ACTIVITIES OF THE WEEK

HEALTH CHECKUP SENIOR CITIZENS

(In association with Lions Club, Bhopal)

The Lions club Bhopal arranged with us a health check up programme on 5th and 6th JUly 2008. Dr Mishra eminent cardiac surgeon from Escorts Heart Hospital, New Delhi and his team gave free consultation to over 200 citizens. Blood tset, BP, ECG and Echo test were also performed free to the needy patients.

BODY & ORGAN DONATION

Senior Citizens Forum, whose mission is to involve the members in socially relevant projects, took note of the shortage of organs for treating patients and the extent to which unscrupulous elements took advantage of it to cheat people. Consequently we conducted on 10th February 2008 an organ and Body Donation Camp with the support of Dr S L Patidar and his staff. 36 persons offered to donate organs/full body and completed the required formalities. Shri Babulal Gaur, Ex-Chief Minister and current Urban Development Minister was the chief guest who honoured each volunteer for their praiseworthy decision.

A second camp was held on 23rd March. In this camp 41 more psersons came forward. An important aspect was the predominance of women in this.

We have approached the Union Health Minister and the Chief Minister of MP to make efficient arrangement for setting up of 'ORGAN BANKS' so that the donated organs become available to the needy in proper condition and without delay.

Shri Hemant Kothari, Home Minister of M P visited the Forum on 2 June and appreciated our efforts. He promised to involve the deans of the 5 Medical colleges of M P in this project so that they can make suitable arrangements for timely response to the family requests and proper storage and maintenance of the organs donated.

Highlights of Union Budget 2008-09

· Changes in I-T slab. Threshold of exemption for all Income Tax assesses raised from from Rs 1,10,000 to Rs 1,50,000.
· Every income tax assessees to get relief of minimum of Rs 4,000.
· No change in rate of surcharge.
· New tax slabs will be: 10 per cent for Rs 150,000 to Rs 300,000, 20 per cent for Rs 300,000 to Rs 500,000 and 30 per cent above Rs 500,000.
· For women, the income tax limit goes up from Rs 1.45 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh. In case of senior women citizens, it increases from Rs 1.95 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh.

(Changes effective for the Ass Yr 2009-10 based on the Budget)

FOR ALL

Upto 1,10,000/- Nil NOW upto 1,50,000 NIL(1,80,000 for women and 2,25,000 for Sr Cit)
Rs.1,10,001/- to Rs.1,50,000/- 10% NOW NIL
Rs.1,50,001/- to Rs.2,50,000/- 20% NOW 1,50,000 to 3,00,000 10%
Rs.2,50,001/- and above 30% NOW 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 20 %

NOW 30% to be charged above Rs 5,00,000

Income based deduction u/s 80C of an amount upto Rs.1,00,000/- continues.

OTHER FEATURES

· Five year tax holiday for setting up hospitals in tier II and tier III regions for providing healthcare in rural areas from April 1, 2008.

· Short-term capital gains increases to 15 per cent.
· Commodities Transaction Tax to be introduced on the lines of Securities Transaction Tax.
· Banking cash transaction tax withdrawn from April one, 2009.
·

Rs 500 crore for corpus fund to subsidise all women Self Help Groups for LIC cover for permanent disability.

· No change in corporate income tax.

· Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.1 per cent and revenue deficit at 1.4 per cent.
· Tax to GDP ratio increased from 9.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 12.5 per cent 2007-08.

· Customs duty on specified life saving drugs reduced from ten per cent to five per cent.
· General Centvat on all goods to be reduced from 16 per cent to 14 per cent. Excise duty reduced from 16 per cent to eight per cent on all pharmaceutical goods manufacture.
· Excise duty on small cars reduced to 12 per cent from 16 per cent and hybrid cars to 14 per cent.
· Excise duty reduced from 16 to 8 per cent on water purification items.
· Duty on non filter cigarettes to be raised.

· Asset management service under mutual funds, services by stock exchanges to be brought under Services Tax net.
· Threshold for small service providers raised from Rs eight lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

· Allocation for defence to be increased by 10 per cent from Rs 96,000 crore to Rs 1,05,600 crore.

· 75 lakh people to be covered by health insurance scheme.

· PAN requirement to be extended to all transactions in capital market subject to a threshold.

· PDS through smart cards in Haryana and Chandigarh on pilot basis.
· Three schemes to be introduced for providing social security to unorganised sector workers.

· Sixth central pay commission to submit report by March 31, 2008.

· Complete waiver of loans for marginal farmers owning land up to one hectare and small farmers owning land up to 1 and 2 hectares.
· Agricultural loans given by scheduled commericial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007 and due for December 31 that year will be covered under the waiver scheme to address the problem of indebtedness.
· One time settlement of loans for other farmers.

· Rs 7,200 crore to be allocated to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, marking an increase of 24 per cent.
· Rs 500 crore for corpus fund to subsidise all women Self Helf Groups for LIC cover for permanent disability.
· Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission to get Rs 6,865 crore this year against Rs 5,482 crore past year.
· Allocation for Minority Affairs Ministry to be doubled from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.
· Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will be provided Rs 13,100 crore, Mid Day Meal scheme Rs 8,000 crore, Secondary education Scheme Rs 4,554 crore.
· 410 additional Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya to be set up in backward blocks.
· Navodaya Vidyalayas to be opened in 20 districts with special focus on regions having SC/ST concentration.
· Allocation of Rs 130 crore for this purpose. Rs.750 crore more to be given for merit scholarship to students up to 10th and 12th class.
· Mid day Meal scheme extended to upper primary level in 3479 schools. 16 central universities to be opened in 2008-09.

· Three IITs to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

· Schools of architecture and planning in Bhopal and Vijaywada. More institutes of higher education to be opened.

· Rs 100 crore to be given to Information Technology Ministry to set up national knowledge centres.
· Rs 992 crore for national AIDS programme.

· A national programme for the elderly to be started at a cost of Rs. 400 crore.
A Central Institute to be set up for theStudy and research on AGING

8 Regional Centres to be set up for research on the health problems of elders. Each state would be required to open a Department of Gerentolgy in at least one Medical College.

· Rs 85 crore sanctioned for scholarships to students pursuing science education.
· Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research to be set up at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram.

Reverse Mortgage of house would not be considered as Transfer. Monthly payments from Bank for the reverse mortgaged property WOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS INCOME

SPECIAL REPORT

Maintenance of Parents Act

(Senior Citizens Maintenance in General)

(Salient Features)

This act provides for effective maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens. The act proposes to

1.Provide appropriate mechanism for the above purpose.
2.Provide better medical facilities to senior citizens.
3.Institutionalise a suitable mechanism for the protection of life and property of older persons.
4.Set up Old Age Homes in every district.

Senior citizen including parent( includes father, mother biological or step) who is
unable to maintain himself from his own earning or out of the property owned by him has to be necessarily maintained by his children(includes son daughter, grandson and grand daughter) and in their absence by relatives who are likely to inherit the property of such a senior citizen. In case of any dispute the senior citizen can approach a tribunal set up by the State Governments for this purpose in each sub-division. This tribunal will have the powers of a Civil Court. Appeals can be heard by an Appellate tribunal presided by the District Magistrate.
In respect of medical facilities, the State Governments shall ensure that,-
1. Govt hospitals or Govt funded hospitals shall provide beds for all senior citizens
2. Separate queues be arranged for them
3. Facilities for the treatment of chronic/terminal/degenerative illnesses to be provided
4. Research in respect of chronic elderly illnesses and ageing to be encouraged
The State Governments should establish and maintain old age homes as per need,
beginning with at least one in each district. Government staff, including the police and judicial officers should be given periodic sensitization and awareness training. They would prescribe comprehensive action plan for providing protection of life and property of senior citizens. This would include declaration of void any transfer of property from senior citizens to his children or relative if he or she is found guilty of not maintaining them.

Forum News

On 9th March we held a seminar to celebrate International Women's Day. Bhopal Lions Club also participated. The meeting was chaired by the President of M P State Women's Forum Smt Tomar.

(A report is given on the Activities page)

On 23rd March we celebrated the festival of Holi in the form of a Joke, Poem, Satire Competetion. Shri Babulal Gaur Ex-Chief Minister and the current Industries Minister presided.

Dr Shanker Lal Patidar, eminent orthopaedic specialist has chosen Senior Citizens Forum to set up full fledged facility to provide Physiotherapy treatment to patients, particularly elders and members of weaker sections of society. Shri Babulal Gaur, Ex-Chief MInister and currently a senior Minister of M P Cabinet, inaugurated the facility in the presence of our members on 24th December 2007.

The Senior Citizens Forum has come out with a Quarterly Journal to propogate the Forum activities and provide useful information to members as well as other senior citizens. The Journal would also have articles by both members as well as non-members on important topics. We have priced the Journal at Rs 15 with an yearly subscription of Rs 50. This would partly meet the expences. Subscription may be sent by MO or given personally to Gp Capt A B Mehta, Vice President at MIG-282, E/7, Bhopal (462016). Enquiries for multiple copies can be sent through e-mail at abmehtabhopal@indiatimes.com.

The Third issue has already reached the Journal Subscribers (there are 108 members as on 17 th April 2008).

Members of the Forum and a number of poor elders living in Jhuggi-Jhopadies assembled at a RALLY to demand the setting up of a Senior Citizens Commission in the state to take effective steps to improve the living conditions of disadvantaged elders.

These are in the area of proper publicity of the Government concessions, ensuring the distribution of Old Age Pensions to 100% poor elders, checking the possible divertion of such pensions by middlemen and relatives, proper healthcare at their doorstep, effective control of offences against them by members of their family as well as others, enhancement of pension and other grants to a more realistic level, provision of elder-comfortable infrastructure facilities by Municipal committee and public agencies like Banks/Railways/Bus Transporters/Hospitals/Post offices and so on.

Government was also requested to effectively utilise the expertise of elders in solving the numerous day to day problems of the society in an organised manner. The rally also demanded cancellation of exhorbitant increase in taxes and charges like lease rent, property tax, water tax etc particularly for those elder residents who are having 25 or more years old LIG and MIG houses.

Shri Ashok Das, Principal Secretary, Urban Development and Environment, gave a talk on "Neighbourhood Sanitation Compaign" at the Forum's Lecture Hall in the Day Care Centre. Our President Shri Saraswat took part in a discussion organised by Fed of Indian Chamber of Comerce where he highlighted the need for 'JAN BHAGIDARI".

FORUM held a rally to highlight the importance of ENVIRONMENT on the International Environment Day.

A 3-Day SEMINAR was held on the occasion of World Envt Day at Day Care Centre. The Mayor of Bhopal, Shri SOOD presided. Shri Guruprasad Chairman Forest Devt Corp was the Chief guest. Shri DG Sharma retd DG Forest, a Patron of the Forum was guest of honour. City Engineer Bhopal gave a presentation indicating the fundamental services provided to the poorer sections ofthe society inBhopa. lThe Seminar continued on 6th and 7th with talks by Shri Pramod Raghuvanshi and Dr Patidar.

PENAL Discussion on "OLD AGE SUPERSTITIONS"

Panelists:

Padmashri O N Shrivastava (Ex- Governor).

Dr Ravi Prakash Mathur (Ex- Vice Chancellor)

Shri H M Joshi (Ex- DGP)

Moderator Shri Ghanshyam Saxena , Journalist

House Reverse Mortgaging notified for NHDB to formulate details

CURRENT AFFAIRS

National and International

LEFT parties withdraw support to the UPA GOvernment. SP has informed the President about its support. Prime Minister is due to return from G8 summit by this evening. The politial situation is volatile.

ECONOMIC ISSUES

Rising prices has been the most worrying aspect of the last fortnight. The Inflation has crossed the figure of 11.6.

BSE Sensex has been volatile for the last two months. Infosys results on JUly 11th may provide some support to the market. The sensex is moving between 12000 and 14000.The impact of High inflation, RBI controls on landing rates and recession Fears in USA are also being felt. IT companies have not recruited as many as they did in the past.

Dollar's weakeness against Rupee (less than 40) was causing concern to exporters earlier but in the last month it has moved beyond 43.

The political situation as a result of Left support withdrawl has already been disounted. In fat the sentiments have improved hoping that now the government can take forward the growth programme.

SPORTS NEWS

Vishwanathan Anand and Sachin Tendulkar have been chosen for PADMA VIBHUSHAN

CHESS

Vishwanathan Anand regained the World Championship after 7 years. In Mexico he got 9 points and won by a margin of full 1point. He however could not sustain the lead in the next tournament

CRICKET

INDIA THE 20-20 WORLD CHAMPION succesfully ventured into a competetion where city based international teams participated in a 54 days long programme. Team from Jaipur named JAIPUR ROYALS and led by legendary spinner Shane Warne won the trophy.

This IPL championship was held between 8 City teams (Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Bangaloru, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Jaipur) Each team had 4 National, 4 International and 8 local including 4 under 19 players.

We participated in three team tournament in Dhaka but lost in the finals to Pakistan.

We also lost to Sri Lanka in the finals of ASIA cup.

Test team for Sri Lanka tour includes the four senior players, Ganguli, Dravid, Tendulkar and the Captain Kumble. Dhoni has opted out and Yuvraj is not selected.

DHONI is the new ICON of Indian Cricket. He is currently captaining India in the ODIs and 20-20 teams. He was also the Test Captain for the last test against South Africa due to the absence of Kumble as he was not fit. We won the Test to square the 3 match series and thus remain 2nd in the Test table after Australia. We are currently 4th in ODI table.

TEST RECORDS

Dravid enters 10000 club in Tests and 11000 club in ODIs. Dhoni equals world record of six victims in an ODI. Tendulkar and Gangoli now have 'hundred runs opening wkt partnership' for a world record 20 times. Between them they have more than 20000 runs as openers. Zaheer joins the 200 club in ODI bowling. Ganguli joins the elite 3-men club of players scoring >10000 runs and taking 100 wkts when he had Shahid Afridi in the 4th ODI. Sachin Tendulkar and Jaisurya are the other 2. Tendulkar becomes the second highest run getter in Tests going above Border. Lara is on Top.

Ganguli played his 100th Test at Melbourne, against Australia.

The TRI-SERIES between India-Australia-Sri Lanka was comprehensively won by INDIA. This is the first time in 23 years that we have defeated Aussies in ODI series in Australia

HOCKEY

India is out of OLYMPICS for the first time in 80 Years! We also lost in Azmalkhan Tournament

K P S Gill removed from the presidentship of IHF and an ad-hoc body consisting of ex-players takes over.

TENNIS

India defeated Japan 3-2 in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceana Zone and entered the WORLD GROUP.

REQUIRING YOUR SUPPORT

SAPHAL society in collaboration with the FORUM is conducting FREE classes for the underprivileged students of 8th Std, 10th Std and 12th Std. Financial support is solicited to pay the teachers' salary.