Author: Arijit Bose

Navi Mumbai Named India’s Cleanest City; Surat Second, Vijayawada Third in Swachh Survekshan 2025-26

Arijit Bose

NEW DELHI – Navi Mumbai has been declared India’s cleanest city in the Centre’s annual Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 rankings, ending Indore’s eight-year run at the top. Surat in Gujarat took second place, while Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh came third. The results were announced on Wednesday at an awards ceremony in New Delhi, where President Droupadi Murmu presented the honours to the winning cities. Conducted under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the survey assessed more than 4,700 urban local bodies across the country. Navi…

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Lucknow Mob Beats Mentally Challenged Woman Over Child-Lifting Suspicion; 3 Arrested

Arijit Bose

LUCKNOW – A mentally challenged woman was tied up and badly beaten by a mob in Lucknow’s Indiranagar area after locals wrongly suspected her of trying to lift a child. A video of the assault went viral on social media, prompting police action, and three people have been arrested. The incident took place early Tuesday morning near a poultry farm in the Sugamau shanty settlement, under the Indiranagar police station. According to police, the woman, identified as Lakshmi Rawat, a resident of Barabanki district, had wandered into the settlement and…

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Union Cabinet Clears ₹2,390 Crore Extension of Noida Metro’s Aqua Line

Arijit Bose

NEW DELHI – The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the extension of the Noida Metro’s Aqua Line from Noida Sector 51 to Greater Noida Sector 4, at an estimated cost of ₹2,390 crore. The new stretch will be an 8.449-km, fully elevated corridor with five new stations. Once it opens, the combined operational metro network across Noida and Greater Noida will grow to 71.878 km. Announcing the decision, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the corridor will significantly improve public transport in…

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President’s Bodyguard Jawan Shot in Head After Diwali Firecracker Row in Baghpat

Arijit Bose

BAGHPAT, Uttar Pradesh – A 26-year-old soldier of the President’s Bodyguard (PBG), the elite Army regiment that guards Rashtrapati Bhavan, was shot in the head during a quarrel over firecrackers on Diwali night in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. Saurabh Tomar, a resident of Gopalpur Khadana village under Ramala police station, had come home on leave to celebrate the festival with his family. On the night of November 8, he was bursting crackers outside his house with his brothers Vineet and Mintu when two neighbouring brothers, Dheeraj and Monu, also known…

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Yogi Adityanath Backs Diwali Fireworks, Brushes Off Pollution Worries

Arijit Bose

LUCKNOW – Speaking at a government event in Lucknow on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made it clear he has no regrets about how the state celebrated Diwali, even as air quality across north India took a beating. The event was an appointment-letter distribution ceremony, but the chief minister used part of his speech to address the pollution debate that followed the festival. He said some people were blaming Diwali for the foul air, and he questioned why that should bother anyone, since the pollution would clear in…

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A Muslim-Dalit front takes shape in Uttar Pradesh

Arijit Bose

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh politics is shifting ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections. On 11 November 2026, multiple reports said AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Azad Samaj Party (ASP) leader Chandrashekhar Azad, also known as Ravan, have agreed to contest together. A joint press conference is set for 12 November in Lucknow to announce the alliance, seat-sharing and strategy. Many see it as an attempt to move beyond the Muslim-Yadav (MY) formula tied to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and build a Muslim-Dalit combination. Where MY came from For decades, MY was…

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The Gomti: a river Lucknow lives beside but rarely looks at

Arijit Bose

Lucknow: Every morning, Lucknow wakes up next to the Gomti. Office-goers cross its bridges, joggers circle the riverfront promenade, and devotees get ready for the ghats. And yet most people in the city barely notice the river. It’s scenery. With Chhath only days away and the winter flow already thin, that is getting harder to get away with. The question is a simple and uncomfortable one: is the Gomti getting cleaner, or just better-looking? What the water says Post-monsoon assessments don’t offer much comfort. Dissolved oxygen is often far below…

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Metro Stuck, City Growing: Who Moves Lucknow Now?

Arijit Bose

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav recently said the BJP government “has not been able to extend the metro network even by 10 centimetres in 10 years.” He also credited the earlier SP government with starting the Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra metro projects. With the 2027 Assembly elections drawing closer and politics heating up, the claim invites a simple question: is it true? The honest answer is that it depends on what you count. Lucknow’s only working line is the North-South Red Line, which runs 22.9 km from CCS Airport…

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Akhilesh Yadav Steps Up Attack on Yogi Government, Targets Voter Lists, Expressway Tenders and School Mergers

Arijit Bose

SP chief challenges CM to repost claim of 1.27 crore missing votes, turns ‘80-20’ formula into political taunt; Brajesh Pathak hits back with ‘one district, one mafia’ charge Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has intensified his attack on the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, raising questions over electoral rolls, alleging irregularities in expressway contracts and criticising the government’s school merger policy. His latest remarks have triggered a fresh exchange with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior BJP leaders as political preparations gather momentum ahead of the 2027…

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Lucknow’s AQI Worsens to 245 After Diwali, Improves to 172 as Winds Disperse Pollutants

Arijit Bose

Lucknow: Lucknow witnessed a sharp deterioration in air quality over the Diwali weekend, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) rising from 207 on November 7 to 233 on Diwali, November 8, and reaching 245 on November 9. However, stronger winds brought some relief on Tuesday, November 10, bringing the AQI down to 172. According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, based on readings from six monitoring stations across the city, the AQI remained in the ‘Poor’ category (201–300) on Diwali and the following day. The improvement on Tuesday brought…

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