States need to ask for permission if they want UP workers back: Adityanath

Any state that wants migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh back has to seek permission from the government and need to ensure their socio-legal-monetary rights, Chief Minister Adityanath said on Sunday.
Upset that migrant labourers were "not properly taken care of" by various states in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, Adityanath said, "These workers are our biggest resource and will give them employment in Uttar Pradesh as state government is going to set up a commission for their employment."

"They are our people... and if some states want them back, they have to seek permission from the state government," Adityanath said in an interaction with the RSS-affiliated publications 'Panchjanya' and 'Organiser'.
As per feedback received from migrant workers who reached Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath said safeguarding their rights should get utmost attention and importance, news agency PTI reported.
"All migrant workers are being registered and their skills mapped. Any state or entity interested in inviting migrant workers will need to assure and provide for their socio-legal-monetary rights," he said.
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About the commission, Adityanath said it has been proposed to look into various factors associated with migrant workers' rights and to prevent exploitation while providing an official framework to ensure socio-economic-legal support for them.
"Insurance, social security, re-employment assistance, provision for unemployment allowance are some of the factors that will be looked into by the commission," he said.
Over 23 lakh migrant workers have returned to Uttar Pradesh so far by the efforts of the state government, the chief minister said, adding a large number of them returning from Mumbai and Delhi tested positive for Covid-19.
The state government has made all necessary arrangements for them and, if necessary, will keep them in quarantine facilities, Adityanath said.
By next week, he said, all migrant labourers who want to come back will reach the state and arrangements for their screening and journey to their final destinations have been made.
Adityanath praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "effectively handling the coronavirus crisis", and said India is in a secure position due to the timely decisions taken by the Centre.
Credit should be given to the prime minister as he kept on guiding the chief ministers, Adityanath said.
About generating new employment opportunities in Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath said a German company is shifting its production facility from China to India and may start manufacturing more than 30 lakh shoes in Agra.

UP's Gathbandhan makes Narendra Modi and Gandhis look beyond May 23

The gathbandhan, the term in common parlance for the Uttar Pradesh alliance of Samajwadi Party (SP) – Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), has left the big two of Indian politics rattled in India's most populous state.
Over the past three days, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have betrayed their nervousness that a repeat of 1996 could be in the offing.

The results of UP’s 80-seats could determine if the BJP makes a comeback, or struggles to get requisite number of allies, as happened in 1996, and fails to prove its majority.

In 1996, regional parties got together to form the United Front government with outside support from the Congress. The Congress is trying to reach out to the BSP, with which it has had a cold war since the December Assembly polls. The BJP has taken to warning the electorate about the Congress' record in withdrawing support to coalition governments.
Opposition leaders have already started talking of a coalition government comprising regional parties, and unlike 1996, the Congress being part of the government led by a non-Congress prime minister.
The Congress has even convened a meeting of opposition parties on May 21 in New Delhi, that is two days after the last phase of polling but 48-hours before the counting of votes.
The Congress leadership of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra threw in the towel earlier this week. Priyanka on Wednesday and Rahul a day later said the Congress was helping gathbandhan candidates against the BJP wherever their own candidates were not in the contest.
The comments stem not only from the Congress party’s need for BSP’s support in Amethi and Rae Bareli, which go to polls on Monday. It is much to do with an eye on a post-poll scenario where the BJP falls way short of a majority. There has been a cold war between Mayawati and Congress since the December Assembly polls, and the Congress now feels it needs to keep her in good humour.
On Saturday, it was the turn of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to let slip the desperation in his party in UP. In a speech in Pratapgarh, Modi suggested SP and Congress were conspiring against BSP chief Mayawati.
Modi alluded to Priyanka attending an SP meeting in Rae Bareli, and sharing stage with SP leadership, while party general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia has ensured defection of BSP’s candidate from his Guna seat into the Congress party, which had led Mayawati to threaten to withdraw her support to the Kamal Nath-led government in Madhya Pradesh.
“The SP is going soft on the Congress, but its alliance partner BSP chief Mayawati is attacking the Congress,” Modi said in an attempt to drive a wedge between the SP and BSP. He said the Congress is a ‘vote katwa’, or fringe, party in UP.
Modi recalled that the Congress withdrew support from governments at the Centre in the past leading to political instability, and only the BJP can give a stable government.
The Congress withdrew support to the minority Charan Singh government in 1979, Chandra Shekhar government in 1991 and the United Front government in 1998.
However, the PM’s comments also suggested that the BJP could be mulling the possibility of a repeat of 1996 when it emerged the single largest party under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The President invited Vajpayee to form the government, which he did but it fell 13-days later because several regional parties refused to support the BJP.
It is in this context that the Congress outreach to BSP is important as is that of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to YSR Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
The BJP is also in touch with the YSR Congress and TRS. A day after the polling ended for phase four on April 29, BJP Odisha leader Dharmendra Pradhan called on Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik.

UP cracks the whip on private mills for not paying sugarcane farmers

Uttar Pradesh has warned eight leading sugar mills their assets will be seized if they fail to settle farmers’ arrears for the 2017-18 crushing season despite getting a Rs 40 billion soft loan package.
The state’s sugarcane department has issued recovery certificates to eight mills in Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Hapur, Saharanpur, Badaun, Maharajganj, Basti and Baghpat districts belonging to Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Ltd., Simbhaoli Sugars, Wave Industries, Modi Sugar Mills and other companies.

A recovery certificate empowers district magistrates to seize the movable and immovable properties of sugar mills and auction them to recover farmers' arrears. It’s estimated private millers owe Rs 25 billion to farmers for the 2017-18 crushing season when sugarcane worth Rs 354 billion was sold to 119 mills.
Uttar Pradesh cane commissioner Sanjay Bhoosreddy told Business Standard top eight defaulters were served recovery certificates after they didn’t heed warnings to settle arrears. However, the government will allow the mills some more time to pay farmers.
“We have employed a calibrated and judicious approach to deal with the sugar companies and the soft loan package of Rs 40 billion was also aimed at easing their paying capacity. However, some mills continued to be laggard and we had to issue the RCs (recovery certificates),” said Bhoosreddy.
Mills have produced nearly 2 million tonnes (MT) of sugar in the 2018-19 season. Coupled with the last year’s carry-forward stock of 4 MT, their inventories are inflating amid a negative outlook for the sugar market.
A sugar industry spokesperson on condition of anonymity said the sugar prices had fallen in UP further and fresh production would further add to the unsold stock.
Against the loan package of Rs 40 billion, mills had been sanctioned loans worth more than Rs 26 billion.

CM Adityanath announces plastic ban in Uttar Pradesh from July 15: Report

After Maharashtra, the Uttar Pradesh government has banned the use of several plastic products, news agency ANI reported on Friday.
"We have issued an order to ban the use of plastic across the state from July 15," Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was quoted as saying by ANI. "After July 15, plastic cups, glasses, and polythene should not be used," said Adityanath, adding, "For this, we should all work together."
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Hum logo ne 15 July se, pure pradesh ke andar plastic ko pratibandhit karne ke liye ek aadesh jaari kiya hai. Mai aavahan karunga ki 15 July ke baad plastic ke cup, glass, polythene ka istemal na ho, iske liye hum sabko milke kaam karna chahiye: UP CM Yogi Adityanath
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The UP government's order comes after the Maharashtra government's state-wide ban on the use of plastic items, including carry-bags and thermocol, came into effect from June 23.
Subsequently, Maharashtra eased its ban against single-use plastic, following what a Reuters report said was intense lobbying by multinational companies and plastic industry bodies for softer rules and extensions.

Uttar Pradesh govt asks sugar mills to pay Rs 123 bn dues in 15 days

Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest sugar and sugarcane producing state, have been put on a 15-day notice to settle cane dues of over Rs 123 billion, failing which stringent action will be taken against them.
Ensuring timely sugarcane payments had been one of the main pre-poll promises of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. Now, UP principal secretary - sugar industry and cane development - Sanjay Bhoosreddy has issued strict instructions to 28 sugar mills, which have paid less than 50 per cent of the cane price, for speedy settlement.
Chairing a meeting on Thursday, he warned representatives of the defaulting sugar mills and directed them to expedite payment of their arrears. So far, UP mills have collectively paid nearly Rs 229 billion in the current crushing season, while about Rs 123 billion stands unsettled. During the previous crushing season of 2016-17, the mills had paid a little over Rs 226 billion during the same period.
He also instructed mills to sell their monthly sale quota of sugar as allowed by the Centre so that its proceeds could be diverted to settle cane payments.
ALSO READ: After brief surge, sugar prices on decline again
He said that Hata Mill of the Birla Group in Kushinagar district had made full payment to farmers, while Persandi mill of Parle Group in Bahrich district had cleared 97 per cent of its sugarcane dues.
Besides, 13 sugar mills of the private sector have paid over 80 per cent of their cane price dues, including Datauli, Tulsipur, Haidergarh, Mijaura, Biswan, Launi, Roopapur, Daurala, Bahadurpur, Bundaki, Devband, Khathauli and Tikola.
Sugarcane arrears were considered a major factor for the shock defeat of BJP candidates in the recent Kairana parliamentary and Noorpur assembly bypolls in the sugarcane belt of western UP.
Earlier, Bhoosreddy had written to the Centre to fix Rs 34/kg as the base price for sugar to insulate the commodity from price dips that results in arrears build up. He observed that any floor price below Rs 34/kg would not aid in clearing the outstanding amount.
Later, the Centre announced a Rs 70 billion package to ease liquidity in the domestic sugar sector, while fixing minimum selling price of white (refined) sugar at Rs 29/kg. Besides, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs announced the creation of buffer stock of 3 million tonne (mt), subject to review by the Union food ministry.

ALSO READ: Govt to subsidise finance and insurance cost for sugar buffer stock
Last month, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) had also written to the Centre over mounting sugarcane arrears and falling prices amid talks of fixing sugar floor price. Isma had suggested fixing the floor price region-wise, since mills produced different grades of sugar and demanded different minimum sugar prices for the northern and southern-western belts.
In the current season, that is 2017-18, UP’s sugar production was around 12 mt on the back of higher production and a rise in recovery ratio of 10.87 per cent.

UP police arrests 10 persons for alleged involvement in terror funding

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh police has arrested ten persons, who it claimed were linked with Lashker-e-Taiba and allegedly involved in terror-funding activities.
"Ten persons were arrested from Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Pratapgarh and Rivan (MP) Saturday by the ATS. These persons were involved in terror-funding on the directives from Pakistan," ATS IG Asim Arun said.

The arrested men were identified as Naseem Ahamad, Naeem Arshad, Sanjay Saroj, Niraj Mishra, Sahil Masih, Uma Pratap Singh, Mukesh Prasad, Nikhil Rai alias Musharraf Ansari, Ankur Rai and Dayanand Yadav, he said.
"A member of Lashker-e-Taiba used to remain in contact with them and ask them to open bank accounts in fake names and direct them as to how much money is to be transferred to which account. Indian agents used to get 10 to 20 per cent commission for this. Till now transactions of over Rs one crore have come to the fore," he said.
He claimed the arrested persons had links with the LeT and some of them even knew what was happening.
"Some them clearly knew what they were doing, while some considered it as a lottery fraud," the officer said, adding a detailed probe was on and more arrests likely.
The role of the bank staff too would be probed, he said.
ATM cards, Rs 420,000 cash, swap machines, magnetic card readers, three laptops, passbooks of different banks, a country made pistol and cartridges were recovered from the possession of the accused, he said.

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar bypolls: Adityanath casts vote; top 10 developments

Voting for key Lok Sabha constituencies of Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh has begun. The bypolls were necessitated after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats to assume their respective offices in the state government.

Yogi Adityanath, while casting his vote on Sunday early morning, said, "For development and good governance, BJP is necessary." Voting in the by-elections started at around 7 am in the morning, according to reports by news agency ANI.

The Uttar Pradesh CM slammed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's criticism of note ban saying, "People will throw away his appeal. Wherever he goes Congress is decimated because he works with a negative mindset". Earlier, Rahul had said, "If I was PM & someone had given me a file with demonetisation written on it, I would've thrown it in dustbin."

Bypolls for Bihar's Lok Sabha Araria seat and two assembly seats -Jehanabad and Bhabua- are also being held on Sunday.

The bye-elections in Bihar are being seen as a Litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he exited the Grand Alliance between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and his party, Janata Dal (United).

The results for both states will be declared on March 14.

Here are the top 10 developments surrounding the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar bypolls:

Uttar Pradesh

1. Candidates in the fray

In Gorakhpur, the key contenders are Upendra Shukla from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Praveen Nishad from Samajwadi Party (SP) and Surhita Chatterjee Karim from Congress.

Meanwhile, candidates in the fray for the Phulpur seat are Kaushalendra Singh Patel from the BJP, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel from the SP and Manish Mishra from the Congress.

2. Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party join hands:

The BSP, burying its 25-year-old bitter rivalry with the SP, has extended its support to the SP nominees on both seats

3. Raj Babbar slams Akhilesh Yadav

Speaking on the sidelines of the campaign that ended on March 10, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief Raj Babbar said his party wanted to join hands with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the SP but this did not happen due to Akhilesh Yadav's stubborness .

The Congress leader maintained that an SP-BSP-Congress alliance in the bypolls would have made sure that both the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats were ''snathced'' from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Congress and SP had forged an alliance for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections but were routed in an electoral onslaught by the BJP.

While the SP was voted out of power and its tally slipped to 47 from 224 in the 2017 assembly polls, the Congress could win only seven seats.

4. 'Secular parties have to come together to oust Narendra Modi in 2019'

Raj Babbar also claimed that to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019, all secular parties will have to join forces and put up a united front. The actor-turned-politician claimed that "otherwise defeating the BJP would not be easy".

5. PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah lookalikes campaign for BJP in Uttar Pradesh

Choosing a unique way to campaign for Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bye-elections, lookalikes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah have hit the streets of Gorakhpur to gather support for the BJP.

The pair interacted with people on the busy market streets and also offered prayers at a temple.

"We have come from Delhi. My name is Ranveer, and we have been visiting all the markets for a week, talking to people. The response has been warm," the prime minister lookalike told ANI.

The Amit Shah of the pair said, "We have received so much love from the public that I think we will win by five lakh votes."

Bihar

6. Bypolls in Araria, Bhabua, Jehanabad:

The Araria seat fell vacant after the death of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Taslimuddin. The key contenders for the seat are RJD's Sarafaraz Alam, Taslimuddin's son, and the BJP's Pradip Singh.

The Bhabua assembly seat got vacant after the death of BJP's Anand Bhushan Pandey, and the party has fielded his widow Rinki Rani Pandey. Another key candidate for the seat is Shambhu Patel from Congress.

The death of RJD MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav necessitated the bypoll for Jehanabad seat, and his son Uday Yadav is contesting for the seat. Another key candidate in the fray is JDU's Abhiram Sharma.

7. BJP Bihar chief says RJD win would turn Araria into ISI hub

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Bihar chief Nityanand Rai on Friday said that Araria will turn into an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hub if Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) wins in the upcoming Lok Sabha bypoll election.

"If (Sarfaraz Alam of RJD) wins then Araria would turn into an ISI hub", said BJP's Bihar Chief, Nityanand Rai while speaking at a public rally.

Araria is a muslim-dominated area with over 40 percent of the population belonging to the religion.

Rai went on to say that if Pradip Singh, a bypoll candidate happens to win the election then the area would remain a hub of patriots.

8. High stakes for NDA and Mahagathbandhan:

Both National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Grand Alliance are using the bypolls as an opportunity to prove their superiority over the other in terms of popularity among the masses.

While the NDA leaders are confident that they will win all the three seats, the Grand Alliance leaders have repeatedly claimed to pull out victory even in the absence of their star campaigner and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad -- behind bars in connection with two fodder scam cases.

9. Nitish Kumar second fiddle to BJP?

This round of bypolls provides both the BJP and the RJD an opportunity to take on each other directly in Bihar, as a precursor to parliamentary polls next year when they will also, most likely, be the main opponents. Ever since the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) joined the NDA back, the BJP has virtually replaced the former as the main rival to Lalu Prasad's RJD.

This has triggered a debate in the political circles whether Nitish Kumar has accepted the role of a junior partner in state politics. By accepting the BJP offer to contest from Jehannabad, after announcing publicly not to fight the by-elections, the JD-U has given an opportunity to the BJP to prove that it is number one in Bihar NDA.

10. BJP's message of accommodative politics:

A senior BJP leader said that party has decided in favour of the JD-U to contest from Jehanabad to send a political message that the NDA can accommodate its allies to keep the alliance stable.

The current bypoll equations are also likely to reflect in the seat-sharing between the BJP and the JD-U for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, said a senior JD-U leader who did not want to be named.