Rahul Gandhi to visit violence-hit Sambhal amid ban on entry of outsiders
Lucknow/Sambhal (PTI): A Congress delegation led by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will visit the violence-hit Sambhal on Wednesday, with police and administration geared up to stop them before reaching the district.
Prohibitory orders, including a ban on the entry of outsiders, are in place in Sambhal. Last week, several Samajwadi Party (SP) MPs were stopped from entering the district.
Curbs under Section 163 (power to issue order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which were set to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
Sambhal District Magistrate Rajendra Pensia on Tuesday wrote a letter to the police commissioners of Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad and the superintendents of police of Amroha and Bulandshahr districts, urging them to stop Gandhi at the borders of their districts keeping in mind the "communal sensitivity" of Sambhal.
Gandhi will be accompanied by five other Congress MPs from Uttar Pradesh. Newly-elected Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to be part of the delegation.
On Gandhi's visit, Superintendent of Police of Sambhal Krishan Kumar told PTI on Tuesday that if the Congress delegation comes, it will be served a notice as Section 163 of the BNSS is in force in Sambhal and no outsider is allowed.
"Police are citing BNS 163 in their missive. So we will insist that they allow at least 4 people. If stopped, we will push for allowing Rahul ji, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ji, UP incharge Avinash Pande ji and myself to enter," Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai told PTI.
Gandhi is expected to leave Delhi at 10 am for Sambhal and visit the families of those killed in the November 24 violence. After meeting the families, Gandhi will return to Delhi by road, according to his itinerary.
Tension had been brewing in Sambhal since November 19, when a Mughal-era mosque was surveyed on court orders following claims that a Harihar temple previously stood at the site.
Violence erupted during a second survey on November 24 as protesters gathered near Shahi Jama Masjid and clashed with security personnel. Four people were killed in the violence and many more were injured.
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ISRO reschedules Proba-3 launch after detecting 'anomaly' in satellite's propulsion system
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Dec 4: The ISRO has rescheduled the launch of European Space Agency's Proba-3 satellite, meant for solar experiment, for Thursday, after an anomaly was detected minutes before the launch on Wednesday.
The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency had originally planned to launch European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-3 at 4.08 pm on Wednesday from the spaceport here.
"As per the ESA's request, the launch of PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 has been rescheduled as follows: Date: 05th December 2024 Time: 16:04" (4.04 pm), the space agency said in its latest update. The revised launch was earlier fixed at 4.12 pm on Thursday.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said the anomaly occurred in the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph spacecraft which was onboard the PSLVC59 mission and currently the scientists were involved in identifying the cause of the incident.
"During Proba3's pre-launch preparations at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India, an anomaly in the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph Spacecraft occurred. This propulsion system is part of the attitude and orbit control subsystem of the satellite and used to maintain orientation and pointing in space." Aschbacher said in a social media post.
"The anomaly is currently under detailed investigation. The use of a software solution by the mission control team at @ESA’s ESEC centre at Redu, Belgium is being evaluated to allow a launch on Thursday 5 December at 11:34 CET (10:34 GMT, 16:04 local time)." he said .
Dubbed as world's first initiative of its kind, the Proba-3 (Project for Onboard Anatomy) consists of two satellites -- Coronagraph (310kgs) and Occulter (240kgs) -- in which two spacecraft would fly together as one, maintaining precise formation down to a single millimetre to study the Corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere.
The European Space Agency (ESA) said the Corona is much hotter than the Sun itself and it is where space weather originates. It is also a topic of widespread scientific and practical interest.
For ISRO, this launch would provide key insights on taking up scientific experiments on the Sun after its maiden mission--Aditya-L1 which was successfully launched in September 2023.
Proba-3 is a technology demonstration mission funded via the General Support Technology Programme. The instruments onboard the satellites would travel closer to the solar rim for up to six hours at a time and each spacecraft would take up approximately a 19-hour orbit around the Earth.
NewSpace India Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO has bagged the order from the ESA.
The 25-hour countdown was progressing smoothly since it commenced on Tuesday at 3.08 pm and scientists at the spaceport here have been working on preliminary works for the launch.
'Probas' is a Latin word, meaning 'Let's try'.
The mission objective is to demonstrate precise formation flying and the two spacecraft inside the satellites would be launched together in a stacked configuration after the desired orbit level is reached.
PSLV-C59 is a 44.5 metre tall rocket and is on its 61st flight and the 26th with the PSLV-XL variant which is normally used to place heavy satellites.
The two satellites (Coronagraph and Occulter) would undertake an 18-minute journey to reach the desired orbit.
After reaching the preparatory conditions, the two spacecraft would fly 150 metres apart (as one large satellite structure) in tandem so that the 'Occulter' spacecraft would block out the solar disk of the sun enabling 'Coronagraph' to study the corona of the Sun or the surrounding atmosphere, for scientific observation.
