ONGC, partners bag 17 blocks under Nelp-VIII

State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) walked away with more than half of the 33 oil and gas blocks awarded to successful bidders of the recently-concluded eighth round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp).

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the award of 33 of the 36 exploration areas that were bid under the Nelp round, which closed on October 12, Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters today.

Of the 70 blocks offered under Nelp-VIII, only 36 attracted bids, with ONGC and partners bidding for 25 — the maximum. The state-owned company and its partner won 17 areas.

Dearness allowance
The Union Cabinet today decided to release an additional instalment of dearness allowance (DA) to central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners, with effect from January 1, 2010. This represents an increase of 8 per cent over the existing rate of 27 per cent of the basic pay/pension and aims to compensate for price rise.

AIIMS-like institution
The Cabinet also approved the Revised Cost Estimates (RCE) to set up six new institutions like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and upgrade 13 existing government medical colleges.

CCEA had earlier approved Rs 3,975 crore for the scheme and, with the additional funds, the total outlay now stands at Rs 9,307 crore.

The new institutions or upgraded facilities in the existing medical colleges would provide tertiary health care facilities under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Swashthya Suraksha Yojana.

Due to changes in the cost and scope of the works, the requirement of funds has trebled, which necessitated a fresh Cabinet approval.

Population register
It also approved the creation of National Population Register of usual residents of the country. The project would cover an estimated population of 1.2 billion and the total cost of the scheme is Rs 3,539.24 crore.