Rohith Vemula's dalit status not established, says Commission

Amaravati, Jan 21: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and at least 17 MLAs of his party were taken in police custody late on Monday as they tried to conduct a foot march from the state assembly to nearby Mandadam village in violation of prohibitory orders.

TDP leaders started off on the march after staging a sit-in near the assembly main entrance following the suspension of 17 MLAs from the House for the day.

They were protesting the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, that was passed by the assembly, enabling the establishment of three capitals for the state.

The TDP leaders were taken to the Mangalagiri police station.

Meanwhile, tensions prevailed at the Jana Sena Party headquarters at Mangalagiri as police prevented its president Pawan Kalyan from proceeding to the Amaravati region to speak to protesters fighting for the retention of only one capital for the state.

DIG Kanti Rana Tata and other senior police officials reached the Sena office and blocked the exit of Kalyan and political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar, resulting in an argument.

Kalyan asked how could police impose restrictions within his own office.

Scores of Sena workers gathered outside the office even as a large posse of police was posted to thwart Kalyan and other leaders' plans.

Kochi, Apr 14: Reacting to the extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 3, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac on Tuesday maintained that his state needs money more than appreciation for the work it has done to mitigate the impact of the lockdown and contain coronavirus spread.

"The only additional money that Kerala received is mere Rs 230 crore and that too for Covid-19 work. The funds we received to tide over revenue deficit is different -- we would have got it anyways," said Issac, who has been demanding more liberal financial assistance from the Centre.

"The need of the hour now is for the Centre to immediately hold a videoconference meeting with all state Finance Ministers. The Centre should borrow more money from the RBI and give it to the states. Otherise, things will be very bad, as the economy, especially rural economy, is tumbling. It needs to be checked," said the Kerala Minister.

Devasom and Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the state Cabinet will meet on Wednesday to decide how to go about things till May 3.

"The coronavirus figures reveal that Kerala has done quite well. The Cabinet will decide on how we move forward after looking into the guidelines of the Centre," said Surendran.

Local Self Government Minister A.C. Moideen said that local farm produce has to reach markets as rural economy revolves around this. The Cabinet will look into this issue as well.

Health Minister K.K. Shailaja stressed the need for maintaining social distancing and asked all to see that the lockdown guidelines were strictly followed.

"Our advantage is that we have been able to contain the spread, but we still have a long way to go. Singapore is the best example -- after a slowdown in positive cases, it picked up there. So, let us all continue to maintain strict vigil and wait till Wednesday's Cabinet meet," said Shailaja.

New Delhi, Mar 19: Hit hard by coronavirus, budget carrier IndiGo today announced that it will cut salaries of senior employees. IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta, who will himself take a 25% cut in salary, said senior vice presidents and above are taking a 20% pay cut while vice presidents and cockpit crew are taking a 15% pay cut.

With precipitous drop in revenues, the very survival of airline industry is now at stake, Dutta said while announcing the pay cut. "We have to pay careful attention to our cash flow so that we do not run out of cash," Dutta said adding that he knew how hard it was for families to take a cut in "take-home pay".

"With a great deal of reluctance and a deep sense of regret, we are therefore instituting pay cuts for all employees, excluding Bands A and B, starting April 1, 2020," the chief executive officer said. Band A and B are the lowest brackets in salary class, where most of the employees are.

IndiGo's flight operations chief Ashim Mitra had written an email to pilots this morning saying that the economic environment has deteriorated significantly and no airline is insulated from this severe downturn.

"It has become a necessity to initiate some tough calls and we are working on a string of measures that will be shared and implemented over the next few days and weeks," Mitra said.

With countries sealing their borders partially or fully across the world due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, aviation sector has been hit extremely hard as most airlines globally have drastically curtailed their flight operations.

Another budget airline GoAir has already terminated contracts of expat pilots amid curtailed operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing "unprecedented" decline in air travel, the budget carrier announced it was suspending international operations and offering leave without pay programme to its staff on a rotational basis.

Government-owned Air India may also cut salary of employees by 5% amid its growing financial woes particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has nearly grounded its entire international operations. The reduction will be across the board, according to a PTI report.

The loss-making airline, which is in the process of a second attempt of privatization after failing to get a single buyer nearly two years ago, has already taken some steps such as reduced flying allowances to cabin crew besides withdrawing entertainment allowance to executive pilots, among others.

“Air India is considering a 5 per cent pay cut to its employees as it faces huge financial crisis due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has brought almost its entire international operations save the US, Canada and a few other markets, to the ground," a source told news agency.