Gujarat

Ahmedabad, Nov 22 (PTI) After the 182-meter tall `Statue of Unity' of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Gujarat may get a gigantic Buddha statue.

Sanghakaya Foundation, a non-profit Buddhist organisation, said Thursday that it has demanded land from the government for installing an 80-feet high statue of Lord Buddha in Gandhinagar district.

It has roped in Ram Sutar, the sculptor behind the Statue of Unity, for the project, it said.

"We are expecting to get land soon," president of the foundation Bhante Prashil Ratna told reporters here.

Ahmedabad (Guj), Nov 6 (PTI) Hours after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced the renaming of Faizabad district as Ayodhya, the Gujarat government Tuesday said it was keen on rechristening Ahmedabad as Karnavati, if there were no legal hurdles.

Speaking to reporters in Gandhinagar, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was willing to change Ahmedabad's name if it gets past the legal hurdles and receives required support.

A witness for Sohrabuddin fake encounter case has made a statement to the court that Director General of Police Vanjara ordered Ex Home Minister’s Haren Pandya’s murder

Witness said that Sohrabuddin told him about receiving money to kill Pandya.

Witness was arrested in 2005 by Rajsthan Police, and was kept in Udaipur jail, where he met Prajapati, who told him that Gujarat police killed Sohrabuddin and his wife in a fake encounter.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's Statue; a 597ft giant bronze monument has been condemned as a vanity project, and has outraged many in the United Kingdom.

Britain gave more than £1billion to India while it was building the world's tallest Statue of Unity - almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty in the US.

Hardik Patel asks the regional parties to unite if they want any election after 2019. Patel was speaking to The Indian Express ahead of the 9th State Convention of the Sambhaji Brigade Maharashtra in Alibaugh.

Patel stressed that forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019 will be a contest between Modi and the farmers.

Ahmedabad, Oct 26 (PTI) A 42-year-old farmer allegedly committed suicide late Thursday night in Gujarat's Jamnagar district apparently over crop failure and cash crunch, police said.

Rana Gaagia (41) hanged himself from an electricity poll at Vavdi village of Lalpur taluka, police said.

The deceased's relative, Somat, in his complaint to Lalpur police, claimed that Rana was facing severe cash crunch and committed suicide due to the loss of his cotton crop following a poor monsoon.

Ahmedabad, Oct 25 (PTI) BJP MP Subramanian Swamy on Thursday said CBI Director Alok Verma is an "upright officer" who was doing a "good job" to check corruption and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider action taken against him.

Swamy said he has full faith in the prime minister but claimed that those "around him" are trying to "harm the interests" of Modi as well as the BJP.

Verma and CBI's Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who were at loggerheads, were divested of all powers and sent on leave by the government on Tuesday night.

Surat (Guj), Oct 24 (PTI) A priest associated with the Swaminarayan sect here in Gujarat was arrested Wednesday for allegedly raping a 20-year-old woman on two occasions under the pretext of offering money for her mother's surgery, the police said.

The accused Nikunj alias Karan Swarupdas Babubhai Savani (24) had allegedly raped the woman, a local resident, around a fortnight ago in a room adjacent to the Swaminarayan temple at Dabholi under Katargam police station and again on October 23, a police official said.

Palanpur (Guj), Oct 22 (PTI) A 13-year-old girl was abducted and raped allegedly by a local farm labourer in Vav in Gujarat's Banaskantha district, police said Monday.

The incident happened in Dethdi village in the early hours Saturday and a complaint was filed by the minor's mother Sunday, a Vav police station official said.

New Delhi; GANASHAKTI: Tension has gripped Gujarat ever since the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl by a Bihar native, forcing over 50,000 migrants from North India to leave the state amid the spate of violence. The 'exodus' of people has kicked off a storm in the political circle with Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam reminding Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he too will have to visit Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi to seek votes.