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The Union Home Minister further said the elections in the state would be held in the next six months after the ongoing Amarnath Yatra concludes, adding that the Centre would extend all its support whenever the Election Commission comes out with a schedule for polls.

The Rajya Sabha will be a bigger test for the NDA as it is well short of the majority in the 245-member House but is banking on the support of friendly parties to get the two bills passed. The BJP has issued a three-line whip to all its Rajya Sabha members to remain present in the House during discussion and voting.

Governor’s Rule was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir on June 20, 2018, following withdrawal of support to the Mehbooba Mufti-led government by the BJP. It was followed by President’s Rule since December 2018.

The Meteorological Department warned of “extremely heavy” rainfall in adjoining areas of Thane and Palghar on 2,4 and 5 July. A few places in Mumbai could get heavy to very heavy rainfall Monday and Tuesday, it added.

Mumbai witnessed 93 mm of rainfall and Palghar area received 361 mm in the last 24 hours. General Manager of Western and Central Railways A K Gupta with senior officers has been constantly and closely supervising the situation from Mumbai Central Control Room to “keep the wheels of local trains rolling,” tweets Western Railways.

BEST buses have been diverted due to waterlogging at Sion road no 24, Hindmata Cinema, King Circle, Pratiksha Nagar, Sangam Nagar in Wadala, RCF colony in Chembur, Anushakti Nagar and SV Road in Bandra. Heavy rains continue to lash Mumbai and its neighbouring areas for the fourth consecutive day today, leaving the financial capital struggling with waterlogging, choked drains, traffic jams and cancellations and delays in trains.

Commuters in the Central line have been affected due to delayed trains in Sion, Kurla and Kalyan. Intense spells of rainfall likely to continue in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar during the next two hours, the India Meteorological Department has predicted. Twitter users shared vides and cautioned others on avoiding Lower Parel, Dadar and Sion stations at all costs.

Mumbai has been witnessing relentless heavy downpour from Sunday night and many parts of the city are expected to continue to see good showers today, according to the weather department. Train tracks in Sion, Matunga and Kurla stations were submerged. The rains, which have been intense in many parts of the city including Andheri, Kurla, Bandra, Charni Road, Santa Cruz, BKC and others, has resulted in water logging on streets and railway tracks causing inconvenience to people.

Local trains in Mumbai are running late after waterlogging on railway tracks due to heavy overnight rain in the city. Several short and long-distance trains have also been delayed or cancelled. At least 100 mm of rainfall was recorded between 4 and 5 am on Monday, with more than 360 mm recorded overnight.

Following incessant rains through the night and early morning on Monday, severe water-logging was reported in parts of Ghatkopar, Palghar and Sion. Several commuters also tweeted images of a flooded Palghar station. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has diverted traffic in following areas: Gandhi Market traffic diverted via Bhau Daji Road and Sulochana Shetty Road. Also, traffic from National College in SV Road Bandra West has been diverted via Link Road.

est Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell came up with an epic response to Mohammed Shami doing his salute celebration during the India-West Indies match on Thursday.

Cottrell had dismissed Mohammad Shami in during India’s innings and celebrated in his trademark style by saluting. Shami was later seen imitating Cottrell’s salute when the West Indies pacer got out to Yuzvendra Chahal in the 30th over of the second innings. It was all in good fun though, and even Cottrell smiled at Shami’s imitation act.

Cottrell tweeted about the incident later and even came up with a funny response in Hindi.

Reiterating the saffron party’s stance on the contentious Article 370, BJPnational general secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday said the Centre is committed to repealing the provision which provides special status to Jammu and Kashmir, ANI reported. “As far as Article 370 is concerned, our ideological commitment is well-known. It has to go lock stock and barrel as the Home Minister (Amit Shah) clearly mentioned yesterday in Parliament,” Madhav told the news agency.

“Our government is committed to resolving all outstanding issue in Kashmir. We are moving in that direction,” he added.

While addressing the Lok Sabha on Friday, Home Minister Amit Shah had said the provision was termed “temporary” in nature and “not permanent” in the Constitution. “As far as the question of 370 is concerned, you must know that it is mentioned as temporary in the Constitution and not permanent. And this was done in agreement with Sheikh Abdullah,” he said.

Madhav also said that former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was responsible for the situation in the state. “Whatever Amit Shah said is historical truth. The trouble in Kashmir is a creation of the first government of independent India under Pandit Nehru. When it was introduced by former PM Nehru, he himself had said that it was temporary and would erode on its own,” he asserted.

The bonhomie between Scott Morrison and Narendra Modi was on full display on Saturday when the Australian Prime Minister tweeted a selfie with his Indian counterpart and praised him in Hindi “Kithana acha he Modi!”, a message which went viral.

Mr. Modi replied to his tweet by saying he was “stoked” about the energy of the India-Australia relations.

“You have made the message go viral by writing Kithana acha he Modi!” the Indian Prime Minister said.

The two leaders are in Osaka, Japan for the G20 Summit.

The newly-elected Australian Prime Minister met his Indian counterpart in the morning and shared some light moments with him.

Mr. Morrison clicked a selfie with Mr. Modi and posted it on Twitter with a captain “Kithana acha he Modi!” (How good is Modi).

In his reply, Mr. Modi wrote on Twitter: “Mate, I’m stoked about the energy of our bilateral relationship!”

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said that the Suraji Yojana of the state government was a top priority scheme, which will revive the rural economy and will become a milestone in generating employment for rural youth. 

Baghel was chairing a meeting of the State Rural and OBC Area Development Authority held here at Mahanadi Bhawan on Thursday.

The meeting also expanded the working area of the authority and made necessary amendment in the authorities’ rules and regulations regarding allocation of fund.

The meeting was attended by Scheduled Caste and Tribal Development Minister Dr Premsai Singh, Minister for Home Affairs Tamradhwaj Sahu, Minister for Forest and Civil Supplies Mohammad Akbar, Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Ravindra Choubey, PHE and Village Industries Minister Rudra Guru, Urban Administration Minister Dr Shiv Kumar Daharia, office bearers of the authority, Chief Secretary Sunil Kujur and senior officials of the concerned departments.

In the meeting, the CM opined that the Narva, Garva, Ghurva and Badi Yojana is an innovative and important scheme that ushered in socio-economic change in the state. It is meant to create a  bovine wealth base for bio fertilizer and development of Badis (vegetable gardens) in the village areas.

He further informed that cow sheds in forest areas will be constructed under CAMPA scheme and the work will be done by forest department of the state. Along with rural areas, Baghel also stressed on construction of cow sheds in urban areas so that stray cattle could no become cause of accidents.

Q. How do you explain the setback the Congress received in the parliamentary election after the unprecedented mandate it won in the assembly polls just a few months earlier?

A. We began fulfilling all the promises we made to farmers, tribals and common folk soon after the assembly election. In the BJP, on the other hand, infighting came to the fore after the election and the morale of the party cadre was low. The BJP was nowhere to be seen in the Lok Sabha campaign. Most political analysts gave the Congress 10 or 11 seats, but when the results came, they were unexpected. No one here (in Chhattisgarh) had imagined this. But the results are in front of you.

Q. What do you think were the reasons for your defeat?

A. The reasons being offered are beyond comprehension. If you say it was nationalism arising out of the surgical strikes, then why did the issue not have an impact in states where non-Congress parties were pitted against the BJP, such as Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu or even West Bengal where the BJP did everything they could but could not pull off a clean sweep? The issue is something else, about which we have not been able to say anything. And if that is the issue, it is extremely dangerous. If it is the EVM, then it is very dangerous for democracy.

Q. This is a very serious allegation you are making.

A. The voters don’t know what’s inside EVMs whereas a ballot box has all the details of voting within it. Even the educated don’t know the intricacies of the EVM, what to say of common people.

Q. Your critics are saying you did not deliver on your promises and the Lok Sabha verdict is a reflection on your government?

A. That is wrong. We gave Rs 2,500 per quintal for paddy, above the Minimum Support Price of Rs 1,750. What can be a bigger delivery than this? Loans of farmers from cooperative banks have been written off. Between January and May, automobile sales in Chhattisgarh increased by 26 per cent when sales elsewhere were falling. Gold and silver purchases, construction of houses, sales of ACs and coolers have increased. It couldn’t have happened if there was no money in the hands of the people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held bilateral talks with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman and discussed deepening cooperation in trade and investment, energy security and counter-terrorism with the “invaluable strategic partner” in Osaka.

Modi, who is in Japan for the G20 Summit, met with the Saudi Prince on the margins of the summit after the informal BRICS leaders’ meeting.

Saudi Arabia is India’s top supplier of crude oil but the two countries have expanded their relationship beyond energy, and their governments have agreed to build a strategic partnership.

“An invaluable strategic partner. PM @narendramodi met with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud on the margins of the #G20. Discussed deepening cooperation in trade & investment, energy security, counter-terrorism, among other areas,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

Union home minister Amit Shah’s question on “who is responsible for partition” triggered a huge row in parliament during the debate on the bill to extend President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir. The bill sailed through the Lok Sabha, but the argument over it was fierce and drew into its ambit partition and Article 356, under which central Rule can be imposed on a state.

In a scathing attack against the Congress, Mr Shah said it was not the BJP but the Congress who used the Article 356 as a political tool to dismiss the existing government in the state.

The BJP, he said, had enforced President’s Rule “under special circumstances”.  But “before today, Article 356 has been used 132 times. Of those 132 times, 93 times it was used by the Congress. And now they will teach us how 356 should be used?” Mr Shah said, triggering loud protests.

But the Congress, which is against the bill, was outraged when Mr Shah while responding to the debate, said: “Manish Tiwari is raising questions on partition today. I want to ask him a question. Who is responsible for partition? Today, one-third of Jammu and Kashmir is not in our control. Who is responsible for that?” Then he went onto say Jawaharlal Nehru had declared ceasefire when the Indian force had pushed Pakistan’s troops to a corner.

Amid screams of protest from Congress members over the name of Jawaharlal Nehru being drawn into the debate, Mr Shah said, “Okay, if the mention of a name causes such pain, I shall henceforth refer to him as the first Prime Minister of the country”.

Manish Tewari, who was among the Congress speakers, had suggested that Jammu and Kashmir had to be placed under President’s Rule because of the BJP’s “incompatible” alliance with Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party.

Osaka – World leaders attending a Group of 20 summit in Japan are clashing over the values that have served for decades as the foundation of their cooperationPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday put forward a five-point approach to address common challenges facing the world, including protectionism, unilateralism at global financial organisations like the WTO and terrorism.