NEWS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and address the All-India Mayors’ Conference on Friday. According to Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Conference is being organised by the Department of Urban Development of Uttar Pradesh in Varanasi.

The virtual inauguration will take place at 10.30am. The title of the conference is 'New Urban India'.

"It has been the constant endeavour of the Prime Minister to ensure ease of living in urban areas. The government has launched multiple schemes and initiatives to address the issues of dilapidated urban infrastructure and lack of amenities. A special focus of these efforts has been the state of Uttar Pradesh, which has witnessed tremendous progress and transformation of the urban landscape, especially in the last five years," the PMO said in a release.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday a plea challenging the setting up of a commission of inquiry by the West Bengal government to probe into the Pegasus snooping allegations.

The matter was mentioned on Thursday before a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana by the lawyer appearing for the petitioner NGO who submitted that the commission was going ahead with the probe despite the fact that the top court has constituted an expert committee in the case.

He said the state government had assured the top court that it would not proceed with the probe.

The Supreme Court Thursday allowed the Railways to proceed with the eviction of unauthorised settlements on its land earmarked for the proposed Surat-Jalna route, but not before pulling it up for failing to prevent encroachment despite maintaining a Railway Protection Force and having a special enactment that enables it to do so.

A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said that the Railways may immediately issue notices to occupants of illegal structures and give them two weeks to vacate the premises. For structures that do not require to be vacated immediately, four weeks may be given, said the bench that also comprised Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday is learnt to have cleared a bill on electoral reforms, including the one to link electoral roll with Aadhaar on a voluntary basis to root out multiple enrolments.

According to the bill, the electoral law will also be made ?gender neutral? for service voters.

An army man's wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman army officer's husband is not, according to provisions in the electoral law. But this may change once the bill gets Parliament's nod.