rants Souplantation's buffet-style restaurants closing for good because of the coronavirus By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 7 May 2020 20:49:58 -0400 Souplantation's owner says there was no way the restaurants' longtime self-serve model could survive in the era of COVID-19 Full Article
rants Tens of thousands of California college students to get relief from emergency grants By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 8 May 2020 10:00:34 -0400 California college students will get emergency CARES grants Full Article
rants Over 1 lakh migrants to return to UP on 114 trains by Saturday night: Official By economictimes.indiatimes.com Published On :: 2020-05-09T18:10:47+05:30 Over 1 lakh migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh stranded in different parts of the country following the coronavirus-induced lockdown will return to the state by Saturday night on 114 trains, a senior government official said. Full Article
rants What the EU-Turkey agreement on migrants doesn’t solve By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 09 Mar 2016 09:45:00 -0500 The EU and Turkey have reached agreement on the broad outlines of a coordinated strategy to respond to the migration crisis. According to the plan, discussed at an emergency summit on Monday in Brussels, all migrants crossing from Turkey into the Greek islands would be returned. For every migrant Turkey readmits, the EU would resettle one registered refugee from a U.N.-administered camp, effectively establishing a single legal migration pathway. The deal, which has not been finalized, includes a pledge to speed up disbursement of a 3-billion-euro fund ($3.3 billion) aimed to help Turkey shelter the roughly 2.5 million Syrian refugees currently on its soil, and to decide on additional support. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has requested that Europe double its funding to 6 billion euro ($6.6 billion) over three years. He also called on European leaders to speed up the timetable on lifting visa requirements for Turkish citizens and to kick-start stalled accession talks. Rough road ahead Establishing a framework is an important step forward in the effort to forge a common approach to the mounting crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel—facing discontent at home over her open door policy—welcomed the tentative deal as a potential breakthrough. So did Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron. However, key details remain unresolved: First, it is not clear that all EU countries would agree to take part in such a relocation scheme, given strong opposition to compulsory migrant quotas. On Monday night, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vowed to veto any commitment to resettle asylum seekers. [K]ey details remain unresolved. Second, Ankara’s demands regarding EU membership and visa waivers are likely to be contested. Turkey’s bid for accession has long been controversial, and will only be made more so by the court-ordered seizure of the opposition newspaper Zaman late last week. Visa-free access for Turkish citizens is likewise contentious. Already, leaders of Germany’s conservative Christian Social Union party have vowed “massive resistance” to any such measure. Third, human rights groups have called into question the plan’s legality. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees raised concerns about its legitimacy under EU and international law, expressing unease over the blanket return of foreigners from one country to another. Amnesty International called the proposal a “death blow” to refugee rights. While Europe believes the legal questions can be resolved by declaring Turkey a “safe third country,” Amnesty has cast doubt on the concept. And so? Talks will continue ahead of the EU migration summit, which will take place on March 17 and 18. Meanwhile, NATO will begin carrying out operations in the territorial waters of Greece and Turkey to locate migrant boats. According to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, those efforts will focus on “collecting information and conducting monitoring” in an endeavor to stop the smuggling. In recent weeks, as many as 2,000 migrants each day have been arriving on Greece’s shores. They join more than 35,000 migrants already stranded there, unable to travel north due to border closures along the Western Balkans route. Those closures cast in doubt the future of the continent’s open border regime—and with it, the unity of Europe. Authors Jessica Brandt Full Article
rants In defense of immigrants: Here's why America needs them now more than ever By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 17 May 2016 13:18:00 -0400 At the very heart of the American idea is the notion that, unlike in other places, we can start from nothing and through hard work have everything. That nothing we can imagine is beyond our reach. That we will pull up stakes, go anywhere, do anything to make our dreams come true. But what if that's just a myth? What if the truth is something very different? What if we are…stuck? I. What does it mean to be an American? Full disclosure: I'm British. Partial defense: I was born on the Fourth of July. I also have made my home here, because I want my teenage sons to feel more American. What does that mean? I don't just mean waving flags and watching football and drinking bad beer. (Okay, yes, the beer is excellent now; otherwise, it would have been a harder migration.) I'm talking about the essence of Americanism. It is a question on which much ink—and blood—has been spent. But I think it can be answered very simply: To be American is to be free to make something of yourself. An everyday phrase that's used to admire another ("She's really made something of herself") or as a proud boast ("I'm a self-made man!"), it also expresses a theological truth. The most important American-manufactured products are Americans themselves. The spirit of self-creation offers a strong and inspiring contrast with English identity, which is based on social class. In my old country, people are supposed to know their place. British people, still constitutionally subjects of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, can say things like "Oh, no, that's not for people like me." Infuriating. Americans do not know their place in society; they make their place. American social structures and hierarchies are open, fluid, and dynamic. Mobility, not nobility. Or at least that's the theory. Here's President Obama, in his second inaugural address: "We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own." Politicians of the left in Europe would lament the existence of bleak poverty. Obama instead attacks the idea that a child born to poor parents will inherit their status. "The same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American…." Americanism is a unique and powerful cocktail, blending radical egalitarianism (born equal) with fierce individualism (it's up to you): equal parts Thomas Paine and Horatio Alger. Egalitarian individualism is in America's DNA. In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that "men are created equal and independent," a sentiment that remained even though the last two words were ultimately cut. It was a declaration not only of national independence but also of a nation of independents. The problem lately is not the American Dream in the abstract. It is the growing failure to realize it. Two necessary ingredients of Americanism—meritocracy and momentum—are now sorely lacking. America is stuck. Almost everywhere you look—at class structures, Congress, the economy, race gaps, residential mobility, even the roads—progress is slowing. Gridlock has already become a useful term for political inactivity in Washington, D. C. But it goes much deeper than that. American society itself has become stuck, with weak circulation and mobility across class lines. The economy has lost its postwar dynamism. Racial gaps, illuminated by the burning of churches and urban unrest, stubbornly persist. In a nation where progress was once unquestioned, stasis threatens. Many Americans I talk to sense that things just aren't moving the way they once were. They are right. Right now this prevailing feeling of stuckness, of limited possibilities and uncertain futures, is fueling a growing contempt for institutions, from the banks and Congress to the media and big business, and a wave of antipolitics on both left and right. It is an impotent anger that has yet to take coherent shape. But even if the American people don't know what to do about it, they know that something is profoundly wrong. II. How stuck are we? Let's start with the most important symptom: a lack of social mobility. For all the boasts of meritocracy—only in America!—Americans born at the bottom of the ladder are in fact now less likely to rise to the top than those situated similarly in most other nations, and only half as likely as their Canadian counterparts. The proportion of children born on the bottom rung of the ladder who rise to the top as adults in the U.S. is 7.5 percent—lower than in the U.K. (9 percent), Denmark (11.7), and Canada (13.5). Horatio Alger has a funny Canadian accent now. It is not just poverty that is inherited. Affluent Americans are solidifying their own status and passing it on to their children more than the affluent in other nations and more than they did in the past. Boys born in 1948 to a high-earning father (in the top quarter of wage distribution) had a 33 percent chance of becoming a top earner themselves; for those born in 1980, the chance of staying at the top rose sharply to 44 percent, according to calculations by Manhattan Institute economist Scott Winship. The sons of fathers with really high earnings—in the top 5 percent—are much less likely to tumble down the ladder in the U. S. than in Canada (44 percent versus 59 percent). A "glass floor" prevents even the least talented offspring of the affluent from falling. There is a blockage in the circulation of the American elite as well, a system-wide hardening of the arteries. Exhibit A in the case against the American political elites: the U. S. tax code. To call it Byzantine is an insult to medieval Roman administrative prowess. There is one good reason for this complexity: The American tax system is a major instrument of social policy, especially in terms of tax credits to lower-income families, health-care subsidies, incentives for retirement savings, and so on. But there are plenty of bad reasons, too—above all, the billions of dollars' worth of breaks and exceptions resulting from lobbying efforts by the very people the tax system favors. So fragile is the American political ego that we can't go five minutes without congratulating ourselves on the greatness of our system, yet policy choices exacerbate stuckness. The American system is also a weak reed when it comes to redistribution. You will have read and heard many times that the United States is one of the most unequal nations in the world. That is true, but only after the impact of taxes and benefits is taken into account. What economists call "market inequality," which exists before any government intervention at all, is much lower—in fact it's about the same as in Germany and France. There is a lot going on under the hood here, but the key point is clear enough: America is unequal because American policy moves less money from rich to poor. Inequality is not fate or an act of nature. Inequality is a choice. These are facts that should shock America into action. For a nation organized principally around the ideas of opportunity and openness, social stickiness of this order amounts to an existential threat. Although political leaders declare their dedication to openness, the hard issues raised by social inertia are receiving insufficient attention in terms of actual policy solutions. Most American politicians remain cheerleaders for the American Dream, merely offering loud encouragement from the sidelines, as if that were their role. So fragile is the American political ego that we can't go five minutes without congratulating ourselves on the greatness of our system, yet policy choices exacerbate stuckness and ensure decline. In Britain (where stickiness has historically been an accepted social condition), by contrast, the issues of social mobility and class stickiness have risen to the top of the political and policy agenda. In the previous U.K. government (in which I served as director of strategy to Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister), we devoted whole Cabinet meetings to the problems of intergenerational mobility and the development of a new national strategy. (One result has been a dramatic expansion in pre-K education and care: Every 3- and 4-year-old will soon be entitled to 30 hours a week for free.) Many of the Cabinet members were schooled at the nation's finest private high schools. A few had hereditary titles. But they pored over data and argued over remedies—posh people worrying over intergenerational income quintiles. Why is social mobility a hotter topic in the old country? Here is my theory: Brits are acutely aware that they live in a class-divided society. Cues and clues of accent, dress, education, and comportment are constantly calibrated. But this awareness increases political pressure to reduce these divisions. In America, by contrast, the myth of classlessness stands in the way of progress. The everyday folksiness of Americans—which, to be clear, I love—serves as a social camouflage for deep economic inequality. Americans tell themselves and one another that they live in a classless land of open opportunity. But it is starting to ring hollow, isn't it? III. For black Americans, claims of equal opportunity have, of course, been false from the founding. They remain false today. The chances of being stuck in poverty are far, far greater for black kids. Half of those born on the bottom rung of the income ladder (the bottom fifth) will stay there as adults. Perhaps even more disturbing, seven out of ten black kids raised in middle-income homes (i.e., the middle fifth) will end up lower down as adults. A boy who grows up in Baltimore will earn 28 percent less simply because he grew up in Baltimore: In other words, this supersedes all other factors. Sixty-six percent of black children live in America's poorest neighborhoods, compared with six percent of white children. Recent events have shone a light on the black experience in dozens of U. S. cities. Behind the riots and the rage, the statistics tell a simple, damning story. Progress toward equality for black Americans has essentially halted. The average black family has an income that is 59 percent of the average white family's, down from 65 percent in 2000. In the job market, race gaps are immobile, too. In the 1950s, black Americans were twice as likely to be unemployed as whites. And today? Still twice as likely. From heeding the call "Go west, young man" to loading up the U-Haul in search of a better job, the instinctive restlessness of America has always matched skills to work, people to opportunities, labor to capital. Race gaps in wealth are perhaps the most striking of all. The average white household is now thirteen times wealthier than the average black one. This is the widest gap in a quarter of a century. The recession hit families of all races, but it resulted in a wealth wipeout for black families. In 2007, the average black family had a net worth of $19,200, almost entirely in housing stock, typically at the cheap, fragile end of the market. By 2010, this had fallen to $16,600. By 2013—by which point white wealth levels had started to recover—it was down to $11,000. In national economic terms, black wealth is now essentially nonexistent. Half a century after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, the arc of history is no longer bending toward justice. A few years ago, it was reasonable to hope that changing attitudes, increasing education, and a growing economy would surely, if slowly, bring black America and white America closer together. No longer. America is stuck. IV. The economy is also getting stuck. Labor productivity growth, measured as growth in output per hour, has averaged 1.6 percent since 1973. Male earning power is flatlining. In 2014, the median full-time male wage was $50,000, down from $53,000 in 1973 (in the dollar equivalent of 2014). Capital is being hoarded rather than invested in the businesses of the future. U. S. corporations have almost $1.5 trillion sitting on their balance sheets, and many are busily buying up their own stock. But capital expenditure lags, hindering the economic recovery. New-business creation and entrepreneurial activity are declining, too. As economist Robert Litan has shown, the proportion of "baby businesses" (firms less than a year old) has almost halved since the late 1970s, decreasing from 15 percent to 8 percent—the hallmark of "a steady, secular decline in business dynamism." It is significant that this downward trend set in long before the Great Recession hit. There is less movement between jobs as well, another symptom of declining economic vigor. Americans are settling behind their desks—and also into their neighborhoods. The proportion of American adults moving house each year has decreased by almost half since the postwar years, to around 12 percent. Long-distance moves across state lines have as well. This is partly due to technological advances, which have weakened the link between location and job prospects, and partly to the growth of economic diversity in cities; there are few "one industry" towns today. But it is also due to a less vibrant housing market, slower rates of new business creation, and a lessening in Americans' appetite for disruption, change, and risk. This geographic settling is at odds with historic American geographic mobility. From heeding the call "Go west, young man" to loading up the U-Haul in search of a better job, the instinctive restlessness of America has always matched skills to work, people to opportunities, labor to capital. Rather than waiting for help from the government, or for the economic tide to turn back in their favor, millions of Americans changed their life prospects by changing their address. Now they are more likely to stay put and wait. Others, especially black Americans, are unable to escape the poor neighborhoods of their childhood. They are, as the title of an influential book by sociologist Patrick Sharkey puts it, Stuck in Place. There are everyday symptoms of stuckness, too. Take transport. In 2014, Americans collectively spent almost seven billion hours stuck motionless in traffic—that's a couple days each. The roads get more jammed every year. But money for infrastructure improvements is stuck in a failing road fund, and the railophobia of politicians hampers investment in public transport. Whose job is it to do something about this? The most visible symptom of our disease is the glue slowly hardening in the machinery of national government. The last two Congresses have been the least productive in history by almost any measure chosen, just when we need them to be the most productive. The U. S. political system, with its strong separation among competing centers of power, relies on a spirit of cross-party compromise and trust in order to work. Good luck there. V. So what is to be done? As with anything, the first step is to admit the problem. Americans have to stop convincing themselves they live in a society of opportunity. It is a painful admission, of course, especially for the most successful. The most fervent believers in meritocracy are naturally those who have enjoyed success. It is hard to acknowledge the role of good fortune, including the lottery of birth, when describing your own path to greatness. There is a general reckoning needed. In the golden years following World War II, the economy grew at 4 percent per annum and wages surged. Wealth accumulated. The federal government, at the zenith of its powers, built interstates and the welfare system, sent GIs to college and men to the moon. But here's the thing: Those days are gone, and they're not coming back. Opportunity and growth will no longer be delivered, almost automatically, by a buoyant and largely unchallenged economy. Now it will take work. The future success of the American idea must now be intentional. Entrepreneurial, mobile, aspirational: New Americans are true Americans. We need a lot more of them. There are plenty of ideas for reform that simply require will and a functioning political system. At the heart of them is the determination to think big again and to vigorously engage in public investment. And we need to put money into future generations like our lives depended on it, because they do: Access to affordable, effective contraception dramatically cuts rates of unplanned pregnancy and gives kids a better start in life. Done well, pre-K education closes learning gaps and prepares children for school. More generous income benefits stabilize homes and help kids. Reading programs for new parents improve literacy levels. Strong school principals attract good teachers and raise standards. College coaches help get nontraditional students to and through college. And so on. We are not lacking ideas. We are lacking a necessary sense of political urgency. We are stuck. But we can move again if we choose. In addition to a rejuvenation of policy in all these fields, there are two big shifts required for an American twenty-first-century renaissance: becoming open to more immigration and shifting power from Washington to the cities. VI. America needs another wave of immigration. This is in part just basic math: We need more young workers to fund the old age of the baby boomers. But there is more to it than that. Immigrants also provide a shot in the arm to American vitality itself. Always have, always will. Immigrants are now twice as likely to start a new business as native-born Americans. Rates of entrepreneurialism are declining among natives but rising among immigrants. Immigrant children show extraordinary upward-mobility rates, shooting up the income-distribution ladder like rockets, yet by the third or fourth generation, the rates go down, reflecting indigenous norms. Among children born in Los Angeles to poorly educated Chinese immigrants, for example, an astonishing 70 percent complete a four-year-college degree. As the work of my Brookings colleague William Frey shows, immigrants are migrants within the U. S., too, moving on from traditional immigrant cities—New York, Los Angeles—to other towns and cities in search of a better future. Entrepreneurial, mobile, aspirational: New Americans are true Americans. We need a lot more of them. This makes a mockery of our contemporary political "debates" about immigration reform, which have become intertwined with race and racism. Some Republicans tap directly into white fears of an America growing steadily browner. More than four in ten white seniors say that a growing population of immigrants is a "change for the worse"; half of white boomers believe immigration is "a threat to traditional American customs and values." But immigration delves deeper into the question of American identity than it does even issues of race. Immigrants generate more dynamism and aspiration, but they are also unsettling and challenging. Where this debate ends will therefore tell us a great deal about the trajectory of the nation. An America that closes its doors will be an America that has chosen to settle rather than grow, that has allowed security to trump dynamism. VII. The second big shift needed to get America unstuck is a revival of city and state governance. Since the American Dream is part of the national identity, it seems natural to look to the national government to help make it a reality. But cities are now where the American Dream will live or die. America's hundred biggest metros are home to 67 percent of the nation's population and 75 percent of its economy. Americans love the iconography of the small town, even at the movies—but they watch those movies in big cities. Powerful mayors in those cities have greater room for maneuvering and making an impact than the average U. S. senator. Even smaller cities and towns can be strongly influenced by their mayor. There are choices to be made. Class divisions are hardening. Upward mobility has a very weak pulse. Race gaps are widening. The new federalism in part is being born of necessity. National politics is in ruins, and national institutions are weakened by years of short-termism and partisanship. Power, finding a vacuum in D. C., is diffusive. But it may also be that many of the big domestic-policy challenges will be better answered at a subnational level, because that is where many of the levers of change are to be found: education, family planning, housing, desegregation, job creation, transport, and training. Amid the furor over Common Core and federal standards, it is important to remember that for every hundred dollars spent on education, just nine come from the federal government. We may be witnessing the end of many decades of national-government dominance in domestic policy-making (the New Deal, Social Security, Medicare, welfare reform, Obamacare). The Affordable Care Act is important in itself, but it may also come to have a place in history as the legislative bookend to a long period of national-policy virtuosity. The case for the new federalism need not be overstated. There will still be plenty of problems for the national government to fix, including, among the most urgent, infrastructure and nuclear waste. The main tools of macroeconomic policy will remain the Federal Reserve and the federal tax code. But the twentieth-century model of big federal social-policy reforms is in decline. Mayors and governors are starting to notice, and because they don't have the luxury of being stuck, they are forced to be entrepreneurs of a new politics simply to survive. VIII. It is possible for America to recover its earlier dynamism, but it won't be easy. The big question for Americans is: Do you really want to? Societies, like people, age. They might also settle down, lose some dynamism, trade a little less openness for a little more security, get a bit stuck in their ways. Many of the settled nations of old Europe have largely come to terms with their middle age. They are wary of immigration but enthusiastic about generous welfare systems and income redistribution. Less dynamism, maybe, but more security in exchange. America, it seems to me, is not made to be a settled society. Such a notion runs counter to the story we tell ourselves about who we are. (That's right, we. We've all come from somewhere else, haven't we? I just got here a bit more recently.) But over time, our narratives become myths, insulating us from the truth. For we are surely stuck, if not settled. And so America needs to decide one way or the other. There are choices to be made. Class divisions are hardening. Upward mobility has a very weak pulse. Race gaps are widening. The worst of all worlds threatens: a European class structure without European welfare systems to dull the pain. Americans tell themselves and the world that theirs is a society in which each and all can rise, an inspiring contrast to the hereditary cultures from which it sprang. It's one of the reasons I'm here. But have I arrived to raise my children here just in time to be stuck, too? Or will America be America again? Editor's note: This piece originally appeared in Esquire. Authors Richard V. Reeves Publication: Esquire Image Source: © Jo Yong hak / Reuters Full Article
rants Don’t forget to thank immigrants, too By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 01 Apr 2020 14:00:25 +0000 As the global struggle against COVID-19 continues, the world as a whole continues to express gratitude to health workers and first responders for their tireless work. And that is the right thing to do. One little but important detail about these workers should not go unnoticed: If you are going to be treated for COVID-19,… Full Article
rants In defense of immigrants: Here's why America needs them now more than ever By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 17 May 2016 13:18:00 -0400 At the very heart of the American idea is the notion that, unlike in other places, we can start from nothing and through hard work have everything. That nothing we can imagine is beyond our reach. That we will pull up stakes, go anywhere, do anything to make our dreams come true. But what if that's just a myth? What if the truth is something very different? What if we are…stuck? I. What does it mean to be an American? Full disclosure: I'm British. Partial defense: I was born on the Fourth of July. I also have made my home here, because I want my teenage sons to feel more American. What does that mean? I don't just mean waving flags and watching football and drinking bad beer. (Okay, yes, the beer is excellent now; otherwise, it would have been a harder migration.) I'm talking about the essence of Americanism. It is a question on which much ink—and blood—has been spent. But I think it can be answered very simply: To be American is to be free to make something of yourself. An everyday phrase that's used to admire another ("She's really made something of herself") or as a proud boast ("I'm a self-made man!"), it also expresses a theological truth. The most important American-manufactured products are Americans themselves. The spirit of self-creation offers a strong and inspiring contrast with English identity, which is based on social class. In my old country, people are supposed to know their place. British people, still constitutionally subjects of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, can say things like "Oh, no, that's not for people like me." Infuriating. Americans do not know their place in society; they make their place. American social structures and hierarchies are open, fluid, and dynamic. Mobility, not nobility. Or at least that's the theory. Here's President Obama, in his second inaugural address: "We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own." Politicians of the left in Europe would lament the existence of bleak poverty. Obama instead attacks the idea that a child born to poor parents will inherit their status. "The same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American…." Americanism is a unique and powerful cocktail, blending radical egalitarianism (born equal) with fierce individualism (it's up to you): equal parts Thomas Paine and Horatio Alger. Egalitarian individualism is in America's DNA. In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that "men are created equal and independent," a sentiment that remained even though the last two words were ultimately cut. It was a declaration not only of national independence but also of a nation of independents. The problem lately is not the American Dream in the abstract. It is the growing failure to realize it. Two necessary ingredients of Americanism—meritocracy and momentum—are now sorely lacking. America is stuck. Almost everywhere you look—at class structures, Congress, the economy, race gaps, residential mobility, even the roads—progress is slowing. Gridlock has already become a useful term for political inactivity in Washington, D. C. But it goes much deeper than that. American society itself has become stuck, with weak circulation and mobility across class lines. The economy has lost its postwar dynamism. Racial gaps, illuminated by the burning of churches and urban unrest, stubbornly persist. In a nation where progress was once unquestioned, stasis threatens. Many Americans I talk to sense that things just aren't moving the way they once were. They are right. Right now this prevailing feeling of stuckness, of limited possibilities and uncertain futures, is fueling a growing contempt for institutions, from the banks and Congress to the media and big business, and a wave of antipolitics on both left and right. It is an impotent anger that has yet to take coherent shape. But even if the American people don't know what to do about it, they know that something is profoundly wrong. II. How stuck are we? Let's start with the most important symptom: a lack of social mobility. For all the boasts of meritocracy—only in America!—Americans born at the bottom of the ladder are in fact now less likely to rise to the top than those situated similarly in most other nations, and only half as likely as their Canadian counterparts. The proportion of children born on the bottom rung of the ladder who rise to the top as adults in the U.S. is 7.5 percent—lower than in the U.K. (9 percent), Denmark (11.7), and Canada (13.5). Horatio Alger has a funny Canadian accent now. It is not just poverty that is inherited. Affluent Americans are solidifying their own status and passing it on to their children more than the affluent in other nations and more than they did in the past. Boys born in 1948 to a high-earning father (in the top quarter of wage distribution) had a 33 percent chance of becoming a top earner themselves; for those born in 1980, the chance of staying at the top rose sharply to 44 percent, according to calculations by Manhattan Institute economist Scott Winship. The sons of fathers with really high earnings—in the top 5 percent—are much less likely to tumble down the ladder in the U. S. than in Canada (44 percent versus 59 percent). A "glass floor" prevents even the least talented offspring of the affluent from falling. There is a blockage in the circulation of the American elite as well, a system-wide hardening of the arteries. Exhibit A in the case against the American political elites: the U. S. tax code. To call it Byzantine is an insult to medieval Roman administrative prowess. There is one good reason for this complexity: The American tax system is a major instrument of social policy, especially in terms of tax credits to lower-income families, health-care subsidies, incentives for retirement savings, and so on. But there are plenty of bad reasons, too—above all, the billions of dollars' worth of breaks and exceptions resulting from lobbying efforts by the very people the tax system favors. So fragile is the American political ego that we can't go five minutes without congratulating ourselves on the greatness of our system, yet policy choices exacerbate stuckness. The American system is also a weak reed when it comes to redistribution. You will have read and heard many times that the United States is one of the most unequal nations in the world. That is true, but only after the impact of taxes and benefits is taken into account. What economists call "market inequality," which exists before any government intervention at all, is much lower—in fact it's about the same as in Germany and France. There is a lot going on under the hood here, but the key point is clear enough: America is unequal because American policy moves less money from rich to poor. Inequality is not fate or an act of nature. Inequality is a choice. These are facts that should shock America into action. For a nation organized principally around the ideas of opportunity and openness, social stickiness of this order amounts to an existential threat. Although political leaders declare their dedication to openness, the hard issues raised by social inertia are receiving insufficient attention in terms of actual policy solutions. Most American politicians remain cheerleaders for the American Dream, merely offering loud encouragement from the sidelines, as if that were their role. So fragile is the American political ego that we can't go five minutes without congratulating ourselves on the greatness of our system, yet policy choices exacerbate stuckness and ensure decline. In Britain (where stickiness has historically been an accepted social condition), by contrast, the issues of social mobility and class stickiness have risen to the top of the political and policy agenda. In the previous U.K. government (in which I served as director of strategy to Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister), we devoted whole Cabinet meetings to the problems of intergenerational mobility and the development of a new national strategy. (One result has been a dramatic expansion in pre-K education and care: Every 3- and 4-year-old will soon be entitled to 30 hours a week for free.) Many of the Cabinet members were schooled at the nation's finest private high schools. A few had hereditary titles. But they pored over data and argued over remedies—posh people worrying over intergenerational income quintiles. Why is social mobility a hotter topic in the old country? Here is my theory: Brits are acutely aware that they live in a class-divided society. Cues and clues of accent, dress, education, and comportment are constantly calibrated. But this awareness increases political pressure to reduce these divisions. In America, by contrast, the myth of classlessness stands in the way of progress. The everyday folksiness of Americans—which, to be clear, I love—serves as a social camouflage for deep economic inequality. Americans tell themselves and one another that they live in a classless land of open opportunity. But it is starting to ring hollow, isn't it? III. For black Americans, claims of equal opportunity have, of course, been false from the founding. They remain false today. The chances of being stuck in poverty are far, far greater for black kids. Half of those born on the bottom rung of the income ladder (the bottom fifth) will stay there as adults. Perhaps even more disturbing, seven out of ten black kids raised in middle-income homes (i.e., the middle fifth) will end up lower down as adults. A boy who grows up in Baltimore will earn 28 percent less simply because he grew up in Baltimore: In other words, this supersedes all other factors. Sixty-six percent of black children live in America's poorest neighborhoods, compared with six percent of white children. Recent events have shone a light on the black experience in dozens of U. S. cities. Behind the riots and the rage, the statistics tell a simple, damning story. Progress toward equality for black Americans has essentially halted. The average black family has an income that is 59 percent of the average white family's, down from 65 percent in 2000. In the job market, race gaps are immobile, too. In the 1950s, black Americans were twice as likely to be unemployed as whites. And today? Still twice as likely. From heeding the call "Go west, young man" to loading up the U-Haul in search of a better job, the instinctive restlessness of America has always matched skills to work, people to opportunities, labor to capital. Race gaps in wealth are perhaps the most striking of all. The average white household is now thirteen times wealthier than the average black one. This is the widest gap in a quarter of a century. The recession hit families of all races, but it resulted in a wealth wipeout for black families. In 2007, the average black family had a net worth of $19,200, almost entirely in housing stock, typically at the cheap, fragile end of the market. By 2010, this had fallen to $16,600. By 2013—by which point white wealth levels had started to recover—it was down to $11,000. In national economic terms, black wealth is now essentially nonexistent. Half a century after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, the arc of history is no longer bending toward justice. A few years ago, it was reasonable to hope that changing attitudes, increasing education, and a growing economy would surely, if slowly, bring black America and white America closer together. No longer. America is stuck. IV. The economy is also getting stuck. Labor productivity growth, measured as growth in output per hour, has averaged 1.6 percent since 1973. Male earning power is flatlining. In 2014, the median full-time male wage was $50,000, down from $53,000 in 1973 (in the dollar equivalent of 2014). Capital is being hoarded rather than invested in the businesses of the future. U. S. corporations have almost $1.5 trillion sitting on their balance sheets, and many are busily buying up their own stock. But capital expenditure lags, hindering the economic recovery. New-business creation and entrepreneurial activity are declining, too. As economist Robert Litan has shown, the proportion of "baby businesses" (firms less than a year old) has almost halved since the late 1970s, decreasing from 15 percent to 8 percent—the hallmark of "a steady, secular decline in business dynamism." It is significant that this downward trend set in long before the Great Recession hit. There is less movement between jobs as well, another symptom of declining economic vigor. Americans are settling behind their desks—and also into their neighborhoods. The proportion of American adults moving house each year has decreased by almost half since the postwar years, to around 12 percent. Long-distance moves across state lines have as well. This is partly due to technological advances, which have weakened the link between location and job prospects, and partly to the growth of economic diversity in cities; there are few "one industry" towns today. But it is also due to a less vibrant housing market, slower rates of new business creation, and a lessening in Americans' appetite for disruption, change, and risk. This geographic settling is at odds with historic American geographic mobility. From heeding the call "Go west, young man" to loading up the U-Haul in search of a better job, the instinctive restlessness of America has always matched skills to work, people to opportunities, labor to capital. Rather than waiting for help from the government, or for the economic tide to turn back in their favor, millions of Americans changed their life prospects by changing their address. Now they are more likely to stay put and wait. Others, especially black Americans, are unable to escape the poor neighborhoods of their childhood. They are, as the title of an influential book by sociologist Patrick Sharkey puts it, Stuck in Place. There are everyday symptoms of stuckness, too. Take transport. In 2014, Americans collectively spent almost seven billion hours stuck motionless in traffic—that's a couple days each. The roads get more jammed every year. But money for infrastructure improvements is stuck in a failing road fund, and the railophobia of politicians hampers investment in public transport. Whose job is it to do something about this? The most visible symptom of our disease is the glue slowly hardening in the machinery of national government. The last two Congresses have been the least productive in history by almost any measure chosen, just when we need them to be the most productive. The U. S. political system, with its strong separation among competing centers of power, relies on a spirit of cross-party compromise and trust in order to work. Good luck there. V. So what is to be done? As with anything, the first step is to admit the problem. Americans have to stop convincing themselves they live in a society of opportunity. It is a painful admission, of course, especially for the most successful. The most fervent believers in meritocracy are naturally those who have enjoyed success. It is hard to acknowledge the role of good fortune, including the lottery of birth, when describing your own path to greatness. There is a general reckoning needed. In the golden years following World War II, the economy grew at 4 percent per annum and wages surged. Wealth accumulated. The federal government, at the zenith of its powers, built interstates and the welfare system, sent GIs to college and men to the moon. But here's the thing: Those days are gone, and they're not coming back. Opportunity and growth will no longer be delivered, almost automatically, by a buoyant and largely unchallenged economy. Now it will take work. The future success of the American idea must now be intentional. Entrepreneurial, mobile, aspirational: New Americans are true Americans. We need a lot more of them. There are plenty of ideas for reform that simply require will and a functioning political system. At the heart of them is the determination to think big again and to vigorously engage in public investment. And we need to put money into future generations like our lives depended on it, because they do: Access to affordable, effective contraception dramatically cuts rates of unplanned pregnancy and gives kids a better start in life. Done well, pre-K education closes learning gaps and prepares children for school. More generous income benefits stabilize homes and help kids. Reading programs for new parents improve literacy levels. Strong school principals attract good teachers and raise standards. College coaches help get nontraditional students to and through college. And so on. We are not lacking ideas. We are lacking a necessary sense of political urgency. We are stuck. But we can move again if we choose. In addition to a rejuvenation of policy in all these fields, there are two big shifts required for an American twenty-first-century renaissance: becoming open to more immigration and shifting power from Washington to the cities. VI. America needs another wave of immigration. This is in part just basic math: We need more young workers to fund the old age of the baby boomers. But there is more to it than that. Immigrants also provide a shot in the arm to American vitality itself. Always have, always will. Immigrants are now twice as likely to start a new business as native-born Americans. Rates of entrepreneurialism are declining among natives but rising among immigrants. Immigrant children show extraordinary upward-mobility rates, shooting up the income-distribution ladder like rockets, yet by the third or fourth generation, the rates go down, reflecting indigenous norms. Among children born in Los Angeles to poorly educated Chinese immigrants, for example, an astonishing 70 percent complete a four-year-college degree. As the work of my Brookings colleague William Frey shows, immigrants are migrants within the U. S., too, moving on from traditional immigrant cities—New York, Los Angeles—to other towns and cities in search of a better future. Entrepreneurial, mobile, aspirational: New Americans are true Americans. We need a lot more of them. This makes a mockery of our contemporary political "debates" about immigration reform, which have become intertwined with race and racism. Some Republicans tap directly into white fears of an America growing steadily browner. More than four in ten white seniors say that a growing population of immigrants is a "change for the worse"; half of white boomers believe immigration is "a threat to traditional American customs and values." But immigration delves deeper into the question of American identity than it does even issues of race. Immigrants generate more dynamism and aspiration, but they are also unsettling and challenging. Where this debate ends will therefore tell us a great deal about the trajectory of the nation. An America that closes its doors will be an America that has chosen to settle rather than grow, that has allowed security to trump dynamism. VII. The second big shift needed to get America unstuck is a revival of city and state governance. Since the American Dream is part of the national identity, it seems natural to look to the national government to help make it a reality. But cities are now where the American Dream will live or die. America's hundred biggest metros are home to 67 percent of the nation's population and 75 percent of its economy. Americans love the iconography of the small town, even at the movies—but they watch those movies in big cities. Powerful mayors in those cities have greater room for maneuvering and making an impact than the average U. S. senator. Even smaller cities and towns can be strongly influenced by their mayor. There are choices to be made. Class divisions are hardening. Upward mobility has a very weak pulse. Race gaps are widening. The new federalism in part is being born of necessity. National politics is in ruins, and national institutions are weakened by years of short-termism and partisanship. Power, finding a vacuum in D. C., is diffusive. But it may also be that many of the big domestic-policy challenges will be better answered at a subnational level, because that is where many of the levers of change are to be found: education, family planning, housing, desegregation, job creation, transport, and training. Amid the furor over Common Core and federal standards, it is important to remember that for every hundred dollars spent on education, just nine come from the federal government. We may be witnessing the end of many decades of national-government dominance in domestic policy-making (the New Deal, Social Security, Medicare, welfare reform, Obamacare). The Affordable Care Act is important in itself, but it may also come to have a place in history as the legislative bookend to a long period of national-policy virtuosity. The case for the new federalism need not be overstated. There will still be plenty of problems for the national government to fix, including, among the most urgent, infrastructure and nuclear waste. The main tools of macroeconomic policy will remain the Federal Reserve and the federal tax code. But the twentieth-century model of big federal social-policy reforms is in decline. Mayors and governors are starting to notice, and because they don't have the luxury of being stuck, they are forced to be entrepreneurs of a new politics simply to survive. VIII. It is possible for America to recover its earlier dynamism, but it won't be easy. The big question for Americans is: Do you really want to? Societies, like people, age. They might also settle down, lose some dynamism, trade a little less openness for a little more security, get a bit stuck in their ways. Many of the settled nations of old Europe have largely come to terms with their middle age. They are wary of immigration but enthusiastic about generous welfare systems and income redistribution. Less dynamism, maybe, but more security in exchange. America, it seems to me, is not made to be a settled society. Such a notion runs counter to the story we tell ourselves about who we are. (That's right, we. We've all come from somewhere else, haven't we? I just got here a bit more recently.) But over time, our narratives become myths, insulating us from the truth. For we are surely stuck, if not settled. And so America needs to decide one way or the other. There are choices to be made. Class divisions are hardening. Upward mobility has a very weak pulse. Race gaps are widening. The worst of all worlds threatens: a European class structure without European welfare systems to dull the pain. Americans tell themselves and the world that theirs is a society in which each and all can rise, an inspiring contrast to the hereditary cultures from which it sprang. It's one of the reasons I'm here. But have I arrived to raise my children here just in time to be stuck, too? Or will America be America again? Editor's note: This piece originally appeared in Esquire. Authors Richard V. Reeves Publication: Esquire Image Source: © Jo Yong hak / Reuters Full Article
rants Here's what America would be like without immigrants By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 24 May 2016 13:04:00 -0400 “There is room for everybody in America,” wrote French-American author Hector St. John de Crèvecœur in 1782’s Letters from an American Farmer. Like most of the founding generation, Crèvecœur believed the sheer size of the new nation meant for a prosperous future. But he was also celebrating an attitude of openness, a willingness to embrace new citizens from around the world into what he called the “melting pot” of American society. The embrace of openness has survived, in spite of occasional outbreaks of anti-immigrant sentiment, for the intervening two and a half centuries. The United States remains an immigrant nation, in spirit as well as in fact. (A fact for which, as an immigrant from the Old Country, I am grateful). My wife is American, and my high schoolers have had U.S. passports since being born in London. Right now I'm applying for U.S. citizenship. I want America to be my home not just my residence. My story is of course very different to most immigrants - but the point is, all of our stories are different. What unites us is our desire to be American. But this spirit may be waning. Thanks only in part to Donald Trump, immigration is near the top of the political agenda – and not in a good way. Trump has brilliantly exploited the imagery of The Wall to tap into the frustrations of white middle America. But America needs immigration. At the most banal level, this is a question of math. We need more young workers to fund the old age of the Baby Boomers. Overall, immigrants are good for the economy, as a recent summary of research from Brookings’ Hamilton Project shows. Of course, while immigration might be good for the economy as a whole, that does not mean it is good for everyone. Competition for wages and jobs will impact negatively on some existing residents, who may be more economically vulnerable in the first place. Policymakers keen to promote the benefits of immigration should also be attentive to its costs. But the value of immigration cannot be reduced to an actuarial table or spreadsheet. Immigrants do not simply make America better off. They make America better. Immigrants provide a shot in the nation’s arm. Immigrants are now twice as likely to start a new business as native-born Americans. While rates of entrepreneurialism are declining among natives, they are rising among immigrants. Immigrant children typically show extraordinary upward mobility, in terms of income, occupation and education. Among children born in Los Angeles to poorly-educated Chinese immigrants, for example, an astonishing 70% complete a four-year-college degree. As the work of my Brookings colleague William Frey shows, immigrants are migrants within the U. S., too, moving on from traditional immigrant cities — New York and Los Angeles — to other towns and cities in search of a better future. New Americans are true Americans. We need more of them. But Trump is tapping directly and dangerously into white fears of an America growing steadily browner. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, more than four in ten white seniors say that a growing population of immigrants is a "change for the worse;" half of white boomers believe immigration is "a threat to traditional American customs and values." Immigration gets at a deep question of American identity in the 21st century. Just like people, societies age. They might also settle down, lose some dynamism. They might trade a little less openness for a little more security. In other words, they get a bit stuck in their ways. Immigrants generate dynamism and aspiration, but they are also unsettling and challenging. Where this debate ends will therefore tell us a great deal about the trajectory of the nation. An America that closes its doors will be an America that has chosen to settle down rather than grow, allowing security to eclipse dynamism. Disruption is not costless. But America has always weighed the benefits of dynamism and diversity more heavily. Immigration is an important way in which America hits the refresh button and renews herself. Without immigration, the nation would not only be worse off, but would cease, in some elemental sense, to be America at all. Editor's note: This piece originally appeared in Fortune. Authors Richard V. Reeves Publication: Fortune Full Article
rants 100 NYC restaurants commit to less food waste By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Fri, 24 May 2013 15:29:00 -0400 With more composting and recycling, the city's eateries aim to send less to the landfill. Full Article Living
rants Immigrants get a new microbiome when they come to the U.S. By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:29:00 -0500 Unfortunately it's not an improvement. Full Article Living
rants IKEA is growing lettuce to serve in its restaurants By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Mon, 08 Apr 2019 07:00:00 -0400 High-tech hydroponic containers allow for soil-less cultivation and a carefully controlled yield. Full Article Living
rants Kilgali Amendment would phase out climate-changing HFC refrigerants. Will Trump ratify it? By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:53:10 -0400 Our bet: no. Full Article Business
rants Global treaty signed to ban HFC refrigerants By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 08:05:09 -0400 This is a very big deal, but just the first of many more bigger and harder deals that we need. Full Article Business
rants Does the Environment Win When Economic Crisis Sends Immigrants Home? By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Wed, 13 May 2009 16:18:00 -0400 Turkish cities have been the stage for culture clashes in recent years, as residents of rural areas moved to urban areas in large numbers, bringing what many urbanites see as Full Article Business
rants Fancy food guide adds sustainability symbol to highlight green restaurants By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:40:48 -0500 Considered to be the highest award a restaurant can receive, the Michelin Guide's 2020 French edition now gives a nod to environmentally minded restaurants. Full Article Living
rants Does Living Near Fast Food Restaurants Mean You’re More Likely to Be Fat? By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:25:00 -0500 Fast food is the enemy of green food, so why does an overweight America still eat so much fast food? Full Article Living
rants Take back the streets and give them to restaurants By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:20:32 -0400 Vilnius has an idea that would work in a lot of places. Full Article Design
rants 100 High Schools Share $3.28 million in Celebrate My Drive® grants - Celebrate My Drive® thanks all who committed to drive safe! By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: 15 Dec 2014 10:15:00 EST Celebrate My Drive® thanks all who committed to drive safe! Full Article Auto Banking Financial Services Entertainment Insurance Music Broadcast Feed Announcements Public Safety MultiVu Video
rants The coronavirus and the future of restaurants By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 12:18:14 -0400 What will it take to bring people back? Full Article Design
rants President George H.W. Bush Joins Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) to Present First-Ever George H.W. Bush Vamos A Pescarâ„¢ Education Fund Grants - Broll footage and soundbites from a Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundat By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: 18 Apr 2016 14:35:00 EDT Broll footage and soundbites from a Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) event at the George Bush Presidential Library on Thursday, April 14, 2016, in College Station, Texas. RBFF is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase participation in recreational angling and boating, thereby protecting and restoring the nation’s aquatic natural resources. Full Article Education Sports New Products Services Hispanic-oriented News Broadcast Feed Announcements MultiVu Video
rants Nearly a fifth of Wendy's US restaurants are out of beef, analyst says By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 14:12:25 GMT Stephens Inc. said its estimate is based on an analysis of online menus for every Wendy's location nationwide. Full Article
rants Here's why restaurants reopening could be good news for summer jobs By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 20:03:20 GMT Prior to the pandemic, a historically tight labor market was pushing employers to get creative to find and keep talent. Now, it's enhanced unemployment benefits that are causing a challenge. Full Article
rants Many restaurants would 'shut down completely' under Tennessee's reopening guidelines, Jim Cramer says By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 22:57:31 GMT "These rules are safe and healthy for the customer, which is great, but there's simply no way most restaurants can possibly obey them without going right out of business," the "Mad Money" host said. Full Article
rants When will restaurants and bars reopen? Here's what experts are saying By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 21:17:02 GMT The outlook for U.S. restaurants in the near term is bleak, dominated by massive unemployment and closures, but Asia may provide a path forward. Full Article
rants Bill Ackman looks to find another winner in restaurants, where his track record is perfect By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 12:02:05 GMT Pershing Square made six previous investments in this industry and has never lost money on any of them. Full Article
rants Op-Ed: Local bars and restaurants face extinction because of coronavirus – and government needs to step up By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 21:10:39 GMT Independent bars and restaurants found some relief in the Paycheck Protection Program, which offers low interest, short-term loans with the potential of forgiveness. That is not nearly enough, writes author and bar owner Derek Brown. Full Article
rants Stimulus package grants student loan borrowers a six-month break By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Fri, 27 Mar 2020 17:42:55 GMT The historic stimulus Congress passed grants the millions of Americans with student debt a break from their payments for at least six months. Full Article
rants Coronavirus outbreak could put 500K summer restaurants jobs in jeopardy By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 18:57:22 GMT Restaurants across the U.S. are slated to reopen during the summer season as coronavirus restrictions are lifted. CNBC's Kate Rogers reports on what that could mean for restaurant jobs. Full Article
rants Bloomin' CEO on reopening restaurants and Covid-19 impact By www.cnbc.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 19:41:48 GMT David Deno, Bloomin' Brands CEO, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss what their reopened restaurants look like, the company's first quarterly earnings, what customers are ordering and the April jobs loss number. Full Article
rants They Say There’s No Room for Immigrants While Desperate Rural Towns Lie Empty All Across the Western World By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 16 Jul 2019 17:38:20 +0000 Here’s a thing I keep noticing, and it drives me nuts. In Italy, a ship captain is arrested for bringing immigrants to shore after rescuing from them near death at sea: The number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores has drastically diminished – just 2,800 so far this year – and the country is now led… Continue reading They Say There’s No Room for Immigrants While Desperate Rural Towns Lie Empty All Across the Western World Full Article Life Log immigration western world
rants 20,000 migrants have been expelled along border under coronavirus order By news.yahoo.com Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 20:35:34 -0400 More than 90% of the families, children and single adults that Border Patrol encountered in April were swiftly expelled under a public health order. Full Article
rants Champions versus aspirants for a place in the final By www.fifa.com Published On :: Fri, 29 Nov 2019 14:58:00 GMT Full Article
rants Sonu Sood to feed over 25,000 migrants during Ramzan By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 24 Apr 2020 09:07:48 GMT Actor Sonu Sood has decided to provide meal kits to over 25,000 migrants on a daily basis in Mumbai during the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, which begins from Thursday. "Times are so difficult today that it's very important for each one of us to stand for each other. Through this initiative, I would be helping all those who would be fasting during this period and we would provide special meal kits so they don't stay hungry after fasting all day," Sonu said. The initiative will help these migrants who have come from faraway places like Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Before this, Sonu started a ration drive to help the needy during the ongoing lockdown. Under an initiative called Shakti Annadanam launched in the name of his late father Shakti Sagar Sood, Sonu aims to feed more than 45,000 people on a daily basis in Mumbai. He also offered his hotel in Juhu for healthcare workers including doctors, nurses and para medical staff. Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Coronavirus outbreak: State buses may take migrants home By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 28 Apr 2020 01:30:17 GMT With the Railways refusing to comply with Maharashtra's request to help migrants reach their hometowns, the state government is working out its own plans to despatch them. Sources said the government has roped in the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) for help. An internal plan of just one district — Yavatmal by MSRTC (a copy of which is with mid-day) has revealed that it has lined up 115 buses to 15 state capitals. In an unprecedented gesture, these buses will travel around 1,000 to 1,800 km to drop off over 2,000 migrants and return back to base. Mentioning about the cost element, the letter has sought a sum of R1.35 crore from the district collector to release the buses as per the plan. Labourers wait in a queue to collect Ifatri food packets at Kidvai Nagar in Wadala on Monday Sources also said that the state government is negotiating with other states to accept the proposal and two states - Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have displayed readiness. However, a few states have claimed that they do not have enough money to arrange transportation for the migrants and also conduct the COVID-19 testing at the same time. Therefore, they want either Maharashtra or the Union government to spend on transportation which can be a contentious point in the entire deal.However, MSRTC officials said the plan was still under consideration and nothing has been finalised yet. Moreover, MSRTC and transport department officials said that meetings have been held at Mantralaya about these issues and discussions have been going on with various stakeholders. But as of now, no final decision has been taken yet. The delay is because it involves stakeholders from other states and there are issues like streamlining the process and to develop a standard operating procedure to allow Maharashtra state buses into their state borders. A comprehensive plan involving all stakeholders needs to be arrived at so that the transport becomes smooth from end to end. This is besides the decision of who will bear the expenses of the journey. Buses for students in Raj?The MSRTC has also proposed to run another 91 buses from six bus depots to get about 1,764 medical students stranded in Rajasthan back home. Sources said since it is a long road journey, the buses will have two drivers. Of the 1,764 students, about 23 are from Mumbai, Thane and Palghar districts. However, MSRTC spokesperson denied this saying that no plan has been finalised yet. 17,000Total no. of buses with MSRTC 115Total no. of buses lined up from Yavatmal Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Maharashtra prepares to send migrants home as Centre gives green light By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 30 Apr 2020 02:07:27 GMT Clearing the path for those stranded at different places across the country, the Union home ministry issued orders to state governments and union territories to facilitate their movement within and between states. It has further said that individuals should be medically screened at the source point and destination and kept in home or institutional quarantine on arrival as per the COVID-19 guidelines issued earlier. The decision comes after many of the chief ministers demanded the same at the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, since trains would not be allowed to operate anytime soon, those stranded will have to be ferried by road. Some states, like Maharashtra, have already prepared a plan to send migrants to their respective destinations in buses. It has already sent buses to fetch students from Kota, of which one batch arrived in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday morning. Inter-state movementThe order says that stranded people include migrant workers, pilgrims, students, tourists and other persons. It also mentions that the inter-state movement should be planned by the states and mutually agreed upon to transport people by road and that the states should develop a standard protocol with nodal officers (offices), where the stranded people would be required to register their details. The moving person(s) should be screened at the source point and allowed to travel if found asymptomatic. Buses should be sanitised and social distancing should be followed while seating passengers. The ministry has also asked states falling on the transit route to allow the movement without any glitch. Passengers would be kept in home quarantine on arrival unless the health assessment requires the person(s) to stay in institutional quarantine. The home- quarantined people would be checked periodically. No clarity on footing the billSources in the Maharashtra government said that they had expected the order, but rued that it did not have clarity on who would pay the travel bills. "Ideally, the people who have the money should pay or their respective state governments should pay for the long and expensive travel. The UP government paid for the students and migrants from Kota and Delhi. Maharashtra also made arrangements to bring back students from Kota," said a bureaucrat in the know of the matter. He further said that the government has kept thousands of state transport buses ready for the purpose. "We are in talks with the states. The order, which must be complied with by all unlike advisories in the past, should make the states respond to our appeal. The cost factor should also be sorted out when we negotiate in the wake of the new order," added the bureaucrat. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Mumbai: BMC mandates 100 percent attendance for employees, grants relaxation to staff over 55 years By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 1 May 2020 06:50:05 GMT Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has mandated 100 percent attendance for all its employees in offices and on-field, with some relaxation to people over 55 years of age and people with medical conditions. This comes as the country is under lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which has been found to be more fatal to elderly people and those with existing health complications. "All staff over the age of 55 years are advised to either work from home or work in the office and not go on the field. People in the medical department, including doctors, nursing staff and paramedics over the age of 55 years with co-morbidities are advised to stay home for two weeks," the order issued on Friday said. The BMC also advised all staff, who live outside its limits like Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mira Bhaynder, or Palghar, etc, to contact the nearest Ward office so they can render their services to the nearest ward office from their residence, instead of their original current posting. Earlier this week, Mumbai Police had asked its personnel who are above 55 years of age to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown. According to the Medical Education and Drugs Department of Maharashtra, 7061 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation area while 290 have lost their lives and another 1,180 have recovered after receiving treatment. Maharashtra, however, remains the worst affected state in the country with at least 10,498 coronavirus cases as on Friday. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever Full Article
rants Lockdown day 38: Government finally arranges trains for migrants By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 2 May 2020 01:50:29 GMT After locking down the nation with just four hours notice on March 24 and leaving lakhs of migrant workers high and dry, the Centre on Friday launched Shramik Special trains to transport these workers and other stranded people home. Indian Railway appealed to people not to crowd stations as the trains are only for those screened and registered by state governments. “No one should come to the station looking for trains. We will not issue tickets or entertain request from any group or individual. We will allow only those passengers whom state officials bring. The State is the final authority on deciding who travels,” an Indian Railway spokesperson said. The first train from Maharashtra, Nashik-Bhopal Shramik Special departed from Nashik station at 9:30 pm on May 1 as scheduled. These special, non-AC trains will run from point to point. There will be different fares for sleeper and general class. The Railways and states shall appoint senior staff as Nodal Officers for coordination. Migrants onboard a train for Hatia, Jharkhand at Lingampally, Telangana. Pic/PTI Passengers have to be screened by states sending them and only asymptomatic people would be allowed to travel. Sending states have to bring these people in batches to the designated station in sanitised buses following social distancing norms and other precautions. It will be mandatory for every passenger to wear face masks. Meals and drinking water have to be provided by the sending states at the originating station. Railways said they will ensure social distancing, hygiene and provide a meal on longer journeys. On arrival, the home state has to screen, quarantine passengers if necessary and arrange further travel from the station. Nine-point plan Maharashtra’s Minister of Transport Anil Parab gave the following guidelines travellers must follow: Those willing to leave Maharashtra should fill forms and submit them to local police stations through their group leaders. The form will require basic details like name, address in migrant and home state, Aadhar card, mobile number. Each train will carry 1,000 passengers. Each migrant must get a certificate from a doctor stating that the traveller does not have COVID-19 symptoms. Based on this information, state will decide on booking tickets and make a list based on the applications. After preparing list, state will seek permission from the home state. After receiving NoC, action will be taken by district collectors to help passengers reach home. A section of the form will ask the traveller to choose the mode of transport — rail or road. Those wishing to travel by bus can form groups of 25, arrange a bus and inform the local police. Each state and district will have nodal officers. There is no restriction of movement within the state. Those who have gone out of Mumbai and are stuck can return. No restriction on people returning from Green Zones. However, people residing in Red Zones, especially in containment zones, cannot move. No respite for Red Zone migrants? People stranded in Containment Zones and Red Zones are likely to be prevented from leaving. This means many migrants in MMR, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Nagpur, Yavatmal and other affected districts stand no chance of leaving. Nodal officers at the district and state headquarter levels have started getting requests from people. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Migrants crowd police stations for train pass By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 3 May 2020 01:50:59 GMT Migrant labourers, who are stranded in Mumbai, have started crowding outside police stations, after the Central government directive that they could be sent home. They are doing this, so that they can give in their details. Some were in Mumbai for work, others to study and some just to visit their relatives. They now all want to return home. Mohammad Ilyas, 25, from the state of Jharkhand, who works at a sewing factory in Kurla, has stopped working, and has no money. "The factory owner is not concerned, so I am eager to return." Mohammad Zaaim, 19, from Lucknow, who came to Mumbai for some work with his relatives, has been stuck since February. A Mumbai police official said that they have appointed the DCP of each zone as the nodal officer. Those wishing to travel back, need to fill a form and submit it to the local police station. "We will send the details of this form to the Nodal Officer of that district, only after which the person will be able to to return." Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Prannoy Ashok said, "If there are many people from the same district who want to go back, then they can choose one person as their representative, and through that person, give their name to the police station. We appeal to everyone to not gather in crowds at the police station." Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Will inform family after train moves, say stranded migrants By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 3 May 2020 02:05:40 GMT It was a race against time for Bhiwandi police on Saturday, when they were informed that a special train would leave from Bhiwandi Road Railway Station for Uttar Pradesh. The exercise of shortlisting passengers who belonged to UP's Gorakhpur district, and bringing them to the railway station, took less than five hours. And through it all, there was no chaos. The joy on the face of the migrants—who could finally see sight of home—was inevitable. The Government of India on Friday cleared the inter-state movement of trains for migrant labourers. Bhiwandi, a hub of handloom industries, is the workplace for more than thousands of labourers all of whom have been stranded after the nationwide lockdown. The local authorities received information from the Railway department that a special train would leave from Bhiwandi on Saturday. With 24 coaches it would run non-stop, completing the journey within 30 hours. Each passenger underwent a temperature check before boarding. "As soon as we received this information, we started gathering information on people in the area who were from Gorakhpur and began the exercise with help of the municipal corporation and revenue department," says DCP Rajaram Shinde. "We shortlisted 1,200 persons." Shamshuddin Sheikh, a driver, says, "I have spent the last one-and-half months with almost no money and very little groceries. I have been waiting for this day, now I am happy as I am going home to see my parents, wife and kids." Another handloom worker, Muniram Yadav, says, it took him six hours to complete his registration with the authorities. "I haven't told my family that I am coming. I am going to inform them only after the train leaves," he adds. Each coach will accommodate 54 passengers. The police have provided food, water, face masks and sanitisers to all passengers. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants 'Why is Railways charging poor migrants for train tickets?' By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 4 May 2020 01:32:37 GMT With the Railways levying a surcharge of Rs 50 on the normal second-class fare on the special trains, activists and politicians on Sunday, were wondering aloud why this was so. "It is unfair that Railways is charging migrants for transport to their homes. The Centre is spending so much on free food, shelter and treatment, it could have also waived train fare for migrants with no money or job," said Ajit Shenoy of Mumbai Mobility Forum (MMF). Rakesh Doshi, who along with hundreds others travelled home on Saturday night, asked why the Centre or the Railways couldn't absorb the cost. "These are difficult times. Everyone is short of money. The Railways contributed R151 crore to the PM CARES Fund, but is charging migrants train fare," another migrant, who is also an activist, said. Another MMF member asked, "I want to know if those airlifted from China and Iran were charged or was it a free flight back home? If they weren't charged, then the special train ride should be free." Railway officials said it was not charging migrants, as the tickets are not being issued to individuals, but the state governments are looking at the aspect of ticketing. A spokesperson said tickets were booked by the district administration and every state has its own policy. "While many states are bearing the cost, NGOs are contributing in others, and fare was collected from the migrants in some states. And no additional charge was levied. Only the regular superfast surcharge was added to the fare. The train is carrying 50 per cent of the capacity and returning empty. Also the ticket fare includes meals and bottled water. The fare is basic, not exorbitant," a spokesperson said. Another official said, "Practically speaking, if the trains are run free, there will be chaos and that there won't be any accountability and documentation". Meanwhile, Maharashtra Energy Minister Dr Nitin Raut has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, requesting that the state government bear the cost of the migrants' tickets. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Clearances delay rolling of trains carrying migrants By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 5 May 2020 01:40:44 GMT Trains that are scheduled to take migrants to their native places have been lined up at various railway stations across the state but a delay in receiving clearances from other states have started to affect the entire process. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior railway official said, "On Monday, two trains had been lined up. One was to travel from Akola to Lucknow, while the other from Bhiwandi to Jaipur, but the problem is that they are confirmed at the last moment." While the Akola-Lucknow train left at 6 pm on Monday with 1,200 passengers, the Bhiwandi-Jaipur one will leave late in the night. The official further said, "The train from Vasai that left early Sunday morning was originally scheduled to leave at 12.30 pm the previous day. Due to delayed permissions and procedure, the train finally left at 4 am on Sunday." While so far six trains have left from the Central Railway section, 16 have left from the Western Railway segment. Senior officials said that the arrival of a large number of migrants at the same time is leading to problems in receiving states. This is because on arrival, state government officials receive them and make arrangements of their stay at isolation centres before sending them to their respective districts, and at many places these arrangements take a lot of time. Also, if two trains arrive at the same time, it becomes difficult for the receiving state to manage, hence delaying the entire process. The journey so far... From MMR regionBhiwandi-Gorakhpur train 1,104 migrantsVasai-Gorakhpur train 1,200 migrantsBhiwandi-Jaipur Lined up tonight Other trainsNashik-Bhopal train 314 migrantsNashik-Lucknow train 847 migrantsNagpur-Lucknow train 977 migrantsAkola-Jaipur train 1,200 migrants Besides this, 15 other trains have left from the WR segment with 1,200 migrants each. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Migrants continue to walk as Maharashtra government drags its feet By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 6 May 2020 01:40:07 GMT Zyada se zyada kya hoga? Mar hi jaunga na chalte chalte? (What's the worse that could happen? I'll die, right?) These disturbing words of a physically challenged migrant walking home to UP from Thane sum up the mood of hundreds like him trudging home. With no clarity from the government, the migrants continue to risk their lives on highways. Hundreds of the migrant workers continue to walk to Uttar Pradesh and even Nagpur. As it is difficult to walk in the scorching heat, most rest during the day and walk at nights on highways. They poured their hearts out to mid-day. A majority of the migrants work as labourers on at under-construction sites in MMR. They said they were leaving Mumbai as they had no access to food and essential items at their workplaces. At least 1,000 men, women and children were seen walking along the Mumbai-Agra highway between the Thane-Kalyan junctions. Most of the migrants will walk over 1,600 km to UP. Pic/Ranjeet Jadhav 'Procedure not explained'Some people expressed anger against the state and Central governments, alleging they were not taking the plight of migrants seriously, and this was happening because the authorities on the local level weren't cooperative. They alleged that local authorities were not explaining relevant procedures. Many have filled forms, taken medical certificates and got these and other papers stamped by the police to board the transport provided but say they are not being clearly told what is next. Kisan Pawar who is heading back to his village near Nagpur with his wife, daughter and son, said they barely have any money left. "Staying in Thane with no job or money will be more burdening. So we started on the 800-km-long journey on foot," said Pawar. At night they rested at Kalyan phata for few hours. Most migrants have been resting or sleeping on the side of the highway. Rajesh Pawar, 28, a resident of Gondia district in Maharashtra worked as a labourer at a construction site in Thane. Since work stopped and he has no money left, he and his wife have started walking with their two-year-old daughter. An emotional Rajesh said, "I pray that such difficult times don't befall anyone. No one really cares about the poor and that's why we have no other option but to walk. We don't even have money to buy tickets and food. We hope to reach our village because the safety of my daughter is very important." 'I would have died anyway'A man with a deformed foot who did not wish to be named, will be walking over 1,600 km to reach his village in UP. "Aise bhi mar jaate kyon ki khaane ke liye kuch nahi hai. Us se behtar hai jahan tak chal saku wahan tak jaun, is umeed se ke ghar pohochunga. Jyada se jyada kya hoga? Mar hi jaunga na chalte chalte? (I would have died anyway because I wasn't getting any food. It's better that I walk as far as I can in the hope that I will reach home. What's the worst that could happen? I'll die, right?)," he said. Suhel Ahmed and Irshad Khan who worked at a construction site in Thane, had approached local authorities to know about the procedure to go back home. But they claimed they weren't given clarity about when they would be allowed to go back, so they left for Uttar Pradesh on foot. 'No co-ordination'Irshad Khan told mid-day, "We waited in Thane all this time because the government had told us it would make arrangements at the right time for migrants to go home. But there seems to be lack of coordination between the Centre and state. For the past two days, we ran from pillar to post getting medical certificates and filling forms but there was no clarity on what next. We have a few hundred rupees and before that too gets over, we want to reach home. God knows when we will reach." The chairperson of an NGO says the government must instill confidence in migrants. Jalpesh Mehta, chairperson, Empower Foundation, said, "Walking on the highway for kilometres is a risky affair and may also see migrants die due to hunger or exertion and not because of COVID-19. We have worked with government authorities and police in Maharashtra and Gujarat to provide food to the migrants and the support on the ground from authorities has been excellent. The living conditions of the migrants and support from their employers is indeed very poor, but the need of the hour is instillation of confidence in the migrants by the government on the ground that they will be taken care of and there are planned exits — trains and buses to help them reach back home safely." 1,000No. of people seen walking along Mumbai-Agra highway Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. 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rants Mumbai: Two special trains carrying migrants leave from Kalyan By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 6 May 2020 04:35:24 GMT Two Shramik Special trains carrying more than 2,100 migrant workers left on Tuesday night from Kalyan junction in neighbouring Thane district, the Central Railway (CR) said. One of them, carrying nearly 1,200 migrants, left for Darbhanga in Bihar, a CR release said. The end-to-end service departed at 8.37 pm carrying only the registered and nominated passengers cleared by the Maharashtra government, the release said. The second end-to-end Shramik special train left for Guntakal (Andhra Pradesh) around 11 pm, carrying nearly 930 migrants, according to Railway officials. On Monday, the Central Railway had operated two Shramik special trains between Akola-Lucknow and Bhiwandi- Jaipur. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever Full Article
rants COVID-19 in Mumbai: This is how migrants are brought to train stations By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 8 May 2020 01:14:06 GMT The process of sending daily-wage labourers to their hometowns has started, with three trains leaving from Panvel carrying 3,600 people on board so far. But, the long-awaited exercise seems to have mocked all rules of social distancing. While most migrants themselves are unaware of why physical space is critical to maintain, the authorities took them to the railway station in packed buses or police vehicles. Since last week two trains have left for Madhya Pradesh and one for Bihar. One of the special trains left for Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday night and around 1,200 workers were accommodated in it. The expenses were paid for by the MP government and the food was given to the migrants by local authorities. However, the buses and police vehicles in which they were brought to the station were fully packed. Some people even stood at the door as the seats were occupied. "Bhaiyya ab social distancing ka pata nahi. Bus humko ghar pahucha do. (We don't know what is social distancing. We only want to go home). We are in such trouble. We can't stay here for another day with kids as we don't have enough money to feed our family," said Devendra Saket, a daily wage worker who was brought in a bus with his child and wife from Uran. 'Paid for medical check-ups' "These are very difficult days and we have been praying to God that no one should suffer like this. We don't have a single rupee in hand and are totally dependent on people and the government for food till we reach home. We were also charged R100 for a medical check-up," he added. Many of the migrants claimed they had to pay Rs 100 per person for medical check-ups which were done at the police stations before they left. One of the many buses going to Panvel station that was packed to capacity Priti Saket, another migrant brought to Panvel from Uran in the same bus along with her husband and six-month-old daughter said, "We don't want to say anything to anyone. We just want our kids to be safe. At least we won't sleep hungry. We were stuck for a month we just want to go home," she said. Priti also said she was charged R100 for a medical check-up. 'Glad to go home' "I was staying in Kamothe and was quarantined for 14 days and now brought to the station. My medical check-up was done free of cost. The only problem I faced here is food. But at least the government has realises our pain and is sending us back home," said Ankit Goyal, who belongs to Satna district of MP. "I was trying to register myself since the day it was announced that trains will go from Panvel to MP. I got my medical check-up done, the police helped us in filling the forms and doing other formalities. The buses were fully packed with around 60-70 people, but we are happy that at least now we are going back home," said Prakash Saket, who was traveling to MP. "Third train left from Panvel today early morning to Habibganj (MP) with 24 coaches and 1,200 passengers. MP Govt bore the ticket charges of passengers, food and water provided by the local authorities. A great team effort of police , railways and revenue Dept." The Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner, Sanjay Kumar, said in his official twitter handle on Thursday. Asked about the migrants' claims of being charged for medical check-ups, he said they seem to have visited private clinics. "If it was done by private medical practitioners, we can't help," Kumar told mid-day. Migrants wait to board a train at Panvel station on Wednesday The authorities are facing several challenges on ground to send the migrants home. "The biggest challenge was issuing medical certificates. Hundreds of migrants have rushed to the police stations, hospital's and private clinics to get medical certificates, exposing themselves to the pandemic. The medical certificate wasn't required, people should have been screened at railway stations and allowed to go. The respective states should arrange isolation facilities for them there," said a senior government officer. Collector shocked The Collector of Raigad expressed shock that the migrants were taken to the station without regard for social distancing. "It is extremely shocking if migrants were taken to railway station in fully packed buses and police vehicles without maintaining social distancing. There are clear guidelines to the administration about the transportation of migrants. I will look into it and ensure that this isn't repeated. We will give fresh instructions to the concerned department," said Nidhi Chaudhary, Collector, Raigad. Chaudhary also said that a special train to Odisha has been cancelled on Thursday after the Orissa High court's order asked that all citizens re-entering the state had to have certificates specifically saying they were COVID-19 negative. At least 1,200 migrants were ready to leave on Thursday after completing all formalities including general medical check ups. Around 1.5 lakh migrants stay in Raigad district, of these 66,000 have applied to leave the state. At least 14,000 passes have been issued to stranded tourists and others who are going by their private vehicles with only three persons in one vehicle as per the rules. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants COVID-19: Migrants to be screened free of cost at departure By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 8 May 2020 01:30:50 GMT The state government on Thursday barred registered medical practitioners in the city from issuing individual medical fitness certificates to stranded people wishing to return to their home states. It instead told local municipal corporation offices to check the travellers' body temperature using a digital thermometer and examine them for influenza-like symptoms at the time boarding the train. The screening is to be done free of cost by the municipal corporations through civic/government medical officers or by hiring the services of registered medical practitioners. The revised order has asked local authorities to make a single list of people who don't display any symptoms at the departure point. State Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta issued an amendment on Thursday that would also apply across the state. It reportedly came owing to the inconvenience caused in the process of procuring individual certificates from registered medical practitioners who charged their respective fees in the absence of a uniform policy. There were reports of some private doctors charging up to Rs 1,500. Delays not welcome Apart from higher fees and longer queues at the clinics, the government was faced with the delay in travellers' departure. There was always a possibility of an asymptomatic person developing illness before the journey started or onboard vehicles and trains. Some parent states have also been demanding screening at the time of departure. "Sadly, the fall-out and possibilities were not thought about before the guidelines were issued last week. A lot of people have suffered financially, physically and mentally. Procuring certificates proved to be a task for the distressed people who didn't have money to eat and travel," said a senior officer working in the migrant movement. April 30Day first rule on migrants’ movement was issued Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants COVID-19: Let migrants travel for free, letters go out to Narendra Modi, Uddhav Thackeray By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 8 May 2020 01:32:34 GMT A group of 30 civil society organisation have jointly written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, asking for a smooth procedure and free travel for the migrant workers. Amid the misery and uncertainty brought upon jobless migrants by the third phase of the new Coronavirus-caused lockdown, they wrote, "Migrant workers... are not in a position to afford the travel cost. Moreover, the losses they have incurred due to the delay in their travel are on account of State action, and hence, they shouldn't have to bear the burden of those losses." Bilal Khan of the Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, one of the signatories to the letter, said: "Migrant workers are the worst-affected by the mismanagement and short-sighted policy decisions during the lockdown. The government is now forcing stranded labourers to pay for their travel back home. They're being heavily charged by private doctors for medical certificates and local vendors are selling application forms at unreasonably high rates. Our letter has demanded to waive off all travel charges along with other recommendations to ensure safe travel." He added: "Many states have either refused to or are reluctant to take workers back as Mumbai is a Coronavirus hotspot," he said. "Police stations in Worli, Shivaji Nagar, and Mankhurd are simply not accepting applications." Bilal said there are 12 lakh registered construction workers in the state but the number will be higher as most are unregistered. He added that migrant workers without ration card have not received food relief. "BMC is supplying khichdi on a small scale. NGOs too are providing food, but their efforts combined with that of the government are still inadequate," he said. "Some are so traumatised that they have decided never to come back. This will also stress the state with so many unemployed workers. The government must take care of them for at least three months post-lockdown. A relief and rehabilitation plan must be made," Khan said. 'Medical certificates futile' Apart from the ticket cost, the letter highlights the cost of medical certificates. "The medical certificates are a futile exercise as they have no validity due to reasons stated in the letter," Khan said. Some of the recommendations include reducing panic and ensuring systematic rescue/evacuation. "We have demanded zone-wise transportation of workers from within the city," Khan said. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Lockdown: Police rain lathis on migrants walking home to UP, Gujarat By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 8 May 2020 01:38:10 GMT Migrant workers continue to suffer amid the lockdown. In the latest incident, hundreds of labourers, who had set out for home on foot, were lathi-charged by police at Kashimira on Thursday. Police chased them away towards the city, and now they have nowhere to go. Over 250 daily-wagers were headed towards Gujarat when they were stopped by the police on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway near Ghodbunder Road junction. As police rained lathis on them, many ran down the bridge and crossed to the other side. Others ran to hide behind vehicles. A mid-day team witnessed the baton charge that took place on the north-bound Versova bridge on the highway. With no food and to transportation back home, the workers had decided to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach home. 'Don't know where to go' "Dhobi ke kutte wali haalat ho gayi hai humari… na ghar ke rahe na ghaat ke... kidhar jayein samajh nahin aata (We don't know where to go anymore)," said Baliram Choudhary, who left his rented house at Dahisar East on Thursday to walk home to Maharajganj in UP. Police lathi charge workers near Ghodbunder Road junction on Thursday "I filled the form five days ago to take a train home. But I have not received any response. I got a test done for COVID-19 and my report came back negative. I lost my patience and decided to walk home," he added. "We are stuck at this tri-junction for three hours because the police are not allowing us to cross Versova bridge," said Choudhary, accompanied by his two friends Naushad Ahmed and Sahban Hussain. "We are all tailors and lived together in the rented room. Now, even if we decide to go back, the landlord won't take us back suspecting we may have contracted COVID-19," said Ahmed. "We are now jobless as well as homeless. Police are beating us up and not allowing us to go to our hometowns," said Hussain. Gita was headed to Nalasopara with her two kids, spouse and a relative Among the hundreds was Gita, who was headed to Nalasopara with her two kids, husband and a relative. They worked at a construction site before the lockdown. She had planned to go to her relative's place at Nalasopara and then arrange a transportation to UP. "Why are cops chasing us away and beating us? What is our fault?" asked her relative Mukesh. Youth looted by auto driver A youth Umesh Paswan had boarded an autorickshaw from Bhayandar for Nalasopara, but the driver and his two friends allegedly snatched his phone and Rs 50 cash. "A few minutes after I took the auto, the driver stopped midway and his two friends came, slapped me and snatched my mobile phone and the cash," said Paswan, who did not file a complaint fearing the police would book him for violating the stay-at-home order. He then decided to walk to Nalasopara where his brother stays. However, the police have refuted the allegations of lathi charge. "I was present there on Versova bridge and they [migrant workers] were not lathi charged," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjay Kumar, Thane Rural. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Aurangabad train tragedy: Why migrants are still walking on tracks By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 9 May 2020 01:16:51 GMT 'Videsh se log flight se laye ja rahe hain, aur gareeb patri par mar rahe hain (People are being brought back from abroad on flights and the poor are dying on railway tracks)," said a migrant, who was walking on the tracks to reach his hometown in UP, about the tragic incident at Aurangabad. Most migrants are aware of it, but choose to walk on the tracks to avoid police action on the highways. They fear they will be stopped from walking home and beaten and quarantined by the police. Speaking to mid-day, many of them said they don't have a choice. mid-day has been reporting about the plight of the migrants who claim the government is not helping them with food and have also spent all their money since the lockdown began as they have been out of work. Many of them also claimed they decided to walk home as despite giving all required documents to board the special trains, local authorities are not telling them of the next procedures. Some of them decided to walk as they don't have the required documents. After the disturbing sight of hundreds of migrants walking home on highways, comes another such sight of them walking on railway tracks. Tukaram Kuldip and his friends are walking from Mumbai Central to UP Tukaram Kuldip, a resident of Basti, Uttar Pradesh, started walking from Mumbai Central on Thursday night, and by Friday morning had reached Thane. "We are a group of 30 people going to Basti. We submitted relevant documents at Nagpada police station to board the special trains, but there is no response. We are starving. Sarkar theek hai achche ke liye band kiya hai, lekin ham gareebon ka kya ? Videsh se log flight se laye ja rahe hai aur gareeb patri par mar rahe hai. (It's good the government has implemented the lockdown, but what about us poor people? People are being brought back from abroad on flights and the poor are dying on the railway tracks) We heard about the Aurangabad incident. Nobody wants to die like that but we have no options left. Ghar par hamare log bhi hain. (We have family at home)." 'Should we starve here?' Another group of 30 migrants was walking on the railway tracks near Mulund railway station. A member of the group, Jalaluddin Khan, told mid-day. "We know it's dangerous. So should we starve here? Should we get beaten up by the police? Nobody knows what we are going through since the past one month. We are given half-cooked rice by the local civic corporation to eat once a day. We just want the government to take us home." This group belongs to Basti, Uttar Pradesh. "Our group members submitted the forms at the concerned police station for the special trains but they got rejected. We don't know why. No one told us anything. We will see if there are any arrangements in Thane, otherwise we will continue walking," Khan said. Udaybhan Yadav and his family are walking to Basti Another migrant worker, Udaybhan Yadav, a resident of Basti, started his journey from Mulund along with his wife and eight-year-old child. Yadav used to work at a hotel in Mumbai. "My parents are worried about us as we have no money and are not getting enough food here. We don't know when things will return to normalcy." Railway speak "We have been on alert since the lockdown was announced. The gateman and the keymen have been briefed to alert us about the movement of migrants. We have been counselling and taking action against those walking on the tracks," said Atul Pathak, IG Central Railway Mumbai division. Inputs by Vishal Singh Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Migrants with Mumbai address in Aadhaar can't take special trains By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 9 May 2020 01:40:33 GMT Even as the desperation to reach their homes continues, migrant workers stuck in Maharashtra are faced with a new challenge. Most of their applications for returning home have been rejected by the authorities concerned as they have their local addresses on their Aadhaar cards. Even though they have their voter ID cards and ration cards on their phones, lack of printing facilities is proving to be another major hindrance The migrants from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai who have their local addresses on their Aadhaar cards are not being allowed to return, as they have no other way to prove that they are non-residents of this state. Some of them claimed that they had come to Mumbai only for work and got the Aadhaar card made to open bank accounts and procure sim cards and driving licence. A number of migrant labourers working at different power looms in Bhiwandi are natives of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but they can't avail the government's Shramik Express facility for the same reason. The police and collector offices believe that as they have their local addresses on Aadhaar cards, they are Mumbai residents, and hence would not be allowed to go to any other state. Currently, in Mumbai around six lakh migrants want to return to their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and others. Of the total, 2 lakh people have a Mumbai address on their Aadhaar cards. Ishwar Paswan, cab driver Speaking to mid-day, youth Congress president of Mira Bhayandar, Deep Kakde said, "Till now applications of more than 3,000 migrants have been rejected because they have a Mumbai address on their Aadhaar cards. These people have been working in the city as labourers. We have prepared a list of the names of those whose forms have been rejected and we are trying our best to send them home." "Some of them are also lying and hiding the truth. An entire family claimed that they are migrants whereas they have been running a shop in Mira Road for the past 20 years. How can we trust people?" he asked. Illegally done According to sources, most of the migrants get their Aadhar cards made illegally from various centres. Once they get a job in Mumbai, they have to open a bank account for which they need the Aadhaar card. Sources further said that with the help of the company owner, they submit a R100 stamp paper and a document saying that he stays at the company address in the city. Based on this document they can open a bank account and even get a driving licence. Migrants speak Speaking about the problems they have been facing, Saket Rai, who is originally from Uttar Pradesh said, "I have been working as a labourer at a steel transportation company in Bhayandar for the past five to six years. I am originally from UP but as I am working in Mumbai, I got the Aadhaar card made on the local address with help from my company owner. I submitted my form after standing in the queue for six hours but it got rejected. I had also submitted my medical fitness certificate from a doctor. I have other documents like ration card and voter ID card but even they have been rejected." Migrants from Bihar who work at powerloom factories in Bhiwandi are stuck here because they have local addresses on their Aadhaar cards Rajnath Arjun Rajbhar, who works in a godown at Worli, said, "My form also got rejected because I submitted an Aadhaar card with a Mumbai address. I live in a rented accommodation in Bhayandar and have no money left. I have spent all of it on groceries and rent and now it's impossible to survive. I want to go back to my home in Uttar Pradesh." Another migrant, Chandrabhan Yadav said, "I have been working at a steel company in Bhayandar for the past five years. After marriage I got my wife and two kids here from Uttar Pradesh. I'm a daily wager and have already exhausted my savings. I want to go back home now. My forms also got rejected because my Aadhaar card has a Mumbai address. The government should allow us to go back as we can't survive here." Ishwar Paswan, a resident of Koderma in Jharkhand, has been working in the city as a cab driver. Speaking to mid-day, he said, "I had submitted my form at the Vile Parle police station a week ago but have not got any response yet. I guess it has been rejected as the address mentioned in my Aadhar card is of Mumbai but I am originally from Koderman. Don't know how I'll go back." A power loom daily wager, Madan Shah, who hails from Bihar's Madhubani district, said, "I have a Bhiwandi address on my Aadhaar card. I had gone to the authority concerned with my application, but they turned me away after checking the address. I don't know how to go back home now. I may start walking to Madhubani because the government is not helping me." Mahesh Kumar Sahu too has been working at a Bhiwandi power loom since years. "After the government rejected my application, I asked my relatives to send my election and ration cards to prove that I hail from Bihar. I got my Aadhaar card made here because it was needed for opening a bank account," said Sahu. Migrants board a train from the LTT for their hometown Gorakhpur on Friday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi Another power loom worker, Rajendra Gupta said, "I had registered online four days ago to travel by train to Madhubani district, but I'm yet to get any update." Registration process Migrants need to fill the application forms and submit it to the police with their valid documents. The cops submit them to the collector office and Mantralaya for verification. The collector office scrutinises the forms and the valid ones are then sent to the Mantralaya for getting their tickets. Usha Jitesh Vora, a Vidhan Sabha booth committee president, said, "From a list of 1,200 people we have, applications of more than 400 have been rejected due to the address problem. We have submitted the names of these 400 people to the Mantralaya for permission." 'Govt should allow them' When contacted, an UIDAI source said, "Aadhaar card is not a mandatory document as a resident proof. The government should ask for other documents from migrants and allow them to travel after verification. If any migrant wants to update the address with the MLA certificate, they can do it online because Aadhaar card centres are closed now." Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
rants Sixteen migrants crushed under train in Aurangabad By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 9 May 2020 02:04:19 GMT Around 16 migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks were crushed to death by a goods train at Satana village in the limits of Karmad police station near Aurangabad district at around 05.30 am on Friday. Of the total 16 deceased, 14 died on the spot while two others died on their way to the hospital. According to the local police, a group of around 20 migrants started walking from Jalna district to Bhusawal in Madhya Pradesh which is around 170 Kms. "They were exhausted due to the walk and decided to take rest, but soon they dozed off with 16 of them sleeping on the tracks while the other four slept adjacent to it. Of the four who survived, one has suffered injuries while the other three are in a state of shock. We are speaking to them to verify other details," Mokshada Patil, SP, Aurangabad said. "During early hours today (Friday) after seeing some labourers on track, loco pilot of goods train tried to stop the train but eventually hit them between Badnapur and Karmad stations in Parbhani-Manmad section. Injured have been taken to Aurangabad civil hospital and an inquiry has been ordered," the Railway Ministry tweeted. According to a statement by the Ministry of Railway, the survivors left Jalna at 07.00 pm on Thursday. They walked till Badnapore by road and then went onto the track towards Aurangabad. After walking for about 36 km, they decided to take rest in which 14 sat on the tracks, while the rest sat adjacent to it. Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news Full Article
