Tag: woes

Indian community in Riyadh narrate woes, minister listens patiently

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Jeddah: In a mark of engagement with the diaspora, minister of state for external affairs V. Muralidharan has been hectically busy in constantly meeting with Indian community members from various segments in Riyadh. The minister is focusing on day-to-day issues experienced by blue collar workers who constitute a major segment of the Indian community in the oil rich Kingdom.
The community members narrated a wide range of woes starting from exorbitant school fees back home in India for NRI children to delay in clearing the Huroob cases. They also aired their views on family dependent fees, higher education to visit visas, and death cases. The minister listened patiently to the problems, grievances, and suggestions put forth by the community members.
“We are determined to address every single issue that affects any Indian in abroad”, the minister told the Indian community delegation that met him on Monday at the embassy.

Muralidharan reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on the Indian community living in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries and the government has ushered in a new era by engaging with the vast class of its diaspora.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is always trying to reach out to common masses and has been working constantly for welfare of Indians abroad and announcing slew of measures to ensure safety and welfare of Indians working in Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries, Muralidharan told the community members.
He also emphasized that not only diplomatic missions but every Indian living in the country to act as an ambassador and extend help to his compatriot.
Commenting upon women trafficking and house maid issues, the minister added that its victims themselves are falling into trap by avoiding legal migration and opting for visit visas for a third country.
Muralidharan also highlighted that state governments also ought to play a constructive role in curbing unsafe recruitment of Indian workers. He urged the community to bring notice of the problem into state governments where police, which is a state subject, act.

The Indian Steering Committee that comprises veteran NRIs from various states met with the minister under leadership of Zaigham Khan. The steering committee members urged the minister to have a community hall for Indian community functions in the Saudi capital.
Prominent community leader Shihab Kottukad explained the core issues that need to be addressed by the government level. Shihab highlighted the expansion of insurance ambit and establishing more labour welfare personnel.
Telangana NRI Forum President Mohammed Abdul Jabbar drew attention towards delay in forwarding end of service benefits and other financial settlements of deceased workers. Jabbar said that bereaved families back home in India are facing difficulties in claiming their legitimate amount.
AP NRT coordinator Muzammil Shaikh urged the minister to curb the menace of maid flow out of the country. He also hailed the ongoing mission Kaveri, the evacuation of Indians from Sudan.
TKK President Abel Antony told the minister about inadequate counters operated by Saudi ministry of labour and passport department officials to sort out Huroob cases.
Gulam Khan, Sulltan Mazhar, Ahmed Imtiyaz, Deepak Satish, Santosh Shetty, Anwar Qurhid, Prominent Malayali community workers Raafi Pangodu, Sidik Turvooru and Telugu community members Ananda Raju, Sucharita; Saleem Maie, Saleem Mohammed, Ahad Siddique, Saroj, and Munir among others who aired their views to the minister.
Muralidharan in Saudi Arabia to oversee evacuation of Indian nationals from Sudan under Operation Kaveri. He also interacted with the Indian entrepreneur community in Riyadh on Monday.
He was scheduled to visit Riyadh and Dammam some time ago, however, it was canceled.
Muralidharan, a native of Kerala and who was elected as MP in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra is looking after the Gulf region in MEA.
Known for mass contact from his college days through ABVP, the minister maintains rapport with the NRI community in the Gulf region.
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#Indian #community #Riyadh #narrate #woes #minister #listens #patiently
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 2, 2023
As Trump rallies in New Hampshire, legal woes play in real time

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For Trump, it’s barely a blip. The former president’s polling lead over his 2024 Republican rivals has grown as his legal morass deepens. A recurring joke he made again Thursday about being served a subpoena if he so much as flies over a Democratic-leaning state drew laughs and applause from those attending.
Trump supporters at his campaign rally in downtown Manchester were unfazed by the latest developments in his legal woes, accusing Democrats of weaponizing the judicial system against the former president and dismissing as more noise the civil defamation lawsuit in which Trump is accused of rape.
“It’s just a lot of distraction,” said Bert Sooner, a 60-year-old Republican and Trump supporter from Gilmanton, N.H.
“If anything,” Trump’s legal troubles “just seem to propel him,” Sooner added.
Trump returned to New Hampshire on Thursday for the first time since his legal drama deepened and since Biden launched his reelection campaign.
The former president made no direct mention of the lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a luxury department store in the 1990s, that began Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. Trump has denied Carroll’s account, saying the episode “never happened.” He was admonished by the judge overseeing the proceedings on Wednesday over a social media post in which he called the lawsuit “a made up SCAM.”
Instead, he used a speech on economic policy to hurl insults at Biden — including slapping the “crooked” label he’s long affixed to Hillary Clinton’s name to Biden instead. Trump repeatedly attacked Biden, calling him a “hopeless person” and a “threat to democracy” who “doesn’t have a clue.” And he touted his record on the economy, saying that he left Biden with “a booming economy” but that the president “blew it to shreds.”
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, pushed back immediately.

“Trump’s lies won’t change the fact he holds the worst jobs record of any president since the Great Depression and rigged the economy for the ultra-wealthy and biggest corporations,” Moussa said in a statement. “Trump’s stewardship of the economy was an abject disaster, in stark contrast to the over 12 million jobs the Biden-Harris administration has helped deliver for America in just two years.”
Trump also laid into his potential Republican rivals, citing polling that shows him with double-digit leads to rib Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — “Ron DeSanctus” — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, whose name drew immediate and loud boos from the crowd in his home state. A Fox News poll out Wednesday showed Trump with a 32-point lead over DeSantis.
Trump leaned on his polling leads to revive his threats to skip a presidential primary debate. The former president and his advisers have privately raised concerns about the debate slated for August, saying it’s too far in advance of the first nominating contests, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
“Nixon and Reagan and Bush … no, they didn’t debate in the primaries,” Trump said on Thursday. “Seriously, you look at the boards … and you’re looking at these numbers. Why would you do that?”
“But I do look forward to the debate with Joe — Crooked Joe,” he added.
Trump’s legal problems extend beyond the two that bubbled up behind the scenes on Thursday. The former president faces 34 felony charges in New York related to an alleged scheme to bury allegations of extramarital affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election. And on Monday, the Atlanta-area district attorney, Fani Willis, indicated that more charges might be on the horizon for Trump this summer in a case related to efforts by him and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.
But in New Hampshire, the former president did not back down.
“I won a second time by far more votes, but it was a rigged election,” he told the crowd to cheers, calling for tighter restrictions on voting, including all-paper ballots, voter ID laws and strictly same-day voting.
“I don’t even care if you help me campaign — you don’t have to help me,” he told the crowd. “I just want help on making sure the vote is cast and counted fairly.”
More concerned about border security and the economy than Trump’s legal troubles, rally-goers who in some cases drove five hours to see the former president erupted at his claims about the 2020 election, unburdened by concerns about what could be contained in the former vice president’s ongoing testimony.
“It doesn’t play at all,” New Hampshire state Rep. John Leavitt, a Republican who endorsed Trump on Thursday and joined him onstage, said of the various investigations and court proceedings surrounding Trump. “It’s in the past.”
Clad in their bright red “Make America Great Again” baseball caps and draped in American flags and denim jackets with Trump’s face plastered across them, voter after voter brushed aside the various legal proceedings against Trump as the latest in a long line of attacks that haven’t stuck.
“I think it’s all B.S.,” said Christine Smith, a Republican from Derry, N.H.
Trump hasn’t held a campaign rally in New Hampshire since 2020 and hasn’t been in the state since late January, when he addressed GOP insiders at the party’s state committee meeting.
On Thursday, he packed The Armory function hall at the downtown DoubleTree hotel to its 750-person capacity, according to security, rallying hundreds of his stalwarts in the same room where DeSantis wowed Republican activists just two weeks ago with a burst of unexpected retail politicking after headlining a party fundraising dinner. Trump aides said the choice of location was a coincidence.
Even in a smaller venue than Trump supporters in this state are accustomed to — the former president typically favors the arena down the street — his supporters were enraptured by his return. They cheered and jeered in all the right places of his speech, which stretched over an hour and a half. Even as the crowd thinned slightly toward the end, dozens of people rushed the stage barriers when Trump began to work the rope line, signing hats and saluting his fans.
Jeffrey Duran, a Republican wearing a black T-shirt with a fake Trump mugshot on it and a hat with the former president’s John Hancock scrawled across the rim, stood toward the back of the fawning crowd and blasted the legal proceedings against Trump as “political persecution.”
“The justice system is being weaponized and used against the American people. If they can do it to him, silence the [former] president, they could do it to anybody. It’s totally un-American,” said Duran, who drove up from New York City to attend the rally. “It backfires on them, on the people who are pointing the fingers at him.”
Lisa Kashinsky reported from Manchester, and Kelly Garrity from Washington
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#Trump #rallies #Hampshire #legal #woes #play #real #time
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 28, 2023
More untimely rain adds to Telangana farmers’ woes

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Hyderabad: While a fresh spell of untimely rain across Telangana is causing more damage to agricultural crops, the state government has assured farmers that it will stand by them.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and state minister K.T. Rama Rao on Wednesday told farmers not to panic over the losses and assured them that the government will render all possible assistance.
KTR, as the Minister is popularly known, voiced concern over the losses incurred by farmers due to untimely rains and hailstorms in various districts.

He asked party MLAs and other public representatives to undertake field visits in their respective constituencies and review the situation in coordination with local officials.
Advising farmers not to worry, he told them that the state government will come to their rescue.
He recalled that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself personally visited the affected areas, reviewed the situation and gave assurance to farmers.
With more rain expected in the next couple of days, KTR requested the officials to be available at the field level.
Agricultural crops in some districts were damaged due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms during the last 3-4 days.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, on Sunday directed Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari to take up the assessment of crop damages.
He asked the Chief Secretary to speak to District Collectors and get detailed reports on crop damages.
Minister for Civil Supplies Gangula Kamalar has assured farmers that the KCR government will provide 100 per cent compensation.
Unseasonal rains and hailstorms had damaged crops over 2.28 lakh acres in various parts of the state last month as well.
KCR had then visited a few affected areas and announced a compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre.
However, after a survey the agriculture department decided to pay compensation only in respect of 1.51 lakh acres.
Officials said the money will be deposited in the bank accounts of 1,30,988 farmers.
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#untimely #rain #adds #Telangana #farmers #woes
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 26, 2023
No ELEC reports, late rent and an unpaid steakhouse bill: Financial woes lead to Somerset GOP tumult

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The bill was eventually paid, according to Somerset GOP Chair Tim Howes and former Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman, who said he interceded to get it done. But the episode shows just how far the party has fallen.
As recently as 2017, Republicans completely controlled the wealthy suburban county, where they had dominated for decades. The county produced Republican Gov. Christie Whitman and even the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2021, Jack Ciattarelli. They also had one of the strongest fundraising operations in the state.
Now, Somerset County Republicans hold no county-wide offices and there isn’t a single Republican from Somerset County in the Legislature.
The party’s financial woes didn’t end with the steakhouse bill. They were months late on rent for their Somerville headquarters and, most alarming to Howes’ critics, the party hasn’t filed a legally-required campaign finance disclosure with the Election Law Enforcement Commission since January 2021, when it reported just shy of $12,000 in the bank.
The lack of disclosure risks major fines for the cash-strapped committee. And some party officials say there’s even less of an excuse for that under the leadership of Howes, an election attorney.
A group of Somerset Republicans including Bateman is now attempting to get Howes to resign and, failing that, to get a detailed accounting of the party’s finances. But Howes, who was easily reelected chair in 2022, plans to stay in office until his term is up in 2024, leaving his critics to see if there’s a way to force him out.
“My interest is just making the Republican Party relevant again in Somerset. It hasn’t been for a lot of reasons. You can’t blame the chairman for everything, but we haven’t won an election in years,” Bateman said in a phone interview with POLITICO.
On April 4, almost two dozen current and former party officials, as well as several former elected officials from the county — including Bateman and former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco — outlined their complaints in a letter to Howes calling for his immediate resignation.

“Your failure to comply with the mandatory legal requirements set forth by ELEC, as well as your utter lack of transparency and your denial surrounding this failure, are indisputable and indefensible,” reads the letter, which accuses Howes of “financial malfeasance and deception.”
The letter claims that the party’s fundraising has dropped to “historic lows,” that it’s six months behind in rent payments for its Somerville headquarters, and notes that all eight countywide Republican candidates during his tenure have lost “by record margins.”
“If you refuse [to resign], we will call a special meeting of the SCRO to remove you from office,” they wrote.
Years of decline beginning with Trump election
Howes, who took on the chairmanship in 2020, can’t be blamed for the drastic political shift in Somerset county. Republican losses there started before Howes took the reins, with the GOP going from holding every county-wide office in 2017 to none by 2021.
“I came in the sixth inning. I was the middle relief pitcher,” Howes said in a phone interview.
Howes said party officials had a “difference of opinion” with Char Steakhouse on how many people attended the holiday party and that “once we settled that, I dropped off the check.”
Howes also said that the party’s rent has since been paid and that he’s “working on perfecting” the overdue ELEC reports now that he has a new treasurer in place, but declined to say why the party has gone two years without filing them.
“As far as an explanation, I’m not there yet,” Howes said. “As far as what happened, we’ll get to that. At some point we’re going to hold a meeting so that everybody’s questions can be answered. I think the committee’s questions need to be answered before they read it on the internet.”
The effort to oust Howes was first reported by New Jersey Globe.
The Somerset County Republican Party’s downfall coincided with the presidency of Donald Trump, whose gains for Republicans in formerly competitive blue collar areas were offset by stunning losses in middle-class and wealthy suburban counties like Somerset, and whose continued presence on the political stage has allowed Democrats to cement their control.
“Can he just go away?” Bateman said. “He’s the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats, unfortunately.”
But Howes’ critics within the GOP don’t believe the party will be in position to stage a comeback under his leadership. The party’s former treasurer, Robert Damiano, resigned on March 30 over the filings with ELEC, according to a letter he sent to Howes.
“You and I have had conversations regarding the accuracy of the records that I need to file correct ELEC reports. Each time, I was told that I would get all the information that we needed. However, that never happened,” Damiano wrote.
Howes did not explicitly blame Damiano, but said “we got back control of our records from the former treasurer.”
“At this point, I took the steps within 24 hours of accepting his resignation of getting a new treasurer with a good reputation, very ethical, hard working and we’ve begun the process of going back to making sure everything was filed.”
Damiano declined to comment.
Howes isn’t up for reelection as chair until 2024, and he says there’s no mechanism to remove him. His critics acknowledge it’s not in the party bylaws, but believe that state laws provide a way to remove him.
Howes said that under his leadership Somerset County Republicans have gained 14 seats at the municipal level and noted that they have performed better in off-year elections, when federal candidates aren’t on the ballot.
“It’s not your mother’s Somerset County. In a D+10 county we still outperformed both by way of margin and by percentage the deficit,” Howes said. “I’m here to win county races. I didn’t come here to be the nice guy that runs good campaigns but we still don’t win. We came very close in 2021 — very close. We intend to win this year and we’ve been moving forward despite this distraction.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco’s home county.
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#ELEC #reports #late #rent #unpaid #steakhouse #bill #Financial #woes #lead #Somerset #GOP #tumult
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 17, 2023
Goa introduces AI signals to tackle traffic woes, issue e-challans

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Panaji: The Goa government on Wednesday launched the first Artificial Intelligence signal at Merces Junction in North Goa, which is one of the busiest junctions in the coastal state.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, after launching AI signals, said: AI signals will not only help traffic management but will also be helpful for security purposes.
“In future, along with traffic management, it will support the police from a security point of view. We can catch traffic law breakers and others through this system,” he added.
The system is developed and implemented by Beltech AI.
The system shall benefit traffic police to monitor the traffic, issue e-challans and shall benefit with assistance in security purposes.
The Chief Minister said that the system has been employed on pilot basis at Merces junction on a PPP basis.
“The government shall expand the scope of implementation on a PPP basis by collaborating with private investment,” he said.
Sawant appealed to the people to follow traffic rules, which can reduce road accidents and deaths occurring due to it.

Goa PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral said that this AI signal will monitor the movement of traffic from all sides.
“It will detect the traffic and based on it signals will appear,” he said.
He said that the government intends to install AI signals across Goa, so the entire mechanism functions well.
According to officials, the AI can detect emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire-trucks and automatically clears the road.
The AI is designed in such a way that all the signals in the city and state constantly talk to each other, thus optimising traffic at not only junction level, but city and state level.
AI can also detect vehicles which violate the traffic rules and make the road unsafe for everyone. E-challan is automatically raised to such offenders.
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#Goa #introduces #signals #tackle #traffic #woes #issue #echallans
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 15, 2023
Certificate attestation woes end with Apostille System in Saudi Arabia

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Jeddah: The cumbersome attestation procedure that annoys Indian expatriates abroad will cease soon. The existing process of attestation and legalisation of public documents is confusing, time-consuming, cumbersome and costly for most people.
In a significant development, Indians will experience a smooth and faster document authentication service in India for certificates bound for Saudi Arabia.
Soon, any legal document or certificate originated in India and duly attested by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will be accepted by Saudi Arabia without any further authentication requirements with the Apostille system. Other member countries of the Apostille Convention are also likely to follow suit.
“The accredited agents have received a circular from the Saudi Arabian consulate in Mumbai that informs that the Apostille system has been introduced in India and does require to be attested again by the consulate”, said a noted advocate notary Abdulaziz, a leading attestation agent in Hyderabad.
“We were waiting for further information in this regard,” he added.
Till now, certificates whether educational or legal documents needed to be attested by the General Administration Department (GAD) or any relevant department in its respective state.
In terms of educational certificates, it would then be sent to the ministry of human resources development in New Delhi and would be attested by the Indian ministry of external affairs.
After finishing this multi-layer verification, the document will be attested by the Saudi Arabian Embassy or Consulate in India only then would the local authorities in Saudi Arabia accept it.

The process is time-consuming and fresh job seekers and other people who need civil documents to be attested have to wait for long periods of time.
With the new procedure of Apostille, the certificate verified by issuing authorities and authorized by the ministry of external affairs is enough.
According to a report, as part of Saudi Arabia’s vision 2030 where digital transformation and ease of doing business the country has acceded to the Convention, Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, popularly known as the “Apostille Convention”, effective from December 7, 2022.
Specifically, in accordance with Royal Decree M/40 dated 26/05/1443H (corresponding to 30/12/2021G), the country’s prior legalization requirements for foreign-issued public documents have been eliminated. With this decree, Saudi Arabia becomes the 122nd member of the Apostille Convention, joining other Gulf countries Bahrain and Oman.
The Convention of 5 October 1961, “Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents” (HCCH 1961 Apostille Convention) facilitates the use of public documents abroad.
The purpose of the Convention is to abolish the traditional requirement of legalisation, replacing the often lengthy and costly legalisation process with the issuance of a single Apostille certificate by a competent authority in the place where the document originated.
The electronic Apostille Programme (e-APP) was launched in 2006 to support the electronic issuance and verification of Apostilles around the world.
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#Certificate #attestation #woes #Apostille #System #Saudi #Arabia
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 25, 2023