March 6, 2017

Page 1

Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com

Vol XXVII No. 89

DIMAPUR, monday, march 6, 2017 Pages 12 ` 4.00

India pained by killing of Indian-origin man

Aussies take 48-run lead vs India

China rule out Taiwan, Hong Kong independence

national, Page 5

sports, Page 12

international, Page 9

SC silent on withdrawal of SLP

Staff Reporter

DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN): There is still no confirmation on whether the Supreme Court has responded to the petition submitted by the leaders of the Naga Mothers Association (NMA) seeking withdrawal of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) for holding elections to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) with 33% women reservation; after events that occurred since January 30,2017 for over two weeks in Nagaland. The two leaders of the NMA- Abeiu Meru (president) and Rosemary Dzuvichu (advisor)-- had informed that they were withdrawing the SLP from the Supreme Court on the basis of assurance given by chief minister T.R. Zeliang, that elections to ULBs would be held as decided. In the application (of Civil Appeal No: 3607 of 2016) addressed to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, NMA leader Rosemary Dzuvichu had filed for withdrawal of their SLP. In the application, the NMA leader mentioned events that had led them

Penalty for breach of min balance: SBI NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (PTI): After a gap of five years, State Bank of India has decided to reintroduce penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts from April 1, and revised charges on other services, including ATMs. SBI will permit savings account holders to deposit cash three times a month free of charges and levy Rs 50 plus service tax on every transaction beyond that. In case of current account, the levy could go as high as Rs 20,000. As per the list of revised charges of SBI, failure to maintain Monthly Average Balance (MAB) in accounts will attract penalty of up to Rs 100 plus service tax. In metropolitan areas, there will be a charge of Rs 100 plus service tax, if the balance falls below 75 per cent of the MAB of Rs 5,000. The charges and MAB varies according to the location. Withdrawal of cash from ATMs will cost up to Rs. 20 if the number of transactions exceeds three from other bank’s ATMs in a month and Rs 10 for more than five withdrawals from SBI ATMs. However, SBI will not levy any charge on withdrawals from its own ATMs if the balance exceeds Rs 25,000. There will be no charge for UPI/ USSD transactions of up to Rs 1000.

This is it!

“To go to Guwahati from Dimapur, we have to buy tickets from Mariani or Amguri.” K Y M C

to approach the apex court through the SLP and how on April 5, 2016 after admitting the SLP, the court issued rule in the writ petition to simultaneous petition 242 of 2014. In the application, NMA had stated: “Now due to circumstances completely beyond our control, we regret to inform this Hon’ble Court that we are unable to proceed with the above mentioned Civil Appeal and the above mentioned Writ Petition, both filed in the Public Interest, and we hereby withdraw the Civil Appeal: 3607 of 2016 and the Writ Petition No: 242 of 2014 from this Hon’ble Court”. However, according to opinions of legal practitioners, the withdrawal application submitted by the NMA leaders to the Supreme Court supposedly on January 31, 2017 suffer from some “defects” . It was pointed out that courts grant Special Leave Petitions after serious considerations of the merit(s) in order to meet the ends of justice. The NMA application by stating “...due to circumstances completely beyond our control” had

managed to convey a different message about the reasons behind the decision to withdraw the SLP. It was opined that the Supreme Court could in all likely, will take note of the compelling reasons stated in the NMA application and may not allow for withdrawal since it was being sought for under compelling circumstances. Instead, the legal opinions believe that the Supreme Court might even take the reasons behind the application as a challenge. It was believed that the Court could even depute reputed advocates to carry on with the case on behalf of the NMA at the state government’s cost unless the defective application was rectified by the NMA before hearing takes place. The battle in the Supreme Court over Article 243T for 33% women reservation vis-à-vis Article 371A could prove a setback for the latter mainly because of the mishandling by the state government in the past. For instance, it was stated that the weakening of the defence for Article 371A may have been triggered by the

official speeches made on October 8, 2010 when the chief minister had purportedly stated that Nagaland was “not exempted from the purview of the constitution 74th amendment by which 1/3rd women reservation in all ULBs was made mandatory” and that “on the specific instruction of the High Court, the Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 was amended in 2006 to incorporate provisions for 1/3rd reservation for women in all the ULBs in Nagaland.” According to legal opinions, the above statement and that too made by the state’s own chief minister, virtually conceded that the 74th amendment of the constitution of India supersedes Article 371A which has yet to be challenged or rectified since 2010. Such statements including the admission by the chief minister in 2016 that the election to ULBs was notified so as to render the SLP infructuous because legal experts in Delhi had reportedly convinced the state that they were certain of losing the case in the Supreme Court. (Cont’d on p-8)

Complete counting arrangements by Mar 7: Poll panel NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (IANS): The Election Commission on Sunday directed Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) in the five states to complete vote counting arrangements by Tuesday. The poll panel has also sought full-proof security at all the 157 counting centres, an official statement said. The counting of votes in Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur will be done on March 11. Of the 157 counting centres, Uttar Pradesh will have 75 followed by Punjab (53), Uttarakhand (15), Manipur (12) and Goa (2). The Election Commission has issued detailed instructions regarding storage and safety arrangements of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), appointment of counting staff and counting agents and the counting procedures. It has said that at all counting halls, there must be wire mesh to segregate the counting agents from the counting personnel and EVMs. The CEOs must complete all counting arrangements by March 7 night. The whole process of counting, including the movement of EVMs, will be video filmed. Manipur will vote on March 8 along with the seventh and final round of polling in Uttar Pradesh.

Aadhaar data safe and secure: UIDAI Spl. Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (NPN): Assuring the citizens that the personal data of individuals held by it was “fully safe and secure”, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Sunday said there had been no incident of misuse of Aadhaar biometrics leading to identity theft and financial loss during the last five years when more than 400 crore Aadhaar authentication transactions have taken place. The clarification comes in the wake of recent reports of alleged breach of Aadhaar data to create parallel databases. It said after carefully going into these reports, UIDAI said “there has been no breach to its database in any manner whatsoever and personal data of individuals held by UIDAI is fully safe and secure.” In a statement, UIDAI said Aadhaar based au-

thentication was robust and secure as compared to any other contemporary systems. It said Aadhaar system has the capability to inquire into any instance of misuse of biometrics and identity theft and initiate action. It also reminded that UIDAI uses one of world’s most advanced encryption technologies in transmission and storage of data. “UIDAI has decided to have registered devices for capturing biometrics data and further that such biometrics will be encrypted at the point of capture itself. This will further strengthen the security features of Aadhaar eco system,” it said. On reports of misuse of e-KYC data by various agencies and also allegations that the e-KYC API was available in public domain, UIDAI said E-KYC APIs were available only to authorized Authentication User Agencies (AUAs) and e-KYC User

agencies (KUAs) through authorized Authentication Service agencies (ASAs), established secured network connectivity for the purpose of authentication with the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR), in compliance with the Regulations, specifications, standards and technology architecture as prescribed by UIDAI. “Any unauthorized capture of iris or fingerprints or storage or replay of biometrics or their misuse is a criminal offence under the Aadhaar Act,” UIDAI stated. UIDAI further said it was mandatory for banks and mobile operators to become UIDAI’s AUA/ASAs to obtain E-KYC data of their customers from UIDAI. “The E-KYC data can be given by UIDAI to these agencies only after they obtain consent of their customers and can be used only for the purpose for which it was obtained,” it added.

PCC responds to JCC’s demand DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN): Phom Peoples’ Council (PPC) in response to JCC’s demand for suspension on DC Longleng stated that the issue should be put to rest as it has been settled. According to PPC president Chingan Phom, the matter had been clarified, compromised and settled between PPC and the public on February 6, 2017 at Longleng. The same has also been intimated to convener JCC through telephone by president of PPC, and through ENPO’s representative that any matter related on the issue should be consulted with PPC, said Chingan. It may be recalled that the demand for suspension of DC Longleng raised by PPC was “amicably settled” at a joint meeting of PPC and Yachem Village Council (YVC) on February 6.

ACAUT snubs Finance deptt’s counter rejoinder DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN): Snubbing the Finance department’s clarification yet again, ACAUT Nagaland on Sunday said the Finance Commissioner (FC), Temjen Toy was yet to “pointedly refute the very serious charge that the Finance department is in the unhealthy business of deducting 10% commission on all the developmental funds released to the concerned departments.” I n a p r e s s n o t e, ACAUT media cell however said it was FC’s bounden duty to refute if the allegation was untrue. “But hiding behind ‘wild allegation’ counter-argument has only given rise to suspicion that perhaps the allegation is true,” ACAUT said. ACAUT was responding to the Temjen Toy’s clarification which had appeared in the local media on March 4, 2017. Raising several queries, ACAUT demanded to know from the FC that if a total of Rs. 1,182 crore for 76 CSS (for the period 2016-17) was released by the Centre, it indicated that the state government gave almost Rs. 120 crores as its 10% state share. It said in 2015-16, the state share was approximately around Rs. 135 crore or 10% of Rs. 1,353.52 crore. Which meant that the combined state share figures for the last two years (2015-17) comes to roughly Rs. 250 crores, ACUAT said. In this regard, ACAUT questioned the department that “when the state government could contribute a

massive Rs. 250 crores for 218 CSS for the period 2015-17, why were the teachers treated differently and made to undergo untold suffering with the lame excuse that the state government didn’t have enough funds to give its RMSA and SSA shares? Since it was a foregone conclusion that the lion’s share of the 218 CSS were ghost projects, which would never be implemented on the ground, ACAUT alleged that the “CSS was only a means to enrich politicians and bureaucrats.” It demanded to know from the FC as to “how this anomaly is being repeated year after year at the cost of the teachers and the student community?” Reiterating that the

14th Finance Commission had released Rs. 5229.56 crores (for 2015-17) to the state, ACAUT questioned the FC that “when the amount was parked with the Finance department, what prevented the utilization of this amount to pay for the 10% state share towards release of SSA and RMSA funds?” It further demanded to know from the Finance Commissioner as to why Hindi teachers, whose salary component comes under 100% CSS, were still being denied salary payment for the last nine months? As per documents made available, ACAUT said following were amount released by the Centre to the state for CSS, 2016-17. (See Table)

Important CSS/projects. Total No. Total Amount Sanctioning The figures within Released to state Ministry (Central brackets of CSS/ are amount in project Finance DepartGovernment) Lakhs. ment in Rs. Lakhs RMSA (1425.41), Mid-day M/o HRD 9 9,499.363 meal (535.28), SSA (2600) Infrastructure for Judiciary M/o Legal Affairs (2,000) 1 2,000.00 M/o RD MGNREGA (50152.6) 10 61,981.927 Rajiv Gandhi scheme for M/o Women & Empowerment of AdolesChild Develop- cent Girls (112.18), Na8 11,200.514 ment tional Mission for Empowerment of Women (158.4) National Health Mission Family WelM/o Health & (3803.51), (1146.75), Upgrada3 6,335.51 Family Welfare fare tion of Nursing Services (502.350) Modernisation of Police M/o Home (862), Border Area Devel6 3,217.45 opment Prog (2238.750) under Article 275 M/o Tribal Affairs Grants 1,989.86 (1)- 1700 Conversion of NST workshop to Bus Station-cumM/o Urban Devel- Market Complex at Dima13 8,761.788 opment pur (573.830), Shopping Complex for Poor Women at Tobu (60.070) M/o Agriculture 15 6,725.75 Miscellaneous: 11 6,570.6 Rs. 1,18,282.399 76 or 1,182 Cr.

Recommendation for implementation of 7th RoP Staff Reporter

DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN): With various State services associations like-- CANSSEA, NCSA, NSSA, FONSFSA, NPSA, NF&ASA and NASSA pressurizing the state government to implement the 7th Revision of Pay (RoP) w.e.f. Mar 1, 2017 (201718), the Finance department in its recommendations to the Cabinet dated February 22, 2017 came up with two possible options through which the RoP could be implemented with effect from March 1, 2017. In its recommendation, ACS & Finance commissioner, Temjen Toy was of the opinion (option 1) that if the RoP was effected from 01.03.2017 and implemented during 2017-18 itself, the financial implication would be around Rs. 954 crore. Out of this, an amount of Rs. 579 crore would be

impounded to GPF and actual cash outgo would be around Rs. 375 crore. The second option was that if RoP was effected w.e.f. 01.03.2017 and implemented during 2018-19, the amount required would be Rs. 2011 crore as the arrears of 2017-18 would also have to be paid. However, after impounding an amount of Rs. 1247 crore in GPF, the actual cash payment would be around Rs. 764 crore. It said for both the options, the following would apply-- increased salary due to the employees (other than those under New Pension Scheme) will be impounded to GPF in respect of the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. In this regard, the impounded amount would not be factored for advance/ withdrawal until 2020-21. Further, cash payment of increased salary will be made

to the employees only with effect from 1.3.2020. This was because the 14th Finance Commission had not provided resources for the next pay revision in its awards. I t wa s m a d e a l s o known that the state government had no means to pay the enhanced salary, since the projected expenditure of Rs. 375 crores was for employees under the New Pension Scheme. A comparative chart for the above two options is given in the table below: Items 1. Total Financial implication during 1st year of implementation 2. Impounding to GPF 3. Cash Payment 4. Whether it will appear in accounts of 2017-18? 5. Whether 15th Finance Commission will factor the expenditure on Pay Revision?

In this regard, it was proposed that the Revision of Pay and Pension may be implemented with effect from March 1 and paid from 2017-18 itself. This would enable the expenditure to be reflected in Finance Accounts of 2017-18 which would be considered by the 15th Finance Commission as the actual salary cost in its awards for the next five years. If not the Finance department was of the opinion that the State may not be in a position to implement (Cont’d on p-8)

Option-I (2017-18)

Option-II (2018-19)

954.00 crore

2011.00 crore

579.00 crore 375.00 crore

1247.00 crore 764.00 crore

Yes

No

Yes

No K Y M C


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