Note ban led to unemployment and suicides, admits senior BJP MP

News Network
November 10, 2017

New Delhi, Nov 10: Demonetisation has crippled the unorganised sector and is responsible for suicides and unemployment, BJP MP and beedi baron Shyama Charan Gupta said at a parliamentary panel meeting on Thursday.

Mr. Gupta’s comments came during a meeting of the standing committee on finance, headed by Congress MP M. Veerappa Moily, which was discussing demonetisation. Importantly, it comes a day after Union Cabinet Ministers had fanned across the country extolling the virtues of demonetisation in tackling black money.

Economic Affairs Secretary Subash Chandra Garg, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar, and Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes Sushil Chandra were also present at the meeting.

According to sources, Mr. Gupta, MP from Allahabad, asked officials if they had compiled figures on suicides in the unorganised sector due to demonetisation. “He asked if they realise how bad the situation is in the unorganised sector where he claimed people are facing starvation. He also asked the Finance Ministry officials if they have maintained any statistics on suicides by workers in the unorganised sector,” another committee member said.

Mr Gupta who heads a ₹250 crore beedi business, spoke at length detailing the crippling effect of demonetisation on businesses like his. First, he said the government had cut the cash flow resulting in reduction in jobs. A year on, with 28% GST on beedis, the government has further squeezed the sector with major dip in demand.

While Mr. Gupta refused to divulge details of his comments at the meeting, citing the confidentiality clause, he did not deny the questions he had raised. “I cannot reveal anything about the meeting without permission of chairman of the committee. I placed before the members my queries just like others,” Mr. Gupta told media.

“What is more interesting is that the other BJP members remained mum through the meeting and did not jump in support of the government. Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar was the only one to speak in favour of the exercise,” another member said. Mr. Chandrasekhar is a BJP-backed independent MP from Bengaluru, who owns Asianet and also finances the news broadcaster Republic.

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Agencies
January 12,2020

Mumbai, Jan 12: Thousands of citizens on Sunday congregated in Mumbai's suburban Jogeshwari to oppose the new citizenship law, the proposed NRC and NPR.

They also condemned last Sunday's violence on the JNU campus in Delhi, where masked men ran riot and attacked students. Leftist organisations had claimed RSS-affiliated ABVP's role in the attack, a charge denied by the students' body.

Former Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) general secretary Fahad Ahmed told PTI that they assembled under the aegis of 'Hum Bharat Ke Log' in Millat Nagar area.

"Prime minister Narendra Modi should call 56 students from across the country to debate on the CAA, NRC and NPR," Ahmed said in an apparent jibe at Modi's "56 inch chest" remark, which the latter had made ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

"Why the PM is not talking to us? Why is he not communicating? Even the Britishers used to talk to Indians whom they ruled, but our PM is not talking to poor people," he alleged.

Bollywood actor Sushasht Singh also spoke on the occasion.

"We are people of this country and such acts (CAA) are tarnishing the image of our country," he said.

At the gathering, people waved banners with slogans like "I Am From Gujarat, My Documents Burned in 2002", "No CAA, Boycott NRC, Stop Dividing India, Don't Divide us", "Save Constitution", written on them.

A large number of police personnel were present at the venue.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was notified on January 10, grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities migrated to India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh till December 31, 2014, following persecution over their faith.

Massive protests were witnessed against the CAA, mainly by the student community, since its passage by Parliament in December last year.

Opposition parties have been dubbing the CAA an "anti-Muslim" legislation, a charge being debunked by the government.

The Congress and other parties like the TMC have also opposed the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

Union home minister Amit Shah has said that the government won't rest until persecuted refugees are granted Indian citizenship.

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News Network
April 20,2020

London, Apr 20 : Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in India on alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated ₹9,000 crore, today lost a High Court appeal in UK against his extradition order to India.

A consortium of Indian public sector banks led by the State Bank of India had sought a bankruptcy order against Mallya as part of efforts to recoup around GBP 1.145 billion of unpaid loans from Mallya.

The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss had appealed to the High Court against his extradition to India at a hearing in February this year.

Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, dismissed the appeal in a judgment handed down remotely due to the current coronavirus lockdown.

"We consider that while the scope of the prima facie case found by the SDJ [Senior District Judge] is in some respects wider than that alleged by the Respondent in India [Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED)], there is a prima facie case which, in seven important respects, coincides with the allegations in India," the judges ruled.

Earlier this month, the High Court in London had deferred hearings on a plea by the SBI-led consortium of Indian banks, seeking the indebted tycoon to be declared bankrupt to enable them recover their loan from him.

Justice Michael Briggs of the insolvency division of the High Court granted relief to Mallya, ruling that he should be given time till his petitions to the Supreme Court of India and his settlement proposal before the Karnataka High Court be determined, allowing him time to repay his debts to the banks in full.

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News Network
February 1,2020

New Delhi, Feb 1: India on Friday banned the export of personal protection equipment such as masks and clothing amid a global coronavirus outbreak.

It did not give a reason for the ban but it reported its first case of the new coronavirus on Thursday, a woman in Kerala who was a student of Wuhan University in China.

The central Chinese city of Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak, and the virus has since spread to more than 9,800 people globally and killed 213 people in China.

Several Indian citizens living in Wuhan will arrive in India by plane on Saturday and be taken to a quarantine centre on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi.

India, the world’s second most heavily populated country after China, has taken measures to ensure that all people arriving from China report to health authorities.

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