Government’s stand on rice import lacks transparency: CPI-M

KOLKATA, Nov 22: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Sunday said the Central Government’s decision to import rice lacked transparency. In an editorial in daily Ganashakti, its Bengali mouthpiece, the CPI-M accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government of taking a casual approach to the fall in rice production and not helping farmers hit by this. “The Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Agriculture and Food Minister have repeatedly assured the people that there was no cause for worry as the country had a good stock of food grains, and that there was no danger of any food crisis. But now the government is publicly talking about importing rice,” the editorial said. “In fact, over the last few months, the government has been clandestinely preparing to import rice. It is obvious that the government’s stand lacked transparency,” it added. According to the CPI-M, the Central Government too no step to arrest the fall in crop production, and said: “It did not lay any importance on the probable consequences.” The editorial also said farmers were suffering because of the fall in production, and that the “government has not taken any steps to safeguard their interests”. It noted India was the world’s second largest producer and leading exporter of rice, and did not have to import it in the last two-three decades. “In the recent past, the country did not have to import rice. But this time we have to do so. This is a matter of concern,” the daily added. (IANS)

Centre mulls stringent law to protect biodiversity hotspots

COIMBATORE, Nov 22: The Centre is considering the introduction of a comprehensive legislation to protect three biodiversity hotspots in the Himalayas, North East and Western Ghats, besides amending the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 to check poaching of tigers. Announcing this here today, Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said the Ministry is holding talks with State Governments to bring in the law as tourism activities -- leisure tourism or religious tourism -- have an “adverse impact” on their biodiversity and ecological balance. “I am determined to protect the ecology since unbridled tourism is disturbing the balance,” he said when his attention was drawn to widespread damage caused by heavy rain and resultant landslips in Nilgiris district last week. The minister observed that poaching of tigers has become a serious issue and said the Ministry decided to amend the Wildlife Act to make punishment for such crimes very stringent, on the lines of Foreign Exchange and Money Laundering Act. (PTI)

Terror-hit hotels limp back to normal life

MUMBAI, Nov 25: “In memory and faith that peace can come on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Thus reads a scrawling handwriting in a memorial book placed at the historic Hotel Taj Mahal Palace & Tower. The book lies next to a sacred ‘Tree of Life’ setting, which commemorates those who laid down their lives when a handful of terrorists invaded the hotel on the night of November 26, 2008, and held guests and staff hostage for the next 60 hours.

The same night, another group entered the Trident-Oberoi Hotel, at Nariman Point barely a kilometre away from the Taj and two kilometres from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where they carried out a spate of similar atrocities. Including foreigners, 166 people were killed in the attack which also left 264 injured or maimed. Both hotels suffered extensive infrastructure damage, in amounts running into millions of rupees.

Food inflation jumps to 15.58% as potato prices soar

STAFF WRITER 14:25 HRS IST

New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) Food inflation shot up to 15.58 per cent for the second week of November on the back of potato prices, which have more than doubled in the past one year.

Other essential items like pulses and onion rose by more than 25 per cent in the wholesale market, government data on inflation for week ended November 14 showed.

"Food inflation is incredibly high...The drought has aggravated the situation and I expect the wholesale price- based inflation to rise to around 7 per cent by March next year," said HDFC Bank economist Jyotinder Kaur.

With inflationary pressure building up, the RBI in its next policy review may take steps to check easy money. "It is likely that RBI in its January policy might go for monetary tightening measures and raise Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) or policy rates," Kaur said.