Mangaluru: II PU science student found hanging in Thokkottu

New Delhi, Feb 12: Cooking gas LPG price on Wednesday was hiked by a steep Rs 144.5 per cylinder due to spurt in benchmark global rates of the fuel.

But to insulate domestic users, the government almost doubled the subsidy it provides on the fuel to keep per cylinder outgo almost unchanged.

LPG price was increased to Rs 858.50 per 14.2 kg cylinder from Rs 714 previously, according to a price notification of state-owned oil firms.

This is the steepest hike in rates since January 2014 when prices had gone up by Rs 220 per cylinder to Rs 1,241.

Domestic LPG users, who are entitled to buy 12 bottles of 14.2-kg each at subsidised rates in a year, will get more subsidy.

The government subsidy payout to domestic users has been increased from Rs 153.86 per cylinder to Rs 291.48, industry officials said.

For Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiaries, the subsidy has increased from Rs 174.86 to Rs 312.48 per cylinder.

After accounting for the subsidy that is paid directly into the bank accounts of LPG users, a 14.2-kg cylinder would cost Rs 567.02 for domestic users and Rs 546.02 for PMUY users.

The government gave out 8 crore free LPG connections to poor women under PMUY to increase coverage of environment-friendly fuel in kitchens.

Normally, LPG rates are revised on 1st of every month but this time it took almost two weeks for the revision to take place - a phenomenon which industry officials said was due to approvals needed for such a big jump in subsidy outgo.

Others said the decision to defer the increase could have been because of assembly elections in Delhi. Delhi voted on February 8.

Bhopal, Mar 18: Rebel Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh who are staying at a resort in Bengaluru, on Wednesday said they went there voluntarily.

Issuing video messages, the rebels said they didn't want to meet senior party leader Digvijay Singh who was briefly detained near the resort this morning.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and other leaders of the Congress have been claiming that the rebel MLAs were being held in captivity by BJP.

High drama unfolded this morning near the resort, as Singh, a two-time Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, staged a protest accusing the police of not allowing him to meet the legislators, following which he was detained briefly and released later.

Singh, along with Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar, is meeting police top brass seeking opportunity to meet the MLAs.

Singh hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, accusing them of trying to block their efforts to get in touch with the legislators.

"We have come here voluntarily on our own wish; we have got to know from some people that a few leaders from Madhya Pradesh including Digvijay Singh and some MLAs have come here. We don't want to talk to anybody," Congress rebel MLA from Sumawali Aidal Singh Kansana said in a video message.

"We have tried enough to speak with every one for the last one year, when they did not hear us for one year, what they will hear us in one day? We want to say only this that we have come here as per our wish and go back as per our wish," he added.

Another rebel MLA Govind Singh Rajput too said they have come voluntarily and don't want to meet anybody.

"We got to know that Digvijay Singh has come with a few Ministers and leaders. Unnecessarily at the gate they are saying they want to meet us. When no MLA wants to meet him, they should not be doing this. All MLAs have sent in their resignation," he said in a video message.

Currently, 22 rebel MLAs are said to be camping in the city.

These videos were shared by former Congress leader Pankaj Chaturvedi, a close confidante of BJP leader JyotiradiyaScindia.

In a video message, Bisahulal Singh (Anuppur) said Digvijay Singh had fooled them for 40 years.

"My seniority was neglected. We recognised Digvijaya Singh as our leader for 40 years but he only fooled us. We have come here voluntarily," he said.

"Rahul Gandhi had told us that my name, along with Aidal Singh Kansana (Congress MLA from Sumawali), had figured in the list of state Cabinet but they were struck off due to nepotism," he added.

Pohri MLA Suresh Dhakad said they received information on Digvijay Singh's visit on Wednesday through television channels.

"The present crisis was caused due to Digvijay only. We don't want to meet him," he said.

Karera MLA Jasmant Singh Jatav also blamed Digvijay Singh for the plight of Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

Dimni MLA Girraj Singh said they all have already resigned.

The MLAs who have issued video messages also included Manoj Choudhary (Hatpipalya), Kamlesh Jatav (Ambah), Raghuraj Kansana (Ambah), Brijendra Singh (Mungaoli), Raksha Santram Sironiya (Bhander), Munnalal Goyal (Gwalior East), Rajyavardhan Singh (Badnawar), OPS Bhadoriya (Mehgaon), Ranvir Singh Jatav (Gohad) and Hardeep Singh Dang (Suwasara).

Former ministers Tulsi Silawat (Sanver), Mahendra Singh Sisodia (Bamori), Imarati Devi (Dabra), Pradyumn Singh Tomar (Gwalior), Govind Singh (Surkhi) and Prabhuram Choudhary (Sanchi) also issued videos.

The resignations of these six former ministers were accepted by Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati while those of 16 others are on hold.

The rebel Congress MLAs held a press conference on Tuesday and claimed that 20 more party MLAs want to join them. The rebels also said that they were thinking of crossing over to the BJP in the days to come.

The Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh has been in a political turmoil since the MLAs resigned on March 10 following the suit of Scindia, who joined the BJP on March 11.

Mangaluru, July 8: Dakshina Kannada on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases with 183 cases reported in the district, while Udupi reported 31 new cases.

DK also recorded two more fatalities – both patients with co-morbid conditions — taking the total death toll in the district to 28. Udupi has recorded three Covid-19 deaths.

The fresh spike saw total positive cases in DK shoot up to 1,542 and active cases to 819. As many as 12 patients were discharged from hospital on Wednesday. The positivity rate in the district now stands at 0.07 %. Health authorities as on date have received 22,181 samples and 20,153 out of 21,695 samples tested have turned out negative.

MLA’s gunman tests positive

The gunman assigned to former minister U T Khader tested positive on Wednesday and three others who were with him in the escort vehicle have been quarantined, said city police commissioner Vikash Kumar Vikash. A section of police commissioner’s office was shut for sanitisation as per protocol after staff working there were treated as primary contacts. The office per se has not been sealed contrary to ‘reports’ doing rounds in social media, he said.

Deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said the district reported two deaths — one late on Tuesday and the other during the day. The victims are a 57-year-old man and 32-year-old youth. Two of the 183 cases were secondary contacts, 25 were cases of influenza like illness, four cases of SARI, one a case of inter district travel, two with interstate travel, five with international travel history, 22 random samples and five pre-surgery samples.

Udupi district recorded 31 new cases taking the total positive cases recorded as on date to 1,421. Discharge of 1,189 patients meant that Udupi has 229 active cases.

Meanwhile, Kota Shrinivas Poojari, minister for fisheries on Wednesday inaugurated the Covid-19 lab at district hospital in Udupi. Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar inaugurated ambulance monitoring system to ensure expeditious transfer of infected patients to designated treatment centres.