ne Reporter

New Delhi, Dec 1 (PTI) Over 700 people have died due to malaria in the country this year with Meghalaya and Orissa topping the list.

According to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a total of 719 people have died due to the disease in the country this year till September.

Meghalaya topped the list with 144 deaths while Orissa followed the north-eastern state with 126 deaths, Azad told Rajya Sabha during question hour.

Another north-eastern state Mizoram was third in the list with 107 followed by Maharashtra with 106.

Out of the 106 deaths in Maharashtra, the city of Mumbai alone accounted for 83 deaths.

Guwhati, Dec 1 : Thousands of farmers, students, women activists, workers and trade union activists courted arrest across Assam in response to a jail bharo programme called by the State-unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in protest against the government’s failure to curb prices and demanding food security.

They were lodged in temporary jails and released in the afternoon.

Earlier, the protesters took out processions and staged demonstrations in front of the offices of Deputy Commissioners, Sub-Divisional Officers and Block Development offices. They shouted slogans demanding a ban on futures trade in essential commodities, and against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre and the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government in the State, blaming them for price hike.

Holding placards and banners, party activists demanded that the Central and State governments universalise the public distribution system. They demanded punishment for black marketeers and hoarders, lowering of the prices of petrol and diesel, increase in public spending on food production, grant of land rights to landless farmers and ensuring just prices to farmers for their produce.