India

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) The Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Wednesday accused the Centre of trying to "counter and destroy" the farmers' movement against the new agri laws and said it has appealed for peaceful protests during the 'rail roko' agitation on February 18.

The statement of the umbrella body of protesting unions came a day after BJP chief J P Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah met party functionaries, MPs and MLAs from Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the wake of mahapanchayats being organised by farmer leaders.

Mumbai, Feb 17 (PTI) Against the backdrop of COVID-19 and need for safe travel, the Maharashtra Cabinet on Wednesday approved a new 'caravan tourism' policy that seeks to provide incentives to tour operators and at the same time boost employment opportunities in the pandemic-battered sector.

The policy, aimed at addressing safety concerns of travel enthusiasts, was cleared at the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Chandigarh, Feb 17 (PTI) The ruling Congress on Wednesday swept the urban body polls in Punjab, winning six municipal corporations, emerging as the largest party in the seventh and bagging most of the 109 municipal council and nagar panchayats.

The Congress won Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Abohar, Batala and Pathankot corporations in the civic polls on February 7, held against the backdrop of the farmers' agitation over the new agri-marketing laws.

In Moga, the party has fallen short by just six seats to get a majority in the municipal corporation.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Lawyers for a 22-year-old Indian activist charged with sedition said she was arrested illegally in southern India and produced at a New Delhi court without prior notice to her family or counsel, according to legal documents filed on Thursday.

Disha Ravi, an environmental activist who is part of an organisation founded by climate change crusader Greta Thunberg, was arrested by Delhi Police on Saturday for allegedly creating and sharing an online document that stoked violence last month at the months-long farmers’ protests around Delhi.

Unnao (UP), Feb 17 (PTI) The bodies of two minor Dalit girls were found in a field here on Wednesday, police said.

Three minor girls were found in the filed in the evening by the villagers when they did not return after they left their house to bring fodder for the cattle, they said.

The villagers informed the police and rushed the girls to a hospital, where two of them were declared brought dead while one was taken to the Unnao hospital for treatment, they said.

NEW DELHI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Indian farmers on Thursday began countrywide stop train protests against the three controversial farm laws, officials said.

Reports from various places like Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka and Bihar said hundreds of farmers took to railway tracks in a bid to stop the plying of trains.

The four-hour nationwide protest is an attempt to give pressure to the government to repeal three agriculture laws.

The stop train protest was announced last week by an alliance of farmer unions spearheading the agitations.

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Six people were arrested and 4,500 live cartridges were seized from their possession in north Delhi, police said on Thursday.

The accused have been identified as Ramesh Kumar, Dipanshu, Ikram, Akram, Manoj Kumar and Amit Rao, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said six people were arrested by the northern range of Delhi Police's Special Cell and 4,500 live cartridges were seized from them.

Pune, Feb 18 (PTI) Members belonging to various organisations and political parties on Thursday held a 'rail roko' agitation at the Pune railway station to register their protest against the Centre's three farm laws, officials said.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions, which has been spearheading the protest at Delhi borders, had announced this nationwide rail blockade to press for its demand to repeal the legislations.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian court on Wednesday cleared journalist Priya Ramani of criminal defamation charges brought by former union minister M. J. Akbar after she publicly accused him of sexual assault in 2018.

The verdict by a court in New Delhi has been hailed as a victory for India’s #MeToo movement, in which Akbar - a veteran editor who founded many publications - was one of the highest profile figures to be accused.

Mumbai, Feb 17 (PTI) India is brimming with confidence, and the events on the borders and the government's decision to liberalise geospatial data are representative of the same, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.

Modi said in the past, security considerations were the biggest red light which prevented the government from undertaking the measure to liberalise map making and access to geospatial data.