News Digest: VHP Sets Dec 31 Deadline for Building Ram Temple

Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India:

1.) VHP sets Dec 31 deadline for building Ram temple at Ayodhya

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Tuesday gave a December 31 deadline for construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, reported The Times of India.

Addressing a gathering of sants and youths from across the country at Ujjain mahakumbh, the saffron outfit's general secretary Champat Rai said, "Construction will start before December 31, and we won't wait for the Supreme Court verdict... We kept our patience, but won't wait beyond December."

Responding to some media reports which claimed that the temple's construction would begin from November 1, the VHP general secretary said some organisations were spreading rumours to hog limelight on the Ayodhya issue.

2.) Hired for technical work, rlys turns them into sweepers

Biswanath Sahu and his pregnant wife, both visually impaired, thought their misery was at an end when Sahu managed to pass an Indian Railways exam in March this year.

He received a letter from the Delhi Division of the railways about his appointment as an electrical khalasi (helper).

A fortnight after his joining date, he was issued another letter, this time designating him a safaiwala, reported The Times of India.

3.) All guns, no glory for this budding neta

A cursory glance at Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky's profile on social network will give anyone the impression that he is a gun-toting man with little respect for the law.

Arrested by Bihar Police for brazenly gunning down a 19-year-old youth who overtook his Range Rover SUV in Gaya, his love for guns can be seen splashed all over his Facebook profile, said a report in The Times of India.

On August 11, 2015, Rocky uploaded a picture of him dressed in a blue T-shirt and trousers. The picture, captioned "testing the new ones", showed him holding a pistol and a revolver in his hands. A month later, he uploaded a picture showing a cache of assault rifles.

4.) HC judge dials 100, gets no reply; court to hear PIL

A Delhi high court judge has written to the commissioner of police about the "poor" response of 'dial 100' helpline service, based on his personal experience.

The letter by Justice Vipin Sanghi, also shared with high court Chief Justice G Rohini, was converted into a PIL on Tuesday after she took suo motu cognisance of the issue of distress calls going unanswered or put on hold.

In his letter addressed to top cop Alok Kumar Verma, accessed by The Times of India, Sanghi nar rates his "poor personal experience" after calling up the helpline on April 29 when he was on his way to south Delhi's Vasant Kunj to at tend a wedding reception.

5.) Taken to be cattle smuggler, ITI student beaten to death

A second-year ITI student died early Tuesday after he was allegedly beaten by a mob, who suspected him to be a cattle smuggler at Harindanga village of Diamond Harbour in South-24 Parganas district.

He was taken to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata where he was declared dead on arrival.

Later, one person was arrested in connection with the incident, said a report in The Indian Express.

6.) Body of 40-yr-old woman found inside car, friend detained

The body of a 40-year-old woman was found with a bullet injury inside a car in North Delhi's Maurice Nagar Tuesday evening. Her friend, who was driving the car in which she was found, has been detained.

Police are trying to ascertain if it is a case of suicide or murder. The victim lived in outer Delhi's Rohini with her husband and two children, reported The Indian Express.

Police said the victim's friend called up her sister and told her that she had shot herself dead inside his car. He told her that he was going to commit suicide, after which the victim's sister informed police.

7.) Poorest district leaps to top 5 in Odisha with 92 per cent pass in Class X

Nabarangpur has scored an A-plus. The south Odisha district, one of India's poorest, has recorded a pass percentage of 91.87 in the Odisha Board.

Class X results declared on May 2, standing fifth among the state's 30 districts. That's a jump of over nine percentage points since last year when the district scored 82.60 per cent and stood 18th in the state.

The results are a huge leap for a district that has had some of the most dismal indicators for education and is the focus of a year-long assignment by The Indian Express to track poverty and transformation.

8.) NIT Srinagar Stays Busy to Stay Calm

With tempers finally cooling down at National Institute of Technology in Srinagar and all students having taken their exams, the institute is making an attempt to help rebuild the campus environment that came under serious strain after a conflict between outstation and Kashmiri students over cheering against the Indian cricket team.

Coming up this month are the NITSrinagar Global Alumni meet and an international conference it is co-hosting with Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, reported The Economic Times.

9.) Drunk man slices auto driver's finger in parking row Auto night Rajput's

A brawl with a drunk youth over parking space proved dear for an auto rickshaw driver from Mulund. The drunken 24-year-old sliced the 42-year-old driver's finger with a chopper, after a heated argument. While the accused fled from the scene of the crime last Thursday, he surrendered to cops on Monday, The Mid-day reported.

According to the Mulund police, rickshaw driver Bhagwan Appa Kengar, a resident of Mulund's Hanuman Pada, returned home around 11.30 pm last Thursday and wanted to park his auto at his usual spot opposite Shivayi Rahivashi Mitra Mandal.

However, he couldn't do so, as the accused had parked his bike there.

10.) Patanjali sends rivals into Ayurveda mode

With Patanjali Ayurved growing aggressively in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) space, rivals Emami and Himalaya, with their own strong Ayurveda focus, are now planning to speed up their plans to enter new segments and expand distribution and retail reach across the country, The Hindustan Times reports.

Baba Ramdev- promoted Patanjali, which reported Rs 5,000 crore sales in the fiscal year ending March 2016 and has doubled its revenue within two years, has spurred even Hindustan Unilever, the largest consumer goods maker in the country, into taking action with CEO Sanjeev Mehta admitting that as HUL is under represented in ayurveda it needs to grow there.