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Saturday,
May 3, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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HC allows suspended pilots to join duty Hike funds to states to check starvation: SC AIDS control funds: SC notice to Centre
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DDA scam: former judge seeks bail
Jail official shot dead Advani flays VHP trident move No action against
erring Kerala MLAs: Cong NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT SP-BSP clash
in Lok Sabha BJP attacks Cong
over Bihar killing Lohgarh road to
be named after Banda Bahadur
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HC allows suspended pilots to join duty
Mumbai, May 2 Mr Justice M.N. Gokhale and Mr Justice D.G. Deshpande hearing a petition filed by the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and 24 suspended pilots said the court would decide on June 16 the issue whether their suspension was per se illegal. However, the court said the departmental inquiry would go on. Outside the court, IPG general secretary Vikram Sansare told reporters that there was no reason now to refuse to fly to SARS-affected countries because sufficient precautions had been taken in this region. As regards the talks between a guild delegation and Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma in Delhi yesterday, he said the minister assured them that he would consider their grievances in the next few days. Meanwhile, despite the calling off of the Air-India pilots’ strike, government stuck to its decision to derecognise IPG and disciplinary action against 45 suspended pilots while the airline said it would take at least a week time to resume original flight schedule. “There was no question of revising the stand on derecognising of the IPG which had caused a lot of financial and image loss to the airline,” highly placed sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry said in New Delhi. They said disciplinary proceedings against the 45 suspended pilots would be taken to its logical conclusion. Air-India Director Public Relations Jitendra Bhargava said the airline would take at least a week to put back its original flight schedule.
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Action against
pilots to continue New Delhi, May 2 The week-long strike by the pilots was called off late last night "unconditionally". "The highest level of leadership in the government has decided to take tough action against striking pilots. The decision has not been taken solely by the Civil Aviation Ministry," official sources said. Fortyfive pilots were suspended for refusing to fly to SARS-affected destinations. |
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Hike funds to states to check starvation: SC New Delhi, May 2 “We direct that on pro rata basis, allocations under the SGRY be expanded and doubled, both in regard to foodgrains and cash, for May, June and July... and the states lift the allocations and ensure that the same reach those for whom these are meant,” a Bench comprising Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice H.K. Sema in an order said. The Centre has made a provision of Rs 5,000 crore and 5,000 million tonnes of foodgrains to be allotted to the states under the SGRY this year and as per today’s order of the court the allocation for May, June and July would be calculated on the basis of double the amount. It would mean that the Centre would release to the states Rs 2,500 crore cash and 2.50 million tonnes of foodgrains during the next three months to overcome any drought and famine situation in the country. Pulling up the Centre and the state governments for not taking effective steps to deal with the drought and famine-like situation witnessed in various parts of the country last year, the court said this was a “very important matter and needs to be given top priority.” Stating that the Central Government had been sitting on an expert committee report on the implementation of the SGRY, the Antyodaya Ann Yojna and the Midday Meal scheme for primary schoolchildren, the Bench said whether the enhanced allocations should continue after July, would be considered by the court after the response of the Centre, which was asked to file an affidavit by August 8. It said the committee had recommended doubling of both the cash and foodgrain component under the SGRY. The direction was issued during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) alleging that despite the country having overflowing buffer stock of foodgrains, people were dying of hunger in many parts of the country. Asking the states to tighten the public distribution system to ensure that all families in the BPL category (estimated 41 per cent) were covered for distribution of subsidised foodgrains through fair price shops, the court said licences of shopkeepers be immediately cancelled if they were found guilty of selling the stock in the open market and making false entries of the allottees in their records. |
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AIDS control funds: SC notice to Centre New Delhi, May 2 Issuing notices to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and NACO, a Bench comprising Chief Justice V. N. Khare and Mr Justice S. B. Sinha said they should submit the replies to a petition filed by the Common Cause, on NGO, and alleging that the money allocated to “mushrooming” NGOs under the AIDS control programmes was being grossly misused. The Common Cause, in a petition, filed by its counsel Kamini Jaiswal, said despite country spending Rs 1,000 crore on the AIDS prevention programme every year, government had failed to achieve any success to check the spread of the AIDS virus. |
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DDA scam: former judge seeks bail New Delhi, May 2 While hearing his bail application, Mr Justice R.C. Chopra issued notice to the CBI, directing it to file its reply by May 5, when the matter would be taken up for hearing. The court also directed the CBI’s Investigating Officer, probing the DDA scam, to place before it the case diary on Monday for its perusal. Mr Justice Chopra said for deciding the bail plea, perusal of the case diary was necessary to see the progress made by the CBI in the investigation of the matter. Justice Mukherjee, who had resigned in the wake of the arrest of DDA Vice-Chairman Subhash Sharma and middleman Dharamveer Khatter, after his name had surfaced during the investigation, has sought bail on the grounds of ill-health of his wife and mother. A city court had yesterday remanded him in seven days’ custody of the CBI to facilitate his further interrogation. The CBI had alleged that four files relating to DDA cases, pending in his court, were recovered from the premises of
Khatter. |
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Salman chargesheeted Mumbai, May 2 The actor pleaded not guilty to the charges framed against him. He had rammed his vehicle into a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, killing one person and injuring four others who were sleeping outside. The court has posted the case for trial on July 2. Principal Judge A.J. Dholakia held that Salman appeared to be prima facie guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder as he had the knowledge that rash and negligent driving may kill people. Salman had opposed the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which attracts a maximum punishment of 10 years in jail. He argued that the case was that of rash and negligent driving for which the maximum punishment prescribed under the IPC was two years. The actor urged the court to drop the charge of Section 304 part two of the IPC,
triable exclusively by a Sessions Court. On other charges he did not raise any dispute.
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Jail official shot dead Bhabua (Bihar), May 2 Kaimur District Magistrate Mihir Kumar Singh said three miscreants riding on two motor cycles sprayed bullets on the jail Superintendent while he was sitting in his house after returning from a morning walk. He said at least five bullets were pumped into the temple and chest of the 55-year-old jail Superintendent killing him on the spot. The gangsters from neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh, who were recently released from the jail, were suspected to be behind Ram’s killing, the Magistrate said, adding that it appeared to be a pre-meditated murder. The district administration had killed notorious gang leader Jawahar Bind and many other gangsters from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh districts of Chandoli, Ghazipur and Sonebhadra and many others were arrested, he said. Raids were on to arrest the culprits, he added. Security in the Bhabua Jail had been tightened in the wake of killing, Mihir Kumar Singh said.
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Advani flays VHP trident move New Delhi, May 2 In his brief address to the meeting, Mr Advani is said to have posed a question saying that whether the VHP was acquiring the image of a trident distributing organisation and whether it was good for the outfit’s image, which had several “positive aspects” to its work, including ‘ekal vidyalayas’ (single teacher schools in remote areas), according to a participant. VHP International Working President Ashok Singhal and its firebrand Secretary-General Praveen Togadia sat silently and heard Mr Advani’s counsel, sources said. The sources said Swadeshi Jagran Manch leaders S. Gurumurthy and Murlidhar Rao expressed serious reservations over the government’s economic policies. Ayodhya issue also came up for discussion with the VHP leaders pleading for a parliamentary legislation to enable the construction of a Ram temple. |
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No action against
erring Kerala MLAs: Cong New Delhi, May 2 Treating the episode as a “one-time aberration,” Ms Gandhi decided to give the erring MLAs, who had defied the party directive and voted for a rebel candidate put up by senior party leader K. Karunakaran, another chance to work for the unity of the party. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, May 2 The minister told the House that the percentage of such households was 60 per cent in Haryana, 43.2 per cent in Himachal Pradesh and 9.6 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir in 1997. FDI inflows:
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh told the Lok Sabha that Chandigarh attracted Rs 842.5 crore of Foreign Direct Investment in 2002 (January-December). He said the major factor contributing to FDI concentration in certain states and UTs was the investment friendly climate there. Externally aided projects in Punjab: Minister of State for Finance and Company Affairs Anandrao V. Adsul told the Lok Sabha that there were four state sector externally aided projects under way in Punjab. For Punjab Afforestation Project, Japan had provided a loan worth 6,188.1 million Yen. Road, bridges projects sanctioned by Nabard: Nabard has sanctioned 339 rural road projects and 51 rural bridges projects for providing financial assistance to Punjab, Mr Adsul told the House. He said the number of such projects sanctioned by the bank were 62 (roads) and 29 (bridges) in case of Haryana and 227 for roads and 120 for bridges in Himachal Pradesh. |
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SP-BSP clash
in Lok Sabha New Delhi, May 2 As an SP member tried to raise the issue through adjournment motion, Speaker Manohar Joshi rejected it saying that the party can move court and state issues could not be raised in the House. Mr Ramji Lal Suman and Mr Kuwar Akhilish Singh submitted notice for the adjournment motion and also attempted to raise the issue in the House. All three adjournment motions were disallowed by the Speaker. Order in the House was restored after 10 minutes. Mr Suman contended that the democracy is being throttled by the Mayawati regime. His statement was contested by BSP members, including Mr Rashid
Alvi. |
BJP attacks Cong
over Bihar killing New Delhi, May 2 “The killing of BJP leader Satyanarayan Sinha and the language used by Mr Laloo Yadav only shows that the state should be brought under President’s rule. The Congress is equally responsible for these developments,” BJP Parliamentary Party spokesperson V. K. Malhotra told newspersons here. Mr Malhotra said a meeting of the NDA leaders was likely to be called soon to decide on the course of action to be taken to tackle the “civil war-like situation” in Bihar. |
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Lohgarh road to
be named after Banda Bahadur New Delhi, May 2 The Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, Mr Tarlochan Singh, had urged the Himachal Government to rename the road link as Lohgarh was the capital of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur. He was the first sovereign king to rule major parts of Punjab during the Mughal rule. Baba Banda Bahadur was named as chief of the Sikh army by Guru Gobind Singh in 1707. After entering Punjab, he defeated the Mughal army and selected this hillock near Nahan as his capital and built a fort there. |
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Assam ultras freed, truce saved Guwahati, May 2 The authorities bowed to the relentless pressure of the Dima Halao Daoga (DHD) militants and asked the Army to release them. The militants were handed over by the Army to the Assam police at Bandarkhal. From there, the police of N.C. Hills district took them to their designated camp at Ditockcherra.
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Stamp on Durga Das New Delhi, May 2 Addressing the gathering, he said, “Credibility is the greatest asset of a journalist and a newspaper — and I should hasten to add, also of TV channels.” |
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Excavation: 35 more days for ASI Lucknow, May 2 The ASI was earlier given a May 10 deadline to complete the excavation work. The special Bench comprising Justice Sudhir Narain, Justice S.R. Alam and Justice Bhanwar Singh directed the ASI to complete the work of excavation by June 15 and submit the final report by June 30. PTI |
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