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CAG: Reliance Power unduly
gained over Rs 29,000 cr
Govt gifted away land to Delhi airport: Auditor
BJP demands PM’s resignation
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North-East
Exodus
3 held in B’lore for assaulting NE persons
NE students flee M’rashtra
Fresh killing in Kokrajhar
4 Chinese detained with 202kg sandalwood
Cloudburst: Four killed in mishap
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CAG: Reliance Power unduly
gained over Rs 29,000 cr
New Delhi, August 17 The CAG, in its report tabled in Parliament today, said that after awarding the 4,000 MW Sasan ultra mega power project to RPL, the government granted permission to the company to utilise the surplus coal from three mines attached to the projects for the group's Chitrangi project in Madhya Pradesh. Subsequent to the award of Sasan project to RPL, the EGoM on ultra mega power projects recommended, and the Ministry of Coal granted permission, to RPL to utilise surplus coal from three captive mines of Sasan (Moher, Moher Amlohri and Chhatrasal) for their Chitrangi project in Madhya Pradesh. "The permission to use surplus coal in other projects of the bidder after award of the contract based on acceptance of the lowest tariff, vitiated the sanctity of the bidding process which would result in post bid concessions to the developer having significant financial implication," the CAG report said. The report added that a reading of all the clauses in the allocation letters together conveyed that clauses were inserted in the coal allocation letter as a safeguard measure to prevent misuse of coal by the developer. It said permission to use excess coal from the three blocks not only vitiated the bidding process, but also resulted in undue benefit to RPL. "This decision resulted in financial benefit of Rs 29,033 crore with a net present value of Rs 11,852 crore to the project developer (RPL)," the auditor said. The CAG said that to ensure fairplay, a level playground and transparency in the bidding process, allocation of the third coal block (Chhatrasal) should be appropriately reviewed. In seeking such action, it pointed to RPL's commitment to source 20 million tonnes from the two initial blocks, which were adequate to feed the Sasan project. Reacting to the CAG report, Reliance Power CEO JP Chalasani said the coal blocks were allotted to the Sasan ultra mega power project before the bid and Reliance Power had no role in the allotment.
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Govt gifted away land to Delhi airport: Auditor
New Delhi, August 17 This was alleged today by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report on the privatisation of Delhi airport. The report found fault with almost every decision taken by the government and the Civil Aviation Ministry when NCP leader Praful Patel was at the helm of affairs. According to CAG, whenever the airport concessionaire raised issues relating to revenue accruals or expenditure to be debited to government in contravention of provisions of the airport concession agreement, the ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) interpreted the provisions in favour of the operators. “The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the AAI, on some occasions, violated the provisions of transaction documents in the interest of the concessionaire,” it said in the report “Implementation of the Public-Private Partnership, Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi” that was tabled in Parliament today. According to CAG, neither the permission to charge passengers a development fee to help raise funds for the project nor the clause for extension of initial concession period of 30 years by another 30 years were part of the Operation Management Development Agreement. But the approval of the ministry and later by AERA for levy of development fee (DF) to bridge the funding gap at the cost of passengers led to “undue benefit of over Rs 3,415.35 crore” for the consortium led by GMR Infrastructure, the holder of the majority share.
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BJP demands PM’s resignation
New Delhi, August 17 Shortly after the CAG report was tabled in Parliament today, the BJP launched an offensive to demand the PM’s resignation. Describing the coal blocks allocation as a bigger scandal than the 2G spectrum scam, BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley said the PM could not escape the blame as he was directly responsible for the losses incurred by the exchequer since the government took eight years to implement the new policy of competitive bidding. The CPM did not go as far as to seek the PM’s resignation but it demanded that all those guilty of siphoning of huge resources be identified and brought to book. Although the Congress-led UPA government has been on the defensive over the past two years over a series of corruption charges, the ruling alliance was better prepared to tackle the Opposition tirade this time. Hitting back in equal measure, the Congress rejected the demand for the PM’s resignation and pointed to the objections raised by the BJP-led state governments to the Centre’s concept of competitive bidding.
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North-East Exodus bulk SMSes banned Ajay Banerjee/TNS
New Delhi, August 17 The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) of the government is keeping tabs on all major social networking sites and is removing any offensive material or false propaganda being posted. “A live scan is being conducted 24x7”, said official sources, adding that people spreading rumours and posting offensive material will be booked under relevant sections of the IPC. Yesterday, the Ministry of Home Affairs had asked the Intelligence Bureau to find the source of rumours and threats being given to people from the North-East on social networking sites. Facebook accounts of some people are under the scanner, they said. Sources said two calls have been traced to Assam. These were made by a person to his contacts in Mumbai and Kerala. The caller happened to be allegedly working on the instructions of a radical leaning MP from Assam in whose areas the clashes had erupted between local Bodo-tribals and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants around two weeks ago. Both calls allegedly instigated people from one community to protest against ‘chinkis’ (a derogatory slang used to describe people with Mongoloid features) to take revenge for what was happening with Muslims in Myanmar and also the Khokrajhar district of Assam. The Mumbai contact point of the “Assam-based instigator” allegedly organised a protest last Sunday at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. The protest turned violent. The next day it speared to Pune where two people from the North-East were attacked. Later, attacks from reported from Mysore.
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3 held in B’lore for assaulting NE persons
Bangalore, August 17 This was the first arrest made by the police in connection with the alleged intimidation of the North-East people residing in Bangalore. While thousands of people of North-East origin fled Bangalore yesterday and the day before by special trains provided by the Railways, the exodus continued today as well. “One special train has left for Guwahati. Another is likely to leave later in the evening. We have sold about 4,000 tickets for general compartments in the Guwahati-bound special trains today,” a Railways official said.
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NE students flee M’rashtra
Mumbai, August 17 According to information available here various institutions, including the St Xavier’s College and RD National College in Mumbai and the Fergusson College in Pune, have set up student councils and helplines to provide help to them. The hostels run by Mumbai University in the city have also stepped up security to allay the fears of migrant students from these states, sources said. However, all this has done little to allay the fears of the migrants, many of who are students or are employed in the hospitality and retail industry. Several thousand people from the Northeast have rushed home in the past few days following rumours that people from the Northeast would be attacked from Monday onwards after the month of Ramzan ends. Many of those fleeing Maharashtra have received provocative messages via SMS or MMS. “There are many rumours being spread via SMS and Facebook asking people to leave. We can prosecute people circulating these messages under the cybercrime laws,” says inspector Prakash Walve at the Mumbai police headquarters. The police says miscreants are simply accosting people with northeastern features on the streets for fun. Maharashtra’s Home Minister RR Patil warned that those harassing migrants would be arrested.
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Fresh killing in Kokrajhar
Guwahati, August 17 The police informed that the deceased had been identified as Kasem Ali (34) who owns a medicine shop at Bandorsora. Senior police officials rushed to the spot immediately after the incident. It was a fresh incident of violence in the troubled district after a brief lull. Though the situation is limping back to normal in the district, night curfew remains enforced in the district from 9 pm to 6 am.
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Krishna to take up Sarabjit case with Pak counterpart
New Delhi, August 17 Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said at a media briefing that Krishna has been taking a “keen interest” in the matter. He noted that New Delhi had consistently urged Pakistan on several occasions to take a sympathetic and a humanitarian view of the case . India also rejected the reference made about Jammu and Kashmir by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in the communique adopted at its just-concluded extraordinary summit in Makkah. "We note that there is an erroneous and factually incorrect mention about an integral part of India by the OIC in its communiqué issued at its 4th extraordinary summit held in Makkah on August 14-15, 2012. This is wrong, unacceptable and we reject it," MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters here. In its communique, the OIC had affirmed its 'solidarity and full support' for Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Jammu and Kashmir, Iraq, Yemen, Ivory Coast, the Union of Comoros and the Republic of Turkish-Cyprus in addressing the challenges facing 'these countries'. This is not the first time that the OIC has referred to J & K in its communique. At the instance of Pakistan, it has done on several occasions in the past, drawing sharp reaction from India. Indian officials say several members of the OIC have privately told New Delhi that they are often not in agreement with the OIC's articulation on Kashmir but support the grouping's resolution just for the sake of consensus. The MEA spokesperson said no Hindu from Pakistan, who recently arrived in this country, has so far sought a long-term visa. In any case, there was a process for extending the visa. If anyone wanted a visa which was beyond the period for which he/she has applied, there was a process which would be followed, he added.
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4 Chinese detained with 202kg sandalwood Bangalore, August 17 The wood is estimated to be valued about Rs 10 lakh in the market. — PTI
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Cloudburst: Four killed in mishap
Dehradun, August 17 The cloudburst took place in the Narayanbagad block of Chamoli district at 5 pm today. While four bodies have been taken out of the debris, search is on for other bodies as seven persons were in the vehicle at the time of the accident. Fortunately, two of the passengers managed to escape when the debris started falling over the vehicle. Chamoli District Magistrate A Muregeshan said rescue works were in progress. — TNS
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Native of Bihar killed, 3 injured in mishap
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I appeal to those who have not fled to stay put. The PM and I are in touch with the CMs of Karnataka and Maharashtra.
