Amid the ongoing violence in Manipur, the state government issued a shoot-at-sight order to restrain the spiralling violence.

The Manipur government has released an order and authorised all District Magistrates, Sub-Divisional Magistrates, and all Executive Magistrates/Special Executive Magistrates to issue shoot-at-sight orders in extreme cases.

The order said the decision has been taken in the view of prevailing law and order situation following the unwanted incidents that occured at the Tribal Solidarity in March 2023. It further said all forms of persuasion, warning, reasonable force, etc. had been exhausted under the provisions of law under CrPC, 1973 and the situation could not be controlled.

The violence in the state broke out on Wednesday in the Torbung area of Churachandpur district after thousands of people turned up at a Tribal Solidarity March called by All Tribal Student Union Manipur to protest against the demand for non-tribal Meiteis for Scheduled Tribe status.

As the violence escalated, the Manipur government imposed a curfew in eight districts— Imphal West, Thoubal, Kakching, Jiribam, Bhisnupur, Kangpokpi, Churachandpur, and Tengnoupal.

Earlier today, boxing champion Mary Kom urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to look into the matter.

Reports said as many as 9,000 people have been rescued by the forces from the violence-hit areas so far. Moreover, around 5,000 people have been moved to safe homes in Churachandpur, and another 2,000 people were evacuated to Imphal Valley, and 2,000 people in the border town of Moreh in the Tenugopal district.

Around 759 million Indians, over half of the country’s population, are connected to the internet and access the web at least once a month, a report has claimed.

A joint report published by industry body IAMAI and market data analytics firm Kantar titled ‘Internet in India Report 2022 ‘ on Wednesday said that that at present around 759 million citizens are active internet users and user base in the country is expected to mount to 900 million by the year 2025.

The report said that for the first time, over half of India,s 1.4 billion population accesses the internet at least once a month and number is expected to reach 900 million users by 2025.

As per the report, 399 million users out of the 759 million, are from rural India, while 360 million belong to urban areas, thus highlighting the fact that the internet has penetrated deep into rural India which drives the its growth in the country.

The report noted that urban India, which has an approximate internet user base of 71 percent, witnessed a marginal 6 percent growth in the year 2022, while an uptick of 14 percent was seen during the same period in internet usage from rural India, adding that an estimated 56 percent of new users in the country will belong to rural areas by 2025.

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On the other hand, the report revealed that the digital divide continues to be a huge factor in India with a massive disparity in  internet penetrations across different states.

According to the report, Bihar has 32 percent internet users as compared to Goa, which leads the list with 70 percent of the state’s population being connected to the web.

The report further reveals that even though there’s a minor disparity between male and female users, with the former accounting for 54 percent of total users, it is an encouraging stat that the 57 percent of all new users in 2022 were female and by 2025, at least 65 percent of new users will be women.

As per the report, digital payments witnessed a growth of 13 percent in 2022 with over 338 million users— 36 percent of whom come from rural India.

The report said that around ninety-nine percent of digital payment users are UPI users.

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A man in Bihar’s Saran district married the sister of his bride-to be after she threatened to commit suicide if he married her sister.

According to reports, the groom, identified as Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Chhapra, and the woman, Putul were having an affair. However, Kumar was engaged to be wed to Putul’s sister Rinku Kumari in Bihar’s Saran on May 2.

Reports said that as the groom was moving towards the bride’s house accompanied the wedding procession, he received a call from the bride’s sister, Putul Kumari, who threatened to kill herself by jumping off a building if Rajesh Kumar did not her marry her instead of her sister.

Other reports said that the bride and the groom had exchanged the wedding garlands at the mandap (wedding altar) when Putul called Rajesh and the marriage ceremony came to an abrubt halt.

On being questioned by the bride’s family and his own, Rajesh came clean and narrated the twisted love story to shocked guests and relatives. He revealed that Putul and him were in love with each other and wanted to get married. This led to an argument between the bride’s and groom’s families as mayhem ensued at the wedding ceremony leading to the police being called in by some guests at the function who feared something bad might happen.

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Soon, officials from the nearby Manjhi police station arrived and convinced the families to sit down and figure out a solution instead of physically and verbally assaulting each other.

 Rajesh made another revelation as he told the families that he and Putul knew each before he got engaged to her sister Rinku.

He said that Putul would often visit Rajesh in Chhapra, where she had went for her intermediate exam at a college, and the two soon grew close during those meetings and would often talk on the phone for hours.

Rajesh revealed that he and Putul finally professed their love for each other, however, when his marriage to Rinku was fixed, Putul became so disturbed that she would either stop the wedding or commit suicide.

Ultimately, the families decided that it was best for all parties involved that Putul and Rajesh be married and thus came a befitting end to a bizarre yet familiar love story.

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