Himanta defends speech against Akbar; says Congress withheld material info from EC
Guwahati (PTI): Notwithstanding the show-cause notice by the Election Commission for his alleged "communally charged statements", Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday defended his speech and said it was a "legitimate criticism" of Chhattisgarh Minister Mohammed Akbar.
The Election Commission on Thursday slapped a show-cause notice to Sarma for prima facie violation of the Model Code of Conduct and asked him to respond by October 30 evening.
"Congress has withheld the material information from the Hon'ble Election Commission that Mohammed Akbar is their candidate from Kawardha Constituency. Therefore legitimate criticism of a candidate does not amount to communal politics," Sarma said in a post on X.
The senior BJP leader asserted that the Congress will have to face the legal consequence of not revealing the crucial fact in their representation.
"I have full faith in the collection (sic) wisdom of the Hon'ble Election Commission," he added.
The Assam chief minister was reacting to a post on the microblogging site by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who termed the BJP leader a "serial offender" and hoped that the poll watchdog will take this case to its "logical conclusion".
Sarma made the remarks targeting Akbar during the assembly poll campaign on October 18 in Kawardha in Chhattisgarh.
In a speech in Kawardha in Chhattisgarh on October 18, Sarma had taken a controversial dig at Akbar saying that "the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled if Akbar isn't sent off."
"If one Akbar comes to some place, he calls 100 Akbars. So, send him off as soon as possible, otherwise the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled," he had said.
Mata Kaushalya, the mother of Lord Ram, is believed to hail from what is modern-day Chhattisgarh.
The Congress on Wednesday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Sarma for his remarks against Akbar.
The party had alleged that Sarma's remarks showed a clear-cut intention to incite sections of society against one another.
While issuing the notice to Sarma, the Election Commission reminded him of a provision in the poll code which states that "no party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic."
Elections to the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly will be held in two phases - on November 7 and 17.
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.
ASHA workers threaten indefinite strike from Feb 27 over rationalisation order, pending demands
Bengaluru: ASHA workers in Karnataka have warned of launching an indefinite strike from February 27, protesting a health department order to rationalise the workforce and alleging that long-pending demands have not been addressed.
The Karnataka State Joint ASHA Workers’ Association criticised the department’s decision to increase the population assigned to each ASHA worker, arguing that it violates existing norms and would lead to large-scale job losses. According to current norms, one ASHA worker is assigned for every 1,000 individuals. Under the current rationalisation plan, the allotted population in rural regions has been increased to up to 2,000, while in metropolitan areas with populations more than 50,000, the number has been raised from 1,000 to a minimum of 2,500 and a maximum of 3,000.
Deccan Herald quoted D Nagalakshmi, state secretary of the ASHA Union affiliated to AITUC, as saying the department had conveyed that an honorarium of ₹10,000 could not be ensured unless the population coverage per worker was increased. She alleged that workers were effectively being asked to accept higher workloads while excess ASHAs would be removed. “This would render nearly 7,000 to 8,000 ASHA workers jobless, and such a move is being carried out only in Karnataka,” she said.
At present, the state government pays ASHA workers a monthly honorarium of ₹5,000, while the Centre provides performance-based incentives. Workers said accessing these incentives has become difficult as data must be entered on the ASHA portal by primary health community officers, but vacancies in these posts have not been filled.
The workers have also submitted a set of pre-Budget demands, seeking an increase in the combined state and central incentives to ₹15,000 and enhancement of the state honorarium to ₹ 8,000, in line with promises made in the Congress election manifesto. Other demands include a lump-sum retirement benefit on the lines of West Bengal, creation of a corpus fund to meet treatment expenses of ASHA workers suffering from serious illnesses with reimbursement provisions, and payment of a fixed monthly honorarium for up to three months during recovery from severe illness.
ASHA workers had staged an indefinite protest in January over similar issues. On the fourth day of the agitation, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah intervened and assured the workers that their demands would be met.
