New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) Price of non-subsidised LPG was today cut by Rs 5 per cylinder even as jet fuel (ATF) rates were marginally raised in step with global trend.

The price of non-subsidised or market-priced domestic cooking gas (LPG) was cut by Rs 5 to Rs 616 per 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi, state-owned fuel retailers said.

The reduction comes on the back of two successive hikes – Rs 5 on March 1 and Rs 11 on April 1.

Households are entitled to 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each at subsidised rate of Rs 417 in Delhi. Any requirement beyond this has to be bought at the market price, which is now Rs 616 in Delhi.

In Mumbai, non-subsidised cooking gas has been cut by Rs 4.50 to Rs 627.50, while it will cost Rs 649 in Kolkata as against Rs 654.50, previously. Chennai will see a price cut of Rs 5.50 to Rs 608.50 per cylinder.

Rates vary from state-to-state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

Oil companies raised price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, in Delhi by Rs 272 per kilolitre or 0.5 per cent to Rs 49,609.84 per kl.

The increase comes on the back of a 2 per cent reduction in rates last year.

Jet fuel constitutes over 40 per cent of an airline’s operating costs and the price cut will reduce the financial burden on cash-strapped carriers.

No immediate comment was available from airlines on the impact of the price hike on passenger fares.

State-owned fuel retailers, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) revise jet fuel and non-subsidised LPG prices on the first of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rate. The same on petrol and diesel is done on a fortnightly basis.

Mumbai, May 1 (PTI) Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao today sought the participation of corporates to help the government implement its ambitious integrated water conservation and management initiative, Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan.

“The government has expressed its resolve to make Maharashtra drought?free. ‘More crop per drop’ will be the guiding motto of the government for using water efficiently,” he said addressing a gathering here on the occasion of Maharashtra Day celebration.

Maharashtra attained statehood on May 1, 1960.

Maharashtra Day is being celebrated today in various parts of the state.

On the occasion, Rao took salute of a ceremonial parade held at Shivaji Park in Central Mumbai.

“The state government is implementing the ‘Jalyukta Shivar Yojana’ under which water harvesting storages will be created in villages with the participation of gram sabhas. The government is also seeking the co-operation of corporates to take up this initiative as a part of corporate social responsibility,” he said.

He said that skill development will be a priority for the state government.

“The state will be launching the ‘Late Pramod Mahajan Skill Development Scheme’ to evaluate and integrate existing schemes of skill development and start new ones,” he said.

He said the government has decided to implement the Aamdar Adarsh Gaon Yojana on the lines of the Saansad Adarsha Gram Yojana.

“Around1,000 villages will be developed under this scheme,” he said.

“The state government has also decided to implement Mukhyamantri Gramin Marg Yojana under which good quality roads will be constructed to connect villages with growing population by 2019,” Rao said. .

Chennai, May 1 (PTI) Unidentified motorcycle-borne men today hurled a petrol bomb at an Andhra Bank branch here in the early hours of today, police said.

No one was injured in the incident.

The men threw the petrol bomb and fled from the scene, police said.

The incident is suspected to be linked with the gunning down of 20 woodcutters of Tamil Nadu in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh last month.

On April 10, some unidentified persons had pelted stones at three branches of Andhra Bank in Tamil Nadu and there were also widespread protests and demonstrations by political parties and right groups in the state against the gunning down of the woodcutters.

Kathmandu- The distribution of relief materials sent by different countries to the earthquake victims are not reaching the people is despair and need. The local residents are appealing through their Facebook accounts to donor agencies to donate directly to the people. According to one such post it says the Government was expecting money in terms of help but when relief materials started pouring in the were least intrested in distribution an has been lying in Government stores.

A video shows some ministers being stoned and throwing water bottles b the local people. It shows their anger and anguish. Another posts has photgraphs of top 6 politicians who after the earthquake are not be seen anywhere. Speculation is rife that they must have fled to foriegn countries not wanting to take the burden on their shoulders.

KATHMANDU: A 15-year-old boy was rescued alive after spending 120 hours buried under debris of a collapsed building in Gongabu, giving search and rescue workers a renewed hope today that there are still chances of saving more people.

Pemba Lama Tamang, 15, of Nuwakot was among many people who were either killed or trapped under the wreckage of a seven-storey building that housed four guest houses. The teenager used to be a dishwasher in Hilton Guest House. “I was resting near a counter of the guest house after the morning’s work. All of a sudden the building started shaking and guests, staff and I ran down. But it was too late to escape. The building crumbled and I was trapped in a crater formed by the debris,” he recounted.

Tamang said he spent six days praying and hoping for a new lease of life. “I was lucky that two cans of ghee were lying nearby and I fed on ghee. I found a piece of cloth soaked with rain and squeezed a few drops of water to drink,” he told mediapersons from Israeli Field Hospital set up on the premises of Shree Birendra Hospital, Chhauni.

A special search and rescue team of Armed Police Force backed by the US experts had pulled Tamang out of the debris at around 11.55am after hours of arduous efforts. The rescue workers, led by Inspector Laxman Bahadur Basnet, sensed a peculiar sound from under the debris while using a sniffer dog before they confirmed someone alive there and pulled him out alive.

This triggered a celebration among the APF personnel and onlookers. The APF teams have managed to rescue as many as 330 persons, including 245 in the Kathmandu Valley so far, said DSP Ajaya Chhatkuli.

The jubilant search and rescue workers gave Tamang water and rushed him to the hospital for treatment. An Israeli doctor attending Tamang said none of his family members showed up in the hospital to visit the boy.

Ohad Horsandi, a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel, who is coordinating the hospital management, told THT, “The boy was dehydrated and exhausted but is in high spirits now. He does not have any bodily injuries. It shows that chances of pulling trapped persons alive from debris are still there even after ‘Golden Window’ period, the first 72 hours after the earthquake, is over. I love to call him a Super Hero.” Tamang’s mother works in Kuwait and the boy does not know anything about his father. He came to Kathmandu three years back and worked as a tempo and microbus helper before joining the guest house last month.
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KATHMANDU: The death toll from the April 25 earthquake has crossed 5,858 as search and rescue teams continue their efforts to pull people dead or alive from the debris of collapsed structures. According to National Emergency Operation Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs, another 13,827 people treated with injuries they suffered after being crushed under the rubble. At least 34 districts were affected by the earthquake.
Relief has not reached even within 5-7kms of Kathmandu Valley.Four villages south of Swyombhu are still awaiting relief where most of the houses were destroyed on Saturday’s deadly tremor. According to local residents not a single government employee or any reporter have entered their village.

A Facebook post posted by a local resident of Kuelshwar requests all foreign countries eager to help Nepal in terms of materials and food not to directly give it to the Government. They want it to be channelized through local NGOs or local residents. The Facebook posts says due to the corrupt Government the needy people will not receive these supplies for whom it actually meant for.

The number of tents required is far more then what is available for the survivor”s of the earthquake in Nepal. People have simply not been able to gather their courage to live in their houses due to fear of another likely tremor. According to estimates half a million more tents are required.

Relief materials are underway but more is required and the distribution system has not been efficient according to local residents. In Kuleshwore according to Shree Krishna Shahi nine houses have been affected but relief materials have not reached so far.
The local newspapers of Nepal are filled with criticism of the way things are handled aftermath of the earthquake. The number of homeless people is not accounted for so far but the government has so far provided 4,700 tents and 22,000 tarpaulins. Help has been pouring in from India, Thailand and Pakistan.

New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) Extending its winning run for the third straight day, gold prices were up by another Rs 55 to trade at over three-month high of Rs 27,475 per ten grammes at the bullion market today on sustained buying by jewellers to meet wedding season demand amid firming trend overseas.

Silver, however, met with resistance and traded lower by Rs 200 to Rs 37,400 per kg.

Traders said continued buying by jewellers, driven by ongoing marriage season and a firming global trend mainly boosted the sentiment here.

Gold in London, which normally sets price trend on the domestic front, rose by 0.17 per cent to USD 1,206.60 an ounce and silver by 0.57 per cent to USD 16.63 an ounce.

Besides, deprecating rupee against the dollar that made the imports costlier and shifting of funds from weakening equity also supported the uptrend, they added.

In the national capital, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity gained Rs 55 each to Rs 27,475 and Rs 27,325 per ten gramme, respectively. It had gained Rs 370 in the previous two sessions.

New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) The Lok Sabha saw protests by the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party over an incident in Moga area of Punjab in which a 13-year-old girl died and her mother was seriously injured after they jumped out of a moving bus to escape molestation.

Members of both the parties from Punjab stormed the well of the House denouncing the Akali Dal-BJP government in the state over the law and order situation.

Ravneet Singh Bittu and Santokh Chaudhary (Congress) Dharmveer Gandhi and Bhagwant Mann trooped into the Well after their efforts to raise it were unsuccessful.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said they could raise the issue during Zero Hour in the evening.

As the protests were unrelenting, the Speaker adjourned the House for five minutes.

Reports said the girl and her mother jumped off a moving bus in Punjab’s Moga district to avoid being sexually assaulted by the conductor’s assistant, after the driver refused to stop the bus and the conductor did not come to their help.

New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) The 24-hour transport strike began today, affecting normal life in several parts of the country including in Kerala and Karnataka, even as the Centre asked private operators and employees of state transport authorities to call off their strike.

In Kerala, public transport buses, taxis and auto- rickshaws were off the roads, although private vehicles were plying.

The strike has been called jointly by national level road transport organisations representing both public and private sector workers which are affiliated to central trade unions like AITUC, CITU, BMS, INTUC, HMS, AICCTU, LPF and state-level outfits in protest against the proposed Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2015.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari appealed for calling off the strike, terming their concerns as ‘premature’. He said that wide consultations would be held with all stakeholders on the bill.

Commuters in Thiruvananthapuram, who depend on Kerala State Transport Corporation buses, had tough time reaching their work places as the buses did not operate.

No untoward incident has been reported from any part of the state since the strike began at midnight last night.

Examinations being conducted by various universities in the state have been postponed due to the strike.

Services of public transport buses and auto rickshaws were also affected in different parts of Karnataka.

Incidents of stone pelting on public transport buses were reported from different parts of the state including Bengaluru, Hubballi, Bellary and Raichur, Mysuru.

Transport department officials said they are plying buses based on the requirement as the number of passengers coming to bus stands is scarce, adding that they are also trying to convince the employees to attend to duty and not to cause hindrance to public. .