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Tuesday,
May 6, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Centre duty-bound on
SYL: Haryana
VHP, NCM iron out differences |
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Power Bill gets House nod NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT VAT in MP from June 1 |
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DDA scam: interim bail for ex-judge
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Centre duty-bound on
SYL: Haryana New Delhi, May 5 “The Centre has to come up with a plan for completion of the project as Punjab is out of it as it has expressed its inability to go ahead,” senior advocate, Vinod
Bobde, appearing for the Haryana Government along with state’s Advocate General Surya Kant Sharma, submitted before a Bench comprising Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar. The court was hearing an application by Haryana, seeking enforcement of the apex court ruling of January 15, 2002, directing Punjab to complete the SYL project to ensure supply of the water from the Sutlej river to Haryana. The court, after brief proceedings, said it would take up the matter for hearing on July 14 after the summer vacation. Meanwhile, the Centre, in reply to the application of the Haryana Government, submitted that the direction of the apex court “is not capable of being implemented within a short period rather it is a lengthy affair which involves due planning and execution in a phased manner and different stages.” The Centre was trying to get the cooperation from the Punjab Government, and it was a “time-consuming process”, the affidavit said. Haryana has said that since Punjab has filed a suit in the apex court seeking to ‘discharge’ it from the obligation of implementation of the order, the Centre is constitutionally bound to complete the project. The Centre, however, said despite Punjab filing a suit for “absolving” it from the responsibility, “the order of the court is binding on all parties.” “Therefore, it was imperative that a contingency plan be worked out with a clearly spelt-out timeframes as well as responsibilities of various agencies in executing the work in compliance of the order,” the Centre said, assuring the court that it would “necessarily involve the Punjab Government” in the execution of the project. The Union Minister of Water Resources held a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister on December 19, 2002, in which it was “emphasised” that irrespective of the problem highlighted by the Chief Minister, “the immediate necessity is to take steps to implement the (apex court) judgement of January 15, 2002.” Since the stand of the Punjab Chief Minister during the meeting “has not changed, the respondent (Centre) is taking steps to chalk out contingency plan,” it said. Punjab, in its suit, has submitted that the Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal accord of 1985, which provides for construction of the SYL canal, could not be constitutionally enforced as 10 other issues included in the agreement, has not yet been implemented. It has also stated that after reduction of the availability of water in rivers in Punjab from 17.17 MAF to 14.34 MAF due to change in climatic conditions and Haryana getting additional 4.65 MAF water from the Yamuna system and being promised 1.62 MAF from Shar-Yamuna Link, Punjab would have no obligation to supply any water to Haryana. |
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VHP, NCM iron out differences New Delhi, May 5 The NCM, on its part, has taken cognisance of their objection to words as ‘kafir’, ‘jehad’ and ‘Dar-ul-Islam’ and said that it would look into use of such words after consulting its Vice-Chairman M.S. Usmani and member Ahmed Rashid Sherwani. The VHP leaders pointed out that leaders of the minority community should refrain from using such words as it strained relations between the minority and majority communities. They further demanded that leaders of the minority community condemned all terrorist attacks in the country. The vice-president of the VHP, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, international general secretary, Dr Praveen Togadia and national secretary, Mr Surinder Jain, are understood to have urged the commission to check the syllabus prescribed in ‘madrasas’. Relying on NCM’s assurance that the madrasas are being modernised, the leaders said they had no objection to the functioning of ‘madrasas’ provided their syllabus was checked from time to time. They have urged the commission to ensure that nothing anti-national or anti-religious is allowed to be taught at the madrasas. The NCM Chairman asked the VHP leaders to bring to the commission’s notice any objectionable references in the syllabus. He told TNS that he had asked representatives of madrasas to send copies of their syllabus to the commission and modernise the madrasas as mere religious education would not help their children compete for good career and jobs later.  |
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Phone call stuns Fernandes
New Delhi, May 5 |
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Power Bill gets House nod New Delhi, May 5 The Bill which will pave the way for major reforms in the power sector was passed by the Lok Sabha on April 9. The Rajya Sabha gave its approval to the Bill by a voice vote after the Congress had withdrawn its amendments. Left party members, however, staged a walkout after all 108 amendments moved by the CPM member Jibon Roy had been negated. On three occasions, Mr Roy pressed for divisions which were defeated. Congress members withdrew their amendments after Power Minister Anant Geethe urged the House that he would bring a comprehensive Bill in the next session to incorporate remaining unanimous recommendations of the committee. He said the Bill that would provide open access to private players in distribution and transmission of power in the country had incorporated 80 per cent of the recommendations. Terming the voluminous Bill as “revolutionary”, Mr Geethe said it was an attempt to consolidate laws on generation, transmission and distribution of power as also rationalisation of tarriff. Mr Geethe allayed fears that the Bill would encourage large-scale privatisation and retrenchment of state electricity board employees. On the contrary, the Bill would provide more jobs with many private players entering the power sector, he said. With the passage of the Bill the government would be able to move forward to realise the goal of adding one lakh megawatts of power generation capacity by 2012 besides providing electricity to all villages by 2007 and all dwelling units by 2012. Mr Geethe said the Bill originally brought to Parliament as early as 2000 was referred to the committee in 2001. After 16 months, the committee gave its report and the Bill was re-introduced in the Budget session of Parliament incorporating 89 of 112 unanimous recommendations. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, May 5 The minister said no such losses have, however, been reported from other parts of North India. In Hoshiarpur, a total of 475 hectares of mango cultivation has suffered a loss of as high as 80 per cent, 160 hectares have suffered a loss of 60 per cent while 64 hectares have reported a loss of 40 per cent, the minister informed the House. The Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mr Dilip Singh Ju Dev, told the Lok Sabha that forest officers of the Takhni-Rehampur sanctuary had not killed sambhars or salgars for their own consumption. However, carcasses of Sambar and Salgar were found in the sanctuary, in Hoshiarpur. After a preliminary inquiry, the Inspector-in-charge of the sanctuary has been suspended for dereliction of duty, he added. The minister said the government had taken various steps to ensure protection of wildlife in the country. The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, had been amended providing for more stringent punishment in wildlife-related offences. The CBI has been empowered under the Act to apprehend and prosecute offenders, the minister said. A comprehensive programme had been initiated to rehabilitate Kashmiri shatoosh artisans to wean them away from shahtoosh-based trade, he added. |
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Dalit killings: ruckus in LS New Delhi, May 5 Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi said the matter was extremely serious since that was the second instance of Dalits being killed within a short span of time in Haryana. Question hour was disrupted for more than 20 minutes. Opposition members stalled the proceedings, demanding suspension of question hour and an adjournment motion on the killing of Dalits near Delhi in Haryana. Besides, they raised the issues of looting and illegal occupancy of the Samajwadi Party office properties despite a stay order from the High Court in Uttar Pradesh and killing of innocent people in Kerala. Speaker Manohar Joshi who rejected all notices for adjournment motions and suspension of the question hour was, however, forced to allow them to air their grievances when the members from the Congress, the CPI, the RPI and the SP entered the well and started raising slogans.
UNI |
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VAT in MP from June 1 Bhopal, May 5 The Chief Secretary, Mr A.V. Singh, made it clear to the officers of the Commercial Taxes Department, at a meeting he had convened on Saturday evening, to review the preparations for the changeover. Mr Singh further impressed upon the officers that Madhya Pradesh would implement VAT from next month, even if the other states deferred the decision and the Centre backed out of its commitment to compensate the state. The Principal Secretary, Commercial Taxes, Ms Sushma Nath, informed the meeting that discussions with the trading community as well as organisations of traders and representatives of the processing industries had been going on for long about implementation of VAT. She said that the VAT system had been “demystified, simplified and liberalised for them”. The Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh, had on Friday criticised the Union Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, for “dilly-dallying” on the introduction of VAT after “pressurising” the state for implementing it. Speaking after the launch of computerisation of commercial tax offices at Indore, he said that under pressure from the Central Government, he had persuaded the businessmen in the state to adopt VAT and made several concessions in the tax structure. |
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LS adjourned for lack of quorum New Delhi, May 5 As the House took up half-an-hour discussion on illegal immigrants, Mr A.C. Jose (Congress) raised the quorum issue. Despite ringing of the quorum bell, the House failed to muster the requisite number forcing Mr P.H. Pandian, who was in the chair, to adjourn the House for the day.
PTI |
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DDA scam: interim bail for ex-judge New Delhi, May 5 While granting him interim bail on the ground of ill health of his wife and mother, Mr Justice R.C. Chopra said it would be effective from May 7 when his CBI remand came to an end. The High Court, however, refused to grant him regular bail at this stage. A lower court had remanded him in seven-day CBI custody on May 1 to facilitate his further interrogation by the agency. Mr Mukherjee would be released on 30 days’ interim bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 5,000 and a surety of the like amount. |
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