Do you have parking space? Only then you can buy a new car!
Bengaluru, June 20: Transport Minister DC Thammanna said that the state government is planning to give permission to purchase new cars to only those who have parking space.
Speaking to reporters at the Vidhana Soudha here on Wednesday, he said that the government has planned to control the purchase of diesel cars. As the first step, steps were taken to reduce the registration of new diesel cars. The department would start campaigns to use community transport system to ease traffic congestion. He would shortly submit a proposal to the Urban Development Department to develop roads, he said.
No bus fare hike
The department meeting would be held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister on June 27 and 28 wherein budget issues would be discussed. Issues like hiking bus fares including BMTC would also be discussed. As of now, there is no proposal to hike bus fare. But steps would be taken to compensate the losses, he clarified.
Free bus pass
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy would shortly announce on giving free bus passes to all students irrespective of any categories on the line of SC/ST students. The government has already decided to issue free bus passes 19.6 lakh students including SC/ST categories. In the Congress government, then chief minister Siddaramaiah had announced free bus passes. But the Finance department did not approve the proposal. But he has discussed with the Chief Minister now and the latter has agreed ‘in –principle’ to issue free bus passes, the Minister said.
The free bus passes to SC/ST students would cost Rs 114 crore to the state Exchequer and the Social Welfare Department would bear that cost. In the same way, the department would re quire Rs 629 crore to give free bus passes to backward classes and general category students. As per the existing norms, out of the total cost, the government should bear 50 per cent, KSRTC 25 per cent and the beneficiary 25 per cent cost. For free bus pass, students need not pay anything. Now, it is the question of this 25 per cent amount. If either the Education department or the government provided that amount, the department is ready to issue free bus passes, he said.
“If we want to control the private bus operators menace in the state including Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and other districts, all routes should be nationalized. It is impossible task as of now. The system should be corruption-free right from the bottom to top. I have already directed the authorities to check corruption wherever it is possible”.
- DC Thammanna, Transport Minister
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BharatPe fraud case: Delhi HC quashes lookout circular against Ashneer Grover, wife
New Delhi, Nov 12: The Delhi High Court has ordered cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against Ashneer Grover, the former MD of payment app BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, noting that the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery has already been quashed.
Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order on Monday after the court was informed that another bench of the high court quashed the FIR on the same day.
The FIR was quashed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh after considering a plea moved by the Grovers stating that they have arrived at a settlement with the fintech company.
In his order, Justice Narula said, "Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties.
"In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive."
The LOC was issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the instance of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in view of the investigation against the Grovers in the cheating and forgery FIR.
The court was hearing a plea moved by Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover seeking quashing of the LOC issued against them in connection with the investigation into the cheating and forgery case.
"Accordingly, the present petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to cancel the LOC against the petitioners in their records," the court noted.
Earlier, the Grovers claimed that they were informed about the LOC for the first time when they were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on November 16, 2023, while they were scheduled to travel to the US.
After being detained, they were informed that the LOC was operational from November 6, 2023.
In May last year, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 and 468 (forgery), and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint was lodged by BhartPe, the fintech unicorn.
In its complaint, BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages to the tune of Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri, and destruction of evidence.
Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe before she was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.
Subsequently, Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of the fintech firm in March 2022.
