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2G: RP Singh faces privilege motion
Clamour for reducing juvenile age grows
Mamata reprimands GJM supporters
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Akhilesh: Will free youth implicated in terror cases
Act fast on Verma panel report, PM urged
Karnataka Speaker accepts rebel MLAs’ resignations
Army hospitals still procure drugs shunned by controlling authority
‘Vishwaroopam’ released in K’taka
SRK triggers Indo-Pak war of words
Onion prices rise as supplies dry up
15 killed in Uttarkashi road mishap
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2G: RP Singh faces privilege motion
New Delhi, January 29 RP Singh, who came under fire from BJP members and the Left parties in the JPC meeting on telecom last Tuesday, was asked to re-appear before the panel today for another round of examination. Not satisfied with Singh’s response to the questions raised by members, Das Gupta said that he would be moving privilege motion against the former CAG official. Talking to The Tribune, Das Gupta said Singh has been misleading the JPC, holding back information and was not speaking the truth. “Besides he had made insinuations against Joshi, which were not correct. So I have decided to move a privilege motion against Singh,” Das Gupta said. RP Singh had questioned the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2G spectrum allocation scam as brought out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), prompting him to be recalled for questioning by the JPC. Deposing before the committee in November last year, Singh had said that "presumptive loss was not part of the accounting code which is accepted internationally." He later went public saying that CAG had gone ahead with the figures without consulting him and that the presumptive loss was not correct. Singh superannuated from service on August 31, 2011. As the former CAG official alleged that an officer prepared the 2G report and that he was offered foreign posting for it, Das Gupta and BJP members confronted him with the query as to why he did not attempt to meet the CAG if he did not agree with the loss estimates. Sources said Singh told JPC members that he did not get an appointment and had no access to the CAG. To this Das Gupta came out with an RTI reply which clarified that Singh had met the CAG first on May 24, 2011 and then again on September 20, 2011. JPC members, sources said, also sought to know from Singh why he had not put his loss estimates and dissent note, if any, on the CAG report. Singh apparently told the JPC had there was no practice in the CAG to quantify the loss or to write a dissent note. To this, he was again confronted by Das Gupta with a BSNL audit where Singh himself had quantified the loss to the public sector telecom operator. He was also shown a dissent note written by another senior CAG official in another case, to which Singh had no reply, sources said. JPC members sought to know from Singh as to why he did take advantage of the precedent to voice his opposition, if any at that time, against the loss figures as quantified by the CAG. The loss figure according to Singh’s estimates was Rs 2,645 crore, which he arrived at by adjusting Rs 1,658 crore entry fee fixed in 2001 for inflation.
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Clamour for reducing juvenile age grows
New Delhi, January 29 The Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, for instance, necessitates development of individual care plans for each child. “Our systems are not in place. We spend 0.05 per cent of the Central Budget on child protection. We pay zero attention to the component of strengthening families under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme. All we want is lowering the age of a juvenile. Is that any solution?” asks child rights activist Bharti Ali. Most civil rights activists say India has failed to develop systems that can respond to the needs of poverty-stricken communities and their children. In the instant case, the sixth accused, a juvenile, landed on streets at a time when he should have been in school and protected. “We must ask ourselves - why did this juvenile end up in a dhaba? Obviously, the state has failed to perform its duty,” says Rakesh Senger of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan. Psychotherapists, however, feel it would be wrong to let off a juvenile involved in a heinous crime. Dr Sameer Malhotra, a psychiatrist, says, “Cases must be valuated individually. This juvenile is aged 17 years and some months. We don’t expect any juvenile home to reform him in a few months. Letting him off on grounds that he is a juvenile would be gross miscarriage of justice given the brutality of his action. A deterrent is a must.” But the counter argument is: Can the law be changed for one individual? In India, for example, juvenile crimes make up only 1.1 per cent of all cases registered under the IPC in a given year. “The law cannot be changed for one case. The need of the hour is to build capacities of the juvenile justice sector and ensure every child in conflict with the law is reformed,” says former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Mukul
Mudgal.
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Mamata reprimands GJM supporters
Kolkata, Januarsy 29 Amidst slogan shouting and agitations by the GJM workers, the agitating chief minister warned them against disturbing the peace and progress in Darjeeling over the Gorkhaland issue. “Darjeeling is an integral part of Bengal and it will remain so in future”, the chief minister stressed, declaring that there would not be any further division of West Bengal. Interestingly, the GJM president Bimal Gurung, who was sharing the same dais with chief minister after skipping his scheduled visit to the Capital today for joining others in the dharna there in support of the demand for Gorkhaland, kept silent when his workers and supporters were raising angry slogans. When there were continuous demonstrations and slogan shouting all around, the angry the chief minister suddenly snatched the microphone from the announcer’s hand and asked the GJM workers not to raise any political slogans over the Gorkhaland issue. “This is an official meeting of the government where no such slogans will be allowed. These political slogans you can raise at your party meeting and not here”, she told the agitators. She advised them to devote themselves in rebuilding Darjeeling. She alleged despite the Centre's non-co-operation, the state government had been doing a lot for the development of the hills. Immediately after the meeting, the aggrieved chief minister declared her decision to immediately returning back to the plains at Siliguri by cancelling the rest of her programme in the hills. The TMC chief was to hold bilateral talks with the GJM president over the development works in the hills. She was also scheduled to inaugurate new water supply project and also lay the foundation of the power plant there in the afternoon.
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Akhilesh: Will free youth implicated in terror cases
Lucknow, January 29 He gave this assurance to CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and party central committee member Subhashini Ali who visited him at his 5 Kalidas Marg official residence here. Yadav pointed out that his party’s 2012 election manifesto had promised that Muslim youth who had been wrongly detained in the name of curbing terrorism would not only be released but would be given compensation and justice. The CPM leaders had furnished a memorandum listing names of nine young men who have been in jail for around nine years.
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Act fast on Verma panel report, PM urged
New Delhi, January 29 "Rape has been made a gender-specific crime, our longstanding demand of declaring marital rape illegal has been recognised and the category of aggravated forms of rape has been expanded to include assault by armed and paramilitary forces. We welcome the fact that the report recommends stalking, disrobing and voyeurism as IPC offences," the groups said. The groups, however, lamented that the report had not made any recommendations in respect of fast-tracking rape cases, review of dismal rehabilitation schemes for rape victims and non-inclusion of aggravated sexual assault against specific castes as a separate offence. "We petition the PM to take serious note of the recommendations and bring about simultaneous changes in law and governance so that the objective with which the committee was set up is fulfilled," they said.
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Tibetans ready for talks with China
New Delhi, January 29 Declaring at a press conference that Tibetan refugees across India would organise protests over the next four days to protest against the Chinese ‘repression’ in Tibet, he made it clear that Tibetans had no separatist designs and only desired ‘genuine autonomy’ for Tibet within China. Sangay recalled that the last round of talks between the Tibetans and the representative of the Chinese government were held in June 2012. Since then, there has been no meeting but the situation in Tibet had gone from bad to worse. “We are prepared to have dialogue with the Chinese representative anytime anywhere because we wish the issue to be resolved peacefully,” he added. The Tibetan leader was hopeful that the new leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) which would take charge of the government in March would have new perspective and show sincerity in resolving the Tibetan issue. ''We are looking forward to indications and policies of the new government.'' Sangay was critical of the policies being pursued by China in Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) which had frustrated the Tibetan. The Indian government and the international community should take note of the situation in Tibet and use their good offices with Bejing so that the issue could be settled. He claimed that as many as 99 Tibetans had attempted self-immolation in Tibet, resulting in the death of at least three of them. One person committed self-immolation in Tunisia and became the catalyst of the Arab spring. But nearly 100 self-immolations in Tibet had been ignored both by the media as well as the international community. Instead of addressing the issue, China, he said, had responded to self-immolations with more repressive measures and was indulging in blame-game. Sangay announced that the Tibetans-in-exile would hold a public gathering here tomorrow which would be addressed by senior BJP leader L K Advani, among others. On January 31, there would be an inter-faith peace march from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar. On February one, mass prayers and day-long fasts would be organised while there would be mass gatherings on the last day of protests.
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Karnataka Speaker accepts rebel MLAs’ resignations
Bangalore, January 29 Thirteen Yeddyurappa-loyalist BJP legislators of Karnataka gave their resignation letters to Bopaiah here earlier today but the Speaker refused to accept the resignations of all of them but one citing a complaint filed by two BJP legislators yesterday seeking disqualification of these one dozen MLAs on the ground of anti-party activities. Bopaiah said he would refer the matter to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha for guidance. In protest, the rebel MLAs, including woman legislator Shobha Karandlaje, arranged mattresses, blankets and pillows to be brought to the Assembly as they decided to hold a night long "dharna" in front of the Speaker's office. Under pressure, Bopaiah gave in and accepted the resignations of all 12 of them. As far as the relative strength of parties in the Assembly is concerned, resignations by the 13 MLAs will not reduce the government to a minority position immediately. In the 225-member Karnataka Assembly, where two seats are now vacant, the BJP and its supporters constitute an effective strength of 120 MLAs including the Speaker. The opposition Congress and JD(S) have 71 and 26 members each. One out of the seven Independent MLAs is also supporting the government. Congress, JD(S) and the Independent MLAs who are not supportiong the BJP, thus, add up to 103. To tilt the balance against the Jagadish Shettar-led government, concerted move by at least 18 MLAs is necessary. While Yeddyurappa has succeeded in getting 13 MLAs to quit their seats, he is still short of five MLAs. However, his supporters say that more MLAs will quit the Assembly in the coming days. Bopaiah had simply disappeared on January 23 when 13 pro-Yeddyurappa BJP MLAs first made an attempt to quit the Assembly.
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Army hospitals still procure drugs shunned by controlling authority
Chandigarh, January 29 A number of military hospitals continued to procure such drugs through local purchase even three years after an amended list of drugs was issued by the DGAFMS in 2009. Hospitals are holding such drugs worth lakhs of rupees. A drug review committee (DRC) at DGAFMS periodically reviews drugs in the priced vocabulary of medical stores (PVMS) list and marks out drugs that are to be deleted from the list. The amended list is then issued to the medical heads of the three services for implementation. Several factors govern the deletion of drugs from the PVMS list, which include drugs no longer being in vogue, drugs becoming obsolete due to serious or life threatening side-effects, or the introduction of new drugs. The last DRC was held in September 2008 and the amended list issued was in June 2009. According to available information, Command Hospital, Chandimandir, procured ‘deleted’ drugs worth about Rs 18.66 lakh, while Army Hospital (Research and Referral) at New Delhi, the force’s most prestigious and advanced medicare institute, spent over Rs 9 lakh on such purchases. Base Hospital, Delhi, spent Rs 2.5 lakh. Procurements by other hospitals across the country also run into several lakh rupees each. This revealed that the process adopted by the DGAFMS to cut procurement of drugs that it no longer found suitable to meet its requirements was not being strictly implemented, thereby affecting the established system to achieve better patient care. The DGAFMS controls 133 military hospitals and 90 field hospitals in addition to medical stores depots. These are authorised to make local purchases of drugs, kits and consumables as authorised for their hierarchical level. Hospitals on their part have contended that though the said drugs may have been deleted from the PVMS list, they were not banned for use by the Drug Controller of India and their procurement was made as per requirement or demands raised by hospitals wards. Authorities at some hospitals have decided to gradually stop the use of ‘deleted’ medicines in a phased manner. ‘Deleted’ drugs procured by: Command Hospital, Chandimandir: Erythroprotein, Norfloxacine, Amikacin Sulphate, Salbutamol Army Research and Referral Hospital, Delhi: Secnidozole, Thalidomide, Glutamide, Lignocaine Base Hospital, Delhi: Doxazocin, Thalidomide, Ketoanlogue, Betalistidine
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‘Vishwaroopam’ released in K’taka
Bangalore, January 29 “Vishwaroopam has been released in 40 theatres across the state, including 17 in Bangalore from the matinee show today. All 17 theatres screening the film are already going housefull,” sole distributor of the film in Karnataka, H D Gangaraju told PTI. He said the state police had assured it would provide security for peaceful screening of the film. “Acceding to the request of a delegation of Muslim leaders who met City Police Commissioner Jyothiprakash Mirji and appealed that a line stating ‘all Muslims are not terrorists’ be inserted in the film, I have decided to insert the line in the credits as it cannot be inserted in the film since it is a digital production,” Gangaraju said. Mirji who viewed the film on Jan 27, the day it was to be released in Karnataka, felt there was nothing objectionable in it, Gangaraju claimed. The film, facing a two week-ban in Tamil Nadu due to its alleged anti-Muslim content, hit screens worldwide on Jan 25 but its release was deferred in Karnataka following a police suggestion in view of “Milad-un-Nabi” and Republic Day and later in the wake of a group clash in Bhadravathi on Jan 26 over screening of the film. — PTI
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SRK triggers Indo-Pak war of words
New Delhi, January 29 He was reacting to a suggestion made by Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik who said: "He (Shah Rukh) is born Indian and he would like to remain Indian, but I will request the government of India (to) please provide him security. I would like to request all Indian brothers and sisters and all those who are talking in a negative way about Shah Rukh, they should know he is a movie star". Malik made the remarks while interacting with reporters at a reception organised by High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal to mark India's Republic Day in Islamabad. Shah Rukh Khan in an article in an Indian Magazine on being a Muslim in the post 9/11 scenario titled 'Being a Khan' said: "I sometimes become the inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India. There have been occasions when I have been accused of bearing allegiance to our neighbouring nation than my own country, this even though I am an Indian whose father fought for the freedom of India. Rallies have been held where leaders have exhorted me to leave my home and return to what they refer to as my original homeland." "I have felt this love for the last 20 years regardless of the fact that my community is a minority within the population of India…I have been showered with love across national and cultural boundaries."
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Onion prices rise as supplies dry up
Mumbai, January 29 Wholesalers at Lasalgaon and Pimpalgao wholesale markets near Nashik which account for the bulk of onion supplies in the country say supplies are drying up due to water shortage in the producing regions. “Onion prices touched Rs 1,800 per quintal on Monday,” says Pandurang Damle, an onion dealer from Lasalgaon. “There are fewer trucks coming in as water shortage earlier in the year damaged the crop,” Damle said. Onion arrivals have fallen from 20,000 quintals per day to 10,000 quintals per day in the past few days at the Lasalgaon market. Prices at the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee market at Navi Mumbai, which supplies onion to Mumbai and its suburbs also at the same level, though wholesalers say the quality of onions coming in have deteriorated. “A lot of wet onions are coming into the market as farmers are harvesting early to take advantage of higher prices. The quality is poor and the onions have to be consumed immediately,” says Rajendra Gupta, an onion dealer. According to traders, onion prices have shot by as much as 40 per cent in the past few weeks and could go higher if supplies do not come in. The increase in price of onions come at a time when India has increase exports of the bulb in the past few weeks. According to information available from the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) onion exports have gone up 17 per cent in the first nine months of the current financial year to 12.95 lakh tonnes. According to the body, exports are expected to decline as rising prices in the domestic markets render exports unviable. State government sources say they are keeping an eye on prices and should the prices remain high after February, the central government may clamp down on exports. India exports onions to the Middle East apart from traditional importers like Indonesia and Malaysia.
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15 killed in Uttarkashi road mishap
Dehradun, January 29 According to Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre sources, a Max jeep, on way to Natwar from Jakholi, fell into a gorge near Mori in Uttarkashi district of the state this afternoon, resulting in the death of 15 persons. The police along with disaster management authorities have launched relief and rescue operations. The injured have been rushed to the local hospital. The ill-fated jeep is stated to be overloaded.
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After the Juvenile Justice Board declared that the sixth accused in the brutal December 16, 2012, gang rape is a juvenile, clamour seeking reduction in the legal age for juvenile delinquents from 18 to 16 years has gone shriller.
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supporters, demanding a separate Gorkhaland during meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, were today severely reprimanded by her.
Public opinion overwhelmingly favours reduction in age although the Justice JS Verma Committee that studied the issue ruled against it saying such a move won’t help at a time when mandated juvenile justice reform structures had failed to deliver the goods.
Union Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh today sternly asked Pakistan to mind its own people and business, saying: "We are capable of looking after our own citizen, let him (Rehman Malik) worry about the security of his country's citizens".