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West Bengal agrees to transfer election officials, with riders

April 8, 2014

West_BengalKolkata, Apr 8: A day after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee dared the Election Commission of India (EC) to take action against her for not complying with its order to transfer eight officials, including the police chiefs of five districts, the state administration agreed to budge.

Though the state government said on Tuesday that transferring these officials would inconvenience the administration in the run-up to the general election, it later said it was willing to release these officials from their current posts, but refused to accept those named by the poll watchdog as their replacements.

On Monday, EC had without consulting the state government issued an order transferring eight officials from their current posts because seven of them were found to have favoured the ruling Trinamool Congress party in the recent past. These seven officials were also barred from taking any election-related responsibility.

Banerjee reacted within an hour, saying at a rally that her government would not transfer a “single officer”, while calling EC’s order as a ploy to undermine regional parties in states not ruled by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The state wrote to EC asking it to reconsider its decision, but the poll watchdog held its ground and threatened to cancel elections in West Bengal if the officials weren’t transferred. It isn’t immediately known whether EC will agree to the state’s proposal on the replacements for these officials.

A decision on the standoff will be made by EC in Delhi.

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Agencies
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has termed the government decision to freeze Dearness Allowance of Central government employees for a year as "insensitive and inhuman."

The former Congress President in a tweet said: "Lakhs and crores are being spent on the Bullet Train and New Delhi's Central Vista which should have been suspended, but the government has deducted DA of Central government employees and pensioners... It is insensitive and inhuman."

"The tragic part is that by deducting this amount from January 1, 2020 up to 30th June, 2021 for a period of 1.5 years, the government of India proceeds to deduct almost Rs 38 thousand crore from the income of these middle class government employees and pensioners, who rely completely on the pay and pensions that they receive," said Randeep Surjewala, chief spokesperson of Congress.

There are about 50 lakh such serving government employees and about 62 lakh pensioners.

"Even more tragic and objectionable is the fact that the government of India has not even spared our armed forces. The government has deducted Rs 11 thousand crore of the 15 lakh serving armed forces personnel and nearly 26 lakh military pensioners. What is their fault? They are serving the nation in times of all types of crises," said Surjewala.

The Congress alleged that the government did not spare the savings scheme.

Instead of curbing the wasteful expenditure, the government has been constantly hitting at the income of government employees and the middle class, it added.

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News Network
April 6,2020

New Delhi, April 6: India recorded the highest number of 704 positive cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday.

With these new cases, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India have now climbed to 4,281.

Total deaths stand at 111 including 28 new deaths. So far, 318 COVID-19 patients have been cured across the country.

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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said he is "deeply grateful" for the overwhelming support shown by the global community for India''s membership of the UN Security Council.

India will work with all member countries to promote global peace, security, resilience and equity, he said.

India garnered 184 votes out of the 192 ballots cast in the General Assembly to win the election for the non-permanent seat in the powerful Security Council.

India''s two year term will begin on January 1, 2021.

This is the eighth time that India will sit at the UN high-table, which comprises five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members.

"Deeply grateful for the overwhelming support shown by the global community for India''s membership of the UN Security Council," the prime minister wrote on Twitter.

India will work with all member countries to promote global peace, security, resilience and equity, he said.

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