Guwahati Apr 25 PTI Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday directed that the 36 job aspirants who were arrested for staging a demonstration in front of the state police headquarters here last week be released Sarma directed the police department to look into the case sympathetically from a humanitarian angle and take steps for their early release according to a statement issued by the Chief Ministers Office CMOThe arrested youths who were seeking job as constables in Assam Police were demonstrating in front of the headquarters of the force demanding immediate announcement of the results of the recruitment examination held in FebruaryAround 115 people were detained from the spot by the police on April 18 and out of them 36 were arrestedA case was registered against them in Paltan Bazar police station under various sections of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act A court remanded them to four days police custodyGuwahati Joint Commissioner of Police Partha Sarathi Mahanta had told reporters that it is being investigated why the agitators were trying to put pressure on the authorities concerned to declare the results within such a short time PTI DG DG NN NN

Mumbai Apr 20 PTI The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to classify alcohol produced from mahua flowers and cashew fruit as foreign liquor The cabinet also granted approval to a policy regarding alcohol production from fruits and flowers and stated that such beverages will be classified as local drink a statement from the Chief Ministers Office said The decision is aimed at generating employment and increasing the state governments revenue it was stated As per the statement the cabinet decided to give licenses for alcohol-based production from local flowers and fruits and has stated that excise duty concessions will be given to such enterprises Moreover the cabinet has decided to create two categories of outlets - super premium and elite - for sale of sealed high-quality foreign liquor The purchase will be self-service and there will be walk-in area of 600 sq meter for super premium and 601 sq meter for elite outlet it was stated In another decision the state cabinet has stated that 5 per cent funds from the district planning scheme will be earmarked for school education and sports The cabinet also agreed to allot 40400 sq meter area in Navi Mumbai to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthan to construct a temple of Lord Venkateshwara The cabinet also gave a go-ahead to underground metro line from Swargate to Katraj The project will be completed by April 2027 at the cost of Rs 3668 crore it was stated PTI MR ARU ARU

Ahmedabad Mar 19 PTI The Gujarat government on Saturday launched the fifth phase of its Sujalam Sufalam Jal Abhiyan a water conservation campaign from Kolavada village in Gandhinagar district Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel formally launched the project with the deepening of a lake in the village with the state aiming to carry out around 13000 water conservation works by May 31 This year the projects are estimated to increase the states water storage capacity by 15000 lakh cubic feet and provide more than 25 lakh mandays of employment to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act MGNREGA a release issued by the Chief Ministers Office CMO stated The projects include deepening of lakes desilting of check dams and reservoirs cleaning and revitalisation of monsoon rivers repairing and construction of check dams it said Since the campaigns inception in 2018 at least 21402 lakes have been deepened and constructed 1204 check dams have been built and 50353 km of canals and water streams have been cleaned the release said As a result the total water storage capacity has increased by 61781 lakh cubic feet and 15693 lakh man-days employment was generated it saidThe chief minister said the project is vital to make Gujarat self-reliant in terms of water conservation The state government is constantly aware of water management plans to ensure that people dont face water problemsPatel also expressed his commitment to make tap water available to every household in the state by the end of the year PTI KA ARU ARU

Puducherry Feb 25 PTI Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to evacuate students from the Union Territory who are stranded in war-affected Ukraine In a press release from the Chief Ministers Office it said a group of parents of stranded students from Puducherry met Rangasamy at his chamber and sought immediate steps for their evacuation An official source told PTI that eight students four each from Puducherry and Karaikal regions are stranded in war-hit Ukraine The release said the CM spoke to both External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy over phone and requested them to take steps immediately for the safe return of students from Puducherry The Chief Minister had also written to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention for the evacuation of affected students it added The official source said two of the eight students -- Maharaj and Vishalini -- were contacted by the CMO and the duo said they were safe and staying in a hostel PTI COR HDA HDA

Mumbai Feb 20 PTI About 4000 postcards were dispatched to President Ram Nath Kovind in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray seeking classical language status for Marathi The demand is to accord classical language status before February 27 which is observed as Marathi Language Day an official said A statement from the Chief Ministers Office CMO said this was the second set of postcards dispatched to Rashtrapati Bhavan PTI MR BNM BNM

Mumbai Jan 20 PTI The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday gave nod to an increase in the limit of share capital of the Maulana Azad Minority Economic Development Corporation by Rs 200 croreThe present limit of Rs 500 crore will be increased to Rs 700 crore an official saidThe decision was taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav ThackerayThe decision was in accordance with an announcement made in Budget 2021 said a statement from the Chief Ministers OfficeThe additional amount of Rs 200 crore will be made available in instalments it addedThe cabinet also hiked the grant for sports complexesDivisional sports complexes will get Rs 50 crore in grant instead of Rs 24 crore District sports complexes will get Rs 25 crore instead of Rs 8 crore while taluka sports complexes will get Rs 5 crore instead of one croreThe sports complexes which have got administrative approval but the construction of which is yet to start will benefit the statement saidThe cabinet on Thursday also approved the new sand mining policy under which mining period has been extended to five yearsFinal tender limit for irrigation projects already approved by the cabinet was revised upwards from Rs 114 crore to Rs 624 crore PTI MR KRK KRK

Mumbai Dec 27 PTI The Maharashtra cabinet on Monday expressed concern over the rising COVID-19 cases in the state and stressed on the need to expedite the pace of vaccination and effective steps to curb the spread of coronavirus whose new variant Omicron is causing fresh worriesThe number of active cases has increased by nearly 50 per cent in the last 20 days the cabinet was told at its meeting hereAs on December 26 the state had 9813 active cases of the infectious diseaseChief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who virtually joined the meeting held in Vidhan Bhavan in south Mumbai asked for a meeting of state COVID-19 task force in a day or two to review the prevailing coronavirus situationA statement from the Chief Ministers Office CMO said Thackeray suggested strict vigilance and effective steps to curb the spread of the virusThe statement said the cabinet expressed concern over the rise in COVID-19 cases in the last few daysHealth secretary Pradeep Vyas made a presentation before the cabinet in which he said a further rise in the number of active cases is expected in January according to the statementThe need of the hour is to expedite the pace of vaccination the senior bureaucrat said adding a few days ago eight lakh vaccine doses were being administered to people in a day in the state but that number has now come down to 5 lakh shotsThe health secretary said on December 8 there were 6200 active cases of coronavirus in Maharashtra and currently their count has shot up to around 10000In the last 20 days the number of active cases has risen by nearly 50 per cent Also in the last six days the number of daily cases has seen a three-fold rise he saidThe states COVID-19 positivity rate is 106 per cent Vyas saidOn December 26 the state reported 1648 new casesThe statement said the Chief Minister at the meeting directed all guardian ministers to expedite vaccination in their respective districts PTI MR RSY RSY

Mumbai Dec 23 PTI Election for the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly will be held on December 28 the last day of the ongoing winter session the state cabinet decided on ThursdayThe decision was taken in a cabinet meeting here said an official from the Chief Ministers OfficeThe seat fell vacant in February this year after Nana Patole stepped down and took over as the state Congress chiefThe Congress which is part of the ruling coalition along with the Shiv Sena and NCP will nominate another MLA for the election of new SpeakerThe new Speaker will effectively start functioning from the Budget session PTI ND KRK KRK KRK

Guwahati Nov 29 PTI Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday launched the construction works of the 825-km-long bridge over Brahmaputra connecting the worlds largest river island Majuli with Jorhat to be built at a cost of over Rs 925 croreThe project will be executed by UP State Bridge Construction Corporation Ltd Lucknow and the targeted period for completion of the project is four years an official statement from the Chief Ministers Office saidSarma launched the construction works at Majuli where he also announced that the Assam government will build a new bridge connecting Majuli with Lakhimpur on the northern side of the island at an estimated cost of Rs 750 crore which will be spent from its own resourcesFor the construction of the Majuli-Jorhat bridge including immediate approaches over Brahmaputra on NH-715K at Dakshinpat the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has sanctioned Rs 92547 crore the statement saidSpeaking at the occasion Sarma said Today is a historic day for the people of Majuli The launch of construction of Majuli-Jorhat Bridge is a milestone event and this will give renewed momentum to the development journey of the districtThis bridge was a longstanding demand of the people of Majuli Once construction of this bridge is completed it will give a paradigm shift to connectivity between Jorhat and Majuli besides leading to rapid development in the island district He said that the state government has already constituted a cabinet committee to regularly monitor the progress of the project and aim to inaugurate the bridge by November 2025Around Rs 200 crore will be spent by the state government from for this bridge he addedThe chief minister also inaugurated officers quarters and grade-III quarters under the Integrated Office cum Residential Building project at Majuli Under this project steps are taken for the construction of integrated DC office site development and quarters with an outlay of Rs 50 croreDuring his visit to the district Sarma also interacted with the members of Majuli District Journalists Association and Majuli district All Assam Press Correspondents Union and took stock of the issues relating to the welfare of journalistsHe assured them that the state government will take the necessary steps to address the issues raised by them PTI TR SOM SOM

Chandigarh Oct 30 PTI Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Saturday approved a proposal of power utility PSPCL for terminating the power purchase agreement PPA with private sector electricity generator GVK due to high cost The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited PSPCL has issued a termination notice to the company according to an official statement The development assumes significance as several Punjab Congress leaders including Navjot Singh Sidhu have been pressing for scrapping faulty PPAs signed during the previous SAD-BJP regime to provide electricity to people at cheaper rates A default notice has been served by the PSPCL to GVK on Saturday for cancellation of the PPA due to high power cost and falling lowest in the merit order procurement of energy from GVK that had been restricted only within the range of 25 per cent to 30 per cent during most of the times of a year resulting in higher tariff of about Rs 752 per unit for the last year the statement said Channi said this step has been taken to safeguard the interests of consumers by way of reducing the burden of costly power A spokesperson of the Chief Ministers Office said the basic premise of entering into the PPA with GVK was to provide cheaper power The GVK power project was set up at Goindwal Sahib with a capacity of 2X270 MW GVK has been generating energy by arranging coal from Coal India limited As per the PPA the company was required to arrange a captive coal mine but it failed to do so even after the lapse of more than five years of synchronisation with the grid he added The spokesperson said the capacity charges are being decided by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission PSERC based on capital cost of around Rs 3058 crore which is equivalent to about Rs 161 per unit of fixed cost He said GVK went against this decision and moved Appellate Tribunal for Electricity APTEL for claiming higher fixed cost to the tune of Rs 250 per unit based on claims of capital cost of about Rs 4400 crore which is pending adjudication As per claims made by GVK variable cost is around Rs 450 per unit and fixed cost about Rs 250 per unit the spokesperson pointed out Thus the total claim of GVK under tariff comes out around Rs 7 per unit which increases further due to surrender of its costly power Therefore the intention of GVK is clear that it requires to charge higher tariff which is not the basic premise on which PPA was entered into with PSPCL the spokesperson said This has created a commercially unviable situation for PSPCL to continue the PPA with GVK he added The spokesperson further said GVK had allegedly defaulted on loans taken by it from various lenders Consequently it had become a stressed asset and a resolution plan was required to be implemented by GVK which it failed to do he alleged Accordingly the lenders approached the National Company Law Tribunal NCLT for a resolution plan for GVK The matter is under consideration before the tribunal the spokesperson added PTI CHS VSD ABM ABM