Posts Tagged ‘Kolkata’
Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Kolkata, Feb 9 – The central government is awaiting a detailed proposal from the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) to undertake capital dredging of the Haldia channel, union Minister of Shipping G.K. Vasan said here Tuesday.
This dredging would lead to an improvement in navigability of the channels that lead into Haldia port.
‘Capital dredging is also required for improvement of depth in the Haldia channel for which the Kolkata Port Trust has undertaken a comprehensive scheme. This scheme is called River Regulatory Measures (RRM) which comprises river training works and capital dredging,’ he said.
He was speaking at an interactive session organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
Vasan said the ministry was closely and continuously reviewing the issue of maintaining adequate draught at Haldia port.
‘The revalidation study (of the capital dredging scheme) has just been completed and the overall cost is approximately Rs.995 crore. The proposal will be examined by the ministry as soon as it is received from the port,’ he added.
The minister further said all the due processes for the appointment of a full-time chairman for KoPT had been completed and ‘an appointment can be expected to be made very shortly’.
Tags: Kolkata
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Kolkata, Feb 9 – Standing by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partner Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Home Minister P. Chidamabaram Tuesday rejected allegations that she was colluding with Maoists and said no party which believed in parliamentary democracy could play ball with the Leftwing radicals.
‘Nobody is colluding with the Maoists. And nobody can collude with the Maoists. The Maoists are fighting the state – the central and state governments. They believe in armed liberation struggle. They call parliament pigsty,’ Chidambaram said.
‘Therefore, any political party in India which believes in parliamentary democracy cannot collude with the Maoists,’ Chidambaram told mediapersons while responding to a query about West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee repeatedly alleging that Banerjee was in collusion with the Maoists.
However, responding to another poser, Chidambaram said Banerjee had told him that the joint forces’ operation in the state’s West Midnapore district was not yielding the results it intended to achieve.
‘She has told me that the operation we are conducting in West Midnapore is not yielding the results we wanted to achieve when we started. She has a point of view. I have taken note of it,’ he said.
‘She is also concerned about innocent civilians getting affected because of the operation. We all agree about this. In fact, there has been no collateral damage at all of any significance. We are operating with great restraint,’ the home minister said.
Tags: Kolkata
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Kolkata, Feb 9 – The central government Tuesday reiterated its offer for talks if Maoists halted violence, but warned the Leftwing guerrillas that ‘slow and steady’ operations against them would continue if they did not pay heed to the appeal.
Briefing mediapersons after a two-hour meeting with the governments of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram claimed that intra-state operations against the ultras had made significant progress.
‘My appeal to Naxals (as the Maoists are also known) is if you abjure violence, that is if you call a halt to violence, we are not asking you do anything more, we are prepared to talk to you on any matter that is of concern,’ the minister said.
‘Unfortunately, past appeals have been spurned. So we were obliged to continue the operations,’ he said at the media meet, flanked by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his Orissa counterpart Naveen Patnaik.
According to Chidambaram, operations would continue and inter-state operations launched till civilian administration was firmly established in all Maoist-infested areas if the guerrillas again rejected the offer intra-state.
He hoped the operations would make further progress in the next six months.
Apart from the two chief ministers, deputy chief ministers of Jharkhand Raghuvar Das and Sudesh Mahto and top officials of Bihar took part in the parleys at the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings where the progress of the security operations were reviewed and plans for inter-state offensives chalked out.
The meeting took some decisions on inter-state operations between Jharkhand and West Bengal and West Bengal and Orissa. ‘Some decisions have been taken. They will be implemented once I get back to Delhi,’ the minister said.
Chidambaram said he was not claiming that the operations had made ‘remarkable achievements’ but progress had been ‘slow and steady’.
To buttress his point, the home minister cited the arrest of some key leaders of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist and deployment of more forces in the affected areas.
‘The progress is slow and steady. You cannot measure it like a cricket match score board. In fact considerable progress has been made… We will continue to make progress.
‘Many key leaders (of Maoists) have been apprehended in the past few months… Key state and zonal lever leaders have been arrested… We’ll reclaim the areas dominated by Naxalites.’
Chidambaram said the operations had been ‘careful, calibrated and controlled’ with no collateral damage.
‘Contrary to what sections of the media and NGOs propagated a few months ago that there would be a massive carnage, no such thing has happened. Both the central and state government have showed maximum restraint.’
‘We have made it very clear that the purpose of these operations is not to kill anyone. These are our own people, we care for them, we care for their lives. The objective is to re-establish civil administration in areas now dominated by Naxalites,’ he said.
He assured that the government would rush in with development projects like schools, roads, medicare, drinking water and jobs after the areas were reclaimed.
The minister admitted inadequacies in the security offensive but said steps were being taken to overcome them.
Chidamabaram said all the chief ministers during the recent internal security meeting in Delhi were one with the central government on the Maoist issue.
‘There was not a single discordant note. All chief ministers are on board.’
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Kolkata, Feb 9 – Country’s largest coal producer Coal India Ltd (CIL), which is planning to come out with its Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares would be earmarking one percent of the share for its staff, a top company official said Tuesday.
This one percent would be offered though an Employees Stock Purchase Scheme, company chairman Partha S. Bhattacharyya said here Tuesday.
‘We won’t be offering two percent of the shares to our employees, in all probability it would be one percent and it won’t be reserved but issued to them through a stock purchase scheme,’ he said on the sidelines of 3rd North East and East Power Summit 2010 organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce.
The CIL head had earlier said about two percent of the shares in the IPO would be reserved for its staff.
Bhattacharyya said shares cannot be reserved for its staff in the IPO as it initially planned as Securities and Exchange Board of India, the market regulator, has not allowed giving shares to staff employed in a subsidiary.
CIL, is a holding company and most of its staff including all its mining personnel are in the pay roll of eight subsidiaries, which also own the coal mines.
‘Since SEBI won’t allow giving shares to subsidiaries we are working on the stock purchase scheme and will discuss this when we meet the regulator on Feb 19,’ he said.
CIL’s IPO would consist of divestment of 10 percent stake of the government, which currently holds 100 percent in the coal mining major, he said.
Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has recently said the stake to be disinvested could vary between 10-15 percent.
Bhattacharyya said the 435 million tonne production target of Coal India for 2009-10 appears ‘unachievable’ due to delays in starting operations in several mines.
‘Delays in getting clearances for starting mines in forests are holding back production of 110 million tonne in total and a part of it could have added to our current year’s output,’ he said.
CIL plans to produce 460 million tonne of coal in 2010-11, he said.
He added that the company’s subsidiaries are facing problems regarding transportation of coal due to shortage of rakes. ‘Our Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. (BCCL), Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) and Mahanadi Coalfield Limited are facing transportation problems due to shortage of rakes. Stocks are piling up at these places.’
Bhattacharyya said the requirement for rakes is around 210 rakes per day but it gets around 165-170 rakes.
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Kolkata, Feb 9 – Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia Tuesday said his ministry has requested the finance ministry to continue the export stimulus for some more time until the export sector recovers completely.
‘We have augured to the ministry of finance that those incentive schemes which relate to commerce and industry should be carried on for slightly longer period,’ he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
‘Specifically we have looked at three-four areas in terms of getting cheaper dollar credit for exporters, extending the EoU (Export Oriented Units) benefits, extending the interest subvention scheme and we are in consultation with the ministry of finance. It is our fervent hope that the finance ministry will accede to our request,’ he said.
The minister earlier said India has a target of achieving $200 billion merchandise exports for the next two fiscals.
According to the revised government data, exports aggregated to $185 billion in 2008-09.
Asked by how many months he would like the stimulus package to be extended, Scindia said: ‘We haven’t defined that as yet, but we have said it needs to be in place. I would like to see the stimulus until there is complete recovery.’
Talking about the tea and the spices sectors, he emphasised that proper branding is necessary in both the sectors. Proper branding exercise and marketing would help the sectors to reach new markets.
He said a core group has been formed with tea producers, companies like Tata Tetley, Hindustan Unilever, which is advising the ministry on its plans for branding.
Around 961 million kg tea is produced, out of which 186 million kg is exported from the country.
Tags: Kolkata
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Kolkata, Feb 9 – Reiterating his offer for talks if Maoists halted violence, Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday said the government was forced to continue its operations in Maoist insurgency-hit states as the rebels had spurned previous such appeals.
‘The government was forced to continue with its operation. These operations will continue and will be followed by development of the areas (dominated by Maoists),’ Chidambaram told reporters here.
‘My appeal to Naxals (as the leftwing guerrillas are known) is if you abjure violence, that is if you call a halt to violence, we are not asking you do anything more, we are prepared to talk to you,’ the minister said.
He was in Kolkata for a meeting with top officials of West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar. Taking part in the meeting to discuss the Maoist threat were the chief ministers of West Bengal and Orissa, the two deputy chief ministers of Jharkhand and top officials of all four states.
The home minister said the progress of the operation against guerrillas had been ‘slow but steady’ and cited the arrest of some key leaders of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist to back his claim.
‘The progress is slow and steady. You cannot measure it like a cricket match score board. In fact considerable progress has been made… We will continue to make progress.
‘Many key leaders (of Maoists) have been apprehended in the past few months… We’ll reclaim the areas dominated by Naxalites,’ he said.
Chidambaram said the operations had been ‘measured and calibrated’ with no collateral damage.
‘And contrary to what sections of the media and NGOs propagated a few months ago that there would be a massive carnage, no such thing has happened. We have made it very clear that the purpose of these operations is not to kill anyone.
‘These are our own people, we care for them, we care for their lives. The object is to re-establish civil administration in areas now dominated by Naxalites. I think progress will be slow but steady,’ he said.
The minister admitted that there were inadequacies in the security offensive but added that these would be overcome.
Tags: Kolkata
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