The UPA government on Saturday counselled patience to the agitating members of Andhra Pradesh who created an uproar in the Rajya sabha to know what plan of action the Centre had in mind to deal with the law and order situation arising out of the 24-hour bandh call given by the pro-statehood groups.

Union finance minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said “hard decisions” would be taken in the next few days and weeks to trim wasteful expenditure and curb import of “inessential” items.

Telangana, including Hyderabad, witnessed a total shutdown on Saturday. Normal life was thrown out of gear in the city.

Three Bihar policemen have been punished by the department in the past three days for gross misconduct. While one sub-inspector was on Saturday forced into compulsory retirement for shielding a suspected dealer of explosives, two other sub-inspectors were suspended for illegally detaining a man for 20 days.

Six people, including a local journalist, were killed in fresh clashes between members of two communities in the Kanwal area of Muzaffarnagar district on Saturday. Over two dozen have reportedly been injured in the violence.

Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand’s fast to save the Ganga has now entered its 87th day. The Swami, earlier known as Prof. G.D. Agarwal heading the department of civil and environmental engineering at IIT Kanpur, is on a fast-unto-death at Matri Sadan ashram in Haridwar to press for his demand for the scrapping of all hydro projects on the Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and the Mandakini river basins.

The crib deaths came back to haunt state-run Dr B.C. Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences, the lone super-speciality healthcare institution for children in West Bengal, as three dozen newborns died in the last five days. This has prompted the health department headed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to order a probe.

The first ever clinical trial to compare e-cigarettes with nicotine patches has found that both methods help to kick the butt. According to a study published in the Lancet, similar proportions of smokers who used either method remained abstinent from smoking for six months after a 13 week course of patches or e-cigarettes.

The growing clout of illegal mafia had another victim in Punjab, when a 55-year-old women was crushed to death by a tractor trolley for protesting against illegal mining.

While India-born conductor Zubin Mehta performed under the shadow of mighty chinars in Srinagar’s Mughal Shalimar gardens, a counter-concert, called Haqeeqat-e-Kashmir (the reality of Kashmir), was held about 12 km away at a city park to highlight what its organisers said sufferings of the people of the state.