The latest deaths pushed the national cold death toll since early December to 169 of whom 133 have perished in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and one of its poorest states, according to police in the provincial capital Lucknow.

"(Most) of those who died were poor, homeless people who lived under the open skies," police spokesman Mahendra Verma said. One was a bus driver found frozen inside his vehicle.

The remaining 36 people have died in the states of Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal, where hundreds have also been hospitalised with cold-related ailments.

Power riots, meanwhile, erupted overnight in several Uttar Pradesh towns as residents stormed facilities of the state-run utility to protest at frequent cuts in electricity supply, officials said Wednesday.

Angry residents smashed government property, battered power department workers and held rallies to protest at the cuts, they said.

"Twenty-two people have been arrested for the power riots," said Ravindra Jaiswal, spokesman for Uttar Pradesh's Electricity Board.

Elsewhere in India winter eased its icy grip but Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir recorded the season's lowest of minus 6.6 degrees Cdegrees F). Its landmark Dal Lake was frozen solid for the seventh day Wednesday.

Bihar, India's second most populous state, sighed in relief as the mercury Wednesday rose to 7.1 degrees C (44.7 degrees F) from the overnight four degrees C, officials said from the capital Patna which is home to tens of thousands of destitutes.

The northern desert state of Rajasthan too reported rising temperatures.

"The mercury has shot up to four degrees C (39.2 degrees F), giving respite to people from the icy winds blowing for the past week," a weather office spokesman said in the state capital of Jaipur, a popular tourist destination.

The cold conditions, however, persisted Wednesday in the Indian capital, where the mercury had tumbled to a 70-year low of 0.2 degrees C (32.36 degrees Sunday.

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