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. Seven persons were killed in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh where the mercury dipped three notches below normal at most places. While five persons lost lives in Bathinda district of Punjab, two were killed in Fatehabad district of Haryana in the past 24 hours. Chandigarh with a low of 3.4°C recorded the lowest minimum temperature in the ongoing winter season, the MeT office said here. Delhi recorded the season’s lowest minimum of 2.7°C while the maximum temperature was 15.7°C. In Kashmir Valley, Srinagar witnessed the coldest night of the season at minus 4.3°C. Kargil, in the frontier region of Ladakh, was the coldest recorded place in the state with a low of minus 16.2°C, while the nearby Leh town recorded a low of minus 14.2°C, up from yesterday’s minus 16°C. Gulmarg in north Kashmir, shivered at a minimum of minus 10.2°C, 1.2 degrees down from yesterday’s 9°C. — PTI