India

MUMBAI, Jun 30 (Xinhua) -- Water scarcity in India is turning into a grave crisis leading to a possible halting of residential construction in some cities and rising migration in rural areas due to farm distress.

In the country's southern city of Bengaluru -- capital of Karnataka state, the situation has worsened to such an extent that the state government is contemplating a ban on construction of new apartments in Bengaluru to combat the water shortage.

New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) Upon reopening on July 1 after a six-week summer vacation, the Supreme Court will deal with very sensitive issues, including the Ayodhya land dispute, review pleas in Rafale case and the contempt case against Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the court his "chowkidar chor hai" slogan.

The top court, which would function with its full judicial strength of 31 judges under the stewardship of Chief Justice (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, is likely to deliver its verdict in the review pleas in Rafale case.

New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) As many as 340 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have shown cost overruns to the tune of over Rs 3.3 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a report said.

"Total original cost of implementation of the 1405 projects was Rs 18,09,681.47 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 21,39,924.38 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 3,30,242.91 crore (18.25% of original cost)," the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation's latest report for March 2019 said.

Jammu, Jun 30 (PTI) Amid chants of 'Bam Bam Bhole", the first batch of 2,234 pilgrims left a base camp here for the Amarnath Yatra as the annual pilgrimage to the 3,880 metre high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas is scheduled to begin Monday.

Over 1.5 lakh pilgrims from across the country have so far registered themselves for the 46-day long yatra, which takes place from the traditional 36-km Pahalgam track in Anantnag district and 14-km Baltal route in Ganderbal district.

Srinagar, June 30: A Kashmiri has been killed in an alleged encounter with Indian security in Budgam district of Indian administered Kashmir, an Indian official said.

The Indian security forces' spokesperson alleged that a cordon and search operation was underway in the area following information about presence of Kashmiri separatist.

Saharanpur, Jun 28 (PTI) A minor girl was allegedly raped by four people in Nanauta area of Uttar Pradesh's Sharanpur district Friday, police said.

The 15-year-old girl had come to her native's place here.

SP (Rural) Vidyasagar Mishra said the girl had gone to the fields in the morning to attend to the nature's call, when the accused overpowered her.

The girl raised an alarm but nobody came to her rescue.

Police have registered a case.

A youth had been rounded up for questioning, police said.

Coimbatore, Jun 29 (PTI) A teenaged Dalit girl, who was hacked allegedly in an act of honour killing in Mettupalayam, near here, four days ago, died in hospital early Saturday, police said.

Twentytwo-year-old Kanagaraj and his lover were attacked by his elder brother Vinodh Kumar after he saw the couple moving around, the police said.

Kanagaraj died on the spot while the girl was critically injured and hospitalised, they said.

Bhopal, Jun 29 (PTI) BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya, who was arrested three days ago for assaulting a civic official in Indore with a cricket bat, was granted bail Saturday by a special court here.

Additional Sessions Judge Suresh Singh granted bail to Akash, son of BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, in the case of assault as well as in an earlier case where he was accused of staging an illegal protest.

Panaji, Jun 29 (PTI) The Goa government Saturday announced introduction of an interest-free loan scheme for farmers for varying durations.

The scheme would be formulated after tabling of Budget in Parliament next week, Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai said.

"The Goa government wants to take up all possible measures to help the farming community and also to encourage more people take this profession. Our aim is to bring fallow land under cultivation," Sardesai said while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Zonal Agricultural Office in Sanguem in south Goa.

Lucknow, Jun 29 (PTI) Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Saturday hit out at the Yogi Adityanath government alleging that criminals are "roaming around freely, doing whatever they wish" in Uttar Pradesh, drawing a quick retort from the police.

While the state police claimed a decline in crime, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav joined her in attacking the Adityanath government.

"The government is manipulating data to drive home the point that crime is declining," Yadav said.