JAIRAM

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has been selected as a member of the United Nations' high-level panel on global sustainability.

Ramesh was chosen by the UN secretary general to be part of the panel that will look for solutions to achieve low-carbon and sustainable prosperity for all.

The panel will be headed by UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon] and will be co-chaired by President of Finland Tarja Halonen and President of South Africa  Jacob Zuma , a UN press release said on Monday.

The panel will look for ways to uplift the poor across the globe, to meet the increasing demand for energy, food and other resources and also develop new technologies for economic development – all by causing minimum damage to the global climatic conditions.

The release from Moon says that Ramesh's leadership and expertise will make a vital contribution to the panel that aims at "global green prosperity".

ENDS

Next week high level discussion in 

Delhi  on Andhra affairs 

 

Governor ESL Narasimhan 

to arrive in Delhi on Monday

to meet Prime Minister and Sonia 

By R Rajagopalan

High political and adminstrative discussions on Andhra Pradesh

is being held in Delhi next week with the arrival on Monday august 9

Governor ESL Narasimhan.

He is slated to meet Prime Minster Dr Manmohan Singh on Tuesday

and UPA chairperson  Sonia Gandhi, while on Monday Governor 

is slated to meet P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee.

Ensuing week is crucial from Andhra political future -as the PMO and AICC

will deliberate in the next Core Committee meeting. A clear perspective would

have been drawn. With the inputs from ESL Narasimhan and also from

Chief Minister K Rosaiah.

Politically the ensuing week is to be too crowded for AICC and also to PMO.

For AICC, pressing issues concerning Andhra Pradesh is state cabinet expansion,

since telangana by elections results were on the expected lines, APCC choices

New president of APCC, also to consider the panel of three names for APCC

spade work done by Veerappa Moily, Jagan Reddy proposed padayatra from next week, 

settlement of show cause notices issued to two lieutenants of Jagan, whether to revoke or issue 

further notices to  three 'shortlisted' pro Jagan supporters" the wait for Sonia Gandhi 

return from US on Saturday 

From the Government point of view, PMO is also seized of the Andhra Pradesh issues

Badli Dam, Naxal Maoists threats. Primarily what this correspondent understands

is that PMO is keen to discuss with Governor ESL Narasimhan about political fall

out if one section of Congress walks out of the parent organisation, review of Justice

Srikrishna commission, impact of 12 byelections in Telangana region,

ends

PARLIAMENT BUZZ SNIPPETS

6-8-2010

FRIDAY LOK SABHA SNIPPETS

By R Rajagopalan

Speaker Lok Sabha Meira Kumar is finding it too difficult to tell three Yadavs

Sharad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav to restrain their

style of approach to the question hour. For each and every question these three would

raise their hands. And that irks the back benchers. On Friday Lalu Prasad was wenting

to corner Pranab Mukherjee during question hour on the Non Performing Assets.

Pranab was categorical that he would not be giving the list of names of industrialsts

who are in NPA, as it is a confidential document. Lalu in protest against his reply

he walked out of the House. 

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Two young women MPs who always sene together inside Lok Sabha are 

Akali Dal lady  MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal wife of Sukhdev Singh Badal deputy chief miniser

of Punjab is always seen with Supriya Sule the daughter of Sharad Pawar..And outside

Parliament the third addition is Kanimozhi the daughter of Karunandhi. 

AIADMK MPs comment on this triumvirate as 3G spectrum.

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Madhu Kora the Jharkhand MP and former Chief Minister was in Lok Sabha on Friday 

On seeing him Inder SIngh Namdhari a BJP MP went near to Madhu and had a long 

chat with him. This was not liked by many Congress and BJP MPs, as they gave

rude look at this scene.

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Lok Sabha assembled on Friday.On seeing Sharad Yadav many MPs walked upto his seat to

greet him for his miraculous escape from an helicopter mishap.First was Lalu Prasad followed by

Union Ministers Pavan Kumar Bansal Gulam Nabi, Farooq Abdulla. From BJP side, Sushma spent

more than ten minutes with him enquiring the mishap.

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Joti Mirdha the grand daughter of Nathuram Mirdha is a Congress MP from Rajasthan. She is too much

of a computer literate, that she brings the iPad an apple computer which is like a reading book size.

She comes into Lok Sabha, while in Central Hall Joti would sit separately to read the iPad apple

books. She is the first MP to be seen with the iPad apple. On seeing this the first time MPs

are to demand from Parliament to take back the MTNL 3G phone set and supply the apple iPad

------------------------------------

ends

jaipal was alone to defend UPA2- treasury bench too pathetic

Lone Union Minister to defend UPA2
CWG scam

JAIPAL REDDY LEFT HIGH AND DRY 

BY TREASURY BENCH

By R Rajagopalan

Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy was alone, in the Lok Sabha on Friday when the entire Opposition 

joined hands to attack the Government on the scams of Commonwealth games.

Senior Ministers were seen in central hall and not in the house to go to the rescue of Suresh Kalmadi

and UPA2 ministers. 

UPA2 for the second time in Monsoon session faced the wrath of Opposition next to the price rise

issue. Ruling party MPs were seated speechless. Sanjay Nirupam  of Congress was a lone MP

to speak for Govt.

It was a pathetic scene that no senior Union Minister was present in the Lok Sabha to reply

on behalf of Government against the CWG corruption allegations The three rows of treasury bench

was empty. Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee was in Rajya Sabha to give reply on price rise

PM was not present, and for the past ten days Sonia Gandhi was also not attending Lok Sabha.

Mulayam Singh  Yadav was asking first for a CBI inquiry on the CWG corruption, but later changed

to Joint Parliamentary Committee. But Jaipal Reddy was able to convince the Opposition with his chaste

Hindi and English .

ends

BJP SAYS - MISUSE OF CBI -NATION WIDE AGITATION

bjp to agitate on misuse of cbi 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday decided to launch a weeklong agitation against the alleged misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the central government by observing a 'Nyay Saptah' (Justice Week) beginning Aug 9.

"BJP's campaign against CBI will start on August 9, which is August Kranti Divas, from the historical August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai," BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar said here.

He said party vice president Purshottambhai Rupala and national secretary Kirit Somaiya will lead a march to the CBI headquarters in Mumbai from August Kranti Maidan Aug 9.

As part of the 'Nyay Saptah' Aug 9-14, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley will address a public meeting at Ahmedabad and former party president Venkaiah Naidu will lead a protest in New Delhi Aug 11.

Party leaders like Sushma Swaraj and Ravishankar Prasad will participate in the agitation against "political abuse of CBI by the Congress-led government", Ananth Kumar said. He added that rallies and protest marches would be held in various parts of the country.

The BJP has earlier alleged that the Congress-led central government was behind the CBI arresting former Gujarat minister of state for home Amit Shah in the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a staged shootout.

During its protest week, BJP has also decided to continue its agitation against price rice by visiting Food Corporation of India (FCI) warehouses to expose poor storage of foodgrains, Ananth Kumar said.

The BJP leader said that against the buffer stock requirement of 200 lakh tonne foodgrains, FCI was holding 680 lakh tonne stock. "Around 180 lakh tonne foodgrains have been kept in the open. More than half of this stock is one to two years old," he said.

He said the party planned to visit over 50 FCI warehouses next week, exposing "the racket" of letting food grains rot.

A BJP leader said that the party had also decided to observe 'Kashmir bachao divas' (Save Kashmir Day) Aug 21. 

GOVT SAYS NOT INSENSITIVE ON PRICE RISE

 Aug 2010

GOVT SAYS NOT INSENSITIVE, OPPOSITION SAYS IT'S IN DILEMMA

From Our Delhi Bureau 

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday adopted a Speaker-sponsored motion urging the government "to take further effective action to contain its adverse impact on the common man," after a day's debate on the price rise dubbed as "inflationary pressure on economy."

The day-long debate on Tuesday that was replied by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asserting that the government was very much sensitive to the common man's difficulties yielded no solution to the price rise, even as the same type of debate ensued in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. 

Mukherjee hit back the Opposition challenging the government's sensitivity to people's plight, pointing out that it has not raised the Central issue price of foodgrains for PDS (public distribution system) distribution fixed back in 2001 to protect the vulnerable despite procurement prices raised several times. "That is sensitivity," he affirmed, adding that jobs to all in villages and right to education also reflect the government's sensitivity. 

He also told the Opposition not to question his own sensitivity in allowing increase in the kerosene price in June as he knew that the rural people will suffer when the price was raised from Rs 9 to Rs 12 a litre. "I am from a village... I studied under a kerosene lamp till my 10th class... commuted to school by walking, in today's terminology, 10 km  a day. And, so I know life of people in villages. Don't ridicule my sensitivity." 

PEOPLE DEJECTED: Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj, however, went a step further to point out in her response that the government is not only insensitive as she said while initiating the debate on Tuesday but Mukherjee's reply shows that it is in a dilemma ('duvidha-grast') of whether to reduc the inflation or not as it is focused on growth rate, unconcerned about those hit badly. "Vikas dar kisi aur ki, aur mahangayee kisi aur ko maar rahi hai," she remarked.

She said the people had expected that the government will yield to the sense of the House in giving some relief by rolling back the petroleum prices at last a little, but Mukherjee has dejected them as he only justified the inflation without spelling out a single measure to tackle it.

SUSHMA SOLUTION: As regards Mukherjee talking about encouraging construction of private and FCI godowns to prevent foodgrains rotting in open, she suggested an immediate alternative of giving wheat and rice allowance to the government employees to let them buy stocks for the full year in April. Thus, foodgrains would not rot and the government will not spend a single rupee as the advance given as loan would be recovered back from the salary, she said.

Mukherjee said the inflationary pressure is bound to come in the growing economy when there is a rise in people's income and admitted that excess liquidity in the market deliberately injected by the government to prevent the Indian economy's collapse is also the culprit. The government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are gradually rolling back incentives to reduce the liquidity, but it cannot be mopped up fast lest there are no investments, no growth and no new jobs, he said.

As regards protecting the poor and vulnerable from the inflationary pressures on the economy, he advanced four solutions: Revamped PDS, reduction in excessive liquidity, increased agriculture production and GST."

GST AS PANACEA: Agreeing with Sushma that taxes too increase the prices, he campaigned for an early implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the panacea for check on the domestic prices as also put an end to the sharp variations in prices of petrol, diesel and other petroleum products from state to state. 

He sought the Opposition's help to pass the GST Bill to be introduced in this session, asserting that "time is running out" as it has to first go before the standing committee and then it has to be ratified by 15 state assemblies before it can meet the target date of implementing from next April 1.

Reeling out statistics to show the food prices coming down in the last three months like wheat down from Rs 18 to Rs 14 a kilo, rice from Rs 23 to Rs 22 a kilo, Sugar from Rs 44 to Rs 31 a kilo and onions from Rs 23 to Rs 14 a kilo, Mukherjee called for collective responsibility of political leadership at Centre and States to provide further fast relief to the vulnerable members of the society.

He won't blame the states for not handling the situation effectively but he can not desist from pointing out that better PDS mechanism, Essential Commodities Act, maintenance of Essential Supplies Act, etc. are all for the state governments to enforce, Mukherjee said.

NDA REGIME: The BJP's Ananth Kumar intervened to accuse him of shifting responsibility on the state governments and sought explanation why the prices of essential commodities are rising during the UPA regime while they remained under check during the NDA regime from 1998 to 2004.

Mukherjee hit back, pointing out that the economic growth during the NDA rule was very little and hence there was no rise in the income of people. The BJP is attacking the government for increasing kerosene price from Rs 9 to Rs 12, but it forgets that the NDA raised it from Rs 2 to Rs 9 a litre. "I don't believe in this type of variated sensitivity," he remarked.

He said the food prices are affected by supply and demand. He expected them to come down but that does not happen, but now there are reports of substantial increase in crops that is bound to bring down the prices. 

##

PRANAB DA LOST COOL

4 Aug 2010

PRANAB DA LOSES COOL, BUT REGRETS AFTER TDP SAYS SORRY

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: The 75-year old Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday lost his cool twice in the Lok Sabha, first when he threatened to quit as leader of House over a young Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the well shouting at him and second time provoked by CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia's intervention to abruptly conclude his answer to debate on price rise.

Speaker Meira Kumar quickly adjourned the House, second time during the Question Hour, as the TDP and Shiv Sena members rushed to the well and shouted against each other over the disputed Babhali barrage in Maharashtra on the Godavari river.

The TDP's leader Rama Nageshwar Rao regretted "what happened with Pranab Da" when the House re-assembled at noon, though without naming his party colleague Sivaprasad Naramalli who entered into a wordy duel with the minister from the well.

Mukherjee too wanted to respond but the Speaker made him wait as she had already called for the business of laying papers. He, however, started his reply to the price rise debate only after expressing "regrets and apology to the House that I lost cool and temper on a young member."

Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj had rushed to Mukherjee table to request him with folded hands not to be so upset with the errant TDP member before the House was adjourned and later BJP deputy leader Gopinath Munde played the role of a peace-maker, taking the TDP leader to the Speaker's chamber and making him apologise.

The TDP members had entered the well right at the start of the day's proceeding to raise the Babhli issue, the Shiv Sena members following them that led the Speaker adjourn the House till 1130 hrs. In the interval, leaders of both sides agreed that the issue will be closed with Water Resources Minister Pawan Bansal making a statement on the dispute.

The TDP members, however, stormed the House as soon as it re-assembled and this angered Mukherjee to state that the House is being put to ransom as the minister was not being allowed to make a statement after agreeing for it. He asked the TDP members at top of his voice to go back to their seats and allow the House to function.

TDP's Chittoor member Sivaprasad, however, shouted back at Mukherjee who got provoked to retort: "Yes that is the rule. You go back to seat." Sivaprasad again shouted at him, provoking him to threaten to quit as the leader of House when Sushma Swaraj quickly left her seat and rushed to persuade him to cool down.

The way the TDP MPs were crowding around Mukherjee, though actually protesting before the Speaker's dais, the Congress MPs feared he may be assaulted as Jagdambika Pal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Haroon Rashid and M Jagannath could be seen rushing there as soon the House was adjourned till noon.

Mukherjee was provoked second time while replying to the day-long debate on price rise on Tuesday when Acharia tried to intervene to make a query. He did not yield and when the CPI(M) leader insisted on asking the question, he just sat down, saying "I am completing my answer...I will not answer further." He, however, resumed reply after the Speaker brought House to order.

Only two days ago on Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had convened a meeting of the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra here over the Babhali barrage row and asked the two riverine states to abide by the Supreme Court's interim order, pointing out that both belong to the Congress and should, therefore, understand the responsibility of not quarrelling. 

TDP leader Nageshwar Rao, who apologised over the ugly scene with Mukherjee, seized the opportunity also to make out Andhra Pradesh case on Babhali to point out how the Maharashtra Government has been violating accords and the Supreme Court orders.

In his response, the Water Resources Minister said the matter is sub judice as the Supreme Court is seized of it and pointed out that the CMs of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra had agreed in a meeting with the PM on Monday to fully implement the Supreme Court's interim orders. He said the meeting also decided that the Central Water Commission (CWC) will continue to check compliance.

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