Chandigarh:

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema on Friday said an investigation by the state Tax Department’s Enforcement Wing has uncovered fake billing scams worth thousands of crore.

Two firms dealing in gold were found to have generated fake bills of Rs 860 crore, while 303 firms dealing in iron were involved in fake billings of Rs 4,044 crore.

Additionally, 68 firms were found to have engaged in fake billing of Rs 533 crore after getting their firms registered in others’ names.

Cheema said on inspection of a firm dealing in gold in Amritsar, the enforcement wing found that fake bills of Rs 336 crore were made for the sale and purchase of gold.

He said the registration of the two firms from which the firm had shown that it purchased the gold had been cancelled, and these firms further had no record of purchasing any gold.

Referring to the Ludhiana-based firm which did similar manipulation in gold transactions, the minister said gold sale-purchase was made against fake bills of Rs 424 crore by it.

He said that in this case as well, the registration of the two firms from which the firm has shown purchases of gold had been cancelled. These firms further had no record of purchasing any gold.

Giving information about the fake sale-purchase of iron of Rs 4,044 crore by 303 firms, Cheema said 11 firms out of them are registered with Punjab, 86 firms with other states, and 206 firms with the Central government.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The BJP on Saturday named its candidates for 11 more Lok Sabha constituencies, fielding a number of leaders who joined it from different parties recently such as Bhartruhari Mahtab, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Sushil Kumar Rinku and Preneet Kaur.

All these leaders have been fielded from the seats they represent in the outgoing Lok Sabha, while former Indian ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu will be making his poll debut from Amritsar.

Hans Raj Hans, who had won from North West Delhi in 2019 on a BJP ticket, will contest from the Faridkot seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs).

Veteran parliamentarian Mahtab, who quit the BJD recently, will contest from Cuttack, Bittu from Ludhiana, Kaur from Patiala, and Rinku from Jalandhar, a seat reserved for SCs.

Both Bittu, the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, and Kaur, the wife of former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, were in the Congress before joining the BJP, while Rinku was in the Aam Aadmi Party.

The BJP on Sunday named two candidates from West Bengal, three from Odisha and six from Punjab.

It has so far announced its candidates for 411 seats. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Dehradun, Uttarakhand:

The central government has approved the flight operations from Dehradun to three major cities of the country – Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, Varanasi and Punjab’s Amritsar, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said today.

The chief minister further said that all three services will be launched on March 6, Wednesday.

Chief Minister Dhami expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for the approval of all three services.

According to the chief minister’s office, on the inauguration day, a plane will take off from Dehradun for Ayodhya at 9:40 am and reach Ayodhya at 11:30 am.

“On the same day, a flight will take off from Ayodhya at 12:15 pm and reach Dehradun at 1:55 pm,” it added.

Another flight will take off from Amritsar at noon and reach Dehradun at 01:10 pm.

“Similarly, the flight from Dehradun will take off for Amritsar at 1:35 pm and will reach Amritsar at 2: 45 pm,” the CMO added.

Air service to Varanasi via Pantnagar is also starting on March 6.

“The passenger plane will take off from Dehradun for Pantnagar at 9:50 am and reach Pantnagar at 10:35 am. Similarly, a flight will take off from Pantnagar to Varanasi at 11:15 am and land in Varanasi at 1 pm. The flight from Varanasi will take off for Pantnagar at 1.40 pm and reach Pantnagar at 3:25 pm. The flight will take off from Pantnagar at 3:50 pm and reach Dehradun at 4:35 pm,” the CMO said.

According to the CM’s office, Dhami had been trying for a long time to start air services for all three places.

“Before the Pran Pratishtah ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya, the CM had personally requested and written a letter to Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia,” it said.

Dehradun Airport is a medium-sized airport in India with domestic flights only. On the other hand, Ayodhya recently got its first airport, which has been named Maharishi Valmiki International Airport. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the airport on December 30 last year.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)