villupuram l friday l january 05, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION airfares set to drop as market leader indigo cuts fuel charge IndiGo on Thursday announced the withdrawal of fuel charge that will reduce airfares by up to D1,000 on certain long routes as ATF prices fell fall in ATF cost leads to slash in fuel cess ATF prices fell for third time in 2 months As Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices are dynamic, IndiGo will continue to adjust its fares and components to respond to any change in market conditions, the airline said in a statement. Fuel cost accounts for a significant chunk of a carrier’s operational costs. In October 2023, IndiGo levied fuel charge up to C1,000 to offset the spike in ATF prices ■ ■ Government cut ATF prices for the third time on January 1. Earlier price cuts were in November and December Despite ATF price cuts, airlines were not passing on the benefit to passengers, which raised concerns in various quarters. Aviation minister Scindia nudged airlines to keep passengers’ interest in mind A1,06,042.99 per KL is the price of aviation turbine fuel in Chennai as on Jan 1 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Amid spat with allies, Cong to begin seat talks TN all-party MPs’ team will meet Shah to press for flood relief, says CM E X P R ESS NE W S SE R V I C E @ Chennai War of words between TMC and Congress over seats in West Bengal for Lok Sabha polls Pr e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Amid g rowing rumblings among INDIA bloc partners in various states over seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Thursday said it will begin talks with its allies soon. The development came hours after the Congress and Trinamool got into an ugly spat over seats in West Bengal. Earlier in the day, state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury hit out at TMC chief Mamata Banerjee for offering just two of the state’s 42 seats to the grand old party A furious Chow. dhury said his party doesn’t need Banerjee’s alms and can win more seats on its own. In response, the TMC said ‘bad mouthing alliance partners and seat-sharing can’t go hand-in-hand.’ In Punjab also, the Congress and AAP leaders have been issuing statements against each other over the ED’s summoning of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Later in the evening, the Congress’ National Alliance Committee (NAC), which was set up to facilitate seat-sharing agreements with INDIA partners, met party president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi and submitted a report outlining potential statewise alliances. New name for Rahul’s Yatra The Congress on Thursday renamed Rahul Gandhi’s East to West yatra as Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will be flagged off from Manipur on January 14. Earlier, the yatra was called Bharat Nyay Yatra. The party will invite all members of INDIA bloc to join the yatra along its route Speaking to the media, NAC head Mukul Wasnik said statelevel talks with allies will start soon. Other members of the panel include former Union minister Salman Khurshid, ex-CMs Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel, and Mohan Prakash. “We have submitted our report to Congress leadership based on the feedback from state unions on the feasibility and prospects of forming alliances with various parties in different states. Now, discussions with INDIA bloc allies will begin without any delay We are aware . that it has to be done on a priority basis,” he said, adding: “Every state has different political dynamics. We have to take all those factors into account.” Sources said, the party is mulling alliances in nine states including Delhi, Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra and UP. PM to inaugurate ‘Khelo India’ in Chennai on Jan 19 Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday to invite him for the Khelo India Youth Games to be held in TN from January 19 to 31, said the PM has agreed to visit Chennai on January 19 to inaugurate the games. The minister also met Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. “The PM said he would take necessary steps regarding release of NDRF funds to TN,” the minister later said in a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) | P4 POCSO CASE VILLAGERS EXPEL MINOR’S KIN Days after a landlord and a nurse were held for rape of a Dalit girl, TN villagers expel the victim’s kin for “disrepute to village” | P4 India bounce back with shortest Test G o m e s h s @ Chennai India and South Africa were on a new land in Newlands, literally 642 balls. 107 overs. Four. and-a-half sessions. This is how the second Test panned out in Cape Town. As the visitors conjured a seven-wicket win to level the two-Test series, there were quite a few records too. It is the shortest in terms of number of balls — two of the next five on the list are from 19th century. Lowest in terms of match aggregate (442) for a Test involving India and South Africa. If Jasprit Bumrah was the star on Thursday, Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada shared the spoils on Wednesday Apart . from their bowling, this Test will be talked about for the way Newlands surface behaved. It was mischievous as batters struggled with uneven bounce. That 23 wickets fell on Day One and 10 on the next were testament to that. Rohit said as much after the match. He said there are no complaints before adding, “...as long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and don’t talk too much about Indian pitches.” “Because you come here to challenge yourself. Yes, it is dangerous. It is challenging. When people come to India, it is again pretty challenging as well. When you are put up against a challenge like that, you come and face it. That’s what happens in India, but, in India on Day One, if the pitch starts turning, people start talking about ‘Puff of dust! Puff of dust!’ There’s so much crack here (Cape Town) on the pitch. People are not looking at that,” Rohit said, adding that the match referees and ICC should keep their eyes open and be neutral. P13 India and South Africa share the Freedom Trophy after levelling the series 1-1 on Thursday | AP Bumrah’s special Bumrah (6/61) ran through South Africa’s middle-order in a menacing spell, bowling them out for 176. India chased 79 with seven wickets to spare Ayodhya temple 84-second muhurat set for consecration n a m i ta b a j pa i @ New Delhi The throne for Ram Lalla is ready in Ayodhya. He will ascend the throne just past noon on January 22 with the priests having a very short window of 84 seconds to complete the consecration ceremony. For, the auspicious time that day begins at 11.51 am and ends at 12.33 pm under the Abhijeet Muhurat in Mrigashira Nakshtra. The time was set by Vedic acharyas in Kashi. The actual Pran Pratishthha (consecration) of the Ram Lalla will be between 12.29.08 pm and 12.30.32 pm that is just 84 seconds. According to the temple trust general secretary Champat Rai, this mool muhurat of 84 seconds is extremely auspicious. This short time span for the Pran Pratishthha was chosen as 10 out of 16 qualities of this muhurat are good. The purification of the mool muhurat will be done on January 19. Havans, rituals and recitation of four Vedas will take place on the consecration day. The last ritual of opening eyes of the deity will be done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources said. The throne of Ram Lalla is three-feet high and covers eight feet on the ground floor of the temple. The throne is made of Makrana marble and is gold plated. Darshan in the current makeshift temple will be closed from January 20 to 22. Darshan from Jan 23 Devotees will be allowed to visit the mandir from January 23, a day after consecration. Three lakh daily footfalls for darshan are expected. Suitable arrangements have been made Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday said a delegation of all-party MPs from Tamil Nadu will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to reiterate the Tamil Nadu government’s demand of `37,907.19 crore for taking up restoration work in rain-affected districts. He said an appointment has been sought to meet the home minister in this regard. The CM also expressed concern that even after central teams and union ministers assessed the damage caused by the heavy rain in Tamil Nadu, the Government of India (GoI) has not disbursed any relief assistance to the state. When natural calamities struck other states, the GoI had released relief from the National Disaster Response Fund within a short period, Stalin said. The state’s total demand of `37,907.19 crore includes `19,692.67 crore for four northern districts — Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram, and `18,214.52 crore for four southern districts — Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Kanniyakumari and Tenkasi. Immediately after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh undertook an aerial survey of the rain-affected areas on December 7, an inter-ministerial team assessed the damage in the northern districts on December 12 and 13. Later, another team assessed the damage in southern districts on December 20. P5 Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks at ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ event in Chennai | P Jawahar Got `6.23L cr, but gave TN `6.96L cr: FM The centre was never hostile towards Tamil Nadu, Kerala or any other state on ensuring fund flow, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. Responding to the criticism from the DMK that the centre was not disbursing funds, she said from 2014 to 2023 the centre received `6.23 lakh crore as direct tax from TN but gave back `6.96 lakh crore to TN during that period. P4 rule violation HC bins circular revising property guideline value R SI V AKUMA R @ Chennai The Madras High Court has struck down the circular issued by the Tamil Nadu Inspector General of Registration on March 30, 2023, revising the guideline value for registration of properties and has ordered the state to stick to the 2017 value until new guidelines are framed. Justice P Velmurugan, in a recent order, said the state government has not followed statutory provisions on revision of guideline values of properties while issuing the circular. While statutory provisions were followed in revising the guideline value in 2017, no procedure, including obtaining of the report of a sub-committee or experts, fixing the value by an evaluation committee, or calling for objections from the public were followed while revising the guideline value in 2023, the judge ruled. No doubt the government has the power to revise guideline value, but rules must be complied with, the HC said. p5 free calendar with this issue
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