Ahmadinejad claims Tehran metro


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Tehran // Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's move to control the capital's metro system has caused anger among his political opponents, who claim the president is motivated by rivalries with the Rafsanjani clan and the city's mayor rather than a genuine interest in developing and running the Middle East's biggest underground network. The running of the Tehran Urban and Suburban Metro Co, which carries more than one million passengers a day, was handed over to the Tehran municipality in 2001. But last week, on a live television show focusing on issues within Tehran, Mr Ahmadinejad said he had decided to return the running of the metro to the government.

The president, who was the mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005, said he would personally appoint the head of the metro company. On Sunday the city council of Tehran vetoed the president's plan, but the government still has the option of offering a bill to the parliament, which, if approved, would give Mr Ahmadinejad full control over the metro system. The metro is headed by Mohsen Hashemi, the eldest son of the influential politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Mr Rafsanjani and two of his politically active children, Faezeh and Mehdi, openly backed Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of Mr Ahmadinejad's reformist rivals in the presidential elections of June.

In his televised debate with Mr Mousavi a few days before the elections, Mr Ahmadinejad questioned the source of income of Mr Rafsanjani's children and implied that they had used their father's influence to accumulate wealth. At the time, Mr Hashemi, Mr Rafsanjani's eldest son, came to the defence of his father and his siblings and called Mr Ahmadinejad a liar. The Tehran mayor, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative who ran against Mr Ahmadinejad and Mr Rafsanjani in the 2005 elections, also supported Mr Mousavi against the president. Mr Qalibaf's supporters say he is now being made to pay the price.

"Ahmadinejad is holding personal grudges against some politicians and officials on account of the elections and has put the elimination of his opponents on his agenda," Dariush Qanbari, a reformist politician, said, according to Parleman News, the official website of the reformist minority faction, known as Imam's Way Faction. "He is trying to isolate them by any possible means or to eliminate them so that no one will be able to play a different tune," he said.

Mr Qalibaf and Mr Hashemi have on many occasions accused the government of withholding the budget allocated to the development of the metro as well as the budget for paying ticket subsidies. They say a lack of funding hinders the day-to-day operation of the metro. Metro tickets in Tehran are heavily subsidised jointly by the government and the municipality, leaving passengers to pay only one quarter of the ticket's actual value.

Besides the personal grudges and political rivalries, some of Mr Ahmadinejad's critics claim that by seeking control of the Tehran metro the government is eyeing control over a US$1 billion (Dh3.7bn) emergency budget recently allocated to the municipality to help the metro. "Now that the government has realised it can no longer sabotage [the operations of the municipality by withholding funds allocated to the metro] and that they can get their hands on the money they are seeking to take control of the metro," Qodratollah Alikhani, a reformist politician, told Parleman News.

Commuters using the metro in Tehran say all they want is good services and they are not concerned about who runs it. "The metro can be the easiest, safest and cheapest way to commute. Whether it is the municipality or the government that is running it is not such a big issue," Hasan, a civil servant, said. "However, I am worried that if the government runs the metro the way it is running the economy, we can't expect the metro developing or offering its services properly."

In other large Iranian such cities as Mashad, Isfahan and Shiraz, the construction of metro systems is under central government control. Mr Ahmadinejad's critics say in these cases the running of the projects has been very poor. The Mashad system, which has been overseen by a government-appointed provincial governor, is the only network that has been completed but it is still not operational because of a four-year delay in acquiring the rolling stock, according to the Ayandeh News web portal affiliated to Tehran's mayor.

@Email:msinaiee@thenational.ae

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Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters

The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.

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But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.

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Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash

Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.

Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.

Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.

Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.

Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.

if you go

The flights
Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow. 
Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes). 

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