Archives for August 2022

BEIJING: India and Pakistan should resolve their differences over the Kashmir issue peacefully through dialogue and consultation, China said on Friday on the third anniversary of the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

In August 2019, the Indian government bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into Union territories and abrogated the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution which accorded special status to the erstwhile state.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on August 5, 2019, and passed on the same day. The Lok Sabha cleared it the next day.

Asked for her comment on the third anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 by India, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing that the issue should be resolved peacefully by India and Pakistan through dialogue.

“On the issue of Kashmir, China’s position is clear and consistent. This is an issue leftover from history between India and Pakistan. And this is also a shared view of the international community,” she told a Pakistani journalist here.

“Three years ago, actually we already stated that there should be restraint and prudence by the relevant parties, especially parties that should avoid taking unilateral actions to change the status quo or to escalate tensions,” Hua said.

“We call on both parties to resolve the dispute through dialogue and consultation peacefully for the region to remain peaceful and stable,” she said.

India has previously emphasised that matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir are entirely the internal affairs of India.

“Other countries including China have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from the public judgement of their internal issues,” the Ministry of External Affairs had said in March this year.

The ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution.

India’s decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of the country.

India has said it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.

LUCKNOW: In order to plan its re-structuring and expand its outreach, the Uttar Pradesh unit of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), an outfit launched by Yogi Adityanath as his personal force in 2002, has been dissolved. According to a senior leader of the outfit, the HYV will be revamped soon so that it can assist the BJP not only in its traditional base in Eastern UP but in the western region as well during the 2024 general elections

HYV’s UP in-charge, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, dissolved the state, regional and district units as well as organisational departments.

The decision to dissolve the UP unit of HYV was taken during Yogi Adityanath’s Gorakhpur visit on Tuesday.

The organisation, set up by Yogi when he was Gorakhpur’s MP, had played a key role not only in planning and executing his election campaigns during the 2004, 2009 and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but also worked hard to carry out the campaign of BJP leaders.

According to Raghvendra Pratap Singh, all the units of the outfit will soon be revamped. “The old units had been working for long. Now the organisation will be overhauled and young and committed workers would be given chance to work in it,” he added.

The HYV leader, a close confidante of Yogi,  claimed that the re-organisation of the outfit was being planned to extend assistance to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in winning the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

In fact, HYV was disbanded by Yogi Adityanath himself after assuming the role of UP CM in 2017. The outfit’s office-bearers and members, who rebelled against the decision to disband it, were expelled from it — including the then state president Sunil Singh who later joined the Samajwadi Party.

The outfit then gradually withdrew from political activities and shifted its focus to social issues.

In January 2022, however, the outfit re-started political activities after the BJP decided to field Adityanath from the Gorakhpur Urban seat for the Assembly election. The BJP bagged 28 of the 29 assembly seats in the Gorakhpur division.

However, after the suspension of its political responsibilities, HVY donned the mantle more of a social organisation during the last five years. It got engaged in distribution of ration cards, carrying out anti-Covid and anti-Japanese Encephalitis awareness campaigns and reaching out to the beneficiaries with welfare schemes in coordination with the local administration in and around Gorakhpur division.

“The HVY has been playing crucial role in strengthening the base of the BJP in various districts by launching various social and mass awareness campaigns. Its cadre worked for the victory of BJP candidates in 2022 Assembly elections by reaching out to voters across urban and rural areas,” said senior BJP leaders seeking anonymity.

HVY was conceptualised and brought into force by Yogi Adityanath owing to his differences with the BJP brass in 2002 over ticket distribution in eastern UP. Over the years, the number of HVY members swelled from 300 in 2002 to over 15 lakh in 2017. In Gorakhpur division alone, five lakh youth joined the outfit with its rural outreach.

The activities of the HYV, however, did not go down well with the local BJP leaders in 2002 and corresponding years till 2017 as they considered the outfit a “private outfit of Adityanath to serve his political interests.”

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha on Tuesday witnessed heated arguments between the Treasury and Opposition benches over the issue of farm loan waivers with Speaker Om Birla making an intervention and telling the members that advances under the Kisan Credit Card scheme are not written off.

While asking a supplementary, NCP member Supriya Sule sought to know whether the government has any plans to waive off the loans given to the farmers under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme.

Replying to the question, Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, said it was for the first time in last so many decades that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended the scheme to fishermen and dairy farmers as the KCC was earlier confined only to agricultural farmers.

He said its main aim is to provide small farmers institutional credit up to Rs 1.6 lakh without any collateral.

Besides, Rupala said, if a farmer repays the loan promptly, he or she would get three per cent interest subversion from the central government and some state governments too provide interest subversion up to four per cent to the KCC borrowers.

So, virtually a farmer is not paying any interest on his loan if it is paid on time, he said.

Sule and other opposition members then said the minister was not giving the answer to the specific question on whether the government was planning to waive off the KCC loans taken by the farmers, to which Rupala reacting strongly.

He said the opposition was only providing a lip service and the actual welfare work for farmers is being done by Prime Minister Modi.

When other opposition members also protested, the Speaker tried to calm them down by saying that as per his knowledge, the loans given under the KCC are never waived off.

Earlier, DMK members protested strongly when Union Minister of State for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry L Murugan said the Modi government has been pursuing welfare schemes as per the BJP election manifesto while some political parties and their state governments were not doing so.

DMK members, led by its leader T R Baalu, protested the remarks made by Murugan, who hails from Tamil Nadu.

Baalu accused Murugan of playing politics rather than properly replying to a bonafide question related to fishermen.

The speaker then told the DMK members that the minister has neither named any political party nor any state and that they should not be offended.

NEW DELHI: BJP leader from West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari Tuesday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to implement the citizenship law CAA at the earliest, with the latter assuring him that rules regarding it will be framed after the Covid precaution dose vaccination exercise is over.

The framing of rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will pave the way for its implementation.

Passed by Parliament in December 2019, the Act is yet to be rolled out due to the absence of rules.

The government has cited the outbreak of pandemic for not framing them so far.

Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, told reporters after meeting Shah that he also handed him a list of nearly 100 Trinamool Congress leaders allegedly involved in the recruitment scam in which former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee has been arrested.

Seeking a wider probe to expose everyone involved in the scandal, Adhikari gave the home minister even letterheads of some TMC leaders, including MLAs, that were purportedly used for recommending certain names for jobs by allegedly taking bribes.

He tweeted after meeting Shah, “It’s an honour for me to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah for 45 minutes at his office in Parliament. I briefed him how WB Govt is completely mired in corrupt activities such as the teachers recruitment scam. Also requested him to implement CAA at the earliest.”

Adhikari told reporters that the issue of CAA, slammed by critics for its alleged anti-Muslim bias, implementation is very critical for West Bengal where a large number of people who can benefit from its provisions.

The CAA was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, and the Act was notified within 24 hours on December 12.

In May, while addressing a rally in Bengal, Shah had said that the law would be implemented once the Covid pandemic ends.

There is a view that the government is treading cautiously on the matter after the Act drew saw protests in different parts of the country.

It seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring countries, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who had come to India by December 31, 2014.

Speaking to reporters, West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumder also hit out at TMC leader and state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that without indications from her the recruitment scam could not have happened.

“It is an organised crime. There was a ‘cut money food chain’ and some people would be based in every district to pick money and channel it through the party (TMC) organisation,” he alleged.

Adhikari said careers of around 80-90 lakh teacher job aspirants were ruined by the scam. They have remained unemployed due to this, he said.

BHATKAL: Four people from a single family were buried alive in a landslide in Bhatkal town on Tuesday morning. The landslide happened following heavy rain which lashed the district after a gap of two weeks causing damage to hundreds of houses. The deceased have been identified as Lakshminarayana Naik (60), Lakshmi Naik (45), their son Narayan Naik (38) and Praveen Ramakrishna Naik, nephew of Lakshminarayana Naik. The hillock that caved in slowed down relief and rescue operations.

Residents of Bhatkal and surrounding villages spent the night in fear as the taluk recorded 533 mm rainfall. “The impact of the rainfall was such that many of us spent the night worrying about our safety,” said Inayath, a local resident. The landslide occurred at 3 am in the morning, but it took 11 hours to dig out the bodies. Bhatkal MLA Sunil Naik had to walk for miles to reach the affected place as the roads were blocked.  

Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner, Mullai Muhilan said the incident was unfortunate as Bhatkal has not been affected by floods before. “The waterlogging is due to heavy rainfall and those affected by floods have been shifted to relief centres. At present, over 300 people have taken shelter in relief centres,” he said. “There is no loss of life due to floods. The deaths were due to the landslide. NDRF, SDRF and a few naval experts have been deployed at some vulnerable places. The next three days are crucial as a red alert has been issued for Uttara Kannada district,” he added.

Narayan Naik, brother of Lakshmi Naik, said, “There was a loud noise. We came out and saw a heap of mud and realised that it was a landslide. Since it was massive, we could not do much. We had to wait for rescue operations.”

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brother Prahlad Modi, who is also the vice president of All India Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Federation, on Tuesday staged a dharna here with various demands of the organisation.

Prahlad along with several other members of the All India Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Federation (AIFPSDF) gathered at Jantar Mantar, holding banners and raising slogans.

“A delegation of AIFPSDF will submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, listing our long-standing demands for the sake of our survival. With the current situation of hike in the cost of living and overhead expenditures for running shops, a raise of mere 20 paise per kg in our margin is a cruel joke. We request the Union government to grant us relief and end our financial miseries,” Prahlad said.

He further stated that AIFPSDF will hold a national executive meeting on Wednesday and based on that, their next course of action will be decided.

AIFPSDF national general secretary Biswambhar Basu told PTI that they also plan to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday.

The AIFPSDF has been demanding compensation for loss on rice, wheat and sugar, and also for edible oil and pulses to be supplied through fair price shops.

It has also demanded that the ‘West Bengal Ration Model’ of free distribution be implemented across the country.

Further, the members said all due margins for all the states, including Jammu and Kashmir, should be reimbursed immediately.

“We also demand that edible oil, pulses and LPG gas cylinders be supplied through fair price shops. Rural areas’ fair price shop dealers should be allowed to function as direct procurement agents for rice and wheat. Our demands were also raised by TMC MP Sougata Roy in Parliament,”” Basu said, adding that their protests will continue until their demands are met.

India has been investing heavily in infrastructure projects in Maldives. “Till now India has extended $2.8 billion worth of financial aid to Maldives, which includes Letters of Credit (LOC) and currency exchange. Despite the pandemic, there was 31 per cent increase in trade between India and Maldives in 2021 ($330 million) compared to 2020,” said Munu Munawar, Indian High Commissioner to Male.

Modi and Solih jointly launched the Greater Male Connectivity Project — the largest infrastructure project in Maldives. A 6.74-km-long bridge, connecting Male to Villingli, Gulhifahlu and Thilahfushi, will be built at a cost of $500. India is funding the project.

Besides announcing an LOC worth $100 to ensure that all ongoing projects complete on time, Modi reviewed construction of 4,000 social housing units in Greater Male. The units are funded under Exim Bank of India’s buyers credit finance of $227 million.

“India-Maldives partnership is not only working in the interest of the citizens of both countries but is also becoming a source of peace, stability and prosperity for the region. India has been and will continue to be the first responder in any need or crisis in Maldives,” the PM said.