Page 2744 - Politics
Full EC team to visit Mizoram Tuesday to study poll preparedness
An Election Commission team headed by its chief Om Prakash Rawat would visit poll-bound Mizoram on October 16 to study the preparedness of the November 28 assembly elections, an official said on Friday.
Gujarat Guv approves bill on salary hike for MLAs, ministers
Gujarat Governor O P Kohli Friday gave his approval to a bill proposing a hike in the salaries of MLAs and ministers. The Gujarat Salaries and Allowances of Members, Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Ministers and Leader of Opposition Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 had been passed unanimously in the state Assembly on September 19. With the governor giving assent to the bill, the salaries of MLAs will rise 64 per cent from Rs 70,727 to Rs 1.16 lakh, while that of ministers, speaker, deputy speaker, and the leader of opposition will go up by 54 per cent from Rs 86,000 to Rs 1.32 lakh. The BJP government had defended the salary hike bill by stating that pay had not been revised since 2005. While the previous pay structure took the basic salary of an under secretary as the criterion to determine the remuneration of MLAs and office-bearers, the new bill will determine pay by basing it on the basic salary of the deputy secretary. A total of seven .
NHRC important to achieve sustainable development goals: PM
The National Human Rights Commission has an important role to play in government's efforts to achieve sustainable development goals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday. Addressing an event in New Delhi to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the NHRC, Modi said the government is committed to improve the lives of people by ensuring their rights. He cited various steps taken by government in this regard and said the triple talaq legislation is a part of the effort to provide justice to the oppressed. "I am confident that this key legislation will be accorded approval by Parliament soon," he said. The bill is pending before Rajya Sabha with Lok Sabha having already passed it. He also hailed the Ayushmaan Bharat health insurance scheme, saying 50,000 people have benefited from it within two and a half weeks of its launch.
Gandhi a serial liar and manufacturer of fake news: BJP
Facing relentless attack from Rahul Gandhi on the Rafale deal, the BJP on Friday alleged the Congress president was a "serial liar" and "manufacturer of fake news" and his repeated lies cannot substitute the truth of the deal. Citing comments of Rafale's French manufacturer Dassault Aviation's CEO Eric Trappier to reject Gandhi's allegations, Union minister Piyush Goyal said the French government and Dassult have "exposed" Gandhi's "fake news" and it was high time for him to stop lying. Asserting that the people of India trusted Narendra Modi, Goyal also rejected the suggestion that the Congress has used the issue of alleged corruption in the Rafale deal to create a perception against the prime minister. Goyal said an "issue-less" party and its leadership bereft of truth are no substitute to Modi and his good governance. The union minister was fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party to reject Congress's charges on the Rafale deal, a day after the Dassault CEO said his firm's joint ...
Congress attacks Modi for 'neglecting' clean-Ganga activist
The Congress on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "neglecting" the repeated pleas of environmentalist G.D. Agarwal, who died a day earlier while fighting for a cleaner Ganga river.
Jharkhand to have an old age home in every district: Athawale
Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale Friday said as part of the objective to have an old age home in every district of Jharkhand, work has completed in 10 districts while construction is in progress in 14 others. He also said that there are several vacancies in government jobs for the divyang people and the Jharkhand government is working to fill them up. Making the divyang people of the state skilled and giving them employment is the priority. The government is making efforts to increase reservation from four per cent to five per cent in providing government jobs to divyang people and five per cent in education, Athawale told reporters here. Efforts are also on to fill-up the backlog vacancies, he said. The government is also taking steps to accord constitutional status to the OBC Commission, he said. Stating that there are 20,500 people still engaged in manual scavenging in the state, the minister said that the government is ...
SAD asks Pb govt to disburse Rs 3,000 per acre to farmers for paddy straw management
The SAD on Friday asked the Punjab government to immediately disburse Rs 3,000 per acre to farmers for managing paddy straw, while asserting that it would stand by the peasants and not allow the state to register cases against them. The burning of paddy straw in open fields after harvesting is the main reason of air pollution in the state and in adjoining Delhi-NCR. Former minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia claimed it was shocking that instead of offering money to the farmers to manage paddy straw or engaging machines to deal with it free of cost, the Congress government had shifted this responsibility to peasants and was now intimidating them with threats of cases and jail terms. Urging the farmers to unite for countering these "repressive tactics", Majithia said the SAD rank and file would stand with them and protest any move to penalize farmers. Blaming the Congress government for "failing" to take steps to avoid burning of paddy stubble in ..
Shivpal Yadav gets Mayawati's old bungalow
The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has allotted the government bungalow vacated by Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati after a Supreme Court directive to Samajwadi Secular Morcha founder Shivpal Yadav. "I have been allotted the bungalow as there were intelligence reports of threats to me, said Shivpal Yadav, who is Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother and the estranged uncle of party president Akhilesh Yadav. I am a five-time legislator and it has been allotted to me as a senior member of the state assembly," he said. He said he had applied for a government bungalow, and the one at 6, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg was allotted to him following all rules and regulations". Shivpal Yadav, who currently stays at his own house on Vikramaditya Marg, might use the bungalow to run the Samajwadi Secular Morcha, a close confidant said. While launching the morcha in August, Shivpal Yadav had said he felt neglected in the SP after Akhilesh Yadav took charge of the party.
India buying Iran oil, Russian weaponry not helpful: US
India's plans to continue buying oil from Iran and its purchase of S-400 missile defence systems from Russia is "not helpful" and the US administration "reviews that very carefully", the State Department said, indicating possible action by Washington.
Shivpal Yadav gets Mayawati's old vacated
The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has allotted the government bungalow vacated by Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati after a Supreme Court directive to Samajwadi Secular Morcha founder Shivpal Yadav. "I have been allotted the bungalow as there were intelligence reports of threats to me, said Shivpal Yadav, who is Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother and the estranged uncle of party president Akhilesh Yadav. I am a five-time legislator and it has been allotted to me as a senior member of the state assembly," he said. He said he had applied for a government bungalow, and the one at 6, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg was allotted to him following all rules and regulations". Shivpal Yadav, who currently stays at his own house on Vikramaditya Marg, might use the bungalow to run the Samajwadi Secular Morcha, a close confidant said. While launching the morcha in August, Shivpal Yadav had said he felt neglected in the SP after Akhilesh Yadav took charge of the party.
HC dismisses plea against Guv action on assembly dissolution
The Hyderabad High Court Friday dismissed pleas seeking to declare as unconstitutional the action of the governor on dissolution of the Telangana assembly on the Cabinet's advice without ascertaining the views of the members of the House. A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice S V Bhatt, observed that there was no merit in the petitioners' contentions. Once the election notification has been issued, it is not proper for the court to interfere with the democratic process, the bench said. The bench heard the petition filed by senior Congress leader and former minister D K Aruna and two others. It also declined to interfere with the notification issued on September 6 dissolving the House and also the election notification for publishing the schedule of elections in the state. Aruna in her petition alleged that that the state government had dissolved the assembly in a huff and such action is not in public interest. She elaborated the likely .
Goa: Shiv Sena asks Guv to dissolve state Assembly
The Goa unit of the Shiv Sena Friday submitted a memorandum to Governor Mridula Sinha demanding that the state Assembly be dissolved due to "non-functioning" of the government and inability of any party to form an alternate government. The Shiv Sena, incidentally, does not have any MLA in the 40-member Goa Assembly. Shiv Sena leader Jitesh Kamat said that the state administration had come to a standstill in the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who is admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for a pancreatic ailment. Kamat claimed the memorandum had signatures of "thousands of people" of Goa. "We met the Governor and demanded that the assembly be dissolved as there is no governance and no one is in a position to form a stable government," Kamat told reporters here Friday. Speaking about Parrikar meeting BJP leaders and allies in his government at AIIMS earlier in the day, Kamat said it was a matter of shame that cabinet meetings were
PM Modi to visit Japan on October 28-29
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an official visit to Japan on October 28-29 to hold the annual India-Japan summit with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe which will focus on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests, the External Affairs Ministry said Friday. It will be the fifth annual summit meeting between Modi and Abe and their 12 meeting overall since 2014. Besides bilateral issues, the two leaders are expected to deliberate on a range of regional and global issues including the situation in the Indo-Pacific region. "Under the framework of the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan, the two leaders will have wide-ranging discussions over two days on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest," the MEA said. It said the prime minister's visit will reaffirm the traditional bonds of friendship between the two countries and strengthen their multi-faceted cooperation in diverse fields. "It will also advance the vision of ..
Catalonia's separatist front shatters
Catalonia's separatist parties that brought the region to the brink of breaking away from Spain a year ago, shattered their united front this week in a struggle over strategy toward independence. The separatists on Tuesday lost the majority they have enjoyed in the Catalan parliament since September 2015 due to a rift over how to respond to a court suspension of six jailed or exiled lawmakers accused of rebellion. PDeCAT, the party of Catalonia's ousted president Carles Puigdemont who is in self-imposed exile in Belgium, wanted to once again defy Spain's central government by allowing its four regional MPs to vote during the opening session of the assembly despite their suspension. But ERC, Catalonia's oldest separatist party, refused to go along with this disobedience, which would have caused legal problems for one of its most prominent leaders -- Roger Torrent, the president of the Catalan parliament. Instead, it named replacements for its two suspended lawmakers and united with ...
India's ties with Central Asia age-old: Sushma Swaraj
India's cultural and historical ties with Central Asia are age-old and they share similar family values, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said as she addressed the Indian diaspora here. Swaraj is in Tajikistan's capital to attend a two-day conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)'s Council of Heads of Government. She said India's ties with Central Asian nations have reached new heights during the tenure of the current government. She said that Tajikistan is an important country for India. Swaraj said she and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have visited all five countries in Central Asia -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan --which is an example of India's growing ties with the nations in the region.
Pastor back on trial in Turkey as US hopeful of release
An American pastor whose detention for the past two years by Turkey sparked a crisis in ties with the United States went back on trial Friday with Washington hopeful he will finally be released. The detention since October 2016 of Andrew Brunson on terror charges caused not just one of the worst diplomatic rows of recent times between the NATO allies but also a crash in the Turkish lira, which exposed Turkey's economic fragility. The new hearing was held in a court in Aliaga in western Izmir province, with Brunson present as well as his wife Norine and US charge d'affaires Jeffrey Hovenier, an AFP correspondent said. A total of five witnesses from the prosecution and defence were heard in a morning session before the court took a lunch break. Turkish judicial authorities have repeatedly denied requests for the release of Brunson, who was moved from prison to house arrest in Izmir city in July. But observers see growing indications that he may be allowed to go free on at Friday's ...
Parrikar will allot additional portfolios only after Dussehra: Minister
Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to allocate additional portfolios to ministers in the state's BJP-led coalition cabinet only after Dussehra, a Minister said on Friday.
Hospitalised Parrikar meets BJP leaders, allies; to shed
Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is expected to shed "many" of his portfolios after Dussehra, according to ministers who met him Friday in a hospital in New Delhi to discuss governance issues in his home state. Parrikar, who is undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment in New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), held meetings with party leaders as well as allies to discuss ways to ensure that his government functions normally. Leaders of the ruling BJP and allies, who met Parrikar separately, ruled out any change in leadership in the coastal state. Union Minister and BJP leader Shripad Naik told PTI over phone from Delhi that the chief minister held review of the governance in Goa during the meeting. "There was no discussion about leadership change. Parrikar is recovering and he will continue to be the chief minister," the Minister of State for AYUSH said. "The chief minister is expected to return to Goa from AIIMS for Diwali," Naik ...
Centre 'scaled down' rail coach unit project in Sonipat: Hooda
Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda on Friday alleged that the NDA government has "scaled down" a rail coach manufacturing unit approved by the UPA dispensation in Sonipat district to a refurbishing and rehabilitation factory. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of a Rs 500-crore rail coach refurbishing and rehabilitation factory in Sonipat, during his visit to Sampla in Rohtak district on Tuesday. However, he said, the previous UPA government in 2013 had approved a "full-fledged" coach manufacturing unit at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore. "After nearly six years, instead of starting the project approved during our time, what the Modi government has done is scaled down the project," he told reporters in Chandigarh. "I raise strong objection to what the Narendra Modi government has done," the Rohtak MP said. Hooda said now "no manufacturing will take place" at the unit and it will be reduced to a repair factory. "The Centre is not giving anything much to Haryana,
Swaraj attends SCO meet, Pak Foreign Minister also present
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday attended the Council of Heads of Government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe, in the presence of a number of leaders.Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also present at the meeting.Addressing the gathering, Swaraj said that terrorism remains the most pertinent threat to goals of development and prosperity. "As the footprint of terrorism expands, governments must assume their national responsibility and cooperate with each other. India has actively supported the SCO Qingdao Summit Leaders' Appeal to Youth against the radicalisation of youth," she said.Furthermore, Swaraj, while welcoming the signing of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group protocol on the sidelines of the Qingdao Summit, said India would be happy to co-host the next meeting of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group with Afghanistan."India stands committed to a peace process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled, .