Uganda oil finds trigger land grab near fields-mps

June 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 25 (Reuters) – The discovery of oil in western Uganda has prompted a land grab around the oil fields, dispossessing impoverished local communities and providing a potential trigger for conflict, members of parliament from the area said on Friday.

Energy

East Africa’s third largest economy is basking in a fresh wave of economic vitality as global investors rush in to tap opportunities in its budding oil industry.

Commercial hydrocarbon deposits were discovered in the Albertine Rift Basin close to the country’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 and reserves are estimated at 2 billion barrels.

Member of parliament Stephen Biraahwa Mukitale told Reuters there was a rush by powerful and influential individuals to acquire large tracts of land in the area.

“Land in the whole of the Albertine Graben is mostly customarily owned but powerful individuals speculating on its value are trying to survey and register large chunks of it in their names,” he said.

“I have warned the government that this is a recipe for conflict. The government must formally and openly survey and demarcate land in the whole area and give titles to the communities.”

The scramble for land, he said, is consolidating ownership in a few individuals and could provoke landless and impoverished people in the region to sabotage oil exploration and production activity in future.

“The land that is being registered for freehold ownership has owners already, these are the local communities and you can’t guarantee what these people will do once they discover they no longer own the land,” he said.

Tomson Kyahurwenda, another legislator from the region, told Reuters the land grab could unsettle the region.

“People go to Kampala and acquire individual titles and you find one person with nearly ten titles and I think this is not only unacceptable but criminal,” he said.

“The government policy is that land in that area belongs to the communities,” Matia Kasaija, junior internal affairs minister, told Reuters. Kasaija did mention any possible government action against grabbers.

Tullow Oil (TLW.L), which has made the most discoveries in the region, expects to start limited commercial petroleum production in the last quarter of 2011. Daily crude output is forecast to peak at about 200,000 barrels by 2015.

Tullow is awaiting approval of its proposed purchase of Heritage Oil’s (HOIL.L) exploration assets in Uganda. Heritage is selling its half-share stakes in exploration areas 1 and 3A for a total of $1.5 billion.

Approval of the deal, though, has stalled over a tax dispute pitting Heritage against the Ugandan government. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Asset list shows Afghan president earns $525 a month

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai earns $525 a month, has less than $20,000 in the bank and owns no land or property, according to a declaration of his assets on Sunday by an anti-graft body.

The assets of Karzai, whose remuneration is five times the national average, were published by the High Office for Oversight and anti-Corruption Commission as part of a decree aimed at providing greater transparency among officials.

Although the Taliban insurgency remains the greatest threat to Afghanistan’s stability, graft at almost every level of society remains a major complaint of ordinary Afghans and anyone doing business with the country.

The list makes no mention of assets held by Karzai’s brothers and other relatives, several of whom run businesses at home and abroad.

It said Karzai, who is married to a stay-at-home physician and has a young son, had jewelry and other valuables worth $11,036.

The anti-graft body is registering the assets of at least 2,000 officials — including ministers, members of parliament, senior military and police officers and provincial leaders — and will start publishing them this week.

“This covers assets held by officials, their wives and children below the age of 18,” Mohammad Yasin Usmani, the commission’s chief, told Reuters on Sunday.

Any official found to have withheld information risked prosecution, he said.

Senior current and former Afghan officials — including two of Karzai’s deputies — are believed to own buildings and assets worth tens of millions of dollars — at home and abroad.

Many got positions of power and influence after siding with U.S.-led forces that toppled the Taliban government in 2001 and have improved their positions through involvement in contracts awarded by foreign forces or government aid projects.

BANK ACCOUNT FROZEN

Police have been questioning 17 current and ex-ministers on suspicion of corruption including former religious affairs minister Sediq Chakari, who now lives in Britain and has had a bank account frozen with $700,000, an official source said.

While some of Afghanistan’s richest men are government officials, those behind Afghanistan’s billion dollar illicit narcotics trade are probably far wealthier.

Among the richest private individuals are believed to be the Safi brothers, who run a chain of businesses including an airline, hotels and construction firms, and Ehsanullah Bayat, who runs the largest national mobile phone firm and a private television channel.

While Karzai has acknowledged a corruption problem, he says it is exaggerated by Western media and insists the biggest source of graft is poor oversight of billions of dollars in aid contracts that dwarf Afghanistan’s budget.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in March Washington needed to do more to clean up its contract procedures.

The declaration of assets, signed by Karzai, said he earned $525 a month and had 15,635 euros ($18,762) and $134 in cash in two Commerzbank accounts in Germany.

(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox and Janet Lawrence)

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Govt pact unlikely before Monday – UK Conservatives

May 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Britain’s opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will hold more talks on Sunday on a pact after Thursday’s indecisive election, but they are unlikely to reach a deal before Monday, the Conservatives said on Saturday.

The Conservatives won most parliamentary seats in the election but fell short of a majority and are seeking the support of the smaller Lib Dems to end 13 years of Labour rule.

The talks, starting at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT), will be face-to-face between the two parties but below the level of leader, a Conservative Party spokesman said.

He said it was unlikely a deal could be reached by Monday, noting that Conservative members of parliament, who will be briefed on the negotiations, will not meet until Monday evening.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Keith Weir)

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Decision on caste based census soon: PM

May 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 7 (ANI): The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh on Friday assured Parliament that his government would soon take a decision on a caste-based census.

“I am aware of the views of the members of Parliament belonging to all sections. I assure you that the Cabinet will take a decision shortly,” Dr. Singh said.

Dr. Singh’s statement mollified agitated opposition members, who had forced an adjournment of the House earlier after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram virtually ruled out inclusion of caste in the ongoing census exercise.

The debate on the matter had seen members cutting across party lines favoring caste-based census.

Earlier, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the question of caste not being included in the Census was a matter of policy which has been followed since Independence.

“After Independence, as a matter of policy, the question relating to caste, other than Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, was not included,” Chidambaram said.

“The main objective of the Population Census is to do an accurate de-facto headcount of the usual residents in India on the deemed date i.e. 00.00 hours on March 1, 2011, based on universally applied scientific demographic tools, we have an estimate of what the population of India will be on that day,” he added.

Replying to a short duration discussion in the Lok Sabha, Chidambaram stressed on the need to lay down specific parameters for conducting the census.

Information relating to the caste of each member of the household was last collected and published in detail in 1931.

Chidambaram said caste was not included in the last Census of 2001 also.

“I may point out that the records show that an attempt was made by the Ministry of Social Justice to include caste as one of the questions that should be canvassed during the 2001 census. However, the Government of the day – the NDA Government – did not take a decision to that effect and maintained the policy that has been in force since 1951,” he said.

Quoting a member’s statement during the debate Chidambaram said: “Caste is a divisive factor and that we are nowhere near establishing a casteless society.”

Chidambaram said the Registrar General of India has also pointed out a number of logistic and practical difficulties in canvassing the question of caste while conducting the census.

“The enumerator is not an investigator or verifier. And, it must be clearly understood, that the enumerator has no training or expertise to classify the answer as OBC or otherwise,” he said.

“As Honorable Members are aware, there is a central list of Other Backward Classes and State-specific lists of Other Backward Classes. Some States do not have a list of OBCs; some States have a list of OBCs and a sub-set called Most Backward Classes,” he added.

For the Census 2011, over 21 lakh enumerators, mostly primary school teachers, have been selected and trained to ask the question and record the answer as returned by the respondent.

He further said that the Registrar General has also pointed out certain open-ended categories in the lists such as orphans and destitute children.

“Names of some castes are found in both the list of Scheduled Castes and list of OBCs. Scheduled Castes converted to Christianity or Islam are also treated differently in different States. The status of a migrant from one State to another and the status of children of inter-caste marriage, in terms of caste classification, are also vexed questions,” Chidambaram said.

“The Registrar General has also pointed out that, assuming that it is desirable to canvass the question of caste, further issues will arise regarding the methodology, avoiding phonetic and spelling errors, stage of canvassing, maintaining the integrity of the enumeration, doing an accurate headcount of the population etc,” he added.

Chidambaram said that in this connection, members must keep the distinction between ‘enumeration’ on the one hand and ‘compilation, analysis and dissemination’ on the other.

“It has been pointed out that the census is meant to collect ‘observational data,’ he said.

The census is done under the authority of the Census Act, 1948.

Census 2011 will be the 15th national census since 1872 and the seventh since Independence.

Population census is the total process of collecting demographic, economic and social data. What is published as the Census data are only aggregates; the information relating to the individual is confidential and not shared with anyone or any authority.

Census 2011 will be conducted in two phases – the first phase is called the House listing and Housing census and the second phase is called the Population Enumeration.

The questions to be canvassed during the two phases were decided on the basis of suggestions made during the data users’ conference, experience of past censuses and the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) comprising eminent demographers, statisticians, social scientists and senior officers representing different Ministries and Departments of the Central Government. (ANI)

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Iran to complain to U.N. over Obama nuclear “threat”

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Iran will lodge a complaint with the United Nations about what it sees as U.S. President Barack Obama’s threat to attack it with nuclear weapons, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.

World

Obama made clear last week that Iran and North Korea were excluded from new limits on the use of U.S. atomic weapons — something Tehran interpreted as a threat from a long-standing adversary to attack it with nuclear bombs.

“The recent statement by the U.S. president … implicitly intimidates the Iranian nation with the deployment of nuclear arms,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised meeting with military and security officials.

“This statement is very strange and the world should not ignore it since in the 21st century, which is the era of support for human rights and campaigning against terrorism, the head of a country is threatening to use nuclear war.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the semi-official Fars news agency Iran would lodge a formal complaint to the United Nations, a move backed by a letter signed by 255 of Iran’s 290 members of parliament.

Obama is pressing other global powers to agree to a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt nuclear work that the West suspects is aimed at making bombs, a charge Iran denies.

Reflecting fears of attack on its nuclear sites from the United States or its closest Middle East ally Israel, the defense ministry said Iran had started producing a prototype of an advanced anti-aircraft missile system.

“The Mersad air defense system … is able to destroy modern aircraft at low and medium range altitude,” the ISNA news agency on Sunday quoted Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying.

“The mass production of this product has begun and in the course of the current year a large number of them will be delivered to the armed forces,” he said.

While Iran hopes the development of its own system will make it more self-sufficient in weapons defense, it is also urging Russia to resist Western pressure not to deliver the S-300 missile defense system it has ordered.

On Friday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran’s nuclear program was “irreversible” despite limits on importing foreign technology and the threat of new sanctions, and he unveiled a prototype of an improved centrifuge which would enrich uranium faster than existing models.

Western analysts say Iran has exaggerated progress in the past to bolster domestic pride about its nuclear program and to improve its bargaining position with major powers.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization played down the idea that Iran faced big technical hurdles.

“Iran’s nuclear issue is not a technical issue … we are not in a hurry. Second generation centrifuges will be mass produced in the next few months … in a year we will have prototype cascades of the third generation,” Ali Akbar Salehi told ISNA.

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy and Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

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UK’s Brown pledges reform, clashes on economy

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday he would overhaul the scandal-hit parliament and take more steps to secure an economic recovery if his Labour Party defied the polls and won the May 6 election.

His plan for sweeping political reforms might appeal to the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, whose support Labour may need to form a government if it fails to secure an outright majority in what looks like the closest race in 20 years.

Labour has trailed the opposition Conservatives in the opinion polls since January 2008, but the gap has narrowed and the latest surveys point to a result in which no single party would have an overall parliamentary majority.

The prime minister said voters would be given a say on constitutional reforms in a referendum before October 2011, including changing how members of parliament (MPs) are elected and the possibility of an elected upper chamber.

The proposals are in part a response to public disgust with politicians after many MPs abused their expense allowances by claiming money for items such as a duck house or dog food.

“I would … take no joy in victory if it comes without a mandate to get rid of the old discredited system of politics,” Brown said in a speech a day after setting the election date.

He called for parliaments to be elected for a fixed term, instead of the current system where the prime minister can call an election at any time up to a five-year maximum.

The measures will be seen as an attempt to woo the Liberal Democrats, who have long argued for political reform, including a switch to proportional representation.

But the Liberal Democrats, Britain’s third biggest party, dismissed the proposals.

“How on earth are we supposed to believe anything that Gordon Brown says about political reform when they’ve done nothing for 13 years?” said Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Conservative leader David Cameron used a bruising parliamentary session to accuse Brown of wrecking the economic recovery with plans to raise payroll taxes.

With the parliamentary chamber in uproar, Brown hit back by accusing the Conservatives of putting growth and jobs at risk with their plans for public spending cuts to reduce the gaping budget deficit.

Arguments about the best way to nurture the hesitant economic recovery are set to dominate the election campaign, in which the Conservatives are trying to end 13 years of Labour rule.

“This prime minister would wreck the recovery by putting a tax on every job, on everyone earning over 20,000 (pounds, $30,470 a year), a tax on aspiration, a tax on every business in the country — this government would wreck the recovery,” Cameron said.

Several business groups and 38 large employers have backed the Conservatives’ opposition to a planned rise in National Insurance, a payroll tax. Brown said the Conservatives had “deceived” them.

Brown said that to withdraw six billion pounds from the economy, as he says the centre-right Conservatives plan to do, would put jobs, businesses and growth at risk. “We cannot cut our way to recovery but we could cut our way to double-dip recession,” he said.

Brown said in a Channel 4 News interview that his party would make an election pledge to hold the basic income tax rate at 20 percent. (Additional reporting by Adrian Croft, Estelle Shirbon, Peter Griffiths and Caroline Copley; editing by Tim Pearce)

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Brown says would overhaul UK political system

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday he would overhaul Britain’s scandal-hit parliament, giving people a vote on sweeping political reforms if his Labour Party wins the May 6 election.

Brown’s proposals could help Labour find common ground with the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, whose support Labour may need to form a government in the event it fails to secure an outright majority.

The prime minister said voters would be given a say on constitutional reforms in a referendum before October 2011, including changing how members of parliament (MPs) were elected and the possibility of an elected upper chamber.

The proposals are in part a response to public disgust with politicians after many MPs abused their expenses by claiming public funds for items such as a duck house or dog food.

“I would … take no joy in victory if it comes without a mandate to get rid of the old discredited system of politics,” Brown said in a speech a day after setting the election date.

More than 140 legislators out of 646, some of whom were embroiled in the expenses scandal, are not standing at the election, widely expected to be won by the opposition Conservatives to end 13 years of Labour rule.

However, many polls suggest they will fall short of a majority, resulting in a “hung parliament” that financial markets fear will not act decisively to slash a gaping budget deficit.

FIRST-PAST-THE-POST REFORM

Brown called for parliaments to be elected for a fixed term, instead of the current system where the prime minister has the power to set the election date within a certain time frame.

He said he would also reform the current first-past-the-post electoral system so that legislators would need the support of more than half of the voters in the area to win election.

This could be done through an “alternative vote” system where the lowest-polling candidates were eliminated in counting until one candidate hits 50 percent of the vote.

Members of parliament would also be banned from working for lobbying companies, said Brown, whose Labour Party is trying to win a fourth consecutive term.

Voters should also be given the right to recall MPs guilty of gross financial misconduct, where politicians would face a U.S.-style vote of confidence in their constituency.

Labour suspended three former cabinet ministers last month after they were secretly filmed saying they could influence government policy for cash.

Brown also proposed allowing members of parliament a vote on lowering the voting age to 16 from the current 18.

The public would also get their say on how the House of Lords, parliament’s upper chamber of appointed life peers and hereditary peers, is shaped in the future. A proportional representation electoral system could be used, Brown said.

The measures will be seen as an attempt to woo the Liberal Democrats, who have long argued for political reform, including a switch to proportional representation.

But the Britain’s third biggest political party dismissed Brown’s proposals.

“How on earth are we supposed to believe anything that Gordon Brown says about political reform when they’ve done nothing for 13 years?,” Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron clashed over the economy and defence in Brown’s last question and answer session in parliament before the election.

Cameron accused Brown of wrecking the economic recovery with plans to raise payroll taxes and of failing to give British troops in Afghanistan enough helicopters.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Matthew Jones)

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Serbia officially condemns Srebrenica massacre

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Serbia’s Parliament has approved a historic resolution condemning the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995.

For many years, Serbian politicians denied the scale of the massacre, which was regarded elsewhere as the worst mass killing on European soil since World War II.

In July 1995 about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were executed and buried in mass graves by Bosnian-Serb troops under the command of Ratko Mladic.

The massacre has cast a shadow over the Balkans for years and still deeply divides the Serbian community, but after 13 hours of heated debate, the country’s parliament finally agreed to pass this resolution:

“The Parliament of Serbia strongly condemns the crime committed against the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica in July 1995, as determined by the International Court of Justice ruling.”

The resolution also acknowledges that not enough was done to prevent the tragedy.

The international courts have ruled that the Srebrenica massacre was a genocide but the resolution stops short of that.

Just more than half the 250 Members of Parliament voted to pass the resolution.

Konstanine Samofalov from the ruling Democratic Party says he hopes the apology will allow the country to move on.

“This way we are removing the guilt from the Serbian people because this terrible crime that happened in Srebrenica cannot be defined as the guilt of the whole Serbian people. It is clearly an individual guilt,” he said.

“We are also expressing our profound respect towards the victims of this crime and condolences to their families.”

Survivors of the massacre are divided over the apology. Some say it will help them heal but many are angry the word “genocide” has been left out.

Others, like Emir Sulhagic, say the apology will only stoke tensions in the region.

“I’ve never actually asked for an apology from Serbia. I don’t care for an apology from Serbia,” he said.

“All I am saying is that this apology comes at a time when nationalist politicians in Bosnia will again use Srebrenica as a sort of issue to mobilise.

“We are in an election year and this will be sort of mobilising platform for nationalist politicians in Bosnia to go under.”

The timing of the declaration coincides with Serbia’s push to join the European Union, which requires all members to fully cooperate with the international courts.

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Nominees for Tibetan Parliament in-exile announced at Dharamsala

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh), Mar 29 (ANI): The National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT), the only political party of Tibetan exiles, on Monday declared three nominees for the post of Kalon Tripa (Tibetan Prime Minister in-exile) and 45 nominees for the Members of Parliament for the 2011 general elections.

The decision was taken at the two-day general body meeting attended by NDPT functionaries at Dharamsala.

“We decided 15 candidates for the Members of the Parliament from each province and three candidates for the Kalon Tripa,” said NDPT President Chime Youngdung.

“The main agenda of the party is to achieve complete independence of Tibet in contrast to the middle way approach proposed by spiritual leader of Tibetans, the Dalai Lama, added Youngdung.

“Actually we are not against the middle way approach, but our stand is complete independence. So these are the two different things. The middle way approach is right now the government”s stand but this is a sort of an NGO,” he said, adding that this is initiated by the Tibetan Youth Congress, and our members.

The three nominees for the PM”s post are Lobsang Sangey, a law researcher at United State”s Harvard University, Tethong Tenzin Namgyal, a former minister in the Tibetan government in-exile and Tashi Wangde, a former Prime Minister, who is currently the Tibetan ambassador to France.

The elections for the Kalon Tripa will be held in September 2011.

The NDPT has a total of 45 nominees for Members of Parliament, fifteen each from the provinces of Dotoe, Domey and U-tsang in Tibet.

Samdhong Rinpoche, elected in 2001, is the current Tibetan PM-in-exile.

Dharamsala is the seat of the Tibetan government in-exile and also the base of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, ever since he fled from Lhasa in 1959, after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. (ANI)

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Berlusconi to push for ‘greater powers’ by changes to Italian constitution

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Rome (Italy), Mar 22(ANI): Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said that he will push for changes in the constitution by referendum to give him greater powers as a “directly elected president”.

Addressing supporters of his People of Liberty party at a rally in Rome, Berlusconi said that he has planned a “great, great, great reform” in the remaining three years of his term.

The Prime Minister is calling for changes to the judiciary, which he claims is biased against him, a cut in the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) and direct elections for a head of state with expanded powers.

Talking about the investigation being carried out by Magistrates over tapped phone conversations indicating that he had tried to block his critics from appearing on TV shows, Berlusconi said the “leftist” judges and politicians had concocted “a laughable investigation based on the calls.

“We don’t often take to the streets, but it was absolutely necessary to defend ourselves from the attacks of the Left and its magistrates,” The Times quoted Berlusconi, as saying.

“We are here to have our right to vote guaranteed. With you, love and freedom will win,” he added. (ANI)

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Ex-Nepal PM Koirala passes away

March 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Kathmandu, Mar 20 (ANI): Formal Nepal Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala died today at his daughter Sujata Koirala”s residence in Mandikatar.

A chronic patient of pulmonary diseases, Koirala was suffering from chest and urinary tract infection for months.

Minister for Irrigation Bal Krishna Khand told mediapersons that Koirala passed away at 12.10 p.m. today.

Born on 1925, Koirala 85, had been Prime Minister of Nepal four times, serving from 1991 to 1994, 1998 to 1999, 2000 to 2001, and from 2006 to 2008; he was also Acting Head of State from January 2007 to July 2008.

He had been active in politics for over sixty years and is a pioneer of the Nepalese labour movement, having started a labor movement in the Jute mills of his hometown Biratnagar.

In 1991 he became the first democratically elected Prime Minister since 1959, when his brother B. P. Koirala and the Nepali Congress party swept the country”s first democratic election.

In Nepal”s first multi-party democratic election in 1991, Koirala was elected as a Member of Parliament from the Morang-1 and Sunsari-5 constituencies. He was subsequently elected as the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party and was appointed as Prime Minister by King Birendra.

During his first term, the house of representatives enacted legislation to liberalize education, media and health sectors in the country.

In November 1994 he called for a dissolution of parliament and general elections after a procedural defeat on the floor of the House when 36 Members of Parliament (MPs) of his party went against a government-sponsored vote of confidence.

This led to the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist)-led coalition coming to power in the elections that followed.

Koirala took over as Prime Minister from Surya Bahadur Thapa following the collapse of the coalition government led by Thapa. Koirala first headed a Nepali Congress minority government until December 25, 1998 after which he headed a three-party coalition government with the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the Nepal Sadhbhawana Party.

He again became Prime Minister in 2000 for his third term following the resignation of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, under whose leadership party had won the parliamentary election.

After the reinstatement of the Nepal House of Representatives, Pratinidhi Sabha, on 24 April 2006 following the Loktantra Andolan, Koirala was selected to become Prime Minister by the leaders of the Seven Party Alliance.

On 1 April 2007, Koirala was re-elected as Prime Minister to head a new government composed of the SPA and the CPN (Maoist). (ANI)

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Government accused of beef backflip

March 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Federal Government has been accused of backflipping on its decision to import beef from countries which have had cases of BSE, or mad cow disease.

Last week the Government lifted the nine-year ban on beef imports from countries which had seen cases of BSE.

But yesterday the Government announced it was reversing its decision, keeping the ban in place but bringing in a two-year analysis period.

Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says public opinion forced him to change his mind.

“The strength of public opinion has come directly to me. It has come very strongly through a number of caucus colleagues, Labor backbench members of Parliament, and it has also come very strongly through the media as well,” he said.

Mr Burke says that for the next two years, scientists will carry out a full import risk analysis to determine what protocols should be used for safely importing beef.

“First of all we have got formal timetables, secondly we have a formal process for community consultation and thirdly the Eminent Scientists Group is involved in the decision-making process,” he said.

Mr Burke says the Government’s backflip on the decision is not a victory for the Opposition.

“I think whenever you’ve got a government decision that is involving a higher level of community involvement, and whenever Government is taking notice of strength of opinion within the community, I fail to see how that does anything other than reflect well on us,” he said.

But the Nationals’ deputy leader in the Senate, Fiona Nash, says the move shows the Government is behind in its decision making.

“If the Government were on the ball they would have listened to the Australian people long before now,” she said.

“Tony Burke is certainly playing catch up. Yet another backflip. But certainly the people of Australia would be pleased to see the proper process put into place to determine whether or not this beef should come in.”

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan had also feared the decision jeopardised Australia’s disease-free status.

“We have the world’s cleanest, highest status for food production, and this decision [to lift the ban] concedes to the rest of the world that that doesn’t matter for trade purposes. It is absolutely an outrageous decision,” he told AM two weeks ago.

But not everyone is pleased with the reversal of the decision.

The Cattle Council of Australia supports lifting the ban on beef imports, fearing countries like the United States will not buy Australian beef if they cannot also sell in Australia.

Cattle Council president Greg Brown, who is also a far north Queensland beef producer, says the ban closes off the market.

“We are concerned about the two-year period which means that nobody – particularly our major trading partner, the United States – will be able to access this market in all that time,” he said.

For now it is status quo. There will be no British beef in Aussie pies and steaks will not come from Texas.

Mr Burke says the two-year analysis is not a way of sweeping the issue under the carpet. And he says any future decision will be based on science.

“If the science says there is a danger to community health then nothing comes in,” he said.

“If the science says there is a way of bringing in food safely, then you allow the market to work.”

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‘Austerity drive may be extended to MPs after an all party meet’

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep. 16 (ANI): The UPA Government’s austerity drive is expected to be extended to all Members of Parliament (MPs) following an all party meeting, according to sources.

Vice President Hamid Ansari will call an all-party meeting to decide on the issue once Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s returns from Rome, inside sources said.

Following the top party leaders’ much publicized economy class flights and train rides, the UPA had requested Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha chairpersons to convince all MPs to join the austerity drive.

The Chairman of the Rajya Sahba and the Lok Sabha Speaker are expected to hold a discussion on the austerity drive.

The move is to promote the austerity comes in the wake of the country experiencing a crippling draught.

The Congress party has already advised its ministers and lawmakers to donate 20 percent of their salary towards draught relief.

They have also been told to travel economy class and not hold press conferences in five-star hotels. (ANI)

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Recollections of a communicator; George Fernandes was a pioneer economy traveler(Article)

September 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 14 (ANI): Much has been written during the last one week about the directions by the Government of India to the Ministers and Congress Members of Parliament to travel economy class during their tour within the country or abroad.

Much also has been made about the ‘directions’ communicated to the Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna and Minister of State Shashi Tharoor to shift from their rooms in five star hotels even though they were paying for the rental personally.

The Cabinet Minister who refused to travel first class out of conviction was George Fernandes, the former Minister for Defence. I witnessed it as Information Consultant in the Defence Ministry. In fact it caused me some embarrassment, as I was booked in the Indian Airlines flight in the first class which was my entitlement and to my surprise I saw the Defence Minister, George Fernandes traveling in the economic class during the flight from Delhi to Mumbai.

I quietly went to a person traveling in the economy class to take my seat in the first class and traveled in the economy class. Later, whenever I traveled with George Fernandes I took care to ensure that my booking was done in the economy class.

Last week, I heard the Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari saying that he was ready to travel even in the cargo compartment.

I recalled that I had to travel in the cargo compartment of a IL-76 of the Indian Air Force from Gauhati to Delhi in 2004 along with George Fernandes. The plane was not pressurized and not one word could be heard by me during the two-hour long flight though I was in the bucket seat along with the Defence Minister.

George Fernandes had visited Tawang a day earlier, saw the monastery and war memorial there, did a survey of the posts keeping a watch on the Chinese border. On return when we were told that the Indian Airlines flight was cancelled, he chose to travel by the IL 76 cargo aircraft, which was on a routine flight, as he had to proceed on an engagement from Delhi.

Incidentally, during his period as Defence Minister, George Fernandes chose to visit Siachen Glacier to see how the Jawans were living there. When he saw that they were not adequately clothed as there were some ‘budgetary problems’, he told the Defence Ministry that the officers concerned should pay a visit to the outposts in Siachen.

In no time, the Jawans got their clothes and snowmobiles in Siachen. From then onwards George Fernandes visited Siachen every three months, as the turnover period there used to be three months and he wanted to meet every contingent who were doing a tenure of duty there. He had visited Siachen 18 times as Defence Minister.

He was insistent on personally going through the conditions in which the soldiers, sailors and airmen lived and worked. He travelled in a Light Combat Aircraft being developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) after subjecting himself to the physical tests that every pilot has to pass through.

It is also not the first time that Cabinet Ministers have been staying in five-star hotels. I recall a former Prime Minister booking scores of rooms in the Maurya to accommodate his family who had come along with him when he was sworn in. They stayed there for weeks and special food was prepared for them to see that they felt at home.

Today the Jumna is in spate. So also the Government departments. One recalls the days when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister. He had an office in South Block with two personal secretaries who took all the dictations and maintained his office. Today, the number of personal secretaries working for a Cabinet Minister is around a score, leave alone the Prime Minister’s Office.

And Home Minister Chidambaram is struggling to persuade his colleagues and senior political leaders to reduce the number of ‘guards’ deployed to ‘protect’ them. His personal example not to have the guards has hardly been emulated by others.

I. Ramamohan Rao, former Principal Information Officer, Government of India. E.mail:raoramamohan@hotmail.com. (ANI)

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Brit, Scot MPs to probe ex-PM Blair’s role in Lockerbie bomber’s release

September 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sep.6 (ANI): British and Scottish Members of Parliament are keen to know whether former Prime Minister Tony Blair played a role in a deal between Britain and Libya to secure the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi at a meeting in a London club in 2003, long before either the Scottish government or Gordon Brown was involved.

According to The Independent, questions are being raised in Parliament over the meeting that Blair orchestrated that brought Libya in from the cold.

MPs are set to demand the minutes of an extraordinary cloak-and-dagger summit in London between British, American and Libyan spies held three days before Blair announced that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was surrendering his weapons of mass destruction programme.

At the time of the secret meeting in December 2003 at the private Travellers Club in Pall Mall, London – for decades the favourite haunt of spies – Libyan officials were pressing for negotiations on the status of Megrahi, who was nearly three years into his life sentence at a Scottish jail.

Whitehall sources said the issue of Megrahi’s imprisonment was raised as part of the discussions, although it is not clear whether Britain or America agreed to a specific deal over his imprisonment, or a more general indication that it would be reviewed.

MPs are to investigate what was promised by Britain at the talks on December 16, 2003 and the role that Blair played in the affair.

Until now, the controversy over Megrahi’s release last month has centred on discussions between Gordon Brown’s government and the Scottish executive and Libya since 2007, with Blair apparently not involved in any way.

It has also focused on claims that the deal was related to oil deals, with Jack Straw admitting yesterday that BP’s interests in Libya played a “big part”.

But authoritative sources said the seeds for Megrahi’s release were sown in 2003, when Libya made the historic agreement to end its status as a pariah, and that the focus on oil and trade was a “red herring”.

Last night, a spokesman for Blair could not be drawn on the December 2003 meeting. (ANI)

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Congress minister and lawmakers take a 20% salary cut

August 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 20 (ANI): Congress party has said its ministers and lawmakers will take a 20 percent cut in salaries to express solidarity with poor people facing a severe drought in the country.

A special meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) discussed the country’s drought situation here on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Party spokesperson Janardan said that the austerity measure was mooted by Party President Sonia Gandhi.

“She (Sonia Gandhi) proposed that Congress Members of Parliament, state legislatures including ministers and other salary office holders will accept 20 per cent voluntary cut of their salaries for one year with effect from September 1, 2009. This was unanimously adopted,” he added.

Dwivedi quoted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who attended the meeting, as saying that the country was capable of tackling the twin problems of drought and price rise.

“He (Manmohan Singh) accepted that the situation is bad but efforts are also being made to meet the situation with equal efficiency and he expressed the hope and said that country has the capability and will to takle this problem successfully,” Dwivedi said.

The Congress party has also urged the government to keep prices of essential commodities in check with special emphasis on oil seeds and pulses.

Meanwhile in Patna, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that he has apprised the central ministries concerned about the drought-like situation in the state.

“We met all the ministers concerned and discussed elaborately about the condition of Bihar with them and also asked them to take immediate action as the situation has worsened here,” he added.

India’s monsoon rains have been 29 percent below normal since the beginning of the June-September season, hurting crops such as rice and cane and triggering a sharp rise in food prices in India and sugar futures abroad. (ANI)

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Brit weapons may have been used against Lanka Tamils, says report

August 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Aug.19 (ANI): A report prepared by the Commons Committee on Arms Export Controls has revealed that British weapons may have been used against Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, and now, this is prompting calls for a review of the arms trade.

According to The Times, the committee has argued that all existing licenses to Sri Lanka should be investigated.

Members of Parliament on the committee specifically want to know which British arms the Sri Lankan forces used in this year’s final offensive against the Tamil Tigers, in which an estimated 20,000 civilians died.

Concerns about arms exports were heightened by the Government’s admission this year that British components were “almost certainly” used by Israeli forces during the Gaza offensive, in which up to 1,400 Palestinians died, many of them civilians.

The committee says that while the situation in Sri Lanka made it “impossible” to know how British weapons were deployed, there were legitimate concerns that they may have been used against civilians.

Britain approved the sale of over 13.6 million pounds of weapons and military equipment to Sri Lanka during the last three years of its civil war, including armoured vehicles, machinegun components, semiautomatic pistols and ammunition.

In the last quarter of 2008 Britain approved 21 licenses for more than 1.3 million pounds of supplies and declined two that were deemed to violate EU rules on such sales.

Britain is legally bound by the European Union code of conduct on arms transfers, which restricts the arms trade to countries facing internal conflicts or with poor human rights records and a history of violating international law. The code focuses not on the lethal potential of the weapon but on its end use.

The MPs have rejected the Gordon Brown Government’s claim that it could not have anticipated the civilian toll in Sri Lanka, noting the dramatic increase of hostilities after the collapse of the ceasefire in 2006. (ANI)

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Russia has violated UK airspace 18 times in two years

July 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 10 (ANI): Russian military aircraft violated British airspace without permission 18 times over the last two years, and now Members of Parliament are urging the Gordon Brown Government to take on a “more robust” stance, the Daily Telegraph reports.

RAF fighters were scrambled to intercept the Russian Bear bombers.

The Commons Defence Committee said the actions were “not the actions of a friendly nation”.

While the flights did not pose a direct threat to the security of Britain or NATO, the committee said they could endanger civil aircraft flying in the same area and risked causing serious accidents.

“The Government should take a more robust approach in making clear to Russia that its continued secret incursions by military aircraft into international airspace near to the UK is not acceptable behaviour,” said the committee in its report.

The committee said that such flights took place on 10 separate days in 2007, although they have since dropped off, with flights on just two days so far this year.

Overall the committee said that Britain should adopt a “practical and hard-headed approach” in its dealings with Russia. (ANI)

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Radio Pakistan now comes to the aid of Dalits in India

July 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Abohar, July 6 (ANI): Radio Pakistan in its Punjabi Durbar programme has taken up the cause of Dalit community in India.

The Radio Pakistan has said that the Dalits in India do not have even basic rights.

The allegation has been rubbished by Babu Ram Chawla, General Secretary of All India Khatik Samaj and Mangat Ram Chayal, Vice Chairman of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (Schedule Caste department).

“The statements of Pakistan radio about schedule castes in India are illogical. For, people of schedule caste have gained all rights in India from Government and the society. They have been given reservation in jobs, educational institutions, and a number of them are Members of Parliament. So the statements by Pakistan Radio are malicious and we should not believe it,” said Babu Ram Chawla, General Secretary of All India Khatik Samaj.

“Pakistan wants to mislead us. There are special welfare programs in politics, administration for the people of schedule castes. The schedule castes have positioned themselves from Gram Panchayat to the designation of President, the highest position in India,” said Mangatram Chayal, Vice Chairman of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Supreme Court Department.

Broadcasters of Radio Pakistan will do their listeners a good service by first keeping themselves update about India through newspapers and other news sources.

As they must also remember that only recently all Member of Parliaments unanimously chose Meira Kumar as the head of Lok Sabha, who besides being a highly educated and experienced parliamentarian, comes from a schedule caste community. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is also one of the most popular personalities which inspires the Dalits across the country.

India has a history of individuals from schedule caste or Dalit community occupying highest positions in all walks of life without prejudice.

In jobs and education, all socially backward or schedule caste people today have reservations to encourage their participation in mainstream.

Moreover, the Right to Equality is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution of India. (ANI)

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Railway passenger reservation system to be expanded

July 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, July 3 (ANI): The Indian Railways plans to improve the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) in a big way.

In the Railway Budget 2009-10 presented to the Lok Sabha today, Union Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee said that the initiative would cover 200 new towns and cities and further 800 new locations in cities and towns already having PRS facilities.

The Minister invited the Members of Parliament to identify one PRS location of their choice for inclusion in the list of new locations.

For unreserved tickets, the number of Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) terminals would be expanded from 5000 to 8000 during the current financial year. Automatic Vending Machines would be installed at 200 large and medium sized stations.

She announced the introduction of mobile ticketing vans ‘Mushkil Aasaan’ for issuing reserved and unreserved tickets in both urban and rural areas.

She said that poor people who are unable to go to the stations can now purchase tickets in market places, mohallas and other busy places where these vans would be stationed. 50 such mobile vans would be introduced during the year.

The Minister also announced the expansion of e-ticketing services and cancellation of confirmed e-tickets after preparation of charts would be further simplified.

“Efforts are also on to provide SMS updates on waitlisted tickets and indicate berth numbers on confirmed tickets by the end of the financial year,” she added. (ANI)

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