BHUBANESWAR l friday l march 29, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late CITY EDITION Light combat Aircraft Tejas Mk1A’s first flight successful The HAL said the first LA 5053 aircraft of the Tejas Mk1A series took to the skies successfully from its facility in Bengaluru on Thursday ‘Significant milestone has been achieved’ INDIAN AIR FORCE TO INDUCT THE AIRCRAFT “HAL achieved this significant production milestone with concurrent design & development amid major supply chain challenges in the global geopolitical environment subsequent to the contract signature in February 2021,” said C B Ananthakrishnan, chairman and managing director of the company. The aircraft was piloted by Group Captain K K Venugopal (Retd) ■ ■ The Tejas Mk1A will have an advanced electronic RADAR, warfare, communication systems and additional combat capability The country can look forward to an early induction of the Tejas Mk1A by the IAF and more numbers through the three lines of production established at HAL, it said in a statement 18 mins was the flying time of Tejas Mk1A’s first flight 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 Delhi court extends the chief minister’s ED remand in liquor scam case till April 1 Kejriwal argues his case in court, sees plot to crush party Satyendra Jain was also present. Referring to this allegation, Kejriwal A Delhi court on Thursday saw its arrested said because of his position, several minischief minister himself arguing his case in ters come to his residence and even exthe liquor policy scam. “I was named by change documents. “Is this statement suffour witnesses in the excise policy case. Are ficient to arrest a sitting CM?” he four statements enough to arrest a sitting questioned. CM?” he asked. On the statement of another accusedThe court extended the custody turned-approver Raghav Magunta of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind to the ED, the CM said Magunta’s Kejriwal with the Enforcement father gave six statements to the Directorate (ED) by four more probe agency but did not say anyThe actual excise days till April 1 in the scam. thing about Kejriwal. Magunta is policy scam The Rouse Avenue Court saw the son of Buchi Babu, chartered started after the heated arguments between Kejriaccountant of BRS leader K beginning of the wal and ED lawyers during the Kavitha, who too is under arrest ED investigation hearing. “Where is the `100 crore in the same case. The AAP chief and not when the liquor scam money the ED keeps argued that people are being policy was made harping on?” Kejriwal asked, addturned approver and forced to Arvind Kejriwal, ing that the entire liquor policy change their statements. The ED Delhi chief minister case is a political conspiracy to investigation began in August crush his Aam Aadmi Party . 2022. The 2021-22 Delhi excise polDuring the previous hearing, the probe icy was later scrapped. agency had sought to establish Kejriwal’s Not opposing the ED’s demand for furrole in the formulation of the excise policy ther custody, Kejriwal pointed out that apby citing a statement of C Arvind, the then prover Sarath Chandra Reddy donated `55 Secretary of former Deputy CM Manish crore to the BJP just after his arrest. “I have Sisodia. Arvind told the ED that he was the evidence. Money trail is established. He handed a draft report of a Group of Minis- donated `55 crore to BJP after being arrestters on the excise policy by Sisodia at Kejri- ed,” Kejriwal said. The court noted his wal’s residence where former minister point and assured it will be investigated. Comments by US State Dept not acceptable: MEA Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi U J W A L JA L A L I @ New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal comes out of a Delhi court after his production in the excise policy scam on Thursday | PTI custody extension “...there appears to be sufficient reasons to permit further custodial interrogation, particularly keeping in view the submissions that he (Kejriwal) is required to be confronted with the material collected and statements recorded so far,” special judge Kaveri Baweja said BJD list for six LS seats likely by Sat B i j ay C h a k i @ Bhubaneswar With Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik meeting senior leaders of BJD at Naveen Niwas on Thursday, it is likely that the second list of the party’s Lok Sabha candidates will be finalised and announced in a day or two. BJD has announced candidates for 15 Lok Sabha seats leaving out some key constituencies like Berhampur, Balangir, Balasore and Bargarh among the remaining six. The political situation in Berhampur has changed after the BJP announced Pradeep Panigrahy as its candidate from the seat. Though BJD had almost finalised renominating for mer Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu from the seat, the party has now deferred its announcement of candidate from the seat. The Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency is the most important for the regional Jailed don mukhtar Ansari dead Jailed gangster-turnedpolitician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda in UP on Thursday. Ansari, 63, was a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat. He had over 60 criminal cases pending against him and was sentenced in eight cases CM Naveen Patnaik & 5T chairman VK Pandian discuss the probable candidates’ list on Thursday outfit as it is the home district of the chief minister and the party cannot afford any surprises here. Sources said the party has several options for the seat. Finance Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha visited Naveen Niwas on the day fuelling speculation that the party is mulling his Lok Sabha candidature. Though there is little chance of Arukha contesting the Lok Sabha poll as he has been announced as the candidate from Bhanjanagar Assembly seat, party insiders said nothing could be said for certain in the party . There are also several other options before the party leadership including Rajya Sabha member and observer for the parliamentary constituency Manas Ranjan Mangaraj and president of the Ganjam district BJD Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik. The party has not announced the candidate for Berhampur Assembly seat as well, from where Chyau Patnaik could also be fielded as he has represented the segment in the past. Besides, the party has also held back announcement of candidate for Balangir Lok Sabha constituency Ka. likesh Narayan Singhdeo, who earlier represented the Lok Sabha constituency will contest from the Assembly seat in this election. Continued on P5 India on Thursday described the US State Department’s recent comments on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as unwarranted - its second riposte in response to two statements. Apart from weighing in on Kejriwal, the State Department also commented on the freezing of Congress funds. “As you are aware, on Wednesday India , had lodged its strong objection and protest with the senior official from the US Embassy with regard to the comments made by the US State Department. The recent remarks by the State Department are unwarranted. Any such external imputation on our electoral and legal processes is completely unacceptable,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal. The MEA said in India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law. “Anyone who has similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact. India is proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions. We are committed to protect them from any form of undue exter nal influences,” Jaiswal added. India also reiterated that mutual respect and understanding form the foundation of international relations and states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. In first tango, RIL picks up 26% stake in an Adani arm R AKESH K U M A R @ New Delhi IN a first, rival billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have joined hands for a business deal as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) acquired a 26% stake in Mahan Energen Ltd (MEL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd. The deal will give RIL 500 MW of electricity from MEL’s Madhya Pradesh-based power plants for captive use. “One unit of 600 MW capacity of MEL’s Mahan thermal power plant, out of its aggregate operating and upcoming capacity of 2,800 MW, will be designated as the Captive Unit for this purpose,” Adani Power said in an exchange filing. It added that RIL will pick up 5 crore shares with a face value of `10 (`50 crore). “The proposed investment by the Company is in compliance with the provisions of the Electricity Rules, 2005, in terms of which the Company, as a captive user, is required to own 26% proportionate ownership in one unit of MEL of 600 MW capacity, with RIL being the captive user of 500 MW generation capacity,” said RIL in its exchange filing. Stake transfer to meet captive use norms If a power generating unit has to be considered a captive generating plant, the captive user must hold not less than 26% of the ownership in the captive generating company. Also, 51% of the power generated must be used by the owners for their own consumption Ambani’s interests span oil and gas to retail and telecom while Adani’s focus is on infrastructure spanning sea ports to airports, coal and mining. Though considered business rivals, the two Gujarat industrialists have rarely crossed each other’s path except in the clean energy business, where the two have announced multi-billion investments. Adani aspires to be the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030, while Reliance is building four gigafactories in Jamnagar — one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen, and fuel cells. Adani is also building three gigafactories for manufacturing solar modules, wind turbines, and hydrogen electrolysers.
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