Gandhian leads hunger strike in support of Anna Hazare in city

Bengaluru, Feb 10: After many twists and turns, veteran Congress leader Mallikarjuna Kharge is emerging as the frontrunner for the KPCC president’s post, party sources revealed.

Though the names of DK Shivakumar and MB Patil did the rounds sometime ago, the party high command could not decide on an apt candidate, and had to widen its horizon looking for a leader who can take all factions along, and they seem to have zeroed in on Kharge.

But the senior Dalit leader is also in the reckoning for the more important All-India Congress Committee president’s post after he successfully stitched up an alliance, despite all odds, between the Congress and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. He is understandably reluctant to take up the KPCC post. “The central leadership has given him some time to consider the KPCC offer,” the sources said.

The high command would rather go with Kharge as he is politically a far bigger force than Shivakumar and M B Patil and the party central leadership wants a safe pair of hands to handle the affairs of the state, the sources said. Also, senior leaders Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and M B Patil cannot raise a voice against Kharge if he is elected to the post, they said.

Kharge was the Pradesh Congress chief in 2008 when the BJP was in power under B S Yediyurappa. An old warhorse, Kharge is seen as an able administrator and taskmaster. He had won a record 11 elections on the trot before he was defeated in the Kalaburgi Parliamentary Constituency by his former protege Dr Umesh Jadhav in the last election.

Sources said that the high command will not consider Shivakumar for the top slot till he comes out clean in all the legal cases against him.

It is exactly two months since Dinesh Gundurao resigned as KPCC president after the party managed to win just two out of the 15 Assembly constituencies that went for by-elections. Siddarmaiah too resigned on the same day owning moral responsibility for the loss, but the party has decided to continue with him as the assembly opposition leader, while looking for a replacement for Gundurao. 

The high command sent senior central leaders  Madhusudhan Mistry and Bhakta Charan Das on December 20 to sort out the issue of KPCC president. Though they met the state leaders and held high-level meetings in Delhi, they could not decide on a candidate. Meanwhile, the central leadership has asked Gundurao to continue in the post, till a replacement is found.

‘Congress will protest against scrapping reservation’

Bengaluru: “RSS-BJP is against reservation and have been trying to scrap it for sometime now,’’ said senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday. He stated that the Congress would take up the issue for a determined agitation both inside and outside the parliament. He said they must file a petition against this. His reaction comes after the SC recently took a decision where the top court had maintained that reservation in promotions was not a fundamental right.

New Delhi, June 27: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government of India is not ready to stop all imports from aggressive China in spite of mount calls to boycott Chinese products in India.

The Centre is reportedly considering to stop only non-essential imports from the neighbouring country.

However, the Inward shipment in sectors such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals, certain electronics and others will continue until a domestic alternative is found.

“India will gradually move towards import substitution. It will not happen overnight. In the meantime, attention has to be paid on production and job creation. We cannot throttle our industry. There are certain absolutely essential imports. Needless to say, those will keep going,” official sources said.

Sources said that both the government and the industry are in the process of identifying products that can be domestically manufactured in the medium term. There are certain chemicals, automotive components, handicrafts, cosmetics, agriculture items and certain consumer electronics, which can be manufactured domestically in the short to medium term. The government is doing all it can to raise the capacity of domestic industries.

However, there are certain other imports in the automobile and the pharmaceutical sectors which cannot be done away within the short to medium term. Their domestic production at the moment may not be that cost-effective.

The six-crore strong traders’ body CAIT has been at the forefront of such a demand and has launched a campaign to celebrate Indian Diwali this year with a total absence of Chinese goods.

“Ease of doing business, capital availability at lower rates and globally competitive logistics and energy costs are some of the prerequisites that the government should look into to ensure the growth of the domestic auto component industry,” according to Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) Director General Vinnie Mehta.

Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava said, “People who are boycotting Chinese goods have to remember that in some cases it may lead to their being asked to pay more for the same product."

Meanwhile, domestic rating agency Acuite Ratings & Research has analysed the current import portfolio from China and found 40 sub-sectors have the potential to lower their import dependency on China. These sectors contribute to $33.6 billion worth of imports from China and about 25% of these imports can be substituted by local manufacturing without any significant additional investments.

Bengaluru, Jun 10: Internet connectivity, provided under the central government's BharatNet initiative, will be improved in rural areas of Karnataka in the next two to three months, said Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan.

After video conferencing with heads of different agencies and officials, on improving the quality of internet in rural areas, Ashwath Narayan said, "I reviewed the progress of the BharatNet implementation and the steps to be taken to improve the quality of internet connectivity in the next two to three months."

"We also discussed the possibility of giving the implementation of BharatNet to a different agency. We will seek permission from the central government and continue the project. We will ease communication with rural people by ensuring quality and high-speed internet to all Gram Panchayats," he added.

When BSNL officials and other agency representatives who attended the video conference shared their problems, the Deputy Chief Minister assured to solve them through proper coordination.

"Through BharatNet, several government schemes are being implemented in rural areas. Civic service centres are issuing birth and death certificates, Aadhaar cards and social security pensions among others. Of the total 6,000 Gram Panchayats in the state, 4,000 have high-speed internet connectivity, and the remaining will be provided with better internet connectivity through a new agency,'' said Ashwath Narayan.

Additional Secretary (e-governance) Rajeev Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary (IT-BT) EV Ramana Reddy, Principal Secretary (RDPR) Uma Mahadevan, Director (IT) Meena Nagaraj, Collegiate Education Director Pradeep and other senior officials were present in the meeting.