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Kingfisher cancels flights as pilots go on strike

New Delhi/Mumbai: Several flights of Kingfisher were cancelled today due to a strike by pilots to protest against the non-payment of wages for almost five months. 

Three flights from Mumbai and several across the airline’s entire network were cancelled. 

An airline spokesperson said, “A certain section of employees have decided to stay away from duties due to salary payments not being credited to the bank accounts of all employees by Friday. Kingfisher wishes to state that more than 75 per cent of employees have actually received their promised salaries on Friday”. 

“We have further promised that the balance of our employees will receive their salaries by Monday”, the spokesman said. 

The passengers booked on these flights have either been re-booked or given refunds, he said. 

This is the third time in the last twelve days that the pilots have struck work. The earlier strike on July 11 saw 12 flights getting cancelled. 

The strike on July 2 was called off after a few hours with the management promising to pay salaries to some sections of staff from July 6. 

Kingfisher is, at present, carrying out truncated domestic and international operations with about 15 aircraft, in place of 64. 

A large number of its flight engineers have reportedly quit over the past five months, primarily due to delayed payments. In April, around 200 engineers reported sick as a mark of protest over the issue. 

The airline, which has not posted profit since inception in May 2005, has reported a loss of Rs.1,151.50 crore in the March quarter, has a debt of over Rs.7,500 crore and almost an equal amount of accumulated losses. — PTI

PM directs Planning Commission to address gaps in NREGA

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday expressed surprise that concurrent evaluation of NREGA scheme is “not in good shape” and directed the Planning Commission to address the deficiency and “gaps“. 

Making it clear that he was not “fully satisfied” with the way the scheme is working, he noted the problems like delayed payment to workers under the government’s flagship and said these should be addressed at the earliest. 

“The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA story in numbers is a story worth telling...the scheme scores high on inclusivness...no welfare scheme in recent memory has caught the imagination of the people as much as NREGA has,” Dr Singh said. 

”...(but) statistics do not tell the whole truth,” he said while releasing ‘NREGA Sameeksha”, a collection of research studies conducted on the programme under which Rs 1,10,000 crore have been spent to pay wages to 1,200 crore people. 

Dr Singh said he was “surprised to hear from (Rural Development Minister) Jairam Ramesh that concurrent evaluation processes are not in good shape“. 

He referred to the “gaps” highlighted by Jairam Ramesh and Planning Commission member Mihir Shah that need to be fixed. 

Concurrent evaluation is the assessment of the impact of the scheme while it is implemented, without waiting for annual or any other periodic audit. 

“I don’t know why they are languishing, if they are at all languishing. But I would request (Planning Commission Deputy Chairman) Montek (Singh Ahluwalia) to apply his mind to making good this deficiency as well,” he said. 

Both Ramesh and Ahluwalia were present at the programme. 

The Prime Minister recalled that when he was in the Planning Commission, the process of concurrent evaluation was started for a number of programmes of rural development. 

Referring to the issue of delayed payments to NREGA workforce, he said, “sooner we tackle this problem of delayed payments, I think better results would be in the offing.” 

The ‘Sameeksha’ contains Ramesh’s admission about issues like misappropriation of funds plaguing the implementation of NREGA. 

“Though the achievements of MNREGA have been impressive, there have been issues with regard to its implementation that need to be recognised and addressed meaningfully. ...There has been public concern over misappropriation of funds and resources, and leakages in MNREGA,” he has written. 

Dr Singh took note of mention by Ramesh in the ‘Sameeksha’ that NREGA was perhaps the “largest and most ambitious” social security and public works programme in the world. 

He pointed out that nearly 5.50 crore families or nearly one in four rural households were provided over 250 crore person-days of work under the programme. 

Dr Singh said the safety net provided by the scheme has helped rural India cope with the frequent distress and natural disasters. 

“The combined effect of expanded agricultural production, demand for labour from the construction sector and the effect of MGNREGA has led to tightening of the market for agricultural labour and a steady rise in real wages. Farmers sometimes complain about this. But rising demand for labour is the only way to help the landless improve their standard of living,” Dr Singh said. 

He said the Panchayati Raj institutions have to gear themselves to play a central role assigned to them under the scheme and stressed the need to provide the resources to help panchayats to perform the function effectively. 

“If these local bodies can rise to the challenge, MGNREGA can very well become a silver bullet for India’s rural renewal,” he said. 

Dr. Singh felt designing more flexible and community based approaches was a major challenge before policy makers to encourage implementing agency to be innovative and responsive to local needs. 

Referring to the issue of gender equality, Dr Singh said according to a study, a silent revolution is taking place among rural women due to NREGA. 

“Wage disparities are being reduced and women are coming out more in the public sphere to take up work and interact with banks, post offices and government officials. This has done wonders for their self-confidence and given them a greater say in financial matters of the household,” he said. 

Speaking on the occasion, Jairam Ramesh said while audits, investigations and “post mortems” take place, they were no substitute to concurrent audit and hoped his proposal to the Planning Commission to put in place dedicated network for the same is approved. 

He felt that the concurrent audit should be handled by independent evaluation office to be set up under the plan panel. 

He said in an effort to strengthen the capacity of Panchayati Raj institutions through investment in technology, his Ministry was ready to give some money from NREGA funds to the Panchayati Raj Ministry. He said “bureaucratic problems” like transferring funds from one ministry to the other could be settled. — PTI

UPA meet to discuss V-P poll

New Delhi: A meeting of the UPA and its allies will be held on Saturday to hold consultations to decide on the nominee for the Vice-President's post. Though officially the Congress has said a formal decision on the nominee is yet to be taken, sources said that Vice-President Hamid Ansari is likely to be fielded by the Congress for a second term.

The Trinamool Congress, which skipped the UPA meeting to decide the Presidential nominee, would attend the meeting represented by railway minister Mukul Roy and he is expected to put forward their own choice.

According to reports, the Trinamool is keen on former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi or Krishna Bose, a relative of Netaji Subhas Bose.

A second term for incumbent Ansari appears certain with several parties in the alliance and outside giving their support to his candidature.

The last day for filing nomination for Vice-Presidential election is July 20 and elections for the post is scheduled to be held on Augus

Ex-partner: Pinki falsely implicated

Kolkata: Pinki Pramanik’s former live-in partner, on whose charges the former athlete was arrested, took a complete u-turn on Friday saying that she brought rape charges against her on the behest of Avtar Singh, husband of former Asian Games medallist and ex-CPM MP Jyotirmoyee Sikdar.

She said that Avtar Singh had some land dispute with Pramanik, for which he needed to prove that Pinki was a male. This comes after Bengal sports minister Madan Mitra claimed a few day back that a person who was arrested in 2004 had tried to grab the lands of the sportspersons allocated by the Left Front government in 2006.

It was learnt that Avtar had also tried to usurp Pinki’s three-cottah land off the EM Bypass. Sikdar, who supported Pinki and spoke against the arrest, denied any involvement of her husband, saying that the current regime was trying to implicate her husband falsely.

But Pinki’s former partner described the story which led to Pramanik’s arrest. "After a tiff over payments, Singh told me over phone we need to show the world Pinki is a male," the woman told TOI, hinting that the plan was to portray Pramanik as a fraud and pack her away to prison.

"Their problem started after Pinki demanded more money for the plot of land where Singh is building a highrise. Singh paid her a part of the Rs 30lakh Pinki demanded but their bickering continued," she said.

Sylvester Stallone's son found dead

Los Angeles: Sylvester Stallone was described as "devastated" on Friday after his 36-year-old son Sage, who is also an actor, was found dead.

Sage Moonblood Stallone, who appeared in the 1990s as Rocky Balboa Jr, the son of his father's title character, was found dead at his Hollywood home, media reports said.

"Sylvester Stallone is devastated and grief-stricken over the sudden loss of his son, Sage Stallone. His loss will be felt forever," said a statement issued by his publicist, Michelle Bega.

"His compassion and thoughts are with Sage's mother, Sasha," the statement added, referring to the Rocky star's first wife. "Sage was a very talented and wonderful young man."

The Hollywood A-lister, who is currently promoting his latest movie Expendables 2, was a "wreck," celebrity news website TMZ reported, adding that paramedics were called but Sage was pronounced dead at the scene.

TMZ cited unidentified sources as saying that he had died of an overdose of pills, adding that authorities were trying to establish whether the death was intentional or accidental.

Sage Stallone's attorney George Braunstein said the young actor was not known to be depressed.

"I got a terrible call a few hours ago ... when the housekeeper opened the door and they found what had happened," he told NBC 4 television, adding: "I'm personally devastated. It's just a tragic, tragic loss.

"He was an extremely good actor, a good writer/director, really one of those people who was extremely respectful of Hollywood. He loved his mom and dad. He was a talented, talented person."

He added to the New York Post: "He was in good spirits, and working on all kinds of projects... He was planning on getting married. I am just devastated. He was an extremely wonderful, loving guy. This is a tragedy." 

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, reported to be handling the case, told AFP: "We are in the initial stages of our investigation" but gave no further details.

A spokesman for the LA Police Department (LAPD) said he could not confirm the death, adding: "There's a death investigation, they're waiting for the coroner to identify the body." — AFP