Govt jobs in Madhya Pradesh only for local residents: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Resources of Madhya Pradesh are meant for children of the state,” Chouhan said in a video statement

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said necessary legal provisions will be made to provide government jobs to local people. He also said resources of the state are meant for residents of the state.

The state government has taken an important decision that government jobs will be given to youths of Madhya Pradesh. We are making necessary legal provisions for this. Resources of Madhya Pradesh are meant for children of the state,” Chouhan said in a video statement.

He, however, did not elaborate about the proposed legal provisions. In his Independence Day speech, Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said preference would be given to locals in government jobs. He had also said his government will devise a mechanism to ensure employment to youths on the basis of their marksheets of classes 10 and 12.

Covid-19 crisis: UP exempts biz from all but 3 labour laws for 3 years

State government says it will boost investment; experts term it an attack on fundamental rights

Only the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996; Workmen Compensation Act, 1923; Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976; and Section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (the right to receive timely wages), will apply in the state, according to the statement. It also said the provisions related to children and women in the labour laws would continue. Other labour laws will become defunct. They include laws related to settling industrial disputes, occupational safety, health and working conditions of workers, and those related to trade unions, contract workers, and migrant labourers.

ALSO READ: Govt working on financial package for all sectors amid Covid outbreak

Only the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996; Workmen Compensation Act, 1923; Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976; and Section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (the right to receive timely wages), will apply in the state, according to the statement. It also said the provisions related to children and women in the labour laws would continue. Other labour laws will become defunct. They include laws related to settling industrial disputes, occupational safety, health and working conditions of workers, and those related to trade unions, contract workers, and migrant labourers.

With health dept in quarantine, MP struggles to tackle coronavirus pandemic

After Kumar and Govil were tested positive, the government’s first response was to downplay the news

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government in Madhya Pradesh is finding itself in a tight spot in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no Cabinet in place, and thus no health minister. Besides, the state health department, which was supposed to lead the fight against coronavirus, is almost defunct, with several top officials, including Pallavi Jain Govil, principal secretary (health), and J Vijay Kumar, managing director of MP Health Corporation and chief executive officer of the state’s Ayushman Bharat programme, testing positive.

‘Health’ crisis

After Kumar and Govil were tested positive, the government’s first response was to downplay the news. This resulted in the spreading of the virus among other health department officials. Until Sunday afternoon, Bhopal reported 134 confirmed Covid cases, including 80 health department officers and their family members. Even the coronavirus control room reported infections — Veena Sinha (additional director, health communication) and another official Pallav Dubey — were tested positive.

Yet, top officials were unwilling to go to hospitals for isolation. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhopal Director Dr Sarman Singh wrote to Govil: “This is about the telephonic call received from your good self and Shri Faiz Ahmad Kidwai, health commissioner, regarding the unwillingness of some of your officials who are asymptomatic to get hospitalised at AIIMS, Bhopal.” Singh recommended such asymptomatic Covid-19 patients be isolated at home…Read More

Election 2019: How the BJP engineered a seamless generational transition

The party has managed to bring about this transition without bickering or protests

In the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the vice-president’s post looks like another version of the highfalutin “marg darshak mandal” that was created in 2014 to seat the 75-plus leaders who could not find a place in the Narendra Modi government or the party organisation. A vice-president’s post is enshrined in the BJP’s constitution, but with time, it became an ornamental office for the “less important”. In other words, an individual appointed as a vice-president—and the position has once redoubtable chief ministers and central ministers as occupants—is likely to be taken less seriously than a general secretary or a spokesperson. Interestingly, the BJP spokespersons have gone on to rise by virtue of tirelessly defending the indefensible.

So, within days of the BJP losing the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the former chief ministers, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh and Vasundhara Raje were kicked up as vice-presidents. This despite Chouhan losing MP by a wafer and Vasundhara putting in a reasonably creditable showing amidst strong negative sentiments against her government.

The Opposition leaders in the states were chosen by Amit Shah, the BJP president. In Rajasthan, Gulab Chand Kataria, the incumbent, is a Vasundhara rival. There was not a whimper of protest, not even from Vasundhara who, in the past, mobilised her supporters when she sniffed a hint of challenge to her power. “Under her stewardship we lost two elections,” a BJP source said, forgetting that the Congress’s Ashok Gehlot, despite taking his party down the tubes the same number of times, bounced back to claim the top job a third time. The Modi-Shah dispensation brooks no shenanigans or shindy even from the “mighty”.

Click Here: Lok Sabha  Elections 2019

No drinking water, no vote: MP village threatens boycott of upcoming polls

Banners were also seen installed outside one of the polling booths which read ‘we will boycott elections if safe drinking water not provided to us’

As the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh are inching closer, residents in Damoh’s Jabera are staging protests over the lack of clean drinking water in the village. Protesting villagers have warned the local administration of boycotting polls over the unavailability of clean drinking water.

Urging the government to address the issue at the earliest, one of the villagers told ANI, “We are facing the problem of inadequate clean drinking water since 30-40 years. We have approached the district administration several times demanding a pond from where we (villagers) can fetch clean water for domestic use, but our demands have gone in vain. We won’t vote if safe drinking is not provided to us. We have pledged to boycott the elections this time.”

Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election 2018

Meanwhile, a girl, who was seen carrying a water container on her head and walking down a pothole-ridden road in the scorching heat, revealed that as the villagers have no proper water facility, they are compelled to travel at least two to five kilometres each time to get clean water for drinking or domestic purposes. The girl also said that due to this, children are bound to miss classes.

Expressing the ordeal, another villager claimed that with the onset of summer, the situation takes a turn for the worse as villagers are bound to leave to the village due to lack of clean water. “We have raised this issue several times in front of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Collector, and Member of Parliament (MP) but this has borne no fruit. We are suffering a lot. We have decided to boycott elections this time if no action is taken. We will also not vote for 2019 Lok Sabha elections if the situation remains persistent,” the villager said.

Business Standard OR BS