India allocates Rs 500 cr for rehabilitation of Tamils

New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) In a special gesture, India today allocated Rs 500 crore for rehabilitation of the internally displaced ethnic Tamils and reconstruction of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka devastated by two decades of war.

The allocation was made in the general Budget 2009-10 presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament.

While announcing the allocation, he said the government is committed to ensuring that the Sri Lankan Tamils enjoy their rights and legitimate aspirations within the territorial sovereignty and framework of the country's constitution.

He said MEA was working closely with Sri Lankan Government to ensure rehabilitation of the displaced people.

Speaking on the issue later, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said the allocation has been made as per the commitment made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

PTI

Highlights of Union Budget 2009-10

New Delhi, July 6 (PTI) Following are the highlights of Budget 2009-10.

* IT exemption limit raised

* Limit raised by Rs 15,000 for sr.citizens (65 yrs & above)

* Limit raised by Rs 10,000 for general tax payers & women

* 10% surcharge on personal income tax scrapped

* Fringe Benefit Tax, Commodities Transaction Tax abolished

* Corporate Tax unchanged; Minimum Alternate Tax hiked to 15%

* Legal services brought under Service Tax net

* Cosmetic & plastic surgery become taxable services

* Rs 3472 cr for Commonwealth Games, up from Rs 2112 cr

* LCD TVs to become cheaper; Set-Top boxes costlier

* Stimulus for print media for another six months

* Branded jewellery to become cheaper; excise duty goes

* Govt plans to bring back economy to high growth of 9%

* GDP growth dipped to 6.7% in FY'09

* Fiscal deficit up from 2.7% to 6.

Soruce:PTI

SC urged to review gay ruling

Lucknow, July 4: Students and teachers of Lucknow’s City Montessori School (CMS), the world’s largest school in terms of enrolment have appealed to the chief justice of India to review the Delhi High Court’s judgement on decriminalising homosexuality.

"On behalf of our 37,000 students and hundreds of teachers, we have forwarded a letter to Justice K G Balakrishnan, requesting him to urgently hold a sitting of the full bench of the Supreme Court (SC) to review the judgement," Jagdish Gandhi, founder manager of CMS, told reporters here onSaturday. The Delhi High Court’s judgement will strengthen the already disintegrating structure and fabric of Indian society and ethos, Gandhi said. Students and teachers of the school are of the view that champions of gay rights are only a microscopic minority in India. Law should be enacted and so interpreted as to ensure protection of culture and moral values of the vast majority, they said.

"Law is to maintain social issues and morality, but the unfortunate verdict of the High Court tends to mislead youth and it will cause break-ups in society and family and will tarnish the Indian culture and tradition," said Gandhi. The CMS is in the Guinness Book of Records for maximum enrolment of pupils. (IANS)

Railway Budget focuses on passengers amenities, new trains introduced

Date : Jul-03-2009 14:24

* Railways will develop multi-functional complexes with shopping malls, food stalls, medicines and variety stores in different parts of the country.

* Railways to develop cold storages for farmers to store vegetables and fruits.

* Infotainment services will be offered in main long-distance trains.

* In addition, on long distance trains one doctor will be posted.

* Railways to introduce 67 new trains all over the nation.

* Development and special facilities will be provided to 309 stations out of 375 across the nation.

* Unreserved ticketing terminals to be extended from 5000 to 8000. Automatic ticket vending machines will also be increased. Besides, there will be arrangement with Department of Posts for issuance of tickets.

* SMS updates to be offered for passengers to check train status and reservation status.

* Auto-vending machines to be installed in large and medium stations.

* High-capacity air-conditioned double-decker trains to be initiated on select inter-city routes.

* An Integrated Security System is being developed for 130 vulnerable stations to provide security to passengers.

* Seven nursing colleges will be started on railway land in places including Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

* With rail hospitals, Railway medical colleges to be developed on public-private partnership.

* E-ticket cancellation system to be simplified.

*18,000 wagons to be acquired during the present year.

* There will be aim to takeover of sick wagon manufacturing units like Burn Standards with Department of Heavy Industries.

* Railways will launch new policy for construction and operation of private freight terminals.

* Superfast parcel express trains to be started between Delhi and Chennai and Delhi and Mumbai on a pilot basis.

* A new coach factory to be set up at Kanchrapara in West Bengal with state-of-the-art facilities, entirely for manufacturing 500 coaches per annum. Work on coach factory in Rae Bareli to be speeded up.

* Railways to set up a 1000 MW power plant.

* Freight loading target for 2009-10 set at 882 million tonnes, rise of 39 million tonnes.

* In suburban trains, ladies'' specials to be initiated during peak hours.

* Railways will receive an additional budgetary support of Rs 5000 crore in the current year.

* Qazigund-Anantnag rail section in Kashmir planned be completed by August.

* Senior officials will be there to monitor execution of national rail projects to ensure their timely completion.

* Minimum Tatkal fee has been reduced from Rs 150 to Rs 100. Tatkal fee will be a percentage of the fair.

* Several new trains are planned will be started with objective to the increase in frequency of trains in key routes.

* ‘Turant’ trains to be introduced, which will be non-stop point-to-point non-air conditioned trains.

*‘Yuva’ trains for young generation to be introduced.