Hi Globetrotters,
Last week, President Pranab Mukherjee addressed a joint session of both houses of the Parliament and said that education was the ‘priority of priorities’ right now. The railway budget was presented, in which the passenger fares remained the same while the freight rates were hiked. Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi has taken ‘leave’ for a few weeks to think about the future of the party. An overcrowded boat with over 150 passengers sank in Padma river in Bangladesh. More then 70 bodies have been recovered so far. Read on…
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People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took charge as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir this week. He will be the Chief Minister for a full term. Nirmal Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be sworn in as his deputy. The PDP won 28 seats while BJP captured 25 in the 87-member state legislative assembly. Since no party had a simple majority of 44 to form the government, Jammu and Kashmir was under governor’s rule from January 8 onwards. Now, however, the issues between the parties have been sorted out.
Breaking tradition
Did you know that women in Iran have to wear a headscarf or hijab? Masih Alinejab, an Iranian journalist, created a Facebook page inviting women in her country to post pictures of themselves without their headscarves. She attracted more than half a million likes within a short span of time. Acknowledging her contribution towards rising the awareness of Iranian women, Masih Alinejab was given a human rights award for ‘giving voice to the voiceless’, in Geneva. It is important to note that many Iranian men support this campaign.
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Another leak at Fukushima
An earthquake of magnitude 9 on the Richter scale and a major tsunami hit Japan in March 2011, causing major damage to the the Fukushima nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company, which is in charge of the plant’s operation, announced last week that deposits of radioactive water was detected on the roof of reactor number two. TEPCO announced that the water could have filtered out through the drainage system into the Pacific Ocean, which has raised concerns. TEPCO has promised to check the spillage by the end of March.
The future of Swachh Bharat
You have heard about Swachh Bharat — the Clean India campaign initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Urban development Ministry has sanctioned Rs.459.93 crores to ten states as the first instalment towards this campaign. The ten states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chattisgarh. Minister of State for Urban Development, Babul Supriyo, said that 1.04 crore household toilets would be built by 2018 in urban areas.
Protests over land bill
There have been lot of protests against the Land Acquisition(amendment) Bill. Starting from anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal to Congress, all parties seem to be opposed to this bill. According to this, the Government can take over the lands of the common man for public purposes, even if it is fertile. If this amendment is passed, then the land will be returned to the owner only if the project misses deadline. In spite of the opposition, the Union government remains stubborn about passing the bill but announced that it was ready to accept suggestions from the opposition.