-PTI No impact in Kerala, lukewarm response to the stir in Tamil Nadu The nationwide bandh called by the NDA and Left parties to protest the petrol price hike today evoked a mixed response amid incidents of stone pelting, arson and road blockades in Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal. In the national capital, the bandh did not evoke much response though party supporters blocked traffic in some places. Small shops were seen open...

Over 2000 impoverished Burmese asylum-seekers from across India, camping on the streets of Delhi pleading for refugee status were dealt a double whammy. On Tuesday afternoon, even as a delegation of Burmese met UN officials to sort out their problems, they were forced out of their temporary shelter in Vasant Kunj by police, dumped into Buses and rickshaws and told to find their way home. To make matters worse, their...

The government is planning to tighten the rules for issuing and renewing driving licences to make the process “fudge proof” after a study showed drivers’ fault accounted for most road accidents in the country. A committee of state transport commissioners and officials from the National Informatics Centre recently came up with suggestions on possible amendments to the rules. The panel, headed by Andhra Pradesh transport commissioner Hiralal Samariya, has submitted its report...

-The Telegraph The Union urban development ministry has proposed three new taxes on private vehicle owners: on vehicle purchases, petrol and insurance. The aim is to fund public transport in cities and deter the use of private vehicles The Rs 40,000 crore that the ministry proposes to raise annually through the “green surcharge”, “green cess” and “urban transport tax” is to go to a national urban transport fund that will finance transport schemes. Urban...

Traffic in Kolkata was a mess on Tuesday after auto owners and drivers put blockades at different important intersections of the city and its fringes. The updated police report says that at least eight important roads are blocked since morning due to the agitation. Since Monday, hundreds of auto divers and owners descended on the roads in protest of the excessive hike in LPG price. "In the past one year LPG is...