A day-long bandh was observed by a group of students in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Wednesday demanding increase in merit-cum-means (MCM) scholarships, which was later in evening rejected by the university’s vice-chancellor.

Following a protest of shopkeepers of Palika Bazar in NDMC area against the squatters threatening to security of the place, the council would now issue bar code identification licences for its teh bazari allottees. Chairman of the council Jalaj Shrivastav said that flea markets in the NDMC area will have licenced teh bazaari allottees.

In a bid to win support of the key opponent Samajwadi Party for the National Food Security Ordinance’s ratification in Parliament, the government is to move an amendment in the legislative proposal to compensate states for the losses of foodgrains allocation for three years.

The BSP has termed UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s scheme to allocate 20 per cent funds of all government welfare schemes for minorities as a “fraud” and a move to mislead minorities in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh has positioned itself firmly on the collision course with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad after its leaders announced that they will defy the ban and go ahead with their proposed yatra in the state.

Senior Congress leader and Union minister Beni Prasad Verma on Wednesday alleged “match-fixing” over the Samajwadi Party government’s ban on the VHP’s yatra from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

Amidst din in Parliament, the JD(U), while blaming the Congress and the BJP for disruptions in the proceedings, sought smooth business in both Houses of Parliament. The JD(U) called upon the Congress and BJP to sit together and resolve the repeated disruptions of the proceedings of Parliament.

Eight of 10 former ministers from the BJP in Bihar are set to begin looking for new accommodation for themselves as the state’s Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) government on Wednesday asked them to vacate their ministerial bungalows in Patna.

With the Opposition aggressively targeting the government on the issue of the missing files relating to coal block allocation, the top Congress leadership on Wednesday discussed a counter-strategy at its core group meeting which was told that several files have been traced and only eight remained untraced.

Pon Veera Bharathi, 45, a convict with a life sentence in Madurai prison, who has completed six diploma courses, has moved the Madurai high court, seeking permission to attend the convocation at the Tamil Nadu Open University and receive his two gold medals.