8 workers killed in Vizag steel plant mishap

VIZAG, June 8: Molten iron was spilled onto workers of Andhra Pradesh’s Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) in Vishakhapatnam on Monday. The incident left at least eight workers dead and injuring six others.

According to information shared with health minister Satya Kumar Yadav by Visakhapatnam district health officials, the bodies of four deceased have reached the steel plant's general hospital.

As rescue and assessment operations are underway, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed shock over the incident. “He spoke to the steel plant authorities and enquired about the incident. He asked the district authorities to rush to the spot and take up rescue operations,” an official statement said.

A large quantity of molten iron fell on the workers at the plant, leaving several dead and others injured. The incident took place at around 4.30pm in the plant's Continuous Casting Department (CCD) under the Steel Melting Shop (SMS) section.

According to the police, molten iron was spilt while being moved in a bucket by a crane. Police said the molten iron was extremely hot at about 1,600 degrees Celsius.

Media distrust emerges as a key theme among Cockroach Janta Party protesters

NEW DELHI, June 6: At the Jantar Mantar protest by Cockroach Janta Party, an online movement seeking to translate its instant virality into on-the-ground impact within three weeks, distrust of the media emerged as a key theme among participants in Delhi on Saturday.

While the protest called by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who returned from the US in the morning, remained peaceful, a section of the protestors wanted less of the mainstream media there.

“Hum Godi Media se baat nahi kareinge,” said a number of protesters to multiple news outlets, using the popular term for ‘lapdog’ or pro-government media that has evidently reached the Gen-Z lexicon too. Slogans to that effect were raised too, such as “media-walo bahar niklo” (‘get out, you mediapersons’).

However, CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka calmed this section of the protests, saying that “truly biased media” had “already left after declaring everyone here as anti-national”.

He assured the protestors that the ones still there, talking to the crowd, were “not like them”. “Jo zor-zor se chillaate hain, woh already live karke, humein anti-national bol kar, chale gaye hain. Yeh sab log, ache log hain. Humari protest cover karna chahte hai, aur inka saath humein dena hai,” said Ranka, telling the crowd not to target all journalists.

The Jantar Mantar protest was planned after Dipke — who set up the CJP social media accounts mid-May to reclaim the word ‘cockroach’, used by Chief Justice Surya Kant during a hearing — announced his return to India in a video on June 1. In this video message, Dipke called for his “fellow cockroaches” to gather.

The focused demand was the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over recent exam-related controversies, such as the NEET-UG leak and the CBSE paper-checking system seeing problems.

After securing police permission for the protest at the last minute on Saturday, hundreds gathered in the sweltering heat.

The crowd, led by Dipke and newly-appointed CJP spokespersons Vijeta Dahiya, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, called for Pradhan’s resignation.

As they chanted “Dharmendra Pradhan isteefa do,” the sentiment on the ground went beyond just exams. Many referred to India’s ranking on the World Press Freedom Index 2026, which is 157th, down from 151st in 2025. This ranking was also mentioned during a row that erupted during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Norway, when a question from a Norwegian journalist triggered a rebuttal from the Ministry of External Affairs.

The ‘Cockroach’ protest overall drew a crowd that went beyond students and Gen-Z. Teachers, parents and even senior citizens joined in.

18 Foreigners Among 21 Killed In Fire At Delhi Hotel

NEW DELHI, June 3: At least 21 people were killed, and several were injured after a massive fire ripped through a bed-and-breakfast in Delhi's Malviya Nagar. The fire, which is believed to have been caused by a short circuit, has pushed the Delhi government into action as the capital reels from this disaster.

While police officials believe the death toll may increase, it has been confirmed that at least 18 foreign nationals were killed in the fire on Wednesday morning.

As per people familiar with the matter, the victims were nationals from African nations, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and more. The ministry of external affairs said it was in touch with the respective embassies and extending assistance.

The hotel, which caught fire on Wednesday, Flourish Stay BnB, reportedly did not have any fire safety clearance. As per a PTI report, the building originally had a ground floor and one storey, when fire clearance was not required. However, six to seven years later, more floors were constructed without informing the required authorities. Furthermore, officials also said that the BnB only had permission for six rooms under government policy, but was operating 24 rooms.

Police have registered an FIR under charges of culpable homicide and other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in connection with the fire.

Police officials stated that the owner of the building in Malviya Nagar, Lavkesh Bajaj, had been detained. There was no update regarding the whereabouts of licence holder Jai Mishra.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Wednesday ordered a month-long drive to check fire safety compliance at all hotels, nursing homes, coaching institutes, restaurants and other vulnerable commercial establishments in the capital. Sandhu also chaired a meeting with the concerned departments and directed the officials to commence the drive from June 4 to check strict compliance with fire safety norms.

Delhi's home minister Ashish Sood also ordered a city-wide enforcement drive for Bed and Breakfast establishments across Delhi. Based on the minister's orders, the Delhi Fire Services and the Power Department have been asked to immediately conduct a comprehensive physical inspection of all registered and suspected B&B establishments.

DK Shivakumar Takes Oath As Karnataka Chief Minister, G Parameshwara Is His Deputy

BANGALURU, June 3: DK Shivakumar, one of Congress's best-known faces from south India, took oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka today. G Parameshwara, who served as the state's home minister, took oath as his deputy. Apart from both leaders, 12 others were inducted into the state cabinet.

Among them were Yathindra Siddaramaiah, Priyank Kharge, MB Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, KH Muniyappa, KJ George, Krishna Byre Gowda, Ramalinga Reddy, UT Khader, Eshwar Khandre, Byrathi Suresh and Dr Sharan Prakash Patil.

Hours after he took oath as the chief minister of Karnataka, DK Shivakumar rolled out a slew of welfare measures, with a focus on youth recruitment and students.

Among the announcements made after his first cabinet meeting in the state was the decision to issue free bus passes to students.

Shivakumar said that travel for students in government buses would now be free of cost. “We will issue free bus pass to all students,” he said. These will be applicable for non-luxury government buses.

In a bid to address the issue of unemployment, the Karnataka CM said his government would set up a private employment exchange where people can enrol for jobs. “Modalities for private employment exchange will be finalised within a month,” Shivakumar stated.

Shivakumar further said that for youth recruitment in government jobs, a calendar of events would be announced soon and further promised decisions to address and prevent the migration of farmers. “The government has already announced 56,000 jobs. By the next cabinet meeting, we will call all departments and release a calendar indicating when notifications will be issued and how the recruitment process will begin,” he said.

Shivakumar also said the state government would extend the drive to issue A-Khata document to unauthorised buildings across Karnataka, and announced the setting up of 10,000 Bharat Jodo Yuva Sangha to raise leadership quality and build social harmony. ₹10 lakh would be given to the Bharat Jodo Yuva Sangha in each village Panchayat, he added. The CM said that each gram panchayat and urban ward would have one such youth body with 150 to 200 members.

The cabinet also approved an outlay of ₹2,000 crore for road infrastructure works in Bengaluru, including areas under the Greater Bengaluru Authority and the Bengaluru Development Authority.

Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah resigned from his post on May 28, saying he had been asked by the Congress high command to step down. Shivakumar, who was deputy CM in Siddaramaiah's cabinet, was unanimously elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Karnataka on May 30. He had since 2020 held the post of the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

After Shivakumar's oath-taking, senior Congress leader BK Hariprasad was appointed as the new president of the KPCC.

Rahul meets Gen-Z blogger Sarthak as govt finally acts on CBSE amid paper-checking scandal

NEW DELHI, June 2: Leader of the Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday evening met Sarthak Sidhant, the 17-year-old whose blog exposed alleged irregularities in the procurement of the CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. He is the second teenaged whistleblower — of the three overall — whom Gandhi has publicly backed in three days.

The meeting came hours after Sidhant deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, sharing his probe; hours after which the Narendra Modi government changed the CBSE chairman and ordered an inquiry into the OSM procurement.

Sidhant says he caught "at least 15 discrepancies" in successive CBSE tenders, and that rules were rewritten to favour the firm running OSM, Coempt EduTeck; the CBSE and the firm have denied the allegations. The CBSE has acknoledged errors in the OSM and sought to correct them over the past week since the issue blew up.

“Sarthak, apne sidhanton pe adig raho,” Rahul said in Hindi on X, using the student's name in wordplay to say, “Sarthak, stay firm on your principles ('sidhant').”

He also used the coinage ‘#TenderInvestigator’ in another a play on the teenager's trawl through tender documents on the Central Public Procurement portal.

The gesture follows Gandhi's May 31 meeting with Vedant Shrivastava, the Class 12 student who found that the Physics answer sheet CBSE uploaded under his roll number was not his. His X post had crossed 2.5 million views and forced the board to admit a scanning mix-up.

In a video of that interaction, Gandhi turned the online abuse the students had faced into mockery of their critics. "A revealing chat with my fellow 'anti-national Soros agents'," Gandhi wrote.

"Vedant and his friends are brilliant, brave young Indians who asked CBSE and the Modi government simple questions but got insults instead of answers. They deserve a bright and secure future. We will make sure they get it."

In the clip, Vedant told Gandhi he had been branded a "Pakistani agent" for flagging the wrong answer sheet. Gandhi asked the students, "Were you also called 'terrorists'? Tell me!" He then laughed: "Seventeen-year-old 'deep state agents'! Show their faces… Come on, show the faces of these 'terrorists'!"

Vedant's elder brother Siddhant said critics had tried to portray them as "deep state agents" seeking to create unrest rather than engage with their complaints.

Sidhant, Vedant and a third teenager — 19-year-old Nisarga Adhikary, an ethical hacker who flagged vulnerabilities in the OSM portal — have become the public faces of a wider revolt against this year's run of examination failures, which also includes the cancelled NEET-UG 2026 medical entrance test, now headed for a June 21 re-test after a paper leak. (Nisarga does not exactly show his face, using Anime images instead as his identity.)

Their findings have been picked up also by the Cockroach Janta Party, an online movement that came last month. It is demanding the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and plans a protest at Jantar Mantar on June 6. That ‘party’ is itself a wordplay on the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant's comments referencing insects and parasites last month.

Rahul Gandhi has separately demanded Pradhan's removal and a judicial inquiry into the OSM row. Pradhan has said he takes "full responsibility" for the disruptions and promised no further lapses.

CBSE Chairman, Secretary Transferred, Panel Formed To Probe Irregularities In On-Screen Marking System

NEW DELHI, June 2: The Chairman and Secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education have been transferred following the huge controversy over the On-screen Marking System or OSM.

A panel has been formed To probe the irregularities.

The CBSE officials have acknowledged that around 20 cases of answer-sheet mismatches had been identified during the evaluation process.

CJP chief Dipke to return to india on June 6 to demand eductions minister's resignation

NEW DELHI, June 1: Online activist outfit Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Monday said he will return to India on June 6 and hold a protest offline, to demand the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over recent mess-ups in several examinations across the country, including NEET, CBSE, SSC and CUET.

He said that his party's petition for Pradhan's resignation has the backing of 8 lakh people.

Dipke posted a video message on CJP's official X handle, announcing his return to New Delhi.

"I am coming back to my country, my home, India, to ask for the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. You have been seeing for so many days that we are raising our voice on social media that because of the paper leak, the children who committed suicide and the hard work of lakhs of students that has been wasted — for that, Dharmendra Pradhan should resign," Dipke said.

The CJP had created an online petition on its website, inviting signatures to support the demand for Pradhan's resignation.

Dipke said that 8 lakh young persons have signed the petition, citing that more than 1 crore students were overall affected by the disruptions in the competitive exams. "Crores of people have supported this demand on social media as well. And not just that, there are protests taking place in many places in the country like Lucknow, Jaipur, Maharashtra, Delhi, but still, they (government) are not getting affected," Dipke stated.

"Today, NEET's 22 lakh students, CBSE's 17 lakh students, CUET's 16 lakh students and SSCGD's 40 lakh students, there are more than 1 crore students whose lives have been mocked by the system," he added.

Dipke said that due to these tensions, students are “very anxious and worried about their future.”

If Pradhan fails to resign, Dipke said, it would imply that there is no accountability left in India. He said it appeared as if the system could make as many mistakes without consequences, leaving the students to bear the brunt.

"How long will this go on? That's why the time has come. We all have to come together and walk on the path of India's constitution and peacefully raise our voice and demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan. If we all raise our voice together, then he will have to listen to us," Dipke affirmed.

He invited CJP supporters to meet him at the Delhi airport on the morning of June 6, saying that together, they would go to the Parliament Street Police Station and obtain permission for a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar.

The Cockroach Janta Party's "petition to sack the education minister" has so far been signed by 7,94,518 people, according to the online movement's website. The petition alleges that the education system "is compromised".

"From the tragic loss of students who died by suicide, to the millions of futures broken by a decade of paper leaks, this failure cannot go ignored. There must be consequences. Sign below to demand the immediate removal of the Education Minister," the petition reads.

The central government has increasingly been facing flak from both students and opposition parties after competitive exams, including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), and the Staff Selection Commission GD Constable Exam (SSC-GD) examinations, faced multiple disruptions.

First, the NEET-UG 2026 exams, held on May 3, 2026, were cancelled by the National Testing Agency (NTA) after an alleged nationwide paper leak. While the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the matter, the NTA has rescheduled the examinations for June 21.

Then the CBSE Class 12 board exams were mired in a series of mess-ups. Students had to endlessly wait for the results as the education board kept sharing 'coming soon' updates, with no results in sight. Later, CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal created tensions for students, as several claimed that the evaluated answer sheets uploaded to the site were not theirs. One such student, who raised the matter on X, got massively trolled and was even tagged a 'Pakistani'. However, CBSE later admitted to the answer sheet mix-up.

Soon after, a 19-year-old 'ethical hacker' claimed to have found massive irregularities and loopholes in the OSM portal. Another 17-year-old raised flags after 'examining' the OSM contract.

Days after the 19-year-old's allegations, the CBSE said on Sunday that it is "closely monitoring the situation" with a team of cybersecurity experts. It said that the identified vulnerabilities of the OSM portal had been contained, adding that other "exploitable weaknesses" were being ruled out.

"We are grateful to all alert citizens and ethical hackers pointing out such weaknesses, and have gotten in touch with some of them directly," the board said in a statement on X.

After the NEET-UG 'paper leak' row, NTA faced another big blow with the delay of the CUET exam. The exam, which was scheduled for May 30, was delayed at some centres across the country due to a technical glitch, according to NTA.

The agency said the examination at the centres that experienced the glitch was being conducted with full compensatory time, causing no loss to candidates.

The SSC GD exam, held on May 25, also spiralled into chaos at several centres across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with students reportedly left stranded at various places due to sudden cancellations.

In one such instance, authorities at an examination centre in UP's Kanpur were forced to cancel both shifts after nearly double the number of candidates were allotted seats. As many as 819 candidates were issued admit cards for each shift at a centre with a seating capacity of 399 candidates.

Several political leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and former Delhi chief minister Atishi, launched stark attacks on education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. They slammed the controversies surrounding competitive exams.

“NEET. CBSE. SSC. And today CUET. Four exams. One crore children. Not a single one conducted with honesty," Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “completely ruined the entire education system”.

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee also slammed the irregularities in the NEET, CBSE, and SSC GD exams, saying that "India's youth are being pushed into a cycle of anxiety, uncertainty and BETRAYAL."

"Crores of students spend years preparing, sacrificing sleep, resources, mental peace and family expectations with the hope that hard work will secure their future. What do they receive in return? Paper leaks. Technical glitches. Mismanagement. Overcrowded centres. Broken systems," Banerjee posted on X.