Month: March 2013

The Justice M B Shah Commission, investigation alleged illegal mining in Odisha,today set up a committee for physical verification of the boundaries of mines.

The committee will comprise seven members including a representative from the commission,” Justice Shah told
reporters on the third day of the hearing here.

TThe committee would have members from the state government, IBM and a representative of the lessee whose area
was to be verified.

Earlier several lessees had objected to the differential geographical positioning system (DGPS) for

The Power Ministry is hopeful that coal price pooling mechanism will be finalised by month-end that will help accelerate the process of signing fuel supply pacts between CIL and power project developers, an official
said.

Price pooling mechanism is a method to determine price of coal for electricity producers by averaging the imported and the domestically produced dry fuel.

We have been given five weeks to come out with a formula …so by this month end we should be able to finalise it,” a Power Ministry official told PTI.

A team of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has inspected a site at Rajouli in Nawada where Bihar has assured to provide land and water for a 1400 MW nuclear power plant.

State Power Minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav told the assembly today that a team of NPCIL inspected the site on
January 20.

Replying to a short notice question of BJP member Anandi Prasad Yadav, he said, the state government has assured to
provide 160 cusecs of water from the Ganga river for the project.

He said the inspection report was awaited.

(Pervez Bari): The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has described the Union budget as disappointing as it is unimaginative, dull and boring. The budget is anti-farmer, anti-worker and anti-poor. It is more of a lawyer’s budget than the finance minister’s budget. The budget will only benefit industrialists and not common man, the party said.

Bhaderwah valley was cut off from the rest of the state due to a major landslide in Chakrana on Friday, blocking the Doda-Bhaderwah road and leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded.

The landslide was triggered after rains in the area, around 18 kms from the district headquarter of Doda, at about 1 PM, officials said.

Over 200 vehicles were stranded on both sides of the road due to the incident. District authorities have started clearing the blocked stretch, they said.

——–PTI

Over 4,000 people lost their lives in as many as 25,495 road accidents in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir in the past four years, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the state Assembly on Friday.

In a written reply to a question by CPI(M) member M Y Tarigami, Abdullah said around 36,960 people sustained injuries in these accidents.

The maximum number of 2401 mishaps were reported from erstwhile Doda district in which 823 persons lost their lives, he said, adding that cases into these matters are being investigated at different police stations, he said.

JKLF chief Yasin Malik, who created flutters in India by sharing dais with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan, Friday said he is prepared for confiscation of his passport or his arrest on returning home next week.

“I will be flying back to Delhi from Lahore on the regular PIA flight on March 9,” Malik told reporters.

Asked about calls for the revocation of his passport after Saeed joined him at a protest in Islamabad against the hanging of Afzal Guru, Malik said: “It is their wish if they wish to confiscate my passport or to arrest me. Jail is my second home”.

Petrol prices will go up by Rs.1.40 per litre, excluding taxes, from midnight Friday due to the depreciating rupee and a sharp increase in crude oil prices in global markets, the government-run oil marketing firms said Friday.

This is the second increase in petrol price in the past two weeks. It was hiked by Rs.1.50 per litre Feb 16.

The country’s largest oil marketing firm Indian Oil Corporation said the prices have been revised upward due to the depreciation in the value of rupee and rise in international crude oil prices.

The Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly was adjourned on Friday after uproarious scenes over the opposition Peoples Democratic Party”s (PDP) demand to discuss parliament attack convict Afzal Guru”s hanging.

PDP members started shouting slogans over a demand for passage of an adjournment motion.

Although Speaker Mubarak Gul attempted to restore order within the house, a relentless opposition continued to disrupt proceedings, forcing its adjournment for an hour.

President Pranab Mukherjee is visiting Bangladesh March 3-5 in a trip that is expected to take bilateral relations between the two neighbours to new heights.

Mukherjee, in his first trip abroad after assuming presidency, will be accompanied by Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and four MPs. His wife Suvra Mukherjee will also accompany him.

The visit comes as Bangladesh is witnessing massive clashes after a top Islamist opposition leader was sentenced to death for his role in atrocities, including rape and killings, during the 1971 Freedom War.