NaMu Airport update

Eight months after it received the highest bid from GVK for building the Navi Mumbai International Airport , the Project Management and Implementation Committee, headed by the chief secretary, approved it yesterday.

The proposal will now be forwarded to the state cabinet by October-end for final approval. With the PMIC giving its nod, the sanction from the state is said to be a mere formality.

GVK, which constructed the Mumbai airport, beat GMR Airports that had built the Delhi airport during the bidding process. The phase 1 of the Rs.16,000 crore NMIA is likely to be completed by December 2019, said CIDCO.

According to Mohan Ninawe, senior public relations officer, City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra, “The CIDCO evaluation committee sent a detailed report on qualified bids to the PMIC, which gave its approval for the bid made by the GVK. It was the highest bid received. The proposal will now be tabled before the state cabinet, which will meet on October 31, for final approval.”

He added that besides making the highest bid, GVK also offered a greater share in the project and the letter of intent is expected to be issued within a month once the state sanction is received.

PM celebrates Diwali with troops

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, celebrated Diwali with troops posted along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Gurez sector and lauded the soldiers for their sacrifice saying he considers them his family.

In an unannounced visit, Modi arrived at Gurez on Thursday morning to celebrate Diwali with the Army and BSF soldiers posted along the LoC. He spent two hours with the soldiers in Gurez valley , which is shouting a distance from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and has witnessed many gunfights with infiltrating militants in the past 27 years. This is the fourth successive Diwali that the PM has celebrated with jawans on the border. Chief of the Army Staff Gen B S Rawat and other senior Army officers were present on the occasion.

Modi offered sweets and exchanged greetings with the jawans.

Addressing the jawans, he said like everyone else, he too wishes to spend Diwali with his family . Therefore, he had come among the jawans of the armed forces, whom he considers to be his “family“, he said.

Modi said he gets new energy when he spends time among the jawans and soldiers of the armed forces. The prime minister spoke of the new resolve that each Indian citizen must make for 2022, the 75th anniversary of independence. He also encouraged the jawans to innovate, so that their routine tasks and duties become easier and safer and mentioned how best innovations are now being recognised and awarded at the Army Day, Navy Day, and Air Force Day .

Modi said the Centre is committed to the welfare and the betterment of the armed forces, in every way possible. In this regard, he mentioned the implementation of One Rank, One Pension, which had been pending for decades.

“I have an opportunity to spend the festival of Diwali with you. The presence of brave soldiers at the border, on this festive occasion, lights the lamp of hope, and generates new energy among crores of Indians,“ the prime minister wrote in the visitors' book.

“To accomplish the dream of `New India', this is a golden opportunity for all of us to work together. The Army too is a part of it,“ he added.

MSRTC strike enters third day

Maharashtra State Transport Road Corporation buses remained off roads as the union's strike entered the third day on Thursday. The union rejected the state government's offer to hike wages. An eight-hour meeting of the MSRTC staffers with the state government's representatives on Wednesday had remained inconclusive. The meeting, which started in the afternoon, went on till 1 am on Thursday .

Maharashtra transport minister Diwakar Raote said that the government has offered the union a “fair deal“. “We cannot give them one penny more than what we have offered. Now the union leaders have to take a call. In the 77 years of the corporation, such a large hike hasn't been given,“ said Raote. On Thursday, only 38 of the total 57,000 hit the road, causing huge inconvenience to lakhs of passengers. These buses ran from Pen, Raigad, Aurangabad and Nashik. The union, which has been demanding implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission's recommendations, rejected the government offer of 25% wage hike. The government had offered a monthly salary of Rs.15,300 for junior grade employees like driver, conductor and mechanics after one year of service. Those who have completed 15 years of service would have got a hike of Rs.7,000. The wage hike, if implemented, would have cost the state corporation Rs.2,500 crore.

It is estimated that the state transport corporation has suffered losses to the tune of nearly Rs.55 crore over the last three days. Sources said that stern measures, including suspension and removal from service, besides filing police cases will be initiated from Friday .

The corporation has already began disconnecting power and water connections from the rooms of drivers and conductors.

Maharashtra to boost police control rooms

The Maharashtra government has finalised a Rs.400 crore project to modernize police control rooms across the state. The project aims at reducing the response time and modernizing the call-taking and dispatch mechanism for emergencies across the state.

The response time to an emergency that the government plans to achieve after the revamp will be 8 minutes in cities and 15-18 minutes in rural areas.

Senior home department officials said that the government is looking at upgrading the complaint-receiving mechanism in this revamp. Currently, when a person calls on the police helpline he/she has to give their detailed address, which can be time consuming. “We have proposed GPS-tagging of the calls made to the helpline so that emergency services can be rushed to the spot from where the call is received,“ said a senior official.

“Sometimes the control gets calls but those cannot be completed because of many reasons, in these cases too the location can be traced. We are also planning complaint facilities via text messages, emails and WhatsApp,“ said the official.

The upgrade of control rooms is part of the `dial 112' project. The state government will be shifting to 112 as a single number for all the emergencies by early next year. The aim is to streamline the emergency response process by merging all three into one. The move is part of the Union home ministry's efforts to have one central emergency number for the entire country , like 911 in the US.

The state government plans to install tracking system on emergency-response vehicles so can their movement can be monitored.

The government will be purchasing 1,048 four-wheelers for rural areas and 454 for urban areas, and 2,021 twowheelers for rural areas and 241 for cities and towns.

As for the control room, the state home department is considering three models for Maharashtra. Under the first model, there may be centralized call taking and despatch system. Under the second model, there may a centralized call receiving and decentralized dispatch system where calls will be forwarded to the local control room. In the third prototype, there will be decentralized call taking and response. The problem with the first model is that there are too many dialects in the state to be handled by personnel at just one centre. The call attendant must have a good idea of the caller's location as the person, being in an emergency, might not be in a situation to explain things lucidly .This is also more or less the problem with the second model. The third doesn't have this problem, but may be less efficient. “The tender will be finalized in a few months,“ said an official.

Muslims can't post their pics on social media

The Darul Uloom Deoband seminary here has issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from posting their or their families' photographs on social media. Posting photos of the self or family on sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp is not allowed in Islam, ruled the seminary , one of the largest in India, on Wednesday after a man approached it with the question. When clicking pictures unnecessarily is not allowed in Islam, how can posting of photos be allowed, an Islamic scholar explained.

Of the US, China & India....

Reacting strongly to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's comment on China undermining the international rules-based order, Beijing hit back asking the United States to shed its “biased views“ and work with it to uphold the momentum for steady and sound relations.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang also said that Beijing is “happy“ over the development of ties between India and America as long as they are conducive to regional peace.

In a major India-policy speech on Wednesday, the US Secretary of State had highlighted the need for collaborating with New Delhi on offering an alternative model of financing infrastructure projects and economic development compared with that of China's, which the top US diplomat described as “predatory economics“. Tillerson had lashed out at the Chinese model of funding infrastructure projects and developmental activities, saying it does not create jobs and results in enormous level of debt.

Playing down Tillerson's criticism of China and his remarks to deepen ties with India, Lu told reporters here that the US should take more objective look at China's development.

“China steadfastly upheld the international order with the UN at the core, and based on the purposes and principles of UN charter we will firmly uphold the multilateralism, yet we will also firmly safeguard our own interests and rights,“ he said while responding to a question on Tillerson's remarks. The US diplomat had branded China a “predatory rule breaker“, especially in the South China Sea, and leaving countries in debt. China hopes that Washington can look China's development in an “objective way“ as well as China's role in the international community , Lu said. “We are happy to see the development of relations between India and the US as long as they are conducive to the peaceful development of the region and enhancement of relations among the regional countries,“ he said.

Tillerson's strong comments coincided with China's once-in-a-five-year congress of the ruling Communist Party of China that is set to endorse a second term for President Xi Jinping.

On October 17, a top official of the CPC told media in Beijing that Chinese firms have invested about USD 560 billion in different countries abroad most of it was stated to project financing. “Between 2013 and 2016, Chinese companies have invested about USD 560 billion overseas, paid over USD 100 billion in various kind of taxes to the host countries and created millions of jobs for the local communities,“ Tuo Zhen,spokesman of 19th Congress of the CPC said, refuting reports that China has been bringing its own workers and not hiring locally to execute several infrastructure projects that China is funding under the more than USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Dalai Talks of Asian Union

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said border stand off between India and China is nothing serious.
Dalai is on a three-day visit to Manipur to participate in the International Peace Conference. In April this year, he was on a 12 day visit to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. His visit was opposed by China.

Dalai said: “India and China are great nations, none have the ability to defeat the other, both have to live beside each other, in border areas (there is) some problem, but I do not think this will ever become anything serious“. Advocating Hindi-Chini bhai bhai (India China brother), he said European nations have seen devastating conflict prior to World War II.

He hoped to see an Asian Union, comprising India, Japan and China, some day. “I am an admirer of European Union, African Union and Malaysia Union. I dream of an Asian Union with India, Japan and China as members“.

On Rohangiyas, he said different religious faith are causing violence. Buddhism versus Muslim in Burma, this is really unfortunate and religious harmony is essential.

He said: “Each follower of different religion has to follow his/her faith and propagate it. I am a Buddhist but I never try to propagate Buddhism. Historically, India has been a multi-religion nation... no one religious group must have sole right to propagate, that's wrong.“