BROWN TROUSERS REPLACE RSS’ KHAKI SHORTS

NAGPUR: ‘Ganvesh’ or the iconic khaki shorts that symbolised Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) uniform has finally been replaced by brown shorts.

The transformation began on Monday when the new uniforms began to be dispatched from the RSS Reshimbagh office in Nagpur. “We have already dispatched over two-lakh sets of the new uniform to different branches across the country to be distributed among the volunteers,” informed RSS Akhil Bharatiya Pracharak Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya.

“We have directed officials from all our branches to implement the new dress code and replace the khaki shorts from the day of Vijaydashami.”

Apart from replacing the khaki shorts, the uniform of the RSS members will consist of a black cap, a full-sleeve white shirt, a canvas belt, a brown socks, black shoes and brown trousers. “There is no specific reason to opt for brown trousers, except the fact that it is easily available and the colour looks good as a uniform,” said Vaidya.

The idea to replace the khaki shorts was on the agenda for decades and figured in almost all member meetings.

The move was being initiated to keep in pace with times and attract more youngsters towards the organisation, as most of them refrain from wearing the shorts fearing “By getting the open space deficiencies condoned, you are depriving the citizens of open spaces to which they are entitled,” the judges told the counsel for petitioner Rkhav Shah.

Shah approached the high court challenging a demand notice issued to him by the BMC on July 16, 2016, demanding sum of Rs2.80 crore as OSD premium for allowing him to utilise transferrable development rights over and above the permissible floor space index (FSI) while redeveloping a small property at Vile Parle.

According to the petition, the BMC had granted approval to redevelop Vijay Villa, spread over 459 sqm, in August 2014. After the commencement certificate was issued, the developer constructed a plinth plus four floors. Thereafter, he purchased transferable development rights to the extent of 290 sqm to redevelop the villa further.

Shah contended that because the area of the plot was less, he had to pay an OSD premium of Rs9.88 lakh – at 10 % of the ready reckoner value of the plot, as demanded by the civic body. However, when he sought permission to use fungible FSI, an additional demand of Rs92.24 lakh – at 35 % of the ready reckoner value of the plot — was demanded towards premium.

The petition adds that when he submitted amended plans, incorporating the area purchased by him as TDR, the civic body raised a fresh demand of OSD premium – Rs2.88 crore at 100 % of the ready reckoner value of the plot.

The developer challenged this latest demand of OSD premium by the BMC, contending it was exorbitant and arbitrary and jeopardised his rights to develop the property. Terming the entire BMC policy of charging OSD premium as bad and illegal, the developer further contended there was no logic or ration basis in charging an OSD premium at different rates for different stages of development work, and sought an order restraining the BMC from enforcing the demand. Allaying fears that the functioning of the Mumbai civic body will be badly affected its major source of revenue such as octroi duty, the state government also announced a separate law to ensure compensation towards the loss of revenue to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The ratification will pave the way for presidential assent to convert the empowered committee into the GST Council comprising finance ministers from various states to draft the bills.

Although the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supported the move, during a day-long session held on Monday, Opposition leaders expressed their concern over the devolution of funds to the state, rise in prices of essential food items and a major loss to the BMC in the new regime.

The Shiv Sena echoed the voice of the Opposition and expressed concerns with regards to the civic body in the city, but did not oppose the bill.

The state government assured the Legislature that by bringing an amendment in the law, it will ensure the BMC is compensated for revenue loss within a specified time frame. The BMC collects Rs7,000 crore of its revenue from octroi on goods.

Mungantiwar said besides assured devolution to the BMC, the state will also press for time-bound devolution of taxes from the Centre so that the state’s finances are not crippled because of the delay in releasing the funds. He said that since the state GST is supposed to be deposited electronically and automatically, the fear of the state not getting its share in time was baseless.

“It would be baseless to claim that the Maharashtra government was agreeing to every condition laid down by the Centre. I can assure the state that the loss of a single penny will not be tolerated and we will assure that the state’s interest is safeguarded while implementing the GST,” Mungantiwar said.

“It would be wrong to claim inflation in the GST regime will go up as 52% of goods in the Consumer Price Index list are the ones directly related to the poor; 28% goods are with mix use by various income groups of the society. This means the subsidies on the food grains and other items meant for the poor will continue.”

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, however, admitted rise in inflation in the initial years of the GST regime, but stressed it will steeply recede later on. “It is true wherever GST was rolled out, inflation has gone up in the initial years. In Maharashtra too, in the first 2-3 years the same may be repeated, but after that price rise will start declining steeply,” Fadnavis, in his reply in Council, said.

He said the price rise will be a result of initial impact of the new tax regime followed by market corrections, but a single tax regime and eradication of cascading effect of multiple taxes will see a steep fall in inflation subsequently, he said.

Mungantiwar said the state has also been insisting on average revenue generation from taxes of the past five years to consider compensation towards the loss of the revenue. He said the past two years were of acute drought in the state, the state GDP was badly affected and hence the computation of the revenue in the past five years would benefit the state. The Centre has admitted to compensating an amount equivalent to the highest annual revenue, in the period stipulated, for the next five years. Although the rough estimates are of an annual loss of about Rs20,000 crore, Mungantiwar said it was difficult to arrive at a specific figure.

Congress legislators said GST was first introduced by the Congress-led NDA about 11 years ago and it was only because of the adamant approach of the BJP, that the passage of the GST was delayed.

Former chief minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan demanded a commission for the dispute resolution mechanism instead of powers having vested in the GST council. NCP leader Jayant Patil said in many international countries, GST had failed and their growth rate slowed down.

In the Council, Dhananjay Munde, leader of opposition, said the state should ensure there was no price rise in the new tax regime. Madhav said the pellet gun was actually a substitute for regular bullets, and it saved lives, but even better, less-lethal ways had to be found for crowd control. the protests indicated politi cal and psychological aliena tion, Madhav said the slogans of azadi (freedom) needed to be taken with a “pinch of salt”.

“It will be a grave mistake to think all Kashmiris are anti India.”

Asked if the Modi govern ment made a mistake in not continuing former prime min ister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s outreach to separatist groups such as the Hurriyat, Madhav said the principle remained the same.

“The J&K issue is not just a law and order issue for us. We look at it from the perspective of those three terms used fond ly – Kashmiriyat (Kashmir ethos), insaniyat (humanity) and jamooriyat (democracy).

“Let them ask, let the Indian Parliament decide,” he said to a question on whether autonomy could be a solution to the dec ades-old Kashmir issue. He clarified later, saying he cited Bolt’s example to suggest athletes should beat adversities and excel, instead of blaming circumstances for their fail ures.

“Usain Bolt of Jamaica was poor and trainer advised him to eat beef both the times…,” he tweeted, suggesting the cham pion ate beef twice a day. But “it’s 200% wrong to interpret my comment as an endorse ment of beef-eating”, he said afterwards.

Junior social justice min ister Athawale agreed “50%” with Raj’s remarks, saying if people want, they should be allowed to eat beef.

“Cow slaughter is already banned … Farmers who have buffaloes, which are aged and unproductive, can at least sell them and earn a livelihood,” said the RPI(A) leader, an NDA constituent.