India

Lucknow, Jun 29 (PTI) As many as 35 office-bearers of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee resigned from their posts on Saturday continuing the spate of resignations in the party following its Lok Sabha election debacle.

The state unit's senior vice president Ranjit Singh Judev, general secretary Aradhna Mishra Mona, vice president RP Tripathi and many others have resigned taking moral responsibility for the party's defeat, an official release of the party said.

Rajasthan Police has filed a chargesheet for cow smuggling against Pehlu Khan, who was lynched in 2017 by a Hindu mob of 'gau rakshaks' in Alwar for transporting cattle.  Now, the Rajasthan government has filed a chargesheet against the dead dairy farmer for cow smuggling.

Khan, a resident of a village in Mewat, had reportedly bought cattle to increase milk production in the wake of Ramzan. He had produced his receipts to the angry mob which killed him using sticks and rods.

Kanpur: Despite the National Green Tribunal's strictness the Kanpur Municipal Corporation's health department does not make it compulsory to carry the garbage laden trucks with the polythene cover during the morning hours. 

New Delhi, Jun 28; PTI/GANASHAKTI:  The number of women constables in the Railway Protection Force (RPF) is less at present and the government has decided to fill up 50 per cent of the 9,000 vacant posts notified with lady constables, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said in the Rajya Sabha Friday.

"At present, the percentage of lady constables in RPF is 2.25 per cent. The number (of women constables) is less in the entire Railways. Keeping this in mind, the prime minister gave a direction for recruitment," Goyal said during the Question Hour in the Upper House.

Ranchi, June 28;  IANS/GANASHAKTI: With monsoon hitting Jharkhand there has been some relief, but at least 20 people have also been reported dead due to lightning in different parts of the state over the last three days, police said.

Nine people died on Thursday, seven on Wednesday and rest on Friday.

According to the police three deaths were reported from Lathear, two from Palamau, four in Gumla and Lohardagga district. While there were similar deaths in Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Sahebganj also.

Mumbai, Jun 28 (PTI) Equity benchmarks nursed losses Friday as investors remained cautious ahead of the crucial US-China trade talks on the sidelines of the G-20 meet.

Domestic trading sentiment was also at a low ebb following tightening of mutual fund norms by regulator Sebi, and the RBI recommending extra vigil regarding non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), traders said.

After a choppy session, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled 191.77 points, or 0.48 per cent, lower at 39,394.64, dragged by index heavyweights RIL, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and TCS.

New Delhi, Jun 28 (PTI) The government's fiscal deficit touched 52 per cent of the budget estimate for the full year in the first two months of 2019-20.

In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between expenditure and revenue, was Rs 3,66,157 crore, as per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

The fiscal deficit was 55.3 per cent of 2018-19 budget estimate in the year-ago period.

Patna, Jun 28 (PTI) Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan was on Friday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar.

He was declared elected and the certificate was handed over to him, Bateshwar Nath Pandey, the Returning Officer and secretary to Bihar Legislative Assembly, told PTI.

The certificate of election was given to him in presence of a host of senior NDA leaders including Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

New Delhi, Jun 28 (PTI) The trend of high cut-offs are nothing new in Delhi University but what seems to have changed since 2015 is the shift in the courses pegging the highest percentage requirement, the varsity's official data shows.

While courses like BSc (Hons) Computer Science and B.Com honours witnessed 100 per cent cut-offs before 2015, the last few years has witnessed courses like B.Sc (honours) electronics, BA programme and BA (honours) political science having high cut-offs.

Bijapur, Jun 28 (PTI) Two CRPF personnel were killed and another was injured in an encounter with Naxals in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh Friday, police said.

Two girls were caught in the crossfire. One of them died while the other was injured, they said.

The gun-battle took place near Keshkutul village under the Bhairamgarh police station area when a joint team of the CRPF's 199th battalion and local police was out on an area domination operation, IG (Bastar range) Vivekanand Sinha.