Day: September 7, 2012

Mail News Service
New Delhi, Sep 7 : : The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Friday blamed the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for disrupting the Monsoon Session of Parliament over the coal blocks allocation issue, and described the inactivity as “a negation of democracy”.
He said, “ We have just ended a wasted session of Parliament when both Houses were not allowed to function. The cause of the repeated disruption was that we had received a report of the CAG on the allocation of coal blocks which alleged some infirmities in the process. Instead of discussing this report in the PAC, which is the normal procedure, or even discussing it immediately in Parliament, which we offered to do, leaders of the opposition saw fit to demand my resignation before Parliament was even allowed to take a view on the report.
I feel very strongly that this is making a mockery of parliamentary democracy. We take pride in our parliamentary democracy and the tradition of free debate that it implies. Only a few months ago, during the 60th year celebrations of our Parliament, I said that the story of the Indian Parliament is a story of India striving for freedom and dignity; for tolerance and equality; for peace and progress.
We do not live up to these high ideals if we simply do not let Parliament function. The Government and the opposition both have a sacred obligation to strengthen our parliamentary system. We do incalculable damage to the reputation of India’s Parliament if we resort to disruption of Parliament to make a political point.
Those who prevent Parliament from functioning, disable the voice of the people. They take away their right to hear their representatives debate issues in a reasoned manner when the case for and against a point of view can be heard.
They force them to listen instead only to voices in the street, which is not the place for reasoned discourse.
This is the road to a dysfunctional politics which will only produce agitational politics and a deeply divided and disenchanted country.
I have high respect for the CAG as an institution. I believe we strengthen it only by taking its reports seriously enough to discuss them in the PAC and in the House. PAC reports deal with complex issues on which there can be different points of view and all these must be heard fully before rushing to judgement. We do not strengthen the CAG as an institution by using its reports to prevent discussion and cause disruption.
I assure all of you that the issues raised in the CAG report are not being swept under the carpet. They will be discussed in parliament as they should be. Whatever corrective action is necessary will be taken.
We are faced with many internal and external problems and challenges. There are problems of communal tension, ethnic violence and the ever present threat of naxalism. Terrorism remains a serious threat. The nation should be concerned about what is happening in the Northeast. There are attempts to divide communities which led to thousands fleeing from some of our cities. We have to contain the forces of lawlessness. These are some of the issues that should have been discussed in parliament so that our countrymen could have been better informed of these problems and ways of addressing them.
On the economic front too we face major challenges. The world is passing through an exceptionally difficult phase.
Our economy is also experiencing problems. We must work hard to ensure that the Indian economy returns to high growth. I have no doubt we can do it.
We can rebuild our growth momentum and encourage entrepreneurship by stimulating investment in infrastructure, in power, in roads, ports, railways, and telecommunications. This will send a clear signal to the world that India is on the road to recovery. This in turn will bring back the momentum of growth, generate productive employment and also enable us to direct more resources to help the poor and weaker sections.
We cannot do this if the government is constantly distracted by the actions of those who prefer obstruction over discussion. Those who follow this path detract from India’s prestige as the world’s largest Parliamentary democracy. They are unwittingly only serving the ends of those who want to weaken the country and discredit its institutions.
Our job in Government, I have always maintained, is to grapple with the problems of mass poverty, ignorance and disease which still afflict millions of our citizens. We will not be distracted from this task.
We have had one wasted session. I hope Parliament can get back to business in the next session. Meanwhile the Government must act wherever it can without the benefit of Parliamentary guidance. I am instructing all Ministries to accelerarte their consideration of critical issues where decisions are needed to get the economy moving again.
I urge all right minded Indians to stand up and unite against the forces of anarchy and disruption to secure the foundations of our hard earned democratic and Constitutional rights.
The month-long session, which began on August 8, has been one of the least productive sessions in the history of Parliament – only six of the 31 bills listed could be passed as logjam over coal scam paralysed the House.
The session, which usually starts in July, got delayed due to the presidential election on July 19 and the vice presidential poll on August 7.
Among the crucial bills, which passed in Parliament are the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill and a bill to create six AIIMS-like premier medical institutes across the country.
Of 15 bills listed for introduction, just five were introduced.
Of the 108 hours that the Lok Sabha was scheduled to meet, it worked for just 24 hours and the Rajya Sabha worked for 26 of 90 hours.
The coal scandal has dominated this session of Parliament after the CAG report said that the under-priced sales of coalfields would have cost the national exchequer as much as 33 billion dollars in lost revenues.
The BJP is demanding the resignation of Dr. Singh since he headed the Coal Ministry between 2006 and 2009, when
many of the sales occurred.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/pm-parliament-disruption-a-negation-of-democracy/

SHILLONG, Sept 7 NNN: The upgradation of the Shillong Airport is scheduled to be completed by December 31, 2014 even as 32 acres of land belonging to Umroi Cantonment of Indian Army has been requested from Ministry of Defence, informed Transport Minister A T Mondal.
Presently, Shillong Airport has a 6,000 feet runway which is insufficient for larger planes to land. An ATR aircraft flies daily to Kolkata except on Friday from the airport. Larger planes require about 8000 – 9000 feet of runway. To enable landing to larger planes, Meghalaya government is extending the presenting runway by another 2000 feet and also upgrading the entire airport. Earlier, on June 25, 2011, Union Civil Aviation Minister, Vayalar Ravi has inaugurated the new terminal building of the Shillong Airport which is constructed with all modern facilities at a cost of Rs 30 crore to be able to handle 200 passengers (100 arrival and 100 departure) during peak hour.
Replying to a query by Jaiaw legislator, Paul Lyngdoh, during the question hour on the last day of the Autumn Session here on Friday, Mondal informed a proposal for upgradation of the airport to provide landing of bigger aircrafts has been taken up by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
For this purpose, 192.253 acres of land has been acquired and handed over to the AAI while acquiring of additional land is being pursued with the army, Mondal stated on the Floor of the House.Also, obstacle survey of Instrument Landing System (ILS) has been completed and sent to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for clearance.Mondal highlighted that AAI has not indicated any additional requirement of land for setting up of ILS.Mentionably, an ILS is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), such as low ceilings or reduced visibility due to fog, rain, or snow.
Additionally, government had already paid Rs 50.62 crore as compensation to the persons whose lands have been acquired for the expansion project at the airport, he apprised adding the Deputy Commissioner of Nongpoh has sought an additional amount of Rs 11.44 crore to compensate those land owners who were left out due to steep resistance and non – acceptance of the compensation offered during the initial survey.
The Minister also informed that Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited had recently agreed to set up a refueling centre at the airport to facilitate the full operationalization of the airport.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/shillong-airport-up-gradation-to-be-completed-by-dec-2014/

New Delhi, Sep 7 (ANI): Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Jaipal Reddy on Friday denied speculation that oil marketing companies were going to hike fuel prices.
Reddy told media here that there was a need to lower the under-recoveries faced by the oil companies by selling fuel at subsidized rates.
“We are facing a tremendous crisis of unprecedented magnitude. However, there is no immediate proposal to hike fuel prices, including petrol. The Cabinet will take the final call,” he said.
With reports that there may be an increase in the prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday alleged that the ruling UPA Government was merely trying to divert the attention of the people, as it is currently embroiled in various scams.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said this step of the government would be like rubbing salt into the wounds of the common people.
“The government does not want to tell the truth in Parliament. It wants to run away from the coalgate scam and wants to evade the issue of corruption by raising the fuel price,” he said.
Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja also echoed similar sentiments on the issue, and said that the if the government hikes the prices of fuel then the people of the country would have to face the brunt.
“Once the session is adjourned, government and the oil marketing companies will go for another hike in the price of diesel, petroleum, and other petroleum products and it has become a routine for the Congress led UPA-2 Government. Once the session is over, they will allow the oil marketing companies to hike the price of diesel and petroleum,” said Raja.
Raja urged the oil marketing companies not to increase the price of fuel.“We advice the oil marketing companies not to go for any hike, if they go for any hike, it will face resistance from common people and as a political party we will protest,” he said.
According to reports, an increase in petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene prices looks imminent after the Finance Ministry said it has no money to provide for fuel subsidy.
In all possibility, prices may be increased after the current Monsoon Session of Parliament, which ends on Friday.Diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene rates have not been changed since June 2011 even though cost of production has soared 28 percent.
State-owned fuel retailers are losing Rs 560 crore per day on sale of diesel and cooking fuel, and are forced to resort to short-term borrowings to meet funds needed for importing crude oil (raw material).

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/jaipal-reddy-rules-out-fuel-price-hike-for-now/

AIZAWL, Sept 7: There have contrast opinions on the continuation of the Liquor Prohibition Act in Mizoram.
State Prohibition Council, headed by its chairman who is also the minister in charge of Excise and Narcotics J.H. Rothuama today convened a meeting where the Study Group report on Mizoram Liqour Total Prohibition Act, 1995 was reviewed.
State Prohibition Council had on January 24, 2011, constituted a Study Group who would conduct an in-depth study on Mizoram Liqour Total Prohibition Act, 1995 which has been in use for about 14 years as to whether it is successful, what’s the public opinion on it, its effects, and whether it is good to continue enforcing the prohibition Act. As such, the Study Group, under the guidance of H. Raltawna, IAS (Rtd), took necessary steps carefully and had formed another sub group to study on the effects of liquor on economic and society.
Besides, the Study Group collected the opinions and views of various organizations on the success and failure of the Liquor Prohibition Act.
Experts from Mizoram University also had studied the effects of liquor on Mizo youths and women. Moreover, the Study Group conducted an in-depth study by collecting the records of the number of persons caught due to violation of the Act as well as the number of liquor caught and how the violators are persecuted, from Excise & Narcotics and Police department, besides conducting a study on the effects of liquor consumption on health through medical experts.
After considering all such, the Study Group comes to the conclusion that the main reason for the difficulty in making the Total Prohibition Act successful is due to high demand and it is necessary to take steps to lower the demand. The Study Group also concludes that if the Total Prohibition Act is to be continued the Excise & Narcotics Department needs to be stronger. And also that some changes have to be made in MLTP Act, 1995, the Study Group added in the report submitted to the State Prohibition Council.
Members attending the meeting today freely shared their views and opinions. While some of the members are of the opinion that MLTP Act is good for the Mizo society as of now, and want it to continue while other members opined that continuing the Act is not good and suggested for its abolition. The State Prohibition Council after having had recorded all the views will take sometime to decide.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/opinion-differs-on-continuation-of-total-liquor-ban-act-in-mizoram/