News on Agra & Current Affairs

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 ...