Panaji, July 16 : There is no practice more inhuman than triple talaq, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday, claiming that Muslim women in Uttar Pradesh helped the BJP sweep the state polls after the passage of a law against the practice.

Speaking at a meeting of party workers here, Parrikar asked the party cadre to reach out to the minority communities and dispel their baseless perceptions due to fake news, adding that the phenomenon of fake news would gather momentum as the Lok Sabha elections approach.

"We will have to approach the minorities. There are efforts to inflame passions... Triple talaq is inhuman. There is no practice more inhuman than triple talaq. Even the Supreme Court has passed strictures against it. When Modi ji brought the law after the Supreme Court verdict, it too was obstructed," Parrikar said.

"In Uttar Pradesh, Muslim women supported the Bharatiya Janata Party in a big way because they had to suffer due to the practice. It is not that it (triple talaq) is prevalent only among the uneducated and poor. It happens in educated societies too," the Chief Minister said.

Parrikar also warned party workers about fake news.

"In the Information Technology age, you keep getting information on Facebook, along with fake news. We read in newspapers about lives lost in several places on account of fake news. The responsibility of BJP workers therefore has increased. As elections near, you will get different kinds of fake news. Accusations will be made purely for the purpose of publicity," he said.

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Guwahati(PTI): Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday said he would soon visit tea gardens, owned by public sector enterprise Andrew Yule, to revive its estates as workers are facing immense hardship.

Kumaraswamy, the minister of steel and heavy industries, thanked Assam Industries Minister Bimal Borah for apprising him of various challenges being faced by the tea gardens and the need to support the management to alleviate suffering of workers.

"We are concerned about the economic challenges and hardship of the tea gardens owned by Andrew Yule Group in Assam and its impact on the wage earners," Kumaraswamy said at a press conference here.

The tea garden wage earners will also get a 20 per cent Durga Puja bonus, like workers of other gardens, he said.

Referring to his recent visit to the Cement Corporation of India Ltd factory at Bokajan in Karbi Anglong district, Kumaraswamy said there was a plan for the revival of the cement industry in the state by investing Rs 700 crore.

He also emphasised on the need for a cement manufacturing unit in the northeastern states.

On the current development of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) policy utilisation in Assam, the union minister said more than Rs 2,000 crore would be invested for battery charging stations and nearly 70,000 such facilities will be set up across the country.

More than 18,000 e-buses will also be purchased to fulfil the goal of carbon emission reduction, Kumaraswamy added.