New Delhi: Petrol price on Thursday was hiked by 53 paise per litre and diesel by 64 paise a litre, the 12th straight day of increase in rates that now totals to Rs 6.55 for petrol and Rs 7.04 for diesel.
Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 77.81 per litre from Rs 77.28, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 76.43 a litre from Rs 75.79, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.
This is the 12th daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.
In 12 hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 6.55 per litre and diesel by Rs 7.04 a litre.
The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.
Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of fall in international oil prices to two decade low.
International oil prices have since rebounded and oil firms are now adjusting retail rates in line with them.
New map claims the disputed territory of Limpiyadhura-Kalapani-Lipulekh
The upper House of Nepal Parliament on Thursday passed the Second Constitution Amendment Bill 2077 (Vikram era), with all 59 members voting in favour of the new map that claims the disputed territory of Limpiyadhura-Kalapani-Lipulekh.
The voting completed the legislative move that grants constitutional status to the map, which was unveiled after the Kalapani territorial dispute intensified in May.
Nepal Communist Party’s Deputy Chief of Foreign Affairs Bishnu Rijal said the Bill would now be forwarded to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari for her signature, following which the amendment would become part of the Constitution.
The process of passing the Bill, which was cleared unanimously by lower House Pratinidhi Sabha was fast-tracked. The completion of the legislative process means the new map will be part of the national emblem of Nepal. The Parliament secretariat had started using the revised map in all its official letterheads and posters.
The formal inclusion of the map in the Constitution gives a rare kind of guarantee to the physical territory of the Nepalese state that makes future negotiation on the Kalapani issue difficult. However, Nepal has maintained that it remains open for dialogue.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava had said the amendment amounts to “artificial enlargement of claims that are not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable”.
The ties between the two countries came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.
Nepal protested the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through its territory. Days later, Nepal came out with the new map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as its territories.
Restaurants selling Chinese food should be banned. I appeal to people to boycott Chinese food: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale
Restaurants selling Chinese food should be banned. I appeal to people to boycott Chinese food: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale pic.twitter.com/PoY0Udfule
New Delhi, June 18 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the auction process for 41 coal blocks for commercial mining, a move that opens India’s coal sector for private players, and termed it a major step in the direction of India achieving self-reliance.
Launching the auction of mines for commercial mining, that is expected to garner Rs 33,000 crore of capital investment in the country over next five to seven years, the Prime Minister said India will win the coronavirus war and turn this crisis into an opportunity, and the pandemic will make India self-reliant.
The launch of the auction process not only marks the beginning of unlocking of the country’s coal sector from the lockdown of decades , but aims at making India the largest exporter of coal, the Prime Minister said.
Presently, despite being the world’s fourth largest producer, he said India is the second largest importer of the dry-fuel.
“Allowing private sector in commercial coal mining is unlocking resources of a nation with the world’s fourth-largest reserves,” he pointed out.
Major scams had taken place in coal auction earlier, but the system has been made “transparent” now, PM said lambasting past policies of keeping the sector closed.
The PM said that this auction process will result in major revenues to states and create employment besides developing the far-flung areas.
The commencement of auction process of these blocks, part of the series of announcements made under ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, is likely to contribute Rs 20,000 crore revenues annually to the state governments.
In line with the Prime Minister’s self-reliance call, the aim behind the auction process is to achieve self-sufficiency in meeting energy needs and boosting industrial development.
The government has taken an important decision to open up coal and mining sector to competition, capital and technology, he said.
Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi, who was also be present during the launch event, said Rs 50,000 crore is being invested in the sector to jack up India’s coal output to 1 billion tonne.
With a view to achieve self-reliance in the coal sector, the Ministry of Coal in association with FICCI launched the process of auction of 41 coal mines under the provisions of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act and Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.
Upon attainment of peak rated capacity of production of 225 million tonnes (MT), the government said, these mines will contribute about 15 per cent of the country’s projected total coal production in 2025-26.
It will also lead to employment generation for more than 2.8 lakh people — direct employment to approximately 70,000 people and indirect employment to approximately 2,10,000 people, as per the government.
New Delhi: The Delhi government has decided to cap the rate of COVID-19 RT-PCR test at Rs 2,400, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday.
“Delhi govt decided to cap the rates for Covid RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test @ Rs 2400/- inclusive of all charges,” Sisodia tweeted.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs had announced that the price of COVID-19 test in Delhi has been fixed at Rs 2,400 as suggested by a high-level committee set up by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday and now tests will be done via Rapid Antigen methodology.
The ministry’s spokesperson had said that to improve contact mapping in Delhi’s containment zones, health surveys have been started on Shah’s directions, and out of a population of 2,30,466 people in 242 containment zones, survey of 1,77,692 people was conducted between June 15 and 16.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Thursday said it is “shocking” that a detailed account of the standoff in Galwan Valley has not been public and if it is true that the Chinese intruded into the Indian territory, then it is an attack on the country’s sovereignty.
An editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ said in the last six years, there has been a “propaganda” that India has become strong under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule.
“But in this period, Pakistan, Nepal, and now China have directly attacked us. We don’t have good relations with our neighbours and it is surprising that claims are made by our politicians of winning the world,” it said.
“Pakistan’s attitude is the same even after surgical strikes. China can’t be trusted and is known for deception.
But, if Nepal also takes an anti-India stand, the position of our country is not good,” the Marathi daily said.
Nobody wants tension on the borders, specially in the present times, but should the sacrifices of 20 soldiers be allowed go waste? it asked, and said “if there is no retaliation, Modi’s image will take a beating”.
Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.
The Sena claimed government sources have quoted that a Chinese commanding officer and 30 to 40 of their soldiers have been killed.
“Should we be happy and clap over this? If it is true that the Chinese intruded into our territory, it is an attack on our sovereignty. It is shocking that even after our 20 soldiers laid down their lives, a detailed account of the developments has not yet been made public,” it said.
Earlier in 1975, the Chinese intruded into Arunachal Pradesh and four Indianjawans were then killed in the firing, the former NDA constituent said.
“Now if there is so much damage even without the use of any weapon, gun, missile or tanker, then why manufacture security-related equipment andnuclear bombs. We are taking each others lives in physical fights,” it said.
The Sena further said the US and China are fighting over the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, but USA “doesn’t come in the range of Chinese missiles”.
“We shouldn’t forget that China is our neighbour,” the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.
Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi and (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee tried to keep the borders calmbecause the country has to pay a price when there is tension on the borders, it pointed out.
“It is easy to say tensions with China are due to the failed foreign policy of Nehru regarding the neighbouring country, but it is the duty of the Modi government to stop the killing of our soldiers on the Chinese border,” the Sena said.
Before he became PM, Modi would say the problem is not on the borders, but in Delhi and the Centre is weak because of which the enemy is attacking India, it claimed.
“When the Chinese president came to Ahmedabad and sat on a swing with Modi eating dhokla, we had warned that don’t trust the Chinese. Nehru was betrayed and the same would happen again. Unfortunately,what we said was proved true,” the Sena said.
It is easy to threaten Pakistan and derive political mileage with surgical strikes, but China has a place of its own in the world order which confronts a superpower like USA.
Indian soldiers in a violent clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh, Maharashtra NCP minister Jitendra Awhad has asked the Centre to scrap the Delhi-Meerut Metro work contract bagged by a Chinese firm.
“After the talk of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), the contract has been awarded to a Chinese company.
Who gave the contract? Under whose jurisdiction the Railways comes? Is it not the Centre?” Awhad asked in a tweet on Wednesday, while demanding that the contract be scrapped.
“On June 12, the Delhi-Meerut Metro project work was given to Chinese firm Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company, by sidelining the Indian company L&T. Then on June 15, the Chinese killed our 20 jawans. What kind of a foreign policy is this?” the minister wondered, and sought that the Centre “teach a lesson” to China.
Incidentally, the Maharashtra government on Monday signed MoUs collectively worth over Rs 5,000 crore with three Chinese companies, according to an official statement.
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday questioned why Indian soldiers were sent “unarmed to martyrdom” in Ladakh and how dare China kill them, a day after asking the defence minister why he did not name China in his tweet and why it took him two days to condole the deaths of 20 Army personnel.
Gandhi also shared on Twitter an interview of a retired Army officer who has worked in the area where the India-China violent stand-off took place on Monday night.
The former Congress president has been questioning the government over the martyrdom of Indian soldiers and has demanded answers from the prime minister. On Wednesday, he asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh why did he “insult” the Army by not naming China over the killing of Indian soldiers in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.
“If it was so painful: Why insult Indian Army by not naming China in your tweet? Why take 2 days to condole? Why address rallies as soldiers were being martyred,” he said.
On Thursday, he added, “How dare China kill our UNARMED soldiers? Why were our soldiers sent UNARMED to martyrdom.”
Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.
The clash in Galwan Valley on Monday night is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed.
The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet, while India contests it.
On Wednesday morning, the defence minister tweeted, “The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army.
‘Make full use of testing capacity, expand health infrastructure’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday indicated that the lockdowns of the kind that India underwent between April and May were unlikely to be repeated. He asked the Chief Ministers of 14 States and the Lieutenant-Governor of a Union Territory to prepare for Unlock 2, following the graded opening of economic activities under Unlock 1 since June 1.
He made these remarks in the second part of his two-day video-conference with the Chief Ministers and the Lieutenant-Governors on COVID-19. “We need to fight against rumours of lockdown since the country is now in the phase of unlocking. We need to think about Phase-II of Unlock and how to minimise harm to our people,” he said in his concluding remarks.
In his opening remarks, he said that while the country was in a vastly better position now with regard to testing of samples, supply of personal protective equipment and quarantine, there was a need to utilise the testing capacity to the full and make sure that whoever contracted the disease had appropriate quarantine and isolation facilities. He pointed to the supply of ventilators using the PM CARES Fund and the beds and quarantine centres made available as part of the efforts to increase capacity. “Our priority should be increasing health infrastructure,” he said.
Mr. Modi noted that with the reduction in restrictions, indicators of economic performance were showing signs of revival. He asked the States to boost infrastructure and take steps to revive construction-related activities.
He emphasised that the emotional aspect of the battle against the virus, including the fight against the fear of being infected and the stigma attached to it, could be handled by underscoring the fact that the number of people who had recovered from the disease was far larger than those who died of it.
The Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, and the Lieutenant-Governor of Jammu and Kashmir took part at the meeting.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar speaks to Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
India and China on Wednesday agreed not to escalate matters along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), following a conversation between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Stark differences, however, remained in how both sides described the unprecedented events of June 15, and the clash that claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian soldiers in the worst violence along the border since 1967.
Following the call, it was agreed that both sides would deal with the situation in a “responsible manner” and “neither side would take any action to escalate matters and instead, ensure peace and tranquillity as per bilateral agreements and protocols,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) quoted Mr. Jaishankar as saying.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar talks on phone as he leaves South Block in New Delhi on June 17, 2020. | Photo Credit: PTI
A statement issued by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Beijing said both sides agreed “to cool down the situation”. “The two sides agreed to deal fairly with the serious events caused by the conflict in the Galwan Valley, jointly abide by the consensus reached at the military-level meetings of the two sides, cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible, and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas in accordance with the agreement reached so far between the two countries,” said the statement.
Monday’s clash was reported to have been triggered by a dispute over the disengagement process that had been agreed to on June 6.
The two statements also underlined serious differences remain over what happened on June 15. The MEA said Mr. Jaishankar “conveyed the protest of the Government of India in the strongest terms” and “underlined that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship”.
The Indian Minister said Chinese forces continued building activities in the Indian side of the LAC in violation of the agreement reached at the Corps Commander talks on June 6, and attacked Indian soldiers in a planned manner. He told Mr. Wang the Chinese forces went back on a commitment despite continuing dialogue throughout last week.
“The Chinese side sought to erect a structure in Galwan Valley on our side of the LAC,” he said. “While this became a source of dispute, the Chinese side took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties.”
In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Minister accused India of “deliberately provoking” the clash and “openly breaking the consensus” of June 6.
“Once the situation in the Galwan Valley had calmed down, the Indian front-line troops crossed the LAC again, and deliberately provoked and violently attacked the officers and soldiers who negotiated on the spot, leading to fierce physical clashes, resulting in casualties. This dangerous act of the Indian Army seriously violated the agreement reached between the two countries on the border issue and seriously violated the basic norms of international relations,” he said.
The MFA said he conveyed China’s “strong protest” and “demanded that the Indian side conduct a thorough investigation, severely punish those responsible for the incident, strictly control the frontline troops, and immediately stop all provocative actions to ensure that such incidents cannot occur again.”
He also called on both sides to “strengthen the communication and coordination on the proper handling of the border situation through the existing channels such as the meeting mechanism between the special representatives of the Sino-Indian border and the meeting mechanism of the border defence force, so as to jointly maintain peace and tranquillity in the border area.”
On Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian declined to provide details of Chinese casualties from Monday’s clash, although reports have confirmed there were casualties on both sides.
Asked about China’s casualties, Mr. Zhao said, “I have stated that the Chinese and Indian border troops are now jointly dealing with relevant matters on the ground. I have nothing to add at the moment.” Asked about the likelihood of further escalation, he said, “From the Chinese side, we do not wish to see more clashes.”
China was unlikely to confirm the number of dead and injured, said M. Taylor Fravel, an expert on the Chinese military at MIT. “I can think of no armed conflict involving China where it has released casualty figures publicly at the time of the conflict,” he said. “Usually, they are published years or decades later,” he noted on Twitter, pointing out that casualties from the 1962 were only revealed for the first time in an internal history published in 1994.
On Wednesday, both the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, and the PLA Daily, the Army’s official paper, made no mention of the clash, although it marked the first combat casualties for the PLA possibly since a 1989 clash with Vietnam.
The clash was, however, discussed widely on Chinese social media. On the Twitter equivalent Sina Weibo, the China-India border clash topic had 1.05 billion views and 1,10,000 comments as of Wednesday evening.