Mysuru hotel owner threatens to take legal action for non-clearance of Rs 80 lakh bill for PM’s stay
Mysuru: The owner of the hotel where Prime Minister Narendra Modi stayed during his visit to the city to inaugurate the 50th anniversary celebrations of ‘Project Tiger’ in April 2023 has alleged that bills amounting to Rs 80.6 lakh are yet to be cleared and has warned of approaching concerned authorities to take legal action in the matter.
The Karnataka Forest Department, which was directed to hold a three-day event in April 2023 at an expenditure of Rs 3 crore, was assured that it would receive 100 per cent assistance from the Centre. The program was held as per the directions of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF), with the expenditure hiking to Rs 6.33 crore, reports The Hindu.
The initial estimated amount of Rs 3 crore for the event was released by the Central government, but the bill for the extra Rs 3.33 crore is pending for clearance in spite of the Forest Department bringing it to the notice of the MoEF.
Also, the correspondence between the NTCA and the MoEF shows that the event cost increased from the original Rs 3 crore due to the addition of activities during the event, as directed by the NTCA and as per the requirements of the PM’s program. The event management company, as a result, submitted a revised quotation that was circulated among all officials during a video conference.
The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) of Karnataka wrote to Deputy Inspector-General of the NTCA in New Delhi on September 29, 2023 reminding him of the dues. The NTCA, however, replied on February 12, 2024 that the state government would have to clear the expenses for the stay of the PM’s entourage at Hotel Radisson Blu Plaza in Mysuru during the event.
A second letter was written by the Principal Chief Conservator on March 22, 2024, again reminding the NTCA of the amount to be cleared, including the Rs 80.6-lakh bill for the PM’s stay at Hotel Radisson Blu Plaza. The NTCA has not replied to the Karnataka officer so far.
The General Manager (Finance) of Hotel Radisson Blu Plaza has also reportedly written to the Karnataka Deputy Conservator of Forests Basavaraju on May 21, 2024, stating that the hotel bill was pending to be cleared although more than 12 months had passed since the hotel services were used and the authorities were sent repeated reminders asking for clearance of the bill. The general manager has also informed that an interest of 18 per cent would be applicable to the outstanding amount due to the delayed payment, and demanding the additional sum of Rs 12.09 lakh also be paid as late payment fee.
The hotel management has set a deadline of June 1, 2024 for clearance of the pending amount and also threatened that legal action would be taken if the amount was not settled.
Deputy Conservator of Forests Basavaraju, however, clarified that the State government had refused to clear the bill as per the Central government’s directives as the event was held by the Central government.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
