News on Agra & Current Affairs

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.           Despite the city’s public transportation system being declared as completely CNG-based, Agra faces a severe shortage of CNG stations. To ease some pressure for CNG supply from its only mother station in Agra located on the Agra-Delhi highway, Green Gas Ltd, a joint venture between IOCL and GAIL inaugurated its first Daughter Booster Station (DBS) on the VIP road, near the Agra civil airport this week. JK Singh Tevetia, MD, Green Gas Ltd said the company had a capacity to distribute 36,000 kg of CNG every day but currently, only one-third of this capacity was being used as only one mother station was operational, dispensing 12,000 kg CNG every day.

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. Following the completion of its flagship project, TDI Mall, on the Fatehabad Road near the Taj Mahal in Agra, Delhi-based Taneja Developers and Infrastructure Ltd is planning to develop a star-category hotel about 3 km away from the mall. “TDI Mall was the first project launched by the company in Agra and since it has been completed successfully, the company will begin developing the 125-acre TDI City,” said Nitesh Kumar, executive director (marketing), Taneja Developers and Infrastructure Ltd, at the inauguration of TDI Mall on Saturday. The principal attraction of TDI City will be a 3-4 star category hotel the company plans to develop just outside the city to cater to the large number of Indian and foreign tourists coming to Agra, he said. While he did not reveal more details of the hotel project, Kumar said the hotel’s architecture would closely resemble the blend of modern and heritage architecture used by TDI in its constructions. Kumar said t

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. Despite winning a court case filed by land owners against land acquisition by Agra authorities for the proposed Unitech hi-tech city project on the Fatehabad road in Agra, the Unitech group is yet to begin the groundwork for the project. Before it goes ahead with the acquisition of the remaining 1,703 acres, the Agra Development Authority has demanded a payment of Rs 237 crore from the Unitech group, which, it claims, has to be paid to those whose land is being bought by the authority for handing over to Unitech. According to a source in the authority, Unitech had already paid Rs 37 crore as the initial payment for its project and the authority had gone ahead with the land acquisition under section (4) of the Uttar Pradesh Land Acquisition Act. Legally, the source said, before the acquisition process could begin for a private developer, the builder was required to pay the complete land cost and in case of Unitech Hi-Tech city, this amount came

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. For tax payers and tax planners alike, banks play a major role in the month of March but this month, the impending closure of all banks in Agra for eight out of the last 10days of the month is threatening to throw business into complete disarray. According to the UP National Chamber of Industries and Commerce (NCIC) sources, the banks will remain virtually shut-down for three days between March 20 and 26 as the bank employees will receive training for election duty in this period. On March 27, the banks will again remain closed due to the festival of Ram Navami. On March 28, 29 and 30, the United Forum of Bank Unions has called for a nation-wide strike resulting in the closure of all banks in the town. Again on March 31 the banks will remain closed on account of Mahavir Jayanti, posing problems for the tax payers who wish to deposit their tax challans at the banks. Talking to Business Standard, UP NCIC Former President Rajiv Gupta sai

VIJAY UPADHAY AGRA. After seeing his entire year?s labour wasted in just 15 minutes of hailstorm on Monday night, a shocked Agra farmer died of cardiac arrest. The torrential rains destroyed potato and wheat crops, standing in hundreds of hectares in the Agra region. This has brought thousands of local farmers to the brink of bankruptcy, and claimed the life of Gopichand, a farmer in the Ramnagar village of Akola development block in Agra. According to local villagers, Gopichand raised this crop with loans after his crop was destroyed in a hailstorm in March, 2005. This year he hoped to pay back all the money he had borrowed from money lenders. On Tuesday morning, he was shocked to see the entire crop sumerged in water. Enraged villagers blocked every road leading out of Agra, including National Highway-2 and 11 that connect Agra with Kolkata, Delhi, Gwalior and Jaipur. The highways remained blocked for more than two hours forcing the administration to sent out relief teams to

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. For UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Central Bureau of Investigation is tantamount to 'Sonia and Shivraj', as he claimed while addressing a public meeting in Agra on Saturday. During his first electoral meeting at the BSNL stadium here, Yadav said that he was not ready to place his and his family's fate in the hands of Sonia Gandhi and Shivraj Patil who were controlling the CBI and would not cooperate with the CBI in any manner over the inquiry into his assets. He said the Congress Government has plotted this scandal against him after it failed in its efforts to impose President Rule in the State. He said the Congress has placed its own pawns men in the CBI to launch an attack on him from every front but he would not surrender before the party even if that meant going to the jail with his family. Indicating that the party was going through bad times, Mulayam urged Samajwadi Party workers to get united and prevent the Congress's co

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. The Central Goat Research Institute (CGRI) in Makhdoom near Agra is one of the few premier institutes engaged in research and breeding of goats and sheep, in the country. But the future of this 35- year-old institute has suddenly become bleak, with almost the entire stock of sheep being bred in the institute coming down with a highly contagious strain of chicken pox virus. The virus is resisting all known vaccines, forcing the institute vets into quarantining these animals in order to prevent them from infecting the huge stock of genetically engineered goats that is also being bred in the institute. Talking to Sunday Pioneer, Dr VS Vihan, in-charge animal health, CGRI said that the disease hadstruck the institute about a month back in the form of a few sheep displaying symptoms of fever and accumulation of lymph in the hair-less areas of the animal's body. By the time the disease was identified as a fatal strain of chicken pox, almost 30 per cent of

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                  Bharat Leather Corporation Ltd, an Agra-based public sector undertaking under the Union Ministry of Industry and Public Enterprises, which was declared a sick unit a decade earlier, saw the final nail of pseudo-disinvestment struck in its coffin recently with the UP High Court finally ordering the liquidation of the company assets through a public auction. In the auction that was participated by almost a dozen bidders, the company's head office located in the Sanjay Place commercial area of Agra was sold to Ganesh Buildtech, an Agra based real estate developer company for Rs. 5.62 crores after which, Ganesh Buildtech has now applied with the Agra Development Authority for the transfer of possession of the 543 sq. meter building. Notably, Bharat Leather Corporation, Agra had been one of the premier public sector undertakings of the Union Ministry of Industries, engaged in the manufacture and supply of leather shoes for the armed forc

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. Hotel Taj Khema, located within 500 metres of the restricted area of the Taj Mahal, is considered to be the most lucrative properties of the UP Tourism Development Corporation in Agra. However, after the hotel was taken over by the UP Tourism from the Agra-based Oswal group, it has slowly slipped into complete disarray forcing the UPTDC to consider leasing it out to private hoteliers. But now, with both the Union and state tourism ministries planning to invest Rs 1 crore in this hotel to develop it into a tourism hotspot of Agra, the hotel could hope for better days ahead. According to the UP Tourism department sources, the union tourism ministry had proposed to upgrade the existing facilities in the hotel as well as install a few new amenities and attractions like a waterfall and six new swiss cottages worth Rs 46 lakh as a part of its “Incredible India” campaign. A team of HUDCO and ASI officials visited the hotel on Tuesday, accompanied by the represe

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.           Having long since given up its booming leather tanning units owing to the pollution concerns, the leather industry of Agra has become completely dependent on leather sourced from tanneries in Kanpur, Chennai, Kolkata and abroad. But over the past few years, since the local tanneries were closed on Supreme Court directions, the leather footwear and fashion industry of Agra has been facing an acute shortage of quality leather for their production, adversely affecting the quality of footwear produced by the local units, a problem that the local industrialists attribute to the irregular export of finished leather by the tanneries in Kanpur to foreign countries, in the guise of “crush leather”. The issue was raised by the Agra footwear exporters at an interactive meeting organised by the Council for Leather Exports recently, demanding an immediate ban on the export of any type of leather from the tanneries in the country, as it was creating a short

Vishal Sharma   New Delhi/ Agra.                   In yet another blow to the leather processing business of Agra, the Agra administration is planning to remove about 45 leather processing units outside the city, because of a recent notice from the UP High Court seeking justification for allowing these units to operate in a densely populated area of the town. According to UP Pollution Control Department sources, there were dozens of cottage units functioning in the Khatikpara area of the old city, which were engaged in the processing of raw leather, employing most of the residents of this locality. Recently, a petition was filed in the UP High Court against the operation of these units in the heart of the city and a notice has been served by the UP High Court asking why these units were being allowed to function when they were creating high-levels of pollution in the vicinity with their effluents. Talking to Business Standard, A K Tiwari, regional pollution control officer, said that t

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. As Holi began with ritual bonfires lit across the country, the uncharacteristic cold wave combined with untimely rainfall has played spoilsport in the preparations for the festival in the Braj region. This fabled land of Lord Krishna, comprises six districts of Agra and Mathura. With the Laddu Holi of Nandgaon and Lathamar Holi of Barsana already over, the festivities formally started on Saturday evening in the rest of the country with the ritual burning of Holi on virtually every road crossing. Though the Holi bonfires are usually set alight at midnight, this time, a lunar eclipse falling on Saturday night forced the people to perform this ritual at about 6 in the evening as the temples were closed early on Saturday due to the eclipse. The fervour that is reflected on the joyous, coloured faces of the locals is unmatched as they specially prepare tanks of water colour besides the roads to drench passersby as well as themselves. The principal attraction of Holi re

BUDGET BYTES: VIEWS FROM THE NORTH Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. The Budget has elicited mixed responses from the businessmen in Agra. The city’s leather exporters are happy about the raise in the excise cut-off slab from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore for small scale industries, which has resulted in about 10 per cent of the small scale leather units coming out of the tax net. Apart from the leather industry, the other small scale industry units benefiting from this tax-relief shall be the diesel engine, lock and glass industries. At least 25 diesel engine units, 55 leather footwear units, 30 glass units and a similar number of lock manufacturing units shall come out of the excise net. The 50 per cent reduction in excise on footwear soles and other components shall benefit atleast 60 – 70 export units but by not removing the 16 percent countervailing duty (CVD) on customs duty, the finance minister has failed to impress the footwear exporters. According to the industry sources,