Google will contribute $1 million (nearly Rs 7 crore) to the relief and restoration work in Kerala which has been battered by severe floods, a top company official said here on Tuesday.

“Google.org and Googlers will contribute $1 million to the relief work in Kerala,” Rajan Anandan, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, said at the Google for India event.

Google Crisis Response team has launched several measures to help victims of Kerala floods.

Among other measures, it activated the “person finder” tool that fetched 22,000 records, Anandan said.

As many as 417 people have lost their lives ever since monsoon rains began lashing Kerala on May 29, with some 8.69 lakh displaced people sheltered in 2,787 relief camps.

Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here with six states for the construction of the Lakhwar multi-purpose project in the upper Yamuna basin to deal with water crisis.

Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh (Yogi Adityanath), Rajasthan (Vasundhara Raje Scindia), Uttarakhand (Trivendra Singh Rawat), Himachal Pradesh (Jai Ram Thakur), Haryana (Manohar Lal Khattar) and (Delhi Arvind Kejriwal) signed the MoU .

Under the agreement, the 204-metres high project will be constructed near Uttarakhand’s Lohari village with live storage capacity of 330.66 million cubic metres (MCM).

“The MoU has been signed to create storage facilities in the upper Yamuna basin to deal with the water crisis between January and June,” Gadkari said.

The agreement is an effort to conserve and utilise the monsoon flows of the Yamuna, said the Minister, adding that 90 per cent of the project will be funded by the Centre while the remaining amount will be paid by the six states.

The total project is worth Rs 3,966.51 crore.

Gadkari said that the water storage will provide irrigation for 33,780-hectare land and facilitate availability of 78.83 MCM water for domestic, drinking and industrial use in six basin states.

The project will also generate 300 mw of power and will be executed by Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVL), he added.

(Ians)

A day-long meeting of the BJP Chief Ministers’ Council began here on Tuesday to discuss plans of reaching out to the beneficiaries of the Centre’s welfare schemes as part of the party’s efforts to retain power in 2019.

Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah delivered the inaugural speech. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the meeting at 12 p.m.

The BJP has 15 Chief Ministers and seven Deputy Chief Ministers — two in Uttar Pradesh and one each in Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.

In Bihar, the BJP is part of the coalition government led by the Janata Dal-United while in Nagaland, it is part of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party’s Neiphiu Rio-led People’s Democratic Alliance.

The Council meeting has been an annual affair since 2014 after Modi took over as Prime Minister.

He will address the valedictory session later in the evening.

Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) patron Sharad Yadav on Monday urged the Election Commission to clarify doubts regarding electronic voting machines (EVM) and demanded that elections should be held on ballot paper.

“There are doubts over the EVMs in the minds of the people. And despite the Supreme Court order of May 2017, the Commission has not fulfilled its promise over VVPATs,” Yadav told the media here.

He said people might not take part in elections fearing that EVMs were faulty. “Which is very dangerous. The elections should be held through ballot paper.”

Yadav pointed out that many developed countries were using paper ballot.

Attacking the Modi government over unemployment, Yadav said that the government claims were different from the reality.

“In 2011-12, the growth rate of the country was 4 per cent and 3.3 per cent in 2013-14. This went down to less than half per cent in 2015-16.”

Yadav added: “About 550 jobs are cut every day and there are about 12 crore unemployed youth in the country.”

The crop insurance scheme, he said, had mainly benefitted insurance companies, not farmers. He said the insurance companies earned about Rs 9,929 crore from the scheme.

The former central minister alleged that the government was trying to intrude into people’s private lives.

“They used the social media before the 2014 elections. Now as they are being exposed, they are threatening the social media companies.

“In the name of fake news, they want to put restrictions on WhatsApp.”

(Ians)

The RSS on Monday was critical of Congress President Rahul Gandhi for drawing comparisons of it with the Islamic State (IS) and the Muslim Brotherhood and plans to invite him for a three-day lecture series here next month to enlighten people about the organisation.

The sangh parivar fountainhead, which is holding a lecture series on “Future of Bharat: An RSS Perspective” between September 17 and 19, said it will invite all the political parties, including the Congress, to enlighten them about its vision and also to clarify the misconceptions about it.

Addressing a press conference, Arun Kumar, the Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will address and interact with a select audience comprising prominent citizens during the three-day event.

Responding to a volley of questions regarding Rahul Gandhi’s continuous attacks on RSS, including the recent comparison with the Muslim Brotherhood and the IS, Kumar said that Congress President’s remarks were due to his lack of knowledge.

“If Rahul Gandhi is clear about how the IS, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic terrorism is haunting the entire world, he would have never drawn such comparisons,” Kumar said.

Questioning Rahul Gandhi’s understanding of India, he said that one cannot understand the RSS until he understands the country.

“Sometimes we feel and even he accepts that he is trying to understand the country. One who has not understood India can never understand the RSS. To understand the RSS one needs to first understand India at least,” he said.

The RSS functionary said that unless Rahul Gandhi understands “Sarva Dharma Sambhava (all Dharmas are equal to or harmonious with each other), We the people and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family)”, he will not be able to understand the RSS.

“Because of lack of knowledge, he is drawing such comparisons (with IS and Muslim Brotherhood),” Kumar told reporters.

Asked about the invitees to the event, he said that top people from the fields of social, cultural organisations, media, columnists and even legal fraternity besides foreign ambassadors and high commissioners, will be invited to the event to get to know and understand the RSS perspective on various issues of national importance.

Asked whether the political parties opposed to the idea of the RSS would be invited to the event, Kumar said: “We will contact all the political parties. All means all.”

To a specific question about inviting Rahul Gandhi, he said, “It is our prerogative whom to invite. We will try to touch all the strata of the society.”

An RSS functionary, however, said that as President of the Congress party, Gandhi will also be an invitee.

Responding to Congress charges that the BJP and the RSS believed in divisive politics, Kumar said that political parties speak a lot for vote bank politics but it is the people of the country who decide.

“I don’t need to comment on it. People will decide,” he said.

Speaking at an event organised by Indian Journalists’ Association in London, Rahul Gandhi had once again compared the RSS with the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organisation. Earlier he had compared the RSS with the IS.

According to Rahul Gandhi, Muslim Brotherhood was banned after the assassination of Anwar Sadat (the then Egyptian president) in 1981, while the RSS was banned after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination (in 1948).

“So, there are tremendous similarities. And the most interesting one, women are not allowed in either of these organisations. So, they are similar,” Gandhi said.

Describing the purpose behind organising the event, Kumar clarified that it has been organised due to growing eagerness about the RSS amongst larger sections of the society including the intellectuals and the youth and also to clarify about the questions which are being raised about it.

“India is moving ahead towards regaining its special and unique position in the world among the galaxy of nations. At the same time the RSS is realizing that there is a growing eagerness amongst larger sections of the society including the intellectuals and the youth to know and understand the RSS perspective on various issues of national importance. This lecture series has been organised in this context where Bhagawatji will present the RSS’ view on various contemporary issues of national importance,” he said.

To a question pertaining to Rahul Gandhi’s claim that Congress was not involved in the 1984 riots, Kumar said it would not hold water because late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, himself had said: “Jab bada ped girta hai to dharti hilti hai (when a big tree falls, the earth shakes)”.

(IANS)

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s appeal to people to contribute a month’s salary in the wake of the flood disaster has elicited a good response.

Governor P. Sathasivam said on Monday that the appeal was reasonable.

“As the first citizen of the state, I have decided to do it and will hand over the cheque to the Chief Secretary,” said Sathasivam, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

He had contributed Rs 1 lakh earlier to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. On Monday, he handed over a cheque for Rs 250,000 as the balance amount towards his contribution of one month’s salary.

Vijayan’s appeal, made through Asianet TV channel, on Sunday has gone viral on the social media.

He has suggested that those interested in contributing a month’s salary can do it over a period of 10 months.

Advocate General C.P. Sudhakara Prasad said: “I had already handed over Rs 1 lakh when the CM made his call asking everyone to contribute. Now, heeding to his call to hand over a month’s salary, I will do it when I get my next month’s salary.”

Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra told the media that he would pay his one month’s salary in one instalment.

“I have got numerous calls from my colleagues who too have promised to contribute one month’s salary. Kerala will bounce back very quickly,” said Behra.

Senior Congress legislator and former Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said he had also decided to hand over his one month’s salary too.

“But the state government should ensure that they stop all extravagance,” he said.

Mohammed Hanish, a senior bureaucrat who heads the Kochi Metro, also promised to donate a month’s salary. Many other officials and Ministers have also made the pledge.

The social media has welcomed Vijayan’s call.

Ever since monsoon rains began lashing Kerala on May 29, a total of 417 people have died. The flood fury this month has caused unprecedented destruction and forced more than one million people to take shelter in relief camps.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to “change the nature and character” of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in Delhi, asking his government to respect “history and heritage”.

Jawaharlal Nehru belongs “not just to the Congress” but to the “entire nation,” Singh said in a letter to Modi two weeks ago. Singh wrote the letter after reports that the government planned a museum for all prime ministers in the Teen Murti complex, where NMML is located.

Singh said during the six-year tenure of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away on August 16, “there was absolutely no attempt made to change the nature and character of the NMML and the Teen Murti complex in any way. But sadly, that seems to be part of the agenda of the Government of India now.”

Singh said that “no amount of revisionism” can “obliterate” Nehru’s role and his contributions. “As Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji himself said in his moving speech to Parliament when Panditji passed away: ‘Such a resident may never grace Teen Murti again. That vibrant personality, that attitude of taking even the opposition along, that refined gentlemanliness, that greatness we may not again see in the near future. In spite of a difference of opinion we have nothing but respect for his great ideals, his integrity, his love for the country and his indomitable courage’.”

“Let us respect this sentiment and keep Teen Murti as a memorial to our first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru and leave the Teen Murti complex undisturbed as it is. This way we will be respecting both history and heritage,” said Singh.

“Jawaharlal Nehru belongs not just to the Congress but to the entire nation. It is in this spirit that I have written to you.”

The Congress on Monday accused Goa Chief Minister and former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar of being silent on the controversial Rafale deal, saying he was aware of the violation of several norms linked to the purchase of the French military aircraft.

All India Congress Committee spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi while speaking to the media at the party headquarters here questioned that how did Parrikar, despite being the then Defence Minister “did not know that a deal had been negotiated, signed and agreed upon?”

“A Defence Minister who knew about bypassing of the cabinet committee on security (CCS) norms, transfer of technology and not following of defence procurement procedure, continues to maintain his silence and chooses not to answer,” Chaturvedi said.

“So his silence is a conspiracy in an agreement that has betrayed this nation.”

Chaturvedi also slammed Parrikar for his alleged flip-flop on the Rafale deal, accusing him of going into hiding over the alleged scam.

“Here is a Defence Minister, who just days before the deal was signed, had gone on record to say that some terms of the agreement were non-negotiable. But you were aware that those were the very clauses that were negotiated in France,” she added.

“And the nation saw how Parrikar continued to hide, instead of giving answers on the deal. It is a known fact that he himself was not prepared for it and was caught off guard.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had signed the Rafale deal in September 2016 while Parrikar served as the Defence Minister, to purchase fighter jets from France.

(IANS)

The Congress on Sunday said that the Narendra Modi government had upturned a rising economy and left it in “dire straits” with its “ad hoc and myopic economic policies”.

“Dear Arun Jaitley, Congress governments (2004-2104) delivered the highest decadal growth of 8.13 per cent at factor-cost since Independence. Under Modi government, GDP growth in 2017-18 is just 6.7 per cent, which is a four-year low. In July 2018, IMF itself lowered our growth projections,” Congress Spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a series of tweets.

“Jaitley ji should know that Modi government had inherited an economy that was on the upswing. But due to BJP’s ad hoc and myopic economic policies — demonetisation, flawed implementation of GST and tax terrorism — that momentum was lost,” he added.

Surjewala’s tweets came in response to a post on social media by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who said that it was only with NDA coming to power in 2014 that the economy had undergone a transformational change.

In his post, Jaitley said that a comparison of the data released in 2014 and 2018 proved that high inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit, besides a standstill in the infrastructure and power sectors, as well as in allocation of natural resources, were some of the failures of the previous UPA government.

“We have come a long way. The last four years have seen a series of reforms, both legislative and otherwise, which have been carried on by the government. The system has been substantially cleaned up and made more transparent,” Jaitley posted on Facebook.

However, Surjewala said that certain parameters showed a downward trend in economy and that “no amount of whitewashing” could change those facts.

“Gross Fixed Capital Formation as a percentage of GDP was 34.3 per cent in 2011-12. Even in 2013-14 it was 31.3 per cent. In the last three years, it has remained constant at 28.5 per cent and has impacted growth. No amount of white washing or blog writing can increase that,” Surjewala said.

He said that the manner in which the Modi government had sought to “supress the ‘back series’ of GDP” and attempted to “distort” them through “spins”, was now out in the open.

The war of words between former CM Siddaramaiah, who is also the chairman of the coalition government coordination committee and the JDS leaders has further escalated. On Sunday, Siddaramaiah and PWD minister HD Revanna were involved in a war of words.

In Mysuru, former CM Siddaramaiah took on CM H D Kumaraswamy by opting to reply to latter’s statement that some are trying to destabilise the government.
Siddaramaiah, responding to the same said that people making such vague statements must explain it themselves.

“Ask the questions to HDK; not to me. It was he who had made the statement,” he told the reporters adding that it is the people who have expressed their wish of seeing him (Siddaramaiah) as the CM of the state again.

The row erupted with Siddaramaiah reportedly saying that he wishes to become the CM of the state again and the coalition partner JD(S) raking up the statement, intending to say indirectly that Siddaramaiah is trying to topple the government for his own greed.

Meanwhile, PWD minister HD Revanna reacted sharply to Siddaramaiah’s statement. Speaking to the reporters, Revanna stated that coalition government is like a boat and few are trying to drown it. “But the boat will travel till God wishes,” he said.

But a few minutes later, Food and civil supplies minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan tried to end the row by saying that marriage between the JDS and the Congress has been registered and it will not collapse.