State Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma along with cabinet ministers have lunch with locals in a paddy field and interact with them in Golaghat.

Colombo [Sri Lanka], April 5 (ANI): Amid the ongoing economic crisis in the country, Sri Lanka witnessed massive protests outside its Parliament on Tuesday, with people demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Colombo [Sri Lanka], April 5 (ANI): Food vendors in Sri Lanka are accusing the Rajapaksa government of selling everything to China adding that the country has nothing and it had bought everything from other countries on credit.

New Delhi Mar 30 PTI A consortium of seven banks will disburse Rs 1500 crore loans to complete the construction of stalled projects of erstwhile Amrapali group following a direction by the Supreme Court The state-owned NBCC has undertaken the completion of many residential projects in Noida and Greater Noida under the aegis of Amrapali Stalled Projects and Investment Reconstruction Establishment ASPIRE and supervision of the Supreme Court On March 28 the Supreme Court directed the Bank of Baroda-led consortium of seven banks to effectuate disbursal of Rs 1500 crore by Tuesday for the construction of stalled real estate projects of Amrapali Group In a statement NBCC said that an agreement has been signed between ASPIRE and a consortium of seven public sector banks on March 29 for the disbursal of Rs 1500 crore loan for stalled Amrapali projects The seven banks in consortium are -- Bank of Baroda Indian Bank UCO Bank Punjab National Bank Bank of India State Bank of India and Punjab Sind Bank Nearly 40000 homebuyers awaiting possession of their dream homes will be benefited by this progressive initiative the NBCC said Housing brokerage firm Anarock has got the mandate to sell around 5400 unsold flats of erstwhile Amrapali group Recently Anarock said it has already facilitated the sale of 150 units for Rs 70 crore It expects a total sales bookings of over Rs 2200 crore from the entire available inventories for sale PTI MJH SHW SHW

Srinagar Mar 25 PTI To overcome the problem of frequent cancellation of flights due to low visibility at the Srinagar airport here authorities on Friday said the process to install Category II instrument landing system ILS will commence next month The system will bring the visibility threshold down to 500 metres from the current 1000 metres and it will be ready for commissioning in October they said The instrument landing system at our airport is currently designed to function at the visibility of more than 1000 metres We never operate a flight if the visibility is less than this threshold an official at the Srinagar airport said The installation of the new system will commence in April and it will be ready for commissioning in October The visibility threshold with the new system will come down to 500 metres We have state-of-the-art landing and navigation facilities and we continuously strive for their improvement in line with the increase in traffic the official said To enhance the safety of passengers aircraft and employees a range of modern equipment have been installed he said We recognize that a piece of equipment is as good as the person operating or using it Therefore we ensure world class training for our staff he said Flights are cancelled sometimes for days together due to low visibility in the wake of bad weather especially when it snows in Kashmir The officials said latest machinery is being used for snow removal and clearing of ice from the airfield and the objective is always to ensure minimum disruption to flight operations during inclement weather We are sensitive to the adverse effect of the snow accumulation on the aircraft wings Thus we deploy water spray for de-icing so that there are no unnecessary delays in flight operations the official said About Rs 1500 crore will be invested in constructing a new terminal building and six more aircraft parking stands at the airport he mentioned PTI SSB SSB CJ CJ

Itanagar Dec 30 PTI Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Thursday urged the Centre to consider an appropriate mechanism to ensure adequate financial assistance for development of the northeastern state During a pre-budget meeting convened by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi he stressed on non-availability of funding from multilateral development banks and other international financing institutions and requested the ministry to compensate the state through other means He appealed to the Centre to consider project-specific grants at the rate of Rs 1500 crore per year under any window similar to erstwhile Special Plan Assistance SPA The deputy chief minister also proposed for an interest-free 50-year loan at the rate of Rs 1500 crore per year over and above the normal borrowing limits prescribed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act 2003 for consideration He said the state witnessed massive development in border infrastructure in the last 5-7 years However depopulation of border areas for the want of better infrastructure is a reality and poses a serious challenge Mein said The state government proposed for construction of roads and drinking water facilities strengthening of health and education infrastructure installation of micro hydropower projects and solar streetlights in the border areas Once sanctioned and executed these projects will provide much better infrastructure in the border areas and boost economic activities This will encourage people to return to their native places he said The deputy CM requested the Centre for early clearance of projects which are under active consideration of the Union Home Ministry Mein also sought flexibility for the northeastern states to design customised projects in particular sectors where the ministries concerned are not able to spend 10 per cent of gross budgetary support on their schemes and programmes in the region This will ensure increased capital expenditure in NE and also will not distort the allocations within the specified sectors he said The deputy chief minister also urged the Centre to facilitate creation of investor-friendly frameworks and a specific policy for the NE states for development of manufacturing capacity in the region to create jobs He also requested the Narendra Modi government to set up a special task force for improving trade connectivity and economic infrastructure in the region Mein further appealed to it to double allocations for schemes of the North-East Council Department of North-East Region and Border Area Development Programme PTI UPL BDC BDC

New Delhi [India], October 18 (ANI): Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilizer Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday announced that the Centre has increased subsidy on fertilisers to benefit farmers so as to enable them to purchase fertilisers at the same rate despite the hike in their prices in the international market.