India

Lucknow, Oct 22 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government has planned to provide cheap accommodation to its employees on the property freed from the possession of members of the land mafia, said a release issued by CM Yogi Adityanath's PR team.

Preparations have also been intensified to build shelter homes for the poor on the land of illegal 'havelis', it further said, adding that the CM has directed the Housing Department to prepare a proposal for it.

Balasore (Odisha) Oct 22 (PTI) India on Friday successfully flight-tested the indigenously developed High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT), ABHYAS, from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Bay of Bengal in Odisha, DRDO officials said.

Dehradun, Oct 22 (PTI) The death count in Uttarakhand rose to 75 on Friday as rescue workers found more bodies and also brought to safety score of stranded people after the rains that recently lashed the state.

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) men rescued 65 trekkers, including six foreigners, stranded near Bageshwar's Pindari and Kafni glaciers. Twenty-three people were rescued from from Darma Valley of Pithoragarh.

New Delhi, Oct 22 (PTI) India is looking to bring together PSU and private sector refiners to seek better crude oil import deals from Saudi Arabia and other nations, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday.

As the country grapples with record-high fuel prices, he said joint procurement will bring better bargaining power and help cut the import bill.

Jammu, Oct 22 (PTI) Many Kashmiri pandits on Friday joined the National Conference here at a function presided over by party chief Farooq Abdullah who promised them to raise their issues and facilitate resolution of their demands, the party said.

The joining of 75 Kashmiri pandit activists was facilitated by National Conference minority cell president M K Yogi, who met Abdullah at his residence here where various pertinent issues of the migrant community living in exile for over thirty years were discussed, a release issued by the party said.

Agra, Oct 22 (PTI) Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Friday demanded a CBI probe into the custodial death of a sanitation worker in Agra.

If the demand was not met, he said a protest will held in Agra.

Azad on Friday evening visited Agra and met family members of Arun Narwar, who allegedly died in the custody of police on Tuesday night.

Arun was from the Valmiki community and lived near the Lohamandi police station in Agra city.

Cuttack, Oct 22 (PTI) At least four persons, including three police personnel, were on Friday injured in a clash between security personnel and BJP workers on the premises of a police station in Odisha's Cuttack district, a senior officer said.

The BJP workers were staging a protest outside Narasinghapur police station over detention of three party members when the situation turned volatile as some women agitators sought to lock its doors, the officer said.

The police then used batons to disperse the crowd.

Kanpur: Badly and tragically a fire breaks out at an electronic showroom coming under Fazal Ganj police station area here on Saturday, informs Kanpur fire Service.

The fire also engulfed a restaurant on the second floor of the showroom.

As many as two fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire.

It was brought under control only after half an hour's effort.

During this terrible hop of leaping flame,  goods worth lakhs  that were kept in the showroom were reported to have been burnt to ashes.

Kanpur: The Delhi government has accepted an MoU with IIT Kanpur for a source apportionment and forecasting study on air pollutants in Delhi.

Earlier, the Delhi Cabinet had approved the project called 'Real-time source apportionment and forecasting for advance air pollution management in Delhi.'

According to a senior DPCC official, the cost on the study has been estimated to Rs 12 crore.

Kolkata, Oct 22 (PTI) Rumblings of discontent within the Bharatiya Janata Party's Bengal unit spilled out in the open, when two factions within the party brawled in the presence of state BJP President Sukanta Majumder and his predecessor Dilip Ghosh at Katwa in Paschim Bardhaman on Friday.

While talking to reporters both Ghosh and Majumder refused to attach much importance to the incident and blamed "Trinamool Congress agents" for the fracas while asserting that the BJP rank and file was solidly behind the new state leadership.