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Students clash with police over domicile policy
Ranchi, July 24 (ANI): Protesting students clashed with police in Ranchi city of Jharkhand on Wednesday over the government's domicile policy. Police had to fire several rounds of tear gas shells. Personnel of the Jharkhand Armed Police and paramilitary, Rapid Action Force and Central Reserve Police Force, were deployed at sensitive points to prevent violence. According to the government's domicile policy, only those persons who have their land registered in the record of rights of 1932 would be considered citizens of Jharkhand and be eligible for government jobs, implying that people who have settled after 1932 are outsiders and have no right to government jobs in the state. The minerally-rich Jharkhand was carved out from Bihar two years ago. Forty percent of the state's approximately 10 million people cannot be considered for Class-III and Class IV jobs in the lower rung of bureaucracy as per the new policy. The issue has sharply divided students in the state. On Wednesday, pro-domicile policy groups laid siege to Ranchi by calling a shutdown. The shutdown caused total collapse of rail, air and road services. The city remained paralysed, with essential services like electricity and water being affected. Over 50 organisations, supported by political parties and the All Jharkhand Students' Union, have demanded that the government announce a timeframe for the implementation of the new policy. They also want the government to debar people who do not meet the eligibility criteria under the new policy from contesting elections and even purchasing land other than for commercial purposes.(ANI) Ajit offers four-fold package for drought-hit states
The meeting was attended by agriculture ministers from 12 drought-hit states who had come to New Delhi to seek assistance from the federal government. During the meeting, federal agriculture minister Ajit Singh unveiled a four-fold preliminary package including extension of Calamity Relief Fund to all farmers to mitigate their plight. "Assistance under Calamity Relief Fund (CRF), which is normally available to farmers having at least two hectares of land, would be provided to all farmers in the drought-affected areas," Ajit Singh told reporters after the meeting. Singh said the country is facing the worst drought-like situation in last 10-12 years. About 320 of 524 districts in states have been hit by dry spell. The dry spell has severely affected crops in several states. Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Arunanchal Pradesh are the affected states. "We have sought Rs 600 crores of relief from the federal government as of today. If there is no improvement in the drought situation in next few days and there is no rainfall then our loss will be much more whose details will be forwarded later on," said Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, agriculture minister of Haryana. "For the past three years Rajasthan is fighting this drought-like situation due to scarcity of water. This year too, out of 32 districts there has been no rainfall in 29 districts. The situation is very serious, there is no fodder for animals, no potable water for people. We have to provide alternative jobs to almost 30,00,000 such people who are staying below poverty line for which we have made a contingency plan," Gulab Singh Shaktawar, relief minister of Rajasthan, told reporters. The states have demanded additional foodgrains, increase in quantum under ration shop distribution and reduction in prices for above the poverty line (APL) families to tackle the situation.(ANI) Advani gives clean chit to Modi
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to top New Delhi, July 24 (ANI): Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Wednesday gave a clean chit to caretaker Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying he had done well in the state to create conducive atmosphere for holding elections. Replying to a marathon debate on the Gujarat issue in the Rajya Sabha, Advani sought to assure the Opposition that the Centre would strive for free and fair elections in the state. The Minister's reply was repeatedly interrupted by the vociferous Opposition which accused the government of trying to capitalise on communal violence in the state.(ANI)
Flood fury wreaks havoc in Assam Go to top Guwahati, July 24 (ANI): Floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains have killed 12 people and submerged about 700,000 houses in Assam, authorities said on Wednesday. The 12 people, including women and children, were drowned on Tuesday night when a boat carrying them capsized in the swollen Brahmaputra near Dispur. "The family was moving to higher ground after their house was completely submerged", a local police officer said. Search and rescue operations had been launched in the area. State officials said the swollen rivers have flooded more than 800 villages since Monday night. Flood waters reached the rooftops of houses in Dhemaji, the worst affected district, where 70,000 displaced people have been moved to relief camps or other high ground in the past few weeks. Nurjamal Sarkar, Assam'a flood control minister, said, "Motor boats have been deployed to rescue people. The army has also been put on alert to help in rescue operations if the situation worsened". According to state officials, 15 embankments and dams, mostly built during the 1960s using earth and sand-filled bags, had been damaged by the gushing water of the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries. Floods have damaged 59 dams and erosion along the Brahmaputra had worsened this year. (ANI)
Fernandes welcomes withdrawal of travel restrictions
Go to top New Delhi, July 24 (ANI): Defence Minister George Fernandes has welcomed the withdrawal of travel restrictions to India by the US and UK.However, according to him, there was never a situation in India that warranted these kinds of curbs. "Well, I think in the first place they shouldn't have had those earlier advisories asking people not to go. There was no situation that warranted that and I conveyed this when they had issued their advisories. I conveyed this both to the United States and the United Kingdom and such others who had this advisory, including Japan," he said in an interview with ANI on Tuesday. The USA and Britain declared on Monday taht they had lifted the ban on travel to India. The ban was imposed early last month amid fears that the country was on the brink of a war with nuclear neighbour Pakistan. The U.S. embassy in New Delhi said in a statement that tensions had eased between the South Asian countries which still have a million troops massed along their border. But it said "the risk of renewed increased tensions cannot be ruled out". An embassy official explained that the advisory meant "there were no restrictions on Americans travelling to India but they should monitor the situation regularly". However, the statement clarified that travel to areas bordering Pakistan should be avoided. It cited the threat of attacks by militants against them in that region. Instructions by the United States and at least a dozen other western nations to their citizens to leave India had upset New Delhi which said the countries had panicked and overreacted. The advisories against visiting India hit business dealings of firms such as India's largest listed software service exporter, Infosys Technologies. Germany lifted its travel warning 10 days ago, saying it saw no reason "to generally advise against travel to India". The advisories urging foreigners to leave India were issued as tension rose over New Delhi's demand that Islamabad halt cross- border infiltration of Muslim guerrillas into Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi is preparing to hold Assembly elections in that state in October, that may be boycotted by separatist political groups which feel polls would legitimise and showcase Indian claims on Kashmir. Said Fernandes: "Our real concern is violence and this conceren is buttressed by the fact that when we had the Panchayat (village level) elections in September-October last year, the electorate was terrorised by these terrorist elements and the candidates were killed, those elected got killed. So, we went through this kind of an experience and yet 80 percent to 90 percent of peopple participated in that election. And it was not a rigged election. It was a free and fair election. So I have reasons to believe that the same free and fair elections will take place now and we will need the troops only when we are face to face with terrorism." The neighbours have a million troops massed along their borders since December after an attack on Indian Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. Meanwhile, Islamabad has claimed that cross-border infiltration of militants has ended, but New Delhi says it continues to take place--despite a brief lull. Speaking on the situation, the minister said "our troops are there so none can create any major problem for us. But those who are accustomed to training and sending these terrorist elements keep on doing this work. We still have these problems on the border. So there can be situations created which may cause some difficulty." Independent observers and western analysts have warned that stray guerrilla elements might try to scuttle the chances of peace between the two sides. But Fernandes made it clear that it was hard to believe that militants could procure lethal arms and execute attacks on soft targets with military precision without Pakistan's sponsorship. "My belief is that the kind of terrorism we are experiencing cannot be the handiwork of some stray groups. This terrrorism is possible only and only when there is state backing because the kind of weaponry that our people have captured, the kind of ammunition our people have captured, might not even be with our own army, with our own soldiers. And there is a lot of money that is needed to fight the kind of war we are experiencing. We call it the proxy war and there is a lot of money that goes into it," Fernandes elaborated.(ANI)
Hurriyat for unconditional talks on Kashmir Go to top New Delhi, July 24 (ANI): Former Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Wednesday he was willing to hold an "unconditional dialogue" with the Centre on the issue of Kashmir. He said Kashmir was not an administrative problem and the issue needed immediate and serious attention from the Centre for its final resolution through a constructive dialogue. On the issue of participation in the forthcoming elections, he said: "We have maintained that we will not shy away from any such exercise aimed at resolving the Kashmir dispute but we reject outrightly an election process which envisaged forming a government in the state and later governing it." He said the amalgam had maintained that the Kashmir issue had to be finally resolved through dialogue and the "sooner it is, the better".(ANI) |
New Delhi, July 24 (ANI): Alarmed by the drought-like situation
in country's north and west, the government called an
emergency meeting on Wednesday.