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SC seeks details of religious sites damaged in Gujarat riots

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Gujarat government to file a survey report of the religious sites which were damaged and destroyed during the 2002 riots in the state.

A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra also asked the state government to quantify the amount needed for building and repairing those sites that were affected by the riots.

The court gave the directions on an appeal filed by the Gujarat government challenging a Gujarat High Court order directing it to pay compensation for damage and destruction of the religious sites.

At the very start of the proceedings, the Gujarat government said that the state exchequer could not be used for building and repairing religious sites.

The bench, however, said it would look into the issue whether public funds could be used for restoring the damaged sites.

“You compensate if a house is washed away in a flood or if it is damaged in an earthquake. Then why not in case of a religious place?” the bench asked.

The court directed the state government to file an affidavit with regard to the religious sites affected by the riots and posted the matter for further hearing on July 30.

On February 8, the Gujarat government was pulled up by the Gujarat High Court for “inaction and negligence” on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale damage or destruction of religious structures.

A high court division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala had ordered compensation for over 500 places of worships in the state on a plea by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG), an NGO.

The NGO had contended that 535 religious places were affected; out which 37 remain to be repaired.

Challenging the high court’s order, advocate Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government, contended that Sikh religious groups were also seeking compensation for damage to the religious places during 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The plea by IRCG in 2003 had sought the court’s direction to the government to pay compensation for damage to religious places during the riots on the ground that the National Human Rights Commission, too, had recommended it and the state government had in principle accepted the suggestion.

The high court had observed that inadequacy, inaction and negligence on the part of the state government to prevent the riots had resulted in religious structures being affected across the state.

It had said when the government could pay compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments then it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

If the structures have been already restored by now, the government should reimburse the amount spent on their restoration, the court had said. — PTI

AI plane with 122 passengers from Pakistan lands in Delhi

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/NEW DELHI: An Air India relief plane has landed at New Delhi airport with 122 passengers of another flight that made an emergency landing in Pakistan's southern Sindh province early on Monday morning after its alarm light started blipping.

The Air India Airbus A320 sent to pick up the stranded passengers took off from Nawabshah airport in Sindh shortly after 3pm, Pakistani officials said.

A team of engineers flew in on the relief aircraft to repair the Air India plane that made the emergency landing at Nawabshah airport at 3.37am. A team of technical experts from Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority assisting its Indian counterparts.

Earlier in the day, the captain of the Air India flight going from Abu Dhabi to New Delhi sought permission for an emergency landing after emergency light showed a problem with the hydraulic system while in Pakistani airspace.

The aircraft landed safely and the flight's 122 passengers and eight crew members were unharmed, civil aviation authority spokesman Pervez George said.

Though Pakistani authorities had offered to allow the passengers to disembark and use the Nawabshah airport's lounges, the captain preferred to have them remain on board, officials said. The captain asked for drinking water and this was supplied to the aircraft, they said.

Defence secretary Nargis Sethi had instructed Civil Aviation Authority chief Nadeem Khan Yousufzai to provide all possible facilities and assistance to the crew and passengers of the Air India plane at Nawabshah. — PTI 

BJP to field its own candidate for the post of Vice-President

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Monday it would field its own candidate for the post of Vice-President and would not support the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee. 

"It is natural that the BJP will itself fight the vice-presidential election. We will discuss it with our allies in NDA (National Democratic Alliance) and decide," BJP's national spokesperson and general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad said. 

Prasad, however, did not comment on who the candidate would be. Insiders said the party is yet to zero in on a candidate. 

The party is backing PA Sangma for the post of President against the UPA's Pranab Mukherjee. 

According to sources, the UPA might go with Vice-President Hamid Ansari for a second term. 

The Vice-President's poll, to be held on Aug 8, was notified on July 3. The last date for filing nominations is July 20. The date for scrutiny of nominations is July 21. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is July 23. 

The Vice-President is elected by the members of the electoral college consisting of members of both houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. 

The electoral college consists of 790 MPs - 233 elected members of the Rajya Sabha, 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha, 543 MPs of the Lok Sabha and two nominated members of the Lok Sabha. — PTI

Suu Kyi makes debut in Parliament

Naypyidaw (Myanmar): Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi made her historic parliamentary debut on Monday, marking a new phase in her near quarter century struggle to bring democracy to her army-dominated homeland.

Suu Kyi, whose unswerving campaigning saw her locked up for years by the former junta and earned her a Nobel Peace Prize, appeared calm as she arrived to take her seat as an elected politician for the first time in the capital Naypyidaw. I will try my best for the country," she told AFP.

The democracy champion's first taste of public office comes at an uncertain time for Myanmar after recent communal violence and a series of student arrests cast a shadow over promising changes in the former pariah state.

But it also comes amid expectations that several senior hardliners are to be replaced by reformists in an imminent cabinet reshuffle that would mark the first major change of personnel in the top echelons of government since it replaced junta rule last year.

Suu Kyi will join fellow members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), as both the party and its iconic leader transform from dissident outsiders to mainstream political players in the wake of landmark April by-elections.

The 67-year-old, one of the NLD's 37 Lower house members of parliament, postponed her debut in the fledgling legislature last week to recover from a gruelling European tour and visit her constituency.