Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Oct 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court Tuesday reserved its judgement on the issue of the grant of reservation in promotion to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in government jobs.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Nageswara Rao heard all the parties in the matter including Attorney General K K Venugopal, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Balbir Singh, and other senior lawyers appearing for various states.

Mumbai, Oct 26 (PTI) Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday accused NCB official Sameer Wankhede of illegal phone tapping and announced that he will hand over a letter on the official's misdeeds' to the agency head.

Sameer Wankhede through two persons in Mumbai and Thane is illegally intercepting the mobile phones of some people, said Malik, who has been targeting Wankhede after his son-in-law's arrest.

Malik also claimed that Wankhede had sought the call detail record (CDR) of his family member from the police.

New Delhi, Oct 26 (PTI) Dearness Allowance for central government employees has been hiked to 31 per cent of the basic pay from 28 per cent with effect from July 1, 2021, the Finance Ministry said.

In an office memorandum, the Department of Expenditure, under the Finance Ministry, said the term 'basic pay' means the pay drawn as per the 7th pay commission matrix and does not include any other type of pay like special pay, etc.

Patna, Oct 26 (PTI) After riding roughshod over the Congress, his junior alliance partner in Bihar, RJD president Lalu Prasad on Tuesday sought to conceal his iron fist in velvet gloves, saying he still considers the grand old party "the national alternative".

Prasad, who has returned to his home turf of Bihar after three years, said the country needs the Congress, and underscored nobody has "helped" the national party as much as himself, blaming the recent bad blood on "small time leaders" (chhutbhaiya neta).

Indore, Oct 26 (PTI) Police on Tuesday arrested Karan Morwal, the son of a Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh, who was absconding for over six months after a woman lodged a rape case against him, an official said.

Karan Morwal is the son of Murli Morwal, the legislator from Badnagar in Ujjain district.

Police had earlier announced a reward of Rs 25,000 on his arrest.

Kanpur: A high level multi-disciplinary team has been studying Zika virus case that was reported in Kanpur. It also took note of another Coronavirus variant of interest which may become a variant of trouble.

Concern was also raised with the government on a new Covid-19 variant Delta Plus AY.4.2, which is said to have been detected in our country. It spreads even faster than the delta variant, sources said.

The Central government has been urged to take necessary action in order to avoid an experience like the Delta variant wave.

Kanpur: Beginning his first leg of Yatra Akhilesh Yadav is reported to be planning his second phase of rath yatra from Hardoi. Covering Kanpur Nagar, Hamirpur, Jalaun and Kanpur Dehat he is ready to embark upon his next excursion on Oct 31.

He will attend SBSP mahapanchayat at the Haldharpur in Mau district.

Rajbhar and Akhilesh are expected to formally announce their alliance at the event.The seat sharing formula will be declared afterwards.

Speaking to media on Monday in Lucknow, Akhilesh had confirmed his participation possibly as the chief guest in Mau rally.

ISLAMABAD, Oct 25 (APP): With the rise of saffron terror in India – motivated by Hindutva and backed by government’s systematic discriminatory policies – around 260 million population of minorities in the so-called world’s biggest democracy is facing the existential threat.

Notorious as “saffron goons”, the baton or sword carrying youths attacking and burning worship places of Muslims, Christians, Dalits or Sikhs and killing the community members mark the India of 2021 being ruled by an RSS Pracharak-turned politician Narendra Modi.

Panaji, Oct 24 (PTI) The Goa Congress on Sunday slammed the Centre for the continuous rise in fuel prices and demanded that hoardings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at dispensing pumps be removed.

Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar said it seemed as if the PM was laughing at people distressed by rising prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas.

"When people are spending their hard earned money to fill high priced petrol or diesel, Modi can be seen laughing at them on the hoardings at petrol pumps, he told reporters in Mapusa.

Dehradun, Oct 24 (PTI) Bodies of five out of six trekkers feared dead on Suderdhunga trek in Bageshwar district were found on Sunday as the cumulative death toll in rain-related incidents in Uttarakhand rose to 77.

However, search is still on for another trekker in the area, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) sources here said.

Meanwhile, 19 people stranded in Kafni glacier were brought to their village Chuni and 33 stuck in Pindari glacier were evacuated to safety, they said.