by admin | May 25, 2021 | Halal Food, Halal Industries, Markets, News, Politics
Mauvin Godinho
Panaji : There is no shortage of beef in Goa, Minister for Animal Husbandry Mauvin Godinho said on Friday. However, he admitted that the state’s only legal abattoir was not running to its full capacity.
Godinho was replying to a question from Congress MLA Francisco Silveira in the state legislative assembly.
The minister though said that Goa’s only legal slaughterhouse, the Goa Meat Complex, was not able to slaughter adequate number of cattle, due to livestock transport permit issues in neighbouring states.
The Congress leader wanted to know whether regular and sufficient beef supply would be ensured by the government.
Godinho, a minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition cabinet in his written reply said: “There is no reported shortage.”
Meat traders in the state have warned of a beef shortage. They have accused vigilante groups of harassment during transportation of cattle to abattoirs, forcing them to import pre-slaughtered frozen beef from other regions for sale in Goa.
“The Goa Meat Complex Ltd. is fully operational. However, at present the traders are unable to bring animals for slaughter, as they are not getting Transport Permit Certificate to bring animals from outside the state,” Godinho said.
On an average, 22 cattle are being slaughtered every day, he said, even as the abattoir has the capacity to slaughter 120 cattle per shift.
Official statistics say that nearly 30 to 50 tons of beef is consumed in the state every day, largely by visiting tourists and the minority communities in the state, who account for nearly a third of Goa’s population.
In July 2016, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had assured the assembly that the government would ensure regular supply of beef to the state.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Economy, News, Politics
New Delhi : The Congress on Thursday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his charge that banks were forced to give loans to select industrialists during UPA rule, saying bad loans increased in his regime.
The Congress also demanded a probe by independent agencies into the issue.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) Modiji said that NPA is the biggest scam. We agree with it but we want to know who gave birth to it,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters here.
Attacking the Modi government, Surjewala said: “When the Congress lost power in 2014, as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), gross NPA of public sector banks in 2013-14 was Rs 2,27,264 crore.
“And as per PIB (Press Information Bureau) press release dated October 24, 2017, this has increased in June 2017 to Rs 7,33,137 crore,” he said. “The NPA in 42 months of Modi government increased by Rs 5,05,873 crore.”
He said the gross NPAs of scheduled commercial banks in 2013-14 was Rs 2,63,372 crore.
“And as per the rating agency CARE, gross NPAs of scheduled commercial banks has increased to Rs 8,29,338 crore. Thus, in 42 months of Modi government, it has increased by 5,65,966 crore,” he said.
Surjewala also said that under Modi government, a total of Rs 1,88,287 crore loans of the industrialists were waived off.
“In 2014-15, the NDA government waived loans of Rs 49,018 crore, in 2015-16 it waived off Rs 57,586 crore of loans and in 2016-17 it waived off Rs 81,683 crore loans of industrialists,” he said.
“If he described NPA as the biggest scam, he should then answer why is such a big scam happening under his nose?” the Congress leader asked.
“The Prime Minister must also tell as to why has his government waived loans of wilful defaulters worth Rs 1,88,287 crore in the last three years?”
He dared the government to order a probe by independent agencies into the same.
On Wednesday, Modi attacked his predecessor Manmohan Singh and the UPA government, saying some of its “people” had forced banks to lend to some industrialists, which he described as the “biggest scam”, bigger than the 2G, coal and Commonwealth Games scams.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Kushagra Dixit,
New Delhi : The Modi government has spent a whopping nearly Rs 3,755 crore in three and half years on its publicity till October this year, an RTI revealed on Friday.
The expenditure on advertisements from April 2014 to October 2017 through electronic, print media and outdoor publicity is Rs 37,54,06,23,616, according to the RTI reply by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
The application was filed by Greater Noida-based social activist Ramveer Tanwar, a copy of which is with IANS.
According to the information, the central government spent over Rs 1,656 crore on electronic media advertisements, including — community radio, digital cinema, Doordarshan, Internet, SMS and TV.
For print media, the government spent more than Rs 1,698 crore.
On outdoor advertisements, which include hoardings, posters, booklets and calendars, the central government has spent over Rs 399 crore, the RTI reveals.
The amount spent on publicity blitz is more than the yearly budget allocated to some key ministries and government’s flagship programmes. The government’s allocation for “pollution abatement” in the last three years has been only Rs 56.8 crore.
In 2016, an RTI filed by Tanwar had revealed that the Centre spent over Rs 1,100 crore between June 1, 2014 and August 31, 2016, on advertisements featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Ministry gave a break up of the expenditure according to which Rs 448 crore was spent from June 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, and Rs 542 crore and Rs 120 crore spent from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016 and April 1, 2016 to August 31, 2016 respectively.
The expenditure was only for television, Internet and other electronic media and did not include expenditure on outdoor and print advertisements.
In 2015, another RTI had revealed that the Centre had spent nearly Rs 8.5 crore on newspaper advertisements for the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address “Mann Ki Baat” till July 2015.
The BJP and Congress had criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi for spending Rs 526 crore on advertising its achievements in 2015.
(Kushagra Dixit can be reached at kushagra.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Ashok Gehlot
By Brajendra Nath Singh,
Ahmedabad : Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot, who played a major role in social engineering by roping in Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mewani on the side of Congress in Gujarat, wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attack the party and Rahul Gandhi even more so that it will “ensure a Congress victory”.
As the campaign in the state reaches feverish pitch, Gehlot accused Modi of speaking “only untruths” and making “false promises”. Modi has now been “exposed” and people are not going to believe him or come under his “illusion”, says the former Rajasthan Chief Minister.
He maintains the Prime Minister is becoming “furious” as he senses defeat in the Assembly polls, which is the reason for his “disgraceful” attacks on Congress and its legends like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
“We want him to attack us more. We want him to abuse our legendary leaders. We will be benefiting as much as he attacks us,” Gehlot told IANS in an interview.
Claiming that the party will win the Gujarat polls with a clear majority, he also attacked the Prime Minister for describing Rahul Gandhi’s impending elevation as party chief as “Aurangzeb raj”.
“We will win this election with a comfortable majority. There is an undercurrent in favour of Congress. See how Modiji is attacking Congress and even its internal elections. A figure like the Prime Minister is attacking Rahul’s elevation, and that too by taking the name of a person who is not a Congress member,” Gehlot said, referring to Shehzad Poonawala. He said it goes to show how the Prime Minister and the entire BJP is “scared”.
“In fear of defeat he is saying anything in order to get the election agenda diverted from his model of development. He is mocking Congress’ internal democracy, but everyone knows that in the BJP the RSS decides who will be Prime Minister, President and Chief Minister. And you are talking about Congress,” he said.
Gehlot was referring to Modi’s charge that Nehru was not in favour of reconstructing the Somnath temple and his accusation that Indira Gandhi covered her nose with a handkerchief to avoid the stench when she visited Morbi in 1979 after the Machhu dam flood tragedy.
“It was under Indira Gandhi’s leadership that Pakistan was divided. It was one of the world’s historic events. There are many more such events with which the new generation is not familiar. They (BJP) are in the habit of misguiding people,” he said.
“They (PM and BJP) are raising these issues as they have become furious (baukhla gaye hai). Who cares about all this? They may hatch conspiracies to win elections but we don’t care. This is all because defeat is at their doorsteps. People of Gujarat are with us. Rahulji (Gandhi) is getting people’s love, affection and blessings.”
Continuing his attack on Modi, he said the Prime Minister has “lost his charisma” and this is seen during his election rallies too.
“Modiji has fooled people in the name of Vibrant Gujarat. Go to the villages of Gujarat and you will find the reality of development called ‘Modi model’. He has been exposed. Which class of society is happy with him? From farmers to labourers and from youths to business class, all are unhappy. Now people of Gujarat are not going to believe him. They are not going to come under his fake claims.
“You can see this on the ground. Earlier crowds used to chant ‘Modi, Modi’ in his rallies. Now what is happening? Chairs remain vacant. Where have they gone – those who used to chant his name?” he asked.
“His graph is shrinking. Now people have acknowledged their (BJP) lie. They speak only untruth and make false promises. People still remember the promises of bringing back black money, two crore employment every year and getting Rs 15 lakh into their bank accounts.”
The Congress General Secretary in charge of Gujarat said that Rahul Gandhi’s elevation to the party President’s post will impact the country’s politics a lot and youth would come forward under his leadership.
“I believe the young generation will come forward under his leadership. We were also youth. I became MP at an age of 28 and then became PCC President, General Secretary, Union Minister and Chief Minister. Today there are four General Secretaries in AICC, who were youths during Indira Gandhi’s regime. This is the speciality of the Congress that it gives opportunities to the new generation.
“Rahulji will do the same. He will take benefit from the experience of senior leaders and will move ahead with the youth,” he said.
Describing BJP as a party of “hypocrites” he said that they are “embracing Gandhiji, whom they killed”.
“Sardar Patel banned RSS and now they are claiming their birth right on him. After being humiliated by public throughout their journey from Jan Sangh to Janata Party and now BJP, they are doing divisive politics in the name of Congress.
“In the early years they did politics in the name of cow and its protection. They then raked up the issue of Ram temple. And now when they are in power they are again doing politics in the name of cow and trying to divide the country,” he said.
On Rahul Gandhi’s temple visits, he said that there was nothing new in this as Sonia Gandhi also began her election campaign in 2007 from Ambaji temple.
“She used to campaign by helicopter and temples don’t exist in air. Rahulji is travelling through roads and he goes to temples on the way,” he said.
(Brajendra Nath Singh can be contacted at brajendra.n@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Amit Shah
Ahmedabad : Latching on to Kapil Sibal’s statement in the Supreme Court for deferring hearing in the Ramjanambhoomi dispute till after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday asked Rahul Gandhi to clear the Congress stand on the Ram temple issue.
He accused the Congress of having “double standards” on the contentious issue and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the other hand wanted an end to the matter as soon as possible.
“I appeal to the future Congress President — please clear your stand on the issue,” he said.
“On the one hand, temples are being visited (by Rahul Gandhi) ahead of elections. On the other hand, they are trying to delay hearing of the Ramjanmabhoomi case (in the Supreme Court). The Congress has double standards on the issue. They should clarify their stand,” Shah said.
He alleged that the Congress did not want the issue of the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh to be resolved soon.
“The BJP demands that the case should be heard as soon as possible. The Supreme Court should give a judgment and a grand Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya,” Shah said.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who is representing the Sunni Waqf Board in the Ayodhya case, asked the apex court to hear the matter only in July 2019.
The Supreme Court will commence on February 8, 2018, the hearing on a batch of petitions which challenged a 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya title suit that divided the disputed Babri Masjid site between the Nirmohi Akhara, Lord Ram deity, and the Sunni Waqf Board.
—IANS
