Uber brings back surge pricing in Delhi, Kejriwal warns of strong action

New Delhi, May 1, 2016 (PTI)

On a day the ban on diesel-run cabs came into effect, taxi aggregator Uber today brought back surge pricing in Delhi, prompting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to warn the operators of "strong action".

Uber had introduced the provision during odd-even scheme, which was objected to by commuters and Kejriwal had asserted that such demand-linked hikes would be banned permanently.

A day after the second phase of odd-even ended, commuters across the city, who availed the services of the app-based cab firm today, found that surge pricing, where fares are raised when demand is higher than the available cabs, was back.

When contacted, an Uber spokesperson confirmed the development saying that suspension of surge pricing was only a "temporary" measure.

Uber's move came on a day a ban on diesel-run cabs came into effect in Delhi, affecting nearly 27,000 vehicles.

"Some taxis hv started charging surge. Surge not allowed under law. They r warned that strong action will be taken against them," Kejriwal tweeted.

A senior Delhi government official said that action will be taken against these companies based on complaints.

"We will impound their cabs," the official said.
While an immediate confirmation could be obtained from Ola, another app-based service, its app displayed a message saying peak time charges may be applicable during high demand hours and will be conveyed during the booking which "enables us to make more cabs available to you".

Ola displayed the disclaimer during the odd-even period as well although it did not invoke peak-pricing till yesterday.

The Delhi government had cracked its whip on these companies on the first week of the second phase of odd-even after Kejriwal termed the concept as "daylight robbery".
The authorities had also impounded cabs for overpricing.

Cong targets Centre over forest fires in Uttarakhand

New Delhi, May 1, 2016 (PTI)

Congress today attacked the Centre over the raging forest fires in Uttarakhand, which is under President's rule, saying the Narendra Modi government has "miserably failed" to tackle one of the biggest environmental tragedies of recent times.
"On one side Modi government is fuelling the fire of political defection in the peaceful state of Uttarakhand and on the other side the government has miserably failed to tackle one of the biggest environmental tragedies of recent times," Congress' communication department chief Randeep Surjewala said.

Surjewala claimed that over 5,500 hectares of valuable flora and fauna have been lost in the forest fires.

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, who backed nine Congress MLAs who rebelled against the Harish Rawat government last month, blamed the previous government for failing to make a plan in the past to meet such an eventuality.

"What was lacking from the very beginning was that we did not have a plan by the state government and the forest department to meet such an eventuality," he said.

He said if the state government lacked resources to make a plan, it should have asked for assistance from the Centre.

The raging fire in the forest areas of Uttarakhand have destroyed about 2,269 hectares of jungles in several districts and claimed at least seven lives till now.
Pauri, Nainital, Rudraprayag and Tehri are among the worst-hit districts.

Punjab: Minor who shot himself while taking 'selfie' dies

Pathankot, May 1, 2016 (PTI)

A 15-year-old boy who sustained a bullet injury to his head while taking a selfie with his father's revolver, died today at a hospital in Ludhiana.

"The boy, (Ramandeep Singh) died today in a private hospital in Ludhiana. His body will be brought here and post- mortem will be carried out at civil hospital in Pathankot," Pathankot Deputy Superintendent of Police (City) Manoj Kumar said today.

The teenager had sustained a bullet injury while taking a selfie with his mobile phone with a .32 bore revolver pointed to his head. The gun went off accidentally. With the bullet lodged in his head, the critically injured teen was shifted to a hospital in Ludhiana.

The revolver belonged to Ramandeep's father Gurkirpal Singh, a property dealer.

Heatwave condition continues, Phalodi in Raj records 46.5 C

New Delhi, May 1, 2016, (PTI)

Heatwave conditions continued to sweep several parts of the country today with Rajasthan's Phalodi recording the maximum temperature of 46.5 degrees Celsius.

National capital New Delhi faced unpleasant weather conditions where the maximum temperature was recorded at 42 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal.

In Rajasthan, the highest temperature of 46.5 was recorded at Phalodi town in Jodhpur district, followed by Sri Ganganagar (46.3), Churu (46), Bikaner (45.8), and Barmer (45.2), and  Jaipur (43.3).

Heat wave prevailed across Uttar Pradesh with Allahabad being the hottest place at 45.1 degrees Celsius.

In Punjab and Haryana, Hisar was the hottest place at 44.7 degrees Celsius and most places in the two states recorded the season's highest maximum temperature so far, the MeT Department office in Chandigarh said.

In Punjab, Amritsar recorded 42.3 deg C, up five notches above normal.

In Odisha, after a brief respite from scorching heat, the mercury soared in most parts of the state where Bhawanipatna remained the hottest place at 45.5 degrees Celsius. The state capital Bhubaneswar touched 44 degree Celsius.

Eastern state of Jharkhand also faced heatwave conditions where the maximum temperature of 44.2 degrees Celsius was recorded at Jamshedpur followed by Palamu (43.8), Garhwa (43), and Ranchi and Lohardagga (both 40).

In West Bengal, Kolkata sizzled at 40.1 degrees Celsius, where the MeT department forecast possibility of rain and thunderstorms within a couple of days.

Bihar continued to sizzle under spell of heatwave with Gaya being the hottest place at 42.9 degree Celsius followed by Patna (40.4).

In Kerala's capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, where the maximum temperature was 35 degrees Celsius, the District Collector has ordered no schools will function till May 20 due to heatwave conditions.

Yesterday, two persons - 50-year-old daily wage worker Damodaran had collapsed and died, and 80 year-old Cheriya Raman, who was walking on the road collapsed and died, in suspected case of sunstroke deaths in Kerala's Kozhikode.

Palakaad in the state recorded 40.7 degrees Celsius and Kozhikode 38.3 degrees Celsius.

Modi slams Cong govts, reaches out to Nishads with e-boats

Varanasi, May 1, 2016 (PTI)

Accusing the erstwhile Congress governments of pursuing "vote bank politics", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today took potshots at Nehru-Gandhi family and reached out to the numerically significant Nishad community in Uttar Pradesh as he launched solar-powered boats for plying on river Ganga.
"India has launched seven satellites to augment the GPS system. With the kind of politics going on in our country and massive work being done, it came to our mind that let's name it (the solar-powered boat project) after Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay or Shayma Prasad Mukherjee (the RSS icons).

"You have already seen how many schemes are named after one family. We also felt tempted to name the project after those who belonged to us. But this Modi is made of a different stuff. I named it Naavik (boatman). I did not name it after any of my family members or any leader. I have given a name, which gives immortality to the fishermen community," Modi said.

Launching 11 solar-powered "e-boats" at the Assi Ghat, the Prime Minister said that the step is in line with his government's focus on making long-term interventions to empower the poor in their fight against poverty and climb up the ladder, which was not the case during previous governments.

"Unfortunately politics in our country took a direction in which policies were always made to strengthen vote bank. The focus was that the vote bank should remain strong, irrespective of whether the poor, the citizens of the country, get empowered or not or the country is strengthened or not.

"Earlier when something was talked about our Nishad brothers, the price of diesel was brought down by one rupee or so in the hope that they will cast their vote in favour. But we have made schemes, which empower the poor to fight and defeat the poverty themselves. We are working in that direction," he said listing a number of other schemes.

Reaching out to the backward fishermen and boatmen communities (kevat, nishad, machchuara) and addressing them as "brothers", the Prime Minister said his government is "for the poor".

Earlier speaking in Ballia, where he launched a Rs 8000 crore scheme to provide free LPG connections to five crore poor families, the Prime Minister hit out at the erstwhile Congress-led governments, saying most policies under them were made keeping the ballot box in mind and not for development or poverty alleviation.

"Uttar Pradesh has given so many Prime Ministers. But why did the poverty levels go on increasing? Were there some drawbacks in these policies?" he asked.

He said an MP from Ghazipur had raised the issue of abject poverty in eastern UP when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister following which a commission was formed which made several major recommendations.

"What happened to those recommendations, only God knows. Fifty years have passed since then. One of the recommendations was to connect Ghazipur and Mau by rail. We have now decided to construct a rail line to implement that recommendation," Modi said.

In Varanasi, the Prime Minister said his government believes in "going to the root" of problems to resolve them otherwise the situation remains stagnants while elections and formation of governments keep on happening.

"Even after passage of 70 years since India got independence, the doors of banks were closed for 40 per cent of Indians. The Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana launched by our government ensured that the poor are able to open their bank account with zero balance. Banks should remember that this government, the country and the banks belong to the poor," he said.

On his pet LPG scheme for the poor, the Prime Minister recalled that there was a time when people had to queue up before MPs, who used to have a quota for doling out gas connections to 25 people.

"That was also a government, which used to think big of it by giving 25 connections and this is also a government, which has decided to give gas connection to 5 crore families within 3 years," he said.

Contrasting the focus of his government against those that preceded it, Modi, whose dispensation has often been accused by Congress of pursuing "pro-rich and pro-corporate" policies said,"Many governments came in past, which worked for the rich. This time a government has come, which aims at benefiting the poor. This government is for those who have nobody else to fall back upon."

Addressing members of the boatmen and fishermen communities as "sisters and brothers", the Prime Minister said, "Earlier when elections used to come, the talk centred around how much diesel is to be given to the fishermen. Today, we are giving freedom to them from this and starting e-boats, which will produce no noise and save my Nishad brothers Rs 500 they spent daily on diesel.

"Earlier the government used to bring down the price of diesel by one or two rupees. Today with my one decision, each poor boatman will be able to save Rs 500 daily. Will he now be able to defeat poverty or not? One decision can bring about such a big change," he said.

Modi said these e-boats will also have mobile charging facility that would encourage tourists to go for boating and will result in greater earning for "thousands of my Navik, Kevat, Machchuaara sisters and brothers".

The Prime Minister urged the community to spend the money saved on education of their children and not on alcohol. He also appealed to people in his constituency to take up the cleanliness drive with full gusto.

Mallahs or Nishads constitute a sizeable segment of the electorate in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls next year. Stakes are high for the BJP in the key cow belt state where the party and its allies had won 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 general elections.

Over six lakh students appear for NEET-I

New Delhi, May 1, 2016, (PTI)

Over six lakh students today appeared for the first phase of National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), a common medical entrance test for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses across the country.

According to CBSE officials who conducted the test, over 6.67 lakh students had registered for the exam.

"Reports received by us suggested that there were around 8 per cent students who did not take the test. This figure is considerably less than the previous year when around 15 per cent of candidates were absentees," a senior CBSE official said.

The CBSE had allowed candidates to wear traditional and religious clothes including burqas for the exam.

"The exam went smoothly and the feedback we received was largely positive," the official said, adding that metal detectors and jammers were used to ensure that unfair means were not used.

The Supreme court had cleared the decks for holding the exam in two phases by approving the schedule put before it by the Centre, CBSE and the Medical Council of India (MCI) for treating All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) fixed for May 1 as NEET-1.

Government may not sign up Big B for Incredible India

April 20, 2016, New Delhi, DHNS

Panama Papers fallout

The Panama papers leak has prompted the government to put on hold signing up Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador of the Incredible India campaign.

“His name can be considered for the role only after he comes out clean on the Panama papers leak row,” sources privy to the government’s decision said.

Bachchan, however, told media that he was yet to be formally approached by the government.

“I have not been formally approached for being ambassador of incredible India ambassador,” a news channel quoted him as saying.

Bachchan, who is ambassador for Maharashtra’s Save Tiger project, was the “most preferred” choice of the Union Tourism Ministry for assigning the role of its Incredible India campaign’s brand ambassador after Amir Khan’s exit from the global publicity campaign of Indian tourism in January. 

The names of popular actors Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, however, were also doing the rounds.

However, the leak of records with Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca recently tied the ministry’s hands in taking any decision on assigning the role to Bachchan as his name figured among 500 Indian individuals and entities who owned firms and accounts in offshore tax havens.

As a row erupted after the Panama papers leak, the Bollywood superstar maintained that his name might have been misused.

“I do not know any of the companies referred to by Indian Express - Sea Bulk Shipping Company Ltd, Lady Shipping Ltd, Treasure Shipping Ltd, and Tramp Shipping Ltd. I have never been a director of any of the above stated companies. It is possible that my name has been misused,” he then said in a statement.

Bachchan was the brand ambassador for the Gujarat Tourism when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state.

Amitabh Bachchan: I do not know any of the companies referred to by Indian Express - Sea Bulk Shipping Company Ltd, Lady Shipping Ltd, Treasure Shipping Ltd, and Tramp Shipping Ltd. I have never been a director of any of the above stated companies. It is possible that my name has been misused