In a boost for the country s surveillance capabilities to monitor activities of both military warships and merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), the Sindhu Netra satellite developed by a team of young scientists from Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was successfully deployed in space on Sunday. The satellite was launched using the Indian Space Research Organisation s (ISRO) PSLV-C51 which took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 10:30 am today. The Sindhu Netra satellite has been developed by the young scientists of the DRDO and is capable of automatically identifying the warships and merchant ships operating in the IOR. The satellite has also started communicating with the ground systems, government sources told ANI.
Maharashtra minister Sanjay Rathod, facing flak from the opposition BJP after being linked to a woman s death, on Sunday resigned from the state cabinet. Rathod made the announcement after submitting his resignation to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is also the president of his Shiv Sena party. There has been a lot of dirty politics over the issue of the woman s death, Rathod told reporters, adding he has quit the ministry so that the truth can come out. Rathod, who holds the forest portfolio, was facing allegations of complicity in the death of Puja Chavan (23), a resident of Beed district, who was found dead in Pune on February 8, apparently after falling off from the building in which she lived.
Kerala Chief Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday persisted with his attack on Rahul Gandhi and questioned the Congress leader s silence over his party-led government losing power in states such as Karnataka, Vijayan also sought to know why Gandhi was not visiting the states where Congress was directly fighting the BJP. Rahul Gandhi is a prominent leader of the Congress party. Is he visiting any state where the Congress is directly fighting with the BJP? What role did he play in Goa, Manipur, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and the latest in Puducherry? Why is he silent about these states? Why is Rahul Gandhi, a national leader of Congress party shying away from the places where his party directly fights with the BJP? Vijayan asked.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said there is a need to restructure the UPA, and the new alliance should be led by a senior leader like Sharad Pawar as many regional parties are not ready to work under the leadership of the Congress. The future of this alliance would depend on the sacrifice and liberality of the Congress, he said. He added that there was no National Democratic Alliance (NDA) left in the country as its allies have quit it, but similarly, the existence of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is not visible as it has very few parties now.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Shivraj Singh Chouhan asserted on Sunday that the BJP will win the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, and Mamata Banerjee will lose her chief ministership on May 2 the day the votes will be counted. Offering puja at the Dakshineswar Temple on the banks of the Hooghly on the northern fringes of Kolkata, Chouhan said he prayed for a violence-free Bengal. After the misrule by Congress and CPI(M), resulting in Bengal s decline over the years, the state of affairs touched a new bottom with cut money and corruption culture during Trinamool Congress s rule. People of the state want a change and will bring BJP to power this time, he told reporters.