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Round The
States
New Delhi, 20 January 2024
Bharat
Jodo NyayYatra
ASSAM
GIVES HOPE TO CONG
By
Insaf
BJP-ruled Assam has pleasantly surprised
the Congress, rather given a fillip to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat JodoNyayYatra,’kicked
off from Manipur. “Women assembled for a function organised by the Assam CM in
Mariani spontaneously and enthusiastically met @RahulGandhi on Day 5 of the BJNY.
NYAY for Assam has begun!” read the party’s X post. Indeed, as a large number
of rural women in Jorhat, who had gathered to collect forms for a newly
announced government scheme were seen leaving their queues to greet Rahul, who
had reached Mariani town from neighbouring Sivasagar district around Thursday noon.
The video on social media showed women showering affection and sought to click
pictures with him, before he proceeded further.
The response has triggered a bitter
controversy. Congress has accused Chief Minister Sarma trying to derail the yatra.
First by creating obstacles, such as fixing dates for the distribution of forms
in such a manner that it deliberately clashed with Rahul yatra and second having
an FIR registered suomoto by the police against the yatra and its chief
organiser KB Byju for allegedly ‘deviating from its permitted route inside
Jorhat town,’ leading to chaos. Whereas, the Congress said ‘the assigned route
was too small, and we had a huge gathering. So, we took a detour for just a few
metres... Sarma wants to make the yatra a flop.” Who is more successful, is
anybody’s guess. The yatra has 17 districts on its schedule in the state till
January 25 and there’s bound to be more heat and dust raised. But all eyes are
on the big story—preparations for D-Day, January 22 and Ayodhya. The twist and
turns the yatra takes, must take a backseat, at least till then.
* * * *
Chandigarh Mayor
Poll Drama
Chandigarh mayoral elections have kicked
up a storm. The AAP and Congress have accused BJP of not allowing these to be
held under fear of its “imminent defeat”! Thursday should have seen a new civic
team, but the polls were abruptly postponed on ‘pretext’ the presiding office
Anil Masih, had fallen sick. After high drama outside municipal corporation
office and filing of a petition in Punjab & Haryana High Court by AAP, the
DC announced February 6 as the next date of poll. Interestingly, he has
nominated Masih as presiding officer, giving credence to allegations that “BJP
sent him to hospital” as “majority of officers responsible for the election,
including presiding officer and secretary, municipal corporation, belong to the
Haryana cadre, where BJP is in power, and they are under party’s influence.”
All this, because this election was being viewed as the first test between
INDIA bloc and BJP as both AAP and Congress reached an understanding -- AAP to
field mayor candidate, while Congress to contest for senior deputy mayor and
deputy mayor posts. So, if voting went as per party lines, then their 20
combined votes were sufficient to defeat BJP, which since past 8 years has held
the mayor’s post. The postponement not only saves BJP the embarrassment but
gives it time to work on ‘Operation Lotus’, says opposition. Will February 6th
prove it right?
* * * *
System Fails Rural
Kids
The education system in the country has
failed the rural kids! The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023
‘Beyond Basics’ by NGO Pratham released on Wednesday, following a survey in 28
districts across 26 States reveals not much has changed over the decade and
kids continue to struggle with basic reading and arithmetic skills well into
teenage years. Specifically, 42% of children aged 14 to 18 years in rural India
can’t read easy sentences in English; over half can’t even solve simple 3-digit
division problems, usually taught in 3-4th standard; about 25% can’t
read a class 2 level text fluently in their regional language! While there’s
lot more statistics from 34,745-youth surveyed, the message for Government is:
‘Catch up efforts for foundational literacy and numeracy are needed…not only for
doing better in school but also for everyday needs.’ Shockingly, it has done
precious little, despite its NEP 2020 stating, ‘urgent need for ensuring that
by Std III, children have acquired basic reading and arithmetic skills.” Time
it did its own homework right!
* * * *
Cong AP Comeback?
The Congress is desperately trying to
make a comeback in Andhra Pradesh. Less than two weeks of YS Sharmila, sister
of Chief Minister YS Jagan Reddy Mohan and daughter of former CM Y S Rajasekhar
Reddy, joining the party, it appointed her as President of the state unit on
Tuesday last, and compensated outgoing chief GiduguRudraRaju, as special
invitee to the CWC. The change,just before general and Assembly elections may
not go down well with old timers, but the party doesn’t have much to lose. Since
2014, it has failed to get a single MLA or MP elected, so even if Sharmila can
score a small success, the party can pat itself. A lot, however, depends on how
she changes the label of ‘belonging to Telangana’ and lay a claim to YSR’s
political legacy in the State, which brother Jagan has used to his advantage to
the hilt. Political analysts do not give the Congress much space as the battle
is clearly between YSR Congress and the TDP. Sharmila has a long way to go, starting
with testing the waters within the grand old party itself.
* * * *
Bihar Largesse
Bihar government is wasting no time to
woo the voters. On Tuesday last, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced the Laghu
Udyami Yojana,(Bihar small entrepreneur scheme)wherein one member of each
family, earning less than Rs 6000 per month (9.4 million families), will get Rs
2 lakh over five years. The first of three instalments was sanctioned by the
Cabinet i.e., Rs 50,000, to be disbursed next month to five lakh families selected
through a computerised randomisation process‘to set up and run small industrial
or processing units, such as handicraft, textile, saloon, eateries, among 63
types of units.’ The schemewill be implemented by industries department, and members
of such families will need to apply online and produce the proof of family
income to claim benefits. Another scheme approved was of providing one-time
financial grant ranging from ₹75,000
to ₹30,000 to students
from EBC families preparing for civil services (mains) exams. There is a catch
though. A lot will hinge on budgetary allocations. The big question being where
will these additional thousands of crores come from? ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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