The Indian Air Force was pressed into service today to rescue college students caught in a forest fire in Tamil Nadu's Theni district, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Sitharaman said she has asked the Southern Air Command to coordinate the search and rescue operation and evacuate those trapped in the fire.

'The @IAF_MCC are working with local authorities in Theni distt, Tamil Nadu to evacuate all trapped in the forest fire in Kurangani. Smt @nsitharaman has spoken to Collector of Theni Distt & Southern Air Command to co-ordinate a quick & effective Search & Rescue effort,' a tweet on the official Twitter handle of the defence minister said.

Around 20 college students are trapped in the forest fire near Kurangani.

The defence minister said that IAF has been pressed into service following a request from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Sitharaman was approached by Palaniswami for help after the students were trapped in the forest fire.

The Southern Command is in touch with the Collector of Theni, she said.  -- PTI

Image used only for representation.

An FIR was filed against a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Uttarakhand for allegedly beating up Dalit women and making casteist remarks in Rudrapur, the police said today.

A video of the incident, which purportedly shows Rudrapur MLA Rajkumar Thukral thrashing the women on Friday, went viral on social media.

The state BJP today issued a notice to him asking for an explanation.

Thukral has 10 days to respond to the notice, said party spokesperson Devendra Bhasin.

According to reports, a panchayat meeting was held at the MLA's house on Friday morning over a couple's relationship.

Both the girl and boy's family members were present. After the family members got into a scuffle, Thukral apparently lost his cool and hit some of the women.

The BJP leader, however, has termed the allegations baseless.

"It is a conspiracy to malign my image by making false allegations," he said.

Thukral was booked under Sections 323 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Two other BJP leaders' name are also mentioned in the FIR, a police official said.

"The case was registered after a person named Ram Kishore filed a complaint on behalf of the victims," Sadanand Date, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Udham Singh Nagar, told PTI.

Further investigations are going on in this case, the SSP added.  -- PTI

Photograph: ANI

The government owes over Rs 325 crore to cash-strapped Air India with bills pending for VVIP chartered flights to foreign countries, according to an RTI response.

The national carrier, which is on the verge of being privatised, has provided details of pending bills towards various ministries responsible for the VVIP visits in its latest response to the information sought by Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra.

The details provided in the response dated March 8 shows that Rs 325.81 crore worth of bills for VVIP charter flights are pending as on January 31, 2018.

Of the total pending bills, Rs 84.01 crore have been carried forward from last financial year while the remaining Rs 241.80 crore are from bills generated this year.

The chartered aircraft for VVIPs -- the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister -- for their visits abroad are provided by Air India which modifies its commercial jets to suit the needs of the travelling dignitaries.

The bills for these aircraft are to be paid from the exchequer by the Defence Ministry, the Ministry of External Affairs Ministry, the Prime Minister's Office and the Cabinet Secretariat.

The response from Air India said that the highest outstanding amount of Rs 178.55 crore was due from the External Affairs Ministry, followed by the Cabinet Secretriat and the PMO (Rs 128.84 crore), and the Defence Ministry (Rs 18.42 crore).

The reply stated that outstanding bills of Rs 451.71 crore were carried forward while bills of Rs 553.01 crore were generated this year -- a total of Rs 1004.72 crore.

Out of this, the government made a payment of Rs 678.91 crore this year. The payment of Rs 678.91 crore includes Rs 367.70 crore paid towards Rs 451.71 crore bills carried forward from last year and Rs 311.23 crore payment towards bills of Rs 533.01 crore generated this year.

After the payment, the outstanding as on January 31, 2018 stands at Rs 325.81 crore. In a separate response dated March 5, three days before Air India's reply, the Civil Aviation Ministry has said the total outstanding bills to be Rs 345.946 crore as on December 31, 2017.

In addition to the VVIP flights, the amount of 345.946 crore also includes outstanding bills of Rs 20.966 crore towards services offered to visiting dignitaries and evacuation missions.

In its response, Air India has given outstanding bills only for VVIP flights till January 31, 2018.

The response provided by the Civil Aviation Ministry also includes a break up of outstanding amount towards various ministries and details of invoices which shows that out of outstanding invoices of Rs 182.22 crore towards flights of the President, Rs 174.22 crore was paid and Rs 8 crore was pending.

In the case of the Vice President, out of outstanding invoices of Rs 414.28 crore, Rs 216.02 crore was paid and payment of Rs 198.254 crore was yet to be made as on December 31, 2017, it said.

For the visits of the prime minister, out of total outstanding invoices of Rs 272.80 crore, Rs 154.07 crore was paid while a payment of Rs 118.724 crore was still awaited, it said.

In addition to the services for the VVIP flights, the bills of Rs 11.594 crore for daring Air India operations to evacuate Indian citizens from Cairo, Iraq, and Malta (for citizens stuck in Libya) between 2011 and 2014 are still pending with the MEA, the civil aviation ministry said.

A bill of Rs 23 lakh for the fuel charges of the flight to the United States carrying relief material in the aftermath of Katrina hurricane in September 2005 is also pending with the Defence Ministry, it said. Bills worth Rs 9.376 crore are also pending towards flights for various dignitaries including the heads of the states, the ministry said.  -- PTI

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today said building a consensus on the Ayodhya dispute was not going to be easy, but stressed that a Ram Temple -- 'and nothing else' -- would be constructed in the Uttar Pradesh town.

RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi also stressed that the matter was sub judice.

"It is certain that the Ram Temple will be constructed at that place (Ayodhya) and nothing else can be built there, this is also decided," Joshi told reporters in Nagpur on the sidelines of the RSS's all-important Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha meeting.

Confident of a favourable judgment from the Supreme Court on the matter, Joshi said the construction of temple would begin after the court's order and it would be built on the basis of its verdict on the ownership of land.

Replying to a question on spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar's efforts at developing consensus between the different parties on the issue, Joshi said consensus building was not going to be easy.

"We have always maintained that the temple should be constructed with mutual agreement but our experience tells us that building a consensus on this issue is not easy," Joshi said.

Though the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader said he welcomed Ravi Shankar's efforts at negotiations, he pointed out that there were different groups in society with varied outlooks and to build a consensus among them would be difficult.

Joshi was also asked about a demand for a minority religion status for the Lingayat community in Karnataka.

"We do not support that," he said.

The next hearing in the Ayodhya dispute, to determine ownership of the 2.77-acre Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi disputed land, is to come up before the Supreme Court on March 14.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and SA Najeeb is hearing the case.  --  PTI

All India Kisan Sabha's protest march reaches Mumbai.

According to reports, the marching farmers are at Eastern Express Highway and will protest outside the assembly tomorrow.

They camped at the Thane-Mumbai border this morning before heading for the KJ Somaiya Ground in Sion, Mumbai.

Over 30,000 farmers held the march from Nashik to Mumbai demanding a complete loan waiver among other demands.

The 180-km march commenced on March 5 from the CBS Chowk in Central Nashik.   -- Agencies

Photograph: Sahil Salvi

A first information report has been lodged against Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nityanand Rai for violating the model code of conduct by allegedly making provocative speech during campaigning for Araria Lok Sabha bypolls, an official said today.

Narpatganj Assembly constituency's nodal officer-cum- Circle Officer Nishant Kumar yesterday lodged the FIR.

"I have asked Narpatganj assembly constituency's nodal officer-cum-Circle Officer to lodge an FIR against Bihar BJP Nityanand Rai chief Nityanand Rai for violating model code of conduct," Araria District Magistrate Himanshu Sharma told PTI.

While campaigning for his party's candidate at a public meeting at Narpatganj on March 9, Rao allegedly said, if the Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate wins this election, Araria will become a safe haven for the Islamic State.

Rai is also a Lok Sabha member from Ujiarpur in Bihar.

RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwary had also taken strong exception to Rai's statement terming it as outrageous.  -- PTI

Sandeep Soni, a carpenter from Kanpur's Uttar Pradesh, who in 2016 had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in helping him get a loan, on Saturday cried foul and said despite the Prime Minister's recommendation the bank hasn't granted him the desired loan.

Soni, a resident of Barra area in Kanpur, had inscribed all the 18 episodes and 706 shlokas of Bhagwad Gita on wood and gifted the same to the PM.

He claims he had shown his work to Modi, who had then personally recommended him to officials for a loan under Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) to start a factory.

The 32-year old carpenter has yet again written a letter to the prime minister complaining that he is unable to do business, because of the way bank employees are troubling him.

And that he has been running from pillar to post for more than a year to get the loan.

"They (Bank of Baroda) said that take Rs 10 lakh and start your work and didn't give me the Rs 25 lakh," said Soni while talking to ANI.

Soni, was encouraged to start a business by the prime minister himself, after the latter got heavily impressed by the gift which the carpenter from Kanpur presented him on March 08, 2016.

"It's been over an year my work is stuck due to monetary constraints, my project was of Rs 25 lakhs and bank gave me Rs 10 lakh only, and every other day they (bank) inform me about several rules," added Soni.

Soni further said that he is hopeful that the PM will address his woes and take strict against the defaulters.  -- ANI

A shoe was hurled at Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif by a religious extremist today during a function at an Islamic seminary in Lahore.

The incident took place a day after religious extremist blackened the face of Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif with ink when he was addressing his party's worker's convention in his hometown in Sialkot, some 100-km from Lahore.

Today Sharif was a chief guest at Jamia Naemia seminary, Ghari Shahu Lahore.

As Sharif was heading towards rostrum for a speech, a student hurled a shoe at him that hit his shoulder and ear. The student also managed to reach in front of Sharif and chanted 'Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah' slogan.

The security personnel caught the student and his other accomplice who also chanted 'Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah' slogans and gave them sound thrashing.

Later, the two students were handed over to police. Police identified the shoe thrower as Abdul Ghafoor, a former student of the seminary, and his accomplice as Sajid.

The situation became very tense after the incident. Sharif made a brief speech in which he did not mention about the man who threw shoe at him.

The religious parties especially Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan had held Sharif and his party (PML-N) responsible for making an attempt to change a clause related to finality of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in the Constitution.

In yesterday's incident, Faiz Rasool, who threw ink at the foreign minister, told the police that he vent out his anger because the PML-N had tried to change the finality of the Prophet in the Constitution.

"This hurt the sentiments of millions of Pakistanis including myself," he said.

Pakistan's Law Minister Zahid Hamid had to resign last November when hundreds of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan supporters camped at Islamabad's Faizabad traffic interchange forcing the PML-N government to take action against those in the federal cabinet responsible for attempting to change this clause from the Constitution.

The mainstream parties -- Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf -- condemned the incident. PML-N leader and Railway Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique said those afraid of popularity of PML-N are behind such incidents.  -- PTI

After a series of legal skirmishes over allotment of a party symbol, sidelined All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dinakaran today said that he would announce the name of his political party and unveil the flag in Madurai later this week.

'Following the acceptance of our plea in the Delhi high court, a function to announce the name of the party and introduce the party flag will be held on March 15 at 9 am at Melur in Madurai district,' he said in a statement in Chennai.

The Delhi high court, on March 9, allowed Dinakaran's plea for allotment of a common symbol, preferably 'pressure cooker', and a name of his choice for the AIADMK faction led by him.

The court order came on an interim application filed by the Dhinakaran-V K Sasikala faction in their main petition challenging the Election Commission's November 23 order last year, which had allotted 'two leaves' symbol to the group headed by Chief Minister Edpappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

Panneerselvam is the coordinator of the AIADMK and Palaniswami is the joint coordinator. Dhinakaran, who won the RK Nagar assembly bypoll, held in December last as an independent candidate on the 'pressure cooker' symbol, had earlier told the court that he needed a temporary name and symbol for his group to interact with the electorate in the eventuality of elections to local bodies or any other polls.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Dhinakaran appealed to his supporters and the public to participate in the function in large numbers.

The RK Nagar MLA's announcement to launch a political party comes weeks after actor-politician Kamal Haasan floated his party 'Makkal Needhi Maiam' in Madurai.

On December 31, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth had announced his decision to enter politics but he is yet to launch a party.  --  PTI

JUST IN: China's Parliament passes constitutional changes that abolish term limits to let President Xi Jinping rule indefinitely.

Ahead of the vote by about 3,000 deputies in the National People's Congress (NPC) -  China's legislature - on the amendment to remove the term limit for the President and Vice President, the seven member Standing Committee - the top most body of the ruling Communist Party of China - has unanimously approved the amendment.

"Every one of us on the NPC Standing Committee approves and supports amending Constitution," Chairman of the NPC, Zhang Dejiang, said in his work report.

The term limits were being followed by the party leaders for over two decades to avert a dictatorship on the lines of party founder Chairman Mao Zedong and to ensure collective leadership in the one-party state.

The constitutional amendment will remove the hurdle for 64-year-old Xi to become leader of China for life. He is currently in his second five-year term and due to retire in 2023 under the current two term system.

Xi is regarded as the most powerful leader of China after Mao as he held the posts of head of the CPC, the military and the Presidency, which is mostly ceremonial.  -- Agencies

A 16.80 per cent voter turnout in Gorakhpur and a 12.20 per cent in Phulpur was recorded till 11 am today for the Lok Sabha by-election.

Meanwhile in Bihar, 22.42 per cent voter turnout in Araria Lok Sabha bypoll, while 20.3 per cent in Bhabua and 19.2 per cent in Jahanabad assembly bypolls was recorded till 11 am.

The bypoll in UP was necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, respectively, on taking office.

For Gorakhpur, the key contenders are Upendra Shukla from Bharatiya Janata Party, Praveen Nishad from Samajwadi Party and Surhita Chatterjee Karim from Congress.

Candidates in the fray for the Phulpur seat are Kaushalendra Singh Patel from the BJP, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel from SP and Manish Mishra from Congress.

For these bypolls, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the SP have set aside their rivalry to join forces.

In Bihar, the bypolls are being seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he pulled out of the state's grand alliance and joined the BJP.

The Araria seat fell vacant after the death of Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Taslimuddin. The key contenders for the seat are RJD's Sarafaraz Alam, Taslimuddin's son, and the BJP's Pradip Singh.

The Bhabua assembly seat got vacant after the death of BJP's Anand Bhushan Pandey, and the party has fielded his widow Rinki Rani Pandey. Another key candidate for the seat is Shambhu Patel from Congress.

The death of RJD MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav necessitated the bypoll for Jehanabad seat, and his son Uday Yadav is contesting for the seat. Another key candidate in the fray is JDU's Abhiram Sharma.

The results will be declared on March 14.    -- ANI

After promising to 'Make America Great Again', President Donald Trump seemed to be gearing up for 2020 re-election, announcing his new slogan to be 'Keep America Great!'

Trump said if he runs again -- which is 'almost positive' -- he cannot use his 'Make America Great Again' tag line. That's because he will already have spent years in office.

"The task for all of us, for everyone here tonight is to make sure that this great American comeback continues full speed ahead. We are doing things that are amazing," Trump told his supporters at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Referring to his campaign slogan of the 2016 presidential elections, Trump said he can't use it in 2020 because of 'the amazing accomplishments of his administration'.

"We can't say make America great again because I already did that... Our new slogan when we start running in, can you believe it two years from now is going to be 'Keep America Great!'" Trump said amidst cheers from his supporters.

Referring to the latest job figures, Trump said the economy is thriving and jobs are coming back.

Trump also said he wanted to take on Oprah Winfrey in the 2020 presidential election.

"I know her weakness," he said, without elaborating on what that might be, spinning off into another subject.

"I would love to run against Oprah. That would be a painful experience for her," he added.

In the last one year, Trump said, his administration created three million jobs, passed the largest tax cuts and reforms in the American history.

In his remarks, he urged his supporters to defeat the Democratic candidates in the mid-term elections later this year.

Into a full election mode, Trump in his characteristic campaign style slammed the media for allegedly being biased against him, and attacked the opposition Democratic party leaders, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

"You know, how easy it is to be presidential? But you'd be so bored," Trump told the audience.

"I'm very presidential. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here tonight," Trump said in his more 'presidential' voice.

"See, that's easy. That's much easier than doing what I have to do," Trump said.

"But this is much more effective. If I came like a stiff, you guys wouldn't be here tonight," he said.  -- PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday at the Founding Conference of the International Solar Alliance, suggested looking back to the Vedas in a bid to combat climate change.

"Vedas consider the Sun as the soul of the world, it has been considered as a life nurturer. Today, for combating climate change, we need to look at this ancient idea to find a way," the prime minister said.

He also suggested measures to increase the consumption of solar energy.

"To promote the use of solar energy, the availability of technology and development, economic resources, reduction in prices, development of storage technology, mass manufacturing, and innovation require a complete ecosystem," PM Modi said.

Prime Minister Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday co-chaired the first founding conference of the ISA in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The summit was attended by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, among other dignitaries from over 50 countries.

The PM listed out 10 action points to bring about a worldwide solar revolution.

"We all have to think about the way forward. I have ten action points in my mind that I want to share with you. First of all, we have to ensure that better and affordable solar technology is available and accessible to everyone. We need to increase the solar proportion in our energy mix," the PM said.

He added that solar solutions will also encourage innovation.

"We have to encourage innovation so that solar solutions can be provided for various needs. We will have to provide concessional financing and low-risk finance for solar projects," PM Modi said.

Prime Minister Modi stressed on the development of regulatory aspects and standards.

"Regulatory aspects and standards have to be developed which should adopt solar solutions and speed up their development. Developing countries will have to develop consultancy support for bankable solar projects, to emphasise greater inclusiveness and participation in our efforts," he added.

"We need to create a comprehensive network of centers of excellence. We should make the ISA Secretariat strong and professional," he asserted.

The prime minister concluded his address by quoting the Shanthi Mantra from The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, "Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya", which means 'from darkness, lead me to light'.

"If you want to serve the whole humanity then I am confident that after coming out of personal filings, like a family we will be able to bring unity and solidarity in the objectives and efforts," he added.   -- ANI

After losing key executives in a helicopter crash, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp is veering around the idea of barring senior management from flying together in the same chopper.

The company lost five key operational personnel when a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in the Arabian Sea in January.

"Lot of companies world over have a policy of not allowing more than two senior executives flying together. We are also thinking of putting the same policy in operation for our offshore operations," a senior ONGC executive said.

When on January 13 a Dauphin N3 helicopter, operated by Pawan Hans, crashed off the Mumbai coast, ONGC lost topline operational in-charges of its key Mumbai High oil and gas fields.

Two pilots ferrying them to an offshore oil and gas facility were also killed in the accident, the cause of which is still being investigated.

"We lost installation/location managers and maintenance in-charges of Mumbai High North, NQ and Water Injection North (WIN) platforms in the accident," he said, adding a sixth key operational executive had dropped out of the ill-fated flight at the last moment due to ill health.

Any oil and gas field of ONGC is headed by the asset manager and installation or location managers are just below him.

The official said a decision on barring key executives from flying together is likely to be taken soon.

ONGC, he said, has engaged an expert team from the Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI) to carry out a thorough audit of all helicopter operations of the company and submit a report on maintenance practices, operational procedures and safety issues.

RWSI is a not-for-profit professional body specialising in both civil and military helicopters. It is an affiliate of Helicopter Association International (HAI) and headed by Air Vice Marshall K Sridharan.

"While the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the reasons for the accident, we wanted to ascertain if the talks of poor maintenance at Pawan Hans could be a factor," the official said.

The RWSI report is expected later this month. Improper maintenance, non-adherence to procedures, non-compliance of safety regulations by the operator are some of the common findings in probe reports prepared by the DGCA into 20 of 25 accidents involving Pawan Hans helicopters over the last 30 years.  -- PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi receives French President Emmanuel Macron at the International Solar Alliance being held at Rashtrapati Bhavan's Cultural Centre.