were released into the Yamuna on Friday to dilute the industrial sewage flowing in the river. Mr AK Dubey, General Manager, Agra Water Works alleged that for the past 15 days, his organisation had been processing the Yamuna water flowing through Agra, serving deadly chemicals and urban waste to the 20 million strong population of the city. With the sub-soil water in Agra heavily laced with fluoride, the lives of the locals fully depend upon the water supplied by the water works through a comprehensive water supply system. This water had become extremely polluted after the industrial sewage from Delhi and Haryana began to be dumped untapped into the Yamuna, which resulted in an increase in the chlorine demand at Agra upto 110 ppm, raising the brows of health exper

VIJAY UPADHYAY Agra, 18 Nov. Agra, the city of Tajmahal is also known as the breeding ground for innovative architectural styles in the medieval ages and this historic city has now be chosen to become the honored host of the "International Aga Khan Foundation Awards-2004", being held for the first time in a non-Islamic country, India. The details of this award ceremony were discussed on Tuesday evening in Delhi in a meeting attended by senior officials from the Union & UP governments, presided by Union Addl. Secretary (Home) Anil Chowdhary. The meeting was also attended by the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, C. Babu Rajiv & Jt. Secretary (Cultural), K. Jay Kumar. From the UP government, the meeting was attended by UP Principal Secretary (Home) Alok Sinha, District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police, Agra. The District Magistrate Agra Nitishwar Kumar told The Pioneer on Wednesday that to be held on 28 th November, the 3 – day Aga Khan Awa

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA, 18 Nov. “Good Morning, this is Rob from Infoway Solutions, Dallas; how can I help you?” This sentence may seem out of place coming from the lips of a teenager chattering away into his headphone in a remote town of India, but with the trend of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) becoming increasingly common, it would not appear strange to you in barely a few months. After the metros, the effects of burgeoning Indian economy have started to show on the B & C class cities of the country. With a large chunk of the populace well-conversant in English, these cities are fast becoming major outsourcing destinations for the corporates around the world. Within the past couple of years, the number of international call centres has grown exponentially in C class cities of Uttar Pradesh like Agra, which is slowly leaving its faltering tourism industry to enter the IT outsourcing arena. The attraction of the huge cash influx generated by these Call Centres is beginning to at

VIJAY UPADHYAY Agra, 14 Nov. Ever since the then US president Bill Clinton expressed his concern over the effect of air pollution on the soft marble of the Tajmahal, tackling this growing monster has been a tough nut for the state government. The effect of emissions from diesel vehicles on marble is well-known. Apart from high sulphur content, the noxious fumes emitted by Diesel vehicles and generating sets also contains high columes of "Suspended Particulate Matter" (SPM) which causes "pitting" in the soft marble stone surface, both directly and by binding to the atmospheric moisture, forming acidic compounds, causing the yellowing and corrosion of the stone. Experts have long been trying to introduce a "greener" alternative to the poisounous Diesel fuel in the vehicles & industries and so far, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) seems to be the only commercially viable alternative available. Widely available in the country, the use of CNG in the public