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Sharad Yadav: Janata Dal (United) would contest Gujarat polls alone

[email protected] (PTI)
September 10, 2012

sharadNew Delhi, September 10: Carrying further its reservations over Narendra Modi, the Janata Dal (United), which runs a coalition with BJP in BIhar, has decided to contest assembly elections in Gujarat on its own.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose antipathy to Modi is well-known, will also campaign for the JD(U) candidates in Gujarat, where elections are due this year end.

Giving indications of the party's plans, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav told reporters "BJP is the larger party in the NDA. We will go for alliance with BJP wherever it wants us, but barring in Gujarat".

He was replying to a question whether JD(U) contesting elections separately in a state ruled by BJP will not give impression of a rift in the NDA.

Both party chief Sharad Yadav as well as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will campaign in Gujrat aggravating further the strains between Kumar and Modi that have come to the fore on more than one occasion.

Yadav, however, sought to downplay the development by maintaining that the JD(U) never had an alliance with the BJP in Gujarat.

He refrained from answering repeated queries on why the JD(U) is making an exception of Gujarat when it is ready to contest with BJP in alliance in all other states.

Yadav also refused to specify how many seats his party wants to contest in Gujarat saying it is for the state unit to decide.

There is speculation that the JD(U) state unit plans to contest 100 out of the 182 assembly seats in Gujarat in the coming assembly elections.

Yadav, however, said,"we have been fighting separately from BJP in Gujarat for a long time. We are as a part of the NDA alliance in many states, while in many others like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, we fight separately. There was never an alliance in Gujarat." To a specific query whether the Bihar chief minister will go to campaign for JD(U) candidates in Gujarat this time, Yadav said that Kumar and he himself as well as a large number ministers of Bihar government had gone to campaign for the party candidates in last Gujarat assembly elections as well.

"Both of us (Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar) have campaigned there earlier also. We will do it this time as well," he said.

JD(U), which is the ruling party in Bihar in alliance with BJP for around eight years, has been contesting elections in alliance with that party in Jharkhand and Rajasthan as well. The alliance between the parties in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu has been off and on many occasions, Yadav said.

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News Network
May 6,2020

New Delhi, May 6: Taking a cue from states, the Centre announced one of the steepest hikes in duties on petrol and diesel in the recent past, by raising it by Rs 10 and Rs 13 per litre, respectively, in a notification issued late on Tuesday.

Retail prices, however, will see no change as the price hike will be absorbed by oil marketing companies against the fall in crude prices.

Road and infrastructure cess was hiked by Rs 8 for petrol and diesel and the special additional excise duty (SAED) was hiked by Rs 2 per litre and Rs 5 per litre, respectively. While the road cess will only go into the Centre’s coffers, the hike on account of SAED will be passed on to states via devolution at 42 per cent. Hence, the states will get only Rs 0.84 per litre in case of petrol and Rs 2.1 in case of diesel.

The decision comes after several states increased the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel making use of the lower price regime. The Delhi government on Tuesday increased VAT on petrol and diesel to 30 per cent each, from 27 and 16.75, respectively. As a result, the price of petrol in Delhi increased by Rs 1.67 to Rs 71.26 a litre and diesel by Rs 7.10 to Rs 69.29 in Delhi on Tuesday.

Amid falling international crude oil prices, the Centre introduced an enabling provision in March to raise excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 8 per litre in the Finance Act. The government had on March 14 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by? 3 per litre each, which was to help raise an additional ?39,000 crore in revenue annually.

This duty hike included Rs 2 a litre increase in SAED and Rs 1 in road and infrastructure cess. It raised SAED to Rs 10 for petrol and Rs 4 for diesel. The limit has now been increased to Rs 18 a litre in case of petrol and Rs 12 in case of diesel by way of amendment of the Eighth Schedule of the Finance Act.

Economists said the move would impact retail inflation by over half a percentage point at least. “With lower consumption, there was loss of revenue for Centre and states, who earn Rs 6 trillion annually or Rs 50,000 crore monthly from fuel. Amid lockdown in April, the collection must have come down to just Rs 5,000 crore, and this will hold for May.

This means that Centre and states have lost 20 per cent of annual revenue from fuel. Hence, they have hiked duties to recover losses,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, CARE Ratings. He added that the hike will impact inflation by at least 0.6-0.7 percentage points.

According to industry experts, an estimate of the additional government revenue cannot be made as the consumption of petrol and diesel has dropped to 40 per cent of what it was before the lockdown. The duty hike comes following a drop in international crude oil prices in April, owing to lower consumption figures globally. At 11.50 pm on Tuesday, Brent was priced at $30.67 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was seen at $24.36 a barrel. On Monday, the Indian basket of crude oil was priced at $23.38 a barrel, after touching a 15-year low last month.

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Agencies
August 8,2020

The Civil Aviation Ministry announced an initial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to the dependents of the deceased in the Kozhikode AIE plane crash, while the Kerala government also announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each.

Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, who visited the mishap spot on Saturday, said that a detailed probe is already on and the pilot and co-pilot were highly experienced.

He also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the injured and Rs. 50,000 each to those who suffered minor injuries. The other normal compensations would be decided in due course.

Puri said that Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, aged 59, who commandeered the AIE flight, had a flying experience of 10,848 hours, while co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar, aged 32, had a flying experience of 1,723 hours.

"Deepak was one of the most distinguished and experienced pilots. He had a commanding experience of 6,662 hours and was commander of B-737 aircraft for 4,244 hours. He had also operated to Kozhikode international airport 27 times. He joined AIE in 2013 and prior to that he served with the IAF and HAL. He was a figher pilot and a recipient of prestigious sword of honour and a gold medalist," said Puri.

Puri said that even as the flight slipped down to around 35 feet, a major disaster was averted due to timely rescue operations. Local people played an exemplary role and the fire brigade's timely action of cutting the plane body and rescuing the passengers minimised the casualties, he said.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also said that the local people and all rescue and relief agencies did a well co-ordinated job. The state government would also meet the entire treatment expenses of the injured.

Till Saturday afternoon, the total number of deaths was 18. While 149 were still in hospitals, 23 were discharged.

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News Network
June 16,2020

New Delhi, Jun 16: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said that he has been hospitalised after suffering from high-grade fever and a sudden drop in his oxygen level.

He tweeted to inform that he was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) here, a dedicated COVID-19 facility under the Delhi government.

"Due to high-grade fever and a sudden drop of my oxygen levels last night I have been admitted to RGSSH. Will keep everyone updated," Jain tweeted.

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