'Not my responsibility': KCR on RTC workers who committed suicide

Agencies
October 25, 2019

Hyderabad, Oct 25: Even as Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees' strike continues and reports of several protestors committing suicide, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has washed his hands off the matter stating that it is not his responsibility.

"TSRTC workers who have committed suicide are not my responsibility. They are responsible for themselves. We did not ask them to protest. Unions provoked them," Rao said addressing a press conference in the state capital.

"The fact is, soon the TSRTC will get dissolved and shut down. Nobody can stop this from happening. Merger demand is not accepted at all," the Chief Minister added.

Opposition leaders from BJP and Congress alike, however, have strongly objected to the statement.

"KCR is acting more like CEO of a profit-centric private enterprise than the chief minister of a democratically run state government. His statements on RTC and its employees reflect his neo-capitalist mindset. The party feels that he is behaving irresponsibly by underplaying RTC role in the public transport system of the state," said BJP Telangana chief spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao.

The BJP leader said that the RTC is a welfare initiative for public transport, to connect to the remotest villages and towns in Telangana, which otherwise can't be connected by private operators due to route-passenger ratio.

"It's commercially impossible for private operators to ply buses on unviable routes. The RTC ticket prices for poor and needy passengers can never be matched by private operators. BJP condemns the open threat issued by KCR to striking RTC employees that RTC will completely be shut down sooner than later," he said.

The leader also accused KCR of taking advantage of the strike and trying to "sell the public transport system in Telangana to his pet private enterprises at the cost of poor and needy passengers and 50,000 RTC employees".

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Sarvan compared the chief minister to a dictator.

"Just as blind do not see the end, an arrogant dictator also does not see the rationality in others' arguments. So is the case with Rao. By-election victory has not only blinded but also deafened him," Sarvan said.

He said that the Congress party strongly condemns the arrogant response of KCR on the matter.

"We demand that he calls a discussion with the striking RTC employees and resolve the issue. It is absurd and inhumane on the part of KCR that he does not take any responsibility of RTC employees who committed suicides," the Congress leader said.

Sarvan said that all the suicides and deaths of RTC employees are blatant murders committed by the irresponsible government of KCR.

Taking a different stand, TRS ally AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has extended support to KCR's controversial stand.

"The strike is not good for anyone. Hope the issue is resolved amicably and striking TSRTC employees should understand the gravity of the situation," Owaisi said.

Over 49,000 workers have been on strike since October 5, protesting against the state government's order to sack over 40,000 employees of TSRTC.

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Agencies
February 4,2020

Dirbrugarh, Feb 4: Three persons, including two BJP activists, have been arrested for allegedly attacking the residence of Union minister Rameswar Teli during anti-CAA protests in Assam, police said on Monday.

The house of Teli, Union Minister of State for Food Processing, in Upper Assam's Duliajan town was attacked on December 11 during the statewide stir against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

"Based on CCTV footages, Debajit Hazarika, Vicky Sonar and Arup Kahar were arrested. We had picked them up on Sunday," Dibrugarh Superintendent of Police, Sreejith T told PTI.

A total of 18 persons have been arrested so far for allegedly attacking Teli's house, he said.

"These three persons were also involved in pelting stones on a police party during protests in Duliajan," Sreejith said.

A BJP source confirmed that Debajit Hazarika and Vicky Sonar are party activists.

Family members of the accused have given statements to the police on the arrested persons' alleged role in violence and attacking Teli's house, sources said.

When contacted, Teli said, "I do not know for what reasons they were apprehended. But if police arrested them after proper investigation, then there must be some truth. The trio stays near my house. They always attended my programmes with their families."

A total of 88 people have been arrested so far from Dibrugarh district for their alleged involvement in violence during protests against the Act.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Mumbai, Mar 6: Harried Yes Bank depositors rushed to ATMs to withdraw cash but faced multitude of problems including closed down machines and long queues, after the RBI placed the bank under a moratorium, capping maximum withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account for a month.

Aggravating the problems of depositors were difficulties accessing the internet banking channel, which ensured that they can't transfer the funds online as well. At an ATM in south Mumbai's Horniman Circle, with the RBI headquarters overlooking it, the shutters were pulled down.

The guard on duty said the machine was non-operational before he reported to work late in the evening and he was ordered to shut it after 2200 hrs. In the residential area of suburban Chembur, one ATM was dispensing cash but had a long queue of anxious depositors.

One man said it was still possible to withdraw up to Rs 50,000 in multiple transactions from the machine.

However, another machine nearby had run dry within minutes of the RBI announcement, a woman said.

The regulatory actions, undertaken by the RBI and the government, came hours after finance ministry sources confirmed that SBI was directed to bail out the troubled lender.

For the next month, Yes Bank will be led by the RBI-appointed administrator Prashant Kumar, an ex-chief financial officer of SBI.

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News Network
February 28,2020

Feb 28: The best economic tonic for the coronavirus shock is to contain its spread and worry about stimulus later, said Raghuram Rajan, former head of the Reserve Bank of India.

There’s little central banks can do, and while more government spending would help, the priority should be on convincing companies and households that the virus is under control, he said.

“People want to have a sense that there is a limit to the spread of this virus perhaps because of containment measures or because there is hope that some kind of viral solution can be found,” Rajan told Bloomberg Television’s Haidi Stroud Watts and Shery Ahn.

“At this point I would say the best thing that governments can do is to really fight the epidemic rather than worry about stimulus measures that comes later,” said Rajan, who is currently a professor at the Chicago Booth School of Business.

The spread of coronavirus is pushing the world economy toward its worst performance since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Bank of America Corp. economists warned clients Thursday that they now expect 2.8% global growth this year, the weakest since 2009.

“We have moved from extreme confidence in markets to extreme panic, all in the space of one week,” said Rajan, who previously was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

The virus outbreak will force companies to rethink supply chains and overseas production facilities, he said.

“I think we will see a lot of rethinking on this, coming on the back of the trade disruption, now we have this,” Rajan said. “Globalization in production is going to be hit quite badly.”

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