KOttayam l wednesday l may 31, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION After JIO-bp, Nayara eNERGY sells petrol, diesel at `1 less than PSUs While OMCs continue to hold prices despite a drop in international rates, private fuel retailers have started passing on the benefit to consumers Discount offer to continue till end of june Russia’s rosneft is a major shareholder “To further stimulate domestic consumption and cater to local customers better, we have introduced a `1 discount in our retail outlets until the end of June 2023,” said a spokesperson for Nayara Energy, which owns 7% of India’s 86,925 petrol pumps. Earlier this month, Jio-bp started selling superior grade diesel at `1 cheaper than regular grade diesel sold by state-owned outlets ■ While Jio-bp has priced only diesel less than that of PSUs, Nayara is selling both diesel and petrol at rates below state-owned firms ■ IOC, BPCL and HPCL had frozen retail prices when international oil prices climbed in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year ■ Russian firm Rosneft is Nayara’s single-largest shareholder with 49% stake $75.30/barrel Global oil benchmark Brent crude price declined by 2.3% on Tuesday CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Fake `500 notes up 14% in FY23, says RBI report E x press N ews S er v i c e @ Mumbai THERE may be more fake `500 notes in circulation than 2,000 denomination notes, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s latest annual report released on Tuesday . The volume of counterfeit `500 notes swelled 14% in 2022-23 to 91,110 pieces compared 79,669 pieces detected in 2021-22, the RBI report said. In contrast, the number of fake `2,000 notes — which is in the process of being withdrawn from circulation — declined from 13,604 pieces to 9,806 during the same period. “Compared to the previous year, there was an increase of 8.4% and 14.4% in the counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of `20 and `500 (new design), respectively . The counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of `10, `100, and `2,000 declined by 11.6%,” it said. Taken together, the number of fake notes in all denominations witnessed a marginal decline of 2% in FY23. The total number of fake Indian currency notes detected in the banking sector fell to 2,25,769 pieces in 2022-23 from 2,30,971 pieces in 2021-22. Medal point to put police on the mat Wrestlers put off decision to drop medals in the Ganga N A R E N D R A S E T H I and U J W A L J A L A L I @ Haridwar/New Delhi India’s top wrestlers on Tuesday raised the pitch of their ongoing protest up a notch — against the delay in arresting sidelined Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh — by threatening to let their hard-earned medals wash away in the Ganga but put it off by five days to give the police time to act. The five-day deadline for Singh’s arrest came after the intervention of farmer leader Naresh Tikait. Rough police action to evict them from the Jantar Mantar protest site on Sunday also weighed on their minds as they reached Haridwar with their medals on Tuesday evening. The United World Wrestling, the international wrestling body, on Tuesday condemned the treatment meted out to the protesting wrestlers. Earlier in the day, the grapplers had announced their intention to sit on an indefinite hunger strike at India Gate in Delhi after returning from Haridwar. At Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar, top wrestlers like Protesting wrestlers at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar | PTI Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sangeeta Phogat and Sakshi Malik said, “When the government is not ready to take action against Singh, who is also a BJP MP, what is the use of these medals we won for country?” After taking a seat by the riverbank, clutching their medals, the grapplers broke down in tears as their supporters formed a protective circle. Singh is facing charges of sexual harassment of grapplers. Khaps back grapplers Haryana’s khaps and farmer outfits were among the outfits that appealed to the protesting wrestlers not to immerse their medals in the Ganga Bank cannot deny edu loan citing low CIBIL score: HC E x press N ews S er v i c e @ Kochi The Kerala High Court on Tuesday held that a bank should not reject the education loan application of a student simply because their CIBIL score is low. The court issued the order on a petition filed by Noel Paul Fredy of Aluva, who is a final-year student pursuing BTech Computer Science and Engineering with (Specialization in Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) programme on the Bhopal campus of Vellore Institute of Technology. The court A humanitarian also directed to disburse a loan of approach is `4,07,200 to the petitioner’s necessary from the part of college. “A humanitarian approach is banks while necessary on the part of banks considering an education loan while considering an education application loan application. Students are the nation-builders of tomorrow. Sim- Justice P V ply because the CIBIL score is low Kunhikrishnan for a student, who is an applicant for an education loan, the bank should not have rejected the application,” said Justice P V Kunhikrishnan. The petitioner had applied for an education loan at State Bank of India, Malikampeedika Branch, Aluva, in August 2022. The annual fee of `4,02,000 was paid by the parents. However, it became impossible for the petitioner to pay the fee for the 4th year. It was under this circumstance the petitioner approached the bank seeking a loan to pay the last semester’s fee. But, it was not sanctioned even after ● More on P4 repeated requests by the petitioner. express read School reopening: Demand for flu vax spikes T’Puram: With rainy season approaching, parents are taking proactive measures to safeguard the children’s health as schools prepare to reopen. A growing number of parents are now seeking influenza vaccines — commonly known as flu shots — to mitigate the severity of prevalent infections during the reopening time | P4 Kochi corp bins contract with ZONTA Corp to recommend to government to blacklist the firm, entrusted with biomining and setting up a waste-to-energy plant project at Brahmapuram| P4