Petrol prices in the national capital as well as most state capitals crossed Rs 100 a litre mark as its rates on Tuesday were hiked by 80 paise a litre and that of diesel by 70 paise, taking the total increase since last week to Rs 4.80 per litre.
Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 100.21 per litre against Rs 99.41 previously, while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 90.77 per litre to Rs 91.47, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state, depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata already had petrol prices of over Rs 100 per litre, and most state capitals now have rates higher than that.
Petrol price in the national capital had last crossed Rs 100 a litre mark on July 7, 2021, and went on to touch an all-time high of Rs 110.04 before the Modi government on November 4 reduced excise duty on auto fuels. Most states matched that cut with a reduction in local sales tax or VAT.
Post that daily rate revisions were put on hold as elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, approached.
But, the cost of raw materials during this period climbed from USD 82 per barrel to close to USD 140 before retracting. It is around USD 112 per barrel on Tuesday.
This is the seventh increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22. On the first four occasions, prices were increased by 80 paise a litre – the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017. On the following days, petrol price went up by 50 paise and 30 paise a litre, while diesel rose by 55 paise and 35 paise a litre.
In all, petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs 4.80 per litre – the steepest increase in any eight days since the daily price revision was implemented in June 2017.
In Mumbai, petrol comes for Rs 115.04 a litre, while in Chennai, it is priced at Rs 105.94 and in Kolkata at Rs 109.68.
Diesel is priced at Rs 99.25 a litre in Mumbai, Rs 96 in Chennai and Rs 94.62 in Kolkata.
Rajasthan’s Ganganagar district on the border with Pakistan has the costliest fuel in the country at Rs 117.14 per litre for petrol and Rs 99.96 for diesel.
Besides local taxes, rates are also dependent on freight.
Moody’s Investors Services last week stated that state retailers together lost around USD 2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.
Oil companies “will need to raise diesel prices by Rs 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs 10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of USD 100-120 per barrel,” according to Kotak Institutional Equities.
CRISIL Research said a Rs 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average USD 100 per barrel crude oil and Rs 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to USD 110-120.
India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and so retail rates adjust accordingly to the global movement.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday embarked on a visit to China to attend a regional meeting on war-torn Afghanistan.
The third meeting of ‘Foreign Ministers of Neighbouring Countries of Afghanistan’ is being held on March 29 to 31, according to the Pakistan Foreign Office (FO). The meeting will be held in Tunxi, central China’s Anhui province.
“Besides attending the Neighbouring Countries Ministerial meeting, the Foreign Minister will interact with counterparts from participating countries,” said the FO.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to host a dialogue between the foreign ministers and the acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan’s interim government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, on the sidelines of the meeting.
Foreign Ministers of Indonesia and Qatar have been invited to the meeting as “guests”.
Pakistan had initiated the ‘Neighbouring Countries’ format in September 2021 with a view to evolving a regional approach on the situation in Afghanistan after the hardline Taliban seized power in Kabul in August last year.
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has not been recognised by the international community amidst severe economic and humanitarian problems faced by the country.
Pakistan hosted the first meeting on September 8, 2021.
The FO said Pakistan fully supports a regional approach on Afghanistan for promoting durable peace and stability in the region.
Pakistan will continue to support the international community’s efforts to advance the shared objectives of a peaceful, stable, sovereign, prosperous and connected Afghanistan, said the FO.
Qureshi has been invited by State Councilor and Foreign Minister of China Wang.
Vehemently opposes the MVA’s decision to allocate 300 flats via MHADA to MLAs and MLCs across Maharashtra
The Aam Aadmi Party today slammed the MVA government for placing its selfish interests over public welfare, when it comes to decision making. In what is clearly a please-all for the political class, the MVA announced the allocation of 300 flats via MHADA to MLAs and MLCs from across Maharashtra.
Contrary to the MVA, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab has focused on bold, citizen-centric decisions – the latest of which is that all MLAs, irrespective of the number of the terms served by them, would recieve a single pension from the government. Until now, a two-time MLA would get two pensions and a five-time MLA would get five pensions; something that was absolutely ridiculous & without any precedent world over, leading to the AAP government’s landmark intervention to correct this unjustifiable policy.
“Globally, 6 years of an individual’s annual income can afford someone decent housing, but that is simply not true for Mumbai, where real estate prices remain skewed and sky-high. Instead of providing relief to the Aam Aadmi in a high-inflation and scarce housing market, the MVA is seeking to providing 300 new flats to MLAs & MLCs in Mumbai, despite fully functional ‘MLA hostels’ having been made available to them.” said Ruben Mascarenhas, AAP Mumbai Working President.
“On the one hand you have the Delhi & the Punjab Government taking pro-people decisions, while on the other hand, you have the MVA government – which is abusing it’s power to cater solely to the political class. Rather than addressing the problem of public housing in Mumbai as a priority issue of policy making, the MVA is choosing to provide for the lavish lifestyles of its MLAs and MLCs. This is nothing but an arrogance of power, seeking to further the VIP culture that continues to prevail among our representatives, and must be vehemently opposed by all, at all costs. The MVA needs to take lessons from the AAP Government in Punjab.” said Preeti Sharma Menon, National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari.
The ruling BJP seems to be on course to retain power in Uttar Pradesh, with poll trends on Thursday showing the party alliance leading in 269 seats as against 121 of its nearest rival Samajwadi Party.
The state has 403 assembly seats and 202 seats are needed to form a majority government. Trends are available for 399 seats so far.
Prominent candidates who have secured a lead include Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav from Karhal, Shivpal Yadav from Jaswant Nagar and CLP leader Aradhana Shukla from Rampur Khas (Pratapgarh).
Adityanath is heading for a landslide victory in Gorakhpur Urban seat leading over his nearest SP’s Subhawati Shukla by about 15,000 votes.
The BSP nominee has secured 1,477 votes while Chandra Shekhar of Azad Samaj Party has bagged 1,386 votes. Chetna Pandey of the Congress is struggling with 272 votes and AAP nominee Vijay Kumar Shrivastava with 93 votes.
However, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is trailing from Sirathu seat while Swami Prasad Maurya of the SP is also trailing from Fazil Nagar seat. Congress State president Ajay Kumar Lallu is trailing from Tumkuhi Raj.
According to official trends available for 399 seats, the BJP is leading in 252 seats while its allies Apna Dal (S) and Nishad party are leading in 12 and five seats respectively.
While the Samajwadi Party is leading in 110 seats, its allies SBSP and RLD are leading in three and eight seats respectively.
The BSP and the Congress were leading in three and two seats respectively.Two candidates of the Jansatta Dal, including Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in Kunda seat, were leading.
The BJP vote per cent is 42.3 while SP has got 31.6 per cent votes. The Congress has got meagre of 2.45 per cent while the BSP got 12.9 per cent.
The Aam Aadmi Party feels that Shiv Sena and the BJP are busy attacking each other and indulging in petty rivalry and misusing the agencies at their disposal. This is costing the state and is impacting the well-being of the citizenry.
“We have just emerged, from the 3rd wave of Covid and there should be plans to restart the economy and rehabiliate those who have been adversely impacted by the pandemic.
Instead of doing that the only thing we see is a spectacle where all corruption is being exposed, without any firm action against corruption.
“What is disappointing is that despite the BJP being in power in the center and having all its agency at its disposal and the MVA Govt being in power in the state and having their agency at disposal, hardly anyone goes to jail.
They just make acccusations against each other, but no ‘Kirit Somaiya’ or ‘Sanjay Raut’ ever goes to jail.
There is just a charade of ED calling for questioning, and everybody be it the top cops, bureaucrats and the politicians, they all come and answer some questions and go away.
No body is really convicted and that is the sad part of this vendatta politics.
Both the sides are aware, that if they arrest one person of them then, they can arrest one person from ours. So no body will really be brought to justice, despite all the scams that are taking place.
All that they will do is threaten each other, compromise and continue the corruption, that they are already doing. This will continue to be the the fate of Maharashtra untill a new Govt comes to power which works for its people and not for the selfish agenda of the politicians who rule it.”, said Preeti Sharma Menon, AAP National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhai.
In continuation of the tree cutting of yesterday, trees are still being hacked in Aarey forest as we speak. AAP volunteers tried to stop the work but a contingent of 100+ policemen is guarding the hacking. This reminds us of the Fadnavis Era where trees were hacked using the might of the state. What hurts the citizens of Mumbai more is that while Devendra Fadnavis openly declared his intentions of destroying Aarey, the Thackerays claim to be #ParyavaranPremis and swear on their love for Mumbai while they secretly destroy it.
Using 2021 permissions for tree pruning, trees are being hacked by the Adani Power Plant. One of the explanations being floated is that new towers are being built to remove the ones presently in the proposed car shed site. What AAP wants to know is that if no car shed is being built then what is the need to move those decade old towers at all?!
The MVA government has put up a weak defence for the Kanjurmarg Car Shed site in court, with the AG repeating the Fadnavis government rhetoric. It seems clear that they will relinquish Kanjurmarg and present the car shed in aarey as fait accompli.
But let all political parties in Mumbai be warned, the AAP stands by Aarey and we will not let their nefarious designs succeed. We will continue our protests to ensure there is no more destruction of the forest.
AAP Leader Preeti Sharma Menon wrote to the Honourable Chief Justice of India to draw his attention to the remarks made by Honourable Chief Justice of Bombay in PIL 401 of 2022.
The Aam Aadmi Party has been at the forefront of exposing blatant corruption amongst politicians, bureaucrats and senior police officers in the state of Maharashtra. With many scandals involving senior most police officials rocking the state, all concerned citizens have followed with interest PIL No 401 of 2022 filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the appointment of the highest police officer in the state, the Director General of Police (DGP), Maharashtra.
The AAP feels that this PIL is blatantly politically motivated and it is disturbing that the Bombay High Court has not only allowed an untenable case but has passed unwarranted remarks in the same.
Preeti Sharma Menon pointed out in her letter that the Honourable Courts of India have maintained that PILs in service matters are not maintainable, then how was this case allowed to progress? The Telangana High Court judgement has passed an explicit order to this effect, yet Bombay High Court has allowed this case to progress.
In fact it was surprising that the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court seemed to be in an inordinate rush to pass orders in this case within two days of hearing, without allowing the affected party, acting DGP Shri Sanjay Pandey to be heard or intervene until Mr. Pandey’s lawyer pressed for the same.
We are in a state of shock to read the remarks attributed to the Chief Justice in the last hearing. The media has reported that the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court said that Sanjay Pandey happens to be the blue-eyed officer of the State Government. He declared that ‘Once he is appointed as the DGP, he will not be in a position to discharge his duty… There would be a give and take. The state has gone out of its way to change his ratings… such an officer should never be appointed as DGP.”
We are truly appalled by these unprecedented, highly personal and seemingly unwarranted statements that seem to suggest that the Chief Justice is approaching the case with prejudice.
Firstly the remarks are erroneous because the state government has not shown any bias in favour of Shri Sanjay Pandey. On the contrary they were trying to bypass him and he had to publicly fight for the post which was rightfully his. The AAP too had made a statement on how that state government was being unfair to Sanjay Pandey by superseding him.
Secondly IPS Sanjay Pandey has a track record of being upright and unbiased and the Honourable Chief Justice has no proof to allege that there is any evidence of “give and take” in his entire career.
Preeti Sharma Menon wrote, “As a citizen of this country who has fought corruption and political nexuses, I urge you to please take cognizance of this strange case that is attacking the very foundations of bi-partisan standards upheld by all the courts of India. One cannot even begin to measure the impact it must have on the morale of our police force which has become a pawn of political interests.”
We hope that CJI takes cognizance of this unacceptable conduct and prevents Bombay High Court from becoming an arena for political rivalry at the cost of the safety and security of our state
India logged 30,615 new coronavirus infections, taking the country’s tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,27,23,558, while the active cases dipped to 3,70,240, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The death toll climbed to 5,09,872 with 514 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The daily COVID-19 cases were recorded less than one lakh for ten consecutive days
The active cases comprise 0.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 97.94 per cent, the health ministry said.
A reduction of 52,887 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.45 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 3.32 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,18,43,446, while the case fatality rate was recorded as 1.19 per cent.
The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 173.86 crore.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
The 514 new fatalities include 304 from Kerala and 35 from Maharashtra.
A total of 5,09,872 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,43,451 from Maharashtra, 62,681 from Kerala, 39,691 from Karnataka, 37,946 from Tamil Nadu, 26,081 from Delhi, 23,404 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,061 from West Bengal.
The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
As far as Ansal brothers are concerned, I am rejecting their application, said Justice Subramonium Prasad.
Last year, Ansals and former court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and two others — P P Batra and Anoop Singh Karayat – were awarded seven-year jail term by a trial court and the sessions court had refused to suspend the sentence and release them on bail.
While dismissing the Ansals’ plea for suspension of sentence till the appeal against the conviction by magisterial court is decided, the sessions court had said that the case was one of the gravest of its kind and the offence appeared to be the outcome of a calculated design on the part of the convicts to interfere with the course of justice.
Before the high court, the Ansal brother had sought suspension of sentence on several grounds including their old age.
The plea was opposed by the Delhi Police and Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT).
The tampering was detected for the first time on July 20, 2002, and when it was unearthed, a departmental enquiry was initiated against Sharma and he was suspended.
Later an inquiry was conducted and he was terminated from services on June 25, 2004.
The magisterial court had also imposed a fine of Rs 2.25 crore each on the Ansals apart from imposing a seven-year-term in the case.
The case was lodged on the direction of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by AVUT chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy.
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