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A wrong approach
No senior representative from West Bengal Government attended the State Finance
Ministers’ meeting convened by the Union Finance Minister for pre-budget consultations. Not only did the State Finance Minister Amit Mitra not attend the meeting because of his ‘preoccupations’ (which were apparently more important than the Delhi
meeting), even the Finance Secretary was not present. Bengal’s representation was left
to a junior level office who submitted a written note. This was unnecessary and avoidable. The federal polity of the country has undergone qualitative changes in the past
few decades, making the States more dependent on the Centre in financial matters. To
extend the political battle between the TMC and the BJP to the sphere of Centre-State
relations is unwise and self-defeating.
West Bengal should have made a strong representation of its case to the Centre and
registered a strong protest against reducing the allocations on schemes like the hundred days’ work in a year which is intended to benefit the rural people. The State
should have demanded that the Centre increase allocations on education and
healthcare. Technical and medical education has now been included in the Concurrent List. And it is one sphere in which the State requires liberal support from the Centre.
West Bengal’s request for a three-year moratorium on debt-servicing was rejected by
the UPA Government. The NDA stand also remains unchanged. Therefore, the State
has to raise more resources on its own, to be supplemented by Central subventions.
This requires cooperation between the Centre and the State. An obstinate attitude
on West Bengal’s part will only harm the interests of the people of the State. It is worth
recalling that when Mamata Banerjee first became Railway Minister, Jyoti Basu was
the Chief Minister. The CPM and Mamata Banerjee had a frosty relationship. When
Basu was asked, now that Mamata had become the Railway Minister what he would
do about the railway projects for Bengal, Basu’s frank and forthright answer was that
his government would interact with the Railway Minister in the interest of the State.
Political differences would not stand in the way.
That is the right approach. Inter-party differences and rivalries should not be allowed to affect developmental issues that impinge on the life of the large masses of
people. West Bengal has already registered successes in mopping up additional revenue. The State’s plan expenditure has gone up from Rs. 11,000 crore to Rs. 42,694 crore.
No allegation of any major financial irregularity has been levelled against the State
Government. (The Saradha scam affects the party and some of its top leaders, not the
Government.) Centre-State cooperation in development is the need of the hour.
IADIE constituted
Tuesday December 30, 2014
BJP's power hunt in TN, Kerala
The BJP in Tamil Nadu
reckons on a break-through
in the 2016 assembly elections to put itself in a formidable position - from zero to
a sizeable political strength
- to help it steer the state
away from 'family politics
and corrupt regimes' of
Dravidian parties over decades. Its ambitions arose
out of the uncertainty on
the outcome of the ruling
AIADMK supremo Ms.
Jayalalithaa's
appeal
against her conviction and a
weakening
of
Mr
Karunanidhi’s DMK in the
wake of electoral setbacks
and corruption cases involving a couple of party
leaders.
There is no doubt a
crack-up within the party
structure of DMK and the
nonagenarian seems to have
lost his grip over his followers. One of its front-men, Mr
D Napolean, a former DMK
Minister in UPA-II, embraced BJP in the presence
of visiting BJP President
Mr Amit Shah on December
21, along with a couple of
artists and a former IPS officer. More may be in line to
link their future with the
BJP of Modi-Shah duo, reports said. After mutely
watching Mr Amit Shah’s
foray and his assertions of
ending Dravidian par ties’
rule, the DMK and other
Dravidian parties have let
out steam against the Modi
Government for allowing
the Sangh parivar outfits
carry on with “ghar wapsi”
(re-conversion) programmes
detrimental to “India’s secularism and pluralistic nature”. BJP is already having
wordy duels with West Bengal Chief Minister Ms.
Mamata Banerjee in its bid
to wrest power from her
TMC. Mr Shah has his eye
also on Kerala he visited to
announce his party would
contest for all seats in the local body elections early in
2015 and in the assembly
poll in 2016. He sees “things
are looking up” for his party
in Kerala too.
Mr Shah's line everywhere is that BJP ruled
states have become necessary to carry forward the
"good work" that the development-focussed Modi Government was already doing.
The latter needs to be sustained with BJP Governments in most states. But in
whatever way he can bamboozle, Mr Shah has a clear
strategy underlying his
goals for the states where
polls are due over the next
couple of years. In Tamil
Nadu, Mr Shah asked his
party cadres to spread out to
all corners of the state as
"ambassadors of Prime Minister Modi" and enroll 60
lakh members, which would
help to expand the party's
base. Once that is achieved,
he asserts, no party would
REFLEX ACTION
S. Sethuraman
be able to prevent BJP from
taking the reins of power.
For Kerala, his target of
membership is 40 lakh. Mr
Shah, who was given a
feisty welcome by the Tamil
Nadu BJP, went hammer
and tongs for the DMK and
the Congress over scams
and for "family and dynastic rule" that marked their
regimes. At a well-attended
meeting on the outskirts of
Chennai, Mr Shah declared
that the reign of the
Dravidian parties was set to
end. While avoiding direct
reference
to
Ms.
Jayalalithaa's
ruling
AIADMK, Mr Shah let his
leading partymen in the
state to pour venom on all
without exception. The BJP
functionary in charge of
Tamil Nadu rebuked the
gover nment of a par ty,
which won the assembly
and Lok Sabha elections,
being led by one who reportedly refuses to sit on the
CM's chair. Ms. Jayalalithaa,
as Chief Minister until her
conviction, had maintained
cordial relations with Mr
Modi as PM and the latter
also reciprocated. In lashing out against Dravidian
parties and the Congress, in
particular
Mr
Rahul
Proposals of AAI proposal for leasing of land to ICG/Navy
PORT BLAIR/NEW DELHI, DEC 29/-/
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime
Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today approved the leasing of Airports Authority
of India’s (AAI) land to Indian Coast
Guard (ICG)/Indian Navy (Ministry of Defence) at various airports as under:
i. Leasing of land measuring 6200 Sqm.
which includes 4800 Sqm. of land for 2
Hangars with apron and 1400 Sqm. of land
for Link Taxi Track to the Hangar to ICG at
Juhu Airport
ii. Leasing of 5 acres of AAI land to Indian
Coast Guard at Vizag Airport
iii. Leasing of 0.9 acres of AAI land to Indian Coast Guard to facilitate them to construct taxi track at Tuticorin Airport.
iv. Leasing of triangular piece of AAI land
measuring 7326 Sqm. to Indian Coast
Guard at Porbandar Airport.
v. Leasing of 4.62 acres of AAI land to In-
dian Navy at Porbandar Airport.
Owing to the illegal/terrorist activities
via/along the Indian Coast Line, the ICG is
developing/establishing various facilities
along the coastal line to keep a watch with
a view to stop such activities. To facilitate
ICG for establishing various facilities for
surveillance of coast line, the said land at
above airports is necessary to be transferred to ICG, as demanded by ICG.
Since the land is required for Defence
purposes and is in national interest and
also has not been falling in the near future
Master Plan of the airport, it can be spared
for allotment to ICG. The leasing of the requisite land at proposed airports will facilitate Indian Coast Guard/Indian Navy to establish various facilities for better surveillance of coast line. Fur ther, it can accrue
some revenue for unutilized land of AAI.
(PIB)
CFMR Training by IRCS at Diglipur
PORT BLAIR, DEC 29/-/
The industrial units located
Dollygunj Industrial Estate
here have constituted an association in the name and
style of Industrial Association Dollygunj Industrial
Estate.
The Executive body of
the association was elected
at the general body meeting
of the association today.
The following were
elected:
Chief Patron: Mr. Ashok
Kumar Agraval
P atron: Mr. Anur ag
Diwan
Pr esident: Mr. Prakash
Adhikari
Vice President: Mr. Zahid
Amir
Gen. Secr etary: Mr.
Ramdas
Secretar y: Mr. Pr adee p
Narayan
Treasurer: Mr. Jatin
Executive members
1) Samaresh Jana
2) Kazi Abdul Rehman
3) P. Kasturi
4)
Haimo
Jyoti
Battacherjee
5) G. Narasimham
6) I. D. Jaiswal
7) C.P. Sajeeb
PORT BLAIR, DEC 29/-/
Indian Red Cross society AN
Branch, in continuation of
series of training on FMR in
various districts of ANI has
conducted a 3- day training
on Certified First Medical
Responders (CFMR) Training at Conference Hall, GP
Subash Gram, Diglipur from
26th to 28th December 2014
with an aim to form a pool of
talents as CFMR trained Islanders. The Chief Guest
Mr. Satish Chandr a Nath,
Executive Engineer, APWD,
Diglipur inaugurated the
training with revelation of
the importance of Medical
First Responders with context to vulnerability of A&N
Islands.
Under the tutelage of
Facilitators
like
Mr
Altamash Mustafa V.I (D/C)
, catechize First Aid techniques with sense of common sense and Survival
Tips for saving life during
disasters like elephant attack , crocodile attack, &
snake bite relevant to
Andamans & Nicobar Islands
Mrs Geeta Devi, DM Coordinator IRCS, AN Branch
indoctrinated Psychosomatic Support techniques
during disasters. Dr. Kumar,
CHC Diglipur had given
practical demonstrations on
First Aid techniques in a lucid manner. Mr. Singaram,
Pradhan GP Subash Gram,
proposed the vote of thanks
to all facilitators of IRCS for
conducting the useful training.
A Catholic man holds figurines of baby Jesus during a
religious procession on Holy Innocents Day in Antiguo
Cuscatlan, on the outskirts of San Salvador--REUTERS
NOTICE
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India does not stand liable for them.
Gandhi, Mr Shah contended
that development had taken
a back-seat even in Tamil
Nadu unlike BJP-ruled
states. The sweep of Mr
Shah's blunt remarks applied to all Dravidian outfits
including the ones which
his party had courted for an
alliance before the Lok
Sabha election. While PMK
is still committed to support
NDA, the relatively stronger
DMDK of cine-actor Captain
Vijay Kant remains indifferent and took no notice of Mr
Shah’s visit.
The Congress, which
split with the former Shipping Minister Mr G K Vasan
reviving the Tamil Manila
Congress as rival, seems to
be in a state of hibernation.
Mr Vasan said his party
would go all out to oppose
the BJP agenda of encouraging activities of RSS and
VHP. Mr Shah had gone
about making tall claims of
successes of the Modi Government on several fronts
including bringing down
fuel prices and inflation, ensuring opening of bank account for millions, and providing jobs for youth. His
confidence of BJP coming to
power in 2016 is set against
the background of what he
sees as a weakening of the
Dravidian majors and the
split in the State Congress.
Mr Shah said NDA would
contest the 2016 elections in
Tamil Nadu after naming its
chief ministerial candidate.
And amid assumptions of a
lingering 'Modi wave', Mr
Shah also divulged a move
to attract "new faces" - prominent Tamils including celebrities - to gain greater acce ptability for the NDA
Government. A near 20 per
cent vote share for the BJPled alliance in the state in
the Lok Sabha elections
provides the foundation for
Mr Shah’s confidence. But
BJP’s own vote share was a
mere 5 per cent of that, the
rest being shared by DMDK,
PMK and MDMK.
For the silent AIADMK,
the supporters keep praying for Ms. Jayalalithaa's
success in her appeal to be
heard and concluded by a
special bench of the High
Court in Bangalore over the
next three to four months,
January to April. This outcome will largely determine
the course of politics in
Tamil Nadu and the line-up
of forces for the battle which
becomes due in May 2016.
(IPA)