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Sunday,
May 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Unviable regulatory bodies may go Train fire: list of dead
released Job Charnock not Kolkata founder: HC Cong strategy for assembly poll |
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Two Bihar judges
suspended Journalist’s remand
extended TN Govt suspends 5,000 medicos Major cow hide haul in
Delhi LIC, bank staff to join May 21
strike Shilpa’s father gets
bail
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Unviable regulatory bodies may go New Delhi, May 17 There is a need to have a corrective mechanism through an Act of Parliament to review and monitor the performance of these autonomous bodies, according to the Finance Ministry. This is particularly so as the apex bodies falling under the purview of a particular ministry or department headed by a secretary are unable to fit the bill. These autonomous bodies are assuming gargantuan proportions, employing more than 4 lakh people with pay and allowances akin to the Union Government. Rs 5,000 crore is forked out annually by way of salary and the total outgo by way of grants is in excess of Rs 9,000 crore annually. The average grant received by an autonomous body is about Rs 6 crore and the expenditure is nearly Rs 12.75 crore. Sources in the Finance Ministry say that the regulatory bodies are turning out to be white elephants, especially when efforts are on to curtail wasteful expenditure. This assumes significance because the very existence of certain autonomous bodies has become irrelevant and questionable. Specific attention is drawn, among others, to the Tariff Commission for major ports, Central Electricity Regulatory Authority, the
Settlement Commission and the Authority on Advance Ruling. The Tariff Commission’s prime task of regulating port tariff has become questionable because of the private sector’s entry in the arena. The case is no different with the Central Electricity Regulatory Authority where private sector
participation has led to competition, leaving no scope for interference or protection. The Finance Ministry believes that the credibility of some of these organisations has taken a severe beating because of their failure to meet the objectives. What is compounding matters is that these high powered and apex bodies are usually headed by appointments at the minister’s level and Supreme Court and high court judges who do not permit any kind of scrutiny or monitoring. Consequently, “the government is absolutely blind to the performances of these organisations and whether the objectives are being missed or achieved,” an internal appraisal of the functioning of regulatory bodies reveals. The Finance Ministry maintains that a sorry picture emerges about these autonomous or regulatory bodies devoid of strict guidelines. The Expenditure Reforms Commission in its fifth report has come down heavily against the regulatory bodies observing that it failed to obtain the full list of such autonomous institutions due to the non-cooperation of various ministries and departments. The office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has a list of only 313 autonomous bodies while nearly 450 autonomous bodies are in existence. |
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Train fire: list of dead
released New Delhi, May 17 According to a press note issued by Northern Railway here today, the dead include Dr Alphansa from Coonithura, (Ernakulam), Betty and her two sons, Johny and Tony and Surinder Singh from Delhi, Vinayak Ganpati, Draupadi, Sakha Ram, Gotia and Nisha from Kolhapur district, Paramjit Singh from Tilak Nagar, Asha Mehta from Kirti Nagar, Purushotam Lal Grover from Navi Mumbai, Anita Bhatia from Pitampura, (Delhi), Kans Kaur from Khazala village in Gurdaspur district, Nitin Kumar and Megha from Baghpat, Jai Gopal from Amritsar, Joginder Kaur alias Jepinderjeet Kaur, Jaskaran Singh and Kashmera Singh from Kapurthala district, Harish Kumar, Sumit, Sonam, Kishor and Nisha from Madhya Pradesh, Girija Devi, D.V. Ramana, D. Rajshri, D. Rajlaxmi, T. Srinivas Murti, T.Radharani, D. Anuradaha from Hyderabad and A. Benu Kumar (C/0 56 APO) The injured undergoing treatment at the Christian Medical College, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital and Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, have been identified as Sangeeta, Ravinder, Satpal, Vikram, Ashok Bhatia, D.S. R Murthi, D.S. Shastri, Anil Kumar, Nishita, Uday Bhaskar, Padmavati, D.V. Sharma and P.K. Ashraf. Ajit Kumar and Tasleem have been discharged from the Civil Hospital and CMC respectively. |
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Job Charnock not Kolkata founder: HC Kolkata, May 17 These findings of an expert committee have been endorsed by the Division Bench of the Kolkata High Court, comprising Chief Justice Asoke Kumar Mathur and Mr Justice Jayanta Biswas. The five-member committee set up by the High Court comprised Dr Nemai Sadan Bose, former Vice-Chancellor, Visva Bharati, as chairman, and Dr Barun Dey, Dr Sushil Chowdhury, Dr Arun Dasgupta and Dr Pradip Sinha, historians, as members. The Division Bench, at its historic judgment delivered yesterday, directed the state government to immediately rectify all official documents pertaining to Kolkata’s foundation day as per the expert committee’s report and correct history books and other writings where Job Charnock has been named as Kolkata’s founder. The High Court ruled that August 24, 1690, would no more be observed as Kolkata’s foundation day as Kolkata (Kalikata) existed much before the arrival of Job Charnock. The name of Kalikata was mentioned in the “Monasavijay Kabya” much before Job Charnock’s arrival and the land document of “Aain-e-Akbari” in 1596. The Sabarno Roy Chowdhury family got the zamindari of Sutani, Govindapur and Kalikata in 1608. Hence, Job Charnock cannot be named as Kolkata’s founder, the Bench stated, quoting the committee’s report. The High Court gave this judgment on a public interest petition filed by the Saborno Roy Chowdhury Parivar Parishad and nine other persons challenging the naming of Job Charnock as the founder of the city, and August 24, 1690, as its foundation day. The petition was filed in April last year. The court set up an expert committee to examine the matter and submit its report to the court. The report was submitted to the Chief Justice recently. Mr Ajit Kumar Panja, MP, and Mr Smarajit Roy Chowdhury pleaded the case on behalf of the petitioners. The state Advocate-General, Mr Balai Roy, told the court that the government had accepted the verdict in toto but it would take one year’s time to rectify the “mistake” in history books, other texts and reference books since the academic session had already begun. The documents which the historians attached in support of their findings stated that Job Charnock landed in Sutani village on August 24, 1690, and died in 1693. But the British received the tenancy right of Kalikata, Sutani and Govindapur on November 10, 1698. |
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Cong strategy for assembly poll New Delhi, May 17 The Election Strategy Committee of the Congress, headed by Dr Manmohan Singh, today drew up plans for galvanising the party in Chhattisgarh and Delhi which face elections in November this year. The committee will tomorrow separately discuss the party’s preparations in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Besides the committee members, today’s meetings were attended by the Chief Ministers and PCC chiefs of Delhi and Chhattisgarh. The committee today also discussed preparations in Mizoram, which faces elections in November. The Congress is not in power in Mizoram. Since the BJP is the main adversary of the Congress in all four Congress-ruled states in the Hindi heartland, it has decided to attack the policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre in its poll campaign. The Congress has also decided to highlight the ``discrimination of the NDA government against the Congress-ruled states.’’ Congress general secretary Ambika Soni said today’s introductory meeting identified issues which would form a part of the party’s manifesto in Delhi and Rajasthan. She said the meeting discussed ways to strengthen the party machinery so as to properly project the achievements of the state governments and speak about the difference made by the Congress governments in the past five years. Sources said “groupism” in the Delhi Congress was touched upon with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and PCC chief Subhash Chopra putting forth their views on the issue. There was also a reference to possible tie-ups with “like-minded parties.’’ Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, however, said later that the Congress would go alone in the state. He said while there was no challenge from the NCP which was recently joined by Mr V C Shukla, the BJP in the state was in a
"disarray.’’ |
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Two Bihar judges suspended Patna, May 17 The standing committee of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice R.S. Dhavan, has suspended Additional District and Sessions Judge of Aurangabad Brinda Pathak and Chief Judicial Magistrate of Patna S.K. Srivastava for dereliction of duty and showing undue favours in granting bails. Sources in the office of the High Court Registrar-General said here today that the seven-member committee, which met on May 15, considered the reports submitted by the District Judges of Patna and Aurangabad regarding complaints of various acts of “omission and commission” against the two judicial officers.
PTI |
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Journalist’s remand extended New Delhi, May 17 Special Judge S.N. Dhingra remanded Bhat for eight more days in police custody for his interrogation and to confront him with a militant named War, a TADA convict, and Khurshid, a sub-editor working with the news agency headed by Bhat. The special branch of the Delhi Police alleged that Bhat had bought the cellphone from War. The police alleged that Bhat was a Hizbul Mujahideen militant and a close associate of outfit’s head Syed Salahuddin. Counsel Riaz Mohammed appearing for Bhat argued that the police remand should not be extended as the police had already interrogated both of them in Srinagar. Mr Mohammed said Bhat had come to Delhi with the money to buy a printing machine to install in his office so as to publish his newspaper. Bhat was arrested near the Moolchand flyover in Lajpat Nagar of south Delhi on May 10 night.
UNI |
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TN Govt suspends 5,000 medicos Chennai, May 17 The disciplinary action, which came after the deadline set by the government to the students to call off the stir expired, had been taken as the students had violated an undertaking given by them at the time of admission that they would not involve in any stir, he said.
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Major cow hide haul in Delhi New Delhi, May 17 Acting on a tip-off that a green Tata 407, carrying cow hide, had entered the national capital from the Rajokri border after dodging the Haryana police, Delhi Police Control Room vans chased the vehicle which diverted to Najafgarh and Bamnali village, police sources said. The truck was finally intercepted at Chhawla and two persons, both aged around 25 years, were arrested. The arrested persons were identified as Azad and Sabir, both residents of Faridabad in Haryana.
PTI |
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LIC, bank staff to join May 21 strike New Delhi, May 17 As many as 10 lakh bank employees and all LIC employees, including the field staff, all over the country will join the strike, statements issued by the employees’ unions of banks and the insurance company said. The trade unions have called the strike to press for an eight-point charter of demands, including an immediate revision of the Centre’s privatisation policy, the introduction of a insurance and social security in all sectors, announcement of clear-cut policy for the farming community and employees in the unorganised sector. The unions have also opposed the proposal to change labour laws. The All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has also opposed the privatisation of public sector banks. “Once the corporate sector take over the banks, they will not pay back the huge chunks of money they owe to nationalised banks,’’ the AIBEA said. The press note by LIC employees said instead of consolidating and expanding the base of the public sector, which had been the engine of India’s economic growth, the government was privatising even health services and education. The rising costs of electricity, telephone, treatment in private hospitals, education in private institutions and daily travel had imposed an unbearable burden on the common man, it pointed out.
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Shilpa’s father gets bail Mumbai, May 17 Sessions Judge P.V. Bawkar granted the transit bail to him till May 28 after he furnished a cash surety of Rs 40,000. The transit bail would enable him to file a regular bail application in the local court in Surat in Gujarat where the case against him had been registered. Yesterday, fearing arrest, Mr Shetty had filed an anticipatory bail plea in the Sessions Court, which was heard today. He had filed the application after a complaint for alleged threats and extortion was filed against him and two others by a Surat-based saree tycoon Pankaj Agarwal. According to the first information report (FIR) filed in Surat, Mr Shetty, his wife, Sunanda, and an alleged member of Malaysia-based Fazlur Rehman gang had been threatening Mr Agarwal for quite some time over a dispute on an endorsement agreement between Shilpa Shetty and the company Gangaram Synthetics Private Limited, which markets its brand “Praful Sarees”.
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