Tag: bharat bandh

Morning Digest: Roads to be freed of toll booths in a year, says Nitin Gadkari; EU drug regulator backs AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 after safety investigation, and more

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India will implement a GPS-based toll collection system and do away with all toll booths within a year, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday. He also shared details of the vehicle scrapping policy, first announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22, according to which the automobile industry in India will see a jump in turnover to ₹10 lakh crore from ₹4.5 lakh crore.

Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde agreed with advocate Prashant Bhushan on Thursday to urgently hear a plea by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms to stay the sale of a new set of electoral bonds on April 1, before Assembly elections in crucial States such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

Top U.S. and Chinese officials offered sharply different views of the world on March 18 as the two sides met face-to-face for the first time since President Joe Biden took office. In unusually pointed remarks for a staid diplomatic meeting, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi took aim at each other’s policies at the start of two days of talks in Alaska.

The EU’s drug watchdog said on March 18 it is still convinced the benefits of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks following an investigation into reports of blood disorders that prompted more than a dozen nations to suspend its use.

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Insurance Amendment Bill 2021 that increases the maximum foreign investment allowed in an insurance company from 49% to 74%, amid criticism from the Opposition parties on the clause enabling “control and ownership” by foreign investors.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday forbade judges from making gender stereotypical comments like “’good women are sexually chaste”, women who drink and smoke ‘ask’ for sexual advances or presume that a sexually active woman consented to rape while hearing cases of sexual offence.

Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that climate activist Disha Ravi’s arrest was based on law and order and it is under judicial process. He added that the House should consider “should some people abuse social media internationally to defame India to promote secessionism.”

Former Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian resigned from Ashoka University on Thursday, days after noted columnist and political commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s exit. In his resignation letter, Dr. Subramanian, said he had been “devastated” by “the circumstances involving the ‘resignation’ of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta” two days earlier.

In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two candidates announced by the party on Thursday for the Assembly polls from Kolkata have refused to contest on the party’s ticket.

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed suo motu proceedings before the Delhi High Court on the administration of COVID-19 vaccine and transferred the case to itself. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde said a similar case concerning the vaccination drive was already pending in the Supreme Court, and the case from the Delhi High Court could be heard along with it.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently hear a plea to release and protect over 150 Rohingya refugees reportedly “detained” in Jammu. Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde agreed to hear the application filed by a member of the Rohingya community, Mohammad Salimullah, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl d’Souza, on April 25 (Thursday). Mr. Bhushan made an oral mention before the CJI for an early hearing.

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the supplementary demand for grants (second batch for 2020-21) but not before significant concerns raised by Opposition leaders on the government’s disinvestment and asset monetisation plans, and rising fuel prices.

If Ishan Kishan was unfortunate to be ruled out of the fourth T20I due to a groin strain, lady luck smiled on his replacement Suryakumar Yadav. The Mumbai cricketer, dropped for the previous outing after not having faced a ball on his debut in the second T20I, grabbed his chance and made it count.

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Farmers to Intensify Agitation with Bharat Bandh, Burning Farm Laws on Holi

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Intensifying their agitation against the three farm laws, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Wednesday met with different mass organisations and associations to strategise for their ‘Sampurna Bharat Bandh’ on March 26. Addressing a press conference, Ranjit Raju of Ganganagar Kisan Samiti said that during the nationwide strike on March 26, which also marks four months of the farmers’ movement, all shops and other business establishments will remain shut for 12 hours. On March 28, the protestors will burn copies of the three laws during ‘holika dehan’, he added.

“The strike will start from 6 in the morning and will continue till 6 in the evening, during which all shops and dairies and everything will remain closed. “We will burn the copies of the three laws during Holi and hope that better sense prevails in the government, and it repeals the laws, and gives us a written guarantee for MSP,” Raju said.

According to farmer leaders, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s call for the bandh had found support in trade unions from organised and unorganised sectors, traders and arhtiya associations, workers’ unions, including agricultural workers unions, transporter associations, teachers’ associations, youth and students associations. “We are also trying to create such meetings at the state-level so that the strike is observed everywhere,” said another farmer leader Purushottam Sharma.

All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Krishna Prasad said the fact that the movement had managed to continue for as long as 112 days was an achievement in itself, and it would only get stronger. He added that the Bharat Bandh will be held at “state, zila, tehsil and village levels”.

“The protest has been going on for 112 days. That itself is an achievement. Neither you, nor us had thought that we could do this, and the public has shown that it supports us,” he said. Prasad also expressed concerns over the central government’s move to introduce the Electricity Amendment Bill 2021, claiming that any amendments made to the act would be in violation of the commitment made by the government to the farmers in January.

“During the 11 rounds of talks that we have had with the government, Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar said that they accepted our demands over the electricity bill. “The media wrote that 50 per cent of the demands of the farmers’ movement were resolved. But, now they are trying to introduce the act again. This is cheating,” he said.

An SKM statement said that several organisations had also committed to mobilising thousands of people at the protest sites at a time when the protesting farmers would have to attend to wheat harvesting operations in a couple of weeks’ time. The leaders also announced their plans to organise a “Shaheed Yadgar Kisan Mazdoor Padyatra” between March 18 and 23.

“Preparations are underway for the people from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to join the Shaheed Diwas events marking the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on March 23,” the statement said. One ‘padayatra’ will start on March 18 from Lal Sadak Hansi in Hisar in Haryana and will reach Tikri Border, another will start from Khatkar Kalan village in Punjab and pass through Panipat before reaching Singhu Border, and the third padayatra will begin in Mathura and will be headed towards Palwal.

Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country. The protesting farmers, on the other hand, have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates. TRS AAR AAR 03172043 NNNN.

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Bank operations may be hit on Mon, Tue due to nationwide unions’ strike – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Banking operations across the country could be impacted on Monday and Tuesday as United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has given a call for a nationwide strike to protest against the proposed privatisation of two state-owned lenders.
Services such as deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearance and loan approvals would be affected due to the strike.
UFBU, an umbrella body of nine unions, in a statement claimed that about 10 lakh bank employees and officers of the banks will participate in the strike.
Many public sector lenders, including State Bank of India (SBI) have informed their customers that their normal working could be affected at the branches and offices if the strike materialises.
Banks have also informed that they are taking necessary steps for the smooth functioning of bank branches and offices.
In the Union Budget presented last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatisation of two public sector banks (PSBs) as part of the government’s disinvestment plan.
The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and has merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.
Conciliation meetings – before the Additional Chief Labour Commissioner on March 4, 9 and 10 – did not yield any positive result, so the strike stands, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C H Venkatachalam said.
Members of UFBU include All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI).
Others are Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).

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