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Opposition creates ruckus in LS, stalls debate on food Bill
Amartya backs food Bill, condemns Parliament disruption
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China-India problem at LAC far from over
CBI: Can’t rule out Bansal’s involvement in railgate
BJP on warpath; won’t allow food, land Bills
JEE Mains result today
Term of JPC on 2G extended but Congress troubles far from over
Assam Govt to enact anti-bandh law
Explanation on police brutalities an eyewash: SC
Depositors ‘kill’ chit fund firm honcho
Banglore blasts: 5 more nabbed
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Opposition creates ruckus in LS, stalls debate on food Bill
New Delhi, May 6 Despite UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s enthusiastic leadership of the attempt, the government failed to force the Bill through the Lok Sabha after BJP members beat and thumped Speaker’s desk in a never-seen-before move to register their disapproval of the attempt by the UPA to get a vital law passed this way. “Sansad ko aag laga do (torch the house)”; “Tanashahi nahi chalegi (dictatorship won’t work)” were some slogans the Opposition raised just before it prevailed on a visibly shaken Presiding Officer Girija Vyas to adjourn the House for the day. The adjournment left Sonia surprised and she left in a jiffy, gesturing to the BJP members to go on sloganeering. Government ministers later defended the move, saying the Bill would come up for consideration tomorrow even as a stung Opposition vowed to stall all attempts of “forcing critical laws down Lok Sabha’s throat” as a BJP member put it. The ruckus began when Vyas, in the Presiding Officer’s chair at 3 pm, called Food Minister KV Thomas to table the National Food Security Bill, 2011 for consideration and passing, also allowing a debate, much to the Opposition’s surprise. The development took place after the BJP-led Opposition had allowed the motion in respect of the extension of the JPC on 2G scam to be adopted. Tabling of the food Bill caught everyone off guard with Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj repeatedly questioning the Chair for allowing such an important legislation to be taken up in the midst of lingering pandemonium. Until 3 pm, the House had seen three adjournments over Coalgate, Railgate and Akalis’ demand for SIT probe into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Uproar was still intact when the government tabled the food Bill and initiated a debate despite loud protests by the Opposition from the Well. After Thomas read a long speech introducing the Bill as landmark, Congress fielded MP Sanjay Nirupam to support the law and blame the Opposition for stalling it. He was followed by TMC’s Dinesh Trivedi who surprised everyone by supporting the Bill even as his party colleague Saugata Roy was protesting government’s “high handedness” in the Well. Among the seven speakers the government had handpicked for the day, NCP’s Sanjeev Naik and Congress’ Bhakta Charan Das (from Odisha’s Kalahandi district which suffers acute food insecurity) managed to complete their speeches in the noise.
WHAT REWORKED FOOD BILL SAYS
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Amartya backs food Bill, condemns Parliament disruption
New Delhi, May 6 He said this during a forum here where economists and Right to Food Campaign activists expressed concern over the continual stalemate in Parliament for two weeks now that has resulted with inevitable delay in debating several crucial legislations, including the National Food Security Bill (NFSB). Professor Sen lamented that the frequent adjournments of Parliament cannot be an excuse for not preventing children’s death happening owing to malnourishment and the cost of non-passage of the National Food Security Bill should be clearly discussed and the responsibility be pinned. “There will be a silence on democratic decision-making if there is no debate,” said Amartya Sen.
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China-India problem at LAC far from over
Simultaneously, another theory perpetuated by both India and China during earlier incursions in this sector as “difference of perception” about the dividing line between the two countries’ territorial control also stands exposed. Now, the Army has admitted that those were not transgressions or misperception about LAC, those, in fact were intrusions. But the Army had been admitting that they too used to cross the LAC at times because of the misperception about the LAC. It is alleged that India had intruded into Chumar area where China in 2009 had intruded with choppers and showered pamphlets claiming that it was their territory. The Indian Army had also been claiming that they also used to commit the acts of “transgression” because of the varying perception about the LAC. This time, however, China had much more dangerous plans than mere occupying a particular position inside the Indian territory. It was planning to move step by step to draw closer to the sub sector north (SSN) that overlooks Siachen glacier, the highest battle ground in the world. For the time being, China’s claim might have thrashed its own claim that it was her territory where the tents were pitched and men were deployed 19 km deep inside the Indian territory in Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO). When it pulled back, it was clear that “it was not an inadvertent entry owing to the commonly used phrase of the misperception about the existence of the LAC ,” a highly placed source in the Army told The Tribune . “The fact of the matter is that Chinese troops used to intrude and then go back. This time they stayed put for 20 days and there was a real danger that they could have expended their land grab and posed a serious danger to Siachen glacier and lower Leh,” according to the source. They had intruded and set up their tents at DBO on April 15. If the Chinese were to come up to Saser La, Indian control over the Siachen Glacier Hectic diplomacy between Delhi-Beijing which are to host Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid and Chinese premier Li Keqiang in the coming days, combined with the negotiations in the series of the flag meetings in Chishul sector in Ladakh, ended the three-week-long stand off.
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CBI: Can’t rule out Bansal’s involvement in railgate
The agency has no evidence against the Railway Minister yet. The situation will become clear only after the interrogation of Mahesh Kumar. He is yet to be questioned. He has been granted CBI remand for five days and will be questioned now. The CBI last night apprehended another accused in the case-Sushil Daga of Faridabad. With this arrest, the total number of arrested persons had gone up to nine now. Daga's name was included in the FIR. The CBI was also making efforts to Ajay Garg, who is said to be a relative of the Railway Minister. Sources said Ajay Garg was also one of the conspirators and associate of Sandeep Goyal and Vijay Singla. When the trap was laid at Singla's office in Chandigarh on May 3, he was also present there but could not be arrested. Mahesh Kumar who was the General Manager, Western Railway, in Mumbai, had joined as the Member (Staff) Railway Board on May 1. He was arrested on charges of giving bribe for getting a lucrative posting in the board.
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BJP on warpath; won’t allow food, land Bills
New Delhi, May 6 “Get the ministers to resign and run the House. We are in favour of the Bills and want a discussion on them but not unless the two ministers go,” Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said, signifying further downgrade of Opposition’s relations with the government as she slammed it over the “covert” way the Food Bill was “sneaked” in the House. Sushma said even though the BJP leaders did not attend the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), in line with the party’s decision to boycott meetings called by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath for not allowing them to air views in Parliament last week, those present at the BAC said no mention was made of the Food Bill. Calling it a “diversionary tactic” to deflect attention from corruption charges against its key ministers, she said even Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party gives external support to the government, said the legislation should not be passed amid chaos. Clearly, the BJP is on a warpath and is seizing all opportunities to target the beleaguered party but it also does not want to risk bringing a no-confidence motion against the government, fearing isolation. Sushma and her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, issued a joint statement slamming Kumar and Bansal while the party’s youth wing held demonstrations outside the residence of the Railway Minister, which is opposite the party headquarters at the Ashoka Road. “Affidavit of the CBI Director, though couched in a careful language, effectively highlights the extent of interference made by the government and the efforts to conceal the truth. Two law officers of the government, namely the Attorney General and the Additional Solicitor General, lied to the court. The falsehood being propagated by the Minister of Law and Justice that he has done no wrong and that no significant changes were made in the Status Report is factually wrong,” they said.
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JEE Mains result today
New Delhi, May 6 The CBSE will also publish the list of top 1.5 lakh candidates in JEE Mains who will be eligible to take the JEE Advanced test for entry to the IIT system. JEE Advanced will be held on June 2. JEE Main scores will not yield much at this point except tell the IIT exam qualifiers. Final merit list for JEE Mains will be published in July after results of all 29 school boards, including the CBSE, are declared. From this year, all technical institutions, except IITs, will give weightage of 60 pc to JEE Mains scores and 40 pc to school marks for preparing merit of all 12 lakh JEE Main candidates. The HRD Ministry has finalised the formula to combine the scores of school and entrance test for preparing the merit list. This formula gives consideration to the fact that different school boards have different difficulty levels and award different marks to students. “While you can’t compare two students with 50 pc marks in Tamil Nadu Board and West Bengal Board because the latter is tougher, you can compare their percentiles. Percentile is the proportion of students worse than you. If your percentile is 90 it means only 10 pc students are better than you. Final formula will use marks to percentile conversions of students to finalise merits,” Prof Sunil Sarangi, Director, Rourkela NIT, and member, government’s normalisation committee, told TNS today. MERIT CALCULATON
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Term of JPC on 2G extended but Congress troubles far from over
New Delhi, May 6 The extension came after JPC Chairman PC Chacko moved a motion in the Lok Sabha seeking more time as the panel has been unable to fulfil the mandate Parliament gave to it at the time of its constitution - that is to report back on 2G scam. The JPC’s term was to end with the end of the Budget Session on May 10. An otherwise paralysed House unanimously adopted the motion, though the extension of the committee doesn’t in any way indicate end of troubles for the ruling Congress. The BJP and Left members of the JPC today said they would now work for a new report. CPI leader in the Lok Sabha and JPC member Gurudas Dasgupta said, “The current draft report is not acceptable to us in any form. Now that there is more time, we will work for a new report. We were for JPC’s extension because we didn’t want that the panel should not submit its report as mandated by Parliament.” Asked if members would attempt to prevail in the JPC to call more witnesses (the BJP, DMK, SP and Left have been demanding that the Prime Minister, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and former Telecom Minister A Raja be examined), Dasgupta said, “We will try to do that.” The BJP members of the JPC also reiterated that the draft report circulated was not acceptable because it gave a clean chit to the PM and Chidambaram without affording the committee ample opportunity to examine their role.
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Assam Govt to enact anti-bandh law
Guwahati, May 6 As frequent bandhs and other agitation programmes called by various organisations in the state cause irreparable damage to the economy besides infringing upon the fundamental rights of the citizens, the government is taking steps to enact a law to impose ban on such bandhs. An official source said in the light of the relevant Supreme Court judgement and similar verdicts by some other high courts in the country, the state government has constituted a committee headed by Justice (retd) KN Saikia to draft legislation for banning bandhs. On December 4, 2012, the government formed a task force to explore options for formulation of a special law to prohibit bandhs in the state. The task force was chaired by Additional Director General of Police (Economic Offences) J Chakraborty and comprised of Commissioner of Panchayat and Rural Development KK Dwivedi, Assam Police DIG (Economic Offences) Anurag Goel, Joint Secretary (Home) Nitin Khade and Deputy Secretary of Legislature Department M Begum. The task force submitted its report to the government on February 15 recommending formulation of a suitable legislation for imposing ban on unconstitutional bandhs called by various organisations. The task force in its report has mentioned how frequent bandhs called by various organisations over varied issues affect life and economy of the state. The task force not only recommended action to ban bandhs but also other forms of agitation like road blockade that have adverse impact on the economy as well as normal life of the citizens. The task force in the report mentioned that bandh culture took roots in the state during the Assam Agitation in 1979-1983 against illegal migration from Bangladesh and during subsequent of period of 1988-1990 when the statehood movement by the Bodo tribe was at its peak.
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Explanation on police brutalities an eyewash: SC
New Delhi, May 6 "There is always an eyewash,", a Bench headed by justice GS Singhvi said after perusing the affidavits filed by the Delhi Police on behalf of Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and the UP Chief Secretary. While the SC had sought an explanation from Delhi Police for a senior police officer slapping a girl protesting the rape of a minor, the UP Chief Secretary was directed to explain why a 65-year-old woman was assaulted by the police in Aligarh during a protest against the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl. — PTI
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Depositors ‘kill’ chit fund firm honcho
Hooghly/Barasat, May 6 Jayanta Sarkar, a director of Hello India chit fund, was allegedly killed with a sharp weapon at his home last night by suspected depositors at Chunchura in Hooghly district. According to the FIR, Abhijit Saha and Abdullah Rashid from Coochbehar and Biplab Biswas from Haringhata, killed her husband and draped the body in a cloth before they fled. The number of people who committed suicide after the Saradha Group went bust rose to eight with the 60-year-old father of a chit fund company agent ending his life in North 24-Parganas district. — PTI
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Banglore blasts: 5 more nabbed
Bangalore, May 6 "The five suspects, Rehmathulla, Asgar Ali, Hakeem, Tenkasi Suleman and Suleman were taken on body warrant from Coimbatore. The suspects have been produced before the court here", he said. — PTI
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Mathura
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New Delhi, May 6
With only four working days left before curtains draw on yet another unproductive session of Parliament, the main Opposition BJP today made it absolutely clear that the Congress-led UPA could forget about pushing through its “game-changer” legislations -- the National Food Security Bill, which was taken up for discussion
today.
Jammu, May 6
New Delhi, May 6
