New Delhi: Schools in Delhi will remain closed for physical classes till further orders while online classes and board exams will continue, the Directorate of Education (DoE) announced on Sunday in view of the prevailing air quality situation.

The air quality remained very poor on Sunday morning, authorities here said. The city recorded its air quality index (AQI) at 382 at 9 am. The 24-hour average AQI was 374 on Saturday.

“The environment department has directed to close all the schools with immediate effect till further orders of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and adjoining areas. Therefore, all government and private schools will remain closed till further orders,” Additional Director of Education Rita Sharma said.

“However, online teaching learning activities and the examinations for board classes would be conducted as per guidelines issued earlier,” the official said.

The Delhi government had on November 13 announced closure of schools and other educational institutions in view of the deteriorating air quality in Delhi.

Schools had reopened for all classes from November 1, after nearly 19 months of closure due to COVID-19.

New Delhi: The petroleum ministry’s proposal to give away ONGC’s biggest oil and gas fields to foreign companies has met with strong resistance from the officers union of the company, which has said that the government should empower and give the company a level-playing field rather than giving away its prime assets to the private sector on a platter.

The Association of Scientific & Technical Offices of ONGC petitioned Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri against a proposal put by Amar Nath, additional secretary (exploration) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, for giving away 60 per cent stake and operatorship of Mumbai High and Bassein & Satellite (B&S) offshore assets to international partners for raising output.

The union, which represents ONGC’s 17,000 officers, said the company and its employees are completely aligned with the government objective of raising domestic production to cut imports, and for this to happen ONGC should be given the same fiscal and regulatory regime as the private sector enjoys for exploring and producing oil and gas.

The government-dictated below market price gas price fixation for ONGC fields should be reviewed to make production from smaller and remote fields viable, it wrote to Puri on November 11. Also, ONGC should be given freedom to market small pools of natural gas which in present price regime are unviable.

Statutory clearances and authorities for ONGC need to be optimised and procedural aspects rejigged to help the firm take faster decisions.

Farming out stake in “existing fields shall not yield the desired results of enhancing domestic production, instead it will provide a level playing field and empower ONGC to further enhance productivity,” the union wrote.

“We would therefore request you that handing over producing fields on a platter to the private operator will not be successful and therefore, in our opinion, should not be pursued,” it added.

It said exploration of oil and gas is a highly risky endeavour where very few like to participate. “This is evident from the tepid response to the bids invited under OALP (bid rounds), where only ONGC and to some extent OIL are the only bidders.”

Private and foreign operators are unwilling to take the risk of investing millions of dollars in surveying and drilling wells to establish reserves. They instead want to enter into established fields.

“The private operators most probably are giving priority to commercial aspects, the prevailing business climate and therefore may not be taking the risk that ONGC is willing to take,” the union wrote.

The data of the last 3 years shows that ONGC has been consistently drilling more than 100 exploratory wells every year even when the international crude prices had hit an all-time low. During the low price regime most of the international and private E&P companies had stopped their exploratory plans and had drastically reduced their development investments.

“ONGC, however, bucked the trend and continued to aggressively invest in exploration and development activities,” it said, adding private exploration and production (E&P) companies have been very quick to give up fields with falling commercial returns.

“The example of Panna, Mukta and tapti fields (in western offshore) where international E&P operators did not renew their leases even though the recovery factor from these fields had not even reached 20 per cent, in fact in one case it was even less than 10 per cent,” it said pointing to ONGC’s recovery factor – percentage of reserves being recovered – at 28 per cent in Mumbai High and Bassein fields.

ONGC took over the Panna, Mukta and Tapti fields after the exit of Shell and BG Group and is producing more than the approved profile of the field.

Similarly, the Ratna field, which was given to the private sector, was put to production by ONGC. PY-3 field too was lying idle for years before ONGC took over.

“Despite the impact of COVID-19, ONGC has been able to maintain the production levels as envisaged in the annual plans. Mumbai high has been producing since 1976 and has been the cornerstone of the country’s oil production. Bassein and Satellite have been the frontrunner for gas since 1987,” the union wrote.

“ONGC has been optimally producing from these fields keeping into consideration the health of the reservoir,” it noted.

With time, ONGC has also accreted reserves in these fields and has enhanced the recovery factor.

“ONGC has plans to further enhance the production from these fields and in coming years, we shall see substantial increase from these fields,” the union wrote.

“All these efforts are in public domain and we are sure that the same must have been scrutinised by the Board of ONGC of which senior officials from the ministry are an integral part,” it added.

The Union sought an opportunity to meet Puri personally and present its suggestions for augmenting domestic crude oil and natural gas output.

“Farming out 60 per cent interest and operatorship in these fields shall have a major negative impact on ONGC’s performance, whereas such efforts in the past have not yielded desired results, for example Panna, Mukta, Ratna, Tapti and PY-3,” it added.

New Delhi: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will hold another meeting on November 27 to decide future course of action while the planned march to Parliament by farmers on November 29 will go ahead as per schedule, farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference at Singhu border following a meeting, Rajewal said, “We discussed the repeal of farm laws. After this, some decisions were taken. SKM’s pre-decided programs will continue as it is. Kisan panchayat will be held in Lucknow on November 22, gatherings at all borders on November 26 and march to Parliament on November 29”.

SKM, an umbrella body of the agitating unions, met earlier on Sunday to decide on the next course of action, including on the MSP issue and the proposed daily tractor march to Parliament during the upcoming Winter Session.

Farmer leaders have been maintaining that the protesters will stay put at border areas of Delhi until the Centre formally repeals these laws in Parliament after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise announcement on Friday and have indicated their stir for a statutory guarantee of MSP and withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill will continue.

New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Sunday condoled the loss of lives in floods in Andhra Pradesh and urged party workers to extend all possible help to those affected.

“Floods have been causing serious damage in Andhra Pradesh. My condolence to those who’ve lost loved ones,” Gandhi said on Twitter. “Dear Congress workers, please help in all ways possible,” he also said.

Floods have caused extensive damage in Andhra Pradesh.

At least 25 people have been killed and 17 others were reported missing in rain-related incidents in Kadapa and Anantapuramu districts since Friday.

Jaipur: Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Sunday said the Cabinet reshuffle initiated by the Ashok Gehlot government has sent a positive message across the state and denied any factionalism in the party.

Pilot, who was sacked as the deputy chief minister due to rebellion last year, said he is happy that the issues he had raised, including increasing the representation of Dalits in the Cabinet, have been addressed.

“Four Dalits have been included in the Cabinet. This is a big message. At the same time, the representation of tribals and women has been increased. This was a necessary step and the party and the government worked hard to take it forward,” Pilot told reporters.

He said the committee which was formed last year to look into the issues raised by him has delivered the first result .

When asked about members from his group who have been given a place in the Cabinet, Pilot said there was no factionalism in the party and all will work unitedly to win the 2023 Assembly elections.

“There is only one faction — the faction of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and we all are the members. It will be our endeavour to move forward collectively and win the next assembly elections,” he said.

On a question about his role in the new setup, Pilot said that he will follow what the party decides for him.

Fifteen new Rajasthan ministers will take oath at 4 pm at the Raj Bhavan in Jaipur. The new cabinet will see 12 new faces, including five from the Pilot camp.

This is the first cabinet reshuffle of the Gehlot government which came to power in December 2018.

Amaravati : The main rail and road routes in Andhra Pradesh, connecting the south and east, remained cut off as the Penna river in spate caused heavy destruction on Sunday.

The Chennai-Kolkata National Highway-16 had to be closed down for traffic in SPS Nellore district following a heavy breach of road at Padugupadu.

At least 17 Express trains were cancelled on the Chennai-Vijayawada grand trunk route as the flood overflowed on the railway track at Padugupadu. Three other trains were partially cancelled or diverted.

The State Disaster Management Authority said more than two lakh cusecs of floodwater flowed out of the Somasila reservoir in SPS Nellore district, leading to the deluge.

This caused breach of the National Highway-16 at Kovuru as well.

Consequently, traffic on the NH-16 between Nellore and Vijayawada has been suspended, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded for kilometers on either side.

Hundreds of passengers were stuck in the Nellore RTC bus station as bus services were disrupted.

Vehicular traffic coming from Srikalahasti has been stopped at Tottembedu check post and diverted via Pamuru and Darsi, officials said.

In Kadapa district, a bridge on the river Papagni collapsed at Kamalapuram, cutting off road communication between Kadapa and Anantapuramu districts.

Floodwater gushing out from the Veligallu reservoir led to the bridge collapse, officials said.

In Kadapa city, a three-storied building collapsed in the wee hours of Sunday, but no casualties were reported as the inmates ran out to safety just minutes before the incident.

A mother and child, who were trapped on the second floor, were rescued by police and fire services personnel.