Officials said almost all the ministers present at meeting took the holy dip.
The disease has symptoms of Japanese Encephalitis and Meningitis.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of the farmer unions protesting the three farm laws, said emergency and essential services such as ambulance and school bus will not be stopped during the 'chakka jam' that is proposed to be held between 12 pm and 3 pm.
Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, has signed an agreement with Hutchison India for supplying GSM equipment to its nine of the 13 circles.
A confrontation was building up at the UP Gate in Ghazipur bordering Delhi with heavy security deployed while frequent power cuts were witnessed in the evening at the protest site, where Bharatiya Kisan Union members, led by Tikait, are staying put since November 28.
The Centre's retreat from the farm laws is likely to have a significant bearing on the fate of laws that the Centre has made, for instance, in labour and electricity, predicts A K Bhattacharya.
Four people threw 22-year-old Kamlesh Kumar out of the Punjab Mail near Saharanpur after a dispute over seating arrangements.
There are two hotspots each in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala and Maharashtra and one each in Gujarat and Rajasthan
'Had these three farm laws existed it would have become a huge election issue.'
'The question often being asked is whether the demand for petrol and diesel is price inelastic?' asks Arun Balakrishnan, former chairman and managing director, Hindustan Petroleum.
The city's overall air quality index stood at 306 on Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not respect farmers and wants to tire out those protesting against the Centre's new agriculture laws, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged.
'Nehru wanted to strengthen industries by exploiting agriculture and that policy was continued by successive governments.'
Rahul and Priyanka paid tributes to the slain soldier. They were also seen consoling the members of the bereaved family.
Emotions ran high as the farmers performed ardas (prayers) and havan to thank the almighty and started their 'victory march' from Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur protest sites to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in convoys of tractors, bedecked with colourful flowers and lights and blaring songs of jubilation.
Police personnel in adequate strength were deployed across the state to maintain law and order, officials said.
The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to entertain pleas seeking time-bound probe, including by an apex court-appointed commission, into the tractor rally violence in the national capital on the Republic Day saying the government is already inquiring the matter and the Prime Minister has stated that law will take its own course.
Chand pointed out that the government is willing to discuss the three farm laws clause by clause, and farmer leaders should consider this offer.
While the police have kept the Haryana-Delhi border at Singhu and Tikri closed for traffic, the protest at Ghazipur, the city's border with Uttar Pradesh, has also intensified.
Indian Mujahideen terrorist Ejaz Sheikh, wanted in several cases including a terror strike in Jama Masjid in New Delhi, was arrested on Friday night from Saharanpur area of western Uttar Pradesh by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.
'Congress and BSP are in the fray, but not in the contest.'
In Central India, the standing soybean and pulses crops have also been hit but the loss isn't massive as the showers were followed by relatively bright sunshine that helped absorb soil moisture
Two pleas were filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday over the tractor rally violence on Republic Day, with one seeking the setting up of a commission, headed by a retired apex court judge, to inquire into the incident, while the other urged it to direct the media not to declare farmers as "terrorist" without any evidence.
Thousands of farmers from across Maharashtra reached Mumbai on Sunday evening to participate in a rally at the state capital on Monday against the Centre's three new farm laws.
A day after protesting farmer leaders paraded a youth who claimed a plot to disrupt their January 26 tractor rally, the Haryana police on Saturday said it had found no proof to support the allegations during its probe. It said the youth had claimed that he 'cooked up' the conspiracy story under fear after some volunteers at a protest site caught him and accused him of eve teasing.
Close to half the country is experiencing deficient rains and the shortage for the figure has gone up to 16 per cent.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian was informed by senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the farmer unions, who have been made party in the case that they had firm belief that farm laws are against their interest.
With the talks between the Centre and the agitating farmer unions stalled since January, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday expressed readiness to resume the dialogue to resolve their objections to the three new agri laws, but the unions remained adamant on their demands for a repeal of the legislations and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price.
For over three months, the three Delhi border points at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur have transformed into townships occupied by thousands of farmers from different parts of the country, mainly Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
Adityanath said he has changed the "perception about the state" and improved its "tarnished image".
To repeated questions, the SP chief asserted that the Congress was 'very much in the alliance'.
Farmers gathered at several national highways, key roads and some railway tracks in Punjab and Haryana on Friday morning as part of their nationwide protest against the Centre's new agri laws.
Nitin Tyagi is a young farmer in Budhagaon village of Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. A few years ago, Tyagi left his fairly lucrative job in the medical industry and shifted base to his ancestral village to look after his land and property. He opened a small shop selling farm inputs in the village and also started taking a greater interest in agricultural matters which had so far been looked after by his father and uncles. Tyagi and his brothers primarily grow sugarcane, potato and wheat on nearly 10 acres of land with sugarcane taking up most of his time and effort. Being one of the most important and lucrative cash crops of the region, sugarcane is directly linked to the fate of millions of farmers in west UP and with it, the electoral fortunes of political parties seeking their votes in the coming assembly polls.
Authorities have suspended civil construction works in Delhi and Haryana as part of emergency measures to improve air quality.
Her body was cremated in the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and briefed him about the situation in violence-hit Saharanpur and students' protests against UPSC syllabus and the steps being taken by the Centre on both the issues.
The Indian High Commission made its displeasure known despite the British government earlier reiterating that the three New Delhi laws on agricultural reform were a "domestic matter".
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader and in-charge of its media and public relations Ram Madhav has been deputed by the Sangh to work in the Bharatiya Janata Party where he is expected to be given a role by the new party president.
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