|
|
|
|
|
Naval might reflects mounting geo-strategic challenges
Government has no data on migrant workers in the country
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ISI honey-traps Colonel in Dhaka, probe ordered
Naval
war room leak case
Russia regrets Gita row
No bail for Jerome in Neeraj Grover murder
Day 2 of fog: 75 flights hit at IGI Airport
Jaya opposes Food Security Bill
AFSPA extended in Assam for another year
Government accepts Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation after six years
Rs 300 cr seized in black money: Pranab
Pro-talks ULFA leader dead
Centre mulls scheme to support state archaeology depts Farmers dump potatoes on roads in Gujarat
|
|
Naval might reflects mounting geo-strategic challenges
December 20 India’s sea-based capability is being tested almost on a daily basis as it spreads a strategic footprint to match its rise in the global power-game. With the iconic Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel — the same one which was target of the attacks by Pakistan-backed terrorists during the November 2008 incident — forming the backdrop, President Pratibha Patil sailed in a ship INS Subhadra off the coast of Mumbai to carry out what is called a ‘Presidential fleet review’. The exercise has the President reviewing the sea-going fleet and the compliment of air-borne assets and this was the tenth in Independent India. Today, a flotilla of 81 Indian Navy and Coast Guard ships was lined up in neat rows out at sea for the President to review in the two-hour-long ceremony. The Navy’s air strike power was showcased as the newly acquired MiG 29 KUBs flew just 200 metre over the President’s reviewing ship. They were preceded by the sea harriers. The MiG 29s will be the deck-based fighters for the Admiral Gorshkov, a sea-borne aircraft carrier, that is slated for delivery from Russia in December 2012. At present, these aircraft are based on land in Goa. The sea harriers are deck-based on the INS Viraat, the lone aircraft carrier of the Navy. A total of 44 choppers, reconnaissance planes and fighters were on display. Patil, in her address, termed the Navy as “most capable in the region” and said it was “destined to grow even further”. The President went on to elucidate: “India has significant maritime interests.” Without naming China with which India has had a face-off over oil-exploration in the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam, Patil said, “The oil exploration activities off our coast and at sea are of significant economic importance. Protection of our offshore development areas is a major pre-requisite for our nation’s development”. The INS Airavat, which was involved in a duel with the Chinese, was on review today. The warships reviewed included India’s only aircraft carrier, the 30,000-tonne INS Viraat, besides the frontline destroyers along with the newly acquired stealth frigates. Another crucial component on display was landing ships which carry armed troops and combat vehicles to land them very close to shore without having the need to berth a jetty or dock. The Navy also showed how it manages its supply lines by using specialised ships for its missions, some of which are in faraway areas. Survey ships, fast attack crafts, missile corvetts, offshore patrol vessels, submarines and training ships came under the review. The President, who is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, was accompanied by Defence Minister AK Antony, Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, Army Chief Gen VK Singh and IAF chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne besides a host of Indian and foreign dignitaries. Among those invited was the Defence Attache of China, sources said.
|
|
Government has no data on migrant workers in the country
Government records further reveal a shocking trend - there is nil reporting of registered migrant worker employers and contractors from major migration hubs like Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi, UP, Gujarat, Uttrakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh and even MP. This means all migration happening in these states is in violation of the law passed 32 years ago to mandate the registration of principal employers and contractors of the migrant labour. The idea behind mandatory registration was to guarantee social benefits to vulnerable migrants. The Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, which stipulates compulsory licencing of contractors who arrange migrant workers, hasn’t been implemented in 32 years. These facts came to light recently when the government submitted to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour the statistics on the number of registered principal employers and contractors of migrant workers in the country. When the committee (looking at the government’s proposed amendment to the 1979 Act to make it gender neutral by replacing the word “workmen with “workers”) asked the Labour Ministry officers to furnish data on migrant workers in India, they said they had no data. “We must admit we don’t have that data as of now. We don’t know how many migrants annually move from one state to another. We are trying to find out,” the ministry told the panel. The data shows that in the entire country, there are only 240 registered employers and 285 licenced contractors of migrant workers. Punjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, New Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka have no registered employers or contractors.
|
||
|
ISI honey-traps Colonel in Dhaka, probe ordered
New Delhi, December 20 The officer has been recalled and a court of inquiry ordered, a senior functionary confirmed here tonight. The Lt Colonel was on a 10-month course at the Military Academy of Bangladesh and has been recalled midway and attached to a unit in Delhi till the probe is over. Officers of India and Bangladesh routinely undertake exchange visits for study purposes under a set programme involving the two countries. The case came to light when the officer from one of the infantry regiments himself told the Indian High Commission in Dhaka that he was being blackmailed by a person of the ISI. According to initial reports, the officer met the woman in question at a party in September. After a few weeks, he was reportedly confronted by a man who posed as an ISI agent and said he had tapes showing him (the Lt Col) with a woman. The agent reportedly offered the Indian Lt Col a way out and asked him to spy for Pakistan.
— TNS
|
||
|
Naval
war room leak case
“The district court in London has accepted the evidence presented by Indian authorities in connection with the extradition of an accused (Shankaran) in the Naval war room leak case which was investigated by the CBI," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement here today. The order passed yesterday ruled that there “is an admissible case” against 46-year-old Shankaran, kin of former Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash. The court has now fixed December 30 as the next date of hearing. Shankaran has been absconding since registration of the case by the CBI in March 2006. The agency revoked his passport on May 1, 2006, and later secured a Red Corner Notice against him after filing the charge sheet in July 2006. An extradition request was sent to the United Kingdom in 2007 after reports surfaced about his presence in that country. He was arrested by the UK authorities in April 2010 on the basis of the non-bailable warrants of arrest issued by the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi. “The attempts of the accused to cause doubts in the case were successfully refuted. The CBI team as well as forensic expert successfully clarified doubts raised by the defence about the electronic evidence during their deposition before the extradition court in the UK,” the spokesperson said. A retired Naval Commander, Shankaran, was accused of leaking sensitive classified information out of the Navy war room and passing them to arms dealers. The CBI had dispatched a two-member team to London to assist British law officers in the extradition trial. It also furnished a 50-page reply to objections raised by the defence on emails submitted as evidence in the court. Among other issues to be decided by the London court on December 30 will be the human rights issue and prison conditions in India as raked up by Shankaran in his plea. — PTI
|
||
|
Russia regrets Gita row
New Delhi, December 20 The Russian envoy’s reaction followed the uproar in both the houses of Parliament for the second successive day and the assurance given by the Minister for External Affairs, S.M. Krishna, that the attempt to ban the sacred text was ‘patently absurd’ and that India had taken it up at the highest quarters. Some people in the Siberian city had objected to certain parts in the Russian translation of the commentary on the Geeta by the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) , Prabhupada. The complainants demanded a ban on the book and claimed that it seemed to promote war and social discord. While it is far from clear whether the translation caused any misunderstanding, the controversy united all political parties in Parliament in condemning the development. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, asked the Government to declare the Bhagvad Geeta as a ‘National Book’. BJP’s Tarun Vijay rhetorically asked if the Sun could be banned, as the Gita was as unique and as towering as the Sun and the Himalayas. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had demanded that the text be made compulsory reading in all schools. While many of the MPs may or may not be reading the text themselves, the sacred verses, essentially a commentary by Lord Krishna to allay doubts of Arjuna voiced in the battlefield, have impressed and inspired people through the ages, including Mahatma Gandhi, Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung and Herman Hesse. Gandhi in fact wrote, “ When disappointment stares me in the face, and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagvad Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there, and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies...and my life has been full of tragedies. If they left no visible scar on me, I owe it all to the Gita...” Ironically, Nicholas Roerich, the Russian artist who chose to live and die in Himachal Pradesh, painted Lord Krishna and scenes of Mahabharata extensively and acknowledged his debt to the verses in the
Gita.
|
||
|
No bail for Jerome in Neeraj Grover murder
Mumbai, December 20 Rejecting the bail plea, the Bench expedited hearing of the appeals and posted it for hearing in February. The court had on the last hearing remarked that there was enough circumstantial evidence and that the trial court had gone on a wrong footing in the beginning itself by strongly relying on the retracted confession of co-accused Maria Susairaj. The trial court had acquitted both Jerome and his fiancée Susairaj on murder charges after observing that it was not a premeditated murder. Jerome was convicted for culpable homicide and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and Susairaj was convicted for destruction of evidence and sentenced to three years imprisonment.
— PTI
|
||
|
Day 2 of fog: 75 flights hit at IGI Airport
n
Rail services disrupted
New Delhi, December 20 Rail services were also disrupted with over 140 trains arriving “inordinately late” in the Capital and over 100 being either rescheduled or running several hours late. Biting cold and foggy conditions claimed 22 more lives taking the country-wide death toll this winter to 75 today. Authorities shut schools in Bihar and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh owing to unabated chill. Around four flights to Lucknow and Chandigarh were cancelled due to inclement weather conditions, while flights arriving here from other cities were also delayed, an airport official said. Due to the late arrival, many flights departing from here also got delayed, he said. A thick blanket of fog descended at the airport at around midnight, forcing airport authorities to implement low visibility procedures. The visibility improved between 4.30 am and 7.30 am but it suddenly dipped at around 8.30 am to 500 metres due to sudden formation of fog. The minimum was recorded at 4.8°C, more than three degrees below normal, the weather office said. This is the second time in the last four days that the minimum in Delhi has dipped below 5°C. The Met department has predicted dense fog for tomorrow morning and flight operations may also remain affected.
— PTI
|
||
|
Jaya opposes Food Security Bill
In a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she said the Centre "should not attempt or be seen to attempt encroaching into the domains of the states" and sought exemption of Tamil Nadu from the purview of the proposed measure.
Montek: Scrap oil subsidy to support Food Bill
Mumbai: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday said the government should end the oil subsidy to offset the additional subsidy burden arising out of the new Food Security Bill. "We have supported the Food Security Bill which will involve an extra cost of about Rs 21,000 crore annually. I think there are many wasteful expenditures. At the Planning Commission, our view is that it is not the food subsidy that should be reduced, but the petroleum subsidy which is dysfunctional and distorted," Ahluwalia said. "In a federal structure where the states are in close and direct contact with the people, the choice of designing and implementing popular welfare schemes is best left to states," Jayalalithaa said responding to the Centre seeking the state's views on the measure. Noting that the provisions of the bill contemplated achieving food security through Targeted Public Distribution System, the CM said "forced implementation of the TPDS" would entail an additional financial burden of about Rs 1,800 crore a year with no statutory commitment forthcoming from the Centre. "Like the BPL norms proposed by the Union Planning Commission, the categorisation of households and arbitrary restriction of coverage as contained in the Central Bill will lead to controversy and make a mockery of providing food security," she said. Jayalalithaa said the proposed classification of target groups into Priority House Holds (PHH) and General House Holds (GHH) for the purpose of delivery of food entitlements would "surely invite sharp criticisms and furious opposition from every body concerned".
— PTI
|
||
|
AFSPA extended in Assam for another year
Guwahati, December 20 AFSPA, whose continued enforcement in Northeast and J-K has become a matter of debate in the country, was first imposed in Assam in 1990 and since then it has been in force in the state through yearly extension. With the fresh extension, entire Assam has once again been declared a disturbed area despite CM Tarun Gogoi’s claims that the situation has come back to normal in the state in view of peace process going o with several insurgent groups, including a faction of the ULFA. The level of violence in Assam has come down by at least 50% this year after a number of militant outfits, including factions of the ULFA, NDFB, several tribal and Adivasi militant groups coming forward for negotiated settlement of the problem by giving up the path of violence. However, security agencies and state police force are apprehensive of Maoists trying to strike roots in the state while the hardliner faction of the ULFA is trying to set up coordination with Meitei insurgent groups such as PLA, PRE-PAK and UNLF from
Manipur.
|
||
|
Government accepts Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation after six years
New Delhi, December 20 The acceptance of resignation came 45 days after Kejriwal deposited over Rs 9 lakh as dues to settle the issue. "The government has finally accepted my resignation from the Income Tax Department. I received the letter today," Kejriwal said. He had quit the IRS in February 2006. Kejriwal, who was a Joint Commissioner in IT Department when he quit, had earlier said he would fight in court to retrieve the money he had paid as dues.
— PTI
|
||
|
Rs 300 cr seized in black money: Pranab
New Delhi, December 20 In reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the I-T Department had issued 2,190 warrants and seized assets worth
Rs 299.63 crore. The seizure included Rs 179.59 crore in cash, jewellery worth Rs 95.67 crore and other assets worth
Rs 24.36 crore, he said. During the 2010-11 fiscal, the I-T Department had seized assets worth Rs 774.98 crore by executing 4,852 warrants, Mukherjee said.
|
||
|
Pro-talks ULFA leader dead
Guwahati, December 20 Popularly known as ‘Mama’ among all
the ULFA members, he played a key role in facilitating dialogue with the government of India and the ULFA faction
led by ‘chairman’ Arabinda Rajkhowa. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi while condoling the death of the
ULFA leader said the political adviser of the outfit would be remembered for the positive role he had played in initiating the current peace process. A bachelor, the ULFA leader was the in-charge of ULFA’s general headquarters in Bhutan when
the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) steamrolled the ULFA base in December, 2003. He was arrested immediately after the Operation All Clear carried out by the RBA and handed over to the Indian Army. Since then he had been in jail for years till his release on bail earlier this year to facilitate his participation in the peace process. The hardliner faction of the ULFA led by the fugitive commander in
chief Paresh Barua has also condoled the death of Buragohain in an emailed statement.
|
|
Centre mulls scheme to support state archaeology depts New Delhi, December 20 Speaking at the 150th anniversary celebrations of Archaeological Survey of India, the Prime Minister said a significant part of heritage conservation was outside the purview of this body and had been entrusted to the state archaeology departments. “The state archaeology departments which are responsible for such monuments and sites need both professional and financial support. The Planning Commission has suggested a centrally sponsored scheme for this purpose. I would advise the Ministry of Culture and the ASI to finalise a scheme which entrusts greater responsibilities to state archaeology departments, universities and research institutes in the task of restoration and conservation of our vast heritage,” he said.
|
||
|
Farmers dump potatoes on roads in Gujarat Vadodara, December 20 "About 8,000 to 10,000 farmers took part in a huge protest rally organised in Deesa and threw potatoes, brought in about 100 tractors, on roads," Vinay Kumar Gordhan Padhiyar, President of potato farmers body Gujarat Batata Utpadak Khedut Sangathan Samiti told PTI on phone. Deesa, in north Gujarat, is a major potato producing area, where the crop's price has reportedly fallen to as low as Re 1 per kg.
— PTI
|
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
New Delhi, December 20
New Delhi, December 20
Chennai, December 20