Hi guys,
Below facts for your consideration before you exercise your right to vote.
Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament (MP)
Monthly Salary : 12,000
Expense for Constitution per month :10,000
Office expenditure per month :14,000
Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) : 48,000( eg.For a visit from kerala to Delhi & return: 6000 km)
Daily DA TA during parliament meets :500/day
Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train: Free (For any number of times)
(All over India )
Charge for Business Class in flights : Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.)
Rent for MP hostel at Delhi : Free
Electricity costs at home : Free up to 50,000 units
Local phone call charge : Free up to 1 ,70,000 calls.
TOTAL expense for a MP [having no qualification] per year :32,00,000 [i.e ... 2.66 lakh/month]
TOTAL expense for 5 years : 1,60,00,000
For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years :
8,54,40,00,000 (nearly 855 crores)
AND THE PRIME MINISTER IS ASKING THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED, OUT PERFORMING CEOs TO CUT DOWN THEIR SALARIES…..
This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities. .......
And this is the present condition of our country:
855 crores could make their life livable !!
Think of the great democracy we have........ ........
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL
but,
STILL Proud to be INDIAN
I know hitting a delete button is easier...... .bt...... ...try 2 press fwd button 2 make people aware of it!
Our Indians' Money - 70,00,000 Crores Rupees In Swiss Bank
1) Yes, 70 lakhs crores rupees of India are lying in Switzerland banks. This is the highest amount lying outside any country, from amongst 180 countries of the world, as if India is the champion of Black Money.
2) German Government has officially written to Indian Government that they (German Government) are willing to inform the details of holders of 70 lakh crore rupees in their Banks, if Indian Government officially asks them.
3) On 22-5-08, this news has already been published in The Times of India and other Newspapers based on German Government's official letter to Indian Government.
4) But the Indian Government has not sent any official enquiry to Germany for details of money which has been sent outside India between 1947 to 2008. The opposition party is also equally not interested in doing so because most of the amount is owned by politicians and it is every Indian's money.
5) This money belongs to our country. From these funds we can repay 13 times of our country's foreign debt. The interest alone can take care of the Centre's yearly budget. People need not pay any taxes and we can pay Rs. 1 lakh to each of 45 crore poor families.
6) Let us imagine, if Swiss Bank is holding Rs. 70 lakh crores, then how much money is lying in other 69 Banks? How much they have deprived the Indian people? Just think, if the Account holder dies, the bank becomes the owner of the funds in his account.
7) Are these people totally ignorant about the philosophy of Karma? What will this ill-gotten wealth do to them and their families when they own/use such money, generated out of corruption and exploitation?
8) Indian people have read and have known about these facts. But the helpless people have neither time nor inclination to do anything in the matter. This is like "a new freedom struggle" and we will have to fight this.
9) This money is the result of our sweat and blood. The wealth generated and earned after putting in lots of mental and physical efforts by Indian people must be brought back to our country.
10) As a service to our motherland and you contribution to this struggle, please circulate at least 10 copies of this note amongst your friends and relatives and convert it into a mass movement.
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda Monday announced his resignation following a flaming row over the sacking of the army chief.
Prachanda, Nepal's first Maoist prime minister, announced his resignation in a televised address to the nation. He blamed Nepal's political parties and foreign powers for hindering his government.
Nepal's three-year-old peace process and experiment in political partnership between former insurgents and pro-democracy forces today appeared to have been dealt a crippling blow after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', on the diktat of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (CPN-M), sacked Army chief General Rookmangud Katawal for "insubordination".
Dahal's move, which sparked protests from most political parties, including ruling coalition partners, and put a big question mark on the continuance of the government, was rejected by President Rambaran Yadav who, as the Supreme Commander, directed Katawal to continue as Army chief. Yadav even sent a letter to this effect to Dahal but the Prime Minister's office declined to acknowledge it.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) held an emergency meeting after Katawal's sacking and decided not only to withdraw its ministers from the Cabinet but also move a no-confidence motion to bring down the government. The main Opposition Nepali Congress decided to support the no-confidence motion.
"We will explore formation of a new government because the Maoists have gone against the principle of consensus, the basis for our party joining the Cabinet," said Ishwar Pokharel, general secretary of the UML.
President Yadav stepped in after 17 political parties including the CPN-UML, Madheshi Janadhikar Forum and Nepal Sadbhavna Party — all partners in the Maoist-led coalition — told him that the Prime Minister's action of dismissing Katawal and appointing Kul Bahadur Khadka as officiating chief of the Nepal Army was illegal, that they were not party to the decision. The 17 parties are considering forming a national government.
Yadav reminded the Prime Minister that what he did was contrary to his assurance to the head of state as well as other political parties. Dahal, who had earlier been warned by his party's central secretariat that his failure to sack Katawal would prove his "unworthiness as party chief and leader", ignored warnings from coalition partners that they would not back the decision.
Dahal summoned Katawal this morning to his official residence and handed him a letter that the General refused to accept. But it was forwarded to Army headquarters after Lt Gen Khadka, the second in line of command, was named the officiating chief. "We are confident that the Army will back our move," said Maoist leader and Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai after the Cabinet meeting.
It is learnt that Katawal called a meeting of senior Generals and told them he accepts the civilian supremacy — a cause that the Nepal Army has always been upholding — and that he will wait for instructions from the Supreme Commander. He also said he will be free to take legal recourse.
Fear and tension gripped Kathmandu this morning after word spread that the Prime Minister was determined to sack Katawal and bring in Khadka. The Maoist party secretariat had been urging the Prime Minister to "expose" India and other foreign forces which didn't want any action against Katawal. "He is the Army chief of foreigners. Why should we keep him?" Law and Justice Minister Dev Gurung told a public meeting yesterday.The Maoist secretariat asked the party's youth wing, the Young Communist League, to take positions in Kathmandu so that any move to challenge the sacking of Katawal could be countered.
Nepal's first Maoist-led coalition government was plunged into a major crisis after only eight months of its rule when two of its allies quit Sunday after the ruling party took the unilateral decision to sack the army chief, Gen. Rookmangud Katawal.
Ministers from the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), including the deputy prime minister, tendered their resignations to Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' after a day-long drama marked by street violence and tension.
Besides the UML, the second-largest party in the ruling alliance that held six key portfolios, a minor partner, the ethnic Sadbhavana Party with one minister also announced its withdrawal of support to the Prachanda government.
The UML has now begun consultations with the main opposition party, former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress (NC) to mull forming a new government. The NC says it is backed by 16 other parliamentary parties.
Under fire from both the opposition and its own allies, the Maoists too have begun hectic parleys with other parties to muster support and say they have three fringe parties behind them.
The sudden developments came after a nearly two-month-long stand-off, Prachanda and his party Sunday finally replaced Katawal -- just three months before he was due to retire -- with senior army officer Lt.Col. Kul Bahadur Khadka, despite objections by his own allies and the international community, especially India.
'The cabinet has decided to remove the army chief since he could not provide a satisfactory explanation to the three charges levied by the government,' Maoist Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the spokesman of the government, said after the cabinet meeting Sunday.
Katawal was asked to explain why did he continue military recruitment despite the government's halt order and reinstated eight brigadier-generals who had been retired by the defence ministry. He was also rapped over the army pulling out of the National Games when the Maoist combatants too decided to take part.
The four allies of the government - the UML, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), Sadbhavana Party and Communist Party of Nepal (United) - however, distanced themselves from the sacking, saying they had asked the Maoists not to take a hasty decision.
Now the main parliamentary parties under the NC have urged President Ram Baran Yadav, who is the constitutional head of the government, to reject the cabinet order.
Yadav, who in the past asked the Maoists to act consensually with the other parties, was reported to have termed the cabinet decision 'unconstitutional, illegal and against consensus'.
'The constitution says that all decisions regarding the army have to be made on the basis of consensus,' said legal journalist and author Ananta Luitel.
'Since there was no consensus, the president can either ask the Supreme Court for advice or send the cabinet order to the interim parliament for its decision.'
If the president sends the dismissal order to parliament, it would be put to vote and the Maoists are likely t be defeated.
Though the Maoists have been threatening to remove the president if he opposes the army chief's dismissal, Luitel said that would be impossible legally.
'The president can be removed only if he is impeached by two-third of the parliament members,' he said. 'The Maoists can't sack him on their own.'
Meanwhile, former army generals said Katawal was likely to challenge his removal in court.
While the leaders planned strategies, violence erupted on Kathmandu's main thoroughfares as thousands of Maoist cadres, celebrating Katawal's dismissal, clashed with NC supporters, who began condemning the 'Maoist authoritarianism'.
India could once again play a critical role in the new crisis.
In 2006, it was India that helped the Maoists return to mainstream politics after a 10-year armed insurgency. However, the hardliners in the Maoist party have been growing increasingly hostile to India and accusing the neighbour of intervention.
Though New Delhi had sent its ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood to meet Prachanda seeral times, asking him not to take any unilateral step about the beleaguered army chief, the advice was rejected by the Maoist hawks.
Now with the Maoist government in danger of collapsing, India could once again have a major role in making or breaking the coalition.
Expressing confidence that the secular combine of the Third Front would form the next government at the centre, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat said here Sunday that people were looking for a political change.
'People are fed up with the Congress and the (Bharatiya Janata Party) BJP,' Karat said, addressing an election meeting at Marthandam near Nagercoil, 650 km south of the Tamil Nadu capital Chennai.
'The Congress-led (government) at the centre failed to implement any developmental scheme during its term,' he said.
Karat said the CPI-M did not allow American policies to be followed in the country, which saved Indian banks during the economic downturn.
'Though several American banks collapsed during the economic crisis not even a single bank collapsed in India, since the CPI-M did not allow India to follow American policies,' he said.
A large crowd, including women, in this border town of Punjab waited in open for hours in the scorching sun for a glimpse and address of Sonia Gandhi at an election rally Sunday.
And when Gandhi in her flawless Hindi speech 'saluted' Gurdaspur - 'the land of warriors and hardworking people', the crowd, the women in particular, was left spellbound.
Looking glamorous in traditional attires, many of the women were dancing and singing with enthusiasm when Gandhi arrived.
'I salute this land (Gurdaspur). This is the land of warriors and hardworking people,' Gandhi said, drawing loud cheers from people at a sprawling ground, seeking votes for her party candidate Partap Singh Bajwa.
For Ramninder Kaur, a college student, seeing Gandhi, even from a distance, was 'a dream come true'.
'I am satisfied to see her from a distance as it is just like a dream come true for me to see Sonia Gandhi standing just a few feet away from me. She is an immaculate orator and speaks really well,' Kaur told IANS.
'I am sure Sonia Gandhi can change the face of rural Punjab and she would certainly do something for the betterment of women in Punjab,' she said.
An 86-year-old Rama Devi said it is 'good for the whole country that a strong women is leading the country's oldest party'.
And Balwinder Gill, another women supporter of the Congress, was apprehensive about Sonia's visit. 'Before coming here I thought she must be like any other leader who comes to garner votes. But I am amazed to find that she is well aware of this region and I am really impressed to hear her fluent Hindi.'
The Congress' Bawa is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party's Vinod Khanna in Gurdaspur, around 250 km from Chandigarh, which goes to polls in the fourth phase of the general elections May 7.
The actor-turned-politician, Vinod Khanna is seeking re-election from this backward constituency. But the going may be tough for him this time.
'He (Khanna) represents us in papers only. He is unaware of the problems of his own constituency. I have not seen him even once in the last five years,' said Ramneek Bawa, who had also come to attend the Congress rally.
'Campaigning by big stars would not work this time (for Khanna), as we need a leader who represents the people of Gurdaspur,' Bawa said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Sunday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for 'doing nothing' for Sikhs, who are being targeted by Taliban militants in Pakistan's troubled tribal areas.
'What have you done for the Sikh community (in Pakistan)?' Modi asked while addressing an election rally here in Haryana.
'You are a Sikh yourself... come and rescue your people there,' Modi said.
Minorities living in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were forced to flee as Taliban have imposed tax on non-Muslims.