Pak Delegation in India for Talks on Border Issues

09-Sep-2015 (PTI) || The Director General-level talks between border forces of India and Pakistan kicks off tomorrow days after parleys between their NSAs were cancelled with the host nation set to flag the "most important" issue of ceasefire violations and cross-border infiltration.

Amid escalating tensions, a 16-member Pakistani delegation arrived in Amritsar this afternoon enroute to Delhi for the three-day talks between the chiefs of the Border Security Force(BSF) and Pakistani Rangers that is being held after a gap of over one-and-a-half years.



The Pakistani side led by Rangers Director General (Punjab) Maj Gen Umar Farooq Burki was received at the Attari- Wagah land border near Amritsar by senior BSF commanders of the Punjab frontier.

"The delegation crossed over to the Indian side at 12.35 PM," senior officials said.

Burki was accorded a ceremonial salute and guard of honour by the Indian border guards and the delegation was flown to Delhi in a special BSF plane. The talks were last held in December 2013 in Lahore.

The delegation included officials of Sindh Rangers, ministry of interior, survey of Pakistan, anti-narcotic force, immigration etc. ?

The 23-member Indian side would be headed by BSF DG D K Pathak during the talks and is expected to raise issues like ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir, including sniper attacks on BSF personnel, and infiltration.

It is the first high level interaction between the two countries after their National Security Adviser(NSA)-level talks that was to be held in Delhi on August 23-24 were cancelled due to differences over the agenda.

According to Indian sources, extra stress would be on the "most important" issue of breach of ceasefire in J&K which has led to loss of lives of civilians and troops and "unprovoked" firing by the Rangers along the International Border(IB).

The issue of "no response" by the other side when BSF waves the 'white flag' which is used to indicate stopping of fire and meeting of on-ground commanders of the two sides will also be taken up, the sources said.

"The talks will also endeavour to focus on positive issues like different levels of communication, more simultaneous coordinated patrolling and other confidence building measures," according to a BSF statement.

The BSF will also take up the issue of intrusion in the 'Harami Nallah' area of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, smuggling of contraband from across the border and illegal movement of suspects up to the zero line area along the IB in order to facilitate illegal activities.

A spokesman of Punjab Rangers said that the issue of frequent clashes along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary will be on the top of the agenda.

Pakistan's NSA Sartaj Aziz said yesterday that Pakistan will raise the issue of "unprovoked firing" by India forces on the LoC.

According to Pakistan High Commission sources, the issue of alleged infiltration from the Indian side in Punjab and Rajasthan will be raised during the talks.

The ties between the two sides have remained strained because of repeated ceasefire violations along the IB and the Line of Control(LoC).

Read More

Arun Jaitley to make Tax Exemption a thing of Past soon

09-Sep-2015|InPoMo Team|| Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government in the next few days will bring out a list of tax exemptions to be phased out as part of the exercise to reduce corporate tax rate to 25 per cent in four years.

The minister also said measures to protect domestic steel sector from dumping by overseas manufacturers are being examined.

Stating that every tax demand cannot be termed as tax terrorism, he said, the government will not relent on pursuing black money in India or abroad.

As regards his Budget announcement of reducing corporate tax rate to 25 per cent, Jaitley said, "over the next few days we will come out with list of exemptions, which we intend to phase out in the first place. Over the next four years corporate tax will come down by 5 per cent and lot of exemptions will get phased out.

"Therefore slowly we will bring taxation levels to global standards and make taxation assessment and return simpler by just eliminating a lot of exemptions."

Jaitley was speaking at 'India Summit 2015' organised by UK-based Economist magazine.

The finance minister in his 2015 Budget had announced that the government would reduce the rate of corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over the next four years to align the rates with competing countries.

In view of surge in import of various categories of steel, the Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) has already initiated an inquiry into the imports of steel from China, Korea, Japan and Russia

Read More

Around 7,00,00,000 Bihar voters to decide the next Chief Minister in 5 phases starting October 12

09-Sep-2015||InPoMo Team || The latest electoral battleground is all set and ready to go to war of votes. More then 6.68 Crore voters of Bihar would cast their votes in a election divided in 5 phases starting from the 12th of October; as announced by the Election Commission of India today.

image courtesy: PTI

The 5 phased elections would be marked with a major set of festivities along with the political drama. Noting the same the Election Commissioner Mr. Nasim Zaidi said, that election commission will ensure communal peace and harmony during the period. The festivities during the period would also witness the Chatt Pujan, along with Diwali, Moharram, Dusshera etc.

First phase would see 49 seats going to poll, wit second phase having 32 seats, third phase with 50 seats, fourth phase with 55 seats and final phase will have 57 constituencies going to polls. Out of the total 243 constituencies, the election commission has identified 47 as naxal affected and as per the election commissioner, more than adequate security arrangements have been made to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in all areas of the state.

Bihar is looking at a different political dynamics post the Lok Sabha elections, Bhartiya Janta Party had a great show in the state for the national elections, even after Mr. Nitish Kumar a 17 year old ally of NDA, walked out of the alliance. But the situation is very different now, the opposition seems to have left all the old issues behind and come together the behemoth called BJP. Mr. Manjhi, the ex-CM of the sate has formed his own party and has allied with the BJP, but it seems that they have issue in seat sharing arrangement with Mr. Paswan and BJP.

The political drama of bihar is all set to heat up in the coming days, where the fight seems to be between Alliance of Nitish, Lalu and Sonia (Where congress is looks like the smallest share holder) and the NDA.

Read More