In brief

Twins,adopted girls to get Aashirwad Yojna benefit
The state government has decided to bring legally adopted girl child and twin daughters under the cover of the Mahamaya Gareeb Balika Aashirward Yojna. Minister for Social Welfare Indrajeet Saroj announced this at a review meeting on Wednesday. Launched in 2009,the scheme entitles a newborn girl child to Rs 1 lakh — which will be given to her as a fixed deposit of Rs 21,750. When she will turn 18,the fixed deposit will mature to Rs 1 lakh. So far,the first-born daughters in BPL families and those whose grandparents had a BPL card could enjoy the benefits of this scheme. But now,the state government will extend the scheme to second daughters (in case the first-born is also a girl),those who have been adopted legally and also twin and triplet daughters.

Stop honour killings: DGP tells cops
State DIG Karamvir Singh issued directives to all IGs and DIGs of the ranges and the district police chiefs on Wednesday to ensure that no incidents of honour killings occur in their areas. The officers were asked to seek help from the NGOs and social workers to make inter-caste marriages acceptable in the society. Singh also asked the officers to delicately attend to matters related to such marriages and to initiate prompt action against the persons harassing or threatening such couples. The officers were asked to consult the departments of social welfare and women and child development to keep a check on such incidents of harassment and killings.

2 sentenced for contempt of court
Muzaffarnagar: A district consumer redressal forum has sentenced two engineers to one year imprisonment for contempt of court in a case in Muzaffarnagar on Wednesday. The forum has also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on superintending engineer K L Sharma and executive engineer S K Agarwal of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation. The accused were charged with contempt of court in a case for defying the order of a judicial proceeding in March 2010. A consumer,Ramdhan,had filed a petition in the forum alleging that the corporation did not provide him power connection despite paying the inaugural amount. The forum later had directed the officers concerned to restore the power connection and pay Rs 10,000 to the consumer,but they failed to comply with the order.

Woman killed
Kanpur: A 35-year-old woman,sister of a sitting Lok Sabha MP,was killed when a truck hit her,police said on Wednesday. The accident occurred when a speeding truck rammed Dayarani,while she was waiting for a tempo at the roadside on Tuesday. Dayarani,sister Congress MP from Akbarpur,Rajaram Pal,was rushed to a hospital where she was declared dead on arrival.