News Digest: Ex-BSP MLA Lives by the Roadside, Literally

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

Ex-BSP MLA lives by the roadside, literally

As pre-monsoon showers hit Garhshankar town in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, Shingara Ram Shahunggra and his family start looking for tarpaulin sheets to cover their belongings lying by the side of the road. As the family settles down under the sheets on iron cots put on wet earth, it is difficult to imagine that Shahunggra had been a BSP MLA from Punjab, not one but twice!

The family had been living illegally in an irrigation department house for the past few years. The government finally decided to evict him on Sunday, making him perhaps the only ex-MLA in a rich state like Punjab who never built a fancy house for himself in all these years, as per a news report in The Times of India.

Bihar toppers paid Rs 20 lakh each for results, confesses ex-BSEB chairman

Former Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh confessed to having taken Rs 20 lakh from a cheating racket kingpin to help each unworthy student become a topper, police said on Wednesday. Read full article in The Times of India.

Singh also took Rs 4 lakh for granting affiliation to each shady intermediate college, police said. Singh and his ex-MLA and ex-professor wife Usha Sinha were sent in a three-day police custody on Wednesday.

The Lord is sick these days, and can't bless you!

Doors of the Jagannath Dham at Sector-7 have been closed for the masses. Devotees coming to have a 'darshan' are being turned back because the lord is 'sick' and hence unable to see his people. The temple priest says, "Bhagwan bimaar hain, woh aushadi sewan kar rahein hain aur pandrah din aaram karenge" (The lord is not well and is under medication. He will rest for a fortnight).

This is an annual practice and corresponds to the age-old custom prevalent at agannath temple, Puri in Odisha. The Puri temple is the only one-of-its-kind where the almighty is deemed to reside in human form. Hence, the lord too has to follow the natural laws applicable to living beings. He bears the sufferings like his subjects and has his own share of joy and pain, as reported in The Times of India.

On Zimbabwe Tour, Team India Fights Boredom with Takeaways and Thrillers

For two straight days, Spice Lounge, the most upmarket Indian restaurant in Harare, had witnessed a sudden surge in takeaway orders from Meikles Hotel. The names of the people placing orders didn't quite excite Ryan Howes, the Greek manager, but Rakesh Pokhriyal, the head chef, recognised them immediately. "Ive been feeding the Indian cricket team in Harare! Dhoni has been eating my food," he screamed before excitedly running off home to inform his family about it, as reported in The Indian Express.

CBI raids, books nine top Income Tax officials

The CBI registered a case against nine senior Income Tax officials, including Principal Commissioner Income Tax, Delhi, S K Mittal, and three others for allegedly indulging in corrupt practices.

The agency searched 17 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Khammam. CBI sources said the residential and official premises of the I-T officials as well as those of a chartered accountant, Sanjay Bhandari, were searched during the operation, as reported in The Indian Express.

Day after NDMC officer was killed, office of L-G sought action on complaint against him

The day after NDMC official M M Khan was allegedly murdered for refusing to take bribe from Delhi hotelier Ramesh Kakkar, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung's office sent Kakkar's petition against Khan to NDMC asking for "action as per law".

That wasn't the only petition against Khan that Jung's office acted on. Records obtained by The Indian Express show that on May 11, five days before Khan was murdered, the Lt Governor's office sent another letter to NDMC, this time referring to a note from BJP East Delhi MP Maheish Girri on the same issue, as reported in The Indian Express.

Delhi sends most students to IITs, Mumbai 4th

The national capital will send the largest pool of candidates to the Indian Institutes of Technology this year. Delhi has pipped Jaipur, which traditionally topped the charts and cornered the lion's share of seats at these institutes. Three Maharashtra cities — Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur — figured in the top 10 cities for the first time, said experts. Madhya Pradesh too has two cities--Indore and Bhopal--that will send 805 students to the IITs.

Mumbai has improved to fourth position on the chart from sixth last year. Lucknow is a new entrant to the top club. In the last two years, Jaipur, Delhi, Hyderabad, Vijay awada, Patna and Mumbai, in that order, sent most students to the IITs. The line up was similar in 2013, as reported in The Times of India.

Kolkata: Discovery of predator fish that resembles an alligator concerns experts

Experts are concerned about the discovery of a predatory fish that can grow up to eight feet from Subhas Sarovar in Kolkata's eastern fringe of Beliaghata as it can destroy local ecosystem and biodiversity.

A local angler, Shibu Mondol, caught a 3.5-feet long Alligator Gar – a fish that resembles an alligator with long sharp teeth and equally predatory instincts and sometimes known to attack humans – two months ago. Biodiversity experts, ecologists and anglers say the fish could kill almost every other fish in the lake. The prehistoric relatives of this mega fish inhabited many parts of the world, but today gars live only in North and Central America. Of the seven known species, the Alligator Gar is the largest, as reported in the Hindustan Times.

Brexit: What Britain decides today will affect India tomorrow

In 1975, a pint of milk cost 7 p (Rs 7) in Britain, a loaf of bread 16 p (about Rs 15). Arthur Ashe became the first Black man to win Wimbledon and England hosted the first Cricket World Cup.

But it was also the year people were asked to vote on whether Britain should stay a member of the European Economic Community (EEC), the Common Market. It seems after 41 years, Britain's marriage with the European Union (EU) has hit a seriously rocky patch, as reported in The Economic Times.

EPFO to provide 8.16% extra benefit to pensioners if they defer withdrawal

Pensioners, who defer withdrawal of pension for two years after reaching the age of 58 years could get an extra 8.16% in pension amount, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has said.

The measure can benefit 40 lakh subscribers of the Employee Pension Scheme along with helping the government reduce the deficit in the pension fund. The retirement fund body recently notified benefit of 4% increase in pension for each year on deferring withdrawal of pension after reaching the age of 58 years but not later than 60 years, as reported in The Economic Times.