India

NEW DELHI, Dec 20 (NNN-PTI) – India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 10,031,223 today, as 26,624 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.

According to data, the death toll mounted to 145,477, as 341 more patients died since yesterday morning.

There are still 305,344 active cases in the country, while 9,580,402 people have been discharged from hospitals.

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Privatisation of Air India may spill into next fiscal year as the divestment process is unlikely to conclude in the remaining a little over three months of 2020-21, an official said.

Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group and US-based fund Interups Inc were among "multiple" entities that put in preliminary bids last week for buying loss-making carrier Air India.

Latehar, Dec 19 (PTI) A group of Naxalites raided a coal mining project in Jharkhand's Latehar district and opened indiscriminate firing in which four persons were injured, police said on Saturday.

The Naxalites went to the Tetariakhar coal project under the jurisdiction of Balumath police station in the district on Friday night and opened fire, they said.

The Naxalites also set four trucks on fire, the police said.

Chandigarh, Dec 19 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday accused the Centre of adopting intimidatory tactics against arhtiyas by conducting income tax raids on their premises.

He warned that such draconian measures will further aggravate the angst of people against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government.

Lucknow, Dec 19 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government has approved over 19,000 posts of doctors to ensure availability of specialists in the health services, an official statement said on Saturday.

Of the 19,011 approved posts, 10,580 will be for MBBS doctors and 8,431 for specialists, it said.

Half of the specialist doctors will be recruited directly and the remaining posts will be filled up through promotion, the statement said.

Till now, in the absence of direct recruitment of specialist doctors, a large number of posts used to remain vacant.

Fatehpur (UP), Dec 19 (PTI) A local court here on Saturday sentenced a man to 10 years' imprisonment for raping a girl in 2018.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict.

Judge Anubhav Dwivedi found accused Neeraj Paswan guilty of raping the girl on March 6, 2018, in a village under Asothar police station area, and sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment. He also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Paswan, district government advocate Sahdev Gupta said.

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Thousands of farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the Centre's new agri laws remained firm in their demands of repealing the legislations, even as the city recorded its coldest morning this season, with the mercury dipping to 3.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

According to the India Meteorological Department, a cold wave swept Delhi on Sunday.

New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim protection to five BJP leaders, including Mukul Roy and MPs Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arjun Singh, in criminal cases lodged against them in West Bengal and directed the state police not to taken any coercive action.

Bhopal, Dec 18 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that political parties, experts and even farmers had been demanding new farm laws for long, and assured that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism for crops will continue.

Addressing farmers of Madhya Pradesh through virtual mode, he alleged that opposition parties themselves advocated such laws, but now they were protesting because they did not want him to get credit for the reforms.

Patna, Dec 18 (PTI) Actress Kangana Ranaut was on Friday accused of having tarnished the reputation of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, in a complaint lodged before a court here.

Shyam Bihari Singh, the legal cell head of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, headed by Kushwaha, filed the complaint against Ranaut before the court of CJM, Patna.