THE people of urban Andhra Pradesh are in protest against the hike in property tax and imposition of user charges for garbage collection.The state government has issued a GO to change the system of levying property tax from annual rental value basis (ARV) system to capital value (CV) system. As per the GO, the capital value of lands and buildings fixed by the Stamps and Registration Department for the purpose of registration will be deemed to be the guideline value for fixation of property tax.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on August 24THE central government has officially announced the sale of India.The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) released by the finance minister yesterday, details the loot of our national assets and infrastructure. This is an outright plunder of people’s wealth.Selling family silver to meet daily expenditure makes neither economic nor common sense.

ON August 15, the Taliban seized Kabul with barely any gunfire. The Afghan National Army (ANA) – trained with $88 billion from the United States – faded into the byways, unwilling to fight the Taliban troops. Afghanistan’s president – the former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani – boarded a flight out of the country as soon as the Taliban stepped into greater Kabul; he was not going to lead any fight to defend his government. The previous day, when it was already clear that the Taliban would seize power, US president Joe Biden conceded that the United States had lost the war.

“NEARLY 6,800 people lost their lives in the country over the past three years due to hydro-meteorological calamities such as flash floods, landslides and cyclones and West Bengal has recorded the highest deaths among all states,” these details were provided by the union home ministry in a response to a question raised by an MP from Tamil Nadu in Lok Sabha.According to the ministry, hydro-meteorological calamities/ hazards include flash floods, cloudbursts and landslides.

THE devastating flood in Bihar has caused large scale destruction of infrastructure and rendered lakhs of people homeless, taking shelter on the side of highways and high lands without food, water and other essential needs. Among the 16 flood-ravaged districts, Bhagalpur is the worst affected and cut off from the state capital. The national highway connecting Bhagalpur is also under water. The so-called preparation of the government to face the flood is nonexistent.