Three booked under PASA Tuesday, September 4, 2001
Vadodara: City police have arrested three people and booked under Prevention of Anti Social Acts (PASA) for bootlegging. The three arrested are Arif Sheikh, Kapila Rathod and Hemendra alias Diput Bhatiya. Sheikh and Bhatia have been sent to Porbander jail while Rathod is sent to Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad.
ATKT exam forms for commerce faculty Tuesday, September 4, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
VADODARA: MS University's faculty of commerce will issue application forms for ATKT exams in October.
The commerce faculty has notified last dates of receiving application forms for first, second and third year BCom.
For FYBCom, application forms will be issued between August 12 and 24, while deadline of submitting forms is between August 20 and 27.
SY and TY BCom students can collect forms between August 12 and 19. While SYBCom students can submit their forms between August 17 and 19. TYBCom students can submit forms between August 18 and 20.
The commerce faculty has also informed that student who will be appearing at the SYBCom exam and who have FYBCom ATKT exam will be required to fill in ATKT forms before they fill in their SYBCom forms. Similarly, students who will be appearing at the TYBCom exam and who have ATKT at SYBCom exam are required to fill in their ATKT forms before they fill in their TYBCom exam forms, press note issued by commerce faculty said.
News Source : Times News Network [ Lightning News ]
Jet to introduce its third flight to Mumbai from city Tuesday, September 4, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
VADODARA: Jet Airways will launch its third daily flight on the Mumbai-Vadodara-Mumbai sector from Thursday.
The airline already operates a morning and an evening flight to Vadodara from the city. A release here stated that the flight will be operated by a Boeing 737 aircraft.
The flight, 9W 349 will depart from Mumbai at 10 am and arrive at Vadodara at 10.50 am The corresponding flight 9W 350 will leave Vadodara at 11.25 am and reach Mumbai at 12.15 pm.
Jet Airways sales manager at Vadodara Deepak Kumar Bedla stated that the flight will provide a convenient connection in afternoon to other destinations. Connections to destinations like Hyderabad, Kolkata, Goa, Bangalore and Chennai will become easier after the new flight.
Earlier this month Alliance Air had also reintroduced its flight to Mumbai from the city. With this the total number of flights on the route has gone up to four.
News Source : Times News Network [ Lightning News ]
61 calves impounded Tuesday, September 4, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: The Sola High Court police rescued 61 calves and arrested two persons on charges of trafficking.
The truck (GJ 1UU 9216) carrying the calves was intercepted near the Gujarat High Court and the police arrested two persons _ Ilias Laldeen Sindhi and Mushikhan Abbadin Sindhi _ in this connection.
The calves had been illegally smuggled into the state from Rajasthan and were sent to the panjrapole, police sources said.
News Source : Times News Network [ Lightning News ]
CM asks Centre to revise GAIL pricing Monday, September 3, 2001
BY RAJIV SHAH, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government has asked the Centre to bring down the rates charged by the Gas Authority of India for transmitting gas to the state by ten times as the current rate -- Rs 1,100 per thousand cubic metres -- is "unviable".
In a sharp representation at National Development Council meet in New Delhi on Saturday, Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel said that thanks to the "the GAIL's faulty pricing policy, the state is unable to utilise 1,500 to 2,000 MW of power".
The CM raised the issue during his intervention at the NDC meeting, attended by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee.
This is the second time in a month that the CM has asked the Centre to look into the GAIL's pricing policy which, said his economic adviser S.K. Shelat, is leading to huge losses of between Rs 500 and 800 crore to the state exchequer per year.
Shelat, who accompanied the CM and prepared the groundwork for the major demand, said, "As many as four important gas-based power plants stationed in the state remain under-utilised because of this."
The CM represented to Union petroleum minister Ram Nayak on August 13 on the same issue, but "the response was zero", informed a top bureaucrat.
Currently, the state gets gas from GAIL, the sole supplier in the country, at the cost of Rs 2,800 per thousand cubic metres with an additional transmission cost of Rs 1,100.
"It is ridiculous for the GAIL to charge the huge transmission cost when the gas is being sent from Gujarat coastal regions only," Shelat told TNN.
"Gujarat thus is heavily subsidising for the gas being supplied to the northern states. This must stop," Shelat quoted the CM as telling the NDC meeting.
Demanding a national energy policy to solve the crucial problem, the CM said the state has to pay towards transportation cost for coal supplied to its power plants at market rate. "Why should Gujarat pay market rate for one commodity and administered price for another commodity meant for running our power plants?" he asked. "The gas-run power plants in the state, as a result, have been suffering heavily because they have to use the costly naphtha as alternative fuel", he added. The state has to pay Rs 1,000 per tonne of coal as transportation, apart from Rs 800 as its cost.
Giving details, Shelat said, "The Gujarat PowerGen Corporation should get 2.25 million cubic metres of gas to run at full capacity, though it gets only 1.5 million cubic metres, with its 600 MW plant remaining under-utilised. The Gujarat Industrial Power Company's 160 MW plant gets no gas. Essar Power Ltd gets half the requirement of two million cubic metres. And the Government of India's two NTPC plants -- 600 MW each at Gandhar and Kavas -- are funning at half their capacity, running on huge loss because of inadequate supply."
Shelat said, "Wherever feasible, gas has been replaced by naphtha, currently available at the cost of above Rs 12,000 per metric tonne. Per unit cost of the power produced by naphtha comes to a rupee costlier than the power produced by gas. If one fully utilises gas, the state electricity board would gain considerably." On a market rate, the transmission rate of gas "should be about Rs 100, and currently the state is being charged at a 10 times higher rate", added a bureaucrat.
Meanwhile, officials concede, failure of the state to implement the Gas Act passed by the Gujarat Assembly about six months ago is crucially responsible for the Centre's diktat on pricing the state too high for gas.
The Act allows the state to set up an independent gas grid for transmission of all gas on its territory and also a regulatory authority to decide on gas tariff.
"The Centre has told the state to hold on till a Presidential reference is taken on the Act it feels gas transmission is not under state jurisdiction. We are just holding on, that's all", an official said.
News Source : Times News Network [ Lightning News ]
