Delhi

New Delhi, July 24 (PTI) The Centre has "zero tolerance" towards incidents of communal violence and such incidents have shown a declining trend across the country, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said on Wednesday.

Replying to a query during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, the minister said incidents of communal violence have declined to 708 in 2018 from 823 in 2013, he said.

"The incidents of communal violence show a declining trend", he said.

He said imposition of curfew used to be common earlier but now this is not the case.

New Delhi, Jul 23; GANASHAKTI: Opposition parties, led by the Congress, on Tuesday demanded a clarification from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on US President Donald Trump's stunning claim that the Indian leader had requested him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute.

The Ministry of External Affairs has rejected Trump's remarks, made during his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, that Modi had asked him to mediate in resolving the Kashmir issue with Pakistan.

New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) Amid a massive controversy over US President Donald Trump's claim on Kashmir mediation, India Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi never made any such request to the US leader and reiterated that Kashmir is a bilateral issue.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Rajya Sabha that all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan can be discussed only bilaterally, thereby ruling out any third party mediation.

New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) A plea was Monday filed in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Centre to frame a policy to equally propagate the national anthem and the national song -- 'Vande Mataram'.

The plea, filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, has sought that 'Vande Mataram', written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, be given the same respect as the national anthem -- 'Jana Gana Mana', penned by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) As many as 345 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have shown cost overruns to the tune of over Rs 3.28 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a report said.

"Total original cost of implementation of the 1453 projects was Rs 18,32,579.17 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 21,61,313.18 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 3,28,734.01 crore (17.94% of original cost), "the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation's latest report for April 2019 said.

New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) Having failed to privatise Pawan Hans last fiscal, the government has significantly diluted the terms of sale pertaining to employee retrenchment, asset sale and tax liability to attract bidders this time around, sources said.

As per the revised terms of sale proposed by the government, the successful bidder would be required to retain all permanent employees for a period of at least one year, as against two years stipulated earlier.

New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) As part of innovative modes of financing to meet India's huge infrastructure appetite, insurance giant LIC has agreed to offer Rs 1.25 lakh crore line of credit by 2024, to fund highway projects, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

Keen on timely execution of the Rs 8.41 lakh crore ambitious Bharatmala project that aims to lay a grid of highways pan-India, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has been looking to harness various sources of finances including pension and insurance funds.

New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen's residence permit has been extended for one year by the Union Home Ministry, officials said on Sunday.

Taslima, a citizen of Sweden, has been getting residence permit on a continuous basis since 2004

A Home Ministry official told PTI that her residence permit has been further extended for one more year till July 2020.

Chennai, Jul 20 (PTI) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday said the Union government was not making any attempts to impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu and was trying to promote Tamil as well.

Sitharaman's response to queries of reporters here came in the backdrop of state political parties protesting the conduct of recent Postal department exams in English and Hindi only.

New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) Three-time Delhi chief minister and Congress stalwart Sheila Dikshit, who gave the national capital its modern look, passed away Saturday afternoon at a private hospital here after suffering cardiac arrest.

She was 81.

Dikshit breathed her last at 3.55 pm at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, doctors said.