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Pant for wage revision, NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant said today wage.......more SC upholds Rs 4.5 NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The Supreme Court has upheld a decision of National......more South Bihar RANCHI, Mar 1: The pro-statehood forces swept the assembly poll in South Bihar grabbing.....more Kar for probe into NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Senior Congress leader of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Rasool.....more |
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Prasar Bharati
to be funded as full-fledged autonomous body NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Prasar Bharati is to be funded as a full-fledged autonomous body with effect from April one this year, and is to receive a grant-in-aid amounting to Rs 963 crore to cover the gap in its resources in meeting its revenue expenditure....more Ruling Congress faces BHUBANESWAR, Mar 1: The ruling Congress, which had as many as three Chief Ministers at the helm of affairs during its five-year tenure in Orissa, faced a rout in as many as 15 districts in the just-concluded elections, with its base in the Scheduled Caste and Tribe belt eroded to a great extent.......more TN to plead for more CHENNAI, Mar 1: The Tamil Nadu Government will urge the Constitution Review Committee to provide greater autonomy with more powers for the states and a federal set-up at the Centre......more RS member alleges NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The Rajya Sabha today took a serious view of an attack on the privileges.....more |
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Pant for wage revision, bonus to be linked to productivity NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant said today wage revision and bonus should be linked to productivity in order to achieve increased labour output. We have to establish a system of linking wage hike to labour productivity, Pant told delegates at a convention on national productivity policy here. It was high time the public sector companies increased the productivity levels of employees and incentives for workers was one way of achieving this objective, he said. Factors hindering growth of productivity and entrepreneurship culture among talented youth needed to be analysed and quickly addressed as there existed no other viable alternative for rapid growth of economy, he said. In the changed global scenario, ways and means of productivity improvement and associated policy initiatives needed to be meticulously planned, he said. We have to ensure that a conducive environment is created to enhance productivity at all levels and in particular, in critical areas of our economy, Pant said at the convention, organised by National Productivity Council. The issues concerning infrastructure development, technology upgradation and modernisation of enterprises and commensurate skill upgradation of workforce through continuous training and retraining should also be looked into, he said. (PTI) |
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SC upholds Rs 4.5 lakh compensation to 18-month child NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The Supreme Court has upheld a decision of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (NCDRF) asking a Tamil Nadu hospital to pay Rs 4.5 lakh as compensation to the parents of a 18-month-old child whose left arm had to amputed due to negligence of hospital staff. A division bench comprising Justices M J Rao and D P Mohapatra dismissed an appeal by Sea Horse Hospital at Trichy challenging the NCDRF’s interim decision. Niranjan, an 18-month-old child, was admitted to the hospital for loose motion and diarrhoea but it was alleged by the parents in NCDRF that the hospital staff blundered in administering intravenous drip by pushing the needle into the artery instead of a vein resulting in blockage of the artery. It was alleged by the counsel for the aggrieved party that discolouration of the hand and other obvious symptoms of gangrene were ignored and due to the negligence of the staff, Niranjan’s left hand had to be amputed. The parents contended before the forum that the hospital should be directed to meet the cost of fixing a myo-electric limb manufactured by a foreign firm Otto Back Co. and for other damages. The hospital had contended that it should not be solely made responsible for the lapse and the doctor concerned should also be blamed. The Commission after examining the hospital records and hearing arguments from both sides ordered the hospital, as an interim measure, payment of Rs 4.5 lakh to the child so that immediate rehabilitation could commence. (PTI) |
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South Bihar RANCHI, Mar 1: The pro-statehood forces swept the assembly poll in South Bihar grabbing 72 of the 81 seats from this region. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 41 seats, followed by the Congress eleven, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha 12, the CPI three, the CPI (ML) and the MCC one seat each. The United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) romped home in two seats, while as many were won by the independents. Aspiring for statehood, the electorate of this area virtually rejected the "anti-state" RJD and the CPI (M). The RJD went to the poll opposing the bifurcation of the state, while the CPI(M) had opined that the state’s formation was no solution to the age-old exploitation of the tribals in this area. Riding the fancied Vananchal plank, the BJP won 32 seats, while its alliance partners the Samata Party and the Janata Dal (United) romped home in six and two seats respectively. The saffron brigade improved its hold not only in the region, but virtually swept the tribal bastion winning 13 of the 27 assembly seats, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. The party successfully encashed on the ethnic and the communal contradiction at the ground level grabbing most of the assembly seats, where the church traditionally had an electoral say. The party lost 12 assembly seats, while it wrested 22 fresh seats from the Congress, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. However, the BJP received a drubbing in the Scheduled Caste seats losing three of the four it had won in 1995. The party could retain only the Kanke seat this time losing two seats to the RJD and one to the JMM (Soren). The Congress reiterating its commitment to fight for the creation of Jharkhand won eleven seats, four short of its 1995 figure. The party, however, maintained its tally in the Scheduled Tribe seats winning five of the 27 seats. The party once dominated these areas. The JMM, which since its inception had been fighting for statehood, slipped to 12 from the 19 seats it represented in the outgoing state Assembly. The party faced a vertical split in its rank and file and went to the poll announcing to wage a mass movement after the election, if the proposed state of Jharkhand not realised in the budget session of Parliament. The Morcha, which dominated the Scheduled Tribe seats in the outgoing Assembly, managed to retain just six tribal seats this time. However, it improved its tally in the Scheduled Caste constituencies wresting two. The CPI on which had aggressively taken up the cause of statehood and launched a series of agitations in the area to mount pressure on the centre for the state’s early creation, also improved its overall tally winning three seats. The party had won two assembly seats in 1995. The Marxist Communist Centre, which had two seats in the outgoing assembly, lost one this time, while the United Goans Democratic Party riding the statehood plank wrested two seats. The CPI (ML), which represented the Bagodar seat last time, retained it. The "anti-state" forces, as the RJD and the CPI (M) were perceived, received a serious setback in the region. The ruling RJD, which dispelled all political speculation by emerging as the single largest party in Bihar could win only nine seats from the area, while the CPI(M) failed to open its account this time. The party lost the Maheshpur (ST) seat, which it had won in 1995 to the BJP. The RJD went to the electorate opposing the bifurcation of Bihar alone and demanding creation of a greater Jharkhand comprising 26 tribal-dominated districts of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. While the CPI(M) had opposed the creation of the state, saying the existing Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council (JAAC), if strengthened, could help solve the problems plaguing this tribal belt since ages. (UNI) |
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Kar for probe into Anantnag killings NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Senior Congress leader of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Rasool Kar today demanded a high-level probe into the killing of five Hindus in Kashmir yesterday, warning the incident had the potential to disturb communal amity in the state. A high-level investigation should be held to ascertain how the killings took place despite the presence of a large number of security forces, Kar, former president of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, told PTI here. Three truck drivers and two conductors, all Hindus, were gunned down by unidentified militants in Anantnag district after segregating them from others. Kar alleged that the massacre seemed to be a calculated move to disturb Hindu-Muslim amity in the state. It can have an adverse impact on communal brotherhood in the state, particularly Jammu. So, there is an urgent need for a thorough probe. (PTI) |
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Ruling Congress faces rout in 15 districts BHUBANESWAR, Mar 1: The ruling Congress, which had as many as three Chief Ministers at the helm of affairs during its five-year tenure in Orissa, faced a rout in as many as 15 districts in the just-concluded elections, with its base in the Scheduled Caste and Tribe belt eroded to a great extent. It failed to open an account in three coastal districts of Jajpur, Kendrapara and Cuttack, tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar, Rayagada, seven districts in Western Orissa, and two districts in central part of the state. The party also had a noticeable drop in the number of seats it had held in the reserved constiuencies. As against 22 ST and eight SC seats in 1995, it managed to capture only eight and one in the respective categories. The only SC seat it bagged was wrested from Biju Janata Dal-held Jagannathprasad in South Ganjam. Among the constituencies marked for ST candidates, Chief Minister Hemanand Biswal, SC and ST Development Minister Gajadhar Majhi, Minister of State for Fisheries and Animal Resource Development Haladhar Karjee, Minister of State SC and ST Development Parama Pujari retained their respective seats. While Mr Biswal bagged the Laikera seat for the sixth time, three-time MLAs Mr Majhi, Mr Karjee and Ms Pujari won in Talsara, Ramgiri and Umerkote respectively. While Dabugaon was wrested from the BJD by Congressman Bhujabal Majhi, the remaining Kodinga, Chitrakonda and Kotpad were retained by the Congress. Interestingly, Nawrangpur is the only district where the Congress romped home in all the Assembly segments. Traditionally a Congress bastion, it had, for the first time in the state’s history, tilted towards a non-Congress party (BJP) in the last Lok Sabha elections. The Congress tally of 26 seats in the recently-concluded polls could be seen as a poor show by the party (below 30 seats in the 147-member house) for the third time in five decades. It had also secured 26 seats in 1977 polls in the wake of the anti-Congress wave in the post-emergency period. In 1990 Assembly polls, the party recorded its most dismal performance, winning just ten seats. The party has experienced a dip in its vote-share in the past ten years. While its poll percentage showed a decline from 44.05 in 1991 parliamentary elections to 36.95 in the 1999 polls, it slipped by almost twenty per cent in the recent Assembly elections, as compared to 51.17 per cent in 1985 Assembly polls. Though the Congress fielded as many as 56 new faces in the 145 segments it contested, this did not have any impact on its showing. It had recieved a lot of flak for its inept handling of the relief measures, in the aftermath of the October 29 super cyclone. The party could retain only 23 of its 81 seats it held earlier, and wrested only Bhadrak and Jagannathprasad from BJD and Soroda from BJP. Out of 27 ministers in the Hemanand Biswal Government who were in the fray, nine cabinet ministers and as many Ministers of State got drubbed solidly. (UNI) |
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TN to plead for more powers to all states CHENNAI, Mar 1: The Tamil Nadu Government will urge the Constitution Review Committee to provide greater autonomy with more powers for the states and a federal set-up at the Centre, Governor Ms Justice M Fathima Beevi told the State Assembly today. Addressing the budget session of the State Assembly, she said this step was necessary to ensure that the unity, integrity and secularism of the country were strengthened and firmly established and the rights of the minorities continue to be protected. The State Government would continue to emphasise devolution of 29 per cent of the gross tax receipts of the Central Government to the states. The Government wanted the Centre to remove the confusion that had arisen in the matter and pass the Constitutional amendment for the purpose during the current session of Parliament, she said. When the Eleventh Finance Commission visited the state, the Government had urged the Commission to recommend devolution of additional funds from the Centre to progressive states like Tamil Nadu. "We are hopeful that the commission would have accepted our request and recommended increased devolution of funds to Tamil Nadu", she said. Ms Fathima Beevi urged the Centre to make Tamil, the most ancient in the family of Dravidian languages, one of the official languages of the Centre. She hoped that the Constitution Review Committee will accept this stand. Stating that the Government gave highest priority to the maintenance of law and order, she said with the sustained efforts made by the Government to maintain communal harmony and the effective and firm steps taken against miscreants, the Government had ensured peace and tranquillity throughout the state. Highlighting the various developmental schemes of the State Government, she said the Government had decided to establish 100 more "uzhavar sandais" (farmers markets) in urban areas of the state in phases. Listing the various new initiatives taken by the Government to attract investment in information technology where IT giants are already functioning, the Governor said with the establishing of a modern communication set up by a joint venture company promoted by electronics corporation of Tamil Nadu, a substantial boost would be provided to community internet services in the coming financial year. The Governor regretted that central allocation for poverty alleviation schemes in the state has been reduced following the effective steps taken by the state. The Government had already urged the centre to give part of the poverty alleviation funds to states that effectively implement the schemes, she added. She said all the Government departments would be computerised. (UNI) |
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RS member alleges breach of privilege NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The Rajya Sabha today took a serious view of an attack on the privileges of one of its members - Vyalar Ravi - by the Kollam district administration in Kerala. Raising the matter during the zero hour, the Congress member from Kerala said the Superintendent of Police in Kollam district had detained him for six hours last week and maltreated him while he was participating in a demonstration. Besides, the police officer had not informed the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha about his arrest for six days despite his repeated reminders. He had thus breached the privilege of an MP as well as the house, Ravi said. Several members supported Ravi and Chairman Krishan Kant said it was a serious matter and he would look into it. Leader of the house Jaswant Singh also considered it a very serious matter. There were definite rules and regulations to treat elected representatives and it was the duty of district administration to abide by the same and treat legislators with respect, he said. Therefore, the matter should be looked into, he added. (PTI) |
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