Jaipur, March 2 : Hundreds of people in Jaipur were astonished on Saturday when they witnessed a newly wedded boy of Dalit community, a low caste group of society, bringing along his bride to his home in a chopper!

As the bridegroom Surinder Sawariya, who is in his early twenties, landed near his house in Rundal Village here with his bride, it was quite a draw for a large number of people.

New Delhi, Mar 1 : Indian Premier League Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi on Sunday lost the Rajasthan Cricket Association elections held for the post of President to Sanjay Dixit, an Indian Administrative Services officer.

Required to get 17 votes to secure a win in the election with majority, Modi could manage just 13 of the total 32 votes. Dixit, on the other hand, bagged 18 votes.

It could be the moment of truth for Lalit Modi. The high profile chairman of the Indian Premier League is locked in an acrimonious battle for the reins of the Rajasthan Cricket Association. Sanjay Dixit, a senior IAS officer in the Rajasthan government is providing Modi the kind of resistance that even Jagmohan Dalmiya could not pose to his authority.

A win or defeat may not immediately affect Modi's twin positions — the vice-presidency of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the chairmanship of IPL — but an adverse result would be an embarrassment for the jet-setting administrator of Indian cricket.

Claiming a success in influencing the Rajasthan government to ban all kinds of mining operations in the spiritually and culturally significant Deeg and Kaman tehsils of Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, the Braj Foundation, an NGO , has demanded a master plan for the Rajasthan part of Braj region.

Addressing a press conference in the city on Friday, the chief executive officer of the foundation and senior journalist Vineet Narain, advocating on the need of developing these regions in Rajasthan said, "Our foundation played a vital role in ensuring ban on mining in Rajasthan portion (Kaman and Deeg) of Bharatpur district. That is just the beginning."

Jaipur, Feb 28 : Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expanded his two-and-a-half month old cabinet on Saturday.

State Governor S K Singh administered the oath of secrecy to ten ministers - two of cabinet rank and eight ministers of state at a ceremony in Raj Bhawan.

Dr. Jitendra Singh and Rajendra Pareek were sworn-in as cabinet rank ministers while Ram Lal Jat, Bharosilal Jatav, Ashok Bairwa, Mangilal Gharasia, Pramod Jain Bhaya, Babulal Nagar, Ameen Khan and Gurmeet Kunnar were inducted as ministers of state.

Halves Greater Noida output to 200/day

Honda Siel Cars India has put on hold "indefinitely" the commissioning of its second manufacturing facility in Rajasthan amid a sales slowdown. The company has already halved production at the existing plant (Greater Noida) to 200 cars a day on a single shift basis against 400 being produced earlier and is using only about 55,000 units of the one lakh unit installed capacity at the site.

No wonder then that work on its Rs 1,000-crore facility coming up at Tapukara has been suspended for now.