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Cong forms 4-member panel to address Seemandhra issues
Government employees and other supporters of United Andhra Pradesh protest against the formation of Telangana in Hyderabad on Wednesday. — AFP Justice
Mehta refuses to take charge as Gujarat Lokayukta |
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Taiwan donates Rs 30 lakh to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund
Ambassador Tien Chung-Kwang (2nd R), Representative of the Taipei Economic
and Cultural Center in India presents a cheque for $50,000 to Editor-in-Chief of
The Tribune Raj Chengappa (3rd R) as contribution towards the Prime Minister’s
Relief Fund for Uttarakhand flood victims. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui
Chiranjeevi caught in Telangana crossfire
Training for forest officials upgraded
Portal to monitor trial court cases launched
Bird hit delays AI flight at Jaipur
India summons Lankan envoy over jailed fishermen
Railway launches pension scheme for CONCOR employees 13 FIRs in Coalgate, minister tells House Czech woman murdered in Goa Music director gets bail
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Cong forms 4-member panel to address Seemandhra issues
New Delhi, August 7 Making it clear there was no going back once a decision to form the new state had been taken and endorsed by the Congress Working Committee, the party’s apex decision-making body, the Congress high command announced the panel on a day when the Government introduced the crucial Food Security Bill 2013 in the Lok Sabha. The committee comprising Congress general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh, Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, would look into all “issues arising out of the decision to form Telangana.” It will finalise its views for submission to the Group of Ministers to be formed later to work out the transition to the formation of Telangana state. The timing of the announcement of the committee (alongside the introduction of Food Bill) reflects the urgency in the ruling Congress to see the Bill through. With the committee in place, the Congress leadership hopes the agitating MPs from Seemandhra regions (regions of Andhra Pradesh other than Telangana) who want a united Andhra, would not protest in the House, thereby blocking the crucial bill. Today, the Congress MPs from Seemandhra did not protest when Food Minister KV Thomas was introducing the Food Bill. Even in the morning, they were seen standing in their seats but they did not storm the well of the House as promised yesterday to Sonia Gandhi who had urged them to keep their calm during the introduction and discussions on the Food Bill. Meanwhile, 10 MPs from the Telangana region including MoS Road Transport and Highways Sarve Satya Narayan and Ponnam Prabhakar met Congress general secretary in charge of organisation Janardan Dwivedi, urging him to keep the CWC resolution on the formation of Telangana state intact. The meeting came in the wake of growing pressure from some Seemandhra MPs who want the CWC resolution withdrawn entirely. Most vocal in this category is Congress’ Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao. Congress spokesperson PC Chacko, while clarifying today that there was no going back on Telangana statehood, admitted that the Seemandhra Congress MPs were divided on the issue. The division is clear, with ministers from Seemandhra admitting they have no problems with the division of Andhra Pradesh, but wanted Hyderabad secured for both Telangana and residual Andhra. Another lobby led by KVPR Rao is against the division of Andhra.
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Justice Mehta refuses to take charge as Gujarat Lokayukta Ahmedabad, August 7 A retired judge of the Gujarat High Court, septuagenarian Justice Mehta, who returned here from his private visit to the United States yesterday, has written to the Governor with a copy to the Chief Justice of the High Court withdrawing his consent to take over as the Lokayukta because of the Narendra Modi government’s reluctance to accept him as the Lokayukta. In his seven-page letter, Mehta gave 23 reasons for declining to accept the offer to take over as the Lokayukta and said the current controversy over his appointment by the Governor and Chief Minister Modi dubbing him as “biased” and “anti-government” had “denigrated the office of the Lokayukta and it had lost all the grace and dignity”. He said in the prevailing circumstances, “I could not persuade myself to accept the office of the Lokayukta.” The appointment of Justice Mehta as the Lokayukta by the Governor on the recommendation of the then Chief Justice of the High Court with consent from the then leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly on August 25, 2011, sparked off a major standoff between Beniwal and Modi whose objections to accept Mehta as the Lokayukta were ignored by her. The Modi government not only contested the legality of Justice Mehta’s appointment, but also the Chief Minister made a public statement saying the Governor was a “stooge” of the Congress government at the Centre allowing Raj Bhavan to be converted into the Congress party office. Mehta could not take over the Lokayukta’s office as the Modi government first challenged the appointment in the High Court and on losing thereby, a majority verdict filed a special leave petition and then a review petition and lastly, a curative petition in the SC. But after spending over Rs 45 crore of the public funds to block Mehta’s entry in the office of the Lokayukta, the Modi government lost all the petitions in the apex court. Loaded letter
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Taiwan donates Rs 30 lakh to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund
New Delhi, Aug 7 “We strongly believe humanitarian assistance should cross the political boundaries and we are determined to continue to take this path and play as a responsible stakeholder in the international communities...Taiwan has always remained to be a dependable and countable friend with India and I sincerely hope that this heart-to-heart friendship will grow deeper in the future”, Ambassador Tien Chung-Kwang, Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, said here. Taiwan, he stressed, can easily associate with the Himalayan tsunami and share how the Indian people felt as “we ourselves had faced a similar disaster in 2009 when typhoon ‘Morokot’ caused havoc in our country leaving nearly 700 persons dead and destroying several villages.” The Government of Taiwan preferred to make the donation through The Tribune. Apart from making an appeal to raise funds, The Tribune had carried out a series of interviews from experts as how to help Uttarakhand get back on its feet, Editor-in-Chief Raj Chengappa said in his address to a select gathering at the center that included MPs Pradeep Tamta (Almora) and Vijay Bahadur Singh (Hamirpur). Tamta thanked both the Taiwanese Government for the act of magnanimity that reflects the warmth of the people there and The Tribune for working towards re-building Uttarakhand through its dedicated coverage on the challenges ahead hoping it would raise national awareness about the need to care of the Himalayas and ecology. Vijay Bahadur Singh was of the view that the Uttarakhand tragedy was a wake-up call to the country pointing out to the perils of ignoring and abusing environment and hoped that appropriate lessons are drawn from it.
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Chiranjeevi caught in Telangana crossfire
Hyderabad, August 7 The United Andhra Students’ Joint Action Committee has threatened to boycott the movies starring Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan Teja and younger brother Pawan Kalyan all over coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions since the actor-turned-politician was ineffective in bringing pressure on the Congress leadership to reverse its decision to create a separate Telangana state. The 58-year-old star is coming under increasing pressure to quit his post to express solidarity with the cause of united AP. The leader of the student JAC, Lagudu Govind, said, “We can’t remain silent spectators when the whole of Seemandhra is going up in flames following the Congress decision. And, Chiranjeevi has failed totally in projecting the sentiments and emotions of the people on the state’s division. He should resign from the Cabinet immediately to express his solidarity with the aspirations of the people in these two regions.” Stating that the JAC would intensify its agitation with a door-to-door campaign to urge people to join the movement for an integrated state, he said, “We will boycott films featuring Ram Charan Teja and Pawan Kalyan. We are warning distributors and exhibitors not to screen their movies. And if they still do, they will have to face dire consequences.” ‘Yevadu’ (who?) with Ram Charan Teja in the lead and ‘Attarintiki Daredhi’ (which way to go to in-laws’ house?) featuring Pawan Kalyan are scheduled to hit the screens later this week. Though opposed to the state’s division, Chiranjeevi has not been very vociferous in putting his viewpoint across to the party high command. He is said to be lobbying for making Hyderabad the permanent capital of Telangana and Seemandhra states. Despite his clean image and hugely successful road shows, Chiranjeevi, who acted in 149 films, failed to convert his star power into votes and his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) had virtually bombed at the electoral box office in the 2009 election, drawing a blank in the Lok Sabha while managing to win just 18 seats in the 294-member state Assembly. Since then, it has been a bumpy political journey for the megastar in the face of desertions and steady erosion of the support base.
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Training for forest officials upgraded
Chandigarh, August 7 The new policy, drawn up in consultations with experts engaged under the Japan International Cooperative Agency Project on Capacity Building, has been issued by the Ministry of Forests and Environment. The policy comes in the backdrop of the forestry sector facing a number of new challenges due to demographic pressure and the ever increasing demands of the society. Besides, other contemporary changes like rapid economic growth, devolution of funds, enhanced transparency, globalisation, climatic change and upsurge of extremism in different parts of the country have added complexities to the problems before the forest service, the policy document states. To cope with the situation, there is a special focus on the human resource development aspects at all levels, especially on the front line staff. Foresters and forest guards are at the cutting edge of the forestry hierarchy, who are in constant tough with the people whose needs are met from the forest and are also instrumental in the implementation of forest related rules, regulations, conservation and development activities. It had been observed that there was no uniformity in the rules for education standards for recruitment among states and union territories, which varied from intermediate to high school pass. The training duration for foresters varied from six months to a year, while the number of subjects covered varied from 10 to 18. For forest guards, the training duration varied from three to 11 months with the subjects covered varying from three to 10. In many states, a large number of personnel were not being imparted induction training even after completion of several years of service. The new policy has mandated a uniform duration of six months for the training of foresters and forest guards with the minimum educational qualification being class-12 pass with science in the case of foresters and class-10 pass for forest guards. The new course content would include 25 subjects to be covered. A detailed curriculum had been drafted. It would also give more weightage to practicals, field exercises and study tours to reflect the paradigm shift that has occurred in the forestry sector. There would be refresher courses every five years for foresters along with specialised short duration courses for those having specialised jobs. Every state would also be required to have a pool of master trainers and an ideal trainee-instructor ratio has been stipulated. Modern teaching methodologies and IT based training aids have also been recommended
New challenges
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Portal to monitor trial court cases launched
New Delhi, August 7 Any visitor to the website can access the status of the cases and the causelists of the district and taluk courts, besides judgments and orders. Initially, data about 10,000 courts would be made available. CJI Sathasivam said he had written to the Chief Justices of high courts asking them to send monthly reports on the status of cases involving aged persons, women and children. He said he had also asked the HCs to give priority to cases pending for more than five years. Law Minister Kapil Sibal said the initiative would bring in transparency in the interest of litigants, besides resulting in greater efficiency in the management of cases. He assured the judiciary that funds would not be a problem for initiatives that were part of creating a National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) for improving the justice delivery system. The portal represented the first phase of the NJDG.
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Bird hit delays AI flight at Jaipur
Jaipur/Ranchi, August 7 The plane landed safely on terminal 2 of the airport but its onward journey to Delhi was delayed by about 20 minutes, sources at the airport director's office told PTI. No damage was caused to the aircraft and all passengers were safe, they said, adding that 84 passengers left for Delhi after a thorough check-up and technical approval. The flight landed here around 10.35 am, and took off at 12.05 pm, about 20 minutes late, they said. Meanwhile, a single engine aircraft, planned to be used for flying over the Baidyanath Dham temple at Deogarh in Jharkhand, crashed at the airstrip today, with the pilot suffering minor injuries, a senior police officer said. "The plane which was on a trial flight following maintenance developed engine trouble shortly after take-off from the airstrip at Kunda and crash-landed," Deogarh Deputy Commissioner Rahul Purwar told PTI over the phone. The pilot, Captain SK Sinha, suffered minor cut injuries, he said. The aircraft was to be used for flying around the famous Baidyanath Dham temple during the month-long 'Sawani Mela'.
— PTI
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India summons Lankan envoy over jailed fishermen New Delhi, August 7 Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Joint Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry, summoned Lankan High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam to the foreign office to make a formal demarche against the custody of Indian fishermen, official sources said. In Colombo, the Indian High Commission too raised the matter formally with the Lankan Foreign Ministry. The Lankan envoy was told that the delay in the release of Indian fishermen not only deprived the fishermen of their livelihood but also caused anxiety to their family members. Currently there are 114 Indian fishermen and 21 fishing boats in Sri Lankan custody held over various periods of up to two months, the sources said. The Consulate General of India in Jaffna is in regular touch with the Indian fishermen who are in Sri Lankan custody and has been providing to them basic necessities and medical attention whenever required.
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The Congress today announced a four-member panel under Defence Minister AK Antony to address the concerns of
Seeman- dhra leaders following the party’s decision to form a separate Telangana state.
New Delhi, Aug 7
