September 16
The group of ministers set up to look into the technical issues faced by GST Network, headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, will hold its first meeting. The GST Council, the highest decision-making body of the new Goods and Services Tax regime, had decided to form a five-member panel to look into the technical glitches facing GST Network. The GoM was constituted on September 12 and its first meeting is convened within a week as the government looks at fast ironing out the issues faced by businesses.
The third phase of the Kisan Mukti Yatra will begin on Saturday. Starting with Telangana on September 16, the yatra would cover Andhra Pradesh (Sept. 17 and 18), Tamil Nadu (Sept. 19, 20), Kerala (Sept. 21) and Karnataka (Sept. 22, 23). This would be followed by a public meeting, Kisan Sadan, at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on November 20, coinciding with the winter session of Parliament. Members of the 24 farmers’ bodies which came together to form the sangharsh committee would participate in the yatras stressing the need for implementation of the promises made by successive governments. The first phase was started in July in Madhya Pradesh and covered several States before culminating in Delhi on July 18 with a huge public meeting.
Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu will lay the foundation stone for New Regional Vocational Training Centre for Women in Telangana in ATI Campus at Vidya Nagar, in the presence of Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on September 16. Rs 19.95 crores has been allocated for the Institute. The said institute caters to vocational training needs of 480 women/girls annually in regular courses and further 480 women/girls for various short term courses in skill areas having high market demand.
September 17
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the Sardar Sarovar Dam project to the nation after opening the 30 new gates installed in it. Fifty-six years after the foundation stone for the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river was laid by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Gujarat government got permission in June this year from the Centre to shut the gates of this controversy-hit structure, marking the "completion" of the project. The project got delayed due to several reasons, one of the prominent being opposition to it by the Narmada Bachao Andolan led by social activist Medha Patkar. The Sardar Sarovar Project will provide irrigation facilities to 18.45 lac hectares of land, covering 3,112 villages of 73 talukas in 15 districts of Gujarat, through a canal network.
The first of the five-match ODI series between India and Australia will be played in Chennai. India have named a 16-member squad instead of 15 for the first three games. The fast bowling duo of Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami will play in the first three games of the series against Australia while spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested, as per the BCCI’s rotation policy. The Virat Kohli-led team edged out Australia 2-1 in a Test series earlier this year.