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Drunken Driving
SC notices to Centre, states, UTs
Bill for reservation of Gujjars introduced
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N-deal to undermine India’s strategic autonomy: BJP
Delhi Test
Kargil’s first Indian PoW to fly IL-78
Govt keeping watch on foreign agencies
India to rescue stranded students in China
Kanwar Yatra
Fodder Scam
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Drunken Driving
New Delhi, July 14 A Bench comprising Justices P.K. Thakker and D.K. Jain made the observation while hearing a case of a person found guilty of rash and negligent driving in Mangalore district of Karnataka. While maintaining the conviction of Manish Jalan, the apex court enhanced the amount of compensation to the victim’s mother from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The apex court, however, reduced the sentence from one year imprisonment to the period already undergone on the basis of the statement of the victim’s mother, who had said in an affidavit that it was the will of God that her son left her at an early age and that she had no objection if the conviction of driver Manish Jalan was set aside and she paid additional compensation. Vasant Prabhu had died when hit by the tanker being driven by Jalan. The Supreme Court directed Jalan to pay the compensation of Rs 1 lakh within three months to H. Sunanda Prabhu, the mother of the victim. It, however, ruled in its judgement that, “It is pertinent to note that there was no allegation against the appellant that at the time of accident he was under the influence of liquor or any other substance impairing his driving skills. “It was a rash and negligent act and not a case of driving in an inebriated condition, which is undoubtedly an aggravated offence warranting stricter and harsher punishment.” The Supreme Court also rejected the plea of compounding the offence, while noting that the courts were not using the provision of Section 357, CrPC, empowering the courts to award adequate compensation to the victim of road accidents and other crimes.
— UNI
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SC notices to
Centre, states, UTs
New Delhi, July 14 A 16-year-old daughter of petitioner Lalita Kumari was kidnapped from Loni district of Ghaziabad, UP, and her whereabouts are not known till date . Counsel for the petitioner submitted before a Bench comprising Justices B.N Agrawal and G.S. Singhvi that instead of registering an FIR, the SHO of Loni police station, threatened the petitioner with dire consequences in case she did not withdraw her complaint against the kidnapper of her minor daughter. Taking serious note of the attitude of the police officials, the angry judges remarked, “It is a disturbing state of affairs where the police instead of helping and protecting the victim, shields the offenders.” The apex court has sought an explanation from the Union Home Ministry and all DGPs of all states in the country to file their responses as to whether the directions of the apex court that registration of an FIR is mandatory when a complaint is filed before the police alleging an occurrence of cognisable offence, are being complied with in true letter and spirit. The court also directed that its judgement must be placed on the SC website. Besides this, the Supreme Court has sought details of the action being taken by the Police Department against those police officials, who refuse to register an FIR.
— UNI
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Bill for reservation of Gujjars introduced
Jaipur, July 14 Law Minister G.S. Tiwari introduced the Bill even as the opposition Congress members were holding protest against an ordinance on the university teachers’ regularisation. Amid the opposition MLAs shouting anti-government slogans on the teachers’ ordinance matter, Speaker Sumitra Singh took a voice vote of the ruling BJP legislators for introduction of the quota Bill in the House. The Bill titled the Rajasthan Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Class (OBC), Special Backward Classes, and Economically Backward Classes, 2008, is likely to come up for discussion in the next sitting of the House. It seeks to provide reservations of seats in favour of the SC, ST, OBC, Special Backward Classes, and the economically backward classes (EBC) while making recruitments for state government posts. The quota Bill will come up for discussion and debate as per the schedule to be decided by the Business Advisory Committee, which met here after the adjournment of the House for the day. The Bill proposes “68 per cent” reservation of jobs for the SC, ST, Backward Classes, Special Backward Classes and EBCs, Assembly sources said. As per the new Bill proposals, reservation has been divided among the categories as: SC 16 per cent, ST 12 per cent, Backward Classes 21 per cent, Special Backward Classes 5 per cent and Economically Backward Classes 14 per cent. However, the proposals said there would be no reservation in respect of the following posts: to be filled by transfer or deputation and which were single (isolated) in any cadre or grade.
— PTI
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N-deal to undermine India’s strategic autonomy: BJP
New Delhi, July 14 Two senior BJP leaders - Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie - explained the implications of the text of the nuclear safeguards agreement that India has undertaken to sign with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Describing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as duplicitous and deceitful, Shourie said, “While the government has all along said that the deal is exclusively about nuclear energy, the US Administration has left no one in doubt that the deal is about bringing India into the non-proliferation regime.” Sinha said, “The BJP charges the government with assisting the US in realising its most important foreign policy objective vis-ŕ-vis India in a manner that has undermined India’s strategic autonomy while promising illusory energy security.” “All crucial assurances the Prime Minister had given in Parliament have been violated. The government has been purveying untruths. The BJP states emphatically that all apprehensions that we had expressed have been borne out,” Shourie stated. The two leaders also took strong exception that a document with serious long-term implications for India has been made available to the governments and peoples of other countries - indeed to the entire world through the Internet - but kept hidden from the political parties and people in India. They alleged that the draft Safeguards Agreement has made a mockery of the assurances that the Prime Minister had repeatedly given to the nation. They quoted the Prime Minister’s statement in the Lok Sabha on July 29, 2005, wherein he had said, “We shall undertake the same responsibilities and obligations as the US;” “We expect the same rights and benefits” as the US; and “India will never accept discrimination”. This assurance has been flouted in the agreement which does not recognise India as a Nuclear Weapons State (NWS) on par with the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China. The Prime Minister had assured that the agreement would be “India-specific” - that is less onerous and intrusive than the agreements with the Non-NWS. He had assured Parliament on August 17, 2006, that, “As a country with nuclear weapons, there is no question of India agreeing to a safeguards agreement or an Additional Protocol applicable to non-nuclear-weapons states of the NPT”. “Far from it being an India-specific agreement, the accord resembles IAEA agreements with non-nuclear-weapons states,” the two BJP leaders surmised.
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Delhi Test Chandigarh, July 14 “There is no question of me supporting the Congress or the UPA government. If I ever do that it will be a political suicide for me,” he asserts maintaining that there is no question of his supporting the Congress ever. It may be pertinent to mention here that the Congress had suspended Bishnoi from the party for his anti-party activities. Proceedings to end his membership of Lok Sabha were initiated under anti-defection law and July 16 was fixed as next date for hearing in the case. He took up cudgels on behalf of farmers of Gurgaon and other areas after pieces of fertile agricultural lands were forcibly acquired by the Congress government of the state for handing over to big companies like Reliance for the proposed special economic zones. Bishnoi was asked to appear before the Lok Sabha privilege committee on July 16 for his anti-defection activities. “There have been two letters from the Lok Sabha secretariat today. One of the letters is about the session of Lok Sabha from July 21 asking the ruling UPA to seek a vote of confidence from the House. The second letter is to inform me that my appearance before the privileges committee on July 16 has been postponed indefinitely,” reveals Bishnoi.
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Kargil’s first Indian PoW to fly IL-78 Jorhat, July 14 “I am being transferred to Agra Air Force Station next month. Now I’ll be flying IL-78 air-to-air refuellers,” Nachiketa, captured on May 27, 1999, after his MiG-27 suffered a flameout while destroying enemy positions in the Batalik sub-sector, told PTI. On that fateful day, Nachiketa, then a Flight Lieutenant, took off in a ‘Hayena’ formation led by Sqn Ldr A. Mandhokot to bomb enemy positions with 80 mm canons. Recalling the details, the Vayu Sena Medal awardee said despite initial difficulties, the target was identified and he fired 40 rockets in one salvo. Having acquired the target, he carried out a second attack, this time with 30 mm guns. “I then eased out of the dive, but felt a backward jerk due to sudden deceleration. The speed dropped to 500 kmph and realised the engine had flamed out. I immediately jettisoned the rocket pods and attempted a relight. Informing my leader Sqn Ldr Mandhokot, I further lowered the altitude to maintain the speed which had felled to 450 kmph,” he said. With hills surrounding the area and no sign of the engine restarting, Nachiketa realised that eviction was inevitable and after calling to his leader ‘Mando, Nachi ejecting’, had pulled the ejection handle. While ejecting, Nachiketa saw his aircraft crash into the hills and go up in flames. “After about 15 seconds of para descent, I landed on soft ice. I saw people running towards me. Bullets were being fired and I returned the fire from the small arms I was carrying. After holding forth for some time, there was an ambush and I was made a PoW,” he said. Now a Wing Commander, Nachiketa was unwilling to discuss his experience during captivity but said he was made to undergo “physical hardships.” “It is an experience which is difficult to be described in words. Sometimes I felt that death would have been a better solution,” he said. He now suffers from back pain and this prevents him from flying a fighter plane. Doctors attribute his pain to the injury during para-landing and the physical hardships during captivity, he said. Besides physical scars, the experience had been traumatic psychologically. “It took quite some time to heal. But in two or three years you reconcile with life and get on with it.” However, the trauma was bigger for his family, including his parents and sisters. To a question, Nachiketa admitted that he was initially crestfallen at the prospect of being eased out of flying fighter aircraft, but has now reconciled to it. “When you are in the cockpit, you have a role. Sometimes experience changes you so much that you accept whatever role you get. My experience has taught me not to regret what I have lost. It has made me stronger,” Nachiketa, fondly known by friends and colleagues as Nachi said. — PTI
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Govt keeping watch on foreign agencies
New Delhi, July 14 “We are concerned about the activities of some of the agencies. They have come under the scanner and may be blacklisted,’’ sources in the overseas Indian affairs ministry said. These agencies have been putting up big advertisements in Indian newspapers luring young Indian students with promises of visa and admission in premier universities and thereafter guaranteed employment abroad. Sources said ministry officials have visited some of the countries from where these agencies have been operating and taken up the matter with the authorities there. They said they have also been from time to time receiving reports of travel agents duping Indian students by issuing them fake visas and travel documents. The overseas Indian affairs ministry was in touch with the Tourism ministry in this regard. These comments came amid reports from Beijing that the Chinese police have sealed the house of an absconding Bangladeshi agent, accused of duping 154 medical students by selling them fake tickets for flights to India. An agency report said Indian embassy officials had requested the police to investigate the case after the students studying in Chongqing, Nanjing and Suzhou medical universities, who had booked e-tickets through agent Mohammed Jabbar Miyan for Emirates and Malaysian airlines, were turned back at the airport. The students, several of whom knew Miyan, were to return home to India for summer vacation to Hyderabad from Shanghai, Chongqing and Sozhou. They had booked the tickets attracted by cheap fares and transferred the money to the account of Miyan, who is now absconding. The Bangladeshi embassy said there was no record in the Bangladeshi community list to confirm the existence of Miyan. Sources at the Indian embassy said they have written to the police to investigate the case. About this particular incident, the sources in New Delhi said they would yet to look into the reports from Beijing.
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India to rescue stranded students in China
New Delhi, July 14 The Indian embassy in Beijing is also trying to contact the travel agent, Mohd Jabbar Mian of Bangladesh, to sort out the matter. “It is unfortunate that this has happened,” Indian Ambassador to China Nirupama Rao told reporters here about the students getting stranded after the travel agent allegedly issued fake air tickets to them. She said the embassy’s Consular officer is in touch with the affected students and is making queries about the travel agent who issued the tickets. “We were able to contact the agent on Saturday and he said he was trying to sort out the matter. Subsequently, it has been difficult to contact him,” said Rao, who met joint secretary in MEA Vijay Gokhale here. The embassy is in touch with Air India in Shanghai and is trying to work out some arrangement, she said, adding that something would be worked out but ruled out giving free tickets to the affected students. She said the embassy had informed the Chinese authorities and law enforcement agencies were helping in dealing with the situation. One of the affected students has already filed a case with the Beijing police against the agent. The alleged fraud came to light after two air carriers — Emirates and Malaysia Airlines — refused to accept the e-tickets issued to the students when they went to board the flights between June 29 and July 11. The affected students belong to various universities like Nanjing, Suzhou and Chong Qing, which are hundreds of kilometres away from each other.
— PTI
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Kanwar Yatra
Dehra Dun, July 14 A meeting of senior police and intelligence officials held here today under the chairmanship of Uttarakhand DGP Subhash Joshi discussed at length about the possible threat from terrorists to these events and the need for effective coordination. More than six million “Kanwarias” come to Uttarakhand during the Hindu calendar month of “Sawaan” to take holy Ganga waters to their native places. The “Kanwar Yatra” has posed a big challenge to the police force to provide security to such a large mass. Similarly, the Maha Kumbh to be held at Hardwar next year would also attract Hindu devotees from all over the world. The meeting also discussed the threat of Maoists and need for better surveillance at borders with Tibet and Nepal to check smuggling and the menace of fake currency. Earlier, a similar meeting of senior police officials of neighbouring states was held at Hardwar last week to draw a strategy to manage the “Kanwar
Yatra”.
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Fodder Scam
Ranchi, July 14 Chakraborty was among the 64 fodder accused found guilty by the court of B K Sahay here for signing forged bills in the fodder case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 39 crore from Chaibasa treasury in the early 1990s. The IAS officer, who was present in the court room, was the deputy commissioner of Chaibasa when the case was unearthed. The CBI court sentenced 10 women (all fodder suppliers) to three-year jail term while the quantum of sentence against Chakraborty and 53 others will be pronounced tomorrow. All the ten women convicts, who secured periodic bail from the court, were slapped a fine ranging between Rs 1 lakh and 25 lakh. Former animal husbandry director, Ram Raj Ram, and former additional director K M Prasad were also among the convicts. Three convicts among the 64 are still absconding. This is the 28th of the 53 fodder cases resulting in the conviction of 274 people so far.
— PTI
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First-ever conference on AIDS for policemen
FM wave hits Kerala
Criminal held
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