Congress leaders hold talks on issues to be raised in upcoming budget session of Parliament

The Jana Sena party, led by actor-politician Pawan Kalyan, is all set to reveal its political plans in Andhra Pradesh at its ninth formation day celebrations to be held here on Monday.

After hours-long operation against suspected terrorists, the Madhya Pradesh police on Sunday claimed to have arrested four Bangladeshi nationals from two different locations in Bhopal.

Senior BJP MLA Sorokhaibam Rajen Singh was sworn in as the protem Speaker of the Manipur Assembly on Sunday and will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the remaining 59 newly elected MLAs on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday directed the authorities to make all possible efforts to bring back the mortal remains of Naveen Shekharappa, who died in Kharkiv, Ukraine during Russian shelling on March 1.

Sri Lankan fishermen have refused to give anymore grace period to Indian fishermen during the informal talks between community leaders that took place at the St Anthonys feast in Kachchateevu.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has ruled out defections from the ruling BJP in the state. "There is no question of any one from BJP defecting to other parties. Neither earlier, nor now," Bommai said on Sunday.

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly ramming into a senior police official's car in February and later was released on bail, a senior official confirmed the incident on Sunday. Delhi Police Spokesperson Suman Nalwa told IANS that the incident took place on February 22 in south Delhi' Malviya Nagar area.

The allegation in the UP elections that AIMIM led by Asaduddin Owaisi, was actually a 'B' team of the Bhartiya Janata Party is not entire baseless if one takes a look at election results. On several seats Owaisi's candidate have taken away votes that, if added to the SP-RLD combine, would have ensured the defeat of the BJP. In UP, the BJP won 7 seats by 200 votes, 23 seats by 500 votes, 49 seats by 1000 votes, 86 seats by 2000 votes. In all these seats Owaisi has scored generously and helped BJP by dividing the opposition votes. For instance, in Bijnor, SP-RLD got 95,720 while AIMIM got 2,290 votes. The BJP won the seat by getting 97,165 votes -- 1,445 more than the SP-RLD. The AIMIM had taken away 2,290 votes, allowing a win for the BJP.

A 21-year-old man allegedly died by suicide in the national capital's northwest area, a police official said on Sunday. According to the official, the deceased identified as Prakhar Yadav, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was a Delhi University graduate and was residing at a rented accommodation in northwest Delhi's Vijay Nagar. "The intimation about the incident was received by a police party which was patrolling in the area at 8 p.m. on Friday after which they rushed to the spot," the police official told IANS. When the police reached the said flat, they found Prakhar hanging from a ceiling fan. "He had used bed sheets to hang himself," the official said. The police said that preliminary investigation has so far revealed that it is a suicide case, however, the exact cause of death can only be revealed after the post-mortem report. Local enquiry of the friends and flatmates of the deceased was also done, who disclosed that Prakhar was under some depression from the past few days. "He was also working as an Editor at some private firm in Noida, the job which he got just a few days back," said the official.

16 MLAs to take oath as ministers on a later date.

BJP workers in parts of Maharashtra on Sunday burnt copies of a notice issued by Mumbai police to senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis in connection with a case of alleged illegal tapping of phones. Besides, a number of BJP leaders, including MLA Nitesh Rane, MLCs Prasad Lad and Pravin Darekar, and party leader Kripashankar Singh, gathered outside Fadnavis's residence in south Mumbai, where a team of the BKC cyber police reached around noon to record the latter's statement in connection with the case. The party workers staged protests and burnt copies of the police notice in various parts of the state, including Pune, Pandharpur (in Solapur district), Nagpur, Chandrapur and Sangli. The Mumbai cyber police had issued a notice to former Maharashtra chief minister Fadnavis, asking him to appear before them on Sunday in connection with the case. Fadnavis, however, on Saturday said a senior police officer called to inform him that police will visit his residence to take the required information and there was no need for him to visit the police station.

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The South Korean Foreign Ministry on Sunday renewed its Covid-19 special advisory against all overseas travel for another month Sunday in what is expected to be the last extension of the advisory that was first issued two years ago. In the advisory effective until April 13, the Ministry warned against travelling to all countries and regions due to the global spread of the Omicron variant while asking those overseas to take measures to prevent exposure to the virus, reports Yonhap News Agency. The advisory was first issued in March 2020 and has been extended every month. Sunday's extension is expected to be the last as the ministry said it would shift to country-specific advisories next month from the blanket advisory.

The Congress in Goa is yet to take a decision on its legislature party leader, even after three days of the announcement of the state Assembly election results. According to sources, the Goa Congress unit has not held a single meeting after it failed to reach the majority mark of 21 in the 40-member Assembly. The Congress got 11 seats, its ally Goa Forward Party (GFP) secured one seat, while the BJP bagged 20 seats. Earlier, a senior Congress leader had said the Congress-GFP alliance will name its leader immediately after the election results are out. However, talking to PTI on Sunday, a Congress leader on condition of anonymity said, “We are yet to get any invitation for a meeting after the counting." Congress MLA-elect Michael Lobo said a decision on the legislature party leader would be taken "at the right time". “The Congress will have to inform the Assembly about their leader when the session is called for a confidence vote for the chief minister,' he said.

The union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands did not record a single fresh COVID-19 case for the last four days, a health department official said on Saturday. The virus tally of the archipelago remained at 10,025. The union territory now has only two active COVID-19 cases, while 9,894 people have recovered from the disease so far, he said. The coronavirus death toll remained at 129 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last four days, he said. More than 7 lakh samples have been tested for COVID-10 so far and the cumulative test positivity rate is 1.42 per cent.

Delhi: Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, was arrested and later released on bail for ramming his car into the vehicle of DCP South in the month of February.

Two persons were killed and 23 others injured after their van overturned in Maharashtra's Palghar district, police said on Sunday. The accident took place around 5.30 pm on Saturday at Panchmarg in Tarapur town, an official at the district police control room said. The driver of the van, which was carrying some villagers, lost control over the wheels following which the vehicle overturned, he said. Two persons were killed. They were identified as Mukesh Singh (32), from Bhilwadi village, and Gayatri Maji (36), from Kurgaon, he said. Twenty three others were injured, including some of them seriously, the official said, adding that they were admitted to two private hospitals.

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The Delhi government on Saturday (March 12) launched an online portal 'My EV' for the purchase and registration of electric autos in the city. The government will also provide five per cent interest subvention on the purchase of e-autos on loans under the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy, an official statement said, adding Delhi has now become the first state to provide such a facility. The Delhi government has collaborated with Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) to develop the website https://www.myev.org.in “The interest rate subvention provided on electric autos will provide an additional incentive of Rs 25,000 over the purchase incentive of Rs 30,000,” the statement read. Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said the online portal will provide several options of approved vehicles to people along with ensuring that they receive the interest subvention on their loans via a smooth automated channel.

Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal of the Allahabad High Court here on Saturday sought to drive home the malady of delayed justice, recalling an incident in which a man refused to take the compensation 25 years after the death of his son in a road accident and asked the court to keep the money. Justice Bindal narrated the incident while inaugurating the holding of Lok Adalat here and said, “Delayed relief often turns meaningless.” Recalling the case involving a man fighting a case for compensation from a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Justice Bindal said after the man was eventually awarded the compensation, he asked the court to keep the money with itself. “Judge sahib, please keep this money with yourself now. I disparately needed it to raise my grandsons and educate them after their father, my son, died, in a road accident 25 years ago. I don’t need the money now because all of them are settled now,” Justice Bindal recalled the man as telling the court.

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 180 crore on Saturday, the Union health ministry said. In a tweet on the vaccination milestone, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, "The figure of 180 crore vaccine doses crossed. Powered by spirit of Jan-Bhagidari (public participation), the world's largest vaccination drive is touching new heights under PM Narendra Modi Ji's leadership. Keep following COVID appropriate behaviour even after getting vaccinated." More than 17 lakh (17,82,501) vaccine doses had been administered till 7 pm on Saturday, the health ministry said. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night, it said.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday accused the BJP of winning the assembly elections in four states by polarising votes and making clever statements. Addressing a gathering at Gandhi Circle after participating in a peace march on the 92nd anniversary of the Dandi March, Gehlot also said the people need to maintain harmony in today's atmosphere of tension in the country. Hitting out at the BJP after the peace march on Jawahar Lal Nehru Road, Gehlot said, “They won elections by giving statements cleverly in the name of Hindutva and polarisation.

Telangana on Saturday witnessed a further sharp decline in COVID-19 cases with a mere 77 new infections being reported. The statewide tally stood at 7,90,301, a health department bulletin said. The trend of no fresh fatalities due to the infectious disease continued and the death toll remained the same at 4,111. The bulletin said 154 people recuperated from the infection and the cumulative number of recoveries till date was 7,85,126. The recovery rate rose to 99.34 per cent.

The AAP is no alternative to the BJP, which is going to be the only single viable option in Punjab in the future, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Saturday, asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought a "new political culture" in the country. Assembly poll results of five states were announced on Thursday and the BJP won Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur, while in Goa, it on its own has touched the halfway mark. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a landslide victory defeating the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP-led alliance. Prime Minister Modi has also broken the jinx about anti-incumbency, Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function after being asked about his party, BJP, retaining power in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.