J-K floods: Omar says 'we're overwhelmed' by the problem; anger mounts over rescue ops

Anger mounted on Wednesday over the slow pace of rescue operations in Jammu and Kashmir even as chief minister Omar Abdullah said his government was "overwhelmed" by the scale of deadly flooding.

"We have really been overwhelmed. We have been overwhelmed by the scale of the problem," Omar told television reporters adding that he "understood the anger of the people."

The chief minister termed the situation in flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir "serious" but hit out at critics who said his government was not doing enough.

"What can I do. I didn't bring the rain, nor can I stop it. If I could, I would have done that," an angry Omar told ANI.

Meanwhile, an NDRF jawan was attacked by angry locals in Srinagar while few other personnel of the force were heckled while they were rendering relief and rescue operations in the flood-hit areas.

Officials said a National Disaster Response Force trooper received severe injuries on his hand when the locals attacked him

The locals apparently wanted the NDRF men to concentrate on a particular area and when the force personnel decided to go to a different marooned area, the locals attacked them.

"A few incidents of our men being heckled are being witnessed since yesterday in the state," a senior officer said.

Worried by the development, the NDRF and senior home ministry officials have asked the cabinet secretary to devise some mechanism so that troops are kept safe while they render their duty.

Diesel price may be cut for 1st time in 7yrs

 

With Brent crude oil prices dipping below USD 100 per barrel, petrol prices may be cut by Re one a litre and there is also a likelihood of first reduction in diesel rates in seven years.

Petrol and diesel rates are due for revision on September 15 and there is a possibility of reduction in retail prices if benchmark Brent crude continues to stay below USD 100 a barrel mark, official sources said.

This will be the fourth straight reduction in petrol price since last month. Rates were last cut by 1.82 a litre on August 31. Prior to that, petrol price was cut by Rs 1.09 a litre on August 1 and again by Rs 2.18 a litre on August 15.

Sources said there is also likelihood of a reduction in diesel prices, the first in seven years. Diesel prices were last hiked on August 31 by 57 paise in line with the January 2013 decision to raise rates in small doses every month to bridge the difference between retail selling price and cost.

The difference, called under-recovery, had reduced to just 8 paise a litre after the last increase. Diesel currently costs Rs 58.97 per litre in Delhi.

SC reserves order to decide fate of 218 coal blocks

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order to decide the fate of 218 coal block allocations held as illegal by it with the Centre advocating their cancellation while allocatees blamed the government for irregularities and demanded setting up of a committee to go into each of the allocation.

The Coal Producers Association, Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association and Independent Power Producers Association of India and some private entities opposed the stand of the Government for not favouring the constitution of any committee to look into consequences of the August 25 judgement.

They deprecated the Centre's stand that "cancellation of coal block allocation is a natural consequence of the judgement" by saying that it would lead to total disaster and ultimate suffering for man on street and rural population, already facing power crisis.

Senior advocates K K Venuogopal, Harish Salve and others submitted that the Centre was projecting itself as an innocent party which itself has misled the apex court on the contentious issue.

However, a bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha said "Government is only articulating its position" and it would "not be a fair way" of dealing with the matter as "screening committee meetings speak for themselves that no procedure was followed".

"The fact of the matter is they (Govt) want to proceed with a clean slate," the bench, also comprising justices M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph said and referred to the submission of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that cancellation of 218 coal block allocations was the natural consequence of the judgement but retention of 40 coal producing blocks and six ready for operation should be considered.

"Government understands all aspects. Government understands about the darkness. It looks at every corner of the country. Everything is visible to the government. They have full confidence," the bench said before reserving the order. 

The final submission of the day-long hearing came from Rohatgi who said, "we have applied our mind to all types of situation and according to us when there is a mass irregularity the impact would be on everybody and I am not here to say who is wrong and who is not."

"I am for cancellation but only pocket that can be saved is 40 productional blocks and six which are ready for production," he said after which the bench concluded the hearing.

However, before concluding the arguments, the bench said, "it has not examined the decision of allocation but the decision-making process".

"We are not concerned whether You (govt) have done wrong or not by we are concerned with the wrong process," it said adding that "we are not forcing the executive to take a particular line

Narendra Modi and Barack Obama meat

It will not be quite a "historic" tea ceremony as happened in Japan. The last historic tea ceremony the Americans had was when they dumped boxes of East India Company tea into the Boston harbour in 1773.

No chai pe charcha but Narendra Modi will meet Barack Obama over two separate days in September, not just one. "The fact that there will be interactions over two days is a signal of the importance we place on the US-India relationship," says Obama’s National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

But don’t expect the Modi-Abe bromance. These are two men cut from very different cloth.

Obama, writes Tunku Vardarajan in The Daily Beast, is “an exquisitely calibrated product of American liberalism” and the “acme of political correctness (notwithstanding the odd drone directed at ‘AfPak’).” Modi, he writes, in contrast, is a “blunt-spoken nationalist, opposed to welfare, and to the ‘appeasement’ of minorities.”

Vardarajan guesses that the two in their heart of hearts, likely have “vigorous contempt” for each other. In fact, an unsubstantiated story by K P Nayar in The Telegraph had Obama telling a closed door group of wealthy donors that he “continued to have concerns over Modi’s past.”

Whether that story is apocryphal or not, any “concerns” will be kept firmly under wraps on 29 and 30 September. That will not be that difficult. It’s a meeting, not a US Open final where one player has to emerge as the winner.

Instead the chances are both sides will strive to play up points of synergy. "There are few places in the world other than India and the US where the son of a tea-seller in a small time town can rise to be the Prime Minister or the child of a Kenyan father can rise to be president," said US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on his recent visit to India.

If Obama’s father had grown coffee beans the parallels would have fit a little better.

But the elephant in the room — that visa denial — will remain. "The Americans should be even more cautious and curious to see if there is unhappiness from the Indian side," says foreign policy analyst Kanwal Sibal to IndiaWrites.com. While a “pragmatic” Modi will obviously not bring it up, Sibal says unlike Manmohan Singh he has "no reputation of being particularly pro-American" either, forcing the Americans to work “extra hard to build a personal relationship with him.”

For Modi’s supporters, this is not a visit as much as it’s a victory lap for him in a country which had him on a visa denial list for years. That’s why instead of the usual meet-and-greet with the community at some hall or auditorium, Modi is choosing to hold what amounts to being a “victory rally” at Madison Square Garden. While the target audience is the Indian community, its message will not be lost on his American hosts either. Modi will play rockstar on their home turf.

Luckily for Obama, the visa denial was not on his watch. Aziz Haniffa reports in India Abroad that at an 2 April fundraiser, Obama claimed he did not even know about the “visa situation.” “But this is not right and I will ask the White House staff to prepare a brief for me and I will act on it,” Obama told the donor saying he wanted to have “great relations with India.”

India vs England, Live Score: Only T20 at Edgbaston

(For ball-by-ball commentary scroll down to the bottom of the page)

The odd loss in the final ODI notwithstanding, India are expected to hold an edge as the visitors seek to bring the curtains down on what has been a mixed tour, with a victory in the only T20 international against England here on Sunday.

ALSO SEE Live Scorecard

Having suffered a 1-3 defeat in the Test series, the Indians found their bearings in the one-dayers, clinching the five-match series 3-1 despite losing Friday's inconsequential final game by 41 runs at Leeds.

England, on the other hand, will be led by Eoin Morgan as their regular T20 captain Stuart Broad was unavailable due to a knee injury.

Modi announces Rs.1,000 crore aid for flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir

The flood situation in Jammu & Kashmir was declared a “national level disaster” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday even as the Army alone evacuated 15,000 people from flooded areas across the State.

As more personnel of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), Air Force and the Army were pressed into action, Mr. Modi asked other States to pitch in. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh made a separate appeal to NGOs to mobilise their resources to help deal with the situation.

Five additional NDRF columns and 70 boats were sent to the flood-affected areas this morning to join operations to rescue people stranded in inundated areas with water levels rising. At least three hospitals of Srinagar including the Government Children’s Hospital were flooded till the second storey; forcing the staff to move patients to the third floor. By late afternoon, a Radio Kashmir announcer told listeners that the station might have to shut down services because water had entered its installations.

The Air Force alone airlifted 850 people over the past two days; 449 were evacuated today. It also ferried medical personnel and supplies from Delhi, boats from Pune, Gandhinagar and Delhi, besides 10,000 blankets and 3,000 tents from Kanpur to Jammu and Srinagar. Besides, 26 IAF helicopters are operating in the flood-affected areas.

With communication lines disrupted, people took to social media to inform about rising water levels. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah used Twitter to appeal against panic with assurances that help was on its way. The boats flown in from Delhi were deployed by afternoon in Srinagar’s worst-affected areas of Indranagar, Shivpura and Rajbagh.

Meanwhile, after the aerial survey, Mr. Modi took stock of the situation and relief operations in meetings with the State administration in Jammu and Srinagar. Before leaving for J&K — where he announced Rs. 1,000 crore assistance in addition to Rs. 1,100 crore already made available to the State government through the State Disaster Relief Fund — he convened a crisis review meeting with the Cabinet Secretary and other senior officials in the national capital.

The Centre also announced Rs. 2 lakh to the next of kin of every person who died in the flooding. An official figure of the deaths was not available but by all accounts at least 160 people have died. Also, Rs. 50,000 would be given from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (PMRF) to those grievously injured.

With temperatures dipping, Rs. 5 crore has been set aside from PMRF to purchase one lakh blankets and the Centre will also airlift 50 tonnes of milk powder. Apart from ordering in solar lamps to help deal with the power situation and asking the Department of Telecommunications to restore telecom links, Army engineers have already begun repairing damaged bridges and arrangements are being made to airlift stranded tourists.

Govt approves 7% hike in dearness allowance

 

Dearness allowance to be 107% of basic pay from 1 July 2014

Government has given nod to 7% hike in dearness allowance (DA) raising it to 107% of basic pay. The hike will be effective from 01 July 2014. This move would benefit 30 lakh central government employees and about 50 lakh pensioners and dependents.

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister today gave its approval for the release of an additional installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01 July 2014. This is an increase of 7% over the existing rate of 100% of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise.

The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be of the order of approximately Rs 7691 crore per annum and Rs 5127 crore respectively in the financial year 2014-2015 (i.e. for a period of eight months from July 2014 to February 2015).

The DA is worked out on the basis of 12-month average Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers, which stood at stood at 7.25% for July 2013 to June 2014 period. Thus, the hike in DA was decided at 7%.

Earlier, the government had raised DA from 90% to 100% effective from 01 January 2014.

Tata Motors sales down 18 per cent in August

Tata Motors on Monday reported 17.59 per cent decline in total sales at 40,883 units in August, 2014 as against 49,611 units in the same month last year.

Domestic sales of Tata commercial and passenger vehicles were down 18.59 per cent during the month at 36,403 units as against 44,717 untis in August last year, Tata Motors said in a statement.

Sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market in August stood at 10,975 units, down 5 per cent from 11,564 units in the same month last year.

In the commercial vehicles segment, domestic sales declined by 23.3 per cent to 25,428 units during the month from 33,153 units in August last year.

Exports during the month as stood at 4,480 units as against 4,894 units in the year-ago month, down 8 per cent.

Current account deficit narrows to 1.7 percent of GDP

India's current account deficit (CAD) for the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal narrowed to 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) compared to 4.8 percent during the same quarter last fiscal (2013-14).

"The lower CAD was primarily on account of a contraction in the trade deficit contributed by both a rise in exports and a decline in imports," the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement Monday.

The CAD stood at $7.8 billion for the first quarter of 2014-15 compared to $21.8 billion during the corresponding quarter last fiscal, data released by the apex bank said.

Contraction in trade deficit due to rise in exports helped to clock lower CAD. "Decline in imports was primarily led by a steep decline of 57.2 percent in gold imports, which amounted to $7 billion, significantly lower than $16.5 billion in Q1 of 2013-14," the statement added.

The merchandise import in the first quarter stood at $116.4 billion, down 6.5 percent year-on-year; while the merchandise exports stood at $81.7 billion, up 10.6 percent on year-on-year basis.

The merchandise trade deficit (balance of payment basis) contracted by about 31.4 percent to $34.6 billion in first quarter of 2014-15 from $50.5 billion in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Beating expectations and showing another sign of revival, the Indian economy expanded by 5.7 percent during the first quarter of the current financial year to log the highest growth yet in nine quarters or over two years, official data showed Aug 29.

Japan and India vow to boost defence ties during summit

 

By Suggested Post: Japan and India agreed on Monday to strengthen defence ties as Asia's second and third biggest economies keep a wary eye on a rising China, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashing out at the "expansionism" of some nations.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi also agreed to speed up talks on a so-far elusive deal on nuclear energy cooperation, welcoming what they called "significant progress" in the negotiations.

"From this day on, Prime Minister Modi and I will work hand-in-hand to dramatically strengthen relations in every field and elevate ties to a special, strategic global partnership," Abe told a joint media event after a summit with Modi.

They also agreed to accelerate talks on the possible sale of an amphibious aircraft to India's navy - likely to become Japan's first overseas military sale in nearly 50 years and a result of Abe's more muscular approach to defence in the face of an assertive China.

Modi, on his first major foreign visit since a landslide election win in May, arrived on Saturday for a five-day trip aimed at capitalising on his personal affinity with Abe to bolster security and business ties.

"We intend to give a new thrust and direction to our defence cooperation, including collaboration in defence technology and equipment, given our shared interest in peace and stability and maritime security," Modi said.

In a sign of their warmth, the two leaders greeted each other with a bear hug when they met on Saturday in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto for an informal dinner. Modi is one of three people that Abe follows on Twitter, while the Indian leader admires Abe's brand of nationalist politics.

"The 21st century belongs to Asia ... but how the 21st century will be depends on how strong and progressive India-Japan ties are," Modi told Japanese and Indian business executives earlier in the day.

Modi criticised the 18th-century expansionist ways of some countries that encroach upon the seas and territories of others, in a veiled reference to China, with which India shares a long disputed border.

Sino-Japanese ties have also been chilled by a row over disputed isles, feuds over the wartime past, and mutual mistrust over defence policies as China seeks a bigger regional role and Abe loosens the constraints of Japan's post-war pacificism.

Abe is keen to expand Japan’s network of security partnerships with countries such as India and Australia to cope with the challenge presented by China.

Modi, for his part, is embarking on an intense month of diplomacy in which he will receive Chinese President Xi Jinping before meeting U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington as he seeks to carve out a stronger role for India as a global player.