Subsidy needs to be given to rural poor on LPG, power: Manmohan Singh

October 10, 2012
manmohan_subsidy

New Delhi, October 10: Amid the controversy over cap on subsidised LPG cylinders, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government recognises that some subsidy has to be given for rural poor for cooking gas and electricity as part of its endeavour to give access to energy to all.

He talked about target subsidy "as best as possible" while stating that the government was planning to transfer subsidy amount directly to bank accounts of bonafide beneficiaries. "We aim to provide every Indian household with clean cooking fuel. This is a huge task but it is not unattainable. It is something we must do on priority," Singh said inaugurating the International Seminar on Energy Access.

He noted that most urban households cook with LPG and government has tried to introduce it in rural areas also. "We recognize that the rural poor will need some subsidy to afford electricity and LPG. The issue is to target the subsidy as best as possible," Singh said. He said the government had launched a pilot scheme in Mysore district of Karnataka where 27,000 deliveries of subsidized cylinders were made by delivery boys after successful biometric authentication of any family member present at home using the unique identification number.

"In the next phase it is planned to transfer the subsidy amount directly to the bank accounts of bona fide beneficiaries," Singh said. His comments came against the backdrop of raging controversy over the government's decision to cap subsidised LPG cylinders at six per year.

"Around 12 per cent of around 190 million rural households use LPG to meet their cooking energy needs. Giving all the 240 million households in the country an entitlement of six LPG cylinders per year will require only around 25 million tonnes of LPG. This should be manageable for our country," Singh said.


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News Network
January 13,2020

New Delhi, Jan 13: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the city police, Delhi government, WhatsApp Inc, Google Inc and Apple Inc on a plea of three JNU professors to preserve data, CCTV footage and other evidence relating to the January 5 violence on the varsity campus.

The Delhi Police informed the court that it has asked the JNU administration to preserve and hand over CCTV footage of the violence.

Justice Brijesh Sethi listed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

The court was told by Delhi government Standing Counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra that the police has not yet received any response from the university administration.

The counsel said police has also written to WhatsApp to preserve data of two groups "Unity Against Left" and "Friends of RSS" including messages, pictures and videos and phone numbers of members, related to JNU violence incident.

The petition was filed by JNU professors Ameet Parameswaran, Atul Sood and Shukla Vinayak Sawant seeking necessary directions to the Delhi Police Commissioner and Delhi government.

The petition also sought direction to the Delhi Police to retrieve all CCTV footage of JNU campus.

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: The four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman on December 16, 2012 were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn on Friday, ending a horrific chapter in India's long history of sexual assault that had seared the nation's soul. Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya, the fearless one.

This is the first time that four men have been hanged together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates. The executions were carried out after the men exhausted every possible legal avenue to escape the gallows. Their desperate attempts only postponed the inevitable by less than two months after the first date of execution was set for January 22.

They were hanged at 5.30 am, Director General of Prison Sandeep Goel said.

After raping and brutalising the woman, the men, one of whom was a juvenile at the time, dumped her on the road and left for dead on the cold winter night. Her friend who was with her was also severely beaten and thrown out along with her. She was so severely violated that her insides were spilling out when she was taken to hospital. She died in a Singapore hospital after battling for her life for a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and the juvenile, were named as accused.

While Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case, the juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.

The road to the gallows was a long and circuitous one, going through the lower courts, the High Court, the Supreme Court and the president's office before going back to the Supreme Court that heard and rejected various curative petitions.

The death warrants were deferred by a court thrice on the grounds that the convicts had not exhausted all their legal remedies and that the mercy petition of one or the other was before the president.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh death warrants for March 20 at 5.30 am as the final date for the execution.

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News Network
January 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: Newly-appointed Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said the armed forces stay away from politics and work as per the directives of the government of the day, remarks that come amid allegations that the forces were being politicised.

Gen Rawat also said that his focus as CDS will be to integrate the efforts of the three services and to work as a team.

"We keep ourselves away from politics. We act according to the directives of the government of the day," he said.

Gen Rawat said his focus will be to ensure best and optimal use of resources allocated to the three services.

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