News on Agra & Current Affairs

Vishal Sharma Agra.           Mathura-based Prabhat group of Industries has brought out a multimedia-based e-learning package for pre-nursery kids, which was launched in Agra on Friday.      Pre-nursery kids are fast rising as a separate block of consumers in India, demanding custom-designed products that have given rise to an entirely new industry of multimedia and animation, suited specially for kids. The firm seeks to tap this segment, pegged at Rs 1,000 crore annually.      Talking to Business Standard after the launch at the Hotel Holiday Inn, Rajesh Agarwal, director, Prabhat group of Industries, said this multimedia package consisted of pre-nursery books and a multimedia CD that was playable both on computer and VCD/DVD.      He said the company had already conducted trials of the software among kids in Delhi, and Jaipur in the past one month, and results had been extremely encouraging, encouraging the company to move ahead and launch the first edition of the multimedia package

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA.            When the Agra police caught up with one of the most wanted mafia dons of the district on Monday, the police team found a surprise waiting for it on the crime scene.       Om Prakash, a prized gangster who had escaped being shot down by the police in atleast three encounters and charged under National Security Act each time, was moving about freely in the Shahganj area of the town, extorting money from businessmen and encroaching property, all under the protection of a police gunner provided by none other than the Uttar Pradesh government.      Surprised by the audacity of the mafiaso, the Agra police immediately arrested the gangster, who is wanted in 33 different cases of murder, extortion and land-grabbing. Alongwith Om Prakash the Agra police also arrested his gunner constable Mahendra Singh alongwith a 9 mm carbine that was confiscated by the police.      But the real surprise came when the police learnt that not only had the don procured police prot

Vijay Upadhyay Agra.      At a time when countrywide concern has been expressed over the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, the State's Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has produced a "US certification" to prove that the UP crime situation was nowhere near Delhi. Addressing a public meeting in Agra on Sunday, which was surprisingly avoided by the SP MP from Agra film star Raj Babbar, Mulayam Singh quoted a report published by an US agency, that did not list Uttar Pradesh among the ten top lawless states of India and accentuated the fact that the report did mention Delhi. The Chief Minister said UP had the best record of action taken against influential criminals. "There were a number of states in the country like Andhra Pradesh, where being a Chief Minister's son meant you could even escape with murder charges," the Chief Minister said. He said Ghazipur MLA Krishnanad Rai's murder was a crime, but this murder had removed a criminal from the fac

Vijay Upadhyay Agra.               After two cable networks of Agra showed nude footage of former Miss Agra Kamna Chowdhary last Wednesday, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (NCSCST) took cognizance on Monday and sought a report from the Agra administration.                       The National Commission for Women (NCW), too, has set up an inquiry into the incident and a member of the commission would be arriving in Agra soon to investigate the case. The aggrieved parents, meanwhile, have planned to move the Supreme Court against the cable networks.                       Suraj Bhan, chairman, NCSCST, said though he had not received any formal complaint from Ms Chowdhary, he had taken cognizance of the report published by The Pioneer and sought a report on the action taken by the Agra administration.                       He said if a detailed response was not received from the Agra administration soon, those concerned would be served summons for persona

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA. The Indian Air Force lost two pilots and a trainer aircraft when a Canberra PR9 Tactical Reconnaissance-cum-trainer aircraft crashed outside a village in Agra during a routine sortie. Sources informed that the aircraft, which had taken off from the Agra Air Force base on a routine sortie at 1:50 this afternoon, was being flown by Sqn. Ldr. Berry with Flt. Lt. Sharma as his navigator when the aircraft developed a technical snag in its engine barely a few minutes into flight and burst into flames in mid-air while returning towards the Air Force base. Knowing the plane was going to crash in the village, Sqn. Ldr. Berry turned the aircraft into the fields of Jataura village near the Malpura dropping zone about 14 km. outside Agra, where the plane crashed, killing both pilots instantly, though earlier reports were that the pilots had been able to eject safely out of the aircraft. Badly charred and dismembered bodies of both pilots were recovered three hours later from

Vijay Upadhyay Agra.                 After the Tata group's ambitious proposal to take over the conservation of the Taj Mahal, oil companies have now come forward to help the Archaeological Survey of India in the conservation of the remaining monuments in Agra.       In a meeting of oil and natural gas companies of the country that was held in Agra this weekend, the oil companies proposed to take over the financial aspects of the conservation of major monuments of Agra, including emperor Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra and the Itmad-ud-daullah, also known as the "Baby Taj", both of which have been included in the Union Government's priority list for inclusion in the World-Heritage list of the UNESCO.      The Indian Oil Corporation has also proposed to take over the conservation of Akbar's lost city of Fatehpur Sikri while Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) is keen on restarting the light & sound show at the Agra Fort that has been completely shut down sin

Vishal Sharma Agra.            Besides being a tourist hot spot, the Taj Mahal has now also begun drawing artistes from around the globe.                  This time, it’s Louis Pearlman, the owner of Transcontinental Companies, US, and former manager of the famous boy-band “Backstreet Boys”, who has brought a block-busting mega concert “8th Wonder of the World” to Agra. It is scheduled to take place on February 25 in the sands behind the Taj Mahal and artistes of international fame whose names are yet to be disclosed.                    The show, organised by the “8th Wonder of the World”, founded specifically to increase global awareness for children affected by HIV/AIDS, raising funds for UNICEF and partners through arts and entertainment, is to be held in ten exotic locations of the world every six months till 2010.                    Besides the inaugural event at the Taj Mahal, other venues of the concert are the Forbidden City in Beijing; Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Br

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. All of us seek the help of our neighbourhood dentist at some point of life for our tooth ailments but when a 120 pound sloth bear got a toothache in its 6-inch canine, the wildlife authorities had to call a dentist from London. Paul Cassar, a root-canal treatment specialist from East Sussex, England performed dental surgeries on about 20 bears at the Agra Bear Rescue Centre last week on invitation from the International Animal Rescue and UP Wildlife authorities. According to Mr KK Singh, the Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife), Uttar Pradesh (Chambal range), the bear rescue centre established on the outskirts of Agra has been playing host to almost 100 sloth bears who had been rescued by the animal welfare organisations from being made to dance on the roads in various parts of the country. The latest batch of Eight bears arrived this week from Hyderabad. He said that it was customary for the bear-taming tribe or Kalandars to break off the pointed ends of the canin

VIJAY UPADHYAY Aligarh.          The open-mindedness of metropolitan cities simply does not exist here. For the college girls in Aligarh, being seen roaming with their boy-friends in college time could mean instant expulsion from college and humiliation, not by the police, but by the “cultural commandoes” of the college.      Tired of receiving continual complaints from the parents of the college girls about their daughter’s liaisons with young men during college time, Manju Saraswat, principal of the renowned T.R. Girls College has setup a squad of college teachers that conducts raids in the markets all over the town, catching such college girls who are found roaming around in the market during college time.      During one such raid that was conducted by the disciplinary squad at a cyber café of the town on Wednesday upon information from the locals, a B.A. final year student of the college was found in “objectionable conditions” with her boyfriend inside the locked cabin of a cyber-

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA.          The international trends in footwear are changing fast these days with demand rising for fashionable footwear. The drab shades of “Blacks” and “Browns” are being replaced by patterned shoes with multiple shades.      To discuss the new demands of the Shoe retail segment in the international footwear market this winter, the Agra Footwear Manufacturers Chamber held a seminar on Shoe Retail Trends in hotel Holiday Inn of Agra recently in cooperation with Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Council For Leather Export (CLE) and Indian Shoe Federation.      An exhibition of new varieties of leather and footwear accessories available in the international market was also held on this occasion. The launch of “pointed shoe soles” for the first time in the town remained the chief attraction of this exhibition.      Later, talking to the media persons on this occasion, Puran Dawar, Managing Director, Dawar Footwear Industries said that the “sporty” look was on a

Vijay Upadhyay / Hathras Here is another instance that would, if nothing, buttress arguments of those who support life after death. Mahipal was 21 years old and happily married before he was murdered by his own friend five years ago. Now, "re-born" as his own nephew, he wants to make sure his murderer is sentenced to death -- through his "eyewitness" testimony. In an intriguing incident that has become the talk of Hathras town, a five-year-old boy claimed before a local court that he would present evidence of his "murderer". Sahib Singh Chauhan, assistant district government counsel Hathras, Mahipal, a resident of village Chhonk, had been murdered in 2000. Based on the evidence recovered from the scene of crime, the police arrested his friend, Ved Prakash. Ved Prakash was released on bail, after which he shifted to Aligarh. Since then, the case has been gathering dust in the fast-track Hathras court. On Wednesday, Nathiya, the mother of Mahipal brought a

Vijay Upadhyay / Agra In a bizarre incident, six brothers invited a friend home, drugged and sodomised him and later blackmailed him for money for two years, showing him photographs of the act. Unable to cough up any more money and face further insinuations, the victim finally lodged an FIR with the Agra police on Wednesday, charging the brothers of sodomy and blackmail. Speaking to The Pioneer, Wasim, a resident of Shahganj, said he was invited by Shahnawaz to the Wazir Pura area of the town about two years ago. There he met Shahnawaz's brothers, Bilal, Babbu, Bunty, Quadeem and Raheeso. According to Wasim, they all watched a pornographic film for a while after which they served him a drink mixed with some drug. When he woke up after a few hours, he realised that he had been assaulted by the brothers. Wasim, however, kept quiet about it and returned home. A couple of days later, Shahnawaz visited him and gave him an envelope containing photographs of him being sodomised. Shah

Vijay Upadhyay Agra.          The joint Indo-Russian airborne exercises -- INDRA-2005 -- began at the Malpura dropping zone of Kheria Airforce base in Agra early morning on Friday.    India's 50th Independent Paratrooper brigade led Lt General S Pattabhiraman, the Deputy Chief of Indian Army and the 76th Russian Airborne division led by Col Gen Alexander Kalmakov, Chief, Russian Airborne Division began exercise began at 8.30 am on Friday. The two chiefs made the first jump along with a dozen other paratroopers of both sides.    Later, talking to media persons, Lt General Pattabhiraman informed that this exercise is a precursor to the intense land-based exercise that will start at the Mahajan field firing ranges at Suratgarh in Rajasthan two days later.    The aim of this exercise is to ensure that in case of a situation which demands mutual cooperation between the troops of the two countries against urban terrorism, both are familiar with each other's weapons, equipment, strate

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA.          These days, the Silver traders in Agra are in a fix over security in their trade. In the daytime, they are being waylaid by robbers and during nights, they fall prey to the police, in the name of checking.      In the past two months, about half dozen jewelers have been robbed of atleast 100 kg. silver jewelry in Agra and Firozabad, out of whom, two have fallen prey to greedy policemen who had snatched several kilograms of jewelry from the jewelers in the name of checking, after which, four policemen, including Devendra Bhushan, a deputy superintendent of police in Firozabad, have been charged of robbery. These incidents have created panic among the Agra jewelers who have now begun demanding for security in the silver markets, not only from the bandits, but the police as well      In the past two days alone, there have been three incidents of roadside robberies in Agra, with two involving the robbery of almost 50 kg. silver jewelry from jewelers, but the A

VIJAY UPADHYAY Agra.          In the last two years more than 700 unidentified bodies have been discovered in Agra. Worse, the Agra police has been disposing of these bodies in whatever manner possible, without getting them first identified. In the past one year, more than 300 bodies were cremated without ascertaining the identity.    Sources said wherever a body is found in the town there is a procedure to be followed. And, the first of these is its identification which is preceded by publication of photograph and description in local newspapers. These photographs are also to be matched with those of missing persons. However, this procedure is hardly followed and the bodies are cremated immediately after postmortem. Speaking to The Pioneer Ashok Goyal, secretary of Agra Kshetra Bajaja Committee, an NGO engaged in the cremation of Hindus in Agra since the last 125 years, said there have been several instances where bodies have been cremated by the police without following the stipulat

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA.          Despite being India’s prime tourism destination, Agra has always suffered the disadvantage of not being on the international air-trail, which has resulted in the downfall of the tourism business in the city of Taj.      But this year is bound to bring a windfall for the tourism trade in the town, with international charters beginning to land in Agra directly from the United Kingdom after a long period of six years. The first such charter landed on the Agra airport on Tuesday morning, carrying 189 tourists who shall be staying in Agra for one full week, making day excursions to various tourism destinations near Agra like Fatehpur Sikri, Jaipur, Bharatpur, Gwalior & Delhi, returning back to Agra for the night stay.      The tourists arriving in Agra were welcomed and garlanded at Hotel Taj Khema of UP Tourism Department this morning by folk artists at the beat of traditional drums and other musical instruments with the UP tourism hosting a breakfast in t

Vijay Upadhyay Etah.           The flurry of obscene multimedia messages that has hit the country's metros in the last one year is now showing up in small towns as well.    One such incident came to light in Etah on Friday, where a girl committed suicide after being raped along with her school friend, by three acquaintances. The three also made video clippings of both the girls while they were being gang-raped, after inviting them to a "birthday party". The Etah Police has registered a case against the three youngsters almost a week after the incident and is now searching for the video clip that was reportedly prepared by the rapists during the act, to use it as evidence against the youth. Speaking to The Pioneer , Inspector Ashok Kumar Shukla, police station in-charge, Kasganj Kotwali, said that Upasna, the daughter of a local trader Pradeep Kumar Maheshwari, had been invited by her family acquaintance Shashikant to join a birthday party of his friend Neeraj on Septemb

Vijay Upadhyay Agra.          Several crores worth woolen garments were destroyed in Agra when a transport company godown caught fire on Thursday. According to the Chief Fire Officer of Agra, the fire began at 2:30 pm, when some garments which were being unloaded from a truck, caught fire from the power lines near the godown. The crew in order to curb the damage, tried to separate the burning garments from the rest of the stuff, but the fire managed to spread and soon engulfed the ground floor of the three-storey godown. The basement and the first floor were saved by fire tenders who were called from the Air Force, Central Ordinance Depot and Mathura refinery, and from the nearby towns of Firozabad, Tundla besides Agra. The fire continued at full intensity until early evening and according to the fire department; it could be the entire night before the fire is brought under control. They added that the fire had spread to almost 1,000 square yards of the godown's ground floor. A

Vijay Upadhyay AGRA. Last thursday, Lord Ram came close to returning to Ayodhya without marrying Sita. The reason? Well, Sita maiyya's father Janak resigned and threatened to pack off Ram as single as he had come to his court, if traffic arrangements outside his "palace" were not managed properly by the district administration! And this was not all. 'King Janak' even called a Press conference to declare that he would not be receiving the baraat with such poor traffic arrangements and encroachments outside his "palace". It was only after the Agra DM promised to get the baraat route cleared of encroachments within an hour, that 'Janak' agreed to allow his 'daughter Sita' to wed Ram. The historical Ram baraat, which began almost 100 years back, is celebrated with great festivity in Agra every year, assuming dimensions of the largest religious procession in north India. A separate area of the town is selected to become Janakpuri, the mytho

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. No sooner had the 350th anniversary celebrations of the Taj Mahal ended, the tourism industry of Agra has begun to demand the celebration of the 400th death anniversary of Emperor Akbar, that falls in October. Representatives of the tourism organisations of Agra met the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister during his recent Agra visit and discussed the possibilities of holding the 400th death anniversary celebrations of Emperor Akbar in Agra, linking it with the construction of Sikandra, Akbar's mausoleum located on the Agra-Delhi highway. According to the tourism industry sources, Emperor Akbar was the first Mughal ruler to have conceived the idea of amalgamating all that was best in Hinduism, Islam and other religions, to form a completely new religious philosophy called "Din-e-Ilahi". He was also the first Mughal ruler to have shifted the capital from Delhi to Agra, building the first Mughal monuments - the forts of Agra and Fatehpur Sikr

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The Agra district jail hospital and a number of barracks were set ablaze by agitated jail inmates after the death of two prisoners in a day inside the jail. However, the authorities forced rioting inmates to retreat into their barracks. Seven prisoners were injured in the violence, which has resulted in the suspension of three jail officials. According to Deputy Inspector General (Jail), Agra, ML Prakash, a prisoner Kuldeep Singh (23) in the barrack no 3 (a) of the Agra district jail committed suicide early Sunday morning along with another prisoner Vinod Kumar by hanging. A suicide note was left , alleging severe torture and exploitation by the Jail officials. The names of the officials were also mentioned. Mr Prakash said Kuldeep's death was reported immediately to the jail authorities by the prisoners, who demanded action against Jailor Sukhvir Singh Chauhan, who, they claimed had tortured Kuldeep on Saturday night under th

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. According to one of the various stories spun around the making of the Taj, it took 22 years to complete the monument of love. However, for this contemporary Taj, the time span has shrunk to only 72 hours. This is precisely the time world renowned sand sculptor Sudershan Patnaik will take to erect a 12 feet high black sand Taj Mahal on the hillock of Hotel Taj Khema to commemorate Emperor Shahjahan's dream of a black marble mausoleum for himself. Hailed as the largest scale model of the Taj to be ever erected, this sand Taj will be unveiled on September 25 to mark the inaugural of the three-day closing ceremony of the 350th anniversary celebrations of the Taj. Patnaik, who built a white sand Taj in Houston, Texas, earlier this year was tasked by the UP Tourism department to build a replica of the Taj in black Yamuna sand "as a birthday gift to the Taj" and as a tribute to the unfulfilled dream of Emperor Shahjahan to construct an identical black marble

VIJAY UPADHYAY Agra. An Agra doctor listed in the Limca book of records for holding a master's degree in surgery and a doctorate in law, is once again in focus, but this time for an altogether different reason. Alleging corruption in the Medical Council of India, Dr Devendra Gupta has used his legal expertise to pull up this supreme medical body in the Delhi High Court, seeking reconstitution of the MCI and removal of its secretary, Lt Col (Retd) Dr ARN Seetalwad on charges of fraud. Talking to The Pioneer on Wednesday, Dr Gupta said he has been monitoring the MCI for some time now and come to the conclusion that this prestigious medical institution was being treated by its impeached president Dr Ketan Desai and his former associate and present secretary Dr Seetalwad as their personal domain. He said the duo were involved in several cases of fraud and embezzlement related to inspection and subsequent registrations of new medical colleges in the country. Dr Gupta moved the Delhi

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. Following the instructions of the Supreme Court to reduce acoustic and air pollution in Agra, the UP Pollution Control Board has banned the production & sales of diesel generators in Agra, raising alarm in the ailing foundry industry of Agra, which is chiefly dependent on the production of diesel generators and accessories. The UP Pollution Control Board recently issued notices to the generator manufacturing units of Agra to immediately stop production of diesel generators, threatening to initiate prosecution proceedings under Pollution Control Act, which has infuriated the diesel engine manufacturers of Agra, who claim that they have stopped the production of diesel generators long back and were now only producing diesel engines for agricultural use. The Board has even served notices to some Agra industrial units for purchasing diesel generators without implementing the mandatory pollution control measures like Multi-point fuel injecti

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. India may have emerged to walk shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world in many areas, but in the hinterland many of our countrymen still appear to be living in the middle ages. An interesting case, brought before the marriage officer in Agra on Wednesday, again brought to the fore the sway tantriks hold over ignorant masses. Commotion was created at the Agra district magistrate's court when a girl ran out of the marriage officer's court, claiming that she was being forced into marriage by a tantrik. Following her complaint, the said tantrik was caught by some lawyers, who shockingly discovered that he was also pretending to be blind. When caught, Altaf Qureshi, the tantrik, threatened to summon his jinns to teach the lawyers a lesson for meddling in his affairs. This enraged the lawyers who promptly bashed him up. The exposed tantrik made good his escape taking a lift from a passing scooter. Later, Nazma, a resident of Bundukatra area in Agra, said

Vijay Upadhyay Agra Reacting strongly to the frequent concerns raised by environmentalists over the requirement of a healthy water level in Yamuna to preserve the Taj Mahal's foundation, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has termed these concerns "unnecessary". Attributing the spread of such "hoaxes" to an overzealous section of the media, Mr D Dayalan, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, said there was no need for concern over the structural integrity of the Taj as the monument was perfectly safe from all natural calamities. He said such hoaxes were "a result of some overzealous journalists and so-called experts who bring out baseless scoops on the Taj time and again". He said rumours that the Taj's minarets were tilting had been the result of a measurement error, on which the ASI could have easily provided information, being the sole authority on this subject. However, instead of contacting the ASI, he said, a particular news agency sourc

Vijay Upadhyay Etah. The Etah police passed a 14-year-old minor's dead body as that of a 30-year-old man to save the station officer of Jethra. After torturing a detainee to death he escaped with the dead body. Moharpal Singh alias Pappu, 30, died on early Sunday morning after being tortured in the Jethra police station. This incident had resulted in the outbreak of gruesome violence in the town and the Jethra police station had been gutted by the mob. The Station Officer has now been suspended to prevent further unrest. But he is still at large. But under the pressure to recover the body of the deceased Moharpal, the Etah police fished out a badly decomposed body of a 14-year-old minor from a nearby river-stream. They secretly got the postmortem done on Wednesday morning to prove it the body of Moharpal Singh. The doctor who conducted the postmortem refused to confirm the age of the body in the postmortem report terming it as "unconfirmed". Later, talking