Category: Gaya

CBI cracks down on loan defaulters

Source: thehansindia.com

New Delhi : In a possibly the biggest synchronised action against alleged bank loan defaulters, the CBI on Tuesday launched a massive crackdown by carrying out searches at over 61 locations in 18 cities after registering 17 cases involving swindling of funds to the tune of Rs 1,139 crore, officials said.

Over 300 officers drawn from various units of the agency swooped down at over 61 locations and knocked the doors of alleged defaulters on the basis of complaints received from various nationalised banks and inputs developed by the agency under close monitoring of CBI Director Rishi Kumar Shukla and senior officials in Delhi.

The figure, which stood at around Rs 640 crore, swelled to Rs 1,139 crore as the agency continued filing of FIRs during the day and expanding its search operations.
Braving the waterlogged streets of Mumbai due to incessant rains, the agency officials carried out searches at promoters and directors of Winsome Diamonds founded by absconding diamantaire Jatin Mehta who was booked in a fresh FIR registered under this operation.

This was the 16th FIR against Mehta accusing him of allegedly defaulting Rs 202 crore from Exim Bank. He is accused of allegedly swindling funds to the tune of Rs 6,500 crore.

The searches in Mumbai also covered two other firms booked in separate FIRs on a complaint by Union Bank of India.
Five places were searched in connection with Rs 57 crore loss caused to the bank by Supamad Trading Pvt Ltd and one place was searched in connection with Asuti Trading Pvt Ltd for causing loss of Rs 50 crore to the bank.

Two places were searched in Delhi and Mumbai in connection with Asuti Trading. By evening, the agency had already registered 17 FIRs across the country and the process of registering more is going on, they said.

The searches were being conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Ludhiana, Thane, Valsad, Pune, Palani, Gaya, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Surat and Kolar, among others, the officials said.

Delhi-based SL Consumer Products Ltd has been booked by the CBI for causing loss to Union Bank of India to the tune of Rs 55 crore, Aligarh-based Samprash Foods Ltd for loss Rs 60 crore to Union Bank of India, Chandigarh-based International Mega Food Park Ltd for loss of Rs 40.17 crore to SIDBI, Bhopal-based Ranjeet Automobiles for loss of 34.36 crore to Bank of Baroda, Surat-based Jalpa Textiles Pvt Ltd for loss of Rs 28 crore to Bank of Baroda, they alleged.

Three FIRs pertaining to alleged irregularities in disbursal of housing loans in a Union Bank of India branch in Bhubaneswar were also registered by the agency in which senior bank officials have been named as accused.

The loans resulted in the loss of Rs 24.17 crore to the bank, the officials said, adding that searches were conducted at nine places in Odisha.

Patna ranks high on liquor raids across Bihar, low on recoveries

Source: hindustantimes.com

Is Patna the hot spot for liquor traders in dry Bihar? If the number of raids for illicit liquor is any indicator, it seems to be the prime spot on the radar of the police and the excise department, though in terms of recoveries it ranked way below many bordering districts.

Between April 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019, Patna alone witnessed 13,550 liquor-related raids, the highest in the state, involving registration of 3,872 cases and arrest of 1,566 persons, as per the official statistics of the excise department.

However, the recovery of Indian-made foreign liquor was 13,077 litres, while that of country liquor was just 535 litres. In the last two months of April and May, which coincided with peak election period, it recorded zero recovery of country liquor, though recovery of foreign liquor was 5,363 litres.

After Patna, the second highest number of liquor-related raids during the 14 months between April 2018 and May 2019 took place in Purnea. 7,311 raids were recorded, 394 cases were registered and 4,694 litres of IMFL was recovered.

In contrast, there have been districts like Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur, which have a nearly four-time higher recovery rate of foreign liquor, despite just one-fourth of raids. Similar is the case with other ‘high-yielding’ districts like Vaishali, Gaya, East Champaran, Rohtas, where recoveries of IMFL as well as country liquor were very high, despite fewer raids.

There is also huge inter-district variation in recoveries. If Jehanabad and Arwal show meagre recoveries of barely around 635 litres of IMFL in the last 14 months, including virtually zero during the last two election months, the neighbouring Gaya alone accounted for around 17,641 litres during the period. This was despite 4,308 raids in Arwal and Jehanabad, compared to just 1,831 in Gaya.

In some districts like Bhabua, Katihar, Vaishali, Saran, Samastipur, Saharsa, Purnea, Madhepura, Khagaria, Buxar, Bhojpur, Arwal the figures suggest growing proclivity for IMFL, with its high recoveries, despite virtually no recovery of country liquor and other local intoxicating drinks.

In the first Lok Sabha elections in dry Bihar, seizure of all kinds of liquor fell significantly to just 1 lakh litres compared around 5.78 lakh litres during 2014. However, IMFL still accounted for the highest share of recoveries, nearly 37% of the total during the April-May period.

Four districts – Begusarai, Gopalganj, Bhojpur and Patna – accounted for over 50% of the IMFL recoveries during the two election months. Another significant aspect is the growing recoveries of IMFL, compared to country liquor. In many districts, country liquor recovery has dipped significantly, while the more lucrative and high-risk IMFL trade continues to find favour.

Excise commissioner B Kartikey Dhanji said that the reason why districts like Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, East Champaran etc. had high recoveries was mainly attributed to big caches. “At the entry points, there are round-the-clock check posts. There are also main routes, where truckloads of liquor are intercepted,” he added.

SP (prohibition) Rakesh Kumar Sinha said that in Patna there were smaller recoveries in large numbers, generally meant for deliveries to clients. “So, the number of cases go up,” he added.

Give loan or get bullet: Bihar bankers face difficult choice

Source: indiatoday.in

Last Wednesday, when Milind Kumar Madhur, a 28-year-old assistant manager of Canara Bank, was stabbed to death by a gang on a running train in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district, the incident only served as a rude reminder about the risky conditions that bankers regularly face in Bihar.

Milind, who lived in Bettiah in East Champaran district, was returning from Gaya to Jamui by Gaya-Jamalpur passenger train after attending a meeting with the senior officials of the Canara Bank. The victim’s belongings including his wallet were found intact, which clearly indicated that the criminals were sent to kill the bank official. Police investigations are yet to yield significant breakthrough.

Incidentally, Milind is not the first Bihar-based bank official to have faced attacks. In October 2018, the police had recovered the body of Jaiwardhan, a branch manager of Regional Gramin Bank. His body was found floating in a Telaiya dam of Hazaribagh district in neighbouring Jharkhand.

In May 2018, Alok Chandra, Arwal branch manager for the Bank of Baroda, was shot dead. In July 2018, the police arrested six persons, including two-wheeler showroom owner for killing Alok Chandra. Chandra was killed because he objected to diversion of Rs 1.5 crore loan taken by the showroom owner Brajesh Kumar.

“Who wishes to refuse loan applications and get killed? Many managers have compromised after a reality check,” says a Punjab National Bank Branch Manager posted in Patna district. The manager carries a gun to his office; but he does not mind issuing loans as dictated by local strongmen.

“Every bank manager in a rural branch releases loans worth Rs 5 crore every year. The middlemen fetches you good money if you release according to their whims. You might get a bullet if you don’t. The choice is simple,” he says.

More than a decade ago, Bihar was known for its Gunda banks. Groups of thugs had then transformed local money-lending operation into an organised business to pocket exorbitant rates of interests. A marked improvement in law and order and lucrative earning opportunities in the shape of bank loans, later provided a safer and much attractive career shift to these goons.

Today, local strongmen, criminals and politicians double as loan facilitators. As a strategic move, these loan-mongers usually facilitate only Kisaan Credit Card (KCC) and other agriculture loans; the disbursal of which are a priority of both government and the banks and hardly anything is done to recover the amount.

“A majority of rural branches of various nationalised commercial banks in Bihar have become a double-edged sword that cuts the in-charge bank officer both ways—one can either follow the middlemen-and get cut money in return– or get thrashed or worse; killed for disobeying the local criminals,” said a retired Punjab National Bank manager in Patna.

The intermediaries have developed a vice-like grip on banks. They operate upfront-arranging or forging eligibility papers for the loan-seekers to making the bank manager release funds-while bagging a king’s ransom a large slice of take from each loan released.

As vested interests are involved in loan disbursal, recovery of loans in Bihar has left a lot to be desired in Bihar. A total of 580408 certificate cases were pending for disposal in Bihar as on December 31, 2018, which involve a total amount of Rs. 4069 crores.

“Rising NPAs, which have escalated from 9.39% as on March 31, 2017 to 10.6% as on March 31, 2018 and further to 12.35% on September 30, 2018, is a matter of concern,”,” said a senior member of State Level Bankers committee (SLBC) in Patna.

According to SLBC figures, against a total amount of loan of Rs 1,25,070 crore sanctioned till December 2018, Rs 14, 078 crore or 11.26% has turned out to be Non-performing assets for Banks in Bihar. As many as Rs 272 crore loan has been written off in Bihar.

Blazing India: Bihar’s poor slog and suffer the most

Source: downtoearth.org.in

Droughts, heatwaves and weak monsoons come and go every year. Some survive it and some don’t. But those who always bear the brunt of rising temperatures are the poor. Thousands of daily wage labourers in Bihar step out every day to be able to earn a meagre amount but the scorching sun is not letting them do that either. Unable to beat the heat, they work late hours and earn less.

The rising temperatures killed 78 people within 48 hours in Bihar’s Aurangabad, Gaya and Nawada districts, which are also facing a water crisis.

After hundreds of deaths, district magistrates of five Bihar districts, including the worst-hit Gaya, invoked Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to ban public activities during daytime.

While rains did lash Bihar last week, it could only provide temporary relief. Temperatures again rose to 41 to 42 degrees Celsius with high humidity. The India Meteorological Department’s Patna office again issued a heat wave alert.

“I was earning Rs 500-600 a day to dig up soil on contract basis, carry sand, bricks or stone chips. But the intense heat has forced us to reduce our working hours and got our earnings down to Rs 300-400 a day,” said Rajdeo Yadav, a daily wage labourer in Patna.

The hostile climate is forcing the poor to not take the risk of working during in the afternoon. “We have to take regular intervals to rest and escape the Sun. We don’t work between 12.30 pm and 3.30 pm,” added Yadav.

Farmers too are finding it tough to irrigate land. Manish Singh, a marginal farmer in drought-hit Jehanabad district, said rising mercury and no pre-monsoon showers have together left no moisture in the land to start the process of cultivation for Kharif season.

“We have not even begun preparing our land for paddy as the soil is rock-like owing to lack of moisture,” he said adding that the fear of another drought is haunting them all.

In the state capital Patna too, where temperatures are above 45°C, roadside vendors are severely hit.

“No customer shows up in the afternoon. There’s no sale, no business. We are totally dependent on the evening after the Sun sets,” said Nagender Kumar, a garment vendor who sits near Patna railway station.

The IMD recorded 45.8°C on June 15, the hottest day in the past 53 years.

Manoj Kumar, executive director of the state health society, said Bihar government issued an advisory asking people to avoid going out in the day and keep themselves hydrated.

It is an alarming sign that temperatures are rising and rainfall is decreasing every year, said Ranjeev, an environmental activist. “The heat is slowly putting more and more stress on farmers. They are dependent on water, but the prolonged heatwave has dried water bodies,” he said.

Postcard to Gaya: The killer heatwave revives memories of our faithful, much-loved Saifuddin

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

What connects me to a distant Bihari cluster where a heat wave claimed 61 lives last weekend? It’s a four generation debt of gratitude. Saifuddin has surfaced to my consciousness. He’s always been in its mothballed folds though he died nearly 26 years ago. How could he not be, considering that he came into our family just weeks   before I did, and went on to supervise the  passage to adulthood of my own two sons?  A callow village lad, he’d been recruited to serve my grandfather.

The dormant memories haemorrhaged my brain because one of those three reeling   districts had been implanted there since i was 12. Every month, Saifu would request, ‘Bachi-baba, pata likh dijiye’. And I’d neatly write the address on his postcard: Village Karanja, Post Jakhim, Dist Gaya, Bihar. But, as far as we were concerned, ours was his only home, and his devotion confirmed this. He had risen to Cook, but he was also our park-taker, school/ college lunch-bringer, earthy idiom-supplier: ‘Jiska bandar wohi nachayega’ he’d scoff at my clumsy onion-chopping. He even became my ‘dowry’.

Alarmed over domestic demands skewing my career, Dad despatched him on the Howrah Mail. My protests against such ‘apron strings’, quickly turned to daily thanksgiving for this talisman against perfidious Mumbai maids. Et al. Bawling No 1 Son would quieten as soon as Saifu took him in his arms. Through the boys’ acne and ecstasy, he filled in for Absentee Parents. He berated No 1’s girlfriends for phoning during his siesta, and No 2 for fussing over his clothes ( ‘Coallage jata, ke party mein?’ ). He was such a stabiliser that all fuses blew during his summer sojourn to  ‘muluk’,  and everyone lit up when he returned, darker,  thinner, but – so we liked to think – equally happy to be back.

We selfishly put off his retirement, but finally surendered to his real family. The sons he barely knew had gone off to jobs, and a male elder was needed to look after the left-behind wives in Village Karanja. We got a postcard of his passing a year later.  It was on No 1 Son’s 20th birthday, and now there was no Saifu to comfort his silent bawling.

The enablers: These changemakers are helping millions, breaking barriers

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Ramesh, a daily wage labourer from Gaya (Bihar) works in a brick kiln factory in Madhya Pradesh that is situated in a region that does not have any bank or ATM in its 10 km vicinity. As a result, he finds it extremely hard to obtain money, unless he decides to skip half a day’s work – just to visit the nearest bank branch.

A large section of the society has been bypassed by formal channels of banking and finance and most find it difficult to access or understand such services. It’s precisely in such scenarios wherein, a number of fintech players are now playing a crucial role in bridging the physical distance and the information asymmetry.

Payworld, one such digital-led finance player, targets a large number of individuals in the Bottom of the Pyramid (BTP) section of the society. Since 2006, Payworld has been operating with the idea of assisted ecommerce across the country, particularly in far-flung regions where access to many of the basic financial solutions is still few and far in between.

Clocking 200,000-250,000 transactions on a daily basis, enabled via its 200,000 retail points across the country, the platform’s existing basket of offerings include the most basic of utility services, such as domestic money remittance, mobile and DTH recharges, rail, air and bus reservation, insurance facilities, utility bill collections, digital wallets and cash withdrawal points.

Noteworthy is, that for facilitating these services, the enterprise does not charge anything from its customer, but instead charges various service providers that are on-board its platform. “Service providers such as insurance companies, investment portfolio companies give us a margin that we share with the retailer,” tells Praveen Dhabhai, the fintech’s COO

Fuelling entrepreneurship
One quite visible benefit of the unique modus operandi of the enterprise means that while taking the idea of assisted ecommerce to nation’s tier 2-3 regions, it has also produced thousands of new age entrepreneurs. This is evident from the fact that the company today boasts of more than 200,000 retail points across the country, thereby acting as a source of (additional) revenue for thousands of rural-based entrepreneurs.

As Dhabani puts it, “Since inception, the key motivation behind Payworld has been to facilitate an additional revenue stream for small shop owners, entrepreneurs and SMEs, besides accelerating their financial inclusion.”

The platform also provides Aadhaar enabled payment service to a large number of MSMEs, thereby addressing their working capital requirements – an acute problem for MSMEs based out of India’s hinterlands.

“Under our definition of assisted ecommerce, Payworld also facilitate SME’s loans. It also acts as a Composite Corporate Agent to provide small-ticket insurance solutions, besides facilitating various investment options in portfolios,” he adds.

Payworld says it is filling an important space where it did about 35 million transactions with 22 million unique customers last year. Dhabhani says using data analytics, the firm can even analyse if a customer coming for remittance is a good fit for loans (from various NBFCs on its platform), or if a would-be-borrower is a good potential for insurance schemes/mutual fund products too.

Shiprocket: Making business shipping easy
Shiprocket wants to drive efficiency in India’s ecommerce logistics by connecting online retailers with logistics providers along the supply chain. The digital platform aims at collaboratively connecting online retailers, logistics companies and consumers on an all-in-one platform. Boasting of a nationwide network, with 26,000 pin codes available for pickups, deliveries and cash-on-delivery (COD), Goel says that the platform’s core ..

Backed by business analytics to help sellers make informed decisions, the logistics aggregator currently has 15,000 sellers in its platform.

“We operate in the ecommerce enablement space. We are living in a time where on one end of the spectrum you may have housewives selling on WhatsApp, and on Instagram, and on the other, an SMB trader operating out of (say) Surat, who could be selling items directly via his own website. Shiprocket caters to the needs of both such individuals,” says Goel.

Cutting costs
Backed by data analytics and API integration solutions, Goel says that the aggregator can manage the entire shipping cycle of SMEs on one platform, leading to a significant reduction to their logistics costs.
Experts say, the Indian ecommerce space is in the nascent stage and requires protection from major foreign brands that have often been accused of violating competition norms and predatory pricing. Goel believes that his platform acts as a springboard f ..

Terming logistics costs as the biggest Achilles heel of small entrepreneurs, Goel says if a typical SMB today is selling an item worth Rs 600, then his logistics costs will be around Rs 200 – a significant 30% of the total amount of the order. Goel, thus believes, Indian SMBs are not able to compete with big etailers on the price front. Shiprocket wants to turnaround the situation for them.

“What we bring is that we a similar cost structure and a similar technology that the global players boast of – at a much lower rate, without compromising on the consumer experience, thereby helping Indian SMEs reach a level playing field,” he adds.

ShopX: offering unique solutions for a unique India
Useful to MSMEs, Nandan Nilekani-backed ShopX is an omnichannel retail operating platform that acts as a hub for connecting brands, retailers, and consumers – all at one place.

As aspirations rise across India, consumers in smaller towns and cities want to purchase brands considered desirable. However, for major brands selling in Tier 2 and 3 towns is a costly proposition, which means local shopkeepers often miss out on what consumer want. The startup aims to connect thousand of mom-and-pop shop owners with FMCG brands directly. Through a digital catalogue, small retailers spread across India can directly order from brands like Unilever, L’oreal and even Apple. ShopX h ..

With more than one lakh retailers across the country signed up on its shop network, the business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce platform claims to execute $400 million of annualised business. The startup claims to manage over 50,000 transactions per day and power a deeply integrated supply chain.

“We realised that India is different. It’s neither the US nor China and needs its own principles-based answers. We observed that India has a beautiful and widespread network of small merchants across the country, and by digitising them, we can create something akin to an Uber for retail – a shared economy model which utilises pre-existing infrastructure,” says Sharma.

While holding the view that the main mechanism of organising retail in the future will neither be the large format retail paradigm, nor the traditional B2C ecommerce model, he opines that although both of the before-mentioned models have been heavily funded, they together still amounted to less than 10% of retail.

Sharma believes that when one extends the concept of how traditional retail works for the benefit of ecommerce players, the outcome is a model where customer specific customisation is lost. Citing an anomaly in the existing e-retailing framework, he goes on to highlight how a customer logging in from Bangalore on a cold December morning can see the same sweatshirts as someone logging in from a far colder Delhi.

“At ShopX, our omnichannel strategy focusses on customisation, localisation and personalisation. We ensure that every retailer gets a unique view of the merchandise on offer from brands. Present in over 300 towns across India, our technology platform ensures that a Kirana owner in South Bangalore gets to see a different range of products and offers from a Kirana store in Belgaum,” elaborates Sharma.

The founder also cites ‘discoverability’ as their other USP, saying this differentiator allows shoppers to discover the best prices and products available in their vicinity and connect with retailers digitally. The startup has a consumer facing app for this. It has also recently acquired two entities – GabbarDeals and PriceMap. The founding duo believes that with these moves, they have simplified the buying and selling experience for retailers, besides making it easier for consumers to shop.

Maintaining that ShopX has been able to add more than 15,000 retailers to its network each month in recent times, Sharma adds that the startup is targeting one million small retailers to enable ordering, delivery, returns and customer servicing for 400 million consumers. “We are targeting a billion-dollar scale within the next 12 months.”

India’s Politicians Have Turned the Anti-Defection Law on Its Head

Source: thewire.in

The political class made a commitment when parliament passed the tenth schedule of the constitution, popularly known as the anti-defection law, to maintain the integrity and stability of the party system. Their whole-hearted support to the constitution (52nd amendment ) Bill which incorporated the tenth schedule in the constitution signified that commitment.

Thirty-four years later, that commitment seems to hold no value. Elected representatives are very much engaged in familiar party-hopping tactics. The mass exodus of MLAs from the vanquished Congress to victorious parties shows that they have no respect for the anti-defection law.

Earlier, the ‘aaya Ram, gaya Ram‘ phenomenon had created an alarming level of political instability. Governments fell frequently as elected representatives exercises their ‘freedom of movement’ a little too literally.

Now, a new phenomenon is at play. MLAs, corporators etc. belonging to defeated parties have started migrating in large number to winning parties. This means parties that lose elections are all but wiped out of legislative bodies. Top leaders from victorious parties openly encourage representatives of defeated parties to defect.

Defection is a politically immoral act, and the anti-defection law ought to have stamped it out. If people have chosen a representative from one party, she has no moral or legal right to defect to another party during her tenure. The tenth schedule disqualifies such representatives, and their legislature membership is terminated. Nevertheless, defection continue. People defect in groups and thus defeat the law.

The latest case is of 12 MLAs from the Congress party “merging” with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the ruling party in Telangana. News reports suggest that groups of MLAs from the Congress in Congress-ruled states are also getting ready to move over to the BJP.

These legislators would do well to pause and take a hard look at the provisions of the anti-defection law. If they do that, they will realise that their actions will most certainly land them in serious trouble. At the moment, they happily believe that if out of 18 MLAs, 12 go over and merge with the ruling party, they will be safe. According to them, if two-thirds of the legislators merge with another party, it does not amount to defection.

Clearly, they do not fully understand the law. Para 4 of the tenth schedule makes three points:

  1. The original political party should merge with another party.
  2. As a result, not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party merge with that party.
  3. The merger becomes legally recognisable only when two-thirds of the members of the legislature party also merge with the other party.

In other words, as per para 4 of the tenth schedule, a merger can be legally recognised only when the original party merges with another party, and not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party agree to such a merger. So even if two-thirds of the members of the legislature party decide to merge, there would be no merger under para 4 if the original political party does not merge with another party. Thus, in the absence of a merger of the original political party with another party, the merger of the legislators has no legal validity. Hence they will be termed defectors and held liable to be disqualified.

Legislators would do well to understand that the anti-defection law was enacted not to facilitate their defection but to prevent it. Lawmakers have taken care to punish individual defectors, while at the same time protect legislators who act in tandem with their original political party when it merges with another party.

The tenth schedule, as it was originally enacted, contained a provision to protect legislators when an original party splits and one-third of the legislators form another group. This was deleted later when it was found that this provision was being abused by politicians.

An important point needs to be made here. The basic object of the tenth schedule is to prevent defection and thereby protect the stability of the party system as well as of established governments. When we analyse para 3 (now deleted) and para 4, this becomes clear. Para 3 dealt with the split in the original political party and para 4 deals with merger by the original party. In both cases, it is the original political party which initiates the action.

Any unilateral action by legislators, singly or in a group, is always treated as defection. Only if the original party takes the plunge do legislators get protection. Thus, the law says legislators should not abandon their party once they are elected on its ticket unless the party itself decides to merge with another party.

The recent spate of defections in various state legislatures recently shows that defector legislators are under the impression that it is enough to mobilise two-thirds of the members of the legislature party and merge with the ruling party. In this context, the Supreme Court judgment in Rajendra Singh Rana vs Swami Prasad Maurya (2007) is very instructive. Although this case dealt with the split in the legislature party, its ratio applies to a case of merger as well. The court says, “Those who have left the party will have prima facie to show by relevant materials that there has been a split in the original party.”

Similarly, in Jagjit Singh vs State of Haryana as well, the Supreme Court said that the split in the original party is a precondition for recognising a split in the legislature party. The Rajender Singh Rana case was decided by a five-judge constitution bench, which in fact upheld the proposition laid down in Jagjit Singh. The ratio of these decisions apply to a case of merger also.

What happened in Telangana

In Telangana, 12 of the 18 Congress MLAs have merged with the ruling party in the state, the TRS. This merger was endorsed by the chief minister and accepted by the speaker. The defecting Congress MLAs thus instantly became TRS members.

Two points need to be made in this context.

One, para 4 of the tenth schedule says that the original political party should merge with another party first. This would mean that the Congress party should merge with the TRS before these 12 MLAs can merge with that party. But there is no evidence that the Congress party has merged with the TRS. Therefore, there is no legally recognisable merger in Telangana.

Further, the decision to merge with the TRS needs to be taken by the All India Congress Committee and not the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee. The Jagjit Singh judgment says, “In case a member is put up by a national party it is a split in that party which is relevant and not a split in that party at the state level.”

Second, media reports say that the speaker has accepted the merger and recognised the defecting MLAs as TRS members.

Under the tenth schedule, the speaker gets jurisdiction to act only when a petition is presented to him under para 6 of the schedule. No such petition seems to have been filed by the Congress party. So the act of the speaker accepting the merger is without jurisdiction, and hence does not count.

The Rajendra Singh Rana judgment says, “Under the 10th schedule the speaker is not expected to simply entertain a claim under para 3 and 4 of the schedule without first acquiring jurisdiction to decide a question of disqualification in terms of the para 6 of the schedule. …The power under the 10th schedule to do so accrues to him only when he is called upon to decide the question referred to him in para 6 of that schedule.”

On the basis of this analysis, it becomes clear that the merger of the 12 Congress MLAs in Telangana is not recognised by law. The speaker’s decision to accept the merger seems to be an act without jurisdiction, and is therefore not sustainable. The result is that these 12 MLAs are liable to be disqualified under para 2 (1)(a) of the tenth schedule, on the grounds that they have voluntarily given up membership of the Congress party.

Nigeria: How Lawan, Gbajabiamila Emerged National Assembly Leaders

Source: allafrica.com/

By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Adamu Abuh, Terhemba Daka and Segun Olaniyi

Abuja — Weeks of campaign, political intrigues and horse-trading at the upper legislative chamber climaxed yesterday with the election of Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan and Ovie Omo-Agege as Senate president and deputy Senate president.Leaving nothing to chance, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had ensured the event was preceded by a series of powerful meetings where battle strategies were mapped.

While the PDP adopted Mohammed Ali Ndume, hoping to checkmate the presidency’s alleged bid to pocket the National Assembly, the APC stockpiled its arsenal at ‘Fort Lawan’.Tension became highly stoked late Monday when an ‘Abuja court order’ suddenly emerged, threatening to down the hopes of lawmakers who banked on secret balloting. According to the document, the Senate standing rule of 2015 must be jettisoned for an open ballot method.

Anxiety went a notch further when the clerk of the National Assembly, Mohammed Ataba Sani Omolori, charged with conducting the election, was nowhere in sight while Ndume had already arrived at the chamber as early as 7:00 a.m. Ndume was followed by a candidate for the deputy senate president position, Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano), who vowed to sustain his contest against Omo-Agege, the APC’s anointed candidate.

Gaya denied knowledge of the court order, saying that until proper information came through the right sources, he remained invulnerable to the pronouncement.The arrival of some APC governors and APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole left observers puzzled. News immediately began to fly that they had come to influence some aspirants to drop their ambitions for the party’s preferred candidates. This insinuation appeared credible as Gaya and another contestant, Francis Alimikhena, suddenly laid down their arms.

At 10:00 a.m., Omolori entered the chamber, announcing that he had received President Muhammadu Buhari’s proclamation of the Ninth National Assembly and declaring that the only business for the day would be the elections of the president of the Senate and his deputy.He told the lawmakers that the elections would be in strict compliance with Senate Standing Rule 2015, which permitted the use of secret ballot.

An uproar followed, with some senators including Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano State) objecting to the voting method and drawing the clerk’s attention to the court order. But others responded with shouts of “No court order! No! No!”The uproar continued for three minutes until Omolori restored order, warning he would not tolerate unruly conduct. He maintained that there was no court order served on him, and if there were any, he would not regard it.

Omo-Agege’s win might indicate the lawmakers ignored his alleged roles in the April 2018 snatching of the Senate Mace.Moments after the elections, Ndume addressed a press conference where he promised to work with Lawan. “Ahmed Lawan is my brother who is well experienced, having been here four years ahead of me. I will give him all the necessary support. I insisted on contesting against him in order to deepen democracy,” he said.

The bid by deputy Senate president of the Eighth Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, to seek re-election surprised many, as he had held the position consecutively for 12 years. A statement signed by his media adviser, Uche Anichukwu, congratulated Lawan and Omo-Agege, noting: “I have made my point and my colleagues have made their choice. It is now for us all to join hands across all divides to work for the success of the Ninth Senate and National Assembly as well as the peace and prosperity of our nation.”

While delivering his remarks at the end of the inauguration of the Ninth Senate, Lawan said his leadership would do justice to all. “Today means so many things. It is the commencement of another decade of our democracy and we will work to ensure best global parliamentary practices,” he promised, urging the support of his colleagues.

“We will not settle for anything less than the best. We will dream big, aim high and take good initiatives,” he added.

At the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila emerged Speaker, having polled 283 votes to defeat his lone challenger, Mohammed Umar Bago who had 76 votes. His deputy, Idris Ahmed Wase (APC, Plateau State) was returned unopposed.

Buhari meanwhile has congratulated the newly elected officers.In a statement by his special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, yesterday, the president also commended the legislature for its patriotism and non-partisanship before and during the election. He described the fair conduct of the exercise as a plus for the nation’s democracy. He said the emergence of the new leaders is “a new dawn, different from duplicity and perfidy of the immediate past.” He further charged the winners to use their positions for the greater interest of the country.

He stated: “The Executive does not desire a rubber stamp Legislature. While separation of powers is essential, collaboration among all arms of government should be the name of the game. Opposition need not be virulent.”Stepping into the Next Level, the Legislature has a big role to play for the goals of the administration to be achieved. This is for the ultimate good of the nation. At the end of the day, we, the people, who elected our representatives at the national level, are the winners.”

This was as the group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) cautioned Lawan to defend the Nigerian Constitution and uphold the principles of separation of power.It also warned the senate president not to allow any third term gambit by Buhari, saying the country would collapse if any attempt were made to undermine tenure limitation.

In a statement by National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko, the rights body said its “best advice to the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, is to stick to the constitutional norms and pristine provision that guarantees separation of power encompassed in Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the 1999 constitution.”


NIRDPR unveils programme to mitigate climate change impact

Source: thehansindia.com

Hyderabad: The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) has launched an initiative to improve the adaptive capacity of the rural poor engaged in agriculture-based livelihoods to cope with climate change. Giving details of the initiative, NIRDPR Director-General W R Reddy said the programme is first of its kind in the country. It would cover as many as 638 drought and flood-prone villages in Mandla and Sheopur districts in Madhya Pradesh, and Gaya and Madhubani districts in Bihar under National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

All these villages are either drought-prone or flood-prone. Later, the project would be extended throughout the country, he added. The main focus of it is to establish a large-scale proof of concept on integrating community-based climate change planning and adaptation by working with climate-smart Community Resource Persons (CRPs) and National Resource Persons (NRPs), he said.

A training manual for the initiative ‘Sustainable Livelihoods and Adaptation to Climate Change (SLACC)’ Certificate Course was released during the first Training Program for Community Resource Persons (CRPs) organised at the NIRDPR Campus in Hyderabad recently. The aim of the course is to train a cadre of Climate Smart Community Resource Persons who are expected to disseminate the practice of sustainable livelihoods through adaptation to climate change. The programme would strengthen the skill sets of resource persons at the national and grass-roots level.

Further, the SLACC would create a cadre of over 200 certified ‘climate-smart’ Community Resource Persons and over 100 Young Professionals in villages, he said. In turn, they would combat the impact of climate change and secure their livelihood through climate proof planning and adaptations.

The cadre would further disseminate the climate resilient technologies to the farming communities in their respective allocated villages, as assigned by the State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) staff. Dr Reddy said, “Climate change is a new and significant challenge to the disadvantaged population as it could affect the yield and income of small and marginal farmers, especially in rainfed farms.

Further, the initiative has in all prioritised 23 technology interventions for farm level activities for climate resilience. They aim to reduce the cost of cultivation, improve yield and income, profitability, empower women and generate employment. Various experts and agencies such as SRLM, KVK, Central Institute of Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad have contributed significantly to the training efforts.

Dr Ravindra S. Gavali, Course Co-ordinator and Head, Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Mitigation, NIRDPR said, totally, 200 CRPs would be trained in 5 batches through a certificate course and each batch consists of 40 CRPs.


Bihar to waive off 50 per cent taxes levied on e-rickshawas

Source: newindianexpress.com

PATNA: Alarmed at growing rate of  pollution, the state government’s seven departments have collectively prepared an integrated action plan to tame the menace of pollution in Patna and other cities.

According to a survey report of WHO, Bihar’s three cities namely Patna, Gaya and Muzaffarpur have been found to be among the most 20 polluted cities of world.

Speaking at a world environment day function on Wednesday evening, deputy chief minister of state Sushil Kumar Modi said that all possible steps are being taken to check the pollution in cities growing at an alarming rate.

“In a move to beat air pollution,the government has decided to waive 50% of total taxes levied on the purchase and running of battery-propelled e-rickshawas”, he said.

He further claimed that arrangements have been made to check the pollution emission from vehicles at over 500 fuel refilling centres in addition to run eco-friendly electric buses.

“On 45 fuel-refiling centres in Patna alone, arrangement has been made to issue online pollution check certificates in order to down the level of pollution”he said, adding that state government was committed to control the pollution through awarness among vehicle users and systems.