 |
|
|
N-Liability Bill introduced in Lok Sabha; BJP, Left walk out
BJP leaders meet President on ‘misuse’ of CBI
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
SC, ST, OBC candidates can opt out of general category: SC
CAG slams Water Resources Ministry
DU flouted radioactive waste rules: Minister
SC notice to BCCI on ex-chief’s plea
BRO to develop border infrastructure, says Antony
Ruchika Case
‘Mammu zallad’ keen to hang Kasab
Army officer held for child porn
Bomb scare on Amritsar Shatabdi
Book scribe’s boyfriend: Court
|
|
N-Liability Bill introduced in Lok Sabha; BJP, Left walk out
New Delhi, May 7
The right and left combine slammed the law as illegal and unconstitutional, and said it violated the people’s right to life, and was pro-US. Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj led the walkout, saying the BJP had tried its level best to engage the government and see if an amended law could be introduced. “But UPA’s rigid attitude has blocked every road to consensus. Hence we walk out,” she said as the RJD and the SP sat back, supporting the law, which had to be earlier withdrawn from the Lok Sabha on March 15 amid extreme hostility. The Bill caps the financial liability in case of nuclear accidents at 300 million special drawing rights (SDRs) (about Rs 2142.85 crore). The liability of Indian operator of nuclear plants (the Nuclear Power Corporation of India) is fixed at Rs 500 crore. The difference of Rs 1,642 crore is to be borne by the government (read the tax payers) while the Bill exempts foreign suppliers of nuclear reactors of legal liability even if they provide faulty equipment. These loose ends are bothering the opponents, as BJP’s Yashwant Sinha said while opposing the Bill: “Can the House silently watch an illegal, unconstitutional law being moved? It violates people’s right to life. While maximum liability of nuclear accidents in US is Rs 60,000 crore, it is just about Rs 2,600 crore in India. Is American blood thicker than ours?”, prompting an agitated Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee into rejecting the BJP-Left arguments. “At the stage of Bill’s introduction, it can only be challenged on legislative competence, not merits,” Pranab said, accusing the opposition of “parliamentary obstructionism” when they walked out. After days of absence, PM Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi were also seen in the House as Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan introduced the Bill. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal was also in full form to counter the opposition’s onslaught. At one point, he even told the Speaker that members could not be allowed to raise a debate on the Bill as the same was just being introduced. “That’s against the rules,” he said. Earlier, Left leaders - CPM’s Basudeb Acharia and CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta -challenged the Bill’s legislative competence saying it was against Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life) and SC judgment that the polluter (not the government) pays. BJP’s Murali Manohar Joshi also questioned the Bill’s legality saying it went against the existing law of unlimited liability for nuclear accidents. “Moreover, foreign suppliers are exempt,” he said. The treasury, led by Pranab, however, firmly resisted criticism of the law and introduced it.
|
|
BJP leaders meet President on ‘misuse’ of CBI
New Delhi, May 7 Yesterday, Sushma had given notice in the Lok Sabha for discussing functioning of the CBI, but she explained today: “Last night, the government kept bringing in Bills till 10 pm and today was the last day of the Budget session. We will now take this up in the next session.” Yesterday, BJP MPs led by party chairperson LK Advani sat on a dharna outside Parliament House to protest about “the UPA’s misuse of the CBI.” Today, Advani led a delegation to President Pratibha Patil, raising the same issue. But party sources consider this a “rather belated reaction.” Since the CBI arrested Abhay Chudasma, senior IPS officer of Gujarat, on April 28 and put another six, including Geeta Johri, Rajnish Rai and GC Raigar, on the waiting list for their alleged complicity in the killing or cover up of Sohrabuddin encounter, Modi has been agitated and anxious. They say only one BJP leader Arun Jaitley seemed concerned about this, but only privately. He had also hinted at some action by the party. In the Lok Sabha, where Modi has sent up 15 MPs including Advani from Gandhinagar, there was not a whimper of protest at the CBI action in Ahmedabad. On May 3, Modi had arrived in the Capital and drove straight to Advani’s Prithviraj Road residence. Immediately Advani summoned Sushma Swaraj, Jaitely, Rajnath Singh and others where he protested over his party’s inability to draw the attention on the CBI issue. He also made a snide comment on former party president Rajnath Singh’s campaign on the quality of wheat and Dal underlining BJP lopsided priorities in the Lok Sabha. In Wednesday’s party meeting Advani had again raised this matter and asked the MPs to make a big issue of it. The decision to hold a sit-in outside Parliament as well as raising the issue in the Lok Sabha and sending a delegation to the President were taken only then.
|
|
SC, ST, OBC candidates can opt out of general category: SC
New Delhi, May 7 “Such migration as envisaged by Rule 16(2) of the Civil Service Examination Rules is not inconsistent with Rule 16(1) or Articles 14, 16(4) and 335 of the Constitution,” ruled the Bench, comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justices SH Kapadia, RV Raveendran, B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam. The apex court clarified that the general category seats vacated by such meritorious reserved category (MRC) candidates would be offered to the general category candidates. “MRC candidates who avail the benefit of Rule 16(2) and adjusted in the reserved category should be counted as part of the reserved pool for the purpose of computing the aggregate reservation quotas,” the Bench said. By operation of Rule 16(2), the reserved status of an MRC candidate was protected so that his/her better performance did not deny him the chance to be allotted a more preferred service, it explained. The Bench thus allowed the civil appeals and set aside the judgment of the Madras High Court. “The writ petitions challenging the validity of Rule 16(2) are dismissed. The validity of Rule 16 of Civil Service Examination Rules 2005.”
|
|
CAG slams Water Resources Ministry
New Delhi, May 7 In its report tabled in Parliament today, the CAG observed serious financial irregularities in the management of AIBP projects in most states, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. While Haryana has come under severe criticism for diversion of funds and irregular expenditure, Punjab’s list of wrongdoings includes undue benefit to contractors and unauthorised expenditure. Punjab has also faltered on environmental issues. As per the CAG, polluted water and untreated waste were being discharged by the industry into Chheratta distributory of the Upper Bari Doaba Canal in the state. In Haryana, of the 104 distinct works to be completed by March 2007 under the project, 31 were not taken up. Further, the shortage in completion of various components of work ranged from 31 to 70 per cent, despite expenditure of Rs 135.47 crore out of the projected cost of Rs 147.87 crore. Also, audit scrutiny revealed that the executive engineer of construction division 17, Karnal, diverted funds amounting to Rs 10.51 crore for AIBP works received in 2006-07 for arbitration works. In Punjab, five medium irrigation projects were taken up under AIBP during 1999-2008. However, only one project —Remodelling of UBDC system sanctioned in April 1999 — was reported as completed. In six divisions, during August and September 2008, security deposits amounting to Rs. 80.90 lakh deducted from the bills of 63 contractors were released before the expiry of the stipulated period of six months from the date of completion of work. Six Executive Engineers and LAO (Hoshiarpur) had parked funds to the tune of Rs 10.62 crore in 52 bank accounts between April 2003 and August 2006. Of the Rs 30 crore meant for the project ‘Rehabilitation of 1st Patiala feeder’, Rs 4.5 crore was diverted to other projects, the CAG pointed out.
|
|
DU flouted radioactive waste rules: Minister
New Delhi, May 7 “A compensation regime will have to be established. Users of radioactive materials must take insurance and given an undertaking for safe use and disposal. We will have to have a law to cover all kinds of nuclear accidents,” Minister of Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan today said in response to a calling attention motion on the issue moved by the CPI, the BJD and the BJP. He assured the House that electric generation programme of the atomic energy department of India (19 reactors are producing nuclear energy) was completely safe. There are about 10,000 radioactive sources in the country in 3,000 installations, the government said, adding that Mayapuri and Delhi University, where the Cobalt 60 source had been traced, had now been cleared of the entire Gamma Cell - which caused the leak. The Cell contained 16 Cobalt 60 source pencils, each pencil containing seven cobalt slugs arranged in a 48 slot stainless steel cylindrical cage. “All 112 slugs have been isolated and transported to Narora,” Chavan said, holding Delhi University responsible for unauthorised disposal of the Gamma Cell as scrap in violation of the Atomic Energy (Safe Disposal of Radioactive Waste) Rules and Atomic Energy (Radiation Protection) Rules promulgated under the Atomic Energy Act. The government, however, did not name the persons against whom the Delhi Police had filed an FIR in this case. The query was raised by BJD leader Arjan Sethi and the CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta, who called the attention of the government to the issue. “I assure the House that all guilty will be punished,” the minister said, unable to tender satisfactory answers to whether the said Gamma Cell illegally stored by DU was ever inspected in 20 years. Already, the Delhi University Teachers Association has been seeking the removal of DU V-C Deepak Paintal and a visitorial (President is the Visitor of the University) inquiry into the incident.
|
|
SC notice to BCCI on ex-chief’s plea
New Delhi, May 7 A Bench comprising Justices JM Panchal and RM Lodha granted six weeks time to the BCCI to reply to the petition and four weeks thereafter to Muthiah for his response and posted further hearing for the second week of August. Muthiah has specifically taken exception to BCCI secretary Srinivasan owning the Chennai Super Kings through his company, India Cements. The BCCI had earlier barred its members and officials from involving themselves in any activity which was in conflict of interest with the board. However, it subsequently relaxed the provisions and allowed them to pick up stakes in IPL teams. According to the petition, the amendment was illegal and against the widely accepted policy of not allowing the BCCI administrators to directly or indirectly get into any commercial activity that came in the way of board’s interest. The Madras High Court dismissed Muthiah’s petition noting that no material was placed before it to show whether the IPL matches were being conducted with the approval of the International Cricket Council. “Don’t wash your dirty linen in the court,” the Bench remarked when Srinivasan’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi argued that Muthiah was behaving as if everything was fine with the BCCI when he was its president.
|
|
BRO to develop border infrastructure, says Antony
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the golden jubilee of the Border Roads Organisation, Antony said India had conveyed its fears to the US, adding that “…we feel there is every possibility of diverting most of these to the Indian border. So we told the US to be careful about that”. Antony separately ruled out the angle of “espionage” in case of the Army Major, who is posted in the Andaman Nicobar islands. “There is a clear case of breach of cyber security. That is proven beyond doubt. Investigation is on, nothing else has been found so far”.
|
|
Ruchika Case
Chandigarh, May 7 On the fifth day today, the CBI presented evidences and witnesses during the day-long in-camera proceedings in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh. “After the hearing is over, if the court upholds the sentence or enhances it, the arrest of Rathore is imminent,” Anand Parkash, father of Ruchika's friend Aradhana, said. “We have a good case against the accused,” he added. "The CBI is likely to end up reading out its evidence by tomorrow and after that we may take a day to present our views before the Judge gives his verdict," Anand affirmed. Earlier, the defence counsel of Rathore had submitted their arguments and evidences. They had stressed that Aradhana was planted against Rathore due to rivalry between two lawn tennis associations of Panchkula. The counsel had argued that Aradhana was not present when the incident took place and had never visited the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association (HLTA) office. The media is kept out of the courtroom on the request of the counsel of Rathore as she feels that the media had created undue hype in this case. The CBI’s presentation is expected to be completed by tomorrow.
|
|
‘Mammu zallad’ keen to hang Kasab
Meerut, May 7 But, the 65-year-old Mammu Singh, popularly known as "Mammu zallad", feels that he might not get the opportunity as legal process involved could take a long time. But, he hoped his son Pawan could do the job, if required. After the Mumbai court yesterday awarded capital punishment to Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab, a question had cropped up where is the hangman. Mammu Singh said: "I will feel proud in hanging Kasab in Meerut jail." At present, there are only two hangmen in the country and Mammu Singh is one of them.
— PTI
|
|
Army officer held for child porn Mumbai, May 7 The police said Lieutenant-Colonel Jagmohan Balbir Singh was arrested on Thursday after the German Federal Bureau traced some explicit pictures posted online to an Internet Protocol address at the Colaba Naval base here and alerted Interpol. The CBI, which was informed, passed on the information to the cybercrime cell of the Mumbai police. Subsequent investigations led to a computer operated by Singh, the police said. Singh, 42, was produced before a local court which remanded him to custody till May 12. According to Army officials here, Singh is currently on study leave from his posting at the supply and transport wing here.
|
|
|
Bomb scare on Amritsar Shatabdi New Delhi, May 7 The train had left Delhi at 7.40 am. At around 7.45 am, a call was made to the deputy station superintendent that a bomb has been placed in the train. The train was stopped at Narela and passengers deboarded, a Northern Railway spokesperson said. A team of the Delhi police and the Railway police conducted a thorough search of the train. — PTI
|
|
Book scribe’s boyfriend: Court
Koderma (Jharkhand), May 7 Taking cognisance of Subha Pathak's petition, Chief Judicial Magistrate N K Agarwal asked the police to file an FIR under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 420 against him.
— PTI |
||
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
New Delhi, May 7