India sends one more consignment of 40,000 MT of diesel to Sri Lanka
Colombo, Apr 21: India on Thursday said it has delivered one more consignment of 40,000 MT of diesel to Sri Lanka under the Indian credit line to help ease the acute power crisis in the island nation.
A total of close to 400,000 MT of various types of fuel have been delivered with Indian assistance in two months, the Indian High Commission said here.
The High Commission said that 40,000 MT of diesel under the Indian credit line reached Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Earlier, India delivered 40,000 MT of diesel to Sri Lanka on April 2. This was India's fourth consignment of fuel delivered to Sri Lanka under the Line of Credit.
India and Sri Lanka signed a USD 500 million Line of Credit Agreement for purchase of petroleum products on February 2, 2022.
With the economic crisis and the shortage of forex, the Indian credit line of USD 500 million for fuel imports has provided a lifeline to the island nation, which is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history. With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts, the public has been suffering for months.
India recently announced to extend a USD 1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka as part of its financial assistance to the country to deal with the economic crisis following the previous USD 500 billion line of credit in February to help it purchase petroleum products.
The Indian fuel came as the protests over fuel shortages intensified throughout the country.
The Sri Lankan government on Thursday deployed troops as a precautionary measure in the southwestern region of Rambukkana where one person was killed and 13 others were injured in violence after the police opened fire at unarmed anti-government protestors demonstrating against the latest fuel price hike.
The island nation is witnessing large-scale protests against the government's handling of the debt-ridden economy - the worst-ever economic crisis in the country's history.
Protests demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Sri Lanka Podujana (Peramuna)-led government have intensified as shortages continued and prices soared.
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Assam govt drops ex-president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed's name from medical college in Barpeta
Guwahati, Mar 10 (PTI): The Assam government on Tuesday decided to rename Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital as Barpeta Medical College and Hospital.
Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the state cabinet, which approved the decision, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said most government medical colleges in the state are named after the places where they are located.
"All our medical colleges are named after their locations. We see that in the medical colleges in Guwahati, Dhubri, Silchar, Bongaigaon, Biswanath and Sonitpur. Somehow, the Barpeta one was named as Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital, which does not align with the naming pattern of other medical colleges," he said.
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Sarma said the cabinet decided to rename the institution to avoid confusion.
"Because of its name, many people ask whether it is a private medical college. That is why the cabinet today decided to change the name and make it Barpeta Medical College and Hospital," he said.
Sarma said the government would name another institution after former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in recognition of his stature.
"As Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was India's president and the first one from Assam, the cabinet decided that another educational or cultural institution of the same or higher stature will be named after him. We will take a decision in this regard to keep his name alive," he added.
Established in 2011, the medical college is affiliated with Srimanta Sankardeva University of Health Sciences and has been offering undergraduate courses since 2012 and postgraduate medical education since 2019.
