Governor instructs varsities to observe August 14 as ‘Partition Horror Day'
As per a circular issued by the Raj Bhavan last week, universities have been asked to organise seminars and commemorative events, including street plays and dramas that highlight the 'trauma' of India's partition.
The circular also directed Vice-Chancellors to submit action plans for the observance. Even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made an appeal four years ago to observe August 14 as 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day,' it is for the first time that state universities have been directed to carry out its observance.
Earlier, a Raj Bhavan directive asking universities to observe the anniversary of Emergency on June 25 as 'Constitution Assassination Day' had led to high drama at University of Kerala over the display of a Bharat Mata portrait at the venue.
General Education Minister V Sivankutty accused the governor of attempting to run a parallel administration in the state. He said the governor did not have any constitutional power to instruct institutions to observe specific days.
"This is a clear overreach of authority aimed at overriding an elected government,' he said.
Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan also criticised the governor's actions, calling them 'unconstitutional.' He urged the chief minister not to remain silent on the governor's actions.
He also accused the governor of supporting the divisive politics of RSS.
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
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As per the proposal, the government is looking to implement pre-filled returns to reduce manual intervention, eliminate mismatches and compliance burden due to multiple notices. Changes will also be made on the refunds front, with the proposal aiming to provide a major portion of refunds within a fixed number of days and enable automated processing of refunds for exporters and those with inverted duty structure. 'In Income Tax, the tax department keeps your TDS (tax deducted at source) amount for one year and pays you the refund after your return filing. But since they pay fast, the taxpayer feels happy about it. In GST, there are refunds that are given three times or four times a year. But people still complain. Now, the crucial difference here is that in the case of GST, the timing is crucial, since it (the refund) is working capital for the enterprise. So, there is a need to make the processes faster. All these will be part of the process reforms,' the source said. The Centre is learnt to have factored in at least three meetings of the Group of Ministers (GoM) before a final proposal is put before the GST Council. Indications are that a rollout is being targeted well ahead of Diwali, since the industry needs time to reconcile to the new rate structure and any disruption ahead of the festive season would need to be avoided. The multiplicity of rates in the current GST regime, officials said, had triggered problems of implementation, confusion of interpretation, and disputes. 'So, we wanted to make it simple. Ideally, one tax rate would have been the best solution, but it is not practical. Currently, we have five rates, alongside the exempt items and special rates for items such as jewellery or diamonds. Now we would have two rates (5 per cent and 18 per cent). The third rate (40 per cent) is exceptional. You need to justify why something should go there. Currently, 28 per cent is part of the structure. 40 per cent in the new regime is not. That is the difference,' the source said. The PM's announcement has to be seen in the context of it being a proposal for states to consider, the source said. 'A reform like this should have everybody on board for it to work best. The GoM on rate rationalisation has been working on this issue for the last four years… The Centre has now taken a leadership position on this, and put this proposal for consideration of the panel,' a source said. The Centre, sources said, is convinced of the buoyancy from the rate rationalisation taking care of the worries stemming from revenue loss, unlike an earlier attempt in 2018 when rate cuts did not result in revenue gains. 'There were problems then (2018), since it (the cut) led to inversions in duty rates in multiple sectors and that led to some amount of gaming of the system by players to avail of input tax credits. Evasion grew… This move to revamp the rate structure (now) is to avoid inversions and inversions-related problems,' an official said. 'Technically, the states should be convinced. Politically, one has to see how they respond,' the official said.
