Thane: Nearly 70 per cent of migrant children in Maharashtra’s Thane and Palghar districts are deprived of education, according to a survey.
Nearly 87 per cent children, mostly of the migrant brick kiln workers, were deprived of education in 2010, 77 per cent in 2011, 60 per cent in 2012-13 and 70 per cent in 2013-14, as per the survey conducted by two Palghar-based NGOs- Shramajivi Sanghatana and Vidhayak Sansad.
Despite the government’s move to provide education to all under the RTE, a considerable number of children were kept away from education and even deprived of the health care facilities, a delegation of the NGOs pointed out while submitting a memorandum in this regard to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao during his visit here yesterday.
Vidhyak Sansad is an NGO conducting survey and analysis of various government and private scheme.
The Shrmjivi Sanghatana works for the uplift of tribals in Maharashtra.
PTI
Kolkata: Criticising Narendra Modi for putting the blame for West Bengal’s “backward slide” in last 34 years on CPI-M, Left Front’s chairman Biman Bose on Wednesday said the Prime Minister was misinformed and should check the facts before speaking.
Bose also alleged that Modi’s outburst against Left rule was actually a prelude to a “covert understanding” between the TMC and the BJP in Bengal.
“I think he is misinformed. He should check his facts and figures before making a statement. He should remember that he is the Prime Minister of the country,” he told reporters here.
Modi had yesterday said that during the 34 years of Left rule in West Bengal, industry and agriculture had suffered in the state.
“The PM should know the situation when we came to power. The development of the state after we formed the government could be seen through open eyes,” Bose asserted.
PTI
New Delhi: US Ambassador to India Richard Verma on Wednesday described Indian Muslims as “vital players” in advancing India and America’s shared value and vision.
Verma was addressing a town hall at the India Islamic Cultural Center (IICC), attended by country’s leading Muslim entrepreneurs, scholars, and clerics.
Noting that “the future of the US-India relationship depends on human capital,” he said, “Your perspectives and contributions are the key asset for its growth”, according to a release by the US embassy here.
The hour-long discussion with over 50 people representing the geographic, professional, and ideological diversity of India’s vibrant Muslim communities highlighted the people-to- people role in strengthening US-India relations, it said.
Verma outlined four broad areas of ongoing US-India cooperation: clean energy and climate change; development, health, and science; economic and commercial; and defence and security.
PTI
New Delhi: Amidst uproar over an interview of a December 16 gang-rape convict, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India on Tuesday evening issued a notice to all television channels asking them not to broadcast the Nirbhaya documentary, official sources said.
The announcement came hours after the Delhi Police stated that it will move court for a restraining order against an interview of Mukesh Singh, a prime accused in the December 16, 2012 ‘Nirbhaya’ rape case.
interview from Tihar jail for a BBC documentary to be aired on March 8, Mukesh Singh said: “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”
While speaking to BBC Four from his cell, Mukesh Singh, one of the five accused convicted of raping and murdering Nirbhaya, said that a girl is ‘far more responsible for rape’ than a boy.
The interview was scheduled to be aired on March 8 by BBC Four on its Storyville programme “India`s Daughter” on Sunday to coincide with the International Women`s Day.
Singh even said housework and housekeeping was the domain of girls and they had no rights to roam or visit discos and bars at night.
“They are doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes,” he said, and added that only ’20 percent’ of the girls were good.
Singh added that executing him and the other convicts in the case will further endanger rape victims as now, when girls are raped, they will not leave the victim but will kill her.
He showed no remorse for the attack, which he referred to as an ‘accident’.
In December 2012, The physiotherapy student was raped and assaulted with an iron rod after she was tricked into boarding an unregistered private bus to go home after watching a movie with a male friend.
Her male companion was badly beaten up and could not come to her rescue while the assault was being carried out in the bus. The two were later dumped naked and bleeding on the roadside.
The woman died 13 days after the attack from the injuries inflicted upon her after being airlifted to a Singapore hospital for treatment.
The attack sparked widespread protests and a campaign by civil society groups for tougher laws to protect women against sexual violence.
One of the attackers was found dead in jail in March 2013. A juvenile member of the gang was sentenced to three years in a reform home.
In a written reply, she said that as per the list given by Pakistan on January 1, 2015, there were 50 civil prisoners and 476 fishermen believed to be Indian in Pakistani custody.
As per the list handed over to Pakistan, there are 253 Pakistani civil prisoners and 132 Pakistani fishermen in India’s custody, she said.
“In addition to the above, one civil prisoner and 172 Indian fishermen were released by Pakistan on February 16, 2015. One prisoner mentioned in the Pakistani list of January 1, 2015 was initially believed to be India, but was later found to be from Nepal. Therefore, the number of Indian prisoners, including fishermen, in Pakistani jail as on date is 352,” Swaraj said.
As per details shared by the Minister, in 2014, Pakistan had released 185 Indian fishermen and 6 civil prisoners. The number of Pakistani civil prisoners released by India in 2014 was 26 in addition to 74 Pakistani fishermen, who were also released.
A two day festival “Just-Ice – Law has never been so cool” commenced yesterday at Bandra’s Rizvi Law College. The theme of the festival is “The Earth has Music for those who listen … Save”. The festival is in its 10thyear. It was inaugurated on 25th February by Dr. Naresh Chandra, Acting Vice Chancellor, Mumbai University. Dr. Chandra urged the Academic Community “to deliver results within 15 days after completion of the last exam”. He told the academic community to “come up with 5 best educational reforms to orient students in the next academic year”. He also said the students should feel free to contact him with their grievances. An Open House has been organized on 3rd March at the University’s Examination House to interact with students. Mr. Y.K. Baramatikar, Director, Khadi Village Industries Commission was present along with principals, educationists and student of various colleges.
Yesterday, a Parliamentary debate was held on the topic of “Is IT (Information Technology) legitimate for environmental campaign groups to use ecological terrorism to achieve their goals”. Panelists judging the debate were H.E. Mr. Pule Malefane, Consul General of South Africa, Adv. Waris Pathan, MLA and Ms. Anjali Damania (AAP). Dr. Daisy Alexander, Principal, Rizvi Law College said “this year’s festival is dedicated to environment and is in sync with Prime Ministers concept of Swach Bharat Abhiyaan. Prof. Sunil John, Vice Principal, said that “this festival was entirely organized by the student community”. Political Science Prof. Al-Nasser Zakaria said “the idea behind the parliamentary debate was to instill a sense of leadership skills in the student fraternity”. Furthermore, he said that “such debates enrich the mind and encourage youngsters to get into the political process thereby increasing the level of political discourse our country desperately needs”.
Street Dance, Street Play, Fashion Show, Poster Making, Photography, Beat Boxing, Box Cricket, Rink Football were organized. Those participating in this festival included students from Government Law College, D.Y. Patil Law College, Ruia College, NMIMS College of Law, Amity College of Law, PGCL, JCCL etc. to mention a few.
“A step was taken in the last Budget to encourage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investments Trusts (INViTs) by providing partial pass through to them,” Jaitley said in his Budget speech.
Read more at: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/budget-2015-govt-gives-new-tax-benefits-for-reits-invits_1316624.html?utm_source=ref_article
n a fillip to investments in realty and infrastructure sectors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday rationalised capital gain tax regime for the sponsors of newly-created business structures REITs and INViTs. In September 2014, market regulator SEBI had notified norms for listing of REITs and INViTs that would help attract more funds in a transparent manner into the real estate and infrastructure sectors. “A step was taken in the last Budget to encourage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investments Trusts (INViTs) by providing partial pass through to them,” Jaitley said in his Budget speech. These two trusts, which can be listed on stock exchanges, would help channelise both domestic and overseas investments into real estate and infrastructure projects in the country. Stating that these collective investment vehicles have an important role to revive construction activity, the Finance Minister said that a large quantum of funds is locked up in various completed projects which need to be released to facilitate new infrastructure projects to take off. “I therefore propose to rationalise the capital gains regime for the sponsors exiting at the time of listing of the units of REITs and INViTs, subject to payment of Securities Transaction Tax (STT). The rental income of REITs from their own assets will have pass through facility,” Jaitley said. Real estate developers and property consultants have been demanding further tax clarity in REITs to ensure the launch of this trust for commercial assets. “In respect of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (INViTs), it is proposed to provide that the sponsor will be given the same treatment on offloading of units at the time of listing as would have been available to him if he had offloaded his shareholding of special purpose vehicle (SPV) at the stage of direct listing,” Jaitley said. Further, the rental income arising from real estate assets directly held by the REIT is also proposed to be allowed to pass through and to be taxed in the hands of the unit holders of the REIT, he added. REITs, a new investment avenue in India on the lines of one in developed markets like the US, UK, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, can be listed and trading would be allowed in units of REITs like any other security on stock exchanges. INViTs are also set up for similar purposes. The tax incentives on would give much needed relief to the real estate sector, which is facing a huge slowdown in demand from last few years that had led to liquidity crunch and delay in completion of existing projects.
PTI
To check black money menace, the government today announced 10-year imprisonment for hiding foreign assets, along with a host of other tough measures including dis-incentivising of cash dealings in real estate and other transactions.
Besides framing new legislations, the government will also take steps to incentivise use of credit and debit cards and putting a cap on cash transactions, while quoting PAN will be mandatory for all sale and purchase of over Rs 1 lakh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech.
Presenting his first full-year budget, Jaitley said the first and foremost pillar of his tax proposals is to enacting a new law to effectively deal with the problem of black money which eats into the vitals of our economy and society.
“To this end, I propose to introduce a Bill in the current Session of Parliament,” he said.
Under the proposed law, concealment of income and assets and evasion of tax in relation to foreign assets will be prosecutable with rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years. Further, the offence will be made non-compoundable and the offenders will not be permitted to approach the Settlement Commission.
As regards curbing domestic black money, a new and more comprehensive Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill will be introduced in the current session.
“This law will enable confiscation of benami property and provide for prosecution, thus blocking a major avenue for generation and holding of black money in the form of benami property, especially in real estate,” Jaitley said.
He also proposed to amend the Income-tax Act to prohibit “acceptance or payment” of an advance of Rs 20,000 or more in cash for purchase of immovable property.
“Quoting of PAN is being made mandatory for any purchase or sale exceeding the value of Rs 1 lakh. The third party reporting entities would be required to furnish information about foreign currency sales and cross border transactions,” he said
Jaitley further said that a provision is also being made to tackle splitting of reportable transactions. To improve enforcement, CBDT and CBEC will leverage technology and have access to information in each other’s database.
The Finance Minister said one way to curb the flow of black money is to discourage transactions in cash.
“Now that a majority of Indians have or can have, a RUPAY debit card, I, therefore, proposes to introduce soon several measures that will incentivise credit or debit card transactions, and disincentivise cash transactions,” he added.
Jaitley said problem of poverty and inequity cannot be eliminated unless generation of black money and its concealment is dealt with effectively and forcefully.
The proposed new law will entail penalty of 300 per cent for concealment of income and assets, while not giving offenders permission to approach the Settlement Commission.
Among others, non-filing of returns or filing with inadequate disclosure of foreign assets will be liable for prosecution with rigorous punishment of up to 7 years.
Income tax assessee will be required to mandatorily specify the date of opening of foreign account while filing return of income.
“The offence of concealment of income or evasion of tax in relation to a foreign asset will be made a predicate offence under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA),” he said.
Also enforcement agencies will be given power to attach and confiscate unaccounted assets held abroad and launch prosecution against persons indulging in laundering black money.
Jaitley said the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) is also being amended.
PTI
Three suspected Islamists were today arrested in Bangladesh in a pre-dawn raid, as authorities intensified a crackdown on extremists following the brutal killing of American blogger Avijit Roy in the capital.
Acting on a tip-off, elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) conducted a pre-dawn raid at a five-storey building in the northeastern port city of Chittagong and arrested three suspected militants.
“We have seized 30 grenades…It appears they (militants) could have made some 300-400 bombs with the explosives we found at the den,” RAB’s commanding officer in Chittagong Lt Col Mista Uddin told reporters in a primary briefing.
Huge cache of explosives and weapons was seized from their possession, he said, adding that more details, including the identity of the Islamist outfit, would be given at a press conference later.
The raid came two days after Roy known for his critique of religious extremism was hacked to death in the Dhaka University area by machete-wielding assailants who attacked the Bangladeshi-origin writer.
Roy was returning from a book fair with his wife on Thursday evening when the attack occurred. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Banna was seriously injured as she tried to defend him.
The killing that apparently took place right in front of a police barricade put up to restrict vehicular movement on the adjacent road for the ongoing book fair sparked countrywide protests and international condemnation.
A bio-engineer and naturalised US citizen, Roy also earned a repute of being a writer, He was here to attend Bangladesh’s annual February or Ekushey Book Fair in memory of 1952 Language Movement martyrs.
Roy’s family and friends said Islamist radicals had been threatening him in recent weeks because he maintained a blog ‘Mukto-mona’ or ‘Freemind’ that highlighted humanist and rationalist ideas and condemned religious extremism.
“They (Islamists) are behind the murder of my son,” Roy’s octogenarian father famous physicist Ajay Roy earlier said after coming out of a police station filing a murder case.
Doctors who carried out the autopsy on the body said professionals appeared to have carried out the murder as they struck three blows “very expertly and with ferocity” on Roy’s head, causing his death from profuse bleeding.
Police said they were investigating the involvement of Ansarullah Bangla Team, an Islamist extremist group based in Bangladesh, that claimed responsibility for the murder.
In an internet posting months ago, they had said: “It is not possible to kill Avijit at the moment since he lives in the US. But he will be killed when he will come to Dhaka.”
A twitter account in the name of ‘Ansar Bangla 7’ described Roy’s murder as an ‘achievement’, saying “A great success today here in #Bangladesh. Target is Down” while a series of subsequent tweets called the murder as a punishment for his “crime against Islam”.
Today’s was the second such raid since February 22 when RAB unearthed a militants’ training camp at rugged Banshkhali area in the Chittagong region and arrested five persons along with huge amount of firearms and training equipment.
Meanwhile, civil society figures and youngsters staged rallies here while major newspapers carried editorials, demanding justice.
This was the second such murder of a writer at the February Book Fair scene since the attack on famous Bangladeshi writer and Dhaka University professor Humayun Azad who subsequently died of his wounds in Germany.
The militants later also killed another blogger Rajib Haidar in 2013 here.
The US condemned Roy’s murder in the “strongest terms”, calling it “horrific in its brutality and cowardice”.
British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Gibson tweeted: “shocked by the savage murder of #AvijitRoy as I am by all the violence that has taken place in #Bangladesh in recent months.”
The Centre for Inquiry, a US-based nonprofit group Roy wrote for, said it was “shocked and heartbroken” by the murder, adding “Dr Roy was a true ally, a courageous and eloquent defender of reason, science, and free expression, in a country where those values have been under heavy attack”.
Media group Reporters Without Borders rated Bangladesh 146th among 180 countries in a ranking of press freedom last year.
The killing came amid a continued unrest since January 6, when Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Khaleda Zia launched a violent non-stop nationwide blockade. Over 110 people have been killed since then, mostly in arson attacks on buses and trucks by suspected blockaders.
Security experts have expressed fears that the focus of law enforcement agencies in tackling the unrest has created space for the extremist elements to reorganise or regroup after years of anti-militancy security clampdown virtually destroyed their networks.
Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) earlier this month came up with a report, saying the extremists and criminal networks could exploit the resulting political void caused by extreme hostility between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League (AL) and her archrival Zia’s BNP.
“Violent Islamist factions are already reviving, threatening the secular, democratic order. While jihadi forces see both parties as the main hurdle to the establishment of an Islamic order, the AL and the BNP perceive each other as the main adversary,” the ICG report read.
PTI
Dhaka: A prominent Bangladesh opposition politician was abducted on Tuesday, allegedly by police, days after he appeared to say he was open to seeking military intervention to end the country`s deadly political crisis.
The family of Mahmudur Rahman Manna, 63, who has been trying to forge an alternative third political force in Bangladesh, said he was picked up by plain-clothed police officers from his niece`s home in the capital Dhaka.
“There were four to five men. They said they were from the DB (police detective branch). They asked him to go with them,” Manna`s niece Shahanama Sharmin told AFP.
“They led him away on a micro-bus at around 3:30am,” she added.
The abduction is the latest twist in weeks-long turmoil led by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies in efforts to topple Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and force fresh elections.
Confined by authorities to her office on January 3, BNP leader Khaleda Zia called on supporters to block roads, railways and waterways, sparking a wave of violence that has claimed more than 100 lives.
Over 10,000 opposition supporters and dozens of senior BNP officials have been arrested as part of a crackdown by Hasina to end the unrest.
Police denied they were behind the abduction of Manna, who has also been calling for talks between the government and the BNP to resolve the crisis.
“We don`t have any information regarding his detention or arrest. None of the branches of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested or detained him,” police spokesman Monirul Islam said.
An audio recording of a phone conversation between Manna, an opposition official and an unknown third person was leaked to local media late on Sunday.
Manna can be heard telling the unidentified person that he was open to talks with generals in a bid to resolve the crisis gripping Bangladesh, a country with a history of military-backed coups.
According to news portal bdnews24.com, Manna and the unidentified person discussed plans to meet top army officers.
Manna has admitted to the phone call, but denied supporting any military takeover.
Bangladesh`s powerful military has publicly denied speculation it plans to overthrow the government, which it did in 2007.
AFP
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