India

Chandigarh, Feb 28 (PTI) A four-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 36-year-old man in Haryana's Sonipat district, police said on Sunday.

The accused living near the victim's house falling in an area under the Rai police station allegedly lured her to his place and raped her on Friday night, said police.

The accused has been arrested, a police official said over the phone.

A case of rape under the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act has been registered, said the police official.

Puducherry, Feb 28 (PTI) Puducherry Assembly Speaker V P Sivakolundhu quit on Sunday citing health reasons even as his brother joined the BJP just over a month ahead of the elections in the union territory.

In the resignation letter to Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, a copy of which was made available to mediapersons here, Sivakolundhu, a Congress leader, said he quit as Speaker only on health grounds.

Later, he told P T I that hehanded over the letter of resignation addressed to the Lt Governor to the Assembly Secretary.

Chennai, Feb 27 (PTI) The Centre should come forward to reduce its tax on petroleum products since the resources for State's own tax revenue is meagre, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam told the Assembly on Saturday.

Panneerselvam, pointing to accusations by the main opposition DMK over the interim budget (2021-22), said a flawed view, holding the state government responsible for the petrol and diesel price rise, was being propagated.

"There is no iota of truth in such a view," he said replying to the general discussion on budget.

Jaipur, Feb 27 (PTI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday accused the Centre of being stubborn, saying it is not ready to listen to farmers protesting against its contentious farm laws in harsh weather for the past three months.

Addressing farmers' mahapanchayats in Dungargarh of Bikaner and Chittorgarh's Matrikundia, Gehlot said the way the Union government is behaving is shameful.

NEW DELHI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- India's COVID-19 tally rose to 11,096,731 on Sunday as 16,752 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry.

According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 157,051 with 113 new deaths.

There are still 164,511 active cases in the country, while 10,775,169 people have been discharged from hospitals after medical treatment.

Baghpat (UP), Feb 27 (PTI) RLD chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of belonging to capitalists and working for them while showing dreams and telling lies to people.

Singh made the acerbic remarks while addressing a farmers' meeting at Shri Jawahar Inter College, Bamnoli near here.

The former Union minister also attacked the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government and urged youths to uproot both the central and state governments.

Kanpur: Things can go better if everyone is responsible. In a meeting of Vyapar Bandhu held at DM auditorium here on Saturday, several officials did not attend the meeting. As a result, the annoyed traders boycotted the meeting.

After a gap of three months, the meeting was organised to discuss over 17 points. Only 5 points were taken up.

The moment fifth point regarding laying down of underground cable was raised, one junior engineer of KESCO was present.

NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Inordinate delay in getting justice, high cost of legal processes and inaccessibility to the country's judicial system were impeding the effective delivery of justice to the common man, said Indian Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday.

He stressed on making the judicial system "accessible, affordable and understandable" to the common man.

Bengaluru, Feb 27 (PTI) Countdown for the launch of PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 mission commenced on Saturday from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

PSLV-C51 rocket, which is the 53rd mission of PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), will launch Amazonia-1 of Brazil as primary satellite and 18 co-passenger satellites from Sriharikota, about 100 kms from Chennai, Bengaluru- headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement.

The launch is tentatively scheduled at 1024hours on February 28, subject to weather conditions.

Kanpur: Equipped with every kind of facilities Kanpur Metro train coaches are being manufactured at Sanvli in Gujarat.

After thorough analysis its design has been finalised. Its design papers have been despatched to the RDSO for approval.

It will also be fitted with communication- based train  control (CBTC) system.