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Package for farmers in distress

          New Delhi: Finance Minister Chidambaram on Friday announced a package of measures aimed at helping farmers in distress and promised to increase the flow of credit to the key farm sector by around 30 percent in the year to March 2005. Chidambaram told a news conference the government plans to increase farm credit by lending institutions to about Rs 1.05 trillion from Rs 800 billion a year earlier. "The goal is to raise the flow of agricultural credit from Rs 80,000 crore in 2003-2004 to close to 105,000 crore in the current financial year. Another goal is to bring at least 5 million farmers in the banking fold," Chidamabaram said.

           The new government, which has promised to usher in reforms with a "human face", has vowed to protect the interest of farmers, who account for about 70 percent of the country's population of more than one billion. Chidambaram said the central bank and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), will work out a plan to grant a one-time settlement for marginal farmers who have been declared defaulters and are not eligible for fresh credit. He said debt restructuring instead of writeoffs would be undertaken by commercial banks after the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and NABARD, a bank which specialises in farm loans, draw up a roadmap. He did not agree with the view that the new package of measures would hurt the profitability of banks.

Gujarat police hand over body of Ishrat to her family (Go To Top)

          Ahmedabad: Gujarat police on Friday handed over the body of a teenaged girl, killed by police on suspicion of being a militant, to her shocked mother. Ishrat Jahan Sheikh along with three men was shot dead in an encounter on Tuesday in Ahmedabad for allegedly plotting to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Controversy broke out when a television channel reported that police in the girl's hometown in neighbouring Maharashtra could not link her to any terror group. Ishrat's mother has demanded a federal enquiry into the encounter. "They (the police) said you are also innocent and your daughter was also innocent. Police said that your daughter was not involved," Shemimah Jahan Sheikh, Ishrat's mother, said. Teachers and classmates of the 19-year old biosciences student in a Mumbai college, have also reportedly said she regularly attended classes and was most unlikely to be involved in terror activities. "Non-Muslims as well, those who are are our neighbours are also shocked. Nobody is ready to accept this version. We have demanded a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) inquiry into the episode. We will continue with our peaceful agitation. We want to say that Ishrat is innocent and those who killed her should be punished," Abdul Raut Lala, a social worker, said, Gujarat Police have said two of the dead men were Pakistanis, but declined to say how they knew that.

          The ruling Congress party, meanwhile, has created a furore terming the encounter as a gimmick to earn sympathy, at a time when Modi was facing opposition from his own party members. The Congress-led Maharashtra government also sought a federal intervention besides ordering a detailed probe. "We demand a CBI inquiry. As far as my state is concerned the police inquiry is going on," Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said. Police say they have foiled several plots to kill Modi, the hardline leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat, over the past two years. Gujarat was the scene of vicious religious violence in 2002. Modi was accused of turning a blind eye to the revenge killing of hundreds of Muslims while the state police has been under a cloud for abetting attacks by Hindu mobs or destroying evidence. The violence in 2002 began when 59 Hindus were torched in an attack on a train by a crowd of suspected Muslims. More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in subsequent rioting in India's worst religious strife in a decade. Non-government groups put the death toll at more than 2,500.

Vajpayee owns responsibility for BJP's defeat (Go To Top)

          Pirni (HP): Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday said he owned "maximum" responsibility for BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections and that he would do "penance" for it. "I take maximum responsibility for the defeat because the elections were fought in my name. I will do penance for it," Vajpayee told newsmen. Asked what he meant by penance, he said we will work very hard. "There will be no lacking in hardwork", he said. To a question whether the next election would be fought under him, the former Prime Minister said no one knows what will happen in future but we will work very hard. Vajpayee said the defeat was not for any individual but it was a "collective defeat" and we have to find out the reasons and solutions for it.

Karnataka releases water to Tamil Nadu (Go To Top)

          Bangalore: Karnataka has started releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu on the request of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said on Friday. Water was flowing from Kabini reservoir and not from Krishnaraja Sagar, Hemavathy and Harangi, Singh told newsmen here.

IIM-C reverts to old fee structure (Go To Top)

          Kolkata: The board of governors of Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata (IIM-C) on Friday decided to revert to the old fee structure. At a meeting this morning, the board also decided to give scholarships to needy students. The financial assistance would be given to students from families with up to Rs 2 lakh annual income. The IIM body had proposed a uniform fee structure, after Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh offered to revert the previous government's drastic fee cut. On Sunday, IIM Indore had also decided to return to the old fee structure and agreed to provide need-based scholarships.

VAT to be implemented from April one next year (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The crucial meeting of the state Finance Ministers here on Friday decided to implement the Value Added Tax (VAT) from April 1 next year. However, few states expressed reservations on its implementation. The meeting also decided to reduce the Central Sales Tax (CST) from four to two per cent and ultimately eliminate it. No timeframe was decided on its elimination.

Let budget conform to CMP, say leftists (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Communists on Friday urged the Union government to adhere to the ruling coalition's agenda of governance while presenting next month's budget for fiscal 2004- 2005. "All that we said was that the budget should conform to the CMP (Common Minimum Programme). There are certain priorities in the CMP, they should follow. We understand full well that the budget is only for seven months. And already there are certain allocations and we also know that it is the first budget. So all the targets cannot be met. But we should go in that direction. According to that there was certain exchange of views on that," AB Bardhan, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) told reporters after his meeting with Finance Minister P.Chidamabaram in the national capital. Left parties with over 60-plus members in the Lok Sabha are supporting the Congress-led government. Later, Chidambaram chaired a meeting of the state finance ministers ahead of the federal budget to be presented on July 8. Investors are keen to see how the Congress-led government will balance its budget given its promises to step up spending in key social sectors such as health and education, which analysts say could widen the fiscal deficit in the absence of any plans to increase tax receipts.

         The Common Minimum Programme, the new government's policy roadmap released earlier this month, promises also to boost spending on the key farm sector, but says it would slow down assets sales in state-run firms. The Economic Survey will be presented on July 7 and the railway budget on July 6. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the architect of economic reforms launched more than a decade ago, has promised to persist with the reforms drive to push growth at 7.0-8.0 percent a year on a sustained basis. During the meeting Left parties also asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a rollback in fuel prices. Government hiked petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 and 1 respectively and LPG by Rs 20 per cylinder. Left is particularly upset with the hike in LPG prices.

Pak nuke team arrives in Delhi (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: A high-level Pakistani delegation arrived here today to discuss a range of issues aimed at nuclear risk reduction. Tariq Usman Haider, Aadditional Secretary in the Pakistan Foreign office, heads the delegation that includes top nuclear defence officials. Assisting Haider would be two Foreign Office officials, director-general of South Asia Jalil Abbas Jilani, a former deputy high commissioner to New Delhi, and spokesperson Masood Khan. "We are coming with a positive spirit and suggestions and are here for result-oriented talks," said Tariq Usman Haider. The Indian side will be headed by Sheel Kant Sharma, Additional Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. The June 19-20 talks were originally scheduled to be held last month. But the meeting was put off at the request of India's new coalition government, which assumed office days before the talks were due and sought time to settle down. The meeting in Delhi between Foreign Ministry experts of the two countries is to lay the ground for June 27-28 talks between the two foreign secretaries-bureaucrats heading the ministry on nuclear security and Kashmir issue.

Nancy Reagan is forgetting to eat (Go To Top)

          New York: Former US First Lady Nancy Reagan appears to be heading the same way as her late husband Ronald Reagan. According to her close relatives, Nancy often forgets to eat her food and her kith and kin are alarmed over this development. "She's got everyone ... urging her to eat, and she just keeps saying, 'Oh, I forgot,' " a source was quoted as saying by The New York Daily News. The 82-year -old widow of Ronald Reagan,"is thinner than she's ever been in her whole life," a source added.