HCJUNKSAMAZON, FLIPKART PLEA AGAINST CCI PROBE

BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court on Friday dismissed Amazon and Flipkart’s writ petitions challenging the probe ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against their business practices.

“It is expected that an order directing investigation be supported by ‘some reasoning’, which the commission has fulfilled. Therefore, it would be unwise to prejudge the issues raised by the petitioners in these writ petitions at this stage and scuttle the investigation,” ruled Justice PS Dinesh Kumar who heard the writ petitions moved by both Amazon and Flipkart.

Flipkart and Amazon India are expected to challenge the order, according to two individuals who spoke on condition of anonymity. road safety experts.

In 2011, when the last major changes took place, the limits on some roads, such as National Highway-8 (from Gurgaon Road crossing to Delhi Gurgaon Border) and the Delhinoida-direct Flyway-mayur Vihar Link Road, were reduced from 80kmph to 70kmph. In 2017 and in 2019, minor adjustments were made, but those affected only a limited number of roads and not the city entirely.

“The basic rule that we have followed while revising the speed limits this time is to ensure that there is a seamless and safe transfer of speed limits. For instance, the speeds on the expressways and highspeed corridors have been set at 70kmph, from there when you enter onto highways that are crossing urban areas the speed is being reduced to 60kmph and then to 50kmph on arterial city roads. The speed on internal roads has been set at 30kmph,” said Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning at the School of Planning and Architecture, who is on the speed review committee.

Experts said commuters can now expect a more consistent speed limit. Some of the stretches where this will apply are among the busiest: almost the entirety of the Ring Road except for a portion in North Delhi as well the most of the Outer Ring Road will now be in the 60kmph zone.

“Earlier, there were sections where drivers were suddenly switching from 70kmph to 50kmph as soon as they entered city roads. This sudden change in speed was dangerous,” added Ram.

The stretch from the DND flyover to the Mayur Vihar Link Road has been set at 70kmph, which is also the limit for NH-48 (from Parade Road to Delhi-gurugram Border), NH-44 (from Singhu Border to Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar), NH-9 (from Millennium Park to Ghazipur Border) and the Noida Toll Road (DND).

Main roads between the Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road and other similarly sized stretches will be in the 50 kmph zone while flyover exit and entry loops, wherever present, will be in a 40kmph zone.

Ram said that in the past, several roads were left out and the speeds were set in silos.

Senior traffic police officials welcomed the setting of limits for two-wheelers in Delhi. Till now, the traffic police have been issuing tickets to speeding two-wheeler riders based on the limits set for private cars, but since the category was undefined, the fines lapsed when challenged in court.

“We were getting many appeals in case of court challans that none of the signage mentions what is the speed limit for two-wheelers, which gave violators an excuse to not pay fines. By clearly stating the speed limits, we can now hold two-wheeler riders responsible,” a senior traffic official said on condition of anonymity.

Delhi government data shows that the city had over 10 million registered vehicles, out of which 7.3 million are twowheelers.

with Banerjee. “I am happy that I have been able to come out.i can see old faces here. I am happy that Bengal will regain its old glory under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, who is a national leader,” he said.

BJP leaders said Roy’s absence will not affect them. “We congratulate Roy on his new innings in the old party. The BJP is the world’s largest political party. It is not run by a dynasty. One individual does not make any difference. This was his personal decision. Since he won the Krishnanagar North seat on a BJP ticket we hope he will resign as legislator and start with a clear conscience,” said BJP state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar.

“However, it would be an insult to Roy if someone says he was in the BJP because he was scared by probe agencies. He is not a child,” added Majumdar.

A former Union minister and Rajya Sabha member, Roy was one of the TMC’S founding members in 1998, and acted as the party’s second-in-command and top election strategist.

But he was removed as party general secretary in 2015. He finally quit in 2017 and joined the BJP, marking the first highprofile exit from TMC. At the time, Roy was named in the 2013 Saradha chit fund scam and the 2016 Narada sting operation corruption case.

Roy was credited with helping the BJP rebound from its loss in the 2016 election in which it won just three seats and post impressive performances in the 2018 village body elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha election, when the party registered its best-ever tally of 18 seats.

In the 2021 polls, Roy was named the BJP candidate from Krishnanagar Uttar amid speculation of growing differences between him and Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh. He won the seat, his first electoral victory, but the BJP lost the election to the TMC, which secured 213 seats. Subhranshu Roy also lost his constituency of Bijpur.

But on Friday, Banerjee and Roy appeared to have buried the hatchet.

“I never had differences with Mukul…,” she said.

“I never had differences with Mamata Banerjee, I don’t and never will in the future,” quipped Roy.

The development comes amid rising tensions between the BJP and the TMC.

Last month, soon after the election results were announced, violence broke out with TMC workers targeting BJP supporters and workers. Then, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested three senior TMC leaders in the 2016 Narada tapes case, sparking furious protests by Banerjee. West Bengal and the Centre also clashed after Banerjee skipped a cyclone review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Union government recalling former Bengal chief secretary and the CM refusing to release him and calling the order unconstitutional.

Since the election results were announced on May 2, several TMC turncoats have pubthe licly appealed to Banerjee to forgive them.this includes former assembly deputy speaker and Banerjee aide Sonali Guha, and former legislator Dipendu Biswas.

Speculation about Roy rose when Abhishek Banerjee called on Roy’s ailing wife Krishna in a Kolkata hospital on June 2. Hours later, Ghosh rushed to the hospital and the next day, Modi called up Roy to inquire about his wife’s health. On June 9, Roy skipped a key meeting called by Ghosh.

At Friday’s press conference, Banerjee said she will decide later on what position Roy will hold but added that he will continue working as before. She got agitated at the mention of Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee from the high-profile Nandigram seat, and ended the press conference.

“We will take back only those who did not spread bitterness,” she said.

Adhikari was in Delhi earlier this week, and met with home minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda, and the Prime Minister to discuss the post-poll violence in the state although HT learns that the issue of imminent defections from the party also figured in his conversations.

Police have confirmed in their report that Akhtar, Indian Mujahideen, or his self-claimed new terror group had no role in the Ambani case and have closed the probe, officials aware of the matter said.

This is the latest twist in the sensational case that led to a major churn in Mumbai Police, the transfer of the city’s police commissioner and the eventual resignation of the state home minister. Sachin Vaze, a former police officer, was accused in the case and dismissed from Mumbai Police.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested four people, including former Vaze for the Antilia security scare and the murder of Mansukh Hiran, owner of the Scorpio car. Hiran’s body was found on March 5 after it washed up in a creek in Thane.

source of the Telegram message was traced to Tihar’s jail number 8 after which Delhi police was requested to join the probe. Police and jail officers then found two phones - one manufactured by Oppo and another by Vivo -- inside the cell. A team of officials from the intelligence bureau and special cell started probe into the claims.

The fear was that absconding and jailed IM leaders had come together to form a new terror group.

“Top operatives such as Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Amir Raza were never arrested. With almost all foot soldiers and key operatives of IM, such as Akhtar and Yasin Bhatkal behind bars, it is possible that the absconding leaders are using Akhtar and his social media skills to add strength to this new group. There is a possibility of Akhtar sending the Telegram message to divert the line of investigation,” an officer investigating the case said on March 16.

During the inquiry, police found that an Oppo cell phone, smuggled inside the prison, was used by other prisoners. Akhtar has used the Oppo phone to send the messages.

Akhtar was arrested from Naxalbari, Darjeeling in March 2014. Police said at the time that Akhtar alias Monu was the “operational chief” of IM and was heading the group’s operation, after Yasin Bhatkal’s arrest. The 30-year-old was convicted in the 2013 Hyderabad serial blast that killed 18, and charged in 2010 Varanasi blast that killed two, 2011 Mumbai serial blasts that killed 26, and 2013 Patna rally blast that killed five.

NIA is currently probing the case and sought an extension of the detention period of the five accused – former Mumbai Police personnel Sachin Vaze, Riyazuddin Kazi, Sunil Mane and Vinayak Shinde, and cricket bookie Naresh Gor. On Wednesday, a special court granted the agency 60 more days to file a charge sheet.

which, instead of abusing and fighting the state governments all day, takes everyone along. The country will progress when 130 crore people, all the state governments and the Centre work together as Team India. So being rude is not good,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

Earlier, in March, Kejriwal said the scheme would not bear the CM’S name, amid accusations by central functionaries that he was trying to appropriate credit.

The National Food Security Act, 2013, mandates the Union government to provide 5kg of subsidised grains every month for each of nearly 800 million eligible beneficiaries. The grains are distributed through a network of fair-price shops across the country, known as the public distribution system (PDS).

The Delhi government has floated a proposal to make home delivery of ration for the state’s beneficiaries. Officially spelling out its stand, the food ministry said last week that while it had no objections on the Delhi goverment’s proposal, it was against dismantling of the current system of distribution of cheap grains through PDS. The Centre said the Delhi government should launch a separate scheme for home delivery.

Prasad said on Friday that the chief minister “is talking about home delivery of ration when he even failed to provide oxygen to the people of Delhi.the Delhi government is under the control of the ration mafia.”

He said Delhi adopted the e-authentication method for ration cards in January 2018 but put an end to it within four months.

The e-authentication method is a national programme to digitally record subsidised food distribution.

The minister alleged that it was halted because the ration mafia pressured the government, as more than 400,000 fake ration cards were seized. He asked when the state government would resume the process of e-authentication.

Sisodia said the Union minister was making excuses for the obstructionist approach adopted by the Centre against states not ruled by the BJP.

“They blame Delhi for oxygen shortage. But who messed up on oxygen supply? The Bjp-led government at the Centre. It was only after the Supreme Court intervened, they ensured adequate supply of oxygen. Millions of children kept pleading for the board exams to be cancelled but BJP leaders kept them confused until the Supreme Court intervened,” the deputy chief minister said.

“For vaccines, they were adamant in forcing states to approach manufacturers and continued to criticise Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra and other non-bjp states… Whether it comes to oxygen, board examinations, ration, vaccines, there is a common factor in all of these and it is the central government’s failure. If an IIT graduate chief minister (Kejriwal) thinks that when pizza and electronics can be delivered at people’s doorstep then why not ration, what is wrong with that?”

Prasad hit out at the Delhi government for not adopting the one nation, one ration card scheme even as 34 states/uts had done so. The programme enables beneficiaries to withdraw ration anywhere in the country, regardless of the state where their ration card is registered.

He alleged that the Delhi government had no data on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries in the national capital. Prasad’s comments came days after Kejriwal alleged that the Narendra Modi-led Centre was deliberately stalling its proposal to ensure home delivery of subsidised food.

“Just two days before the doorstep delivery of ration scheme’s implementation in Delhi, the central government stopped it. They say we didn’t take approval. We took approval not just once, but five times,” Kejriwal had said. “Legally, we don’t need the Centre’s approval but we did so out of courtesy.”

The Delhi government was set to launch the scheme in early June, planning to cover 7.2 million beneficiaries. Each beneficiary was entitled to 4kg packaged flour and 1kg rice at their doorstep.