by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Image for representation (Image: PTI)
Ahmedabad : Hundreds of tribals from six districts of Gujarat gathered here at the Sabarmati riverfront and took out a rally demanding implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA), Food Security Act (FSA) and MNREGA.
They handed over a memorandum to the Ahmedabad collector, seeking land ownership under
Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
Leading the protest march of around 7,000 to 8,000 tribals, who came from the eastern belt districts of Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Aravalli, Mahisagar, Dahod and Panchmahals, the Eklavya Sangathan threw light on the protesters’ demands.
According to Eklavya Sangathan, only 40 per cent or 73,921 tribals have been given Jamin Adhikar Patras (land rights certificate). Whereas, the rightful claims under Forest Rights Act of as many as 1,08,948 others have been rejected for various reasons.
A total of 73921 (40.4%) farmers have been given such Adhikar Patras, according to the Gujarat government data.
“They cannot reject a claim, when an application is already verified by the Gram Sabha and submitted at block office,” Bansi Solanki, the convener of the Eklavya organisation, told IANS.
The protesters also demanded their rights under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (MNREGA) and Food Security Act (FSA).
“The tribals are being denied their rights under MNREGA and FSA also in tribal regions for years. We have been demanding our rights for several years but to no avail. We are giving Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani a last chance and hope he takes action. Otherwise, we will show our strength in the forthcoming general elections,” Paulomee Mistry, general secretary of Eklayva Sangathan asserted.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Ahmedabad : Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has re-opened the issue of renaming Ahmedabad as ‘Karnavati’, days after his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj and mooted the idea of changing Faizabad to Ayodhya.
Soon after offering ‘darshan’ at the Bhadkrakali Temple on the Hindu new year on Thursday, Rupani said his government was committed to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati. The task would be accomplished and the renaming would happen before the 2019 parliamentary elections.
The Chief Minister said all legal hurdles would be tackled for this purpose as “millions of Hindus in Ahmedabad and most parts of Gujarat wished” that the city was renamed as Karnavati.
The BJP has been using this name in all its official functions, events and publicity paraphernalia.
“My government is committed to the cause and we will ensure the the process is completed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections,” he told reporters.
In 2002 the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government with party veteran L.K. Advani as the Union Home Minister had rejected a 1990 proposal of the then BJP-ruled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati.
Later, the subsequent Congress-ruled local civic body overturned the proposal and retained the original name.
The Gujarat Congress asserted that Rupani’s idea to re-open the renaming issue was provoked by political motivation.
“The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is under the BJP without a break for the last 13 years, the State Government for more than two decades and the Centre for the last four and a half years.
“Why was this not initiated all these years and being brought up again, just when the Lok Sabha elections are around the corner?” former state Congress president Arjun Modhvadia asked.
He asserted that the ruling BJP wanted to distract the distract public attention from the failures of the Modi government across all spheres and keep people bogged down in non-issues.
The BJP, meanwhile, stated that “Karnavati” was Ahmedabad’s original ancient after King Karnadev who had set up his kingdom here in 12th century. Ahmed Shah had conquered it in 1411 and the city was renamed after him as Ahmedabad.
A party spokesperson said, “The people of Ahmedabad have already embraced Karnavati, it is only a matter of legal process to be completed. It should be noted that this has nothing to do with the 2019 elections.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Ahmedabad : Hearing in a discharge petition filed by former Gujarat IPS official D.G. Vanzara, who is a key accused in the sensational 2004 Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, concluded at a Special CBI Court here on Saturday.
In June 2004, Mumbai-based 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others — her friend Javed alias Pranesh, along with two Pakistani nationals Zeeshan Johar and Amzad Ali Rana — were gunned down by a team of Vanzara’s men in an alleged gun battle in Ahmedabad.
It was claimed that Ishrat and her friends were terrorists who had come to Gujarat with an intention to assassinate then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Vanzara, who is alleged to have masterminded the alleged encounter by a joint team of Gujarat Police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials, is currently out on bail.
In his discharge plea, Vanzara had stated that the chargesheet filed against him was “concocted” and that there was no prosecutable evidence against him. He also said that the testimony of witnesses could not be believed as some of them were accused in the case earlier.
He had also claimed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was once seeking to arrest then Chief Minister Modi and Minister of State for Home Amit Shah in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, though “fortunately” it did not happen.
Vanzara in his submission had also claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was secretly interrogated by the investigating officer in the case when he was the Chief Minister, a claim denied by the CBI.
The CBI has opposed the petition by Vanzara with Special Public Prosecutor R.C. Kodekar, appearing for the CBI, stating that “if there had been no adequate material evidence against him, Vanzara would not have been chargesheeted”.
Kodekar also pointed to statements of several witnesses who had confirmed that the crime was indeed committed by the accused.
Other than Vanzara, the CBI had chargesheeted six senior policemen, including former in-charge DGP P.P. Pandey, IPS G.L. Singhal, retired SP N.K. Amin, retired DySP Tarun Barot and four IB officers, including former Special Director Rajinder Kumar.
Amin too has filed a discharge petition in the same court and the court completed hearing his plea last month.
Amin and Vanzara have also sought parity with P.P. Pandey, who was accused in the case but his discharge petition was allowed by the court.
The court on Saturday reserved its judgment till July 17, when it is also expected to pronounce its order in the discharge petitions of Amin and Vanzara.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Zakia Jafri
Ahmedabad : The Gujarat High Court on Thursday rejected the plea of Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain former MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top officials in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The court rejected Zakia Jafri’s plea on allegations of “a larger conspiracy” behind the riots.
Ehsan Jafri, a Congress leader, was one of the 69 people killed when a large mob attacked Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise
New Delhi : (IANS) The RBI efforts to deal with the state-run banks’ huge non-performing assets (NPAs) or distressed loans are steps in the right direction, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde said on Sunday.
“The (move of) Reserve Bank of India governor (Dr Raghuram Rajan) addressing bank balance sheets is absolutely right,” she said at the Advancing Asia conference here, co-hosted by the union government and the IMF.
Lagarde said the Indian government was also moving to get a bankruptcy and insolvency law enacted to address the bad loans problem.
Addressing the conference earlier on Sunday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government hopes to enact the bankruptcy and solvency as well as the Goods and Services Tax bills in the second half of the budget session of parliament beginning April 20.
The NPAs of public sector banks (PSBs) have increased by close to Rs.1 lakh crore in the first nine months of the current fiscal, parliament was told earlier this week.
“The gross non-performing assets of the PSBs increased from 5.43 percent as of March 2015 to 7.30 percent as of December 2015,” Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
In money terms, gross NPAs of state-run banks increased from Rs.2,67,065 crore in March 2015 to Rs.3,61,731 crore in December 2015, he said, which was an increase of Rs.94,666 crore over nine months of the current fiscal.
Meanwhile, Lagarde told reporters here on Sunday that the central American nation of Cuba has not yet made a request for IMF membership, and that such a request will be considered in accordance with the norms of the multilateral lending agency.
Cuba was one of the founding members of the IMF until it left the organisation in 1964, following crisis with the US.
