Mumbai bans bursting of firecrackers except on Diwali evening

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that the result of the first tranche of commercial coal mine auction has been historic. Briefing media in New Delhi Joshi said, from November 2 to 9(Monday), the commercial coal mine auction took place. He said, 19 mines were auctioned which will generate revenue of seven thousand crore rupees and it has total peak rated capacity of 51 million tonnes. Joshi informed that the upfront amount will be one thousand 48 crore rupees. The Minister said, of these 19 mines, 11 are open cast, five are underground and three are in mix category. He said, the mines are in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Joshi said, a total of 76 bids were received for 23 mines and 19 mines were eligible for technical bids. He said, throughout the process the Ministry consulted with the State Governments.The Minister appealed State Governments to proactively cooperate with the bidders. He said, the success of the auction is around 50 per cent which is highest after 2015. Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain said, the bidding round was different from other rounds due to commercial terms. He said, they were attractive and rightly hailed as game changer. Jain said, after Supreme Court verdict in 2015, a new bidding methodology was adopted. He said, ease of entry and ease of exit, incentive for early production were some of the liberal provisions. He said, upfront payment was also brought down.

-Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that Future mobility is about striving towards environment-friendly, integrated, automated and personalized travel on-demand. He said, new advancements like intelligent transportation systems, and traffic management applications are in the pipeline for enhanced mobility in major cities. He was speaking at the 13th Urban Mobility India Conference on the theme of Emerging Trends in Urban Mobility in New Delhi on Monday. India is likely to experience a behavioral change in urban mobility, he said. Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Durga Shankar Mishra said that the Ministry has also prepared a master plan for a 200-kilometre Cycle and Pedestrian Path in South Delhi. He said, out of the 200-kilometre route , sanction for 36-kilometre path has already been given and Delhi Development has started its work on it.

-The CBI has booked Ezeego One Travel and Tours and its directors for alleged bank fraud of Rs 946 crore in Yes Bank, officials said.The agency has booked promoters Ajay Ajit Peter Kerkar and Urrshila Kerkar and directors Neelu Singh, Arup Sen, Manisha Amrapurkar, Pesi Patel and Karthik Venkatrman for alleged diversion of loan funds, they said. Set up in 2006, the company was engaged in offering travel services in India such as ticket booking, holiday and hotel packages and transport facilities.The company started availing credit facilities from Yes Bank in 2017 worth Rs 650 crore, which was enhanced to Rs 1,015 crore next year. The bank had earlier filed a complaint with Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police. "However, the same was withdrawn as the bank has decided to file a complaint with CBI, because complaint in the matter of fraud by Cox & Kings Ltd was being filed with CBI by SBI," it said.

-BJP leader Mayanglabam Rameshwar Singh, who was declared elected from Kakching assembly constituency by the Manipur High Court last week, was on Monday sworn in as an MLA. Assembly Speaker Y Khemchand Singh administered the oath to Rameshwar in presence of Chief Minister N Biren Singh and other ministers.The high court on November 5 declared the election of Y Surchandra Singh, the MLA of Kakching, as null and void as he did not properly disclose particulars of his assets and liabilities in the poll affidavit in 2017.Surchandra, who was a Congress candidate, had defeated Rameshwar by 630 votes in the assembly election held in 2017.However, he later joined the saffron party.

-Bursting of firecrackers stands banned across Mumbai from November 9 to November 30, except on November 14 (Diwali), but that, too, of only two types — “sparklers” and “flowerpots” — in private spaces, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced on Monday.The civic body’s order, a safety measure in view of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, said crackers that create noise pollution won’t be allowed on Diwali day (Saturday). However, interestingly, the sale of firecrackers has not been banned in Maharashtra or Mumbai. The BMC has appealed to the public to not use sanitisers when bursting firecrackers, but use water and soap instead, as sanitisers are inflammable owing to the alcohol in them. “Let us celebrate a firecracker-free Diwali this year to save Mumbaiites from a possible second wave of Covid-19. We all can jointly make this possible,” said Iqbal Singh Chahal, commissioner, BMC.