Bhopal, Jan 18 (IANS) The country’s first cremation ground for cows will be prepared in Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal and the city’s municipal authorities are already on the lookout for a site for the purpose.

Bhopal Mayor Alok Sharma said: “The municipal corporation wants to prepare a cow cremation centre for their salvation. We will do it as soon as we find a suitable land for it.”

Sharma said that the project was already under discussion during former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s regime, and now they were taking it forward.

Hailing the civic authorities’ effort, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamalnath said the government would encourage the efforts made for the welfare of cows. The government was committed to fulfilling its promises, he said.

The Congress had promised to construct cowsheds at Panchayat level in its manifesto before the Assembly elections.

There are an estimated 227 crore cattle in the state, out of which 90 lakh are milch cows.

Farmer leader Kedar Sirohi has also welcomed the effort and urged the government to take in notice the cows who are dying due to malnutrition at early age.

Stray cattle have become a problem in the state and often cause accidents and destroy crops.

Lucknow, Jan 18 :The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Friday ratified 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections among the upper castes, a government spokesman said.

A meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath here decided to enforce the reservation in government jobs and higher education institutions with retrospective effect, from January 14.

“The officials have carefully studied the formula of reservation to the upper castes, as rolled out by the Central and the Gujarat governments, and it has been decided that the quota will come into effect in the state the way it is being implemented by Centre,” said state Power Minister Srikant Sharma.

All Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states, including Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Gujarat, have already implemented the 10 per cent reservation for economically weak, after President Ram nath Kovind gave his assent to the constitutional amendment bill passed by the Parliament.

In another key decision, the cabinet okayed a proposal to use Rs 165 crore earned through the cess on liquor sale for protection of cows.

Besides, it was also decided that the cabinet approval will not be required for the projects worth up to Rs 1 crore.

The cabinet also gave the nod for renaming Mughalsarai tehsil after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

Also, a decision to rebore 1,101 tubewells and install 2,000 new sets was taken on Friday.

Patna, Jan 18: A seven-year-old boy was beaten, his jaw was broken and six of his teeth were knocked out as punishment for plucking some plums from a tree in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, police said on Friday.

An FIR has been lodged on the basis of the complaint filed by the boy’s mother, police officer Mohammad Sujauddin said.

Mohammad Sohail was attacked by Faizan Warsi alias Jonny, who beat the boy black and blue for plucking fruits from the tree near his house. The child has been admitted to a hospital in critical condition.

Sohail’s mother also claimed that Warsi’s parents had asked her to keep mum on the matter and not involve the police.

The police were yet to nab the culprit.

IANS