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RIL’s arbitration notice to govt over gas pricing
18 dead as bus falls into river in Uttarakhand
Cash-strapped Punjab fails to take care of its Army men
Army foils intrusion bid, kills 2 militants
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Wife, juvenile lover held for IAF officer’s murder
50 injured in Meerut riot
No case against Rahul for entering poll booth: CEC
BJP attacks EC on Rahul roadshow
Modi-Rahul fight not personal: Shah
Jaitley says Mamata crossing Laxman-rekha
Mayawati wants no ‘outsiders’ in Varanasi, Azamgarh on poll day
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RIL’s arbitration notice to govt over gas pricing
MUMBAI, May 10 The continuing delay on part of the government in notifying the price in accordance with the approved formula for the gas to be sold has left the parties with no other option but to pursue this course of action, said a company statement on Saturday, adding that without this clarity, the parties are unable to sanction planned investments of close to $4 billion this year. In addition, this will also delay the ability of the parties to appraise and develop other significant discoveries made last year. Overall, the parties were planning to invest $ 8-10 billion in the next few years to significantly increase production from the KGD6 block. This domestic production is essential for meeting India's energy needs and will also help conserve foreign exchange which is required for imports of natural gas into India at the present time. All of this requires clarity on pricing. The three parties shall endeavour to work with the government to achieve a prompt and efficient resolution of this dispute, the company statement added. RIL had earlier asked the government to announce new natural gas price immediately after polling ends on 12 May, saying this was necessary to avoid irreparable loss to all parties, including the government. The new formula, that doubles the natural gas price to $8.34 per unit, was to be implemented from 1 April but following the directive of the poll watchdog, it was put in abeyance till model code of conduct for elections is in place. Meanwhile, the government has returned Rs 509-crore bank guarantee submitted to Reliance Industries to get a higher price for gas produced from KGD6 saying the new price has not been notified and RIL would have to submit the surety as and when it is announced. Analysts feel the decision on the doubling the gas price hike will have to be taken by the new government and it is likely to be implemented by July 1. — PTI
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18 dead as bus falls into river in Uttarakhand
Dehradun, May 10 The bus was travelling from Haridwar to Ghat. According to the injured, the driver lost control over the bus and it rolled down a steep slope into a 300m-deep gorge,” said Superintendent of Police, Chamoli, Sunil Kumar Meena. The bus was badly damaged due to the impact of the fall and many injured passengers were pulled out of it by search and
rescue teams. The police said, all passengers were local residents and bodies of 17 persons have been identified. The injured were rushed to the district hospital at Gopeshwar for treatment. Garhwal Motor
Owners Company reportedly owned the bus.
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Cash-strapped Punjab fails to take care of its Army men
Chandigarh, May 10 Payments worth several crores, that include monthly allowances to gallantry awardees, old age pension to ex-servicemen, war jagir, incentives to persons getting a commission in the armed forces and annual grants to the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre and Sainik School have been held up for the past many months. This includes payments for 2013-14. Ex-servicemen blame the situation on the dismal state of financial affairs in the state and an apathetic attitude towards the forces. Some of them have even written to the Ministry of Defence and the Army over the issue. Capt Reet MP Singh (retd), General Secretary of the War Decorated India, an association of gallantry awardees, said: “The association has been getting numerous calls from veterans, including widows who have not been paid the allowances and other benefits for some time. We have tried taking up the matter with the state government, but things have not moved.” Defence Services Welfare, Punjab, Director Brig Manjit Singh (retd), whose department is the nodal agency for grant of benefits, said the matter had already been taken up with the authorities concerned. According to some ex-servicemen’s associations, payments worth about Rs 50 lakh are pending towards monthly allowances or lumpsum grant for gallantry award winners, while another Rs 25 lakh is pending towards payment of war jagir that is given for emergency service. There are also at least seven cases where next of kin of martyrs have not been paid cash in lieu of plots. The much-hyped scheme of giving an incentive of Rs 1 lakh to every person joining the armed forces as a commissioned officer also appears in the doldrums. There are 60 cases from the previous years and five from this year who have not been paid the incentive. “This is even more serious that other benefits because not only is there a large shortage of officers, but the share of Punjab, once known as the nation’s sword arm, has gone down drastically in the services,” Capt Reet said. A Bill for Rs 2.5 crore for paying old age pension to veterans has not been passed. This pension of Rs 2,000 per month is paid to aged persons who have rendered military service, but are not in receipt of any service pension or benefits. Another grant-in-aid of about Rs 2.5 crore that is utilised for various welfare schemes or doling out benefits to veterans in need has not been
paid.
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Army foils intrusion bid, kills 2 militants
Jammu/Poonch, May 10 Jammu-based Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Mehta said: “Our alert troops noticed suspicious movement opposite our post in Poonch sector at around 2.30 am today. A party was immediately sent out on the operation. While the operation was in progress, the militants indiscriminately fired on our troops, who retaliated immediately, killing two militants.” During the operation, one jawan sustained a gunshot wound on the left hand and he was evacuated to Rajouri Military Hospital. His condition was stable, he added. The search operation was in progress when the reports last came in. General Officer Commanding of 16 Corps, Lt Gen KH Singh said: “Two dreaded militants have been killed as a major intrusion bid has been foiled.” Lt Col Manish Mehta said two AK-47 assault rifles, 240 rounds, eight magazines, one under barrel grenade launcher (UBGL), two UBGL grenades, 3 hand grenades, two detonators and other explosives were recovered from the encounte site.
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Wife, juvenile lover held for IAF officer’s murder
New Delhi, May 10 The suspects, Sudha Gupta (28) and the juvenile, who is allegedly having an affair with her, have been arrested. The juvenile is an IAF officer's son and stays at Subroto Park, where the couple stayed. The police said, on April 10, Sudha took her husband to a hospital at Subroto Park, an Air Force station. She informed the doctors that he was suffering from chest pain. He died later. "The post-mortem report on May 4 revealed that Ramesh was strangled," said a police officer, privy to the details of the case. The police registered a case of murder at the Delhi Cantonment police station. "We questioned Sudha and she confessed to having an affair with the juvenile for past six months and murdering him," said the officer.
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50 injured in Meerut riot
Meerut, May 10 The incident occurred around 2 pm in Teer Gehran area when a group of people was installing a water facilitation kiosk near a mosque and members of the Jain community opposed it. — IANS
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No case against Rahul for entering poll booth: CEC
PTI quoted the CEC VS Sampath saying that “No case is made out”. The EC, he said, received a report from the district magistrate, who is also the returning officer for the constituency, that when Rahul entered the enclosure at 10.30 am, the machine had developed a fault and was not working. In addition, it was cross-checked with polling agents of other candidates, micro-observers and the photographer of a daily who clicked the picture who confirmed that no polling was going on at that time. Meanwhile, seeking to dispel the impression that the Election Commission spoke in different voices, Sampath today emphasised that all decisions taken by the poll body were taken unanimously, reiterating that the denial of permission to Narendra Modi to hold a rally in Varanasi was on account of security. A day after Election Commissioner HS Brahma admitted there were “lapses” in communicating the ground situation to the BJP, the CEC told a news channel that all decisions on Varanasi were taken collectively and that the final decision was taken after cross-checking with District Magistrate Pranjlal Yadav. The young DM has been in the eye of a storm since the BJP upped the ante demanding that he be shifted from the city where its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is locked in a high-profile contest. The city votes on May 12, the last phase of the nine-phased elections for the 16th Lok Sabha. The BJP, which is hoping to wrest power from the Congress-led UPA after a decade, today renewed its attack questioning the permission for Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow to pass through Beniabagh, the area in which the party was disallowed from holding a Modi rally. Party leader Arun Jaitley was quoted having said, “It was for political reasons that the BJP was not allowed to hold this rally and this would remain a black mark on Indian democracy as a candidate was denied permission for holding a rally in his own constituency. It seems that security risks are only limited to one party and not to the three others.”
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BJP attacks EC on Rahul roadshow
New Delhi, May 10 "The (Rahul Gandhi) roadshow is happening at a place where we were denied permission for holding a rally. This proves that there was no security reason and it was because of political reasons we were now allowed to hold the rally," he told reporters. He said the "Election Commission has to live with the fact that the whatever security reasons are there in Beniabagh, only apply to the BJP and not to the other parties." Jaitley was reacting to the Rahul Gandhi road show in Varanasi. "Rahul ji can hold 50 roadshows. No issue. But denying us permission and allowing him is wrong," party spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said. BJP leader Muktar Abbas Naqvi said in a tweet, "Rahul's farewell road show is happening in the area where Modi ji was not allowed to hold a rally. One more biased conduct of Varanasi RO." Days after Narendra Modi took on Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, the Congress Vice President retaliated by campaigning on the last day in this temple town, where the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate is in the fray. Modi had addressed a rally in Amethi, where Rahul has been challenged by BJP's Smriti Irani, on the last day of campaigning there on May 5 and had made a stinging attack on the Gandhi family. — PTI
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Modi-Rahul fight not personal: Shah
Varanasi, May 10 Modi had campaigned for BJP candidate Smriti Irani ahead of polls in Amethi, from where Rahul is in fray -- thus breaking an informal code of top BJP leaders staying away from the Gandhi bastion. Therefore, Rahul's massive roadshow today in Varanasi is being seen as a retaliation measure on the part of the Congress. However, the BJP's general secretary reiterated party's demand for removal of returning officer of Varanasi for denying permission to a Modi rally two days ago. "Things may not change even after appointment of a special election observer, as long as local officers remain the same," he said. The Election Commission last evening appointed Tamil Nadu's Chief Electoral Officer Pravin Kumar as the special observer for Varanasi, where voting will take place on May 12. Shah told reporters that the local administration was working "under pressure" of the UP Government. When asked whom BJP considers the bigger rival between AAP's Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' Ajay Rai in Varanasi, Shah said that BJP has no competition from any candidate. — PTI
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Jaitley says Mamata crossing Laxman-rekha
"Didi's ‘poribortan’ is not for good governance or development. It is for anarchy, booth capturing and encouragement to illegal infiltration," BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in the Campaign Diary. Mamata rode to power trouncing Left Front's 34-year rule promising Poribartan in the state. "Conventional wisdom would suggest that Mamata Banerjee's and her party's traditional rival in West Bengal are the Left parties. The Congress would occupy the third spot with the BJP being an also-ran. Why then is the BJP the principal target of Didi's attack?" he asked. "Every day she crosses the Laxman rekha and uses the choicest adjectives against Narendra Modi," Jaitley wrote in his blog. There were war of words between Mamata and Modi after the latter said in Asansol that Bangladeshi infiltrators who were allowed into the country for votebank politics would be sent back, while refugees who were thrown out of Bangladesh on religious grounds would be greeted with open arms. — PTI
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Mayawati wants no ‘outsiders’ in Varanasi, Azamgarh on poll day
Lucknow, May 10 Speaking to the media, she alleged that thousands of people from other districts and even from outside the state were putting up in Varanasi. According to her, these people, including RSS volunteers, must leave the city to ensure free and fair polling on Monday. Mayawati pointed out that as Varanasi was a holy city, a large number of these people had come in the garb of pilgrims and were actually working for the BJP. She said that according to her reports, a similar situation was there in Azamgarh where a large number of outsiders were camping. It might lead to some untoward incident on the day of polling, she said.
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Pensions, allowances held up for months
New Delhi, May 10
New Delhi, May 10
