Central Government « Development news of orissa and India

EC makes strong pitch for financial autonomy

March 16, 2012 — IMC

The Election Commission on Thursday made a strong pitch for financial autonomy on the lines granted to constitutional bodies like the Supreme Court and the CAG, saying the dependence on the government could lead to conflict of interest.

“We want the budget of the Election Commission to be charged through the Consolidated Fund of India and not voted through Parliament,” Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said while speaking at a discussion on electoral reforms organised by the Aspen Institute.

He said, “Any dependence on the government for anything…and they may ask for a price and that is where the conflict (can) start because we will not pay any price because we value our independence and will guard it to the last drop of our blood.”

Quraishi’s remarks came in the backdrop of verbal skirmishes between ministers and the Commission in the run up to the UP assembly elections.

“We are going after politicians all the time and they will be then sitting in judgement and torpedo our proposals. It’s a happy thing that they have not damaged us so far”.

“The Supreme Court gets it directly from consolidated fund, the CAG’s funds come from consolidated fund, that of UPSC comes from consolidated fund. I don’t know why the Election Commission was kept out of this,” Quraishi said.

Apart from the funding, the CEC also sought an independent secretariat for the Commission.

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Rehabilitation Package for Displaced Persons

March 16, 2012 — IMC

The land acquisition for National Highways is done under the provisions of the National Highways Act, 1956 which involves due consultation with the stake holders as per the provisions of the Act. Highways are linear projects that involve widening of existing roads and opening of new road for bypasses, and have a long and narrow corridor of impact. The linear acquisition of land results in minimal displacement of families and loss of livelihood. On the other hand, development of highways results in the socio-economic development of the area, ultimately benefiting the local population.

Relevant provisions of National Policy on Rehabilitation and Resettlement, 2007 in relation to Land Acquisition of National Highways provides that in case of linear acquisitions, in projects relating to railway lines, highways, transmission lines, laying of pipelines and other such projects wherein only a narrow stretch of land is acquired for the purpose of the project is utilized for right of ways, each khatedar in the affected family shall be offered by the acquiring body an ex-gratia payment of such amount as the appropriate Government may decide but not less than twenty thousand rupees, in addition to the compensation or any other benefits due under the Act or programme or scheme under which the land, house or other property is acquired. Provided that, if as a result of such land acquisition, the land-holder becomes landless or is reduced to the status of a ‘small’ or ‘marginal’ farmer, other rehabilitation and resettlement benefits available under this policy shall also be extended to such affected family.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Road Transport and Highways Shri Jitin Prasada, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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Baby Falak dies at AIIMS

March 16, 2012 — IMC

Two-year-old battered baby Falak, whose harrowing ordeal shocked the country, died at AIIMS last night following a cardiac arrest after fighting a grim 58-day battle for life.

The abandoned child, who was admitted to the AIIMS on 18^th January with severe head injuries, broken arms, bite marks all over her body and cheeks branded with hot iron, breathed her last at 9.40 PM, doctors said.

“It was unexpected. She was fit to be discharged. All of a sudden, she had a cardiac arrest at nine and we tried to revive her. But then she gave up at around 9.40 PM,” said Deepak Agrawal, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the AIIMS Trauma Centre who has been attending on her from the day she was admitted there.

During her treatment earlier, she had contracted meningitis and underwent five surgeries and had also suffered two heart attacks.

“But she had survived all this and had recovered well,” Agrawal said. “She was doing well. We removed her from the ICU and shifted her to the ward after we found that she had recovered well.

The whole day she used to spend time playing with the nurses at the hospital.

“All of a sudden she had a cardiac arrest. Since she is a medico-legal case, we will conduct a post-mortem tomorrow,” Agrawal said.

The child was brought to the hospital by a teenaged girl, who had falsely claimed to be her mother.

Investigations revealed the shocking story of Falak, her two siblings and their mother who were all separated after falling victim to human traffickers.

Falak’s mother Munni was tricked into a second marriage by three women out of whom two — Laxmi and Kanta Choudhry — were arrested.

The trio had promised that her three children will be taken care of but they were left to different people.

Ten people were arrested in the case, including the man who had abandoned the child with his teenaged girlfriend.

Police traced Falak’s five-year-old brother from the house of a vendor in West Delhi’s Uttam Nagar locality while her sister Sanobar was traced by Delhi Police to Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

On 15^th Februray, Falak was reunited with her 22-year-old mother Munni, who was married to a man in Rajasthan.

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Odisha CM favours strong Lokpal

December 29, 2011 — IMC

Bhubaneswar: Advocating a strong Lokpal in the country, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said that his government was committed to amending the existing law to make an effective Lokayukta in the state.

We are in favour of a strong Lokpal, and also an effective Lokayukta at the state level and shall take steps to amend the present law after the panchayat elections, Patnaik told reporters here.

Stating that the BJD’s stand on the Lokpal Bill had been made clear in the Lok Sabha yesterday, he said that as far as CBI is concerned, the anti-corruption wing of the agency should come under the Lokpal.

On allegation by opposition Congress that the BJD government was suppressing the state Lokayukta’s reports on Vedanta University, Patnaik claimed that a number of pending special reports had so far been cleared in the state cabinet.

We’ll bring rest of the Lokpal’s special reports to the cabinet shortly and then place them before the assembly as per procedure, he said.

Stating that he was very concerned over the health of Anna Hazare, the chief minister hoped early recovery of the Gandhian leader.

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Odisha floods: Centre sanctions Rs 918 cr

December 29, 2011 — IMC

Bhubaneswar: The Centre on Wednesday sanctioned Rs 918.30 crore as flood assistance to Odisha besides agreeing to bear the expenses incurred towards air-dropping of food materials during relief operations in the state.

However, chief minister Naveen Patnaik smelt a rat from the point of timing of the announcement.

Though the Centre has provided the highest-ever amount as flood assistance, it will certainly help in the reconstruction activities in the flood-affected areas which the state government has already began, he said.

However, he was critical over the timing of release of the funds, stating that there is a smell of panchayat elections.

On the other hand, the Congress came down heavily on the chief minister for not expressing his thanks to the Centre for releasing the highest-ever flood assistance to Odisha.

Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh asked the chief minister to see that the funds were not used as BJD election expenditure, while urging the people to remain vigilant.

Instead of remaining obliged for the assistance, the chief minister saw motive behind the release of funds, Singh said while describing the former’s statement as unfortunate.

He lamented that the state government had been criticising the Centre for not releasing the flood assistance early and now when the funds were released, the chief minister was smelling a rat.

Meanwhile, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Mohapatra said that the state government has received a letter from the Centre confirming sanction of Rs 908.30 crore from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and Rs 10 crore from National Rural Drinking Water Scheme.

Stating that the state government had sought an assistance of Rs 3,265 crore from the Centre for relief, rescue and restoration activities in the flood affected districts, the SRC said that at least 21 of the 30 districts of the state were affected in the calamity.

The Centre has also agreed to bear the expenses of air-dropping of food materials. At least 82 sorties were made during the relief operation the cost of which could be Rs 3.1 crore, the SRC told reporters here, adding that the total assistance towards flood would be around Rs 921.40 crore.

The state had witnessed two spells of floods due to depression induced heavy rainfall at upper catchment areas of river Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani and other major rivers of the state in the first week of September and middle of that month.

Besides a large number of live stocks, at least 87 persons were killed in the calamity and a large number of houses were damaged in the twin floods.

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