New Delhi, Feb 23 : Hundreds of students, environmentalists and residents have joined hands in a campaign to save the River Yamuna from further pollution.

Holding placards and banners, they gathered at the Jamia Milia Islamia University''s Ansari Auditorium and raised slogans in favour of ''Yamuna River-Cleaning''.

The River Yamuna that holds not only mythological but also historical significance to the country, is today in a pathetic state and its water is unfit for bathing, leave alone consumption.

According to Central Pollution Control Board, around 70 per cent of the pollution in the Yamuna is human excrement.

New Delhi, Feb 23: The Election Commission (EC) will conduct series of meetings from today before announcing dates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and other two Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S Y Quraishi are scheduled to meet Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura today to expand communication network.

The Commission will also meet Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta to review the law and order situation across the country.

Besides, the three-member Commission is likely to hold discussion on the accessibility of Central paramilitary forces to avoid any kind of untoward incident during polls.

New Delhi, Feb 22 : The Election Commission (EC) will conduct series of meetings before announcing dates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and other two Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S Y Quraishi will meet Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta to review the law and order situation across the country.

Besides, the three-member Commission will also hold discussion on the accessibility of Central paramilitary forces to avoid any kind of untoward incident during polls.

New Delhi, Feb 22 : The 186th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), which was the fourth regular meeting of the newly constituted Board, was convened here today.

The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Oscar Fernandes, the Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Labour and Employment and Chairman, CBT (EPF).

The Board considered the statutory item to recommend rate of interest for the year 2008-2009 for crediting to the subscribers account as 8.5 per cent.

New Delhi, Feb 22 : National air craft Air India has floated tenders for long-term loans to raise around 5,000 crore from domestic and global financial institutions for acquiring seven new aircrafts.

The National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), the holding company formed after the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, in the tender document has said that for the US Exim guaranteed facility, the term would be 12 years while for commercial, it would be five years.

New Delhi, Feb 22 : A month after undergoing coronary heart surgery, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is now fit to resume his duties, doctors attending on him said.

"The Prime Minister''s four weeks recovery time is over. Four weeks mean there is good amount of healing. He is now more or less independent and can resume work," Dr Vijay D''silva, ICU specialist attending Dr. Singh said.

Dr. Singh was admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on January 24, where an angiography-X-ray examination of the blood vessels was conducted on him.