Petrol price cut; diesel's hits poll code, policy bump

October 1, 2014

Petrol price cut

New Delhi, Oct 1: Good times are rolling well into the festive season for petrol consumers. State-run fuel retailers on Tuesday reduced the fuel's price by approximately 54 paise a litre, excluding state taxes, marking the fourth cut since April 1.

But the wait for a much-anticipated reduction in diesel price, the first in four years, got longer due to the poll code and lack of clarity on whether it requires the Cabinet's approval.

The poll code did not apply to petrol because its pricing has been deregulated since January 2013 and has been revised every fortnight in tune with changing international prices of crude, motor spirit - trade name for petrol - in the regional trading hubs as well as the rupee's exchange rate against the dollar.

The latest cut will translate into a final reduction of 65 paise a litre in Delhi after including VAT. The reduction will vary in states according to the prevailing state taxes.

Announcing the reduction, market leader IndianOil said the move followed continued downward trend in international prices of petrol. But the news came with a cautionary note over a depreciating trend in the rupee exchange rate.

Diesel price has been revised upward by about 50 paise per litre every month since January 2013. This followed a Cabinet decision to raise prices in "small doses" every month till the gap between the government-capped retail price and production cost - called under-recovery - was wiped out.

These marginal price increases, together with declining global prices and improved rupee exchange rate, managed to completely wipe out the subsidy element and showed an "over-recovery" of 35 paise a litre since September 16. The margin is believed to have risen further in the subsequent fortnight.

Naturally, there was widespread anticipation of a price cut at the fuel's monthly review on Tuesday. But the poll code due to elections in Maharashtra and Haryana came in the way. The oil ministry is believed to have referred the issue to the Election Commission, which is yet to revert.

Besides, there was also the question that reducing diesel price may require Cabinet approval since the government controls the fuel and the Cabinet decision to raise its price did not have a provision for reduction.

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.

Delhi To Feed About 4 Lakh People Daily, Preps To Tackle If COVID-19 Cases Rise, Says Arvind Kejriwal

News Network

March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: The Delhi government has arranged to serve lunch and dinner to the needy in 325 schools in Delhi, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday amid reports of people going hungry without access to food during the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

From Saturday, arrangements will be put in place to feed about four lakh people daily at different centres across Delhi, he said addressing the media. "We have made arrangements to provide lunch and dinner in 325 schools. Around 500 people will be provided with food in all these schools. So far we were providing food to 20,000 people daily, the number will now increase to around 2,00,000 from today."

He also said that "from tomorrow, we'll be providing food to 4,00,000 people daily. We're distributing the centres across Delhi."

Stating that the total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Delhi is now 39, Kejriwal said "We are ready to face any challenge.".

"There are a total of 39 coronavirus positive cases in Delhi as of today, of which 29 cases are of those who had come from outside and were kept in quarantine and 10 of these were cases of local transmission," said Kejriwal at a press conference.

The Chief Minister said that a team of 5 doctors has been set up to look into the preparedness needed to deal with an increase in the number of positive cases for coronavirus in future.

He said, "The team of doctors under the chairmanship of Dr Shiv Kumar Sarin, the head of Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, presented a detailed report on March 26 on the preparedness needed to deal with a situation if the number of positive cases for coronavirus increases."

"The report has categorized three situations - if the number of positive cases increases to 100 per day, 500 per day and 1000 per day," he said while adding that the doctors have clearly stated what preparedness should be taken for each situation including the number of ventilators, isolation beds, doctors and nurses required.

He also cited concerns raised by chief ministers of several states including Jharkhand's Hemant Soren and West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee.

Kejriwal said "we consider all those living in Delhi as Delhiites and everyone will be taken care of."
The number of cases tested positive for coronavirus rose to 724 on Friday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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.

Centre directs Karnataka, 3 other states to adopt ways to reduce COVID-19 mortality

News Network

August 8,2020

New Delhi, Aug 8: The Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Friday directed the governments of four states -- Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, to analyse the factors driving the high COVID-19 mortality and devise ways and means to reduce the mortality.

Apart from the higher case mortality, these states account for 17 per cent of India's active cases, high daily new cases, low tests per million, and high confirmation percentage.

In a high-level virtual meeting, Bhushan advised state administrations to adhere to measures suggested by central advisories and guidelines to prevent and reduce mortality due to coronavirus infection.

According to the health ministry, 16 districts in these four states are reporting maximum virus fatalities. It includes -- Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat; Belagavi, Bengaluru urban, Kalaburagi and Udupi in Karnataka; Chennai, Kanchipuram, Ranipet, Theni, Thiruvallur, Tiruchirappalli, Tuticorin and Virudhnagar in Tamil Nadu; and Hyderabad and Medchal-Malkajgiri in Telangana respectively.

"The districts were advised to ensure that the advisories, guidelines and clinical treatment protocols issued by the Health Ministry are adopted and effectively implemented to reduce the mortality among COVID-19 patients and other preventable deaths among all sections of the people, particularly those with co-morbidities, pregnant women, the elderly and children," said the health ministry official.

"States were advised to ensure optimum capacity utilization of testing labs, increase tests per million population and reduce confirmation percentage, in addition to ensuring timely availability of ambulances with target zero refusal," the official further said.

"States were also advised to analyze availability and need for projected beds and oxygen, and plan in a timely manner. States and district administration have also been advised to ensure good infection prevention and control practices to control infection in the healthcare workers," said the official.

Principal Secretary (Health) and MD (NHM) from the four States along with district surveillance officers, district collectors, commissioners of the municipal corporation, Chief Medical Officers, and Medical Superintendent of Medical Colleges participated in the meeting.

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.

Chhattisgarh minister TS Singh Deo calls Scindia power-hungry leader for ditching Congress

News Network

March 13,2020

Raipur, Mar 13: Calling Jyotiraditya Scindia a "power-hungry" leader, Chhattisgarh Minister and Congress leader TS Singh Deo on Friday said that if someone joins another party to occupy the top position of the state that he should never become a Chief Minister.

When enquired if Deo has any plans to join the BJP in the future, he quickly said that he would never be able to relate himself with the "ideology" of the party.

"People may make claims but I will never join BJP, even if I get 100 lives I will never associate with that ideology. A person who joins BJP for not being able to become Chief Minister should never become a Chief Minister," he said while speaking to media in Raipur.

"A single person does not remain as captain forever, Kapil Dev got his chance when Gavaskar was there. Currently, Virat Kohli is the captain but in T20 there are different captains. Will Kohli join Pakistan's team if he is not made the captain? This is beyond understanding."

On Wednesday, Scindia joined BJP in New Delhi in the presence of party President JP Nadda. He had resigned from Congress a day earlier after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He will file his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections on March 13.

Comments

May it be Scindia or some other, misusing power cheating with citizens mandate for their self benifit "very soon the fare and best judgement from the creator will be their very soon. No one is greatro than the creator.

For citizens well fare creator is opinion and protect always there. Hope MP people always with faith on creator.

Jai Hind !