Maternity Bill passed: 26 weeks paid leave, creche a must, other highlights

A day after the world celebrated the International Women's Day, the Parliament on Thursday passed a bill that will benefit about 1.8 million women in India. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by the Lok Sabha, months after the Rajya Sabha approved the measure that takes India to the third position in terms of the number of weeks for maternity leave after Canada and Norway where it is 50 weeks and 44 weeks, respectively. While the bill has given many women reasons to cheer, it has left others with a heartburn.

It is a “historic day for women”, the Ministry of Women and Child Development said, adding that the Bill will “pave the way for a healthy and secure mother and a well-nourished child”. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi called it a “momentous step” and thanked her colleagues for supporting the Bill.

Top highlights of The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016

* The Bill aims to protect the employment of women during the time of pregnancy and entitles them to full paid absence from work to take care of their child

* Women working in the organised sector will now be entitled to paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, up from 12 weeks

* The maternity leave beyond the first two children will continue to be 12 weeks

* The new law will apply to all establishments employing 10 or more people and the entitlement will be for only up to first two children. For third child, the entitlement will be for only 12 weeks.

* The bill also makes it mandatory for employers in establishments with 30 women or 50 employees, whichever is less, to provide crèche facilities either in office or in any place within a 500-metre radius.

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Election Results 2017 Live - UP, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur

With eye on UP polls, PM Modi to launch 2nd anniversary celebrations

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public rally in Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh (UP) to mark two years of his government on May 26. Several senior Cabinet ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, too, will address a series of public meetings in UP. The state, which was the key to the BJP reaching simple majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014, is due for Assembly polls in early 2017 and this will be the party’s unofficial launch of its UP election campaign.

The PM will also visit his Lok Sabha constituency in Varanasi as part of the fortnight-long two-year anniversary celebrations. The BJP considers western UP its stronghold and the focus of the PM’s speech will be to highlight his government’s schemes for farmers, especially sugarcane growers, of the region.

There is also the possibility of increasing UP’s representation in the council of ministers. The party, in an effort to consolidate its Jat support base in western UP, has asked Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh to merge his party with the BJP. Singh, at least until now, is insistent that the two parties have a seat-sharing arrangement for the UP Assembly polls. Read more.

Why PM Modi should ignore Subramanian Swamy's letter to sack Raghuram Rajan

Subramanian Swamy, BJP’s newly nominated member to the Rajya Sabha, recently said that Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan should be removed from his post.

In a fresh salvo at Rajan, Swamy has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate sacking of the former IMF Chief Economist while alleging he was "mentally not fully Indian" and has "willfully" wrecked the economy.

Following up his barb against Rajan at the end of Parliament session last week, Swamy yesterday wrote to Prime Minister seeking termination of Rajan's services with immediate effect.

According to Swamy, Rajan has hiked interest rates "in the garb of controlling interest inflation", which has "damaged the country", and that he was responsible for “unemployment and collapse of industrial activity".Read more.

Ruckus in RS as Manohar Parrikar speaks on AgustaWestland deal

Despite opposition from the Congress, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikaron Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that he only wanted to give chronology of the events with regard to corruption in the Rs 3,600-crore sale of 12 VVIP choppers to India.

"This matter is not of today, this pertains to year 2002. I just wanted to inform the House, the chronological order of events, without any comments on them, so that the House is aware of when it took place and what happened," Parrikar said in the Upper House.

"Whether they want or don't want, it is for them (Congress)," he added amid uproar in the upper house.

Parrikar, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modiyesterday, had earlier on Monday said that his address in the Parliament would include how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company.

Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has accused the Centre of pursuing a politically motivated campaign to defame the grand old party through the AgustaWestland copter scam.

Meanwhile, former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi is being grilled for the third consecutive day by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at its headquarter here in connection with alleged irregularities in the Rs. 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal.

As per reports, the former IAF chief is said to have told the CBI yesterday that he met senior officials of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, while negotiations for the purchase of VVIP choppers were going on.

He also told the interrogators that he had met Finmeccanica's Chief Operating Officer Georgio Zapa in New Delhi on February 15, 2005.

The CBI yesterday quizzed the former IAF chief on the four firms which he and his wife set up after his retirement from service.Read More.

Iraq protesters quit Green Zone after unprecedented breach

Iraq protesters quit Green Zone after unprecedented breach

Protesters were withdrawing from Baghdad's Green Zone today after breaking into the fortified area and storming Iraq's parliament in an unprecedented security breach the day before.

The move, which lessens the pressure on politicians in Baghdad, came as rare bombings in the south killed 33 people and wounded dozens.

"The protest organising committee announces the withdrawal of the demonstrators from the Green Zone," it said in a statement, citing respect for a major Shiite pilgrimage as the reason for their departure.

The statement was distributed by the office of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters make up the vast majority of the demonstrators.

Demonstrator Hussein al-Ali said that the announcement was made at the square where protesters had gathered, and that they accepted it and complied.

Protesters pulled down or scaled slabs of heavy concrete blast wall yesterday to enter the Green Zone, where Iraq's main government institutions are located, the culmination of weeks of political turmoil and inaction by parliament.

Some remained overnight, and hundreds of people combined a festive demonstration with sight-seeing in the previously off-limits area.

Protesters waving flags clapped and chanted slogans in front of a grandstand from which Saddam Hussein once delivered addresses, in a square bordered by giant statues of twin crossed swords held in hands said to have been modelled on Saddam's own.

The Green Zone breach allowed Iraqis access to places they have rarely if ever been able to enter before.

"This is the first time I've been here since I came with my school under Saddam," said 32-year-old Yusef al-Assadi, who took a "selfie" in front of the monument to the unknown soldier.

Assadi said it was striking "how rich this place is. Here, there is air conditioning and electricity everywhere, but the people of Iraq suffer from power cuts all the time."

Many Iraqi politicians live in luxury, while most average citizens make do with abysmal services that include only a few hours of government-provided electricity per day at the height of summer.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said he had ordered the pursuit of people involved in attacks or vandalism, but security forces were not taking action against protesters inside the Green Zone today.

Protesters on Saturday attacked at least one MP as well as cars they believed belonged to lawmakers, and broke into offices in parliament.