Par panel expresses concern over delay in disposal of pensioners' grievances

Synopsis

A parliamentary panel has expressed concern over delay in disposal of pensioners' grievances beyond the stipulated time limit of 60 days, and asked the Centre to constitute social audit panels to id ..

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AP to probe irregular promotions

AP to probe irregular promotions

Samdani.Mn@timesgroup.com

Amaravati:20.12.2021

Andhra Pradesh government has launched a probe into the irregularities in giving promotions to ineligible lecturers in the technical education department. The probe followed a directive from the state vigilance commissioner. According to preliminary information, the state government has lost nearly₹300 crore due to the payment of higher scales to the ineligible lecturers in the last 5-6 years.

The issue came to light after a lecturer lodged a complaint with the vigilance commissioner. The people who got irregular promotions are believed to have suppressed the facts as they occupied senior positions in the technical education department. As per All-India Council for Technical Education, those, who completed technical degrees through distance education are ineligible to become principals and higher-level posts like joint directors.

AI flight from and to North America to save an hour, Hindu Kush route comes to rescue

AI flight from and to North America to save an hour, Hindu Kush route comes to rescue

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:20.12.2021

Air India’s popular nonstops between Delhi and North America have just become a lot faster by cutting about an hour in flying time, thanks to the Hindu Kush route.

Since the closure of the Afghan airspace for non-defence aircraft on August 16, AI Boeing 777s flying between India and North America took a longer route — leading to more flying time and fuel burn. They flew via south Pakistan below Afghanistan and, then, entered Iran-Turkey-beyond, instead of the shorter Pakistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan route earlier.

Since Thursday, AI B777s have started heading straight north, over the Hindu Kush range and, then, taking the usual route to the west. As a result, the flying time of AI 101 (Delhi-New York JFK) is now going to be less than 16 hours, instead of the over 16.5 hours on the longer route avoiding Afghanistan — leading to fuel saving of 7 tonnes one-way.

On December 16, captains Zoya Agarwal, R Someshwar, Sandeep Mukhedkar and Abhay Agarwal operated AI’s first B777 (VT-ALQ named Manipur) over the Hindu Kush while operating from Toronto to Delhi. Pilots describe this as a “very critical and challenging sector”, given the high mountain ranges the aircraft flies over.

Incidentally captain Zoya was also among the pilots who had operated AI’s first San Francisco-Bengaluru flight — one of the world’s longest nonstops — this January that took the polar route. “Our management played a critical role in getting this route cleared for the B777s. Cutting flying time means less fuel burn and lower emissions, something we did by taking the polar route and, now, with the Hindu Kush,” said a senior pilot.

As reported by TOI, AI had started flying its Boeing 787 Dreamliners between Delhi and Europe over the Hindukush from this October and, now, the B777s to and North America have also joined them.

“The logistics for B777 and B787 are very different. A fully laden B787 (with passengers, cargo and fuel) can have a maximum altitude of 35,000 feet. But a B777, due to factors like its different wing design and the fact that more fuel has to be carried for the much longer North America nonstops, can have a maximum altitude of 29,000 feet,” said a senior official.

Taking the Hindu Kush route means fly over the awe-inspiring Tirich Mir (7,780 metres or 25,525 feet) — the world’s highest peak outside the Himalaya-Karakoram range.

Hindu Kush ranges clicked from an overflying AI aircraft

Pilots describe the Hindu Kush region as a “very critical and challenging sector”, given the high mountain ranges the aircraft flies over

3.3°C: Season’s coldest morning in city

3.3°C: Season’s coldest morning in city

New Delhi:20.12.2021

The capital woke up to the coldest morning of the season on Sunday with a minimum temperature of 4.6

degrees Celsius at Safdarjung, even as the weather department declared “cold wave” conditions in parts of the city with Jafarpur shivering at 3.3 degrees C and Lodhi Road recording 3.6 degrees, reports Kushagra Dixit.

Strong, icy northwesterly winds sweeping across the northern plains for the second day have suddenly brought on harsh winter conditions in the region, with both “cold day” and “cold wave” conditions in parts of the city. Similar weather is likely on Monday, the met department said.

North By Northwest: Himalayan Winds To Blame For Decembrrr

Temperatures May Rise A Bit From Tuesday

However, with another western disturbance lurking round the corner, conditions may turn warmer by Tuesday as the wind direction reverses.

“Harsh winter conditions are here due to stronger northwesterly winds which flow from the higher Himalayan mountains and are icy cold. Isolated areas of the city have experienced a cold wave, and that may continue through Monday. However, there will be a break thereafter due to a change in wind direction,” said R K Jenamani, senior scientist at India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The weatherman said cold wave conditions in the region depend directly on the speed of northwesterly winds. When a western disturbance approaches the region, the wind direction changes to easterly and the mercury rises.

“Yesterday (Saturday), the wind speeds were 30-40 kmph which led to a cold day and a subsequent cold wave on Sunday at isolated places and quite low minimum temperatures at other places. But the maximum temperatures soared slightly on Sunday comparatively because the wind speed dropped to 10-20 kmph on Sunday. The speed may further drop and there will be a western disturbance, which will also lead to slight clouding on or after Tuesday. This will lead to a rise in minimum temperatures,” said Jenamani.

A western disturbance (WD) is a flow of moisture-laden winds from the Mediterranean Sea region to the Himalayas that forms a lowpressure area and sometimes leads to rain and snow in northern India. As the WD moves further east, northwesterly winds resume in the region, again leading to a dip in temperatures.

According to the IMD, Safdarjung (considered the city’s main weather station) recorded a maximum and minimum temperature of 19.2 degrees Celsius, while the minimum was recorded at 4.6 degrees Celsius — both three notches below the day’s average.

On Monday, the maximum and minimum temperature in the city are likely to hover around 19 and 4 degrees Celsius, with the IMD forecasting possibility of a cold wave. A cold wave happens when the minimum temperature is less than or equal to four degrees Celsius and it’s at least four degrees below normal.

Meanwhile, city’s air quality remained within poor category due to moderate winds that helped flush the pollutants out. The air quality index, on a scale of 0 to 500, was 271 on Sunday, against 291 a day earlier.

CAQM likely to further ease restrictions on construction activities: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) is likely to further ease the curbs on construction and demolition activities in Delhi-NCR in view of a significant improvement in the air quality over the last three days, an official said on Sunday.A decision is likely as early as Monday, he said.

“In view of the significant improvement in the air quality in NCR over the last three days, the CAQM is likely to further liberalise restrictions in the construction sector,” the official said.

The commission had on Friday said the restrictions on construction and demolition activities in Delhi-NCR will continue till further orders.

However, projects related to public utilities, railways, metro, airports and ISBTs, national security, defence, healthcare, highways, roads, flyovers, power transmission, and pipelines among others had been exempted.

The central air quality panel had also allowed authorities in Delhi-NCR to resume physical classes for students in classes 6 and above, colleges and other educational institutions with immediate effect. The commission had also said that physical classes for students up to class 5 can begin from December 27. PTI

Bill to link Aadhaar with voter card to be tabled in Lok Sabha today

Bill to link Aadhaar with voter card to be tabled in Lok Sabha today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:20.12.2021

Law minister Kiren Rijiju will introduce the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The bill to amend the Representation of the People Act seeks to bring in key reforms including voluntary linkage of voter ID with Aadhaar so as to weed out bogus and duplicate entries in electoral rolls. The matter is listed in the legislative business of the Lower House for Monday.

The bill also provides that this amendment will not put any voters at any disadvantage as “no application for inclusion of name in the electoral rolls shall be denied and no entries in the electoral rolls shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed”. Such people will be allowed to furnish other alternative documents as may be prescribed, according to the bill.

The amendment will also provide registration of new voters on four qualifying dates in place of the existing January 1 of every year. At present, anyone turning 18 on or before January 1 will be eligible to be registered as a voter. Anyone born after January 1 will have to get enlisted only after a year. According to the bill, along with January 1, there will be three other qualifying dates — April 1, July 1 and October 1 — in every calendar year.

The proposed amendments also allow the elections to become gender neutral for service voters. The amendment will help replace the word ‘wife’ with the word ‘spouse’ making the statutes “gender neutral”. At present, an Armyman’s wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman officer’s husband is not. With ‘wife’ being replaced by the term ‘spouse’, this will change.

At 4°, coldest night in Bhopal in decade

At 4°, coldest night in Bhopal in decade

Madiyahar In Damoh Coldest In State At 0.5°

Ankur.Sirothia@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:20.12.2021

Bhopal shivered through what was possibly its coldest night in 55 years as the mercury plunged to 4 degrees Celsius on Sunday — a 6-degree drop in 24 hours. There’s a cold wave warning for Bhopal and17 other districts.

The coldest night ever recorded in Bhopal was 3.1 degrees on December 11, 1966. Sunday was certainly the coldest in a decade as the earlier record was 4.9 degrees in December 2018. Bhopal, in the heart of the country and on the Tropic of Cancer, was nearly as cold as Shimla (3.6 degrees) this Sunday. Morning walkers all but vanished and the streets had never been as deserted on a Sunday evening since Covid lockdown was lifted. There were fewer bikers on the road as well.

Laxmi Sharma, 71, says Sunday’s bone-chilling cold reminded her of what it was like on that “freezing night” of December 11, 1966. “A bonfire was the only way to beat the chill 55 years ago. It was tough to survive the 3-degree cold without heaters and geysers. We sat around a bonfire outside our house. Everything felt like freezing,” she told TOI.

Night temp in city 7° below normal

Day temperature in Bhopal was recorded at 20.7 degrees, 6 degrees below normal, and the night temperature of 4 degrees was 7 degrees below normal.

Large parts of Madhya Pradesh recorded their lowest temperatures in a decade on Sunday. Some small towns reported temperatures close to freezing — Madiyahar (Damoh) 0.5°. Kalyanpur (Shahdol) 0.8° and Kurwai in Vidisha 1.0°.

In Gwalior, the mercury plummeted to 1.8 degrees, while Naogaon, Umaria and hill station Pachmarhi recorded 2 degrees. Avari in Ashok Nagar was 1.4°C and Rampur Sainik in Sidhi 1.5 degrees.

It was the coldest night in 10 years in Gwalior, which sees extremes of temperature in summer and winter. Gwalior’s lowest ever temperature was minus 0.4 degrees on December 26, 1961. Night temperatures dipped below 5 degrees in many parts of the state.

There will be no respite for the next few days. Warnings of severe cold wave, cold wave, severe cold day and ground frost persist for several places in the state. The chill may intensify till December 22 when a western disturbance could bring in some warmth, says the met office.

Officials of the meteorological department, Bhopal circle, said that snowfall in northern parts of the country and dry northerly cold winds have led to this dramatic plunge in temperatures.

The chill will add to the Monday blues. The day may be slightly warmer at 21 degrees Celsius and the minimum may be 6 degrees, but a 16kmph wind could intensify the chill factor.

There is a ‘severe cold wave’ warning in Gwalior and Chambal divisions and for Umaria, Chhatarpur, Sagar and Sehore districts.

A cold wave warning has been issued for Bhopal, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Vidisha, Raisen, Rewa, Satna, Seoni, Tikamgarh, Damoh, Niwari, Rajgarh, Dhar, Ratlam, Shajapur, Neemuch and Mandsaur.

Seoni, Dhar and Ujjain have been warned of a ‘severe cold day’. Umaria, Chhatarpur, Bhind, Morena, Sheopurkalan, Gwalior and Guna districts will see ground frost. TNN

The chill may intensify till December 22

No clarity on rules, flyers from KIA choosing London transit left in lurch Many Denied Boarding, Lose Money

PANDEMIC DILEMMA

No clarity on rules, flyers from KIA choosing London transit left in lurch

Many Denied Boarding, Lose Money

Petlee.Peter@@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:20.12.2021

Several Indian passport holders, who had booked flights via London to reach Canada, have allegedly been denied boarding at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), Bengaluru, by various airlines citing vague Covid testing rules and visa hurdles.

Travel experts termed the situation “unfair” with no clarity on rules during the Omicron crisis, resulting in huge monetary losses and heartbreak for those not being able to travel despite fulfilling travel requirements.

There are limited options for Canada-bound passengers even as ticket prices are skyrocketing. Also, air bubble arrangements due to Covid-19 allow only point-to-point travel and transit at destinations like London which is creating problems for Indian passport holders without a UK visa, experts said.

Recently, Mahesh Rajanna from Yelahanka booked a ticket on British Airways to Toronto from Bengaluru with a brief transit in London. He reached KIA on the dawn of December 5 only to be denied boarding. The ground staff said he’d failed to pre-book a Covid RT-PCR test for his transit in Heathrow.

Mahesh booked another ticket with the same airline for travel on December 12 and this time too he was denied boarding, with the response that “Indian passport holders even with Canadian PR stamps are not allowed to transit via the UK”.

The 39-year-old is now trying his luck with other airlines to fly directly from Delhi to rejoin work in Canada.

Rajanna is one of the many who were turned away at KIA in recent weeks by airlines like British Airways and Qatar Airways over a rule, which travel experts say, doesn’t exist on paper. Indian passengers to Canada, mainly those holding Canadian PR, had been transiting via London without needing a visa for the UK.

According to Indiver Rastogi, president, Global Business Travel, Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC, Indians holding a valid Canadian visa don’t need a transit visa but must obtain a negative test report at the airport in London, in addition to a pre-departure negative Covid test result in India.

“It is highly recommended to pre-book the test at the airport in London, and a suitable transit time between connecting flights should be kept in mind, confirming details with the respective airline,” he said.

However, the reality on the ground has been the opposite, rued many flyers. “I spotted a reasonably less expensive ticket to head to Montreal via London from Bengaluru and was sent back by Bengaluru airport staff who said Indian passport holders despite having Canadian PR stamps can’t fly via London. Now I’m booked on a direct flight by Air India from Delhi to Toronto after paying nearly Rs 2 lakh for the trip,” lamented a 27-year-old techie.

‘3 trouble-free options to reach Canada’

Loveleen Arun, a Bengaluru-based travel expert and holiday package designer, said the information system for airline travel has broken down and no one is giving a clear answer on the status of Indians’ eligibility to transit via London. With British Airways unavailable for comments, their airline sources in Bengaluru said: “Indian passport holders are not allowed into the UK without a valid visa even for transit.”

Loveleen said lack of clarity on the travel situation has affected hundreds of people with their ticket money stuck with booking portals and airlines.

“At present, there are only three troublefree options for Indians to reach Canada, which are Air India and Air Canada via Delhi and Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi. People must avoid the London route to save themselves the trouble,” she said.

Officials tracing Omicron infection source in JNV

The health department in Dakshina Kannada is leaving no stone unturned to find the source of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, that was reported among four children of a Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in the district.

The epidemiologic data of children who tested positive for Covid-19, showed no clue of them or their parents having a history of travel to foreign countries, or neighbouring state of Kerala. The department is looking from all angles, to find the actual source of the variant that infected children, who are all below 14. Of the 79 primary contacts and 203 secondary contacts identified from the JNV in the district, only 13 people tested positive. Of the 12 samples sent for genome sequencing, four tested positive for the Omicron variant.