<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly October 19, 2018 | Toronto 10 Now in Canada FIBE TV Channel No. 2329 Follow us on: abpsanjha abpsanjha abpsanjha
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly india 11 October 19, 2018 | Toronto Punjab CM Amarinder Singh seeks compensation to check stubble burning Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek compensation for farmers for avoiding stubble burning. He sought Modi's intervention to ensure settlement of Rs 31,000 crore cash credit limit gap and assistance for the preparation of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev. Modi was sympathetic to the farmers' plight, said Singh, who has been pressing for Rs 100 per quintal as compensation for the farmers to check the problem of stubble burning. Singh told Modi that the problem of stubble burning could get aggravated, despite various steps being taken by the state, with the close of the harvest season, and needed to be urgently addressed. <strong>The</strong> Chief Minister also took the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for the Centre's decision not to disturb the 60:40 ratio with respect to appointment of officers in Chandigarh. Amarinder Singh had expressed his protest over the constant efforts being made to disturb the fine balance in sharing of officers and other resources between Haryana and Punjab that had been achieved over a period of time after a great deal of effort. Giving details of the meeting, an official spokesperson of the Punjab government said the Chief Minister had urged Modi to advise the Finance Ministry to urgently settle the Rs 31,000 crore cash credit limit gap on the principle of shared responsibilities. Reiterating his demand for resettlement of gap in Food Cash Credit Account of Punjab, which had resulted from systemic and structural reasons, the Chief Minister said this should be settled on the principle of shared responsibilities amongst the stakeholders in procurement of foodgrains for the country. In fact, he pointed out the matter had been discussed in detail in internal report of the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, referred as the P.K. Jha Committee Report. Noting that the Ministry of Finance, which was looking into the matter on a reference received from the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, was yet to finalise the matter, Singh sought Modi's intervention to resolve the <strong>issue</strong>. He also urged the Prime Minister to advise the Ministry of Finance to reconsider and review conversion of Rs 31,000 crore as long-term loan as it cannot be solely attributed to Punjab given the principle of shared responsibilities. <strong>The</strong> Chief Minister, in the letter, had informed Modi earlier that the heavy rainfall in state and adjoining Himachal Pradesh from September 22-24 had caused extensive damage to life, agricultural crops, property and other infrastructure at different places in the state. <strong>The</strong> estimated damage to crops was Rs 150 crore, while road network had been damaged to the extent of Rs 119.32 crore, with another Rs 516.51 crore caused to flood protection infrastructure and minor irrigation works, said the Chief Minister. Rampal, 13 aides get life term again in 2nd case Hisar: A Hisar court on Wednesday sentenced selfstyled godman Rampal and his 13 aides to life imprisonment without remission in connection with a 2014 murder case. <strong>The</strong> judgment came six days after conviction in two cases of murder. On Tuesday, a local court had awarded Rampal and his 14 followers life sentence in a murder case. Six convicts, including Rampal, are common accused in both the cases. In his 115-page judgment, Hisar additional sessions judge D R Chalia observed, “<strong>The</strong> real challenge is therefore, to differentiate between the real and fake. <strong>The</strong> Upanishads also state that a true guru or mahatma should only be accepted after careful consideration. People need to be made aware of it.” While sentencing the 14 convicts, including Rampal, in the second case, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.05 lakh on each of them. <strong>The</strong> court sentenced them to life imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine for murder, life imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine for criminal conspiracy and two-year imprisonment and Rs 5,000 fine for illegal confinement. All the sentences will run concurrently. “I don’t agree with the notion that in the present era, we don’t have any godman to guide us. If this wasn’t true, then the renowned Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg would’t have travelled to India in their initial days of struggle. I guess most of us fail to recognize the true godman. Even today many gurus and saints are trying to guide and show the path towards spirituality not only in India but also internationally,” the judge observed. Hisar deputy district attorney Rajeev Sardana said the case was registered on November 19, 2014 on the complaint of Suresh, a resident of Jakhora in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh, for the murder of his wife 25-year-old Rajani, Santosh, Malkiyat Kaur, Rajbala and a child Adarsh. <strong>The</strong>re were 14 accused in this FIR, of which eight — Rajesh alias Hariram, Babita alias Baby, Pawan, Rajiv Sharma, Rajesh alias Ramesh, Balwan, Natwar alias Lakshman, Ramchandra — were on bail before the verdict while six accused — Rampal, Raj Kapoor alias Pritam, Rajendra, Joginder, Virendra, Krishn were in judicial custody, he said. <strong>The</strong> Punjab Haryana high court had directed the police to arrest Rampal when he failed to appear before the court. However, when the police went to arrest him, his followers barricaded themselves inside Rampal’s Satlok Ashram near Barwala in Hisar district, which led to a violent confrontation. Rampal was arrested on November 19, 2014 after a two-week standoff. India continues to engage with US on H-1B visa <strong>issue</strong> IANS NEW DELHI: India is continuing to engage with the US over the H-1B visa, largely availed of by Indian IT companies, after the Trump administration proposed changes to the programme, a senior official said on Thursday. "It is a very important topic for us and that is the reason why we have time and again at various levels we have taken up this matter with the US side," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to queries by journalists here. Kumar said that most recently, the <strong>issue</strong> was raised during the first ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Meeting held here last month that was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis. <strong>The</strong> US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to come out with its new proposal by January 2019. <strong>The</strong> DHS said it was also proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation. <strong>The</strong> move to end the rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visa holders, who have work permits. <strong>The</strong> H-4 visas are <strong>issue</strong>d by the USCIS to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the holders of H-1B visa. <strong>The</strong> DHS said it will propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme. It will also "revise the definition" of employment and employeremployee relationship to "better protect" US workers and wages, the DHS said. In his remarks on Thursday, Kumar said that India is closely engaged with the US administration as well as the US Congress on this matter. Stating that there are certain bills which have been introduced, he, however, said that "it is important to note that none of these bills have been passed so far". "When we have engaged with the US, we have emphasised that our partnership which we have in the digital sphere have been mutually beneficial," the spokesperson said. "We have highlighted the role which has been played by the highly skilled Indian professionals who have actually contributed to the growth and development of the US economy," he stated.
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