New Delhi, Jul 20: Former Delhi Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit passed away here on Saturday.
Dikshit was the longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, having served in office for 15 years from 1998.
The 81-year-old was appointed as the president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee earlier this year, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Aurangabad, May 8: At least 15 migrant workers, who were sleeping on the railway tracks while going back to their native places, were run over by a goods train between Maharashtra's Jalna and Aurangabad, officials said on Friday.
A senior railway official confirmed that 15 migrant labourers were run over by a goods train between Jalna and Aurangabad of Nanded Divison of South Central Railway.
The official said that the incident happened around 5.30 am on Friday when the migrant workers, who were on way back to their homes and sleeping on the railway tracks.
However, it is yet not clear from where this group hailed and where they were going.
Amid the nationwide lockdown, thousands of migrant workers stranded in several other cities have started their journey to return to their native places on foot.
The interstate bus service, passenger, mail and express train services have been suspended since March 24.
The railways has started running Shramik Special trains to transport the stranded migrants to their native places since May 1.
Till Thursday railways has run 201 Shramik Special trains.
New Delhi, Jul 22: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday urged the newly elected members of the House to uphold rules and procedures of the House while discharging their duties as the lawmakers for the country.
"In his remarks at the end of the administration of oath/affirmation to the new members of Rajya Sabha in the Chamber of the House today, Shri Naidu urged them to hold themselves to account with regard to their conduct both within and outside the House, so as to enhance the standing of the institution in the eyes of the people," read a press note.
The note further read that Naidu suggested the members to "question themselves if they had acted to enhance the dignity of the institution or to the contrary at the end of each day during the session and if their conduct was ethical during the inter-session period".
He said, "Answers to these simple questions would guide you on the right path."
He further stressed, "Ensuring rule of law is the spirit of our law of the land (Constitution). It shall begin with your compliance with the rules and procedures of this House."
Of the 61 members elected to Rajya Sabha from 20 States in the recent biennial and bye-polls, 45 made oath/affirmation today including 36 who have been elected for the first time. 12 sitting members have been re-elected which include Sharad Pawar, Digvijaya Singh, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Prem Chand Gupta, Harivansh and Ramdas Athawale, who took oath today.
Those elected for the first time to Rajya Sabha include Mallikarjun Kharge, Jyotiraditya M Scindia and KC Venugopal who have vast legislative experience and taken oath today. Those members who could not make oath/affirmation will do so during the ensuing Monsoon Session.
"Members including three women made oath/affirmation in 10 languages viz., Telugu, Bodo, Kannada, Manipuri, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi and English," the note read further.
"Today's oath-taking has been organized to enable the newly elected members to participate in the committee meetings which are underway at once and in the monsoon session which is to follow. I hope to nominate all of you on different committees in a day or two. #RajyaSabha," the Vice President's official handle tweeted earlier on Wednesday.
New Delhi, Jul 15: Air India has started the process of identifying employees, based on various factors like efficiency, health and redundancy, who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years, according to an official order.
The airline's board of directors have authorised its Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal to send employees on LWP "for six months or for a period of two years extendable upto five years, depending upon the following factors - suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy", the order said on Tuesday.
The departmental heads in the headquarter as well as regional directors are required to assess each employee "on the above mentioned factors and identify the cases where option of compulsory LWP can be exercised", stated the order dated July 14.
"Names of such employees need to be forwarded to the General Manager (Personnel) in headquarter for obtaining necessary approval of CMD," the order added.
In response to queries regarding this matter, Air India spokesperson said,"We would not like to make any comment on the issue."
Aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries due to the coronavirus pandemic. All airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, LWP and firings of employees in order to conserve cash flow.
For example, GoAir has put most of its employees on compulsory LWP since April.
India resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the airlines have been allowed to operate only a maximum of 45 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights. Occupancy rate in Indian domestic flights has been around 50-60 per cent since May 25.
Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23.
The passenger demand for air travel will contract by 49 per cent in 2020 for Indian carriers in comparison to 2019 due to COVID-19 crisis, said global airlines body IATA on Monday.
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