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No stay on ERC notification
Criminal case against BJP legislator
Rape victim delivers baby girl
Development plan to ease traffic in Shimla
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CPS and PS file reply before Governor
Panel submits affidavit in stent case
CIA to investigate forgery case
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No stay on ERC notification
New Delhi, January 13 “No ground for stay has been made out,” a Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice
C.K. Thakker and Mr Justice R.V. Raveendran said. But the court admitted a writ petition of Gupta, challenging the HP Government’s notification of December 30 for setting up a three-member ERC and ousting him from the office on the completion of five-year tenure on January 5 as a member/chairperson of the commission. The court was not impressed with the contention of Gupta’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi that his client had been appointed as a member of the ERC on January 5, 2001 for a term of five years and then nominated as its chairperson with effect from July 12, 2001 when he actually started functioning in that capacity, hence he was entitled to continue in the office for five years as chairman till July 11, 2006. The court said when Gupta was a member of the one-man commission before being formally nominated its chairperson by the April 26, 2001 order of the government and took office on July 12, he was virtually acting as its chairman as there was no other member in the panel. The court, however, said that it would examine his petition and if he could prove his case, he could be adequately compensated. But Rohtagi said it was not the question of his client’s compensation but the manner in which the panel was abolished by an executive order ignoring the provisions of the Electricity Regulatory Commission Act. It issued notices to the state government and the HP
ERC, seeking their replies. The state government had decided to revamp the one-man panel under Gupta following a lot of controversies on the orders of the panel, specially in terms of its alleged confrontation with the HP State Electricity Board (HPSEB). The HP government counsel Anoop George Chaudhary and its Additional Solicitor General J.S. Attri informed the court that the three-member ERC has already been put in place. |
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Criminal case against BJP legislator
Solan, January 13 The police had received a complaint from Munish Kumar, a resident of the Nagrota Bagwan constituency in Kangra district, that they were attacked by armed assailants on Wednesday evening outside a coffee house. Not only were the duo badly injured but their Maruti car (HP-40-B-5555) was also damaged. Charit Kumar, who received severe injuries, told The Tribune that a mob of about 40 men armed with rods and stones, attacked them without provocation. These men had arrived in three vehicles, including a black Bolero bearing a red- light (HP-36-5500 ), a Maruti-800 (HP-37-A-2565) and a van. The fight was started by a Sikh youth who bore a maroon turban and a blue coat, he alleged. A traumatised Charit Kumar revealed that since the mob was armed they had to run for their lives to the nearby fields after which they informed the police about this mishap. A case was later registered at the police station. The police, which swung into action, tried to trace the culprits immediately. It was yesterday afternoon that the police traced the black Bolero by which the former minister was travelling. He was first stopped near Nalagarh by an armed police party and later detained at Baddi for questioning. The MLA, however, rued that he was unduly stopped. He denied any involvement in the incident. He maintained that he was on his way to Shimla and had arrived at Nalagarh around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. He not only cried bitterly at Baddi but alleged high-handedness of the police. He later said he would move a privilege motion against the local police for unduly detaining him as he failed to attend a Vidhan Sabha meeting at Shimla. The SP, Mr Gianeshwar Singh, who visited the area today, said investigations were under way to trace the three people who had been named in the FIR. While a manhunt had been launched to trace the culprits, the registration of a criminal case against three BJP-backed Zila Parishad members from Kangra, Munish Kalia, Yashpal and Bhag Singh, may not portend well for the January 16 Zila Parishad poll. The police was also trying to trace the other car reportedly involved in the incident.
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Rape victim delivers baby girl
Mandi, January 13 The doctors attending on her faces a tough task as there was nobody to take care of the baby after she delivered the child at 7.30 am. “She is not feeding the baby. We have to gather clothes for the baby from patients in the hospital and informed the police too”, said a doctor attending on her. She has no father and no case history. There was none to take care of her when she complained of labour pain. She is not able to cope up with her new life”. She fears social stigma and ostracism. She does not want the child. She cannot relate herself with the 65-old-man from Nepal — accused in the case. She is healthy, but looked blank and listless when doctors asked about her parents. “The child is about 9-month old and fine. Her uncle was with her yesterday”, said Dr H.P. Malhotra, Medical Superintendent, Mandi hospital. “Hers is a rape case and we have informed the police”, she added. She herself lodged an FIR on January 5, with Karsog police station when she was in advance stage of pregnancy alleging that she was raped by Dile Ram (65) a Nepali, settled in Mendi village in Karsog after he married a local woman. They have no child. He raped me thrice while I was collecting firewood in the jungle near her village six months ago”, she alleged in the FIR. Additional Superintendent of Police Mandi district J.C. Sharma said the accused had been arrested under Section 376 of the IPC and remained in judicial custody. Investigation revealed the accused was fit to perform the sexual act. If needed we will have the DNA profiling to establish the parentage of the child”, he added. Chief Medical Officer Mandi K.C. Sharma said the mother could not leave the child as she reared the child. In such cases, we send them to orphanage if no body takes custody. The police will establish the parentage of the child. A mother cannot abandon the child as it is a criminal act even if she a minor”, he added. |
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Development plan to ease traffic in Shimla
Shimla, January 13 A high-level meeting of various heads of departments was chaired by the Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, here, yesterday. Various departments gave their proposals for being included in the detailed project report to be sent to the Centre as City Development Plan. Shimla has been included in the list of 63 cities to be covered under the JNNURM for infrastructure development. The heads of Irrigation, Transport, Tourism, Municipal Corporation (MC), Town and Country Planning and other departments attended the meeting. It was suggested that besides the three tunnels, over bridges should be made at the very busy junctions like Sanjauli, Bus Stand and few other places so that the pedestrians can walk safely. As per the plan, four tunnels, aerial ropeways, bye-passes and fly-overs would be made. The issue of constructing a bus stand at Sanjauli was also discussed. Since there is very little possibility of land being available at Sanjauli, the bus stand might be set up at Batta-Kuffar to handle the traffic for upper Shimla. Mr Thakur said a task force had already been constituted by the government for solving various problems plaguing the city. “The government is already in the process of constructing six parking places with a total capacity of 900 vehicles as during the peak summer season there is a lot of problem,” he said. He directed the MC to lay stress on resource mobilisation so that better facilities could be provided to the public. He also asked the IPH department to replace the old water and sewerage pipes so that leakage could be plugged and to strictly implement rain water
harvesting. |
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CPS and PS file reply before Governor
Shimla, January 13 The local MLA, Mr Harbhajan Bhajji, who was also a CPS filed separate replies on behalf of all the 12 MLA’s at the Raj Bhavan, today. Since Secretary to the Governor, Rashmi Gupta was out of station, the ADC accepted it on her behalf. The 12 MLA’s have said that since the Disqualification Act had not been struck down by the High Court, they are not liable to lose their Assembly membership. The BJP through their chief whip, Mr Ravinder Ravi had sought disqualification of the 12 MLA’s through a petition filed under Article 191 and 192 of the Constitution. He had stated they should be disqualified from the legislative assembly because by accepting the post of CPS and PS, they had held office of profit. It was on the basis of this petition that the Governor had issued notices to the 12 MLA’s and asked them to file their reply before November 30. He had said that through the notice they were being given an opportunity to be heard and their reply would be forwarded to the Election Commission of India before taking a final decision. On November 29 the 12 legislators sought three months extension for filing their reply. The MLA’s had sought more time on the plea that due to the panchayat elections they were busy campaigning in their Assembly constituencies. On December 5 the Governor accepted the request of the legislators and gave them six weeks to file their reply. With this deadline getting over on January 15, the 12 legislators filed their reply today.
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Panel submits affidavit in stent case
Shimla, January 13 The special police team, headed by the DIG, Mr R.L. Sood, filed an affidavit in the high court today, stating the details of the investigation conducted by it so far. In its message to the police, the Ilka Emmeret International marketing and sale assistants of Meo Medical GmbH confirmed that the shelf life of the stents exported to Sun Medical System, New Delhi, was extended by them to 18 months. It was lately discovered that two expired stents had been used on a patient from Kangra by the IGMC. On the directions of the high court, the Secretary, Health, had registered an FIR against the German manufacturing company and the Delhi-based and local suppliers. The German manufacturing company,
Qualimed, had already given a certificate about the clarification on the extended shelf life of the “Meo Drug Stars Eluted Stents” on March 4, 2005. The company also said that tests had been conducted on the same stents to ascertain the purity of paclitaxel , which had been found to be within the specified purity degree of more than 99 per cent. The police team had taken into possession three stents returned by the IGMC to Spectrum Medical Devices. The team has yet to collect evidence about the health condition of the patients on whom the stents were used. Besides dealing with the issue of use of expired stents, the police team has pointed out that no proper record regarding identification, description of stents deployed, guiding catheters, wires and other material used on patients during angioplasty was being maintained. Opinion is also being sought from the Drug Controller-General of India regarding the use of stents with extended dates of expiry. The police team will also look into the fact whether the German company, who claimed to have pasted the sticker, extending the life of stents did it under the legal provision governing the manufacturing and labelling of the drug in their country. The next hearing of the case in the court is scheduled for March 20. |
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CIA to investigate forgery case
Nurpur, January 13 Meanwhile, following a demand of the victims of the moneylenders, the CIA cell of the Kangra police has started further investigations in the fraud case after getting police remand of the accused. It is alleged that the accused operating as financiers in the area had been defrauding the poor and needy people by lending money to them by adopting a new modus operandi in which the borrower had to give blank cheques along with the original documents of the immovable property to the lenders. In some cases, the accused used to take general power of attorney from the borrowers signed in blank stamp papers in which the latter had no right even to repeal the attorney. The hapless borrowers even after repaying their loans to the accused were being deprived of their immovable properties. |
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