by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Gandhinagar : The Congress on Monday issued its poll manifesto for the Gujarat assembly polls, promising debt waiver for state farmers and an assurance on reservation for the Patidars.
In case the Congress returns to power, farmers’ debts will be waived and Minimum Support Price of farm produce at taluka level declared even before sowing starts, the party promised in the manifesto, which was released by the Congress state unit.
The Congress promised that without affecting the present 49 per cent reservation for scheduled castes and tribes as well as Other backward classes, the party’s government will introduce a bill in the assembly at the earliest under Article 46 of the Constitution.
“The communities specified under Article 46 but which have not received any benefit under relevant laws will be given equal opportunities for education and economic development. The rights and privileges enjoyed by the OBCs will be extended to the Extremely Backward Classes category,” the party said.
“In the next three years, the Congress government will complete all remaining works of micro network the Narmada canal. The farmers will be supplied 16 hours of daytime electricity and reduced connection charges. Farmers will be given three-phase electricity connections of up to two horse power connections,” the manifesto said.
“Today, the people of Gujarat are living in constant fear and they cannot express themselves. We want to resurrect their trust in the government through this manifesto, which not only looks to improve the state Gross Domestic Product but also the Human Development Index. The Congress is the only hope for that to happen,” Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Bharatsinh Solanki told the media here.
He said the Congress will revert amendments/changes brought in by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in land acquisition laws brought in by the then United Progressive Alliance government in 2013.
Besides, the Goods and Services Tax on agricultural equipment, inputs and produce will be exempted, the opposition party promised.
The Congress said a giant statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar would be installed in the Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat), in a bid to appease the Scheduled Castes. Unutilised government surplus land will be alloted to landless SC families, the party said.
“There’s a huge backlog of vacancies in government offices. The Congress will ensure filling of vacancies within six months. The Congress government will also abolish contractual system, fixed-salary jobs and regularised them all.”
The Congress manifesto promised to make the state’s women feel safer and secure.
“One-stop crisis centres will be set up in all districts to prevent violence against women. Women protection officers up to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police will be appointed in each districts. The number of women police stations will be increased.”
It also promised 25 lakh houses in five years under Indira Awas Yojana for the rural and urban poor and Rajeev Gandhi Awas Yojana for the urban lower and middle income groups.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Manish Sisodia
New Delhi : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday challenged the state governments led by BJP and Congress to compete with his state’s education “revolution”.
He also challenged the BJP-ruled MCDs for a comparison with the schools of the Delhi government.
“Compete with the work done in education sector by our government. Let’s start today and then compare after a year or two. This competition will ultimately benefit the students of the country providing them with good schools,” Sisodia, who also holds the Education portfolio, told media here.
His remarks come in the wake of criticism that his government received from the opposition on its performance in the field of education among others.
State BJP chief Manoj Tiwari on November 24 said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal failed to deliver on his poll promises that he would improve education, while Congress’ Delhi unit President Ajay Maken also slammed the Delhi government, saying the number of students and its results have gone drastically down in last three years.
Sisodia hit back on Wednesday claiming that government schools are being shut down and private schools are increasing in states led by BJP and Congress.
“I appreciate that the important matter of education is being discussed by the politicians who keep discussing issues of ‘shamshan’ and ‘kabristaan’,” he said.
He further said that both BJP and Congress “did nothing in the education sector” and rather played in the hands of the private school lobby.
Referring to the data of the Education Department, he said that the transition loss from Class 10 to Class 12 came down in the two years of AAP’s rule in Delhi.
“While the transition loss in 2013-14 was 6,2,158, it has come down 2016-17 to 1,8,405.”
He also pointed towards the increase in expenditure on school infrastructure, which, he said, has gone up to Rs 1,229 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 210 crore in 2012-13.
“We changed the way education sector worked in Delhi. The schools which were dilapidated and were not maintained, get whitewashed every year now, and drinking water and sanitation has been taken care of.
“Four-five years back when we started talking on wide-spread corruption, the political discourse shifted from caste, religion to issues like corruption. I am sure education will become a topic in national politics in the coming years,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Bhubaneswar : Hectic political activities were witnessed here on Monday with three major political parties — the BJD, the Congress and the BJP — taking out rallies and staging demonstrations on farmers’ issues.
While Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal staged a demonstration near Raj Bhawan, blaming the Central government for not hiking Minimum Support Price on paddy, the BJP resorted to ‘Secretariat gherao’ for delay in disbursing agriculture input subsidy to the farmers, whose crops were damaged due to unseasonal rain.
The Congress, on the other hand, trained its gun at both the Union and state governments for ignoring the plight of farmers and playing politics on their agony.
BJD spokesperson Amar Satapathy said: “We are demanding hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) on paddy to Rs 2,930 per quintal.”
“Even though the matter was passed in the state Assembly and it was decided to meet the Prime Minister to press the demand, the Prime Minister did not give time to meet the all-party house committee led by Assembly Speaker.”
The party has also submitted a memorandum to Governor S.C. Jamir addressed to the President of India, said Satapathy.
The state wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party took out a rally in a bid to barge into the state secretariat — an attempt thwarted by the police.
“The state government should waive farm loan for the benefit of the distressed farmers,” said state BJP president Basant Panda.
“It should also announce bonus on paddy. But it did nothing. Moreover, the state government is yet to disburse agriculture input subsidy to the farmers hit by unseasonal rainfall and pest attack.”
The Congress submitted a memorandum, addressed to the President, to the Governor seeking his intervention to address the farmers’ issue.
“We have submitted a memorandum to Governor S.C. Jamir demanding an increase in the MSP of paddy to Rs 3,000 per quintal,” said Congress Farmers’ Cell President Amiya Patnaik.
“Both the Central and state governments have betrayed the farmers. The party will fight for the rights of the farmers.”
Meanwhile, the state government has received crop damage reports from all the 30 districts relating to unseasonal rain.
The reports are to be compiled on Monday and agriculture input subsidy would be disbursed after the report is finalised, said an official of the Special Relief Commissioner.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Rahul Gandhi
By Amulya Ganguli,
Rahul Gandhi’s coronation as the Congress president next month is taking place at the right time for him and the party.
Over the last two months, he has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis. It is difficult to say why this change has taken place, but there is little doubt about its reality.
From someone who tried to cover up his inadequacies in the fields of ideas and oratory by his shrillness in parliament and outside, Rahul Gandhi has suddenly become calm and composed — a person who can articulate his views cogently and is not afraid to mock himself by saying that he has been called “stupid” by a section of netizens ostensibly associated with the saffron camp.
Little wonder, therefore, that his election rallies in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, and especially in Gujarat, have drawn more enthusiastic crowds than during his earlier campaigns in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
His maturity, too, is evident from his decision to dispense with as a propaganda ploy the popular jibe on the social media about vikas or development growing crazy in Gujarat since he does not want any disrespect to be shown towards the Prime Minister. It is possible that the refined genes of the Nehru-Gandhi family are coming to the fore.
It is for this reason that senior leaders like Sharad Pawar are no longer averse to dealing directly with him instead of preferring Sonia Gandhi.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is no longer taking him lightly, as can be seen from the harshness of Narendra Modi’s attacks on the Congress — or “termites”, as he has called it — and his charge about the intense dislike of Gujarat which the Congress and the dynasty apparently harbour against the state.
Clearly, if the BJP is sanguine about winning 150-plus seats in Gujarat as a step towards ushering in a Congress-mukt India, then there would not have been the need for the Prime Minister to spend so much time campaigning in a single state, especially when it is regarded as his bailiwick.
Or for the BJP to raise the inevitable suspicion that it persuaded the Election Commission to delay for a few weeks the announcement of the poll dates in Gujarat so that some more sops for the electorate could be rolled out by the state government before the model code of conduct came into force.
The BJP’s nervousness about the unexpected challenge posed by someone whom it routinely derided as Pappu or an adolescent might have been exacerbated by the sudden praise heaped on Rahul Gandhi by a spokesman of the BJP’s ally, the Shiv Sena, who even said that the Congress vice-president was capable of becoming the Prime Minister — a possibility to which neither Rahul Gandhi’s friends or foes had alluded to before.
The ascent of the Nehru-Gandhi scion is also timely where the Congress is concerned. There is little doubt that the party has come out of the slough of despond into which it had sunk in the aftermath of its poorest-ever performance in the last general election.
One reason why it is no longer going about in a daze is its marginal recovery from the 2014 drubbing because of the party’s successes in the Punjab assembly elections and in the by-election in Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, where it increased its vote share.
Besides, the party occupied the No. 1 position in the Goa and Manipur assemblies before the BJP lured away some of the its legislators.
The Congress is also exuding greater confidence because of the belief that it is on the verge of a generational shift which cannot but breathe new life into the party as its old guard retreats into the background and a younger lot — Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh — takes charge.
Their leader, Rahul Gandhi, in his new, less arrogant avatar is expected to play a crucial role at the national level along with other youngsters who are likely to be his allies such as Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and Tejashvi Yadav in Bihar although the latter is hamstrung by the taint of his father, Lalu Prasad’s fodder scam.
It is not that all those who are 70-plus will be put out to pasture as the BJP has done with its “margdarshak mandali” or visionary group comprising L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and others.
In the Congress, chief ministers like Amarinder Singh and Siddaramaiah will continue to play important roles. But Rahul Gandhi’s supremacy will not be in doubt just as Sonia Gandhi’s isn’t.
To many, the preponderance of the dynasty may be the fly in the ointment. No doubt the Congress’s opponents will press this point with increasing vehemence as the party shows signs of recovery via the successes of its student wing, the National Students Union of India, and its allies in the students’ union elections as in Delhi university, Allahahad university and Kashi Vidyapith. In the last two institutions, the Samajwadi Party’s students’ wing won over the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP’s student wing.
But the fact that the Congress is no longer a pushover is evident if only because it is gaining from the BJP’s missteps on the economy and its failure to control the militants in its ranks as can be seen from the threats that are being made against the director and actors of the film, “Padmavati”, because it does not conform to the saffron version of medieval Indian history.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Reports, News, Politics
Chandigarh : Raising serious doubts over the “conduct” and “neutrality” of Justice S.N. Dhingra (retired), the Congress party on Friday demanded that the Dhingra Commission Report on land deals in Gurugram, which includes land deals of Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, should be rejected.
Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told the media here on Friday that new facts had come to light on the conduct and neutrality of Justice Dhingra which had substantiated the doubts raised by the party earlier regarding the fairness of the inquiry done by him in the Gurugram land deals matter.
“Justice S.N. Dhingra Commission of Inquiry and its report submitted on August 31, 2016, have been used as a political tool for malicious witch-hunt by the BJP government.
“A cloud of predetermined animosity and a ‘fixed match’ syndrome has marred the constitution of the Commission, proceedings of the Commission, apparent bias and illegalities committed by the Commission in not summoning the persons or giving them opportunity to examine witnesses and defend themselves against whom a finding of guilt was proposed to be returned as mandated by Section 8B and Section 8C of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, and finally the perfunctory report submitted by the Commission,” Surjewala said in a statement here.
“During this entire web of conspiracy, the Congress had pointed out that ‘conduct’ of Justice S.N. Dhingra has raised a serious question on his neutrality, lack of prejudice and bias as also a serious compromise on his ‘capacity’ to head the Commission or furnish a report.
“Clinching evidence including ‘court orders’ now reflect that position of Justice S.N. Dhingra to head the Commission of Inquiry stood compromised totally, rendering him ineligible. Justice S.N. Dhingra Commission’s report, therefore, needs to be rejected in toto and has been rendered nugatory on account of a compromise on the conduct and capacity of the Hon’ble Judge,” the statement said.
Surjewala said that Justice Dhingra had compromised his position as an independent and neutral player by accepting favours from the government of Haryana for a trust headed by him, including accepting gift of land for this trust from a private individual.
Justice Dhingra heads the Gopal Singh Charitable Trust based in Niti Bagh, New Delhi.
“A private individual in Gurgaon (Gurugram) had proceeded to gift a chunk of land to this trust leaving aside a few thousand trusts operating in Haryana, including many such trusts and NGOs located in Gurgaon,” Surjewala pointed out.
The Congress leader said that the conduct of Justice Dhingra as an observer incharge of a private company, The Printers House Private Ltd, at a time when he was heading the inquiry commission of the Haryana government was also not above board.
“Justice Dhingra continued to draw remuneration both from the government of Haryana as also from The Printers House Private Ltd. Did he seek consent of the subsequent appointment and availing of second remuneration from the government of Haryana?” Surjewala asked.
He further said: “During his appointment as an observer of The Printers House Private Ltd, Justice Dhingra transferred funds to the tune of Rs 8,88,000 and Rs 6,66,000 to a company, i.e. Cinnamon Trails LLP, an entity in which his daughter, Bharti Dhingra, is a designated partner,” Surjewala claimed.
Justice Dhingra had availed international and domestic travel facilities and hotel expenses for himself and his wife for Myanmar and Hyderabad, he added.
The Congress leader urged the BJP government in Haryana, headed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, to reject the report by the Dhingra commission.
—IANS
