Speaker rejects resignation of 13 MPs

October 19, 2013

SpeakerNew Delhi, Oct 19: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Friday rejected resignations of 13 Seemandhra MPs, setting the stage for a confrontation when the Telangana Bill comes up for discussion in Parliament.

The Speaker said the resignations were “not voluntary or genuine” as they came in the wake of protests in the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions following the Congress’ decision to carve out a separate Telangana state on July 30.

Some MPs insisted on submitting fresh resignations after receiving a letter from the Speaker’s office. “I will resign again,” S P Y Reddy, an MP from Nandyal, told Deccan Herald.

On Friday afternoon, each of the 13 MPs who quit in the first week of August, received a call from the Lok Sabha Secretariat stating that the Speaker had decided to reject their resignations under Article 101(3) of the Constitution and Rule 240 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha.

Article 101(3) speaks about rejection of resignation if the Lok Sabha Speaker is “satisfied” that it is “not voluntary or genuine”. Rule 240 is also of a similar nature.

S P Y Reddy, G V Harsha Kumar, A Sai Prathap, Lagadapati Rajagopal, Sabbam Hari, Anantha Venkatarami Reddy, Aruna Kumar Vundavalli, Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, Bapi Raju Kanumuri and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao of the Congress, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and M Rajamohan Reddy of the YSR Congress (YSRC) and Konakalla Narayana of the Telugu Desam Party had resigned in protest against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Lagadapati Rajagopal also moved the Delhi High Court, seeking a direction to the Speaker to accept his resignation. In his petition, Rajagopal said he resigned voluntarily. Citing Lok Sabha rules and provisions, Rajagopal argued that the Speaker had no authority to reject his resignation.

“The Speaker may have considered the pressure on public representatives to resign in the wake of the Telangana decision,” Aruna Kumar said.

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News Network
May 6,2020

New Delhi, May 6: Taking a cue from states, the Centre announced one of the steepest hikes in duties on petrol and diesel in the recent past, by raising it by Rs 10 and Rs 13 per litre, respectively, in a notification issued late on Tuesday.

Retail prices, however, will see no change as the price hike will be absorbed by oil marketing companies against the fall in crude prices.

Road and infrastructure cess was hiked by Rs 8 for petrol and diesel and the special additional excise duty (SAED) was hiked by Rs 2 per litre and Rs 5 per litre, respectively. While the road cess will only go into the Centre’s coffers, the hike on account of SAED will be passed on to states via devolution at 42 per cent. Hence, the states will get only Rs 0.84 per litre in case of petrol and Rs 2.1 in case of diesel.

The decision comes after several states increased the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel making use of the lower price regime. The Delhi government on Tuesday increased VAT on petrol and diesel to 30 per cent each, from 27 and 16.75, respectively. As a result, the price of petrol in Delhi increased by Rs 1.67 to Rs 71.26 a litre and diesel by Rs 7.10 to Rs 69.29 in Delhi on Tuesday.

Amid falling international crude oil prices, the Centre introduced an enabling provision in March to raise excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 8 per litre in the Finance Act. The government had on March 14 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by? 3 per litre each, which was to help raise an additional ?39,000 crore in revenue annually.

This duty hike included Rs 2 a litre increase in SAED and Rs 1 in road and infrastructure cess. It raised SAED to Rs 10 for petrol and Rs 4 for diesel. The limit has now been increased to Rs 18 a litre in case of petrol and Rs 12 in case of diesel by way of amendment of the Eighth Schedule of the Finance Act.

Economists said the move would impact retail inflation by over half a percentage point at least. “With lower consumption, there was loss of revenue for Centre and states, who earn Rs 6 trillion annually or Rs 50,000 crore monthly from fuel. Amid lockdown in April, the collection must have come down to just Rs 5,000 crore, and this will hold for May.

This means that Centre and states have lost 20 per cent of annual revenue from fuel. Hence, they have hiked duties to recover losses,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, CARE Ratings. He added that the hike will impact inflation by at least 0.6-0.7 percentage points.

According to industry experts, an estimate of the additional government revenue cannot be made as the consumption of petrol and diesel has dropped to 40 per cent of what it was before the lockdown. The duty hike comes following a drop in international crude oil prices in April, owing to lower consumption figures globally. At 11.50 pm on Tuesday, Brent was priced at $30.67 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was seen at $24.36 a barrel. On Monday, the Indian basket of crude oil was priced at $23.38 a barrel, after touching a 15-year low last month.

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News Network
March 10,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 10: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on monday thanked PM Narendra Modi  for extending birthday wishes to him in malayalam.

"Thank you, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for this elaborate birthday greeting in shudh sahitya Malayalam! Am touched by your thoughtfulness," Tharoor tweeted with a picture of the letter from Modi.

In another tweet, the Congress MP also posted its translation, that reads,

Tharoor, who is an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, turned 64 on march 9.

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SmR
 - 
Tuesday, 10 Mar 2020

Is he next Scindia waiting to board the BJP ship?

 

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News Network
May 10,2020

New Delhi, May 10: India's COVID-19 count crossed 60 thousand on Sunday, with Maharashtra being the worst-affected due to the infection so far, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The number of total confirmed cases in the country rose to 62,939, including 19,358 patients who have been cured and discharged or migrated, according to the Ministry.

The total number of active cases in the country, therefore, stands at 41,472.

The number of deaths in the country due to the infection reached 2,109 on Sunday.

While Maharashtra, with 20,228 cases is the worst-affected state, it is followed by Gujarat with 7,796 and the national capital, Delhi, with 6,542 cases. Tamil Nadu, is marginally behind Delhi with 6,535 cases.

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