Philippines quake kills at least 11, rescuers race to find survivors

Heavy lifting equipment and search dogs were used as dozens of firefighters, military and civilian rescue teams raced to shift piles of concrete in the town of Porac

International News: Rescue teams in the Philippines searched for signs of life beneath the rubble of a collapsed four-storey commercial building on Tuesday after a strong earthquake shook the country’s biggest island, killing at least 11 people.

Heavy lifting equipment and search dogs were used as dozens of firefighters, military and civilian rescue teams raced to shift piles of concrete in the town of Porac, about 108 km (67.1 miles) northeast of Manila, where a 6.1 magnitude earthquake destroyed several buildings on Monday. During the night, seven people were rescued and four dead bodies were pulled out of the rubble of the commercial building, which had caved in on a ground floor supermarket, officials said.

“The rescue is ongoing, they are still hearing a sound, no one can say how many were still trapped,” Pampanga provincial governor Lilia Pineda said in a radio interview. The quake, which struck at 5 p.m. local time on Monday, was initially reported as being of 6.3 magnitude and later revised down to 6.1 magnitude, the US Geological Survey and Philippines seismology authorities said.

The Philippines is prone to natural disasters, located on the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a horse-shoe shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines that arcs round the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The earthquake was felt strongly in key business areas of Manila, with residential and office buildings evacuated after being shaken for several minutes. Train services were halted and roads and sidewalks were clogged by the sudden exodus of workers…

Millions of youngsters stepping out to vote want ‘Nyay’: Rahul Gandhi

His appeal came aspolling began for the third phase in which 116 Lok Sabha seats, including all constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala, are going to polls.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday expressed confidence that millions of youngsters stepping out to vote want ‘Nyay’ (justice) for every Indian and will cast their ballot wisely. His appeal came aspolling began for the third phase in which 116 Lok Sabha seats, including all constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala, are going to polls. “Across India, millions of youngsters are stepping out to vote, many of them for the first time. In their hands lies the future of India,” Gandhi said. “I’m confident that they want NYAY for every Indian and will vote wisely,” he tweeted and tagged a short video of the Congress’ ‘Ab hoga Nyay’ theme focusing on youngsters.

The Congress on April 8 announced ‘Ab Hoga Nyay’ as its battle cry for the Lok Sabha polls and launched a campaign centred around the theme of ‘justice’, while alluding to the party’s proposed minimum income scheme and the ‘anyay’ (injustice) “prevailing under the BJP rule”. Earlier, Congresschief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted: “Today the third step of removing the problems of the people has to be taken,” Congress’ “Your one vote will take the country towards progress and equality,” he said.

“For the bright future of the youth, for the progress of the farmers, for profit of small businesses, for rights of the deprived, do cast your vote because ‘ab hoga nyay’ (justice will be done),” Surjewala said.

Congress’ NYAY is a short cut; BJP tally will go up this time: PM Modi

He said that Congress has people with experience of governance and a more mature and believable manifesto was expected from the Congress Party

Lok Sabha elections 2019: In an interview to a Hindi TV channel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that what Congress has done in the past and what they are promising in their manifesto is not doable and right for the nation. He said that NYAY is a short cut by Congress which is deplorable.

On the question of administration, Modi said, “During the previous election campaigns, I said to the people that they have seen the 60-year administration, now give me 60 months. There have been two PMs who have not been from Congress gotra. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi, and we work for the people.”

Taking a dig at the Congress manifesto, he said that Congress has people with experience of governance and a more mature and believable manifesto was expected from the Congress Party. He said, “On railway lines, it is written short cut will cut you short. That is what they are doing. NYAY is a short cut. They failed on all promises throughout.” He said that the intellectuals and economists of the country should analyse and tell if their promises in the manifesto of Congress can be delivered or not.

AFSPA: Modi said that Congress’ stance is deplorable. He said “We want a country where an AFSPA is not needed. But first, let’s reach that stage… The India forces contribute to huge numbers in peacekeeping forces and behave very professionally, but doing away with AFSPA is not possible, not unless the situation is better. Modi said his government has been doing away with laws that are redundant and no one has questioned those moves. Sedition law must stand and criminals should be dealt with the full force of the law.” Congress’ manifesto is in sync with the language separatists use for our country, he said…

Nyay scheme will ‘remonetise’ what Modi ‘demonetised’, says Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi said the ‘Nyay’ scheme has the twin objectives of giving money to the 20 per cent poorest families in India and remonetising the economy “damaged” by demonetisation

Lok sabha elections 2019: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on thursday said the ‘Nyay’ scheme can remonetise what Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised and declared that his party’s anti-poverty programme has thrown the BJP into total disarray In an exclusive interview to PTI before the seventeenth election starting Apr eleven, Gandhi said the ‘Nyay’ scheme has the dual objectives of giving cash to the twenty per cent poorest families in india and remonetising the economy “damaged” by demonetisation.

“What the PM has done over the past 5 years is to get rid of all cash from the economy with unsuccessful policies like conclusion and a poorly dead Gabbar Singh Tax (GST). Informal sectors are badly hit.”

“The aim of the ‘Nyay’ scheme is two-fold. 1st is to ensure a minimum income to the bottom 20 per cent families. The second is to remonetise the economy that has been demonetised by Modiji,” Gandhi said.

“There is another side to line the theme ‘Nyay’. Why have we have a tendency to chosen to decision this theme ‘Justice’? because over the last 5 years, man Narendra Modi has simply snatched from the poor and given nothing back…

Rahul’s income plan for poor may cost more than Budget 2019’s subsidy bill

Congress’ proposed minimum income guarantee scheme will reportedly require Rs 3.5 trillion at its peak

If fully implemented, Rahul Gandhi’s proposed minimum income guarantee scheme, or NYAY, would cost more than Interim Budget 2019’s total subsidy expenditure of Rs 3.34 trillion. Its envisaged annual outlay, at a reported Rs 3.5 trillion, would amount to about 1.7 per cent of the Budget’s estimated GDP for 2019-2020 at Rs 210.07 trillion — or about half of the fiscal deficit for 2019-2020 at 3.4 per cent of GDP.

Congress President Gandhi on Monday said that if his party were to come to power at the Centre, it would provide a minimum income of Rs 6,000 per month to 20 per cent poorest households.(Economy News)

At its peak, the cost of the Congress’ proposed scheme would be nearly six times the 2019-2020 Budget Estimates for the outlay on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (MGNREGA) at Rs 60,000 crore. In January 2019, the government made an additional allocation of over Rs 6,000 crore to MGNREGA, taking the total allocation to Rs 61,084 crore, which was highest ever in a financial year. Congress reportedly intends to continue MGNREGA even if the minimum income plan is implemented.

It would also amount to over 4.5 times the cost of the Rs 75,000-crore Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme. Under the latter, Rs 6,000 per year would be disbursed in three instalments to around 125 million small and marginal farmers who hold cultivable land of up to two hectares.