by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Demanding justice for Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday began a 12-hour-long fast here with an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi dubbing him “totally imbalanced”.
A day after Modi addressed a rally in Andhra Pradesh and made a bitter attack on Naidu, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President sat on the fast in the national capital demanding the Centre to accord Special Category Status (SCS) and fulfil other commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Clad in a black shirt to protest the raw deal meted out to the state, Naidu began the ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’ at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan here.
“Modi came to Guntur yesterday. He spent so much of time and so much energy to attack and criticise me but not to solve any problem. This is where you are totally imbalanced,” he said.
Naidu said his protest was against the injustice done to the state, to remind the Centre of its promises and to demonstrate the strength of Andhra Pradesh.
Warning the Prime Minister to stop attacks, Naidu said he should act immediately to fulfil the commitments as only “two days were left”. He was apparently referring to ongoing Parliament session, which could be the last session before the Lok Sabha elections.
“If you don’t fulfil the promises you have made, we know how to get it done. This is a matter of self-respect of Andhra. We know how to earn money but whenever somebody hits our self-respect we don’t tolerate. This has been proven in the past.”
He also warned that if the government failed to fulfil the promises, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would face a permanent boycott in Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu recalled that when then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the SCS for five years, then BJP leaders in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitely and Venkaiah Naidu had insisted for a period of 10 years.
He said Modi at every election rally promised to accord the SCS and claimed that based on this promise TDP had an alliance with the BJP.
The Chief Minister said the Centre had failed to implement the provisions of Bifurcation Act, including funds to bridge the revenue deficit, railway zone in Visakhapatnam, steel plant in Kadapa and petrochemical corridor.
He said the Centre provided only Rs 1,500 crore for development of state capital Amaravati while it was estimated that Rs 5 lakh crore were required over 20 years to build a capital at par with Hyderabad.
Earlier, Naidu along with other TDP leaders paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and garlanded the statue of B.R. Ambedkar before launching the protest.
Naidu’s cabinet colleagues, MPs, state legislators and leaders of student and employees groups and mass organisations were sitting with him on the fast.
A large number of protesters have also joined Naidu. They reached the national capital by two special trains hired by the state government.
Leaders of several non-BJP parties were expected to meet Naidu and express their solidarity.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews, Politics
Rajiv Kumar
By Vishav,
New Delhi : Terming Congress President Rahul Gandhis promise of a minimum income guarantee to poor unimplementable, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar says it is similar in nature to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhis ‘garibi hatao slogan.
He says India neither had the kind of fiscal space, nor the kind of complete data needed to implement the scheme.
Kumar also opposed the idea of Universal Basic Income, often advocated by former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, saying he favoured incentives for population to work.
The NITI Aayog Vice Chairman said the Congress needed to explain to the country how it can afford a scheme like minimum income guarantee.
“I don’t think it is practical. I think it is more rhetorical. It is similar in nature to ‘garibi hatao’. And I don’t think its implementation will be feasible. We neither have that kind of fiscal space, nor that kind of complete data that you need were you to be able to implement it,” Kumar told IANS in an interview.
“This is why, I think, the Congress has left all details completely unclear and have only made a broad announcement,” he added.
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has, however, said that the broad contours of the scheme justifying its implementability would be explained in the Congress manifesto.
Rejecting the idea of Universal Basic Income for Indians, Kumar said: “I have not been a supporter of the scheme. For India’s per capita income and its demographic profile, I would much rather have incentives for work rather than incentives for being in on social security.”
“I think a lot of countries, especially something like China, have done very well by empowering their young in employment rather than putting them on doles,” he said.
The economist also defended the government’s newly-launched Rs 6,000 direct income support to farmers and rejected criticism that the amount was too little.
“About it being too less, the average income of a poor or marginal farmer household per month is probably in the range of Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000. And in that context, an additional Rs 500 does not sound so little. It should not be dismissed, neither should it be demeaned.
“This amount can be used (by a farmer) to send his child to school, to buy rations, to buy water from large land-owners, and so many other things. It’s not a small amount,” he said.
“Another way to look at it is that in 10 years, you get Rs 60,000. It’s not a one-time sop. It’s a long-term relief. In terms of government expenditure, Rs 75,000 crore becomes Rs 7.5 lakh crore in 10 years. It’s a fair, significant fiscal burden,” he added.
Kumar said that one can always criticize a measure saying it is too little, but it has to be balanced with fiscal responsibility.
“Having seen poor households, I don’t think the sum is too small. It is a significant percentage of total income, not something that disappears in the decimal as you would tend think.”
He added the criticism that the scheme leaves out a large part of urban poor out of its net was also unfair and said only 13.7 per cent of farmers were tenants even out of which, 80 per cent owned some land or the other.
“So hardly anyone is left out among the agriculture farming households. The only people who are not included are the landless labour. That is only 2.6 per cent of the rural population. That has been left out because for them, there is MNREGA. That is what gives them social security,” Kumar said.
“The coverage is not narrow. It covers 12 crore households – around 60 crore people. It is much bigger than any farm loan waiver would cover, which are by nature skewed or biased towards larger land-owners.”
In a sharp criticism of loan waiver schemes announced by the newly-formed governments in the Hindi-heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, he said it was not the answer to agricultural distress.
“Farm distress can be sorted out through true modernisation of the sector – convert farmer from mere producer of commodities to a producer of agricultural value products. The second part of solving the crisis is to connect the farmer to the market – get logistics in place.
“And finally, you have to lower the cost of production in agriculture. At the moment, Indian agriculture products are higher-priced than global prices. There I think, one has to move away from the model of increasing doses of chemical inputs into agriculture, resulting in higher cost, higher debt and higher distress. We need to shift to bio pesticides, bio-fertilizers,” Kumar said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Srinagar : A separatist-called shutdown on Saturday in the Kashmir Valley to mark the sixth death anniversary of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru, has paralysed life across the region.
Afzal Guru was executed in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on this day in 2013.
While calling for the shutdown, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, has reiterated their demand for handing over Afzal Guru’s mortal remains to the family.
After the execution, Afzal Guru’s body was buried within the precincts of the jail. He is survived by his wife, Tabassum and 18-year old son, Ghalib, who live in Tarzoo village near north Kashmir’s Sopore town.
Authorities placed Mirwaiz Umer Farooq under house arrest on Friday at his residence on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Markets, public transportations and other business establishments remained closed in Srinagar and other major cities and towns of the valley.
Authorities made heavy deployments of police and paramilitary forces at law and order sensitive places in Srinagar, Sopore, Baramulla, but n o restrictions were imposed on public movement anywhere in the valley.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Jalpaiguri/Kolkata : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee exchanged a flurry of verbal punches on Friday, as he accused her of trying to save those involved in ponzi scheme scams, alleging that opposition parties were coming together to protect fraudsters, touts and criminals. Banerjee hit back by calling him the “master of corruption”.
Launching a scathing attack on Banerjee, the Prime Minister wondered why she was so scared of the probe into the scam, and charged her with inviting leaders from all over the country against whom there are either serious allegations of graft or those who were trying to protect the “corrupt” and said none of the offenders will be spared.
“It has happened for the first time in the history of the nation that a Chief Minister sat in a dharna in support of those who looted thousands of poor people. She is trying to protect the looters and those who ruined the lives of the poor,” Modi said while addressing a public rally at Churabhandar in the state’s Jalpaiguri district.
Banerjee held a 45-hour sit-in protest in the hub of Kolkata following an ugly face-off between the Central Bureau of Investigation officers and personnel of the Kolkata police, when the federal probe agency had shown up near the residence of the Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev kumar to quiz him in the ponzi scheme scam case.
Kumar had headed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by Banerjee to probe the multi-billion-rupee financial scandal before the CBI took over the investigation following a Supreme Court order.
“The people of Bengal want to ask her why she is so scared of the probe into the chit fund scam. Why is she holding dharna for those who are accused of callousness in probing the scandal?” Modi questioned.
“I want to assure all the families who suffered in the Saradha, Narada and Rose Valley scams that the ‘chowkidaar’ (guard) will not spare anybody — be it the looters or their protectors, no one will be spared,” Modi said.
Refering to the January 19 rally of opposition leaders in Kolkata, Modi said: “These leaders came together to protect the fraudsters, touts and criminals… They can assemble as many people as they want to hold dharnas, and gather as many leaders as possible, the people who looted the poor will be punished”.
Upping his ante against the Banerjee government, the Prime Minister said the situation in Bengal is such that infiltrators are welcome, but there is a bar on BJP leaders.
“Obstructing rallies, refusing to allow helicopters to land and attacks on BJP functionarie are signals that the land is slipping from under the Trinamool’s feet,” Modi said, evoking cheers from thousands of party activists present at the rally ground.
In Kolkata, Banerjee minced no words in returning the fire, as she called Modi “master of corruption and arrogance”, and one “used to blaring out a bunch of lies”.
“Country has not seen any person as corrupt as Modi. From Rafale to the scheme of 59 minutes loans for MSMEs, to demonetisation, Jan Dhan — these are all scams. All the institutions have been destroyed.
“He is a master of corruption, arrogance and used to blaring out a bunch of lies. His standard is so below par, we cannot imagine it even. We respect the chair but not Maddy babu,” Banerjee said, distorting Modi’s name.
Describing the Centre’s plan to take action against five senior police officers who were involved in the face-off between the Kolkata Police and CBI officials as part of “campaign” before polls, Banerjee said the Centre cannot take action against them, as they were state officers.
Banerjee also found fault with Modi for inaugurating the circuit bench of the Calcutta High Court in north Bengal’s Jalpaiguri, alleging he was “doing politics” by inguarating projects “hurriedly” ahead of the polls.
“I am ashamed to talk about this man. The circuit bench is under the Calcutta High Court. Was anyone from the Calcutta High Court present at the inauguration? Neither state government (officials) nor anyone from high court was present there,” Banerjee said.
She alleged that the Central government did not spend a single penny on the circuit bench project in which about Rs 300 crore were spent by the state.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Finance, News, Politics
Raipur : Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday presented a Rs 91,542-crore budget for the financial year 2019-20 in the state Assembly, saying the budget is aimed at welfare of all.
Baghel also holds the Finance portfolio.
Presenting his government’s first budget, Baghel said: “I am presenting this budget with an intent of ‘welfare of all’ and want to assure that will use every penny collected from people’s hard-earned money through taxes for their welfare only.”
“As part of the paddy production promotion plan, the government proposes to allocate Rs 5,000 crore for purchasing the grain from farmers at a price of Rs 2,500 per quintal. The government had decided to waive short-term farm loans, whether it was taken from rural and cooperative banks, or commercial banks in the public sector. Rs 5,000 crore has been proposed for the purpose,” Baghel said.
“Under the ‘Mukhyamantri Khadyan Sahayata Yojana’ (foodgrain assistance scheme), the government has earmarked an amount of Rs 4,000 crore to provide 35 kg rice at subsidised price on every ration card,” he added
The budget also proposes to provide 50 per cent rebate to people on domestic use of electricity…it will come into effect from March 1. This will cost the exchequer an amount of Rs 400 crore,” Baghel added.
The first-time Chief Minister said: “With a fund of Rs 182 crore, an effort has been made to increase the ‘Legislators’ Fund’ to Rs 2 crore from the existing Rs 1 crore.”
An allocation of Rs 45.48 crore has been proposed in the budget for payment as Response Allowance to police officials — Constable to Inspector rank, he added.
Chief Minister also proposed to establish five new Food Parks to boost agricultural production in the state. Rs 50 crore has been earmarked in the budget for the purpose.
“Students from Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Other Backward Castes living in hostel and shelter homes will be entitled to get scholarship of Rs 1,000 every month at pre-matriculate level. Earlier the amount was Rs 900. Similarly, post-matriculate students of related categories will get Rs 700 per month as food allowance which was earlier Rs 500. The scheme will be implemented at a cost of Rs 27.57 crore,” he said.
Moreover, the mid-day meal kitchens will get Rs 1,500 instead of Rs 1,200 every month for their services. The budget has a Rs 26.59 crore provision for this.
The Chief Minister also said: “The compensation amount for the people affected by wild animals has been increased to Rs 6 lakh, which was earlier Rs 2 lakh.”
“For the all-round development of Giraudpuri and Bhandarpuri, an amount of Rs 5 crore is proposed to be allocated, while for the development of Damakheda, a separate amount of Rs 5 crore has been proposed,” the Chief Minister announced.
—IANS
