New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi announced, Wednesday, that it plans to bid for coal block to achieve its target of generating 4,000 MW of power for the city.
The AAP had made power tariffs in the national capital a key poll issue and promised 50% cut in electricity bills in its manifesto.
As per reports, AAP plans to tie-up with a private company to set up an ultra mega power plant to ensure adequate power to the city at cheap rates.
The decision came days after the Delhi government directed finance and power departments to immediately send their proposals for implementation of the election promises to slash the electricity tariffs by 50 per cent till the audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the private power companies (discoms) is completed.
The Kejriwal-led government has also directed the Delhi Jal Board to prepare a proposal on providing free water up to 20,000 litres to every household per month.
During its previous 49-day stint, the AAP-led government had announced a 50 per cent subsidy on power consumption up to 400 units in the national capital due to which power bills of the consumers were cut by half. The then AAP government had also ordered a CAG audit into the finances of three private power distribution companies in the national capital.
The new government also has major plans to improve power generation from renewable sources like solar power.
Delhi has a power demand of about 5,000 MW and is largely dependent on other states to meet its requirements.
Earlier, in an apparent dig at AAP over its poll pledge to reduce power bills, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wondered how such promises could be made by political parties in states which are dependent on electricity supply from outside.
“During every election, political parties promise free power… People need to think about these promises,” said Modi at a renewable energy conference in Delhi on Feb 15.
“The parties make these promises in such states who rely on electricity supply from other states, he added.
“Water accounts for a major chunk of the input cost of farmers. The cost of water is basically due to cost of power. We have to understand the problems farmers are facing,” said Modi.
Reacting to Modi’s apparent dig at AAP, senior party leader and AAP’s Delhi Convenor Ashutosh urged the Prime Minister to help the state government to make power affordable.
“I don’t want to make any adverse comment on the Prime Minister. I just want to make a request to him on behalf of the party that he should help us to make electricity affordable and cheaper because that will do a lot of good to the people of Delhi and I hope that he also wants goodness of people of state,” he said.
Surat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pinstripe monogrammed bandhgala suit, which hogged limelight during President Barack Obama’s visit, went up for auction in the diamond city on Wednesday.
As the auction is underway in the diamond city, Rajesh Juneja from Surat bid a whopping Rs 1.21 crore for Modi’s Navy blue suit. Juneja gave a written bid offering Rs 1.21 crore for the suit which was the star attraction at the three-day auction which opened today.
Earlier, NRI businessmen Viral Chowksi offered Rs 1.11 crore, while before him textile trader Suresh Aggarwal made an offer of Rs one crore for the two-piece suit.
The first bid was made for Rs 11 lakh by a Surat-based chartered accountant Pankaj, while few minutes later, second bid of Rs 51 lakh was made by Raju Agarwal, an estate dealer.
“I have offered Rs 1 crore. This is work of charity and when the Prime Minister is doing for a great cause like cleaning of Ganga, I decided to go ahead and buy the suit,” said Suresh Aggarwal.
Giving a new dimension to the controversy, NRI Gujarati businessman Ramesh B Virani, who had participated in the Gujarat Vibrant Summit, said he had gifted the suit to Modi when had he gone to invite the Prime Minister for his son’s wedding.
“At that time, he (Modi) told me that he has a very busy schedule ahead and also that he will be donating the suit. I said there is no problem with that. I told him that I want him to wear the suit on the day of my son’s wedding as a blessing,” he said.
The suit that created waves and kicked up a political storm was auctioned today along with 455 items that Modi had received as gifts during his nearly nine-month long tenure to generate funds for the Prime Minister’s ambitious ‘Clean India Mission’.
Among other items up for auction are two T-shirts presented to Modi in Australia. The tees with Modi written over them were presented to the PM by the cricket board.
Meanwhile, reacting to the auction, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’ Brien termed the exercise as damage control public relations and said it has nothing to do with Ganga cleaning.
PM Modi wore the deep blue bandhgala suit for a joint appearance with US President Barack Obama at Hyderabad House when he stepped out for a ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ meet and a press conference with the US President in New Delhi last month.
Surat Municipal Commissioner Milind Toravane said the event is being organised at SMC’s Science Convention Centre at city-lights road in Surat as the Prime Minister’s Office(PMO) had decided to hold the auction event in the city.
Modi, during his chief ministerial tenure in Gujarat, had initiated a trend to auction the gifts that he received in a year and it was donated to Kanya Kelavani Yojna for girl child education, he said.
Whether it is with his well-fitted bandhgala suits, his half-sleeved kurta and brightly coloured Nehru jackets or his choice of an orange shawl — Modi’s style statements have always been eye-catching — so much so that during the Obamas’ visit for the country’s 66th Republic Day celebrations, he stole the thunder from the US First Lady as far as fashion was concerned.
The Indian railways canteen has been ripping off passengers by charging them more than the printed MRP rates with some products do not have any printed rates. Rates are fixed randomly.This information has been revealed by a passenger travelling from Goonda to Mumbai by Khusi Nagar Express by train no 11016 on 11/02/2015.The Meals on Wheels canteen of the India railways have been always charging more than the MRP rate of any product sold by them.
According to Nasir Manihar who was travelling by sleeper class had bought a bottle of mineral water of one liter, for RS 20. There was no MRP rate published on the bottle. In the next bottle he bought the MRP rated was printed of RS 15 but was again charged RS 20.. Only when he raised a voice did they returnRSs 5 on a 20 rupee denomination.
Now on the third bottle purchased Nasir warned that he would only pay on the MRP rate the canteen man brought a bottle of the same company where the MRP was printed RS 20. The name of the company printed on the bottle was Oasis. As per our research the company itself is fake as the print does not match with the original bottle. Three different rate for three bottles of mineral water. One could imagine the corruption going on. Tea was charged Rs 10 when the actual rate is Rs 7 that is also assumed price as there is no provision was producing a menu before an order is taken.. A Seven Up bottle of MRP Rs 34 was charged RS 40. It is also to be noted that the canteen staff do wear any uniform and badge which is difficult for the passenger to find out if he is genuine canteen staff or not.
As the rates were going haywire Nasir demanded the complaint book of the railways. The canteen manager came and pleaded with Nasir to not file a complaint. He promised to refund his money that was charged extra, at this point Nasir demanded to return the extra amount taken from all passengers on board. He refused this condition so Naseer finally lodged a complaint.
The mineral water company Oasis’ is not a popular brand in the market . How can a company have different rates for the same quantity of one liter. What is nexus between Oasis Mineral Water Company and the Indian Railways Canteen. Charging extra amount on every product sums up to a big amount of money. The quality of the water needs to be checked by the quality control. We bring the attention of the railways authority to seriously look into the water.
70%he catering service of the Indian Railways is covered by this particular catering service. When Nasir demanded to lodge a complaint the canteen staff replied that there would no hearing on this complaint as the canteen management would bribe the railway authorities with a big amount of money
These varying rates in small commodities amount to a huge sum when calculated in a big volume. Passengers would normally not complain for small amounts which would make his trip unpleasant.
In just one weekend, the movie version of the best-selling book, Fifty Shades of Grey, has racked up $265 million at the global box office. With $85 million of that coming from the U.S., the film had the best opening weekend of any February release in history beating out The Passion of the Christ which earned $83.8 million when it opened in 2004.
Considering the film cost just $40 million to make, it’s already a huge profit-maker for Universal and its parent company Comcast CMCSA -1.14%. As my colleague Scott Mendelson pointed out, Universal did a great job marketing the movie (aside from a disastrous press tour) and the studio apparently made the right decision to tone down some of the more explicit sexual material that made the book such a hit but would have risked an NC-17 rating.
For years the most successful Valentine’s Day movies have been based on Nicholas Sparks books. Films like The Vow and Safe Haven were the go-to February romance films. Fifty Shades of Grey changed the equation before it even hit theaters. This year’s annual Nicholas Sparks film, The Longest Ride, will hit theaters in April instead of February this year.
While I would like to hope that the lesson Hollywood takes away from the film is that female directors making movies aimed almost squarely at women can make boatloads of money, it’s more likely that other studios will just look to replicate the Fifty Shades template of an inexpensive soft-core film hitting theaters in February. It will be almost impossible to find a similarly successful book to base future films on but there are plenty of Fifty Shades clones with unsubtle names from best-selling authors like Tame Me, Taking It All and Bared To You. Today executives are no doubt screaming at their development worker bees to find the next Fifty Shades.
Universal has a lock on this market for the next few years thanks to the two sequels to Fifty Shades from author E.L. James. Although both lead actors Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan seemed like they absolutely hated filming the first movie, a nice bump in salary should help get them back for the next two films.
While some have said Fifty Shades could become the R-rated equivalent of Twilight, that seems like a stretch. The film will have to hold strong at the box office in order to approach Twilight levels (even the first Twilight movie earned $392 million at the global box office) and each subsequent film will have to earn more at the box office. The final Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn Part II was the highest-grossing of the franchise with $830 million at the global box office.
There’s a good chance Fifty Shades won’t have that kind of staying power. Audiences may have paid their money opening weekend but they’re not overly-enthused about the film. It got a Cinemascore of C+. Kingsman: The Secret Service, which was the other big film this weekend with $36 million at the box office, gets a B+.
Even if it’s not the next Twilight, it’s sure to spur plenty of imitators, just like the book did.
Plot Summary
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When Anastasia Steele, a literature student, goes to interview the wealthy Christian Grey as a favor to her roommate Kate Kavanagh, she encounters a beautiful, brilliant and intimidating man. The innocent and naive Ana starts to realize she wants him. Despite his enigmatic reserve and advice, she finds herself desperate to get close to him. Not able to resist Ana’s beauty and independent spirit, Christian Grey admits he wants her too, but on his own terms. Ana hesitates as she discovers the singular tastes of Christian Grey – despite the embellishments of success, his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, and his loving family, Grey is consumed by the need to control everything
Wow! Have a look at this bold statement that Bips has just made on Humshakals director Sajid Khan!
“I don’t have any equation with him (Sajid Khan). I don’t want to keep an equation with him. Why should I? I have my life. I’m done with Humshakals. I don’t know about everyone… I still did my part and finished shooting for it. (Pauses) You know, he (Sajid Khan) told me on my face that my problem was that I’m a real actor and I couldn’t be great until I started hamming.”
Yes, the film really was bad, but this is quite shocking, even for Bipasha!
Well, Bipasha did disassociate herself from the film Humshakals just before its release. In fact, the film’s producer Vashu Bhagnani had even told that he will never work with the Bong beauty again!
– See more at: http://www.bollywood.com/celebrities/bipasha-basu/news/i-dont-want-keep-equation-him-bipasha-sajid-khan#sthash.Th9LW65M.dpuf
Longlit: The Army on Tuesday expressed hope that it would be able to wipe out the NDFB-Songbijit from Assam as operations were on against the underground outfit that had massacred 81 persons in December last year.
Over 171 cadres of the NDFB-S have been arrested so far during continuing successful operations against the group, GOC Red Horn Division Maj Gen C P Mohanty said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event here in Karbi Anglong district, he said though some of the top NDFB-S leaders fled outside the state, efforts were on to apprehend them to neutralise the outfit.
The Army today organised an event to distribute bicycles to school girls, weaving looms to women, wheel chairs to physically challenged people and also held a medical camp in remote Siloni Gaon of Longlit area.
The event, which was part of the Army’s efforts to bring peace and harmony in East Karbi Anglong, was inaugurated by Gen Mohanty who emphasised on the need to improve infrastructure facilities and reach out to people in the remote areas.
PTI
Mumbai: Shiv Sena’s youth wing president Aditya Thackeray Aditya Thackeray sees the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is considering to contest 2017 Mumbai civic polls, as a healthy competition.
Shiv Sena, in coalition with BJP, has been in power in Asia’s richest civic body for the last two decades.
“Not in terms of the work we have done now and what we will achieve by then, but there must be healthy competition always,” Aditya told NDTV in an interview today when asked if he saw AAP as a competition.
The 24-year old son of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said his party had already congratulated AAP for its astounding victory in the Delhi assembly polls.
“We have already congratulated them as it is the vote of the people. The 95 per cent victory margin is huge and as from any government, there are lots of hopes from them. Every state government should succeed well,” he said.
Replying to a question on whether he had learnt anything from the stunning electoral success of India’s youngest political party, Aditya said, “There is a lot to learn from every victory and defeat. Every party should learn from victories and defeats and that’s what we are doing.”
PTI
Aizawl: Civil societies in Mizoram on Tuesday objected to the demand for Kashmiri Pundit like status by Bru tribal people staying in refugee camps in Tripura.
The Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or the Mizo Students Federation said Brus lodged in Tripura camps were not refugees and could never be compared to the Kashmiri Pundits.
“We have documentary evidence that they left Mizoram and migrated en masse to Tripura to fulfil the political aspirations of the community and that those who refused to leave Mizoram in the later part of 1997 were given stern warning by Bru leaders,” MZP president Lalhmachhuana said.
Bru evacuees living in Tripura on February 14 handed over a 10-point charter of demands to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and one of the demands was Kashmiri Pundit-like status to them.
There are over 31,000 Brus in six evacuee camps in Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura district. They had fled their ancestral homes in Mizoram and have been staying here since October 1997.
Lalhmachhuana welcomed return of bona fide residents of Mizoram but objected to Singh’s recent statement that all inmates of the relief camps would be repatriated soon.
The Young Mizo Association (YMA), the largest organisation of the Mizos, also took serious view of the 10-point demands of the Brus.
Lalbiakzuala, president of the central committee of the YMA, told PTI that a panel has been set up to study the demands of the Brus.
The YMA would make its final decision after receiving the panel’s report, Lalbiakzuala said, adding that the YMA never had any objection to the return of Brus from Tripura.
However, only those whose names were enrolled in the 1995 Mizoram voters’ lists and their descendants would be allowed, he said.
PTI
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who returned from Delhi on Tuesday, cancelled his official programmes and was closeted with ministers and legislators to draw up the strategy for the February 20 trust vote.
Manjhi did not take any question from mediapersons at Patna airport and went straight to his official residence.
In addition to cancelling two functions here, he also called off his visit to Khagaria, Chief Minister Office sources said.
State Art and Culture minister Vinay Bihari, who received Manjhi at the airport told reporters “We are confident of proving majority on the floor of House on February 20.”
Though BJP is yet to spell out its strategy on confidence vote, he said “Our talks with senior BJP leaders in Delhi have been positive.”
Dissident JD(U) leader Gyanendra Singh Gyanoo, who met Manjhi at his residence also exuded confidence of sailing through the confidence vote.
“We will get it. Good response has been coming from legislators,” he told PTI refusing to disclose the names of MLAs who had promised support to Manjhi.
Expelled JD(U) former MP Shabir Ali also met Manjhi.
“The scenario will change in the state in the next 24 hours,” Ali said later.
Bihari said Manjhi has held consultation with legal experts for action against JD(U) MLA Anant Singh, a close confidante of Nitish Kumar, who had recently threatened to beat the Chief Minister.
PTI
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