Caste survey welcome, Sarna code needs clarity: INDIA bloc
1
2
Ranchi:
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
(JMM) led INDIA bloc on Wednesday welcomed the Centre's decision to include
caste survey
in the next census but said it was concerned with the lack of clarity about the inclusion of a separate religious code for the tribal communities which follow Sarna faith.
JMM, Congress and the RJD also termed the Centre's announcement a moral victory for the opposition parties which had been demanding the survey for months now.
JMM general secretary cum national spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said many primitive tribes in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat and the north-eastern states follow ancient religions. "The religions of these communities should also be included in the survey. Otherwise, a caste-based census sans these religions will be a half-baked exercise," he said.
Notably the state assembly, in a special session in November 2020, had passed a resolution demanding inclusion of
Sarna Code
in the national census.
Bhattacharya demanded that factions of Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism must also be included in the survey. "It is our suggestion that the caste survey and census be completed before delimitation as reservation for women (33% in Lok Sabha) also needs to be implemented in 2029," he said.
RJD's state secretary Kailash Yadav said the party had been demanding caste survey for years. Supporting RJD and JMM's stand, state Congress spokesperson Rakesh Sinha said, "When Rahul Gandhi demanded the survey, the BJP neglected it. Better late than never they have realised its importance. It is a welcome move and will ensure also said the exercise will ensure
social justice
for every section of the society."
State BJP president Babulal Marandi also welcomed the move. "Now the focus will be on real social justice, not just vote-bank politics. For decades, the Congress and other opposition parties have used the issue of caste census for electoral gains. But now, a caste-based census has become the need of the hour. The time has come to move away from fragmented, inconsistent, and opaque state-level surveys and adopt a uniform, reliable, and fact-based caste census for the entire nation," he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
18 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
What's in the latest version of Trump's big bill now before US Senate
At some 940-pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. Now it's up to Congress to decide whether President Donald Trump's signature's domestic policy package will become law. US Senators were working through the weekend to pass the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' and send it back to the House for a final vote. (Getty Images via AFP) Trump told Republicans, who hold majority power in the House and Senate, to skip their holiday vacations and deliver the bill by the Fourth of July. Senators were working through the weekend to pass the bill and send it back to the House for a final vote. Democrats are united against it. Here's the latest on what's in the bill. There could be changes as lawmakers negotiate. Tax cuts are the priority Republicans say the bill is crucial because there would be a massive tax increase after December when tax breaks from Trump's first term expire. The legislation contains roughly $3.8 trillion in tax cuts. The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill. It temporarily would add new tax breaks that Trump campaigned on: no taxes on tips, overtime pay or some automotive loans, along with a bigger $6,000 deduction in the Senate draft for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year. It would boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200 under the Senate proposal. Families at lower income levels would not see the full amount. A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It's a provision important to New York and other high tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years. There are scores of business-related tax cuts. The wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, which would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House's version. Middle-income taxpayers would see a tax break of $500 to $1,500, the CBO said. Money for deportations, a border wall and the Golden Dome The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump's border and national security agenda, including $46 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and $45 billion for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to fulfill his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. Money would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year. The homeland security secretary would have a new $10 billion fund for grants for states that help with federal immigration enforcement and deportation actions. The attorney general would have $3.5 billion for a similar fund, known as Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide, or BIDEN, referring to former Democratic President Joe Biden. To help pay for it all, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections. For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Defense Department would have $1 billion for border security. How to pay for it? Cuts to Medicaid and other programs To help partly offset the lost tax revenue and new spending, Republicans aim to cut back some long-running government programs: Medicaid, food stamps, green energy incentives and others. It's essentially unraveling the accomplishments of the past two Democratic presidents, Biden and Barack Obama. Republicans argue they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse. The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including older people up to age 65. Parents of children 14 and older would have to meet the program's work requirements. There's also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services. Some 80 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama's Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Most already work, according to analysts. All told, the CBO estimates that under the House-passed bill, at least 10.9 million more people would go without health coverage and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps. The Senate proposes a $25 billion Rural Hospital Transformation Program to help offset reduced Medicaid dollars. It's a new addition, intended to win over holdout GOP senators and a coalition of House Republicans warning that the proposed Medicaid provider tax cuts would hurt rural hospitals. Both the House and Senate bills propose a dramatic rollback of the Biden-era green energy tax breaks for electric vehicles. They also would phase out or terminate the various production and investment tax credits companies use to stand up wind, solar and other renewable energy projects. In total, cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs would be expected to produce at least $1.5 trillion in savings. Trump savings accounts and so, so much more A number of extra provisions reflect other GOP priorities. The House and Senate both have a new children's savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury. The Senate provided $40 million to establish Trump's long-sought 'National Garden of American Heroes.' There's a new excise tax on university endowments. A $200 tax on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was eliminated. One provision bars money to family planning providers, namely Planned Parenthood, while $88 million is earmarked for a pandemic response accountability committee. Another section expands the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a hard-fought provision from Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, for those impacted by nuclear development and testing. Billions would go for the Artemis moon mission and for exploration to Mars. The bill would deter states from regulating artificial intelligence by linking certain federal AI infrastructure money to maintaining a freeze. Seventeen Republican governors asked GOP leaders to drop the provision. Also, the interior secretary would be directed to sell certain Bureau of Land Management acreage to provide for housing, but senators said that measure could be stripped out during the amendment process. Additionally, a provision would increase the nation's debt limit, by $5 trillion, to allow continued borrowing to pay already accrued bills. What's the final cost? Altogether, keeping the existing tax breaks and adding the new ones is expected to cost $3.8 trillion over the decade, the CBO says in its analysis of the House bill. An analysis of the Senate draft is pending. The CBO estimates the House-passed package would add $2.4 trillion to the nation's deficits over the decade. Or not, depending on how one does the math. Senate Republicans are proposing a unique strategy of not counting the existing tax breaks as a new cost because those breaks are already 'current policy.' Senators say the Senate Budget Committee chairman has the authority to set the baseline for the preferred approach. Under the Senate GOP view, the tax provisions cost $441 billion, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Democrats and others say this is 'magic math' that obscures the true costs of the GOP tax breaks. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts the Senate tally at $4.2 trillion over the decade.
India Gazette
31 minutes ago
- India Gazette
"If there are issues, they would be discussed privately": Shashi Tharoor
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], June 28 (ANI): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who has highlighted the disagreements with the current party leadership, on Saturday responded to a social media post he made earlier amid the visible tensions between him and some in the party, saying that if there are issues he would discuss them privately. 'I am not going to get into political issues here. If there are issues to discuss, they would be discussed privately. When the time comes, I shall do so,' Tharoor, who was speaking at the Ahmedabad Management Association Program, told reporters. The Thiruvananthapuram MP earlier made a cryptic post after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge took a veiled jibe at Shashi Tharoor, saying he is in the Congress Working Committee 'because his English is very good'. Speaking at the event, the Congress MP discussed his recent visit to Russia and updated attendees on his meeting with counterparts, where he reiterated the message that the multi-party parliamentary delegation had already conveyed to the leaders here. 'I was in Russia on a previously planned engagement. It was also an opportunity to touch base with my counterparts. In India, our Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee covers both the Upper House and the Lower House. In many other countries, each House has a different head, so I saw my counterparts in the Upper House and the Lower House. I also saw my old friend, the Russian Foreign Minister, but by and large, our message has been consistent. Fortunately, the delegation sent by our government had already been there and met these people, so my task was not a difficult one to reinforce the message. Russia has been an old and trusted friend of India for some time, and it's always good to maintain these relationships. I also did some public events there, interviews and interaction with students. So it was that kind of visit. None of the dramatic sort of James Bond stuff that people have been speculating about, nothing of that nature, no secret missions there,' Tharoor said. During his visit to Russia, he met several top Russian leaders, including the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (the Upper House) and also interacted with students. Tharoor's remarks regarding his intentions to discuss certain issues with respect to his party come amid an apparent unease in his ties with some in the party leadership. Kharge, who addressed a press conference slamming the Modi government, took another dig at Tharoor, saying, 'Some people say Modi first, the country later'. Tharoor had recently praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a newspaper article. 'Shashi Tharoor's English is very good, that's why he has been taken in the CWC (Congress Working Committee). I supported this,' Kharge said. 'But what I want to say is that all of us, the entire opposition, have come together and said we stand with our Army, our Army that is fighting, we are with them. We say nation first, but some people say Modi first and country later. What can we do about that?' he added. However, the Congress chief sidestepped a question on Congress taking action against Tharoor. He also brushed aside a question asking whether the party is afraid of taking action against Tharoor. Hours later, the Congress made a post on X that prominently carried a picture of a bird. 'Don't ask permission to fly. The wings are yours. And the sky belongs to no one,' the post read. (ANI)
India Gazette
31 minutes ago
- India Gazette
Congress' Gogoi accuses Assam Govt of misusing dairy farming scheme funds, calls for PM's intervention
New Delhi [India], June 28 (ANI): Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Saturday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for his 'attention' over the alleged irregularities in the implementation of the 'Assistance to Entrepreneur for Establishment of Commercial Dairy Farming (2022-23)' scheme in Assam, alleging that the ministers in the state cabinet were benefiting from it at the expense of genuine dairy farmers, thereby undermining the principles of 'fairness and transparency'. In his letter, the Congress MP alleged the inclusion of family members and associates of state ministers and MLAs as beneficiaries, while experienced dairy farmers, particularly from districts like Bongaigaon, have been reportedly excluded despite meeting eligibility criteria. 'I am writing to bring to your attention serious concerns regarding the implementation of the government supported scheme, 'Assistance to Entrepreneur for Establishment of Commercial Dairy Farming (2022-23)', in the state of Assam. This scheme receives substantial financial support from the Government of Assam. Each unit is eligible for up to Rs 50 lakh in subsidy. The objective is to promote genuine entrepreneurship in the dairy sector and strengthen milk production across the region. However, multiple reports and official documentation point to irregularities in the selection of beneficiaries,' the letter read. 'Several recipients of the scheme's benefits appear to be family members or associates of Ministers and MLAs in the state government, while long-standing dairy farmers, particularly in districts like Bongaigaon, have reportedly been overlooked despite having applied multiple times and fulfilling the eligibility requirements,' it added, highlighting a perceived bias in the selection process. The Congress leader further criticised Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for 'justifying' the inclusion of ministers' family members, describing it as an 'open endorsement of political favouritism' that fuels public outrage and undermines constitutional values. 'Equally alarming is the response from the Chief Minister of Assam, who chose to justify the inclusion of ministers' family members in the list of dairy scheme beneficiaries. This open endorsement of political favouritism has fuelled public outrage for undermining the constitutional values of equality and justice. It also reflects a serious breach of the oath of office, which obliges public representatives to act impartially and in the public interest, casting doubt on the state government's adherence to ethical governance and the rule of law,' it further stated. Gogoi also pointed to the Gorukhuti agricultural project, funded with over Rs 5.5 crore in public money, alleging that high-yield Gir cows procured from Gujarat were allocated to elected representatives, including the firms owned by the wives of several ministers and MLAs. 'Official records indicate that these were allocated to several elected representatives, including the firm owned by the wife of Jayanta Malla Baruah (Cabinet Minister & MLA, Nalbari), Bhupen Pegu (MLA, Jonai), Utpal Borah (MLA, Gohpur), Diganta Kalita (MLA, Kamalpur), and Dilip Saikia (Member of Parliament). The diversion of resources and livestock under a project supported by over Rs 5.5 crore in public funds compromises the very objective of Government programs designed to promote inclusive development,' Gogoi noted. The letter calls for a review and an enquiry into the matter, urging the Prime Minister to ensure justice and restore public trust. 'Sir, these actions go against the very principles of transparency, accountability, and equitable access. If politically-connected individuals are allowed to siphon off benefits meant for the poor, we risk alienating the very people these schemes are meant to uplift. In the interest of justice and public trust, I urge your office to instruct the government to initiate an enquiry into the matter at the earliest,' Gogoi concluded. (ANI)
