Day: July 7, 2012

New Delhi , July 7 (ANI): Congress spokesperson Renuka Choudhary hit back at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha for dubbing Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh a ‘consultant to the government’ despite remaining in power for almost eight years.
Choudhary told media that the world respects Dr. Singh as an able economist.
“I don’t think Yashwant Sinha remembers what he did as finance minister; we will wait till we can ask him those questions. That is his personal opinion; I don’t want to react to that. It is another matter that the whole nation and the whole world holds our Prime Minister in high regard, so Yashwant Sinha’s opinion is his personal opinion and he is most welcome to it,” she said.
Sinha, who was the finance minister during BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, had earlier taken a jibe at Dr. Singh and called him a ‘consultant’ to the government, saying the latter could have made full use of the opportunity given to him since he has held the reins of the nation for eight years now.
“They are all platitudes. You see the problem with Manmohan Singh has been that he has always acted as a consultant to the government, saying what should be done, what need not be done. You know he has been Prime Minister for eight years, before that he was finance minister for five years and clearly, he had all the opportunity in the world to implement what he believes in,” said Sinha.
Sinha stated that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet cannot always put the blame on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule for all problems facing the country.
“The mess is domestically created and it is the government, which has created the mess. This is something, which has to be understood. I went through his interview and I find that he is constantly offering alibis, you know and the worst part of it is that he says they had to undo what we did, when we were in the government,” said Sinha.
“As if all the problems in India from 1947 onwards can be laid at the door of the NDA Government between 1998 and 2004? Why was India partitioned? Because of the NDA Government. Why is the Kashmir problem there? Because of the NDA government?” he asked.
Sinha further said that during the last eight years Dr. Singh’s name has been dragged into several controversies; either related to the scams or economic slowdown.
Dr. Singh in an interview to a leading national daily earlier said that ‘there is no realisation that a reversal to an earlier era is neither possible nor desirable; even a neighbour like China has understood the logic of an open economy and is developing the institutional framework which is required for this’.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/congress-raps-bjp-for-dubbing-manmohan-singh-consultant-to-govt/

Shillong, July 7 NNN: Despite of efforts made by the state government, agitators at Langpih Friday maintained that they would only withdraw their “fast-unto-death” agitation, if government is willing to resolve the long pending boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya and prove it writing.
This was expressed by the agitators to the State Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh during his visit Langpih on Friday.
“We demand the government to send first its assurances in “writing” for us to decide on our future course of action”, Pynskhemlang Nongshlong who led the fasting protest said.
Nongshlong’s demand was for the government to immediately resolve the boundary dispute, deployed adequate security and bringing developmental programmes in the border.
“We will suspend our agitation till we are convinced that government is truly committed and sincere towards its promises”, Nongshlong said adding “If not, the hunger strike protest will continue”.
Lyngdoh accompanied by a high level delegation of the state government comprising of two MLAs Francis Pondit Sangma and Dr A Pariong besides MDC Irene Hujon, MPYCC president, West Khasi hills district deputy commissioner and superintendent of police visited Langpih to assess on the prevailing situation besides convinced the protestors to call off their agitation.
However, the Home Minister on his part while trying to convince the agitators to suspend their stir said, “I will take up the matter with the state government and ensure that the written assurances be send as soon as possible”.
He also informed that the Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma yesterday has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and his counterpart in Assam on the urgency to find a solution to end the inter-state dispute with neighbouring Assam.
The indefinite hunger strike which begun on Saturday last was led by a 28 year old youth P Nongshlong aimed at putting pressure on the Government of India and the two state governments to arrive at an early settlement to the long pending dispute between Assam and Meghalaya.
However, till today, seven agitators were hospitalized after their health condition deteriorated. Also, a delegation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also visited Langpih to expressed and show their solidarity with the people living in the border areas of the state.
Meanwhile, the People’s Movement (PM), a group which spearheads the agitation to end the border crisis, petitioned the Chief Minister urging him to “suspend” of any kind of dialogue with the Assam Government and engage itself with the Centre only.
Langpih is one of the villages located along the interstate border with Assam where frequent aggression by Assam government has been resented by the people of the state.
On May 15, 2010, four Khasi youths of the village were gunned down by Assam police personnel during a clash.
Meghalaya and Assam have 12 areas of differences along the border.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/assam-meghalaya-border-dispute/