Friday, October 9, 1998
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Judges' case: states concur with Centre NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — The Centre’s stand on appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and high courts was strengthened today with all the states and top advocate associations submitting before the apex court that the President was not bound by the recommendation of the Chief Justice without following the due consultation process. CID to probe TN caste violence CHENNAI, Oct 8 — The Tamil Nadu Government today ordered the CID to investigate the recent communal violence in the state’s Ramanathapuram district. |
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VCs
for boosting Jainism studies |
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Maneka’s plan for animals in
distress NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — If the Union Welfare Minister, Ms Maneka Gandhi’s plan gets the nod, soon the Government could introduce an ambulance service for animals in distress. Builder gets HC nod for complex in
Lutyen's zone 13,000
tonne onions to be imported State
Labour Minister’s meet on Oct 16 Qutab
festival from today |
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Judges' case NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (PTI) — The Centre’s stand on appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and high courts was strengthened today with all the states and top advocate associations submitting before the apex court that the President was not bound by the recommendation of the Chief Justice (CJI) without following the due consultation process. The Attorney-General, Mr Soli Sorabjee, submitted before a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice S.P. Bharucha, which is hearing the Presidential reference raising nine questions on appointment and transfer of judges, that the advocates general of the states were unanimous that recommendation of the CJI without due consultation would not be binding on the President. Appearing for the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), senior advocate, Mr R.K. Jain said, "it goes without saying that any recommendation (by the CJI) without following mandatory, substantive and procedural requirements would be no recommendation in the eyes of the law and as such no question of its being binding on the government would arise." Senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, while contending for the Bar Association of India (BAI), said "in case the majority of the judges consulted do not agree with the view of the CJI, the latter would not submit that proposal (for appointment or transfer) as (by submitting the same) he would be giving an opportunity to the executive to overrule his recommendations." For the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (Scaora), the senior advocate, Mr K. Prasaran, said the CJI has to conform to know norms and requirements as set out by the apex court itself in the 1993 judgement given by a nine-judge Bench. "Any recommendation made by the CJI without complying with the norms of consultation process may not be binding upon the Government of India," he said. The Attorney-General had contended yesterday that the President was not bound by the recommendations of the CJI on appointment of judges if it was made without following the consultation process. Earlier, Mr Jain submitted that wider consultation by the CJI with brother judges would not only be helpful, but would also be fully justified for achieving the larger public purpose —namely to select the best talent available from the strong Bar of more than seven lakh members throughout the country. Mr Venugopal suggested that it would be appropriate that consultation by the CJI (in regard to appointment and transfers) should be with the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court instead of two as provided in the 1993 ruling. "Without their (four
judges) opinion or views, the recommendations of the CJI
would not have primacy as it does not symbolise the
collective opinion of the plurality of judges," the
BAI counsel averred. |
‘Need to become air and space
force’ NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen, today stressed “the necessity to progress from an ‘air force’ to an ‘air and space force’ by deploying space based systems.” Addressing IAF personnel at Delhi airport on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the Indian Air Force (IAF), he said the utilisation of space-based systems was assuming increasing importance in a variety of military operations. On the modernisation plans of the IAF, he said these had been worked out keeping in mind the deterrence factor especially with the development of nuclear capability in the “neighbourhood”. “The modernisation effort was reflected in last year’s acquisition of state-of-the-art multi-role Sukhoi-30 aircraft and modern weapon systems,” he added. Analysing the work of the IAF in the previous year, he said while emphasis had been laid on operational training, several steps to check the accident rate had produced “excellent results.” The accident rate last year was the lowest in the history of IAF, he said. While aircraft utilisation rate of the fighters had doubled, the transport and helicopter fleets had also witnessed a 10 per cent increase in flying effort, the Air Chief said. Stating that new houses were being built by the IAF for its officers and men, he referred to various welfare measures including a new medical scheme, benevolent schemes and the creation of a super-speciality veterans’ hospital. Meanwhile, weeks of hard work and preparations done by IAF pilots came to a nought today when poor visibility due to a thick smog cover over Delhi forced the cancellation of the fly-past, which is the main attraction. For the first time awards were given away to the best squadrons. The Best Fighter Squadron Trophy went to the Number 22 squadron of the South Western Air Command. The Best Transport Squadron Trophy went to the Number 49 squadron of Eastern Air Command. The Number 114 Helicopter Unit of Western Air Command was awarded the Best Helicopter Unit Trophy and the Number 77 SU of the South Western Air Command was awarded the Best Air Defence Radar Unit Trophy. The Air Chief also gave away Vayu Sena and Vishisht Seva Medals to the following officers and personnel: Vayu Sena Medal:- Air Cdre Charanjit Singh Gill, VSM, Gp Capt Nirdosh Vatsyayan Tyagi, VSM, Gp Capt Rakesh Kacker, Gp Capt Krishan Kumar Nohwar, Gp Capt Sapan Karmaker, Gp Capt Ashok Balkrishna Rahane, Gp Capt Paramjit Singh Gill, Wg Cdr Daljit Singh, Wg Cdr Anil Kumar Jain, Wg Cdr Manmohan Bahadur, Wg Cdr Govindan Ajith Kumar Nair, Wg Cdr Nuthalapati Koteswara Rao, Sq Ldr Sunil Kaura, Sq Ldr Vivek Chaturvedi, Flt Lt Somesh Kumar Saini. Vishisht Seva Medal:- Air
Cdre Avdesh Kumar Singh VM, Air Cdre Shah Baig Singh
Paul, Air Cdre Saravjit Singh Hothi VM, Air Cdre Rohinton
Darashaw Bharucha, Air Cdre Vaithianathan Shanmugham, Air
Cdre Sudhir Kumar Srivastava, GP Capt Vinod Kumar Verma
VM, GP Capt Shakti Bhushan Prasher, GP Capt Mohan Prasad
Sinha, GP Capt Umesh Chandra Singhal, GP Capt Sirnivasa
Rao Sistla, GP Capt Dhiraj Kukreja, GP Capt Pranab Kumar
Dutt, GP Capt Salem Sundra Ram Gunashekar, GP Capt
Amarjit Singh Chaggar, Wg Cdr Baldev Singh, Wg Cdr
Gyanendra Pal Singh, Wg Cdr Devendra Kumar Bhatt, Wg Cdr
Navraj Krisan Arora, Wg Cdr Prakash Kumar Srivastava, Wg
Cdr Suneel Kumar Newlay, Wg Cdr Karavadi Narendra Kumar,
Sqn Ldr Raj Kumar Jain, Sqn Ldr Thoppil Behanan Mathew,
Sqn Ldr Bethanapudi Nirmal Roy, Sqn Ldr Rajesh Kumar
Dhingra, Flt Lt Samay Singh Yadav, Flt Lt Krishnamurthy
Srinivasa. |
CID to probe TN caste violence CHENNAI, Oct 8 (PTI) — The Tamil Nadu Government today ordered the CID to investigate the recent communal violence in the state’s Ramanathapuram district even as Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi launched a veiled attack on AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha saying that her attitude made him suspect if the incidents were “induced’’ for dismissal of his government. “The attitude of the present opposition leader makes me suspect whether the whole thing was induced to build up an excuse for invoking Article 356,” he said without naming Ms Jayalalitha who has stopped up the demand for the DMK government’s ouster after the violence which claimed 11 lives. Mr Karunanidhi, who was inaugurating the DMK’s office building at Kancheepuram last night, said the caste violence in Ramanathapuram could not be cited as his government’s failure as such incidents were nothing new in the state. Fights between caste Hindus and Dalits had occurred even during the tenure of Kamaraj and Bhakthavatsalam, he said adding that the opposition parties in those days behaved in a responsible manner and tried to help the government find solutions. The Chief Minister said during the previous five-year AIADMK rule headed by Ms Jayalalitha, 201 deaths were reported due to caste clashes and another 135 in blasts. Mr Karunanidhi issued an
order asking the CID of the Tamil Nadu police to take
over the investigation into all cases relating to the
recent caste clashes in Ramanathapuram district. |
VCs for boosting Jainism
studies HASTINAPUR (Meerut), Oct 8 — The Vice-Chancellors of about 22 universities in the country have decided to promote research for the teaching of Jainism as well as the principals and works of Bhagwan Rishav Dev — the founder of Jainism and the first Teerthankara. The Vice-Chancellors who met here at the Bhagwan Rishav Dev Rashtriya Kulpati Sammelan, last evening, also felt that not much has been by way of research in the literature of Jainism. Dr M.L. Ranga, Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, addressing the concluding session of the sammelan maintained that lot of Jain “manuscripts in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit” had not been studied. He suggested that numerous details regarding Jain Teerthankaras should be made available to people. The Vice-Chancellors agreed that the promotion of teachings of Jainism and its “16 Kalas” were essential for peace and good-will. They felt that research work at Kundh kundh Gyan Peeth at Indore, solely devoted to the study and research of Jainism, should be further promoted. The sammelan resolved that the study of Jainism should be promoted in various universities. Dr Ranga offered to hold a national symposium on the Nirvan Diwas of Bhagwan Rishav Dev on January 16 on the Kurukshetra University campus. Dr Ranga released a book:
“Arhat Parvachan” edited by Dr Anupam Jain of
Indore. The Vice-Chancellor was honoured by Brahamchari
Devender Jain. Besides 110 scholars were also honoured at
the occasion. |
Maneka’s plan for animals in
distress NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — If the Union Welfare Minister, Ms Maneka Gandhi’s plan gets the nod, soon the Government could introduce an ambulance service for animals in distress. This novel plan to have a service exclusively for the animals in distress has been formalised and sent to the Planning Commission, ministry sources said here. The plan was drawn up recently after the Welfare Minister finally got the charge of animal welfare division transferred to the Ministry of Social Justice and Employment from the Ministry of Environment. The sources said the ministry has sought funds to implement the project which will cater to animals specially those which are victims on the city roads, the source said. The Animal Welfare Division after several months of lobbying was transferred to the Environment Ministry last month with a notification to that effect has been issued by the Cabinet Secretariat. The staff associated with the division has also been sent to the Social Welfare Ministry. The division has a budget of Rs 4.70 crore. Apart from the ambulance
service, another project in the pipeline is a Rs 25 crore
scheme for rehabilitating tribesmen around national
parks. |
Builder gets HC nod for complex in NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (PTI) — After five years of legal battles, a private builder has got the green signal from Delhi high court to construct a multi-storeyed building in the Lutyen's zone of the Capital. A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice Devender Gupta and Mr Justice K. Ramamoorthy directed the central government and the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) “to render all assistance” to Rajendra Kumar Mohatta, the petitioner in the case. The court quashed an NDMC notice which had rejected the building plan and directed the petitioner to stop construction in June, 1993. Challenging the order, Mr Mohatta, who had a collaboration with Unitech Limited in 1984 for the construction of a building at 22, Feroz Shah Road, moved the court on the ground that the building plan was sanctioned by the NDMC earlier after a detailed study by various bodies comprising representatives of both the Centre and the state. The NDMC, which had
granted one year’s extension of the building plan in
1992, issued a show-cause notice as to why the building
be not sealed in view of unauthorised construction. |
13,000 tonne onions to be imported NEW DELHI, Oct 9 (PTI) — In a bid to ease onion shortage, the government yesterday decided to import 13,000 tonne and banned the export of the mass consumption vegetable. Announcing this an official spokesman said that the imported onions would hit the markets by next week. While NAFED would be importing 10,000 tonne, the Delhi Government would buy 3,000 tonne from nearest available markets in Iran and Oman. The export ban would be in force till the arrival of the new onion crop, he added. The government also decided to waive customs duty on the imported onions to ensure onions were available at reasonable prices. This decision was taken at a high- level meeting convened at the behest of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, Mr Prabhat Kumar. Among those who were
present at the meeting were Secretary in the Prime
Minister’s Office N.K. Singh, Commerce Secretary
P.P. Prabhu, Agricultural Secretary Kamal Pandey, Civil
Supplies Secretary N.N. Mukherjee and Chief Secretary
(Delhi) Omesh Saigal. |
State Labour Minister’s
meet on Oct 16 NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — The Union Ministry of Labour will organise a conference of labour ministers of the northern region in Srinagar on October 16. A spokesman of the Ministry of Labour told The Tribune here today that key issues related to the labour sector would be taken up for discussion during the one-day meet. Union Minister of Labour Dr Satyanarayan Jatiya will preside over the conference. Mr B.D. Tandon, Mr R.C. Kaushik and Mr Rangeela Ram Rao, Labour Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal and the labour secretaries and commissioners along with their counterparts from Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are expected to participate. The spokesman said that
the conference would review the implementation of the
Minimum Wages Act and adoption of uniform minimum wages
for the region. It will also consider progress of
national child labour projects and schemes sponsored by
various welfare funds in the region. The Ministry will
also adopt measures to improve the Provident Fund, the
Employees State Insurance Scheme and functioning of
industrial training units. |
Qutab festival from today NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation in association with the Sahitya Kala Academy will organise a dance and music programme from October 9 to October 11 on the occasion of Qutab Festival at Qutab Complex in South-West Delhi. The Qutab Festival is celebrated to preserve and present the ancient tradition of music of India and contemporary classical Indian dance. The festival will begin with the performance of Odissi dance. The highlights of the festival are the illustrious three generations of Sarabhi Family, Mrinalini, Mallika & Anahita Sarabhai, a release said. The Ustaad Ahmad Hussain
and Ustaad Mohammad Hussain ghazal maestros will grace
the function. There will be regional delicacies along
with an exhibition giving the architectural details of
the monuments in Qutab Complex, the release said. |
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| 2 ASIs held for graft NEW DELHI: The Anti-Corruption Branch of Delhi Government arrested two Assistant Sub-Inspectors of the Delhi Police for allegedly having bribe. In the first case, ASI Gajraj Singh of Moti Nagar police station in South-West Delhi reportedly demanded a bribe of Rs 500 from Manjit Singh for not implicating him in a criminal case. He was arrested red-handed while accepting the bribe, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Sudhir Yadav said. In the second case, ASI Ram Chand reportedly demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 from Rakesh Kumar for not arresting his brother-in-law, Jai Bhagwan in a criminal case. He was also caught red-handed and the bribe amount recovered from his possession, the DCP said. — FOC 5 sentenced to 10
years’ RI Cop killed in
attack Gastro-enteritis
deaths 3 Naxalites killed Acid showers Bus set on fire |
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