VARANASI: Utter chaos prevailed in the trade tax office premises on Tuesday when lawyers and office employees came face to face. Situation became normal only after intervention of senior officers and police.

VARANASI: When the political class of the country is busy creating uproar in the Parliament on the issue of women reservation, the most essential and primary need of the fair sex-- particularly the adolescent girls--which is proper nourishment, has been overlooked.

If the analysis of a study conducted by the medicos of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is to be believed, the nutritional status of adolescent girls has been far from satisfactory and it calls for urgent interventions at individual, family as well as community level.

NEW DELHI: Diagnostic chains such as Dr Lal Pathlabs, Super Religare Laboratories, Piramal Diagnostics and Metropolis are scouting for regional
diagnostic centres, which could trigger cons olidation and increase the market share of the organised players to about one-third of the total market in the next few years, company officials said.

At present, the $1-2 billion domestic diagnostic and imaging market is dominated by standalone regional players and organised chains hold 5-10% market share. These companies are growing at 40-50% compared with the industry growth of 15-20%.

CHENNAI: The video clips that appeared on television channels were fake and it was the work of miscreants who wanted to defame him and his establishment, Swami Nithyananda of Dharmapeetam said in a statement here on Sunday.

Swami Nithyananda's attorney M. Shreedhar, who met journalists at his office to give away a CD with a recording of Nithyananda speaking, said the video clips had been morphed and Swami's camp had not raised suspicion against anyone till now. He added that Swami Nithyananda was now in Varanasi attending the Kumbh Mela.

VARANASI: World Literacy Canada, a non-profit Canadian organisation, is all set to launch an innovative 'Teacher Role Model (TRM) Project' to mark the International Women's Day in the district.

As per Sachin Kumar, TRM manager (India), the project to be started on March 9 in the district would train, mentor and employ as many as 400 young women (aged between 18 and 25 years) from villages of Varanasi and Chandauli. It would also help those women to become empowered teachers and role models in their communities, he added.

Two faculty members in the Department of Mechanical Engineering have won Career awards, the highly selective grants that the National Science Foundation awards to junior faculty members who are likely to become academic leaders of the future.

VARANASI: Taking a serious note of the complaint regarding human rights violation in the district jail of Varanasi, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the inspector general of prison of Uttar Pradesh to instruct the police chief of the district to conduct a probe into the matter and submit report to the UP State Human Rights Commission within four weeks.

Chennai: Officials of Nithyananda Ashram, which was in the eye of a storm after its founder was allegedly caught on camera indulging in a sleazy act, today dismissed as ''morphed'', the Swamiji's image shown along with a Tamil actress in a compromising position.

Addressing a hurriedly convened press conference here, Ashram Advocate M Sridhar and Administrative Officer Athma Prabhananda claimed ''The images shown on the TV are not those of Swami Nityananda.''

Lucknow : To spread awareness about the use of forest resources, children as well as adults living in villages across 17 districts of the state will soon take a pledge to play pivotal roles in saving forests as part of the Uttar Pradesh Participatory Forest Management and Poverty Alleviation Programme (UPPFMPAP).

VARANASI: Inaction against grabbers of patta land allotted to the landless despite removing their possession has brought the sub-divisional magistrates and other concerned officials concerned on their toes.