Nasheman News : Former Finance Minister and Congress veteran P. Chidambaram on Friday described the Interim Budget as an “Account for Votes” and not a Vote on Account and said the Modi government has further weakened fiscal stability.
“It was not a Vote on Account but an Account for Votes,” Chidambaram told the media here.
“It was a full-fledged Budget accompanied by an election campaign speech. By doing so, the government has trampled on time-honoured conventions,” he said.
He added that the government had no hope of returning to power and had, therefore, “acted desperately and recklessly, and in violation of the Constitution”.
He said the big takeaway was that the present government had “further weakened fiscal stability”.
“For the second year in succession, the government has missed the Fiscal Deficit target. The revised estimate shows a slippage from 3.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent. Worse, for 2019-20 too, the government has proposed an FD of 3.4 per cent. The government has thrown the FRBM Act out of the window.
“Similarly, the government will end the year with a Current Account Deficit (CAD) of 2.5 per cent as against the CAD in the previous year of 1.9 per cent,” said Chidambaram.
“Both numbers for the current year and the estimate of FD for 2019-20 point to incompetent fiscal management and a disdain for fiscal prudence,” he said.
Pointing to the “last-gasp” announcements including a scheme for welfare of cows, a new Department of Fisheries and pension scheme for unorganised workers, Chidambaram asked: “If these were important and necessary interventions, what was the government doing for five years?”
He also questioned the “measly” farmers’ income support.
“The government’s desperation is proved by its announcement of the Farmers’ Income Support Scheme to provide a measly sum Rs 6,000 per year to every small/medium farmer. The Fiscal Deficit numbers are telling.
“By recklessly breaching fiscal discipline, the government will fund the scheme this year entirely out of borrowed money of Rs 20,000 crore. Next year too, the scheme will be funded entirely out of borrowed money of Rs 75,000 crore.
“While I welcome the support to farmers, I ask what about the non-farmer poor? What about the urban poor,” he asked.
He said the new scheme was intended to help the farmer, but in reality it will also help the absentee landlord.
“I would like to ask how the government will reach the money to the tenant-farmer and farm labourer who actually tills the land,” he added.
Archives for 2019
4 dead in UP accident
Nasheman News : Four persons were killed and several injured when a speeding truck rammed into a vehicle in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun district on Friday, a police officer said.
Of those injured, three were critical and were referred to the Jhansi Medical College, the officer told media.
After the collision, the truck turned turtle crushing the car near Sadhara in Orai. The police had to use gas cutters to pull out the bodies from the badly damaged car.
The deceased have been identified as Om Prakash, 28, Komal, 14, Manvendra Yadav, 28, and Ravindra, 24.
Davis Cup: Italy’s Seppi brushes aside Ramkumar in straight sets
Nasheman News : Italian Andreas Seppi made short work of India’s second highest ranked Ramkumar Ramanathan by winning 6-4, 6-2 in their first Davis Cup World Group rubber at the Calcutta South Club here on Friday.
Ramanathan, ranked 133rd in the world, got off to a decent start but failed to captitalize on two break points in the first set which was closely fought till 4-4 before the 37th ranked Seppi used his reservoir of experience to down his much younger opponent.
It was an Italian gamble to name Seppi their first player ahead of World No. 19 Marco Cecchinato, who had ousted World No. 1 Novak Djokovic from the French Open quarters last year.
The 34-year-old, who is not used to playing on grass, took time to get used to the surface but once he did the tie became a lopsided affair.
At 5-4, Seppi won four points in a row to seal the first set in style.
In the second set, the Italian toyed with Ramkumar hitting clinical forehands (17 winners) even as the lanky Chennai player tried to forge a comeback in the third game.
The big-serving Ramanathan hit eight aces but paid the price for his inconsistency with six double faults as opposed to Seppi’s two.
Nude protest against Citizenship Bill
Nasheman News : Three men on Friday staged a nude protest near the Secretariat here in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The protesters were swiftly removed by security personnel, police said.
Protests against the Bill have enveloped virtually the entire north-eastern region since the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8.
The Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to six non-Muslim minority groups from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The fear in the northeast is that if this is done, “outsiders” will overwhelm the locals in the region.
A nude protest was also staged last month by 10 Assamese youths in front of Parliament in the national capital.
21 killed as Polar Vortex freezes US Midwest
Nasheman News : At least 21 people were killed as a Polar Vortex continued to freeze the US Midwest, dipping temperatures to record lows in the region, the media reported.
The Polar Vortex, which is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth’s North and South Poles, arrived earlier this week and has for days disrupted life across the entire region, reports The New York Times.
The Midwest region comprises Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
According to officials, the victims included a University of Iowa student, a woman found frozen to death inside a Milwaukee apartment after the thermostat malfunctioned and a man wgi died while using a snowblower in Buffalo.
On Wednesday, a low of minus 30.5 degrees Celsius was registered in Chicago, which also recorded wind chills, while the city of Rockford in Illinois saw temperatures plummet to minus 31 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Mount Carroll, Illinois, recorded minus 38 degrees Celsius on Thursday. If this confirmes, it would become the state’s record low, supplanting the previous record of minus 36.
The sustained cold taxed energy systems across the Midwest, leading to some power failures and urgent calls to customers to reduce the heat in their homes.
Many schools, businesses and restaurants remained shut on Thursday.
By Thursday evening, airlines had cancelled more than 2,300 flights in the US, according to FlightAware. On Wednesday, cancellations topped 2,700.
Throughout the Midwest, hospitals reported patients arriving with symptoms tied to the weather such as frostbite or hypothermia.
Andhra CM wears black shirt to protest against Centre
Nasheman News : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday wore a black shirt to protest against the Centre’s “step motherly” treatment to the state and for not fulfilling its promises including granting special category status.
Naidu, also the President of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), reached the Assembly wearing the black shirt and white pants.
His cabinet colleagues including his son and Information Minister Nara Lokesh and all other party legislators also wore black.
The Chief Minisger wore black to the Assembly as a sign of protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “step-motherly treatment meted out to Andhra Pradesh and for breaking all promises made including #SpecialStatus”, tweeted Lokesh.
According to TDP sources, this was the first time Naidu wore a black shirt. He is usually seen wearing white, cream or yellow coloured clothes. Even when he was in the opposition, he confined to wearing a black badge in protest.
The TDP leaders also expressed solidarity with a day-long shutdown called in the state by Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samithi (PHSS), which is fighting for the special status to the state.
Earlier, during a teleconference with TDP leaders, Naidu said that demonstrations would be held in the state till February 10. The next day he will head to New Delhi where he would lead a protest.
The protests in the national capital would continue till February 14.
IAF Mirage crashes in Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Feb 1 (IANS) A Mirage-2000 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed on Friday at the military airport runway in the city’s suburb soon after take off, an official said.
“The plane crashed around 10.30 a.m.,” the official said.
“Though both the pilots ejected from the aircraft, their condition is not yet known. They have been rushed to the Air Force Command Hospital,” an HAL official told IANS.
The state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) operates the military airport with the IAF and other state-run defence and aerospace agencies like DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency).
NCP demands ban on Hindu group for insulting Mahatma Gandhi
Nasheman News : The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday staged a silent protest to condemn the insult meted out to Mahatma Gandhi by activists of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha in Aligarh on Wednesday.
NCP Thane chief Anand Paranjpe condemned the “recreation of the assassination” of Gandhi by the ABHM national Secretary Puja Shakun Pandey on the occasion of Martys’ Day on Wednesday.
“The ABHM should be immediately banned and the government must arrest Pandey and her associates under charges of treason for insulting the Father of the Nation by such abhorrent acts,” Paranjpe demanded.
At the ABHM event on Wednesday, Pandey ‘shot’ at an effigy of Gandhi from which ‘blood’ oozed out. The activists cheered, distributed sweets and raised slogans in favour of Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse.
The NCP leader said this shocking incident proved that the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was only wearing a mask (mukhauta) of the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi but in their hearts they were actually guided by Godse’s principles.
“This country is still inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and his preaching of peace and non-violence… It can never be overshadowed by the action of Godse or his followers. The government must book them for treason for this blatant anti-national act and also ban the ABHM,” Paranjpe said.
The ABHM, a breakaway group of the original Hindu Mahasabha, with which Godse was allegedly associated, always ‘celebrates’ Gandhi’s death as ‘Shaurya Divas’ extolling his assassin.
After a video of Wednesday’s ‘celebrations’ and mock ‘killing’ of Gandhi’s effigy went viral, it attracted widespread condemnation.
Hundreds of NCP activists converged near a statue of Gandhi in the city, many sporting black bands, and sat on a silent protest on Thursday afternoon.
12-year-old Bengal girl was gangraped before murder, alleges family
The family of a 12-year-old girl, whose body was found in a field on Wednesday, has alleged she was killed after being gangraped in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.
The incident took place in Ranitala area, about 231km north of state capital Kolkata. The Class 6 student went to a field near her home around 12:30 pm on Wednesday to hand over lunch to her father who was working there.
She didn’t return home after that and her body was found from a field around 200 meters away from her house around 8pm.
The girl’s father lodged a complaint at Ranitala police station, alleging his daughter was raped by more than one person before she being throttled.
He said he had no idea that his daughter did not reach home after giving him the lunch and was informed that she was missing around 4pm.
“There were several injuries and scratch marks all over the body of my daughter. Her hands were tied with a rope. The assailants shoved the sweater that she was wearing inside her mouth to prevent her from raising an alarm,” said the victim’s father.
”I am certain that my daughter was raped before she was killed. But I have no idea why. It’s also possible that they killed her to prevent any possibility of her identifying them,” the father said.
Officer-in-charge of Ranitala police station Samit Talukdar said they have started an investigation on the basis of the father’s complaint. “We have sent the body for autopsy to ascertain the cause of death,” Talukdar said.
An officer said on the condition of anonymity that the girl could have been raped before she was killed.
”The family is poor and the girl wasn’t wearing any ornaments. We are in the dark about the motive of the murder,” said Talukdar.
Bengal is one of the worst performing states when it comes to crimes against women.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the state accounted for 11.31%, 10.11% and 9.6% of all the crime against women in the country in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. In 2012, West Bengal accounted for 12.67% of the total cases, making the state the worst offender in the country.
Govt struck at root of corruption: President Ram Nath Kovind
President Ram Nath said that the government had fought corruption and hoarding of black money and had set up an SIT to track such crimes.
In his address to the joint session of Parliament, the last before the Lok Sabha elections, President Ram Nath Kovind spoke at length about the steps government had taken to ‘strike at the root of corruption’.
“Not only did the government fight corruption and hoarding of black money, it also brought a SIT to track such crimes,” Kovind said on Day One of the Budget session.
The government brought strict laws for sectors flush with black money and signed agreements with ‘tax haven’ countries to curb money laundering, he added.
Talking on the eve of the presentation of the interim budget, Kovind listed the benefits of the notes ban, by which the government had banned Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes, Kovind said it struck at the root of black money scourge.
“Forces of instability were vanquished. Benami property owners, economic offenders were targeted”, he said.
Speaking on the first day of the last Parliament session of the present government, Kovind highlighted the steps taken for women, farmers and the middle class.
“Our Muslim daughters were living under constant fear, the triple talaq bill gives them equality, lets them live without fear” he said. Listing various gender equality measures started by the government, Kovind said women had benefited from the government’s loan schemes and steps to boost enterprises run from them. He said the government had generated jobs for women and made it easier for young mothers to keep their jobs by increasing the maternity leave.
Kovind said the country was going through a phase of uncertainty before 2014 election and his government took up the initiative to form a ‘New India.’ Listing various health, insurance, educational and housing schemes, the President said the middle class had benefited due to these programmes
“Healthcare is my government’s topmost priority. I am happy to inform you that the benefits of government’s schemes are reaching poorest of the poor. We know that expenses on health makes a poor even poorer. My government understood this and started Ayushman Bharat Yojana. In last 4 months more than 10 Lakh poor people availed health benefits in hospitals under this scheme
On housing schemes, Kovind said government has taken unprecedented strides in ‘housing for all by making 1.30 crore houses in past five years while the previous government made just 25 lakhs in this period. “Urban housing has also been streamlined with RERA… 35, 000 projects have been registered with this authority,” he said.
Crackdown on the use of black money in real estate has brought down property prices, he added
Listing the steps taken for the burgeoning middle class, Kovind said steps were taken to reduce the Income tax burden, inflation was reined in and jobs were generated.
Amid repeated attacks by the Opposition Congress over government’s alleged overlooking of farmers’ issues, the President listed the achievements on the agriculture front. ‘Various steps were taken for farmers, MSP of 22 crops was increased, better seeds were provided, soil information was made available and irrigation systems were improved,” he said.
On Goods and Services tax (GST) Kovind said; “It is a long-term policy and is a boon for the business sector. The taxpayers in the country trust this government.”
Talking about all round development in the country, Kovind also listed various infrastructure projects initiated by the government– in railways, highways and bridges.
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