Air traffic up, so are fares on most routes from city

Air traffic up, so are fares on most routes from city

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.08.2021

The number of domestic flights must be increasing as life is returning to normal, but the fares remain high on most of the routes from Chennai.

The one way fare remains high for travel in the coming week including for the weekend for a week's advance booking.

Air fare on domestic routes have increased for travel on next Thursday as it's an extended weekend as Friday is a holiday. This is the first time air fares are up for an extended weekend from the city. Chennai-Mumbai one-way tickets sell at ₹5,800 to ₹6,000 while a ticket to Delhi sells at more than ₹7,000. One way fare is ₹5,000 to Kolkata. Air fares are more than ₹6,000 for small towns like Goa, Ranchi, Jaipur, Mysuru, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Airlines used to charge this range of fares for one or two day's advance booking.

The number of flights have increased at Chennai airport. So have the passengers. The airport now handles 80 departures and 80 arrivals per day with more than 10,000 people departing everyday.

An airport official said that the flights are more because people have started to travel for business and leisure. "The government's move to allow people to travel inter-state with vaccination certificates will lead to a boom. None of the flights are going empty as it used to be before. The loads have increased in recent days."

Nevertheless, the passengers are not able to enjoy the benefits as the airlines keep their starting fares high.

Basheer Ahmed of Chennai Metro Travels said that airlines continue to keep the fare high. "This is affecting people flying abroad via Mumbai or Delhi as the domestic leg is expensive," he added. It looks like the air fares are set to remain high for weeks as airlines have suffered losses during the pandemic.

Mohan Chandramouli a former Air India official said, "The number of flights must be increasing but the numbers are far lower than what it used to be in the pre-Covid days. The airlines have been incurring expenses for maintenance of aircraft, periodic changing of parts, fees for leasing, cost of staff and others even if planes are not being operated. The air fare is kept high to get the maximum revenue."

Payment Of Gratuity Act - No Retrospective Effect For 2010 Amendment Enhancing Gratuity Upper Limit As Rs 10 Lakhs : Supreme Court

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ARCHITECTURE COURSE IS ABOUT TURNING DREAMS INTO REALITY

MISSION ADMISSION

ARCHITECTURE COURSE IS ABOUT TURNING DREAMS INTO REALITY

The Course Would Demand Creativity, Logic & Observations Among Other Skills While Giving Diverse Opportunities, Say Experts

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi:  14.08.2021

Architecture is about understanding and enjoying how we want to live and studying an architecture course would open up diverse opportunities for those who are passionate about it, said experts at the webinar held as part of Mission Admission by The Times of India on Friday. The session, which shed light on architecture course and the profession, was powered by Saveetha College of Architecture and Design, Chennai.

Dean of Saveetha College of Architecture and Design Durganand Balsavar said architecture is an interdisciplinary course that demands a lot of creativity, scientific logic and observations among many other skills. He said that the course, which is a combination of art and science, is diverse enough to give opportunities.

“Architecture is more about opening the mind to ideas and thoughts than about blueprints and buildings. Architecture course is a hands-on experience where students will have to work with clay or brick and digital techniques too. It is a combination of futuristic technologies as well as techniques that were prevalent since the time of Mohenjo-daro,” he said.

Noted architect Eugene Pandala said if someone wants to excel in the subject having aptitude is not enough but attitude also matters. “If you enjoy doing creative works, it will be an ideal option. It gives you an opportunity to make your dreams come true. An architecture student should be able to put his dreams into paper and visualize it,” he said.

Kasthurba AK, who heads the department of architecture & planning at NIT-C, said that ‘unlike other engineering professions, an architecture student will be well-equipped with all necessary skill sets they would need. They can take-off right away after completing the course’.

NEET Aspirant seeks age relaxation: Delhi HC directs to challenge Regulations on Graduate Medical Education

NEET Aspirant seeks age relaxation: Delhi HC directs to challenge Regulations on Graduate Medical Education: New Delhi: While listening to a plea by a minor NEET candidate, the Delhi High Court has directed the petitioner student to withdraw his plea and challenge the Regulation 4.1 of the Regulations...

Covid test trouble: Air India Express takes Dubai fliers from Tiruchy to Sharjah

Covid test trouble: Air India Express takes Dubai fliers from Tiruchy to Sharjah

Passengers wait seven hours as airline refuses to accept results of Tiruchy airport’s Covid Rapid PCR tests, claiming they do not meet Dubai’s requirements

Published: 13th August 2021 05:41 AM |

Covid norms go for a toss as people wait at an RT-PCR laboratory at Chennai International Airport on Thursday. (Photo | Martin Louis/EPS)

By Jose K Joseph

Express News Service

TIRUCHY: The Air India Express’ (AIE) decision to divert its Dubai-bound flight carrying 134 passengers to Sharjah on Thursday, saying that the Dubai airport authorities were not ready to accept the Rapid PCR tests taken at the Tiruchy airport, led to tense moments and arguments at the airport.

The Dubai flight, which was scheduled to take off at 9.25 am from the Tiruchy airport, had to wait for seven hours, before the airlines finally decided to take the passengers to Sharjah instead of Dubai.

With several European and West Asian countries now insisting on a Rapid-PCR test result taken just hours before departure, the Tiruchy airport recently started the facility to help passengers.

However, passengers waiting for the Dubai flight were in for a shock on Thursday when AIE informed them that the Dubai airport was not ready to accept the test reports taken at the Tiruchy airport.

The take-off got delayed for several hours owing to the confusion and passengers were stressed when the airline was still not able to come up with a solution.

Some of the passengers were seen getting into heated arguments with the airline staff.

According to sources, the Tiruchy airport has only one machine, like what had been specified by the Dubai authorities, and most of test results were coming from other machines.

So, the AIE was hesitant to accept the results, fearing they might be rejected on reaching the destination.

“Dubai airport has specifically mentioned a particular machine for the Rapid PCR test at airports in India. The lab at Tiruchy airport has only one such machine. Therefore, the airline was forced to divert the flight to Sharjah. The airline took up the matter with Dubai and we got the approval for all the machines that Tiruchy is currently using,” said the Air India Express chief of corporate communications.

Meanwhile, Tiruchy Airport director S Dharmaraj dismissed the allegation that the airport did not have the facilities specified for passengers heading to Dubai.

“We are already providing the facility as per the requirement. In fact, IndiGo operated a Dubai flight with the same facility from Tiruchy on Thursday evening. IndiGo’s Dubai flight with 160 passengers took off at 5:34 pm,” he said.

TN govt bites the bullet: Petrol price reduced by Rs 3/litre, exchequer expected to lose Rs 1,160 crore a year

TN govt bites the bullet: Petrol price reduced by Rs 3/litre, exchequer expected to lose Rs 1,160 crore a year

TN becomes the first State to slash tax on petrol and make it Rs 3 cheaper at a cost of Rs 1,160 crore; reveals Rs 1K aid meant for women of poor families

Published: 14th August 2021 05:00 AM 

By T Muruganandham

Express News Service

CHENNAI: When the DMK government fulfilled its promise of reducing the effective rate of tax on petrol by Rs 3 per litre, Tamil Nadu became the first State to do so in 2021. As the State exchequer faces a fall in revenues, the move will result in a loss of revenue of Rs 1,160 crore a year.

“The tax reduction is being done on the instruction of Chief Minister MK Stalin,” said Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Friday while presenting the first Budget of a DMK government under Stalin.

Clearly, Thiaga Rajan has attempted a balancing act, amid the rising fiscal troubles on one side and DMK’s poll promises on the other. Despite the anticipation created by the White paper on the State’s finances, there were no tax or price hikes.

On the poll promise of Rs 1,000 financial honorarium for women of each household, it was revealed for the first time that the scheme is only for the poor, and hence a mechanism will be introduced to identify eligible ration card holders.

Rajan said the DMK government will again submit a Budget six months from now. He promised that the new Budget would deal with reform measures that will go a long way in stabilising the financial position of the State, adding that he was forced to stay away due to the pandemic. So, the March 2022 Budget might have more to look out for.

The finance minister delivered many messages. One of them is the nerve to stand for principles of federalism. Rarely do State finance ministers announce a council to frame a model to tell the Union government what federal fiscal model it should follow. Rajan did that, and citing a CAG report, openly accused the Union government of failing to spend the cess collected for the purpose it was meant for.

Tamil pride is another cornerstone of the Dravidian movement, and that too was not missed. There was a special attention given to archaeological excavations and other allocations towards Tamil language development.

An assuring undercurrent in the finance minister’s speech was the push towards greater transparency in governance. Many of the promises reflected the idea of using technology towards transparency and to quantify the results of governance. A dedicated e-portal for all procurements by the State government was one such.

Net public debt this year to finish at Rs 98,392 crore?

The revised Budget, with its higher estimated shortfall in revenue receipts, now expects the net public debt this year to end at Rs 98,392.4 crore. As mentioned already, this increase in debt is being driven primarily by the higher shortfall now estimated in revenue receipts — both in terms of tax and non-tax revenues and in the state’s share of the Central taxes.

While the new revenue estimate for FY22 (Rs 2.024 lakh crore) is higher than the revised estimates for FY21 (by around 12%), it is not as high as the 21% increase estimated in the interim Budget. In terms of total estimated expenditure, the interim and revised budgets do not differ by much. Revenue expenditure is now estimated at Rs 2.61 lakh crore against the interim budget’s Rs 2.60 lakh crore, and capital expenditure is expected to be lower, at Rs 42,181 crore against Rs 43,170 crore.

More interesting, however, are the changes made to individual heads vis-a-vis the interim Budget. For instance, on the revenue side, the decision to reduce petrol cess by Rs 3 per litre will result in a loss of revenue worth Rs 1,163 crore.

But, while politically significant, this is a small change in the larger scheme of things. State GST collections are budgeted to be lower than the interim Budget by Rs 3,095 crore; stamps and registration fee collections lower by Rs 1,626 crore; state excise lower by Rs 844 crore; sales tax by 3,272 crore; and interest payment receipts by Rs 1,009 crore.

What to expect

■ Land bank of 45,000 acres to be created in five years, with focus on industrially backward districts

■ Policy for ‘Life Sciences - Research and Development and Manufacturing’ to be released

■ Govt to appoint high-level committee of educationists & experts to formulate State Education Policy

■ 17,980 MW of power-generation capacity to be added through own generating stations in 10 years

■ Chennai City Partnership Programme to be launched with help from World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

■ TN Climate Change Mission to be launched with an outlay of Rs 500 crore

■ Smart metering for all public utilities. E-procurement to be adopted across all procuring entities

HC grants maternity leave benefit to contractual woman staff of state dept

HC grants maternity leave benefit to contractual woman staff of state dept

Jabalpur:  14.08.2021 

The Madhya Pradesh high court has directed the public health engineering (PHE) department of the state to provide maternity leave benefit to a contractual woman employee.

In its order passed on Thursday, a single bench of Justice Vishal Dhagat said, “In view of the circular of the state government, I do not see any reason not to extend the similar benefit to petitioner who is a woman employee appointed on contractual basis.”

Petitioner Sushma Dwivedi, who is a contractual employee of the PHE department, had challenged the February 6, 2018 order of the executive engineer at the PHE office in Shahdol district's Umaria, denying her the benefit of maternity leave, her counsel Ashish Trivedi said. The department had rejected her application for maternity leave from December 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017 on the ground that she was a contractual employee and there was no condition in the contract to give maternity leave to her, he added.

Trivedi told the court that the Supreme Court, in a case of Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs Female Workers (Muster Roll) and another of year 2000, had held that maternity leave does not change with the nature of employment.

It had held that the employer and the courts are bound under the constitutional scheme to guarantee right to life, right to live with dignity and protect the health of both mother and child, and after taking note of identical principles, he said.

He said that the Madhya Pradesh High Court had in its March 2, 2017 order, in a case of Priyanka Gujarkar Shrivastava, had granted maternity leave on the basis of the apex court order, and therefore, the petitioner is also entitled to get maternity leave. The state government in its administrative directions of June 5, 2018 said that women appointed on contractual basis are entitled to get 90 days of maternity leave and women employees will be entitled to get benefits with riders, Trivedi said. PTI