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<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly August 02, 2019 | Toronto<br />
11<br />
200 units of electricity free in Delhi,<br />
another 200 to get subsidy: Kejriwal<br />
New Delhi: Delhi Chief<br />
Minister Arvind Kejriwal<br />
on Thursday announced<br />
that people consuming up to<br />
200 units of electricity won't<br />
have to pay power bills.<br />
<strong>The</strong> move comes ahead<br />
of the Delhi assembly elections,<br />
which are due early<br />
next year.<br />
Making the announcement<br />
at a press conference,<br />
Kejriwal said the Delhi government<br />
will give full subsidy<br />
to those consuming up to<br />
200 units of electricity and an<br />
almost 50 per cent subsidy to<br />
people consuming 201 to 400<br />
units.<br />
<strong>The</strong> decision is effective<br />
from Thursday.<br />
"Those consuming up<br />
to 200 units of electricity in<br />
Delhi will not need to pay<br />
their power bills. <strong>The</strong>re will<br />
be no electricity charges for<br />
them," Kejriwal, who is also<br />
the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)<br />
chief, said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government will<br />
have to spend Rs 1,800 crore<br />
to Rs 2,000 crore on power<br />
subsidy annually, according<br />
to the chief minister.<br />
"We hope that with this<br />
move, there will be huge<br />
encouragement for electricity<br />
savings in Delhi due to<br />
no charges for 200 units of<br />
power.<strong>The</strong> electricity load<br />
has been increasing in Delhi.<br />
"Recently, Delhi's peak<br />
power load touched 7,400<br />
MW, which was the highest.<br />
I feel that electricity load will<br />
reduce due to this move," Kejriwal<br />
said.<br />
In the summers those<br />
who will be using up to 200<br />
units of electricity is 35 per<br />
cent of total consumers,<br />
while in the winters the<br />
number increases to 70 per<br />
cent as the power usage is<br />
less, according to officials.<br />
Since the AAP came to<br />
power in February 2015, the<br />
Delhi government has been<br />
providing 50 per cent subsidy<br />
on power bills.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> people of Delhi have<br />
chosen an honest government.<br />
This is the cheapest<br />
electricity in the country. In<br />
the last four and a half years,<br />
the Delhi government has<br />
not allowed any hike in power<br />
tariff," Kejriwal said.<br />
Defending his government<br />
against possible criticism<br />
of "freebies" before the<br />
assembly polls, he asked why<br />
no one was speaking against<br />
the "free electricity for our<br />
big leaders and officers in<br />
country?" "I just want to give<br />
the same benefits to my 'aam<br />
aadmi' (the common man)<br />
who works for 24 hours," he<br />
said.<br />
On Wednesday, the Delhi<br />
power regulator announced<br />
significant reduction in fixed<br />
charges.<br />
With 1.49L, Punjab tops list of city migrants<br />
Chandigarh: While the<br />
City Beautiful houses 6.23<br />
lakh migrants from different<br />
states of the county, a total of<br />
2.65 lakh city residents have<br />
migrated to different states<br />
and union territories (UTs).<br />
Of the total migrated<br />
population, 15.91% moved<br />
after marriage. <strong>The</strong> other<br />
major factors were workrelated<br />
(12.12%), education<br />
(.97%) and business (.83%).<br />
A total of 12.52% population<br />
migrated from the city after<br />
birth.<br />
Among the preferred<br />
states for migration from<br />
Chandigarh, neighbouring<br />
state Punjab topped the list<br />
followed by Haryana and Himachal<br />
Pradesh.<br />
A total of 1.49 lakh city’s<br />
population migrated to Punjab.<br />
Of 1.49 lakh, 19,748 migrated<br />
after marriage, 14,441<br />
because of job, 925 for business<br />
and 886 for education<br />
reasons.<br />
From Haryana, 71,890<br />
people migrated, which<br />
includes 34,252 males and<br />
37,638 females. A total of<br />
11,972 people migrated from<br />
the city to Haryana after<br />
marriage, 9,563 for job, 773<br />
for business and 361for education.<br />
Himachal Pradesh<br />
attracted 11,136 people from<br />
the city, with nearly 18%<br />
moving for work. A total of<br />
1,629 people migrated to Himachal<br />
Pradesh for work,<br />
99 for business, 171for education<br />
and 1985 after marriage.<br />
Among the union territories,<br />
where less number of<br />
migration from the city was<br />
witnessed, includes Lakshadweep,<br />
which attracted<br />
only one city resident. On<br />
the other hand, 29 migrated<br />
to Dadra Nagar Haveli and<br />
37 to Daman and Diu.<br />
with thanks from Time fo India<br />
Body found after over 36-hr search; friends identify him<br />
Mangaluru: An over<br />
36-hour search for VG<br />
Siddhartha, who was<br />
feared to have jumped<br />
into a river outside Mangaluru<br />
on Monday evening,<br />
ended with a heartbreaking<br />
confirmation<br />
on Wednesday morning.<br />
Local fishermen and<br />
a police team found the<br />
body of the Café Coffee<br />
Day founderowner about<br />
1 km from the bridge over<br />
Nethravathi River, near<br />
the backwaters of Hoige<br />
Bazzar, around 6.30am.<br />
“Siddhartha’s friends<br />
identified him (after the<br />
body was pulled out from<br />
the water),” said the deputy<br />
commissioner of Dakshina<br />
Kannada district,<br />
Sasikanth Senthil.<br />
Siddhartha, 59, had<br />
suffered injuries to his<br />
forehead and bled from<br />
the nose. Locals said he<br />
might have hit rocks<br />
after leaping from the<br />
bridge. Mangaluru city<br />
police commissioner<br />
Sandeep Patil said the<br />
post-mortem report was<br />
awaited.<br />
Siddhartha had most<br />
of his possessions on him<br />
— a watch, a ring, and a<br />
sacred thread. He had his<br />
shoes on, but his Tshirt<br />
was missing. “It might<br />
have come off when he<br />
jumped, or because of<br />
the strong tide,” said the<br />
team that pulled out the<br />
body.<br />
<strong>The</strong> team comprised<br />
fishermen Sarathi,<br />
Pranesh and Rithesh<br />
D’Souza.<br />
Over 400 personnel<br />
from central and state<br />
agencies were involved<br />
in the search, which began<br />
on Monday night,<br />
hours after Siddhartha<br />
was last seen on the<br />
bridge by his driver.<br />
Senthil said teams used<br />
a model developed by Hyderabad-based<br />
Indian National<br />
Centre for Ocean<br />
Information Services to<br />
identify a possible location<br />
of the body.<br />
At 7.30am on Wednesday,<br />
the body was taken<br />
to the government-run<br />
District Wenlock Hospital,<br />
Mangaluru, for<br />
a post-mortem. Dr HR<br />
Rajeshwari Devi, a<br />
medical official, said<br />
two forensicmedicine<br />
experts led the twohour<br />
autopsy. Outside the hospital,<br />
people gathered<br />
in large numbers to pay<br />
their respects to Siddhartha.<br />
“Prima facie everything<br />
points out to a suicide.<br />
But we cannot rule<br />
out anything,” a senior<br />
police officer said.<br />
Mangaluru police<br />
commissioner Patil refused<br />
to divulge details of<br />
the investigation, saying<br />
it would not be appropriate<br />
to comment at this<br />
juncture.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> post-mortem has<br />
been completed and we<br />
are waiting for the report.<br />
A team in Bengaluru<br />
is making enquiries,”<br />
he said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> body was kept in<br />
the morgue for about 10<br />
minutes so people could<br />
pay their respects. SM<br />
Krishna’s nephew, Gurucharan,<br />
and former<br />
minister UT Khader were<br />
present along with staff<br />
from Siddhartha’s office.<br />
<strong>The</strong> body was shifted to<br />
Siddhartha’s hometown<br />
in Chikkamagaluru at<br />
10.50am.
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