Mangaluru: Cong leaders not happy with tickets distribution for MCC elections; blames Ramanath Rai
Mangaluru: The internal problems of Congress party ahead of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) elections are in no mood to stop anytime soon. Senior local leaders of party on Friday called press conference and expressed their displeasure over reports that four former Mayors were not given party ticket in a bid to ignore supporters of former union minister Janardhan Poojary.
Speaking at the press conference called at press club in the city, former MLA Vijaykumar Shetty added that some party leaders with vested interests were compromising on the principles of the Congress party.
“Former Corporator Gulzar Banu, who became the Mayor when BJP was in power was ignored for party ticket in her own constituency. Now her son is framed for attacking for MLA and has been jailed. All this is very shameful. Former Mayors Purandar Das Koloor and Mahabala Marla were also ignored for tickets. The party is ignoring those who have worked really hard for the party” Shetty told reporters.
Slamming former minister Ramanath Rai over the issue, Shetty said “Ramanath Rai says he missed home ministry because of me. I told his history to everyone during the meeting. But still he was made minister and now he is blaming me for missing home minister’s post. He doesn’t have any knowledge about the principles of Congress party. I am not scared of anybody when it comes to speaking truth. I was offered tickets for assembly election by other parties but I never accepted it because for me Congress is the only political party I can be a part of. That’s why I am still in the party. There are a lot of things that are happening in the party which the senior party leader should know about”.
Another local party leader Tharnath Shetty added that informing Purandar Das that he would not get the ticket for the election would have been fair. “But inviting him to office, asking him to prepare B form and them cancelling his name in the last ten minutes was wrong. This is why we have called this press conference”.
Tharnath further alleged that the local leaders have this time ignored the party’s norms of selecting a candidate for the election, and has not taken anybody under their confidence before finalizing the names.
“Purandar Das, a Dalit leader has done remarkable job in his constituency. KPCC Incharge KC Venugopal and former Minister UT Khader had also discussed about it. But everything changed in last ten minutes which is very wrong” Tharnath said.
Congress leader Karunakar was also present at the press conference.
Meanwhile Purandar Das has added that he has received many call after he was dropped from the party’s ticket list. “I will decide in next two days about whom to support in the election” Das told reporters.
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Karnataka government employees demand return of Old Pension Scheme
Bengaluru: Government employees in Karnataka have urged the state government to scrap the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and bring back the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), The New Indian Express reported.
The demand was made by the Karnataka State Government Employees’ Association, whose leaders met senior IAS officer Uma Mahadevan on Monday and submitted a memorandum. The association asked the NPS Review Committee, headed by senior IAS officer Anjum Parvez, to recommend the reintroduction of OPS in the state.
Association president C.S. Shadakshari reportedly said the review committee has already visited Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where NPS was revoked and OPS re-implemented. The committee is yet to submit its report, but has told the government it will do so soon.
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Shadakshari allegedly said NPS has been in force in Karnataka since 2006. He pointed out that West Bengal never adopted the scheme, while Andhra Pradesh and Telangana replaced NPS with a contributory pension model.
States including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand have already scrapped NPS through cabinet decisions or budget announcements.
“Under NPS, 10% of the employees’ basic salary and DA, and 14% contribution from the state is credited to the employees’ fund. It constitutes 24% of the total which is non-withdrawable. This is invested in the share market and the final amount depends on the ups and downs of the market,” TNIE quoted Shadakshar as saying.
As per the report, he said that by limiting its contribution to 14%, the government could save up to ₹1.87 lakh crore annually if all vacancies are filled, strengthening the case for bringing back the old pension system.
