Intense cold wave continued to sweep north India. The biting cold has claimed 12 lives in the region during the past 24 hours. While 11 people died in Uttar Pradesh, one person lost his life in Jammu and Kashmir. Uttar Pradesh government has released 3.12 crore rupees to provide shelter, food, clothes, blankets and medical facilities to the poor and destitute. Met Department has predicted continuance of the cold wave in the state for two more days. People in the national capital continued to shiver at below normal temperatures with the weatherman predicting no respite in the coming days. The maximum hovered around 14.5 deg C, a good six degrees below normal, while the minimum was 5.3 degree Celsius.In Jammu and Kashmir, night temperature in the summer capital Srinagar continued to stay two degrees below normal for this time of the year. Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir, was the coldest place in the Kashmir Valley, recording a minimum of minus 9.8 deg C. Parts of world famous Dal Lake and other water bodies in the Valley remain frozen, providing a rare experience for the tourists but bringing hardships to the Dal dwellers.The high altitude tribal areas in Himachal Pradesh reeled under freezing cold conditions as minimum temperatures dropped further, hitting normal life severely. Keylong, the headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti district, experienced the season's coldest day with the mercury dipping to minus 15 deg C. Other tribal areas recorded minimum temperatures in the range of minus 18 and minus 25 deg C. Surajtal and Chandratal lakes and 70-km stretch of Chandrabhaga river, a tributary of Spiti, have completely frozen. Cold wave continued unabated in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with fog once again throwing normal life out of gear. Narnaul was the coldest place in Haryana with a minimum temperature of 0.5 deg C. In Punjab, Ludhiana recorded a low of 3.7 degree C. The minimum temperature in Chandigarh settled at 5.7 deg C.Cold waves continued in parts of Rajasthan where Jaisalmer recorded a low of 1.2 degrees Celsius, while MountAbu settled at minus 3 deg C. Jaipur and Bikaner shivered at 1.4 degrees Celsius.