Lalu offers 11 seats to Cong, 1 to NCP

March 1, 2014
Patna, Mar 1: Putting pressure on Congress, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today offered 11 seats to Congress and asked the party to give its acceptance by tomorrow when his party's Parliamentary Board will meet here. lalu

RJD has also offered one out of the 40 seats in the state to another Congress ally NCP.

The development comes after an old ally LJP walked over to the BJP camp.

Prasad, who returned here from Delhi last night, said he had told Congress general secretary and in-charge of Bihar C P Joshi of the offer.

"I have asked him to communicate acceptance before RJD Parliamentary Board meeting in Patna tomorrow at 3 PM," Prasad told reporters.

Asked to comment why the alliance between RJD and Congress was stuck, he said the offer did not mean that "everything is over" between the two parties on the issue."I have also told Joshi that if his party stakes claim for any other seat than he should tell me and also convince me of the winning potential of his expected candidate," he said.

To questions on whether RJD could decide to go it alone, he said, "Why are you presuming things ? ... The party's Parliamentary board will take some decisions tomorrow."

Prasad said that for him and RJD the biggest challenge was to stop communal forces. "For this we want to take all secular parties, including Congress with us."

The RJD chief had said last night, "Now there will be lathbandhan (alliance of bamboo)", conveying that RJD would be taking on Congress in the poll fight.

He clarified today that he had not meant a fight with Congress, which he said, was a media interpretation.

Prasad, however, did not identify the 11 seats he has offered to Congress or the one to NCP of Sharad Pawar.

He also refused to comment on reports that RJD-Congress alliance was stuck due to conflicting claims between the two parties on Madhubani and a few other seats.

"In general the claim shall be staked on seats only on the basis of performance of the respective parties in the last general elections as per Election Commissions results."

While Congress appears to be adamant about getting the Madhubani seat for its general secretary Shakeel Ahmad, RJD is in no mood to relent and claims it for its legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui.

Congress and RJD had fought separately in the 2009 polls and Siddiqui had secured second position after BJP's Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, while Ahmad was at third position in the seat.

Congress is reportedly asking for seats like Patliputra, Nawada and Bhagalpur which are RJD favourites. Prasad is expected to field his eldest daughter Misa Bharti from Patliputra constituency in Patna district against his friend-turned-enemy Ranjan Yadav.

Prasad said his erstwhile ally Ramvilas Paswan, who had now joined hands with BJP, had committed 'holika dahan' of his ideology much before Holi.

"It is beyond imagination to think how Paswan can go with BJP, which with Nitish Kumar had kept his caste out of the list of Mahadalits (poorer among poor in the weaker section)," he said.

Prasad also made a scathing attack on his bete noire Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had commented that there was fire in RJD's house (13 MLAs quitting RJD and 9 of them returning latter) due to "short circuit".

"His (Kumar's) transformer itself has blasted as is seen in the expulsion of 5 MPs by JD(U)," Prasad said.

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News Network
August 7,2020

Idukki, Aug 7: Several people lost their lives and dozens of tea estate workers are feared trapped under soil in Kerala’s Munnar after torrential rains triggered a massive landslide on today. 

As many as five bodies have been recovered and rescue workers are fighting inclement weather to remove the debris.

According to rescue workers, four lanes of quarters and a church are buried under mud and around 80 people are feared trapped.

Seven people have been rescued so far and shifted to the hospital.

Sources said a portion of Pettimudi came crashing down on the workers colony with a deafening roar in the wee hours of Friday.

As people were sleeping in the quarters, there was little time to escape.

Further, with the Periyavara bridge being washed away, it became all the more difficult for rescue workers to reach the spot.

The construction of a new temporary Periyavara bridge however, is underway.

The bridge was previously destructed during the deluge of August 2018. Later during the north west monsoons and the south west monsoon of 2019, it suffered damage again.

The present bridge, which got damaged on Thursday after Kannimala river levels rose, was constructed under the leadership of Coir fed.

Although a new concrete bridge has been constructed near the temporary bridge in Periyavara, vehicle  movement has not been possible because the authorities are yet to build its approach via road.

The new bridge is to be constructed at a cost of Rs 4.75 crore from Devikulam MLA S Rajendran's fund.

The entire area has been cut off from outside world and communication networks have also crashed.

Teams of Fire and Rescue personnel, NDRF, revenue officials, estate workers and police are struggling to conduct rescue operations.

Meanwhile, District collector H Dhineshan said a team of rescue personnel was sent to Pettymudy after he was briefed about the mishap and search operations to locate and rescue people are underway.

Facilities have been arranged at the hospitals nearby to provide necessary treatment facilities to the people being rescued.

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News Network
March 4,2020

New Delhi, Mar 4: The government on Wednesday permitted NRIs to own up to 100 per cent stake in disinvestment-bound Air India.

The decision comes at a time when the government is looking to sell 100 per cent stake sale in the national carrier.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the Cabinet has approved allowing Non-Residents Indians (NRIs) to hold up to 100 per cent stake in Air India.

Allowing 100 per cent investment by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in the carrier would also not be in violation of SOEC norms. NRI investments would be treated as domestic investments.

Under the Substantial Ownership and Effective Control (SOEC) framework, which is followed in the airline industry globally, a carrier that flies overseas from a particular country should be substantially owned by that country's government or its nationals.

Currently, NRIs can acquire only 49 per cent in Air India. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the airline is also 49 per cent through the government approval route.

As per the existing norms, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in scheduled domestic carriers, subject to certain conditions, including that it would not be applicable for overseas airlines.

In the case of scheduled airlines, 49 per cent FDI is permitted through automatic approval route and any such investment beyond that level requires government nod.

On January 27, the government came out witha Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for Air India disinvestment. It has proposed selling 100 per cent stake in Air India along with budget airline Air India Express and the national carrier's 50 per cent stake in AISATS, an equal joint venture with Singapore Airlines.

Under the latest disinvestment plan, the successful bidder would have to take over only debt worth Rs 23,286.5 crore while the liabilities would be decided depending on current assets at the time of closing of the transaction.

This is the second attempt by the government in as many years to divest Air India, which has been in the red for long.

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: Jet fuel or ATF price on Wednesday was hiked by 7.5 per cent, the third increase in a month, while petrol and diesel rates were unchanged for the second day in a row.

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was hiked by Rs 2,922.94 per kilolitre (kl), or 7.48 per cent, to Rs 41,992.81 per kl in the national capital, according to a price notification by state-owned oil marketing companies.

This is the third straight increase in ATF prices in a month. Rates were hiked by a record 56.6 per cent (Rs 12,126.75 per kl) on June 1, followed by Rs 5,494.5 per kl (16.3 per cent) increase on June 16.

Simultaneously, non-subsidised cooking gas LPG rates were increased by Re 1 to Rs 594 per 14.2-kg cylinder in the national capital. Prices were up by Rs 4 in other metros mostly because of different local sales tax or VAT rate.

On the other hand, petrol and diesel prices were unchanged for the second day in a row.

This, after diesel rates scaled a new high after prices were hiked 22 times in just over three weeks.

In Delhi, a litre of petrol comes for Rs 80.43 per litre, while diesel is priced at Rs 80.53 per litre.

Rates vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

While the diesel price had been hiked on 22 occasions since June 7, petrol price had been raised on 21 occasions.

The cumulative increase since the oil companies started the cycle on June 7 totals to Rs 9.17 for petrol and Rs 11.14 for diesel.

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