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Sibal under attack over judicial Bill
FM pushes for austerity steps, containing demand
35 infants die in 5 days at Kolkata hospital
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Minister for Vizag as Andhra capital
Won’t give up Hyderabad: Seemandhra employees
RSS-BJP coordination panel’s key meeting begins today
Vital Bills: BJP claims credit for passage
Modi assails PM, Rahul
Onion prices to come down in 15-20 days: Govt
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Sibal under attack over judicial Bill
New Delhi, September 7 The Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice over the matter this morning. Expressing deep anguish that the Bill could not be taken up by the Lok Sabha, which adjourned sine die on Friday, the minister explained that an error was detected in the title of the Bill, which read Constitution (120th) Amendment Bill when it should have been Constitution (99th) Amendment, when the Rajya Sabha passed it on Thursday with 132 votes in favour. The BJP had then walked out of the House in protest as it said the Bill, which paves the way for creation of a Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), be referred to the Standing Committee since the JAC was being referred to the panel. The Constitution Amendment Bill was voted after Sibal urged its passage on the day since it will give the government time as half of the States have to ratify the provision for the amendment to take effect during the period the Committee could be ready with its report on the JAC Bill. Sibal today said: “The Secretariat realised some error has taken place. The patent error was immediately intimated to the Chairman who corrected it and transmitted to the Lok Sabha. The Bill was printed and ready for passage. However, I regret despite our best efforts it could not be taken up by the Lok Sabha. It was not intentional...I am sorry that the Bill could not be passed in the Lok Sabha. I regret it.” The BJP sought to underscore that the government had not done its homework and the House was misled into passing the Bill. Party Deputy Leader in the House, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said the minister has committed a mistake and he should feel sorry. “Law Minister should apologise to the House. He must apologise, anguish would not do.” Speaking separately, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said the government was keen that the Bill be taken up for passage in the Lok Sabha but for a “patent and technical error”. He said the Bill can now be brought before the Lower House during the next session. He termed the session as “successful” with “substantive work” being done by Parliament during the month-long session. The Lok Sabha passed 16 Bills before adjourning on Friday while the Rajya Sabha sat a day extra on Saturday.
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FM pushes for austerity steps, containing demand
New Delhi, September 7 Replying to the debate on the Appropriation or the Finance Bill, the Finance Minister said “hard decisions” would be taken in the next few days and weeks to trim wasteful expenditure and curb import of “inessential” items. As the Rajya Sabha returned the Finance Bill, it gave the government a go ahead to withdraw the additional cash to fund various schemes, including Rs 1,000 crore each needed for setting up of ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ for safety of women and for women’s bank. “We have to contain demand and practice austerity measures. Wasteful expenditure should be cut. We have to ensure that import of all inessential items are curbed,” he said. The Finance Minister cited the levying of duty recently on import of high-end television sets and said it cannot be imported under personal baggage any further. “We are going through a stressful period. We have to take some hard decisions. Many of these measures are being taken and many measures will be announced in next few days and weeks. Some measures to curb import inessential items will also be announced.” On hiking oil prices in view of rising crude prices in the international market and rupee depreciation, Chidambaram said: “No one in the government will be happy increasing petroleum and diesel prices”. He said no decision had been taken and “no decision will be taken in haste”. “All these measures taken together will have beneficial impact”, he said.
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35 infants die in 5 days at Kolkata hospital
Kolkata, September 7 “Thirty-five child patients have died in our hospital in the past five days and almost all of them were brought in moribund condition,” a hospital source said, while denying medical negligence on the part of doctors and nursing staff. The state health department formed a three-member probe committee which gave a clean chit to the hospital, the sources said. Eight child specialists were also sent to the hospital to assist the attending medical staff. Tridib Banerjee, chairman of the task force supervising child healthcare, said: “We have been striving hard to ensure that not a single child patient dies for want of proper treatment.” Sources said terminally ill child patients were brought from different hospitals and “in some cases… nothing could be done”. They said an average of five to six deaths were reported at the hospital every day and the number had risen to “seven and above in past five days”. Hospital authorities said around 70 terminally ill child patients were brought to the hospital every day and best care was provided to them. — PTI
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Minister for Vizag as Andhra capital
New Delhi, September 7 Making crucial submissions to the Congress-constituted Antony committee, which is looking into the concerns of "United Andhra lobby", Deo, who hails from Andhra, has called for a separate high court at Vishakhapatnam for Andhra Pradesh. Deo sought an IT park with cyber towers for the district apart from a new AIIMS, IIT, IIM and a metro rail service link. In a representation to Congress general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh, Telangana Rashtriya Samiti senior leader K Dileepkumar has demanded imposition of President's rule in Andhra alleging Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s hand in the ongoing protests across the state. One of the suggestions the Antony committee is likely to make to the government is the grant of UT status to Hyderabad. A Cabinet note on the issue is under finalisation for the consideration of the Government.
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Won’t give up Hyderabad: Seemandhra employees
Hyderabad, September 7 The police heaved a sigh of relief as the three-hour long meeting, with the theme “Save Andhra Pradesh”, passed off peacefully even as the Telangana region, including Hyderabad, observed a complete shutdown in response to a call given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) and other pro-Telangana organisations. Over 50,000 government employees from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions, jointly referred as Seemandhra, attended the meeting amid fears over a possible showdown between the Telangana activists and the integrationists. Pro-united AP leaders threatened to further intensify the movement if the Centre went ahead with the process of bifurcation. They also demanded the elected representatives from Seemandhra, including Union Ministers and MPs, to quit their posts to mount pressure on the UPA government to reverse its decision on state’s division. The Congress Working Committee had on July 30 decided to carve out Telangana state with Hyderabad as the common capital for a period of 10 years after which it would be made the permanent capital of Telangana. Normal life was completely disrupted in Hyderabad and nine other districts of
Telangana.
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RSS-BJP coordination panel’s key meeting begins today
New Delhi, September 7 Ahead of the two-day RSS-BJP coordination meeting, where top leaders from both sides are expected to discuss party’s poll strategy for the coming assembly and the General Election, indications are that the Modi matter could be settled soon. The RSS leaders met today to finalise their agenda for the meeting with BJP leaders tomorrow. While briefing the media about the “routine coordination committee meeting”, which apparently has been preponed to put an end to the raging controversy on the Modi issue, all that senior Sangh official Manmohan Vaidya said was that the “RSS view is what the people’s opinion is”. “We have told this to the party. It is now for the BJP to decide,” he said. All the 12 Parliamentary Board members, including Modi, will be present at the meeting with top 25 RSS leaders. Apart from them, 65 members of the associated organisations of the RSS will also be present. The sources say the RSS has also deputed senior member Madan Das Devi to mediate with Advani and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi and get them on board. Devi is believed to be close to
Advani.
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Vital Bills: BJP claims credit for passage
New Delhi, September 7 The party said it helped clear important legislations while preventing hasty decisions on legislations and compelling a “reluctant” PM to speak and face grilling on the missing coal block allocation files . The party had faced criticism of being obstructionist in Parliament and forcing frequent adjournments in the earlier sessions. Leader of Opposition in LS Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley said crucial Bills could not have been passed without their support.
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Modi assails PM, Rahul
Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh), September 7 Virtually launching BJP's election campaign in Chhattisgarh which goes to Assembly poll later this year, Modi, the party's election campaign committee chief, also attacked Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that poverty is a state of mind saying "it is like pouring acid on the misery of the people". He drew comparisons between the Congress-led government at the Centre and BJP government's performance in the state. — PTI
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Punjab economy has gone from bad to worse,
Chandigarh, September 7 “Rs 1 lakh crore debt is too difficult to explain”, he remarked, while adding, during the last six years all norms of economic management have been violated and thrown to winds and the results are before everybody to see. Talking to mediapersons after addressing the SAARC Engineers Conference here today, Tewari, while speaking on the Punjab government’s demand to the Finance Commission, said while he would leave that to the wisdom of the Finance Commission, but wanted to ask the state government as what went wrong with the economy in the last six years. Earlier, addressing the conference he called for putting aside little differences by the members of the South Asian Association of Regional Countries to reap the greater demographic dividends not only in political terms but also for strengthening the economy as well. He said India had always performed its role in fostering regional cooperation between South Asia, Middle East and Central Asia and it would continue to do so in future. “The SAARC has the responsibility of ensuring that both these extremities, Afghanistan in the West and Myanmar in the East, are stabilised. While the foreign forces are moving out of Afghanistan and the country was making progress towards normalcy, in Myanmar also the green shoots of democracy were becoming visible”, he added.
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Onion prices to come down in 15-20 days: Govt
New Delhi, September 7 "The prices of onion will come down in 15-20 days. New produce will come into markets from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh," Food and Consumer Affairs Minister KV Thomas said, replying to a short-duration discussion on the abnormal rise in the prices of onion and other essential commodities. Admitting that onion price normally goes up during the July-October lean period, he said during the Rabi season of March-June, 60 per cent of the country's total onion is produced. — PTI
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Members of the BJP Mahila Morcha pay tributes to slain writer Sushmita Banerjee in Kolkata on Saturday. PTI
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for pushing through the Constitutional Amendment Bill to set up a new system of appointment of judges in the country, forcing the minister to regret for a technical error that prevented its presentation for passage in the Lok
Sabha.
New Delhi, September 7
Hyderabad, September 7
Kolkata