Month: February 2013

Railways expect Rs.24,600 crore loss; Bansal talks austerity

by

Losses of the Indian Railways are estimated to increase to Rs.24,600 crore ($4.55 billion) in the financial year ending March 31 due to a sharp rise in input costs, resulting in “deterioration of services”, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said Tuesday.

Presenting the annual budget of his ministry, Bansal said the loss, which was Rs.4,955 crore in 2001-02, surged to Rs.22,500 crore in 2011-12 and is estimated to rise to Rs.24,600 crore in the current financial year.

And to cut the mounting losses, the railways would maintain financial discipline.

20 die in hot air balloon explosion in Egypt

by

Twenty tourists were killed when a hot air balloon exploded Tuesday in Egypt’s Luxor governorate, state TV reported.

“The explosion happened in the early morning… fire of the engine touched the balloon and suddenly the balloon was on fire,” tourist guide Mohamed told Xinhua.

“The balloon belongs to the Sky Cruise company. The dead and injured have been transferred to the Luxor International Hospital,” he added.

————IANS

Iran nuclear talks open in Almaty

by

Talks between the world’s top five powers plus one – United States, France, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany, or the P5+1 and Iran over its controversial nuclear programme opened today in the Kazakh city of Almaty.

The discussions are the first since talks in June 2012 ended without a breakthrough.

Negotiators from Iran are meeting their counterparts from the U.S., France, China, Russia, UK, and Germany .

‘Disappointed’ Lalu says railways has lost glory it achieved during his tenure

by

Expressing disappointment over the Railway Budget 2013-14, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Monday said the government has proposed nothing to improve the deteriorating condition of the Indian Railways.

Yadav, who was the country’s Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009 during the UPA-I regime, said the government should take steps to bring in business to the railways instead of getting more profits by hiking fares.

Mufti writes to PM, demands return of Guru’s mortal remains

by

People’s Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Tuesday termed the execution of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru as a “negative reference point in Kashmir’s painful history”.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sayeed demanded that the mortal remains of Guru, who was hanged in Tihar jail on February 9, be returned to his family for proper burial and last rites.

HMWSSB seeks water tankers on hire

by

The HMWSSB has invited applications from the tanker owners who are having 5KL and 10KL capacity water tankers to engage on hire bais to provide drinking water to the public under GHMC jurisdiction.
For further details, interested persons can contact S. Ramesh, deputy general manager, 9989992927, 9989997613 according to a press release. (NSS)

Hunger Strike Against Terrorism

by

Andhra Pradesh Youth Congress is organizing a hunger strike in protest against terrorism, on February 27 at Gandhi Bhavan from 9 am till evening.
Speaking to the media at Assembly premises here on Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh Youth Congress president Dr Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy said that PCC Chief Botcha Sathyanarayana will start the camp by paying condolences to the bomb blast victims. The Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, former PCC Chief D Srinivas, and several Ministers will participate in the program.

Opposition flays Rly Budget

by

Led by leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu major parties criticized the Railway budget on the grounds that it did not bring anything new to the State. Chandrababu Naidu said in Guntur that the State got a raw deal.

“Though the Minister of state for Railways hails from the State, we could not get any major projects,” he said. The state continues to get a raw deal and this time it was not new, he said.

Rly Budget disappointing: YSRCP

by

YSR Congress has slammed the Rail budget, terming it as anti-poor, disappointing and ignoring the State interests and criticised the lack of mechanism to track the promises made and to gauge the performance of the ministry.

“The relevance of budget has been reduced drastically with fares being increased ahead of the budget and the announcements not being vouched for, due to lack of appraisal on promises versus performance,” the party leaders DR Somayajulu and Janak Prasad told reporters here on Tuesday.

SC, ST Sub-Plan meet held

by

A meeting on the SC,ST Sub-Plan was held at the Chief Minister’s camp office here today.

The meeting discussed about the Sub-Plan modalities. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy chaired the meeting which was attended by members of the council and nodal agencies. Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha and other ministers also attended the meeting. (INN)

TRS blames CM for Rlys. Ignoring state

by

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi blamed Chief Minister N Kiran Kuamr Reddy for the State being ignored in the Railway Budget.

TRS MLA K Tarakarama Rao alleged that the Chief Minister did not convene any meeting to send proposals to the centre and obviously the State got a raw deal in the process, he said. “He is a 100 per cent failure in sending proposals on behalf of the State to the centre,” he said.

Cong MLC welcomes Rly Budget

by

Congress MLC MS Prabhakar on Tuesday welcomed the railway budget presented by Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.

In a statement, Prabhakar said that despite global slowdown and financial constraints, the minister was able to present a people-oriented budget. He said that a Congress Minister got the opportunity to present the Railway Budget after a gap of almost 17 years and Bansal utilised the opportunity in a better way. (INN)

Kurnool disappointed about Kotla

by

When Lalu Prasad Yaadav was Railway minister it was Bihar all the way. When Mamta Namerjee was the minister it was a Bengal budget. But when Congressmen took guard, it is nobody’s budget as it appears.

Though a couple of projects went to Haryana and Kurnool, represented by Railway Minister Pavan Kumar Bansal and his deputy Kotal Suryaprakash Reddy, nothing noteworthy took place for the State. There were lot of expectations from the Kurnool MP but nothing concrete came out. There was no mention of pending projects in his home district.

Rly Budget is disappointing for AP: Dattatreyya

by

Former Minister of State for Railways and BJP senior leader Bandaru Dattatreyya described the Railway Budget presented by Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Parliament on Tuesday as disappointing and anti-people.

Talking to reporters here, Dattatreyya said that a special fund of Rs 27,000 crore was given to the Railways while Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. He demanded that the Centre gives a special fund of Rs 25,000 crore to the railways. He said although the Centre did not increase the tariff openly, it had imposed surcharges on commuters while burdening them.

Egyptian student wins trip to India

by

Ahmed Aba Ya Zeed, a university student, has won a trip to India, thanks to a poster competition organised here.

Prizes have been distributed to the winners and participants of the poster competition themed “Did you sense the spirit of Gandhi in Tahrir Square?” organised jointly by the embassy of India in Cairo and the Artistic Creativity Centre.

The competition was aimed at capturing the essence of Gandhi’s message in the iconic Tahrir Square that witnessed a peaceful revolution Jan 25, 2011.

Ex-Kadapa Mayor denied bail

by

A local court has turned down the bail petition of former Kadapa mayor Ravindranath Reddy in a forgery case.

Reddy, who surrendered before the court, was sent to Kadapa Central Prison after his bail petition was struck down by First Additional Magistrate Court. The petition of handing over Ravindranath Reddy to police custody was kept in pending by the court. (INN)

Jugglery of figures says, CPM

by

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday said that the Railway Budget has real substance to convey but it was only a jugglery of figures.

State Secretary BV Raghavulu said that the State did not benefit from the budget and no favour was shown and it is anti-people. The budget presented by Pavan Kumar Bansal is full of jugglery of figures and is not people oriented, he said. (INN)

Golconda Express gets additional stoppages

by

he South Central Railway will provide one minute halt at Moula Ali Station for Train No 17202 /17201 Secunderabad-Guntur-Secunderabad Guntur Golconda Express with effect from March 5 on experimental basis.

The Train No 17202 Secunderabad-Guntur Golconda Express will arrive/depart Moula Ali at 01.13 / 01.14 PM. Accordingly in the return direction, Train No. 17201 Guntur-Secunderabad Golconda Express will arrive/depart Moula Ali at 12.38 / 12.39 PM. (INN)

‘Choreographing 1980s disco song was challenging’

by

It’s a Herculean task to get everything right in a song from the 1980s, says Tamil choreographer Ashok Raj who directed a disco number of that period in the upcoming Tamil romantic-drama “Karuppampatti”.

The disco number, “Naughty Raja”, was crooned by Bappi Lahiri.

“Typically, choreographing isn’t a big worry for me because I do that for a living. However, for the first time I found this disco number extremely difficult to choreograph. I had to keep track of so many things – the look, feel and even the set,” Raj told IANS.

Not ashamed of Parliament attack: Afzal letter

by

Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru had in a letter purportedly written by him over four years ago said that there was no need to be ashamed of the December 13 attack on Parliament, but had stopped short of owning any responsibility for it.

In the letter written to editor of a local Urdu weekly, Guru, who was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, asked Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin not to be “ashamed of December 13” and stop terming the attack as a “conspiracy”.

Stop Shia massacre, Muslims urge global community

by

Prominent Islamic scholars and intellectuals here Tuesday called upon the international community to help put an end to ‘massacre’ of the Shia Muslim community in Pakistan.

“This is extremely shameful and a matter of concern to the whole world. The United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other global bodies must step in to end this senseless killings of Shias in Pakistan,” renowned Islamic scholar Maulana Sayed Ahmedalo Abidi, the Imam of Jama Masjid in Mumbai, told media-persons.

After Chennai Test defeat, Clarke says India completely ”outplayed” Australia

by

Australian captain Michael Clarke on Tuesday conceded that it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni”s double century that turned out to be a game-changer as they were completely outplayed by India in the first Test.

“They outplayed us. Mahendra Singh Dhoni certainly led the charge and I thought Virat Kohli was outstanding as well with his hundred. But it certainly was Dhoni, who changed the game,” a dejected Australian captain told mediapersons at the post-match conference.

Projects of national importance to get priority: Bansal

by

Expressing hope that Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will sanction the necessary funds, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal Tuesday said he will accord top priority to rail projects of national importance.

“I am fully conscious of the difficult task of the finance minister but hope that he will find ways to provide necessary funds for important rail connectivity projects,” Bansal said while presenting his maiden rail budget in the Lok Sabha.