Only one House needs to clear FEMA amendments: Kamal Nath
NEW DELHI: The UPA government on Sunday claimed that amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to facilitate foreign supermarkets to open stores in India required the approval of only one House of Parliament. Ahead of a crucial debate with voting on FDI in multi-brand retail in the Lok Sabha on December 4-5, the government also said it was confident of its numbers. "If one House has passed it, it passes. It does not need both Houses to pass it. That's what is prescribed in the rules," parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath said in a TV interview. The minister's claim may lead to another round of confrontation with opposition parties which have been arguing that the FEMA notification needs the approval of both Houses of Parliament and cannot come into force if it falls in Rajya Sabha where the UPA lacks majority. The opposition wants a vote in both the Houses on changes to FEMA, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday, and even threatened to move court if the government failed to do so. The government, however, was undeterred by the opposition's threat. "Anything can go to court. If it goes, we will deal with it," Nath said. The minister insisted that the rules were separate for Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. However, he accepted that the FEMA notification - which could well be passed in the budget session as the government has 30 working days of Parliament to get the nod — may drag into the next session which is three months away. Nath said he had got no assurance from the SP and BSP on the FDI issue which will be debated and voted upon in both Houses but he expressed confidence that they will support the UPA. "I have good reason to believe that they (SP and BSP) will vote with the government because they are responsible parties and they will understand the politics of it... They are not going to vote for the politics of the BJP," he added.
Farmers’ body threatens to take over UP toll plazas
NEW DELHI/GHAZIABAD: Highway modernization is facing a new threat, this time from Bharat Kisan Union (BKU), with the farmers' body warning of taking over all highway toll plazas in Uttar Pradesh if the government and NHAI do not allow free passage of tractor-trolleys and vehicles of people living in a 10-km radius of a tolling point. A day after its top leaders held a long meeting with NHAI officials to resolve several issues, BKU activists on Saturday took over a toll plaza near Garh Mukteshwar on NH-24 for several hours and removed barriers of the toll plaza on NH-58 (Daurala) close to Meerut for the second time. On Sunday, over hundred farmers had laid siege to the Dasna toll plaza. The organization has announced that it will take over a toll plaza near Saharanpur on Monday. The stir may hit the DND Flyway, which connects Delhi and Noida, on Friday. "For some hours, the NHAI contractor had started tolling on NH-58 on Friday, but we soon took control over the plaza. The protest will spread to other stretches in UP and also in other states," BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said. The BKU may have ambitiously announced plans to take over toll plazas across UP but the outfit's tactics may be successful only in the western part of the state, where it commands some influence. On Sunday, agitating farmers reached the Dasna toll plaza around 9.30 am and threw open the toll gates for at least two-and-a-half hours. They again took over the plaza allowing vehicles free passage till late night. "There is no service road, which forces local commuters to pay and cross the toll plaza," Rajveer Singh, BKU's Meerut zone president, said.
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court joins strike
Egypt’s highest court joined a judicial rebellion against President Mohammed Morsi on Sunday by declaring an open-ended strike on the day it was supposed to rule on the legitimacy of two key assemblies controlled by allies of the Islamist leader.The strike by the Supreme Constitutional Court and opposition plans to march on the presidential palace on Tuesday take the country’s latest political crisis to a level not seen in the nearly two years of turmoil since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in a popular uprising. Judges from the country’s highest appeals court and its sister lower court were already on an indefinite strike, joining colleagues from other tribunals who suspended work last week to protest what they saw as Mr. Morsi’s assault on the judiciary. The last time Egypt had an all-out strike by the judiciary was in 1919, when judges joined an uprising against British colonial rule. The standoff began when Mr. Morsi issued decrees on Nov. 22 giving him near-absolute powers that granted himself and the Islamist-dominated assembly drafting the new constitution immunity from the courts. The constitutional panel then raced in a marathon session last week to vote on the charter’s 236 clauses without the participation of liberal and Christian members. The fast-track hearing pre-empted a decision from the Supreme Constitutional Court that was widely expected to dissolve the constituent assembly. The judges on Sunday postponed their ruling on that case just before they went on strike. Without a functioning justice system, Egypt will be plunged even deeper into turmoil. It has already seen a dramatic surge in crime after the uprising, while state authority is being challenged in many aspects of life and the courts are burdened by a massive backlog of cases. “The country cannot function for long like this, something has to give,” said Negad Borai, a private law firm director and a rights activist. ‘We are in a country without courts of law and a president with all the powers in his hands. This is a clear-cut dictatorial climate,” he said. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a rights lawyer, said the strike by the judges will impact everything from divorce and theft to financial disputes that, in some cases, could involve foreign investors. “Ordinary citizens affected by the strike will become curious about the details of the current political crisis and could possibly make a choice to join the protests,” he said. The Judges Club, a union with 9,500 members, said late Sunday that judges would not, as customary, oversee the national referendum Mr. Morsi called for Dec. 15 on the draft constitution hammered out and hurriedly voted on last week. The absence of their oversight would raise more questions about the validity of the vote. If the draft is passed in the referendum, parliamentary elections are to follow two months later and they too may not have judicial supervision. The judges say they will remain on strike until Mr. Morsi rescinds his decrees, which the Egyptian leader said were temporary and needed to protect the nation’s path to democratic rule. For now, however, Mr. Morsi has to contend with the fury of the judiciary. The constitutional court called Sunday “the Egyptian judiciary’s blackest day on record.” It described the scene outside the Nile-side court complex, where thousands of Islamist demonstrators gathered since the early morning hours carrying banners denouncing the tribunal and some of its judges. A statement by the court, which swore Mr. Morsi into office on June 30, said its judges approached the complex but turned back when they saw the protesters blocking entrances and climbing over its fences. They feared for their safety, it added.
NEW DELHI: The UPA government on Sunday claimed that amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to facilitate foreign supermarkets to open stores in India required the approval of only one House of Parliament. Ahead of a crucial debate with voting on FDI in multi-brand retail in the Lok Sabha on December 4-5, the government also said it was confident of its numbers. "If one House has passed it, it passes. It does not need both Houses to pass it. That's what is prescribed in the rules," parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath said in a TV interview. The minister's claim may lead to another round of confrontation with opposition parties which have been arguing that the FEMA notification needs the approval of both Houses of Parliament and cannot come into force if it falls in Rajya Sabha where the UPA lacks majority. The opposition wants a vote in both the Houses on changes to FEMA, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday, and even threatened to move court if the government failed to do so. The government, however, was undeterred by the opposition's threat. "Anything can go to court. If it goes, we will deal with it," Nath said. The minister insisted that the rules were separate for Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. However, he accepted that the FEMA notification - which could well be passed in the budget session as the government has 30 working days of Parliament to get the nod — may drag into the next session which is three months away. Nath said he had got no assurance from the SP and BSP on the FDI issue which will be debated and voted upon in both Houses but he expressed confidence that they will support the UPA. "I have good reason to believe that they (SP and BSP) will vote with the government because they are responsible parties and they will understand the politics of it... They are not going to vote for the politics of the BJP," he added.
Farmers’ body threatens to take over UP toll plazas
NEW DELHI/GHAZIABAD: Highway modernization is facing a new threat, this time from Bharat Kisan Union (BKU), with the farmers' body warning of taking over all highway toll plazas in Uttar Pradesh if the government and NHAI do not allow free passage of tractor-trolleys and vehicles of people living in a 10-km radius of a tolling point. A day after its top leaders held a long meeting with NHAI officials to resolve several issues, BKU activists on Saturday took over a toll plaza near Garh Mukteshwar on NH-24 for several hours and removed barriers of the toll plaza on NH-58 (Daurala) close to Meerut for the second time. On Sunday, over hundred farmers had laid siege to the Dasna toll plaza. The organization has announced that it will take over a toll plaza near Saharanpur on Monday. The stir may hit the DND Flyway, which connects Delhi and Noida, on Friday. "For some hours, the NHAI contractor had started tolling on NH-58 on Friday, but we soon took control over the plaza. The protest will spread to other stretches in UP and also in other states," BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said. The BKU may have ambitiously announced plans to take over toll plazas across UP but the outfit's tactics may be successful only in the western part of the state, where it commands some influence. On Sunday, agitating farmers reached the Dasna toll plaza around 9.30 am and threw open the toll gates for at least two-and-a-half hours. They again took over the plaza allowing vehicles free passage till late night. "There is no service road, which forces local commuters to pay and cross the toll plaza," Rajveer Singh, BKU's Meerut zone president, said.
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court joins strike
Egypt’s highest court joined a judicial rebellion against President Mohammed Morsi on Sunday by declaring an open-ended strike on the day it was supposed to rule on the legitimacy of two key assemblies controlled by allies of the Islamist leader.The strike by the Supreme Constitutional Court and opposition plans to march on the presidential palace on Tuesday take the country’s latest political crisis to a level not seen in the nearly two years of turmoil since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in a popular uprising. Judges from the country’s highest appeals court and its sister lower court were already on an indefinite strike, joining colleagues from other tribunals who suspended work last week to protest what they saw as Mr. Morsi’s assault on the judiciary. The last time Egypt had an all-out strike by the judiciary was in 1919, when judges joined an uprising against British colonial rule. The standoff began when Mr. Morsi issued decrees on Nov. 22 giving him near-absolute powers that granted himself and the Islamist-dominated assembly drafting the new constitution immunity from the courts. The constitutional panel then raced in a marathon session last week to vote on the charter’s 236 clauses without the participation of liberal and Christian members. The fast-track hearing pre-empted a decision from the Supreme Constitutional Court that was widely expected to dissolve the constituent assembly. The judges on Sunday postponed their ruling on that case just before they went on strike. Without a functioning justice system, Egypt will be plunged even deeper into turmoil. It has already seen a dramatic surge in crime after the uprising, while state authority is being challenged in many aspects of life and the courts are burdened by a massive backlog of cases. “The country cannot function for long like this, something has to give,” said Negad Borai, a private law firm director and a rights activist. ‘We are in a country without courts of law and a president with all the powers in his hands. This is a clear-cut dictatorial climate,” he said. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a rights lawyer, said the strike by the judges will impact everything from divorce and theft to financial disputes that, in some cases, could involve foreign investors. “Ordinary citizens affected by the strike will become curious about the details of the current political crisis and could possibly make a choice to join the protests,” he said. The Judges Club, a union with 9,500 members, said late Sunday that judges would not, as customary, oversee the national referendum Mr. Morsi called for Dec. 15 on the draft constitution hammered out and hurriedly voted on last week. The absence of their oversight would raise more questions about the validity of the vote. If the draft is passed in the referendum, parliamentary elections are to follow two months later and they too may not have judicial supervision. The judges say they will remain on strike until Mr. Morsi rescinds his decrees, which the Egyptian leader said were temporary and needed to protect the nation’s path to democratic rule. For now, however, Mr. Morsi has to contend with the fury of the judiciary. The constitutional court called Sunday “the Egyptian judiciary’s blackest day on record.” It described the scene outside the Nile-side court complex, where thousands of Islamist demonstrators gathered since the early morning hours carrying banners denouncing the tribunal and some of its judges. A statement by the court, which swore Mr. Morsi into office on June 30, said its judges approached the complex but turned back when they saw the protesters blocking entrances and climbing over its fences. They feared for their safety, it added.
The burden of India’s cash transfer scheme
The government’s cash transfer scheme (CTS) has been accepted by economists as the most efficient method of delivering subsidies to the poor. This became possible with the identification of the poor after the introduction of “Aadhaar” or unique identity scheme. The scheme is going to be implemented from the beginning of 2013.The Congress party is excited because the scheme can prove to be an excellent vote magnate. Cash in hand is a good enough incentive even if it is in replacement of invisible subsidies. UPA-II came to power mainly on the basis of a loan waiver to farmers which cost the government 600 billion rupees. Possibly, CTS would not need any additional outlays and may actually reduce the burden on the exchequer. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has been quick to understand the scheme’s political appeal and is protesting its introduction for one reason or the other. A pilot project for CTS was started a year back in Kotkasim block in Rajasthan that has 25,000 households. Preliminary results indicate that the scheme was a flop. It was intended primarily to replace the state subsidy of 14 rupees per litre on kerosene. With the withdrawal of the subsidy, prices increased while the cash transfer got delayed or did not take place at all. The government did not have in place an efficient system to replace subsidy by cash delivery. That is likely to happen when the scheme is extended to 51 districts from January 1.CTS requires a different infrastructure for success. It is no longer the ration shops which will deliver the subsidy through low priced essential commodities but a cash equivalent of the subsidies would be distributed by the banks. But in some villages, the requisite banking facilities do not exist, many beneficiaries being illiterate may not be able to take recourse to banks and, in spite of “Aadhaar”, may not have been properly identified.Obviously, it is not possible to have a perfect system to begin with or cover all the subsidies that can be cash delivered. It is only after the scheme has been in operation for a while that its refinement would be possible. Initially restricted to 29 schemes, CTS will replace 42 different public welfare benefits by 2014 and cover the whole country.The advantages are obvious. With direct cash transfers there will be elimination of intermediaries and therefore the cost of distribution will be substantially reduced. That cost is higher than the actual subsidy that the beneficiaries receive. Hence, CTS is likely to benefit people directly and at the same time cost less to the government.That sounds good but also has potential dangers. First, a cut in or a removal of cash benefits in future may be resisted by citizens and the scheme will become a permanent liability. Second, the scheme is likely to be misused by the government since it will become an attractive populist gimmick for political parties apart from imposing additional burden on the exchequer as subsidies do at present.
The government’s cash transfer scheme (CTS) has been accepted by economists as the most efficient method of delivering subsidies to the poor. This became possible with the identification of the poor after the introduction of “Aadhaar” or unique identity scheme. The scheme is going to be implemented from the beginning of 2013.The Congress party is excited because the scheme can prove to be an excellent vote magnate. Cash in hand is a good enough incentive even if it is in replacement of invisible subsidies. UPA-II came to power mainly on the basis of a loan waiver to farmers which cost the government 600 billion rupees. Possibly, CTS would not need any additional outlays and may actually reduce the burden on the exchequer. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has been quick to understand the scheme’s political appeal and is protesting its introduction for one reason or the other. A pilot project for CTS was started a year back in Kotkasim block in Rajasthan that has 25,000 households. Preliminary results indicate that the scheme was a flop. It was intended primarily to replace the state subsidy of 14 rupees per litre on kerosene. With the withdrawal of the subsidy, prices increased while the cash transfer got delayed or did not take place at all. The government did not have in place an efficient system to replace subsidy by cash delivery. That is likely to happen when the scheme is extended to 51 districts from January 1.CTS requires a different infrastructure for success. It is no longer the ration shops which will deliver the subsidy through low priced essential commodities but a cash equivalent of the subsidies would be distributed by the banks. But in some villages, the requisite banking facilities do not exist, many beneficiaries being illiterate may not be able to take recourse to banks and, in spite of “Aadhaar”, may not have been properly identified.Obviously, it is not possible to have a perfect system to begin with or cover all the subsidies that can be cash delivered. It is only after the scheme has been in operation for a while that its refinement would be possible. Initially restricted to 29 schemes, CTS will replace 42 different public welfare benefits by 2014 and cover the whole country.The advantages are obvious. With direct cash transfers there will be elimination of intermediaries and therefore the cost of distribution will be substantially reduced. That cost is higher than the actual subsidy that the beneficiaries receive. Hence, CTS is likely to benefit people directly and at the same time cost less to the government.That sounds good but also has potential dangers. First, a cut in or a removal of cash benefits in future may be resisted by citizens and the scheme will become a permanent liability. Second, the scheme is likely to be misused by the government since it will become an attractive populist gimmick for political parties apart from imposing additional burden on the exchequer as subsidies do at present.
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