Maoist leader Renuka with Rs 5 lakh bounty, killed in Chhattisgarh encounter (Ld)

Jaipur, March 1 (IANS) Rajasthan Roadways’ Delhi Depot has been consistently moving towards profitability for the past five months, marking a significant turnaround in its financial performance. The depot registered an increase of 1.12 crore in February this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.

Chief Manager of Delhi Depot, Pulkit Kumar, announced that the total booking income for February 2025 reached Rs 3.37 crore, reflecting an increase of Rs 1.12 crore compared to Rs 2.25 crore in February 2024.

Pulkit Kumar credited this success to the guidance of Rajasthan Roadways chairperson Shubhra Singh and managing director Purushottam Sharma, along with the dedication of booking clerks.

He highlighted the recent introduction of UPI-based online payment services in ETIM (Electronic Ticket Issuing Machines) at the Delhi Depot has been implemented under the direction of the Jaipur headquarters.

This has significantly contributed to revenue growth, with UPI transactions alone generating Rs 34 lakh in February 2025.

Remarkably, this accounts for 20 per cent of Rajasthan Roadways’ total ETIM UPI transactions across all depots.

Delhi Depot’s monthly booking revenue has steadily increased over the last five months.

In October 2024, it was Rs 2.67 crore, in November 2024: Rs 3.45 crore, in December 2024: Rs 3.04 crore, in January 2025: Rs 2.94 crore and in February 2025 it rose to Rs 3.37 crore.

Pulkit Kumar congratulated the booking clerks of Delhi Depot, acknowledging their hard work and dedication in achieving this financial milestone.

This continued success highlights Rajasthan Roadways’ commitment to efficiency, innovation, and passenger convenience, setting a positive example for further operational improvements, said officials.

The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) has depots in Delhi, including ISBT Kashmiri Gate and ISBT Sarai Kale Khan.

Officials said that since October last year, Roadways Chairman Shubhra Singh took new measures and the Roadways management started operating 8 new deluxe AC buses on the New Delhi-Jaipur route, which significantly increased the booking income of the Delhi depot.

They said that due to the operation of these new buses, despite a lot of competition with private AC bus operators on the New Delhi-Jaipur route, Rajasthan Roadways has been successful in earning good passenger load by maintaining the presence of its deluxe vehicles on this route.

–IANS

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Srinagar, Feb 28 (IANS) Moderate rain and snow occurred in Jammu and Kashmir during the last 24 hours, ending the over 50-day-long dry spell.

The Meteorological (MeT) office has forecasted more precipitation during the next 24 hours on Friday.

Srinagar city recorded 3.4 cms of snowfall, Gulmarg 60 cms and Pahalgam 23 cms. Jammu city recorded 77.4 mm of rainfall, Banihal 100.4 mm, Batote 163.7 mm, Katra 118.6 mm and Bhaderwah 72 mm of rainfall till this morning.

The minimum temperature was zero degrees Celsius in Srinagar city, Gulmarg was minus 2 degrees, and Pahalgam was minus 0.4.

Jammu city had 11.2 degrees Celsius, Katra 8.8 degrees, Batote and Banihal both zero and Bhaderwah minus 0.2 as the minimum temperature.

During the month of January and up to February 26, Jammu and Kashmir had recorded 83 per cent deficit rainfall. Due to heavy downpour for the last two days, the overall deficit for January and February has come down to 65 per cent.

All the water resources of Kashmir, including rivers, streams, springs, lakes, and other water bodies, depend for their survival on the perennial water reservoirs in the higher reaches that get replenished each year by heavy snowfall during the winter.

Scant snowfall this winter, followed by a prolonged dry spell, had triggered fears of drought in the union territory. Rain and snow during the last two days have addressed those fears of the locals to a large extent.

The 40-day period of extreme winter cold called the ‘Chillai Kalan, ’ which started on December 21 and ended on January 30, witnessed just one major snowfall on December 28 last year.

A generally dry Chillai Kalan followed by a prolonged dry spell in January and February had triggered panic in farmers, fruit growers and the common man in the Valley. Due to the dry spell, some of the springs in different parts of the Valley, including the historic Achabal spring in Anantnag district, had gone dry. These springs are now back to life with gushing water discharge.

–IANS

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New Delhi, March 31 (IANS) During this year’s (2025) Ramadan, Pakistan experienced a surge in militant violence, marking the highest number of attacks in a decade. This was disclosed in a new report released by a think tank on Monday.

Interestingly, the militant groups which had previously observed ceasefires during Ramadan continued to target people frequently during this holy period. As a result, the country saw a steady rise in violence, with extremist factions continuing their offensive actions.

Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) revealed “a troubling increase in militant activity, recording a total of 84 attacks throughout the month of Ramadan”, which concluded on Sunday. This was a significant rise compared to last year’s figure of 26 attacks during the same period.

One of the primary contributors to the escalation in violence is the Pakistani Taliban, which ended a ceasefire with the government in November 2022. However, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, this year on March 29 announced a three-day ceasefire during Eid-ul-Fitr.

In addition, Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has grown in strength, increasingly carrying out sophisticated attacks across the country.

A particularly brutal incident occurred on March 11, when the BLA hijacked a train in the southwestern province of Balochistan, resulting in at least 25 fatalities.

Another think tank, the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, recorded 61 militant attacks within the first three weeks of Ramadan, a slight increase from the 60 attacks recorded in the same period last year. This was the deadliest Ramadan in a decade for security personnel, with 56 killed between March 2 and March 20, according to this institute’s findings.

The uptick in violence is being attributed by experts to a general escalation in militant activity, including a unification of various groups. According to them, factions of the Baloch militants were collaborating more closely. Moreover, groups like the Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction had become more lethal, even competing with the Pakistani Taliban in some regions as well.

Revival of banned outfits such as Lashkar-e-Islam, operating from the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is also one of the reasons behind the increasing militant attacks. Pakistan has long accused the Taliban-led government in neighbouring Afghanistan of providing refuge to these militant groups. Kabul has, however, been denying such claims of Pakistan. However, the resurgence of these factions has raised concerns about the spillover of militancy from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

At the same time, intelligence lapses have also been cited as a contributing factor to the escalating violence. It is reported that a lack of proper intelligence inputs was also one of the factors leading to the train hijacking.

Meanwhile, security and strategic affairs experts say that the situation in other Islamic countries was not good either. In total, this year’s Ramadan saw 254 Islamic militant attacks across 20 countries, resulting in the deaths of 2,007 people and leaving 626 others injured, says a report. Pakistan now ranks higher than Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria on global terrorism indices, underlining the gravity of the situation and the ongoing challenges the country faces in combating extremism, say experts.

–IANS

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