In the midst of crucial assembly elections in five states, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda organised a huge rally in Haryana on November 10 in what is being seen as muscle flexing at the party leadership in terms of showing his following in the state. Renu Mittal reports.
The Congress is likely to get 11 Rajya Sabha seats in the upcoming election cycle with some of its top leaders, including P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, eyeing another term.
A number of Congress workers were accompanying Gandhi from Punjab's Patiala district, but the procession was stopped on the highway near Teokar village on Pehowa border for an hour. Before Gandhi arrived at the Punjab-Haryana border, senior Haryana police officials at the spot told reporters that they would not allow more than 100 people to gather at one place as per the guidelines in place due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
The former party donated Rs 54,000 between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020.
Tourism minister Kumari Selja said other countries which followed the US in that year were UK, Bangladesh, Canada, France, Sri Lanka, Germany, Japan, Australia and Malaysia. To woo more tourists, Indiatourism offices overseas are undertaking promotional activities in all important and potential tourist-generating markets to showcase India's tourism potential, the minister said.
Noted housing finance expert Deepak Parekh will head an eight-member committee appointed on Tuesday by the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation to discuss the draft guidelines of government's ambitious Rajiv Awas Yojana which aims to make the country slum-free.
There is a shortage of 24.7 million housing units in urban areas at the beginning of the 11th Five Year Plan. Admitting the flaws in the housing sector planning for the huge gap between demand and supply, Selja said unfortunately the private sector only focuses on high-end housing and ignores low cost units.
For promoting a planned and healthy real estate development of colonies and apartments in big cities, union housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry has drafted a bill and invited suggestions from experts.
The joint action plan reiterates the provisions of cooperation enshrined in the bilateral agreement on tourism signed between the two countries on January 24, 1994. There has been a constant increase in the number of tourists from Singapore to India. While 44,306 Singaporeans visited India in 2002, the number increased to 92,908 in 2007.
As part of its efforts to boost the sector, the Tourism Ministry has decided to announce policy initiatives for promotion of innovative programmes like 'caravan' and 'heliport tourism' in its 100-day agenda.
Aiming at empowering the urban poor with legal rights, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is initiating steps to provide property entitlements to them.
The tourism ministry wants rationalisation of import duty on adventure sports equipment to promote adventure tourism in the country. There is a proposal for exemption of service tax for inbound tour operators on their foreign exchange earnings. Sources said Tourism Minister Kumari Selja would submit the detailed proposals to the finance ministry, seeking various tax incentives for the sector.
The Congress on Thursday declared 12 candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, including party general secretary K C Venugopal, Deepender Hooda and senior Supreme Court advocate K T S Tulsi.
Tourism secretary Sujit Banerjee said the government is going for single window clearance system for hotel industry and all formalities including the preparation of cabinet note for the proposal has been finalised.
Mani Shanker Aiyer, after having been told by the Congress leadership to desist from making statements against the Commonwealth Games, has now taken to writing letters to register his point.
If the government has its way, the catchy 'Incredible India' tourism campaigns will be spotted in big ticket events like Oscar and Grammy awards.
This is the first time the Union government will be taking the help of foreign experts for slum development, according to sources in the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation.
Congress young guns take offence over old guard's utterances.
A first of its kind report, it has been prepared with the support of UNDP and by eminent academicians and researchers under the supervision of JNU professor Amitabh Kundu.
On the action taken by the government to construct more houses for the poor, she informed the House that a new scheme has been launched for providing interest subsidy to make housing affordable and within the repaying capacity of the economically weaker section and low income group.
The government is finalising a policy for urban areas that will encourage the role of private players to make owning a house affordable in towns and cities.
Factionalism has been made bitter by the level of personal attacks that warring senior leaders indulge in. Kavita Chowdhury reports.
"The government has decided to introduce the Rajiv Awas Yojana for slum dwellers and the urban poor," Kumari Selja, minister of housing and urban poverty alleviation, said. The scheme would extend support to states that are willing to assign property rights to people living in slum areas. The government's efforts would be to create a slum-free India, which also envisages the states preparing their own time-bound plans to make the cities and towns slum free, she said.
State leaders have emerged as the biggest road block for Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi who is trying to give young leaders bigger responsibilities, says Renu Mittal
Names of senior party leaders Kharge, Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Mukul Wasnik and Kumari Selja are now also doing the rounds for the post.
Speaking with reporters, Gandhi said, "This (school) is India's future. Hate and violence has destroyed it. Nobody has benefited from this. Violence and hate are enemies of development."
Hours after making the statement, the Haryana agriculture minister said he has seen "twisted" statements, attributed to him, on social media.
Senior Congress leaders from Haryana have asked for the resignation of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda before the assembly elections in the state slated to be held by October this year.
'The government is scared of this Congress yatra, that is why various orders and letters are being issued'
There is speculation that the Congress may bring Priyanka Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Randeep Surjewala and RPN Singh, among others, to the upper house.
'Politics is full of struggle, especially for those from my background,' says Union Minister Kumari Selja in her first interview after Sunday's attack on her. 'It has always been a struggle and will continue to be so.'
Nowadays, our politics is habituated to sitting on a high pedestal, hobnobbing with world leaders, generating impressions of a superpower and returning to earth for the purpose of winning elections. In contrast, the yatra never left earth, observes Shyam G Menon.
Farmer outfits on Friday started mobilising more batches of peasants from Haryana and Punjab to head towards Delhi's borders to join the ongoing agitation against agri laws, even as political parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Indian National Lok Dal threw their weight behind them.
Will he, will he not? That is the question on every Congress leader's mind as Rahul Gandhi has still not indicated whether he is ready to take on the mantle of party president.
The meeting of Congress's highest decision-making body is expected to be at a very 'high voltage' as Sonia's resignation will not be accepted by the CWC members.
The Congress leadership is unlikely to remove Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda although his detractors have intensified their demand for his dismissal after the party's poor electoral performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
According to a senior Election Commission official in Chandigarh, Panwar got 36 votes, while Sharma got 23 first preference votes and six transferred from the BJP, taking his tally to 29.
Even as Sonia Gandhi was on Saturday re-elected chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party and asked party men not to bicker in public amid a fierce blame game in the party, the anger and anguish was visible after the meet was over. Anita katyal reports
Be it Assam, Haryana or Delhi, the Congress is facing one crisis after another regarding its Rajya Sabha nominations, reports Renu Mittal.
Several Punjab Congress leaders, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, were on Thursday prevented from heading to Lakhimpur Kheri and were detained at a police station in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
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