Modi takes on Rahul, Sonia

Modi made scathing attack on the Congress leaders for opposing opinion polls, saying the fear of losing elections was the reason behind its "nonsensical" demand and "desperate" tactics. Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate launched a grilling attack against Congress President  Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi on their claim  of the Centre was giving funds to the state but it was not able to use them properly. Modi asked sarcastically if these funds to Chhattisgarh are coming from Rahul's "maternal uncle"- a dig at Sonia's Italian origin.

"There are going to lose power in 2014. BJP and NDA are going to form the government in Delhi.  Congress on fear are trying to ban all opinion polls. These scared, frightened people are in fear of losing power. They are talking nonsense and resorting to desperate tactics," Modi said.

 

Modi targeting Sonia Gandhi, who said that the state is still poor and suffering from  governance under BJP rule, and she should do "some homework and then come here".

"All Congress leaders including the prime minister and the finance minister have praised the Chhattisgarh government. Your government has given several awards and felicitated Chhattisgarh so many times. The state has progressed under Raman Singh," Modi said.

The BJP leader said the Congress should first implement the election promises it is making -- like free rice and 24-hour electricity -- in states where it is in power.

He also sought to know why the Congress is scared of disclosing the name of its chief ministerial candidate.

"If a sting is conducted of Congress leaders, they take the name of Ajit Jogi as their CM candidate. Do you fear losing the polls if his name is declared? What are the sins that are preventing you from declaring his name?" he said.

Alleging that Congress’s claims of giving massive funds to Chhattisgarh under various schemes are an insult to its people, Modi said, "Sonia Madam and Shehzade (Rahul) had come here. Said so much foodgrain and funds have been given. Are you people standing here with a begging bowl? What kind of language is the Congress speaking?"

Asserting that the people have a right to central funds, he said, "I want to ask Shehzada, did he get the money from his maternal uncle's house? This is the people's money."

Modi sought to know, "Why is the Congress trying to come to power through the backdoor"?

Expressing his condolences over the death of security personnel and polling staff in Maoist attack in the first phase of polls in Chhattisgarh, Modi said the Election Commission should put up the names of such martyrs on its website.

PRESS CONFERENCES

Global country league table on energy sustainability plus recommendations from governments and business leaders

When: Saturday, 16 November, from 11.30 to 12.00

Speaker: Joan MacNaughton, Executive Chair of the World Energy Trilemma study

Global Electricity Initiative – utilities’ appeal for a carbon price to reduce CO₂ emissions

When: Monday, 18 November, from 15.00 to 15.30

Speaker: Philippe Joubert, Executive Chair, Global Electricity Initiative  

World Energy Scenarios to 2050 – results of a three-year study reveal why the
450 ppm CO₂ goal will not be met on current paths

When: Tuesday, 19 November, from 14.00 to 14.30

Speaker: Karl Rose, WEC Senior Director of Scenarios and Studies

Where: All WEC press conferences will take place at the main COP venue, in Press Conference Room 2, Level -2/Zone E6 (next to Plenary 2), The National Stadium. Journalists may also watch them live or on-demand via the UNFCCC webcast:

http://unfccc4.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/cop19/templ/ovw_live.php?id_kongressmain=259

OFFICIAL SIDE EVENT

“The energy trilemma – what is needed to balance energy challenges?”

When: Friday, 15 November, from 15.00 to 16.00

Where: Room Torun, National Stadium

Panel discussion with Joan MacNaughton, Executive Chair of the WEC’s World Energy Trilemma study, with five panellists:

• Diana McQueen, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Alberta
• Giles Dickson, Vice President, Environmental Policies and Global Advocacy, Alstom S.A.
• Juan Alario, Head of the Energy Efficiency and Renewables Division of the European Investment Bank
• Paul Simpson, Carbon Disclosure Project
• Mr Henning Wuester, Senior Manager, Green Climate Fund

The event is part of the UNFCC’s “BINGO day” for the Business and Industry NGOs group to focus on the theme, “high growth with low emissions: synergies for global impact”. More on: http://www.iccwbo.org/Advocacy-Codes-and-Rules/Areas-of-work/Environment-and-Energy/ICC-and-COPs/BINGO-Day/

-        Ends -

Media enquiries

Monique Tsang

tsang@worldenergy.org

Tel: +44 79 8617 4687 (on-site at COP-19)

Tel: +44 20 3214 0616 (after COP-19) 

About the World Energy Council

The World Energy Council (WEC) is the principal impartial network of leaders and practitioners promoting an affordable, stable and environmentally sensitive energy system for the greatest benefit of all.

Formed in 1923, WEC is the UN-accredited global energy body, representing the entire energy spectrum, with more than 3000 member organisations located in over 90 countries and drawn from governments, private and state corporations, academia, NGOs and energy-related stakeholders.

WEC informs global, regional and national energy strategies by hosting high-level events, publishing authoritative studies, and working through its extensive member network to facilitate the world’s energy policy dialogue.

Further details at www.worldenergy.org and @WECouncil 

Government privatises Weights & Measurement Department

Confederation of All India Traders is concerned with the gazette notification ‘Legal Metrology Act, 2009’, notified on September 5, 2013. This notification spells out that government’s intention to handover the critical governance issue of monitoring of weights and measures to big corporate players who will operate ‘as Authorised Testing Centres’, working on behalf of government. Weights and measures being an integral part of trade, any decision by the government will need a careful scrutiny by the traders. The move to certify the weights and measures by private ‘Testing Centres’ will also take consumers for a ride as the reliability and confidence on private testing centres will always be a big question mark.

 

CAIT National President Shri B.C.Bhartia and Secretary General Shri Praveen Khandelwal said that this notification is an encroachment on the rights of State Governments since legal meteorology is under the domain of State subject.  As of current practice the responsibility of periodic verification and certification of all the weights and measures was with the Special Verification Agency. This was a government agency. With the current notification, the SPA will be replaced by private authorized testing centres. These testing centres will have ‘modern facilities’ and will be operated by ‘corporate entities’ in different parts of country.  As per the announcement made by the government all such testing centres will be attached with Indian Institute of Technology where the operations will be carried by the private employees of corporate companies.

 

With the setup of ‘approved testing centres’ managed by private corporate players, the fate of government employees working with SPV is at stake. It will also lead to revenue loss both at Centre and State as the large chunk of fees will go as service fees for conducting the tests. Earlier any fee collected for certification of weights and measures were deposited in government treasury.

 

The new proposal of setting up of authorized testing centres has fundamental mismatch like working standards of agency, control and authority to issue license to manufactures still lies with the government. Since all the key functions are to be performed by the government authorities, then the need to appointing a private agency for enforcing the act and in return making profit needs to be questioned. This looks as a governments policy to support a corporate business plan at the cost of national exchequer.  CAIT urges government to continue with the existing setup and may go ahead with modernization. Modernisation does not means that government gives all revenue centric activities to corporate players. We urge government to explain the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and rational behind change of government operation of certification to certification by private players.