Dropping the hammer on Opposition-controlled states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said a few states didn't diminish VAT on petroleum and diesel in spite of the extract obligation cut by the Center last November and had done "foul play" to individuals by not moving the advantages of the transition to them.
Talking at a communication with boss priests on the arising COVID-19 circumstance in the country, Modi said he needed to hail a different issue of the difficulties being looked by individuals because of the worldwide circumstance.
"The present circumstance of war which has emerged, has impacted the store network, and in such a climate, the difficulties are expanding step by step," Modi said in a clear reference to the Russia-Ukraine struggle.
"This worldwide emergency is bringing many difficulties. Experiencing the same thing, it has become basic to additional improve the soul of agreeable federalism and coordination between the Center and states," he said.
Hailing the issue of exorbitant costs of petroleum and diesel, Modi said the Center had marked down extract obligation to lessen the weight of costs of petroleum and diesel on individuals last November....READ MORE
The roads are empty, the shops closed, and some areas are cordoned off. Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, is locked down like the rest of Mumbai. However, the rising number of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in thisteeming shantytown, where people live in huts and decrepit tenements, has put it front and centre of India’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
So far, Dharavi has reported five cases, including one death — that of a 56-year-old man. But there is fear that the numbers could inch up in a place where people grapple daily with overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. To add to their misery, the lockdown has left residents with no income and little food.
Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra’s health minister, told Business Standard that Dharavi was a grave concern for the government, given the density of its population and the poverty of its residents. “We are ensuring there is strict adherence to the rules of the lockdown in Dharavi. We do not allow crowds to collect, but it isn’t easy. There’s a space constraint, people are poor and without work right now. There are challenges,” he says.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) estimate that the average monthly income of a household in Dharavi is below Rs 5,000. Around 5-10 per cent of its population of 1.5 million, spread over 613 hectares and seven Mumbai wards, have headed back to their home towns in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after the lockdown.
Sajeevan Jaiswal, a cloth merchant, is dipping into his meagre savings to somehow get by till the lockdown ends. His shop, near the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation office in Dharavi, is shut. Jaiswal fears for the safety of his family — his wife, two sons, and a daughter-in-law — who live above his shop in a small, 200 square feet space.
chart “I don’t let them step out of the house,” he says. “If groceries have to be brought, I do it. We don’t have the luxury of using hand sanitizers and hand wash. We share a small bar of soap between us,” he says, speaking through a cheap mask, his only means of protection outside of home.
Jaiswal’s fears are echoed by Anil Shivram Kasare, a social worker and resident of Dharavi. The biggest challenge, he says, comes from the slum’s public toilets. “There are 1,500 public toilets in Dharavi. This is not enough for the people who reside here. But what can we do? We have to use them. The danger of catching the virus lurks everywhere in a slum,” he says.
Dharavi’s narrow bylanes, its lack of hygiene, and large families squeezed into small spaces — some of them near open gutters — make the area a veritable nightmare for any effort to step up cleanliness. To tackle the situation, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has set up a branch in each of the seven wards of Dharavi.
Every branch has around 150 sanitation workers who fan out across the length and breadth of the slum pocket, sweeping the roads and collecting garbage twice a day. Fumigation is done every two days. But the garbage piles up quickly, says Akhtar Khan, an advocate who helps run a free food delivery service for Dharavi’s poor. “These days, people have been frequently sweeping their homes, no matter how small, in an attempt to keep them clean. It’s a good habit. But let’s see how long they do it,” he says.
Election
News
The
difference in monitor in Maharashtra could prompt enormous ranch
obligation waivers and tasks getting slowed down, cautioned
Macquarie.
Homestead
pain and obligation waivers were a piece of the political decision
battle by the Opposition parties in Maharashtra against the decision
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Presently, a union of the
Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, is
set to frame the legislature and expected to address the ranch
trouble. What's more, they will have sufficient financial space to do
as such, Macquarie evaluated.
"Ranch
advance waiver can conceivably be the main request of the matter of
the new government," the financier said. Maharashtra's GDP of Rs
26.603 trillion had a financial shortfall of 2.1 percent in monetary
year 2018-19 (FY19) and targets were set to keep it at a similar
level for FY20.
"The
Maharashtra government can do a waiver of Rs 500 billion (Rs 50,000
crore) spread over several years without rupturing farthest point of
3 percent set under FRBM Act," the financier stated, including
that the vast majority of the open area banks would have introduction
to Maharashtra's farming part. Indeed, even as there were no huge
miniaturized scale fund foundations, littler helpful banks rule the
horticulture credit advertise.
Maha
Vikas Aghadi govt in Maharashtra could concentrate on ranch
obligation waivers
Undertakings
at high danger of getting slowed down incorporates the
Mumbai-Ahmedabad fast rail alongside the Mumbai Nagpur Expressway.
L&T was the leader in getting the rapid rail contract, however
that may get nullified at this point. The Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway is
part into 16 bundles, all of which have just been granted. In any
case, the metro and air terminal ventures would almost certainly
proceed as they are in cutting edge phases of fulfillment, yet the
pace of execution could get influenced, Macquarie cautioned.
Subsidizing for these undertakings are basically originating from
multilateral organizations.....READ
MORE
Former
ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar Monday skipped her scheduled appearance
before the ED in a money laundering case probe, citing bad health,
officials said.
The
probe involves the bank and the Videocon group.Chanda Kochhar will
now be asked to depose later this week. She had not appeared before
the agency even last week citing health reasons.
Official
sources had told PTI earlier this week that the central probe agency
is now mulling to call some more bank officials to confront them with
the statements made by Chanda Kochhar and obtain further leads.The
Enforcement Directorate (ED) had last month questioned and recorded
the statements of Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar over
multiple sessions.
The
agency is also preparing to analyse the details of assets of the
Kochhars and others so that they can be provisionally attached under
the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).Chanda Kochhar's
brother-in-law and Deepak's brother, Rajiv Kochhar, has also been
grilled by the ED multiple times in the case.
The
Kochhar couple have been questioned in the past too at the ED's zonal
office in Mumbai after the central agency conducted raids on March
1.The searches were conducted at the premises of Chanda Kochhar, her
family and Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon Group in Maharashtra's Mumbai
and Aurangabad.
The
ED registered a criminal case under the PMLA earlier this year
against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, Dhoot and others to probe
alleged irregularities and corrupt practices in sanctioning Rs
1,875-crore of loans by ICICI Bank to the corporate group.This action
of the agency was based on an FIR registered by the CBI.
The
Supreme Court declined Maharashtra government’s plea to close the
case of alleged bribing in the Enron-Dabhol power project. It was
reported that the then bidders of the project, Enron, had paid money
to politicians and bureaucrats to clinch the deal.
A
three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi,
while turning down the plea moved by the state, asked it to submit by
March 13 a plan on how it intended to bring the case to a logical
conclusion. The Bench also asked the state to submit details of the
steps it had taken so far on the recommendations of a committee that
has suggested judicial probe into the power project in 2001.
In 1992,
US Energy conglomerate Enron started the process to set up a
gas-fired power plant at Dabhol in Maharashtra. Work on the project
soon ran into trouble on allegations of corruption and bribery at the
highest levels. A new government took charge in Maharashtra in 1995
and on recommendations of a committee scraped the project. Enron then
entered into arbitration with the government but came to a new
agreement one year later.
Later in
2000, when another government took over, it stopped the payment of
$22 million to Enron for December 2000. The state then sought to
cancel the power purchase deal, which promoted Enron to stop work on
phase-II of the project and sell phase-I.
The
Maharashtra government in 2001 had ordered another probe led by
Indian Administrative Services (IAS) Officer Madhav Godbole. The
committee criticised the renegotiated terms for the power plant and
recommended a judicial inquiry to fix administrative and political
accountability.
Social
activist Anna Hazare's hunger strike entered the second day on
Thursday as he remained defiant on his demand for appointment of
anti-corruption watchdogs at the Centre and in Maharashtra and
resolution of farmers' issues.
A
bandh was also observed by locals in Hazare's native Ralegan Siddhi
village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district in support of his
demands.
Hazare
is sitting on a hunger strike in his village since Wednesday against
"non-fulfilment" of assurances by the Centre and the
Maharashtra government on the appointment of Lokpal and passage of
the Lokayukta Act in the state.
The
81-year-old Army man-turned-activist has also been demanding
appointment of Lokayuktas in states where such statutory
anti-corruption watchdogs do not exist.
He
has also been demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission
recommendations on ways to address agrarian distress, besides some
electoral reforms...Read
More
