The unseasonal haze that has engulfed Delhi is not only choking the city, it is driving its residents towards an early grave.
All this while authorities – be it the state government or the Centre – are either mouthing platitudes or promising “action plans” that are not being implemented.
Instead of implementing severe measures such as declaring a “red alert” and shutting down schools, construction activities and non-essential businesses, the Delhi government, the Centre and pollution-control agencies are busy passing the buck to each other.
Two days after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia belatedly promised a slew of measures to curb pollution, a Delhi government spokesperson suggested on Thursday that unchecked pollution was the Centre’s fault.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
India's most ambitious tax reform since Independence took a giant leap forward on Thursday with the Centre and states agreeing on the rates for the Goods and Services Tax (GST). To be implemented from 1 April 2017, the GST– which will subsume several taxes, including excise duty and VAT – will have four rates.
Currently, there are 15-20 tax slabs between the Centre and states. Coal, luxury and sin goods (eg: cigarettes and alcohol) will attract cess in addition to the GST.
The government suggested that the rate structure would be non-inflationary as rates on several items would come down.
(Source: The Times of India)
A nine-minute audio clip believed to be from the police control room in Bhopal recorded on the day when the eight under-trial prisoners were gunned down in a police encounter, hours after their escape from the Bhopal Central prison, has raised questions about the entire episode.
The authenticity of the audio tape has not been verified yet. Earlier, two video clips had surfaced where a policeman was seen shooting a seemingly lifeless body from close range.
(Source: The Hindu)
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Army have been engaged in a face-off with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army along the Line of Actual Control in Leh’s Demchok area since Wednesday, a top government official told The Hindu.
The Chinese troops took positions and demanded that work be stopped as either side needs permission before undertaking any work.
This is the first time since the 2014 incident when Chinese Army had come deep inside the Indian territory in Demchok to protest an ongoing irrigation project.
(Source: The Hindu)
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday that the BJP was neither for the Hindus nor Muslims. "They will even sell their father for power," Kejriwal said, while addressing a 'joint solidarity meeting' organised by the students' union, and teachers' and staff associations of JNU.
Kejriwal urged the students to take the movement out of the campus.
(Source: The Times of India)
“The Congress will continue to raise issues linked to the demands of the armed forces. OROP (One Rank, One Pension) has to be implemented fully, not piecemeal,” former Congress minister and currently the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia told The Hindu.
He added: “The anomalies in the Seventh Pay Commission, parity between the armed forces and civil service must be addressed. The government has messed up everything.”
A day after several Congress leaders, including party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, were detained for attempting to meet the family members of Subedar Ram Krishen Grewal, Scindia who was thrashed by the Delhi Police on Wednesday, made light of his own condition.
(Source: The Hindu)
Awaaz-e-Punjab (AEP), the political front led by former cricketer-turned-parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu, wants the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to spell out its chief ministerial candidate for Punjab before it will commit to an alliance, AEP sources told Hindustan Times on Thursday.
Talks between the two parties on a probable alliance in Punjab for the 2017 assembly elections have hit a roadblock with both sides unable to agree on the terms of engagement.
The AEP also wants Arvind Kejriwal and his team to “lay bare the blue print on how AAP will resolve Punjab’s debt crisis and other problems.”
(Source: Hindustan Times)
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s inter-ministerial committee has recommended that news channel NDTV India be taken off air for 24 hours for allegedly revealing “strategically-sensitive information” during the course of its coverage of the anti-terror operations at the Pathankot airbase earlier this year.
The first-of-its-kind order has imposed a blackout prohibiting “the transmission or re-transmission of NDTV India channel for one day on any platform throughout India with effect from 00:01 hrs on 9 November to 00:01 hrs of 10 November”.
(Source: Indian Express)
The Union Home Ministry cancelled the licence of 11,319 NGOs on Thursday under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010, after they failed to apply for its renewal within the deadline of 30 June 2016.
The validity of FCRA registration of these NGOs had been extended until 31 October 2016 (the earlier deadline being 30 September) vide a home ministry order dated 29 March 2016.
The Home Ministry has now asked the 1,736 NGOs to submit their representations in support of deficiency in the application, through designated email usfcramha@ gov.in by 8 November 2016, failing which no representation will be accepted.
(Source: The Times of India)
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