Over 1.2 million Buddhists from all over the country will attend the 52nd Dhammachakra Pravartan Din function here Thursday to commemorate the historic event when Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar led thousands of his Mahar community into Buddhism.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will be the chief guest at the main function while Schedules Castes, Scheduled Tribes Commission chairperson Buta Singh will be the guest of honour, said a press release issued by Dr Ambedkar Smarak Samiti, the host organisation.

Nagpur, Oct 10 (IANS) Private medical practitioners in Maharashtra observed a token strike Friday to protest the growing incidents of assaults on their fraternity members and the government’s failure in enacting a law for their protection, an Indian Medical Association (IMA) spokesperson said.Private practitioners kept their clinics and consultancies shut while hospitals refused to entertain cases in the out-patient departments or admit new cases except emergencies, IMA president-elect and state unit member Ashok Adhao told IANS.

NAGPUR: The Mumbai crime branch, which recently arrested a few persons who were allegedly part of Indian Mujhahideen's terror module, had recently
conducted an operation in Yavatmal in search of a vital link of their investigation. It is learnt that a suspect has been rounded up but officers are tightlipped and no official source is willing to confirm it.

The team, which has so far arrested 20 persons from Pune, Mangalore and Uttar Pradesh, has recently made a trip to Govindnagar area of Pussad in Yavatmal district.

NAGPUR: Those coming to Nagpur from Pune to celebrate the festival of lights and returning will have to pay through their nose this season. With n
o room on trains between the two cities, passengers have no option but to take a bus. This year, they may have to shell out between Rs 1200-1400 one way fare, which is more than double the normal fare.

NAGPUR: State BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday has blasted central and state governments over lack of progress in the Gosikhurd project.

NAGPUR: Former special public prosecutor Ganesh W Pathak (62), who is an accused in Akola sex scandal withdrew his regular bail petition filed in
the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday afternoon according to his counsel Chandrashekhar Joshi.

NAGPUR: In a victory of sorts for former Nagpur municipal commissioner Lokesh Chandra, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Wednesday quashed
the order passed by information commissioner of Vidarbha, Vilas Patil on June 25 under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Patil had directed the general administration department (GAD), headed by chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, to disclose the assets of Chandra and his wife Abha Shukla, who was then additional divisional commissioner of Nagpur. Patil's order had stirred the hornet's nest in the bureaucracy and police machinery.

Pune, October 9 With the Naxalite threat topping security concern for the Maharashtra Police, investigation of Naxalite related offences in the state is now slated to become less time-consuming with a state-of-the-art forensic unit being opened in Nagpur. It will deal with arms and ammunitions cases from the Vidarbha region.

While a Regional Forensic Science Laboratory already exists in Nagpur, it now has its own super speciality Ballistics Division to exclusively deal with Naxalite cases.

Villages on the Nagpur-Chandapur highway between Nagbhid and Mul in central India are facing onslaught of man-eating tigers with about 40 people killed over the last three years. The animosity between the villagers and the animals has reached intolerable levels with about 2,120 cattle being killed by tigers and leopards in these three years.

The Chandrapur district has a population of 90 tigers. The conflict is largely restricted to the Nagbhid-Mul belt along the state highway where greater number of villages are located near the road.

NAGPUR: A decade ago, his village languished in perpetual poverty with the per capita income at Rs832. Today, it’s the richest in the state with a per capita income of Rs28,000, and a model that the World Water Forum is thinking of replicating to curb poverty.