 |
| Friday,
August 3, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
|
Conviction ‘should stay’ during pendency of plea Medha, Arundhati dare S. Court
Moradabad killings SC reserves order on Sonia’s citizenship |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nagas’ threat to thwart ceasefire Cong UP poll drive from Aug 9 India not to export Agni missile NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT Phoolan’s security ‘wasn’t downgraded’ No decision on SP ticket for
Phoolan’s husband Punjab completes work
on irrigation project Kisan sabha stir on Aug 9
|
|
Conviction ‘should stay’ during pendency of plea New Delhi, August 2 “It would be a sublime public policy that the convicted public servant is kept under disability of the conviction in spite of keeping the sentence of imprisonment in abeyance till the disposal of the appeal or revision,” the court observed. The ruling was handed down by a Division Bench comprising Mr Justice K.T. Thomas and Mr Justice S.N. Variava while dismissing an appeal by an officer of Punjab National Bank posted at Amritsar. Prosecuted by the CBI, along with his other co-employees, for defrauding the bank of Rs 2 lakh, K.C. Sareen was convicted and sentenced by a Patiala trial court to one year’s rigorous imprisonment, with a fine of Rs 500, under Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The accused officer appealed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The high court, while admitting the appeal, suspended the sentence but did not suspend the conviction with the result that he was dismissed by the bank. The accused officer, therefore, approached the apex court seeking suspension of his conviction in order to avert the other fall-out of the conviction. When a public servant, who is convicted of corruption, the apex court said, is allowed to continue to hold public office, it would affect the morale of his colleagues or subordinates and consequently erode the already shrunk confidence of the people in such public institutions.
UNI |
|
|
Medha, Arundhati dare S. Court New Delhi, August 2 Taking exception to the tenor of their affidavits filed in response to the contempt notices, the court had observed that “the tenor of the affidavits may itself be contemptuous.” A Bench of Mr Justice G.B. Pattanaik and Mr Justice Ruma Pal, after hearing counsel for advocate Prashan Bhushan, Ms Patkar and Ms Roy in person, reserved orders on a petition filed by some advocates seeking action against them for raising derogatory remarks against the judiciary and judges of the apex court during a “dharna” by the NBA before the apex court last year. Appearing for Ms Patkar, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan contended that there was a perception among the people that “the courts were far too removed from the reality and were using the contempt powers against those who criticise judgements”. When the court pointedly asked about the derogatory remarks made in her affidavit, the counsel said, “If this is contempt, then send her to jail. She is ready for it.” Ms Roy, who argued for herself, said “I find the issuance of notice insulting to me. I stand by my affidavit. If you (court) think it is contemptuous, please proceed against me.” That was all she argued in her defence.
PTI |
|
Moradabad killings New Delhi, August 2 The Home Minister informed the House that these gangs were very mobile and moved far across the countryside to commit such offences. He assured the members that concerted efforts are on to catch the perpetrators of the crime. He said that a Special Investigation team has been set up with two officers of the rank of Additional Superintendents of Police and a number of other police officers. He apprised the House of the security arrangements made in the village as also those for the treatment of the injured. He said that the IG, Bareilly Zone had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for providing clues leading to the arrest of the culprits. Mr Advani’s reply to the clarifications sought by the members on his statement was postponed for Friday afternoon as he had to read out a statement on the brutal murder of member of Parliament Phoolan Devi. Members belonging to the Congress, the Left parties, the RJD and the Indian Muslim League questioned the veracity of the Home Minister’s statement and the complete omission of the alleged rape of three women. Mr Kalraj Mishra of the BJP, however denied any rape and this irked RJD member Saroj Dubey and CPM member Chandrakala Pandey. In his statement, Mr Advani said that he had relied on the information of the Uttar Pradesh government. He said that the modus operandi in three incidents of violence in Western UP last month, was the same. “The one at Siraswan was the worst. In this incident, six persons died and 13 persons were injured. In all three cases, the attack was above the neck, on the head and the face; the attack was made when members of the families were sleeping; no distinction was made between men, women and children; metal rods and lathis were used in the attack and
causing death was as important to the perpetrators as the loot. My officers tell me that this is the modus operandi of certain tribes which had been notified during the British period as criminal tribes,” the statement reads. BJP member Narendra Mohan said that tribes of the kind described by Mr Advani did not spare the lives of people. Earlier, giving a statement in the Lok Sabha, Mr Advani said the modus operandi adopted by the killers indicated that members of certain notified as “criminal tribes” were possibly involved in the three incidents at Siraswan village in Moradabad district, Kasba Mawana in Meerut district and at Lakhimpur Kheri in the second half of July. |
|
SC reserves order on Sonia’s citizenship New Delhi, August 2 The judges hearing two appeals against the Allahabad High Court judgement dismissing in limine the petitions challenging Ms Gandhi’s election on the ground of her being a foreign national, and hence not qualified to contest, reserved their verdict after the conclusion of the arguments. Mr Hari Shanker, one of the appellants, submitted that the Constitution made a distinction between “a citizen of India” and “a citizen” and only the former was qualified to hold elective posts while the latter enjoyed merely certain rights laid down in the Constitution. Ms Gandhi was entitled to benefits only as belonging to the second category, he added. Another appellant Mr Hari Lal, contended that Ms Gandhi applied for Indian citizenship on April 4, 1983, which was granted on April 30. This grant of citizenship, however, was void ab initio as she had not stayed in India continuously during the previous 12 months as mandated. Mr Lal pointed out that Ms Gandhi had not complied with the provisions of the Indian Citizenship Act which required her to renounce her Italian nationality. Even today, she was holding her Italian passport which had not been cancelled by the Italian embassy. This was compulsory for becoming an Indian citizen, he said. Mr Milon Banerjee, former Attorney-General, appearing for Ms Gandhi, submitted that the high court had rightly dismissed the election petitions in limine and the matters canvassed by the appellants were not maintainable in an election petition on appeal. |
|
Nagas’ threat to thwart ceasefire New Delhi, August 2 A Home Ministry spokesman said the two sides had also agreed to broad-base the Ceasefire Monitoring Group by including participation from various Non-Governmental Organisations. The spokesman said the ceasefire was continuing and would be in effect till July 31, 2002 and both parties had agreed to meet as frequently as possible to arrive at a solution to the long-pending Naga issue. Meanwhile, Prime Minister’s emissary for Naga talks is leaving for Amsterdam in the Netherlands to hold fresh round of talks with NSCN leader T Muivah to defuse the controversy following the Centre’s announcement that the three words (without territorial limits) have been removed from the truce agreement. |
|
Cong UP poll drive from Aug 9 New Delhi August 2 The Congress, which has been in the doldrums in the electorally crucial state, is making an all-out effort to revive itself with the party’s frontal organisations, including the Youth Congress and the Mahila Congress having carried out an elaborate exercise to remove the deadwood within. UP Congress chief Shriprakash Jaiswal told TNS here today that the PCC had already started the process of identifying candidates. The tickets he said, would be given on merit. He indicated that the party cadres were not in favour of any alliance and wanted the party to contest all Assembly seats . Mr Jaiswal said the party had learnt a bitter lesson from the previous Assembly elections when it did not field candidates in over 300 seats. “People thought we had vanished from these areas,” Mr Jaiswal said. Pointing to the efforts of the party to revive itself, he said in the last parliamentary poll, the Congress had won 10 Lok Sabha seats and the party was on top in 35 Assembly segments. It was a close runner up in about 50 seats and third in nearly 30 others, he informed. Mr Jaiswal said apart from the PCC office-bearers who had been assigned specific responsibilities regarding the coming poll, the AICC had appointed observers in the all 17 zones of the state to report the party’s poll preparations. Beginning with torch processions in all towns of the state the first phase of “oust BJP movement” would include mass meetings and rallies in various blocks on August 9 and 10, in tehsils on August 13 and in districts from August 14 to 16. A dharna near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Lucknow on August 20 - birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi - would mark the end of the first phase of the party’s campaign. The Congress, Mr Jaiswal said, would focus on the “attacks by the state government on the Constitution, rights of farmers, workers, Dalits, backwards, minorities, weaker sections and women.” |
|
India not to export Agni missile New Delhi, August 2 In reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said the limited production of Agni II missile with longer range had commenced and the missile would be inducted soon. The minister said there had been further slippages in the induction programme of the surface-to-air Akash and Trishul missiles and blamed it on delay in realisation of the state-of-the-art guidance and propulsion technology. He said the joint programme for developing a supersonic anti-ship cruise missile with Russia had started. |
|
NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, August 2 There were 196 Indian fishermen, 54 prisoners of war (PoWs) and 840 other civilian prisoners currently in Pakistani custody, the Minister of External Affairs, Mr Jaswant Singh, told the Rajya Sabha. On June 26, Pakistan agreed to release 196 Indian fishermen, he said. An amount of Rs 4,700 lakh had been allocated for construction and development of national highways in Himachal Pradesh during the financial year 2001-02, the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Maj Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd) said. The Haryana Government’s request for special assistance amounting to Rs 607.33 crore to compensate for damage to crops from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF), was not accepted, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Ajit Singh, informed the Lok Sabha today. According to the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), out of the 7,206 families affected due to the construction of Bhakra Dam, 2,395 families were rehabilitated by the Government of Himachal Pradesh in the state only, 2,632 families were paid cash compensation as awarded by the competent authorities under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The
remaining 2,179 families had been rehabilitated in the districts of Sirsa, Hisar and Fatehabad in Haryana, the Minister of State for Power, Ms Jayawanti Mehta told the Lok Sabha. Portions of the G.T. Road from Jalandhar to Kolkata were included in the National Highway Development Project (NHDP) which envisaged four-laning of these national highways. The section from Jalandhar to Agra had already been four-laned and the balance sections were targeted to be completed by December, 2003, the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Major General B.C. Khanduri (retd) told the Rajya Sabha. A new track has been constructed between Guler and Nandpur railway stations in the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh replacing the old railway alignment. Approval for transfer of land to the Public Works Department, Himachal Pradesh was conveyed in June this year and the land would be handed over to the state government on receipt of payment of the cost of the land, the Minister of State for Railways and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr O. Rajagopal informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today. |
|
|
Phoolan’s security ‘wasn’t downgraded’ New Delhi, August 2 The Home Minister informed the House that Phoolan Devi had been provided three plainclothes Personal Security Officers in 1994 who worked round-the-clock in three shifts. Besides, the Uttar Pradesh Government had provided her an armed policeman for her security and this defence shield was not removed till the very end. Mr Advani called upon all members to transform their common concern on criminalisation of politics into a strong all-party consenus. He said the killing of Phoolan Devi has once again highlighted the cancer of criminalisation of politics that has afflicted Indian democracy. He observed that every killing, irrespective of the political leanings of the victim, corroded the prestige, credibility and effectiveness of the political system. |
|
No decision on SP ticket for
Phoolan’s husband New Delhi, August 2 The party was reacting to Umed Singh’s statement yesterday that he would enter politics to fulfil the dreams of the slain MP. Mr Amar Singh, spokesman for the Samajwadi Party, said today that there was no hurry to decide the candidate for the Mirzapur by-election since the election was yet to be announced. |
|
Punjab completes work
on irrigation project Hanumangarh, August 2 Sources in the Irrigation Department said so far over Rs 2,47,20,00,000 had been spent on the project. Out of this, about Rs 6 crore had been spent in Punjab while about Rs 107 crore had been spent in Haryana and the remaining in Rajasthan. Under the project, renovation of about 142 km of the Bhakhra main line had been done in Punjab while in Haryana, a 49-km-long feeder had been constructed from Tohana head parallel to the Sidhmukh-Nohar feeder. Another feeder had been constructed in Haryana from Burji No. 1,60,400 of the Fatehabad branch to the Kishangarh branch. Renovation had also been done of the Baruwali distributary and the Fatehabad branch in Haryana. The sources said some work was left in Haryana pertaining to the construction of 24 bridges. The foundation stone of this scheme was laid in 1989 by Rajiv Gandhi. The state government had started work on the project in 1991, but because of financial problems, progress could not be made. In 1993, the European Union showed interest in the project and entered into an agreement with the Centre over the project. Going by the agreement, a share of Rs 135 crore was fixed for the European Union and the remaining amount was to be paid by the state government and cultivators who would be benefited. As many as 106 villages of Hanumangarh and Churu districts would be benefited. An area of 28,000 hectares of the Sidhmukh distributary was excluded from the project because of geographical reasons and water shortage. So about 30 villages of the 106 villages that were to be benefited had been deprived of the irrigation facilities. For these villages work had been started over the Sidhmukh-Rattanpura irrigation project. Water for the Sidhmukh-Nohar irrigation project would be made available according to an agreement of 1982 over the sharing of the Ravi and the Beas waters. As much as 33 MAF from the Bhakhra Nangal Dam had been sanctioned to the Sidhmukh irrigation project and 17 MMF for the Nohar project. |
|
|
Kisan sabha stir on Aug 9 Hanumangarh, August 2 Mr Shopat Singh attacked both the BJP government at the Centre and the Congress government in Rajasthan on various fronts. Starting the round of allegations, he said in the name of beautifaction lakhs of poor were uprooted in the state and now they were living without a roof on their heads. The former MP said it was a wrong move to abolish the electricity board and divide it into private companies. He said with the hike in electricity rates about 56 lakh consumers had been affected badly. He said with the fixation of 10 per cent commission for the police from the electricity thefts detected excesses were done by cutting connections of several villages. He further said the Congress had moved away from the promises it had made in its election manifesto. On the matter of availability of water for irrigation in the region, Mr Shopat Singh said the Irrigation Minister, Ms Kamla, announced a hike in the irrigation rates as soon as she became a minister. He alleged she did this to please the World Bank and in this process the whole irrigation system of the state was destroyed. In July there was no water supply and thus for want of water the crops were destroyed. On the other hand water from the Sutlej and the Beas was going waste by flowing into Pakistan. He said the Irrigation Minister and officials of her department had failed to get their share of water and electricity from the Centre. The consequences of this would be borne by cultivators. The former MLA said the produce had gone down by half in the past three or four years in the region. On the other hand rates of diesel, manure, seeds, pesticides and machinery etc. had touched the sky. He alleged the government was not purchasing the crops on the minimum support price. He said if the Punjab Government could compensate cultivators for the wheat that could not be sold at MSP why could not the Rajasthan Government do something similar. Mr Shopat Singh said the kisan sabha workers has met the Chief Minister on March 9 regarding their demands and an assurance was given to them that their demands would be considered, but nothing had been done yet. Mr Shopat Singh said from August 9 the sabha would launch a statewide campaign and the workers would get themselves arrested. |
|
|
Additional charge
for BSF DG New Delhi, August 2 |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
