Delhi

New Delhi, Dec 28 (PTI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said divisive ideologies anchored in hate and prejudice were making every effort to weaken the firm foundation laid down by party leaders over the years to develop a strong India.

In a message to Congress workers on the party's 137th Foundation Day, Gandhi said, "History was being falsified and detestable efforts were being made to erase the Ganga-Jamuni' culture of the country."

New Delhi, Dec 28 (PTI) A yellow alert has been sounded in Delhi and some restrictions imposed under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in view of rising number of Covid cases in the city, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday.

The yellow alert entails restrictions like night curfew, closure of schools and colleges, opening of non essential shops based on an odd even basis, halved seating capacity in Metro trains and buses among others.

New Delhi, Dec 27 (PTI) Former Punjab chief minister and leader of the newly floated Punjab Lok Congress Amarinder Singh on Monday met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda here.

The BJP has announced that it will contest the Punjab assembly polls in alliance with Singh's party.

The meeting is underway at Shah's residence where all three are present.

Singh has been meeting various BJP leaders to chalk out a strategy for the Punjab elections.

New Delhi, Dec 27 (PTI) Kerala has again emerged as the top ranking state in terms of overall health performance among larger states, while Uttar Pradesh is the worst, according to the fourth Health Index launched by Niti Aayog.

The fourth round of the Health Index took into account the period 2019-20 (reference year).

The report by the government think tank said Tamil Nadu and Telangana have emerged as the second and third best performers, respectively, on health parameters.

New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI) The Delhi Police has arrested six women members of a gang for allegedly trafficking in infants, officials said on Saturday.

The gang, involved in trafficking of over 50 infants, used to procure them from the parents belonging to poor financial background by offering them money and further sold the babies to childless couples for a hefty amount, police said.

On December 17, police were tipped off that the members of the gang would come near Shamshan Ghat, Gandhi Nagar, around 3.30 pm to sell an infant.

New Delhi, Dec 26 (PTI) The Government's plans to build India's biggest centre for performing arts in the national capital have been put into cold storage in view of the Central Vista project.

The Culture Ministry recently told a Parliamentary panel that the shifting on the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) to Jamnagar House had made the continuation of the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) project unviable .

Chandigarh, Dec 24 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday declared 18 more candidates for the next year's Punjab Assembly elections.

The party has till now declared 58 candidates for the polls, a release said here.

Punjab has 117 Assembly seats.

New Delhi, Dec 24 (PTI) Atal Bihari Vajpayee introduced policy corrections that reflected the end of the Cold War and the new global balance, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday and noted that the former prime minister sought a modus vivendi with China that was based as much on mutual respect as on mutual interest.

Jaishankar also said the winds of change are most apparent in the Indo-Pacific and it is there that the diplomatic creativity which Vajpayee inspires should be most strongly applied.

New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI) The Christian community in the national capital celebrated Christmas on Saturday with caution as fewer people reached churches amid concern over the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

On Wednesday, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had directed district magistrates to ensure that no Christmas and New Year gatherings take place in the national capital.

New Delhi, Dec 24 (PTI) India recorded 122 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in a span of 24 hours, the highest so far, pushing its tally in the country to 358, 114 of which have either recovered or migrated, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The 358 Omicron Covid variant cases have been detected across 17 states and union territories so far, it showed.

Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of 88 cases of the Omicron variant, followed by Delhi with 67, Telangana 38, Tamil Nadu 34, Karnataka 31 and Gujarat 30.