Mumbaiscan

In a letter to state Housing Minister Raj Purohit, Goenka requested that the state government spell out their decisions regarding the Rent Act in public. The discussions to finalise the act were being held very secretly and hence tenants were scared that the new law would be against them, Goenka said.

Besides, as there were plans to legalise the pugree system, the Government should fix the percentage of the transfer money to be taken by the landlord, Goenka said. This would ensure that the tenants are not harassed while transferring the premises, he added.

Goenka further said that the Government should make it compulsory for landlords to pay for the maintenance of buildings. This should include changing drainage pipes every five years, painting thebuildings every 10 years, maintaining staircases and lights, and garbage removal.

Indefinite Revenue stir from July 21

The Coordination Committee of Revenue Federations has called for an indefinite strike from July 21, to press for their demand for revised pay scales following the Fifth Pay Commission’s recommendations. Income tax and central excise inspectors, customs preventive officers and group B officers in IT and central excise will be joining the strike. The main demand of central excise inspectors is for parity with other cadres who have been given a pay scale of Rs 6,500 to Rs 12,300. These 130 or so cadres, who have been given this scale now, were earlier either on par with central excise inspectors or lower, a press note from the federation said.

The officers said their cadre had been discriminated against earlier too, in 1986, when, by an executive order, the Government had put CBI and IB inspectors at a higher scale. Despite representations to the CBDT and the CBEC, and the Ministryof Finance, central excise inspectors, IT inspectors and group B officers in central excise and customs and IT had not been granted their demands.

Cassette on India’s nuclear status

“Hum hain Indian,” an audio-video cassette, echoing India’s nuclear status, was released by Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde here last night.Produced by well known anti-drug activist Dr Yusuf Merchant, the cassette was described by its promoter BJP MLA Abhiram Sinh as a tribute to Indian scientists for the recently conducted nuclear tests and to the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Merchant, who is a staunch non-violence propounder, said although the cassette did not support nuclear explosions for the sake of it, it nevertheless supported the Indian atom bomb because “the bomb was absolutely necessary to negate malicious intentions of some of our neighbours”.