No deadline for submitting details for loan-waiver, don't panic: HDK tells farmers
New Delhi, Oct 5 : Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Friday asked farmers to submit requisite details to avail of Rs 45,000 crore farm-loan waiver announced by the government and said there is no need to panic as no deadline has been fixed to submit the forms.
Kumaraswamy said misinformation was being spread in the state that there is a deadline to avail of the benefit, "causing panic among farmers".
The chief minister said his cabinet has approved a 'debt relief act' that aims to protect farmers from harassment at the hands of private lenders and appealed them not to take extreme steps like committing suicide.
The state is now awaiting approval from the Centre to roll out the legislation.
"We will be successful in implementing the loan waiver scheme, if farmers provide all details properly. There is no deadline for this. No need to fear. Don't pay heed to misinformation," Kumaraswamy told reporters after meeting the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the debt relief law and flood aid.
Under the Rs 45,000-crore loan waiver scheme, farmers are required to submit certain details so that the government can transfer funds directly into their bank accounts and ensure no middlemen takes advantage, he said.
There is no deadline as such and farmers need not worry that they have to leave farm work and run around for submitting the form, he added.
On the debt relief law, Kumaraswamy said the Union Home Ministry had sought two clarifications. "We have gave that clarifications to them," he said.
"The act will be cleared. I appeal to farmers not to commit suicide due to harassment by private lenders. Please take advantage of the loan waiver scheme," Kumaraswamy said and assured the government is with farmers.
JDS chief and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and his son PWD minister H D Revanna were present in the meeting.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
SC refuses to entertain plea against deletion of names from WB voter list, terms it ‘premature’
_vb_77.jpeg)
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea by a group of 13 people seeking its intervention in the deletion of their names from the voter list during the Special Institutional Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, where polling for the first phase of the assembly election will be held on April 23.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi termed the petition "premature", directing the aggrieved parties to approach the established appellate tribunals instead.
"Since the petitioners (Quaraisha Yeasmin and others) have already approached the appellate tribunals… in our considered view, the apprehensions expressed in the petition are premature. If the plea is allowed, then necessary consequences will follow,” the bench said in its order, adding that it has not expressed any views on the merits of the plea.
The plea alleged that the Election Commission was summarily deleting names without following due process, and that appeals against these deletions were not being heard in a timely manner.
The Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court has set up as many as 19 tribunals headed by former HC chief justices and judges to decide appeals against deletions of names of persons from the voters’ lists.
Senior advocate D S Naidu, appearing for the poll panel, informed the court that there are approximately 30 to 34 lakh appeals currently pending. "Every tribunal now has over one lakh appeals to handle," the bench said.
The petitioners’ counsel argued that the EC had failed to place necessary orders before the relevant judicial authorities and that the "freezing date" for the electoral rolls should be extended.
"If I am not allowed to argue, then what is the use? Will these appeals be decided within a timeframe or just kept extending?" the counsel asked.
Justice Bagchi, during the hearing, referred to the sanctity of the electoral process and said the right to vote is not merely a constitutional formality but a "sentimental" pillar of democracy.
"The right to vote in a country you were born in is not just constitutional, but sentimental. It is about being part of a democracy and helping elect a government," he said.
He, however, said that the tribunals, manned by former judges, cannot be overburdened by fixing the timelines for adjudications.
"It is not the end justifying the means, but the means justifying the end," Justice Bagchi said.
"We need to protect due process rights. The voter should not be sandwiched between two constitutional authorities," he said, adding that it would not interdict the election process at this stage.
Justice Bagchi noted that the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice had already formulated the manner and mode for appeals, which began on Monday.
"Unless and until an enormous number of voters are excluded or it materially affects the election... the election cannot be cancelled," the bench said, adding that judicial intervention is intended to "promote elections, not interdict them."
The CJI emphasised that the petitioners must exhaust their remedies before the appellate tribunals.
Assembly elections in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, and votes will be counted on May 4.
_vb_67.jpeg)
_vb_65.jpeg)
_vb_52.jpeg)