Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) India and Pakistan Tuesday exchanged details of civilian prisoners and fishermen lodged in each other's jails.

The Ministry of External Affairs or MEA said India handed over to Pakistan lists of 249 Pakistani civilian prisoners and 98 fishermen in its custody.

Pakistan has shared lists of 54 civilian prisoners and 483 fishermen in its custody, who are Indians or are believed-to-be-Indians.

New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) GST collection dropped to Rs 94,726 crore in December 2018, lower than Rs 97,637 crore collected in the previous month.

The total number of sales returns or GSTR-3B filed till December 30, 2018, is 72.44 lakh, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Compensation released to states for August-September stood at Rs 11,922 crore.

Of the Rs 94,726 crore collected, Central GST (CGST) collection is Rs 16,442 crore, State GST (SGST) is Rs 22,459 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) is Rs 47,936 crore and Cess is Rs 7,888 crore.

KANPUR: Three people have died in separate tragic accidents on Monday.

A child named Vivek was crushed to death on the spot. Babu Ram r/o Vidhnu Shahpur Majhawan was driving the bike while his wife and child were sitting on the back seat. Just as they reached near community health centre, a tractor approaching from the opposite direction hit the motorbike. The child came under the wheels and died.

KANPUR: What more could be the height of heedlessness than the poor patchwork done on the roads leading towards Idgah and Gwal Toli respectively? To our utmost surprise, it has been detached within a mere eight hours. The stones stripped off the repaired road and the pebbles were widely scattered all over the road. This was immensely causing trouble to the road users as well.

Ahmedabad, Jan 1 (PTI) An accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case and another who was recently discharged in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh case were among the six IPS officers promoted by the Gujarat government on Tuesday, according to a notification.

G L Singhal, one of the seven police officers chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Ishrat Jahan case, has been promoted to the rank of inspector general from deputy inspector general of the Commando Training Centre in Gandhinagar.

Bhopal, Jan 1 (PTI) The incident of "Vande Mataram" not being sung on the the first working day of January at Madhya Pradesh secretariat has come to light, with the opposition BJP Tuesday pointing the finger at Chief Minister Kamal Nath.

Singing of the national song in the Mantralaya or secretariat on the first working day of every month has been the norm since the time of erstwhile Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of the BJP.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 1 (PTI) In a first, over 35 lakh women stood shoulder-to-shoulder across the national highways in Kerala, creating a 620 km-long human 'wall' from the northern end of Kasaragod to the southern tip here Tuesday as part of a state-sponsored initiative to uphold gender equality.

The event comes days after thousands of devotees lit 'Ayyappa Jyothis' (lighting of sacred lamps) and lined up from Hosangadi in Kasaragod to Kanyakumari, vowing to protect the age-old customs and traditions of Sabarimala.

Noida (UP), Jan 1 (PTI) Infrastructure projects worth Rs 2,881 crore, including elevated roads, underpasses and a new district hospital building, would be inaugurated or works for them started in Noida in 2019, officials said Tuesday.

The projects to be opened for the public, include a Dada-Dadi Park in Sector 62 at a cost of Rs 14.57 crore, a Traffic Park in Sector 108 at Rs 34.71 crore, a Shilp Haat and Bunkar Bhawan in Sector 33-A at Rs 72.57 crore and a Command Control Centre in Sector 94 at Rs 22.35 crore, a senior official said.

New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) The Shiv Sena said Tuesday "Lord Ram is not bigger than the law" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he has said that his government can take a decision on an ordinance for the Ram temple's construction only after the judicial process is over.

The Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP, has demanded an ordinance to pave the way for the temple's construction in Ayodhya, arguing that the matter has been dragging in courts for decades.

Jammu, Jan 1 (PTI) A protest by refugees from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) here against the state and central governments for not fulfilling their various demands entered its sixth day on Tuesday.

Led by SOS International, an organisation advocating the cause of PoK displaced persons (DP), the protesters began the indefinite chain dharna on December 27.

They are demanding implementation of a package approved by the Jammu and Kashmir cabinet in October 2014 for PoK DPs, among others.