The monsoon session of the Indian Parliament came to an end recently. But when it comes to some of our darling MPs, nothing seems to deter them whether or not a session is running. After all, the government is paying them for just showing their faces in the Parliament. This particular time, there have been more than a hundred members of Parliament who did not bother to participate in any of the activities taking place in both the houses. The session went on for over a month before it ended.

The above statements are not mere exaggerations but have been suggested by reports. So, we can say that despite the salaries being hiked, nothing seems to motivate our so-called leaders. It seems to be more of a one-way regime where in the common man continues to pay taxes for the fat bundles of money to just end up in the lazy pockets.

Well, let’s come to the findings made by PRS Legislative Research which is a professional think tank! 35 members from Rajya Sabha and another 68 members from Lok Sabha have not taken any active interest when it came to questions, debates or even private member’s bills.

For those who don’t know, there are about 479 members in Lok Sabha and another 229 members in Rajya Sabha. This is keeping aside all the ministers, the speakers, the deputy speaker (of Lok Sabha) and the deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha. So, the notorious members comprise of about fourteen percent putting both the houses together.

It does not end here…when it came to questioning in the lower house, 117 members did not even bother where as in Rajya Sabha, another 79 added to this list. More so, out of the entire lot of members, only forty one percent of the members in Lok Sabha cared to be present during the sessions and another forty three percent from the Rajya Sabha. Only these many had an attendance level of above ninety percent.

Also, only eighty four percent of the total time of the sessions was utilized effectively. This caters to about 116 hours from a total of 138 hours. With this, the maximum commotions during the sessions came about in the House of the People where only 11 hours were spent productively out of the 23 hours which were planned. This caters to only forty seven percent of the total time.

When it came to Rajya Sabha, the productive timelines catered to only 104 hours out of 115 hours which comprises of twenty three percent of the total scheduled time for the questions.

In all of the above dark spots, the only spark seems to be Shailendra Kumar from the Samajwadi Party who actively participated in maximum number of debates. So, now we know why the nation has a growth trajectory which rapidly slow at all times!

The UK government has pledged to put an end to the detention of children in immigration centers. Keeping this in mind, the immigration officials have come up with a scheme which would see to it that these children along with their families would be deported from UK within weeks.

This measure has literally crashed the expectations of bringing about a better alternative to child detention. All those families with children who are to be deported would be given an ultimatum of two-weeks to leave the nation voluntarily. Incase, the detainees fail to comply, they would be told that they would be deported within the next two weeks. There might even be cases where in these people would not be given any particular date or time for deportation.

The UK Border Agency has launched this pilot scheme in the north-west of England to review the alternatives for child detention. All the undocumented migrants as well as the asylum seekers whose appeals have been rejected have been informed that they are participants in this pilot scheme when they go to the Reliance House of the UKBA in Liverpool.

According to a briefing paper by the UKBA made by the Head of Service, Asylum, Refugee and Migration Services, Nicola Rea shows two pilot schemes. This paper was leaked. One scheme was to be implemented in London and the other in north-west. These schemes were to be executed as part of the review for child detention.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, an announcement would be made shortly regarding the alternatives which could be used. Many refugee welfare groups are expecting that these measures might include electronic tagging, bail as well reporting requirements. He said this to the MPs.

UK is about to launch a new scheme ‘The Pilot’ for the families with children who have been ordered by the UK government to leave the country owing to their status as an illegal immigrant. Under the scheme, these families would be given two weeks to leave the country at their own will. But if fail to do so, they will be deported from the nation within few weeks only. Giving those two weeks to leave the country is like giving them the ultimatum during which they have to cross the country’s border on their own.

This scheme ‘the pilot’ has been started by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in July. And it is also running in other parts of the UK mainly in northwest of England. The scheme is adopted to avoid detaining children so that they do not have to face with various problems in immigration removal centers.

The partnership between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats has decided to stop the detention of children for their betterment. Detaining the children in illegal immigration is not a very humane behavior and this scheme would help in stopping that.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister told to MPs that it is not morally very ethical to detain the children and give them hard time for no fault of theirs. Around thousand children were locked up by the previous Labor government who were innocent and did not deserve any punishment. There have been reports that children locked up in immigration removal centers were denied necessary medical treatment and under went physical abuse as well.

A few months ago, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) sent notices to about 147 employees to be sacked at the case processing centre. About 84 temporary employees and 63 casual workers catering to the process the immigration applications and permanent residency cards were terminated.

This month, CIC is intending to fill about 160 vacant positions. The finances catering to this funding has been apportioned for the employees to be working at the citizenship operations, centralized intake office and the permanent resident card centre in Sydney. Most of the laid off employees would now be reinstated with permanent positions.

According to the Spokesperson for CIC, Karen Shadd, the main purpose is to speed up the processing timelines as well as to cut down on the inventories at the permanent resident card centre as well as in the citizenship operations. This is also expected to cater to execution of new ministerial instructions.

Mark Eyking, the MP from Sydney-Victoria has credited the return of jobs for these sacked employees to the testimony to the Citizenship and Immigration Committee in the House of Commons. This testimony was submitted in April from the people who were concerned with the influence these lost positions would have. The committee included MPs from various political stripes. The witnesses argued on the hiring process, layoffs as well as rehiring only to add to the claims of backlog.

As and when the backlog tends to build up, the CIC bring in workers on a temporary basis to clear this backlog. As per Eyking, such a process is not good for employees as they would not be having continuous employment which results in the delay of processing.

Above all, each year, there are about 300,000 applicants with hopes of coming to Canada. And so, more efficient measures have to be taken in order to ensure that timely processing is done for these applications.

It’s a common thing for the married celebrities to get divorce, indulge into a new affair and start afresh a new life! I sometimes wonder that nothing comes to their minds when they suddenly break their marriage relation – a bond which in certain cases has lasted for years and years? The example of Aamir Khan’s divorce with Reema Khan and getting married to Kiran Rao, ending their 15-year marriage is not new to anyone. I hope now you have understood my point and I can move on the real topic: an affair between Azhar and 26-year-old badminton player Jwala Gutta (the allegations which are totally denied by the former Indian Cricket player)! This relationship is speculated to have erupted from no where in the media industry!

Does this affair mean that Azharuddin and his wife Sangeeta Bijlani are splitting? Or is it just a passing fling between the two celebrities? What ever it is, the damage has been done now… The reputation has been spoiled… not only Azhar’s but Jwala’s as well! Even Jwala is having her own married life and is currently married to Chetan Anand, who is India’s leading badminton player! Consider the impact which this report can bring on each of their careers!

Meanwhile, Azhar has denied any such reports of having intimacy with the badminton star! He termed them as baseless and fabricated!!! Adding to this, he said that he is hurt and these reports are just disgusting in nature! (What else can the poor MP speak in such case? After all, he is a respected personality.) He cuddled the equation by saying that “we are just good friends.” (Probably that is one of the favorite lines spoken by celebrities till date).

Putting allegations on certain people, he said that these reports are brewed by those who want to tarnish his image, especially now when he holds his association with the political arena! These are just “planted” tales and people should look at their homes first before putting blames on others, that’s what batsman said!

A lot of people are speculating that the marriage of Azhar and Sangeeta would go under a sharp knife, provided these allegations turn true! But I guess we as readers should not barge into further. It is their personal lives and we should not INTERFERE! Right folks?

The budget cuts declared by the UK’s new coalition government has led the country to called off its plans of constructing a new immigration detention center. The building of the detention facility was proposed by the Gordon Brown-led Labor government in 2008, which initially was considered a crucial plan in re-structuring the nation’s immigration system.

The immigration detention facility was supposed to be built in the Oxfordshire town in Arncott. The C prison-like facility would have been instrumental in housing failed refuge seekers in the UK. But, the UK’s minister for immigration, Damian Green announced that the plan has been dropped as of now. He is concerned about the anxiety of the local residents of Arncott, since the detention center was supposed to create 500 new jobs. But, construction of an immigration removal facility seems inconvenient at this point of time, thanks to the cuts in budget. The immigration minister, however, did not signal that the proposed project would never happen in anytime in future.

The immigration minister has already made the MP for North Oxforshire aware of the budget cuts, which has affected the plan of building the immigration removal facility. Currently, UK boasts many failed refuge seekers, as well as refuge seekers who have been waiting for the nations’ decision to come whether they would be given a legal status in the UK or not. Many of such asylum seekers are often housed in emergency facilities on temporary basis. Had the plan for constructing the new detention center been realized, it would have helped many failed asylum seekers, since the center was supposed to be home to as many as eight hundred failed refuge claimants.

Britain’s plans to build an immigration removal center nearby Bicester have become a distant dream as many hurdles are already coming on its way. Government has denied starting the construction of the building during this time. The center if built will be able to give shelter to around 800 failed asylum seekers.

Tony Baldry, an MP of North Oxfordshire has asked for the government to clarify in delaying the project and also if it is intended to move forward with the project. Delay in the commencement of the project may prove quite discomforting to the local residents. But government replies that the construction of the building is beyond the reach of their budget making it unaffordable for the government to allow its construction.

However, it is quite hard to digest that with country‘s current financial situation, it is not able to afford the building of its new immigration removal center. If the country is not able to erect the center now, then how will it be able to do so in future? If built, this center will be the Britain’s largest immigration removal center. The Home office made announcements previously that the center could give rise to around 500 jobs which will be available by 2012.

In the year 2005, many local villagers joined their hands for the proposal of Labor Government to erect an open door centre for failed asylum seekers. But there are some opponents of this project of immigration removal center like Rebecca Mitchell (chairman of Coalition against Bullingdon Immigration Removal Centre) who are supportive to the decision of government of extending the construction of center. She feels that it is not quite sensible to move on with such an expensive project with the present financial situation and we must come up with other efficient alternatives.

UK’s Labor MP Keith Vaz, who has recently been elected the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, is bothered by the UK Coalition government’s new plan of making English language test mandatory for Indian and other non-EU spouses in order to be able to enter and accompany their partners in the UK. The MP, who has his origin in India, has raised his voice over the issue of late.

The language rule which the UK is likely to implement in the coming days, will have deep impact on communities which have their origins in India. Moreover, it is likely to affect the people with low quality of education and poor financial backgrounds. Migrants/citizens in the UK who have or going to have relationships with someone from above mentioned backgrounds may not be able to bring their spouses to the UK. The MP is however concerned about the timescale for the implementation of the rule pertaining to the UK’s official language test for spouses outside the European Union nations. He hopes that the decision would not be hurried one and thinks that the government should take the outcome of having such a policy into account before implementing it.

Reportedly, the UK’s former Labor government was considering implementing the same policy. However, the policy was not supposed to come into effect until 2011, because this would have given appropriate time to both the government in making migrants aware of the rule; as well as the migrants in receiving proper English teaching in order to enter the UK.

Besides Keith Vaz, there are other associations which have expressed their disagreement over the language rule for spouses, including the Indian Workers Associations. On the contrary, the nation’s Home Secretary said that the new policy would play vital role in backing integration, as well as eliminating barriers when it comes to cultures. The Secretary also hopes that move will protect the nation’s public services as well.

It is a well-known fact Indians count for the major part of the immigrants as well as the non-immigrants in the United Kingdom. The recent has been that the Indian tourists have turned out to be the highest spenders in London, especially in the posh West End which is the shopping district in London. Keeping the above in mind, the retailers have started a campaign to advocate the easing of the visa norms specifically for the Indians. This campaign has been put forth to urge the present government of David Cameron.

The campaign has been named as the Visa-Ability Campaign and is being driven on forecasts that the total expenditure by the shoppers in Regent Street, Oxford Street as well as Bond Street would reach up to £12 billion in the coming two years. This is especially going to be true during the London Olympics in 2012.

This high level of expenditures is being expected from international shoppers, especially those belonging to India and China as the exchange rates for them is currently favorable. The main aim is to promote this trend further which would encourage more people to visit and shop in West End and prefer the UK instead of other nations.

According to the New West End Company, the money that would be spent in West End alone this year would go beyond £6 billion. This company makes up for six hundred retailers on the above three high-end shopping streets.

VisitBritain which is an agency promoting international tourism along with the New West End Company have led the campaign to Mr. Damian Green, the Immigration Minister; Mr. Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary for Culture and Olympics and Mr. John Rose, the Tourism Minister.

Many Parliament Members in Britain have already urged the government to remove the new laws on immigration. The recent of which is to clear an English test before they are permitted to come to the UK. This is especially for students from India and other non-European countries.

As per the MPs, these rules have been implemented in a hurry and have many flaws. This would simply discourage around 100,000 international students who pay a very high fee to come and study in the UK. These rules simply threaten a key sector to the economy of the UK and might damage the education industry in the nation.

With the new Australian immigration policy in place, there have been reports of the MPs from the opposition to have not been informed of the same. The same has been denied by Scott Morrison, the Senior Liberal. The new policy which has an objective to act tough on all those entering the nation by boats is facing criticism even from the coalition itself. The main reason behind this is no prior information or discussion pertaining to the issue. This has gone to the extent that some of the Liberals have termed the program as being inhumane and cruel and at the same time, the law is not being operated from the party room.

However, Morrison who is also the spokesman for immigration maintained that prior discussions took place way back in February where everyone was informed. This was done in the Backbench Policy Committee.

He also mentioned that there was complete support for the policy which clearly communicates the policy of the Howard-era Pacific Solution and its return. With this is the formation of the offshore detention centers.

At the same time, the coalition government would try and launch the Temporary Protection Visas which would cap the timelines for the refugees to live in Australia and would bring it down to 3 years. Such a policy was last seen during the government of Howard. Here, the refugees would also have work for their own benefit and welfare.