Although they are yet to forge coordination among each other for smooth functioning of the House, members of the ruling BJD and the Opposition Congress, BJP and other smaller parties on Friday showed uncommon unity for a cause — salary hike.
Cutting across party lines, at least 50 MLAs met chief minister Naveen Patnaik at his chamber in the Orissa Legislative Assembly and sought a three-fold increase in their pay and perks. The chief minister assured them to consider their demand.
“The legislators of the BJD, Congress, BJP, CPI and NCP met me and demanded for hike in their pay and perks. The government is actively considering their demand,” the CM said.
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Online form for Indian citizenship
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI
Dec. 10: The Union home ministry has introduced a new online application system for Indian citizenship which will help create a centralised database of all citizenship applications received by the government. An official reels said that the new system will enable “faster, simpler and transparent processing of the applications for grant of Indian citizenship”.
Now, the applicant would be able to track progress of his or her case online, the release said. It said that the key objective is to bring a uniformity in the processing of applications.
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Reduce fiscal deficit in Budget: CII
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI
Dec. 10: The industry chamber CII has asked the government to reduce fiscal deficit in the forthcoming Budget by augmenting revenues and rationalising expenditure.
The CII stressed on reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.8 per cent of GDP in FY12 from the budgeted level of 5.5 per cent in the current year.
“The Budget should aim at facilitating convergence to the long-term objective of having a simplified and rational taxation system,” said Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman, CII economic policy council at a pre-budget meeting with the finance ministry officials.
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IOC puts AI on ‘cash and carry mode’
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI
Dec. 10: The IOC has put national carrier Air India on “cash and carry” mode which means that the cash-strapped airline will have to make daily payments for aviation turbine fuel in order to ensure uninterrupted flight operations. This was done after Air India failed to make adequate payments for ATF from some of the oil firms which already extend some time-period of credit.
Air India officials said that the matter would be sorted out and expressed confidence that there would be no flight disruptions. The AI is banking on the proposed infusion of `1,200 crores from the government to it.