3SHIMLATHE HIMACHAL TIMES - SHIMLA FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019

Speaker Birla promises to keepMPs informed about Bills

NEW DELHI, AUG 1(IANS) Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla on Thursdaypromised that he will en-sure that all members wereinformed about Bills a daybefore they were intro-duced in the House.

“Since I have beenchosen to be the Speaker,it is my responsibility to seethat I run the House withthe consensus of all MPs,”Birla said.

“As you have re-quested, I will see to it per-sonally that before a Bill islisted, all MPs are informedabout it a day in advanceso that they prepare for it. Iwill … personally look intoit.”

Birla’s assurance cameas the opposition contin-ued to target the govern-ment for pushing Bills inthe Lok Sabha for passageat the last moment withoutconsulting other parties.

Parliamentary Affairs

Minister Pralhad Joshi de-nied the charge.

Soon after the Housemet, Congress leader AdhirRanjan Chowdhury, TMC’sSaugata Roy and DMK’sKanimozhi accused thegovernment of bringingBills in a hurry, without priornotice, leaving no time forpreparation for debate.

The matter was raisedas the Dam Safety Bill, listedfor legislative business onWednesday, was missingfrom Thursday’s list.

Chowdhury said:“The opposition does notflee from its responsibility.But the way Bills are beingpushed by the governmentis not right. All matters are

decided in BAC (BusinessAdvisory Committee).”

TMC’s Roy said as theDam Safety Bill had beensuddenly replaced with anew Bill, the oppositionhad no time for prepara-tion. Kanimozhi said thishad become thegovernment’s everydaypractice.

Gaurav Gogoi of Con-gress hit out at the gov-ernment for rushingthrough Bills ignoring dis-cussion on the flood situ-ation in many parts of thecountry.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Joshi said the is-sues were discussed at theBAC meeting.

“The Dam Safety Billwas removed from the listof business on the demandof (Adhir Ranjan)Chowdhury.”

It is then that SpeakerBirla intervened and madethe promise to the House.

Odisha receives17.7% deficit

rainfall in June-July

BHUBANESWAR,AUG 1 (IANS) Odisha hasreceived 17.7 per cent defi-cit rainfall in the months ofJune and July, said an offi-cial of Special Relief Com-missioner (SRC) on Thurs-day. The state received457.7 mm rainfall against theaverage of 556.4 mm in thetwo months.

In July, Odisha re-ceived nine per cent lessrainfall with Malkangiri andBhadrak districts recordingthe highest and lowest rain-fall of 633.8 mm and 178.9mm respectively. The 17districts that received defi-cit rainfall are Jharsuguda,Nayagarh, Dhenkanal,Nuapada, Jajpur,Kandhamal, Balangir,Boudh, Sambalpur,Kendrapara, Balasore,Gajapati, Keonjhar,Bhadrak, Angul,Mayurbhanj and Deogarh

Gandhians plan revival of ShantiSena in his 150th birth year

NEW DELHI, AUG 1 (IANS) ShantiSena, a peace brigade conceptualised byMahatma Gandhi and taken forward byVinoba Bhave, is likely to be revived by agroup of Gandhian organisations.

The Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti,the Gandhi Peace Mission and the All In-dia Harijan Sevak Sangh along with otherorganisations, here on Thursday, an-nounced the plan, which included desig-nating August 23 -- the day when VinobaBhave launched it in 1957 -- as ShantiSenaDiwas.

The idea of brigade, Gandhi's answerto the problem of violence and disharmony,was to be taken up on February 8, 1948 atWardha. But Gandhi was assassinated justfew days before on 30 January 1948.

The initiative to remember Gandhi'sefforts in his 150th birth year, also involvesa two-day conference, starting on August23, at Manjeswaram, a border town be-tween Karnataka and Kerala, where VinobaBhave launched the Shanti Sena.

The idea behind the revival of ShantiSena is to make the youth pledge against

"hatred, killing, and violence" and to pledgeallegiance to Gandhian principles of non-violence, peace and sacrifice.

On the relevance of the revival plan,Gandhi Smriti Director Dipankar Sri Gyanhas said the structural violence many Indi-ans are complaining against is not the guid-ing force behind the initiative, it has beenplanned as a peace movement.

According to the representatives ofthese Gandhian organisations, a trained bri-gade of youth will form part of the ShantiSena. Training centres would be set up atseven places, including Delhi, Madurai,Ahmedabad, Gandhigram, Sodepur andManjeswaram, to train the youth in "non-violent conflict management, non-killing ini-tiatives, non-violent communication strate-gies" among others. The training will seekto correct the "moral and spiritual value"depletion in India's youth with a focus onsocial justice and harmony, N.Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the GandhiPeace Mission, told . It will also focus oninculcating positive attitudes on water con-servation and hygiene and sanitation.

Andhra shuts down Anna canteensAMARAVATI, AUG 1

(IANS) Anna Canteens,which provide meals at Rs5 to the poor and the middleclass, were shut downacross Andhra Pradeshfrom Thursday. Daily wagelabourers, beggars, otherpoor folks who throngedthe canteens every dayfound the canteens locked.

With the outsourcingagency stopping supply-ing of food following thestate government's orders,all 204 canteens downedtheir shutters.

YSR Congress Party(YSRCP) government, how-ever, has assured that thisshutdown is temporary andthat it would re-launch thescheme with certain modi-fications.

Working since July-

August last year, the can-teens were proving a boonto the poor as they weregetting breakfast, lunch anddinner at Rs 5 each.

Alleging corruption inthe scheme launched by theprevious Telugu DesamParty (TDP) government,the new dispensation hasdecided to streamline thecanteens.

Akshaya Patra, whichcooks and supply food forthe canteens, supplied thelast meal on Wednesdaynight.

As the government hasnot announced alternatearrangements, the canteenswere shut.

TDP General SecretaryNara Lokesh took to Twit-ter to slam the JaganMohan Reddy government

for shutting down the can-teens.

Lokesh, who is the sonof TDP chief and formerChief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu,tweeted that the govern-ment shut down the can-teens due to political ven-detta.

"Mr Chief Ministerhunger doesn't know poli-tics. Should the poor gohungry for your politicalvendetta," he asked.

Meanwhile, there isstill no clarity as to howlong it will take for the au-thorities to re-open thecanteens with new nameand colour.

YSRCP leaders allegedthat TDP used the schemelaunched on the eve ofelections to further its po-

litical interests by paintingthe canteens yellow(colour of TDP''s flag).

As the canteens werenamed after TDP founderand former Chief ministerN. T. Rama Rao, YSRCPgovernment plans to re-name them. NTR, as the lateleader was popularlyknown, was also affection-ately called aAnna'' (elderbrother).

The canteens maynow be named ''Rajanna'' asChief Minister Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy's father andlate Chief Minister Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy wasfondly called.

Municipal Administra-tion Minister BotsaSatyanarayana has alreadyallayed apprehensions ofwinding up the scheme.

Flowers offered at temples toturn into incense sticks

Goan women delicate, decent,others are 'fast': Former CM

PANAJI, AUG 1(IANS): Goan women andgirls are decent and deli-cate while others are "fast"and can work till late night,former Chief Minister andNationalist Congress Party(NCP) MLA ChurchillAlemao told the state As-sembly on Thursday.

He was speaking dur-ing a discussion on theamendment to Goa Facto-ries (Amendment) Billwhich enables women towork in factories during thenight shift.

Urging Deputy ChiefMinister and Labour Min-ister Chandrakant Kavlekarto rethink the amendment,Alemao said that womenwho work in casinos (atnight) know karate, butwomen from Goa are decent.

"This bill should bepassed after discussing itat a meeting with women inGoa. Then you will knowwhat the reality is. Goanwomen are delicate, girlsare delicate, but the rest arefast. It is works for them,"Alemao told the state As-

sembly. "In this House anMLA asked, 'don't womenwork in casinos?' I think hehas not been to casinos.Women do work in casinos,but they are not from Goa.They are from outside.They know karate and allthat. Our women are de-cent," Alemao said, evok-ing laughter among someMLAs.

Former CM and Con-gress MLA Pratap Singh

Rane also demanded thatthe bill be sent to theAssembly's select commit-tee for discussion.

"In the interest of de-cency, it is not right to al-low ladies of the state towork in night. In the inter-est of their safety, the billshould be sent to the se-lect committee," Rane said.

The amendment billwas, however, passed fol-lowing the debate.

VARANASI, AUG 1(IANS) : Huge quantities offlowers that are offered atthe Kashi Vishwanathtemple and other temples inVaranasi will no longer bethrown into the GangaRiver.

These flowers will beturned into incense sticksby the women’s self-helpgroups and marketed glo-bally by ITC.

The photograph ofKashi Vishwanath templewill be printed on the in-cense packets.

The projects is likely tobe launched this month byChief Minister Yogi

Adityanath.According to the

sources, over 12 tonne offlowers are offered at theKashi Vishwanath templeevery day. This quantityincreases to 40 tonne ev-ery day during the monthof ‘Saawan’.

Temple CEO VishalSingh said that the projectwould not only make gooduse of flowers but wouldalso provide employmentto women.

“This will also solvethe problem of disposal ofwilting flowers. We cannotthrow away the flowers be-cause of the religious sanc-

tity and this is the best wayto use them. The templewill also get a share of roy-alty on the sale of incensesticks,” he said.

Interestingly, theLucknow MunicipalCorporation(LMC) has al-ready moved into a col-laboration with a city-based social enterprise tocollect flowers for process-ing and making incensesticks.

Municipal commis-sioner Indramani Tripathisaid that the plan is to makeincense sticks and bio-compost from the collectedfloral waste.

Government hospitals in Delhihit in protest against NMCNEW DELHI, AUG 1

(IANS): Healthcare ser-vices at government hos-pitals, including AIIMS,were severely hit onThursday as resident doc-tors withdrew all servicesincluding emergency ser-vices in protest against aBill which they say will en-courage quacks.

The strike has beencalled against the NationalMedical Commission(NMC) Bill, which is set tobe presented on Thursdayin the Rajya Sabha byUnion Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan.

Besides the All India

Institute of Medical Sci-ences (AIIMS), the strikealso badly affected theneighbouring SafdarjungHospital and the RamManohar Lohia Hospitalin the heart of the city.

All three hospitals,particularly AIIMS andSafdarjung, receive thou-sands of patients from allover the country each day.

"If the Bill getspassed in the RajyaSabha, we will intensifyour protests," saidPrakash Thakur of theResidents Doctors Asso-

ciation at Safdarjung Hos-pital. In a tweet onWednesday night, HarshVardhan assured the pub-lic and the medical frater-nity that the Bill wouldprove to be historic.

The IMA has termedthe Bill "draconian" and"anti-people".

It has raised concernover Section 32 of theNMC Bill that provides forlicensing of 3.5 lakh non-medical persons or Com-munity Health Providersto practise modern medi-cine.

ED attachesassets worthRs 480 crore

for moneylaunderingNEW DELHI, AUG 1

(IANS): The EnforcementDirectorate on Thursdaysaid it has attached assetsworth over Rs 480 crore ofREI Agro Ltd, which claimsto be the world's largestbasmati rice processingfirm, under the Preventionof Money Laundering Act(PMLA).

The ED in 2016 had reg-istered a money launderingcase against the company.It has been accused of bankfraud totalling Rs 3,871.71crore.

An ED statement saidthe company DirectorsSandip Jhunjhunwala,Sanjay Jhunjhunwala andothers availed credit facili-ties from various banks in-cluding UCO Bank "undera consortium arrangement"and defrauded them from2013 to the tune of Rs3,871.71 crore by divertingthe funds fraudulently forother purposes.

The attachment worthRs 481.04 crore largely com-prises the land, building andplant and machinery of therice mill.

Fifty per cent share ofthe immovable propertiesheld by four companies ofFortune Group based inKolkata have also been at-tached, the agency said.

With the latest develop-ment, the total attachmenttotals Rs 1,065.77 crore.Sandip Jhunjhunwala hasbeen arrested for allegedmoney laundering.

Centre to offer aid in 90:10ratio: Himachal ministerSHIMLA, AUG 1

(IANS) Himachal PradeshIrrigation and Public HealthMinister Mahender SinghThakur on Thursday saidthe Centre has accepteddemands of hill states, in-cluding restoration of fi-nancial assistance for de-velopment projects in theratio of 90:10.

He said most of theproposals given by the hillstates have been incorpo-rated by the Centre in ‘HarGhar Mein Nal Se Jal’scheme.

The decision was tak-en at a meeting of secretar-ies of states organised bythe Union Jal Shakti Min-istry in New Delhi recent-ly.

Thakur said earlier aminister-level meeting washeld in June in which hehad raised various con-cerns of the Himalayanstates, including restoringa provision of funding to

the hill states in the ratioof 90:10 and providing ad-ditional funds for theschemes being implement-ed for making a provisionof tapwater to everyhousehold.

He said he had also tak-

en up the matter vigorous-ly with the Union WaterResources Minister andthe secretaries concernedas a result of which, all theaspects of HimachalPradesh have been includ-ed under these schemes.

Kolkata spa sexracket busted,

3 rescuedKOLKATA, AUG 1

(IANS) A sex racket beingrun at a salon and spa inKolkata has been busted,five persons have been ar-rested and three sex work-ers, including two Thai na-tionals rescued, police saidon Thursday. Based on priorinformation, officers onWednesday raided The ThaiRetreat at 56 Sarat Bose Roadto unearth a sex racket oper-ating in the disguise of a sa-lon-cum-spa.

“Three sex workers, in-cluding two Thailand na-tionals were rescued. Twocustomers namely Dhiraj LalGandhi, 76, and KomalBehati, 55, have been ar-rested along with the man-ager Payel Banerjee.

Samajwadi Partyworkers protest in

Azam Khan’s supportRAMPUR, AUG 1

(IANS) The SamajwadiParty, on Thursday, took tothe streets of Rampur toprotest against what theparty claims is thevictimisation of its LokSabha MP Mohd AzamKhan and his MLA sonAbdullah Azam.

The district administra-tion has imposed the pro-hibitory orders in Rampurand the party MP S THasan and former MPDharmendra Yadav weretaken into custody for vio-lating Section 144.

A heavy police forcehas been deployed in thedistrict, especially at allentry points.

“The state governmentis doing injustice withAzam Khan and his son. Ifthis does not stop, lakhsof Samajwadis will take tothe streets. We will fightfor Azam Khan and willsave the Jauhar Universityat all costs,” saidDharmendra Yadav.

Abdullah Azam wasalso prevented from com-

ing out of his house.Several other party

MLAs, who were movingtowards Rampur on Thurs-day, were detained at dif-ferent places.

The Samajwadi PartyMLAs, Mohd Faheem Irfanand Irfan Solanki, were de-tained near Bhilai Nagarand taken to the Dak Bun-galow along with their sup-porters.

Another party MLAPinky Yadav had an alter-cation with the police offi-cials when they stoppedher from going to Rampur.SP MLA Iqbal Mehmoodsat on dharna near theRampur highway, disrupt-ing traffic movement.

The police surroundedthe residence of SP MLAMehboob Ali in Amroha toprevent him from movingout. The police had a toughtime controlling the partyleaders at the Bareilly bor-der.

Vehicles on theLucknow-Delhi highwaywere being subjected tochecking.

Delhi court extends interimprotection to P. Chidambaram, son

NEW DELHI, AUG 1(IANS) A Delhi court onThursday extended till Au-gust 9 the interim protectiongranted to former FinanceMinister P. Chidambaramand his son and SivagangaMP Karti Chidambaram inthe Aircel Maxis case.

District and SessionsJudge O.P. Saini posted the

bail arguments for August9 and will take cognisanceof the chargesheet on Au-gust 19.

During the hearing, se-nior advocate Sonia Mathurand Special Public Prosecu-tor (SPP) Nitesh Rana, ap-pearing for the ED and CBIrespectively, sought ad-journment of the matter.

Opposing it, senior ad-vocate Kapil Sibal, repre-senting the Chidambarams,said: “What is bonafide,how many adjournmentshave they taken already?”

The agencies re-sponded: “Every adjourn-ment was taken throughproper process of law andapplications were filed foreach of them.”

Sibal said: “KartiChidambaram was called forquestioning 8 times in 2018and 4 times in 2019 beforeED. While in the CBI case,he appeared for question-ing in 2014 and on Septem-ber 18 and 26 in 2017.

“Not called for ques-tioning thereafter.Chargesheet filed in July2018 and he was named.Investigation is complete,”Sibal said.

Sibal added: “P.Chidambaram has onlybeen called once by the CBIin 2014. Chargesheet hasbeen filed and investigationis complete. While in the EDcase, we filed anticipatorybail. Two replies filed: onein July and the other in Oc-tober. Interim protectionfrom arrest been granted.He has been called fourtimes by ED in 2018.