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In a hurry to pass Bills, govt forgets to move amendments to one
Let House panel probe farmer suicides: Pawar
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Food Bill to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow
Goa martyrs from Punjab forgotten
Swamy-led Janata Party may join NDA
Infant dies after drunk staff removes oxygen mask
Prasar Bharti overpaid BCCI
Rs 4 cr in 2005
EC tells I-T Dept to report cash movement
through airports
6 LeT men get life term for Bangalore terror attack
Cops on the prowl as rave party networks move online
Raja hatched 2G conspiracy: Ex-aide Cong MLA held in Bhanwari case
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In a hurry to pass Bills, govt forgets to move amendments to one
New Delhi, December 19 The issue came to light at 2 pm when the House reconvened after an adjournment that happened during the Zero Hour on the issue of disrespect being shown to the Bhagwad Gita in Russia, where the holy Hindu scripture is facing the prospect of a legal ban. When the House reassembled, members of the BJD, BJP, JDU and Shiv Sena were still on their feet and so were those from the BSP, SP and Rashtriya Janata Dal, demanding assurance from the Government that the matter would be resolved. As order eluded the proceedings, Deputy Speaker called Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily to move three related Bills that seek to enhance the scope of limited liability partnership for firms and their partners. The minister together moved three Bills which were passed in a matter of seconds. These included the Chartered Accountants Amendment Bill 2011, the Cost and Works Accountants Amendment Bill 2011 and the Companies Secretaries Amendment Bill 2011. In the second Bill — the Cost and Works Accountants Amendment Bill — the minister forgot to move three amendments that sought to replace crucial phrases in the old Bill. For instance, the old Bill referred to the “Associate of Institute of Cost and Management Accountants” which was to be replaced with a new phrase “Associate of Institute of Costs and Accountants” in the amendment Bill. Similar amendments (for correction of terminology) required at two other places in the amended Bill were not moved by Moily, even though the Rajya Sabha had adopted and passed these earlier. “The Government has actually passed the old Bill and not the amended one. This is a major error. They are now saying it was a typographical mistake and they will make corrections tomorrow. But this is an issue of propriety. How can a minister not check the draft of the amendment Bill which he is moving?” asked Harin Pathak, a BJP member. He later raised the matter with Moily and Law Minister Salman Khursheed, who assured corrective action. Within five minutes today, the Government passed four Bills without any debate. The fourth was the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill 2011, which was moved by Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj Minister KC Deo to modify the list of STs in Arunachal and
Manipur.
Let House panel probe farmer suicides: Pawar
New Delhi, December 19 The Centre depended heavily on the contribution made by these states in meeting the country’s agricultural needs, he told S S Dhindsa (Akali Dal) in the Rajya Sabha while replying to a short-duration discussion on the situation arising from the agrarian crisis resulting in suicides by the farmers. The continuous cultivation of wheat and rice in these states had put undue pressure on the agriculture land there, he observed. In his hour-long reply, Pawar touched upon various issues concerning the agriculture sector and favoured setting up of a Parliamentary committee to go into the issue of farmers’ suicides in the wake of contradictory figures being given by the states and the National Crime Records Bureau. “Let us appoint a House Committee with members from both the Houses. They can go to the states to look into the issues of suicides by the farmers,’’ he said. The issue had generated heat in the House during Zero Hour also when the Opposition demanded all ministers connected with farming sector should be present in the House to respond to their queries keeping in view gravity of the matter. When the House reassembled after lunch, not only Pawar but three of his Cabinet colleagues were also seated on treasury benches. They were Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. Meanwhile, Pawar told Rajya Sabha today that the Centre is ready to support states that want to export perishable items like potato. He said during Question Hour that the Centre is implementing market intervention scheme on the request of states for procurement of agriculture and horticulture commodities that are generally perishable and not covered under price support scheme.
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Food Bill to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow
New Delhi, December 19 The populist Act, which will provide subsidised food grains to 75% of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban households, also lacks approval of activist groups like Right to Food, who are demanding a universal roll out of the scheme than a targeted one. Leading agro-scientist MS Swaminathan, however, calls the Bill “a great transformation of Indian democracy from political patronage to the Rights approach”. “Food as a right is the biggest triumph for the democracy after the right to information, education and work,” he said. The only word of caution he offered was that “the Bill should be drawn in such a way that it is implementable, affordable and sustainable”. Farmers, in the meantime, want the Government to assure “security” for growers before the Bill becomes a law. “The food security of the country will depend on the security of the farmers and not just by bringing the food security Act. Procurement from local farmers should be the main emphasis of this Act,” the Bharatiya Kisan Union today said. Threatening a rail roko on January 5, 2012, farmers are demanding a fair minimum price for agricultural produce and guaranteed procurement and “blocking of all ongoing land acquisitions until a just land law is passed”. Meanwhile, the Government today said of the Rs 60,572 crore food subsidy budget for the current fiscal, it has already released Rs 45,125 crore towards it by December 15.
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Goa martyrs from Punjab forgotten
Chandigarh, December 19 Maj Sidhu, who hailed from Sidhwan village near Ludhiana, was a veteran of the 1948 Kashmir operations against Pakistan and was among those who had created a record in military history by driving tanks up to the 11,500-feet-high snow-capped Zoji La, an unparalleled feat that helped India wrest control of the strategically critical pass from Pakistani raiders, thereby nixing their plans to occupy Ladakh. Maj Sidhu was mentioned in despatches for gallantry. Earlier, in 1945, after the Second War ended, he was part of the team that was sent to Japan to bring home Indian prisoners of war. He was 35 when he died, leaving behind his wife and three daughters. His sons-in-law are military officers, with one retiring as a wing commander in IAF and two reaching the rank of Lieutenant General. His grandson has joined the army too, keeping alive the family tradition. While Punjab government has named a street in Ludhiana after him, many veterans feel sacrifices of both martyrs deserve better recognition and a memorial should be erected in their honour. Capt Sehgal, who sacrificed his life while being a bachelor in his early twenties, is reported to have studied in Ludhiana. Some Armoured Corps officers say that he belonged to Ludhiana. His brother is believed to be a resident of Chandigarh, but his name does not figure in the list of martyrs of Chandigarh or Ludhiana. Code named Operation Vijay, the ground war to liberate Goa was fought by 17 Infantry Division along with 50 Independent Para Brigade under the command of Maj Gen KP Candeth, who was later the Western Army Commander during the 1971 Indo-Pak war. The para brigade, which spearheaded the main thrust into Panjim, was led by Brig Sagat Singh.
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Swamy-led Janata Party may join NDA
New Delhi, December 19 “I am open to the idea. There is no ideological clash between my party and the BJP. I think the move would help consolidation of patriotic votes. We have no problems with the NDA,” Swamy said. He was reacting to reports that the BJP has been mulling his party’s induction into the NDA. Swamy, however, said no decision has been taken in this regard and that the question whether the Janata Party will be part of the NDA should be posed to BJP chief Nitin Gadkari. He said most of the leaders in the BJP were known to him and that he would welcome any move to make his party a part of the NDA. The Janata Party was part of the NDA in 1998. —
PTI
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Infant dies after drunk staff removes oxygen mask
Kolkata, December 19
The infant's neighbours and relatives, who demonstrated outside the hospital, also claimed that the local police refused to accept their complaint. However, they have registered their complaint with the hospital authorities.
"The oxygen mask was withdrawn by a sub-staff who was drunk and this has resulted in death of the child," the victim's family member said in the complaint. —
PTI
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Prasar Bharti overpaid BCCI
Rs 4 cr in 2005
New Delhi, December 19 Years later, when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asks the Prasar Bharti to explain the basis on which it arrived at the figure of Rs 7.5 crore to be paid to the BCCI for each ODI match played in 2005, its officials say the records are not traceable in the department. This shocking detail of missing files stands recorded in the latest report of the PAC tabled in Parliament today. The committee, while noting with serious concern that the Prasar Bharti failed to protect the Government’s interests in its agreement with the BCCI and overpaid the board, adds, “The issue of missing files is a matter of far graver concern. Evidently, there is something rotten in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.” The report titled “Negligent scrutiny of claims leading to excess payment by the I&B Ministry” decries the plea of the Government that the records, which detailed the process involved in fixing the rate of Rs 7.5 crore per match for the BCCI, have gone missing. “The responsibility for untraceable records must be fixed and efforts made to reconstruct the Government records. The plea of missing files is outrageous,” the PAC, headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, says. The committee said the agreement was not even vetted by legal experts and its erroneous drafting cost the Government hugely. It has now asked the ministry to recover the loss and initiate penal action against officers responsible for drafting the agreement. On the payment of excess money, the committee notes that the I&B Ministry lost Rs 3.39 crore due to an erroneous agreement the Prasar Bharti signed with the BCCI on November 30, 2005 for the telecast of 12 one-day matches between October and November that year.
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EC tells I-T Dept to report cash movement
through airports
New Delhi, December 19 The EC has asked the IT Department to establish Air Intelligence Units (AIUs) at all major airports in the poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa, while similar units at major airports like Delhi and Mumbai have been asked to keep a strict vigil on cash movement to these states. "The EC has asked us to report to them all cash movement, even if it is legal and accounted. The cash can be let off if it is legal, but it is mandatory to report the incident," a senior IT officer said. —
PTI
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6 LeT men get life term for Bangalore terror attack
Bangalore, December 19 Second Fast Track Court judge S G Revankar pronounced the quantum of punishment after convicting them under Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the Government of India) and Section 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. On Saturday last, the court had convicted self-styled south Indian commander of LeT Mohammad Razur Rehman, Afsar Pasha, Mehboob Ibrahim Sab Chopdar, Noorulla Khan, Mohammad Irfan and Nazimuddin alias Munna. Their LeT links came to light during investigation into the 2005 attack on Indian Institute of Science here, in which a retired Professor of Delhi IIT, M C Puri was killed and four others injured when militants opened fire at delegates emerging out of an international conference. Cases of sedition, terrorism and religious disharmony among others had been filed against the accused. Giving details about the investigation by a six-member squad, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sunil Kumar told reporters that on January 1, 2006, Razur was arrested at Nalagonda in Andhra Pradesh while coming out of a mosque which subsequently led to the arrest of the others. During questioning, it was found they had played no role in the IISC attack, but had stored explosives for terror attacks. The police had recovered from them hand grenades, gelatine sticks, fusewires, explosive powder and tiffin carrier bombs as also Jehadi literature and other material written by extremists like Pakistan based militant leader Masood Azhar. —
PTI
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Cops on the prowl as rave party networks move online
Mumbai, December 19 According to the police, invitations to rave parties being organised at farmhouses outside cities like Mumbai and Pune are being circulated on the social networking sites like Facebook, Google Plus and Orkut. "Regulars at rave parties have their own networks on Facebook and Orkut and share information about party venues," says a police officer from the anti-narcotics cell of the Mumbai police. The parties themselves are organised by event managers who specialise in such dos and feature DJs from abroad, says the officer. Invitation to these parties cost about Rs 2,000 per head, but the organisers earn from selling drugs and liquor at inflated prices, says the officer. Officers from the cybercrime cell, who are working with the anti-narcotics cell in busting rave parties, say modern technology like messengers on Blackberry Phones are used to circulate party invites. "After several parties were busted by the police, only trusted people are invited via Facebook," says an officer of the cybercrime cell of the police. Young, tech-savvy police officers who have been attached to the cybercrime cell say they have gone ahead and created online profiles on Facebook, Google Plus and Orkut with fake identities. "It takes a long time to break into these circles," says an officer of the cybercrime cell of the Mumbai police. Such in-depth networking by the cybercrime cell resulted in sleuths busting a rave party at Khalapur in Navi Mumbai in June last year.
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Raja hatched 2G conspiracy: Ex-aide New Delhi, December 19 Achary, a key CBI witness in the 2G case, while deposing before Special Judge OP Saini said Raja's party colleague and MP Kanimozhi was also part of the conspiracy. They were close to each other and met each other regularly, he said. He said Unitech's Sanjay Chandra, DB Group's Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka used to meet Raja, when he was Environment and Forests Minister, in connection with clearance required for their real estate projects. People connected with Swan Telecom also met the ex-minister, Achary added. — IANS
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Cong MLA held in Bhanwari case Jodhpur, December 19 The CBI has been questioning his family members for last few days as Vishnoi representing Luni constituency in the Rajasthan Assembly, was evading repeated summons issued by the agency for questioning. The MLA, who appeared at the Circuit House here, this evening was subjected to questioning but he remained uncooperative prompting the sleuths to arrest him, CBI sources said.The CBI earlier in the day called Malkhan's three sons and two daughters-in-law at the Circuit House and grilled them to know whereabouts of the MLA. — PTI
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Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today hailed the contribution made by farmers of Punjab and Haryana in resolving the problem of food security, adding that the two northern states would play a key role in success of ‘Second Green Revolution’ in the country. 
The Government will table the much-anticipated food Bill on Wednesday. Guaranteeing cheap food for the country’s masses, the Bill, however, does not find much favour among hardcore economists. They term the populist effort a wrong economic move which will only add to the Government’s financial burden.
The two officers were killed on the night of December 18 when Portuguese guards fired on an unsuspecting Indian unit controlling prisoners in Aguada Fort. They were among the 22 Indian soldiers killed in the operation. Both were from 7 Cavalry, an illustrious armoured regiment that traces its history back to 1784.