by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mumbai : Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar on Monday charged the BJP-led Maharashtra government of not arresting rightwing Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide alias ‘Guruji’ as he “enjoys the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
Addressing a huge gathering of Dalits and other parties’ activists who took part in the ‘Yalgar Morcha’ here this evening, Ambedkar – the grandson of the Architect of Indian Constitution B. R. Ambedkar – without mincing words, said “it is a well-known fact that Modi considers Bhide as his Guru.”
“We are not interested in fighting with Modi. However, if action is not initiated against Bhide by Maharashtra government, then we know how to deal with it at the appropriate time,” he warned.
Attacking the PM, Ambedkar compared him with Adolf Hitler who he said never listened to anybody.
“Hitler heeded nobody. He functioned according to his whims and ultimately committed suicide. Even Modi conducts himself like Hitler, treats all his cabinet colleagues as prisoners,” he said.
Ambedkar made it clear that everybody will have to bow before the wishes of the people and “we know how to make the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) bend before the masses, or we will expose them”.
“If the law is not implemented, and Bhide is not arrested within eight days, we shall chalk out our future strategy. Why should the law not be equal for everybody? If (another Hindutva leader) Milind Ekbote can be arrested, what has prevented Bhide’s arrest since he is the prima accused in the Bhima-Koregaon incidents,” he said.
Earlier, he led a delegation to Fadnavis reiterating his nearly three-month old demand for the arrest of Bhide.
“The CM says the state government cannot arrest him due to lack of evidence. I would like to inform him that there is ample proof against Bhide,” Ambedkar countered.
Ambedkar has also sought the arrest of Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Patil-Danve for his social media comments on the Bhima-Koregaon caste riots.
In a retaliatory development, Bhide’s supporting groups plan to take out processions all over Maharashtra including Mumbai on Wednesday (March 28) to oppose the campaign against him by Dalit groups.
Launching a counter-attack last week, Bhide had blamed Ambedkar and others like Gujarat Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, JNU leader Umar Khalid and retired Bombay High Court judge Justice B. G. Kolse-Patil for the Bhima-Koregaon incidents.
On March 19, the Shri Shiv Pratishthan leader had demanded their arrests, alleging they had “incited people to indulge in violence and rioting” at their public meeting in Pune on December 31.
In the ongoing season of protests, Mumbai witnessed another huge congregation of Dalits and other parties, spearheaded by BBM which paralysed parts of south Mumbai, to seek Bhide’s arrests for his role in the January 1 caste riots in Bhima-Koregaon.
Monday’s protest was the second major one to hit Mumbai after the Long March from Nashik by over 35,000 farmers and tribals to the city on March 12.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Congress on Monday attacked the Narendra Modi government for infringing upon people’s privacy, calling it a “data leak government” while taking down its ‘With INC mobile app and emphasising that there was no breach of data through it.
Accusing the Prime Minister of misuing his position by spying on Indians, and calling him ‘Big Boss’, the party said the NaMo App, run by the BJP is sharing data of millions of users with American companies.
“Not only people’s money, but people’s privacy is also in question. Modi Government mocks and flouts the right to privacy with brazen impunity,” said Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, while terming allegations of Congress collecting data through its app were the “half truth”.
“As is usual with the BJP, they did not tell you that the ‘WithINC’ app had only 15,000 downloads. It had become defunct because our people do not like the ‘missed call’ membership. Congressmen believe in physical or offline membership. In contrast the Narendra Modi app has had 50 lakh downloads,” he said.
“While the Prime Minister’s Office, PMO India App, asks users to voluntarily part with their identity on 14 data points, the NaMo App asks for a sweeping access to 22 data points.
“The NaMo App records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. Modiji is like the ‘Big Boss’ who brazenness likes to spy on Indians,” he said, adding that IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who holds daily press conferences on the issue of data security and democracy has much to answer on the unscrupulous means of Narendra Modi’s personal app.
“Why does Modi, in his own book ‘Exam Warriors’ urges to download the NaMo App. Is Modi now planning to snoop in on minors?
“Modi is misusing the PM’s position to build personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by government,” he added.
The party also said if as PM he wants to use technology to communicate with India, there is no problem in that, but he should use the official PMO app.
Claming neither people’s money, nor Aadhaar details or personal details of people are secure under Modi government, Singhvi said: “No wonder this government fought against making right to privacy as a fundamental right and did nothing when our banks were looted by fraudsters.”
Earlier, the Congress, on its official Twitter handle, said that the ‘WithINC’ was only a membership app and had not been in use since the party moved membership to www.inc.in from November 16, 2017 and there has been no breach of data from it.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Markets, Medium Enterprise, News, Politics, SMEs
By Saurabh Katkurwar,
New Delhi : The Narendra Modi government’s flagship crop insurance scheme, launched with much fanfare two years ago, has witnessed negative growth this year as the coverage has reduced to 24 per cent of gross cropped area (GCA) in 2017-18 from 30 per cent in 2016-17. This, when the actual target for the current year was 40 per cent.
Similarly, the number of farmers insured during both the kharif and rabi seasons has gone down by 14 per cent this year.
In 2017-18, the area insured under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was 47.5 million hectares, as per the data accessed by IANS, which translates into 24 per cent of the GCA of 198.4 million hectares.
After the PMFBY was launched in February 2016, the area under coverage had gone up to 30 per cent in 2016-17 from 23 per cent under the old schemes a year ago.
As per the government’s targets, the coverage in 2017-18 should have increased to 40 per cent but has actually reduced to 24 per cent.
Thus, the government’s final target of bringing 50 per cent (98 million hectares) of the GCA under the PMFBY in 2018-19, which has been allocated Rs 13,000 crore in the Budget, appears to be an impractical goal.
Under the scheme, farmers have to pay just two per cent of the total premium in case of the kharif crop, 1.5 per cent for rabi and five per cent for horticulture. The remaining premium is equally shared by the Centre and the states.
The central government has been citing poor implementation by the states for the lackadaisical response to the scheme. State officials say the bid of private insurance companies for more profit and delay in settlement of claims are crucial factors for the decline.
Interestingly, the scheme has performed poorly in the BJP-ruled states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, while it has received a good response in non-BJP states like Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
The crop insurance scheme has also witnessed a 14 per cent drop in the number of farmers insured to 47.9 million in 2017-18 from 55.3 million in 2016-17.
A state Agriculture Secretary said farmers had lost interest as the compensation was either denied or delayed, besides flaws with the crop-cutting experiment to obtain accurate estimates of crop output.
“The new scheme permits insurance company representatives to take part in the crop-cutting experiments. We have noticed that they lower the threshold level of the output than the ideal. So farmers cannot claim even if their actual output is low since it will be above the threshold limit,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
According to farmers in Madhya Pradesh, they received their compensation six months after filing their claims.
The government had allocated Rs 5,500 crore in the budget for 2016-17, which was increased to Rs 13,240 crore. In 2017-18, the allocation was Rs 9,000 crore. For 2018-19, the government has provided Rs 13,000 crore with a target to bring 98 million hectares — close to 50 per cent of gross cropped area — under the scheme.
(Saurabh Katkurwar can be contacted at saurabh.k@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Finance, Markets, News, Politics
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that each and every expense incurred by a farmer will be considered, including his labour, while fixing the minimum support price (MSP) at 1.5 times the input cost.
While addressing his monthly radio programme “Mann Ki Baat”, the Prime Minister said a major decision was taken in this year’s budget to ensure adequate returns to farmers when the government decided to give at least one-and-a-half times the input costs as MSP for the scheduled crops.
Modi said while calculating the MSP, the input cost to be cosidered will include the labour cost, expenditure on machines and animals-also including machine and animals on hire-cost of seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, land revenue, interest on working capital, rent of leased land and even the labour cost of the farmer and his family.
“Further to ensure adequate income to farmers, agriculture marketing reforms are being initiated in a big way. Efforts are being made to link village markets to wholesale market and global market,” he said.
The Prime Minister added that in order to ensure that farmers do not have to go far to sell their produce, 22,000 village haats are being upgraded to agricultural produce market committees (APMCs) and being integrated with e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) platform.
“Such a system is being evolved that farms can be connected to any market in the country,” Modi added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday tried a hand at agriculture as he visited the Internatinal Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines. (for representational purpose only) Image – india.com
New Delhi : Indian farmers and the scientists have to work together to transform agriculture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday.
Addressing a gathering at the Krishi Unnati Mela at Pusa Campus here after laying the foundation stone for 25 Krishi Vigyan Kendras or agricultural science centres, he said that on this day he has had the opportunity to simultaneously speak to two sentinels of ‘New India’ — the farmers and the scientists.
Appreciating the farmers’ spirit and hardwork, Modi underlined that at present there was record production of food grains, pulses, fruits, vegetables and milk in the country, but new challenges have come up in agriculture which reduce the farmers’ income and increase their losses.
He said the government’s aim remained to double the farmers’ incomes and it has decided that for all notified crops, the minimum support price (MSP) would be “at least one and a half times the cost” of the crop.
Modi said that for this purpose, the ‘cost’ would include elements such as labour, rent for machinery, cost of seeds and fertilizers, revenue being given to the state government, interest on working capital and rent of leased land.
The Prime Minister also said that honey-bees could be an important source of additional income for farmers and dwelt on the benefits of solar farming. He said about 2.75 lakh solar pumps have reached farmers in the last three years.
The Prime Minister also spoke of the Gobar Dhan Yojana for creating compost, bio-gas etc from bio-waste.
Modi said that the government was working to ensure that farmers get modern seeds, adequate power supply, and easy market access.
He said that along with the Green Revolution and White Revolution, the country should now also focus on Organic Revolution, Water Revolution, Blue Revolution and Sweet Revolution.
He said the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) would play a key role in this regard.
The Prime Minister also launched an e-marketing portal for organic products and gave away the Krishi Karman Awards and the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Krishi Protsahan Puraskar.
—IANS
