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Maya supports quota for upper caste poor
Persistent odours in air are harmful gases: NGO
Appointments to Pandit posts to be regularised
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Judge gets justice after 11 years
Plan to upgrade jails goes into cold storage
‘Da Vinci Code’ withdrawn in Goa
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Maya supports quota for upper caste poor
Lucknow, June 4 Declaring a postponement of her party’s ‘virat karyakarta mahasammelan’, which was to be held on June 30, she said that now the fresh dates would be announced later keeping in view the developments in Delhi. Hinting at simultaneous Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, BSP chief said that she now might save on expenses by having just one major ‘sammelan’ for her party’s mobilisation for both the elections. Elaborating on her analysis of the situation in Delhi she said that if the Congress was keen to avoid any untoward development it would have called for a session of Parliament without delay. “The Election Commission can from now onwards disqualify many Members of Parliament on the grounds of office of profit. As many of the MPs, to be impacted by this crucial decision, belong to the Left whose support is vital for the Congress to remain in power, it seems that the Congress is not keen to avoid such an eventuality”. She said that at this juncture the Congress wanted to gain political mileage out of the Office of profit controversy. “The party knows the real situation and wants to avoid facing the electorate due to the rising prices, unemployment and growing poverty.” Launching a frontal attack on the Congress for raking up a controversy on the OBC reservation to higher educational institutes run by the Central government, she released a 15-page booklet appealing to the people to be cautious of the Central Government on the OBC reservation issue. Warning both the Backward and upper castes of the Congress party’s conspiracy on the issue Mayawati said that the Congress only wanted to return to the Parliament on the basis of this controversy. “It has started the controversy but has no genuine desire to ensure reservation for the OBCs,” she charged. Ms Mayawati also announced support to the idea of reservation for the economically weak among the upper castes.
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Persistent odours in air are harmful gases: NGO
New Delhi, June 4 They advise pollution-impacted communities to use their senses and keep a vigil over local neighbourhood industries, report such incidences and demand action from the regulatory authorities. According to the NGO Community Environmental Monitoring adviser, Mr Nityanand Jayraman, the sweet smell of nail polish may indicate the presence of acetone, rotten cabbage of sulphur-carrying mercaptans and rotten egg or sewage-type smell of hydrogen sulphide in your vicinity. Most of these are highly harmful and toxic chemicals. In fact, the typical public toilet-type smell is the indictor of presence of a category of chemicals called indole in the ambient air. “Public health ramifications of air pollution are immense and despite India being poised to nearly double its industrial capacity in coming years, the country is still pathetically behind in terms of its infrastructure to safeguard its environment or the health of people from pollution. Which is why communities have to take lead to monitor the ambient air quality in their surroundings,” he suggests. A study commissioned by the MoEF in 1995 had pegged the total environmental losses due to air pollution to be equivalent to about one per cent of the GDP in terms of health costs and lost man-days. To be able to monitor, pollution-impacted communities do not need expensive analytical techniques to confirm whether there is pollution in the air they breathe or not. They can use senses of smell, sight and feelings to systematically monitor, document and report such incidences and demand an action from regulating authorities on air pollution. Your nose can become a reasonably sensitive indicator of pollution. Clean air does not smell, but the presence, kind and intensity of odour are inputs enough to indicate air pollution. Citing the example of such vigil by some communities in Cuddalore, Jayaraman said people there used odour sensitivity to successfully highlight that they have been assailed by various kinds of chemicals. The villages in the area conducted odour-monitoring studies for over 14 weeks, identified and documented 283 odour instances of which 256 were very intense. Out of these instances they identified 36 smells, including that of nail polish, ripe chikoo fruit, cooking gas, sewage etc, most of which were identified as harmful, toxic and even carcinogenic chemicals. So next time you smell something persistently fishy in the air, take note.
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Appointments to Pandit posts to be regularised
New Delhi, June 4 An indiction in this regard is a state government order directing regularisation of appointments to the posts that had fallen vacant due to migration of Pandits since 1989. “In suppression of all previous orders on the subject, it is hereby ordered that the migrant substitutes working in various departments against the migrant vacant posts shall be regularised against these posts without waiting for the posts to get vacated due to retirement or promotion of migrant employee or due to any other reason,” said the state government order dated May 16. The order issued by the General Administration Department cites a Cabinet decision of May 11 in this regard. It said a committee headed by the Administrative Secretary, Finance Department, would be constituted to consider the proposals of the Administrative Department regarding the regularisation of migrant substitutes on a case-to-case basis after ascertaining the eligibility of such substitutes as per the recruitment rules governing the post. The order applies to thousands of posts that had fallen vacant after Kashmiri Pandits left the valley in the wake of militancy. Considering the special circumstances in which the community had to leave Kashmir, the then government had decided that the posts would be kept vacant till their occupants returned. However, the return of Pandits got delayed and temporary appointments were made over the past 16 years against these posts to ensure that work went on. While many of the employees had since retired, several thousands were still in service. Kashmiri Pandits have criticised the state government order. “It is unfortunate. It makes it clear that the state government has been hoodwinking the Pandits,” said Shakti Bhan, leader of frontline Kashmiri Pandit organisation Panun Kashmir. She said all governments in the state had been “fooling” the Pandits. Particularly attacking the present Congress-led government in the state, he said it had a “compromising policy” and “wanted Muslim predominance”. The successive state governments had been insisting that ensuring the return of Pandits was high on their agenda. The previous Mufti Sayeed government had even started constructing flats at three places in the valley for the Pandits who wanted to return. However, the displaced community, citing the prevailing militancy situation in the valley, has been resisting any forcible or coercive effort to make them return.
— PTI
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Judge gets justice after 11 years
New Delhi, June 4 The Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain, A K Sikri and B N Chaturvedi also ordered that Rohilla shall be entitled to all the financial and pensionary benefits to which he may be entitled pursuant to the order. An erstwhile officer of the Delhi Judicial Service, Rohilla, who was holding the rank of an Additional District Judge, was demoted to the rank of a civil judge by an administrative order of the High Court on February 2, 1995. Ironically, Rohilla's representation challenging his demotion was rejected by a Full Court on September 23, 1995. Aggrieved by the rejection, Rohilla filed a fresh petition before a two-member bench which referred the matter to a full bench. In his petition, Rohilla argued that his promotion to the Delhi High Judicial Service on November 29, 1989, was a regular promotion against a substantive vacancy and, therefore, he could not have been reverted back to the Delhi judicial service by a mere administrative order of the High Court. His contention was that though the High Court was the appointing authority at the same time it cannot demote him by an administrative order as any such order could be passed only by the Governor of the State. Upholding Rohilla's contention the Bench while interpreting the provisions of Article 233 read with Article 235 maintained that any disciplinary action in the form of demotion, termination or removal by High Court is subject only to the approval of the Governor which in the present case was not observed. Moreover, the Bench noted that the Judge was not given any opportunity of hearing before reduction in his rank and as such the order is vitiated by not observing the principles of natural justice and hence ordered that Rohilla shall be deemed to have continued as a Member of the Delhi Judicial Service till he was compulsorily retired on September 2001.
— PTI
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Plan to upgrade jails goes into cold storage
Mumbai, June 3 The scheme, formulated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2002-03, the Centre and the states were to have spent Rs 1796.55 crore till 2006-07 to improve the prison infrastructure and increase the quality of prison employees. However till date, much of the funds have remained unused with less than 4 per cent of the earmarked money being disbursed in 2004-05 when the UPA government took power. As per the original scheme, 75 per cent of the funds or Rs 1347 crore was to have come from the Centre while the rest was to be contributed by state governments. Sources, however, said state governments like Bihar, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh could not commit even a fraction of their share because of which the Central allocations were never made to most of them. The scheme took off at a flying start with the Centre earmarking Rs 269.40 crore in 2002-03 with Rs 85.60 crore pledged by various states. However, just Rs 180 crore or a little more than half the amount could be disbursed in the first year. In the following year of the Rs 286.60 crore earmarked by the Centre and the states respectively, just Rs 61.70 crore was actually spent. In 2004-05, the last year for which data is available, just Rs 4.3 crore or 3.8 per cent of the Rs 111.70 crore earmarked by the Centre and the states was spent on improving the country's prison system. Incidentally, data compiled by the National Human Rights Commission on the Indian prisons itself indicates the woeful condition of correctional facilities across the country. While all jails across the country put together have a capacity of 2,33,543 prisoners, they hold 3,26,519 men and women or nearly 40 per cent excess of capacity.
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‘Da Vinci Code’ withdrawn in Goa
Panaji, June 4 "We have withdrawn the film in Goa, respecting public sentiments. There is no written communication of any sort about a ban on the movie from the state government," Snehal Chitneni, head of public relations for Inox Entertainment Limited, told PTI. Meanwhile, Congress MP Churchill Alemao, who had warned that he would forcibly stop the screening of the film, said, "It's a victory for the Lord. We are withdrawing the agitation as Inox has stopped screening the movie since this morning." Earlier, Catholic leaders under the banner of the Anti-blasphemous Action Front, criticised the Inox multiplex for screening the movie for the past two days despite opposition from the people. Inox Management withdrew the movie before a scheduled meeting of Christian groups at the Panaji church hall. Chitneni, however, denied the step was a fall-out of the warning issued by Alemao and his supporters yesterday. The Christian groups held their meeting and warned Inox "not to play with the people's sentiments".
— PTI
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