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Left, govt clash on economic policy
Muslims torch Danish flag
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BJP comes out with Budget wish list
5 killed in police firing; curfew in Assam village
Foreigners Act
to be amended
RJD seeks removal of Nafed chief
Dress code: AMU denies allegations
Two Al-Badr militants held
Thackeray in soup over attack on Zee office
CA arrested for underworld links
Goswami’s bail plea rejected
Naxals kill 8 jawans
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Left, govt clash on economic policy
New Delhi, February 10 Sharing a platform with luminaries from the government, politics and the world of economics, the Left parties observed that a mere 8 per cent growth was not enough, unless a lot more was done to improve the lot of the common man, including the workers and the peasantry. The event, held at Parliament Annexe, was a platform organised by the All-India Trade Union Congress and the General Insurance Employees All-India Association to discuss on “What the Union Budget should look like?” The participants included Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, CPI general secretary A.P. Bardhan, Prof Prabhat Patnaik of Jawahar Lal Nehru University, ONGC CMD Subir Raha, veteran CPI leader Gurudas Das Gupta and Rajya Sabha MP and former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan. Mr Bardhan said the Left parties were not “obstructionists” as was portrayed by the government and the captains of the industry. He said the Left was neither anti-development nor against high growth, but India’s ranking in terms of the Human Development Index (127 with regard to 158 countries) and the deplorable condition of the poor left much to be desired. In short, the economic policy was clearly tilted in favour of the rich. He demanded bigger efforts and larger allocations for the revival of traditional industries, like handlooms, encouragement to other sectors which are labour intensive, additional Central assistance to the Budget to the extent of Rs 52,000 cr, higher allocations for health and education, recapitalisation of credit institutions, specially the cooperative sector, and higher allocations for the agricultural sector. On the revenue front, Mr Bardhan said Finance Minister P. Chidambaram should raise the cash transactions tax, restore capital gains tax, rationalise export incentives, broaden the taxation base of services, and recover tax arrears. The CPI leader said the Left parties were not against the FDI, but would not want certain areas like Defence to be opened up to it. Dr Ahluwalia said the 8.1 per cent growth projections of the CSO for fiscal 2005 was a vindication of the government’s policies and distribution without growth was well neigh impossible. He outlined the government’s approach towards economic revival and social sectors. Mr Raha said while the public sector contributed around 50 per cent of the GDP, its leaders were rarely invited for suggestions. He analysed the reasons for the sickness of public sector companies and said the government had only paid lip service for their revival. Mr Dasgupta said: “The golden chariot of economic growth has not been able to accommodate the vast majority of the community. The lopsided growth, in fact, has led to unprecedented rise in inequality.” “The number of billionaires is increasing while millions are denied two square meals,” Mr Dasgupta quipped.
— UNI |
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New Delhi, February 10 “The government as well as the main party in the ruling alliance, the Congress, should condemn this heinous act and convey the anguish of Indian Muslims in the strongest possible words to the Governments of Denmark and other countries where newspapers reproduced the cartoons,’’ Shahi Imam Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari said addressing the Friday congregation at the Jama Masjid. Similar calls were made from the historic Fatehpuri mosque and the Ferozeshah Kotla mosque. An 11-member committee has been formed at the Jama Masjid to oversee future protests in this regard. The Danish flag was burnt after a demonstration outside the Jama Masjid. The congregation at the Ferozeshah Kotla mosque marched towards the Diplomatic Enclave, but was stopped by the police en route. The slogan-shouting protestors dispersed after setting fire to the Danish and French flags. Ahmedabad: Muslims on Friday took to the streets and torched the Danish flag to express anger over controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September last year. Lucknow: Members of the All-India Muslim Forum on Friday staged a peaceful demonstration against the publication of the caricature of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. Addressing the demonstrators, president of the UP chapter of the Muslim forum Salahuddin Khan warned that the nefarious acts of anti-Islam forces would never be tolerated. Chennai: Members of the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) led by state president M.H. Jawahirullah on Friday raised slogans here to protest against a series of cartoons in European journals lampooning the Prophet Mohammed. — PTI, UNI
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BJP comes out with Budget wish list
New Delhi, February 10 With most states implementing Value-Added Tax system, the logical step would be to move towards GST instead of the current excise duty and services tax, BJP economic ideologue Jagdish Shettigar said adding the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, should unveil in the Budget a roadmap in this regard. Maintaining that fringe benefits given to employees were business expenditures to extract better work from them, Shettigar said this regressive tax should be withdrawn. Fringe benefits should be deducted as expenditure before arriving at a final figure for profits for the purpose of taxation, he said. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talked of achieving 10 per cent growth, FBT acted as a dampener for industry to increase employee productivity, the BJP leader said. He proposed withdrawal of the BCCT since the tax defeated its purpose of tracking black money as the levy deterred people to take their money to the banking system and encouraged them to keep it unaccounted. Mr Shettigar recommended undertaking far-reaching electoral reforms, including state funding of elections and transparency in the system of fund collection by political parties, besides reducing stamp duties to effectively curtail black money. Expecting no changes in corporate and income tax rates, Mr Shettigar said more incentives should be given for savings. Investments in mutual funds and fixed deposits in banks should be included in the list of saving instruments for the purpose of giving exemption from income tax. He also said savings up to Rs 2 lakh should be exempted from income tax from the present level of Rs 1 lakh. Mr Shettigar said he feared the Government might not be able to keep fiscal deficit under check next year as well since it had announced several social sector schemes without providing enough resources for those schemes. “The next fiscal also, there will be a pause in the FRBM target,” he said. He also termed as “negative” the Left parties’ proposal to introduce inheritance tax, since he it might not help the government mobilise resources. The BJP man said the inheritance tax, such as wealth tax, which might be okay from the point of view of equity, were archaic and outdated tax systems that had lost their relevance in modern economics. “Why should be a property subjected to taxation twice-once when bought by a father and on second occasion when inherited by his children,” he questioned. Mr Shettigar also favoured issuing coupons to poor for food, fertiliser and PDS kerosene rather than the existing system of providing subsidies directly which only encouraged inefficiencies in fertiliser companies, the procurement system and kerosene distribution. The coupon system would also curb leakages and wasteful expenditure on subsidy amount and help in reducing the government’s subsidy bill, Mr Shettigar said. He also said he wanted food subsidy to be decentralised. — PTI
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5 killed in police firing; curfew in Assam village
Guwahati, February 10 Police sources said five residents of Kakopathar village were killed in the firing and a CRPF personnel in the stoning by a 15,000-strong mob which protested against the death of suspected ULFA linkman Ajit Mahanta allegedly in Army custody on Sunday. Residents of Kakopathar, from where Mahanta hailed and nearby villages, blocked a national highway since Monday in protest against the death of Mahanta who, the Army alleged, was an ULFA linkman. The villagers, who claimed Mahanta was an innocent man, have also dug up the highway that links Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh with the rest of the country. Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner Gautam Ganguly said the Army had been called out to assist the civil administration and indefinite curfew imposed in Kakopathar.
— PTI
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Foreigners Act
to be amended
New Delhi, February 10 The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This was necessitated by the Supreme Court’s decision in July to strike down the controversial Illegal Migrants Determination Tribunals Act. After the Supreme Court decision, a Group of Ministers (GoM) was set up to study the ruling and recommend action. Instead of bringing the IMDT Act in another form, the GOM headed by Dr Singh reached the view of utilising the provisions of the Foreigners Act and set up tribunals for the determination of illegal migrants. Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the CCPA took a decision that before a person was declared a foreigner his case shall be referred to a tribunal and full opportunity would be given to the person to be heard. The tribunals would be set up under the Foreigners Act that gave authority to the government for setting up such tribunals, Mr Mukherjee observed. During his visit to Assam last month, the Prime Minister had assured the minorities that all necessary steps would be taken to protect their legitimate interests following the scrapping of the IMDT Act and there would be no harassment of genuine citizens. Dr Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam, had indicated last month that the GoM would complete the task of drafting an alternative law to the IMDT soon. The BJP and the Asom Gana Parishad had been opposing of the IMDT Act from its very inception. They maintained that the law had failed in identifying and deporting illegal migrants. |
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RJD seeks removal of Nafed chief
Patna, February 10 Addressing mediapersons here yesterday, the former state minister and senior RJD leader, Mr Shyam Rajak, distributed copies of the affidavit submitted before the Delhi High Court on January 31 by the Centre, promising to look into the financial bunglings in Nafed. In its affidavit, the Agriculture Ministry, headed by Mr Sharad Pawar, informed the court that the government already initiated action in the matter by requesting the CBI to probe into the multi-crore scam and also asked the CAG to conduct audit of price support scheme operations undertaken by Nafed. Mr Rajak alleged that Nafed diverted over Rs 5,000 crore of taxpayers’ money to import non-agricultural products, including foreign liquor, under the chairmanship of JD(U) MP, Ajit Singh. Citing documents submitted in the court Mr Rajak alleged that over half-a-dozen blacklisted companies were given loans from nationalised banks through Nafed with an outstanding of more than Rs 1,269 crore, which was in addition to the siphoning-off crores of farmers’ funds. |
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Dress code: AMU denies allegations
New Delhi, February 10 In a statement issued here late last night the AMU administration said girl students at the AMU enjoyed the kind of freedom as they enjoy on other campuses and they were not being forced to adhere to a dress code. The denial comes close on the heels of Farah Khanum’s address to the media at Jawaharlal Nehru University, alleging that she was molested on the campus for wearing jeans and T-shirt for classes and later harassed for registering a complaint. A student of mass communication, Farah demanded support from women’s organisations and student bodies on sexual harassment. Meanwhile, AMU Vice-Chancellor Naseem Ahmed said the alleged incident was being used to malign the good name of the university. |
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Two Al-Badr militants held
New Delhi, February 10 The arrests of Irshad Ali, alias Deepak (30) and Mohammad Muarif
Qamar, alias Nawab (24) yesterday from Mukarba Chowk in north Delhi was made on the basis of intelligence inputs, DCP (Special Cell) Ajay Kumar said. “The two kg of RDX, along with three detonators, one ABCD timer and a AB timer, two Chinese pistols and 16 cartridges, seized from their possession were given to him by one Sajjad and Sheikh Pervez.
— UNI |
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Thackeray in soup over attack on Zee office
Mumbai, February 10 According to sources, the Maharashtra Government may file a case against Mr Thackeray for the laudatory piece which appeared in the party mouthpiece “Saamna” yesterday. In the front-page article, Mr Thackeray congratulated Shiv Sena activists for remaining vigilant against those attacking the party’s first family. He said a satirical skit presented by Zee Alpha, the company’s Marathi channel, was derogatory in nature. “A thousand thanks to you. Keep the flame alive,” he was quoted as saying. |
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CA arrested for underworld links
Mumbai, February 10 According to the police, the CA Bharat Tulani helped Sujata Nikhalje, wife of Rajan in managing the gangster’s investments in real estate. Tulani is the first CA to be held under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Tulani, who was produced before the special MCOCA court, was remanded in police custody till February 22. Sujata Nikhalje and three others are already under arrest under the MCOCA. |
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Goswami’s bail plea rejected
Patna, February 10 Gautam Goswami was honoured as “Asian hero of the year” in 2004 for his commendable administrative acumen before his alleged involvement in the multi-crore flood relief scam had surfaced during the
President's rule in June last year. The bail applications of four other co-accused were also rejected by Justice Chandramauli Prasad on the plea that the nature of allegations against them, including Gautam Goswami, were serious. |
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Naxals kill 8 jawans
Raipur, February 10 The militants escaped with a huge amount of explosive materials and weapons from the depot located at Hiroli near Kirandul, about 550 km from here, state DGP Om Prakash Rathor said here. Police sources from Dantewada said about 400 armed Naxals looted a huge quantity of ammonium nitrate, a high grade explosive, among other things, stocked in the depot.
— PTI |
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