Ahmedabad: Riddled With Delays, City Gets Its Metro Rail, Finally
Signalling the beginning of the metro rail operations in Ahmedabad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, 4 March took a ride on the newly built Ahmedabad Metro rail on Monday. The first 6.5 kilometres of the 40-kilometre long phase-I of the project has been on the drawing boards since 2005, and the work on the same had begun only in March 2015.
PM Modi, who arrived at the Vastral Gam Metro station, flagged off the train and then rode on it for about 1.1 km, till the next metro station at Nirant Cross Roads.
The PM waved to a number of residents who had climbed on rooftops to witness the trial run of the metro that passes through a densely populated zone that falls on the East-West corridor of the metro line.
(Source: Indian Express)
2. Ahmedabad: Patels Hail PM Narendra Modi for Air Strike
Patels, the community that sulked over their reservation demand for three years, on Monday, 4 March, hailed PM Narendra Modi for the befitting reply to Pakistan by the Indian Air Force following the Pulwama terror attack. When PM Modi reached the venue of an event organised by the Kadva Patel community in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the crowd of 70,000 people greeted him with cheers.
The Prime Minister was here to lay the foundation stone for Vishv Umiya Foundation, a social hub of Kadva Patel community. The hub will be spread across 65 acres of land at Jaspur village near the city.
Speaking at the gathering, PM Modi said, "Action with slow motion cannot work in this nation. Incomplete tasks and smaller things are not acceptable. Whatever you have to do, has to be on a larger scale. Don't you think this is happening now?"
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
3. I Will Be Back After 2019 (Polls) Too, so Don’t Worry: Modi in Ahmedabad
Laying the foundation stone of a socio-religious complex of the Kadva Patidar community, located between Ahmedabad near Gandhinagar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, 4 March, asserted that he was coming back to power after the Lok Sabha elections, due in few months, and that his home in Delhi was open to the community to seek any help required from his government.
“I am coming after 2019 (polls), too, so do not worry,” he said at the launch of the Vishva Umiyadham project. “If anything is required to be done by the Government of India, then the house in Delhi (7 Lok Kalyan Marg) is yours,” he said. In his speech, Modi highlighted two social issues — the high rate of female foeticide and (substance) addiction among its youth.
The PM asked the community to take an oath to not indulge in female foeticide anymore.
(Source: Indian Express)
4. Old WR Coach Set Ablaze to Enact Godhra Incident for Modi Docu
An unused railway coach was Sunday, 3 March, set ablaze during the enactment of the 2002 Godhra training burning incident for a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The coach, which a Western Railway official called a "mock drill bogie", was set on fire though instructions to the documentary film crew was that it was to be returned after shooting in the same condition as it was provided.
Speaking to PTI Monday, Vadodara Railway Division spokesperson Khemraj Meena said, "The coach provided for the documentary was an unutilised mock drill bogie. It was given to the crew with the stipulation it would be returned in the same condition that it was given. We have charged money for its use."
(Source: PTI)
5. Rs 40,200 Crore VAT, GST Dues to Be Recovered: Gujarat Government
More than Rs 40,000 crore in outstanding sales tax, GST and other levies are to be recovered from over 42,000 individuals, the state government said in the assembly last week.
"The state government has to recover outstanding sales tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), and GST of Rs40,221.73 crore as of March 2018," deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, who holds the finance portfolio, said in the assembly in response to an unstarred question by Congress MLA from Siddhpur, Chandanji Thakor.
The dues are to be recovered from 42,675 individuals, i.e. an average of Rs94 lakh in each case.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
6. Electricity Supply by Private Producers Suffers a Jolt in Gujarat
Electricity supply in the state by private power producers fell sharply in the last year to multi-year lows, even as that by state government owned units rose to all-time high, information provided by the state government shows.
Private power producers, including Adani, Tata and Essar, with whom the state government has signed long term power purchase agreements, supplied 24,012 million units (MUs) electricity to the state's power utility Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) in 2017-18, nearly 25% lower than 31,766 MUs in the previous year.
The information was provided by energy minister Saurabh Patel in reply to an unstarred question by Congress MLA from Jetpur, Sukhram Rathwa.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
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