Delhi

New Delhi, Nov 11 (PTI) A Delhi court Wednesday granted bail to a man in a case related to the communal violence in north east Delhi in February, saying the video footage showing his alleged involvement in the riots and murder does not pertain to the day of the incident.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat granted the relief to Anwar Hussain on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 40,000 with one surety of like amount in the case of death of one Furkan due to gunshot injuries during the riots in Kardampur Pulia.

New Delhi, Nov 12 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a new job creation scheme by giving subsidy to those establishments that make new hires.

The subsidy would be to cover for retirement fund contributions by employees as well as employers for two years, she said.

Employees contribution (12 per cent of wages) and employer's contribution (12 per cent of wages) totalling 24 per cent of wages would be given to establishments for two years, she said.

New Delhi, Nov 12 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 65,000-crore fertilizer subsidy for farmers as part of her stimulus package to boost the economy.

She said Rs 65,000 crore is being provided to ensure adequate availability of fertilisers to farmers and to enable timely accessibility of fertilisers in the upcoming crop season.

She said an additional outlay of Rs 10,000 crore will be provided for PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana in the current financial year.

Chandigarh, Nov 10 (PTI) The Centre has invited Punjab farmer bodies protesting against its farm laws for talks on November 13 in Delhi.

An invite from the Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, has been sent to farmers' organisations for talks with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) president Balbir Singh Rajewal said farmers' organisations have received an invitation.

New Delhi, Nov 10 (PTI) Delhi woke up to a grey morning as an apocalyptic smog blotted out the sun from the sky and smudged landmarks from view with air quality inching closer to emergency levels on Tuesday.

Air quality monitoring stations at Mandir Marg, Punjabi Bagh, Pusa, Rohini, Patparganj, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Najafgarh, Sri Aurobindo Marg and Okhla Phase 2 maxed out as air quality indexes hit the 500 mark, Central Pollution Control Board data showed.

New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday imposed a total ban on sale or use of all kinds of firecrackers in the National Capital Region (NCR) from the midnight of November 9 to the midnight of November 30.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel clarified that the direction will apply to all cities and towns in the country where the average of ambient air quality during November (as per available data of last year) fell under the 'poor' and above categories.

Chennai, Nov 8 (PTI) Former IAS officer S Sasikanth Senthil, who had resigned from service last year alleging that democracy was being "compromised," on Sunday announced his decision to join the Congress party.

The 2009 Karnataka-cadre officer had quit the IAS last year and has since participated in many protests against the government, including the anti-NRC/CAA agitations.

He was the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district when he resigned in September 2019.

New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) The national capital's air quality remained severe for the fifth consecutive day on Monday, with calm wind speed exacerbating the effect of stubble burning.

V K Soni, the head of the India Meteorological Department's environment research centre, said a major improvement in Delhi-NCR's air quality was highly unlikely in the coming days.

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has sought a capital support of about Rs 1,000 crore from the government in order to create buffer for any exigency, a top official of the bank said.

The state-owned lender, which has posted profit for the last three consecutive quarters, expects to continue the trend in the remaining part of the current fiscal year with increased focus on recovery and business pick up.

Mumbai, Nov 7 (PTI) Haj pilgrims will have to submit COVID-19 negative report 72 hours prior to their journey to Saudi Arabia in 2021, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday.

After holding a meeting with the Haj Committee and other stake-holders, the minister for minority affairs told reporters that December 10 is the last date for submitting applications for Haj pilgrimage 2021.