India

Bareilly (UP), Jan 17 (PTI) A spate of pamphlets urging people of a particular community against taking anti-Covid vaccine shots and spreading rumours about their ingredients surfaced in the city here on Sunday, prompting police to lodge an FIR against unknown miscreants.

The pamphlets, found in posh Rajendra Nagar locality here, appealed to a particular community to avoid taking the vaccines, SP (City) Ravindra Singh said.

Noida (UP), Jan 17 (PTI) The police here on Sunday rescued a six-year-old girl who had gone missing two days back and arrested a woman who had allegedly kidnapped her, officials said.

The accused had taken the girl to Delhi in order to push her into begging, they said.

"The girl lives with her family in Bhangel area. On Friday, they approached the Phase 2 police station and informed the officials that the girl has gone missing. An FIR was lodged immediately and investigation taken up," a police spokesperson said.

Panaji, Jan 17 (PTI) A man was arrested on Sunday for allegedly vandalising property of a famous church located in Margaon in south Goa, police said, adding the accused also damaged some cars.

The man, who was in an inebriated condition, met with an accident while he was fleeing after damaging property, including flower vase, of Holy Spirit Church, a police officer said.

He was shifted to the Sub-District Hospital for treatment by some locals, he said.

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) The Supreme Court told the Centre on Monday that the proposed tractor rally on the Republic Day by farmers protesting against the new farm laws is a law and order matter and Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the national capital.

JAIPUR (Rajasthan, India), Jan 17 (NNN-PTI) — Six passengers were burnt alive and more than 30 others injured when a bus caught fire after coming in contact with a live electricity wire in Rajasthan’s Jalore district.

The incident occurred in Maheshpura village on Saturday night when the bus driver lost his way and entered into a rural area where the vehicle came in contact with a hanging wire and caught fire, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Himmat Singh, said.

NEW DELHI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,557,985 on Sunday, as 15,144 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, according to the data from the federal health ministry.

According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 152,274 with 181 new deaths.

There are still 208,826 active cases in the country, while 10,196,885 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities, as over 180 million tests have been conducted so far.

New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI) The use of regional languages in the proceedings of Rajya Sabha has increased manifold times during 2018-2020 with Sanskrit emerging as the fifth widely used among the 22 scheduled languages after Hindi, Telugu, Urdu and Tamil.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has been regularly urging the members of the House on use of regional languages during the proceedings.

Ahmedabad, Jan 17 (PTI) Senior Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve has said courts must be open to public scrutiny and criticism as "institutions of governance".

Addressing a lecture organised in Ahmedabad through video-conference on Saturday, Salve said criticism of judges, judicial overreach and the manner of functioning is not scandalising courts, and the language in which such criticism is addressed should be treated with a grin.

Aurangabad, Jan 16 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi should first get himself vaccinated for COVID-19 to clear doubts in the minds of people, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader Prakash Ambedkar said on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters, Ambedkar said the VBA will hold protests across Maharashtra on January 27 in support of the ongoing agitation by farmers at borders of Delhi for the repeal of three new farm laws.

Kolkata, Jan 16 (PTI) To make solar energy viable for households in Bengal, WBERC has relaxed rooftop solar regulations by allowing net metering starting from capacity of 1 KW against 5 KW capacity criteria required earlier and that too for restricted categories of consumers, an official said.

Earlier no individual or housing complexes except co- operatives, were permitted the benefit of net metering a key driver for rooftop solar adoption. Without net metering rooftop solar projects are not very economically feasible, the official said.