Guj lockdown: Over 400 detained for violations, says DGP

News Network
March 24, 2020

Ahmedabad, Mar 24: The Gujarat police has detained 426 people in the last 24 hours for violating lockdown rules in force in the state to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak, a senior official said on Tuesday.

They include those who came out despite being advised home quarantine, state Director General of Police Shivanand Jha said.

"The lockdown met with around 90 per cent success. We are taking strict measures to implement the lockdown in the remaining 10-15 per cent areas. We have lodged 238 cases related to the violation of police notification and 127 cases related to quarantine rule violation. In all, we have detained 426 persons across the state," Jha told reporters in Gandhinagar.

"For better implementation of the lockdown and to address issues concerning people, we have set up a dedicated 24-hour control room and appointed two additional DGP rank officers to supervise operations. Three teams under them would work to resolve issues across the state," said Jha.

He said police commissioners and districts SPs have been asked to enforce the lockdown in an effective manner.

Essential services like vegetable and milk shops are allowed to remain open, he said, and asked people not to flock in large numbers to such shops.

The state has so far reported 33 COVID-19 cases, and one person has died of the infection.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 3,2020

New Delhi, Jul 3: India reported the highest ever single-day spike of 20,903 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours on Friday, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

With these new cases, India's coronavirus tally has risen to 6,25,544 cases of which 2,27,439 patients are active cases while 3,79,892 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

379 more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, taking the number of deaths due to the infection to 18,213.

As per the Health Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst-affected state from the virus -- has a total of 1,86,626 cases including 8,178 fatalities while Tamil Nadu has 98,392 coronavirus cases in the state inclusive of 1,321 fatalities.

Delhi has reported 92,175 cases so far inclusive of 2,864 patients succumbing to the virus.

The Indian Council of Medical Research on Friday said that the total number of samples tested till July 2 is 92,97,749 of which 2,41,576 samples were tested on Thursday.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 8,2020

Kozhikode, Aug 8: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of each passenger who died when an Air India Express flight veered off the runway while attempting to land at the Karipur International Airport here on August 7.

He was briefing the media after visiting the crash site at the airport and the injured at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital.

Offering his condolences, the Chief Minister said, "Apart from the solatium for the victims, the state government would bear the treatment expenses of all those injured in this unfortunate plane crash irrespective of the hospitals they are in. The Civil Aviation Ministry and other Central Government agencies are expected to announce compensation for the air passengers. 

If any further assistance is required, the State Government will take an appropriate decision at that time to support them to get back to a normal life."

"However, the immediate task now is to ensure the best possible treatment for the survivors of the accident. The District Authority is coordinating the treatment of those rescued who are now in 16 hospitals across Kozhikode and Malappuram Districts," added Vijayan.

Of the 190 people on board the ill-fated plane, there were 184 passengers and six crew members. Of the 18 dead so far, 14 are adults (seven males and females each) and four are children. Both the Pilot and the Co-Pilot are among those dead. At present, 149 passengers are hospitalised, of them 23 with serious injuries. Till now, 23 passengers have been discharged. There are few passengers from Tamil Nadu and Telangana also.

All the dead have been identified, eight from Kozhikode district, six from Malappuram district and two from Palakkad district. The post mortem process has been expedited despite the Covid threat and is expected to finish before evening. All the accident victims will be tested for Covid including those who died in the crash. So far, only one victim has tested positive for coronavirus, the Chief Minister said.

He also appreciated the instant response by the local public living in the vicinity of the airport and also the local authorities to this tragedy which ensured the minimum loss of lives in a disaster of such large magnitude as a plane crash. The rescue operations were finished in the shortest possible time yesterday.

"Even though 18 precious lives have been lost due to the impact of the crash, the rescue operations were a miraculous work. The general public and the officials played a big role in spearheading the rescue operations," he said.

Vijayan along with Governor Arif Mohammad Khan reached Kozhikode this morning.

Governor Arif Mohammad Khan expressed his condolences and sympathies to the families of the accident victims and his best wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by the Niyamasabha Speaker, P. Sreeramakrishnan; Minister for Industry E.P Jayarajan, Minister for Health and Social Justice, K K Shailaja; Minister for Agriculture V.S Sunilkumar; Minister for Ports Ramachandran Kadannappalli; Minister for Transport AK Saseendran, Minister for Excise T.P Ramakrishnan, Chief Secretary, Dr Vishwas Mehta; and State Police Chief, Loknath Behra, DGP. 

The Minister for Local Self Governments, A C Moideen and the Minister for Higher Education and Welfare of Minorities, Dr K T Jaleel were already present in Kozhikode.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 23,2020

New Delhi, Jun 23: In an unexpected development, the pump price of diesel is all set to surpass the petrol price in the capital, making it the most expensive transport fuel for the first time in a long time.

Globally, diesel is priced slightly above petrol prices due to the very nature of the product that has a higher cost of production. But in India, due to the lopsided taxation structure, diesel attracts lesser of the tax between the two auto fuels keeping its prices lower than petrol for last several years.

Diesel is currently priced at Rs 79.40 a litre in the Capital, just 36 paise short of petrol price that is being retailed at Rs 79.76 a litre. Going by the trend of price movement in the two products for the last few days where diesel prices have consistently increased by 50-60 paise per litre while the daily increase in petrol prices have fallen to just 20 paise on Tuesday, it is set to surpass petrol prices in next few days.

"Diesel price movement is sharper in international market and if oil companies follow the global price trend, diesel prices will surpass that of petrol later this week. It will be after many years that this would happen and is expected to sustain for some time unless government changes the tax structure of the petroleum products again," said an oil sector expert from one of the big four audit and advisory firms asking not to be named.

Interestingly, even in India the base price of diesel is expensive than petrol. According to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), while the base price of petrol in Delhi currently comes to Rs 22.11 per litre, the same for diesel is higher at Rs 22.93 per litre (effective from June 16, 2020). This has been the case for a long time, but retail price of petrol can be higher than diesel due to central and state taxes.

What has now brought diesel prices to a whisker of petrol prices in the capital is the Delhi government's decision early May to increase the Value Added Tax on diesel from 16.75 per cent to 30 per cent and on petrol from 27 per cent to 30 per cent. This increased the retail price of diesel and petrol in Delhi by Rs 7.10 and Rs 1.67 a litre respectively. With Central taxes on the two products already reaching identical levels, the Delhi governments move hastened price parity between petrol and diesel.

Currently, the Central excise on petrol is Rs 32.98 a litre while that on diesel it is Rs 31.83 a litre. The VAT on petrol in Delhi is Rs 17.71 a litre and that on diesel is Rs 17.60 a litre.

While the movement of retail pricing is being seen with a sigh of relief by vehicle owners whose cars run on petrol, those buying the relatively expensive diesel cars are now repenting on their decision. The development is also being seen with caution by automobile companies who have spent millions to ramp up their facilities for diesel run vehicles. The expectation is that demand for such cars will now fall, causing more damage to companies where sales are already impacted due to persistent economic slowdown and now the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

"The pricing development would push automobile companies to strategies being followed by companies in the western markets where diesel run cars are not sold on fuel pricing differential, but on overall make and quality that puts them ahead of petrol run cars," the expert quoted earlier.

Yes, but for commercial vehicle sector the rising price of diesel had not been welcomed. In fact, the commercial transport sector had time an again threatened strike against the move to raise fuel prices.

With petrol and diesel retail prices closing, the case for adultering fuel has also gone down much to the relief of vehicle owners.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.