usa : united states of andhra

the telengana issue has thrown up a new challenge in administration and law & order maintenance. will a new state really solve the problem? someone should try to base their argument on the current status of newly created states like jharkhand, uttarkhand, chhatisgarh etc. did the state creation solve the issues of poverty and unemployment? are the people living a much better life after partition? i dont think so.

before we hastily create telengana, we should ponder over the above questions. one of my concerns in this scenario is the location of hyderabad. which state would not want to get a piece of it? all of them want to grab the IT hub because thats the hand that feeds andhra, and not many have realized that. apart from the historical significance, hyderabad also provides a part of the ancient myth and old world charm of an ancient city dipped in history and architecture.

if hyderabad is split, it will lose the soul. if its wholly given to one state then that would be unfair. what about other jewels of andhra? who is claiming to keep sania mirza, saina nehwal, vvs laxman, pullela gopichand, chiranjeevi etc. the conceited politicians are only thinking of the land, but not the people.

this is the right time for NRI’s to jump in and save andhra. we all know that andhraites form a big chunk of the population in USA and they have the clout. they need to step-in and say that they want ‘united states of andhra’. they should come together on a forum and appeal to the people before its too late. wake up guys, don’t let this happen.

bharatiya ‘jinnah’ party

first it was lk advani and now jaswant singh. and while lk advani was saved, jaswant was forcibly partitioned from bjp. what an irony!

lk advani was spared when he eulogised jinnah and called him secular, only because he was the raison d’etre of bjp. but jaswant singh has neither strong ties with any senior party leaders, nor the backing and background; he was unceremoniously dumped.

its not the expulsion that has to be questioned, but the manner in which it was done. a senior party member like jaswant singh was informed over a phone call of his removalfrom party posts. how embarassing is that! for a man who served the part for 30 yrs and was one of the founding members of the party, this was totally uncalled for. he deserved a personal visit and needed to be personally told about the gravity of the situation.

what’s more surprising is that, congress should have been the party which should trash the book and denounce the research. the book is more a criticism of cong and its handling of partition than jinnah. but bjp has the habit of axing its own feet. so, not only did they dislodge jaswant singh, the book has been banned in gujarat.

Hillary Clinton Should Be Frisked By Air-India Staff

While Hillary Clinton is visiting India to strengthen ties of the two countries, someone is playing spoilsport. Very unintentionally though.

In the wake of Continental Airlines frisking our ex-President APJ Kalam, I guess even the security of Air-India should frisk her on her way back. Alas, this shall not happen as she does not travel by AI, but yet.

Continental Airlines’ staff were totally ignorant about the protocol and inspite of repeated telling that APJ Kalam was a dignitary and ex-Prez of India, he was frisked. What’s worse, they are unapologetic about it.

I hope the Govt Of India takes up this issue with USA and make sure that the entire country apologises for this faux-pas. This arrogant and bullying attitude of USA is not doing anybody any good. Hope they realise it soon. Anyways, all I wish is for an apology from the country, not just the damn airlines.

Update on 22/7/2009: Continental Airlines apologised after GOI offically lodged a complaint against them.

Hillary Clinton Lands In Mumbai

Late last night Hillary Clinton landed in Mumbai amidst heavy downpour. She is on a 5-day visit to India to strengthen the Indo-US relationship.

She would be staying in Hotel Taj to show her solidarity with the people of Mumbai and do her bit to reduce the pain of the 26/11 attacks. She will be in the city till Sunday, and her next stop would be Delhi.

The agenda for today is a corporate event hosted by Ratan Tata. And later in the day she will be taking part in an event in Xavier’s College along with Aamir Khan.

if mayawati were to be raped …

if a dalit woman is raped, she gets a compensation of 25000 rupees; if mayawati were to be raped, should she be given one crore rupeees as compensation … this may not have been the exact sentence what ritu bahuguna joshi, the cong chief of UP said, but it was to the same effect. and this led to the rampage of BSP members who burnt down her house, hounded her and she was finally arrested in a late night drama.

what joshi said is appalling, but nevertheless its a correct call. she could have put it more astutely and her choice of words could have been better, but the logic still holds good. the statement is not anti-dalit, its anti-women for sure.

the psychosis that mayawati has created about herself, giving more importance to herself than the social sector who has brought her to power. instead of working for the dalits, she has been going about with a halo around her head. someone needs to tell her that elephants and statues are not going to bring prosperity to UP, her programs and actions can, if she were to implement them.

and whenever anyone criticizes her, she shields herself with the proverbial ‘dalit ki beti being harassed’ remark. its high time people of UP woke up from their slumber and vote those people to power who can alleviate their living conditions.

Inidan Military Parade In France’s Bastille Day Celebrations

July 14th, 2009 is a historical day for India. As France celebrated the Bastille Day, Indian Navy, Army and Airforce troops, 400 in all, marched proudly. The Maratha regiment lead the march as the 90 member band played on with much pride and glee.

Not just that, Indian PM Manmohan Singh was the guest-of-honor. This was France’s way of telling how close India is to them. A memorandum issued from French office read: India has a primary role on the international scene and we support India’s candidacy to become a UN Security Council permanent member.

This is one of the most celebrated days of France and India’s presence here will send out a great signal to the larger world community of India’s growing dominance in all respect – education, military and warfare, entertainment etc.

This is a step in the right direction and one of the achievements for the Cong led UPA government. Lets raise a toast for this date with history.

Delhi Metro Bridge Collapses, 5 Killed; Sreedharan Resigns

Around 5am this morning, Delhi woke up to the news of a part of the Delhi Metro Bridge collapsing, in which 1 engineer and 4 other laborers were killed and 15 others injured.

This happened very close to Lady Sriram College where a pillar was being erected and it gave way under immense weight. This is the second such incident in last 8 months.

Taking moral responsibility for the mishap, the Managing Director of Delhi Metro Corporation, Sreedharan, sent his resignation to CM Sheila Dixit.

While his intentions are honest, I sincerely feel that the resignation should not be accepted. First of all, he was not directly involved with this incident. Secondly, he has been doing a good job. A project of such proportions require honest people like Sreedharan. While we see what’s been happening with Mayawati and her statue-fixation in UP, this moral responsibility claimant deserves an applause.

He should be re-instated and be given full support for the wonderful work that he has been doing. An investigation should be launched to find out where the problem lies. Was it with the pillar strength or the material used or some other technical snag? That needs to be found out and corrected. Let’s hope the injured ones recover soon and the project continues to a successful completion.

Union Budget By Pranab Mukherjee

Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget today, for the year 2009-10. Some of the highlights from the budget are:

* GDP growth dipped to 6.7% in FY’09

* Fiscal deficit up from 2.7% to 6.8% of GDP

* ‘Aam aadmi’ is focus of all programmes and schemes

* IT exemption limit raised; Rs 15,000 for Sr.citizens

* Limit raised by Rs 10,000 for tax payers, including women

* 10% surcharge on personal income tax scrapped

* Fringe Benefit Tax abolished

* No change in corporate tax

* Defence gets Rs 1,41,703 cr, up 34%

* Total fiscal stimulus in 2008-09 amounts to Rs 1,86,000 cr

* IIFCL to evolve mechanism for increased funding of infra

* IIFCL to re-finance commercial bank loans up to 60 per cent in critical projects through PPP to tune of Rs 1,00,000 cr

* Allocations for highways being stepped up by 23 per cent

* Funds for housing, amenities for urban poor up Rs 3,973 cr

* Funds for JN Urban Renewal Mission up 87% to Rs 12,887 cr

* Assistance for storm-water drainage project up by Rs 300 cr

* Farm credit target up at Rs 3,25,000 cr from Rs 2,87,000 cr

* Interest rates incentive to farmers to repay loans on time

* Additional Rs 1,000 crore for accelerated irrigation scheme

* Export Credit Guarantee scheme extended till March 2010 * 2% interest subvention (IS) scheme extended till March 2010

* IS scheme to cover 7 job-oriented sectors, including textile, handicrafts and handlooms.

* Commodity Transaction Tax abolished

* New pension system trust exempted from STT; DDT

* Minimum Alternate Tax hiked to 15% from 10%

* Tax holiday on petro sector extended to natural gas

* 100% tax deduction on political donation

* Stimulus for print media for another six months * Fertiliser subsidy to be nutrient-based, not price

* Expert Grp to form viable pricing for imported petro goods

* Banks and insurance firms to remain in public sector

* Rs 100 cr one-time grant to expand banks in unbanked areas

* Govt committed to provide Rs.100 a day as wages under NREGA

* Allocation of Rs 39,100 cr to be made for NREGA

* NREGA coverage increased to 4.74 crore households in FY’09

* Work National Food Security scheme has begun

* Allocation for Bharat Nirman being raised by 45 per cent

* Rs 2,000 cr rural housing fund under National Housing Bank

* Mission for female literacy with focus on minorities, SC/ST

* 50% of all rural women to be brought into SHG programmes

* Full interest subsidy for students in select institutions

* Five lakh students to benefit

* Modernisation of national exployment exchanges

* Action for social security to unorganised sector workers

* New pension benefits for 12 lakh jawans and JCOs from July

* One lakh dwelling units for paramilitary forces personnel

* Unique Identification Card to citizens in 12-18 months

* Provision of Rs 120 crore for UIC project

* Rs 2,113 crore allocated for IITs and new IITs

* Rs 3472 cr for Commonwealth Games from Rs 2112 cr

* Customs, excise and service tax base rates unchanged

* For Indira Awas Yojana, allocation increased 63%

* IT returns to be made simpler

* 8 missions being launched under Plan on climate change

* Allocation for market development assistance scheme up 148%

* Allocation for Rural Health Mission raised by Rs 257 cr above interim budget

* Rs 500 cr for rehabilitation of Sri Lankan Tamils

* Rs 1,000 cr for infrastructure in cyclone-hit area in WB

* Total expenditure crosses Rs 10 lakh cr for first time

* Share of direct taxes in revenue increased to 56% in FY’09

Railway Budget By Mamta Bannerjee

After 5 long years, somebody other than Lalu Yadav has presented the Railway Budget. Mamta Bannerjee did so, today in the Parliament’s Budget Session. She presented a host of sops as well as some economic-driven budgeting. Here are the key highlights:

• No hike in freight rates
• No increase in passenger fares across classes
• Tatkal scheme to be reduced from 5 days to 2 days
• 12 new ‘Duronto’ AC sleeper trains between major metros

1. New Delhi-Jammu Tawi (tri-weekly)
2. Howrah-Mumbai AC (bi-weekly)
3. Mumbai-Ahmedabad AC (tri-weekly)
4. Chennai-Delhi (bi-weekly)
5. New Delhi-Lucknow (tri-weekly)
6. Delhi-Pune AC (bi-weekly)
7. Howrah-Delhi (bi-weekly)
8. New Delhi-Allahabad (tri-weekly)
9. Sealdah-New Delhi (bi-weekly)
10. Kolkata-Amritsar (bi-weekly)
11. Bhubaneshwar-Delhi (weekly)
12. Ernakulam-Delhi (weekly)

• Non-stop AC ‘Durant’ trains to be introduced
• 1000 MW power plant with NTPC on Bengal-Jharkhand border
• Kolkata Metro to get more extensions
• Ladies Special to be extended to Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi
• Metro concession in Kolkata to minority students
• Press correspondents to get 50% concession
• Cold storage facilities for farmers to store produce
• New scheme called ‘Izzat’ for low-income monthly travel where a monthly pass of Rs.25/- will be issue to travel upto 100kms
• New coach factory to be set up in Kanchrapara in Bengal
• Mega logistics hubs in Eastern and Western corridor
• Launch of premium parcel service between 3 stations
• New policy to allow private freight terminal
• Railways to lease out land for commercial purposes
• Special recruitment drive to fill up physically challenged posts
• Metro Rail Hospital in Tollygunj to be upgraded
• Hospitals to be developed for railway staff
• Colleges on railway land through public-private partnership
• Girl child scholarship for Group B Railway employees
• To increase number of women commandos in key routes
• Ramps, special bogeys for physically challenged passengers
• To introduce double-decker AC coaches for inter-city travel
• Passengers can buy tickets from Post Offices
• SMS update on waitlisted tickets
• Automatic ticket vending machines in 200 stations
• Ticketing services in 200 new towns and cities
• Infotainment services in Rajdhani, Shatabdi
• 49 stations of religious importance to be upgraded
• To introduce ambulance facilities in long-distance trains
• Depute one doctor in long-distance trains
• Specially designed coaches for handicapped passengers
• Book stores, PCOs to be set up across stations
• Multi-functional complexes for railway users at stations
• Toilet facilities for women at stations
• Public-private partnership to develop stations
• 309 out of 370 stations identified for development
• CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Howrah, Sealdah to be developed
• Develop 50 stations as world-class
• To lay stress on platform and train security, catering
• Expert committee on socially unviable projects to be set up

All in all, looks like a good populist budget that will make everyone happy.

cm’s yesterday, cm’s today

manmohan singh’s cabinet has taken a long time to come. and guess whom we see in the ministeries??? all ex-chief ministers are now cabinet minsters.

here’s a small list of such people:
sm krishna
veerappa moily
virbhadra singh
vilas rao deshmukh
farooq abdullah
sharad pawar
ghulam nabi azad
sushil kumar shinde
ak anthony
vayalar ravi

they are senior leaders and have served the party well. and their cm tenure should have been more than enough. why make them cabinet ministers? they were cm’s yesterday, they are cm’s today