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Sonia, PM may break silence on quota today
Act on demolitions challenged in SC
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UPA govt has failed on all fronts: BJP
BJP challenges Chawla’s appointment
LS panel recommends admonition of Kashyap
RS members for CBI probe into market crash
INA veteran welcomes Centre’s stand on Netaji’s death
TAP pipeline under cloud
PM raises engineer's murder with Rehman
Resentment over rise in price of pulses
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Sonia, PM may break silence on quota today
New Delhi, May 19 Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi have so far maintained a studied silence on the volatile issue of reservations for OBC candidates in centrally-funded institutions of higher education. Although the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) has discussed the issue and the Prime Minister has set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to chart out a middle path, neither Dr Singh nor Mrs Gandhi have articulated their views on the matter. In fact, both leaders were conspicuous by their absence in the Lok Sabha when Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh responded to a calling attention motion on this subject earlier this week. Consequently, there is considerable confusion in the party about its official position on this issue. As this is the first meeting of the CWC since the quota controversy erupted, the party will be looking to the PM and Mrs. Gandhi to clarify matters. It is, however, not known whether this clarification will be forthcoming at this meeting, officially called to discuss the recent results of the Assembly elections, the PM’s upcoming second roundtable on Kashmir and an appraisal of the Manmohan Singh government which completes two years in office on Monday. Party cadres are hoping the CWC will delienate its stand which will provide some direction to the five-member GoM to formulate a comprehensive package on this subject. The informal discussion in the party has, so far, focussed not so much on the issue of reservations but on Mr. Arjun Singh’s motives in raising this matter unilaterally. There is a general view that besides
embarrassing the PM, the HRD Minister is also endearing himself to the UPA allies like the RJD, DMK and others by positioning himself as a messiah of the OBCs. |
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Act on demolitions challenged in SC
New Delhi, May 19 Questioning the validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provision) Bill, 2006, yet to be notified by the government, the residents asked if Parliamentarians had been vested powers by the Constitution “to help and protect the offenders who have converted residential houses into commercial places in violation of the existing laws and pass a bill to protect builder mafia … with regard to illegal constructions.” The first petition filed jointly by Citizens’ Voice and Delhi Residents’ Welfare Association and the second by Delhi Pradesh Citizen Council pleaded the Supreme Court, on whose direction the drive for sealing of commercial ventures in residential areas was initiated by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), to strike down the law passed by Parliament on May 12 and has got President’s assent on May 18. Pointing out that the drive for demolition of illegal structures on public land was initiated by the Delhi High Court only after it found that the offenders had encroached upon public land in violation of Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act and the Supreme Court ordered the sealing drive on finding that residential premises were converted into business ventures contrary to the provision of the law, the petitioners questioned “whether Parliament was right in passing an Act which is contrary to the existing law also passed by it earlier.” Accusing all the political parties of “joining hands” only for the sake of “vote bank”, the petitioners said if the political class was allowed to “circumvent” well intentioned court orders in this manner, it would send a wrong signal to entire country that the offenders and violators could get away with their illegal acts with blessings of politicians. Such a move would be a serious blow to the law abiding citizens of the country and encourage the tendency among the people to “break the law” rather then abide by it, the citizens’ organisations in their public interest litigations (PILs) said. Both the PILs described the Act as “arbitrary, mala fide, unjust, unreasonable, illegal and ultra vires of the Constitution. The first PIL has named Ministries Urban Development and Law and Justice apart from the MCD as parties, the second had listed Cabinet Secretary and Urban Development Secretary as respondents. According to the counsel for the petitioners, the matter is likely to come up for hearing on May 22. |
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UPA govt has failed on all fronts: BJP New Delhi, May 19 Briefing newspersons, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said whether it is price rise, unemployment, small scale industries, farmers' suicide, internal security or foreign policy this government had utterly failed. The only area in which the UPA excelled was that of corruption and referred to fugitive Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi with regard to the Bofors scam, oil-for-food programme for Iraq, Scorpene deal, Balco disinvestment and Navy war room leak, Prof Malhotra pointed out. The UPA government indeed has brought back “appeasement policy” for Muslims for furthering its votebank politics, he said. Terming the UPA's claim of achievements as “confined to paper work”, Mr Malhotra said the government's much-touted Employment Guarantee Scheme had no impact anywhere in the country. The BJP felt that in the past two years while the prices of even essential commodities were touching the sky, the unemployment register continued to grow, and small-scale and cottage industries were facing closure. Besides, there was a spurt in farmers' suicides during the period. On the internal security front, the situation was miserable with Naxalism spreading its wings in several parts of the country, and ISI activities and infiltration from the Bangladesh border increasing. The government had almost “mortgaged” the foreign policy to the US and western powers and “surrendered to the Maoism”, the party said. |
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BJP challenges Chawla’s appointment
New Delhi, May 19 Raising the issue of President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam referring the memorandum of the NDA to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh instead of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) B. B. Tandon seeking his opinion on Chawla’s appointment, as has had been laid down in Article 324 (5) of the Constitution, the BJP sought the apex court’s interim direction to the CEC to send his opinion in a “sealed cover”. The petition said when there was a clear provision in the Constitution that in the appointment of an Election Commissioner, the views of the CEC were mandatory, the route followed by the President to refer the matter to Prime Minister was contrary to law as the government has no role to play in it. Seeking to declare the appointment of Chawla as “null and void”, the BJP said even if the apex court came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong in referring the matter to the Prime Minister by the President, even then the opinion of the CEC was still mandatory under Article 324 (5), it said. The party questioned the appointment of Chawla, alleging that he has close links with the Congress Party which was evident from at least four of its MPs contributing from the MPs Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds to the two trusts run by his family. While the Constitution provides that a person holding the post of CEC or Election Commissioner should be above any such controversy to act impartially without any bias or tilt to any political party, Chawla’s appointment raised serious questions in view of his past record, the petition said. The BJP said it moved the apex court as it had come to light from media reports that the government had taken a view that the past contributions by some Congress MPs to Chawla’s family trusts from the MPLAD funds should not be construed that he had any tilt towards the party. The counsel for BJP, who filed the petition, said the apex court has listed it for hearing on May 22. |
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LS panel recommends admonition of Kashyap
New Delhi, May 19 The Committee headed by V Kishore Chandra S Deo made the recommendations on a notice of question of privilege given by Hannan Mollah (CPM) against Mr Kashyap following his interview to a news channel in the wake of an incident involving Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on August four last year. Ms Banerjee had come to the well of the House and thrown some papers towards the Deputy Speaker after he informed her that her notice of adjournment motion has been disallowed by the Speaker. According to sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the report is likely to be debated in the Lok Sabha next week and once it gets approval of the House, Mr Kashyap, on an appointed date, will be summoned in the House and admonished. The committee, in its 29-page report, was of the view that the gravity of the offence has increased since the derogatory references were made by a “person well versed in Parliamentary procedures and practices and who once served as Secretary General of Lok Sabha”. Noting that Mr Kashyap needed to be handed out “appropriate deterrent punishment”, it felt that had Mr Kashyap showed a little more circumspection while giving the interview, this situation would not have arisen. In the interview, Mr Kashyap had sought to project that such incidents had not happened for the first time. He had also recalled that Ms Banerjee had challenged the Communist government in West Bengal for many years. Besides, he said, it had a “personal” aspect also as she had defeated Mr Chatterjee when she won her first elections for a Lok Sabha seat. Mr Kashyap had also remarked “if there is any attempt to gag the voice of a member, either from the Chair or by the House, then such a chaotic situation will certainly arise. There is no doubt about it because every member has a fundamental right to make his point”. “The most lamentable part of the entire matter has been the attitude of Mr Kashyap in not even once expressing remorse or regret for his comments or for the fact that he spoke without ascertaining the full facts”, said the committee, which also laid another report in the same case concerning an article in the Statesman. The committee “strongly deprecated the reckless and irresponsible” behaviour of Bibhuti Bhushan Nandy, who wrote an article captioned “comrade Speaker — Act of discrimination against Mamata Banerjee” published in Statesman on August 24 last year. |
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RS members for CBI probe into market crash
New Delhi, May 19 Raising the issue during zero hour, senior BJP member S.S.Ahluwalia said the market fall led to a loss of a whopping Rs 2,25,000 crore due to the erosion of market capitalisation. He charged that the release of an old 1989 CBDT circular was the reason for the bull run leading to a kind of price manipulation. Serious cognisance should be taken of this point and an inquiry ordered to go into the reasons for the "manipulation", he said. Mr Ahluwalia felt that the bull run was due to large speculative FII inflow into the stock market, and this would have been checked if the recommendations of the JPC on the securities scam had been implemented. He was joined by Mr Dinesh Trivedi, Trinamool Congress, who said it was not a partisan issue and wanted a CBI inquiry into the market crash. Noting that the Finance Minister P Chidambaram had described the market fall as a "manufactured crisis by the media", he asked whether the Finance Minister and the CBDT were not responsible for digging out an old 1989 CBDT circular and releasing it to the press. |
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INA veteran welcomes Centre’s stand on Netaji’s death
Patna, May 19 Even as the controversy over Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s death continued unabated with claims by Justice Mukherjee Commission ,which probed the issue for the past six years, dismissing the plane crash theory, the INA veteran’s remarks trashing the views expressed by the commission obviously strengthened the hands of the government. Bharati Chowdhury, 77, who was a lieutenant in the Rani Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army(INA) formed by Netaji, described the findings of the commission “absurd”. Asserting that Netaji had died in plane crash only, Mrs Bharati Chowdhury said her mother, Sati Sahay, herself had received the ashes from Col Habibul Rahaman, military advisor to Netaji, who had cremated the body in presence of two Japanese military officials. Mrs Bharati Chowdhary’s father, Ananda Mohan Sahay, had started the Indian independence movement in Japan on the direction of Netaji. Her mother was a distant cousin of another noted freedom fighter, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. Expressing her happiness over the decision by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in rejecting Mukherjee Commission’s report, Mrs Chowdhury regretted the inordinate delay on part of the government in bringing Netaji`s ashes from Renkoji temple in Japan. “It is absolutely unbecoming of Indian government,” she said. Mrs Chowdhury, who now stays at Bhagalpur, further claimed that after the cremation, the ashes
of Netaji was kept at their house before her mother had approached the then head priest of the Buddhist temple in Renkoji requesting him to perform a special prayer for the peace of the departed soul. She said the ashes were then handed over to the temple priest and they remained there till date. Mrs Chowdhury also claimed to have in her possession some photographs which Japanese lensmen had clicked when Netaji’s ashes were brought to
Taihoku. |
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TAP pipeline under cloud
New Delhi, May 19 Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran had written a letter to the Petroleum Ministry recommending the proposed pipeline, stating that “it would also be in tune with the latest US strategic thinking for the region.” CPM, which props up the UPA government from outside, said “it is disturbing that Manmohan Singh government is giving priority to US strategic interests and sidelining the Iran pipeline project which is more suited for our national interest and energy requirements.” The party’s polit bureau in a statement asked the UPA government to give an explanation as to why the US-sponsored pipeline project is being favoured especially at this juncture when Washington has openly declared its opposition to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. Left leaders said they would bring up this issue in the UPA-Left coordination committee meet slated for next week. The proposed natural gas pipeline would stretch from the Turkmenistan/ Afghanistan border in southeastern Turkmenistan to Multan, Pakistan (1,271-km), with a 640-km extension to India. |
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PM raises engineer's murder with Rehman
New Delhi, May 19 The Prime Minister hosted breakfast for Maulana Rehman and used the opportunity to discuss a wide range of India-Pakistan relations with him. National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran were also present during the breakfast meeting. |
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Resentment over rise in price of pulses
New Delhi, May 19 It seems that despite its focus on the growth and infrastructure, the government is not paying due attention to rising prices of day to day commodities, resulting in discontentment among public. Market experts have warned that if future trading at commodity exchanges is any indication, prices would further increase by Rs 200 to Rs 300 a quintal in next 2-3 months. For instance, in future trade at NCDEX ( National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange), the price of channa is quoted at Rs 2574 for June, Rs 2738 for August and Rs 2810 for October delivery as against Rs 2476 current price. At MCX futures, the price of masur is quoted at Rs 1995 for June, Rs 2085 for July delivery as against Rs 1925 a quintal current prices. |
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