Round The
States
New Delhi, 30 June 2018
Office of Profit
PUNJAB WRIGGLES OUT OF IT
By Insaf
The idiom ‘better
safe than sorry’ makes good sense to the Punjab Government. Aware of growing frustration amongst his flock of
MLAs, Congress Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has had his Cabinet approve
amendments to the Punjab State Legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act
1952, which would allow the legislators to hold several new categories of
office of profit. Remember, in the 117-member Assembly, the Congress has 78
MLAs, of which only 18 hold ministerial berths. Obviously, leading to heartburn
amongst many, who would too have liked to be in a position to gain some extra
financial benefit! With the amendments proposed there is now hope that at least
20 MLAs could be adjusted on key posts such as in State boards and corporations
and other bodies considered as office of profit. But they will no longer fear
disqualification as the CM has been given all powers to approve the ordinance,
which shall be passed by the Assembly at a later stage. The draft changes have
given additional exemptions to the categories of office of profit in the
original Act and also added a new Section to provide for the definitions of
“compensatory allowance”, “statutory body” and “non-statutory body”. Novel way
indeed, to dodge the courts?
* * * *
Odisha
Caste Conflict
Odisha has its
advantage of being a low profile State. Caste war doesn’t hit the headlines or
media attention as it does say in UP and Bihar. On Tuesday last, over a 100-odd
people belonging to the Scheduled Caste group, Pano, returned back after 10
days to their homes in Village Bodasa, Nayagarh district, destroyed by the
dominant caste ‘khandayats’. Both the SP and DC gave them personal assurance,
deployed additional police force in the area and arrested 13 persons allegedly
involved in the attack. The group fled on June 16 following a 1000-odd strong
mob attack in their quarter after one of their men said he would ‘directly’
offer prayers at the local Shiva temple. Unacceptable to khandayats, they first
beat up the man and after his family lodged an FIR against the culprits, the
community launched the attack, razing their homes to the ground. The Panos had
to find shelter in the verandah of a Primary School, 3-km away, which was then
designated as ‘relief camp’ for these refugees! Other than the nagging fear of
another attack, the victims are worried they may not get the full compensation
as per the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act, i.e. Rs 4 lakh. While
25% has being disbursed, the rest will be given after court procedure and
conviction. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will do well to have his
administration speed up the case as justice delayed will be justice denied.
* * * *
Mizoram’s
No To Bill
The Centre needs to
tread carefully in the North East. Congress-ruled Mizoram has said a big no to
the Centre’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed in the Lok Sabha, close
on the heels of rumblings in Assam and Manipur too. On Thursday last, the State
Assembly passed a unanimous resolution opposing the Bill, which amends the
Citizenship Act 1955, and proposes to make illegal migrants of six communities
-- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- eligible for
Indian citizenship after six years of residence in the country. The resolution,
moved by Home Minister Lalzirliana, warns New Delhi that if the Bill is enacted
it would be harmful to States like it, where a large number of illegal Buddhist
migrants from Bangladesh reside. Further, it said the Bill, seeking to make
illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on basis of religion, was against the
principles of secularism and “amounted to patronage of some religions”.
Importantly, the State is the next after Assam, incidentally BJP-ruled, to
oppose the Bill. Chief Minister Sonowal has assured his people that he would
resign if the Centre doesn’t pay heed to the fears expressed. Former Congress
Chief Minister has taken a delegation to President Kovind too opposing the Bill
saying the “north east is not a dumping ground.” Will alarm bells be sounded
off in other States?
* * * *
TN
Relief For Cong
Tamil Nadu has good
news for the Congress. It’s old partner, the DMK has put the lid on rumours
about promoting in the making ‘Third Front’ and instead affirmed it shall
continue to ally with the grand old party for 2019 elections. On Wednesday
last, its principal secretary Murugan put at rest speculation that it was
planning to go along with the regional front as being floated by W Bengal Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee. He said the party had no idea whatsoever of the front
she is looking to form and though Working President Stalin had met her and
Telengana and Andhra Chief Ministers on different occasions these were primarily
to support their cause of federal structure and autonomy of States. That’s all.
Obviously, the Congress should be much relieved with this announcement as its
working in tandem with the DMK against the ruling AIADMK has yielded positive
results. Recall the DMK had walked out of the UPA-II before 2014 Elections.
Worse, the two had contested separately and lost 40 seats in the State and
Puducherry. The idiom once bitten twice shy does make sense.
* * * *
J&K
Gau Rakshaks
The gua rakshaks (cattle saviours) have
reached Jammu and Kashmir too. On Wednesday last, a mob set a truck carrying
bovine animals on fire as it was reportedly doing so ‘without permission’ along
the Jammu-Srinagar National highway in Ramban district. The truck was on its
way to the Valley and was stopped by the mob on the highway. The driver managed
to flee and the mob was able to free over two dozen cattle. Other than the tamasha, traffic on the highway remained
suspended for nearly two hours and was restored only after hectic efforts by
senior civil and police officials. While two cases have been registered against
the smugglers and the mob, not a single person has so far been arrested. Guess
Governor Vohra and his administration may have a different kind of ‘surgical
strikes’ to take care of.
* * * *
Migration
Contours
Migration across
north and south India is on the reverse. On the one hand, North India is no
longer being seen as the greener pasture by Tamilians and Malayalese and on the
other Bengali, Hindi, Odia and Assamese speaking-people are heading towards
Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This emerges from data of 2011 census on mother tongues
and reveals that the trend in the past decades has changed. People from the two
States are now heading within the south itself and Karnataka seems to be a
favourite, followed by Andhra. In the previous census, between 2001 and 2011,
the national capital, Delhi saw a fall in numbers of both Tamil and Malyali
speakers and so did Maharashtra, which thanks to Mumbai was a favoured destination
for south Indians-- Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam speakers. On the other
hand, UP followed by Haryana witnessed the highest growth in Malayali
population primarily because of cosmopolitan Noida and Gugaon respectively.
---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
|