NEWS

In another jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, OBC leader Dara Singh Chauhan resigned on Wednesday from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet. Chauhan is the sixth leader to leave the party in two days. However, two MLAs from Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have joined the BJP.

A day earlier, as BJP leaders brainstormed in Delhi on the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Swami Prasad Maurya, also a prominent Other Backward Class leader, had quit the state cabinet.

Yet another BJP MLA, Avtar Singh Bhadana, quit the party on Wednesday and is joining the Rashtriya Lok Dal, an SP ally.

Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has asked the state government to deallocate allocate Delhi’s share of 206 megawatt (MW) power from NTPC’s gas-based generating stations, given that power from these units are very expensive. Deallocation would mean stopping the procurement of power from the units.

The gas-based stations in question are Anta, Dadri and the Auraiya power plants. These plants have either completed or are nearing the end of their 25 years of operations.

According to the letter dated December 17, reviewed by FE, the DERC has also stated that Delhi should continue procuring 98 MW power from NTPC’s Unchahar, Kahalgaon and Farakka power plants owing to their lower supply costs. These units have completed 25 years of operations as well.

Senior rocket scientist S Somanath has been appointed as the tenth chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and secretary, department of space (DoS). He will replace K Sivan, who will complete his term, which included a one-year extension, on January 14.

Somanath, who at present is serving as director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told media: “The most important responsibility is to create a space enterprise in India where all the stakeholders, including DoS, Isro, IN-SPACe, industry and start-ups are all part of the efforts to expand the space programme on a bigger scale. This is the primary responsibility.”

Before becoming VSSC director, he had a two-and-a-half-year stint as director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC). Among other things, Somanath is credited with “energising development activities of the high thrust semi-cryogenic engine, conceiving a fast track hardware realisation and test programme, development of throttleable engines for the lander of Chandrayaan-2 and successful flight of an electric propulsion system in GSAT-9.”

A local court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant against BJP MLA Swami Prasad Maurya, a day after he resigned as a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh.

The arrest warrant against Swami Prasad Maurya was issued in connection with a seven-year-old case. The case was lodged against Maurya in 2014 for allegedly making objectionable comments against Hindu gods.

The MP-MLA court Judge Yogesh Kumar Yadav issued the warrant against him after he did not attend the court hearing on Wednesday. In 2016, an arrest warrant was issued against him in the same case which was stayed by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.