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Jharkhand assembly adjourned amidst chaos
by Girija Shankar Ojha/Ramesh Ranjan

     Ranchi: The Jharkhand Assembly session resumed again on Friday at 11:40 a.m. amid protests from both sides of the political divide. Pro tem Speaker Pradip Kumar Balmachu was forced to adjourn the House till 2 p.m. as the ruling UPA and opposition NDA enagaged in a chaotic verbal battle inside the House. Currently, the power equation seems to be in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as it has kept its flock of 41 intact, whereas Congress's tally has come down to 39 with NCP MLA Kamlesh Singh remaining absent from the proceedings of the House and Balmachu becoming the pro tem speaker. The speaker can vote only in case of a tie. Two Forward Bloc MLAs -- Aparna Sengupta and Bhanupratap Singh -- however, are attending the session today and have stood by their support to the UPA. These three - Kamlesh, Aparna and Bhanupratap - had stayed away from Thursday's oath-taking ceremony raising speculations over their intention to support the UPA government. The speaker's decision regarding Koliveera MLA Enos Ekka is also awaited. The speaker had sent him a show cause notice asking for his stand as he was standing with the NDA but his party has given a letter of support to the UPA. The UPA government is making all possible efforts to win the trial of strength but the Goa episode is haunting it. The NDA, on the other hand, is banking on its own 36 MLAs and 5 Independents. Tight security arrangements have been made outside the state Assembly to prevent any untoward incident.

Parliament tribute to Gandhiji (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: On the platinum jubilee of Dandi March Parliament today paid tributes to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee said, "On this occasion, we recall the spirit of idealism and self-sacrifice that characterised our freedom struggle and pay our tributes to memory of the Father of Nation and the non-violent satyagrahis whose heroic efforts led to independence of the country". In the Rajya Sabha also, tributes were paid to Mahatma Gandhi. On March 12, 1930, at 6.30 AM Mahatma Gandhi started his march to Dandi from Sabarmati Ashram with 78 volunteers to break the Salt Law. Most of the Satyagrahi were ashram inmates including scholars, editors, untouchables and weavers. The oldest was the 60-year-old leader; the youngest, a boy of 16. Ahmedabad's citizens turned out in thousands to cheer them.Thousands of people joined him along the route. The group reached Dandi on April 5, where Mahatma Gandhi made salt, breaching the oppressive Salt Act of the British rulers. The day is remembered as one of the most important days in India's freedom struggle.

Mumbai BEST buses on strike (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: The lifeline of Mumbai city transport - Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses are not plying in the city as the workers have gone on indefinite strike since midnight. The BEST Worker's Union, BEST Kamgaar Union (BKU), Electric Workers Union and the BEST Kamgaar Sena, comprising of over 45,000 workers, decided to strike work after talks with the top brass failed last night. The BEST management and employees are locked in a tussle over dearness allowance calculations. The employees are demanding a 129 per cent dearness allowance or a merger of the allowance with the basic salary, while the management has proposed the "neutralising" of the allowance from 129 per cent to 100 per cent. The workers took the extreme step of going on strike even after a ban on strike from an industrial tribunal in Mumbai. ''The Pay Revision Committee recommendations decreased the Dearness Allowance (DA) from 129 per cent to 100 per cent,'' said BKU's Suhas Samant. They are demanding that the management pay them dues accumulated over the past four years. ''Based on the old DA, the employees have to be paid Rs 154 crore for the last four years. Instead of increasing the salaries, the undertaking has decreased it,'' he added. ''The bureaucrats are not willing to budge, hence the strike.'' Inter-union rivalry has spoiled the chances of compromise between the two sides. According to officials, different union leaders have raised conflicting issues, causing bottlenecks in negotiations. The strike by workers of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking will affect transport and electricity services across the city. While the transport services cover Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai with 6,000 buses, BEST's electricity supply covers the island city of Mumbai.

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