Author: Sanatan Dharm and Hinduism

12 Hindu root pilgrim centers to get a new makeover

HENB  | New Delhi | May 11, 2015::  Twelve ancient cities with pilgrimage connections have been identified by the Union Ministry of Tourism for development under the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spirituality Augmentation Drive (PRASAD), according to a source availed here on Monday.

The cities are Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Gaya (Bihar), Dwarka (Gujarat), Amritsar (Punjab), Pushkar-Ajmer (Rajasthan), Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu), Vellankani (Tamil Nadu), Puri (Odisha), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Kedarnath (Uttarakhand) and Kamakhya (Assam).

Mission directorate

To implement the PRASAD scheme, a mission directorate has been set up in the Ministry of Tourism. A budget provision of Rs. 15.60 crore has been made for development of basic facilities at the Vishnupad temple at Gaya in Bihar.

Under this scheme, the first instalment of Rs. 85.78 lakh has been released.

The development of the cities will be dovetailed with the Heritage City…

Haryana sweet water pools fire up Saraswati revival

Sukhbir Siwach | TNN |  Mugalwali (Yamunanagar) | May 10, 2015 :: A dozen-odd pools of sweet water emerging on a dry riverbed in a village in Haryana have got India’s top scientists excited about the possibility of taking the Saraswati river out of the realm of myth and make it a reality. While ONGC will soon start drilling in six different locations in the state, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has collected samples of the water from Mugalwali village.

Of the six locations ONGC identified, three are in Yamunanagar and one each in Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Fatehabad. This is the first time that they have identified drilling locations in Haryana. They had found a massive water source in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district in a similar exercise in 2006.

Also, a team of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Thursday collected samples from Mugalwali. “We…

Evangelical Menace Exposed in India again: 70 Hindu children in an orphanage converted to Christianity.

HENB | Bhopal | May 8, 2015:: As per a report revealed by Anurag Upadhyay  in India TV, around seventy children of Saint Francis Sevadham, an orphanage at Shyampur in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, have been allegedly converted to Christianity. Name of Father Rogen Kristen, who administered the establishment earlier, has been mentioned in the column ‘father’s name’ of all 70 children.

The incident came into light after Omkar Singh, an RTI activist who works for the child welfare in Sagar, discovered that Rogen Kristen was being mentioned as father of these orphanage’s children.

The children in the orphanage also confirmed the allegations of conversion. Many children have forgotten their original identity including their names.

These poverty stricken children from mostly Tribal families of Hindu faith were admitted into the Saint Francis Sevadham for their meals…

First Islamic State ‘module’ busted, 5 held in MP: Police

Praveen Swami &  Milind Ghatwai | Express News Services | New Delhi & Bhopal | May 6, 2015:: Five (all Muslim men) Madhya Pradesh men arrested from the town of Ratlam last month were part of an Islamic State-linked jihad cell planning strikes in India, highly placed police and intelligence sources have told The Indian Express.

Although growing numbers of Indians have been fighting with the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria, the cell is the Islamic State’s first known affiliate inside the country, sparking fears more could be forming elsewhere.

Imran Khan Muhammad Sharif, the leader of the five men held in Ratlam on April 15, is alleged to have been recruited online by an Indian jihadist he knew as “Yusuf” — code, investigators say, for Karnataka-born Muhammad Shafi Armar, a fugitive Indian Mujahideen operative now leading group of Indians fighting…