ABRACADABRA
No Marathi HSC schools in Kannada-
majority villages of Maharashtra
Mumbai: There are no Marathi-medium Higher Secondary Schools in Jat taluka of Sangli district bordering Karnataka, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was informed. Prakash Shendge (BJP) who represents the Jat Assembly constituency in Sangli district said all efforts to persuade the administration to give permission for Marathi schools from elected representatives, including Sangli MP and Union Minister Prathik Patil have failed. “The matter is pending before the State Government for the last three years. Marathi is taught till Seventh Standard, and from Eighth to Tenth Grade, Marathi-speaking people have to learn Kannada,” he said. Patangrao Kadam, who is the Guardian Minister of Sangli.
Indian-style commodes scrapped in UK mail
London: A major shopping centre in Greater Manchester has pulled the flush on plans to install Indian-style commodes in view of public backlash against the move to cater to the preferences of people with origins in the Indian sub-continent. Manchester has a significant minority of Asian origin. The Manchester airport and Royal Mail have installed Indian-style commodes, but the Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre has decided against providing the facility to its customers. Managers of the centre had planned to install the Indian-style commodes along with western ones in its newly refurbished toilet blocks after undergoing cultural awareness training. The plan, however provoked protest across Britain. The commodes, which have already been installed, will be scrapped and when the refurbished toilets open, they will not be available for use, reports from Manchester said. The shopping centre is visited by nearly 140,000 people every week, including Asians. The Rochdale Council had been against the idea, but was not consulted when the plans were put into operation. The council reportedly put pressure on the centre’s parent company, DB Estates, to rethink the idea.
Chinese workers were asked to ‘bark’
Beijing: Workers of a foreign firm in China are seeking compensation alleging that they have been asked to “bark like dogs” at monthly meetings. The latest dispute to hit international companies in China which were hit by a spate of strikes over pay and conditions in recent months. Twenty-six former employees of the Shenzhen-based Chloride Phoenixtec Electronics Company in southern Guangdong Province had appealed to the city’s labour arbitration authority, demanding that the company compensate them for insult and for the unfair dismissal of seven of them, state-run ‘Global Times’ reported. The workers, from the company’s production department, claimed that their former general manager, Zhang Hongyi, “humiliated workers by asking some of them to bark like dogs in front of their co-workers” during the company’s monthly meetings. They also claimed that the company hadn’t paid then a hot-weather subsidy-a summertime benefit that they are entitled to by law. “We had collectively filed an application with the local arbitration committee against the company. And we were also considering appealing to the local court about the company threatening the employees’ families over the phone and insulting the employees by asking them to bark like dogs at monthly meetings”, Song Jinhua, who had been fired by the company said. He claimed that he was fired along with six co-workers for appearing in TV interviews about the incident.
Politicians are same from London to
Lahore to Lalbagh
London: Former British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who became infamous for claiming expenses for adult films watched by her husband, is standing for a plush job with the ‘BBC’.
Smith, 47, also said a London house owned by her sister was her main residence, allowing her to claim second home allowances on her family home. She lost her seat at the May election.
She has now applied to be vice chairman of the corporation’s ruling Trust. The job is worth 77,000 pound a year for a two-and-a half-day week, plus generous perks.
“I don’t know how she’s got the nerve. I’m not sure she’s quite what we are looking for at a time we are desperately trying to repair our own battered image,” ‘The News of the World’ quoted a ‘BBC’ insider, as saying.
Chinese parents forbidden
to spy on kids
Beijing: Parents in China can no longer secretly browse through their children’s computer or mobile phones from September after a law was passed aiming to protect the privacy of children.
The new law, the first of its kind anywhere in China, was passed by the regional government in Chongqing province, and will provide children with the legal means to defend themselves against cases of “spying” by their parents, ‘China Daily’ reported.
Under the law, parents will be forbidden from secretly searching through children’s computers or cell phones for emails, web chats or messages. But a survey by online portal ‘sina.com’ said nearly 42 percent of some 2,500 respondents did not welcome the regulation. Lu Yulin, a professor at the China Youth University of Political Science, says this precedent would not have much effect in reality, as most children would not bring their parents to court.
majority villages of Maharashtra
Mumbai: There are no Marathi-medium Higher Secondary Schools in Jat taluka of Sangli district bordering Karnataka, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was informed. Prakash Shendge (BJP) who represents the Jat Assembly constituency in Sangli district said all efforts to persuade the administration to give permission for Marathi schools from elected representatives, including Sangli MP and Union Minister Prathik Patil have failed. “The matter is pending before the State Government for the last three years. Marathi is taught till Seventh Standard, and from Eighth to Tenth Grade, Marathi-speaking people have to learn Kannada,” he said. Patangrao Kadam, who is the Guardian Minister of Sangli.
Indian-style commodes scrapped in UK mail
London: A major shopping centre in Greater Manchester has pulled the flush on plans to install Indian-style commodes in view of public backlash against the move to cater to the preferences of people with origins in the Indian sub-continent. Manchester has a significant minority of Asian origin. The Manchester airport and Royal Mail have installed Indian-style commodes, but the Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre has decided against providing the facility to its customers. Managers of the centre had planned to install the Indian-style commodes along with western ones in its newly refurbished toilet blocks after undergoing cultural awareness training. The plan, however provoked protest across Britain. The commodes, which have already been installed, will be scrapped and when the refurbished toilets open, they will not be available for use, reports from Manchester said. The shopping centre is visited by nearly 140,000 people every week, including Asians. The Rochdale Council had been against the idea, but was not consulted when the plans were put into operation. The council reportedly put pressure on the centre’s parent company, DB Estates, to rethink the idea.
Chinese workers were asked to ‘bark’
Beijing: Workers of a foreign firm in China are seeking compensation alleging that they have been asked to “bark like dogs” at monthly meetings. The latest dispute to hit international companies in China which were hit by a spate of strikes over pay and conditions in recent months. Twenty-six former employees of the Shenzhen-based Chloride Phoenixtec Electronics Company in southern Guangdong Province had appealed to the city’s labour arbitration authority, demanding that the company compensate them for insult and for the unfair dismissal of seven of them, state-run ‘Global Times’ reported. The workers, from the company’s production department, claimed that their former general manager, Zhang Hongyi, “humiliated workers by asking some of them to bark like dogs in front of their co-workers” during the company’s monthly meetings. They also claimed that the company hadn’t paid then a hot-weather subsidy-a summertime benefit that they are entitled to by law. “We had collectively filed an application with the local arbitration committee against the company. And we were also considering appealing to the local court about the company threatening the employees’ families over the phone and insulting the employees by asking them to bark like dogs at monthly meetings”, Song Jinhua, who had been fired by the company said. He claimed that he was fired along with six co-workers for appearing in TV interviews about the incident.
Politicians are same from London to
Lahore to Lalbagh
London: Former British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who became infamous for claiming expenses for adult films watched by her husband, is standing for a plush job with the ‘BBC’.
Smith, 47, also said a London house owned by her sister was her main residence, allowing her to claim second home allowances on her family home. She lost her seat at the May election.
She has now applied to be vice chairman of the corporation’s ruling Trust. The job is worth 77,000 pound a year for a two-and-a half-day week, plus generous perks.
“I don’t know how she’s got the nerve. I’m not sure she’s quite what we are looking for at a time we are desperately trying to repair our own battered image,” ‘The News of the World’ quoted a ‘BBC’ insider, as saying.
Chinese parents forbidden
to spy on kids
Beijing: Parents in China can no longer secretly browse through their children’s computer or mobile phones from September after a law was passed aiming to protect the privacy of children.
The new law, the first of its kind anywhere in China, was passed by the regional government in Chongqing province, and will provide children with the legal means to defend themselves against cases of “spying” by their parents, ‘China Daily’ reported.
Under the law, parents will be forbidden from secretly searching through children’s computers or cell phones for emails, web chats or messages. But a survey by online portal ‘sina.com’ said nearly 42 percent of some 2,500 respondents did not welcome the regulation. Lu Yulin, a professor at the China Youth University of Political Science, says this precedent would not have much effect in reality, as most children would not bring their parents to court.
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