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Bill on rural employment okayed
PM for 8 per cent growth rate
No let-up in relief for ‘84 survivors, PM assures Punjab MPs
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Cabinet reshuffle before PM’s trip to UN?
No confrontation with judiciary: govt
Gogoi slaps ban on information dissemination
Dissidents step up oust-Modi campaign
BJP meeting in Chennai as per schedule, says Advani
Fissures in Left on Buta issue
Scrap black list, says Tarlochan Infiltration increasing, says Pranab Bangalore Diary
Karisma’s husband seeks ‘in camera’ hearing
2 engineers suspended for building collapse
Report on drug prices on Aug 26
Stamp on Guru Granth Sahib
26 crore persons below poverty line
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Bill on rural employment okayed New Delhi, August 24 The ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, which was passed yesterday by Lok Sabha, seeks to ensure at least 100 days wage employment to every rural household in a year in 200 districts to start with, a minumum wages of Rs 60 per day, primary role to Panchayats and one third of the job would be given preferably to women. The Bill also provides for unemployment allowance and has a legal backing unlike the earlier schemes of the state and Central government. The scheme would be extended to all the 600 districts in the country in the next five years, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said, winding up the marathon debate on the legislation. The scheme, which entails an estimated outgo of Rs 20,000-25,000 crore a year, would be financed 90 per cent by the Centre and State governments contributing only 10 per cent for paying the wages to rural households for an estimated 20-25 million people who would seek employment under the scheme.
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PM for 8 per cent growth rate
New Delhi, August 24 Intervening in the discussion on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill in the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister said if the economy grew by 7-8 per cent, the government would have enough resources to finance the scheme and other measures being taken to tackle poverty and unemployment. Terming the Bill as a “path-breaking legislation” and a “landmark for social equity and justice”, he said it was a means to avert distress to the rural poor and uplift them. Admitting that the amount that a household could earn from participating in programmes under the scheme was low, he said it would supplement the income of landless labourers during the period of unemployment or under-employment. The Bill, which was passed yesterday by the Lok Sabha, seeks to ensure at least 100 days wage employment to every rural household in a year in 200 districts to start with. Dr Manmohan Singh said the government would cover the entire country under the scheme in the next four or five years. He said there had been many employment generation programmes in the past but it was the first time that right to work had been recognised. Observing that the country needed significant foreign direct investment, the Prime Minister said large amounts of capital was waiting to come to India. “We should have the vision and capability to absorb it,” he said. The Prime Minister referred to the visit of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to Singapore and Indonesia. “The wisdom he has brought to bear as Chief Minister needs to be emulated,” he said. He said those involved in the process of governance should ensure that all steps were taken to sustain the desired rate of economic growth. Emphasising the need for rapid development of infrastructure, he said the pace of industrialisation had not been fast enough to absorb rural poor as was envisaged at the time of Independence. “As much as 60 per cent of our population continues to live in villages. We have to increase the tempo of labour-friendly industrial growth,” he said. Emphasising that the industry should use latest technology, he said an environment had to be created to foster faster industrial growth. “The combined fiscal deficit of the Centre and the state at 10 per cent of GDP is among the highest in the world. It is essential that fiscal health is not jeopardised,” he said. Referring to the financial condition of state electricity borads, the Prime Minister said they had no money for expansion. “The culture of subsidy to those who do not deserve is pernicious,” he said. Expressing concern that oil PSUs have started incurring cash losses, Dr Manmohan Singh said ways had to be found so that PSUs could discharge their role as major engines of economic growth. “My heart weeps... some of them are making losses. It is negation of good governance,” he said. The role of public sector as major entity in growth process should not be undermined. |
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No let-up in relief for ‘84 survivors,
New Delhi, August 24 The MPs expressed their appreciation of the Prime Minister’s poignant statement on the Nanavati Commission Report on the anti-Sikh riots and sought prompt compensation to the surviving beneficiaries in keeping with the quantum provided for an affected family anywhere in the country. When the delegation took up other important issues connected with Punjab, the Prime Minister said it would be possible to work out a suitable package for the Punjab Agriculture University in Ludhiana as a part of the Indo-US Cooperation agreement. Dr Singh had no doubt that the Punjab Agriculture University had the potential for being leveraged into an international centre for research and development and that he had specifically referred to this in his recent discussions with the Bush administration in Washington. The MPs demanded that the Punjab Agriculture University should be given a grant of Rs 100 crore to upgrade its infrastructure in keeping with the support extended to the Indian Institute of Sciences at Bangalore. |
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Cabinet reshuffle before PM’s trip to UN? New Delhi, August 24 As of now, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a packed schedule ahead. On his return from a two-day trip to Afghanistan on Monday, Dr Singh travels to Lucknow, Chennai and Thiruvanathapuram from September 1 to 3 for official programmes. On his return, he will get busy with the forthcoming India-European Union (EU) summit on September 7 and 8 to be presided over by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Prime Minister leaves for France and New York on September 11. Given this schedule, UPA and Congress insiders are looking at the period between September 4 to 7 or September 10 when a Cabinet reshuffle could possibly be squeezed in. The expansion has been long overdue as there are a number of vacant slots in the Cabinet while there are several ministers who are holding dual charge. Besides, there are a number of states like Kerala, Punjab, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh which have no representation in the council of ministers. This anamoly, Congress leaders believe, needs correction. The Mines Ministry has been without a full-fledged minister after JMM leader Shibu Soren resigned to take over as Jharkhand Chief Minister. Since that stint ended abruptly, Mr. Soren is keen to get back his old portfolio and has conveyed as much to the Prime Minister. The Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry has been headless since Mr Sunil Dutt’s death and, more recently, the NRI Affairs Ministry fell vacant following Mr Jagdish Tytler’s resignation over the Nanavati Commission report issue. The reshuffle-cum-expansion, whenever it takes place, is expected to be confined to the Congress as the allies have already been accommodated. It was earlier slated to take place before the monsoon session of Parliament but hectic lobbying by the over two dozen aspirants posed a big problem to the Prime Minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Among those who are said to be strong contenders for ministerial berths include AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma, AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora, senior party leader Mohsina Kidwai, A.K. Antony and Vylar Ravi. Mr Giridhar Gomango from Orissa and Mr Gurudas Kamat and Mr Suresh Kalmadi are among the others being mentioned as probables.
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No confrontation with judiciary: govt
New Delhi, August 24 Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, at the conclusion of a special discussion on the reservation issue, said, “There has been no confrontation of any kind and there is no occasion to express anguish on account of any legislative action.” Mr Mukherjee said, as far as the government’s position was concerned he would like to make it clear that “independence of the Judiciary is the foundation of our democratic republic and rule of law.” “On occasions, where the interests of the nation demand that laws should be enacted to carry forward social, economic programmes, the Legislature has enacted laws keeping in view the various judgements of the apex court,” he said. Reflecting the members’ strong sentiments, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, asserted “We are not giving up our rights to make laws” but made it clear that “avoidable controversy” should not be created. The Speaker said, “The Legislature has its own rights and Parliament, as the supreme legislative body, surely will act according to its rights under the Constitution. Similarly the courts have their own rights to function in their own sphere without any interference and nobody can interfere.” Mr Chatterjee said it was the “undoubted right” of the court to construe the laws passed by Parliament. Therefore, many laws passed by Parliament were being declared ultra vires and it was binding on everybody. “What is important is that there should be a harmonious relationship between major Constitutional organisations like the Legislature and the court and nothing should be done or said which may create an avoidable controversy,” he said. The only thing that struck him, said the Speaker, was that the observations made by the Supreme Court yesterday were not in any judgement and was expression of certain views with regard to what may have happened inside the House. “Therefore, we are only requesting ourselves that we should not do or say anything which may be misunderstood. But we are not giving up our right to make laws according to the Constitutional provisions which the Supreme Court will have power, no doubt, to construe at the appropriate time”, he said. Describing yesterday’s remarks of Chief Justice R C Lahoti on the issue as “very unfortunate”, “unprecedented” and “uncalled for”, the members cutting across party lines contended that while they did not want any confrontation between the Legislature and the Judiciary, the court should “not cross the Lakshman rekha”. |
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Gogoi slaps ban on information dissemination
Guwahati, August 24 After banning government officers from disseminating information to the media, the Chief Minister has now decided to appoint nodal officers in all districts who will give statement on behalf of the government. The Chief Minister, however, had denied that he was contradicting his own right to information policy and said he was not doing anything different what was practised in New Delhi. Mr Gogoi told this correspondent: “Every time information is given, the media writes only that part which it likes and dumps the rest.” The decision to appoint nodal officers was being taken in view of the stand taken by the district commissioners, superintendent of police and other senior government officials not to speak to the media in view of the ban imposed on them under service rules to divulge any information without prior permission from the hierarchy. For the government things are not hunky dory, which only justifies the ban. Recently the Supreme Court scrapped the Illegal Migranrts Determination Tribunal (IMDT) Act of 1983, meant for the detection and deportation of illegal migrants, describing it as “unconstitutional”. With almost each and every local media criticising the government, the Chief Minister finally decided to appoint nodal officers to disseminate “filtered” information only to reduce the element of critical reports tarnishing his government’s image. The state government recently suspended an official of the Hojai sub- division for speaking to the media without prior permission from his senior. |
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Dissidents step up oust-Modi campaign New Delhi, August 24 Dissident MLAs numbering around a dozen called on senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Bal Apte, Pramod Mahajan, Raj Nath Singh and Arun Jaitley. The dissidents have also sought appointment with general secretary Sushma Swaraj. The lobbying by the dissident Gujarat BJP leaders clearly indicate that they are not perturbed by the lavish praise showered on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on “good governance” by BJP president L.K. Advani during his recent visit to the state. “He (Mr Advani) has only praised the performance of the government, but he did not say that Mr Modi will not be removed,” one of the dissident MLAs, obviously indicating that the rebels are in no mood to lie low. Mr Keshubhai Patel, who arrived here last night from Gujarat, told newspersons today that they are willing to meet Mr Advani and putforth their grievances against Mr Modi. Meanwhile, Mr Advani chaired a meeting of the national general secretaries late this evening to take stock of the rebellion within the party, especially Gujarat.
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BJP meeting in Chennai as per schedule, says Advani
New Delhi, August 24 “It will be held as scheduled”, Mr Advani said after the BJP parliamentary party meeting, when asked whether the party planned to postpone it further. The meeting, which was scheduled to be held in July, was postponed following Mr Advani’s standoff with the RSS, which had asked him to step down in the wake of his controversial remarks on Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Mr Advani, who was addressing the BJP parliamentary party’s weekly meeting, said the party “had categorically extended its support to Home Minister Shivraj Patil to any formula on which the government could bring about consensus, whether it be increasing the strength of the House, double-member constituencies or asking parties to give up one-third of tickets to women”. The meeting, was presided over by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. |
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Fissures in Left on Buta issue
New Delhi, August 24 The CPI Floor Leader in the Lok Sabha, Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, said here today that one of the main six demands of the Bihar bandh called by the Left parties — the CPI, the RSP, SUCI and the CPI (ML) and the Forward Bloc — today was the recall of the Governor. Mr Dasgupta emphasised that “even as the CPM has not supported the demand for the recall of the Governor, we, the sponsors of the bandh, have demanded unequivocally the removal of Buta Singh”. However, at a separate press conference, CPM parliamentary group leader in the Lok Sabha Basudev Acharia said, “All secular forces, including the Left, the Congress, and the RJD, had to join hands to defeat the communal forces”. |
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Scrap black list, says Tarlochan New Delhi, August 24 Raising the issue during ‘special mention’ in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Tarlochan Singh said the Indian Embassies put the names of all those protestors in a black list and since then have disallowed them to visit their places of birth. For the past 21 years this black list is existing and these NRIs are not allowed to visit their aged parents or to attend the social functions to grant dual citizenship to NRIs but we fail to understand this policy of the Home Ministry to deprive above mentioned category of persons because they took part in demonstrations outside the embassies in 1984, he said.
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Infiltration increasing, says Pranab New Delhi, August 24 Though there was a reduction in the number of infiltration attempts from across the border in the initial five months of the current year, such incidents showed an increase during June and July — and this fact has been repeatedly conveyed by the Army to the Pakistan Director-General of Military Operations, Mr Mukherjee said during Question Hour. Pakistan continues to deny involvement of its troops in abetting infiltration, the minister added. Meanwhile, from highs of 85 and 98 intercepted infiltration attempts during 2002 and 2003, respectively, with corresponding assessed infiltration of 1395 and 1373, it had come down to 68 intercepted infiltration bids and 349 assessed infiltrations, the Defence Minister said.
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The VC who didn’t toe govt line
Jangveer Singh Tribune News Service
Bangalore, August 24 It all started in October last year when the state government asked the university Vice-Chancellor, Dr M.S. Thimmappa, to recommend names for six government nominations to its Syndicate. The Vice-Chancellor did his duty, recommending the likes of K. Kasturirangan and Kiran Majumdar Shaw. The government after waiting till July 28 this year nominated six persons to the Syndicate, none of which was from the list sent by the Vice-Chancellor. But Dr M.S. Thimmappa proved to be different from other Vice-Chancellors. He rejected all nominations except one. He said he was doing so to uphold the university Act, which stated that only eminent educationists could be nominated to the Syndicate. This resulted in a public outcry among academic circles and the general public, resulting in the issue rocking the state legislature also. The government maintained a stiff upper lip, saying that the nominations were within the purview of the University Act. The state Education Minister even maintained that “all nominees are double graduates and some even run educational institutes” to justify the government’s decision. The drama shifted to the court in August with an academician filing a PIL in the high court on the issue. Last week, one day before the court was to give its verdict, the state government withdrew the controversial nomination list. The response of the VC after the withdrawal was telling. “I feel humbled in front of the truth, which all of us, including the government, made it possible to prevail”. Bangalorians take to wine
Visitors hoping to get butter chicken and the customary Patiala peg may be surprised at the changing trends here. At a social gathering you may see many people requesting the host to serve them four fingers of the good stuff - the good stuff meaning wine. The city has taken to wine with techies leading the charge. According to conservative estimates wine sales are going up by around 40 per cent each year for the past three years, which is much above the national average. |
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Karisma’s husband seeks ‘in camera’ hearing
New Delhi, August 24 In his counter affidavit, filed today in the court, Karisma’s Delhi-based businessman husband Sanjay Kapur sought the hearing of his petition on their daughter Samaira’s passport issue in camera, contending that adverse publicity of the case could harm the interest of the child. The high court is to take up the matter for hearing on August 26. He accused the actress of going to media even before the court hearing on her affidavit, saying even the copies of the affidavit were shown on television. “The fact clearly establishes that Karisma or her agent had highlighted portions of the counter before releasing the same to the media,” Sanjay said adding that the intention of such action could prejudice the case. Terming Karisma’s action as “contemptuous”, he said it amounted to interference with administration of justice. The actress in her affidavit had alleged that her husband had deserted her, forcing her to leave his home and staying in Mumbai separately. |
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2 engineers suspended for building collapse
Mumbai, August 24 MHADA today announced that it was suspending Executive Engineer N Mahajan and Deputy Engineer A Katarke who had overseen the repairs of the 125-year old Sadaf Manzil building in South Mumbai which came down at 1.15 am yesterday. The Mumbai Repair and Reconstruction Board had entrusted the two officials with repairing the building in 2003. While the rear of the building was refurbished, the structure’s frontage was left unrepaired causing it to crash. Deshmukh announced that others, including building contractor, S R Constructions and architect Mukund Dakshini have been served show-cause notices for their role in the crash. He added that the two might be blacklisted and not awarded further government contracts. Meanwhile, rescuers accounted for all residents in the four-storeyed building after 20 persons were pulled out alive late yesterday evening. All debris from the collapsed structure had been cleared away, the police and fire brigade said here today. |
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Report on drug prices on Aug 26
New Delhi, August 24 Addressing a press conference he said, “the government will enforce the new drug policy after reviewing the report of the task force, besides the Sandhu Committee report constituted by the ministry.” The Sandhu Committee has already submitted its report and suggested to bring more drugs under the price control regime. Referring to the report of the consultative committee associated with the ministry, he said, “The members have emphasised that all states should charge only 4 per cent VAT on medicines to bring down the prices. Till now eight states, including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, UP, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, MP and Chattishgah, have not agreed to it.” Mr Paswan said, “Presently, about 95 per cent medicines marketed in India are off patent. None of the 354 medicines in the National List of Essential Medicines 2003 is a patented medicine as per the WTO regime. |
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Stamp on Guru Granth Sahib
New Delhi, August 24 ‘’There is a proposal to issue a commemorative stamp to honour 400 years of installation of Guru Granth Sahib,’’ Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology (IT) Dr Shakeel Ahmed told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. The Minister replied in the “negative” to a pointed question by a member whether the Department of Posts had withdrawn the plan to release the commemorative stamp. |
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26 crore persons below poverty line
New Delhi, August 24 In a written reply Minister of State of Planning M V Rajasekharan informed the Lok Sabha today that Uttar Pradesh topped the list with a BPL population of 5.29 crore — the highest among all states in the country. It is followed by Bihar ( 4.25 crore) and Madhya Pradesh (2.98 crore). The BPL population in Punjab is estimated to be 14.49 lakhs, while that of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir is 17.34 lakh, 5.12 lakh, and 3.46 lakh respectively. The BPL population in Chandigarh is estimated to be 51,000. West Bengal has 2.1 crore BPL population, while Orissa has 1.7 crore, Tamil Nadu 1.3 crore and Karnataka 1.04 crore. |
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22 lakh looted; bank employee shot
Jaipur, August 24 The incident took place when a cash in charge of the bank was getting down from the vehicle carrying several boxes full of currency notes. The victim, Kanhiya Lal, who was employed in the Ram Mandir branch of the bank was returning with the cash collection. |
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Singhal granted bail
Lucknow, August 24 Earlier, the court had issued a non bailable warrant (NBW) against Singhal on July 13.
— UNI |
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In
video: Bandh
call by Left parties demanding recall of Buta Singh evokes a
mixed response. (
