'Always people first for us', says PM after finance minister slashes fuel prices, offers LPG subsidies

Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday welcomed the decision of the Central government to lower the prices of petrol and diesel in order to give relief to common citizens reeling under record inflation.

The Narendra Modi government cut excise duty on petrol by a record ₹8 per litre and that on diesel by ₹6 per litre, while it also decided to give ₹200 per cylinder subsidy to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries for 12 cylinders in a year.

We are reducing the Central excise duty on Petrol by ₹8 per litre and on Diesel by ₹6 per litre. This will reduce the price of petrol by ₹9.5 per litre and of Diesel by ₹7 per litre: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison admitted defeat in national elections Saturday after a "difficult night" for his conservative government.

"Tonight I have spoken to the leader of the opposition and the incoming prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and I have congratulated him on his election victory," AFP quoted Morrison as saying.

Australia's opposition Labor Party appeared on track to win Saturday's general election, television stations projected, as voters deserted the ruling conservative coalition in favour of climate-focussed independents and smaller parties, Reuters reported.

A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to Delhi University professor Ratan Lal, who was arrested last night over a social media post on the Gyanvapi mosque row. He has been asked to furnish a bond of ₹50,000 and surety on the like amount.

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Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday heaped praise on prime minister Narendra Modi for 'ending differences' between the northeast and national capital Delhi. Read more

Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said on Saturday that he did not put out the controversial tweet on the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and that his account was hacked. Also read

Russian military said on Saturday it had destroyed a major consignment of Western arms in Ukraine's Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, using sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles. Read more

US President Joe Biden said Saturday that America had offered North Korea Covid vaccines but "got no response" despite a spiralling epidemic in the isolated country.
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Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, along with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, will visit Mohalla Clinics in Delhi later today. Both CMs will also visit a Delhi Government school.

A fire broke out at a factory in north Delhi's Bawana area on Saturday morning, officials said. The information about the fire was received at 11.05 am. Seven to eight fire tenders are working at the spot to douse the blaze, the fire officials said.

In another incident, a fire broke out at a shop in east Delhi's Pandav Nagar area. The fire department received information about it at 11.05 am, they said.

Seven fire tenders have been pressed into service, the officials said. No casualty has been reported in either of the incidents so far. Further details are awaited.

The Central Bureau of Investigation carried out raids at over 15 locations -10 locations in Delhi, 5 other cities - in connection with NSE-co location case, reports ANI.

BMC issues another notice to Amravati MP Navneet Rana and MLA Ravi Rana regarding illegal construction in their house located in the Khar area of Mumbai, reports ANI quoting Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

Even as the Supreme Court has permitted reservation for the Other Backward Classes in the local bodies elections in Madhya Pradesh, an organisation representing the community on Thursday said it was firm on its call for 'state bandh' today to press for its demand for 27 per cent quota to the OBCs.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday embarked on a two-day visit to Arunachal Pradesh to attend various programmes and inaugurate many development projects.

"Leaving for Arunachal Pradesh on a two-day visit. Looking forward to attending various programs in this beautiful part of India," Shah tweeted after leaving Delhi.

Russia's Gazprom on Saturday halted gas exports to neighbouring Finland, the Finnish system operator Gasgrid said, the latest escalation of an energy payments dispute with Western nations.

Edible oil tanker turns turtle near Dahanu on Mumbai Ahmedabad Highway. Around 12,000 litres of unfiltered oil spills from tanker and tribals, men and women, rush with Jerry cans to fill the oil and take home for cooking. In 1991, similar incident occurred when tribals mistook turpentine for kerosene and started to fill in containers when a man lit a match and due to which 110 tribals charred to death and entire hutments at Mendhwan on highway got engulfed. Tanker had met with a mishap and turpentine got leaked and people started to fill in cans in 1991. Similar case here of edible oil leakage post tanker accident. 

The weather department has issued an ‘orange alert’ for hailstorm and thunderstorm in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for the coming 4-5 days.

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India on Saturday reported a single-day spike of 2,323 coronavirus infections, nearly 3% higher than yesterday. As per data shared by the health ministry, 25 Covid-linked fatalities were also reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,24,348.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi pay homage to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 31st death anniversary at Vir Bhumi in Delhi.

Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) has hiked the price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Delhi by ₹2 per kg to ₹75.61 per Kg. For Noida, Greater Noida & Ghaziabad, the CNG price has been hiked to ₹78.17 per Kg, while in Gurugram, it will cost ₹83.94 per Kg.

The overall flood condition in Assam on Friday was slightly improved, but the situation is still grim in Nagaon, Hojai, Cachar and Darrang districts.

According to the reports of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, nearly 7.12 lakh people in 29 districts of the state are reeling under the fury of floods.