India

Chandigarh, Sep 13 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday welcomed the Centre's decision to virtually scrap the controversial 'black list', which he said was totally discriminatory towards the Sikh community.

He said the decision was taken by the Centre, in response to the state government's persistent demand and efforts.

The Centre has removed from its blacklist names of 312 Sikh foreign nationals involved in anti-India activities and only two persons figure in the list now, Union Home Ministry officials said on Friday in the national capital.

Hyderabad, Sep 13 (PTI): Amid pomp and gaiety, 55,000 Ganesh idols were immersed during the past 24 hours under three police commissionerates - Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda.

Hyderabad Mayor B Rammohan, in an official press statement here, said the immersion began on Thursday morning and ended on Friday evening.

The immersion of nearly 55,000 idols concluded peacefully - 32,800 idols in Hyderabad, 12,000 in Rachakonda and over 10,000 in Cyberabad.

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on Friday dedicated its win in the Delhi University Students' Union polls to former Union minister Arun Jaitley, who was the president of union in 1970s.

Jaitley died at the AIIMS here on August 24 after battling multiple health issues for the last several months. He was 66.

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Amid protest, state-owned MMTC has barred suppliers from sourcing onions from Pakistan while modifying its tender for import of 2,000 tonnes of the key kitchen staple.

Last week, MMTC had issued a tender for import of onions from Pakistan, Egypt, China, Afghanistan or any other origin which created uproar from farmers and political bodies.

Subsequently, MMTC modified its tender saying that the bidder should import onions from "any country of origin excluding Pakistan".

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Union minister Smriti Irani said on Friday that the Union government's efforts on economic front are visible and asserted that it meets various stake-holders every day to try to find solutions to emerging challenges.

Speaking at a "fireside chat" event organised by FICCI Young Leaders Forum, the Textile Minister, who also holds the portfolio of woman and child development, reeled out a number of figures to stress that the government has been providing a lot of employment opportunities.

Lucknow, Sep 13 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday decided that ministers will start paying their own income tax, ending a four-decade-old practice of the state exchequer shelling out the amount annually for them.

The direction follows criticism in the media of a law enacted in 1981 which ensures that the state's chief minister and ministers don't pay any income tax themselves.

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Pakistan skipped the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conference on military medicine here that concluded on Friday.

Some 27 international delegates attended the conference.

Raipur, Sep 14 (PTI) A naxal was killed on Saturday in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, police said.

The incident occurred around 8:30 am in a forest near Punnur village, around six kms from Awapalli police station, when a team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on a counter-insurgency operation, Deputy Inspector General (anti- naxal operations) Sundarraj P told PTI.

Guwahati, Sep 14 (PTI) The names of all NRC applicants have been published online on Saturday, the office of the NRC State Coordinator said here.

The names of all the 3.30 crore applicants as per draft NRC and supplementary list of inclusions and exclusions (final NRC) have been published, an official said.

The final National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was published on August 31, consisted only of supplementary lists.

New Delhi, Sep 14 (PTI) Union Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel on Saturday inaugurated an exhibition-cum-e-auction of gifts received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last one year to raise funds for the Centre's Namami Gange Project.

More than 2,700 mementos, including shawls, pagris and jackets, at the National Gallery of Modern Art here will be auctioned on www.pmmementos.gov.in from Saturday till October 3.