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The Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the Noida Authority to pay compensation of more than Rs 100 crores to a man who had purchased two plots of 7400 square meters in Chhalera Bangar village of Noida in 1997.

The petitioner had not got possession of the land after he had bought it, stating that the Noida Authority told him that the land was under their authority.

Despite the stay on the land from the trail court, the authority acquired the land and floated the tender, transferring the possession of the land to a big builder in 2004.

The deployment of security forces for this year’s Amarnath Yatra will be double as compared to 2019, Northern Army commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi said on Friday, calling for collective efforts to ensure a hassle-free pilgrimage.

After a two-year gap, the 43-day annual Yatra — from June 30 to August 11 — to the holy cave shrine in Pahalgam will be conducted this year with strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols. In 2020 and 2021, the Yatra was conducted symbolically with just the mahants taking the holy mace to the Amarnath shrine in a chopper because of the pandemic; while in 2019, the pilgrimage was cancelled midway ahead of the nullification of Articles 370 and 35A in August that year.

A team led by a court commissioner reached Varanasi's Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Gyanvapi Mosque earlier today to survey and videograph the premises in accordance to a court order. The team will start work again tomorrow at 3 pm.

The court-appointed survey team included litigants and lawyers from both the Hindu and the Muslim communities, including the court commissioner. However, the team was greeted by religiously-charged sloganeering from both sides.

Devotees had thronged to the masjid for Friday prayers around the same time when the team reached the premises to carry out their judicial direction. The mufti even had to ask those in queue to offer namaaz at a different mosque due to a space crunch.

The ED conducted raids at multiple premises, including that of Jharkhand mining secretary Pooja Singhal and her family, in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the alleged embezzlement of over Rs 18 crore MGNREGA funds in Khunti district of the state during 2008-11.

About Rs 17 crore cash has been recovered from the premises of a Ranchi-based Chartered Accountant, officials said, adding that banknote counters have been brought in by the agency to ascertain the exact amount.

Around Rs 1.8 crore cash has also been recovered from another location in the city, they said. The searches are being carried out under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at about 18 premises in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi, Punjab, and a few other states, they said.

Officials said the premises of Singhal, an IAS officer and secretary of the department of mines and geology of the Jharkhand government, in the state capital, Ranchi, are also being covered as part of the action.

Singhal is a 2000 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and was posted as the deputy commissioner in the Khunti district earlier.

A few other locations in Ranchi, including a hospital, were also being raided by ED officials who were provided with a security escort by the personnel of the central paramilitary force CRPF.

The Allahabad High Court has issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against NOIDA CEO Ritu Maheshwari and directed the police to produce her before it next week in a contempt of court case linked to land acquisition.

Justice Saral Srivastava passed the order on Thursday in a contempt plea filed by one Manorama Kuchhal and another person whose land was acquired in 1990 by the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) but were not given fair compensation till date.

The court directed the police to produce the NOIDA CEO before it on the next date of hearing on May 13.