News on Agra & Current Affairs

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 te...

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 robberi...

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...

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 ...

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 b...

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 ...

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 ...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. Three days after a minor girl from New Delhi was raped at the Agra cantonment railway station by a railway driver, the police is still to trace the whereabouts of the absconding driver who has been suspended from duty after the incident. According to Mr Raj Bahadur, Superintendent, UP Government Railway Police, the 13-year-old girl was a resident of Delhi's Khajuri area and had been living at her sister's home in Agra for some time. On Saturday, the girl was returning to Delhi alone and was sitting at the Agra cantonment railway station waiting for the train to arrive when Mohammed Ali, a shunting engine driver, took her into the nearby railway shunting yard, promising her a ride in the railway engine. Upon reaching the yard, Ali locked the engine from inside and raped the girl. It was only when some other railway workers working near the yard heard the girl's cries that they banged the engine's door to force it open, upon which Ali jumped...

Vijay Upadhyay Etah. In a glaring example of how the police can break the very law they are supposed to enforce, the staff of an entire police station along with the station in-charge fled from their post after a youth died in their custody. The police disappeared from the scene with the dead body. The incident took place on Sunday in Jethra town of Etah district in Uttar Pradesh. The incident invited severe public outrage with angry crowds gutting the police station. One person was injured in the police firing that followed. Five policemen including station officer Manish Yadav and sub-inspector Gajraj Singh have been suspended for their alleged involvement in the "murder" of Mohar Pal Singh, a local youth, in police custody and the subsequent disappearance of the dead body along with the General Diary (GD) of the police station. The accused policemen are still absconding and paramilitary forces have taken over the town to prevent further outbreak of violence...

Vijay Upadhyay AGRA. More than 800 delegates from 84 countries of the world are congregating in Agra from Saturday for a 10-day global convention of youth organisations from all over the globe. Being hosted for the first time in India, the AIESEC International congress featured the participation of a delegation from Pakistan, a country which is joining the AIESEC for the first time. Inaugurating the convention in Agra on Saturday, Brodie Bowland, president of AIESEC, said that this was the 57th Annual international congress of AIESEC that was being held in India. The last event was held in Hannover, Germany. He said this time the convention would showcase the diversity that exists within AIESEC. There will be colourful display of cultures of five continents and 84 countries. On this occasion, the Coca Cola group built a "Global Village" at the hillock of Taj Khema behind the Taj Mahal, where all 800 delegates in the convention met each other and discussed common issues o...

Vijay Upadhyay MATHURA. Despite the confusion over the exact date of Krishna Janmashtami celebrations this year, the festival will be held with full vigour and devotion on August 27 at Lord Krishna's mythological birthplace at Krishna janmabhoomi in Mathura. Girish Goswami, a priest at Bankey Bihari temple in Vrindavan, says exactly at midnight, the Lord's birth hour, every temple in Mathura and Vrindavan will resonate with the sound of aarti. Butter is especially included in the celebrations as Krishna is known to have been very fond of it in his childhood. Traditional prasad called Panchajiri - made of five ingredients, powdered ginger, suva, coriander, sugar and ghee - is also distributed on the occasion. According to Goswami, after the aarti, devotees jubilantly sing kirtans extolling the Lord; celebrations continue late into the evening of the following day when the crowd slowly begins to disperse. According to Kapil Sharma, Secretary, Sri Krishna Janmasthanam trust, ...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. Planning to buy a new Maruti or any four wheeler for that matter? Make sure you use good fuel from a reliable outlet, otherwise, the car manufacturer may completely deny the warranty cover on your engine. In a small town like Agra, where the number of cars running on the streets is barely over 32 thousand, the car models being manufactured by Maruti are especially popular, selling almost 6-7 hundred cars each month, followed up closely by Hyundai. But these days, the users of this most popular car in Agra are in a state of panic with the cases of engine failure in newly purchased Maruti cars taking a steep upward hike. On top of that, the car dealers of the town too have begun to refuse warranty claims on engine repairs, citing company guidelines againstwarranty cover on engine failure arising from fuel adulteration problems. According to the Maruti sources in Agra, atleast 3-5 percent of the Maruti cars sold in the town were coming back to the workshops a...