India

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) Petrol and diesel prices on Monday hit record highs across the country after rates were increased for the fifth time in a week, following which Maharashtra joined Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in the league of states where petrol rates breached the Rs 100-a-litre mark.

Petrol price was hiked by 26 paise a litre and diesel by 33 paise per litre, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers.

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd and its affiliates have picked up more than three-fourths of the new gas volumes from the firm's eastern offshore KG-D6 block which at current government dictated price will cost it less than half of the imported rate, sources said.

Reliance and its partner UK's BP Plc last week auctioned 5.5 million standard cubic meters per day of incremental gas from the newer discoveries in the KG-D6 block, benchmarking it to a gas marker.

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) The Guru Tegh Bahadur COVID Care Centre at the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in central Delhi is starting operations from Monday afternoon with 300 beds.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, said 100 more beds will become available on Tuesday.

"The COVID care centre is being managed by 50 doctors from the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital. They will be supported by a team of 150 nurses and ward boys," he said.

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) Hitting out at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the government's "repeated chest-thumping" at receiving foreign aid to tackle the COVID-19 crisis in the country is pathetic and had it done its job, it would not have come to this.

The Congress had last week demanded transparency and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make public the details of all the relief material received by India from different countries.

Nagpur, May 9 (PTI) A 12-year-old girl was allegedly blindfolded and raped by her 55-year-old neighbour in Kalamna area here in Maharashtra, police said on Sunday.

Angry residents thrashed the accused following the incident and handed him over to the police on Saturday afternoon, an official said.

As per the FIR, the accused Dolchand Chavan, a resident of the Kalmna slum, lured the girl and her friend to his house under the pretext of playing a blindfold game with them, the official said.

Kolkata, May 9 (PTI) Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, on a request by the CBI, sanctioned the prosecution of Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, all of them ministers during the time of the alleged commission of a crime that came to light in the purported Narada sting tapes, a Raj Bhavan official said on Sunday.

(Reuters) --- Indian coronavirus infections and deaths held close to record daily highs on Monday, increasing calls for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lock down the world’s second-most populous country.

The 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths reported by the health ministry were off a little from recent peaks, taking India’s tally to 22.66 million with 246,116 deaths as hospitals run out of oxygen and beds and morgues and crematoria overflow.

Lucknow, May 9 (PTI) Opposition Congress and Samajwadi Party on Sunday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of making false claims about controlling the COVID-19 situation in the state and "manipulating data".

They alleged that the administrative machinery and health services in the state are "completely paralysed" and the pandemic is spreading fast in villages as migrants returning home are not being tested.

Guwahati, May 9 (PTI) Assams COVID-19 tally rose to 2,92,368 on Sunday as 3,299 more people tested positive for the infection while 48 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 1,676, the National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said.

The state, however, reported more COVID-19 recoveries than fresh cases in a single day as 4,045 patients were discharged from hospitals.

Chandigarh, May 9 (PTI) The Haryana government on Sunday announced extending the coronavirus-induced lockdown in the state by a week till May 17.

Making the announcement on Twitter, Home and Health Minister Anil Vij said, "Mahamari Alert/ Surkshit Haryana announced from 10 May to 17 May. Stringent measures will be taken to contain the spread of Corona in Haryana."

Vij later told PTI that the restrictions, which are currently in force, will continue till May 17.