250 Villagers Taken Captive in Chhattisgarh By the Maoist Rebels

Around 250 villagers were taken hostage in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh state yesterday night by the Maoist rebels. The hostage situation has occured on the eve of PM Modi's visit to neighboring Dantewada district.

Chief Minister Raman Singh has told the media that around 250 villagers have been taken captive by the Maoist from a few villages of Sukma district; the local administration is trying hard to get them released.

"There is no confusion...the local administration is making efforts for their release," the CM said after some conflicting claims were made by police officials on the number of villagers abducted by the left extremists.

PM Modi who visited the neighboring Dantewada district said that there is no place for violence in democracy.

"Only plough on the shoulders and not guns can bring development. And this will bring everyone to the mainstream of the country. There is no future for violence. The future is only of peaceful means."

"The birth place of Naxal movement Naxalbari has already given up this violent means. Don't get disheartened," PM said.

 

"The macabre drama of death will end," he said, referring to Maoist violence in the state, and added "a lot of people have been killed by "mad men on the path of violence".

Yesterday night, an unspecified number of Maoist guerrillas ambushed Marenga and some adjoining villages within the Tongpal police stations limits and took the poor villagers to the nearby forest.

Any news of the release of the villagers or the demand for their release has still not surfaced.

Also Read:

14 Injured in Grenade Attack in Shopian, Kashmir

We Know Where is Dawood Ibrahim: Rajnath Singh

Finance MInister Arun Jaitley Presents Union Budget 2015-2016

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today presented the Union Budget of India for the year 2015-2016; this happens to be the first full-fledged budget of Modi government. From the outset, this seems to be a business-friendly budget, aimed at attracting greater investment for Indian economy.

The finance minister announced an unprecedented corporate tax-cut. The tax has been slashed down from 30% to 25%; the cut would come into force in the next four years.

The government seems to have done a few things for the poor as well by introducing the social security system.

Few major announcements made by the finance minister are:

• Five ‘ultra mega’ power projects will be built to fill the yawning gap between the supply and demand of power.
• The government will invest around 70 thousand crores on the infrastructure development.
• Introduction of ‘universal social security’ that will provide the poor with an access to subsidized insurance and pensions.
• Implementation of a uniform countrywide goods and services tax (GST) by April 2016 to boost trade between different states; there are a number of different taxes in different Indian states at the present moment that make trading between them a nightmarish exercise.
• The government will transfer the welfare money direct into the recipient’s bank account to eliminate corruption and wastage.
• Wealth tax will be abolished; it will be replaced by a surcharge of 2% on the super-rich (people with an income of one crore or more).

Mr Jaitley said that the will achieve its goal of cutting the fiscal deficit to 4.1% of the GDP for the year 2014-2015 from 4.5% for the year before.

Presenting the budget, Jaitley said that the country is growing at the high rate, the inflation is down, and foreign exchange reserve is sufficient.

"We inherited a sentiment of doom and gloom. The investment community had almost written us off. We have come a long way since then. We have turned around the economy, dramatically restoring macroeconomic stability and creating the conditions for sustainable poverty elimination, job creation, durable double digit economic growth," the finance minister said.

Some experts have billed this budget as the most significant since the path-breaking budget of 1991 that liberalized the Indian market.

Experts are of the opinion that there are loop holes here and there, but if the welfare projects like the Universal Social Security is implemented as it is imagined, then the budget is nothing less than a path-breaking  one. Millions of Indian poor will come under the safety net.

Also Read:

Suresh Prabhu Presents the Railway Budget, No Hike In The Passenger Fare

Mother Teresa Did Social Service But Her Motive Was Religious Conversion: RSS Chief

RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat has raised serious question on the intensions of Mother Teresa and the services she rendered to the poor and destitute people of India. And with that statement, he seems to have given rise to another controversy. RSS has refused to buy the belief that Bhagwat has criticized the Nobel laureate who devoted her life to serve the poor of the nation.

The RSS Chief was addressing a function of a local NGO in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. He said that no one can deny or undermine the services that she did, but there was an aim behind the services rendered, an aim to convert people to Christianity.

"People like Mother Teresa did good work and service. But the aim was to convert the poor to Christianity. This kind of service is devalued if conversions are done in the name of service or work," Bhagwat spoke.

Senior Congress leader and former CM of the state, Ashok Gehlot has called the statement 'unfortunate'. "She left her country and spent her life to provide service to the poor. It is really a very unfortunate statement," Gehlot responded. 

Rajasthan state Congress president Sachin Pilot also vehemently condemned the statement, he said, "By giving these kinds of statements, they are trying to create a religious divide. Mother Teresa comes from which religion does not matter, what matters most is the service she provided to the poor." 

After the RSS Chief came under fire from all quarters, the RSS came in his rescue and said that the statement was misinterpreted and was taken out of the context.  

"Media reporting wrongly. At Bharatpur Ex-DG BSF said that Mother Teresa did Seva with motive of conversion," said a tweet on RSS' official Twitter handle.

Born on 26 August 1910 as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Macedonia, Mother Teresa came to India in 1929. She an Indian citizen in 1948 and remained one till her death in 1997. She was awarded the India's highest civilian award 'Bharat Ratna' in 1980 for her contribution in the field of social work. Mother was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1979 in recognition of her work "in bringing help to suffering humanity."

Also Read:

After Hazare, Congress Too Lambasts The Government Over The Land Acquisition Ordinance; Planning a Protest From Wednesday

World Cup: India Lambasts South Africa By 130 Runs At The Melbourne Cricket Ground