Seven members of a family were killed when a bus rammed into a group of sleeping pilgrims near Narora on Friday morning, police said. They said the driver of the bus was on the run.
Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said the victims, who were residents of Chandpa, had gone on a pilgrimage to the Vaishno Devi shrine along with some relatives and other villagers.
While returning, they got off from from the bus in Narora and slept on the road along Gandhi Ganga Ghat. At around 4 am, another bus that was also carrying pilgrims crushed the victims to death, the official said.
After receiving information about the incident, Dibai Circle Officer Vikram Singh and Dibai Sub-Divisional Magistrate Sanjay Kumar reached the spot.
Locals gathered there and protested against the accident. Police talked to the people and send the bodies for postmortem.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the kin of the deceased.
He said those responsible should be punished strictly.
The deceased were identified as Phoolwati (65), Mala Devi (32), Sheela Devi (35), Yogita (5), Kalpana (4), Renu (22) and Sanjana (4).
An NGO had filed a petition in the Supreme Court for denying pension to politicians. After this, many persons started online campaign for it. They appealed to everyone to share and support this cause.
Mahila Pradesh Congress General Secretary Manisha Rote said, “Salaries of MPs and MLAs have been revised. Poverty is increasing in the country and people are dying due to hunger. At the same time, politicians have other source of income. You can’t find a leader who is surviving on salaries and pension. Once a person becomes a politician he starts owning property worth crores of rupees. Instead of giving pension and other perks it would be better to support poor people.”
In the petition the NGO had stated that MPs should not get pension because politics is not a job or employment, but a free service. Politics is an election under the Public Representation Act, there is no retirement, but they can be re-elected in the same situation again. (Currently they get pension, after 5 years of service). Another loophole is that if a person has been a councilor first, then becomes a legislator and later becomes an MP, then he gets not one but three pensions. This is a great betrayal with the citizens of the country as they immediately have to act to stop it. It also stated that with the Central Pay Commission, salary allowance of MPs are being revised which should be brought under the income tax.
NCP leader and advocate Majeed Memon said, “Let people file petition and court will hear the matter. Those who have served the country and society for a fairly long time why they should not be considered equal to those who have done public service? Why they should not be on par with the benefit of pension post retirement? I don’t find any substance in this argument that they should not be entitled to it.”
At present, MPs increase their salaries and allowances arbitrarily by voting for themselves and at that time all the parties forget their differences and become united. The NGO was in favour of discarding healthcare system for MPs. Politicians often tend to go overseas for treatment. If they go abroad for treatment then they must bear the expenses from their pocket. It wanted MPs and MLAs to discard their current health care system and participate in health care system similar to Indian public health.
Justice BG Kolse-Patil, former judge of Bombay High Court said, “It is a double edged sword. Honest politicians face immense difficulties after retiring from politics. They had to rely on pension for supporting themselves. All facilities were meant for honest politicians. However, times have changed and today it is difficult to find an honest politician.”
NGO also called for the abolition of various concessions offered to MPs and MLAs in electricity, water and phone bill. MPs not only get several concessions but they also increase them regularly. It wanted criminals to be prevented from contesting election, suspicious persons with punitive records, criminal charges and determination, past or present to be banned from entering the Parliament.
According to the NGO, the financial losses caused by politicians while remaining in the office should be recovered from them, their nominees and properties. It wanted MPs to follow the same rules applicable to common citizens. No deduction on LPG gas subsidy by the citizens unless the subsidies available to MPs and MLAs, and other subsidies, including subsidised food in the Parliament canteen, are not withdrawn. It also called for the withdrawal of free rail and air travel. It asks why should the common man bear the cost of subsidies availed by MPs and MLAs. According to it, serving in the Parliament is an honour, not a lucrative career for looting.
Last month Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur filed the RTI query. The Lok Sabha Secretariat’s First Appellate Authority cited Section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act, which authorises the information holding authority to refuse information if it deems it personal. The reply given was actually very strange. The information, the Lok Sabha secretariat has informed, was “personal”, so details would not be shared. According to the Finance Bill of 2018, former MPs are entitled to a pension of Rs 25,000 every month, if they complete their five-year term. The MPs are entitled to an additional Rs 2,000 for every year served as an MP over the five-year period. Under the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954, an MP loses his entitlement to pension and perks in case he is appointed the President, Vice-President, or is re-elected to either House or gets employed in the central or state government.
The section says that “information which relates to personal information, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual” may not be shared “unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure”. It also adds that this is “provided that the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person”.
The salaries and pensions of parliamentarians are decided by the Parliament through open deliberation and thus, constitute information which can be placed before Parliament if a member asks for it from the authority.The RTI query had sought the information of pensions and allowances given to Amrinder Singh, Mehbooba Mufti, Yogi Adityanath, Mamata Banerjee, Sarbananda Sonowal, Nitish Kumar, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Manohar Parrikar, Kamal Nath, V. Narayanasamy, Ashok Gehlot, and Sachin Pilot (current Rajasthan deputy chief minister), between 2013 and 2018 December. All of them have been MPs and went on to become chief ministers, except Pilot. He may have recently raised a red flag about government’s interference in the functioning of the judiciary, but Justice Jasti Chelameswar gave a huge relief to sitting and former Parliamentarians.
After a year long hearing, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Chelameswar dismissed a petition that sought the scrapping of pension and perks being given to ex-MPs. The court also rejected a plea to regulate the salary and allowances of sitting MPs. The bench was delivering judgement in an appeal filed by NGO ‘Lok Prahari’ against the Allahabad High Court order dismissing its plea, alleging that pension and other perks being given to MPs even after demitting office are contrary to Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Constitution.
The SC agreed with the findings of the Allahabad High Court that Parliament is competent to legislate on pensions for ex-MPs and has the power to prescribe any condition subject to which the pension may be paid. In the process, what the court cleared for former MPs includes life-long pension, travel facilities, telephone calls, free electricity and water, unlimited travel by train along with spouse from any place in India to any other place in India and up to eight air journeys in a year from the MP’s place of residence to Delhi and back when Parliament is in session.
According to this new SC mandate,, the spouse of the MP gets unlimited train travel by first class AC at any time in the year and one associate of the former MP get free AC-II tier pass to accompany him/her in all train journeys. The petition had challenged the constitutional validity of the law and sought its scrapping. “Parliament has no power to provide for pension benefits to lawmakers without making any law,” it said. 82 per cent of the lawmakers were “crorepatis” and “the poor tax payers should not be made to bear the burden of their pension, including their family pension,” the petitioner NGO said. Backing the pension and other perks for MPs, the Centre had told the court that the entitlement of former MPs to get pension and other benefits was “justified” as their dignity has to be maintained even after they complete their tenure as Parliamentarians.
He also informed the bench about the finance bill 2018, which contains provisions regarding salary and pension of MPs, and also about the revision of their allowances after every five years starting from April 1, 2023, on the basis of cost inflation index. The term of appointment of the Member of Parliament (MP) in India is only five years and hence they get pension after five years.
The term of appointment of government servants including Army and civil services is for 25-40 years i.e. until they become sixty years. They still get a full pension after 20 years. An IRS officer, who served Government of India for 25 years, gets the pension of around Rs 90,000 per month, which is half of the total salary received by him at the time of his retirement.
A retired Cabinet Secretary of Government of India gets a pension of more than 1, 25,000 per month. Now compare these pensions with the pension of an MP.
A one term MP thus gets lesser pension than even the clerk who has retired in a government on superannuation. This pension is not even 10 % of the benefits, which a sitting MP gets. Such benefits are estimated to be more than Rs 3,00,000 per month. Let our MPs get decent salaries and pension so that they don’t have to engage in corruption. But scenario is completely otherwise. MPs are the representatives of the people and the most important people in democracies as they represent the people of India.
They deserve much more than what in greed of getting more. Their intent is serving themselves than the people. They are getting lawfully now but for that they really need to serve people coming out of glamour posts; they need to slog for the people and their welfare unconditionally. When politics becomes an opportunity for them, why would they be paid our hard earned money is the question here. People’s representatives just gave themselves financial bonanza. One has to complete 21 years of service to become eligible for pension. Why pension for a people’s representative? It is not a government service. No qualifications fixed. No retirement age. It is for the people to raise questions?
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
Jennifer Aniston believes a reboot of her beloved sitcom, “Friends”, would “ruin” the show.
Aniston portrayed Rachel Green on the show, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
She starred alongside Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing and David Schwimmer as Ross Geller.
Appearing on “The Howard Stern Show”, Aniston discussed her reunion with the rest of the cast at Cox’s house for dinner.
“We just had dinner this week, the whole gang. We all happened to have a window of time so we all got together… We just laughed a lot,” she said.
Aniston added that they all miss the show, which ran for 10 years from 1994 to 2004.
Addressing the rumours about the reboot, she said, “I honestly think we would love it. There’s an idea that if there’s a reboot of the show it won’t even be close to as good as what it was, so why do it? It would ruin it.
Apart from the ‘Aaja Nachle‘ actor, the film is also produced by her husband and doctor Shriram Nene.
The film which stars Adinath Kothare and will be directed by Jayant Jathar.
Madhuri shared a boomerang video from the muhurat of the film where she can be seen posing with the clapperboard along with Dr. Nene.
In a picture shared by the actor, she can be seen striking a pose with the entire crew of the film.
“Elated to announce our film banner, @rnmmovingpictures, next project, #Panchak It’s a fantastic and hilarious take on belief & superstitions for the whole family. Sending my best wishes to our team as they start shooting today,” she captioned the snaps.
Meanwhile, on the work front, the Padma Shri actor who was last in the period drama film ‘Kalank‘ was seen judging the reality show ‘Dance Deewane 2‘.
Overwhelmed by the thunderous response received by ‘WAR‘, Hrithik Roshan said that he always wanted to raise the bar of action films in India.
The high-octane film that sees Hrithik and Tiger Shroff pitted in a massive showdown across 7 countries as they go after each other relentlessly was successful in surpassing the Rs 200 crore mark in just seven days of its release.
Delighted by the response, Hrithik said, “We wanted to make a film that raises the bar of action films in India and could truly compete with the best of action spectacles being made in the West.”
“War is a genre-defining action film and I’m extremely happy for the entire cast and crew of WAR because we all have given our all and more to make this film a cut above,” he added.
On the other hand, Tiger feels that the success of the film is like a blessing for him and is more close to his heart as he got to play a role with his “inspiration” and “idol” Hrithik.
“It’s an absolute blessing that our film has been accepted widely and it’s definitely going to be a special one forever because I got to do this with my hero my idol Hrithik Roshan who I aspire to be and who I am inspired by,” the ‘Heropanti‘ actor said.
Apart from receiving unanimous love and appreciation from the audience, the actor was touched by the fact that this is his first film in the industry to smash all box office records and score well. “I am blessed that my first 200 is with such an amazing team,” he added.
The film now becomes the third highest-grossing movie of 2019, surpassing the business of Salman Khan starrer ‘Bharat.’
Ayushmann Khurrana who is basking in the success of his latest film ‘Dream Girl,’ is back to leave you in splits with the tale of a bald man ‘Bala‘. The actor shared the trailer of the laughter riot on Thursday.
Known for opting for unique scripts, Ayushmann is set to make you laugh with his character who is facing premature balding.
The hilarious trailer starts with Bala selling skin whitening products in a school where he encounters a dusky girl played by Bhumi Pednekar. Bhumi who gets offended by Bala’s comments asks him why he is wearing a cap. She then inches closer and takes the cap off, leaving Bala’s semi-bald head in the open.
The trailer then shows the constant struggle Bala undergoes to regain hair where he also seeks help from his father played by Saurabh Shukla who tries home remedies to overcome his son’s baldness. At one point in time, the premature balding of Bala also proves to be a hindrance in his marriage.
Apart from Bhumi, fans can also catch a glimpse of Yami who plays the role of a star in the film and is also Bala’s love interest.
Depressed by his situation, Bala runs from pillar to post to find a solution for his baldness. After trying a lot of weird concoctions to add length to his hair, he decides to put on a wig to impress his lady love in the film.
One thing is clear that there is low awareness at the producer level on the difference between conventional farming and organic farming. At the consumer level there is confusion between natural and organic products and limited understanding of the health benefits of organic food products. The increasing number of suicides by farmers is due to their dependency on fertilizers, which take away a huge portion of their earnings, rendering them indebted to moneylenders.
As environmental awareness spreads, organic food and the organic farming that supplies its ingredients have been attracting a lot of attention due to their direct relationships to nutrition and the environment, both essential for our survival. We all are aware that there is an overuse of fertilizers, pesticides and water, which is at the root of all problems today. No one is conceptually against organic farming. But our knowledge and expertise in the “science” of organic farming is inadequate to realise the productivity potential of our high-yielding crop varieties.
Organic agriculture is the best insurance policy that India can have for its population with better performance on productivity, environmental impact, economic viability and social well-being. Chemical farming, which involves spraying of pesticides and use of fertilizers, is not only financially burdening the farmers, but also wreaking havoc on the soil and ruining the health of the people and wasting water.
He said that it was the need of the hour to promote and adopt organic farming which was possible only when every farmer starts rearing domestic cows. He said that one cow could be helpful in farming 30 acres of land and added that it would improve fertility of the soil, producing maximum yield by using minimum water and getting remunerative price for their product. He said that domestic cow was useful in every respect and with the help of traditional farming, revolution in agri sector could be generated. Organic farming also plays an important role in the amount of water needed to sustain plants. It helps in preventing global warming by preventing the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Humans are fast running out of fresh water for their day to day use and the current farming methods contaminate water bodies.
Organic farming also has the cost benefits associated with it. Organic products can be sold for higher prices than non-organic foods and is actually very easy to do but for this the biggest challenge is not using store-bought fertilizers but, as mentioned previously, manure is a great alternative that yields higher quality crops and is incredibly cheap. The larger quantity of produce one gets from the use of fertilizer and pesticides aren’t worth the risks on human life and bio diversity.
“Training, camps and awareness at the grassroots level is a must. Organic farming is beneficial but calls for a planned strategy. Only then will farmers adopt it. Modern farming and organic farming have not helped farmers in increasing their income,” he said, adding natural farming would help realise the dream of PM Modi to double the income of farmers. The farmers should adopt organic farming and reduce or avoid usage of pesticides. Organic farming does not include the use of any artificial additives that can cause serious health issues if consumed. Most produce that is available today isn’t fully safe to consume as a lot of them have traces of the artificial fertilizers and pesticides that were sprayed on them during growth.
What we need is to encourage organic farming and our agriculture universities should become part of it via promoting research of organic farming. No doubt, organic farming presents many challenges. Some crops are more challenging than others to grow organically; however, nearly every commodity can be produced organically. We must remember that organic produce can usually qualify for higher prices than non-organic products. With the increase in population our compulsion would be not only to stabilize agricultural production but to increase it further in sustainable manner. Don’t we think it is time to look at the health benefits of organic produce?
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Information of Swiss accounts with govt should be made public
Your front page article ‘India Gets Info on Swiss Accounts‘ made for interesting reading. What good is information if they remain on paper and not acted upon by the authorities. The government one understands already has details of several account holders in Swiss banks but nothing has so far emerged out of them. One has to pay certain fees for people to keep money in Swiss banks while you actually earn interest keeping it in Indian banks which clearly is an indication that Swiss deposits are unaccounted money used for terror funding or siphoned out of one’s country by way of illegal trade.
Indian economy is in a mess and it is on account of corruption where people have avoided taxes here and transferred money to Swiss accounts. Government should show teeth and act on such deposits even if they happen to be of men with money and power. Make all such accounts public and the law of the land should deal with offenders. The money trail could unearth several scams running into trillions and most of our country’s fiscal deficit can be taken care of if this money is brought back to the country of its origin.
S.N. Kabra.
Flights at public-expense be allowed only in economy class
It is quite usual that top bureaucrats in governments and Public-Sector-Undertakings usually travel in costly business-class of flights. It should be made compulsory that all those travelling at public-expense including even ministers and legislatures must travel only in economy-class of flights. However exemption may be made for President, Vice President and Prime Minister who otherwise also are entitled and rightly too for special exclusive planes for security-reasons.
Since those in higher judiciary are required to be isolated from masses, all judges of Supreme Court and High Courts can be entitled for exclusive Business Class. But same facility should not be extended for Election Commissioners who are presently entitled for service-conditions and benefits equivalent to those of Supreme Court judges.
It is significant that largest domestic airliner Indigo has only one class namely economy class, and top officers travelling through Indigo have no other option than to travel in economy class. There is no reason that they may not travel in economy class in other flights. Rather planes imported for domestic flights should be allowed to have only economy class like in Indigo.
Frequent-Flyer-Points given by different airlines should be accumulated in accounts of public-authorities paying for tickets to be compensated in cash to respective public-authorities.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday appeared before a magisterial court and pleaded not guilty in a criminal defamation case filed against him for his “why do all thieves share the Modi surname” remarks. He said that he did not say anything wrong when he said all thieves share the Modi surname.
Gandhi appeared before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate B H Kapadia in Surat and pleaded not guilty when asked by the court whether he accept the charges, levelled against him by BJP legislator from Surat-West, Purnesh Modi.
After Gandhi’s plea was recorded, his lawyers moved an application seeking a permanent exemption from personal appearance in the next hearings. After Modi’s lawyers raised objection to the exemption plea, the court said it will decide on the plea on December 10.
The court said Gandhi is not required to remain present during the next hearing on that date.
During the last hearing in July, the court had granted Gandhi exemption from personal appearance for that hearing and fixed October 10 as the next date of hearing.
In his complaint, the BJP legislator had alleged the Congress leader had defamed the entire Modi community with his remarks, made during the Lok Sabha campaign this year.
The court, while admitting the suit, had held that there was a prima facie case of criminal defamation against the Lok Sabha member from Wayanad.
At a campaign rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, Gandhi had said, “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi… how come they all have Modi as common surname? How come all thieves have Modi as common surname?”
In his complaint, Purnesh Modi had said the Congress leader had defamed the entire Modi community with his statement. Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda on Tuesday held a meeting with local party leaders in view of Gandhi’s visit.
I am in Surat today to appear in a defamation case filed against me by my political opponents, desperate to silence me.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “I am in Surat today to appear in a defamation case filed against me by my political opponents, desperate to silence me. I am grateful for the love & support of the Congress workers who have gathered here to express their solidarity with me.”
Seven members of a family were killed when a bus rammed into a group of sleeping pilgrims near Narora on Friday morning, police said. They said the driver of the bus was on the run.
An 
Jennifer Aniston believes a reboot of her beloved sitcom, “Friends”, would “ruin” the show.
Bollywood’s ‘
Overwhelmed by the thunderous response received by ‘
One thing is clear that there is low awareness at the producer level on the difference between conventional farming and 
Information of Swiss accounts with govt should be made public
Congress leader 