Amid power crisis, boiling heat, it's Centre vs Delhi on coal

HT Daily News Wrap

Amid power crisis, boiling heat, it's Centre vs Delhi on coal, Mayawati slams Akhilesh Yadav and says never dreamt of becoming country's president, Russia confirms air Strike on Kyiv during UN Chief’s Visit and other top news in this bulletin.
As Delhi stares at a power crisis, like several other states in the country, the city-state’s power minister Satyendar Jain on Friday raised an alarm. “No (power) backup (is there).. . (the) coal backup should be for over 21 days, but at many power plants, less than a day’s (stock) is left,” Jain said at a press briefing, a day after he held an emergency meeting over the issue. The minister pointed out that the city “cannot function on a day’s backup. His remarks come as the national capital is facing a brutal spell of heatwave, which has led to an increase in the power consumption. The issue has triggered a fresh row between the centre and the state as the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited defied claims linked to coal shortage, triggeting power crisis. Mayawati, who heads the Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP), on Friday said Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who wanted her to become the prime minister, could not even fulfil his own dream of becoming a chief minister. In a series of tweets in Hindi, the BSP supremo took aim at Yadav, with whom she had tied up ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. “When the SP chief could not fulfil his own dream of becoming the chief minister (of Uttar Pradesh) even after securing the votes of Muslims and Yadavs and forming an alliance with several parties, how would he manage to meet someone else’s aspiration to become the prime minister.” Russia’s defence ministry on Friday confirmed it had carried out an air strike on Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “High-precision, long-range air-based weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in Kyiv,” the ministry said in its daily briefing on the conflict in Ukraine. The United States reported its first known case of H5 bird flu in a human with the virus appearing in a person in Colorado. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the person tested positive for avian influenza A(H5) virus and was involved in the culling of poultry presumed to have had H5N1 bird flu. However, the case does not change the human risk assessment for the general public, which the CDC considers to be low. This is the second human case associated with this specific group of H5 viruses across the globe. The first one was reported in Britain in December 2021. Maheep Kapoor of Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives is celebrating her 40th birthday on Friday. Her husband Sanjay Kapoor, and their children Shanaya Kapoor and Jahaan Kapoor were among those who took to social media to mark the day. Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor also shared unseen pictures of Maheep to wish her on the occasion. Rishabh Pant on Thursday perished on just two and the Delhi Capitals skipper was also questioned for a couple of captaincy calls. While the Delhi outfit posted a comfortable four-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders to keep their playoff hopes alive, Pant received some flak for not completing Kuldeep Yadav’s full quota of overs despite the chinaman bowler returning 4/14 in his three.