UP Cong chief, over 50 party workers arrested for taking out Gai Bachao, Kisan Bachao march

New Delhi: Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases from September 18 while Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on October 1, the Election Commission announced on Friday.

Voting will take place for 90 seats in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18, September 25 and October 1, the EC said.

Votes will be counted on October 4 for both the assemblies, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told a press conference.

The last assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in November-December 2014 and these will be the first assembly elections in the erstwhile state since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

New Delhi: Healthcare services have been hit across the nation as doctors responded to the Indian Medical Association's (IMA) call for a 24-hour withdrawal of medical services from 6 am on Saturday till Sunday.

Amid growing protests over the gruesome rape-murder of a trainee doctor at a Kolkata hospital, The IMA has called for a nationwide strike during which routine OPD services and elective surgeries will not be conducted. However, all emergency services will be functional.

The Health Ministry has requested the agitating doctors to resume their duties in the public interest and assured them that a committee would be set up to ensure the safety of healthcare professionals. Representatives of all stakeholders including state governments have been invited to share their suggestions with the committee. 

OPD services at major Delhi hospitals remain suspended as doctors at Guru Teg Bahadur, Ram Manohar Lohia and DDU hospitals along with AIIMS continue their protest.

In Jharkhand, all government and private hospitals are taking part in the strike, IMA said. Multiple medical organisations have also planned to take out a march in Ranchi later in the day. A sit-in protest by doctors is on at Assam Medical College and Hospital, the oldest medical college in the Northeast.

In Chennai, doctors have organised a boycott protest while outpatient departments of both government and private hospitals have been affected across West Bengal.

The IMA's Chandigarh unit has suspended OPD services and will conduct a protest march. In Bengaluru, over 1,000 doctors will participate in a protest at the IMA office.

IMA, the largest organisation of doctors in India, has demanded an overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors, including 36-hour shifts and safe places to rest. It sought a central law to prevent violence against medical professionals at workplaces.

In its statement, the IMA has put forth a list of demands to ensure that security protocols of hospitals "be no less than (that of) an airport". Hospitals should be declared as safe zones with CCTVs and higher deployment of security personnel, it said.

The nationwide strike comes a day after medical students across Indian cities conducted protest marches and staged dharnas against the alleged inaction over the horrific rape-murder that has sent shockwaves across the country.

Protesting doctors at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the horrific crime took place, have accused the police of mishandling the case and the ruling Trinamool Congress government of trying to destroy evidence to shield the accused.

The case is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under an order from the Calcutta High Court. "We have identified at least 30 suspects and have started questioning them," a CBI officer said on Friday.

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 22: The tension that surfaced in the airport here on Thursday morning ended after a thorough search on the Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram Air India flight found nothing dangerous, except a note written on a tissue paper in a toilet of the plane, which said 'bomb'.

Earlier, an Air India flight from Mumbai made an emergency landing following a bomb threat. The incident took place around 7.30 a.m. when the pilot of the Air India flight informed the airport authorities about the threat. As soon as the message of the threat was received, the airport went into full alert mode. The bomb squad and all other emergency services were quickly positioned.

After the plane made a touchdown around 8 a.m., it was moved to an isolated area of the airport and all the 136 passengers, including the crew on board, were evacuated safely. Bomb experts entered the plane and carried out a thorough check.

Initially, the authorities were perplexed about how the bomb threat was known to the pilot.

With the Kerala Police taking over the probe, it surfaced that a handwritten note on a tissue paper was recovered from the washroom of the aircraft when the flight was on its journey to here.

On the note was written about the presence of a bomb and that was how the pilot came to know about it, said officials.

Further investigation was on to find out who had written the note, and if there was any motive. Further details were awaited as the probe was ongoing.

The authorities said that the airport was functioning normally.

The entire baggage and the cargo on the Air India aircraft were screened. The passengers have not come out to the arrival lounge of the airport.

The police probe team after getting the list of passengers, spoke to them and the crew also, as the first step of their investigation as the note was recovered from the plane toilet.

The preliminary impression of the police is that chances are high that the note could have been put during the course of the flight.