India

Prayagraj, Feb 5 (PTI) Braving the cold and the coronavirus pandemic, around 15.5 lakh devotees bathed in the icy waters of the Ganga river and at Sangam here till 8 pm on Saturday on the occasion of Basant Panchami, the fourth major bathing festival of the ongoing Magh Mela.

Officials said devotees started thronging the river banks in the early hours of the day and they continued to arrive in huge numbers for a holy dip.

Dhanbad, Feb 6 (PTI) Two powerful IEDs, weighing 10 kg each, were recovered by security forces in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, police said on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, a search operation was launched by a team of police and 154 batallion CRPF, following which the recovery was made from the remote Ganeshpur village in Topchanchi police station area on Saturday, they said.

The improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were planted at a road, targetting the security forces, they added.

Mumbai, Feb 6 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said that singing legend Lata Mangeshkar, who died at a hospital here in the morning, will be accorded a state funeral.

Lata Mangeshkar (92), the voice of generations of Indians and one of the biggest music icons of the country, died due to multiple organ failure, her sister Usha Mangeshkar and doctors treating her said.

The last rites will be held in the evening.

Thackeray in a statement said Lata Mangeshkar's death was an end of a glorious era.

Lucknow, Feb 6 (PTI) The BJP on Sunday postponed the release of its manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in view of death of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, state party president Swatantra Dev Singh said.

The manifesto release programme was scheduled at the BJP office here at 10.15 am, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and state party president had gathered for it.

Agartala, Feb 6 (PTI) Tripura's forestry department is embarking on a project to breed the endangered vulture specie in Khowai district through program for vulture conservation and artificial breeding'.

The decision was taken after it was noticed that Khowai had higher concentration of vulture population, said officials who added that vultures would be brought in from other states to help in the artificial breeding.

Mumbai, Feb 6 (PTI) Lata Mangeshkar, whose voice struck an instant chord of recognition with generations of South Asians and is considered one of India's greats, died in a Mumbai hospital on Sunday due to multiple organ failure. She was 92.

The singer, whose name was written into legend long years before she took her last breath in Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital, had been in hospital since January 8 when she was diagnosed with Covid with mild symptoms. She was also diagnosed with pneumonia.

Kanpur: Political parties are following varied gimmicks to lure young voters in this episode of the UP assembly polls.

Reportedly there are registered more than 33 thousand young voters who will exercise their vote for the first time.

What requires to be focused upon is increasing the voting percentage on different seats here.

According to the information a target of 70 percent voting has been recommended. For it there proceeds awareness programmes. Even children are being motivated to inspire their parents to vote for.

Kanpur: The Sisamau assembly here is the Samajwadi Party stronghold.

A triangular election will be held for the  assembly seat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have laid siege to the seat.

This time, winning the seat for the Samajwadi Party will be challenging.

The assembly elections in the seat are very engaging, with BJP and Congress entering the fray.

The three-time Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki is encircled by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress ace candidates into the battle of ballots.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir have arrested a young journalist on accusations of publishing “anti-national content,” police said, in a widening crackdown against media in the disputed region.

Fahad Shah, the editor of news portal Kashmir Walla, was summoned for questioning at a police station in southern Pulwama town on Friday and later arrested there, police said.

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) The Supreme Court has set aside an order for detention of a Jabalpur man accused of procuring fake Remdesivir injections during the second wave of COVID-19.

A bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Dinesh Maheshwari said the failure of the central and the Madhya Pradesh governments to communicate the rejection of the representation of the accused in a time bound manner vitiates the order of detention.