Didi politicising cyclone Fani, refused to talk to me: PM Modi
Tamluk (WB): Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of pursuing "cheap politics" over cyclone Fani, claiming that she did not speak to him when he tried to contact her to talk about the calamity.
Modi also criticised Banerjee for not hailing the designation of Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist" by the UN as she is "afraid that it might affect her vote bank politics".
"I am just back from Odisha after reviewing the post-cyclone situation. I also wanted to speak to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over phone to discuss the issue. I had called her, but Didi is so arrogant that she didn't speak to me. I waited for her call but she didn't get back to me," he said while addressing a rally here.
"Speedbreaker Didi was more interested in doing politics. I wanted to speak to the state officials but the state government did not allow that to happen," he said.
His comments came in the backdrop of the TMC hitting out at Modi for calling state Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi instead of talking to the chief minister to enquire about the ground situation in the wake of cyclone Fani on Friday.
Criticising Banerjee for not praising the efforts of the union government that led to the UN designating Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, he claimed that the Trinamool Congress supremo "was afraid that it might affect her vote bank in the state".
"The condition in Bengal is such that if you chant Jai Shri Ram, you would be put behind bars," he said.
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SC dismisses L&T's plea challenging tender of Sharavathi power project in Karnataka
New Delhi, Apr 30: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea by engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro Ltd challenging the short-term tender floated for the construction of the Rs 8,000-crore Sharavathi pumped storage power project in Karnataka.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra upheld the April 25 order of the Karnataka High Court that had also declined the petition by L&T against the tender by Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL).
"We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. The Special Leave Petition is accordingly dismissed," the bench said.
The engineering and construction major had said in its appeal that the tender process for the project had been run in an arbitrary, perverse and unreasonable manner.
In its order, the high court had said, "Electro-mechanical and hydro-mechanical works are admittedly an integral part of the project and the petitioner, being only a civil contractor, was not eligible to perform the work unless it could find association of a specialised agency.
"The submission that the appellant was unable to enter into a contract with any of such agencies finds factual justification, for the petitioner could not show that it had an expert agency as a partner to enter into the memorandum of understanding.”
Infrastructure firm Megha Engineering and Infrastructure (MEIL) on Monday said it has bagged the 2,000-megawatt project.
The Sharavathi river is a vital source of hydroelectric power in Karnataka, a company statement said, adding that with a planned total power generation capacity of 2000 MW, it is the country’s largest pump storage power generation unit.
Karnataka aims to solve the power crisis in the state through this big budget project. The cost of the project is over Rs 8,000 crore, it stated.
