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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 184 candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on Thursday. It said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from his sitting seat of Varanasi, while party chief Amit Shah will make his Lok Sabha electoral debut, contesting from Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Other highlights were BJP announcing 28 candidates in Uttar Pradesh, replacing six sitting MPs, four of whom were on seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, which reflected the party’s concerns at the Samajwadi Party–Bahujan Samaj Party–Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance. In 2014, the BJP had won 71 of UP’s 80 seats, with ally Apna Dal winning two. In Chhattisgarh, the party declared candidates on five seats, replacing all five sitting MPs. It has already announced that it will replace all 11 candidates in Chhattisgarh. In 2014, the BJP had won 10 of Chhattisgarh’s 11 seats. The BJP has been disinclined to fielding leaders above 75 years of age. Senior leader L K Advani, the inc...

The tragic Varanasi flyover collapse in the high-profile Lok Sabha constituency represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has posed a big question mark on the standard of work carried out by the UP Bridge Corporation in the recent past. The state-run corporation, which had once earned kudos bagging projects not only in other states but also in Iraq, Yemen and Nepal, has been at the receiving end recently, according to a senior official in the Public Works Department (PWD). During peak traffic hours on Tuesday evening, two pillars of an under-construction flyover in Varanasi's Cantt area had collapsed, bringing down a huge slab, which crushed a mini-bus, cars and two-wheelers. As many as 15 people were reported killed and 11 others injured. Several people got crushed or trapped under the debris in the incident and, according to Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar, around 7 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams of over 325 personnel had to be deployed for relie...

Think twice before becoming administrator of a group on  WhatsApp or Facebook  as one is liable for prosecution if any rumour or fake news is circulated on it. Social media platforms allow a person to create a group on which members can share views, photographs or videos. Concerns have been raised about social media misuse as fake news, morphed photographs and disturbing videos with fabricated local narratives can easily be circulated that can trigger tension and an even communal rift in an area. In a joint order issued by District Magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra and Senior Superintendent of Police Nitin Tiwari, it has been made clear that any factually incorrect, rumour or misleading information on a social media group could result in a FIR against the group administrator. "There are several groups on social media which are named on news groups and also groups with other names which are propagating news and information which is not authentic. These are being forwa...