nntp (news) open error

Earlier, my ~/.gnus file had the following configuration for reading GNU
and Gnus mailing lists. I used the newsgroup.

(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.gmane.io")); news

And I have subscribed the relevant newsgroups.

But now I have commented the above line. And since then I am getting
this error/question on startup.

nntp (news) open error: =E2=80=98>>> (error news/nntp nodename nor servname=
 provided, or not known)=E2=80=99.  Continue? (y or n)=20

To get rid of this, I removed all the newsgroups from the newsrc file
that I use as gnus-startup-file. But I still get the same error.

Even I went ahead and deleted newsrc file and News directory and
re-created fresh empty directory for news. Then also I am getting the
error.

From where Gnus picks up the news/nntp setting. I tried to edit it from
the server buffer as well where it shows (nntp denied). But there it
says it can be configured from config file.