M A I N   N E W S

Cold claims 22 lives in North
7 die in Punjab, Haryana & Chandigarh y Death toll mounts to 129

New Delhi, January 4
Intense cold claimed 22 lives in North India today as temperature plummeted to sub-zero levels at many places in the region. The cold wave continued unabated in Uttar Pradesh as 15 more persons succumbed to the chill in the state, taking the death toll this winter to 129. Two persons, including a police constable, died in Muzaffarnagar district. Three persons each died in Ballia, Lalitpur and Sonebhadra districts, followed by one each in Barabanki, Mirzapur, Kushinagar and Hathras, officials said.

Seven persons were killed in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh where the mercury dipped three notches below normal at most places.

While five persons lost lives in Bathinda district of Punjab, two were killed in Fatehabad district of Haryana in the past 24 hours.

Chandigarh with a low of 3.4°C recorded the lowest minimum temperature in the ongoing winter season, the MeT office said here.

Delhi recorded the season’s lowest minimum of 2.7°C while the maximum temperature was 15.7°C.

In Kashmir Valley, Srinagar witnessed the coldest night of the season at minus 4.3°C. Kargil, in the frontier region of Ladakh, was the coldest recorded place in the state with a low of minus 16.2°C, while the nearby Leh town recorded a low of minus 14.2°C, up from yesterday’s minus 16°C. Gulmarg in north Kashmir, shivered at a minimum of minus 10.2°C, 1.2 degrees down from yesterday’s 9°C. — PTI 

Flights hit at IGIA

NEW DELHI: Dense fog hit the flight schedules at the Indira Gandhi International airport on Friday, leading to diversion of three and delay of over 100 flights through the day. Around 18 flights were delayed at Delhi airport and 12 at destinations due to bad weather. Three international flights, one of Air India (AI-946) from Dubai, one of Jet Airways (9W-017) from Singapore and one of Uzbekistan Airways (HY 421) from Tashkent, were diverted to Jaipur and Amritsar as the visibility was poor at the airport. — PTI

Over 200 trains delayed, 80 cancelled
Tribune News Service

Ambala, January 4
The prevailing unfavourable weather conditions seem to have crippled the railway operations in the region. While 80 trains had to be cancelled over 200 are running behind schedule.

The 80 trains that had to be cancelled due to bad weather included the Jalandhar City-New Delhi, Amritsar-Ambala, Amritsar-Jalandhar City, Ludhiana-Phillaur, Amritsar-Atari, Jalandhar City-Hoshiarpur, Fazilka-Kot Kapura, Jalandhar City-Amritsar and the Amritsar-Jaipur Express.

The officials maintained that train service had been affected across the northern and eastern parts of the country due to the extreme weather conditions. Under the safety and operational plan, the speed of trains had been restricted to 60kmph in case of reduced visibility. This, they said, had been affecting the overall train movement in the entire region.