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Showing posts from 2006

Agra bests Goa in tourism

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                       At a time when tourist destinations like Goa are facing a setback in tourism, the tourist traffic in Agra is creating records with the number of tourists visiting the Taj Mahal shooting up from an average 5,000-6,000 to almost 16,000 a day. According to Archaeological Survey of India sources in Agra, on Saturday, the number of tourists arriving at the Taj reached nearly 13,000, most of them Indian, while the number of foreign tourists also crossed 2,000. The rise in the number of tourists reached a record high on Sunday, when more than 16,000 tourists entered the monument while about 3,000 had to be turned away due to the monument being filled to its capacity.  

Agra`s Maruti dealers get up protest fair

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra.                       Taken aback by the sudden revocation of the proposed trade tax rebate at the Sefai trade fair, Maruti dealers in Agra adopted a novel way to recover losses by organising a car fair in the town, offering huge discounts on the delivery of cars that had been booked in advance by the customers in anticipation of the tax rebate in Sefai. On Sunday, all three Maruti dealers of Agra--Madhusudan, Kavisha, and Triveni Motors--joined hands to tide over the impending losses in business after the UP government first assured a trade tax rebate at the Sefai trade fair and then backed out, inconveniencing Agra car dealers, who had more than 1,000 cars of different models they had bought for the Sefai fair. According to Ramashanker Agarwal, director, Madhusudan Motors, at least 1,500 cars had been booked by all the three Maruti dealers in the town for delivery at the Sefai trade fair, while the dealers had ordered 1,900 cars from the company. To han

Usha Int`l unveils diesel pump sets in Agra

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                     Usha International Ltd, a leading engineering equipment manufacturing company, launched portable diesel pump sets for agricultural and domestic purposes last week in Agra. Following the launch, company officials held a two-day technical session at Hotel Grand in Agra. Here, company dealers and mechanics from Western UP, Uttaranchal and Rajasthan were informed about the technical aspects of diesel engines running in these pumpsets, which had been specially imported by the company and optimised for operating in Indian conditions.

Four-wheeler dealers upset at being denied tax rebate

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. While the UP government’s sudden backtracking on the trade tax rebate offered by it earlier on automobile sales in the Sefai trade fair has left the local four-wheeler dealers gasping for air, two-wheeler and tractor dealers are on cloud nine at the hopes of a sudden boost in the number of customers following the conditional tax rebate offered by the state government on two- and three-wheelers and tractors during the fair. Talking to Business Standard, Rajiv Gupta, former Chairman, National Chamber of Industries & Commerce, UP, said according to a conservative estimate, vehicles worth over Rs 250 crore were expected to be sold at the Sefai trade fair before the state government decided to make a compromise on the tax rebate issue by restricting the rebate from being extended to four-wheelers. This seriously undermined the concept of the trade fair, where most people had been making advance bookings for purchasing cars, not two-wheelers.

ASI bans 'illegal' guides in Agra

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.                Following the cancellation of stay-orders granted to the unapproved guides working at the Agra monuments, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has placed a comprehensive ban on all such guides as well as State-guides from entering the Taj Mahal and other monuments of the town. According to ASI sources, there were atleast 650 unapproved guides working at the various Agra monuments for the past three years, after having obtained stay orders against their eviction. Another 200-250 guides were working under authorisation from the State Government's tourism department, which had no jurisdiction over the monuments maintained by the ASI. Following the cancellation of the stay orders granted to the unapproved guides by the Court, it was decided that such guides shall no longer be allowed to function inside the monument as these guides would provide incorrect and many a times, entirely fictitious information regarding the history of such monuments.

Agra post offices to double up as handicraft emporiums

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                 Concerned at the operational losses accumulating each year in running its services in Agra, the Indian Postal Department has now come up with a concept to cover at least some of those. According to postal department sources, the department’s post offices located in the tourist-frequented areas of Agra would soon take up the appearance of small handicraft emporiums. Here the department will begin retailing miniature marble Taj Mahal replicas and other souvenirs to the tourists. The proposal for the project has already been sent to the Centre for approval and hopefully, the India Post Handicraft Emporiums will open their doors for the tourists in Agra within a couple of months. Talking to the mediapersons today, RB Mishra, senior superintendent of Post, Agra, said besides the marble replicas of the Taj Mahal, there were a number of marble & leather handicrafts that found buyers. So far, the postal department had only acted as a s

Sealing starts in Agra

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.           Barely a couple of months after the much-debated success of the MCD sealing drive in Delhi, the Agra Development Authority (ADA) embarked on its own sealing drive in Agra on Monday, beginning with the sealing of a commercial market complex at the Church Road in a residential area. According to ADA sources, the drive was to begin from December 4 but was delayed because there was no adequate police support. After the ADA was ensured about the deployment of police personnel at the sealing sites as well as with the sealing squads, the sealing drive was launched from Monday. Later, talking to the mediapersons, Rajendra Singh, vice-chairman, ADA, said the sealing drive was in pursuance to the government directions issued earlier. So far, about 1,900 commercial buildings had been sent sealing notices, asking them to ensure compliance of the city development plan in the construction of the building, he added. He said about 2,000 commercial bui

MNCs` entry threatens local pharma retailers in Uttar Pradesh

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.             Multinationals entering the pharmaceutical retail segment are posing a threat to “friendly neighbourhood chemists”. Companies like Apollo and Subhiksha have entered the pharma retail market in the metros by introducing the concept of designer stores, malls, in-house medical consultation, etc. Worried by the growing clout of multinationals in this market segment, the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) held a meeting at the Hotel Jaypee Palace in Agra on Sunday, where pharmaceutical dealers and retailers from all over the country agreed on a strategy to counter this threat. Talking to mediapersons on this occasion, AN Mohan, president, AIOCD, said multinational companies were making live-saving drugs prohibitively expensive by patenting the molecules of these drugs. Moreover, the central government’s pharmaceutical policy too, was placating such companies, he added. He said one of the major achievements of the AI

Restaurants near Taj asked to down shutters for security reasons

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                             Foreign tourists visiting Agra have often written in tourist guidebooks and blogs about viewing the Taj Mahal in the morning, sipping tea at the numerous rooftop restaurants located in the densely-packed Tajganj area of Agra, a few hundred metres away from the monument. But these famous rooftop restaurants of Tajganj are now facing the danger of being wiped out completely by the year-end. At least six such restaurants, which form the staple business of the residents of this Mughal era settlement, were forcibly shut down on Wednesday and Thursday by the Agra Development Authority while at least half dozen more have been issued a warning to down their shutters before the end of this year. This is because these restaurants, most of them situated on 40-50 feet high buildings, provide a “too clear” view of the Taj Mahal. This was marked as a grave danger for the monument by Amicus Curie, appointed by the Supreme Court, dur

1,000 small glass units face closure in Firozabad

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                  Inadequate CNG connections from Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) have dealt a body blow to the glass industry of Firozabad, near Agra. The industry is often compared to Belgium’s for the quality of glassware it produces and exports worldwide. It is well-known for glass bangles and souvenirs produced in its small-scale glass-manufacturing units. But, following the Supreme Court’s sanctions countermanding the operation of coal-fired furnaces in the Taj Trepezium Zone, more than 1,000 furnaces here are on the verge of being shut down in these glass factories. So, the Firozabad glassware industry is now asking for the development of a new industrial cluster outside the Taj Trepezium Zone, which is free from pollution-related restrictions. A number of polluting industries in Firozabad, like leather tanneries and iron foundries, have been forced to either shut down or relocate after the Supreme Court directives against such industries.

Parshvanath launches project in Agra

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.               After a long list of economical housing projects launched by virtually all noted real estate developers of the country over the past couple of years in Agra, Parshvanath Developers Ltd has launched the town’s first luxury apartments project named “Prerna”. Talking to mediapersons on the occasion of the project launch yesterday, Sanjeev Jain, managing director, Parshavnath Developers Ltd, said the project had been designed specifically for the high end of the market. Being developed in a medium-sized area of 6 acres, he said the project would have 249 luxury housing units developed on an international housing pattern, which the company had visualised for the first time for the town. He said the most unique factor of this housing project shall be that this would be the first housing project that shall have piped cooking gas supply in all housing units, obliterating the need for domestic gas cylinders. Besides, he said, all housing un

3 airlines to connect Agra with other tourist centres

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                 The tourism industry in Agra could get a major boost in the coming year as three private airlines are planning to begin regular air services, linking Agra to major tourist destinations, almost two years after the last scheduled flight touched down at the Agra airport. With the state-run Alliance Air skipping Agra on the route from Delhi to Varanasi of the erstwhile popular air-sector spanning Delhi-Agra-Khajuraho-Varanasi and back, the local airport, equipped with all facilities befitting an international airport, has been lying deserted for some years, save for a few domestic and international charters that arrive here time to time. The three airlines--Air Deccan, Kingfisher and a new entrant MDLR Airways--are planning flights connecting Agra to major tourist destinations like Delhi, Jaipur and Goa within the coming year. Sources at the Agra Airport said the recent few weeks had seen hectic activity as airline operators were busy as

Dummy run foils daylight bid to rob petrol pump collections

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.    The crime graph is soaring in Agra with daylight robberies rocking the city on a regular basis. To buck this trend, local traders have chosen an ingenious way to foil the robbers by using dummy cars and dummy cash-bags to ferry large sums of cash, a practice that saved a local petrol pump owner from being robbed on Monday morning. According to police sources, in a daring daylight robbery attempt, three robbers on a bike stopped a local petrol pump dealer's car barely hundred meters away from the police post. They banged the car's side with a baseball bat forcing the driver out of the car. One of the goons trained a gun on the driver and sped away, grabbing the bag lying on the front seat. A shocked local police begun a search for the robbers, who they believed had taken away about Rs 5 lakh which was being taken to the nearby bank. But to their relief, the pump owner informed soon afterwards that the bag was in fact a dummy that had been specially pre

Taj Mahal still original: ASI

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.            Despite the fact that a large number of the "recently" constructed monuments across the world are gathering more votes than the historic Taj Mahal, in a private world-census being held to select the seven wonders of the world, the archaeological experts who have studied the Taj Mahal in detail are not much perturbed. According to the archaeologists working on the monument's conservation, under the aegis of the Archaeological Survey of India, the Taj Mahal has not yet lost its originality as the entire monument is still being maintained by the ASI in the State in which it was built more than 350 years ago by the Mughals. They claimed that compared to other sites across the world that went through major structural changes and reconstructions of the destroyed sections, the Taj Mahal as well as most of the other monuments in India, were inherently maintained in the original state by the ASI. ASI Agra superintending archeologist, Dr D Dayalan

Aparna Infra starts 5th mall construction project in Agra

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                        Aparna Infra Builders Pvt Ltd, a leading real estate company of Agra, began its fifth construction project here yesterday with the launch of Aparna Mall in the densely populated Sindhi market of Agra. Talking to mediapersons, Director Upendra Chhabra said the project was being done in 2,000 square yards with 120 shops. He said the project was the fifth in line launched by the company in Agra containing facilities like counter shopping, high-speed lifts, open-to-sky atrium, food court, kids zone, etc, all placed in an earth-quake-resistant structure and a large underground parking area. According to Chhabra, the company had offered an inaugural scheme of giving a Honda Activa scooter on each shop booking at the mall.

Firm to spread bovine care products network in UP

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                      After establishing a foothold in the cattle medicine market in the Agra region, Etah-based Cattle Care Pvt Ltd, a pharmaceuticals marketing company, is now preparing to make a big splash by launching a host of bovine care products in other parts of Uttar Pradesh. Talking to Business Standard last week, Vipin Kumar Singh, chief executive of Cattle Care Pvt Ltd, said currently the company was present just in the Agra region, selling pharmaceutical products for dairy cattle worth Rs 35 lakh per year. Now, he said, the company had drawn up a marketing plan to appoint distributors in the entire state to sell a range of 15 bovine medicines, a list that would be augmented soon with another 15 products as the company would spread its network in Uttar Pradesh. Singh said the company had targeted achieving at least a 150 per cent increase in turnover this year after it made its impact in UP, where there was a strong demand for cattle me

Rly engineers depend on jugad to 'run' trains

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.                     At a time when the Indian Railways is boasting to have gone from a dead-loss organisation to a profitable venture by following Lalunomics, this so-called profitable venture is busy following the 'desi' funda of Jugaad in running its trains. Facing a serious shortage of spare parts and other accessories in the repair of faulty diesel engines, the engineers in the Agra division of the North Central Railway have developed an innovative concept for keeping their trains running, by stripping dead diesel engines of their parts and installing them into the faulty engines, though it is a fact that any engine that has gone through this part-swapping does not last long. According to railway sources, the problem of jamming of brake pads in the old diesel engines is quite common. Since there are rarely any new spare parts available to replace the jammed pads, the engineers use the parts of old engines that are lying dead in the yards and hand over

Agra faces acute water shortage

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.              The water crisis in Agra that had begun in the late summer months aggravated last week. Water supply to most of the city was shut down by the water works following discovery of huge volumes of pollutants in water storage tanks of the city. Though the supply of water was partially resumed on Saturday, most of the city still remained affected with lack of drinking water. Meanwhile the water works officials are in no mood to declare water as 'safe'. They advised the consumers to treat the water before it was used for drinking. According to the latest test reports conducted on the Yamuna water, it contained less than 4 part per million (ppm) of dissolved oxygen, which incidentally had caused the death of thousands of fish in the river on Friday. Talking to The Pioneer, Jawahar Ram, General Manager, Agra Water Works said that the problems faced by Agra in terms of water supply were quite severe compared to other cities located in the upstream as t

Dismiss Mulayam, says Kalyan

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. It is now high time for the dissolution of the state legislature and the imposition of President's rule, as the misrule of the UP government had now gone beyond control. That's the advice that's coming from former UP Chief Minister and BJP leader Kalyan Singh who believes that the state is gradually progressing towards degeneration. Singh said that the violence that erupted during the civic elections in the state was indicative of the level of degeneration that could be expected from the Samajwadi Party during the forthcoming assembly elections. He adds that keeping this in mind, it was prudent to dissolve this government immediately to prevent further destruction of democracy in Uttar Pradesh. Adhering to the Hindu agenda of the BJP, he said that the Ram temple issue was a part of the Hindu agenda and it shall be a primary issue in the forthcoming elections. Kalyan was confident that the party shall win the elections with a clear majority,

Violence mars Agra civic polls

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The municipal polls in Agra came close to taking a violent turn on Tuesday when two groups of SP and BSP supporters clashed in the Sevla area of the city on the issue of fake voting. Following a clash that lasted almost an hour with both parties engaged in stone pelting and burning vehicles, the elections in Ward Number 4 of the city were recommended to be cancelled by the local administration. Minor incidents of poll-violence had been reported from other parts of the city. The entire city's police force was rushed to Sevla, led by the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police, who, for once, were forced to turn to their heels in face of the heavy stone pelting by the mob. The situation could only be brought under control after more police force and PAC was called in. A police vehicle was badly damaged by the violent mob after which the police resorted to lathi charge and arrested one candidate while another was admitted into a

Woman delivers in flaming car, mother, and newborn perish

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. In a macabre accident in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, a woman gave birth while trapped in a burning car. The woman and the newborn perished in the mishap. The incident occurred on Kasganj-Sikandrarau Road near Etah, when the car in which Manoj Sharma and his pregnant wife Neelam were travelling, slipped off the road into a ditch and caught fire. The woman was trapped inside and the heat in the car was so intense that while she burnt to death, she delivered a child. Manoj reportedly managed to extract himself from the burning car and, surprisingly, escaped unhurt. Manoj was found by the police in an unconscious state beside the charred car. According to the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Sikandrarau Charan Pal Singh, Manoj Sharma, a resident of State Bank Colony in Kasganj in Etah had gone to Delhi with Neelam a few days ago and was returning home on Monday when his car slipped off the road into a ditch and caught fire. Manoj managed to extract hi

Agra`s SEZ for leather cleared

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra October 25, 2006 After almost a year of deliberations, the Union ministry for commerce has given its approval for the setting up of a special economic zone for leather and leather products in Agra. To be established on the Agra-Delhi national highway on at least 100 hectares, the project will be designed and developed by Parshavnath Developers Ltd, for which the company has been given a year to submit its detailed project report (DPR). This had started as a project for establishing a multi-product special economic zone in Agra. However, the industrial development project, visualised by the National Chamber of Commerce, UP, faced a setback with the notification issued recently by the central government, which has ruled out the possibility of setting up a multi-product SEZ in Agra due to the unavailability of at least 1,000 hectares of vacant non-agricultural, industrial land near the town. Talking to Business Standard, Anil Verma, president, NCIC, UP, sai

Global Infocomm to open 600 real estate showrooms

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra October 24, 2006 New Delhi-based Global Infocomm is planning to open 600 real estate showrooms at a cost of Rs 120 crore. Of the 600 real estate showrooms, 70 will be set up in Uttar Pradesh with an investment of Rs 15 crore. SK Jain, managing director, Global Infocomm Ltd, said the property shops were places where people could buy, sell or rent properties instantly. Jain said the company planned to open a countrywide chain of property shops, starting with 16 in Delhi and the NCR, Lucknow and Kanpur by December. Agra and remaining districts of UP would follow by the end of next year The 1,000-sq ft showrooms would have a five-star ambience and a centralised presentation system. Jain said the property shops would be interlinked through a VPN network to the company portal “Jaaydaad.com”, which would serve as a centralised database of all the hot properties listed at the 600 property shops for sale or rent. Through these property showrooms, he said the compan

Guru Shoes to set up Rs 2 cr unit in Sikandra

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra October 24, 2006. Over a decade after establishing itself as one of the town’s few branded men’s footwear manufacturers, Agra-based Guru Shoes Tech Pvt Ltd has decided to diversify into all-leather ladies’ and kids’ footwear by setting up a manufacturing unit with an investment Rs 2 crore. Chander Daulatani, managing director of the firm, said the company was at present manufacturing only men’s footwear under the brandname “Valentino” at its manufacturing unit near the Taj Mahal. The firm manufactures over 70 types of shoes and produces close of 400 pairs of leather shoes and boots every day. Daulatani said it was decided that production of ladies’ and kids’ line would be started at a new unit, being built in the city’s industrial area at Sikandra, at a cost of Rs 2 crore. Production is expected to start by the end of November after the machinery is brought in place. He said the firm was one of the first footwear companies in Agra to have

Dispute over gambling leads to communal clash

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.                 A minor dispute over gambling in a shoe factory at Mantola area of Agra turned into a violent communal clash on Tuesday night, bringing the entire city into the grip of terror in the dead of night. Two police personnel and a dozen local residents were injured in police firing to control the mob. According to Dr. Siraj Qureshi, a resident of the Mantola area, the dispute began when some people belonging to one community raised objection to a make-shift gambling house being run by the other community at a shoe factory located on the Madina crossing. Reacting to the objection, the gamblers attacked them. Though the local police station was barely two hundred metres away from the site, they took two hours in reaching there, by which time, the situation had aggravated considerably. The situation was brought under control at about 1 am on Wednesday. 

Sharpshooter coach aims at rivals

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.        The Indian shooting team may not have been able to aim for gold in the Olympics but the team's sharpshooter coach has definitely scored a gold medal in shooting down his opponents in the UP Government.   To celebrate this success, this Olympian has thrown a grand feast at the Agra Municipal Corporation on Sunday, inviting the entire municipal staff and local dignitaries. Transferred and suspended repeatedly by the Government from the post of Municipal Commissioner of Agra, Shyam Singh Yadav, has always succeeded in getting the orders against him reverted through the court by claiming that he was being subjected to political vendetta. Better known for developing a world-class shooting range in Agra, Yadav has always remained the centre of controversy, first when he targeted a high-profile hotel of Agra by enormously increasing its property tax, after which, he alleges, he was transferred from Agra by the Government under pressure from UP Development Cou

Indian skips Agra en route Varanasi

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi / Agra.              At a time when foreign airlines are eyeing Agra as a possible destination for international charter trips, Indian Airlines has taken the unprecedented step of shortening the Delhi-Agra-Khajuraho-Varanasi air sector by skipping Agra altogether. According to sources at the local Indian Airlines office, the Delhi-Agra-Khajuraho-Varanasi flight had been revived as a trial for this tourist season, when the flow of foreign tourists to Khajuraho and Varanasi was at its peak but they could not give specific reasons for skipping Agra other than citing low traffic volumes. However, local tourism industry sources said about two years ago due to the shortage of aircraft and a supposedly low volume of traffic, it had been the only regular aircraft service to Agra, ferrying as many as 200 tourists to and from the town to the destinations like Khajuraho, Varanasi and Delhi, generating a profitable business for the company. UP Handicrafts Development Cent

BSP to abstain from UP local body polls

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.                        Taking an unprecedented stand on the local body elections being held in Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has decided to abstain from contesting these elections warning the aspiring candidates that they will neither get the party flag nor the "elephant" as a symbol of party support. The elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in three phases on October 28, October 31 and November 3. Elections to 193 municipalities would be held in the first phase while the 12 municipal corporations would go to polls on October 31. Elections to 420 town areas would be held in the third phase on November 3. Talking to The Pioneer, Kaptaan Singh Kushwah, Coordinator, Agra parliamentary seat of the BSP said that this decision had been taken in party interest after the experience of the previous Zila Panchayat elections held in the state when the BSP had lost a great deal of elected members to defections into the Samajwadi Party. 

UP cuts home loan rates to 11 per cent

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                    In view of the tough competition being faced by the Uttar Pradesh development authorities from private financing institutions on housing loans, the UP government has decided to reduce the interest rates on housing loan from almost 23 per cent to 11 per cent. This rate would be 1.5 times higher for commercial properties. After a meeting of the finance controllers of the housing boards and development authorities of the state held recently, it was decided that since the high interest rates were not in the best interest of the development authorities, who were not getting enough buyers for their properties, the rates should be reduced to at least half of the present interest rates. According to the sources at the Agra Development Authority, development authorities all over the state were charging an interest of up to 23 per cent from the people who had leased their properties but private financing institutions and banks were shelli

Greens up in arms as trees face axe on Mall Road in Agra

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.              Following a massive campaign launched by environmentalists of the town against the 'ecological blunder' orchestrated by the UP Government in the name of building a six-lane highway from the airport to the Taj Mahal, the UP Forest Department has finally agreed to defer the chopping down of trees that line the historic Mall road of Agra. But local ecologists are not ready to end the campaign yet. They are trying to muster support from noted environmentalists like Sundar Lal Bahuguna, by writing letters, asking them to interfere in the issue. Environmentalists are concerned because the move to cut the trees has only been deferred and not called off entirely by the Forest Department. The Agra district administration has termed the cutting down of trees as an 'unfortunate but inevitable' move because the roads needed to be widened. The Mall Road is also known as the thandi sadak, with thousand of trees dotting the sidewalk right from the r

Mystery fever stalks city of Taj

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.                     It's the city of one of the beautiful architectures in the world but the ancient city of the Taj Mahal is perhaps one of the dirtiest cities of the country, with sanitation virtually non-existent here. It is this lack of sanitary discipline that has resulted in one of the largest outbreaks of virulent diseases in the town this month, disabling at least 15-20 per cent of the city's total population with a mystery viral fever. This has made the local health officials warn tourists arriving in the city to 'arm' themselves against the diseases plaguing the city of the love mausoleum. Doctors in urban areas are trying to cope with fever that is making people in thousands bedridden very week, but all they have are increased dosages of antibiotics to help the body's own immune system tide over the sickness. Yet the viruses have begun taking their toll in the rural areas where entire villages have come down with virus-related feve

Court extends Bihari Ji temple priests suspension

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.             Taking heed of the strong public sentiment prevailing against the priests of the ancient 'Bihari Ji' temple of Vrindavan after they dressed up the idol of Lord Krishna in denims last week, the Mathura district court extended the suspension of the guilty priests on Thursday, handing over the charge of temple service to two new priests till further orders. According to temple management sources, the order passed by the court of Civil Judge (JD) Rashmi Nanda, who is also the administrator of the Bankey Bihari temple, has extended the suspension of the guilty priests Anand Kishore Goswami and Jugal Kishore Goswami from temple service "till further orders", keeping the fact in mind that reinstating the priests so soon after the despicable incident could result in causing further hurt to public sentiments. Also, as public sentiment was against the temple-deputed priest Kamal Kishore Goswami, to continue the service at the temple in place

Syndicate Bank tapping pvt educational institutions

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                     With a large number of private educational institutions opening up in Agra, the Syndicate Bank has begun targeting them by offering to open ATMs on the institution premises. This indication was given by Executive Director George Joseph on Monday, while inaugurating the bank’s ATM at Anand Engineering College, located on the Agra-Mathura highway. Later, talking to Business Standard, K P Singh, senior manager, Syndicate Bank, Agra main branch, said Anand Engineering College was part of the Sharda Group of Institutions, which was a major client of the Syndicate Bank.

Court order delays rituals at Lord Krishna temple

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.       The dispute over dressing up Lord Krishna in contemporary attire at the Bihariji temple in Vrindavan is showing no signs of settling down. For the first time in recent history, Lord Krishna had to wait for two hours before he received his ritual bath, delayed due to an 'unclear' court order. In a disturbing development on Tuesday, the devotees arriving at the temple to witness the early morning 'shringar' of Bihari Ji were shocked to see that the temple doors had not been opened till almost 10 a m, when the usual time for the Lord's shringar was 8 a m. As it turned out later when the temple did open, the temple management was unclear over the court order suspending the temple priest Anand Kishore Goswami from the service as while Anand Kishore had been suspended during the pendency of a large part of his 42-day temple service, the court had not nominated any other priest from the temple roster to take over Anand Kishore's duties duri

Priests involved in Lord Krishna dress controversy suspended

VIJAY UPADHYAY  Agra.            Following a public outrage in the entire country over the dressing up of the idol of Lord Krishna in blue Jeans and T-shirt at the Bihariji temple in Vrindavan near Mathura, the priests guilty of dressing-up the deity were suspended from temple service for three days by the Mathura court after they offered a public apology on Sunday, claiming that the 'mistake' was not deliberate but part of the Lord's 'Lila'. Earlier, a clash between the temple priests and devotees sparked fresh tension in Mathura on Monday, when the priests and Krishna devotees clashed at the Bihariji temple following a demonstration inside the temple by some devotees who even burned effigies of the priests. While the situation could only be controlled after the police entered the temple premises and separated the clashing parties, there were a number of demonstrations elsewhere in Mathura, with the devotees demanding the arrest of both the priests for their crime

Ray of hope for physically challenged

Vijay Upadhyay   Agra.                Blindness poses scores of restrictions on a person, some of which include the inability to gain education through the books available only for 'normal' people. Blind since birth, Shravan Kumar Savita had never thought his blindness could become an unsurpassable hurdle in his quest for gaining higher education. As there was a shortage of sufficient literature in Braille till two years back he had to discontinue his quest for obtaining a PhD in history. But with Agra University now going ahead with its plan to set up a research institute for blind scholars by the end of this month his long wait is now about to end. Talking to The Pioneer, Shravan Kumar said that he had to go through a tough time dividing his time between Agra, Gwalior, Haridwar, Gorakhpur and back to Agra to fulfil his dream. What helped him in his pursuit was that he was one of the brightest students of the Raja Balwant Singh College of Agra and this helped him, attain the

Nagin's revenge chase

Nagin's revenge chase Vijay Upadyay Agra. In what is being termed as the height of superstition prevalent in rural India, a 12 years old Agra kid spent an entire week on a six foot high charpoy, guarded by a horde of baton-wielding villagers, afraid of a snake that was a mere chemical locha of his mind. This drama that had gripped the Taharpur village of Agra for a full week came to an end on Saturday evening. It was only when a snake-charmer brought a snake to the village claiming that this was the same snake that had been stalking Monu. Following a ritual that involved allowing the charmed snake to harmlessly bite Monu three times, he was declared free from the "snake's curse". According to the residents of the Taharpur village, Monu, the twelve years old son of Chandrakant was going to school on Monday when he accidentally killed a cobra under his bicycle and when he returned home, he found another cobra stalking him wherever he went. Though when he told t

Dead snakes, turtles worth Rs 5 lakh seized from courier office in Agra

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The usual boring routine of sorting parcels at a courier office in Agra broke into commotion on Wednesday evening when a large bag that had just arrived from Chennai broke open and spilled hundreds of dried carcasses of snakes and turtles on the floor. Alarmed by the recovery of such a huge consignment of rare animals at the courier company, the Agra wildlife authorities immediately raided the courier office and arrested five employees including Ajat Oliver, the manager of the courier company's Agra branch. Raids are underway at locations in Chennai from where this consignment had been booked by 28-year-old Brajesh. Investigating into the recipient of this 'deadly' consignment, the wildlife authorities also came across with Braj Scientific Laboratories, an Agra-based entity, which was supposed to receive this consignment. Talking to The Pioneer, Agra Divisional Forest Officer SP Yadav said that the consignment which had been booked by Saida

Black is bad for UP's 'men in black'

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Contrary to the impression presented by the way the high-profile lawyers working at the Supreme Court and High Courts carry themselves, the working conditions of ordinary lawyers working at the Uttar Pradesh district courts are far from being comfortable. Sitting in shanties built on open grounds in the court campus, the lawyers are completely exposed to the furies of nature, be it the sweltering summer heat, bone-chilling winds of winter or the drenching showers of monsoon, with little shelter offered by the meagre tin-shades that form the "offices" of these lawyers. On top of these, the mandatory "British-era" dress code of wearing an all-season black coat wrecks havoc on these lawyers who have to continually don this heavy black-cloak just to conform to the dress code prescribed by the Bar Council of India. While Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had promised the construction of chambers of these lawyers almost a year back, these mu

UP Govt move honours criminals by default

Vijay Upadhyay Etah. With Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav announcing a monthly pension of Rs 500 to the detainees of Maintenance of India Security Act (MISA) and Defence India Rules (DIR) during the Emergency in 1975, the Etah prison administration is stuck with a strange problem. Working head over heels, digging out the names of the actual political detainees out of the termite-infested lists of hundreds of prisoners who were imprisoned during the 1975-1977 period, the prison officials have come across the names of a number of detainees, whose names feature in the Etah jail's list of detainees under MISA and DIR, but they had also been charged under a number of heinous crimes including armed robbery, murders, kidnapping and possession of illegal weapons creating a dilemma before the jail officials, who are finding it difficult to categorise over 100 of these prisoners as mere "political detainees". Talking to The Pioneer, Karey Singh,

Warrants against Registrar in Meerut scandal

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The answer-sheet evaluation issue of Meerut University took a much expected turn on Thursday, with the Agra District Court issuing non-bailable warrants against BL Arya, the Registrar of the university who is being charged as one of the prime accused. The case has been registered in both Agra and Meerut. Arya can now land up in a major trouble if he fails to turn up in court in a week's time. The registrar has till now preferred to stay out of sight but his son was arrested for allegedly running an answer-sheet evaluation racket, revealed by the police. Five more accomplices were arrested in the case and about 60,000 answer sheets were recovered by the police from Arya's house. According to the Agra police sources, the non-bailable warrants issued by the Special Chief Judicial Magistrate, Agra, specifically directed the police to commence with the confiscation of all the property belonging to Arya under section 182 / 183 of CrPC, if he could

Improvement of Indian roads urged

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Even though India is the second most populated country in the world, most of the villages still remain cut-off due to the lack of approach roads, which according to a latest survey by the Indian Road Congress, could still take another 20 years in the making. Talking to mediapersons in Agra , Tribhuvan Ram, President, Indian Road Congress(IRC) said that the IRC had prepared a draft "Vision - 2025" for the development of roads in the country in which, all villages upto the population of 250 would be connected by approach roads by the year 2025. He said that the IRC had issued 109 guidelines on the construction and quality of roads in the country and most of these guidelines had already come into effect while others, including the adoption of new technology of road construction were in the process of being implemented. According to Ram, the IRC is holding a three--day international seminar on Innovations in Construction and Maintenance of Flexi

HARLOT FARMING

The ingenuity of evil can be far more outrageous than you fear. Now infants are being biologically manipulated by abductors not willing to wait for their youth. With engineered puberty, these abducted infants are being pushed into flesh trade, enabling touts to mint instant money. Years after the Agra police stumbled upon a heinous "prostitute grooming" racket which packaged infant abductions with forced female hormone injecting processes for faster growth of victims, the menace is far from over.In the notorious Bedia settlement of Basai Khurd which, incidentally, is a red-light area just a couple of km from the monument of love Taj Mahal, little girls look much older than their biological years, having achieved pre-mature puberty due to growth injections. Abducted from all over the country, they live a captive's life in Bedia homes till they are ready to be dispatched for earning mega bucks in the widespread sex market spreading from Mumbai bars to the G B Road redlight