Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of March, 2018

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of March, 2018

Press Trust of India

Mar 1: New Delhi: Indian companies can now participate in construction and installation works in the "non-critical" category for the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom said today.

Mar 2: Raipur/Hyderabad: At least 10 Maoists, including six women, were killed today when Telangana Police's Greyhounds swooped on a Naxal camp in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district in an early morning operation in which a personnel of the elite force also lost his life, officials said.

Mar 3: Agartala/Kohima/Shillong: Riding the crest of a Modi wave, the BJP today demolished the communist citadel of Tripura, winning a two-third majority with ally IPFT and ending 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

Mar 4: New Delhi: A nearly Rs 40,000 crore deal to procure S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia is yet to be concluded mainly due to differences over price which India would look to sort out during Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's upcoming visit to Moscow, official sources said.

Mar 5: Kohima: The BJP today said it would form the government in Nagaland with its pre-poll alliance partner NDPP and ruled out extending support to its 15-year-old ally Naga People's Front (NPF), which emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly polls.

Mar 6: New Delhi, Mar 6 (PTI) Karti Chidambaram, the arrested son of Congress leader P Chidambaram, was today sent to three more days of CBI custody by a trial court in the INX Media bribery case and also failed to get Supreme Court's interim protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a related money laundering case.

Mar 7: Amaravati/New Delhi, March 7 (PTI) The TDP tonight decided to pull out of the NDA government at the Centre and asked two of its ministers in the Modi government to tender their resignation tomorrow, but kept the door for ties with the BJP ajar.

Mar 8: New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court today restored the marriage of Hadiya, a Hindu woman who had converted to Islam and entered into wedlock with a Muslim man, setting aside a Kerala High Court order, and ruling that no court can interfere in the marriage of two consulting adults.

Mar 9: New Delhi: In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court today recognised that a terminally-ill patient or a person in persistent vegetative state can execute an "advance medical directive" or a "living will" to refuse medical treatment, saying the right to live with dignity also includes "smoothening" the process of dying. By Abhishek Anshu & Manohar Lal Mar 10: New Delhi: India and France today inked 14 pacts, including in key areas of defence, nuclear energy and protection of classified information besides resolving to boost cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that the synergy between the two sides was from "land to sky".

Mar 11: Lucknow/Patna: Low to moderate polling was today recorded in the Lok Sabha by-elections in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur and Phulpur and Bihar's Araria, being viewed as yet another test for the BJP ahead of the general elections next year.

Mar 12: Varanasi (UP): With Lok Sabha elections just in a year's time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a slew of schemes for poor and emphasised on harnessing solar energy for cooking.

Mar 13: New Delhi: The Army has said it was reeling under severe fund crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurements when there was a real possibility of a two-front war and both China as well as Pakistan were carrying out modernisation of their defence forces in "full swing".

Mar 14: New Delhi: An all-women sailing team of the Indian Navy today left Cape Town for its return journey to India, nearly six months after embarking on a historic voyage to circumnavigate the globe.

Mar 15: New Delhi: The YSR Congress today gave a notice for moving a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led NDA government following the Centre's refusal to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh and found unlikely support from its arch-rival Telugu Desam Party.

Mar 16: Mumbai: Actor Irrfan Khan today revealed that he has been diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumour, a rare form of cancer that can target various parts of the body, and is out of the country for treatment.

Mar 17: New Delhi: The Congress today decided that it would forge workable alliances with like-minded parties as part of efforts to get battle-ready for 2019 general election, with its chief Rahul Gandhi asserting that the country was "fatigued" and only his party could show the way forward.

Mar 18: New Delhi: Blowing the bugle for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress today launched a fierce attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and resolved to promote ordinary party workers, as it sought to woo the youth and farmers at its 84th plenary session.

Mar 19: Bengaluru: The Karnataka Cabinet today decided to recommend to the Centre grant of religious minority status for the numerically strong Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community, a move that has stoked a huge row just months ahead of Assembly polls in the state.

Mar 20: New Delhi/Chandigarh: The 39 Indians abducted in Iraq in 2014 were killed by Islamic State terrorists and buried in a mass grave, the government told Parliament today, setting off a row with the opposition, which accused it of being insensitive for not informing the victims' families first.

Mar 21: New Delhi: The Centre today gave its nod for the launch of Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission, which will provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per year and benefit more than 10 crore families belonging to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society.

Mar 22: New Delhi: The AAP government today presented a Rs 53,000-crore budget that focused on the environment, health and education sectors.

Mar 23: New Delhi: BJP won 12 of the remaining 25 seats at stake in crucial Rajya Sabha biennial polls in seven states today amid high drama in Uttar Pradesh where it clinched an extra ninth seat overcoming the newfound bonhomie between former arch rivals SP and BSP.

Mar 24: Srinagar: The son of Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, the newly elected chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, has reportedly joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said today.

Mar 25: New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today refuted reports about a fresh data leak of Aadhaar holders, and asserted that there has been "absolutely no breach" of its database.

Mar 26: New Delhi: The LJP, a BJP ally, today filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its order relaxing stringent provisions of a law dealing with cases of atrocities against Dalits, even as a top Union minister also favoured a similar stand from the government.

Mar 27: New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind today conferred Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra posthumously to Major David Manlun and Major Satish Dahiya, who lost their lives while fighting with militants in Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir.

Mar 28: New Delhi: The government today unveiled plans to sell up to 76 per cent stake in Air India and transfer the management control to private players, starting the ambitious strategic disinvestment process for the debt-laden national carrier.

Mar 29: Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today attached assets worth over Rs 2,300 crore, including two dozen hotels and resorts, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rose Valley ponzi scam case.

Mar 30: New Delhi: Students and Congress youth leaders today held protests in several parts of the national capital against CBSE board papers being leaked, accusing the board of negligence and demanding immediate action against the guilty.

Mar 31: Kibithu: India has deployed more troops and significantly increased patrolling in the mountainous terrains of Dibang, Dau-Delai and Lohit valleys along the borders with China in the Tibetan region in Arunachal sector following the Doklam face-off, the most tense military confrontations between the two countries in decades.

(Source PTI)