Sunday, June 10, 2012

NATIONAL NEWS

• PMO takes on team Anna
  • Team Anna has failed to substantiate the allegations of irregularities it has levelled against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in allocation of coal blocks when he held the Coal Ministry, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has said in a sharply worded letter to social activist Anna Hazare;
  • In the five-page letter, Minister of State in the PMO V. Narayanasamy, while listing the steps taken to check corruption, rejected Team Anna's demand for a special investigation team to probe the issue.
• Only a central act can save the Ganga: Waterman Rajendra Prasad
  • Waterman Rajendra Singh has called for a Central legislation for conservation of the national river Ganga. Only a Central Act giving the river a national status and the importance due to a national symbol would help restore its ecology and ensure its purity and uninterrupted flow, said Mr. Singh, presently spearheading a campaign for protection of the river;
  • The Magsaysay Award winner, also a member of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), talking to The Hindu here on Saturday, said efforts to make the political authorities realise the need to stop construction of dams and power projects on the river system, stood frustrated;
  • “Since 1986 various Governments at the Centre have been speaking of ensuring the purity and the uninterrupted flow of the Ganga. However, any corresponding action has been missing. The authorities have not learnt their lessons from the failure of the Ganga Action Plan of the Rajiv Gandhi period,” Mr. Singh said. The Plan failed as it was “project driven” and its implementation was dictated by the contractors, he said;
  • Mr. Singh said unlike in India the major rivers elsewhere had legislations enacted by their respective countries for their protection and conservation. “The Ottawa river in Canada, the Hudson river in the US, the Thames river in the UK and the Brisbane river in Australia all have legislation on them,” he pointed out. “On the contrary, no Indian river has any rejuvenation act on it,” Mr. Singh said;
  • “The NGRBA now needs an Act to protect it and implement its mandate,” Mr. Singh argued. By protocol the Ganga should be accorded the highest respect and authority among the national symbols. For this kind of national respect there would have to be a Ganga Conservation Act. As such the draft of the legislation is ready from the side of the campaigners. “On February 9 we submitted the draft of the National River Ganga ji (Conservation and Management) Act, 2012, to Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanti Natarajan. The Government should have circulated it by now,” Mr. Singh noted;
  • The draft Bill has provision for setting up a National River Ganga Authority with separate boards in the States — Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal;
  • “Unfortunately the mistakes of the British period are allowed to continue. It was in 1932 that the then Commissioner of Varanasi Hawkins had ordered the draining out of the sewage water into the Ganga for the first time. Earlier the rain water and the sewage water had separate channels of exit. This mistake of the British rule should be corrected,” Mr. Singh said pointing out that the Act should have provisions of river management to take care of the health of the people and economy of the region.
• Apex court to hear appeal on quota
  • The Union Government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court order quashing the 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities within the 27 per cent Other Backward Castes quota in the Central educational institutions such as IITs;
  • It contends that the High Court had taken an erroneous view in striking down the provision which was finalised after an extensive survey.
• India's first food bank inaugurated as part of the war against hunger
  • In pursuit of his long-cherished goal of making India hunger-free by 2020, Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister, along with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced the launch of the first Food Bank as part of the India Food Banking Network (IFBN) in Delhi;
  • Mr. Pitroda said “the idea for IFBN emerged from discussions with the Global Food Banking Network in Chicago”. Noting that food banks are operational in more than 30 countries globally, he said: “I have always believed technology can help greatly in solving issues related to hunger, and through this launch, we will bring technology, logistics, IT, and the involvement of the local community to feed their own community”;
  • Describing IFBN as “an effort to bring the government, private sector and NGOs together to fight hunger and malnutrition in the country”, Mr. Pitroda said the food banks are being set up to help create a converging space for the government, the private sector, civil society and NGOs to channel their key capabilities towards a common mission: social and economic development through hunger relief management;
  • With the implementation of the Delhi Food Bank, IFBN would get on its hands the first model, which it would seek to modify, strengthen and replicate at a national level, so that by 2020 every district of India has access to a Food Bank.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Euro 100 billion (approx $125 billion) bailout for Spain
  • The Eurogroup has said that “up to EUR 100 billion in total” will be made available to Spain, in order to cover (banks') estimated capital requirements with an additional safety margin. The European Financial Stability Facility and the European Stability Mechanism, the eurozone's current and future rescue funds, will provide the money, it said in a statement.