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SC moved against higher pension to Major-Generals
SC displeased over Centre-Punjab land dispute
CPM deserts RJD to fight NDA in Bihar poll
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News Analysis
UPA-Left panel meeting today
Custom duty drawback scam: 30 exporters raided
SIMI dares government to prove charges
25 suspected SIMI activists held in MP
Bomb scare:
man held, 2 minors detained
Shivani murder: SC gives interim stay on HC order
Agra summit: there was draft, no pact, says Jaswant
Congress workers lathicharged
NDA to urge Kalam for UPA dismissal
Animal killings baffle conservationists
E-mail to Kalam originated from Indore
No damage to Mahabodhi tree: govt
Karnataka refrains from probe into corridor project
9 killed in road mishap
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SC moved against higher pension to Major-Generals
New Delhi, July 21 The Centre in its special leave petition (SLP), taken up by a Bench of Mr Justice B.P. Singh and Mr Justice Altamas Kabir, claimed that the High Court had erred in appreciating the relevant rule as none of the retired Major-Generals were getting pension less than Brigadiers. Additional Solicitor-General Vikas Singh told the court that the pension had been fixed as per the rules and the pay of all officers promoted to the rank of Major-Generals prior to January 1, 1996, were not put to any disadvantage and they got equal pension. The court, which accepted the Centre’s appeal for hearing, issued notices to 20 Major-Generals who were party to the case before the High Court. The court, however, observed that “there seems to be some unreasonableness”. All retired Major-Generals were directed to file replies to the SLP filed by the Centre through the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of the Army Staff. When their counsel Nidhesh Gupta tried to cite “Fundamental Rule 22” applicable to Defence personnel, the court said let them file their replies. Mr Gupta contended that unequal could not be treated equal as it violated Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution. As per Fundamental Rule 22, the salary of a senior officer has to be higher than a junior one, he said, adding that the root cause of the dispute is anomalies in fixation of pay of Major-Generals promoted before January 1, 1996, and after this date in view of the 5th Pay Commission. The Centre on the other hand in its SLP said as per the government decision after the implementation of the 5th Pay Commission report “pay for all officers promoted to the rank of Major-Generals prior to January 1, 1996, will be stepped up equal to the pay fixed for a Brigadier, in the revised scale as on January 1, 1996, subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. It said when a Brigadier was promoted to the rank of Major-General his initial scale would be fixed at the stage next above the pay notionally arrived at by increasing his pay, including rank pay, as a Brigadier by one increment in the revised scale at the relevant stage. “This is application of Fundamental Rule 22.1(a)(I),” the SLP said. The Defence Ministry had clearly stated before the High Court that a Major-General always drew more pay than a Brigadier and accordingly the former drew more pension and family pension than the latter. “The rank of Major-General carried much more added diverse and onerous responsibility,” the Centre said, claiming that the High Court had “erroneously” gone into the question of pay fixation which was not subject matter of the petition before it as it had only raised the question of pension.
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SC displeased over Centre-Punjab land dispute
New Delhi, July 21 “Should not this types of disputes resolved amicably rather than contesting in the court. It is very unfortunate and strange,” a Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice C.K. Thakker told counsel for Centre and Punjab. The Centre has sought a decree against the Punjab Government to evict it from a portion of “camping ground” land at Nawanshahr over which it had raised buildings for certain offices and officers’ residence in 1962. The Defence Estate Officer (DEO), through which the suit was filed by the Centre, claimed that the entire plot of 11.15 acres was vested in it by an extraordinary gazette notification in 1937. As per a certificate issued by the Union Government in 1949, the plot was taken over from the Central Public Department by the Military Establishment. The court directed that the head of the Defence Estate and Chief Secretary of the Punjab Government would explore the feasibility of resolving matter out-of-court. If they were not able to find a solution, the Centre and the Punjab Government would set up a committee of secretaries to settle the dispute once for all, it said. Punjab Government counsel Arun K. Sinha said the state government had no objection to settle the dispute amicably. The dispute arose with the Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, in August 1959 writing a letter to the Military Estates Officer for transferring the plot for construction of a hospital. Consequently, the Division Officer, Nawanshahr in a communication to him in May 1962 detailed the reasons under which the “camping ground” was encroached upon by the state authorities for construction of SDO’s court and residential bungalow. The case took a new turn in 1992 when the Deputy Commissioner, Nawanshahr, set aside the Tehsildar’s order of mutation of the plot in favour of the Military Establishment and restored the “encroached” portion to the Punjab Government. The Revenue Commissioner on appeal also held that the state government was in “effective control and possession” of the disputed portion of the land which was proved from its buildings standing there. The Punjab and Haryana High Court also rejected the appeal of DEO in March 2002 against the Revenue Commissioner’s order. As the Union Government counsel tried to justify the filing of the suit on the ground that the Centre was the real owner of the disputed plot and the Punjab Government’s control over it should be removed, the court said both the parties were responsible for not making any effort to resolve the issue with mutual deliberations but preferred to continue to litigate on it for so many years.
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CPM deserts RJD to fight NDA in Bihar poll
Patna, July 21 The CPM had fought the October-November Assembly poll in Bihar with the RJD, the Congress and the NCP. The CPI was with the LJP. The Congress in Bihar is thus now left with the sole major UPA
partner, the RJD, as the NCP does not have much presence here. Addressing a joint press conference here today, in the presence of state CPM secretary Vijay Kant Thakur, the CPI general secretary A.B.Bardhan and the LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan accused the Nitish government of failing to fulfil the expectations of the people despite completing almost eight months in office since November 24 last year. Mr Bardhan said even though “We” (read CPI and CPM) had fought the Assembly elections in Bihar separately,
“We” are together now in launching the struggle against the ruling NDA from a common platform.
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Nitish, Lalu join hands against criminal-turned-politician
Ambarish Dutta Tribune News Service
Patna, July 21 The threat by Mr.Pandey, against whom a case was filed in the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate for his drunken brawl at a posh city hotel and subsequent threat to a cameraman of an electronic media to shoot him for covering his "misdeeds" recently, was preceded by the potshots taken at Mr.Nitish Kumar by another JD(U) leader and EX-MP, Anandmohan, at Saharsa on July 17 predicting that the NDA government would not last its full five-year term. The RJD supremo virtually surprised everyone asserting that "such elements"(read Anand Mohan and Sunil Pandey) were not good for any party and any police action against them was justified. Mr. Lalu Prasad was particularly referring to the incident when the police virtually dragged the former MP and JD(U) leader Anand Mohan into the prison van after he had arrived in Patna station on July 16 following his return from Derha Dun. Mr. Anand Mohan had left Sahrsa jail, allegedly in collusion with some jail officials, on the pretext of producing a warrant to appear for a case in Uttaranchal on July 5.The case was reportedly slated to be heard on July 2. The state unit of the JD(U) already had show caused the rebel MLA, Sunil Pandey, along with another MLA, Chedi Paswan, for attacking the party leadership in public, and more precisely for making derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. This was the second time the JD(U) leadership issued a show-cause notice against Sunil Pandey. The first one was issued following his drunken brawl at a city hotel. Altogether nine MLAs of the ruling NDA, majority of them "Bahubalis" (musclemen), met at the residence of Mr. Sunil Pandey to spit venom against the Nitish Government on July 18. Besides spitting venom at the Patna SSP Kundan Krishnan for daring to allegedly "slap " Anandmohan for his misconduct with the police before the arrest, the disgruntled MLAs reportedly also took strong exception to the way Mr. Nitish Kumar was giving an "upperhand to the bureaucracy and the police " over the elected representatives. During their meeting with Mr. Nitish Kumar at his residence on July 18 evening, the disgruntled MLAs had reportedly placed two specific demands. Firstly, they demanded the suspension of Mr.Kundal Krishnan for daring to physically assault Mr. Anandmohan. Secondly, not to give too much freehand to the bureaucracy and the police so that they dared to ignore the elected representatives. Besides, Mr. Nitish Kumar did not spare the state sports minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal and JD(U) MLA Rampravesh Rai for their open verbal duel in Chapra recently on the issue of roping in an elected representative in the panchayat polls to their fold. For Mr. Kumar, despite political differences with the RJD, the support extended by Mr. Lalu Prasad favouring police action against criminal-turned-politician perhaps could never be so well timed, because it was his own party MLAs, and not the RJD, which were up in arms against him defaming the image of the government.
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UPA-Left panel meeting today
New Delhi, July 21 “We do not want any dilution of the (RTI) law... We will raise the issue in and outside Parliament,” CPM floor leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia said. The Cabinet on Thursday approved changes in the Right to Information Act, 2005, to exclude notings on files by officials from the ambit of law. There are indications that the Communists have been taken into confidence on the other issue of Office of Profit, which has been returned by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the government could have a smooth sail in the Monsoon Session of Parliament when it is introduced without any change. Cases against several CPM parliamentarians, including the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, are pending before the Election Commission for allegedly holding office of profit and the West Bengal Government has declined to share the requisite information sought by the poll panel. This is the first meeting between the ruling alliance and its key outside supporters after the Left parties submitted alternative proposals on resource mobilisation for implementing what they termed as “people-oriented” schemes. However, the Left parties are anxious to know the government’s response to the note submitted to the UPA at the last meeting highlighting the failure of the Congress-led coalition on several counts .
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Custom duty drawback scam: 30 exporters raided
New Delhi, July 21 The raids carried on the premises of 20 exporters were made in Delhi, Mumbai, Nawashahr (Punjab) and Jaipur, according to the CBI. A criminal case against two Customs officials — Assistant Commissioner Ram Chandra and Superintendent of Customs D.K Bose — along with one Naresh and others has been registered by the CBI under Section 120-B of the IPC, Section 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Revention of Corruption Act, 1988, for defrauding the Government of more than Rs 8 crore. It was alleged that there was fraudulent transfer of money to the accounts of certain exporters in the form of Supplementary Duty Draw Back claims made by them. It has further been alleged that during 2004-06, supplementary Duty Draw Back claims of some exporters were accepted and payments made by the office of the Commissioner of Customs (Air Cargo Export), New Custom House. Subsequently, these were processed without any actual physical receipt of such claims, by manipulating and creating false records in the computers of the Customs House. Supplementary Duty Draw Backs were credited into the bank accounts of the said exports electronically and subsequently the money was utilised by the exporters. The officials had failed to take a follow-up on the matter after the accused did not submit documents for supplementary claims. Besides, entries in the computer system were manipulated and the sanctioned amount of supplementary Duty Draw Back transferred to the bank of the exporters electronically.
— UNI
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SIMI dares government to prove charges
New Delhi, July 21 In an exclusive interview to The Tribune, the Islamic leader said, “All allegations made by the intelligence agencies and the media that SIMI is a militant organisation and involved in Mumbai and other bomb explosion cases occurred in various parts of the country were baseless”. The agencies have no evidence to support their claim, he asserted. Narrating the failure of security agencies to prove SIMI’s role in Coimbatore serial blasts, terror attack in Ayodhya and Ghatkopar blasts in Mumbai, Mr Badr said, “The court has acquitted SIMI activists arrested in these incidents”. “Why we have been acquitted? If we are involved, we must be punished,” he said, adding that the police has destroyed the career of hundreds of Muslim youth by arresting them unlawfully in different cases, he said. Stating that SIMI is a cadre-based organisation involved in social and educational work among Muslim youth, he claimed, “We have been targeted by the RSS and like-minded people since the reigns of the NDA government. Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, L. K. Advani and A. B. Vajpayee conspired to name us as militant organisation to appease the RSS”. He called upon the UPA government to order an independent probe to investigate its alleged involvement in the Mumbai blasts, instead of making “baseless and unsubstantiated” allegations in the media. If the government, investigating agencies and the civil society have any doubt over our credibility, they can check our records and work for the community, said Mr Badr. “We are Indian citizens, we have right to fight for our causes and this can not be termed an offence,” he asserted. On Mulayam Singh’s support to SIMI, he said, “He is the only politician who has the courage to ward of Brahmin propaganda that cadre-based Muslim youth organisation is a terrorist outfit. If he is taking political benefits out of it then what is wrong with
this”.
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25 suspected SIMI activists held in MP
Bhopal, July 21 Nearly 15 persons have been taken into custody in Bhopal and Indore, while similar operations were on in other districts, including Ujjain, Khandwa and
Burhanpur, a senior police officer said here. Among those arrested in Khandwa were those brought from Kota in Rajasthan and Jalgaon in Maharashtra.
— PTI
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Bomb scare:
man held, 2 minors detained
New Delhi, July 21 Lokesh Dahal, a medicine supplier from whose mobile phone the call was reportedly made, was arrested from Uttam Nagar in West Delhi, the police said. The man told the police that two schoolboys, his neighbours, made the phone call. The police has seized the mobile phone from him and detained the two minors.
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Shivani murder: SC gives interim stay on HC order
New Delhi, July 21 A Bench, headed by Mr Justice K G Balakrishnan, said that the High Court order would not be acted upon till August 4 when the matter would be taken up for further hearing. The interim stay was granted by the court after Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the Delhi Police, made a special mention of filing of the appeal against the High Court’s May 23 order. The High Court had directed the police to provide gist of the statements of Shivani’s husband Rakesh Bhatnagar, recorded in different sittings by the investigating officer in the course of the probe of the murder, to Sharma for preparing a defence against it. However, the police had contested it on the ground that the statements were part of case diary, which was different to that recorded under Section 161 of the Cr PC, already provided to the accused.
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Agra summit: there was draft, no pact, says Jaswant
New Delhi, July 21 The then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh throws some light on this abiding argument in his memoirs “A Call to Honour” that hit the stands today. Jaswant and his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar had been told at the summit in July 2001 to attempt a draft and “together we tried our hand at writing something on a piece of paper”, he writes. “I attempted something in pencil on a piece of paper, he corrected/amended it, I did likewise and so it went on for sometime, to and fro. Finally, he said he would have to consult his President (Gen Pervez Musharraf) before he could assent or disagree,” he
says. Sattar reported to Musharraf, who had gone back to the hotel where he was staying, and returned with a “few changes” and asked Jaswant whether it was agreeable to him. Jaswant responded by saying he, too, had to obtain the
clearance of his Cabinet colleagues and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “This piece of ‘paper’ (draft) has been variously cited as evidence of discord within the NDA government, of my own personal ‘soft approach’ against some others, and all those speculative flights of fancy, all so entirely unnecessary,” Jaswant says.
— PTI
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Congress workers lathicharged
Kolkata, July 21 Over 200 workers and supporters of the Youth Congress (YC) were also arrested but were later released. The state unit of the Congress today observed a martyr's day in memory of 13 YC workers killed in police firing on July 21, 1993. Trinamool Congress also separately observed the day at a large meeting in the Esplanade area, where Ms Mamata Banerjee and several other TMC leaders, including Mr Ajit Panja, Mr Saugata Roy, Mr Sovandeb Chattopadhyya and Mr Partha Chatterjee addressed the gathering.
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NDA to urge Kalam for UPA dismissal
New Delhi, July 21 BJP Parliamentary Party Spokesperson and Delhi MP V.K. Malhotra said NDA leaders, including former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and former Defence Minister George Fernandes, would march from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhavan before the Monsoon Session of Parliament began on Monday. The NDA will hand over a memorandum to the President seeking the dismissal of the UPA government.
— TNS
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Animal killings baffle conservationists
Guwahati, July 21 Skin, eyes, tail, claws, teeth, bones and other vital organs of the animals are found missing, leading conservationists to suspect that the body parts might have landed into the hands of illegal wildlife traffickers. Within a span of two months, a tiger and a leopard were killed allegedly by angry villagers for lifting cattle in Nagaon district, about 180 km from Assam's main city of Guwahati. In the first incident May 25, a tiger was killed by villagers in Lathimari inside the Laokhowa wildlife sanctuary. Then, on July 3, a leopard was killed in Balijuri village, nine km from Lathimari. In both the cases, the villagers poisoned the predators by placing poisoned cow carcasses to entice them. But what has intrigued conservationists most is the manner in which people carried away their body parts after they were killed. Expressing concern, Shimanta Goswami of the Green Guard Nature Club said: "Due to strict security, poachers previously active in the Kaziranga and Orang parks might have shifted their attention to these areas." "Due to lax security in the peripheral forest reserves and other wildlife sanctuaries, these traffickers might be luring villagers to give away the body parts of their catch for a price," said Goswami, who is also a member of the wildlife rehabilitators exchange network programme of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). In the past couple of months, several instances of man-animal conflicts have been reported from the region, which includes Lathimari, Burachapori, Kochmora and other adjoining areas. It is not just the big cats that had been the victims, several incidents of man-elephant conflicts were also reported from the area. In one of these an elephant was poisoned to
death.— IANS
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E-mail to Kalam originated from Indore
Indore, July 21 ‘’The sender is yet to be unidentified. We are interrogating a few suspects,’’ Superintendent of Police Anshuman Yadav said here today. The mail was sent on July 19, a day after Dr Kalam visited Mumbai to lead the nation in paying homage to those killed in the July 11 transit terror blasts. Rashtrapati Bhavan sources yesterday confirmed that Dr Kalam received e-mail threatening to ‘’eliminate’’ him. The sources declined to disclose the full content of the mail. However, they confirmed that it was received by the President on his personal e-mail ID. The e-mail was forwarded to intelligence agencies. Ever since the Mumbai local train attacks, several threat calls were received by authorities at various monuments and installations but turned out to be hoaxes.
— UNI
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No damage to Mahabodhi tree: govt
Patna, July 21 Mr Amanullah returned after making an on-the-spot survey of the place of occurance in Bodh Gaya along with experts of the Agriculture Department this evening. It may be noted some persons in Bodh Gaya on Thursday complained that some unknown miscreants had cut off a branch of the 110-year-old holy tree, where Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago.
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Karnataka refrains from probe into corridor project
New Delhi, July 21 In a strongly worded indictment of the Karnataka Government, particularly some MLAs making unsavoury remarks even against the apex court judges, a Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice C.K. Thakker said “we hope that they (politicians) would let the judicial system remain as it is.” “Please tell your government to keep the politics away from some projects of public importance”, the Chief Justice told the counsel of the state government.
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9 killed in road mishap
Ajmer, July 21 “A family from Sarwadh was going to Kekadhi hospital along with their relatives this morning in their Maruti
car. — UNI
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