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Monday,
July 28, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Arunachal govt in crises as MLAs defect Fate of
Bathinda refinery hangs in balance Dying
declaration can be sole basis for conviction, rules SC Need for
law on AIDS stressed Crop
maintenance concerns PM
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News Analysis Madhumita
case: SP reinstated Mallya, Sanjay Khan survive copter crash Powermen
cut supply, relent Paramhans
has liver cancer
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Arunachal govt in crises as MLAs defect
Guwahati, July 27 According to Mr Apang, 39 of the 59-member Congress MLAs detected to form a new party, the Congress (D), which is supporting him to form a new government under the banner of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The Congress has 59 members in the 60-member House with Mr Gegong Apang as the lone opposition MLA. Mr Apang ruled the state as Chief Minister for 15 uninterrupted years before he was ousted by the Mr Mukut Mithi. The mass desertion started at a time when Chief Minister Mukut Mithi was away in Delhi. The defected MLAs are in touch with Mr Apang. Of the defected MLAs, 18 are ministers. The political coup took everybody by surprise. A Congress dissident MLA, Mr Lowancha
Wanglat, claimed that at a Congress dissidents’ meeting held here today, the dissidents had formed Congress (D) with 39
legislators breaking away from the Congress. Former Home Minister Kameng Dolo was elected president and sitting Rural Works Department Minister Tingpong Wangham secretary of the new group.
— UNI
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Fate of Bathinda refinery hangs in balance New Delhi, July 27 While time and again the National Democratic Alliance government has reiterated its commitment for completing the HPCL-promoted project, Capt Amarinder Singh’s utterances here last Wednesday have turned the matter on its head. “We have to analyse the implications of setting up the refinery. The state stands to lose between Rs 600 crore and Rs 700 crore annually in excise and sales tax revenues,” he had said. Capt Amarinder Singh’s observations were in contrast to the position he had taken in the National Development Council earlier where he had argued in favour of the refinery projects on the grounds of employment generation and other ancillary socio-economic benefits, sources said. The Chief Minister’s recent statement came at a time when the Centre had already circulated the draft shareholders’ agreement among prospective bidders. The draft agreement would allow the suitors the option of bidding for HPCL either with the Bathinda refinery or bidding without it. In case, no bidder opted for the Bathinda refinery, the Centre would make for alternative arrangements. Sources familiar with the disinvestment process said most suitors were unlikely to include Bathinda in their biddings, leaving the government to decide on alternative arrangements. In such an eventuality, the Petroleum ministry might rope in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for commissioning and operating the refinery. According to sources said there was strong reservation both within the IOC and the ONGC to any such move. Given the fact that both IOC and ONGC had been debarred from bidding for the HPCL, passing on the Bathinda refinery would tantamount to the dumping of commercially unviable projects to their stable. Moreover, with Punjab now contemplating the withdrawal of tax concessions, neither the ONGC nor IOC would find it a commercially viable proposition, especially in the wake of serious time and cost overruns, characteristic of such capital intensive projects. Analysts said Amarinder Singh’s statement that the government was not keen on continuing with the tax concessions had virtually sealed the matter for any prospective strategic investor to include the refinery in its bid for HPCL. The bidder would now know for certain that the state government might not be willing to extend tax incentives for commissioning the Bathinda refinery. This would translate into higher operating costs. The political sensitivity of the project notwithstanding, acquiring additional refining capacity is considered to be an imprudent move. Already, there is excess refining capacity in the country and against the petroleum product demand of around 103 million tonnes, India is flowing with a refining capacity of 117 million tonnes. |
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Dying declaration can be sole basis for conviction,
New Delhi, July 27 “It cannot be laid down as an absolute rule of law that dying declaration cannot form the sole basis of conviction unless it is corroborated. The rule requiring corroboration is merely a rule of prudence,’’ a Division Bench comprising Mr Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat said. Hearing an appeal by a man convicted of exorcise, the court further rejected the contention that testimony recorded by a police official as dying declaration was of no probative value. The court reiterated its earlier view that if such an evidence was excluded it would result in miscarriage of justice. It said the victim being generally the only eyewitness in a serious crime, the exclusion of the statement would leave the court without a scrap of evidence. The court further said that if the person recording the statement was satisfied that the declarant was in a fit medical condition to depose then such a declaration could not be held invalid solely on the ground that it did not bear the report of a doctor as to the fitness of the declarant.
— UNI |
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Need for law on AIDS stressed
New Delhi, July 27 “The Prime Minister had said that there was a possibility of holding a special session of Parliament on HIV/AIDS,” Mr Oscar Fernandes, convener of the two-day convention of elected representatives, organised by the Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS, said at the concluding session. The session was important to chart out a legislation on the matter. The Bill should deal with issues of rights of the HIV-infected people so that they are not discriminated against, he said. It would also dwell on the issue of right-to-treatment, testing before marriage and how to take care of infected people, he said. Special sessions were also needed at the state and panchayat levels, Mr Fernandes said. Several participants said there was a need to lower the cost of anti-retrovirals as the government could not provide them free of cost to AIDS patients. Mr Kirit Somaiya, joint convener of the convention, said the government should withdraw sales tax and customs duty on the imported drug used to prepare anti-retrovirals. Currently, AIDS drugs cost about Rs 1,500 to 1,800 per month. If the duties were withdrawn, the cost would come down to just Rs 1,000 per month, he said, adding that pharmaceutical companies had assured of lowering the price on their own initiative once the government withdrew taxes. Congress President Sonia Gandhi had also expressed concern over the high cost of AIDS drugs yesterday at the conference. Dr Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, said India would be able to win the battle against AIDS through its political leadership, competence and strength of scientists. The delegates at the convention stressed the need to join the AIDS programme with the family planning programme by popularising the use of condoms. Health Minister Sushma Swaraj could not attend the convention today as she was to attend a conference and inaugurate a children’s health scheme in Indore.
— PTI |
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Crop maintenance concerns PM New Delhi, July 27 The Prime Minister said “the farmers would have to change the agriculture pattern and pay attention to less-grown crops like pulse grains, fruits and vegetables, adding that even floriculture has a vast potential.” Talking to farmers who had gathered at his residence to thank him for reducing the interest on agricultural loans, the Prime Minister called upon them to reduce the cost of production to become more competitive and accelerate foodgrain export. “The input cost in agriculture is unduly high and at times it is more than the market rate of the produce,” the Prime Minister said. Mr Vajpayee said the Centre had already announced to reduce interest rates on loans up to Rs 50,000 from 14 to 18 per cent to 9 per cent and keep the rates lower than the prime lending rates on the loan up to Rs 2 lakh. He said the government had framed the rules and now the panchayats should ensure that the farmers were not charged more. He said it would give farmers the benefit of Rs 2,500 crore. Expressing concern at the distribution, storage and maintenance of the agricultural produce, Mr Vajpayee said the distribution system required “a lot of improvement”. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would inaugurate the 22nd
conference of accountants-general here tomorrow. The three-day conference would thrash out a medium-term consensus on improving governance through excellence in audit and accounting and would identify the structural and procedural changes needed to achieve the goals, an official press note said. |
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News Analysis New Delhi, July 27 This is not for the first time that the Supreme Court has expressed its opinion in favour of the unified civil code for all citizens. At least on two other occasions, the apex court had felt the need for a common law to govern the property rights, marital issues, and the right of succession, including the historic ruling in the Shah Bano’s case on the maintenance right of a divorced Muslim woman in 1986. Since then much water has flown in the Yamuna but no concrete efforts had been made by any political party after coming to power to bring a Bill before Parliament to pass a legislation on a common civil code in the country, legal experts and political pundits say. The passage of the Bill on unified civil code by Parliament was not possible in near future without a consensus among the political parties as is evident from their reaction to the apex court judgement due to political compulsions and their attitude on the women’s reservation Bill, they say. Constitutional expert P N Lekhi observed that common civil code is a mere slogan for political parties. It is a major hinderance in evolving a uniform civil law for all citizens. “Uniform civil code is not a straight-jacketed issue. In the given political scenario, the passage of a law on it is not possible. Neither is it feasible through legislation as the very concept of the common civil code is confusing,” Delhi Bar Council Chairman K.C. Mittal says. He says that the very concept of the common civil code is being presented in a “distorted and confused” form, as it is projected as if people belonging to one community were being forced to accept the laws applicable to another community. “There could be certain areas where a particular law can be applied uniformly like the issue of maintenance under Section 125 of Cr PC, which can be extended to the Muslim women but in some other areas it cannot be so,” he says. Unless it is made clear as to what would be the definition of the unified civil code, it will be a futile exercise to think of a law on it. Moreover, the personal laws are derived from century-old religious practices, and, therefore it is but natural that religious sentiments will always be attached to it. Senior advocate Lekhi said the Supreme Court had taken a genuine step for evolving a common civil law for all citizens in its historic Shah Bano case judgment, but the Rajiv Gandhi government failed to rise above political considerations and, in fact, tried to take political mileage out of it. It had caused
tremendous damage to the efforts in the direction of evolving a common civil code. Though there is a clear indication in the chapter on the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution for the government to endure for a unified civil code for all citizens but, in a way, such a step would intrude upon the fundamental rights of citizens which includes Freedom of
Propagating any religion. The DBC chief and other experts feel that the issue of common civil code should not be used as a “political weapon” as under Article 44 of the Constitution it has been made clear that “endeavour” should be for harmonising the customary laws of various communities not to “infringe” upon the religious rights. Even the Rajiv Gandhi government, which had brute majority in Parliament, was forced to backtrack on the effect of Supreme Court ruling in the Shah Bano case as it passed an Act for the protection of Muslim women’s right to suit it to the Mohammadan law. The apex court had extended the applicability of Section 125 of the CrPC, which deals with maintenance issues, to the women belonging to the Muslim community and as per the Act passed by the Rajiv Gandhi government they were given choice to either be governed by Section 125 of the Cr PC or the provisions of the Mohammadan law. Similar political compulsions had also forced the BJP, a strong votary of the common civil code, to keep the issue in abeyance and compromise for a common minimum programme of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in order to remain in power, the experts say. While deciding a succession matter, a three-judge apex court Bench, headed by Chief Justice Mr V.N. Khare, last week had said that there was no “necessary connection” between religious and personal laws in a civilised society and the state should “endeavour” to secure uniform civil code for its citizens as had been laid down in Article 44 of the Constitution. The apex court was of the view that marriage, succession and other like matters of secular character codified under personal laws could not be brought within the purview of Article 25 providing citizens freedom of propagating religion as they were independent of it. The sharp differences among major political parties were evident from their reaction to the apex court ruling. |
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Madhumita
case: SP reinstated Lucknow, July 27 Mr Yash has been reinstated with immediate effect, an official spokesman said here. The SP was suspended along with Director-General (Crime Branch) Mahendra Lalka on June 17 for allegedly not completing the probe within the stipulated one month’s time. The spokesman said prima facie the charges levelled against Mr Yash were not found to be correct and thus the government decided to reinstate him. Madhumita was shot dead at her Paper Mill colony residence on May 9 by two assailants. Ms Mayawati first handed over the case to the Crime Branch asking it to complete the probe within a month’s time. After it failed to complete the investigation within the stipulated time, the Chief Minister recommended a CBI probe into the case.
— PTI |
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Mallya, Sanjay Khan survive copter crash
Bangalore, July 27 Bagalkote district Superintendent of Police B.A. Padmanayana said the impact of the crash was such that the helicopter broke into two. He said wind velocity at the time was very high. Mallya and Khan said it was a providential escape. Mallya said the pilot lost control of the helicopter, which crashed from a height of an estimated around 50 feet to 100 feet.
— PTI |
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Powermen
cut supply, relent Patna, July 27 The decision was taken after talks with Energy Minister Shakeel Ahmed Khan and his deputy Shayam Razak. Earlier, irked at the beating up of two powermen, electricity board employees snapped power supply to the house of the MLA here this afternoon and threatened to cut supply in the entire state capital tomorrow if Mr Passi was not arrested.
— PTI |
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Paramhans
has liver cancer Lucknow, July 27 Dr Rajan Saxena, who carried out the half-an-hour-long surgery, said today that the Ramjanmabhoomi movement leader’s condition had improved following the easing out of the bile through a pipe insertion. “But he is not yet out of danger,” he said. Dr Saxena clarified that no stones had been detected in his gall bladder as suspected earlier. “His liver had inflamed due to cancer which was causing problems, including psychological stress,” he informed. The mahant is suffering from jaundice due to a liver infection and because of this, haemoglobin content in his blood had also gone down. Paramhans has been admitted to the institute for the third time last week after he complained of uneasiness and loss of
appetite.— UNI |
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Turkish
film wins top award at Cinemaya fest New Delhi, July 27 The best actor award was bagged by Duan Long in “Drifters”, directed by Wang Xiaoshuai from China, which also won the award instituted by Netpac (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema). All awarded films have won some award or been screened at Cannes this year. The awards were given away this evening at the Siri Fort auditorium, followed by the screening of the closing film,
“Paanch”, by Anurag Kashyap for producer Tutu Sharma. More than 75 films from at least 30 countries were screened in seven sections during the festival. The annual festival, organised by premier Asian film quarterly “Cinemaya” and
Netpac, was sponsored by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
— UNI |
CRPF
JAWAN SHOOTS HIMSELF 8
KILLED, 25 HURT IN ROAD MISHAP MISCREANTS
LOOT SANGAM EXPRESS ADVANI
FLAGS OFF TRAIN |
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