Train escorts
New Delhi, Dec. 10 (PTI): Escort teams of the Railway Protection Force will soon be deployed in 5000 trains and their personnel equipped with mobile phones to remain connected with passengers.
At present, only 1,300 trains out of 11,000 that run daily have RPF personnel. 'Our aim is to cover... 5000 trains,' said RPF chief Krishna Choudhary. 'We are in the process of recruiting 16,500 RPF personnel by April.'
Border holes
New Delhi (PTI): There are 783 porous stretches along the border with Bangladesh and 149 gaps along the Pakistan border through which militants try to infiltrate, the Centre has said. Round-the-clock surveillance and check posts all along the borders are in place.
SPG officer
New Delhi (PTI): Senior IPS officer Vivek Srivastava has been appointed inspector-general in the Special Protection Group which guards the Prime Minister and other VVIPs. A 1989-batch officer of Gujarat cadre, he will be the senior-most IPS officer in the force, which is headless after K. Durga Prasad's exit in November.
Maoist cash
New Delhi (PTI): Maoists are reportedly extorting a 'levy' of about Rs 140 crore annually from a variety of sources, the Centre has said. The rebels have killed 5,024 civilians in the past decade, most of them tribals, it added.
Bank fined
Thane (PTI): A Thane consumer forum has directed ICICI Bank and ICICI Lombard to pay Rs 35,000 along with an insurance claim of Rs 1 lakh to a woman whose husband died in an accident in 2007. The bank, which had issued a credit card with a Rs1-lakh accident cover to the victim, refused to compensate his wife after the mishap.
Dilip Kumar
Mumbai (PTI): Dilip Kumar, who was hospitalised last week for chest infection, will be discharged on Thursday. 'The bronchopneumonia that he was initially suffering from has been cured,' Dr Jalil Parkar of Lilavati hospital said on Wednesday.
Twitter toppers
New Delhi, Dec. 10 (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election-winning post has been retweeted the most, with 70,515 people sharing it on Twitter.
'India has won! Bharat ki vijay! Achhe din aane wale hai' remains the most retweeted tweet till date from India. Next on the list with 1,981 retweets is Salman Khan's tweet about the trailer of his last film Kick, the market director (South and Southeast Asia) of Twitter has said.
Pak aid
New Delhi (PTI): India has sensitised the US about the need for constant vigilance and close monitoring of assistance provided to Pakistan. 'Terrorism emanating from the territory under Pakistan's control remains a core concern for India,' the Centre has said.
Rhino killed
Kaziranga (PTI): Poachers killed an adult male rhino in Kaziranga National Park on Wednesday and chopped off its horns. Six empty cartridges were recovered from the spot. The rhino death count this year is now 27.
