Breaking News, July 5 | HIGHLIGHTS

Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh has been appointed as the chairperson of the AAP Parliamentary Party. He has also been chosen as the leader of the party in Rajya Sabha.

The opposition Congress-led UDF on Friday criticised the Left government in the Kerala assembly over the poor condition of roads in the state and staged a walkout.

Delhi Health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj will hold a meeting with different departments to chalk out an anti-dengue action plan on Friday, officials said. In the meeting, there will be discussions on preparations for handling and preventing the spread dengue in the national capital this year, they added.

The Delhi Development Authority on Friday carried out an anti-encroachment drive in the Yamuna plains of Sarai Kale Khan in southeast Delhi, officials said. According to the DDA, the drive was conducted amid adequate security arrangement to ensure law and order is maintained during he exercise. The exercise is almost done, a police official said around Friday afternoon.

The flood situation in Assam was critical on Friday with nearly 22 lakh people affected and all major rivers flowing above the danger mark. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reviewed the situation in Dibrugarh town, which has been under water and facing severe power shortage for the last eight days.

Two revenue department staffers have been suspended for failing to prevent illegal sand mining in the area under their watch in Maharashtra’s Beed district, an official said on Friday. The action against Purushottam Sudhakar Andhale (mandal adhikari) and Kiran Prabhakar Dandhe (talathi) came after senior officials found signs of rampant illegal sand mining near a river basin in Georai taluka, he said. Beed Collector Avinash Pathak suspended the two on Thursday for dereliction of duty, the official said.

All 'prant pracharaks', or province in-charges, of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will assemble in Jharkhand's Ranchi next week for their annual meeting which will also be attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. During the three-day event beginning July 12, the prant pracharaks will deliberate on the report and review of RSS training camps held in May-June, the RSS all India publicity head Sunil Ambekar said in a statement on Friday.

Slamming the BJP for the transfer orders issued to 5,000 teachers of Delhi government schools, Delhi minister Gopal Rai on Friday said the party was trying to destroy the education system developed by the Kejriwal government by pressuring officers. Rai, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party's Delhi unit convener, said the "Kam Roko Abhiyan" (stop work campaign) of the BJP to create hurdles in the AAP government's work has been going on for years and has now reached an extreme stage.

Two police sub-inspectors have been suspended on charges of molesting a woman pilgrim from Madhya Pradesh in Kedarnath a year ago. Sub-inspector Kuldeep Negi and Kedarnath Station House Officer Manjul Rawat were suspended on the basis of the recommendation of an inquiry committee, Rudraprayag Superintendent of Police (SP), Vishakha Ashok Bhadane told PTI.

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it seized Rs 41 lakh in cash, "incriminating" documents and digital devices during searches conducted as part of a money laundering case linked to alleged corruption in the augmentation of some Sewage Treatment Plants by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

The flood situation in Assam was critical on Friday with nearly 22 lakh people affected and all major rivers flowing above the danger mark. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reviewed the situation in Dibrugarh town, which has been under water and facing severe power shortage for the last eight days. He visited some areas on foot and interacted with the people. "We will be engaging experts and the local residents to find a community-driven solution to the problem of inundation in Dibrugarh town," he said.

Jailed Waris Punjab De activist Amritpal Singh was taken to New Delhi by special aircraft on Friday morning for his swearing-in as an MP, an official said. Singh, who has won the Lok Sabha polls from the Khadoor Sahib constituency in Punjab, has been granted four-day parole for the swearing-in, he said. He was escorted from the Dibrugarh Central Jail, where he has been lodged since April last year, to the airport in the early hours amid tight security. An eight-member team of the Punjab Police arrived here on Thursday to take Singh to New Delhi. A team of Assam Police and the district administration accompanied them to the airport from the jail, the official said.

Ahead of the Union Budget presentation, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, pressing for enhanced financial support to the debt-burdened state. Sources said Naidu, during the meeting in North Block, highlighted various ongoing projects in Andhra Pradesh that require urgent central assistance.

Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday said there were lapses on the part of the administration in the Hathras stampede incident that killed over 100 people, but added that he did not want to make it "political". Speaking to reporters after meeting the victims of the stampede in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras here on Friday morning, Gandhi said, "It is a matter of grief that so many families have suffered, so many people lost their lives." "I don't want to speak from a political prism but there have been some lapses on the part of the administration," the senior Congress leader said.

At least 11 persons were rushed to hospitals for sustaining minor injuries or feeling dizzy after a massive crowd gathered along the route of the victory parade of the T-20 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team in South Mumbai, an official said on Friday. Nine were admitted to the state-run GT Hospital for suffering injuries or complaining of breathing difficulties due to excessive crowding. They are now in a stable condition, said the dean of JJ Group of Hospitals.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday met here the family members of those who lost their lives in the stampede in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, according to Congress leaders. Gandhi left from Delhi on Friday early morning by road for Hathras and was accompanied by state Congress chief Ajay Rai, state Congress in-charge Avinash Pande, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and other office bearers. The senior Congress leader landed in Pilakhna village in Aligarh around 7.15 am after he left by road from Delhi. Later, Gandhi is scheduled to meet families of the stampede victims in Hathras's Vibhav Nagar area.

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A girl thrashed an autorickshaw driver with a baseball bat in outer Delhi's Paschim Vihar area after he allegedly assaulted her brother, police said on Thursday. A video of the incident, which occurred on Tuesday, has surfaced on social media. In the video, the girl is seen hitting the auto driver, Shiv Shankar, with the baseball bat and then with a metal bangle. Shankar sustained a head injury and was rescued by passersby. He was taken to the hospital and discharged after treatment, a police officer said.