India

Lucknow, Feb 20 (PTI) Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati claimed on Wednesday that the BJP was afraid of its tie-up with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and was now desperate to forge an alliance of its own.

Her remarks came in the wake of the BJP announcing a tie-up with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu.

New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday took over the probe into the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama from the Jammu and Kashmir police, officials said.

The agency has re-registered the case and formed a team to investigate the audacious terror strike in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, an NIA spokesperson here said.

New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) The Finance Ministry on Wednesday announced to pump in Rs 48,239 crore in 12 public sector banks (PSBs) in this fiscal to help them maintain regulatory capital requirements and finance growth plans.

With this funding, the total amount of capital infusion would increase to Rs 1,00,958 crore of the planned recapitalisation of Rs 1.06 lakh crore for PSBs for the current fiscal, according to Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar.

Jaipur, Feb 20 (PTI) A Pakistan national belonging to the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba was allegedly murdered Wednesday in a brawl with other prisoners at the Central Jail here, officials said.

A police official said the prisoners fought over the volume of a tv set and hit Shakrullah (50) with a large stone.

The police said three or four prisoners were responsible for killing the life convict, who is from Sialkot in Pakistan's Punjab, and have registered a case of murder.

Kolkata, Feb 20 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday launched 'Pink Cabs' in the city as a safer mode of transport for women.

Driven by and for women, the white and pink cars would run on app-based platforms.

Handing over car keys to 10 women drivers of Pink Cabs, Banerjee said, "This move is aimed at encouraging women to be in the driver's seat."

Shimla, Feb 20 (PTI) Six Army jawans were feared dead in an avalanche on the Sino-India border in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur district on Wednesday, officials said.

The body of one of the jawans was recovered, but there was no trace of five others, Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Gopal Chand said.

Raipur, Feb 20 (PTI) Nine naxals, including a couple carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh each on their head, Wednesday surrendered before authorities in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, police said

The cadres, five of them carrying cash rewards on their head, turned themselves in before senior officials in Bijapur town, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Mohit Garg told PTI

Of them, Nagesh Kursam (30) was active as a section commander of military platoon no. 2 of Maoists. His wife (28) was also active as a section commander in military platoon no. 22, he said.

Ghaziabad, Feb 20 (PTI) A 55-year-old woman was brutally killed by her son apparently over a land dispute here Wednesday, police said.

Ramvati was bludgeoned to death by Manoj (21) with a gas cylinder after an argument over some ancestral land in the morning, they said.

A neighbour of the deceased happened to witness Manoj attacking Ramvati and informed police after bolting the door of the house from outside, DIG Upendra Agarwal said.

The accused was arrested and the body sent for postmortem, he added.

New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) A low-intensity blast took place on board the Kanpur-Bhiwani Kalindi Express near Kanpur on Wednesday, although no casualty was reported, officials said.

According to Additional Director General of Police (Kanpur zone) Avinash Chandra, some material apparently belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit was recovered from the spot.

KANPUR: Does it sound unfamiliar that defaulters evade paying electricity dues despite tough measures adopted by KESCO? As many as 695 defaulters have paid the dues amounting Rs 2.63 crore against recovery notice issued at the Tehsil level. Whereas there are existing a total of 10703 defaulters who were served with the recovery notice.