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Murder, Corruption Rocks:MAHARASHTRA, KERALA IN TAINT STORM, by Insaf, 11 June 2009 Print E-mail

Round The States

New Delhi, 11 June 2009

Murder, Corruption Rocks

MAHARASHTRA, KERALA IN TAINT STORM

By Insaf

From the high portals of Parliament, some more States are now in the vicious tentacles of corruption. After UP and Bihar, last week alone, Maharashtra and Kerala are in the eye of the taint storm. In Mumbai sitting NPC MP and former State Minister Padmasinh Patil was arrested for his alleged involvement in the “double murder” of Maharashtra Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar and his driver three years ago. Coming just months before the Assembly polls later this year, it has caused big embarrassment to the Party which is now caught between a rock and hard place. Notwithstanding, Patil’s suspension from the Party he continues to be an MP. Even as NCP supremo Sharad Pawar asserted “law will take its own course

In Kerala, the CBI has got the Governor Gavai’s permission to prosecute CPM State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the infamous SNC Lavlin case. Recall, in 1997 when Vijayan was the State Power Minister, the Kerala Government entered into a contract with Canadian company SNC Lavlin to renovate and modernise three hydro-electric projects. Later, a CAG report found that the Rs 375-crore project money was wasted as the company did not complete them. Besides, these projects, Lavlin also had a sub-deal to mobilise Rs 98 crore for a cancer hospital controlled by the Party, of which only Rs 9 crore came. Needless to say this has put the Party in a cleft stick with a lot of egg on its face.

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Bihar For Scrapping Central Schemes

Bihar’s Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, has now pitched for a lot more than the special status he has been demanding for his state like some other Chief Ministers. He now wants the Central schemes scrapped and the funds allotted for these schemes to be transferred to the States so that they can use them for programmes relevant to their needs. The Central schemes, he argues, were unable to achieve their aim because different states had their different requirements. It was, therefore, futile to have common schemes for the country as a whole considering its sub-continental size.

Nitish Kumar clarifies: “At the time of devolution of funds, the Centre allocates funds for its schemes and only the rest of the money is shared with the States. This practice must change. Every State has different needs and the State Governments should be allowed to run schemes that address their requirements.” Significantly, Nitish Kumar has the backing of the JD (U) and its President, Sharad Yadav. His party also wants the Centre to give greater importance to regional balance in allocating resources. Adequate attention, for instance, needs to be given to Bihar’s level of poverty and backwardness.

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Kashmir On The Boil

Kashmir continues to be on the boil over the rape and murder of two young women in South Kashmir’s Shopian district ten days ago. Despite the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah ordering an impartial enquiry into the murders, Srinagar remains under a blanket of curfew. Normal activity stands crippled with schools and colleges shut. In fact, deserted streets and closed shops greeted the summer tourists thanks to a strike called by the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference. With the unrest refusing to die down, the Union Home Minister Chidambaram on his maiden visit to the Valley has asked the Unified Command Council to bring things under control.  Specially, as the Amarnath Yatra is all set to roll out from 15 June.

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Plan To Rid States Of Red Terror

Good news awaits States infested by the deadly Maoists virus. The Union Home Ministry is all set to unleash a major post-monsoon offensive time-bound counter-operation led by the special anti-Naxal Cobra battalions against the Naxalites-ridden Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. The three States, apart from Maharashtra and Bihar, have witnessed a string of deadly “Red terror’ Maoists attacks killing over 381 persons, including 149 security personnel since the beginning of the year. The last straw was when the Naxalites triggered a landmine blast in Jharkhand killing 11 CRPF personnel. Hopefully, the States can breathe a sigh of relief!

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Dynastic Politics Hurrah!

India’s dynastic politics, which shockingly continues to grow by leaps and bounds, has set a new, if little noticed, record. Laws and rules were bent in December 2008 to enable Hamdullah Sayeed, son of the late PM Sayeed, Union Minister, to contest and win the recent election to the Lok Sabha from Lakshdweep and, at 27, become the youngest MP in the 15th Lok Sabha. Lakshdweep, India’s smallest constituency with a population of 60,595, is governed by the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) (Union Territories) Order 1951. This in its original form disqualified from contesting anyone who was not born in the cluster of in those tiny islands.

Hamdullah did not fulfil this condition as he was born in Karnataka and brought up in New Delhi, where PM Sayeed spent most of his adult years as one repeatedly elected by the people of Lakshdweep to the Lok Sabha. Conscious that every seat was going to count in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll, the UPA Government pushed an amendment to that special law in December 2008 so that Hamdullah could inherit the legacy of his late father, who died in office. The amendment dispensed with the requirement that the candidate should be born in Lakshdweep. Instead it provided that it would be enough if both the parents of the candidate were born there. Hurrah!

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UP Colleges Ban Jeans For Women

Even as the Congress appears ‘gung-ho’ over the Women Reservation Bill, the States are in ‘regressive mode’. On the heels of the Ram Sene campaign in Karnataka against women frequenting pubs, now it is the turn of UP. Four leading Kanpur women colleges have said a big no to girls wearing jeans, tight tops, sleeveless blouses and high heels on the campus. Cell phones too have been banned. On the facetious ground that it would  “prevent eve-teasing.” Recall, only last month the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee in Punjab disallowed a girl admission in its college as she had ‘tweezed eyebrows’. So much for women empowerment. Pink chaddi campaign, anyone.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

 

 

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