Haryana DCP kills self
Faridabad: Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Vikram Kapoor committed suicide by shooting himself with the revolver of his gunman at his official residence here on Wednesday, officials said. Police spokesman Sube Singh said a suicide note alleged that Station House Officer (SHO) Bhupani Abdul Shaheed and an associate were blackmailing Kapoor. Based on a complaint of his son, a case has been registered. “We are investigating,” the spokesman said. The incident took place around 5.45 a.m. in Sector 30, Faridabad. His wife heard the gunshot and ran to the room. “With profound grief we inform you that DCP NIT Vikram Kapoor on Wednesday morning committed suicide at his residence. (IANS)
BJP leader to tie ‘rakhi’ to cows
Lucknow: BJP leader Bhukkal Nawab has announced that he will tie ‘rakhi’ to cows on the festival of Raksha Bandhan on Thursday. In a statement, the BJP leader said that men and women would participate in the event to be held in Kubiaghat area of Lucknow. This will be the second consecutive year when such an event will take place. “We will perform ‘Gau puja’ and then tie ‘rakhi’ to cows on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan on Thursday,” he said. He said the event would underline the bond between man and cows and also create awareness against cow slaughter. Bhukkal Nawab, who had quit the Samajwadi Party to join the BJP last year, is now a BJP member in the state Legislative Council. He calls himself a ‘Hanuman bhakt’ and offers prayers at Hanuman temple on special occasions. (IANS)
No namaaz on UP roads
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police has decided to impose a blanket ban on offering of Friday “namaaz” on roads across the state. “On special occasions, when large crowd gathers for offering prayers on festivals, it could be allowed by the district administration, but this practice will not be allowed as a routine during every Friday prayer,” Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh said. Directions have been issued to all the district police chiefs and other authorities to ensure that no namaaz is offered by blocking roads. The DGP said similar ban was initially imposed in Aligarh and Meerut, and now efforts were on to enforce it across the state. The Aligarh district administration had even issued a detailed circular banning namaaz on roads and it has been imposed successfully. Hindu outfits, in retaliation against the practice, had started reciting ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ on roads in several districts on Tuesdays and Saturdays which was gradually paving the way for a confrontation between two communities. (IANS)
Survey launched to rank cities, districts over sanitation
New Delhi: To inculcate behavioural change in rural areas, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Wednesday launched a survey to rank cities and districts on their performance on sanitation parameters. The scale of the Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2019 survey will be three times bigger than the previous editions. The exercise intends to stimulate stakeholders’ behavioural change towards improved sanitation, the Minister said. This year, the survey will also include an added component — assessment of environmental management — of the cities and districts. The survey will cover over 17,000 villages and 700 districts and will be conducted in 34 states and Union Territories. Last year, around 6,000 villages were covered. Over 80,000 public places will be visited for the survey including schools, anganwadis, health centres, community toilets, markets and religious places. The survey will be conducted over 45 days and conclude on September 30. (IANS)
IIT Madras develops robot with good grasping capability
Chennai: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) have developed a Multimodal Robotic System with good grasping, manipulation and locomotion abilities for use in industrial and field applications, the IITM said on Wednesday. In a statement issued here, IITM said the robot system called GraspMan consists of a pair of graspers which provides morphological adaptation, enabling it to conform to the geometry of the object being grasped. This allows the grasper to hold objects securely and manipulate it much like the human hand. A prototype of the grasper has been fabricated at the Robotics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, and the experimental results confirm manipulation capabilities of the robot. (IANS)