Daily News Dose: KSEB tariff, bus fare hike likely soon | Mar 13, 2022

Hello listener, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Ajish Jimmy George, and these are the major news stories of the day:

1. KSEB seeks big tariff hike
2. Bus fare hike likely soon in Kerala
3. Fort Kochi hotelier Roy Vayalat surrenders before police.
4. Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma arrested for rash driving
5. Another woman complains against bridal makeup artist Anez Anzare

Let’s get into the details.

1) KSEB has sought a 5-15% increase in power tariffs and a 43-167% increase in fixed charges across various slabs for domestic consumers from the next fiscal, 2022-23. The power utility wants the new tariffs from April 1, 2022, when the validity of the existing tariffs will expire.

The minimum tariff, applicable for those using 0-40 units a month, will be retained at 1.50 per unit. The maximum rate, reserved for large households consuming more than 500 units a month, will be increased from Rs 7.90 to Rs 8.30 a unit. The proposed increase would hike domestic tariffs in various consumption slabs from Rs 30 to Rs 850 a month.

The proposed rates were laid out in the petition KSEB Limited had filed before the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission. In addition, KSEBL wants annual tariff increases till 2026-27.

2) Bus fares in Kerala is set to go up. State Transport Minister Antony Raju on Sunday said the bus operators' demand to raise the charges was justifiable. The minister did not specify the rates to be hiked.

The minister said the concession rates allowed for students will also have to be hiked. He warned that permits of buses which refuse to carry students will be revoked.

3) Roy J Vayalat, the owner of No 18 hotel in Fort Kochi who is the prime accused in a POCSO case, surrendered before the police on Sunday.

He turned up before the police even as the cops had launched a manhunt for him after the Supreme Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea. The police had recently searched Vayalat's relatives' houses.


4) Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly ramming into a senior police official's car in February and later was released on bail, a senior official confirmed the incident on Sunday.

5) Another young woman has lodged a complaint with the police against leading Kochi-based bridal makeup artist Anez Anzare who is in the eye of a MeToo storm.

The woman, a Keralite working in Australia, filed the complaint on email. According to the complaint, Anzare spoke to her with sexual overtone and abused her while doing her bridal makeup in 2015.

Based on the e-mail complaints from three young women to the Kochi City Police Commissioner, the Palarivattom police on Friday registered a case against the owner of 'Anez Anzare Unisex Salon Bridal Makeup Studio' at Vyttila in Kochi.

Now, let’s check out the covid update

6) India logged 3,116 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,29,90,991, while the active cases dipped to 38,069.

The death toll climbed to 5,15,850 with 47 fresh fatalities.
The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.41 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was 0.50 per cent.

That brings us to the end of this episode! Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.