NEWS

Following a ruling by the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, GMR announced on Friday that it is pleased to take up the responsibility of developing and transforming Nagpur airport in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra into a modern aviation hub.

The existing facilities at Nagpur airport have been operating close to their maximum capacity, handling a total of about three million passengers and 9,500 metric tonnes of cargo during the financial year 2019-20.

GMR plans to develop the Nagpur airport in phases to have a capacity of around 30 million passengers annually.

The Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered a “court-monitored” CBI probe into cases of murder, rape and attempted rape during the poll process in West Bengal and set up a special investigation team under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge to probe other criminal cases.

Both the CBI and the special probe team — comprising senior IPS officers Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar — will have to submit their reports in six weeks and will have to work under the court’s supervision.

A five-judge bench, led by acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, also directed the NHRC, the state government and any other commission or committee that received complaints to hand over all records relating to murder and crime-against-women cases to the CBI. But all cases not related to poll violence would have to be handed back to the local police, the court said, adding that “any obstruction to investigation shall be taken seriously”.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will head an all-party delegation from the state to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 23 to discuss the demand for a caste-based census.

“I had sought time from the PM to meet him with a delegation. The PM has given time of August 23. Many thanks to him “ Kumar tweeted on Thursday.

The CM, who called on governor Phagu Chauhan in the afternoon, said the names of delegation members would soon be finalised and sent to the PM. “Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (of the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal) will also go. He along with other members of the Opposition met me on this issue during the monsoon session. It is an issue on which all the parties are one. The BJP is also finalising the name (of its representative in the delegation),” he added.

Odisha on Thursday logged 1,041 COVID-19 fresh cases in the last 24 hours at 1.57% Test Positivity Rate (TPR) with the tally soaring to 9,98,187, while the cumulative death toll reached 7,154 with 68 fresh fatalities, according to State’s COVID dashboard portal.

Of the freshly infected persons, 128 are children in the age group of 0-18 years. The infected children account for 12.29% of positive cases reported in the last 24 hours.

The Khordha district, comprising state capital Bhubaneswar, continues to be the epicenter of Covid infections in the State with the district reporting more than 42% of positive cases in the last 24 hours.