The Kerala government on Tuesday announced that it won’t host any function that involves huge sums of money for a year and instead divert the amount for flood relief.

The cancelled events include the much-acclaimed International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), held every December, besides state school youth festivals.

Officials say Kerala has suffered damage amounting to Rs 30,000 crore in the worst floods to hit the state in a century.

A government order said that no government department would host any festival for a year.

The funds earmarked for all such cancelled events would be diverted to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

However, State Culture Minister A.K. Balan said there was some disconnect in the order.

“There needs to be more clarity about this order and a letter has been sent to the Chief Secretary for the same. There was no decision taken by the Committee of Ministers looking into rebuilding the state,” Balan told the media.

Veteran Director Kamal, who is also the chairman of the academy that organises the IFFK, said the order had come as a surprise as he had discussed about the conduct of the film festival with Balan in the morning.

“We can hold this festival without any celebrations and utilize our own funds,” said Kamal.

Till Monday, the CMDRF had received Rs 1,036 crore. Kerala Ministers are soon leaving for 14 countries to raise money from public contributions.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-27 aircraft crashed near Jodhpur in Rajasthan during a routine mission on Tuesday but the pilot ejected safely, officials said.

Defence Ministry spokesperson Colonel Sombit Ghosh said a court of inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident.

He clarified that there was some misinformation earlier with respect to the number of pilots.

The MiG-27, which took off from Jodhpur, came down near Devriya village. Villagers were the first to rush to the site.

An eyewitness, Champalal, said two or three fighter planes were in the air when one of them was seen emitting smoke. It came down suddenly with a loud noise and the area was engulfed in thick smoke.

The pilot was taken to a hospital.

(IANS)

RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) will launch a nationwide agitation on Sep 6 against the Modi government’s reforms that it says have led to “extreme exploitation and harassment” of the labour sector and led to increasing unemployment in the country.

C.K. Saji Narayanan, chief of one of the largest trade unions in the country, told IANS that they would stage protests in all the districts demanding among other things, scrapping of “fixed-term employment”, which he said was “destroying” the labour sector.

“Because of these so-called reforms, contract labour has now become the default model of employment in India. Today 67 per cent of the organised sector workers belong to this category. The trend of contract labour system has increased with the elimination of permanent posts in private and public entities as well as government departments,” Narayanan said.

He said contract labour system had expanded rapidly creating shortage of permanent employees and making it a means of enhancing profit in the public sector.

“We tried reasoning with the Labour Ministry several times but to no avail. The fixed-term employment is not just leading to rapid expansion of contract labour but also resulting in increasing the number of new unemployed youth.

“Therefore, we have to stand up to face the Himalayan challenge to make contract labour exploitation free,” said Narayanan, adding that the Sep 6 nationwide agitation was only the beginning of a long haul fight to address the issue of rampant labour exploitation in the country.

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government had first allowed hiring fixed-term workers in 2003. This was scrapped in 2007 by the Congress-led UPA in 2007 following intense protests by trade unions.

After coming to power, the Modi government in April 2015 again mooted the concept by issuing draft rules for amending the Industrial Establishment (Standing Order). But the move was deferred following opposition from trade unions.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech this year announced extending the facility of fixed term employment applicable only in the apparel manufacturing sector to all sectors.

Subsequently the Central government in March notified amending the Industrial Establishment (Standing Order) 1946 to extend the facility of hiring workers on fixed-term employment to all sectors.

Under the rules, a “fixed-term employment” workman is one who has been engaged on the basis of a written contract of employment for a fixed period.

The new rules, which provide that a temporary workman can be terminated without being given any notice of termination, has been widely condemned by all trade unions and they have been demanding its rollback.

The BMS has been vociferous in deriding the government’s labour and economic policies and stridently opposed many of the labour reforms which it says has led to “continuous unrest among contract workers and increase in breakdown of industrial peace”.

Apprehensive that the prevailing situation may lead to creation of “new conditions of bonded labour”, the BMS, at its recently concluded National Executive Committee Meeting, adopted a resolution seeking immediate steps from the Centre to prevent open violations of labour laws.

“Incidents in Maruti Udyog at Manesar, Hyundai and Honda industries are vivid examples of the intense labour unrest. There is huge resentment among the entire labour sector. Unless steps are taken to resolve the issues, the situation will only worsen,” warned Narayanan.

Highlighting the plight of contract labour, the BMS said these workers were denied any social security, pension, medical benefits, gratuity and leave. Besides being paid one-fourth of a permanent worker’s wage, they were even denied minimum wages especially in the non-scheduled employment.

The BMS wants regularization of contract labour, amendment of relevant laws to secure “equal pay for similar work” and ensuring that contract workers were paid perks that permanent employees get.

(IANS)

Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has directed the state’s Education Department to study the steps taken by Delhi to improve the quality of education in schools and have sought a report on it.

In a series of tweets the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said Kumaraswamy’s government has prioritised education at a meeting with officials of the department.

He has directed officials to submit a comprehensive report on improving the quality of education in government schools. “There must be no compromise,” he has said.

The Chief Minister has suggested that the officials study the steps taken by Delhi government and submit a report recommending ways to improve the quality of education in Karnataka’s government schools.

Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday slammed the union government for unprecedented hike in prices of petrol and diesel and expressed his anguish over the opposition parties for not hitting the streets over the issue.

“Petrol, diesel and gas prices are rising and are hitting all time highs daily. Why are opposition parties not hitting the streets? What are they waiting for?” Sinha, who has been critical of government’s economic policies said in a tweet.

The former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader’s remarks came a day after the prices of petrol and diesel, already at unprecedented levels in the country, rose for the 10th consecutive day on Tuesday.

In the national capital, petrol was sold at Rs 79.15 per litre, up from Rs 78.84 on Sunday.

(IANS)

The student who was arrested yesterday for shouting “fascist BJP down down” at Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan has been granted bail.

S. Lois Sofia, the student who Soundararajan accused of calling the BJP government “fascist”, was granted bail after she was kept in the police station for inquiry for hours and later admitted to a hospital on account of her ill health.

Sofia was charged with causing public nuisance and a breach of public peace under sections of the IPC and the Tamil Nadu City Police Act 1888.

DMK chief and Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin had come out in support of Sofia.

MK Stalin slammed the Tamil Nadu government for arresting Sofia. Retweeting a news story about the student’s arrest, MK Stalin said that the arrest was “anti-democratic” and is “against the right to free speech”.

“The anti-democratic actions of the Tamil Nadu government that is against the right to free speech are highly condemnable. She must be released immediately. If you would arrest everyone who says that, how many lakhs of people would you imprison? I will also say it. ‘BJP’s fascist government down, down'” he tweeted.

The incident happened at the Tuticorin airport.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday blamed Karnataka’s ruling coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) for its defeat in the state civic polls held across 22 districts.

“The BJP should have won more seats but we could not perform the way we wanted to because of the Congress-JD-S coalition,” BJP state unit President B.S. Yeddyurappa told reporters here.

The party, however, is confident of winning a majority in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Yeddyurappa said.

“People’s mandate is with the BJP and we are confident of a majority in the next year’s general election,” he added.

In the civic body polls held on August 31, the BJP won 929 seats, with a majority in seven districts including coastal regions of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, while the Congress won 982 seats with a majority in 10 districts including the northern region of the state.

The civic election verdict shows the BJP performed well in its traditional bastions of coastal districts while Congress retained its position in its strongholds of northern districts.

The ruling coalition partner JD-S, on the other hand, won 375 seats getting a majority in its strongholds of Hassan, Mandya and Tumakuru districts.

The 11-year-old boy who was attacked by stray dogs earlier this week succumbed to his injuries on Saturday.

Praveen, a sixth standard student, was reportedly on his way home from school in the afternoon when he was attacked by a pack of ten dogs at Vibhutipura.

Manipal Hospital in a press release stated that the boy who was admitted in the Paediatric ICU died at 8.30 p.m. “He was on advanced life support systems including ECMO and CRRT. He had septic shock and multi-organ failure,” Dr.Anoop Amarnath, Chief of Clinical Services, Manipal Hospital, said.

The HAL police had arrested an assistant director and senior inspector in the BBMP’s animal husbandry department for alleged negligence.

BBMP has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.

There is a need for political parties to “evolve a consensus on the code of conduct for their members, both inside the legislature and out of it”.To ensure that people do not lose faith in political processes and institutions, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday.

Naidu was speaking at the release of his book, Moving On, Moving Forward: A Year In Office, to mark the completion of one year as Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson. The event at Vigyan Bhawan saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Congress leader Anand Sharma sharing the dais with Naidu.

Recalling his travels with Naidu in the past, Modi said he was always required to be on alert as Naidu is known to never carry any money, pen, or watch on him. “Yet, (he) is always on time,” said Modi, alluding to Naidu’s penchant for punctuality and discipline. “Venkaiahji is a strict disciplinarian. But in our country, the situation is such that it is very easy to brand discipline as undemocratic. If anyone calls for some discipline, he is called autocratic and every such label in the dictionary,” he said.

Expressing his displeasure over the functioning of Parliament, Naidu listed reforms that he felt are necessary for its effective functioning, as well as that of the state legislatures. Besides calling for a code of conduct for MPs and MLAs, he said that “if a member desires to change party, he must do so by resigning from the membership of the House. The anti-defection laws should be implemented in letter and spirit expeditiously, within three months.”

Prime minister Narendra Modi former prime minister Manmohan Singh during the book launch of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
Naidu added that election petitions and criminal cases against political leaders should be disposed of within a certain time frame and, if necessary, special benches of the Supreme Court and high courts should be formed for the matter. He also emphasised the need for a national policy on having an Upper House in the states.

He said it is equally important for the media, an “invaluable partner in strengthening democratic culture”, to focus more on the constructive contribution made by members of the House rather than giving importance to their disruptive activities.

PM Modi with former PM Dr Manmohan Singh at the launch of VP Venkaiah Naidu’s book.
Talking of how the last Monsoon Session of Parliament was rightly called “the session for social justice” as it saw the passage of legislation to empower under-represented groups, Naidu called for political parties to consider “dispassionately and legislate measures to empower women through reservation in all spheres of public life including legislatures”.

“True nationalism is not just garlanding a picture of Bharat Mata and shouting Bharat Mata ki jai, it means not discriminating against any Indian based on his caste, religion or gender,” he said.

In his speech, Modi recalled how Naidu chose to be the rural development minister due to his personal engagement with rural India, despite then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanting to give him more important portfolios.

Talking of Naidu’s contribution and extensive travel across the country during his first year in office, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh added how the “best is yet to come”, by reciting Iqbal’s couplet, “Sitaaron se aage jahaan aur bhi hain, abhi ishq ke imtihaan aur bhi hain.”

(PTI)