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Interview
PM sets up panel to
boost agriculture
Election Commission biased: RJD
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Repoll begins in 18 booths in Bihar
Cong backs EC on Paswan
Pak offer on cross-LoC movement not rejected: Govt
CCEA nod to Rs 2,304 cr HP power project
Railways integral to steaming economy, says Velu
No fee for only girl child, courtesy CBSE
Ansari continues to evade arrest
WTO: India puts foot down over tariff cuts
Notification on banning sale of non-iodised salt soon
Gohana: CBI arrests 7
History lecturer on physics panel!
Karan Singh pledges Rs 20 lakh
Kalam for capacity building among youth
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New CJI unveils plan to reduce pending cases
Opposes Bill on judicial accountability S.S. Negi Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, October 20 Talking to The Tribune about his plans to improve the justice disposal system in the country and a variety of other issues pertaining to judiciary, including the proposed National Judicial Council (NJC) Bill, Justice Sabharwal said “criminal cases required to the given a lot of attention as out of 3 crore pending case they account for over two crore.” While stating that in his opinion there was no need for setting up the NJC to probe the conduct of judges in the apex court and high courts as the present “in house” mechanism was functioning perfectly, he said priority would be given to deciding corruption cases against “higher ups” with greater speed. On being asked specifically on the judicial accountability Bill, the draft of which has been sent to the Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti a few months back by the Law Ministry, he said “we are accountable to constitution and our oath.” “My view is that such a law is not required but I will immediately add to it that passing of a legislation is not our domain. If Parliament passes the law it has every right to do so. Our jurisdiction is to see whether a law passed by it is as per the Constitution,” he said in an interview on Wednesday night. Expressing ignorance about CJI’s response to the draft Bill, he said it was not necessary that Parliament must accept “our suggestions. It is up to the government and Parliament to accept it or not.” To a pointed question about “corruption” in judiciary and how it should be tackled, Justice Sabharwal said “like every organ of the state the judiciary also will have to eradicate it. In higher judiciary it is minimal and the state judiciary (high courts) has enough powers to deal with it in lower judiciary as there had been numerous instances of judicial officers of being divested of work after the charges of corruption.” “Is there any other organisation where on peer’s persuasion any body has resigned. But in judiciary high court judges were forced to resign when there were allegations of corruption against them,” he said. On the issue of speedy disposal of corruption cases against politicians and influential people, he said they would be put on fast track courts. “The corruption cases against the higher ups if decided in time, a message will go to the country that law will deal equally with all, otherwise people will think that cases against higher ups will not be decided for years.” He also indicated that when in corruption cases revision petitions are filed in high courts or in Supreme Court and trial is stayed, a provision in the rule would be made that the stay was automatically removed after six months and would only be extended by another three months in extreme circumstances. Regarding huge pendency, he said it has to be found out as how many of the two crore criminal cases related to petty offences and bouncing of cheques, which had arisen sharply during past few years, he said, preferring adjudication of such cases through the alternate dispute redressal (ADR) system. “If the petty casess go out of the list of pending cases, the judicial system then can deal with others in a better way and probably wipe out the burden,” he said. Stating that two pilot projects were already underway in Delhi and Chennai on these lines he said “we are likely to come out with a policy to extend it to entire nation after studying the progress of the pilot projects,” under which the cases would be divided in different categories and adjudicated according to their importance.
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PM sets up panel to
boost agriculture
New Delhi, October 20 The committee has been constituted to focus on policy related matters and development of the sector. The committee would identify key areas in agriculture which require fresh policy initiatives, outline follow-up action for policies adopted, identify institutional mechanism to implement policies and programmes, besides monitoring the same, an official statement said. It would also commission specialised studies on issues pertaining to the domestic agricultural economy, the statement added. The members of the committee would include the Union Minister for Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies, Mr Sharad Pawar, the Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram and the Water Resources Minister, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, the statement said. The Rural Development Minister, Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, and the Minister of State for Food Processing, Mr Subodh Kant Sahay, would also be the members of the committee. The Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council, Mr Ashok Lahiri, the Chairman of National Commission on Farmers, Mr M.S. Swaminathan, and the Member (Agriculture), Planning Commission, Mr Abhijit Sen, were also in the committee, the statement said. The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr T. K. A. Nair, would be the convenor of the committee, it added. The Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, had recently stated that the government had constituted a high-level committee under his chairmanship to draw up a detailed five-year perspective plan for reforms in the agriculture and allied sectors. The committee was charged with the responsibility of suggesting calibrated measures to empower rural India and raise the purchasing power of the farming community. The plan outlay for the farm sector was a mere 2 per cent as compared with 16 per cent for telecom, Mr Pawar said pointing to the incongruity in the Budget provisioning whereby a higher allocation was made for drought relief than for investment in irrigation. The Minister said critical value addition to agriculture was constrained by the long-value chain, with the producers' share in the price being barely 30 to 35 per cent for perishables. He emphasised the need for improved post-harvest technologies, including processing for retrieving post-harvest losses (reckoned at Rs 50,000 crore annually) and augmenting supplies. |
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Election Commission biased: RJD
Patna, October 20 Addressing the media here today, Mr Tiwari sought to defend the party candidate from Jamui,Mr Vijay Prakash Yadav, for carrying “arms and cash with him” during the first phase of polling on October 18. Mr Tiwari said, “Mr Vijay Prakash was carrying a licensed arm for his personal security as the area was dominated by the
extremists. There was also no legal bar on anyone to carry any amount of cash”. He claimed that the arms and cash carried by Mr Vijay Prakash were not meant for influencing the poll process. On the
contrary, Mr Tiwari questioned whether the Election Commission would support the police brutality on Mr Vijay Prakash by beating him and the Independent candidate, Mr Ashok Ram, mercilessly, before taking them into custody. Meanwhile, the police today arrested another RJD candidate from Belagunj in Gaya
district, Surendra Yadav, for carrying firearms with him in violation of the prohibitory orders. Earlier, on October 18 the police had arrested three RJD candidates Suresh Paswan from Deo in Aurangabad, Sanjay Prabhat from Govindpur in Nawada and Satyanaryan Singh from Obra for either carrying firearms or damaging EVMs. Mr Tiwari said though his party was not raising the demand to impeach the Chief Election Commissioner right now, he wanted the institutional body to behave impartially. However, Governor Buta Singh told an RJD delegation today that he had nothing much to do in the case involving Mr Vijay Prakash as the administration was now under the Election Commission. The DGP, Mr Ashish Ranjan Sinha, as directed by the commission, has already ordered the rearrest of Mr Vijay Prakash who was allegedly got released “illegally” by Mr Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav on a PR bond from Khari police custody on October 18. Meanwhile, the Union Minister and RJD leader Taslimuddin has charged the adviser to the Election Commission, Mr K.J. Rao, with being an “RSS agent”. |
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Repoll begins in 18 booths in Bihar
Patna, October 20 Repolling is taking place in seven booths each in Imamgan constituency in Gaya and Makhdumpur in
Jehanabad, one in Ghosi and Jehanabad and three in Brahmpur constituency in Buxar district, the sources
said. Repolling will be hald tomorrow at 130 more booths. — PTI |
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Cong backs EC on Paswan
Patna, October 20 He said his party felt that Mr Paswan was seeking votes by using religion and the EC was right in questioning him on the same. But contrary to its stand on Mr Paswan, the Congress today further closed ranks with the RJD in the latter’s battle against the commission. |
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Pak offer on cross-LoC movement not rejected: Govt
New Delhi, Ocotber 20 “We have seen news reports quoting the Pakistani Federal Relief Commissioner that India has rejected Pakistan’s offer for movement across LoC. This is entirely baseless,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in response to a question. Mr Sarna said India had in fact welcomed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s offer, but had said it was awaiting suggestions for practical implementation of the offer. Meanwhile, according to reports from Islamabad, Pakistan ruled out joint relief operation with the Indian troops in quake-hit Kashmir region and said the Indian decision not to allow movement across the Line of Control (LoC) was “regrettable”. He said there was no need of any joint relief efforts by Pakistani and Indian troops in the quake-hit areas, as “we are capable of providing relief to the people, stranded since the October 8 devastation”. Today, Pakistani newspapers had quoted Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as saying that the two countries began discussing modalities to open the LoC.
— UNI
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CCEA nod to Rs 2,304 cr HP power project
New Delhi, October 20 The project to be set up by the NHPC is a run-of-the-river scheme on Sainj river in Kullu district, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told newspersons after the CCEA meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It will be completed in five years, said Mr Chidambaram. He said the NHPC would contribute Rs 100 crore towards equity in the project. The cost is inclusive of the amount of Rs 19.82 crore already approved for development of stage-II. The project would cost Rs 4.43 per MW, he said, adding that Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh have already signed agreements to purchase 563 MW of power from the project. The CCEA also approved extension of the Swayam Sidha Scheme by one year to March 2007. The scheme, which envisages formation of self-help groups for training, creations of links and formation of clusters, was extended as only Rs 50.63 crore or 43.53 per cent of the approved budget had been spent, he said, adding that the CCEA approval was subject to the scheme being independently evaluated. |
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Railways integral to steaming economy, says Velu
New Delhi, October 20 Indian Railways was now receiving priority investment in major cities and the government was committed to develop Indian Railways into an extensive, effective and proactive system, he stressed. The Minister said India was globally viewed by private enterprises as an important centre of knowledge industry and precision manufacturing. Indian Railways would continue to support equipment, rolling stock, training and knowledge needs of countries in Asia and Africa, he added. Appreciating the Council's initiatives in developing international strategic projects, international freight corridors, cooperative research and global application of the new technologies, Mr Velu expressed hope that the very first meeting of the International Union of Railways, being hosted by India, would help the rail sector to capitalise on this trend. The Railway Board Chairman,
J.P.Batra, who is also the Chairman of the World Executive Council, delivered the welcome speech and made a presentation on the overall view of the Indian Railways. Incidentally, about 60 delegates from railway organisations across the world are participating in the two-day World Executive Council meeting of the
UIC, a world-wide association on railway cooperation. The objective of the meeting is also to facilitate cooperation at the regional as well as global level. The UIC has 73 active members, mainly railway companies, playing a crucial role in influencing the UIC policy and strategic orientation, 60 associate members and 37 affiliate members. The UIC Chairman is Mr Benedikt
Weibel, the CEO of the Swiss Federal Railways. |
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No fee for only girl child, courtesy CBSE
New Delhi, October 20 Taking note of the increasing discrimination against the girl child and the dropout ratio for girl students, the CBSE has written to the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, directors of education of affiliated schools in states and heads of private independent affiliated schools to provide full fee waiver to girls from Class VI onwards. The precondition, however, is that these girls have to be the only child of their parents. In a notification, the Board has mentioned, “It has generally been observed that the girl child is discriminated against in the matter of education also. The dropout ratio for girls at different levels of education is more than that for boys. "To remedy the situation…and promote education for the girl child, an amendment in the affiliation bye-laws of the Board has now been made with the effect that all affiliated schools will grant full waiver of all fees, including tuition fee and all other fees under any head except the meals and transportation fee charged by them from Class VI onwards to each girl student, who is also the single child of a parent.” Schools have been asked to, “consider extending 50 per cent concession in these fees for every girl student who is one of the two daughters and where there are only two children in a family". While the already affiliated schools will have a choice to implement the provisions either with an immediate effect or from the next academic session commencing from April 1, 2006, schools seeking affiliation with the CBSE will have to implemen these with an immediate effect. For implementation of these provisions, schools have been permitted to accept the status of the girl child on the basis of a simple affidavit sworn by the parents. |
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Ansari continues to evade arrest
Mau, October 20 Director General of Police Yashpal Singh had claimed that he was willing to arrest Ansari if the media could lead him to the legislator. The state government had filed a caveat in the Allahabad High Court against Ansari to prevent him from getting a stay against his arrest. Sources in Lucknow said the Mau police was reluctant to arrest the MLA and instead wanted him to surrender. Ansari had gone on record saying he would not create any hindrance in his arrest. “I have no problems with my arrest... I want to help in the probe, which should be carried out by the CBI.” A police official at the state headquarters said: “It is very much like Bihar police’s claim that it was hot on the heels of MP Shahabuddin. People see him and meet him freely, but the police fails to take cognizance of his presence.”
— UNI |
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WTO: India puts foot down over tariff cuts
New Delhi, October 20 Commerce Minister Kamal Nath leading the Indian negotiators made it clear that the country could offer any higher tariff cuts in agriculture than what was proposed by the G-20 developing countries, an official press note said here today. Mr Nath also raised the twin issue of special products that will attract nil or minimal tariff cuts and special safeguard mechanisms meant as a protection for developing countries against surges of import. With the hardening of positions and the inability of the European Union to better its offer due to extreme pressure from some of its member states, the talks ended in a stalemate, it said. Articulating developing countries’ stand, Mr Nath rejected the US formulation “of slightly lesser cuts” on farm tariffs by developing countries, saying that this was totally inadequate to meet concerns of poor farmers. He also blocked a move by the EU-US to widen the scope of talks and establish linkages between agriculture and industrial tariffs and staunchly resisted EU move to link the treatment of sensitive products and special products in agriculture. “Sensitive products are sensitive commercially,” he said, adding that special products are dependent on the food and livelihood security and rural development needs. The two are conceptually different.” Mr Nath made it clear that he would not settle for a deal that could be unfavourable to farmers. “Only an arrangement that fully safeguards our interest would be acceptable,” he added. The two-day meeting of the Five Interested Parties (India, EU, US, Brazil and Australia) in Geneva was called to bridge differences among member countries before the WTO ministerial meeting scheduled in Hong Kong in December to conclude the Doha Round of global trade talks. |
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Notification on banning sale of non-iodised salt soon
New Delhi, October 20 The Health Ministry has prepared a draft notification in this regard and sent it to the Law Ministry for
clearance. According to sources in the Health Ministry, the ban would only apply to the sale of common salt (non iodised salt) for cooking purposes for human consumption, in view of protests from small-scale salt manufacturers and objections by some states to the ban on non-iodised salts. Meanwhile, Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss has urged the people to take a pledge to consume only iodised salt in order to prevent, control and eradicate IDD from the country. |
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Gohana: CBI arrests 7
New Delhi, October 20 The accused, Kala alias Pradeep, Golu alias Ravi, Kaku alias Rishi, Kali alias Sonu, Sanjeev alias Sandeep and Vikas alias Vicky, all residents of Gohana, will be produced before the designated court at Ambala tomorrow, a CBI press note said here. Baljeet was chased, beaten up and killed by the accused persons, it claimed. Shiv Kumar, alias Kake, wanted to have a photograph of his family and went to the nearby studio in Gohana. Some argument took place between Shiv Kumar, alias Kake, and Baljeet and others. The accused chased Baljeet and assaulted him, resulting in his death, it said. |
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History lecturer on physics panel!
Jaipur, October 20 The RPSC had sometime ago conducted a competitive examination for recruitment to the posts of school teacher grade-III, results of which were challenged by some candidates in the Rajasthan High Court on the ground that the question paper contained 34 faulty questions and their answers were disputable. The petitioners had contended that the questions challenged be quashed and the result be prepared again. After initial hearing, the court had directed the RPSC to appoint a committee of experts to probe into the issue and give their comments. While constituting the committee, the RPSC included a lecturer of history to give his opinion on questions set in the subject of physics. Interestingly, one of the members of the expert committee has himself appeared in the State Administrative Services Exams. |
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Karan Singh pledges Rs 20 lakh
New Delhi, October 20 Dr Singh, who has already donated a similar amount for the quake-affected people in Kashmir valley from his MPLADS fund, said in a statement here that he had sent the amount to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. “I would also like to make an additional donation of a similar amount to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, which may please be earmarked specifically for Muzaffarabad, which has suffered terribly in the recent disaster,” he said in the statement. |
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Kalam for capacity building among youth
New Delhi, October 20 “Inquiry, creativity, technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership are the five capacities required to be built through the education process,” Kalam said delivering his convocation address at Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, a deemed university, here. |
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New Delhi, October 20
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