News on Agra & Current Affairs

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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 ...