Nagpur, Oct 8 - A Vidarbha farmer's widow, who recently won Rs. 640,000 on quiz show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC), has asked United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi to save her from her harassing in-laws, or else she would commit suicide.

In a letter to Gandhi, Aparna Malikar, 27, narrates how she is subjected to severe mental harassment and injustice after her husband committed suicide in 2008 due to crop failure, leaving behind a huge debt.

Abhishek Nayar has smashed a brilliant century to get his team out of trouble as India Board President XI (BP XI) returned to pavilion with 318 runs on the board against South Africa on the first day of the warm-up match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur.

BP XI skipper won the toss and elected to bat first in two day practice match. BP XI's batsmen struggled against the South African pace attack as they lost six wicket for just
114 runs. But after that Nayar (100) and S Dhawan put up brilliant partnership of 181 runs for the seventh wicket.

Nagpur, Jan 7 : Intensifying their efforts for a separate state, 68 political parties and other groups Thursday issued a call for "Vidarbha shutdown" Jan 20 and also formed a united front - Vidarbha Nirman Sangram Samiti (VNSS) - to pressurise the central government to concede the demand.

The unanimous decision of the VNSS for the shutdown was announced by senior Congress leader and former state minister Ranjit Deshmukh, party MPs from the region Vilas Muttemwar and Datta Meghe, and several legislators from other parties, barring the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Nagpur, Jan 5 : Four young men attempted to climb a 150-foot tall communications tower in the heart of the city Tuesday evening, demanding a separate state of Vidarbha.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police B. T. Patil, the young men belonged to a pro-Vidarbha group. They attempted to climb up the wireless communication tower of the BSNL.

"They managed to climb around 40-50 feet before we urged them to come down for safety reasons," Patil said.

Nagpur, Dec 29 : Newly elected the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), President Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday hailed the decision of Gujarat Government to make voting mandatory in State’s local body polls.

Gadkari described the decision of the Narendra Modi led State Government as a step towards strengthening democracy, and demanded that efforts should be taken to introduce the amendment at the national level as well.

A team of higher Indian Railways officials was in Nagpur on Monday to finalise the land and complete formalities for setting up a railway medical college.

In her annual railway budget, Union Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee had proposed to set up railway medical colleges through public-private partnerships in Nagpur, Chennai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram.

The colleges will be set up to provide higher education to the children of railway employees.

The director general (Health and Hospital), Railway Board, Dr VK Ramteke and chief of railway hospital (Central Railway), Dr Madhu Malhotra were in Nagpur to discuss the issue with senior railway officials.

Nagpur, Dec 28 - Obsessed with a woman who married another man, a youth pumped four bullets into her husband near their residence in Tahsil area here early Monday, police said.

Duty officer of Tahsil police station Rajesh Wasnik said that the accused youth, Siddheshwar M. Tandle (27) living in Beed, was in love with the woman who spurned his advances.

The woman married a youth named Jitendra S. Kore (31) from Nagpur before settling in this town.

Unable to accept the reality, Tandle trailed the woman by travelling nearly 350 km from Beed to Nagpur.

On Sunday night, he accosted the family and following an argument, he whipped out a revolver and shot four bullets at Kore, police said.

Nagpur, Dec 22 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari has said he would hold internal consultations before deciding on re-inducting estranged leaders.

He was reacting to a question on taking back firebrand leaders like Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and K N Govindacharya.

"I have not got gone to Delhi. After going, I will hold discussions with party leaders, then only I can tell what is the decision," he told reporters here.

Gadkari said a decision on finalizing the name of the party''s state unit chief for Kerala would also be taken after consultations with colleagues in New Delhi.

Nagpur, Dec 18 : A captain's knock of 107 from Mahendra Singh Dhoni helped India recover from a poor start and post 301 for seven in 50 overs against Sri Lanka in the second One-Day International here Friday.

Opting to bat first at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium, India were reduced to 132 for four before Dhoni's sixth ODI century guided the home team to put up a challenging total on board. Suresh Raina (68) and Virat Kohli (54) also scored valuable half-centuries.

For Sri Lanka, debutant off-spinner Suraj Randiv picked up three for 51.

Nagpur, Dec 17 : All-rounder Yuvraj Singh has been again ruled out while opening batsman Virender Sehwag is fit as India take on Sri Lanka in the second One-day International at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium here Friday.

Yuvraj, who missed the first ODI in Rajkot with a finger fracture, is yet to recover from his injury and is also down with flu while Sehwag has recovered from the ankle injury he suffered while fielding in the last match.

Nagpur, Dec 16 : Two burglaries in the prestigious Rajdhani Express (2430) from New Delhi to Bangalore early Wednesday shocked passengers, raising concerns over their safety and baggage security.

The thefts occurred in two 2-tier coaches within eight hours after the fully air-conditioned (AC) super-fast train chugged out of Hazrat Nizamuddin station an hour behind schedule late Tuesday.    

Nagpur, Dec 14 :The Maharashtra government will finally table the Ram Pradhan-V. Balachandran Committee Report, which probed the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, in both houses of the state legislature next Monday.

The announcement was made Monday afternoon by Home Minister R. R. Patil following an uproar over the issue in the legislature which is meeting in its winter session.

However, in view of the sensitive nature of the report, there would be no discussion on it in the legislature.

Nagpur, Dec 14 : Highly inspired by the success received to the Telangana region people, the virus of a separate state of Vidharbha has gained momentum.

The activists supporting the cause have disrupted the rail services in Nagpur after stopping the Mumbai-Nagpur express.

The agitation was led by a Vidharbha based youth organisation, which stopped the train for around thirty minutes when the train was approaching Nagpur.

Three people were arrested for allegedly killing a tiger near Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary in Gondia district, 125 km from Nagpur.

Acting on a tip-off, forest personnel rounded up three men from Govindtola village.

Dr Nandkishore, chief conservator of forests, Wildlife, Vidarbha region, said that all the three accused have been kept in forest custody for interrogation.

“The tiger was killed after it ate a carcass that was poisoned,” he added.

Hanumant Pise (28), the owner of the cow, Dharmaraj Kirsan (35) and Shalikram Ambedare (48) were arrested for allegedly pouring pesticide on the dead cow.

Nagpur, Dec 14 - The old demand for carving out a separate state of Vidarbha from Maharashtra was intensified Monday when some activists stopped the Vidarbha Express near here.

According to a Central Railway official, around 200 activists of the Youth Front halted the Mumbai-Nagpur Vidarbha Express on the outskirts of the state's second capital Nagpur by lying down across the railway tracks.

Railway authorities summoned the police who dispersed the protesters and the train proceeded on its onward journey after a delay of around 15 minutes.

Nagpur, Dec 9 :The following is the scoreboard of the Twenty20 International match between India and Sri Lanka at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Ground here Wednesday:

Sri Lanka

Tillakaratne Dilshan b Sharma 34

Sanath Jayasuriya c Ishant Sharma b Dinda 26

Kumar Sangakkara run out (R. Sharma/Pathan) 78

Mahela Jayawardene b Pathan 9

Chamara Kapugedera b Nehra 47

Angelo Mathews not out 15

Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 2) 6

Total (for five wickets in 20 overs) 215

Nagpur, Dec 9 : Sri Lanka defeated India by 29 runs in the first Twenty20 international at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Ground here Wednesday.

Chasing 216 runs, India finished at 186/9 in their 20 overs. Gautam Gambhir smashed 55 off 26 balls.

Nagpur, Dec 9 : Captain Kumar Sangakkara blasted 78 off 37 balls as Sri Lanka piled up 215 for five in 20 overs against India in the first Twenty20 international at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Ground here Wednesday.

Chamara Kapugedara scored 47 in 20 balls while Sanath Jayasuriya made 34.(IANS)

Nagpur, Dec 9 : India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field against Sri Lanka in the first Twenty20 international at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium at Jamtha here Wednesday.

Teams:

India: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda.

Nagpur, Dec 7 : The Maharashtra assembly's winter session starts here Tuesday.

However, there is uncertainty over the duration of the session - normally a fortnight long - in view of the Dec 18 elections to the state Legislative Council from 12 local self-government constituencies.

Last year's winter session - traditionally held in Nagpur - was a subdued affair as it came days after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The annual budget session was a truncated one on account of the election code of conduct enforced for the Lok Sabha elections in April-May.