Private
organisations doing Govt work
also
to enforce reservation
LUCKNOW, Jan 18: After
implementing reservation in the private
sector under Public-Private Partnership
(PPP), the Uttar Pradesh Government has
now made reservation mandatory for those
in private organisations in case they are
engaged by Government departments.
UP becomes
the first state in the country to
implement reservation for companies to
get Government contracts on outsourcing
policies.
Chief
Minister Mayawati, announcing the new
formula which was passed by the state
cabinet last evening, said all those
organisations who want to work in the
Government or Government controlled
bodies will now have to implement
reservation in their organisations.
"
These organisations would have to reserve
posts for the Scheduled Castes, other
backward classes and others as per the
Government policy", she said.
At
present, total reservation in state
government jobs was around 50 per cent
with a major chunk of 22 per cent going
to the SC and 27 per cent to the OBCs.
On August
10, 2007, the Mayawati Government had
enforced reservation of 30 per cent-- 10
per cent each for SC, OBCs and the poor
of the upper castes-in private companies
under the PPP policy to avail Government
sops and facilities.
Ms
Mayawati, talking to reporters here said
as there was scarcity in Government jobs,
such steps were being taken so that
deprived sections got their due share in
the growing economy. (UNI)
About
180 Gujjars nabbed in Rajasthan
ahead
of Jan 21 agitation
JAIPUR, Jan 18: Ahead of the
re-launch of the Gujjar agitation from
January 21 to protest the non-inclusion
of the community into the Schedule Tribe
list, police have arrested about 180
Gujjar activists, including Gujjar Chetna
Manch President Rajendra Vidhudi, to
prevent the stir.
Mr Vidhudi
and Gujjar leaders Bheru Lal Bhadana and
Samay Singh were arrested from a hotel in
Bhilwara yesterday. The arrest of other
activists came from Bharatpur, Ajmer,
Kota and Bhilwara among other places, the
police said.
The police
also raided sitting MLA Attar Singh
Bhadana’s farm house near Bayana in
Bharatpur district this morning. But,
they could not arrest him.
BJP
Treasurer and sitting MP Ramdas Agarwal,
who is heading a four member-committee
constituted by the State Government for
preparing economic package for the
agitating Gujjar community, yesterday
hinted that stern action would be taken
against the agitating Gujjar leaders.
Mr Agarwal
said the Rajasthan Government had taken
all possible steps to satisfy the Gujjar
community. It had recommended to the
Centre creation of a new special category
for Nomadic castes to provide reservation
to Gujjars, had forwarded the Centre
Chopra Committe’s report which had
stressed on the amendment in norms for ST
status to new castes. Besides, the
Government was also contemplating
granting a special economic package to
the community, he added.
"Therefore,
the Gujjar outfits should now give up
their plan to re-launch the
agitation," Mr Agarwal said.
However,
the Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) state Secretariat has condemned
the State Government for resorting to
"hardships" against the
agitating leaders. (UNI)
No
relief for Appu Ghar from apex court
NEW DELHI, Jan 18: The Supreme Court
today refused to give the Appu Ghar
management more time to hand over the
possession of its land to the apex court
and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
(DMRC).
The Appu
Ghar management had pleaded that it
should be given time till the Estate
Officer, Land and Development Authority,
who is hearing the matter concluded his
proceedings.
"In
the last order we had already directed
that pendency of the proceeding would not
come in the way of handing over the
possession of the land," the Bench
headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat said
while dismissing the plea of the
amusement park.
The apex
court on November 30 had directed the
management to hand over the possession of
its land. It had also asked the Estate
Officer to conclude his proceedings by
the end of January.
The Bench
had passed the order while dealing with a
bunch of petitions filed by Supreme Court
Bar Association(SCBA), India Trade
Promotion Organisation (ITPO),
International Amusement Park Limited
(IPAL) which runs the Appu Ghar and DMRC.
The SCBA
and DMRC had approached the apex court
after the Delhi High Court refused to
give any direction on a plea by the
advocates’ body for relocation of
the amusement park to facilitate
construction of lawyers’ chamber on
the land it is occupying. (PTI)
Bird
flu panic in Kolkata; CM says
Bengal
situation alarming
KOLKATA, Jan 18: Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today described
the bird flu outbreak in the state as
"alarming", even as panic
gripped Kolkata following death of some
birds in the city.
Amid
reports of slow pace of culling
operations in Birbhum and South Dinajpur
districts, the Chief Minister said the
state government had set a target of
culling four lakh poultry in the affected
areas. The Rampurhat sub-division of
Birbhum district was the worst affected,
followed by Balurghat in West Dinajpur
district, he said.
Bhattacharjee
said it had been decided that poultry in
the 5-10 km radius of the affected areas
would be culled and the process would be
completed within seven days.
Dead
birds-crows and owls-were found in
Kolkata’s southern and eastern parts
today causing fresh fears as a civic team
moved around the metropolis to collect
bird carcasses.
"We
will tell the state health department to
assess whether the deaths are
unusual," a Kolkata civic department
official said. Shopkeepers had downed the
shutters yesterday following reports of
death of caged birds.
"We
will have to kill four lakh birds in the
affected districts. We have decided to
increase the strength of the culling
teams," Bhattacharjee said here
after a meeting with central Livestock
Commissioner S K Banerjee, state Animal
Resources Development minister Anisur
Rehman and Health Minister S K Mishra.
Isolation
wards have been kept ready in all
sub-divisional hospitals for treating the
affected. Medical college hospitals of
Burdwan, Bankura and East Midnapore
districts have also been put on alert,
Bhattacharjee said.
The Chief
Minister said the state finance
department has allotted Rs 3 crore as
compensation to the poultry owners, who
would, however, not be allowed to do
business in the next three months.
As the
state government rushed over 60 teams of
animal husbandry workers to the affected
areas to cull the birds, medical teams
too fanned out to find out whether there
was any infection in the humans.
Confirming
that bird flu has spread to Murshidabad
district, Animal Resources Development
Minister Anisur Rahman said the
administration was taking adequate
precautions.
Lack of
awareness among bird owners and villagers
had been hampering culling operations in
most of the affected areas and a campaign
has been launched to convince villagers
that the Government will pay them
compensation.
An alert
has been sounded along the Indo-Bangla
border at Bongaon and Petrapole areas,
where BSF and State Government personnel
were spraying disinfectants in vehicles
entering the country from Bangladesh.
(PTI)
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