Alliance Air would resume flights to five north-eastern cities, including Guwahati, with immediate effect, as the North-Eastern Council (NEC) has decided to fund the viability gap for these operations.
A memorandum of understanding to this effect was today signed in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and DoNER Minister Gen V K Singh, under which the Air India subsidiary would provide air services to Shillong, Tezpur, Lilabari, Silchar and Guwahati with turbo-prop ATR-42 aircraft till March 2016.
Alliance Air chief Anil Mehta, who signed the agreement with the Ministry, told PTI that services have already been launched on some routes and all the five stations would be connected with immediate effect.
Under the viability gap funding (VGF) arrangement, NEC would assist Alliance Air in obtaining concessions on jet fuel, landing, Route Navigation Facility charges and other costs. VGF is essentially to meet the gap between the actual cost of operations and the revenue earned from the flights.
The cost of operations would be reviewed every three months based on the proposed cost and VGF amount would be determined accordingly, an Air India spokesperson said.
The airline has been operating flights to the North-East since January 2003 under the VGF system. Till the end of 2012, it was operating 65 flights each week in the region.
From January 2013, due to outstanding VGF, the airline restructured its ATR operations in the North-East and discontinued these services on certain routes.
However, it continued operations between Kolkata-Silchar, Kolkata-Guwahati and Silchar-Imphal with ATR aircraft. In July 2013, it also restored five times weekly flights on the Kolkata-Shillong route.
Besides the ATR flights, Air India has been operating flights in the North-East with its Airbus family aircraft between Kolkata and Silchar, Dimapur, Dibrugarh, Aizawl, Imphal, Agartala and Guwahati, besides the Delhi-Guwahati route.
http://youtu.be/MSrqDbCIUVA?list=UUxoQcj5v7JJ28ChDDw0-qdg
Scottish National Party gets 11,000 new membership requests in the 75 hours following the referendum
Scottish pro-independence parties reported a surge in membership over the weekend as campaigners vowed to continue to fight after a split with the United Kingdom was rejected in a referendum.
The Scottish National Party said its servers were struggling to cope with 11,000 new membership requests in the 75 hours following the referendum on Thursday, when it had 25,600 members.
The SNP’s leader Alex Salmond announced he would step down as Scottish First Minister after 55% of voters rejected independence, and British Prime Minister David Cameron said the question had been settled for a lifetime.
However, supporters of independence vowed to continue the campaign on social media, many including the figure “45” in their profile pictures to represent the percentage that voted for the split.
“As a former Labour councillor of 15 years I have today joined the SNP,” wrote pro-independence aviation consultant John Baillie on Twitter, who was previously the Labour Party leader on South Ayrshire Council.
“On Friday I mainly felt angry, yesterday I just felt sad, today I joined the SNP. Never give up on what you believe in,” wrote @Kels450 yesterday.
The pro-independence Scottish Green Party said its membership had increased by 2,000 since Thursday.
The referendum campaign had seen a huge rise in engagement in politics, and voter turnout of 84.5% and over 90% in some areas broke previous records in Britain.
New Delhi:Narendra Modi “spoke like a Prime Minister” when he said that Indian Muslims would live and die for the country, but he should check the Sangh Parivar from promoting communal polarization to back his message of national unity, the CPI said on Monday.
It is good that he (Modi) spoke like a Prime Minister. But his words should translate into action as the Sangh Parivar have been raising issues of religious divide and so-called ‘love jihad’ to create tension.
“There is a big campaign unleashed by the RSS-BJP. The Prime Minister should restrain these forces,” CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told a press conference in New Delhi. He claimed that even BJP President Amit Shah has made certain statements in the past to “provoke tensions” while the Sangh Parivar have been “intensifying their offensive for communal polarisation through hate campaigns”.
“The Indian Right has become brazen and aggressive (enough) to use the state apparatus to push through its agenda. The change in rhetoric and demagogy does not hide the sinister designs of the BJP-led rule,” charged the senior CPI leader.
On Modi’s upcoming visit to the US, Reddy said the government should tread “carefully” during negotiations and “not fall into the American trap” of furthering the strategic partnership under which Washington may try to sell India old nuclear reactors which have not been in use for two decades.
“In the name of helping India’s power sector, the US will try to push India into accepting such reactors. We don’t know yet as to what is on the agenda for the defence sector. Our experience with the US has not been good,” he said.
CPI National Secretary D Raja said the US has been pressuring India to dilute the provisions of the nuclear liability law, which would benefit American companies to the detriment of Indian interests.
PTI
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London: Model-actress Kelly Brook is reportedly considering getting married in Greece.
Brook, 34, and her fiance David McIntosh spent the past week holidaying on the island of Mykonos, Greece and took some time out of their relaxing trip to visit four potential wedding venues, suggest reports.
“Mykonos is one of the most romantic islands in the world. They could not have thought of anywhere better to get married,” a source said.
The couple got engaged in March this year after just a month of dating.
Saurav Ghosal today created squash history by ensuring at least the silver medal, the first-ever Asian Games medal outside of bronze won by an Indian in the racquet sport, by cruising into the semi finals of the Incheon edition here today.
Putting up a clinical performance against two-time former Games champion and top-10 player Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia, the Kolkata-born Ghosal surged to a commanding 11-9 11-4 11-5 semi final victory in 45 minutes to make the men’s final at the Yeorumal squash courts.
The 28-year-old Ghosal thus avenged his defeat against the wily Malaysian in the 2006 Asian Games at Qatar where Beng Hee went on to win the gold and defend the crown he won for the first time in 2002 at Busan.
“I have not played him much on the PSA circuit but had beaten him only once in the team event and he had beaten me 3-1 in the semi finals at Doha,” said Ghosal after he produced some top drawer squash to keep his opponent pegged on the back foot for most duration of the contest.
Ghosal will meet Abdullah Al Muzayen, the world no. 46, in the gold medal contest tomorrow following the Kuwaiti’s 3-2 (6-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8) win in the other semi final against Max Lee of Hong Kong.
The Indian led 6-1 in the opening game before his 34-year-old opponent bridged the gap. Ghosal managed to keep his cool and captured it.
Thereafter the Indian world no. 16 was in total command with his excellently executed backhand drops and use of the side courts as the 35th-ranked Malaysian could not match his speed or power around the court.
In the second game, the Indian was 8-4 up with some superb play and then won it without conceding another point.
The script went on similar lines in the decider too as Ghosal jumped to an 8-4 lead before the Malaysian won a point. But the Indian snatched back the initiative and then killed the contest with a forehand winner.
Ghosal’s win compensated for the straight game defeat suffered by India’s no. 1 women’s player Dipika Pallikal against world no. 1 Nicol David of Malaysia in the women’s semi final.
MUMBAI: Shiv Sena today made it clear that it won’t make any more concession for BJP, offering to cede it only 119 out of the total 288 seats in Maharashtra Assembly for the next month’s polls, and said this was “the final attempt” to break the logjam over seat-sharing.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi that late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had backed him in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
“Today I am making a final attempt to ensure that the Mahayuti (grand alliance of opposition parties) stays intact. Sena had initially asked for 160 seats. But now we are ready to part with nine seats. Shiv Sena will fight on 151 seats, leaving 119 seats for BJP. The remaining 18 seats will be given to our allies,” he said.
“I cannot go any further,” said Thackeray, who addressed his party workers this morning after a meeting of the party’s state executive.
“Maharashtra will be the number one state in the country if Sena comes to power. I want power and I will take it at any cost. But this power is to give Maharashtra something and not to take away, like other parties do,” he said.
“Everyone knows how terrible the situation was when the Godhra riots took place. Everyone was saying that Modi should be immediately removed from the Gujarat CM’s post. At that time, it was only Balasaheb who told LK Advani that Modi should stay on as he pursues the Hindutva ideology,” he said.
Thackeray said that state BJP chief Devendra Fadanvis met him last night and proposed that Sena should contest 140 seats while BJP should get 130 (the rest going to smaller allies of Mahayuti). However, he couldn’t accept this as it would frustrate the aspirations of many Sena candidates, he said.
Reacting to senior state BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar’s allegation that the Sena did not support BJP in the last two Presidential elections, Thackeray said he was “proud” of the decisions then.
“BJP said we did not support them during the Presidential election by backing Pratibha Patil. But we backed her as she would be the first President from Maharashtra. We also backed Pranab Mukherjee as P A Sangma was not from NDA. He was originally an NCP leader,” he said.
Just as Sena did not play a spoilsport in BJP’s “Mission 272′ in the Lok Sabha polls, BJP should now respect Sena’s `Mission 150′ for the Maharashtra polls, he said.
“There are Shiv Sena workers in UP, Rajasthan and MP as well. They all wanted to fight elections saying they have been with Sena for long and thus deserve a chance. But we didn’t let them contest (against BJP/NDA candidates). Now it is Shiv Sena’s turn. It is our mission to send at least 150 MLAs to the Vidhan Sabha. BJP should consider this,” he said.
“I feel from the bottom of my heart that the alliance should stay as this alliance is not for the Chief Minister’s post but for Hindutva. But whatever happens will be my destiny. We are ready to contest all the seats,” the Sena chief said.
Delhi government has invited applications for scholarship and reimbursement of half of the tuition fee for socially and economically backward students in non-technical professional courses in universities of Delhi for the current academic year.
The Delhi Higher Education Aid Trust of Directorate of Higher Education has asked the eligible socially and economically backward students studying in different universities of the capital to apply for the scholarship under the ‘Yuva Nirman Scheme’.
In 2009-10, an amount of Rs 3,36,750 was disbursed to 15 students, in 2010-11, Rs 1,72,250 to 8 students, in 2011-12 Rs 2,02,400 to 7 students and in 2012-13 Rs 6,97,450 to 27 students as a part of the scheme.
The concerned university or institute have been directed to constitute a Committee of at least three officers at their own level to scrutinise the applications and to forward the same with their recommendation to the Director, Directorate of Higher Education along with the requisite attested documents.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has crossed 9 million followers on micro-blogging site Twitter.
The 48-year-old actor is now the second most followed Indian actor on Twitter after megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has 10.4 million followers.
The ‘Chennai Express’ star joined the site in July, 2010 and has since shared 7,718 tweets. His contemporaries Salman Khan and Aamir Khan lag behind with 8.26 million and 8.45 million followers respectively.
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