Junior Digest

This round of biennial election, to fill up 58 berths in the Upper House of Parliament, had seen its share of controversy and suspense from the run up to the polls—in a clear departure from the past elections where results could be predicted in a routine manner. A large number of independent candidates set the stage for a close finish in states such as UP and Haryana.

Days before the polling, a sting operation exposed alleged attempts to bribe MLAs to vote in favour of particular candidates in Karnataka.

The Election Commission sought reports from the states, examined the tapes before finally allowing the polls as per schedule. And on Saturday, allegations of cross voting in defiance of party whips came from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Eight MLAs from former PM HD Devegowda’s JD(S) party voted against the party nominee in the southern state.

Samajwadi Party wins 7 Rajya Sabha seats

Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday ensured victory for all their candidates despite cross voting in Rajya Sabha biennial polls in which senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will participate in the meeting of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers and try to iron out differences over the new regime that will subsume all indirect taxes and create one national market under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“The meeting on June 14 and 15 will discuss the model GST law, which will be adopted by the Centre and all states. Union finance minister will attend the meeting on June 14,” an official said.

The Centre is planning to roll out the indirect tax from the next financial year beginning April 1, 2017, but the GST bill has been pending in Rajya Sabha because of stiff opposition from the Congress party.

Once the Constitution Amendment Bill to roll out GST is passed by the Parliament, the Centre and states will have to adopt their own laws to give effect to the new indirect tax regime.

The Central GST (CGST) will be framed based on the model GST law. The states will draft their own State GST (SGST) based on the draft model law with minor variations incorporating state-based exemptions.

Besides these two laws, the Centre and states will have to approve the integrated-GST law or iGST, which will deal with inter-state movement of goods.

The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers is headed by West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, who took over the chairmanship in February.

The government has proposed to take up the GST Constitution Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Parliament.

The reform of the indirect taxation was initiated by the Kelkar Committee in 2003, following which the UPA government in 2006 proposed the GST Bill.

The GST Constitution Amendment Bill was passed by Lok Sabha in May last year and has been pending in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling NDA does not have the majority.

@Agency report.

Cyberabad police commissioner CV Anand launched the initiative by issuing ‘7 eye worn cameras’ for Traffic officers, which will be used during enforcement work under its ‘Smart Policing’ initiative.

These cameras are worn as goggles and are fixed to the right side of the frame and have the advantage of capturing pictures as they are seen by the eye of the traffic officer.

“This is the first time any police force is using eye worn cameras on duty. They are sturdy and have recording facility for both audio and video with a 32GB internal memory which can record upto 21 hours continuously,” a release from Cyberabad Police said.

In addition to the 25 ‘body worn cameras’ used by traffic cops, 75 more such cameras have been procured by Cyberabad Police to be used by enforcement officers while working to capture the interaction with public.

The footage is also recorded and fed into the police station computers every day and this will supplement the existing video and digital Cameras, it said. This camera is worn on the body and will prevent allegations of bad or suspicious behaviour on part of the police officers, apart from keeping a watch on conduct of the traffic violators, it said.

Already tabs have been distributed to all enforcement officers, the release said. Traffic Police personnel, who in their line of duty and constantly exposed to various elements of weather as well as pollution, were also handed over Kit Bags. Each Kit Bag contains shoe, water bottle, sunglass, nose mask, reflective jacket and rain coat which will help around 1,000 personnel under Cyberabad Police Commissionerate discharge their duty better at the same time offering some relief to them from the exposure, the release added.

The victims alleged that the spiritual ‘guru’ had exploited them and forced them to perform physically and mentally torturous religious rituals.

“One of the children managed to inform his kin about the exploitation he was subjected to. The kin immediately informed police about the matter,” said police inspector Sunaina Nate, Samta Nagar police station.

Acting on the information, a police team raided the premises on Friday evening and rescued 28 people, including 12 minors, mostly hailing from Uttar Pradesh.

“Two people – Bhagwandas Tiwari and Devendra Manoj Dube – have been arrested in this connection and further investigation is on,” Nate said.

@Agency report.

The makers of Udta Punjab have been at loggerheads with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) after it reportedly suggested 94 cuts to the film. Since then, many known celebrities from the entertainment industry have come out in strong support of the film while demanding the removal of CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani.

 Baljeet, who has written, produced and directed Dhee Punjab Di, slated to release on August 19, says his film is not anti-Punjab community. “CBFC has cleared my film with a ‘U’ certificate. When I took my film to them for certification, they just asked me to cut one particular scene where a young boy snorts drug,” said Baljeet.

Though the government has repeatedly cracked down on the separatist leadership in Kashmir in the recent past, the seminar took place without any restrictions. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq – leaders of the two factions of the Hurriyat Conference – and representatives of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) attended the event.

However, JKLF chief Yasin Malik, who was released on bail on Saturday after a week-long detention in a case related to the 1987 elections, was arrested again the same night.

For the first time in eight years, Geelani, Farooq and Malik had come together last month and forged an issue-based united programme. Later, Mirwaiz and Malik went to Geelani’s home and held a closed-door meeting for about 90 minutes.

Political observers said it was “unexpected” that the government allowed Sunday’s seminar because in the recent past, it has been continuously trying to prevent such events called by the Hurriyat. Also, the seminar saw the coming together of the new ‘joint’ separatist leadership.

The seminar titled ‘proposed separate colonies and the ambiguous policies of the government’ saw participation from Hurriyat leaders as well as civil society members. Talking about the seminar, spokesperson of the Geelani-faction of the Hurriyat, Ayaz Akbar, said the joint leadership decided that it would completely oppose the construction of Sainik and Pandit colonies by the government.

“The leaders said the government was ambiguous on the issue and was not saying clearly what exactly the matter is,” Akbar said. He added that the leaders said the construction of Pandit colonies was nothing but an attempt to give Kashmiri Muslims a bad name on communal lines.

“Geelani has said instead of Rs 20 lakh, the government should give Pandits Rs 30 lakh each for rehabilitation but they should come back to their original places and not separate colonies,” Akbar said.

Earlier, the PDP-BJP government in the state had made it clear that there will be no separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits but transit accommodation will be provided to them till they are comfortable returning to their native places. CM Mehbooba Mufti had also said the Sainik colony was proposed to be established only for “the state subject ex-servicemen”.

@Agency report.

The editor of the Mysore-based daily, which has a circulation of 3000 copies, has approached the Centre for assistance but is yet to get a response.

“We need support. The yearly subscription of this newspaper costs a mere Rs 400 and the circulation is coming down. We have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, HRD Minister Smriti Irani and home minister Rajnath Singh but have not received any response yet,” said Sampath Kumar, the editor of the newspaper .

Now they have published an appeal in the paper requesting donations from the public.

“In today’s time of electronic gadgets and fancy magazines, it has been a struggle to keep the paper alive. Our readers and well wishers have been giving us lot of inputs and ideas to improve the circulation and reader base of the newspaper.

“We have thought of giving a face lift to the paper and to come up with Sudharma magazine (half yearly). In order to do so we need to equip ourselves with modern day printing gadgets and accessories.

“We are buying an imported single colour offset machine.Estimated cost of this is about Rs 20 lakh. We need your help to put these dreams into action. We request you to kindly help us with your donations. Please help us spread the language to a wider audience,” the appeal reads.

“Sudharma is not a revenue-generating venture for us. It’s a fruit of our passion for journalism and Sankrit,” said Kumar.

Sudharma was launched by Kalale Nadadur Varadaraja Iyengar, a Sanskrit scholar, in 1970 with the goal of propagating the language.

@Agency report.