The ten-kilometre stretch of road from Umrangshu power plant to the NEEPCO staff colony is considered highly vulnerable due to the presence of militants.
Power generation decelerated 4.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 155 billion units (BU) in August 2024. This was the first downtrend in many years, albeit on a high base - generation had increased 19 per cent Y-o-Y to 163 billion units (BU) in August 2023. The dip was partly due to excess rainfall, which pared cooling demand and also reduced need for irrigation.
With general elections on the horizon, the government's privatisation bandwagon has almost but stalled as a government wary of being accused of selling family silver opts for minority stake sales on stock exchanges over outright privatisation. The result -- the divestment target for current fiscal year is again likely to be missed. Big ticket privatisation plans such as that of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and CONCOR are already on the backburner and analysts feel meaningful privatisation can happen only after April/May general elections.
Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra near Mumbai, and three others, were killed in an alleged staged encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
'At no point did Shri Rijiju recommend that payment be released but only requested that 'kindly get this petition considered in your ministry sympathetically on priority',' it said making public the copy of the letter.
Divestment in BPCL, SCI, Concor, NEEPCO, and THDC would help the Centre keep its fiscal deficit in check in the wake of subdued tax revenues and a Rs 1.45-trillion hit for the exchequer from corporation rate cuts.
Many NEEPCO employees in the hydel power project have fled following the January 14 killing of five persons, including two security men of the plant and a minor girl, by suspected Black Widow militants at the gate of the power project.
As many as 20 central public sector enterprises and their units are at various stages of strategic disinvestment, while six are being considered for closure or are under litigation, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said on Monday.
At the same time, the Cabinet approved reducing government's stake in select PSUs such as IOC to below 51 per cent while continuing to retain management control.
The deployment of the special forces, however, will come at a cost for the industrial houses and tea companies. They will have to pay to utilise the services of the special government security forces that will operate under the state director general of civil defence and home guards.
The police said that two NEEPCO security guards and two children were killed when suspected Black Widow militants opened fire on the Kopili Power House of the Kopili Hydro-electricity Project of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, located approximately 22 kilometers away from Umrangshu, at around 1 pm on Monday.
The BJP has not really put up any defence for Rijiju who is mostly defending himself.
Under attack over the alleged power projects scam in Arunachal Pradesh, Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday rejected allegations of wrongdoing and said those who have "planted" the story against him "will be beaten up with shoes".
Processes are at an advanced stage for a number of assets of the Centre and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to be monetised. The assets include office space, apartments, factories, land, power transmission assets, sports stadia, gas pipelines, and telecom assets.
Officials said there had been no official word or indication from the top yet. The expectation from officials is to do what they can, but it is understood that all fiscal and budgetary targets don't matter anymore.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second Budget a little more than a month from now. Like any other FM, Sitharaman will depend on her team of bureaucrats and advisors to frame and present the Budget.
'There are no new benefits for senior citizens, but on the other hand senior citizens having sizeable dividend income may have to suffer tax at applicable slab rates,' says Mahesh Padmanabhan.
Terming the state "pride" of the country, Modi said it is the gateway of the nation as it guards the frontier. It is the duty of the government to develop the state at any cost, he said.
Casting doubts over Mani's claims, the Indian Police Service officer said: "His motive is something else; he wants to weaken the case. He wants to divert attention from the charge sheets pending in courts. The purpose is to portray the evidence as 'wrong'."