On Women's Day, Karnataka govt announces six-months child care leave for female employees
Bengaluru, Mar 8: On international women's day, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurapps on Monday announced a proposal to provide six-months child care leave to women employees of the Government.
He also announced a grant of Rs 37,188 crore for women oriented programmes.
Presenting the 2021-22 budget in the Legislative Assembly, he proposed upgradation of Anganwadis situated in Bengaluru and other cities into creches for the benefit of urban working women.
Action would be taken to open creches in two major government offices in each district centre, the Chief Minister said, announcing a slew of initiatives benefiting women.
"Women employees of the state government will be given a total of six months child care leave along with maternity leave which is already in existence. This will be a supplementary step towards the welfare of women who are a very important part of the administrative machinery," he said.
Yediyurappa announced loan facility of up to Rs two crore at a subsidised rate of four per cent through Woman Development Board/Karnataka State Finance Corporation to women entrepreneurs in the service sector.
The government also announced support through Panchayat Raj institutions for the establishment of 6,000 micro enterprises for rural women self-help groups under 'Sanjeevini'; to benefit 60,000 women.
Technical support to small enterprises of women was announced by the government which also proposed encouragement to 25,000 women through 2,260 micro enterprises.
The government also proposed to provide market to the products manufactured by women self-help groups and women entrepreneurs, organisation of annual fares at divisional level and implementation of e-market facility.
Yediyurappa announced commencement of 'Vanitha Sangathi' programme for providing BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) bus pass at concessional rate to women labourers of garment sector in Bengaluru at an expenditure of Rs 30 crore.
It also proposed re-examination of various laws and rules for creation of conducive environment for women taking up employment.
Action was also proposed to incorporate gender budget and child budget in the Panchayat Raj system.
Yediyurappa also announced fixing of 7,500 cameras in public places of Bengaluru city under safe city project; action to intensify night beats through technology based e- beat system.
It also proposed establishment of centre of excellence in collaboration with NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) and National Law School for giving assistance and guidance to women subjected to atrocity.
For the women who have obtained licence from Agricultural Produce Market Committee, 10 per cent reservation was proposed in the allotment of site, godown, shop, shop-cum-godowns in the premises.
The government proposed to support women entrepreneurs by implementation of the 'Elevate Women Entrepreneurship' programme at an expenditure of Rs five crore.
Implementation of a self-help group policy to strengthen self-help groups and their federation of the State was also announced along with action to bring all the self-help groups under the livelihood mission.
Commencement of 'Women Protection and Empowerment Mission' was proposed under the direct supervision of the Chief Minister.
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Trump sues BBC for USD 10 billion, alleges defamation over edited Jan 6 speech
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking USD 10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump's speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks USD 5 billion in damages for defamation and USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The broadcaster apologised last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.
The speech took place before some of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”
“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn't say, and they're beautiful words that I said, right?" the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. "They're beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn't say that, but they used terrible words.”
The president's lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.
Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the US, given that the documentary was not shown in the country.
The lawsuit alleges that people in the US can watch the BBC's original content, including the “Panorama” series, which includes the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.
The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds (USD 230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
