7 die in Punjab, Haryana & Chandigarh y Death toll mounts to 129

Intense cold claimed 22 lives in North India today as temperature plummeted to sub-zero levels at many places in the region. The cold wave continued unabated in Uttar Pradesh as 15 more persons succumbed to the chill in the state, taking the death toll this winter to 129. Two persons, including a police constable, died in Muzaffarnagar district. Three persons each died in Ballia, Lalitpur and Sonebhadra districts, followed by one each in Barabanki, Mirzapur, Kushinagar and Hathras, officials said.