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Monday,
August 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Officials’ apathy helps
NRI cheats
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ONGC may set up chopper division Vajpayee to chair Inter-State Council
meeting in Srinagar J & K Govt to improve living
conditions in migrant camps Aadharshila award for Bismillah Khan |
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Bodo Tigers repose
commitment Teresa film
fest receives fresh jolt George to meet MiG 21 crash victim’s mother
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Officials’ apathy helps
NRI cheats go scot-free New Delhi, August 17 The incidents of NRIs marrying Indian girls in accordance with the Indian laws and later divorcing them after reaching their foreign homes by taking advantage of the laws there have now become a cause of serious concern for the officials here. “In such cases, even the senior police officers are not aware of the extradition procedure. They don’t know how to conduct investigations abroad. In many cases, lackadaisical approach of the judiciary encourages the accused to commit such crimes,” noted an official. The official said mostly girls from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh fall victims. Majority of them end up being divorced in alien surroundings, forcing them to take up menial jobs. One such victim from Punjab on condition of anonymity said, “Once we reached the USA, I was shocked to see my husband was already married to a US woman. He started asking me to do household chores and treated me like a domestic help. When I refused to do so, he snatched my passport, jewellery, legal documents and whatever money I had with me.” “Later he made me sign some papers forcibly and took me to a lawyer for filing divorce papers,” she added. Even the Supreme Court has held that no marriage between an NRI and an Indian woman taking place in India may be annulled by a foreign court, provision may be made for adequate alimony to the wife in the property of the husband in India and abroad and the decree granted by Indian courts may be made executable in foreign courts both on principle of comity and by entering into reciprocal agreements like Section 44-A of the Civil Procedure Code. The police, in most of the cases, files simple warrants, which are not sufficient to charge the accused outside India. In some cases, the complainants and the victims themselves come forward to assist the police and the judiciary to locate the accused living abroad, but their requests are turned down citing some reason or the other. The police usually closes such cases by filing untraceable reports in court. |
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ONGC may set up chopper division New Delhi, August 17 “After the accident, many feel boarding a hired chopper is risky... operating our own helicopters is not a bad idea,” a senior company official told PTI here. The official, who did not want to be named, said a Canadian helicopter manufacturer has already sent a proposal. ONGC currently hires around 23 helicopters from different owners on short and long-term charters for deployment on west and east coasts, as well as in the mountainous region of the North East. Meanwhile, Petroleum Ministry has asked ONGC to frame an age criteria for hiring of helicopters. The new norm would be on the lines of ship charter criteria issued recently where crude oil, petroleum products and chemical carriers above the age of 25 years have been banned from Indian waters. Sources said after the August 11 helicopter crash, Petroleum Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi asked the ONGC to study international practice of hiring aviation facilities and come out with age specifications. Twenty ONGC employees, three contract workers and four crew were killed when a Russian-built MI-172 fell into sea immediately after taking off from ONGC’s jack-up rig Sagar Kiran in the Neelam oilfield area, off the Mumbai coast. Two ONGC employees managed to escape from the chopper, which was chartered from New Delhi-based Mesco Airlines. The sources said the ONGC, which holds 21.5 per cent stake in state-run Pawan Hans helicopters, had at least on one occasion previously looked at floating an aviation arm. “Very preliminary talks too were held some years ago with a couple of helicopter manufacturers. But the idea fizzled out,” they said adding this time ONGC board would give a hard look at the proposal in the light of the recent accident. —
PTI |
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Vajpayee to chair Inter-State Council New Delhi, August 17 The meeting, being held after a gap of two-and-a-half years, is slated to discuss the remaining 17 recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission, which are related with Article 356 and 365 of the Constitution. The meeting, which should be held at least thrice a year,is being held for the first time since its inception on May 28, 1990, outside Delhi. The decision to hold the meeting in
Srinagar was taken by the Vajpayee government to send a strong message to Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. The presence of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani and over 17 Chief Ministers in Srinagar will also be a signal to the international community. The council was set up under Article 263 of the Constitution during former Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s short tenure for fostering cooperative federalism and improving Centre-state and inter-state ties. Sources said the Srinagar meeting would finally accept the remaining recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission with the Centre agreeing that the Supreme Court judgement with S.R. Bommai case would become the guiding principle for imposition of President’s rule. Similarly, the council would also put its stamp on the use of Article 365, the sources said. Once the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission are implemented, the Vajpayee government would be faced with a question as to what to do with the Inter-State Council. |
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J&K Govt to improve living
conditions in New Delhi, August 17 “NHRC chairman A S Anand along with Special Rapporteur Chaman Lal recently visited the Jammu region. After considering the condition and problems faced by migrants, the commission recommended steps to be taken for improving the situation,” the NHRC sources told PTI here today. Describing sanitation, basic amenities, health care and quality of education as the “problem areas”, the commission asked the state government to take steps in these fields and improve the living conditions in the migrant camps, the sources said. The state government has informed the commission that the recommendations made by NHRC were agreed upon and steps were being taken accordingly, the commission sources said. The commission had pointed out that it was the obligation of the state government to provide living conditions of good and reasonable quality to the migrant families in the context of their fundamental right to life with dignity. “The fact that these families were forced to leave their homes in the Kashmir valley under unfortunate circumstances, causing them enormous pain, cast a special duty on the state administration not only to meet their basic physical needs but also to ensure that their self-respect and self-confidence are restored and their sense of belonging is revived,” NHRC said. —
PTI |
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Aadharshila award for Bismillah Khan New Delhi, August 17 Former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh and I.K. Gujral and Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma will be present at the function, a press note from Aadharshila, a group of journalists, writers and artists, said here today. Ustad Bismillah Khan’s name was selected for the award by a 10-member jury, which include among others former Chief Secretary of Delhi Omesh Saigal, Chief Secretary of Goa D.S. Negi, Arts Editor of The Times of India Rathottama Sengupta, Chief Cartoonist of The Hindustan Times Sudhir Tailang and president of Aadharshila Pradeep Sardana. The award has earlier been conferred on Anil Biswas, Tarachand Barjatya and Pandit Birju Maharaj. |
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Bodo Tigers repose
commitment to pact New Delhi, August 17 In an affidavit filed in reply to a writ petition challenging the February 10 agreement, signed between the Union Home Ministry, the Assam Government and the BLT, organisation’s Chairman Hagrama Basumatary said, “The accord is just, legal and equitable.” The accord has been challenged by the Bodoland Autonomous Council Boundary Protection Association (BACBPA) on the ground that the agreement with a “small terrorist group of Bodos” had no legal force behind it. The court had on April 17 issued notices to the Centre, the Assam Government and the BLT on the petition filed by BACBPA, which claims to be a body working for the protection of the interests of the Bodo tribe. Reposing full faith in the Constitution and the sovereignty and integrity of the country, the BLT chief said it was wrong to describe the organisation a “terrorist” outfit. He said the BACBPA had not raised any substantial question of law or any issue indicating that the accord had infringed the fundamental or any other rights of the petitioner. “The memorandum of settlement fell purely in the realm of the policy decision by the Centre, and no case for interference by the court has been made out,” the affidavit said, adding that the apex court has in various verdicts held that in the matter of policy the executive decisions must be left alone. The settlment has brought peace to the Bodoland area of Assam after years of violence and an overwhelming majority of the people had come out strongly in support of the agreement,” the BLT chief said, pointing out that during the Kargil conflict it was the only underground organisation of the North-East to declare a unilateral ceasefire. |
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Teresa film
fest receives fresh jolt Kolkata, August 17 In reply to the festival authorities’ request to the BBC for permission to screen ‘Something Beautiful for God’ at the festival, BBC licensing officer Clair Geddes wrote back on August 4 saying that permission could be given, but ‘licence fee to cover the screening will be $ 250 plus any technical costs.’ Subsequently, the festival authorities e-mailed an appeal to the BBC Director General Greg Dyke on August 14 seeking his intervention for waiver of the licence fee. The BBC replied the same day that it was unable to supply copies of whole programmes or films for free. “We are shocked at the BBC’s decision. This is a non-commercial, homage film festival and no other producer or director has asked for fees for their films. It is, indeed, very sad that the first-ever film on Mother Teresa, made 34 years ago, should be so forbidding,” Archbishop of Kolkata Lucas
Sircar, who is also chairman of the festival committee,said. — PTI |
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George to meet MiG 21 crash victim’s mother Mumbai, August 17 Ms Gadgil, who resides in Mumbai said she had received a letter from Mr Fernandes office that the Defence Minister would be meeting her. — UNI |
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