Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes India Rich List, adds $15.3 billion to last year's wealth

New Delhi, May 19: Former Union Minister P Chidambaram said that as the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown amid the coronavirus scare began from Monday, his thoughts were with the people of Kashmir who were in a "terrible lockdown within a lockdown."

The senior Congress leader said that at least now, the people in the rest of India will understand that he dubbed the "enormity of the injustice" done to those who were detained in Kashmir and those still under detention" immediately before and after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on August 5, 2019.

Chidambaram said that former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was the "worst sufferer" of preventive detention and even courts had shirked their constitutional duty with respect to detainees.

"The worst sufferers are Mehbooba Mufti and her senior party colleagues who are still in custody in a locked-down state in a locked-down country. They are deprived of every human right," he said in a statement.

"I cannot believe that for nearly 10 months, the courts will shirk their constitutional duty to protect the human rights of citizens," he added.

The detention on Mehbooba Mufti under the Public Safety Act (PSA) had been extended for three more months on May 5. Booked under the stringent PSA, she was initially kept at the Hari Niwas guesthouse in Srinagar but later shifted to a Tourism Department hut in the Chashma Shahi area.

She was shifted to her Gupkar Road official residence on April 7.

Besides Mehbooba Mufti, two other former Chief Ministers -- Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah -- were also detained under the PSA but later released.

Kochi, Apr 16: A middle-aged man carrying his ailing father on his shoulders walked close to one-kilometre in Kerala’s Punalur when the autorickshaw he was driving was allegedly stopped by the police over the ongoing lockdown. He was bringing back his father from the hospital after he was discharged on Wednesday.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, the man can be seen carrying his bare-bodied father on the shoulders and struggling to handle the weight while a woman carrying the hospital documents, prescriptions and other items, is running along with him.

The incident took place in Punalur town of Kollam district.

The 65-year-old man, a native of Kulathupuzha, was released from the Punalur Taluk Hospital and his son was taking him home when he was stopped on the road. The man has alleged that even after he produced hospital documents, the police refused to let him pass with the autorickshaw.

The vehicle was stopped about a kilometre from their house in the middle of a traffic jam and the family had to walk the rest of the path. He said even after he told the police and showed papers from hospital he was not allowed to go.

After the video went viral in Kerala, the state human rights commission took suo motu cognizance of the incident.

The nationwide lockdown has prevented all non-essential movement in the public space while medical emergencies have been allowed. The extended lockdown will now continue till May 3.

According to the police, the vehicle did not have the patient when it was stopped. The driver was asked to show a declaration document.

He stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the hospital which was 200 metres from the checkpoint and returned carrying his father on the back, said the police.

New Delhi, Jun 16: Jet fuel or ATF price on Tuesday was hiked by 16.3 per cent while petrol price was increased by 47 paise per litre and that of diesel by a record 93 paise on the back of firming international oil rates.

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was hiked by ₹5,494.5 per kilolitre (kl), or 16.3 per cent, to ₹39,069.87 per kl in the national capital, according to a price notification by state-owned oil marketing companies.

This is the second straight increase in ATF price this month. Rates were hiked by a record 56.5 per cent (₹12,126.75 per kl) on June 1.

Simultaneously, petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the 10th day in a row.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to ₹76.73 per litre from ₹76.26, while diesel rates were increased to ₹75.19 a litre from ₹74.26, the price notification said.

In 10 hikes, petrol price has gone up by ₹5.47 per litre and diesel by Rs 5.8 a litre.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

The hike in diesel rates is the highest daily increase since the state-owned fuel retailers started daily revision in rates in May 2017.

Hike for 10th consecutive day

Tuesday’s increase in petrol and diesel price marks the 10th straight day of rise in rates since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus.

The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.

Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of fall in international oil prices.

The June 1 hike in jet fuel price had come after seven consecutive reductions in rates since February. ATF price in Delhi before the reduction cycle began in February was ₹64,323.76 per kilolitre, which got reduced to ₹21,448.62 last month.

Industry officials said the hike was necessitated because benchmark international rates have bounced back from a two-decade low.

While ATF prices are revised on 1st and 16th of every month, petrol and diesel prices are revised on a daily basis.

Oil companies used to revise ATF prices on the first of every month, but adopted fortnightly revisions on March 21 to pass on the benefit of falling international oil prices to airlines.