NZ to kill 150000 cows to end disease

Wellington: New Zealand plans to slaughter about 150,000 cows as it tries to eradicate a strain of disease-causing bacteria from the national herd.

Politicians and industry leaders announced the ambitious plan today. They say it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and, if successful, would be the first time an infected country has eliminated Mycoplasma bovis.

Farming is vital to the economy in New Zealand, whose isolation has helped protect it from some diseases which affect herds elsewhere.

Last July, Mycoplasma bovis was found in the country for the first time. Found in Europe and the US, the bacteria can cause cows to develop mastitis, pneumonia, arthritis and other diseases. They are not considered a threat to food safety, but do cause production losses.

Officials say they plan to kill all cows on any farms where the bacteria are found, even if some of the animals are healthy. They say many of the cows will be slaughtered at processing plants and used for beef, but some cows will have to be killed and buried on the farms or dumped in approved landfills. AP

Dialysis Of Pet Dog Of West Bengal Medical Council President At Premier Government Hospital For Humans: PBT Appeals To MCI For Immediate Cancellation Of Medical Registration

Dr. Nirmal Maji, sitting president of West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) and MLA of the ruling TMC party in West Bengal, was involved in hatching an unprecedented and dangerous plan to perform dialysis of his pet dog using the machine at the SSKM Hospital, a premier tertiary-care government medical center in Kolkata where countless innocent patients attend to undergo dialysis everyday. 

This brazenly reckless and unscientific act by Dr. Maji in collusion with Dr. Pradip Mitra (then SSKM superintendent) and Dr. Rajendra Pandey (then SSKM urology head) posed serious danger to the lives of thousands of unsuspecting patients. 

After PBT lodged a complaint with MCI seeking exemplary disciplinary action against the WBMC president and two other doctors, MCI passed an Order last November directing WBMC to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action against the three doctors within a period of 3 months. 

More than 6 months later, WBMC has remained absolutely silent to shield their leader as MCI also showed no interest to look into this serious matter as WBMC president continues to lead investigation of complaints against other delinquent medicos. 

PBT has submitted a legal notice with MCI today seeking immediate cancellation of medical registration of Dr. Maji, Dr. Mitra and Dr. Pandey failing which PBT would move the appropriate legal forum to bring justice against this overt corruption in the medical regulatory authorities.

Why Attorney-General Venugopal’s words in court remind us of the dark days of Emergency

The Supreme Court hearings in the Karnataka hung assembly case have seen Attorney General (AG) K.K. Venugopal stretch the legal envelope to such an extent, they have brought back memories of the Emergency.

To be specific, the attorney general of the time, Niren De, and his controversial remarks before a five-judge Constitution bench in a case regarding Emergency.

In the 1975 A.D.M. Jabalpur versus S.S. Shukla case, better known as the habeas corpus case, Niren De argued in court that since there had been a proclamation of Emergency, citizens’ right to move court had been suspended.

A detenue, even if in illegal detention, had no locus standi to question his detention in a court, De had then said in court.

“The object and purpose of emergency provisions is that the Constitution provides special powers to the Executive…If the Executive takes any action depriving a person of a fundamental right mentioned in the Presidential order and not complying with the law, such Executive action cannot be challenged because such a challenge would amount in substance to and would directly impinge on the enforcement of fundamental rights mentioned in the Presidential order,” De proclaimed in his defence of the Emergency.

But the one statement that haunted De, otherwise an eminent and formidable lawyer, was his response to Justice H.R. Khanna. “Life is also mentioned in Article 21 and would the government argument extend to it also?” Khanna asked, to which De replied: “Even if life was taken away illegally, courts are helpless”.

History never forgave him, while Khanna, the only one with a dissenting opinion in the case, became a household name.

It is not difficult to draw parallels between Venugopal’s utterances in the Karnataka case and De’s controversial statements four decades ago.

Venugopal, who was Wednesday midnight roused from his sleep for the case, on Friday took the unusual stand that the trust vote be conducted by secret ballot. This suggestion was immediately turned down by the bench.

But it was his performance on Wednesday that had many wondering if the current attorney general — a position under Article 76 of the Constitution — had behaved more like a lawyer for the BJP than as an officer of the court.

Sample this: Referring to the questions over the actual support that B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had by then been invited by Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala to form the government, enjoyed among the newly-elected MLAs, Venugopal told the bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri, “But your Lordships don’t know the full figures. You only know what’s announced yesterday but not entirely.” To this, the bench responded politely but firmly, “We cannot look away because the figures don’t say you have majority.”

More gems were to follow. “The anti-defection law would come into force only after the MLAs are sworn in,” Venugopal claimed. It appeared to suggest that any illegal politicking, including horse-trading, before the swearing-in would not result in the MLAs being disqualified.

To this statement, the bench wondered, “Does that mean all the suitcase exchange is possible before they are sworn in? That’s impermissible.”

Venugopal, who was appointed AG last year after Narendra Modi government’s first AG Mukul Rohatgi chose not to continue after the completion of this three-year tenure, has appeared in several landmark cases.

He was appointed additional solicitor general by the Morarji Desai government that came into office after Emergency.

Which law says judges can’t hold press conferences?

I have been a student of Constitutional law for the past 40 years. I just believed in democratic values. And today, apart from the theory which I studied, I’m convinced that these democratic liberties only belong to the bold and vigilant people… timid do not have the liberties even if they are granted by somebody… It is in the hands of you people, the younger generation and your own ideals, your own vision of what kind of India you want to live in.

… I wouldn’t wish to really blame anybody. It’s (that) the systems are such.

One-crore-a-day lawyers don’t open their mouths
It was pointed out in the last about a year and a half of whatever I had undertaken to democratize the institution. It was the younger generation that stood by me. The establishment, constitution lawyers, jurists attacked me from every side.

Personally I don’t want to offend or hurt anybody, not because I’m afraid of anybody, but out of culture I don’t like too…

The one-crore-a day lawyers, they haven’t opened their mouths, they don’t take a stand. Look here something is going wrong, it should be questioned. Something is bad, it should be destroyed.

I believe… I don’t have anything personal against anybody in the system. And I stood up for certain issues and values. I raised questions.

There is a 20th century writer in my mother tongue, my mother tongue is Telugu. (Tripuraneni) Gopichand. He wrote very prolifically. One of his books is dedicated to his father who himself was a writer of great reputation. Apart from being a revolution and while dedicating that book, he wrote… that’s been translated… ‘To my father who taught me the question why, I dedicate this book’. I think it is that question. A lot of people have said what is that law, what is the scripture.

I knew I’d have to go through all this…I wasn’t innocent
Judges don’t hold press conference to deliver judgments. I know how literally Ms. (senior advocate Indira) Jaising was critical of my Rajbala judgment (December 2015). I might be right, I might be wrong, maybe she is wrong. Point is, so long as criticism is academic, based on some functions, there is nothing wrong with it. Maybe something can happen about it. Once you start attacking personally, it is also wrong…what is the end is a different matter.

Where is the law that says judges cannot hold press conferences? They shouldn’t do it to defend their judgments… I knew that when I opened my mouth, I would have to go through all this and I was willing to take it. I was not innocent. I was not ignorant about this. I was ready to take it.

Any questioning will not be taken kindly
In September 2016, when I wrote the first letter to the then Chief Justice that I would not attend the collegium meetings henceforth, I remember a member of the bar council came to the coffee room and (during) some discussion the then Chief Justice said you invited this. I said I am ready to take the consequences. I am not shirking my responsibilities.

The systems are such that any questioning will not be taken kindly. You’re required to have that courage, determination to take on the system if you want a good change.

Remember every fight is not necessarily good. If you are convinced the fight needs to be carried on is for a good change, please go ahead. A lot of people in this country will support you. A few will even speak out, not many speak out… (but) there are people.

‘Please speak up now’
I tell you, in the last six months, there are a lot of people in this country who have walked up to me and said, ‘we are happy that you did it’. They said pleasant things. Would they have spoken otherwise?

What troubles me is this. Former judges of the high court, former judges of the Supreme Court, former Chief Justices calling me saying – brother we wish you all the strength. I said, ‘Sir, please speak up now’. And…we have a former chief justice who wished to be anonymous. Others have no opinion.

I have no problem. But most of you who have an opinion and still wish to remain anonymous… then I’ll agree with you, I’m democratic (in) that sense. I don’t have a problem if you don’t agree with me, but if you have an opinion, speak up. That’s what’s troubling this country.

And I think it is in the hands of the younger generation to take on the thing… whatever is possible I will continue my service to this country. But I wish to say, some young lawyer came up to me and said, “I was planning to get out of the country and after the 12 January press conference, I decided to stay back and fight. I have 15-20 friends of mine and all of us were thinking of getting out of this country. But now we are staying back. Not because it’s good for me, it’s good for this country.”

If people (are) trying to return to this country, it’s good for the country and the situation. And that’s what I request each one of you – whether you are members of the bar or members of the society.

I am grateful for all the support from the younger generation and I know how many youngsters have supported me in the last one year. I am grateful to them and I wish each and every one of you all the best and I wish you all strength and a bright future on whatever path you choose.

SC to frame invitation norms

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday referred to the question of who should be invited to form a government when a post-poll alliance appears to have the numerical edge over the largest single party in a hung House.

It eventually decided to "lay down guidelines", agreeing to examine the legal validity of Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala's invite to the BJP's B.S. Yeddyurappa this week.

The Congress-Janata Dal Secular alliance had petitioned against Vala's decision, saying he had ignored its claim of having 117 MLAs and decided in favour of Yeddyurappa, who had just 104 MLAs and a vague promise of support from "others".

The bench of Justices A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde and Ashok Bhushan said they would hear the matter after 10 weeks, giving the BJP and the state government six weeks to respond and the petitioners four subsequent weeks to file a rejoinder if they wanted.

"We will test the validity of the governor's action when he has two sets of letters, one with majority support (Congress-JDS) and one without majority support. The governor cannot ignore such claims and invite the leader of the single largest party," Justice Sikri, who headed the bench, said.

But he appeared to agree at least partially with the questions raised by chief minister Yeddyurappa's counsel Mukul Rohatgi about the legitimacy of post-poll alliances, such as the one between the Congress and the JDS.

"As per the Sarkaria Commission (set up in 1983 to examine the Centre-state relationship and balance of power) recommendations, if there is a pre-poll alliance, the leader of the pre-poll alliance has to be invited first (if it's the largest single group)," Justice Sikri said

"If there is no pre-poll alliance, the leader of the single largest party will be invited to form the government. Regarding the third option of post-poll alliance, the Sarkaria commission recommendation (of inviting it if it has the numbers) has no legal credence. We will examine this and lay down guidelines.

PBT WINS CASE AGAINST POLICE INACTION: MAGISTRATE DIRECTS TO REGISTER FIR FOR ALLEGED FRAUD AND CHEATING BY APOLLO CLINICS AND DEREGISTERED DOCTOR

In an unprecedented development against wide-spread police inaction to lodge FIR or to initiate criminal investigation of powerful private hospitals/doctors for alleged cheating, fraud or criminal conspiracy, Court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) in Salt Lake, Kolkata allowed PBT’s appeal against police inaction and directed police at the Bidhan Nagar (North) Police Station to register PBT’s complaint as an FIR and immediately initiate criminal investigation of several cognizable offenses against premier Apollo Clinics at City Center, Kolkata and Dr. Barun Chakraborty, a gynecologist who continued practice at the said clinic even after his medical registration was suspended by the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC). A written complaint was lodged with the Bidhan Nagar police in March, 2018 by PBT after they came to learn that Dr. Chakraborty was regularly attending patients at Apollo Clinics although his license to practice was suspended by WBMC for a period of one year starting June, 2017. PBT’s complaint contained specific allegations of cognizable offence against Apollo Clinics and Dr. Chakraborty for violation of several provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 120b (“criminal conspiracy”), Section 420 (“cheating”) and Section 467 (“forgery”).

The senior police officer (IC), Mr. Saikat Banerjee, who received PBT’s complaint, merely “acknowledged” the complaint but refused to register an FIR against the accused (Apollo Clinics and Dr. Chakraborty) in clear violation of Section 154 CrPC. PBT then lodged a formal complaint with the Police Commissioner who also remained absolutely silent. With no other option to find justice, PBT then approached the court (under Section 156 CrPC) and the Ld. Magistrate allowed PBT’s petition this week citing several Apex Court judgments and issued categorical direction to the police to register PBT’s complaint as an FIR and to proceed immediately with the criminal investigation against Apollo Clinics and Dr. Chakraborty as per law. The complaint of similar deliberate police inaction against powerful members of the society including doctors and private hospitals is not new. In fact, PBT is also investigating several other similar criminal activities by top doctors who continue practice without any hesitation despite having their medical license revoked by the medical council.

'Ghost' claim but no proof

New Delhi: Prakash Javadekar's human resource development ministry has failed to back up with details his four-month-old claim that Aadhaar-linkage had helped the government identify 80,000 "ghost lecturers'' at colleges and universities.

Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri of the Satark Nagrik Sangathan had moved separate Right to Information applications on the subject.

Bhardwaj had sought the state-wise break-up of the "ghost lecturers", their names and those of the colleges and universities that had employed them.

Johri had asked the ministry's higher education department whether any inquiry had been conducted and whether the officials responsible for employing the "ghost lecturers" had been punished.

Both applicants drew a blank. The department told Bhardwaj that data on teachers with Aadhaar numbers had been collected during the all-India survey on higher education, 2016-17, for the "Gurjan portal". It was while releasing the results of this survey in January that Javadekar had made his claim about 80,000 "ghost lecturers".

"As per the portal, 85,708 Aadhaar numbers are found to be either duplicate or invalid," the department's reply to Bhardwaj said.

"These cases would be further verified with UIDAI (the Aadhaar authority) and the institution concerned before finalising the action to be taken in each case."

As for the details sought, the department's reply was that it "has no information to furnish in this regard".

In response to Johri's petition, too, the department said it lacked the information. It did not refer her to any other division, as is sometimes done when an inquiry has been conducted by some other arm of the government.

In reply to questions from this newspaper on the RTI responses, the ministry on Saturday pointed to a statement it had released earlier in the day.

"All the 80,000 names have been shared with both AICTE and UGC, the regulators, for taking up with the respective institutions and verify the reasons for incorrect entries. Both the regulators are still on the job," it said.

The responses to Bhardwaj and Johri were similar to those that transparency activists had received last August when they sought details of a claim Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made in Parliament on February 7, 2017.

Modi had said that 3.95 crore bogus ration cards had been detected over the preceding two-and-a-half years, using Aadhaar and technology.

Announcing the Quiet Death of New India

A brazen and brutal election campaign has come to an end in Karnataka. A state-level election became much more than a sum total of local grievances and regional resentments because Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once again, chose to stake his prestige and persona in Karnataka in a most unedifying manner, and also because the New Delhi-based media gave his every single utterance an outsized significance.

Whatever be the final tally on May 15, and irrespective of who finally gets to form the government in Bengaluru, the net result of the Karnataka exercise is a quiet burial for “New India”.  In an otherwise bruising and cantankerous campaign, two quiet notes – both grave institutional afflictions – went mostly unnoticed.

First, very little attention has been  paid to a wilful defiance by the Centre of the Supreme Court in the matter of framing the Cauvery management scheme.

Perhaps this is first time since 1950 that a Central government had so brazenly and cheerfully cocked a snook at the judiciary. It needs be recalled that only a few weeks ago, the prophet of a New India was sending the NRI crowds in London into rapture with his claim that he was least bothered by “2019” because he was too immersed in solving Mother India’s problems; but a few weeks later, back in New Delhi, the attorney general himself, a constitutional functionary, blandly informs the Supreme Court that its orders could not be complied with because the prime minister and other ministers were too preoccupied with the Karnataka elections. Never before have electoral calculations and conveniences been cited as reasons for defying the apex court. Never before had any government of the day so brazenly prioritised its political compulsions over its obligations to comply with the apex court’s directive.

Juxtapose the court’s conspicuous failure to extract compliance from the prime minister and his cabinet with the dedication and determination of assistant town planner Shail Bala Sharma in Himachal Pradesh. This lowly servant of the Indian state gets killed by the land mafia in Kasauli because she insisted that a Supreme Court order had to be obeyed and enforced, whereas the attorney general simply invites their lordships to acquiesce in the politicians’ predilections. All that the court could do was to content itself with bemoaning helplessly the executive’s derisive, dismissive attitude as “sheer contempt”. That’s it.

And if this institutional lapse was not damaging enough to the letter and spirit of our constitutional arrangements, the prime minister inflicted a second injury with his poisonous attempt to induct the armed forces into an electoral battle.

It is not illegitimate for an elected ruler in a democracy to try to win over the electorate’s affection after a military triumph. Margaret Thatcher made considerable political hoo-ha over the Falklands War; Atal Bihari Vajpayee got for himself a second term after the Kargil conflict; Modi copiously used the “surgical strikes” during the Uttar Pradesh assembly battle.

Yet it is entirely unacceptable that a prime minister should seek to co-opt the army into his partisan political corner. His contention that the Congress was disrespectful towards the army’s “legends” was as irresponsible as it was dangerous.

Rather than split hairs on whether the prime minister got his facts wrong, the implications of this brazen politicisation of the military ought to shake up all those who believe that the armed forces should remain a secular, democratic institution, operating within the four walls of the constitution.

As it is, there has been considerable dismay that the incumbent army chief has been making ill-advised forays into the civilian leadership’s policy domain; now, the circle is complete with the prime minister himself injecting the army as an institution into an electoral battle.

These two liberties with institutional etiquette are not inconsequential. And if we combine these two inflictions with the low-level campaign of vilification and recrimination by the prime minister, the profile that presents itself is of a regime obsessively committed to an amoral, unethical pursuit of power at all costs.

Yet the admirers and apologists of New India shrug their shoulders as if to say, “This is Modi for you.” There is a distinct sense of resignation; a weary acceptance, and a certain winking at crossing of so many lines of good taste; and what is worse is a new willingness to tut-tut, “Oh, well, politicians will be politicians.”

Yet New India was a promise of a clean, efficient and impartial governing arrangement. We were told that Indian democracy had been infused with a nobility and higher purpose. The prime minister’s Karnataka show simply ended up mocking all these pretensions. After all, irrespective of the opposition’s tactics and tricks, a prime minister has the inescapable obligation to be a trustworthy leader. Modi failed to live up to that expectation.

This failure has hastened the demise of New India. All said and done, New India was a promise of a marked departure from the old, sordid preoccupation with coming to (and remaining in) power by hook or crook; we were invited to believe in the banishment of criminals and the corrupt from the arena of political respectability; it was insisted that in New Delhi the new rulers were animated only by a new purposefulness, an uplifting disinterestedness and a selfless concern for Mother India. All these pretensions have crashed gloriously under the weight of insincerity.

As a matter of fact, rumours of the imminent death of New India were first heard in the Gujarat elections. We were rather surprised that a prime minister could stoop so low as to accuse his predecessor of colluding with Pakistan; we all thought it was a bit unfair, a bit below the belt. If we were disconcerted, we preferred to believe that this practised sordidness was a passing phase. Karnataka has now robbed us of all scope for any ambiguity.

In Karnataka, only a very perfunctory worship was offered at the “vikas” totem. Instead of concerns and visions of  a “New India”, we were dragged back to the Old India of 1999 and Sonia Gandhi and her foreign origin. And then, just when we were assured that the polity had definitely been nudged into a post-Vajpayee, post-Advani era, all political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, including the BJP, want to resuscitate a few Vajpayean principles of statecraft. Some obituary notice, this, for New India.

Harish Khare is a journalist who lives and works in Delhi. He was, until recently, editor-in-chief of The Tribune.

DOCTOR WITH SUSPENDED REGISTRATION CONTINUES PRACTICE AT APOLLO GLENEAGLES HOSPITAL IN KOLKATA: PBT LODGES COMPLAINT AGAINST POLICE INACTION

by PBTINDIA on APRIL 25, 2018

West Bengal Medical Council suspended practicing license of a urologist, Dr. Vinay Mahendra, for a period of two years starting last November for medical negligence. Even MCI website has been showing Dr. Mahendra’s suspended registration status in the Indian Medical Register. But all this was no problem for Dr. Mahendra as he continues to treat numerous patients every day at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, the top private medical center in Kolkata. In fact, Apollo hospital continues to glorify Dr. Mahendra on their website with his attractive pictures and superlative accolades claiming how great a doctor he is only to entice the unsuspecting patients.

Earlier this month, PBT lodged a formal criminal complaint for fraud, deception and illegal medical practice against Apollo hospital and Dr. Mahendra with Phoolbagan Police Station that has jurisdiction over the hospital. The acting O.C., Mr. Suman Naskar, assured that he would take immediate action considering the serious nature of PBT’s complaint. But three weeks later, Phoolbagan police has not even registered an FIR in brazen violation of numerous judgments from Supreme Court of India as Dr. Mahendra has continued to practice at the same Apollo hospital as late as today (April 25), as verified by PBT. PBT has sent a formal complaint with the Police Commissioner, as stipulated under Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, seeking immediate intervention and exemplary disciplinary action against the devious police officer at Phoolbagan Police Station. Unless Police Commissioner acts promptly against this police inaction and take adequate criminal action against the errant doctor and Apollo Hospital, PBT may move the appropriate court of law in demand of equitable justice.

Urine torment on Dalit

Piyush Srivastava May 02, 2018 00:00 IST

Lucknow: A Dalit labourer was allegedly forced to drink urine from a shoe, tied to a tree and beaten with sticks and belts and had his moustache pulled till he bled, all because he had refused to work for free in a farm owned by an upper caste family in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district.

The day after the alleged assault on April 23, Sita Ram and the four landlords who tormented him in Azampur-Bisaulia village, 330km west of Lucknow, were booked by police for breach of peace.

Sita Ram wrote to the additional director-general of police, Bareilly zone, Prem Prakash.

The officer forwarded the complaint to Badaun city superintendent of police Jitendra Srivastava, who found the four Rajputs guilty of torturing the Dalit labourer and ordered their arrests.

Vijay Singh, Shailendra Singh, Vikram Singh and Pinku Singh were arrested on Tuesday.

Senior superintendent of police Ashok Kumar said: "We are still in the process of probing the case.

"But we have suspended Rajesh Kashyap, the inspector of Hazratpur, for dereliction of duty."

D.K. Thakur, the inspector-general of police of Bareilly zone who visited Azampur-Bisaulia on Monday and met Sita Ram and his family, has deployed personnel at the village to prevent a caste conflict.

Sita Ram told reporters that all four accused belonged to the same family and were in the habit of forcing poor people to work in their fields without paying any wage.

"This has been going on for the past decade. Nobody dares to oppose them as they carry illegal weapons and often fire to terrorise us. But I decided not to accept their command and faced the consequence, which could have been worse," Sita Ram said.

"They tied me to a tree and beat me with sticks and belts. They didn't like me with a moustache because they believed it suited only the Rajputs. They kept pulling at my moustache till I started bleeding.

"Then they put urine in a shoe, which was lying there, and forced me to drink it," Sita Ram said, adding that it would be difficult for him and his family to live in the village after the arrest of the Rajputs.

Around 50 per cent of the village's population are Rajputs while 20 per cent are Dalits.

Brijlal, the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission, has sought a report on the alleged atrocity from Badaun police.

Himself a Dalit and a former director-general of police, Brijlal has said Sita Ram's family will be provided security so that they can live in the village without fear.

How to Manage Jobs Data, Modi Govt Style

Wed, 2 May 2018

The ministry of labour and employment will now publish regular payroll data. The data, which was published a few days back, along with the spin accompanying it, tells us how to draw conclusions which favour the job creation narrative that the Modi government wants to promote.

Take a look at Table 1, which shows the increase in the number of subscribers to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), during the period September 2017 and February 2018.

Table 1: Provisional estimates of payroll in
different age groups (in numbers)
Source: www.epfindia.gov.in

Table 1 tells us that the number of subscribers to the EPF went up by around 31.1 lakh between September 2017 and February 2018, a period of six months. The publishing of these data points led to the economist Rajiv Kumar, the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aatog, tweeting:

Another first by Government. @LabourMinistry releases #EPFO and #ESICpay roll data, shows that 3.11 million [31.1 LAKH] jobs were created between September 2017 to February 2018. On pro rata basis this implies creation of 6.22 million [62.2 LAKH] jobs in 2017-18. Cassandras should please give up.

EPFO stands for Employees' Provident Fund Organisation and ESIC stands for Employees' State Insurance Corporation.

What the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman was basically saying is that 31.1 lakh jobs were added between September 2017 and February 2018. This basically means that 62.2 lakh jobs (31.1 lakh multiplied by two) were added during April 2017 to March 2018. QED.

The addition of 31.1 lakh new subscribers to the EPF does not mean that a similar number of jobs have been created. We are sure the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog realises this and we will show that he does. But given that the Modi government places optics management over everything else, he doesn't really have a choice. Let's look at a few points:

1) The Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 applies to establishments engaging 20 or more employees. Hence, the moment an establishment engages the twentieth employee, it needs to become a part of the EPF. In this situation, the addition of one employee, leads to twenty people joining the EPF.

This clearly does not mean that twenty new jobs have been created. This is a basic problem with equating the increase in the number of people subscribing to the EPF, with the number of jobs created. The twain don't meet.

Interestingly, Kumar is quoted as saying the same thing in The Financial Express: "One has to be careful in estimating addition to jobs. What happens is that companies start to contribute to the EPFO when their head count increases from 19 to 20. So, all 20 workers come into (EPF) picture in one go, while it is not that all 20 were not there (with jobs) earlier." This tells us that Kumar understands this rather basic point. The question is, then why send out the tweet that he did.

2) Let's look at another issue here. 31.1 lakh subscribers were added to the EPF between September 2017 and February 2018. Rajiv Kumar used this data point to claim that 62.2 lakh jobs were created in 2017-2018. Given that 31.1 lakh jobs were created in six months (or so he claimed), 62.2 lakh jobs would have been created during the course of the year.

How correct is this? As on March 31, 2017, the total number of average contributing subscribers in the EPF were at 4.49 crore. This figure is basically obtained by taking the total of contributions made over a period of twelve months and dividing it by 12.

In April 2018, the total number of contributing subscribers as per EPFO data was 4.61 crore. This basically means that a total of 12 lakh new subscribers (4.61 crore minus 4.49 crore) joined the EPF between March 2017 and April 2018.

Nevertheless, 31.1 lakh subscribers were added between September 2017 and February 2018. But between March 2017 and April 2018, only 12 lakh subscribers were added to the EPF. What does this mean?

This basically means that subscribers dropped out of the EPF in the months other than those between September and February 2018.

It further means that people working in the formal sector lost jobs during those months, and stopped contributing to the EPF. This explains why the total number of subscribers added between March 2017 and April 2018 is lower than the total number of subscribers added between September 2017 and February 2018.

It also means that just because a trend is true for a period of six months, it is not necessary that it will be true for a longer period as well. Rajiv Kumar, given that he has to manage the optics on the jobs front, cherry picked data to make the claim that he did.

Further, if you wondered, why data was declared for a random period from September 2017 to February 2018, and not from the beginning of the last financial year i.e. April 2017, you now know the answer.

It also tells us that other than declaring the number of additions to the EPF, the number of contributing subscribers at any point of time, should also be declared in the same press release. This will ensure that cherry-picking of data does not happen.

3) An amnesty scheme was run for those firms which should have had their employees on EPF platform, but did not. This has also bumped up the 2017-2018 EPF numbers. As The Financial Express reports: "The amnesty extended to four months in FY18 (in April-May, 1.2 million [12 LAKH] got enrolled, as per available data)."

Over and above this, the government had launched a scheme for the textiles and the garments sector in October 2016, where it pays a bulk of the employer's contribution to the pension scheme of the EPF. This has also boosted the number of EPF subscribers.

All this does not mean creation of jobs in any way. All it means is that the number of subscribers to the EPF is going up. And that is a good thing because more people now will have access to retirement funds than in the past.

4) The latest World Development Report points out: "Informal employment is more than 70 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and more than 50 percent in Latin America. In India, the informal sector has remained around 90 percent notwithstanding rapid economic growth. Many informal workers face limited prospects. Both wages and productivity are significantly lower for informal workers. They exist day-to-day without health insurance or social protection."

Kumar of the NITI Aayog tweeted to say that 62.2 lakh jobs were created in 2017-2018. These jobs were created in the formal sector. The formal sector forms 10% of the total employment in the Indian economy. This basically means that more than 6 crore jobs were created in total, just in 2017-2018.

If this is true, why doesn't it reflect in any other data point, is a question well worth asking. The investment scene in the country continues to be dull. As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy(CMIE), the total value of projects scrapped/dropped in 2017-2018, reached an all-time high level. The drop between 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 was 60%.

As far as projects completed are concerned, they dropped by 34% in value terms in 2017-2018. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the capacity utilization of manufacturing companies for the period October to December 2017 (the latest data available) stood at 74.1%. With more than a fourth of their capacity free, it is difficult to see these companies create jobs.

Ultimately, if investments are down, and capacity utilization is weak, who is creating so many jobs?

Further, if so many people have found jobs, why is the economic growth in 2017-2018, expected to be at 6.62%, the lowest in four years? The growth in private final consumption expenditure in 2017-2018 is expected to be at 6.06%, the lowest in five years.

Typically, if 6 crore individuals found jobs in 2017-2018, they would have spent the money they earned, and this would have perked up economic growth, and easily pushed it beyond 7.5%.

Why has that not happened?

On that of course we will get no replies because that doesn't help in optics management.

Regards,

Vivek Kaul
Managing Editor, Vivek Kaul's Diary

If Tax Collections Have Improved, why is Govt Trying to Tax Free Services of Banks?

Analysis is the ability to look at different data points and try and make an overall sense of the way things are.

This is something that rarely happens in the media, given that the media is more interested in reporting the news on one day, and then moving on to whatever is happening on the next day.

There is very little time to take a backseat and see the bigger picture, which is why, the media tends to typically miss the wood for the trees. The media may write/broadcast the first draft of history, but it rarely writes/broadcasts the first analysis.

In today's piece we look at such a situation.

In early April 2018, the Modi government reported a significant jump in direct tax collections and as usual made a lot of song and dance about it. The song and dance did not come as a surprise to us, given that this government specializes in managing the optics on different issues. (Like the recent song and dance about electricity reaching all Indian villages. Most Indian villages already had electricity when Narendra Modi came to power. What his government did was basically put the cherry on the cake (and not even the icing). Also, just because a village has electricity, doesn't mean all households in the village have an electricity connection. Wonder, why this data point wasn't shared by any of the ministers?

While, this is a great thing to have happened, the Modi government had a very small role to play in it.)

Getting back to the issue at hand. As finance minister Arun Jaitley said about the direct tax collections going up: "The data reveals the efficiency of tax department and rise in no. of honest tax payers. This historical revenue receipt is a factual testimony of accountable governance under PM @narendramodi ji."

We were skeptical about the jump and a recent action of the government has more than proved that. A little over a week back, it was reported that the government (Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGST) to be specific) has sent notices to banks asking them to pay taxes and penalties on the free services they have offered to their customers over the years.

Newsreports suggest that the total amount of taxes to be paid along with penalties should amount to Rs 40,000 crore. The taxes are to be paid with effect from 2012, and include 12% service tax, 18% interest on that amount and a 100% penalty on it.

This is clearly an act of a government which is desperate to raise revenues. There are multiple points that crop up here:

1) If the direct tax collections have been as fantastic as claimed by the government, why is the government trying to tax and penalise free services offered by banks. The answer as we had suggested in an earlier piece, lies in the fact that the direct tax collections have been bumped up by going slow on refunds ( at least the data suggests that).

Further, a news report in The Economic Times said that hundreds of companies had received letters from the income tax department which requested these companies to deposit the tax deducted at source (TDS) with the government before the financial year ended. Typically, companies deposited the TDS by the seventh of next month. In this case that would have meant April 7, 2018, and the tax collected as TDS would have reflected in the government accounts of 2018-2019 and not 2017-2018.

By getting companies to deposit TDS in advance, the direct tax collections for 2017-2018, were bumped up. The trouble is that collections in April will now fall and that has to be made up for from somewhere.

2) As of December 2017, the banks were facing bad loans of close to Rs 9,00,000 crore. Public sector banks have accumulated more than 86% of these bad loans. To send banks notices demanding Rs 40,000 crore in such a situation is totally uncalled for. The fact that the government is ready to unleash retrospective taxation, even after saying that it won't, shows the desperation of the government on the revenue front.

On one front, the government is recapitalising public sector banks, and on the other front, it wants banks to pay taxes with retrospective effect. This just doesn't make any economic sense.

3) The central GST collections for 2017-2018 have not been up to the mark. The government expected to collect Rs 2.21 lakh crore. It has managed to collect just Rs 1.19 lakh crore, a difference of more than Rs 1 lakh crore and this money has to come from somewhere.

4) As we keep saying, there is no free lunch in economics. If banks are forced to pay this money out to the government, they will pass it on to their customers. Basically, the free services that banks currently offer will become chargeable. Further, charges on other services which are not free, might go up. If this goes through we need to get ready to pay money for something as simple as ATM withdrawals.

5) Also, in order to calculate a tax on anything, a value has to be ascribed to it. How have values been ascribed to free services going back as far as 2012? Beats us.

Long story short, the optics management of the Modi government is finally catching up with it. All is not well on the revenue front.

Regards,

Vivek Kaul
Managing Editor, Vivek Kaul's Diary

Special team to probe meat racket

Budge Budge: The state government has set up a special investigation team that will probe the racket allegedly involved in supplying rotten meat of carcasses fetched from dumping grounds.

The team will be headed by an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police.

Sources said the team would try to identify the "linkmen" believed to be active in Nadia, North and South 24-Parganas and Howrah.

The "linkmen" would gather information about carcass being dumped and pass it on to members of the gang, who would collect them from the dumping grounds.

According to the police, the carcasses would be collected from the dumping grounds in Budge Budge (South 24-Parganas), Kalyani (Nadia), Sodepur (North 24-Parganas) and Shibpur (Howrah).

"Without identifying and questioning the linkmen, we will not be able to understand how far the tentacles of the racket are spread. So far we have not been able to get hold of any of the linkmen," an officer said.

The police said the meat of the carcasses fetched from dumping grounds would first arrive at a processing centre-cum-cold store on Gas Street in Narkeldanga - Hindustan Ice and Cold Storage Company. There the meat would be processed and packaged before being sent to small eateries and road-side stalls.

"We want to question the owner of the Narkeldanga facility," an officer investigating the case said.

Dalit teen dies after clash over circle name

Arnab Ganguly Apr 30, 2018 00:00 IST

Chandigarh: A Dalit teenager died early on Sunday, succumbing to bullet injuries he suffered a fortnight back in clashes between an Ambedkarite outfit and Hindu groups in the first casualty since tensions between upper castes and organisations representing the underprivileged snowballed into violence.

The April 13 clashes in Phagwara - a day before B.R. Ambedkar's birth anniversary - had erupted over the installation of a hoarding depicting the Dalit icon and chief architect of the Constitution, and the attempted renaming of a roundabout after the statute.

The upper castes want the Gol Chowk roundabout in Phagwara named after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

Yashwant Bobby, 19, who was hit during the clashes, was declared dead around 2.30am by doctors treating him at a hospital in Ludhiana.

Phagwara has been simmering since the violence, which also left four others injured. Over 100 people have been booked, including the heads of the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Samity and leaders of the Ambedkar Sena (Mool Niwas) and the Lok Insaf Party.

Internet services have been blocked in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana, and 4,000 security personnel, including three companies of the Rapid Action Force, anti-riot squad and the BSF, deployed in sensitive areas of Phagwara.

On Sunday, Yashwant's body was brought from Ludhiana to Phagwara, accompanied by Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, assistant inspector-general of police (organised crime and control).

The Ambedkar Sena led a procession with the stretcher and demanded that Gol Chowk be renamed immediately as Sanvidhan Chowk and a memorial to the teen put up at the site.

New Delhi: The government's insistence on a "detailed scrutiny" of the professional records of advocates and judicial officers being considered for high court judgeships has added to its continuing standoff with the judiciary over judges' appointments.

A senior government functionary acknowledged that the Supreme Court collegium had questioned the need for such a scrutiny. But he added that the law ministry continued to send the collegium a summary of the candidates' professional record, even numerically grading the judicial officers (lower-court judges).

According to procedure, a three-member high court collegium recommends candidates for high court judgeships to the five-member apex court collegium, and sends along a summary of the nominee's performance record.

Since last July, the government has been insisting on sending its own report on the candidates too.

"In the case of advocates, (the) reported judgments (in cases they represented), and in case of judicial officers their case disposal time and number of adjournments are being evaluated by an in-house team having legal background," the law ministry informed the cabinet secretary in July.

But the apex court collegium recently questioned the government's move while approving the elevation of a woman judicial officer to Madras High Court as an additional judge.

"As regards the comments regarding her professional competence, it is for the judiciary to assess her performance. Professional competence cannot be adjudged on the basis of unconfirmed/unsubstantiated inputs," the collegium noted.

The senior government functionary asserted the collegium had said "nothing explicitly to the government about the scrutiny, but the noting on the collegium recommendation makes it clear that they have not taken to the move kindly".

The clash of views comes at a time the government and the judiciary are deadlocked over proposed changes to the memorandum of procedure guiding the appointments and transfers of high court and apex court judges.

The apex court had offered to amend the memorandum as a compromise after a five-judge bench in October 2015 struck down a law that had given the government a say in judges' appointments.

Since then, the collegium has rejected the government's demand for the right to reject a nominee on the ground of national security. It has also opposed the demand for a secretariat to vet and clear the candidates before the collegium takes them up.

A peeved Centre has been sitting on the bulk of the apex court collegium's recommendations, causing huge judges' vacancies.

According to the government functionary, the government had last July pressed for a review of the process of judges' appointments, citing the contempt verdict against the former Calcutta High Court judge, Justice C.S. Karnan. Two of the seven judges had advised a review of the process of selecting and appointing judges. PTI

Buddha walked to Japan: Deb

Debraj Deb and Our Calcutta Bureau May 01, 2018 00:00 IST
Agartala: Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb has suggested that Gautam Buddha had "walked on foot across India, Burma, Japan, Tibet and other countries".

"We are celebrating Buddha Jayanti here. Gautam Buddha preached the message of peace, unity and solidarity, walking on foot across India, Burma, Japan, Tibet and other countries. India is a land where a king becomes a monk and preaches peace across the world. It speaks about the great Indian tradition and culture. I respect that tradition. I pray that everyone can live together in peace, harmony and embrace the lessons of Gautam Buddha," Deb said.

The chief minister made the appeal to mark Buddha Purnima.

While Buddha's message did reach the Far East, historians expressed doubts whether he had "walked" as far as the chief minister has indicated.

"Buddha didn't travel to either of these countries during his lifetime. Buddhism spread to these places much later through other people," said Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty, a former professor of history at the erstwhile Presidency College in Calcutta.

Deb has landed in several controversies through his remarks, including a claim on the use of the Internet and satellite during the Mahabharata era and a comment that the 1997 Miss World, Diana Hayden, was not worthy of being crowned a beauty queen. Although Deb later regretted the comment on Hayden, controversies continue to hound him.

He went on to claim that civil engineers should join the civil services but not mechanical engineers. He asked unemployed youths to earn money by milking cows and rearing pigs and poultry instead of running after government jobs.

On Monday, the additional secretary to the chief minister, Milind Ramteke, said Deb's meeting in New Delhi on May 2 was a "pre-scheduled" one. "The trip has yet to be finalised," he said.

He was responding to reports that said Deb was summoned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to Delhi in the wake of his controversial comments.

An official told reporters that Deb had received an invitation to attend an event preceding Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary that will be celebrated for a year. "There is an event on May 2. The chief minister is scheduled to attend it along with all other chief ministers of the country. The invitation letter arrived a month back," the official said.

Deb was also invited to a meeting in New Delhi on May 4 with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. It will be attended by the chief ministers of the northeastern states, an official in the chief minister's office said.

Dalit jitters revisit BJP before poll

New Delhi: Two Dalit-related developments have unnerved the BJP as election campaigning is gathering momentum for the Karnataka Assembly polls next week.

Pictures have emerged of police recruits in Madhya Pradesh with the abbreviations "SC" (Scheduled Caste) or "ST" (Scheduled Tribe) scrawled on their chests with felt-tip pens during a medical examination in a government hospital on Saturday. 

At Una in Gujarat, another BJP-ruled state, the Dalits who were flogged by cow vigilantes embraced Buddhism on Sunday.

The BJP fears the back-to-back incidents will have an impact in Karnataka, where Dalits constitute the single largest chunk of voters (around 18 per cent). The party managers fear the incidents could reaffirm the anti-Dalit image that the Opposition has been seeking to saddle the BJP with.

In the run-up to the Karnataka polls, the BJP's chief minister nominee, B.S. Yeddyurappa, had undertaken an outreach programme by eating at Dalit homes. "We are hopeful that the anti-incumbency against the Siddaramaiah government could lead Dalits, like other caste groups, to turn towards the BJP," a BJP leader from Karnataka said. "But we are not going to get Dalit votes that match our expectations."

On the chest-stamping, the BJP maintained silence, even letting Rahul Gandhi attack the party without a repartee - a rare occurrence. BJP insiders said they had very little to say in defence and so had chosen to sidestep the issue.

On the campaign trail in Karnataka, BJP chief Amit Shah chose to attack Rahul for calling on the convicted Lalu Prasad at the AIIMS but did not refer to the two incidents.

Caste-branding knifes 'nation in the chest'

Our Special Correspondent and Agencies May 01, 2018 00:00 IST

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati castigated the Madhya Pradesh government on Monday over the branding of police recruits by caste, and Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule asked the Prime Minister's Office to probe the "shameful" incident.

Media reports have said that newly recruited police constables had "SC" (Scheduled Caste), "ST" (Scheduled Tribe) or "OBC" (Other Backward Classes) marked on their bare chests with felt pens during their medical examination at a government hospital in Dhar district on Saturday.

As photographs showing the branding triggered a political controversy, Rahul tweeted: "The BJP's government's casteist attitude has knifed the nation in the chest. By marking 'SC/ST' on the chests of youths in Madhya Pradesh, it has attacked the Constitution of India."

He added: "This is the BJP-RSS mindset. This same mindset used to force Dalits to hang earthen pots from their neck and tie brooms to their bodies, and banned them from entering temples. We will defeat this mindset."

He posted a picture of two young men with the labels "SC" and "ST" written on their chests. Elections to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly are due later this year.

Rahul has been more forthright in condemning caste discrimination than any other Congress president, although his party cannot disown responsibility for such practices continuing seven decades after freedom, a period the country mostly spent under Congress rule.

However, the focus in recent months has been on the rise in atrocities against the Scheduled Castes under the Narendra Modi government's watch, and on the ambiguous signals emanating from the BJP leadership.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati alleged that the "criminal act" was the latest example of the BJP government's "newfound love" for Dalits.

"It is extremely shameful that during police recruitment in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, the candidates were marked as 'SC', 'OBC', 'ST' on their chest," Sule tweeted.

Dhar superintendent of police Virendra Singh said he had ordered an inquiry by a deputy superintendent of police.

He said those conducting the medical examination process had told the police that the markings had been made because the physical requirements varied for candidates from different categories.

"However, they should have used other ways to differentiate them. This is a serious matter," Singh said.

Mayawati questioned the "silence" of senior BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister, on the matter.

"Does it suit the BJP and company, and the Prime Minister himself, to remain silent (and) not condemn such a casteist incident?" she asked.

She demanded that the officials responsible for the incident be punished and the Centre issue orders against any recurrence anywhere.

Condemning the "criminal act", Mayawati said it had resulted from a spiteful attitude towards Dalits, tribal people and backward communities.

She said the BJP needed to realise that the Dalits had a lot of self-respect and were vigilant about their interests: they would never be lured and trapped by anyone.

Assam villagers poke holes in Modi tweet

Malangpa Lower Primary School in Dima Hasao district. Picture by Samsul Alam

Samsul Alam May 01, 2018 00:00 IST

Haflong: "What is electric light?" asked seven-year-old Keyidimbe Jeme of Malangpa village in south Assam's Dima Hasao district on Monday.

Curiosity filled the child's eyes as electricity has not reached Malangpa, a 400-year-old village, 26km from the district headquarters of Haflong. The village has 40 households having a population of 300.

Esove Pame, headman of Malangpa, told The Telegraph on Monday, "Our village is one of the oldest in Dima Hasao but it has not received electricity yet. We are totally dependent on kerosene lamps and lanterns. We have been requesting the authorities for electrification for years but nothing has been done. I request the Prime Minister to visit our village to know the ground reality."

Just the day before, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken to Twitter to share that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had achieved complete electrification of all villages in the country.

Modi had tweeted on Sunday: "April 28, 2018 will be remembered as a historic day in the development journey of India. Yesterday, we fulfilled a commitment due to which the lives of several Indians will be transformed forever! I am delighted that every single village in India now has access to electricity."

Aching Zeme, a social worker, said, "How can a Prime Minister issue such a statement without knowing the facts? There are many villages in our district where there is no electricity. In some villages, electric poles have been erected but electric connection is still a dream. Many villages don't even have road connectivity."

A source in Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (AODCL) said 170 villages of Dima Hasao were selected under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, a central scheme to facilitate 24x7 supply of power to all the villages of the country. Of the 170 villages, 140 have got electricity while electrification work is on in 30 villages. An APDCL official said in accordance with the norms of Rural Electrification Corporation Limited, under the ministry of power, at least 10 per cent households need to be connected for a village to be declared electrified.

Calls to APCDL authorities went unanswered but sources said more than 20 villages are yet to be included in the rural scheme list.

Bahim Chandra Langthasa, a senior citizen of Haflong, went on an indefinite hunger strike at Basabari, 60km from here, on Monday, demanding electrification of the district's remote villages and repair of roads. He called off his strike in the evening following assurance from the administration.