by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News
The Delhi Police has also asked for nine stadiums from the Aam Aadmi Party government to detain the farmers in case they manage to enter the national capital
CHANDIGARH – Braving chilly night under the open skies, thousands of protesting farmers from Punjab and Haryana gathered in Panipat town, resumed their onward journey on tractor-trailers on Friday towards the national capital to lodge their protest over the Centre’s new agriculture laws.
Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of farmers belonging to the Bharati Kisan Union Ekta-Ugrahan and the Kisan Sangharsh Committee have announced to start their journey from Sangrur district and Jandiala in Amritsar district, respectively, towards Delhi via Haryana.
A day earlier they had positioned themselves in their respective areas.
“This morning (Friday) we managed to break a three-four layer police barricade between Panipat and Sonipat despite the use of water cannons by the Haryana Police,” protester Gurdev Singh said. He said on Thursday they broke four to five barricades after entering Haryana.
Up in arms, farmers on Thursday braved tear gas shells and water cannons to break through police barricades at several places first on the Punjab-Haryana border and then within Haryana.
Marching through Haryana where they were joined by an equal number of local farmers.
Meanwhile, Punjab legislators Parminder Dhindsa, Sukhpal Khera and Raja Warring were taken into preventive custody by the police.
Several protesters and policemen were injured as farmers broke barricades and threw them down from a bridge ahead of the Punjab-Haryana border in Shambhu near Haryana’s Ambala on Thursday.
A huge contingent of police comprising the Rapid Action Force had been deployed at all entry points in Haryana, while residents of several towns located along the Punjab-Haryana border faced a harrowing time due to the heavy deployment of the security forces and snapping of the bus services in the past 24 hours.
Despite the use of water cannons and tear gas, the protesting farmers, comprising men and women — both young and old — and school and college students riding tractor-trailers, cars and motorcycles, managed to enter Haryana from Shambhu.
Angry farmers threw stones at security forces deployed to control the crowd at the Shambhu border.
As per the police estimates, around 3,00,000 farmers from both states are set to reach Delhi.
The farmers affiliated to 33 organisations are part of the United Farmers Front, an all-India body of over 470 farmers’ unions that will participate in the indefinite protest in the national capital.
Appealing to the agitating farmers, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said: “Will leave politics if there’s trouble on MSP (minimum support price).”
He also blamed his Punjab counterpart Amarinder Singh for “inciting the farmers”.
Reacting to his accusations, Amarinder Singh replied on Twitter: “Shocked at your response. It’s the farmers who’ve to be convinced on MSP, not me. You should’ve tried to talk to them before their ‘Dilli Chalo’. And if you think I’m inciting farmers then why are Haryana farmers also marching to Delhi?”
Meanwhile, condemning the use of water cannon and tear gas, former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said: “Today is Punjab’s 26/11. We are witnessing the end of the right to democratic protest. The Akali Dal condemns the Haryana government the Centre for choosing to repress the peaceful farmer movement.”
He said the battle for the rights of the Punjab farmers cannot be throttled by using water cannons against them.
Supporting the protest by farmers, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the peaceful demonstration was a constitutional right of the farmers.
The Delhi Police has already asked the farmers not to enter Delhi as they don’t have permission to protest in the city.
Farmers protesting against the farm laws have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporate entities.
Delhi Police resorted to firing tear gas shells to disperse protesting farmers as they reached Singhu border (Haryana-Delhi border) on Friday.
Accorrding to sources, the Delhi Police has also asked for nine stadiums from the Aam Aadmi Party government to detain the farmers in case they manage to enter the national capital.
Police has tried to negotiate with a delegation of farmers. They have made it clear that the farmers won’t be allowed to cross the border and enter Delhi. The protesters though appear adamant.
There are 32 unions of farmers among others who are taking various routes, Singhu, Tikri and all peripheral towns of the capital are witnessing massive protests.
“We are not here to fight or cause any trouble. We just want to put forward our point peacefully, the police though seems in a confrontation mood,” said a protesting farmer.
Heavy police force including para military has been deployed at Singhu border, Tikri border, Delhi-Gurugram border, and Faridabad border.
At Singhu border the Delhi Police has put barbed wires and Boulder barricades to stop farmers trolleys heading towards the capital city.
Thay have used innovative tactics by putting up trolleys filled with mud and sand to break their advance. The farmers are protesting three Farm Laws, including one on MSP.
Drones have also been deployed to check the farmers march from a distance. Senior police officers are themselves monitoring the border areas.
At the Mundka-Delhi-Haryana border, confrontation was seen between farmers and Police where the farmers tried to penetrate the security ring of the paramilitary and Police.
The Delhi Police has already made it clear that strict action as per law would be taken against the farmers if they try to enter Delhi.
Some 500 farmers’ organisations from six states — Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Kerala have been planning this march for two months to press the central government to repeal the recently enacted farm laws.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Markets, News
New Delhi : Setting aside all conventions with an eye on the coming elections, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday showered tax sops for the middle class and salaried tax payers including zero tax liability for those with income is up to Rs 5 lakh and announced an annual income support of Rs 6,000 for small farmers and contributory pension for labourers in the demonetization-hit unorganized sector.
Taking the place of an ailing Arun Jaitley, in his 100-minute speech, Goyal also announced raising the Standard Deduction for the salaried class and pensioners from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 and proposed exemption from tax on notional rent on second self-occupied home. This would help families maintaining homes at two locations due to their jobs.
In a big relief for the middle income group, he increased the rebate under Section 87A of the Income Tax Act from Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,500 – the equivalent of 5 per cent tax on Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh slab – and also raised the eligibility criterion for claiming the rebate to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 3.5 lakh earlier. This effectively reduces the tax liability of those with net taxable income upto Rs 5 lakh to nil.
However, tax liability for those with net income above Rs 5 lakh would still start from Rs 2.5 lakh as earlier. The Interim Budget neither changed the existing tax rates or the slabs.
The tax giveaways involve a revenue sacrifice of Rs 23,100 crore a year to benefit more than three crore salary earners and pensioners – Rs 18,400 crore on account of Rs 12,500 tax rebate and other changes and Rs 4,700 crore on account of raising the standard deduction.
In the wake of the BJP’s defeat in the Hindi heartland states in December on perceived stress in agriculture and informal sectors, the Budget came out with a direct income support of Rs 6,000 per annum for small farmers with land-holding size up to two hectares which would be transferred directly into their bank accounts.
The scheme would be funded completely by the Central government and would directly benefit 12 crore farmer families, he said to the cheers of the ruling benches.
Acknowledging reduced returns for farmers due to falling food prices in the international market and declining inflation, Goyal said the scheme would be implemented from December 1 last year for which Rs 20,000 crore has been allocated in the revised estimates for the current fiscal and Rs 75,000 crore in the Interim Budget for the whole of next fiscal.
For the demo-hit unorganised sector, Goyal announced a contributory pension scheme providing for Rs 3,000 per month on attaining 60 year that will benefit 10 crore workers in the unorganized sector.
Those who enter the scheme at 18 years will have to pay a monthly premium of Rs 55 while those who enter at 29 years will have to pay Rs 100 per month till they reach 60. The government will contribute a matching share in the pension account of workers.
This scheme, he said, will be implemented from the current year and a sum of Rs 500 crore has been allocated and more will be given if needed.
In a big relief to pensioners and senior citizens, he also raised the threshold for Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on interest received on bank deposits from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000, and TDS on rent from Rs 180,000 to Rs 240,000.
“Once you account deductions under Section 80(C), middle class tax payers with gross income upto Rs 6.5 lakh will have no need to pay income tax,” he said amidst prolonged thumping of desks by the ruling NDA members who kept shouting “Modi, Modi, Modi”. The Prime Minister was himself seen thumping the desks every time Goyal made fresh announcements.
Taken along with Standard Deduction and other sops like interest paid on home loans, education loans, contribution to National Pension Scheme, medical insurance premium and medical expenses on senior citizens, the effective exemption would go up further.
He said while the changes in the tax structure would be made in the regular Budget, people needed a certainty in their minds in the beginning of the year about what taxes they would have to pay and went on to announce the tax sops in the Part B of his speech.
The budget also stepped up defence allocation which he said will be crossing Rs 3 lakh crore for the first time in 2019-20. “If necessary, additional funds would be provided for securing our borders and to maintain preparedness of the highest order.”
Part of the funding for the agriculture and unorganized sector schemes may come from the Rs 20,000 hike in the RBI and PSU dividends from Rs 54,000 crore in 2018-19.
Turning to macro finance in the budget, Goyal revised the fiscal deficit target for 2019-20 at 3.4 per cent of the GDP, up by 0.1 per cent targeted this year.
“We would have maintained fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent for 2018-19 and taken further steps to consolidate fiscal deficit in 2019-20. However, considering the need for income support to farmers, we have provided Rs 20,000 crore in the revised estimate of the current fiscal and Rs 75,000 crore in the budget estimates of 2019-20.
“If we exclude this, the fiscal deficit would have been less than 3.3 per cent for 2018-19 and less than 3.1 per cent for 2019-20.”
The Interim Budget pegged the total expenditure for 2019-20 at Rs 27,84,200 crore, up from Rs 24,57,235 crore in the revised estimates of the current fiscal, which is a rise of approximately 13.3 per cent.
At the outset, Goyal said the paralysis of the past had been broken and India solidly put back on track and marching towards growth and prosperity.
The government had succeeded in breaking the back of the “back breaking” inflation which stood at 2.19 per cent in December. “If we had not controlled inflation, our families would have been spending around 35 to 40 per cent more today on basic necessities.”
Critics of the budget said the exercise was one of optics and rhetoric. They raised questions like where the money would come for funding the schemes to benefit farmers and labour in the unorganised sector.
The government may bank on the gross borrowing that has been estimated at over Rs 7 lakh crore but on the direct taxes front contrary to claims of buyoancy and compliance ramping up, there is a defict.
Government sources indicated that all eyes would now be on RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, who was appointed recently, to come to the aid of the government to come out with an interest rate cut on the back of a benign inflation.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Finance, News, Politics
By Sundeep Pouranik,
Bhopal : A week after the launch of the loan waiver scheme in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress government claims 19.54 lakh farmers have filed their applications in the six days till Sunday.
While the opposition BJP has been calling the “Jai Kisan Rin Mukti Yojana” a trick to cheat the farmers, the question is how the farmers of the state perceive the entire exercise.
Kailash Chaudhary, a farmer from Mandsaur district’s Babulda village, said: “About two years ago, six farmers sacrificed their lives for their rights in Pipliya Mandi. This is the beginning of the victory of their fight.”
“Forms are being filled for waiver of loans up to Rs 2 lakh. We feel that the government is taking our demands seriously,” Chaudhary told IANS.
Mandsaur was the centre of farmers’ agitation in 2017 when six farmers were killed in police firing in June, 2017. After the incident, the farmers’ movement had taken over the whole state, which then spread to the whole nation.
Farmer’s leader Kedar Sirohi said: “Farmers in different parts of the state are excited about the loan waiver. They are filing applications in large numbers.”
“To ensure they don’t face any difficulty in filing applications, leaders and workers of farmer organisations are helping them. Government officials is also alert to help out the farmers. Colour coding of application forms has made it easier for farmers to fill out the applications,” he said.
According to official figures, out of the 19.54 lakh forms filed till Sunday, around 60 per cent were green forms, 35 per cent were white forms and 5 percent were pink forms. The farmers are hopeful of becoming debt-free through this exercise.
As per the scheme, the farmers of the Aadhaar seeded list will have to submit green applications and the farmers of non-Aadhar seeded list will have to submit white coloured applications. Farmers have to submit a pink application to file an objection or claim against information provided in the green or white list.
However, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been accusing the Congress of misleading the farmers and terming the scheme a trick to cheat them.
Former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said the Congress promise of a loan waiver won’t be fulfilled by a mere announcement.
“The Chief Minister (Kamal Nath) and Congress leaders are saying they have fulfilled their promise of loan waiver to the farmers. But the promise has not yet been fulfilled. An announcement does not mean fulfillment of the promise,” he said, adding the Congress was misleading the farmers.
Congress spokesperson Syed Jaffer responded that 55 lakh farmers will get their loans waived of under the scheme, for which the due process needs to be followed.
“No matter what charges the BJP makes, the truth is that farmers are happy and they trust that the Congress is fulfilling the promise that they made to them,” he said.
“Those farmers who are in debt, neither are they now receiving notices from the banks nor is their property being seized. Under BJP rule, farmers had to go to jail and lose their property just for not paying their power bills,” Jaffer told IANS.
Calling the scheme pro-farmer, farmer leader Shiv Kumar Sharma told IANS that political parties were creating doubts about the scheme.
“Farmers were reeling under debt which had increased manifold over the last one-and-a-half decade. Now they are getting waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh. The government is new and one should wait before making adverse comments,” he said.
Kamal Nath had signed the farm loan waiver file soon after taking oath as the Chief Minister. The filing of forms for the waiver started from January 15 and will continue till February 5.
According to the government, farmers will start getting the money in their loan accounts from February 22.
The Chief Minister had said that the scheme would benefit around 55 lakh farmers by waiving their loans worth Rs 50,000 crore.
(Sundeep Pouranik can be contacted at sundeep.p@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Mohammed Shafeeq,
Hyderabad : Early Assembly elections and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) retaining power with a landslide majority earlier this month dominated the events in Telangana during 2018.
Eight months before the expiry of the Assembly’s term, the TRS government recommended dissolution of the House on September 6. Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan accepted the recommendation the same day.
Chief Minister and TRS President K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s gamble of early polls paid rich dividends as the party bagged 88 seats in 119-member Assembly. The historic alliance between Congress and its arch rival for 36 years, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) — and the formation of four-party People’s Alliance led by Congress — failed to stop the TRS juggernaut.
The Assembly elections were originally scheduled along with Lok Sabha polls in 2019 but by advancing them, KCR (as the Chief Minister is popularly known) ensured that the focus remained on his narrative of development and welfare. The welfare schemes implemented during the last four-and-a-half-years and the ‘Telangana pride’ factor due to campaigning by TDP President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu helped the TRS sail through with flying colours.
Buoyed by the massive victory, KCR announced he will play a crucial role in national politics by bringing together all regional parties under proposed Federal Front to provide an alternative to both the Congress and the BJP. In another related key development, the TRS chief handed over the party affairs to his son K.T. Rama Rao, by appointing him the party’s Working President.
The year began with the launch of free 24-hour electricity to the agriculture sector. This made Telangana the first state in the country to provide this facility to farmers.
The year also saw the launch of two major schemes for farmers. Under ‘Rythu Bandhu’, an investment support of Rs 8,000 is being provided to each farmer per acre per year for two crops. ‘Rythu Beema’ offers Rs 5 lakh life insurance cover to every farmer.
Earlier, this month the government announced that Telangana had achieved 29.97 per cent growth during the current financial year up to November. It claimed that no other state in the country recorded such a high growth rate.
After the formation of Telangana, during the first four financial years, the state recorded growth of 17.17 percent on an average every year.
Telangana registered information technology exports worth Rs 93,422 crore in the 2017-18 fiscal, a Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.6 per cent as against the national average of 10.30 per cent.
The Hyderabad Metro Rail commenced operations in September on the 16-km Ameerpet-LB Nagar line. With the 46-km now operational, the Hyderabad Metro has become India’s second largest such network after Delhi.
Leading Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA opened its first India store in Hyderabad in August with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore on 13 acre of land in Hitec City, the IT hub.
Earlier this month, star shuttler P.V. Sindhu became first Indian to win the BWF Tour Finals. Her first gold medal of the year came after she finished runner-up in seven tournaments including World Championships, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
While Sindhu was battling in BWF Finals in China, her seniors and star shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap tied the knot in Hyderabad.
Another celebrity, tennis star Sania Mirza, was in news for becoming a mother. Sania, who married Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik in 2010, gave birth to their first child, a baby boy, on October 30.
There was also a share of tragedies. Telugu actor and former Andhra Pradesh minister N. Harikrishna died in a road accident in Nalgonda district. He was the son of TDP founder and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao.
In the worst tragedy during the year, 57 people were killed when an over-crowded bus of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) plunged into a gorge near Kondagattu temple in Jagtial district on September 11.
The legal system hit the news when a special NIA court in September sentenced to death two operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and jailed a third for life in the 2007 twin bomb blast case. The blasts at an eatery and a park in Hyderabad on August 25, 2007 had killed 44 people.
Earlier in April, another special court had acquitted right-wing activist Swami Aseemanand and four others in the Makkah Masjid bomb blast case. The blast, during Friday prayers on May 8, 2007, had claimed nine lives.
(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contated at m.shafeeq@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News

Representational Image
By Brij Khandelwal (12:32)
Agra/Vrindavan : Not just people in cities, but even farmers in the vast rural hinterland are approaching local authorities seeking urgent solutions to the exploding bovine population that is destroying crops, causing traffic hazards and making life difficult for all.
On road crossings and busy streets, herds of stray cattle move around menacingly. The bulls have been charging at people and causing injuries almost every day.
The police say they are helpless. Municipal officials say there is no space for captured animals.
After the ban on cow slaughter by the Uttar Pradesh government, the number of animals on roads and public parks has increased alarmingly.
“Since no one is willing to feed the stray cows, these animals are eating all the garbage, including polythene bags and waste leather. When in agony, even the cows go berserk and start attacking anyone,” says local resident Jugal Kishore.
This is a huge problem that government officials have failed in Braj area to address, along with the simian nuisance.
People are now demanding forced sterilisation of animals to keep their numbers in check.
In Mathura district, more than 100 private “gaushalas”, or cow shelters, are already filled to capacity. In Radha Kund, a German lady is running one with more than 1,700 cows and bulls.
“Vrindavan is desperately in need of a cow hospital, but the gaushala that is currently most active in treating injured street cows has not been able to raise the funds for a hospital building and urgently needs more surgical supplies,” said a Vrindavan official, who did not want to be named.
In the past fortnight, several people have been seriously injured and an elderly man died as a bull charged at people in a crowded market.
The lanes are full of stray animals — dogs, monkeys and cows. Bulls have been attacking tourists even outside the Taj Mahal and Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra.
“The Agra Municipal Corporation is supposed to capture these animals and house them in enclosures, but the officials are not at all serious,” complained Vijay Nagar Colony resident Sudheir Gupta.
“Our colony is daily visited by dozens of cows and bulls. This is in addition to monkeys and dogs,” he added.
The faithful feed bananas to the monkeys and green leaves and spinach bundles to the cows on the Yamuna Kinara road early in the morning. Later, these animals enter the busy market places and start attacking people, said temple priest Nandan Shrotriya.
In Mathura and Vrindavan, the bovine menace has taken alarming proportions. Truckloads come from the rural hinterland to dump the unwanted animals.
Hundreds of bulls and cows also die or get injured in road accidents while moving in search of food.
The government had announced opening of gaushalas and cow sheds in a phased manner. Recently, the government again announced a plan to establish “gau-ashrams” for homeless cattle. But the crisis remains.
(Brij Khandelwal can be contacted at brij.k@ians.in)
—IANS