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Hurt by Union law minister Salman Khurshid's defiance of poll code, the Election Commission (EC) has sought President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's “decisive intervention” to ensure elections in Uttar Pradesh are conducted in accordance with law.BJP see

2012-02-11T10:28:00.001-08:00

Hurt by Union law minister Salman Khurshid's defiance of poll code, the Election Commission (EC) has sought President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's "decisive intervention" to ensure elections in Uttar Pradesh are conducted in accordance with law.BJP seeks Khurshid's immediate dismissal!
Over 60% turnout in UP second phase poll

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, chapter 742
Palash Biswas

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Govt brainstorms on SC's 2G verdict, PM meets senior ministers
Discusses implications on pre-2008 and dual-technology licences, spectrum auction and FDI
BS Reporters / New Delhi Feb 12, 2012, 00:51 IST

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday met Communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal, Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, among others, to analyse the implications of the Supreme Court order cancelling 122 2G licences issued in January 2008, its overall impact on foreign direct investments (FDI), and the options before the government.
Home Minister P Chidambaram, Attorney General G E Vahanvati and Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar also attended the meeting.
"This meeting was to inform senior ministers about the implications and ramifications of the judgment. This group was not meant to take any decision," Sibal said after the meeting.
The telecom secretary gave a presentation on what the judgment was all about and what it meant, Sibal added. "The matter has to ultimately go to the Cabinet. Therefore, the government has to be informed beforehand so that it can take a decision," he said.
According to people close to the development, the issue of licences issued before 2008 on the basis of the first-come-first-served policy was also discussed in the meeting. Besides, dual-technology licences awarded to Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices in August 2007 and the financial implications on the government if the licence fee had to be refunded to all whose licences were cancelled were also taken up.
A senior government official said the meeting was called to analyse the Supreme Court judgment and study what the government could do to implement the court order.
"It will involve multiple ministries. So, all ministers concerned were called for the meeting," added the official.
He stressed that the apprehensions associated with the possibility that an oligopolistic situation might arise after spectrum auctioning and that a company with licence might not get spectrum in the auction were set to be addressed in the final mechanism for implementation of the Court order.
The cancelled 122 licences and dual-technology licences were issued by the then telecom minister, A Raja, who is now undergoing trial in the alleged 2G spectrum scam.
The SC order had also directed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to frame new rules for licences and auction of spectrum. Trai has already floated a pre-consultation paper for framing the new norms and seeking comments from all stakeholders.
The new auction norms for 2G spectrum that about 540 MHz of spectrum will be released following the SC order was also discussed during the meeting. The PM had asked for the opinion of Attorney General GE Vahanvati on the issue in the last meeting held on Wednesday.
The companies impacted by the SC order include Uninor, Sistema Shyam, Loop, Videocon, Idea, Tata Teleservices, STel and Etisalat DB. Of these affected companies, Uninor, a joint venture between Norway's Telenor and Unitech Group and Sistema Shyam, a JV between Russia's Sistema and Shyam group, have invested close to Rs 28,000 crore and were considered serious new telecom entrants.
Both the companies have expressed their willingness to participate in the 2G auction, but will take a final decision after the new auction norms are finalised.
The telecom ministry is likely to take a legal opinion before sending termination letters to the new players.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/govt-brainstormsscs-2g-verdict-pm-meets-senior-ministers/464443/

Hurt by Union law minister Salman Khurshid's defiance of poll code, the Election Commission (EC) has sought President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's "decisive intervention" to ensure elections in Uttar Pradesh are conducted in accordance with law.

Addressing an election rally in Khatakpur locality last night, the law minister said that Election Commission had censured him, but even if the "Commission hangs him or does anything else, he would ensure that people of Pasmanda community get their rights".

"Can't I even say that Pasmanda Muslims would get their due?" he said, adding that Congress was set to hoist the tricolour in the state assembly after 22 years.

The Commission had censured Khurshid for his remarks on sub-quota for minorities, finding them to be a violation of the model code of conduct for elections.

Taking strong objection to Salman Khurshid's comments after his censure on his minority quota remarks, the Election Commission tonight wrote to President Pratibha Patil against the "defiant and aggressive" law minister and sought her immediate decisive intervention. The EC had earlier censured him for the same statement made on January 8 while campaigning in Uttar Pradesh elections, holding that it was violative of the Election Model Code of Conduct.

With Election Commission seeking President Pratibha Patil's intervention on Law Minister Salman Khurshid's defiance of poll body's censure of his sub-quota remarks, BJP on Saturday sought his immediate dismissal from the cabinet.

"We demand his immediate sacking from the Union Cabinet and ask the Prime Minister to clarify the stand of the government," said BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who had earlier complained to the EC against Khurshid's defiance despite his censure by the poll body.

"Today, an extra-ordinary situation has arisen. There is a serious conflict between two constitutional authorites because of the action of some ministers of the Union cabinet," said Naqvi.

The BJP leader said the President of India and the Prime Minister should immediately intervene "in this extra-ordinary situation as this is the first time such a situation has arisen in the history of democractic India."

He said the Law Minister had challenged the EC's earlier order and said that "religion-based unconstitutional reservation will exist even if the EC exists or not".

Late on Saturday night, the Election Commission, in an unprecedented action, sought the "immediate and decisive" intervention of President Pratibha Patil after it charged Khurshid with "improper and unlawful" defiance of its orders under which he was censured for promising sub-quota for minorities.

Keeping up with the first phase, ballotting in 59 constituencies in the second phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections Saturday touched 60 percent and seemed set to go up, officials said. Polling was peaceful.

"Despite the chilly morning, people came out in large numbers to cast their vote in almost all of the 59 assembly constituencies that went to poll across nine districts of the state. No wonder, the polling percentage went up to about 60 percent, and will go up," state's chief electoral officer Umesh Sinha told media persons here. The first phase saw a 62 percent turnout.

"Even as we were keeping our fingers crossed, on account of the various complexities prevailing in the area, polling was carried out very peacefully, without a single untoward incident being reported from anywhere," he said.

Sinha described the task as huge, since the number of candidates and the spread of the constituencies was very large.

Over 120,000 security personnel, including about 55,000 central para-military troopers and 10,000 personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), were deployed to maintain a strict vigil in the crime-prone, communally-sensitive and poverty-ridden expanse of eastern Uttar Pradesh where the voting was held.

The voting has sealed the fate of 1,098 candidates, of whom the 1.97 crore voters were to elect their 59 representatives for the 403-member state assembly.

The phase is crucial for the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had bagged as many as 30 of the 59 seats in the region in the 2007 assembly elections. The Samajwadi Party (SP) had won 21 seats, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) got 6 and Congress trailed last with two seats here.

Other than Gorakhpur, the districts where polling was held are Azamgarh, Ballia, Ghazipur, Maharajganj, Deoria, Mau, Sant Kabir Nagar and Kushinagar, where 20,426 polling stations with some 20,800 electronic voting machines (EVM) were in place.

Different political parties seem to view the impressive turnout from their respective angles.

The BSP claimed it was an indication of a major swing in its favour. "I am quite confident that our party will retain all of 30 seats we had won last time," claimed a key BSP functionary.

However, the Congress sees the high turnout of youth as a reflection of the surge for Rahul Gandhi, while Samajwadi Party was ready to give itself a substantial jump from its last tally of six.

"All the anti-incumbency votes against Mayawati will come to us," claimed SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Gorakhpur felt that the party would definitely make a significant gain.

A number of prominent leaders including 30 sitting legislators and 21 former ministers were in fray. Prominent among them were Assembly Speaker Sukhdeo Rajbhar, BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi, BSP state chief Swami Prasad Maurya, mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari as well as Peace Party president Dr. Ayub.

The SP had fielded Aman Mani Tripathi, the son of jailed politician Amarmani Tripathi, convicted for the murder of his girlfriend and Hindi poetess Madhumita Shukla.

In an unprecedented action, the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday wrote to President Pratibha Patil against Union Law Minister Khurshid's alleged defiance of model code of conduct.The EC said the defiance by a union minister of the Constitutional body was "unprecedented" and his "improper and unlawful action" has put a strain on the delicate balance of functions between Constitutional authorities.

Khurshid had dared the Election Commission to act against him over his comment on Muslim sub-quota.

The Election Commission said that it is shocked that Khurshid chose to be defiant and aggressive.

In its letter, EC SY Quraishi wrote, "The Commission is approaching you with serious dismay and a deep sense of urgency that requires your kind intervention in the midst of the poll process in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The Union Minister for Law and Justice and Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid, who is also a leader of the Indian National Congress Party, had made certain statements and announcements during the course of his campaign in the state. One of them was to the effect that the Congress would provide a quota of 9 per cent reservation to the minorities within the existing quota of 27 per cent for OBCs. He also indicated that Muslims having a sizeable population will be benefited from this move. Following complaints received from a political party that such announcement was a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, the Commission, after due notice and hearing, passed an order on February, 9, 2012 that Khurshid had indeed violated the MCC. The full Commission hence deliberated on the matter in an emergency meeting, this afternoon, while being concerned about the fact that Khurshid's action could vitiate free and fair poll in Uttar Pradesh."

Sources said that the President has forwarded the EC's letter to Prime Minister's Office for appropriate action.

The EC said the defiance by a union minister of the Constitutional body was "unprecedented" and his "improper and unlawful action" has put a strain on the delicate balance of functions between Constitutional authorities.

"The Commission is shocked that instead of being remorseful about the violation of the Model Code, that carries the consensus of all political parties and the sanction of the Supreme Court, the Minister has chosen to be defiant and aggressive. This is unprecedented," it said.

"The Commission is approaching you with serious dismay and a deep sense of urgency that requires your kind intervention in the midst of the poll process in the state of Uttar Pradesh," said the EC letter to President.

The EC cited "certain statements and announcements" made by Khurshid during the course of his campaign in UP, one of which was to the effect that the Congress would provide a quota of 9 percent reservation to the minorities within the existing quota of 27 percent for OBCs.

"He (Khurshid) also indicated that Muslims having a sizeable population will be benefited from this move," the letter noted.

The EC pointed out that it had censured Khurshid for these statements but today he said he would continue to pursue that line "irrespective of whatever the Commission directs".

The EC found "the tone and tenor of the Union Minister dismissive and utterly contemptuous about the Commission's lawful direction to him, besides the fact that his action is damaging the level playing field in the election," the letter said.

Underlining that the "response of a union minister and that too, the law minister, to the Commission's decision in a MCC (Model Code of Conduct) case has created a disturbing situation", the EC said, "we find the immediate need to draw attention of the Executive to the fact that the onus of holding free and fair polls falls on all organs of the State."

The Commission said it is "quite concerned that the delicate balance of functions between constitutional authorities has come under a strain, because of the Minister's improper and unlawful action."

The Election Commission "finds it necessary and unavoidable to turn to you at this juncture for immediate and decisive intervention so that the ongoing general election to the Uttar Pradesh assembly is conducted, and this Commission discharges its functions, in accordance with the Constitution and the law," the letter to the President said.

In its letter, the Commission also referred to its earlier order passed two days back holding that Khurshid had indeed violated the Model Code of Conduct.

In its earlier order, the Commission had said it "cannot help expressing its deep anguish and disappointment over his (Khurshid's) violation of Model Code of Conduct.

"As a union minister for law and minorities affairs, he has an added responsibility of ensuring that the Model Code of Conduct is observed in letter and spirit so that elections are conducted in a free and fair manner and all political parties enjoy a level-playing field in the matter of their election campaigns.

"In the above circumstances, the Commission hereby censures Sh. Salman Khurshid and hopes and expects that such violations of model code of conduct would not be repeated by him in future."

Congress mum on EC step against Khurshid

Congress tonight avoided commenting on the Election Commission's letter to President Pratibha Patil seeking "immediate decisive" action against a "defiant and aggressive" law minister Salman Khurshid for his remarks on job quotas for minorities.

"We have not gone through the letter written by the EC to the President. We will get back to you after we go through it," Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi said.

"Ask Salman," was the pithy remark of a senior Congress leader when reached for comments on the poll authority's unprecedented step against the law minister. A number of phone calls and text messages to Khurshid remained unanswered.

The EC had earlier censured him for the same statement made on January 8 while campaigning in Uttar Pradesh elections, holding that it was violative of the Election Model Code of Conduct.

BJP seeks Khurshid's immediate dismissal

"We demand his immediate sacking from the union cabinet and ask the Prime Minister to clarify the stand of the government," said BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who had earlier complained to the EC against Khurshid's defiance despite his censure by the poll body.

"Today, an extraordinary situation has arisen. There is a serious conflict between two constitutional authorities because of the action of some ministers of the Union cabinet," said Naqvi.

The BJP leader said the President of India and the Prime Minister should immediately intervene "in this extra-ordinary situation as this is the first time such a situation has arisen in the history of democratic India."

He said the law minister had challenged the EC's earlier order and said that "religion-based unconstitutional reservation will exist even if the EC exists or not".

The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday wrote a letter to the President against Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid for his defiant attitude on the poll code.
Here's the full text of the letter:
Respected Rashtrapati Ji,
The Commission is approaching you with serious dismay and a deep sense of urgency that requires your kind intervention in the midst of the poll process in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Union Minister for Law and Justice and Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid, who is also a leader of the Indian National Congress Party, had made certain statements and announcements during the course of his campaign in the state. One of them was to the effect that the Congress would provide a quota of 9 per cent reservation to the minorities within the existing quota of 27 per cent for OBCs. He also indicated that Muslims having a sizeable population will be benefited from this move.
Following complaints received from a political party that such announcement was a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, the Commission, after due notice and hearing, passed an order on 9th February, 2012 that Sh. Khurshid had indeed violated the MCC. The following are the relevant observations contained in the Order:
"The Commission, therefore, cannot help expressing its deep anguish and disappointment over his violation of model code of conduct. As a Union Minister for Law and Minorities Affairs, he has an added responsibility of ensuring that the model code of conduct is observed in letter and spirit so that elections are conducted in a free and fair manner and all political parties enjoy a level playing field in the matter of their election campaigns.
In the above circumstances, the Commission hereby censures Salman Khurshid andhopes and expects that such violations of model code of conduct would not be repeated by him in future."
Sh. Khurshid has been seen in television media today (11th February 2012) making statements to the effect that he would pursue the line of his earlier announcement irrespective of whatever the Commission directs. In fact, the Union Minister goes on to say that he would stick to his line, "even if they hang me". We have found the tone and tenor of the Union Minister dismissive and utterly contemptuous about the Commission's lawful direction to him, besides the fact that his action is damaging the level playing field in the election.
The above response of a Union Minister and that too, the Law Minister, to the Commission's decision in a MCC case has created a disturbing situation. The Commission is shocked that instead of being remorseful about the violation of the Model Code, that carries the consensus of all political parties and the sanction of the Supreme Court, the Minister has chosen to be defiant and aggressive. This is unprecedented. The full Commission hence deliberated on the matter in an emergency meeting, this afternoon, while being concerned about the fact that Sh. Khurshid's action could vitiate free and fair poll in Uttar Pradesh. The Commission is perturbed because the undermining of its constitutionally mandated duties has come from the Law Minister who has a direct responsibility to uphold and strengthen the ECI rather than to denigrate it. Hence, we find the immediate need to draw attention of the executive to the fact that the onus of holding free and fair polls falls on all organs of the State. The Commission is quite concerned that the delicate balance of functions between constitutional authorities has come under a strain, because of the Minister's improper and unlawful action.
The Election Commission of India finds it necessary and unavoidable to turn to you at this juncture for immediate and decisive intervention so that the ongoing general election to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly is conducted, and this Commission discharges its functions, in accordance with the Constitution and the law.
With respectful regards,
(SY Quraishi)
More than 60 per cent voters turnout in second phase of polls
State BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya has heated exchange with a PAC jawan on an otherwise incident free polling day
Virendra Nath Bhatt
Lucknow

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The trend of increase in voter turnout continued in the second phase of polling during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on Saturday. The voter turnout is expected to be over 60 per cent where 59 assembly seats spread in nine districts of eastern UP went to polls. The hike in voter turnout was over 14 per cent more than the 46 per cent turnout during the second phase of polling in the 2007 Assembly elections. There had been a significant increase of 18 per cent in voter turnout compared to 2007 during the first phase of polling on 8 February as well.
"Approximately 57 per cent polling was recorded in 59 seats of nine districts and it is expected to go up to 59 per cent. The polling was completely incident free and absolutely peaceful. By 3 pm around 50 per cent polling was recorded in almost all the 59 seats in nine districts," said Umesh Sinha, the chief electoral officer of UP. "The polling continued till 8 pm in many districts against the normal polling hours of 7 am to 5 pm," he added.
In Kushinagar district, however, cabinet minister and state BSP President Swami Prasad Maurya had a heated exchange with a PAC jawan who prevented him from entering a polling booth. Maurya, who is seeking re-election from Padrauna assembly seat in the district, was asked by the PAC jawan to leave the premises of the polling booth, to which the minister strongly objected saying he was a candidate who has a high status. The PAC jawan, however, made it clear that it was well within his legal rights to prevent the entry of any unauthorised person inside the polling booth.
There were reports of voters boycotting polls at Bheeta in Ballia district and Hathiya in Azamgarh districts, besides minor complaints related to problems with electronic voting machines (EVMs). There were also reports of minor incidents in Mau and Azamgarh district where the police had to use mild force to disperse crowds.
The voters have sealed the fate of 1,098 candidates after Saturday's polling, held in Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Azamgarh, Mau, Ballia and Ghazipur.
The stakes are high for the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the second phase as it had won 32 seats in the 2007 Assembly elections followed by the Samajwadi Party (SP) with 20 seats while the BJP had won only seven and the Congress could win only two seats.
There are many high profile candidates whose fates have been locked in the ballot boxes after Saturday's polling. The state president of the BJP Surya Pratap Shahi, also a chief ministerial candidate, is in the fray from Patthardeva assembly seat in Deoria district; Ramapati Tripathi, also a former BJP state president, is in the fray from Siswa Bazaar seat in Maharajganj district; Dr Ayub Ansari, head of the Muslim-dominated political outfit Peace Party, is also seeking election from the Khalilabad seat in Sant Kabir Nagar district. Some other senior leaders whose destinies have been determined include Speaker of the state assembly Sukhdeo Rajbhar, revenue minister Phagu Chauhan, state president of BSP Swami Prasad Maurya, deputy leader of SP Ambika Chaudhary. As many as 31 sitting MLAs and 24 former ministers and the mafia dons Mukhtar Ansari and Brijesh Singh, who are both in jail, have also contested the elections.
Meanwhile, Hindutva leader Yogi Aditya Nath, BJP MP from Gorakhpur, caused huge embarrassment to his party by claiming that it will be a hung assembly as no party will get a clear majority and that the state will witness mid-term polls within the next one year. "Be it BJP, SP, BSP or the Congress, no party will get clear majority on the floor of the House and the BJP should not commit the folly of supporting any other party in forming the government," he said in Gorakhpur, adding, "I would suggest both the national parties--the Congress and the BJP--not to extend support to any regional party – the SP or the BSP – and wait for the mid-term polls to the state assembly, which will take place within next one year."
Yogi argued that "if the national parties extend support to any of the regional parties it will create a potential crisis of existence for them". He had earlier also opposed the entry of the NRHM scam-tainted BSP leader Babu Singh Kushwaha into the party and had announced that he will not campaign for the party. The BJP had in 1993, 1996 and 2003 had extended support and formed coalition government with the BSP.
The state BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi, who has a running feud with the Yogi Aditya Nath ever since he took over as the state chief of the party in May 2010 rejected his claims. "BJP has nothing to do with the ideas of Yogi Aditya Nath; what he said are his personal views. As far as I can understand the political situation of UP, the BJP will get a clear majority or will be at striking distance from the magic number of 202 in the state assembly," he said.
Virendra Nath Bhatt is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka.
virendranathbhatt@gmail.com

Editing by Arpit Parashar

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws110212ELECTIONS.asp

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Palash Biswas
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अपने स्टार पुत्र रीतेश देशमुख की जगह पक्की कराने के लिए ही विलासराव देशमुख ने कायद कानून ताक पर रखकर सुभाष घई को जमीन दी।

2012-02-11T09:52:00.000-08:00

अपने स्टार पुत्र रीतेश देशमुख की जगह पक्की कराने के लिए ही विलासराव देशमुख ने कायद कानून ताक पर रखकर सुभाष घई को जमीन दी।

मुंबई से एक्सकैलिबर स्टीवेंस विश्वास

मुंबई के आदर्श हाउसिंग सोसाइटी घोटाले में खुद को निर्दोष बताने वाले केंद्रीय मंत्री विलासराव देशमुख फिल्म निर्माता सुभाष घई को गलत तरीके से 20 एकड़ भूमि देने में फंस गए हैं।बांबे हाईकोर्ट ने कहा है कि देशमुख ने मुख्यमंत्री के रूप में पद का दुरुपयोग कर अवैध व स्वेच्छाचारी ढंग से सुभाष घई को फिल्मसिटी गोरेगांव में जमीन आवंटित की। इसलिए घई आवंटित भूमि राज्य सरकार को लौटा दें।ंडपीठ ने साफ किया है कि ऐसा महसूस होता है कि देशमुख ने अपने बेटे (रितेश) को बालीवुड में स्थापित करने के बदले घई के संस्थान को जमीन देकर उपकृत किया है।

बालीवूड की जड़ें महाराष्ट्र की राजनीति में गहरी पैठी है। इसलिए कोई अजूबा नहीं कि
अपने स्टार पुत्र रीतेश देशमुख की जगह पक्की कराने के लिए ही विलासराव देशमुख ने कायद कानून ताक पर रखकर सुभाष घई को जमीन दी।आपको बता दें कि गोरेगांव स्थित फिल्मसिटी में यह जमीन सुभाष घई को तब आबंटित की गई थी जब देशमुख मुख्यमंत्री थे।मौजूदा मुख्यमंत्री भी इस मामले में खामोश है। विपक्ष को तो सांप सूंघ गया है। राजनीति में बालीवूड की ऐसी धाक है। कोई सितारों से अपना रिश्ता खराब नहीं करना चाहता।बालीवूड से ठाकरे परिवार के मधुर संबंध जग जाहिर है।

बॉलीवुड के जाने माने फिल्म निर्माता सुभाष घई को हाई कोर्ट ने करारा झटका देते हुए कहा है कि वो उनके महत्वाकांक्षी फिल्म इंस्टीट्यूट 'व्हिसलिंग वुड्स इंटरनेशनल' के लिए आबंटित की गई जमीन को लौटा दें। एक जनहित याचिका पर फैसला सुनाते हुए कोर्ट ने कहा कि घई को यह जमीन गैरकानूनी तरीके से आवंटित की गई।बॉम्बे हाईकोर्ट ने हालांकि सुभाष घई को अपने आदेश को चुनौती देने के लिए आठ सप्ताह की मोहलत दी है। यानी अदालत के इस आदेश पर आगामी आठ सप्ताह तक अमल नहीं होगा। हालांकि अदालत ने घई को वर्ष 2000 से अब तक प्रतिवर्ष के हिसाब से 5.3 करोड़ रुपये रेंट (किराए) के रूप में चुकाने का आदेश भी साथ में दिया है।

2000 में जब यह जमीन दी गई तब बाजार भाव से इसकी कीमत 66 करोड़ रुपए थी जिस पर रियायत देने पर भी सालाना किराया 7.11 करोड़ रुपए होता है पर सरकार ने यह जमीन कौड़ियों के भाव दी। कैग रिपोर्ट में भी भूखंड आवंटन से हुए नुकसान का जिक्र किया गया है।

इस पूरे मामले में सबसे हैरान करनेवाली बात यह है कि सरकार ने भूखंड आवंटन के लिए जो भी उपक्रम किया उसके लिए कोई आधिकारिक प्रस्ताव नहीं पारित किया।

फिल्म निर्माता सुभाष घई ने बॉम्बे हाईकोर्ट के आदेश का समान करते हुए हम इस आदेश को सुप्रीम कोर्ट में चुनौती देंगे।

उन्होंने कहा कि हमने कुछ भी गलत नहीं किया है। हमने 2002 में कानूनी ढंग से फिल्मसिटी से उसकी जमीन का इस्तेमाल करने और उस पर इंटरनेशनल स्तर के फिल्म व मीडिया इंस्टिट्यूट बनाने का समझौता किया। जिसके करीब 10 वर्ष बाद चुनौती दी गई है। घई ने सुप्रीम कोर्ट से न्याय मिलने की उम्मीद व्यक्त की है।

मालूम हो कि बॉलीवुड में लम्बे समय से चर्चा में रहने वाली अभिनेता रितेश देशमुख और अभिनेत्री जेनेलिया डिसूजा की जोड़ी शुक्रवार को विवाह के बंधन में बंध गई। मराठी रीति-रिवाज से विवाह के बंधन में बंधने के एक दिन बाद बॉलीवुड अभिनेता रितेश देशमुख और अभिनेत्री जेनेलिया डिसूजा ने शनिवार को बांद्रा के एक चर्च में कैथोलिक परंपरा के अनुसार शादी रचाई।जेनेलिया ने इस मौके पर परंपरागत कैथोलिक परिधान सफेद रंग का गाउन पहन रखा था, जबकि रितेश काले सूट में नजर आए। दोनों ने इसके बाद ग्रैंड हयात होटल में शादी की पार्टी दी, जहां जेनेलिया लाल सुनहरे रंग की साड़ी और रितेश काली शेरवानी पहनकर पहुंचे थे।
फिल्म जगत की जानी-मानी हस्तियों के अलावा महाराष्ट्र की राजनीति के कई चर्चित चेहरे इस पार्टी में पहुंचे। रितेश महाराष्ट्र के पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री और मौजूदा केंद्रीय मंत्री विलासराव देशमुख के बेटे हैं। जेनेलिया बेंगलूर के एक ईसाई परिवार से ताल्लुक रखती हैं।देशमुख के छोटे पुत्र रितेश भी ठेठ मराठी दूल्हे के परिधान में नजर आए। उन्होंने शेरवानी, लाल पगड़ी और मुंडावली पहन रखी थी। इस भव्य शादी का आयोजन सांता क्रूज इलाके के ग्रैंड हयात होटल में किया गया था जहां वर-वधू को आशीर्वाद देने के लिए काफी संख्या में बॉलीवुड के कलाकार और राजनीतिज्ञ पहुंचे।

शादी के बंधन में बंधे इस नए जोड़े को आशीर्वाद देने के लिए बॉलीवुड की कई नामी-गिरामी हस्तियां पहुंचीं। इनमें जया और अभिषेक बच्चन, शाहरुख खान, करन और हिरू जौहर, काजोल-अजय देवगन, सोहैल खान, इंद्र कुमार, आशुतोष गोवारिकर और उनकी पत्नी सुनीता, साजिद नाडियावाला शामिल थे। इनके अलावा वर-वधू को आशीर्वाद देने के लिए मारिआ गोरेटी, जैकी श्राफ, साजिद खान, अक्षय कुमार, हुसैन-टीना, आशीष चौधरी, संजय घोष, आसिन थोट्टुमकल और सोफी चौधरी पहुंचे।

रितेश और जेनेलिया को आशीर्वाद देने के लिए उद्योगपति अनिल अम्बानी भी अपनी पत्नी टीना के साथ वहां आए। वहीं, राजनीतिज्ञों में प्रदेश कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष कृपाशंकर सिंह, मुख्यमंत्री पृथ्वीराज चव्हाण, शिव सेना के कार्यकारी अध्यक्ष उद्धव ठाकरे के पुत्र आदित्य ठाकरे, महाराष्ट्र नवनिर्माण सेना (मनसे) के अध्यक्ष राज ठाकरे और छगन भुजबल शादी-समारोह में पुहंचे।

मालूम हो कि रितेश और जेनेलिया साल 2003 में अपनी पहली फिल्म 'तुझे मेरी कसम' की शूटिंग के समय मिले। इसके बाद वे एक-दूसरे के करीब आए।

रितेश-जेनेलिया अभिनीत 'तेरे नाल लव हो गया' इसी महीने के अंत में रिलीज होने वाली है।

मुख्य न्यायाधीश मोहित शाह और गिरीश गोडबोले की खंडपीठ ने राजेन्द्र सोनटाके तथा लातूर-उस्मानाबाद जिले के चार किसानों की याचिका पर दिए फैसले में कहा है कि घई की मुक्ता आर्ट और महाराष्ट्र फिल्म, स्टेज एवं सांस्कृतिक विकास निगम (एमएफएससीडीसी) के बीच 30 मई 2004 को संयुक्त उपक्रम पर हुआ दस्तखत अवैध, स्वेच्छाचारी और गैर कानूनी है।

कोर्ट ने फिल्म निर्माता को यह निर्देश दिया कि वह उनके कब्जे में ओपन लैण्ड के रूप में मौजूद फिल्म स्कूल के लिए आवंटित की गई 14.5 एकड़ जमीन तुरंत ही सरकार को लौटा दें, और स्टूडियो व फिल्म इंस्टीट्यूट के कब्जे में मौजूद 5.5 एकड़ जमीन 31 जुलाई, 2014 तक लौटाएं। मुख्य न्यायाधीश मोहित शाह और जस्टिस गिरीश गोडबोले की खंडपीठ ने अपने फ़ैसले में देशमुख के ख़िलाफ़ कड़ी टिप्पणी करते हुए कहा कि तत्कालीन मुख्यमंत्रीविलासराव देशमुख ने अपने 'सरकारी पद का दुरूपयोग' किया था।पीठ ने कहा, याचियों ने सौदे की सीबीआइ जांच की मांग खारिज करते हुए कहा, चूंकि यह दिखाने को पर्याप्त सामग्री नहीं है कि भूमि कम मूल्य पर इसलिए बेची गई कि मुख्यमंत्री के पुत्र (रितेश) को फिल्म उद्योग में स्थापित किया जा सके।

इतना ही नहीं कोर्ट ने घई को साल 2000 से 5.3 करोड़ रुपये सालाना के हिसाब से किराया देने का भी आदेश दे दिया है। इस फेसले के साथ अब ऐसा माना जा रहा है कि केन्द्रीय विज्ञान एवं तकनीकी मंत्री विलासराव देशमुख की किरकिरी हो गई है।
महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री पृथ्वीराज चव्हाण ने कहा है कि उनकी सरकार फिल्म निर्माता सुभाष घई के फिल्म इंस्टीच्यूट को भूमि आबंटन मामले में बम्बई उच्च न्यायालय की 'अपेक्षा' के अनुरूप काम करेगी।

चव्हाण ने इस मामले में पार्टी नेता विलासराव देशमुख की भूमिका पर कोई टिप्पणी नहीं की।

चव्हाण ने संवाददाताओं से कहा कि मैंने अभी तक अदालत का फैसला नहीं पढ़ा है। हम फैसले का अध्ययन करेंगे और अदालत की अपेक्षा के अनुरूप काम करेंगे।

चव्हाण उच्च न्यायालय द्वारा मुम्बई के गोरेगांव में 20 एकड़ भूमि घई के फिल्म इंस्टीच्यूट व्हिस्लिंग वुड्स के लिए आबंटित करने के मामले में तत्कालीन मुख्यमंत्री विलासराव देशमुख को दोषी ठहराने के बारे में पूछे गए प्रश्नों के जवाब दे रहे थे।

उन्होंने वर्तमान में केंद्रीय मंत्री देशमुख की भूमिका पर टिप्पणी करने से इन्कार करते हुए कहा कि वह हमारी पार्टी के वरिष्ठ नेता और एक मंत्री हैं। मैं अखबार की रिपोर्ट के आधार पर कोई भी टिप्पणी नहीं करूंगा।
दूसरी ओर कांग्रेस पार्टी की तुलना मुगलों से करते हुए शिवसेना सुप्रीमो बाल ठाकरे ने महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री पृथ्वीराज चव्हाण को अयोग्य और आत्मसम्मान की कमी वाला व्यक्ति करार दिया।

शिवसेना के मुखपत्र 'सामना' में ठाकरे ने चव्हाण को आड़े हाथों लेते हुए कहा कि उनके माता-पिता ने उनका नाम एक वीर व्यक्ति के नाम पर रखा था लेकिन उन्होंने भी नहीं सोचा होगा कि वह अयोग्य होंगे। इससे पहले चव्हाण ने कहा था कि 16 फरवरी को मुम्बई निकाय चुनाव के बाद शिवसेना महत्वहीन हो जाएगी। शिवसेना प्रमुख ने कहा कि अगर चव्हाण में थोड़ा भी आत्मसम्मान होता तब वह ऐसा नहीं बोलते।

वहीं फिल्मकार शेखर कपूर मामले को लेकर घई के समर्थन में आ गए हैं। कपूर ने अपने ट्विटर पर लिखा कि सुभाष घई ने फिल्म संस्थान बनाने में अपनी जिंदगी के अमूल्य 15 वर्ष दिए हैं। व्हिस्लिंग वुड्स कोई घोटाला नहीं है बल्कि इसके लिए उनकी सराहना करनी चाहिए।

हाईकोर्ट के मुताबिक देशमुख ने फिल्म निर्माता सुभाष घई के संस्थान विसलिंग वुड्स को 20 एकड़ जमीन देकर उनको उपकृत करने का प्रयास किया। उन्होंने इस मामले में न सिर्फ अपने पद व अधिकारों का दुरुपयोग किया, बल्कि कानून की भी अनदेखी की है।

राज्य का प्रमुख होने के नाते मुख्यमंत्री से विधि के अनुरूप कार्य करने की अपेक्षा की जाती है पर भूखंड आवंटन की प्रक्रिया को देखकर प्रतीत होता है कि देशमुख ने अपने कर्तव्यों का पालन नहीं किया है। हाईकोर्ट ने श्री घई को यह रियायत वहां पर पढ़ रहे बच्चों के भविष्य को देखते हुए दी है।

पर यह ताकीद की है कि अब वे अपने यहां पर किसी भी विद्यार्थी को तीन वर्षीय पाठ्यक्रम में प्रवेश में न दें। इस दौरान भूखंड के इस्तेमाल के लिए श्री घई को भी बजार भाव के हिसाब के किराया देना पड़ेगा।

खसार्वजनिक भूखंड आवंटन की प्रक्रिया से जुड़ा उनका कृत्य किसी भी दृष्टि से कानून की कसौटी पर खरा नहीं उतरता है। यह पूरी तरह से अधिकारों का दुरुपयोग लगता है। भला कैसे कोई निविदा मंगाए व भूखंड का आर्थिक आकलन किए बगैर किसी को जमीन आवंटित कर सकता है?

खंडपीठ ने देशमुख की ओर से अपने बचाव में दी गई उस दलील को भी खारिज कर दिया कि उन्होंने जमीन का आवंटन साफ नीयत से किया था। 1995 में मुंबई के जिलाधिकारी ने बाजार भाव से जमीन का आकलन 45 करोड़ रुपए किया था।

राज्य सरकार की ओर से कौड़ियों के भाव से आवंटित की गई जमीन के चलते हुए आर्थिक नुकसान को लेकर सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता राजेंद्र सोनटक्के ने हाईकोर्ट में जनहित याचिका दायर की थी।

अदालत ने हैरानी जाहिर की : खंडपीठ ने इस पूरे मामले में देशमुख की भूमिका पर हैरानी जाहिर की है। देशमुख यह कह कर अपनी जिम्मेदारी से नहीं बच सकते कि उन्हें जमीन की सौदेबाजी के बारे में विस्तृत जानकारी नहीं थी।

क्यों नहीं दिखाई गंभीरता : खंडपीठ ने फैसले में स्पष्ट किया है कि मुख्यमंत्री ने इस भूखंड के आवंटन से जुड़े अनुबंध पर गवाह के रूप में हस्ताक्षर किए थे। इस स्थिति में वे इसके प्रत्यक्ष गवाह भी थे।

फिर भी उन्होंने भूखंड आवंटन से जुड़ी प्रक्रिया का पालन करने में कोई गंभीरता नहीं दिखाई है। इस मामले से जुड़े दस्तावेज व तथ्य देशमुख की गैर जिम्मेदाराना कार्यशैली को दर्शाते हैं। जिसकी अपेक्षा राज्य के कार्यकारी प्रमुख से नहीं की जाती है।

--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/

स्पेक्ट्रम नीलामी की तर्ज पर अब कोल ब्लॉक की भी बोली लगेगी!

2012-02-11T08:10:00.001-08:00

स्पेक्ट्रम नीलामी की तर्ज पर अब कोल ब्लॉक की भी बोली लगेगी!
2जी मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने जिन कंपनियों के लाइसेंस रद्द किए हैं उन्हें टेलिकॉम विभाग लाइसेंस रद्द करने की चिट्ठी भेज सकता है।

मुंबई से एक्सकैलिबर स्टीवेंस विश्वास

स्पेक्ट्रम नीलामी की तर्ज पर अब कोल ब्लॉक की भी बोली लगेगीसरकार ने बिजली क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को निजी इस्तेमाल के लिए कोयला ब्लॉक के आवंटन की नीलामी में शामिल नहीं होने की छूट दी है। । इस बारे में सरकार ने नए नियम जारी कर दिए हैं।दूसरी ओर,2जी मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने जिन कंपनियों के लाइसेंस रद्द किए हैं उन्हें टेलिकॉम विभाग लाइसेंस रद्द करने की चिट्ठी भेज सकता है। 2जी मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट के फैसले पर चर्चा के लिए टेलिकॉम विभाग के अधिकारियों ने बैठक की।

इस बैठक में रद्द किए गए 122 लाइसेंसों की फीस वापस करने पर चर्चा हुई। ये भी खबर है कि टेलीकॉम विभाग आईएमईआई नियमों का उल्लंघन करने वालों से जुर्माना वसूल सकता है। आईएमईआई नियमों का उल्लंघन करने वाले ऑपरेटर्स को कारण बताओ नोटिस भेजा जाएगा।

इस बीच आईआईपी में महत्वपूर्ण भागीदारी वाले विनिर्माण क्षेत्र की वृद्धि दर दिसम्बर में मात्र 1.8 फीसदी थी, जबकि खनन क्षेत्र में 3.7 फीसदी की गिरावट दर्ज की गई। विद्युत उत्पादन में 9.1 फीसदी की वृद्धि रही।कई करोड़ के खनन घोटाले में सीबीआई जांच कराने की जनहित याचिका पर उड़ीसा हाई कोर्ट का फैसला अभी आना बाकी वहीँ एक नए याचिकाकर्ता ने हाई कोर्ट अपील की है कि राज्य सरकार लंबित याचिकाओं पर फैसला आने से पहले नए खनन लाइसेंस जारी करने में नियंत्रण रखे!सेंट्रल एमपावर्ड कमेटी (सीईसी) ने कर्नाटक की 49 कपंनियों के माइनिंग लाइसेंस रद्द करने की सिफारिश की है।कमेटी ने कर्नाटक में चल रहे गैरकानूनी आयरन ओर खनन को लेकर एक रिपोर्ट तैयार की है। कमेटी ने कर्नाटक के 3 जिलों - बेल्लारी, तुमकुर और चित्रदुर्ग जिलों में सर्वे किया और पाया की कई जगह अवैध खनन किया जा रहा है।

एक अहम फैसला लेते हुए सरकार ने बिजली क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को निजी इस्तेमाल के लिए कोयला ब्लॉक के आवंटन की नीलामी में शामिल नहीं होने की छूट दी है। हालांकि गैर बिजली क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को प्रतिस्पर्धी बोली लगानी होगी। फिलहाल अंतरमंत्रालयीय समिति की सिफारिशों के आधार पर निजी क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को कोयलेके ब्लॉक आवंटित किए जाते हैं। माना जा रहा है कि इस कदम से कोयला आवंटन प्रक्रिया में पारदर्शिता आएगी।इसके अलावा जमीन अधिग्रहण विधेयक जल्द ही कानून में तब्दील हो जाएगा। इसका अर्थ यह होगा कि जमीन का अधिग्रहण करने से पहले दोनों पक्षों के बीच सहमति बनी हो या न बनी हो, अधिग्रहीत जमीन के मालिकों को मुआवजा दिया जाएगा। इसलिए किसी भी सूरत में बगैर किसी विवाद और देरी के जमीन का अधिग्रहण सुनिश्चित हो जाएगा।नई खनन नीति लागू करने की दशा में कोयला खानों में उत्खनन के लिए ऐसे हाल में कोई समस्या नहीं होनी चाहिए,ऐसा विशेष जानकारों का मानना है।

खनन विधेयक भी जमीन अधिग्रहण विधेयक के साथ-साथ कानून की शक्ल लेने वाला है। इसके जरिये पहली बार उन लोगों को मान्यता मिली है, जिनकी जमीन खनिजों की निकासी के लिए ले ली गई है। खनन के लिए जमीन अधिग्रहण की जरूरत नहीं होती, बल्कि इस काम के लिए जमीन पट्टे पर ली जाती है। नए कानून में यह व्यवस्था नहीं बदली जाएगी। इस हकीकत को छोड़कर कि इस मामले में मुनाफे को साझा किया जाएगा।

सरकार का कहना है कि पारदशिर्ता लाने के लिए ये कदम उठाया गया है। केंद सरकार कोल माइन की न्यूनतम कीमत तय करेगी इसके बाद कंपनियों की बोली मंगाई जाएगी और सबसे ऊंची बोली लगाने वाली कंपनी को कोल ब्लाक दिया जाएगा।

इससे पहले कोल ब्लॉक बिना किसी बिडिंग के सिर्फ स्क्रीनिंग कमेटी की सिफारिश पर कंपनियों को बांटा जाता था। दरअसल 2जी लाइसेंस को लेकर पहले आओ पहले पाओ की नीति पर सुप्रीम कोर्ट के सवाल उठाने के बाद केंद्र सरकार काफी सतर्क हो गई है।

कोयला मंत्रालय का कहना है कि वो जल्द ही राज्य सरकारों को उन क्षेत्रों की जानकारी देगी जहां कोयले का भंडार है इसके अलावा राज्यों को इन खदानों का रिजर्व प्राइस भी बताया जाएगा। इसके बाद राज्य सरकार योग्यता और बोली के आधार पर कंपनी या कॉर्पोरेशन का चुनाव करेगी।

पहले चरण के तहत बिजली और गैर-बिजली क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को 54 ब्लॉक की पेशकश की जाएगी।

नई प्रक्रिया के तहत गैर-बिजली क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को नीलामी के जरिये कोयला ब्लॉक आवंटित किए जाएंगे, जबकि बिजली क्षेत्र की कंपनियों को ब्लॉक से जुड़े संयंत्र से उत्पादित बिजली की कीमत के आधार पर आवंटन किया जाएगा।

हालांकि बिजली कंपनियों को केंद्र सरकार द्वारा 'आरक्षित रकम' का भुगतान करना होगा, जो कोयला मंत्रालय द्वारा अधिसूचित 'प्रतिस्पर्धी बोली के जरिये कोयला खदानों की नीलामी के नियम 2012' के आधार पर तय की जाएगी। इस प्रक्रिया से प्राप्त होने वाली रकम संबंधित राज्य सरकारों के पास जाएगी। ऊर्जा मंत्रालय ने हाल ही में कहा था कि दो चरणों में बोली लगने के कारण कंपनी के लिए परियोजनाएं किफायती नहीं रहती हैं। पहले चरण में कंपनियों द्वारा बिजली की बिक्री के लिए दाम तय करने और दूसरी में कोयला ब्लॉक के आवंटन की खातिर बोली लगाई जाती है। इसलिए मंत्रालय ने बिजली कंपनियों के लिए दाम आधारित बोली की मांग की थी।

मंत्रालय के एक वरिष्ठ अधिकारी ने कहा, 'नए नियम मौजूदा कानून के प्रावधानों के आधार पर ही बनाए गए हैं।' उन्होंने यह भी कहा कि कोयला ब्लॉक की नीलामी के नए नियमों के तहत बिजली कंपनियों को खदान पहले ही दिखा दी जाएगी, जिससे वे अपना मार्जिन बचाते हुए बिजली मूल्य बता सकें ।

निजी बिजली उद्योग इस रियायत से काफी संतुष्ट है। उद्योग के एक वरिष्ठ प्रतिनिधि ने कहा, 'इस कदम से बिजली कंपनियों को मदद मिलेगी। लेकिन हाल ही में नीलामी को लेकर उच्चतम न्यायालय के रुख को देखते हुए इसे लागू करना आसान नहीं होगा।' विशेषज्ञों का कहना है कि सरकार बिजली कंपनियों को राहत देते हुए भी विवादों से बच सकती है बशर्ते वह पारदर्शी प्रक्रिया अपनाए। डेलॉयट टचे तोहमत्सु के वरिष्ठ निदेशक अमृत पांडुरंगी कहते हैं, 'अगर सरकार यह सुनिश्चित कर सके कि उन्हीं कंपनियों को आवंटन किया जाए, जिनकी परियोजनाएं शुरू होने वाली हैं या फिर जो कंपनियां प्रतिबद्घता जताती हैं, तो कोई विवाद नहीं होना चाहिए।'

कोयला खनन परियोजनाओं से जुड़ी विवादित नो-गो वर्गीकरण व्यवस्था को औपचारिक तौर पर समाप्त किए जाने के संबंध में कोयला मंत्रालय ने राज्यों से नो-गो इलाके में फंसी परियोजनाओं को लेकर पर्यावरण मंत्रालय में संशोधित प्रस्ताव जमा कराने के लिए कहा है। बिजली, सीमेंट और इस्पात जैसी आधारभूत परियोजनाओं में पहले से ही 40,000 करोड़ रुपये का निवेश किया जा चुका है और इस फैसले के बाद इन परियोजनाओं को पूरा किए जाने में मदद मिलेगी।

पूर्व पर्यावरण मंत्री जयराम रमेश के कार्यकाल में एक साल पहले इस तरह के वर्गीकरण (गो और नो गो इलाके) का प्रावधान किया गया था जिसके तहत नो-गो क्षेत्र में कोयला खनन को प्रतिबंधित कर दिया गया था। इस प्रतिबंध के कारण इन परियोजनाओं का काम ठप हो गया। इस वर्गीकरण की वजह से 203 कोयला ब्लॉकों में मौजूद 66 करोड़ टन के सुरक्षित कोयला भंडार के खनन का काम स्थगित हो गया था। यहां मौजूद कोयले से 130,000 मेगावॉट बिजली का उत्पादन आसानी से किया जा सकता है। नो-गो जोन में पडऩे वाले इन कोयला ब्लॉकों का आवंटन एनटीपीसी, कोल इंडिया, हिंडाल्को, एस्सार पावर और अदाणी समेत दो दर्जन से अधिक कंपनियों को किया था।

पूंजीगत वस्तुओं के उत्पादन में कमी के कारण पिछले वर्ष दिसम्बर में देश के औद्योगिक उत्पादन में विकास की दर 1.8 फीसदी रही। नवम्बर में औद्योगिक उत्पादन सूचकांक (आईआईपी) में वृद्धि की दर 5.9 फीसदी थी। ताजा आंकड़ों से अर्थव्यवस्था में सुस्ती के संकेत प्रबल हो गए हैं जिस कारण नीति निर्माताओं पर इस गिरावट को रोकने के लिए कदम उठाने का दबाव बढ़ गया है। हालांकि इन आंकड़ों से भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक (आरबीआई) पर प्रमुख दरों में कटौती करने के लिए दबाव बढ़ गया है।

सांख्यिकी एवं कार्यक्रम क्रिवान्वयन मंत्रालय द्वारा जारी आंकड़ों के अनुसार पूंजीगत वस्तुओं के उत्पादन में 16.5 फीसदी की गिरावट दर्ज की गई।

प्रधानमंत्री की आर्थिक सलाहकार परिषद के अध्यक्ष सी. रंगराजन शेष वित्तीय वर्ष में अर्थव्यवस्था के सुधरने की आशा व्यक्त की है। उन्होंने कहा, "मेरा मानना है कि जनवरी, फरवरी और मार्च में सुधार हो सकते हैं।"

--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/

Fwd: Tony Cartalucci: Washington Reaps the Rewards of Its "Arab Spring" Destabilization Campaign

2012-02-11T07:23:00.001-08:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Global Research E-Newsletter <crgeditor@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 5:34 PM
Subject: Tony Cartalucci: Washington Reaps the Rewards of Its "Arab Spring" Destabilization Campaign
To: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

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Washington Reaps the Rewards of Its "Arab Spring" Destabilization Campaign
US-Funded Tunisian President Prepares to Withdraw Recognition of Syrian Government

By Tony Cartalucci

Global Research, February 8, 2012
landdestroyer.blogspot.com

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29164

On February 5, 2012 - Reuters reported, "Tunisia "to withdraw recognition" of Syria government," and specifically that newly appointed Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki made the announcement on his Facebook page. Reuters also notes "Tunisia's decision to sever ties with Damascus carries moral weight because the north African country's revolution last year started off the "Arab Spring" upheavals which later spread throughout the Middle East, including to Syria." What Reuters of course fails to mention is that the "Arab Spring" was engineered years in advance, planned, funded, and directed by the US State Department, with Moncef Marzouki a direct recipient on record of such support which ultimately paved his way from obscurity to now president of the North African nation.

The US Put Moncef Marzouki of Tunisia into Power

Last December, the BBC hailed Tunisia's assembly and their election of a new president in their article, "Tunisian activist, Moncef Marzouki, named president." What the BBC predictably failed to mention was that Marzouki's organization, the Tunisian League for Human Rights, was a US National Endowment for Democracy and George Soros Open Society-funded International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) member organization.

Moncef Marzouki

Photo: Tunisia's new "president," Moncef Marzouki, a veteran Western collaborator whose last two decades of political activity have been supported and subsidized by the US government and US corporate-financier funded foundations.
....

It was earlier reported in "Soros Celebrates the Fall of Tunisia," that Marzouki was named "interim-president" of Tunisia and that the myriad of NGOs and opposition organizations that worked with him to overthrow the government of Tunisia were fully subsidized and backed by the US government and US corporate-funded foundations.

Marzouki, who spent two decades in exile in Paris, France, was also founder and head of the Arab Commission for Human Rights, a collaborating institution with the US NED World Movement for Democracy (WMD) including for a "Conference on Human Rights Activists in Exile" and a participant in the WMD "third assembly" alongside Marzouki's Tunisian League for Human Rights, sponsored by NED, Soros' Open Society, and USAID.

Marzouki, along with his Libyan counterpart Abdurrahim el-Keib, formally of the Petroleum Institute, sponsored by British Petroleum (BP), Shell, France's Total, the Japan Oil Development Company, and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, makes for the second Western proxy installed into power either by covert sedition or overt military aggression, during the US-engineered "Arab Spring."

Now, it is quite clear how Marzouki is reciprocating the foreign-backed plot that thrust him into power - complete servitude toward Wall Street and London's foreign policy in backing this very same foreign-funded gambit now playing out in Syria.

Like Tunisia, Syria is a Premeditated Foreign-Funded Destabilization

Syria has been slated for regime change since as early as 1991. In 2002, then US Under Secretary of State John Bolton added Syria to the growing "Axis of Evil." It would be later revealed that Bolton's threats against Syria manifested themselves as covert funding and support for opposition groups inside of Syria spanning both the Bush and Obama administrations.

In an April 2011 CNN article, acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner stated, "We're not working to undermine that [Syrian] government. What we are trying to do in Syria, through our civil society support, is to build the kind of democratic institutions, frankly, that we're trying to do in countries around the globe. What's different, I think, in this situation is that the Syrian government perceives this kind of assistance as a threat to its control over the Syrian people."

Toner's remarks came after the Washington Post released cables indicating the US has been funding Syrian opposition groups since at least 2005 and continued until today.

In an April 2011 AFP report, Michael Posner, the assistant US Secretary of State for Human Rights and Labor, stated that the "US government has budgeted $50 million in the last two years to develop new technologies to help activists protect themselves from arrest and prosecution by authoritarian governments."

The report went on to explain that the US "organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in different parts of the world. A session held in the Middle East about six weeks ago gathered activists from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned to their countries with the aim of training their colleagues there," (emphasis added). Posner would add, "They went back and there's a ripple effect." That ripple effect of course is the "Arab Spring," and in Syria's case, the impetus for the current unrest threatening to unhinge the nation and invite in foreign intervention."

US Finally Reaping Rewards from Installed Proxy-Regimes

Quite clearly the orchestrated reordering of the Arab World was done in a specific order, so that easier nations to topple would be able to eventually contribute to fueling the downfall of more difficult targets as US proxy regimes were installed. Tunisia's diplomatic attack against Syria is just one example. The despoiling and destruction of Libya by NATO-backed LIFG terrorists has provided a base of operation for the international mercenaries who are now verifiably sending fighters into Syria, led by notorious LIFG commander Abdul Belhaj.

It may be the threat of foreign-funded destabilization hanging over the heads of despotic regimes like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates that have them jumping through diplomatic and tactical hoops in support for Wall Street and London's geopolitical ambitions. Of course, ultimately, the destabilization of Syria is directed at weakening and ultimately attacking Iran as well.

This illustrates yet another justification for Russia and China, and other nations to begin fully resisting the mafioso protection racket that is the UN Security Council and yet another attempt to foist a war of aggression and conquest onto the population of the world. Ultimately, however, it is up to the people, worldwide to identify the corporate-financier power structures that provide the foundation from which this sweeping genocidal, domineering campaign is being carried out - and then boycott and replace them utterly out of existence. Because when the parasitic global elite are done picking the bones of nations afar, they will turn in on their own people - as has always happened throughout human history.

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FBI and the Department of Justice have secretly dispatched propaganda flyers

2012-02-11T07:11:00.001-08:00

FBI and the Department of Justice have secretly dispatched propaganda flyers

Paints a very scary picture...

http://disquietreservations.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-conspiracy-theorists-are-being.html

Why Conspiracy Theorists Are Being Re-branded As Domestic Terrorists

The Excavator, 1/8/12 - excerpts

Why are conspiracy theorists not listened to by the general public? Because conspiracy theorists are thought criminals. We are guilty of thinking for ourselves and speaking the truth about 9/11, which are inexcusable crimes in the eyes of the totalitarian terrorist states in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv. But we are doing a lot more than just thinking for ourselves. We are defending the victims of state terrorism and reasserting the truth in public life by showing that the shadow CIA and the shadow Mossad were responsible for the tragic 9/11 events.

For a lot of people, speaking the truth about 9/11 means social, financial, political, and professional suicide. But it can also mean real death at the hands of the state. We are no longer just "thought criminals" who are trying to restore the foundations of government and civilization in the wilderness. We are now classified as "domestic terrorists," by the planetary terrorists in Washington. Terror threatens us from above. ...

Why are conspiracy theorists being rebranded as "domestic terrorists." The answer is simple. The war criminals in Washington and Tel Aviv are beginning to fear 9/11 truth-tellers and the great democratic force that we embody. They want to get rid of us. But our numbers have grown beyond anything they imagined. And they're scared of this new reality. Remember: all tyrants are cowards at heart. Government power is not the only force in society. The truth of history is a force to be reckoned with. It is a force that can send the state terrorists behind 9/11 to the prison yard and the graveyard. And they know it. That is why their knees are shaking and their bloody hands are twitching with terror.

On Friday, February 3, the website Public Intelligence reported that the FBI and the Department of Justice have secretly dispatched propaganda flyers to private businesses across America that say individuals who express opinions about 9/11 that are different from the official version are potential terrorists. ... The FBI's propaganda flyers are part of a larger program by Homeland Security that is designed to put fear in the hearts of citizens, business owners, and critical areas of civil society.

Make no mistake. This is an act of war on America and the American people... ... When the war against Iran enters the next gear, the cold war on democratic dissent in America by the FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security will turn hot. Indefinite secret prisons will be activated in the United States to deal with dissidents, mass protests, and popular uprisings. Protesters and activists will be demonized as "domestic terrorists" by the state-run media and shot in the head with bullets by the police and military.

All authoritarian governments operate against reformers and revolutionaries with deadly accuracy. Blood and lies are to tyrants what the sun and water are to life on Earth. So expect propaganda and violence against reformers and revolutionaries by the savage planetary terrorists in Washington. Expect them to release hell. Expect them to dish out pain and death with big smiles hanging on their crooked lips.

9/11 Pentagon Military Deception, Black OP - Psychological Warfare on America

2012-02-11T07:09:00.001-08:00

9/11 Pentagon Military Deception,
Black OP - Psychological Warfare on America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOC--3d7Co4

http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/TheTruthSoldiersClub/

Uploaded by bibleortraditions on Jan 29, 2012

When the evidence does not support a hypothesis, it's time to come up
with a new one.

Every attack site on 9/11 is shrouded with secrecy and unanswered
questions, whether it is the presence of military grade super
nano-thermite in all the dust debris of the towers that fell, the manner
in which they fell symmetrically through the path of most resistance,
the complete lack of plane parts, bodies, and jet fuel contamination in
the dirt at the PA "crash" site, or the evidence depicted here in this
video.

We all know the CIA and other Federal agencies conduct Black Operations
in other countries; everything from assassinations to propaganda,
illegal arms deals, drug running, secret illegal wars, etc. Why is it
such a stretch to believe the covert operation held abroad cannot be
brought home to our own soil? Is it because we have too much trust? Is
it because we believe "people" cannot be that evil to conduct such
operations, or is it because we just don't want to believe? Because
"believing" means we might have to stand up and contend for something,
and that would be too dangerous.

You owe it to your country to get involved. You owe it to the victims to
get involved. You owe it to your children that may have to endure
another 9/11 attack if these criminals are not stopped and brought to
justice.

Please sign the petition for an independent investigation:

http://ae911truth.org/

Please support the film maker by signing up to and supporting:
http://citizeninvestigationteam.com

http://www.prisonplanet.com

http://www.infowars.com

Media Release: Lok Satta Party, Maharashtra, welcomes two Independent Citizen Candidates in to Party as Executive Members and Endorses their candidature from Mumbai (BMC) Ward 63 (Juhu) and Thane (TMC) Ward 2-B(Brahmand/Hiranadani).

2012-02-11T07:08:00.001-08:00

Media Release: Lok Satta Party, Maharashtra, welcomes two Independent Citizen Candidates in to Party as Executive Members and Endorses their candidature from Mumbai (BMC) Ward 63 (Juhu) and Thane (TMC) Ward 2-B(Brahmand/Hiranadani).

Media Release

(Mumbai, 11/02/2012)

Lok Satta Party, Maharashtra, welcomes two Independent Citizen Candidates in to Party as Executive Members and Endorses their candidature from Mumbai (BMC) Ward 63 (Juhu) and Thane (TMC) Ward 2-B(Brahmand/Hiranadani).

ALL ARE WELCOME TO JOIN LOK SATTA, a citizen party AND CHANGE POLITICS - Surendra Srivastava, President, Maharashtra State and National General Secretary of Lok Satta Party

Welcoming Shri Vijay Thakre (for BMC - Ward - 63) and Shri C.N. Shetty(for TMC - Ward 2-B), "Independents Citizen Candidates" as executive members of the party, Mr. Surendra Srivastava President, Maharashtra State and National General Secretary of Lok Satta Party said that the message of citizen empowered local governance in the wards, being carried by Lok Satta Party (LSP) is receiving an overwhelming response from the citizens of Mumbai.

He was addressing Party's Mumbai and Thane campaign Coordination Meeting yesterday. This is reflected in the fact that two Independent candidates, Shri Vijay Thakre and Shri C.N. Shetty are aligned with LSP's ideology and 10 Guarantees to Mumbaikar's and Thanekar's and have become its executive members subsequent to the filing of their nominations for their respective wards. In view of this and after completing the internal process and obtaining approvals of LSP's "Independent Elections Authority", Lok satta Party has decided to endorse both these candidates and appeals to the voters in these wards to support them and become the part of citizen movement for political and governance reforms in India starting from their own wards.

He also announced that the party was prepared to work with all who would like to rid politics of corruption and dynastic influences and make it an instrument for serving the public. The Lok Satta craved neither for power nor for money and did not suffer from the illusion that it alone could change the country's political landscape, Mr. Surendra Srivastava told LSP leaders present at the meet here.

Dr. Kedar Diwan, President of Lok Satta Party, Mumbai on the occasion said that Lok Satta has been at the forefront of local governance reforms that seeks to transfer a significant degree of power directly in the hands of local citizens through Ward Committees and Ward Areas Sabhas. For several years LSP has been one of the leading organizations involved in the campaign that led to the approval of the Model Nagar Raj Bill by the Central Government. However the Maharashtra govt has been tardy in the implementation and the State version of the Bill as its stands today has several major lacunae. Lok Satta, in its ten Guarantees, has placed the implementation of the Model Nagar Bill as the central focus.

Ms. Nivedita Sawant, President of Lok Satta Party, Thane remarked at the meet that joining of independents citizen candidates in the party shows the depth of its ideology, reforms agenda and most important democratic, ethical functioning & transparent funding mechanism.

Shri Vijay Thakre, remarked that the Juhu ward 63 with significant backing from Lok Satta in 2007, had shown the first success of the 'citizen candidate" concept with a "Functioning Ward Committee" with elected Area Sabha Representatives. With the need to scale this model, he said that Lok Satta, as the political party of citizens, was in the best position to scale the model to many wards and had hence he signed up to become its member.

Shri C.N Shetty from Thane Ward 2-B, being completely convinced about reforms agenda and ideology of Lok Satta Party has also signed up as its member. He said on the occasion that he strongly felt that the implementation of the Model Nagar Raj Bill is an urgent need for Thanes wards. TMC has a different model compared to BMC. Each ward has a panel of 2 corporators – 1 Male and 1 Female. Lok Satta already has a female candidate, the 24 year old High court Advocate Ankita Verma, for Thane Ward 2-A. Mr. Shetty hence felt that the implementation of the Ward Committee and Area Sabhas would become much easier and benefit to the citizens of ward 2 directly.

Amongst others who were present at the meet were senior leaders of LSP, Mumbai and Thane, Shri Mustan Tambawala, Shri Olvin Balid, Ms. Ruchira Verma, Mr. Suresh Nandawat, Mr. Ram Ramdas.

For more details, please contact Lok Satta Party, Mumbai - Spokesperson Dr. Ram Ramdas on 0 982 0538 685 OR General Secretary, Thane Unit Shri Olvin Balid on 0 989 2515 259.

For Lok Satta Party

--

Regards,

Surendra Srivastava
Volunteer - Lok Satta Aandolan
Tel: +91 22 2377 2279 Email: surendra@loksatta.org.in
The Answer to "Bad Politics" is "Good Politics" Not "No Politics" - Dr. JP, Lok Satta Aandolan
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Heart-rending stories - Thane SPCA Rescues Our Primate Relatives, Victims of Our Urbanisation

2012-02-11T07:07:00.001-08:00

Heart-rending stories - Thane SPCA Rescues Our Primate Relatives, Victims of Our Urbanisation

from Krishnaraj Rao included below]

Friends,

See attached photos of burnt, battered and electrocuted Rhesus monkeys, including a pregnant female. Please read the forwarded email that tells the stories of our fellow-primates, who are victims of the unstoppable growth of our dangerous cities into their safe forest territory.

When we are in school, we learn to take an oath that says, "All Indians are my brothers and sisters." Does the oath imply only human Indians? Or does it include all Indians, including non-humans?

If we think that only human Indians deserve consideration, then who will safeguard all our furry and feathered fellow-Indians who have the curse of sharing space with us? Are they to be treated as enemies and nuisances? Are they to be marginalized, battered, eradicated or confined to the prison camps that we call zoos?

Please read the forwarded message, look at the photos and reflect.

Warm Regards,

Krish

98215 88114

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shakuntala Majumdar <thanespca@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 1:04 AM
Subject: Victims of Urbanisation

Dear Friends of Thane SPCA

This is not the first time that we have admitted injured monkeys. In fact, being surrounded by the Yeoor hills and being the only animal Hospital in the entire district, we attend far too many calls to rescue injured monkeys.

We have rescued them when they were run over by vehicles, abandoned by Madaris, kept in chains illegally by private owners, the whole jingbang. But this is probably the first time we have had 2 of them so battered and burnt that it almost numbed us.

One is a female, beaten up by unknown slum dwellers for having entered their area. When we rushed to the spot, she could hardly move. She is in an advanced stage of pregnancy. She was so badly wounded that for the first few days she could not even keep her head up or open her mouth. She had lost vision in one eye and the other was swollen and closed. She had to be hand fed pureed fruits and water through a syringe. A week later, today our wildlife Surgeon gave her a very good progress report. It will be many more days before we can even think of rehabilitating her, but chances are good. May be by then, she will also give birth.

The other Rhesus macaque was not so lucky. Having entered the city, she was swaying from height to height and got electrocuted from a high tension wire. She was thrown down more than 70 ft. She sustained more than 70% burns on her body. What moved us most that even having sustained critical internal injuries as well as the burns, she was never aggressive for a day when she was dressed and treated by our doctors, while she lived. She passed away after 5 days in our care.

Probably the best thing that happened to her in recent times!!

In grief
Team Thane SPCA

9821520229

__._,_.___

Attachment(s) from Krishnaraj Rao

3 of 3 Photo(s)

Battered Female pregnant monkey in Thane SPCA.jpg

Electrocuted monkey in Thane SPCA 2.jpg

Electrocuted monkey in Thane SPCA.jpg

Gujrat govt, SIT destroyed evidence related to Godhra riots :Bhatt

2012-02-11T07:05:00.001-08:00

Gujrat govt, SIT destroyed evidence related to Godhra riots :Bhatt

Source

Last Updated: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 19:01 hrs

In a letter written to the Nanavati Commission, Bhatt alleged the crucial records related to 2002 post-Godhra riots have been "destroyed" by Gujarat government and SIT.

"It is my genuine apprehension that relevant records have been deviously suppressed or destroyed by the government of Gujarat, as well as the SIT headed by R K Raghavan," Bhatt wrote in his letter to Justice G T Nanavati and Justice Akshay Mehta Commission probing the 2002 riots here.

"This has been done with the diabolical motive of shielding powerful persons from legal punishment by ensuring that crucial and relevant incriminating evidence is not brought before the courts of law," he charged.

Bhatt's allegations comes after the SIT, in its final report submitted to the magistrate court, has reportedly given a clean chit to Modi and others.

"The delay on part of the Commission in requisitioning the relevant public records and documents has, inadvertently or otherwise, facilitated the destruction of incriminating evidence against the Gujarat Chief Minister or other Ministers in his council," Bhatt alleged.

Bhatt urged the Commission to ensure that relevant records are not destroyed by the "vested interests".

"The honourable Commission is once again requested to ensure that relevant records are not destroyed by the vested interests in the administrative machinery of the state government whose own conduct is under inquiry," he stated.

Bhatt was posted as the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence with the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) from 1999 to 2002.

Bhatt, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court, had alleged Modi, during a meeting on February 27, 2002, instructed top police officials of the state to allow the Hindus to vent their anger after the Godhra train burning incident. He had deposed before the Commission in May last year.

Seductive Spiti TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUDHA MAHALINGAM

2012-02-11T07:03:00.001-08:00

Seductive Spiti

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUDHA MAHALINGAM

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120224290306000.htm

A Himalayan sojourn in the postcard-perfect Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh.

THE SERENE SPITI valley.

"STOCK up on pain balms, spare spectacles and take an oxygen cylinder," advises a friend when he comes to know of my plans to drive into Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, in an all-senior-citizens' group. I am slightly apprehensive about the altitude sickness I am invariably prone to; how would the others react at such heights? But even more daunting is the prospect of throwing a set of perfect strangers – all of them are my friends, but they do not know each other yet – into a small vehicle for extended hours on the road for 10 days.

I need not have worried. The journey turns out to be utterly delightful as much for the kaleidoscopic and stunning scenery that the drive serves up along the route as for the interesting, and at times desultory, conversations we have on a range of topics. Contrary to my fears, no one reported altitude sickness, except me, not even at Demul, a village perched on a promontory at 14,000 feet (4,200 metres), where we stopped for the night at a typical Spitian village 'homestay'.

THE SUTLEJ AT Pooh. Here, the river sports a dull grey hue and puts on its fiercest demeanour, cleaving through intimidating gorges sculpted out of shale and granite.

Our original plan was to drive along the Sutlej river from Rampur Bushehr to Recong Peo, Kalpa, Pooh, Khab, Nako and Tabo into Kaza and return through the Kunzum pass via Rohtang and Manali along the Beas. It would make a perfect loop and offer a mosaic of landscapes. But soon we discover that August does not augur well for Himalayan journeys. Even as we reach Chandigarh on the first leg of our journey and drive in a blinding downpour towards Shimla, the airwaves are full of news about a cloudburst at Rohtang and two metres of snow stranding thousands of vehicles on either side of this notorious pass. To add to our woes, the day of our departure happens to be Raksha Bandhan as well; a steady stream of vehicle-borne brothers and sisters carrying gifts make their way towards their respective siblings in another part of town, clogging up the winding, slushy slopes of Shimla, where we are forced to make an unscheduled stop for the night. And as inclement weather continues through the week, we are forced to return by the same route along the Sutlej, abandoning our plan to make a loop around the Spiti valley.

DEMUL, A LITTLE village sprawling at the feet of the snow gods.

No complaints though, considering that the foul weather is confined to the lower valleys and as we move up, we have bright, crisp sunshine throughout. Not to mention the apple-laden orchards that line up along National Highway 22 right up to Shipki La on the Tibetan border. Beware of the procession of apple trucks that can bully you into driving off the road and into the canyon below. Packed tight with cartons of apples, these trucks move bumper to bumper to reach the produce to markets as far away as Mumbai before they perish.

We take a detour into the postcard-perfect Sangla valley. Chitkul, at 80 km from the border, is the perfect fruit and nut village, if ever there was one. Sitting astride the gurgling Baspa river, Chitkul groans under the weight of apricots, almonds, apples, cherries, chilgoza, walnuts and other assorted hill fruits and nuts. We stay the night on the banks of the Baspa and have our fill of the fruits plucked right off the boughs. Next day, we retrace our way along the Baspa until Karcham-Wangtoo to get back to the Sutlej basin.

MOODS OF THE SUTLEJ

The Sutlej is a seductive, playful and sensuous river. But she is also moody and tempestuous. You have to pursue her with passion and persistence to know her better. Closer to Narkhanda she feigns indifference and appears almost supine and listless. She perks up a little upstream as she is joined by many frothing snow-melt streams that course down the slopes in spectacular cataracts. At Rampur Bushehr she appears at her widest and calmest, gurgling contentedly through the valley and nourishing the villages and an occasional town that perch on her banks.

AT THE TSERING 'homestay' in Demul.

Drive further upstream towards the magnificent Kinner Kailash range and she will disappear into a deep gorge and play hide-and-seek from the entrails of the earth. At Pooh, she sports a dull grey hue and puts on her fiercest demeanour, cleaving through intimidating gorges sculpted out of shale and granite. Follow her further and she will let you glimpse her playful and joyous side. As you near Khab, you can see how she has doodled all over the imposing and sheer granite to present some of the most impressive artwork ever wrought by a river anywhere on the earth. The spectacular striations on granite and slate are a reward for anyone persistent enough to venture all the way to Khab where she disappears behind three snow-crowned peaks into Tibet through Shipki-la. Years ago, when I visited Rakshas Tal, her birthplace in Tibet, I witnessed her infantile and juvenile phases which offered little clue to the mercurial maiden she would become in her marital home in India.

Khab is where the Sutlej mingles with the Spiti, which meanders from another valley even more remote and forbidding. On the third day of our journey, we are still in Kinnaur as we cross the bridge at Khab and wind our way through some dusty brown landscape, a quintessential high-altitude desert. The tarmac twists through treacherous terrain where vehicles look like toys on some supernatural game board. The moonscape is as alien as it is intimidating and you believe you have reached the end of the earth. Until you stumble upon the oasis of Nako, that is. Suddenly, in the ocean of brown there is an emerald patch that seems almost like a mirage. You rub your eyes and blink to make sure what you are seeing is not your hallucination. How is it possible to grow anything at all in this loose crumbly soil and that too at this height? Anyway, what is it they are growing?

FRIENDLY FACES AT a window, in the village.

Our vehicle heaves and sputters and laboriously wends its way into Nako. The worm's-eye view is quite stunning. Nako is carpeted with barley fields watered by streams and channels that coax snow-melt into the village.

Chang trees shaped like bouquets line the village streets. Most trees have little boards advertising homestays, resorts and modest hotels. Some even offer foot massage. Most houses sport typical slate roofs, but here and there two-storeyed concrete houses have sprung up. Nako is a Buddhist village and the square has the regulation prayer wheel under a canopy. Eateries flaunt their nouveau cuisine comprising ersatz native menus for Israeli, French and German palates. We make a beeline for a local eatery that serves authentic thukpa and chowmein and wash it down with sugary tea creamed with yak milk.

MUD SCULPTURE DONE by whistling winds, en route to Sumdo.

The frequency with which villages clinging to apple-laden orchards surface along an otherwise forbidding and apparently desert-like landscape sends Niranjan, the poet in the group, into raptures. He entertains us with a series of Urdu couplets describing the grandeur of nature.

Apple has been the passport to prosperity in these parts. Not only do we find pucca homes made of concrete but more than an occasional small car. "How do you drive this on such treacherous roads which even an SUV finds difficult to negotiate?" I ask a villager. He grins from ear to ear and says it is the best vehicle for these roads since two people can just lift the car and put it on the other side of a landslide. "You city-dwellers with your mammoth SUVs will get stuck if there's a landslide, but not us," he laughs. The car is often their workhorse too, carting their produce to the market and fetching their stuff from as far away as Manali or Shimla.

THE DHANGKAR MONASTERY against a dramatic backdrop.

Very soon we have an occasion to witness this for ourselves. The Maling nullah is a dreaded stream en route to Spiti and is prone to frequent rockfalls. It is perennial and ever ebullient, tripping up massive trucks and Himachal Road Transport Corporation buses that get stuck in its many-sized rocks untamed by macadam. As we near the nullah, we hear a thunder-like sound as a giant boulder dislodges itself from its perch and comes crashing down. Instead of rolling down the slopes further, it decides to stay put, bang in the middle of the track, daring travellers to get into or out of the Spiti valley. A small car stops by, four people get out, lift the car and put it on the other side of the fallen rock and drive off even as we gape in disbelief.

Fortunately for us, a truckload of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel are ahead of our vehicle. Even more fortunate that neither they nor we were in the boulder's way as it decided to shift residence all of a sudden. But these are hazards travellers to Spiti must learn to negotiate. Nothing renews your faith in life as this hair's-breadth escape from the jaws of death. It takes the able-bodied and public-spirited ITBP men but a few minutes to wedge a crowbar under the rock and heave it out of the way. Soon we drive into Sumdo, the border village that separates Spiti from Kinnaur. Magnificent mud sculpture carved by whistling winds over eons stands out stark, mimicking straw-covered granaries that one sees in the plains. Spiti works her way around these mud mounds to nourish apple orchards on the opposite bank. Inaccessible villages unsullied by road connectivity perch proudly opposite the promontory, daring us to visit if we can.

NATURE'S ARTWORK NEAR Khab. The Sutlej has doodled all over the imposing and sheer granite to present this piece of art.

For the night we put up at the Trojan guest house in Tabo, the second biggest village in Spiti. Intermittent power supply and indifferent service cannot detract from the feeling of elation that comes with the elevation. Now we are at around 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level and that sure makes you light-headed, literally! The setting is surreal and snow peaks beckon through the window.

Tabo has a gorgeous monastery, older than all others in the valley. Here we are joined by Tsering, who has assumed the name of Anjan just for the convenience of boorish plainspeople like us who mangle their names and mispronounce them. Almost everyone here, male as well as female, is named Tsering with an odd Sonam or Pema breaking the monotony. Tsering has been sent by Ishita of Spiti Ecosphere, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that is coordinating our journey and arranging homestays and hotels along the way. Tsering will accompany us to Demul, a village sprawling at the feet of the snow gods. We shall stay the night with a village family in their traditional home, an experience all of us are looking forward to. But before that, we drive to the Dhangkar monastery, perched precariously on a spectacular bluff in the middle of nowhere.

A ROAD HEWN out of the mountainside at Khab. On the treacherous terrain, vehicles look like toys on some supernatural game board.

The location is straight out of a scene in The Lord of the Rings. Our vehicle wheezes up the winding slopes and drives straight up to the entrance of this gompa hanging out of the mountainside. Like Karcha Gompa near Padum in Zanskar, Dhangkar's location is its greatest attraction. It is visible for miles around and beckons the faithful like a colourful beacon in an otherwise bleak and apparently inhospitable landscape.

Dolma La at 15,200 feet (4,560 m) is a windswept pass with prayer flags fluttering like party buntings except that the setting is hardly a picnic spot. I am reminded of another Dolma La I had crossed in Tibet 15 years ago when I was on my parikrama of Mount Kailash. This pass is watched over by a chain of peaks, including one named Princess of the Sun and Moon. It is so cold that even Nikhilesh, the 68-year-old superman of our group, has to pull out his jersey. By the time we reach Demul, it is dusk. Our homestay is situated right on top of the spur and we pick our way through the elongated shadows, side-stepping puddles and yak dung. Geeta Gouri and I are to share a room in our homestay. Our host, another Tsering, gallantly carries our bags and leads the way.

HOMESTAY AT DEMUL

The household consists of his wife Pema, a daughter, a seven-month-old son and surprise, surprise, an ayah to care for the infant when the family is out in the fields. "We have hired her for the next three months," Tsering mentions in a matter-of-fact tone. The family assembles in the kitchen, a warm and welcoming room with a wood-fired boiler in the centre. It is a large room with mattresses for seating, and long low benches next to them. The cooking section is just a shelf and a table with a gas stove where Pema is busy stirring the pot. There is neither a sink nor running water and certainly no storage for groceries. Yet, in a jiffy, the meal, a thick white soup of potatoes and peas, is ready.

Tsering's house, unpretentious from outside, is more spacious than a bungalow. It has several large rooms, all well-furnished, and a stockyard to store their harvest. There is no bathroom though; a hole on the floor constitutes the toilet. And no running water either. The young girl has to fetch pails of water from a snow-melt stream for the family's use. The guest room is the best room in the house, with an entire wall adorned by an ornamental window that looks out towards the peaks. That night, altitude sickness, my implacable nemesis, catches up with me. Tsering seems a little distracted as he has to organise the labour for the morrow's harvest of peas. Demul, incidentally, grows the tastiest and juiciest organic peas in all of India and we are lucky to be able to buy a few kilos straight off the creeper. And we cart this precious cargo all the way back to Delhi.

LUSH FIELDS IN the Sangla valley.

From Demul we are to undertake a yak safari to another village called Komic, where we are to stay the next night. But suddenly all yaks have been whisked away to Kaza for a festival and we are spared the ordeal. I had earlier ridden a yak and am familiar with its waywardly ways; if there is a grassy meadow and a boulder-strewn slippery slope, trust the yak to choose the latter. I can still remember hanging on to the shaggy hairs of the animal you ride without a saddle and dodging the boulders placed there seemingly for no purpose other than to smash my knees. Am I not grateful for this reprieve, especially after last night's headache and nausea?

So we ride in our jalopy to Komic, taking a circuitous route. There is supposed to be a snow leopard in the monastery there. But to our horror we find it is a stuffed animal. The gompa is unpretentious and the village unremarkable. We make our way to Kibber, the most-photographed village in Spiti, truly the last frontier and the bastion of the snow leopard and a myriad other Himalayan species not found elsewhere even at those heights. Kibber is a disappointingly dirty village, but the meadows are lovely, velvety and sprawling, inviting us to spread our picnic and stretch our limbs. A German bakery supplies us with apple strudels and aloo paranthas. On the way back from Komic we spot a herd of blue bulls grazing placidly in the valley. But before I could take my lens and monopod out, they sprint out of sight.

A VILLAGE PERCHED on a promontory in the Spiti valley.

We spend a couple of days in Kaza, the capital of Spiti, where Ishita and Sunil, a lovely couple in their early thirties, have arranged our stay and travel. The couple runs Spiti Ecosphere, which teaches the local population livelihood techniques. They have been living here for almost a decade. Well-spoken, city-bred, and truly dedicated, they have many hilarious tales to narrate. When they first came to explore the region to set up their NGO, they were told to contact the local king named Nono. "Imagine having to meet a Nono when you want to hear a 'Yes, yes'," laughs Ishita. Without Nono's permission, no outsider, however well-intentioned, can function in Spiti. Nono, a revered leader of the community, lives in a village not far away from Kaza and works for the government.

APPLE ORCHARDS IN Nako. The worm's-eye view is stunning. Nako is carpeted with barley fields watered by streams and channels that coax snow-melt into the village.

Peas and apples have brought prosperity to this remote region, but its impact on the population has not been that positive. Alcoholism is rampant. While Israelis and some Europeans who flock to Spiti have spawned a hospitality industry, the labour that sustains it is almost entirely from the plains, leading to some tensions. Yet, for the present, these are subtle and not readily apparent to the visitor who comes away with the impression that Spiti is indeed the refuge of the gods.

A VIEW OF the Spiti river from atop the Dhangkar monastery.

The Spiti river accompanies us all the way up to Kaza and beyond. It continues upstream until Kunzum pass where it originates in a glacier. Snowstorms have made Losar, the gateway to Kunzum, impossible to negotiate and we have to retrace our way back along the Spiti and the Sutlej. Considering how stark, stunning and serene the landscape is, we are not complaining. Our only regret is we have had to forgo our camping experience on the banks of the gorgeous Chandra Tal. That will have to wait for another trip.

Elusive jobs T.K. RAJALAKSHMI

2012-02-11T07:01:00.001-08:00

Elusive jobs

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120224290304400.htm

It is getting harder for jobseekers to return to gainful employment and for new entrants to find adequate jobs, says the ILO.

EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS

ACTIVISTS OF THE Occupy Wall Street movement at a rally demanding jobs, in New York on January 16.

THERE is little in the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) annual projection of job growth to cheer about. The year 2012 has been described as a year of stark reality. A third of the global workforce is currently unemployed or poor; that is, 200 million members of the 3.3-billion-strong global labour force are unemployed and a further 900 million live on less than $2 a day. And there is little reason to be hopeful, says the report "Global Employment Trends 2012". The recovery that began in 2009, since the global downturn began, was short-lived, it says. "The risk is that unemployment in the developed economies is becoming entrenched, and with long-term unemployment rates on the rise it is harder for jobseekers to return to gainful employment and for new entrants to quickly find adequate jobs," the report says.

Crisis conditions, it warns ominously, are spreading out again from advanced economies. There are visible signs of these in the form of rising discontent globally, which was characterised most recently by the Occupy Wall Street movement. Significantly, the report says that not much change can be expected in the global unemployment rate between now and 2016. The youth, especially, are going to be hit hard everywhere. Among the ranks of the employed too, many would find themselves in part-time jobs or on temporary contracts.

The only redeeming feature in the report is the assessment that there is some room for optimism in East Asia. The fact that East Asia seems to have got out of situations of extreme poverty is one reason why extreme poverty rates seem to have declined globally too. It seems the decline has been most pronounced in China.

Three-stage crisis

Workforce participation has fallen globally, and especially in the European Union and developed economies. Since 1991, the report says, this has been the greatest fall in the employment-population ratio. The report says there is evidence of a three-stage crisis. The initial response to the crisis was all about fiscal and monetary stimulus, but these were insufficient to bring about sustainable recovery in jobs, especially in advanced economies.

The second stage defined a period of increased austerity measures and higher public deficits. Growth dipped and so did employment in developed economies. However, economic conditions remained somewhat resilient in East Asia and the Latin American countries, leaving what the report calls "more policy space". The shift in growth had begun in the emerging economies, which were now contributing to world demand. Growing trade between the emerging economies themselves led to what is called decoupling and to the emergence of new growth centres that had the potential to stabilise global growth. These economies, says the report, reached pre-crisis investment rates and were expected to exceed these rates over the medium term.

The third stage of the crisis is the diminishing policy space. It is an outcome of tightened policies and persistently high levels of unemployment. Much of the effort, in some cases 90 per cent of the additional public spending, went into bailing out banks. Credit conditions were tightened and high levels of sovereign debt in advanced economies limited the capacity to implement further stimulus programmes.

The report recommends a firm coordination of global policies but does not fundamentally question the trajectory of capitalist development or accumulation that led to the current situation. It says that deficit-financed public spending and monetary easing implemented by both developing and developed economies is no longer a feasible option. It calls for more regulation and substantial repair of the financial system in order to restore credibility and confidence. Stimulus measures, the report says, must target employment.

Of particular concern, as evinced by the report, is that large stimulus packages have been unable to roll back the increase in unemployment (27 million) since the initial impact of the crisis. The report falls short of recommending a key role for the state in employment generation. While emerging economies may not have been similarly affected by the crisis, the report acknowledges there might be a problem here as well. East Asian economies continue to rely heavily on demand conditions in more advanced economies despite the overwhelming evidence of growing trade between the emerging economies. These economies, which continue to rely on export-oriented growth, are particularly vulnerable. But clearly, demand conditions have worsened overall as private households and firms continue to choose to save rather than spend.

"Paradox of thrift"

Accumulation by the non-financial sector without reinvesting in the economy is another reason for the slump in income-generation avenues and aggregate demand. The report says that there is evidence of many companies holding "large amounts of excess cash reserves relative to historical patterns, rather than investing towards productive ends". This has resulted in a "paradox of thrift" where "over-saving by large numbers of companies leads to low levels of investment, which, in turn, reduces prospects for economic growth and job creation and makes a further downturn more likely".

Added to this thrifty behaviour by private companies are austerity measures by governments. The report details the various austerity measures currently undertaken in the advanced as well as some of the emerging economies. These measures are not short-term ones. In some countries like Lithuania, for instance, they have been on since 2009. In others, like the United States, these measures will last longer, until 2021.

This also throws light on why some of these countries have witnessed prolonged and violent protests as a result of the withdrawal of state benefits and welfare measures. For instance, the issues are additional taxes, elimination of tax exemptions and reduction in social sector spending in Greece; freeze on public sector hiring, and cuts in public sector wages and in health care spending in Italy; cuts in public pensions, and raising the age of retirement from 60 to 62 in France; additional taxes, cuts in spending on social security and labour market policies in Germany; and the introduction of a flat 16 per cent income tax for the next two years, reduction of wages in the public sector and elimination of certain benefits in Hungary.

Cuts in public sector wages and social welfare benefits constitute the austerity measures in Ireland, whereas it is reduction in social benefits like health and pensions in Estonia; cuts in salaries of politicians, scrapping of the indexation of minimum wages, revision of maternity leave allowances and rationalisation of public expenses in Lithuania; tighter eligibility criteria for child care allowance, disability and unemployment benefits in the Netherlands; reduction in public sector salaries and hiring (a 15 per cent reduction of Central government services and managerial positions as compared to 2010), freezing of pensions except the lowest pensions in Portugal; a 25 per cent reduction in public sector wages and a 15 per cent reduction in pension and unemployment benefits in Romania; an increase in non-energy tax revenues in Russia; and cut in public sector jobs (13,000 jobs) and pay, scrapping of new-born benefits, cuts in public pension, sale of public sector assets with one-third of public enterprises being either put up for sale or getting closed, in Spain. In Turkey it is the introduction of the "fiscal rule bill" including cuts in social security; in the United Kingdom it is the abolition of the Child Trust Fund and the cutting of employment programmes. The Budget Control Act of the U.S. is expected to result in an aggregate reduction in government spending to the tune of $1.88 trillion during 2012-2021. Not to forget are the cuts in social sector spending in India.

While elsewhere the employment to population ratio fell, including among women, it went up in Latin America and the Caribbean by five percentage points between 2002 and 2011. But it is the long periods of unemployment that have contributed to social unrest and remain a larger cause of concern.

"Currently, some 35 per cent of all jobseekers in the developed economies and the European Union region have been unemployed for 12 months or longer. Many of those long-term jobseekers have actually given up looking for employment altogether, further worsening the labour market picture," says the report.

According to the report, there is an increase in the overall vulnerable employment comprising unpaid family labour and own-account work. Post-2007, this category of workers has been rising steadily.

The report recommends that policy measures need to target the labour market with features like extension of unemployment benefits and work-sharing programmes, re-evaluation of minimum wages and wage subsidies while enhancing public employment services and entrepreneurship incentives. It also recommends that countries should spend less on less employment-rich investments.

But the significant fact is that the role of the state largely remains undefined in the report. When jobs have declined all over, what is needed is employment-intensive industry. The story of high growth, including in India, leaves much to be desired in terms of qualitative outcomes.

Half the jobs lost globally were in the advanced economies; five million were lost in East Asia, three million in Latin America and the Caribbean and one million in South Asia. These figures have only added to the number of millions already unemployed in some of these regions. But the rate of global unemployment has been the severest in the advanced economies.

The private sector, the report suggests, can restart the main engine of global job creation. It seems to be almost unquestioningly accepted that the state cannot deliver. This is disquieting to a large extent.

The picture painted is dismal, but the prescription is not wholesome. It is not merely enough to note that large stimulus packages did not roll back the increasing rate of unemployment. Neither is it enough to prescribe measures that talk broadly about the repair and regulation of the financial sector. Instead of making the private sector the main engine of growth, governments should play a central role in combating unemployment. It is not only growth that is important, but the equal distribution of benefits too. Without this, poverty levels will remain high. It is here that political will is required.

Shifting sands PAMELA D'MELLO in Panaji

2012-02-11T06:59:00.001-08:00

Shifting sands

PAMELA D'MELLO
in Panaji

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120224290303800.htm

It is the Congress versus the BJP in Goa, with the once-strong regional parties playing either "spoilers" or "kingmakers".

CHIEF MINISTER DIGAMBAR Kamat and Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhash Shirodkar presenting a memento to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Panaji on December 17, 2011.

BY February 16, the last date for withdrawal of nominations, contenders for the Assembly elections scheduled for March 3 in Goa will have less than two weeks for active campaigning. Though there promises to be multi-corner contests and several candidates in each of the 40 constituencies, the battle for Goa is essentially between the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is making a bid to regain Panaji since its 2000-2005 tenure.

For every election after its electoral debut in the State in 1994, the BJP has had a firm chief ministerial candidate. But this time leadership tussles have erupted in the party, with Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader Shripad Naik making an aggressive pitch to re-enter State politics after three terms as Member of Parliament. Naik, the MP from North Goa, has been projected as a Bhandari Samaj leader within the party. The party's central committee has denied him permission to contest the Assembly elections. He went into a sulk and is staying away from the Jan Sampark Abhiyan (mass contact programme) launched by the party.

Analysts see the move by the party as one intended to prevent another power centre within the BJP and a possible contest for the top job, thereby consolidating the position of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who hails from the small and closely networked Gaud Saraswat Brahmin caste, which holds dominant positions in the State's business, professional, media and culture circuits. The OBC-Brahmin contest within the BJP has already become grist to its detractors, but more fundamentally it has thrown open the question of the Gaud Saraswat community's upswing, with at least one newspaper editorial pointing out that it held the posts of both the Chief Minister and the Leader of Opposition in the past five years.

The Congress, meanwhile, is approaching the elections with a surfeit of competing generals, each shoring up his position for the legislature party leadership by lobbying for the ticket to be given to loyalists and family members. Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who moved from the BJP to the Congress just ahead of the 2007 elections, is keen on getting the ticket awarded to a couple of BJP legislators who ditched their party ahead of the elections this time. Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, the ambitious son of Speaker and long-serving Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane, has been buttressing his position in several neighbouring constituencies in and around the interior Sattari taluk his family dominates by giving local youth from his pocket borough government jobs in the health sector.

Goa's personality- and family-based politics, a trend the Congress was unable to nip in the bud in 2007, has grown into a gargantuan problem for its managers in New Delhi. In 2007, the Congress denied Vishwajit Rane the ticket, but he contested as an independent. Its efforts to contain South Goa leader Churchill Alemao cost the Congress several seats when his regional outfit, the Save Goa Front, ate into its vote base. The Congress was finally forced to make peace with Churchill because of his damage potential.

(Following several attempts by the BJP in alliance with the Save Goa Front, the United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) and independents to unseat Kamat, the Congress offered ministerships to Save Goa Front supremo Churchill Alemao, in return for his party's merger with the Congress. The lone UGDP legislator, Atanasio Monserrate, joined the Congress to become a Minister, as did one independent, Vishwajit Rane, who became Health Minister.) This time round, the bid to contain family and dynastic politics has delayed the finalisation of candidates for several crucial seats, though the party had announced early that it would favour sitting MLAs.

As always, candidate selection is the Congress' biggest nightmare. The Alemao brothers – Churchill and Joaquim, both Ministers in the government – are angling for seats for their children, Valanka Alemao (Churchill's daughter) and Yuri Alemao (Joaquim's son). Home Minister Ravi Naik is also seeking the ticket for his son, with suggestions that the Naik and Alemao sons will be accommodated by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in two of the six or seven seats it is likely to get after pre-poll alliance talks with the Congress.

The Congress has a trickier problem with Education Minister Atanasio Monserrate, whose claim for a nomination for his wife reflects a tussle with a sitting Congress legislator for the control of prime real-estate pockets of suburban Panaji. Given Monserrate's winnability, the Congress cannot afford to ignore him, but it has adopted a strategy to control his growing influence. The party has not forgotten its previous experience with Monserrate: in 2007, he procured the party nomination but at the eleventh hour ditched the party to contest for the UGDP, a regional outfit, leaving the Congress without a contestant in the Taleigaosegment.

Investigations conducted by the Income Tax Department and released to sections of the press on January 30, pointing to Monserrate having allegedly collected Rs.24 crore as fees for land conversions during his 2006 tenure as Town and Country Planning Minister, have hit the headlines in Goa. On January 31, just days ahead of the Congress announcing its list of candidates, IT sleuths raided several builders, prompting Monserrate to say that raking up a five-year-old matter was nothing but politics.

Regional parties

Goa's once-strong regional parties have been reduced to what analysts dub as "spoilers" or as "kingmakers" as the case may be. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), which backed the Congress for the past five years, has this time kept its doors open for both the Congress and the BJP. Controlled by the sibling duo of Ramkrishna and Pandurang Dhavlikar, the MGP has to contest a certain number of seats to retain its registration. But its voter base overlaps with that of the BJP, a fact that is not lost on the Congress in its strategy to contain the BJP in its North Goa strongholds.

The BJP, likewise, lends its covert support to regional outfits – the UGDP and the Goa Vikas Party (headed by the flamboyant and controversial former NCP Minister Micky Pacheco) – that eat into the Congress' Catholic vote base in Salcete taluk in South Goa.

The Congress faces a challenge in some seats from the activist priest Fr Bismarque Dias, who has announced his plans to contest under the Zagrut Goemkarancho Ekvott (Vigilant Goan Front), a grouping of anti-Regional Plan activists that sees itself as providing an honest alternative. Attempts by real-estate lobbies to subvert the citizens-designed Regional Plan 2020 have become a rallying point for middle class angst in Goa, all of it directed against the ruling Congress. While the economic boom in tourism, real estate and iron ore mining brings rich financial dividends, and a consumerist boom of gadgets and automobiles, Goa's middle class is acutely conscious of the loss of its green tranquillity and life-work balance to urban chaos.

Considering this fact, the Congress manifesto committee has promised a review of the Regional Plan and legislative measures to prevent the sale of farmland to non-ethnics and non-agriculturists. All major and regional parties have promised to lobby for some form of special status to Goa as concerns over an influx of immigrants and the sale of large swathes of land to people from outside the State have come to the fore in public discussions here.

The BJP, with the slogan of a "vote for change" and "Goa deserves better", along with the tacit backing of anti-corruption campaigners and myriad non-governmental organisations it has fostered, is attempting to tap into this angst. Team Anna is expected to canvass in the State a few days before March 3.

However, the BJP is attempting to ride the cry for "sustainable development" that comes from sections of the population, including the influential Catholic Church, along with a simultaneous and dichotomous advocacy of a fast-paced "Gujarat-type development model" for Goa. Parrikar has been making attempts to woo the State's 30 per cent minority Catholic community, apologising for cancelling a Good Friday holiday during the party's five-year term in power in 2000 and promising to curb his faults of "arrogance".

HANKER CHAKRAVARTY

MANOHAR PARRIKAR OF the BJP, the Leader of the Opposition.

Another arm of its strategy is to play on the traditional rivalry between Christian Brahmins and Christian Chardos (Kshatriyas), backing the latter off and on as the two castes tussle within the Congress. The BJP has taken several Christian politicians into its fold this time, including its former Tourism Minister and a traditional fishermen's leader, Mathany Saldanha.

Government formation patterns in Goa have generally followed the power situation in New Delhi, a fact the Congress is well aware of. The choices of the electorate are made not on bijli-sadak-pani barometers but on more emotive policy issues of where the small State is heading, with identity politics playing an important role. With the constituencies in this State of 14 lakh people being small, victory margins can be as close as 200 votes, making the arithmetic of caste and community calculations and the effect of "spoiler" and "match-fixing" candidates all the more crucial. Factors of anti-incumbency, corruption, infrastructure and governance have been seen to have less effect on voter choices than access to power, access to aspirational avenues, personality-based loyalties and protection against business and community rivals in the intensely competitive small spaces operational here.

Mining, a tricky terrain

For this reason, despite the huge noises the BJP made in an earlier campaign on illegal mining in the State, the party has refrained from harping too much on the issue; hundreds of small businesses could be affected by a blanket shutdown of this major sector. In interior Goa, mining has split the population – those who earn revenues from it are willing to condone all its ill effects while others are up in arms against it, making it a tricky terrain for political parties to negotiate. A shrewd strategist, Parrikar, with an authoritarian streak, has an edge in governance compared with the Congress leaders with their please-all, inclusive and negotiation policies.

The BJP has also put on the back burner the emotive and divisive issue of government grants to English-medium primary schools. Bowing to parental sentiment, the Congress reversed an earlier policy of grants only to Konkani and Marathi-medium primary schools, prompting an agitation from regional language chauvinists who had the backing of the BJP and the MGP. With Christian-run primary schools largely seeking to revert to English schools, the BJP may well go slow on this campaign in its bid to woo the Catholics.

Muslim demand

Reflecting the growing number of migrant Muslims who have climbed from 3 per cent to 8 per cent of the population, the community has sought representation of one seat from the Congress. Chief Minister Kamat, who has a sizeable population of Muslims in his Margao town constituency, enjoys considerable goodwill from the community.

The Congress's consideration for a representative seat could fall on the neighbouring Fatorda segment, currently represented by a BJP legislator. Either way, it is a demand the Congress has promised to consider.

Making their debut in the State's politics this election are several parties, including Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which has appointed former Chief Minister Wilfred de Souza as its State unit president. The octogenarian de Souza, who found himself out of the NCP, has a knack for reinventing himself. This time he is aiming to contest from the Aldona seat, where he will most probably come up against the Congress' Dayanand Narvekar.

Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Sharad Yadav's Janata Dal (U) have also announced their plans to debut in the electoral fray though nobody expects them to be anything but minor players in the State. The Shiv Sena has announced its plans to contest some 33 seats, while the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have a tie-up between them to contest a few seats.

While the political line-up is yet to crystallise for the March 3 elections, what is clear as of now is that considering the fundamental nature of the issues that face the Goan electorate, the results of the 2012 elections will have a far-reaching impact.

हिंदुओं के त्‍योहार बहुजन नायकों की हत्‍याओं के जश्‍न हैं

2012-02-11T06:55:00.001-08:00

http://mohallalive.com/2011/10/26/hindu-festivals-are-celebration-of-the-killing-of-bahujan-heroes/

Forward Press, विश्‍वविद्यालय

हिंदुओं के त्‍योहार बहुजन नायकों की हत्‍याओं के जश्‍न हैं

26 OCTOBER 2011 30 COMMENTS

लाल रत्‍नाकर द्वारा बनाया गया महिषासुर का चित्र

♦ प्रेस विज्ञप्ति, एआईबीएसएफ

जवाहर लाल नेहरू यूनिवर्सिटी में सोमवार को देर रात आयोजित एक कार्यक्रम में महिषासुर की शहादत को याद किया गया। यह वही, महिषासुर है, हिुदु मिथकों में जिसकी हत्‍या देवी दुर्गा द्वारा की जाती है। लार्ड मैकाले की जयंती की पूर्व संध्‍या पर आयोजित इस कार्यक्रम में वक्‍ताओं ने उत्‍तर भारत में प्रचलित हिंदू मिथकों की बहुजन दृष्टिकोण से पुनर्व्‍यख्‍या की जरूरत पर बल दिया। कार्यक्रम का आयोजन आल इंडिया बैकवर्ड स्‍टूडेंस फोरम (एआइबीएसएफ) और यूनाईटेड दलित स्‍टूडेंटस फोरम (यूडीएसएफ) ने किया। पिछले कई दिनों से जेएनयू प्रशासन इस कार्यक्रम में विभिन्‍न गुटों के बीच मारपीट की घटना को लेकर आशंकित था। कार्यक्रम सफलता पूर्वक संपन्‍न होने पर जेएनयू प्रशासन ने राहत की सांस ली है।

'लार्ड मैकाले और महिषासुर : एक पुनर्पाठ' नाम से आयोजित इस कार्यक्रम को संबांधित करते हुए प्रसिद्ध दलित चिंतक कंवल भारती ने कहा कि पराजितों का भी अपना इतिहास होता है, उसकी नये तरीके से व्‍याख्‍या की जरूररत है। महिषासुर न्‍यायप्रिय और प्रतापी राजा थे, जिनका वध आर्यों ने छल से करवाया था। उन्‍होंने कहा कि 'असुर' शब्‍द का अर्थ प्राणवान होता है लेकिन ब्राह्मणवाद के पैरोकारों ने परंपराओं, पात्रों समेत शब्‍दों का भी विकृतिकरण किया है। उन्‍होंने कहा कि दलितों के एक तबके ने दशहरा नहीं मनाने का फैसला बहुत पहले ही कर लिया था। दशहरा हो या होली, हिंदुओं के अधिकांश त्‍योहार बहुजन तबकों के नायकों की हत्‍याओं के जश्‍न हैं। कहीं हिरण्‍यकश्‍यप मारा जाता है तो कहीं महिषासुर। उन्‍होंने कहा कि अब ओबीसी तबके को हिंदुवादी पुछल्‍लों से मुक्‍त हो जाना चाहिए।

फारवर्ड प्रेस के मुख्‍य संपादक आयवन कोस्‍का ने पोस्‍टमार्डनिज्‍म के सबसे बडे उपकरण विखंडनवाद के हवाले से कहा कि हमारे नायक इतिहास के गर्त में दब गये हैं, उन्‍हें बाहर लाने की जरूररत है। हमें मिथकों के जाल में नहीं फंसना है, अगर हम ऐसा करते हैं तो हम उसी ब्राह्मणवाद का पोषण करेंगे। लार्ड मैकाले के योगादानों की चर्चा करते हुए उन्‍होंने कहा कि उन्‍हें अंग्रेजी समर्थक रूप में गलत तरीके से प्रचारित किया जाता है। मैकाले का असली योगदान भारतीय दंड संहिता को निर्माण है, जिससे मनु का कानून ध्‍वस्‍त हुआ।

युद्धरत आम आदमी की संपादिका व सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता रमणिका गुप्‍ता ने कहा कि झारखंड में अभी भी 'असुर' नाम की जनजाति है, जिनकी संख्‍या 10 हजार के आसपास है। ये मूलत: लोहे संबंधित काम करने वाले लोग हैं, जिन्‍हें करमाली और लोहारा आदि नामों से भी जाना जाता है। ये असुर जातियां दुर्गा की पूजा नहीं करतीं। उन्‍होंने कहा कि हम एक विरोधाभासी समय में जी रहे हैं, एक ओर हम आधुनिक होने का स्‍वांग कर रहे हैं तो दूसरी तरफ अपनी मानसिकता में हम 16 वीं सदी से बाहर नहीं निकल रहे। उन्‍होंने मैकाले की भाषायी नीतियों का विरोध करते हुए कहा कि भारतीय दंड संहिता संबंधी योगदान के लिए लार्ड मैकाले को याद किया जाना चाहिए।

वर्णसंकर (शूद्र- अतिशूद्र) जातियों का उद्भव

2012-02-11T06:53:00.001-08:00

वर्णसंकर (शूद्र- अतिशूद्र) जातियों का उद्भव

http://mohallalive.com/2012/02/11/rising-of-varnsankar-castes/

Forward Press, नज़रिया

वर्णसंकर (शूद्र- अतिशूद्र) जातियों का उद्भव

11 FEBRUARY 2012 NO COMMENT

यह सामग्री फारवर्ड प्रेस के संपादक प्रमोद रंजन के पिछले लेख की पूरक है। दरअसल, वह लेख फारवर्ड प्रेस के फरवरी अंक में प्रकाशित कवर स्‍टोरी का 'फर्स्‍ट ड्राफ्ट' था, जिसे हमने सीधे लेखक से हासिल किया था। पत्रिका में यह लेख जरा परिमार्जित करके छापा गया है। मेरे विचार में फर्स्‍ट ड्राफ्ट के कच्‍चेपन की सोंधी खुशबू इस लेख में मौजूद है और इसमें लेखक का मत अधिक मुखर होकर सामने आया है। निम्‍नांकित पूरक सामग्री भी उसी लेख का हिस्‍सा है, जिसे मूल लेख के साथ बॉक्‍स आइटम के रूप में रखा गया है। फारवर्ड प्रेस मंगवाने के लिए इसके सकुर्लेशन विभाग के फोन नंबर 07827427311 पर संपर्क कर सकते हैं : मॉडरेटर

हिंदू धर्मग्रंथों में वर्णित वर्णसंकर (शूद्र- अतिशूद्र) जातियों का उद्भव

भारतीय संसद : 19 और 20 दिसंबर, 2012

ये दोनों तारीखें पिछड़ा वर्ग की राजनीति के इतिहास में काले अक्षरों में दर्ज की जाएंगी।

रूस की एक जिला स्तरीय अदालत में गीता को अतिवादी साहित्य घोषित कर प्रतिबंधित करने की मांग की गयी थी। 19 और 20 दिसंबर को भारतीय संसद में इस पर हंगामा हुआ। इस दौरान हुई बहस में सामाजिक न्याय का हवाला देने वाले राजनीतिक दलों बीजू जनता दल, समाजवादी पार्टी, राष्ट्रीय जनता दल, बहुजन समाज पार्टी और जनता दल यूनाइटेड में गीता की महत्त्ता का बखान करने की होड़ लगी रही। भाजपा और कांग्रेस समेत इन पार्टियों के नेता गीता को राष्ट्रीय धर्मग्रंथ घोषित कर डालने के पक्ष में दिखे।

वास्तव में, ऐसा करके पिछड़े नेताओं ने ब्रह्मणवादी शक्तियों द्वारा बुने गये चक्रव्यूह के दूसरे चरण को सफल कर दिया है। इनकी कोशिश होगी कि वे इस व्यूह में इतने गहरे धंसते जाएं, जहां से उनका निकलना असंभव हो जाए।

आइए देखें संसद में किसने क्या कहा…

19 दिसंबर, 2012

हुक्मदेव नारायण यादव (भाजपा) : गंगा मैया, गीता माता और गाय माता, ये तीन माता हैं। कृष्ण गीता वाले तब हुए, जब उनके साथ गाय थी। केवल गीता ही नहीं, गीता के साथ गाय बचे, गंगा बचे, धरती माता बचे, तब भारत का कल्याण होगा।

मुरली मनोहर जोशी (भाजपा) : गीता एक सार्वभौम ग्रंथ है, जो मानव प्रेम के लिए है।

मुलायम सिंह यादव (सपा) : सरकार ने गीता एवं इसके महत्व एवं इसके प्रभाव को गंभीरता से नहीं लिया है। इस बात को सभी दल मानेंगे… संसदीय कार्यमंत्री जी से मेरा अनुरोध है कि गीता के प्रचार-प्रसार के बारे में सरकार कोई ऐसा कदम उठाये, जिससे गीता की पढ़ाई प्राइमरी स्कूल से विश्वविद्यालय तक में मुमकिन हो सके।

लालू प्रसाद (राजद) : गीता भगवान कृष्ण से संबंधित है। देवताओं के महान देवता भोले बाबा ने कृष्ण जी को ऊंचा स्थान दिया और कृष्ण जी ने भी शंकर बाबा को ऊंचा स्थान दिया। गीता का अपमान करना, भगवान कृष्ण का अपमान करना है। यह बर्दाश्त करने की बात नहीं है। अपमान का बदला हम लेंगे।

शरद यादव (जदयू) : यहां सभी साथियों ने (गीता पर) जो कुछ कहा है, मैं उससे अपने आपको संबद्ध मानता हूं। मैं उसे दोहराने की जरूरत नहीं महसूस करता। सरकार को इस पर कारगर पहल कर इस सवाल को हल करना चाहिए।

पवन कुमार बंसल (कांग्रेस, संसदीय कार्य मंत्री) : भागवत गीता की अहमियत के प्रति माननीय सदस्यों ने यहां जो विचार प्रकट किये हैं, उनकी हम कद्र करते हैं। किसी के मन में कोई मतभेद नहीं है, सबके विचार एक हैं। कल माननीय (विदेश मंत्री) एसएम कृष्ण जी पूरी बात की तफ्तीश करके यहां अपना वक्तव्य देंगे।

20 दिसंबर, 2012

सुषमा स्वराज (भाजपा, नेता विपक्ष) : मैं आज के दिन इस प्रसंग (रूस में गीता पर प्रतिबंध का मामला) का लाभ उठाते हुए यह भी मांग करती हूं कि श्रीमद् भागवत गीता को राष्ट्रीय पुस्तक घोषित किया जाए।

एसएम कृष्णा (कांग्रेस, विदेश मंत्री) : I rise to make a statement on a court hearing in a Russian city on the Bhagavad Gita that was raised in this august House yesterday by hon. Members Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab, Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shri Sharad Yadav, Shri Lalu Prasad, and Shri Hukumdev Narayan Yadav…A number of other Hon. Members also conveyed their deep sense of anguish over this issue. At the outset, allow me to mention that I fully share the sentiments expressed by the Hon Members of the House on this issue…Hon. Members would agree that the Bhagavad-Gita is not simply a religious text; it is one of the defining treatises of Indian thought and describes the very soul of our great civilization. The Gita is far above any cheap propaganda or attacks by the ignorant or the misdirected.

जटिल हो गई अनधिकृत कालोनियों को नियमित करने की प्रक्रिया

2012-02-11T06:50:00.001-08:00

जटिल हो गई अनधिकृत कालोनियों को नियमित करने की प्रक्रिया

http://www.jansatta.com/index.php/component/content/article/11249-2012-02-11-05-08-37

Saturday, 11 February 2012 10:38

मनोज मिश्र नई दिल्ली, 11 फरवरी। फर्जी अनधिकृत कालोनी का मुद्दा उठने के बाद बाकी अनधिकृत कालोनियों को नियमित करने की प्रक्रिया जटिल होने लगी है। फर्जी कालोनी के मुद्दे पर दिल्ली सरकार को 21 फरवरी को लोकायुक्त के यहां जवाब देना है। पूर्व विधायक रामवीर सिंह विधूड़ी आदि की याचिका पर लोकायुक्त जस्टिस मनमोहन सरीन ने दिल्ली सरकार को जबाव तलब किया है। अगली सुनवाई एक मार्च को होनी है। दिल्ली विकास प्राधिकरण (डीडीए) ने अपने जवाब में इन कालोनियों के वजूद को ही नकारा है जबकि दिल्ली सरकार के राजस्व सचिव और मंडल आयुक्त विजय देव ने अपनी रिपोर्ट में इन्हें भ्रष्टाचार की पराकाष्ठा बताया है। बावजूद इसके भूमाफिया, नेता और अधिकारियों के गठबंधन ने दिल्ली में अनधिकृत कालोनियों का जंगल बसा दिया है। जितनी बार उन्हें नियमित करने की कोशिश हुई है उतने ही बार उनकी संख्या बढ़ती गई।
अनधिकृत कालोनी के कारोबार ने दिल्ली के अस्सी फीसद नेताओं को अरबपति बना दिया है बल्कि इस कारोबार में भू माफिया और नेता की भूमिका की दीवार ही खत्म कर दी है। ज्यादातर सांसद, विधायक या निगम पार्षद या तो खुद जमीन का कारोबार करते हैं या वे भूमाफिया के संरक्षण कर्ता बने हुए हैं। गिनती के नेता इससे अछूते हैं लेकिन उनकी आवाज दबा दी जाती है या वे पैसे की राजनीति में अलग थलग होकर घर बैठा दिए जाते हैं। अनधिकृत कालोनी के साथ अनधिकृत निर्माण अगर जुड़ जाए तब तो दिल्ली का गलती से कुछ इलाका इससे अछूता रह पाया है। बाहरी दिल्ली के कुछ इलाकों में अभी खेती हो रही है दूसरे शब्दों में कहें तो अब बाहरी दिल्ली में ही अनधिकृत कालोनी बसाने की संभावना है इसीलिए सबसे अधिक मारामारी वहीं दक्षिणी और उत्तरी क्षेत्रों में हो रही है। पूर्वी दिल्ली में अब ज्यादा संभावना नहीं है।
सरकारी गैर सरकारी जहां खाली जमीन दिखी उसी पर कालोनी बसा दी। यह भी अपने आप में कम गड़बड़ी है। बिना बसे कालोनी को अनधिकृत की सूची में शामिल करवा ली। असल में कालोनी में रहने वाले और उसे बसाने वाले की रूचि कालोनी को नियमित करवाने से अधिक उसे स्वीकृत होने वाली कालोनी की सूची में शामिल करवाने की है। नियमित होने में कालोनी वासियों को न्यूनतम शुल्क देना होगा। इतना ही नहीं अगर कालोनी सरकारी जमीन पर बनी है तो उसे जुर्माना भी देना होगा। भू माफिया जब नेताओं से गठजोड़ करके जनहित के नाम पर अनधिकृत कालोनी में विकास कार्य करवा लेता है तब उसे नियमित के फेरे में क्यों डाला जाए। इसलिए जिस तरह सूची बनती, बढ़ती और उस पर बयान होती है उससे तो यही लगता है कि यह नूरा कुश्ती है केवल दिखावा के लिए आंदोलन किया जाता है।

इतना तक फर्जीवाड़ा तो एक तरह से स्वीकृत ही हो चुका है असली फर्जीवाड़ा ने इस धंधे के जड़ में मट्ठा डालने का काम किया है। जिस जमीन का जिस माफिया ने मुआवजा ले लिया है जो जमीन आज भी डीडीए और दूसरी सरकारी एजंसियों के कब्जे में है उस पर बस्ती दिखाकर सितंबर 2008 में उसे प्रोविजनल सर्टीफिकेट दिलवा दिया गया। अरबों का घोटाला करने वाले इतने निश्चिंत थे कि उसके बाद भी उस पर आबादी नहीं बसाई अन्यथा जनहित के नाम पर उस विरोध को भी दबा दिया जाता। कहा जाता है कि वे तीनों फर्जी कालोनियां दक्षिणी दिल्ली के महंगे इलाके में थी इसलिए मोटी आमदनी की उम्मीद में निश्चिंत होकर भूमाफिया अपना कारोबार करता रहा। इतना ही नहीं इस काम को अंजाम देने के उत्साह में महारानी बाग और न्यू फ्रेंड्स कालोनी के बगल में टोल ब्रिज की जमीन पर एडवांस लेना शुरू कर दिया।
यह घोटाला इतना बड़ा है कि सरकार के भी हाथ पांव फूलने लगे। विरोध कम करने के लिए मुख्यमंत्री ने शहरी विकास विभाग राजकुमार चौहान से लेकर डा. अशोक कुमार वालिया को दिया। राजस्व सचिव विजय देव ने अपनी रिपोर्ट में इस घोटाले के लिए उन सभी शब्दों का इस्तेमाल किया है जो सभ्य भाषा में किसी भ्रष्टाचार के लिए की जा सकती है। शहरी विकास विभाग ने दूसरे विभाग के वरिष्ठ अधिकारी की रिपोर्ट को रद्द करने के बजाए प्रोविजनल सर्टीफिकेट का नया मायने उन्हें समझाया है। सरकार इसलिए खुलकर नहीं बोल रही है क्योंकि विजय देव ने मुख्यमंत्री और उपराज्यपाल के कहने पर जांच की और उसी समय जो डीडीए ने लोकायुक्त को जवाब भेजा उसकी भाषा भी ऐसी थी। इससे लगता है कि लोकायुक्त को भी जवाब में भी सरकार लीपापोती ही करने वाली है।
शहरी विकास मंत्री डा. अशोक वालिया भले ही नियमानुसार अनधिकृत कालोनी नियमित करने की बात कह रहे हैं लेकिन इस विवाद के बाद इस कदर नियम कानून लागू किए जाएंगे कि यह प्रक्रिया फिर लटक जाएगी। वैसे कालोनी बसाने वाले भी वास्तव में यही चाहते हैं कि नई लिस्ट 1639 से बढ़कर दो हजार की हो जाए तब तक इतनी और कालोनी वे जुड़वा लें। जो पिछले 40 साल से होता रहा है।

पृथ्वी पर इंडोनेशिया और भारत में हैं सबसे ज्यादा खुशहाल लोग

2012-02-11T06:45:00.001-08:00

पृथ्वी पर इंडोनेशिया और भारत में हैं सबसे ज्यादा खुशहाल लोग

Saturday, 11 February 2012 18:17

नयी दिल्ली, 11 फरवरी (एजेंसी) यूरोप और अमेरिका में जारी आर्थिक चिंताओं के बावजूद 2007 के मुकाबले दुनिया के लोग आज भी काफी खुशहाली महसूस करते हंै और सौरमंडल के इस ग्रह पृथ्वी पर इंडोनेशिया, भारत और मैक्सिको के लोग सबसे ज्यादा प्रसन्न और हैं। एक अध्ययन में यह परिणाम सामने आया है।
वैश्विक अनुसंधान कंपनी आईपीएसओएस द्वारा किये गये अध्ययन के अनुसार दुनिया में आर्थिक चिंताओं और संघर्ष के बावजूद दुनिया आज भी वर्ष 2007 की तुलना में रहने के लिये सबसे बेहतर स्थल है। दुनियाभर में 22 प्रतिशत लोगाों ने कहा है कि वह ''बहुत खुश'' हैं और ऐसा कहने वाले लोग इंडोनेशिया, भारत और मैक्सिको में ज्यादा हैं।
दुनिया के 24 देशों में यह सर्वेक्षण किया गया। 10 में से प्रत्येक 8 यानी 77 प्रतिशत ने कहा कि वह अपने जीवन से 'खुश' हैं। एक चौथाई :22 प्रतिशत: ने कहा कि वह 'बहुत खुश' हैं। खुश और बहुत खुश ही वह पैमाना है जिससे विभिन्न देशों में नागरिकों की खुशहाली में अंतर का पता चलता है।

अध्ययन के अनुसार इंडोनेशिया में सबसे ज्यादा 51 प्रतिशत लोगों ने कहा वह प्रसन्न हैं। सर्वेक्षण में उन्होंने कहा वह 'बहुत खुश' हैं। इसके बाद भारत और मैक्सिको का स्थान आता है जहां 43 प्रतिशत लोगों ने कहा है कि वह 'बहुत खुश' हैं। ब्राजील और तुर्की का इस मामले में तीसरा स्थान रहा है जहां 30 प्रतिशत लोगों ने अपनी खुशहाली का इजहार किया है। आस्ट्रेलिया और अमेरिका प्रत्येक में 28 प्रतिशत लोगों ने ही कहा कि वह बहुत खुश हैं।

भाजपा, सपा, बसपा ने सिर्फ अपने वोटबैंक पर ध्यान दिया : राहुल गांधी

2012-02-11T06:43:00.001-08:00

भाजपा, सपा, बसपा ने सिर्फ अपने वोटबैंक पर ध्यान दिया : राहुल गांधी

Saturday, 11 February 2012 17:34

सोरांव :उत्तर प्रदेश: 11 फरवरी (एजेंसी) राहुल गांधी ने मायावती सरकार की सहानुभूति गरीब किसानों की अपेक्षा '' धनी बिल्डरों '' के प्रति अधिक रहने का दावा किया।

औऱ साथ ही कांग्रेस नेता राहुल गांधी ने आज भाजपा, सपा और बसपा पर आरोप लगाया कि उत्तर प्रदेश में सत्ता में रहने पर उन्होंने सिर्फ अपने अपने '' वोटबैंक '' पर ध्यान दिया और आम लोगों की उपेक्षा की।
राहुल ने कहा, '' आम तौर पर चुनावों से परिवर्तन का रास्ता प्रशस्त होता है। उत्तर प्रदेश में पिछले 22 साल के दौरान कई चुनाव हुए लेकिन कोई परिवर्तन महसूस नहीं किया गया। इसकी वजह यह रही कि राज्य में उन दलों का शासन रहा जिनकी दिलचस्पी सिर्फ अपने वोटबैंक में थी जो आम तौर पर कुल आबादी का 10 प्रतिशत से अधिक नहीं है। ''

इलाहाबाद से करीब 25 किलोमीटर यहां एक चुनावी सभा में राहुल ने कहा, '' इसके फलस्वरूप वे आम लोगों और उनके मुद्दों से पूरी तरह से दूर हो गए।''
उन्होंने 2004 के आम चुनावों में '' इंडिया शाइनिंग'' नारा उछालने के लिए भाजपा की आलोचना करते हुए कहा कि इससे प्रदर्शित होता है कि पार्टी नेतृत्व ने आम लोगों की ओर ध्यान नहीं दिया जो अपनी जरूरतों के लिए संघर्ष कर रहे थे।
मायावती सरकार को आड़े हाथों लेते हुए राहुल ने कहा कि बसपा सुप्रीमो ऐसी सरकार चला रही हैं जो ''गरीब किसानों की अपेक्षा धनी बिल्डरों के प्रति अधिक सहानुभूति रखती है। ''

बदल डालो यूपी की ‘नकारात्मक राजनीति’: प्रियंका

2012-02-11T06:41:00.001-08:00

बदल डालो यूपी की 'नकारात्मक राजनीति': प्रियंका

Saturday, 11 February 2012 13:28

रायबरेली, 11 फरवरी (एजेंसी) प्रियंका वाड्रा ने सूबे में पिछले 22 साल से जारी 'नकारात्मक राजनीति' को बदलने का आह्वान किया।

प्रियंका ने सरैनी विधानसभा क्षेत्र से कांग्रेस के उम्मीदवार अशोक सिंह के समर्थन में अहियर में आयोजित चुनावी सभा में कहा ''आपको गम्भीरता से सोचना पड़ेगा और ऐसा निर्णय करना होगा जिससे राजनीति में बदलाव आए। प्रदेश में पिछले 22 साल से नकारात्मक राजनीति हो रही है। आपको अपने वोट की ताकत से उसे बदलना होगा।''
उन्होंने कहा ''आप सिर्फ विधायक नहीं बल्कि अपने भविष्य का फैसला भी करने जा रहे हैं। अपने वोट की कीमत पहचानिये। आपका वोट आपके भविष्य के निर्माण के लिये होना चाहिये।''
प्रियंका ने कहा ''आपके नेताओं को भी मालूम होना चाहिये कि अगर वे विकास का काम और आपकी उन्नति के लिये काम नहीं करेंगे तो आप उन्हें आगे नहीं बढ़ाएंगे। तभी आपकी राजनीति बदलेगी।''

उन्होंने कहा कि रायबरेली तथा अमेठी की जनता के साथ उनका राजनीतिक नहीं बल्कि पारिवारिक रिश्ता है और वह इन दोनों जिलों में वोट मांगने के लिये नहीं बल्कि जनता को जागरूक करने के लिये आती हैं। अगर वह ऐसा नहीं करेंगी तो साम्प्रदायिक ताकतों आकर जनता को भ्रमित करके उसके भविष्य के साथ खिलवाड़ करेंगी।
प्रियंका ने कहा कि तरक्की पाना प्रदेश की जनता का हक है लेकिन सूबे में दूसरी पार्टियों के नेता समझते हैं कि वह विकास करके अवाम पर एहसान कर रहे हैं। दरअसल, वे जाति और धर्म का शिगूफा छोड़कर लोगों का ध्यान भटकाते हैं और अपनी जेबें भरते हैं।

फांसी दे दो, पर मुस्लिमों को हक दिलाकर रहेंगे: खुर्शीद

2012-02-11T06:39:00.001-08:00

फांसी दे दो, पर मुस्लिमों को हक दिलाकर रहेंगे: खुर्शीद

Saturday, 11 February 2012 13:43

फर्रुखाबाद, 11 फरवरी (एजेंसी) सलमान खुर्शीद ने कहा है कि वह पिछडे मुसलमानों को उनका हक दिलाकर रहेंगे।
खुर्शीद ने कल रात मुस्लिम बहुल खटकपुरा इलाके में एक सभा में कहा ''चुनाव आयोग ने मेरे उच्च्पर पाबंदी लगाई है लेकिन वह फांसी दे दे, या कुछ भी कर ले.... हम पसमांदा मुसलमानों को उनका हक दिलाकर रहेंगे।''
उन्होंने कहा ''क्या हम अब यह भी नहीं कह सकते कि पसमांदा मुसलमानों को उनका हक मिलेगा।''
खुर्शीद ने कहा ''हमने अपनी जिंदगी फर्रुखाबाद के लोगों के नाम वक्फ कर दी है। हम आज भी फर्रुखाबाद की जनता और गरीब लोगों के साथ हैं।''
गौरतलब है कि खुर्शीद ने पिछले महीने फर्रुखाबाद सदर क्षेत्र से कांग्रेस प्रत्याशी अपनी पत्नी लुइस खुर्शीद के समर्थन में आयोजित जनसभा में कहा था कि उनकी पार्टी 27 प्रतिशत के अन्य पिछड़े वर्गों :ओबीसी: के आरक्षण में से अल्पसंख्यकों के लिए उप कोटा बढ़ा कर नौ प्रतिशत कर देगी। चुनाव आयोग ने इसे आचार संहिता का उल्लंघन मानते हुए उन्हें नोटिस जारी किया था।

आयोग ने हाल में खुर्शीद को फटकार लगाते हुए हिदायत दी थी कि वह भविष्य में ऐसी गलती न न दोहराएं।
खुर्शीद ने सभा में कहा कि कांग्रेस 22 साल बाद उत्तर प्रदेश की विधानसभा में तिरंगा फहराने जा रही है और वह चाहते हैं कि विधानसभा में फर्रुखाबाद का भी नारा लगे

विदेशी बैंकों में जमा काला धन कांग्रेस नेताओं का : मायावती

2012-02-11T06:37:00.001-08:00

विदेशी बैंकों में जमा काला धन कांग्रेस नेताओं का : मायावती

Saturday, 11 February 2012 17:37

मिर्जापुर...सोनभ्रद, 11 फरवरी (एजेंसी) उत्तर प्रदेश की मुख्यमंत्री बहुजन समाज पार्टी :बसपा: अध्यक्ष मायावती ने आज कांग्रेस पर आरोप लगाते हुए कहा कि इस पार्टी के नेताओं ने पिछले 40 वर्षों में देश को लूटा है और विदेशी बैंकों में जमा काला धन भी उन्हीं लोगों का है।
मायावती ने मिर्जापुर तथा सोनभ्रद में विभिन्न चुनावी सभाओं को सम्बोधित करते हुए कांग्रेस पर निशाना साधा और कहा कि इस पार्टी और उसके नेताओं ने पिछले 40 वर्षों के दौरान जमकर लूटा है और उससे हासिल हुई काली कमाई को विदेशी बैंकों में जमा किया।
उन्होंने कहा ''विदेशी बैंकों में जमा काला धन इन्हीं :कांग्रेस नेताओं: लोगों का है।''
मुख्यमंत्री ने कहा कि कांग्रेस को उत्तर प्रदेश के विकास के लिये पांच और वर्षों का समय मांगते हुए शर्म आनी चाहिये, क्योंकि उसने इस राज्य में चार दशक तक एकछत्र शासन किया और सूबे को बरबाद कर दिया।
मुख्यमंत्री ने कहा कि पांच साल पहले जब उन्होंने राज्य की बागडोर सम्भाली थी तब राज्य 'दीवालिया' हो चुका था। प्रदेश में 'गुण्डाराज' कायम था और विकास नाम की कोई चीज ही नहीं थी। ऐसे में शासन चलाना आसान नहीं था।

बसपा अध्यक्ष ने कहा कि कांग्रेस बटला हाउस कांड पर नाटक कर रही है और प्रदेश में पिछले 22 वर्षों से सत्ता से दूर यह पार्टी मुसलमानों को रिझाने के लिये चारा डालने का प्रयास कर रही है।
मायावती ने कहा कि केन््रद और दिल्ली में कांग्रेस की सरकार है और अगर वह चाहती तो बटला हाउस कांड की निष्पक्ष जांच कराकर दूध का दूध और पानी का पानी कर सकती थी।
मुख्यमंत्री ने दावा किया कि उन्होंने अपनी पार्टी से दागी लोगों को निकाल दिया है और अब उनकी पार्टी में स्वच्छ छवि वाले निष्ठावान प्रत्याशी हैं।
उन्होंने जनता को आगाह करते हुए कहा कि प्रदेश में सपा की सरकार बनने पर गुंडे एक बार फिर छाती पर चढ़ जाएंगे और भाजपा के सत्ता में आने पर साम्प्रदायिक ताकतें हावी हो जाएंगी।

यूपी विस चुनाव: दूसरे चरण में शाम पांच बजे तक 56 प्रतिशत मतदान

2012-02-11T06:35:00.001-08:00

यूपी विस चुनाव: दूसरे चरण में शाम पांच बजे तक 56 प्रतिशत मतदान

Saturday, 11 February 2012 18:01

लखनऊ, 11 जनवरी (एजेंसी) विस चुनाव के दूसरे चरण के लिए करीब 56 प्रतिशत मतदान हो चुका है। अभी अनेक स्थानों पर मतदाताओं की लम्बी-लम्बी कतारें लगी हैं और मतदान जारी है।
प्रदेश निर्वाचन कार्यालय के अनुसार, प्रदेश के नौ जिलों की 59 विधानसभा सीटों पर सुबह सात बजे से मतदान शुरू हुआ और शाम पांच बजे तक करीब 56 प्रतिशत मतदाताओं ने अपने मताधिकार का प्रयोग किया। मतदान अभी जारी है और अंतिम आंकड़े देर शाम तक प्राप्त होंगे।
उन्होंने बताया कि शाम पांच बजे तक गाजीपुर में 56 प्रतिशत, महराजगंज में 55 प्रतिशत, मउच्च् में 55 फीसद, कुशीनगर में 53 फीसद, संत कबीर नगर में 51, देवरिया में 50, आजमगढ़ में 49, गोरखपुर तथा आजमगढ़ में 48-48 प्रतिशत मतदाता अपने मताधिकार का प्रयोग कर चुके हैं।
छिटपुट घटनाओं को छोड़कर दूसरे चरण का मतदान आमतौर पर शांतिपूर्ण ढंग से चल रहा है। हालांकि कुछ स्थानों पर इलेक्ट्रानिक वोटिंग मशीनों में गड़बड़ी की शिकायतें सामने आर्इं, लेकिन उन्हें जल्द ही दूर कर लिया गया।
मउच्च् से प्राप्त रिपोर्ट के अनुसार दक्षिण टोला क्षेत्र में स्थित प्राथम विद्यालय औरंगाबाद पर स्थित मतदान केन््रद पर अनावश्यक रूप से लगी भीड़ को पुलिस ने लाठीचार्ज करके खदेड़ा। इस घटना में करीब छह लोगों को चोटें आई हैं।
बलिया के रसड़ा के महावीर अखाड़ा इलाके में नारेबाजी कर रहे लोगों को हटाने के लिये भी पुलिस ने बल प्रयोग किया।
आजमगढ़ सदर विधानसभा सीट पर हथिया मतदान कें्रद पर पुल न बनने के विरोध में और बलिया जिले के बेहटा मतदान कें्रद पर बिजली पानी की समस्याओं को लेकर लोगों ने मतदान का बहिष्कार किया, जबकि कुछ क्षेत्रों में ईवीएम मशीनों की गड़बड़ी की शिकायतें भी मिली हैं।

गोरखपुर के कैम्पियरगंज में एक पीठासीन अधिकारी की तबीयत खराब होने पर मतदान में कुछ देर तक व्यवधान पड़ने की खबर है।
द्वितीय चरण में नौ जिलों में संत कबीर नगर, महराजगंज, गोरखपुर, कुशीनगर, देवरिया, आजमगढ़, मउच्च्, बलिया तथा गाजीपुर जिलों की कुल 59 विधानसभा सीटों के लिये 13020 मतदान केन््रदों के 20426 मतदेय स्थलों पर मतदान हो रहा है। इसके लिये 26800 इलेक्ट्रानिक वोटिंग मशीनें :ईवीएम: इस्तेमाल की जा रही हैं।
आज के चुनाव में बसपा तथा भाजपा की प्रादेशिक इकाइयों के अध्यक्षों की प्रतिष्ठा दांव पर है। बसपा के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष और मौजूदा कैबिनेट मंत्री स्वामी प्रसाद मौर्य कुशीनगर की पडरौना सीट से मैदान में हैं।
भाजपा के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष सूर्य प्रताप शाही देवरिया के नवसृजित पथरदेवा क्षेत्र से और पूर्व भाजपा प्रदेश अध्यक्ष रमापति राम त्रिपाठी महराजगंज की सिसवां सीट से किस्मत आजमा रहे हैं। इस चरण में राज्य के राजस्व मंत्री फागू चौहान मउच्च् की घोसी सीट से बसपा उम्मीदवार हैं।
राज्य विधानसभा अध्यक्ष सुखदेव राजभर, विधानसभा में समाजवादी पार्टी के उपनेता अम्बिका चौधरी, 31 विधायकों तथा 24 पूर्व मंत्रियों के साथ-साथ कई बाहुबलियों के चुनावी भाग्य का फैसला भी आज हो गया।
विधानसभा अध्यक्ष सुखदेव राजभर आजमगढ़ की नवसृजित दीदारगंज सीट से बसपा के प्रत्याशी हैं। इसके अलावा विधानसभा में सपा के उपनेता अम्बिका चौधरी की उम्मीदवारी वाले क्षेत्र फेफना :बलिया: से मैदान में है।

Fwd: Illegal detention, torture in police custody and registration of false case & extortion

2012-02-11T06:34:00.001-08:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kirity Roy <kirityroy@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 4:28 PM
Subject: Illegal detention, torture in police custody and registration of false case & extortion
To: NHRC <covdnhrc@nic.in>
Cc: jrlawnhrc <jrlawnhrc@nic.in>, "Member NHRC Mr. Satyabrata Pal" <satyabrata49@hotmail.com>, Chief Minister West Bengal <cm@wb.gov.in>, Chief Secretary Gov of WB <chiefsec@wb.gov.in>, Secretary Home Dept Gov of WB <sechome@wb.gov.in>, dm-mur@wb.nic.in, dm-bar@wb.nic.in

10^th February 2012

The Chairman

National Human Rights Commission

Faridkot House

Copernicus Marg

New Delhi-110001

Respected Sir,

We lodge this present complaint on behalf of the victims Mr. Rajjak Mondal and Mr. Fajlur Mondal from District-North 24 Parganas who are presently languishing in jail since 01.01.2012 on allegation of illegally possessing 'Ganja'. The family members of the victims vehemently contradicted such allegation and claimed that the police leveled false allegations against the victims out of conspiracy. The family members of the victims alleged that the police of Baduria and Basirhat Police Station arrested the victims from their houses on 29.12.2011 at about 2 hours without disclosing any reason and without issuing any memo of arrest; they were also beaten by police at the time of arrest. Moreover the police also subjected them to torture in police lock up, allegedly compelled the victim's family to give bribe to police and illegally detained them until they were produced before magistrate on 1.1.2012. Our attached fact finding report gives details of the incident. Here the family members of the victims brought direct allegation of torture while in custody which amounts to criminal offence and violation of law as laid down in Criminal Procedure Code (Sections 50, 50-A, 55-A, 57 and 60-A ) and also violation of the guidelines issued by the Apex Court in DK Basu judgment.

Hence we seek your urgent intervention in this case in the following manner:-

· The whole matter must be investigated by a neutral investigating agency appointed by the Commission

· The perpetrator police personnel must be booked immediately under the law and punished accordingly

· The victims must be relieved immediately from all false and concocted allegations.

· The victims must be given adequate protection and compensation.

Thanking You,

Yours truly,

Kirity Roy

Secretary, MASUM

National Convener, PACTI

Particulars of the victims:- (1) Mr. Rajjak Mondal, son of Mr. Rashid Mondal, aged about-29 years, by faith-Muslim, by occupation- daily wage earner, residing at village-Srikati, Police Station-Baduria, District-North 24 Parganas; (2) Mr. Fajlur Mondal, son of Mr. Abdar Mondal, residing at village-Srikati, Police Station-Baduria, District-North 24 Parganas

Particulars of the perpetrators: - The involved police personnel of Baduria Police Station and Basirhat Police Station

Date & time of incident: - On 29.12.2011 at about 2.00 hours and subsequent thereafter.

Fact Finding Detail:-

It is revealed during the fact finding that the victims are now languishing at Dum Dum Central Correctional Home (Jail) since 1.1.2012. They are being detained in jail as under trial prisoners(UTP) in connection with Basirhat Police Station Case no. 643/2011 dated 31.12.2011 under section 20(b)(i) of NDPS Act. According to the police complaint, the victims were arrested from Moylakhola Bus Stand on 31.12.2011 in the evening hours and 6.700 Kilograms of 'Ganja' could be recovered from their possession. As they did not produce any valid documents for possessing the said article (Ganja), they were implicated in the aforesaid criminal case and the police investigation is in progress.

According to the family members of both the victims that both the victims are innocent and they have been roped into false allegations by police out of conspiracy so that they could be detained for long period behind the bar.

The family members of the victim Mr. Rajjak Mondal stated before our fact finding that on 29.12.2011 at about 2.00 hours in the midnight about 6/7 police personnel of Baduria Police Station and Basirhat Police Station raided into their house and forcibly captured him. They started beating him by their wooden sticks and rifle butts. In a similar manner the said police personnel also raided the house Mr. Fajlur Mondal and forcibly took him into their custody. Here also the police personnel beat Mr. Fajlur Mondal by their wooden sticks and rifle butts. The police did not disclose any reason for their apprehension and no memo of arrest was arrest was issued at the time of their apprehension. Many local people witnessed the incident as told by the family members of the victims before our fact finding team. Then in the morning Mr. Rashid Mondal, the father of the victim Mr. Rajjak Mondal came to Basirhat Police Station and he came to know from Mr. Rajjak Mondal that on the last night one Mr. Sanjoybabu, police officer of Basirhat Police Station mercilessly assaulted him to confess according to his desire. The other victim Mr. Fajlu Mondal also came under such torture in the hands of the said police officer. On 30.12.2011 one Mr. Sahabab Mondal who reportedly works as an informer to local police contacted with Mr. Rashid Mondal, the father of the victim Mr. Rajjak Mondal and told him that the police officer Mr. Sanjoybabu would stop torturing his son if he agrees to pay Rs.3000/- to the police officer Sanjoybabu. Mr. Rashid Mondal to save the life of his son gave Rs.3000/ to the said Mr. Sahabab Mondal and it is also revealed that the said amount was handed over to the said police officer Mr. Sanjoybabu. Later on 2.1.2012 the family members of the victims came to know from one news paper report that the victims were implicated in a criminal case of illegally possessing 'Ganja'.

The family members of both the victims stated before our fact finding team that they are poor people being daily wage earner and the victims have been falsely implicated in false charges out of local political rivalry.

--
Kirity Roy
Secretary
Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha
(MASUM)
&
National Convenor (PACTI)
Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity
40A, Barabagan Lane (4th Floor)
Balaji Place
Shibtala
Srirampur
Hooghly
PIN- 712203
Tele-Fax - +91-33-26220843
Phone- +91-33-26220844 / 0845
e. mail : kirityroy@gmail.com
Web: www.masum.org.in