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| Sunday, February 27, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Jethmalani against death penalty CVC now targets forest service India, Lanka discuss ethnic crisis PM: poll results below
expectations Crime rampant in Sriganganagar |
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Mock plane hijack at
Bangalore SAD decries DSGMC plan to visit
Pak
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Jethmalani against death penalty NEW DELHI, Feb 26 (PTI) — Law Minister Ram Jethmalani today strongly favoured abolition of capital punishment saying that the "useless" exercise has failed to eradicate crime or act as a deterrent. "From my experience I know the death penalty is no remedy to crimes, it is useless and serves no purpose," Mr Jethmalani told a symposium on "Death Penalty" here. "I believe that since capital punishment is irrevocable it ought not to take place today," he asserted. However, the legal luminary maintained that on only two "exceptional" cases it could be preserved. "One, on the ground of murder after the rape of a child — paedophile crime," he said and insisted that he should not be drawn into any debate on the issue with Home Minister L.K. Advani. Mr Advani had recently favoured introduction of the death penalty for the offence of rape. The other offence for the death sentence should be "on the ground of unprovoked murder of wardens or fellow prisoners by a convict serving life imprisonment", he said. Mr Jethmalani, who had contested the death sentence served in connection with the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, made a veiled attack on former President R. Venkataraman for not granting clemency. "If I was the President, I would have resigned if the Cabinet had recommended against granting the clemency," he said. Later, Mr Jethmalani told PTI that the clemency petition on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case was yet to come to the Law Ministry. Mr Jethmalani said India had already signed the 1966 UN Convention and was thus "internationally and morally committed to progressively work for the abolition of the death penalty". He said more than the judiciary, the responsibility for its deletion lay with the legislature. Participating in the
deliberations, former Chief Justice of India, A.M. Ahmadi
said the death penalty could be used only in "rarest
of rare case". |
CVC now targets forest service NEW DELHI, Feb 26 (PTI) — Continuing its crusade against bureaucrats facing corruption charges, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has now targeted the Indian Forest Service (IFS) by putting on its website the names of 23 officials of the service. The commission last month had put on its website the names of 107 IAS and IPS officials against whom it had recommended criminal or departmental proceedings on corruption charges, triggering a controversy. In the latest move, the commission has included the names of 23 IFS officials on its website against whom it has advised the launching of criminal proceedings or the imposition of penalties. According to the CVC website, the commission has advised the launching of criminal proceedings against 16 IFS officials and the imposition of major penalties against seven others. The officers against whom it has advised the launching of criminal proceedings include a divisional forest officer in the northern region, a retired Chief Executive in the Orissa Forest Corporation and an Additional Chief Conservator of Forests. The penalties recommended include a cut in pension of four retired officers. The commission has also advised the initiation of criminal or departmental proceedings against an SDM belonging to Union Territory Civil Services from Delhi. Earlier, the CVC had put on its website the names of 77 Indian Revenue Service officials against whom it had recommended criminal proceedings or the imposition of major penalties for alleged acts of corruption. Of these IRS officials
who belong to the Customs, Central Excise and Income Tax
Departments, the CVC has recommended the launching of
criminal proceedings against 10 and the imposition of
major penalties against 67. |
India, Lanka discuss ethnic crisis NEW DELHI, Feb 26 (UNI) — While remaining noncommittal to Norway’s role in facilitation of talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, India has expressed the hope that a solution to that island country’s ethnic problem will be comprehensive in its scope and will meet legitimate aspirations of all sections of society. However, the Indian Government has made it clear that the solution to the ethnic problem should be within the framework of the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. The views of the Indian Government were conveyed by Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh to his Sri Lankan counterpart Lionel Fernando during official-level talks last evening. Mr Fernando is on a mission to brief Indian leaders that the Norwegian role in the ethnic crisis is not to mediate but to facilitate the dialogue. The two sides which held wide-ranging discussions on ethnic conflict, terrorist developments in the South Asian region and SAARC matters, decided to have foreign office consultations annually. They also discussed operationalisation of the free trade agreement which India conveyed to Sri Lanka would become effective from March 1. It was also agreed to increase cooperation in the civil aviation field by increasing the number of seats by 30 per cent weekly. The two countries
decided to intensify cooperation in countering terrorism.
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PM: poll results below expectations NEW DELHI, Feb 26 (PTI) — The Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, today admitted that the results of the Assembly elections were below expectations and said the BJP would look into the reasons for such performance. "We will have to look into why we did not get expected success," Mr Vajpayee told mediapersons after inaugurating the State Power Ministers’ Conference here. Asked for his comments on the party’s performance in the four state Assembly elections Mr Vajpayee said it was satisfactory and that he was still awaiting the details. The Prime Minister also
declined to comment when asked if the lifting of the ban
on RSS by Gujarat Government affected the party’s
performance. |
Crime rampant in Sriganganagar SRIGANGANAGAR, Feb 26 — This district bordering Pakistan on one side and Haryana and Punjab on the other seems to have become a paradise for criminals. The police here finds it difficult to arrest criminals as they flee to Haryana and Punjab after committing the crime. With more than 70 murders, 60 rapes, 275 incidents of snatching and looting and more than 500 cases of thefts during 1999, crime has become rampant in this district. More than 6,400 criminal cases were registered in 1999. The district has achieved a dubious distinction of having registered the maximum number of suicide cases. In 1999, 178 cases of suicides were reported. Police sources say residents commit suicide on trivial issues. Some such instances came to light recently when people ended their lives in full public view "because their aspirations were not fulfilled." A large number of escape routes present in the district has made it a hub of narcotic smuggling. The drug menace synthetic and traditional, has assumed alarming proportions here. According to the police record, in 1999, the police confiscated 348 quintal of poppy husk and 7 kg of opium. It registered 317 cases under the Excise Act and seized 31,785 pouches and 2,030 bottles of illicit liquor. Betting business on various types of sports events and elections is common here. The police has registered 849 cases under the Gambling Act and has arrested 1,412 persons from whom more than Rs 13 lakh was seized. A large number of cases were also registered against persons, who were possessing firearms without a licence. Sources said incidents of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had also been reported in large numbers and more than 750 cases were registered in this regard. The crime figures of 1998 and 1999 show that 150 murders, 110 cases of rape and 1,000 incidents of thefts took place in the district. Mr R.K. Mehrda, district
police chief, said the main reason for the crime was that
criminals escaped to Punjab and Haryana after committing
the crime. He said the police was making concerted
efforts to check crime. |
Mock plane hijack at Bangalore BANGALORE, Feb 26 (UNI) — The city police was today caught unawares as the Civil Aviation officials carried out a mock "hijack" of a chartered Jet Airways flight at the airport here this afternoon. City Police Commissioner Thimmappa Madiyal said the authorities had carried out a mock exercise to check the preparedness of the authorities, including the police. Earlier, Director-General of Police T. Srinivasulu had told UNI that the plane, bound for Singapore, had been "hijacked". Mr Srinivasulu later said they had mobilised forces and rushed to the airport on being informed that the chartered flight had been hijacked. Subsequently, they were told by airport authorities that it was only a mock exercise and they had called off the operations. Mr Madiyal, who also rushed to the airport, said the authorities carried out such mock exercises routinely to check whether the local officials were prepared to handle a plane hijack. Earlier, when a UNI correspondent, acting on a tip-off, contacted Mr Srinivasulu at the airport he said, "A plane with 58 persons on board had been hijacked and the two hijackers were only willing to negotiate with the authorities concerned." However, a Jet Airways spokesperson said later that the plane with 48 passengers, mostly Singaporeans, was originally scheduled to take off at 12.30 pm and would now fly at 5.30 pm. She maintained that the take-off was delayed due to "technical reasons". It was not immediately
known why the chartered flight was selected for the mock
exercise. |
SAD decries DSGMC plan to
visit Pak NEW DELHI, Feb 26 — The proposed visit of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee members to Pakistan was in violation of Sikh tradition, the president of the Delhi unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), Mr Avtar Singh Hit, said here today. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) had banned all religious delegations to Pakistan after Islamabad formed its own PGPC headed by a former ISI official, Mr Avtar Singh said. A 25-member DSGMC
delegation is scheduled to visit Pakistan on March 7. |
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