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SC declines to exempt students from MDU test TN likely to have many ministers in Union Cabinet Suicides continue in Reddy’s regime Jaitley, Sushma may be back in party organisation De-notification order of UP Govt quashed SC pulls up states for not rehabilitating bonded labour |
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Novelist Kamala Markandaya dead Report sought on high suicide rate in Kashmir IAF resumes search operation
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SC declines to exempt students from MDU test New Delhi, May 21 Posting hearing on the Haryana Government’s appeal against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order striking down the provision of management quota and petitions of some affected students in July, a vacation Bench of Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari advised the students to sit in the entrance test afresh this year to be held this month. The court told students’ counsel Indu Malhotra that if their plea was accepted, it would affect the chances of the students appearing in the test this year, which would not be fair to them. “The purpose of the common entrance test is to give level playing field to all,” the court observed. The students had sought intervention in the appeal by the Haryana Government against the high court order striking down the 20 per cent management quota in Rohtak Medical College on the ground that it was contrary to the Supreme Court guidelines laid down in the “TMA Pai” cases for admission to medical colleges. The Rohtak medical college offers admission to 150 students every year out of which, the Haryana Government had reserved 20 per cent as management quota charging Rs 25 lakh from each student for entire course. The fee for the remaining 80 per cent seats is only Rs 15,000 per annum. Similarly, the government had also reserved 20 per cent seats each for BDS and BAMS courses in the state on payment of Rs 15 lakh and Rs 5 lakh fee, respectively, MDU counsel Nidhesh Gupta informed the court. Haryana Government counsel Neeraj Jain submitted that the management quota had been fixed to generate additional resources for the college as medical education was highly subsidised. However, senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan, appearing for a group of students who had to take admission in private medical colleges due to reservation of 20 per cent seats as payment seats, said such a provision was violative of the apex court guidelines. He said the system of “differentiate fee structure” had been abolished by the Constitution Bench in the TMA Pai case. In the Islamic Academy case again another Constitution Bench had laid down that a special committee has to appointed by the state governments to fix the fee in medical colleges by assessing the developmental cost. He said last year 24 seats under the payment quota could not be filled, while the selected students were forced to take admission in private colleges, standard of which could not be compared with the Rohtak Medical College. On the other hand, Ms Malhotra said her clients were deprived of the admission because they could not pay Rs 25 lakh. The university counsel said if the management quota was abolished, the seats could not go to the non-management category students. MCI counsel Maninder Singh, however, said that the TMA Pai case judgement was applicable only to the private colleges and not to the government colleges. |
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TN likely to have many ministers in Union Cabinet Chennai, May 21 In the NDA government there were six Union ministers — three from the DMK, two from the PMK and one from the Marmalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK). This time the MDMK has decided not to join the government and its main agenda is to get POTA repealed. A lot of speculation is rife here about who all will make it to the Union Cabinet. In the last ministry, the DMK had Mr
T.R. Balu and Mr Murasoli Maran as Cabinet Ministers holding the Environment and Commerce and Industry Ministries, respectively. Mr A. Raja of the DMK was Union Minister of State for Rural Areas and Employment. While both Mr Balu and Mr Raja are likely to be made ministers again, in the absence of Mr
Maran, following his death, it is his son Mr Dayanidhi Maran who got elected from the Chennai Central Lok Sabha seat. The PMK had two ministers of state in the last Union Ministry — Mr
A.K. Moorthy, Minister of State for Railways, and Mr N.T. Shanmugam, Minister of State for Coal. This time the newly elected PMK MP from Pondicherry, Dr M.
Ramadass, a renowned economist, is likely to be given an economic portfolio while the other PMK nominee for the ministry might be Mr K.
Dhanaraju, elected from the Tindivanam parliamentary constituency. Former Union Finance Minister, Mr P.
Chidambaram, and two more former Union ministers, R. Prabhu and Mr K.V. Thangabalu, are natural choices. But the man who is likely to be rewarded for the party’s performance is the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president
G.K. Vasan, who is a sitting Rajya Sabha MP. Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, elected from
Mayiladuthurai, and a former TNCC president, Mr E.V.K.S. Elangovan, elected from
Gobichettiplayam, are also in the race for ministerial berths. Ms Jayanti
Natarajan, whose Rajya Sabha term just expired and is a Rajiv Gandhi loyalist, is likely to be the only woman from the state Congress unit who might be accommodated in the Union Ministry. A Rajya Sabha seat is falling vacant in Tamil Nadu in July and if she becomes a minister she can be returned to the Upper House. |
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Suicides continue in Reddy’s regime Hyderabad, May 21 Yesterday, even as the government announced a help line for the benefit of farmers who were in a state of depression following years of drought and low remunerative prices, five farmers killed themselves by consuming pesticides. “Yes, it is distress that is driving them to take this step. We have already put in place a mechanism to help the distraught farmers. Teams headed by the local revenue divisional officers will rush to the rescue of any farmer who calls for help,” Dr Reddy told reporters today. Sops announced earlier in the week by the Chief Minister do not seem to have instilled any sense of confidence among the dejected farmer community. Dr Reddy, immediately after taking over, provided free power to agriculture and waived off electricity dues from farmers. He later announced a package of compensation to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh to the families of those farmers who had committed suicide since 1998 and asked officials to compile a list of beneficiaries. The Chief Minister said it was unfortunate that deaths continued unabated even after the government announced measures to reach out to the debt-ridden farmers and appealed to them to make use of the largess. The officials are worried that the compensation package for the families may actually act as an incentive to farmers to kill themselves so that their families can lead a better life. This in fact was the argument put forth by former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who refused to grant any ex-gratia to the bereaved families. The Congress government, which had come to power on the plank of pro-farmer policies, however, cannot afford to take such a stance. But if Dr Reddy fails to contain the surge in suicides soon enough, the new government will have to face the flak. |
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Jaitley, Sushma may be back in party organisation New Delhi, May 21 The announcement was made by party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi soon after a meeting of top four leaders of the party — Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Naidu — on organisational matters. Mr Naqvi also announced that organisational elections in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, New Delhi and Chhattisgarh. The recent debacle in the Lok Sabha poll, the forthcoming crucial Assembly poll in Maharashtra, Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand and also the aspirations of top BJP leaders who lost in the just-concluded general election are expected to have an over-riding effect on the appointment of the new office-bearers. While Mr Pramod Mahajan and Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are unlikely to be removed as general secretaries, Mr Arun Jaitley and Ms Sushma Swaraj, who were in the Vajpayee Cabinet, are expected to make their way into the party organisation as spokespersons. In that event, Ms Anita Arya and Mr Shivraj Chauhan will be asked to make way for Mr Jaitley and Ms Swaraj. |
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De-notification order of UP Govt quashed Noida, May 21 The court order is being interpreted as a setback to the Mulayam Singh government in the state. The Mulayam Singh government, soon after assuming charge in the state, had issued the de-notification order which was perceived as a political vendetta against Ms Mayawati. It was argued in the court that districts were abolished under the provision of the UP Land Revenue Act, 1901 and the government had no funds to maintain these districts. However, this line of argument could not cover Gautam Budh Nagar district, which was a show window of the state and was contributing 15 per cent of the total state revenue. The Noida Lok Manch, an NGO, had filed a PIL in the Allahabad High Court within a week of the abolition order. It was argued that the cancellation had been done without any uniform and comprehensible policy and it would result in retarding the progress of not only Gautam Budh Nagar but also the entire state. Out of a total of 50, 43 district-level offices were already functioning in the district. Displacing them would result in criminal wastage and deterioration in standards of public convenience, safety and security of the people of the district. It was argued that districts which were not progressing, were being retained for political reasons and Gautam Budh Nagar, which was on fast track of development, was being targeted. It was also emphasised that the UP Land Revenue Act could not be applicable to District and Session Courts and the courts in Gautam Budh Nagar could not be abolished by the said order. Any decision to remove courts would be anti-public and against the safety and security of the people of the district. Residents of Gautam Budh Nagar had launched a struggle against this order of the state government. Since the high court order is to take effect immediately, the state government is understood to have pleaded for a fortnight’s time to implement it. |
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SC pulls up states for not rehabilitating bonded labour New Delhi, May 21 "It is a sad reality that the rehabilitation and related aspects of bonded labours have not been given adequate consideration till now," a Bench of the Chief Justice, Mr S. Rajendra Babu and Mr Justice
G.P. Mathur said, while asking the state to involve non governmental organisations (NGOs) in the rehabilitation projects in a big way. Laying down a series of guidelines for implementing the schemes, the court said all released bonded labours should be rehabilitated within six months. All states and Union Territories were directed to submit their plan within six months for sharing the money under the modified Centre-sponsored scheme, where NGOs would be involved in the rehabilitation projects. The Union Labour Ministry, in its 2000 scheme, had laid down that each bonded labour freed from the clutches of their masters, would be provided an assistance of Rs 20,000 and half of the amount would come as Central grant. However, in special category states of North-East, the entire expenditure would be met by the Centre. "The released bonded labours will languish in streets, if there are no well-chalked out corresponding plan for their rehabilitation," the court observed. The direction came on a petition by the
PUCL, which initially had raised the plight of bonded labours in Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, but the court had expanded its scope to cover the entire country. While ordering the states to "sensitise" the potential work places where bonded labours were engaged in a big way, the court said it was the duty of the state governments to abolish the social evil. The states had been directed to submit reports to the NHRC every six months on implementing the schemes, constitute vigilance committees at district and sub-division levels and clearly identify the nature of rehabilitation whether the bonded labours were provided land, engaged in skilled work, craft and other such activities. States were directed to submit affidavits delineating all these aspects within six months.
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Novelist Kamala Markandaya dead Hyderabad, May 21 Shashi Tharoor, author of “The Great Indian Novel” and “Riot” told the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), New York website that it was a terrible loss. “This is a terrible loss. Markandaya was a pioneer who influenced all of us Indians writing in English.” Markandaya was born as Kamala Purnaiya in Mysore in 1924. She worked as a short-story writer and journalist from 1940 to 1947 before emigrating to England in 1948. She married Bertrand Taylor, by whom she has a daughter. According to an obit put out by SAJA, Markandaya was associated with prominent writers of her times, including Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao and Khushwant Singh.
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Report
sought on high suicide rate in Kashmir New Delhi, May 21 The commission has directed the respondent state government to furnish within six weeks details of the number of suicide deaths and attempted suicides in the valley from 1999 to 2000 and 2003 to 2004. The commission has further said if investigations establish that the suicides were linked to militancy in the state, it ought to be mentioned in the report. According to the news report, more than 20,000 persons had attempted suicide during 14 years of socio-political turmoil in the valley.
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IAF resumes search operation New Delhi, May 21 IAF officials here said the search and rescue operations were resumed today after the inclement weather conditions had forced their suspension yesterday. The IAF has so far flown over 30 sorties by helicopters in a bid to locate even the wreckage of the fighter aircraft. The IAF fears that the MiG-27, which had taken off from Hashimara air base at about 11.55 am, could have crashed. |
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