by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate finance, Emerging Businesses, Investing
New Delhi : Essel Infraprojects Ltd (EIL), the infrastructure arm of Essel Group on Thursday, announced its foray into the electronic vehicle (EV) segment by committing investments worth Rs 4,250 crore for the sector in Uttar Pradesh.
“EIL inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect at the UP Investors Summit in Lucknow on Wednesday,” the company said in a statement, adding it has committed to an investment of Rs 3,000 crore for bringing out 1,000 E-buses from intrastate UP to the National Capital Region.
The company said that it will invest Rs 500 crore for development of e-rickshaws with battery charging and swapping stations.
It will put in another Rs 750 crore for development of bus terminals in the state, the statement said.
The proposed investments will generate over 54,000 employment activities in the state, said Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Emerging Businesses, Investing
Mukesh Ambani
Lucknow : Reliance Jio will invest another Rs 10,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh over the next three years, Reliance Industries Limited Chairman Mukesh Ambani said here on Wednesday.
“Today I am happy to inform this audience that Jio is one of the largest investors in Uttar Pradesh with investments of over Rs 20,000 crore. Jio is providing the highest quality data at the lowest price in the world to over 2 crore citizens of Uttar Pradesh,” Ambani said while addressing the Uttar Pradesh Investors’ Summit 2018.
“I have come to Lucknow to assure the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister that Jio’s Digital Revolution is here to make the maximum contribution to UP’s development revolution,” he added.
While talking about affordable handsets, JioPhone, Ambani said: “Jio will make available over two crore JioPhones in UP within the next two months on a priority basis.”
He mentioned that Jio has already created over 40,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.
“Jio will establish a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution within the campus of a reputed university in Uttar Pradesh,” Ambani added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Lucknow : A CBI team on Saturday arrested a Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) commissioner from Kanpur along with six others in a bribery case, officials said.
The commissioner named Sansar Chand is accused of taking bribes from businessmen on a monthly and quarterly basis.
Police said other than the accused official, some inspectors and a group of private persons used to exert pressure on some institutions and businessmen and fleece them for money.
In its report, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that others who operated with Sansar Chand included Ajay Srivastava, Aman Shah, Rajiv Singh Chandel — all three from Kanpur, and Amit Awasthi (from Rohini, Delhi), Aman Jain (Shivaji Park, Delhi) and Chandra Prakash (Punjabi Bagh, Delhi).
Wife of the arrested official Avinash Kaur has also been made an accused by the CBI. The agency has also accused the CGST commissioner of accepting highly expensive items, electronic goods at his Delhi residence from businessmen.
A source informed IANS that apparently the complaint was filed by a detergent manufacturer who was being asked to pay Rs 2 lakh per month to the commissioner.
Sansar Chand, a 1986 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, resides in the Customs Colony in Gujaini area of Kanpur. He was arrested from Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh while the others were arrested from the union capital. The CBI has also arrested office staff Saurabh Pandey and a private operator Manish Sharma in the case.
The CBI has alleged that Chand and other officials were part of organised and systematic collection of illegal gratification.
The excise officials contacted various people through middleman Awasthi for extorting illegal gratification.
These payments pertained to either monthly or quarterly payments as protection money for omission of action by the Central Excise Department on such private parties, the CBI said.
The money was collected by public servants and were transferred systematically through hawala channel to Delhi through Aman Jain.
In certain instances, the bribe would be in form of items like “mobiles, refrigerators and expensive TVs”.
The probe agency has booked them under the charges of criminal conspiracy of Indian Penal Code and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Anand Singh,
New Delhi/Patna : The NIA, which arrested suspected LeT operative Abdul Naeem Sheikh from Uttar Pradesh last month, has summoned a District Transport Officer (DTO) of Bihar for his alleged links with the terrorist, an official said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Sheikh alias Nomi, 37, on November 28 from Charbagh bus stand in Lucknow in a joint operation with the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).
The NIA official, on condition of anonymity, told IANS they have summoned a DTO officer, identified as Diwakar Jha, posted in Bihar’s Buxar district, for questioning over his alleged links with Sheikh.
According to the NIA official, Jha had inaugurated Sheikh’s coaching centre in Bihar’s Gopalganj district in 2015, when he was posted there.
The official said the anti-terror probe agency has recovered some pictures of Jha with Sheikh.
Sheikh, who is said to have done a recce of army and power installations in Jammu and Kashmir, was caught after he applied for a passport under a fictitious name.
The NIA official said that security agencies stumbled upon a lead to Sheikh after a man complained that his address was being used by the LeT operative for his passport.
“He had applied for a passport on the address of Sarraj Ahmed, a resident of Gopalganj’s Jungalia area in Ward No 19.”
“But before he could get his passport in hand, Ahmed approached police and complained about it,” the official said.
“He got his Pan card and Aadhaar card, which were also made on the same address under the name of Sheikh Sohail Khan,” the official said.
“Sheikh resided in Gopalganj till March 2017,” he added.
Sheikh was hiding in Bihar’s Gopalganj district by changing his name after escaping from the custody of central agencies in August 2014.
The suspected LeT operative was wanted by security agencies in various cases, including the Mumbai train attacks of 2006-2007.
He was earlier nabbed by security agencies at that time and was under trial. In August 2014, he managed to give the slip to security agencies and escaped when he was being taken from Dum Dum Central jail (Kolkata) to Mumbai to appear in court. He fled while the train was passing through the thick forests of Chhattisgarh.
After fleeing from custody, Sheikh established a new sleeper cell under instruction from his LeT handler Amjad, the official said.
The case has been handed over to the NIA for further probe.
On December 2, the NIA has arrested a youth leader Dhannu Raja from Gopalganj for his alleged links with Sheikh.
Sheikh is also an accused in the Aurangabad arms haul case and was arrested by the West Bengal police in 2007 while entering India from Bangladesh along with two Pakistanis and one Kashmiri.
Security agencies have dubbed Sheikh as “David Coleman Headley” as he had been following in his footprints and did reconnaissance of similar areas.
Pakistani-American Headley is serving a 35-year prison sentence in the US for his involvement in terror activities and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks of 2008.
(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to prepare a holistic plan for the protection and preservation of Taj Mahal and the environment around it so that historic monument could be there for another 400 years and not just for generations.
The bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta also termed as “ad hoc” the measures spelt out by the state government that are being taken or will be taken for the protection of the Taj Mahal and a clean environment around it.
The state government said that it had asked the School of Planning and Architecture to prepare the plan, but the court said this plan should involve experts in the field of culture, history, archaeology and other spheres.
“How can you keep out the people the country (in the preparation of the plan). This (plan making) can’t be closed door affair,” Justice Lokur said as Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the bench that instead of experts, the court could ask for consultation with petitioner M.C. Mehta and advocate A.D.N.Rao, noting that that petitioner Mehta has 33 years experience in dealing with environment matters.
This monument has to be protected not for just one generation but for 300 to 400 years to come, the bench said.
As ASG Mehta told the court that November 27 communication by the Uttar Pradesh government says that the School of Planning and Architecture would prepare the plan in consultation with the stake holder, Justice Lokur quipped if stakeholder meant the “commissioner of Agra Division” and told him the court doesn’t want a bureaucratic plan but a holistic plan addressing the diverse aspects relating to the monument’s preservation and protection and the environment around it.
“They must consult the experts. There is no shortage of them. There is no hurry. No need for a bureaucratic response. We have seen what it (bureaucratic response) means from time to time,” the bench said.
“You can have an interim report. Don’t be in hurry. You are looking for something that has to last for 400 years,” said Justice Lokur.
Holding that “we have to look at it in a pragmatic way”, he said: “What is required is a larger look at the picture. Earlier we had five year plans with some objectives and goals.”
Referring to the Narendra Modi government’s goal of a new India by 2022, Justice Lokur said: “You can’t have a new India with your hands in pocket….”
Pointing out that 70 per cent of the trees being planted were perishing, the court said: “When you don’t have a plan and take ad hoc measures, then such things happen.”
Giving liberty to the School of Planning and Architecture to approach it for any clarification, the court adjourned the matter for eight weeks.
—IANS
