Morcha adds to Aila aid list- Home secretary in hills to review relief, restoration

Ardhendu Sen at the meeting with administrative officers in Darjeeling on Wednesday. Picture by Suman Tamang TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 26: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today made the state government add more than 1,400 damaged houses to the list prepared by the Darjeeling district administration for compensation in the wake of the havoc caused by Cyclone Aila in May. Morcha leaders submitted the list to state home secretary Ardhendu Sen, who held a meeting with district officials on post-Aila reconstruction work, along with relief secretary M.L. Meena. Political observers said the home secretary agreed to lengthen the list of damaged houses keeping in mind the next round of talks to be held here in December on the statehood demand of the Morcha. The Morcha leadership had asked the home secretary to send a team to verify its claim on the damaged houses. However, Sen ruled out the need for clarification, indicating that there was no room for bargaining or controversies and a congenial atmosphere was maintained. The Morcha leaders had returned from the third round of talks in Delhi on August 11 with the state and central governments proposing to scrap the DGHC Act and abandoning the Sixth Schedule bill, looking for an “alternative arrangement” instead. Amar Lama, a central committee member of the Morcha, said: “Using our own resources, we had found out that the district administration had left out 1,496 houses from the list it had compiled. The names of these victims could not be included, as the report had already been sent to the state government. The home secretary has agreed to add the new names.” These houses are scattered across the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. Soon after the cyclone, the district administration had worked out a report, which said Rs 345 crore would be needed to carry out the restoration in the hills. Asim Dasgupta, state finance minister, during his visit to Darjeeling in June had said the government had found out that 4,500 houses had been fully damaged and 12,000 partially. “The home secretary has agreed to provide a compensation to the houses we added to the list at the rate of Rs 5,000 for partially damaged ones and Rs 25,000 to those which have been fully damaged,” said Lama. According to the Morcha’s new list, 309 houses have been completely damaged by the cyclone-triggered landslides. Sen said he was “satisfied” with the progress of the restoration work. “Temporary restoration is likely to be completed by the end of September. The government has already provided Rs 55 crore. More funds will be sanctioned soon,” said Sen. During his stay in the Darjeeling hills, Sen will also review the utilisation of funds by the DGHC and the law and order. However, Sen’s priority is to oversee relief and rehabilitation work. Representatives of the tea industry also met Sen here today. “We told him that 35 roads in various tea gardens have been affected badly and he has promised to look into the matter,” said Sandeep Mukherjee, the secretary of Darjeeling Tea Association. Car lift arrest TT, Jaigaon: Dipen Sharma and Roshan Kalikotey, the residents of Naxalbari in Darjeeling district, were arrested from Lankapara Tea Estate on Tuesday night for their alleged involvement in vehicle lifting. Madarihat police said the duo had been picked up on the basis of a complaint of the driver of a car, which the arrested men had hired on August 22. Tata Tea meet TT, Jaigaon: None from the closed Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate was present at a meeting convened at the subdivisional officer’s chamber in Malbazar on Wednesday to discuss the re-opening of the garden. Nilkamal Biswas, the SDO of Malbazar, had convened the meeting where workers’ representatives were present.

50 p.c. SEAT RESERVATION FOR WOMEN

PIB .The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal for moving a Constitutional Amendment Bill for enhancing reservation for women in Panchayats at all tiers from one third to at least 50%. This provision will apply to the total number of seats filled by direct election, offices of chairpersons and seats and offices of chairpersons reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Background :

The President of India in her address to the Parliament on 4.6.09 has mentioned the intent to provide fifty per cent reservation for women in Panchayats as women suffer multiple deprivations of class, caste and gender and enhancing reservation in Panchayats will lead to more women entering the public sphere.

According to article 243G of the Constitution, State legislatures may endow Panchayats with such powers and authoritiy as may be necessary (i) to enable them to function as units of local self-governemnt (LSG), and (ii) to prepare and implement plans / or schemes for economic development and social justice including those in relation to matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution. Panchayats as such have a vital role to play in the welfare and development of the weaker sections of the society, viz., women, SCs and STs. Greater representation of these sections would enhance their voice in these bodies and promote inclusive governance which is critical to the inclusive growth.

Ministry of Panchayati Raj will move a Bill for amendment to Article 243D of the Constitution at the earliest after approval of the Cabinet. The proposed amendment will increase reservation for women in (i) the total number of seats to be filled by direct election, (ii) offices of chairpersons and (iii) in seats and offices of the chairpersons reserved for SCs and STs, to 50% in all tiers of Panchayats.

Enhancement of reservation for women in Panchyats will facilitate more women entering the public sphere and thereby lead to further empowerment of women and also make Panchayats more inclusive institutions, thereby improving governance and public service delivery.

There is no financial implication in operationalization of the proposal.

At present, out of the total elected representatives of Panchayats numbering approximately 28.18 lakhs, 36.87% are women. With the proposed Constitutional Amendment, the number of elected women representatives is expected to rise to more than 14 lakhs. Having more elected women representatives would benefit the entire population of the States and UTs where Panchayati Raj is in existence.

All States/UTs and parts thereof to which Part IX of the Constitution applies would be covered (Part IX does not apply to Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram, tribal areas of Assam, Tripura and hill areas of Manipur) (PIB)

Jaswant attacks BJP, compares it to Ku Klux Klan

Jaswant Singh on Wednesday took his attack on BJP a step further by likening it to the violent white American group Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and suggested that L K Advani was surrounded by a coterie. Why had he been unceremoniously expelled from the party a week ago, the former External Affairs Minister was asked.

"Please don't ask me. I am outside the magic circle of advisers or thinkers. Because, I am not from the RSS, is that why? So are we a political party? Is the BJP becoming some kind of an Indian version of Ku Klux Klan?" he shot back during an interview to PTI here. KKK, widely known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organisations in the US, whose aim was to protect and further the rights of white Americans by intimidation.

Asked what he meant by reference to KKK, he said, "You know what the Klan means. You don't ask me about this." Expressing reluctance to analyse why Advani was rejected by the people for the post of Prime Minister, Singh nevertheless said it was for the BJP veteran to reflect on this.

"It would be impertinent and perhaps, to a degree also, I would be commenting on my past 30 years with him if I commented on his characteristics, political or personal," he said.

Asked if Advani was surrounded by a coterie, Singh countered, "Does he run a coterie or does the coterie run him."

Singh, who did not share a warm relationship with the Sangh, said the BJP should reflect on its relationship with the RSS and be "mature enough to cut the umbilical cord".

"It is for the BJP to reflect on it. I feel for them to gain their full personality as a political organisation, they have to stand on their own feet. Now they should be mature enough to cut the umbilical cord," he said. He did not agree with BJP leader Arun Shourie's suggestion that RSS should take over the party saying it will not work.

"I would like the BJP to reflect on what has happened and try to be a party of the 21st century. They (RSS) are exclusivist. Besides, they are an organisation committed to social work," he said.

Asked why the BJP expelled him summarily for his writings in his book on Jinnah, Singh said he was still not able to establish the reasons and accused the party of adopting "double standards" when Advani also did "exactly the same" in 2005.

Singh said, "I am still not able to establish the whys and wherefores of it. What wrong have I done in writing about a historical personality of India about whom Arun Shourie has cited the late RSS leader Seshadri and yesterday the former RSS Chief K S Sudarshan also said something similar.

"Then which core values, supposed core values, have I dented. Is writing about our own history an assault on core values. I don't want to cite that L K Advani had done exactly the same. So when all this began to fall flat, I was told that I have violated something sacrosanct about Sardar Patel."

Singh asked what had he violated or destroyed because Sardar Patel and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru were the two principal Congress leaders who agreed to the Partition of India. "That is a historical fact. So I still don't know."

To a question on a long rope being extended to Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan and Shourie merely being asked for clarification, he said, "I am sorry. I cannot comment on it. I was told don't come to the meeting. Of course. Good luck to Raje. But there are obviously double standards. Advani says the same thing in 2005."

Asked if his expulsion was a message to other dissidents in the party, he shot back "Am I a dissident. I am sorry. Your question suggests I am some kind of a dissident. I feel I am one of the original founding members of the party.

"Who felt that I had raised queries or questions. And is questioning or wondering or enquiring about the functioning of the party dissidence? So are we moving into an era of thought control?" he said.

Asked what was the way forward for the BJP, the former minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet, Singh said, "Do ask them what they intend doing. I see the party daily demonstrating some kind of typical political implosion."

To a question as to what made Vajpayee a great leader, Singh said it was the dimensions of his personal and political ideas and personality.

"He was tolerant, inclusive, accommodative. He absorbed dissidence. He had a very acute understanding of the inner dynamics of the party as indeed of the impulse that keeps India moving," he said.

To a query whether BJP missed a leader like Vajpayee, he said, "Again, why don't you ask BJP? It is a difference. The party was led differently during Vajpayee's time. Now it is led differently. I don't have to comment. Events themselves are a great comment."

Asked whether he would be a rallying point if there is a split in the BJP, he said, it was entirely an hypothetical question. "I wish the BJP well. A s far as the BJP, let the party chart its own course." To a question if the BJP could be revived like the "New Labour" in England, he said, "Free me, free me, I am out of that."