Cong,someoppnMPsstagewalkoutfromRS

NEW DELHI, FEB 10

(AGENCIES): The Congress and some other opposition MPs in Rajya Sabha staged a walkout on Friday after Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge was not allowed to speak in the House.

Kharge wanted to raise the issue of some of his observations being expunged by the chair, but he was not allowed on the plea that he cannot read the same remarks which have already been expunged.

Opposition members protested in support of the Leader of Opposition who wanted to raise his point, but the chair did not accede to their demand.

Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he had allowed the Leader of Opposition earlier but he cannot be allowed to raise the same points which have already been expunged.

Kharge then said that Congress members and some opposition MPs, including those from the RJD, were staging a walkout in protest.

Earlier, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal said

Kharge should first apologise on behalf of the entire opposition, which created uproar during the prime minister’s speech in reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Govtexertingundue pressureonpresiding officers:Kharge

Congress President and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, on Friday alleged that the Centre is conspiring to hide the truth by exerting undue pressure on the presiding officers.

“The (Narendra) Modi government is conspiring to hide the truth by exerting undue pressure on the presiding officers of both the Houses of the Parliament, and is conspiring to suppress the JPC inquiry,” Kharge said.

His remarks came after parts of the speech of Rahul Gandhi and Kharge made in the House were expunged by the presiding officers.

He said questions will be asked both inside the Parliament as well as in the

‘people’s parliament’.

“Should there not be an inquiry into the Adani scam? Shoul dn’t the falling value of LIC’s money, invested in Adani’s companies, be questioned?

Shouldn’t questions be asked about the Rs 82,000 crore loan given to Adani by SBI and other banks,” he asked.

Kharge said the questions will be asked as to why Rs 525 crore of LIC and SBI were invested in Adani FPO despite more than 32 per cent fall in Adani’s shares. Why the value of LIC and SBI shares fell by more than Rs 1 lakh crore in the stock market, he asked.

“It must be asked to whom the thousands of crores of rupees pouring in from tax havens into Adani’s companies belong? Is it a fact that France’s ‘Total Gas’ has stopped the $50 billion investment in Adani’s company pending completion of the investigation against him,” Kharge asked.

Kharge said that the world’s largest equity investor, Norway Sovereign Fund, sold all Adani shares

ASA calls for road, rail blockades in 5 states on Feb 11

JAMSHEDPUR, FEB 10 (PTI): Tribal body Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan (ASA) on Friday called for a blockade in five eastern states of the country on February 11 over a host of issues, including asserting its rights over ‘Marang Buru’ or Parsnath Hills in Jharkhand’s Giridih and recognition of Sarna as a religion in the next census.

The dawn-to-dusk road and rail blockades will be held in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and West Bengal, ASA president Salkhan Murmu said in Jamshedpur.

February 11 is the birth anniversary of Tilka Murmu who is first freedom fighter from the Santal community to take up arms against the British, he said.

“They won’t abide by the contract (MoU) and stop the health and wellness centre scheme, then the central government will not be left with any other option.

Considering that they have stopped implementing the scheme, the grant that we give from here…,” the minister said.

“We release schemebased grants. If they don’t utilise the scheme and follow its provisions, we are not left with any other option,” he added.

The minister was replying to a question asked by YSRCP member K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju.

“Several state governments are violating that (MoU), (they) have given their own names (to the scheme)...,” he said. Citing one example, the minister said health infrastructure have been created in Punjab with utilisation of the funds provided by the central government under the Ayushman BharatHealth and Wellness Centre scheme but the state government named these facilities as ‘Mohalla Clinics’. “This should not be done,” Mandaviya said while replying to a question in Lok Sabha during Zero Hour. worth $200 million.

“Has MSCI downgraded the ranking of Adani’s companies? Have Standard Chartered, City Group, Credit Suisse stopped lending against Adani’s dollar bonds? Has Dow Jones removed Adani’s company from ‘sustainability Indices’,” he asked.

The Congress President also said that what is the reason that RBI, SEBI, ED, SFIO, Corporate Affairs Ministry, Income Tax, CBI -- all have suffered paralysis, and have closed their eyes in the name of investigation against Adani?

A SA launched “Marang Buru Bachao Yatra” on January 17 in these five states to assert its rights over the hills, which is also one of the holiest sights of the Jain community. The tribals consider Parasnath Hill as the holiest ‘jeherthan’ (place of worship). The ASA is also demanding enlisting of Jharkhandi adivasis living in Andaman and Nicobar and Assam for decades in the Schedule Tribe category, and opposing inclusion of the Kurmi community in the ST category, Murmu, a former MP, said.

The “Marang Buru Bachao Yatra” will end on February 28, he said.

The Santal tribe has a sizeable population in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and West Bengal and are nature worshippers.

Spark ignored

It took a request from the ministry of home affairs to Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation(ENPO) for the latter to ‘relax’ the total abstention of election and all related matters across eastern Nagaland. After maintain a public stance to stick with its avowed and steely determination to not relent under any circumstances, ENPO decided to ‘ relax’ in response to the MHA request. ENPO’s demand for the ‘Frontier Nagaland’ dates back to 2010, while public rallies and meetings have been on for even longer. ENPO represents the seven Naga tribes viz., Konyak, Sangtam, Chang, Phom, Khiamniungan, Yimchungru and Tikhir from six districts of Eastern Nagaland: Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire, Shamator, Longleng and Noklak. ENPO was formed around 1997 after it moved out of Naga Hoho. After having said much against participation in the assembly election to be held in February 27 this year in support of the demand for a Frontier Nagaland state, ENPO made it clear that there was no turning back. The main reason for wanting to be separate from Nagaland was due to being deprived, ignored or disregarded in terms of education, infrastructure and economic progress. In response the newly formed Democratic Alliance of Nagaland(DAN) government created the Department for Under Developed Areas(DUDA) in its first innings after the 2003 elections. Though promising perhaps much and as expectations remained high, it appears that there has been a vast difference between promises and delivery. A compilation of the total funds received by the four districts vis-à-vis other districts could also shed more light on whether there has been a conscious move to deprive the people of the four districts of their dues. K.Therie who was the first DAN finance minister, had blamed the DAN government for discrimination on the eastern Nagas in matters of government contract works. He alleged that the works were awarded only to some ‘favoured ones’ or those close to the leadership. That may or may not be true but the fact remains, that owing to a lot of gap in matters in education and development between the people of the erstwhile Naga Hills Tuensang Area, which was loosely administered under the North East Frontier Agency(NEFA) and Nagas(also known as ‘major’ or advanced tribes) in the erstwhile Naga Hills district under Kohima; terms such as ‘backward’ or ‘undeveloped’ areas reflected the inequality. To address this issue, the government of India, while creating the new state of Nagaland, had made a constitutional provision, wherein special fund allocation was provided for Tuensang area and placed under the state Governor and who in turn, released it directly to the minister of Tuensang affairs. Successive DAN governments including PDA and UDA have much to explain on why the issue has not been discussed on the floor of the house and allowed to be handled by the ministry of home affairs after bypassing them. It is ironic that while the state government has never failed to call for unity to resolve all issue, in practice it has done just the opposite. It is also ironic that while according top priority to political issue, the state government had relegated such issues to the background. If there is any failure of regional parties, it is over the issue of disintegration of Nagaland state whether by chance or design and this can be a very crucial issue which needs to be addressed during the current election campaign .