New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav and BJP MP Anurag Thakur engaged in a heated war of words in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, over the issue of Agniveers and their ‘sub-par treatment’ as compared to regular jawans in the Armed Forces.

Their verbal duel prompted the Chair to intervene but the duo kept having a go at each other and also went to recall their association with military establishment to buttress their claims. The no-holds barred altercation saw the duo citing their links with the military.

Akhilesh claimed that the Agnipath scheme has turned out be a ‘disaster’ for the youth and the Central government is also realising its mistake of late.

He alleged that many state governments are being pushed and pressurised to ‘absorb’ the Agniveers by providing ‘quotas’ in respective police and Provincial Armed Constabularies.

“If the Agnipath scheme had no shortcomings and loopholes, then why BJP-led state governments are announcing programmes to enroll them, one after another,” Akhilesh asked.

Former Union Minister Anurag Thakur objected to SP Chief’s statement and said there is provision for 100 per cent employment under the Agnipath scheme.

He also cited the history and legacy of Himachal Pradesh, his home state, in serving the Armed Forces and said the state has a rare distinction of getting awarded the country’s first Paramvir Chakra.

“In Kargil war, too, the maximum number of soldiers who made supreme sacrifice came from Himachal Pradesh,” he said.

The SP Chief said that he could also list the number of military honours and asked the BJP MP not to throw a challenge at him as he is a passout from the military school.

Anurag Thakur, in a quick tit-for-tat rebuttal, advised the SP supremo not to ‘lecture’ him on matters related to Armed forces as he himself was a serving officer.

“I am serving as Captain in the Territorial Army. Akhilesh ji, don’t just keep dishing out gyan like Rahul Gandhi,” the BJP MP said.

Akhilesh, who led his party in fetching a whopping 37 MPs in Lok Sabha, further took a jibe at the Treasury benches, saying “he could understand their pain over loss in a state like Uttar Pradesh”.

He also asserted that the INDIA bloc, whenever it comes to power, won’t refrain from repealing the controversial Agnipath scheme.

–IANS

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Imphal, July 30 (IANS) A woman and her infant son died following a landslide triggered by heavy rain in Manipur’s Tamenglong district, police said on Tuesday.

A Police official said that the incident took place at Dimthanlong village and police constable Ringsinlung Kahmei was also injured after his house was swept away in the landslide.

The injured police constable has been shifted to a hospital in Imphal for medical treatment where his health condition is stated to be critical.

Many districts of Manipur have recorded heavy rainfall in the past 24 hours.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh condoled the deaths and wished speedy recovery of the injured policeman.

–IANS

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Chennai, July 30 (IANS) The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Civil Aviation to make announcements in Tamil mandatory in all domestic flights operating to and from the airports in Tamil Nadu.

The court directive came following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a person, C.Kanagaraj, the World Tamil Research Trust President, who urged the court to make announcements in Tamil mandatory in all flights operating from the airports in the state.

Acting Chief Justice D. Krishnakumar and Justice K. Kumaresh Babu said that courts could not issue a positive direction as sought in the PIL.

The division bench said that the Central government could be directed only to consider a representation made by the litigant within a period of 12 weeks.

The first division bench issued such a direction and disposed of the PIL petition pending since 2021.

The petitioner had contended that announcements in Tamil were being made even in foreign countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

In the submission before the Madras High Court, he asked why should such announcements could not be made mandatory in all domestic flights operated to and from Tamil Nadu.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday took a ‘Parle-G’ jibe at the Central government, saying it has only learnt inflation and profit from the famous biscuit company.

“In the last 10 years, this government has learnt only two things from Parle-G — inflation and profit. Like the Parle-G biscuit packet, the DAP fertiliser bag has also been shortened. I request the government not to shorten it further,” Akhilesh Yadav said in the Lok Sabha while responding to the Budget speech of Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman.

He also taunted the government by saying when the farmers went to collect DAP fertiliser bags, the government told them that it cannot issue them without nano urea.

“What has nano urea given to the farmers? How has it benefited the farmers,” the Kannauj MP asked.

The Samajwadi Party chief also said that even after the NDA presenting its 11th Budget, the common people are not happy with the government.

“There is nothing for youth, villages, unemployed, and women in this Budget. Given the inflation, only the head of the family knows how he runs the household, educates the children, and provides medicines to elderly parents. Families know this struggle,” he said.

While the government keeps on providing figures for every sector, it never says where the country stood in the Hunger Index in the last 10 years, Akhilesh Yadav said.

“They also don’t talk about trade deficits. In the last 10 years, we have seen nothing concrete happening on the trade deficit front as well,” he said.

Akhilesh Yadav also claimed that the highest number of MPs come from Uttar Pradesh, yet the BJP government has not given any new projects to the state.

“They have given two new AIIMS to UP but are they providing the medical treatment in these two AIIMS? The land for both AIIMS Gorakhpur and AIIMS Raebareli was given by the Samajwadi Party. What has the BJP government done for the state in the last 10 years,” he asked.

He also said the BJP government says there will be employment generation because of privatisation but nothing has happened on this front either.

Stating that the Nodia Industrial Policy and the Electronic Policy were also formulated by the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav said, “What have you done? You can’t manufacture things in the air. You need land which was given by us. If you claim to make things in the air, I can only thank you,” the MP said.

On the Budget announcements made for Bihar, he said, “Giving package to Bihar is good. But they could have also spared funds for connecting the Purvanchal Expressway. If they could only connect 25 per cent of it, the BJP government could have claimed that they have joined it with Delhi,” he said.

He also claimed that in the last Budget, the government claimed that Rs 1 lakh crore will be spent for agriculture infrastructure but not a single ‘mandi’ has come up in Uttar Pradesh.

“What has the government given to the farmers in the Budget? Why didn’t the government give the legal MSP guarantee to the farmers? When will the government give MSP for horticulture crops?” he asked.

–IANS

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Hyderabad, July 30 (IANS) One of the Telangana MLAs on Tuesday returned to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), days after defecting to the ruling Congress.

Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, the MLA from Gadwal constituency who had defected to Congress on July 6, met BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao and expressed his desire to continue in the party.

The reason for his move was not immediately known.

The development came as some relief to BRS, which lost 10 MLAs to the ruling party since March.

On July 6, Krishna Mohan Reddy joined the ruling party in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

Krishna Mohan represents the Gadwal constituency in CM Revanth Reddy’s home district Mahabubnagar.

The BRS also lost six MLCs and several senior leaders to Congress since losing power in December 2023.

BRS, which had bagged 39 seats in the 119-member Assembly. However, its tally came down to 28 with the defection of 10 MLAs and the defeat at the hands of Congress in the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly by-election.

The tally of Congress party had gone up to 72.

–IANS

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