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Tuesday,
July 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Amend prayer in SYL case, SC directs Haryana Opposition attacks govt on CAS No move to privatise Airports authority Kin of 131 HC judges practising in same court CAG should enable development: PM
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North India in Parliament HP entitled to 80 lakh for infrastructure New Delhi, July 28 The Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Mr Jual Oram, informed the Rajya Sabha that Himachal Pradesh, during the current fiscal, was entitled to Rs 80 lakh for the creation of infrastructure, including roads, bridges and culverts in hilly and far-flung areas. Turmoil in RS over Arunachal crisis
Cong has double standards on
selloff: BJP SP was target, not Manipur Chief
Minister Expedite hearing in
Bhattal case: SC Tehri project to start production by December Insurance doctors defer protest Paramhans still critical Lok Sabha pays homage to Eden Order to arrest Hrithik stayed Hindujas allowed to go abroad Shammi Kapoor’s
condition worsens
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Amend prayer in SYL case, SC directs Haryana New Delhi, July 28 Stating that an ad hoc policy must be given up in dealing with important issues like this, a Bench comprising Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice P.V. Reddi directed the Haryana Government to amend its prayer in the suit seeking construction of the canal by the Centre. Allowing three weeks’ time for Haryana to file an amended prayer, the court said unless a clear action plan was placed before it, no specific direction could be issued to the Central Government. Senior advocate Vinod Bobde, appearing for Haryana, sought a direction to the Union Government for completing the SYL canal contending that it was duty-bound to implement the court’s directive after Punjab had failed to execute its order within the one year deadline period. He said the court, in its January 15, 2001 order on Haryana’s suit, had issued expressly a two-part direction — (i) Punjab should execute the project by Junuary 15, 2002, and if failed to do so (ii) the Centre will take steps to complete the job. Since the first part of direction had become redundant after Punjab filing a counter suit expressing its inability to complete the project, the onus was entirely on the Centre to start the work, Mr Bobde said. The court said there was a technical difficulty in issuing a direction to the Centre because in a suit any decree had to be executed through a lower court. But in this case, there was no question of executing a decree, and, therefore, the Haryana Government needs to spell out the action plan it wants to be executed by the Centre in clear terms so that a specific direction could be issued to the Union Government, Ms Justice Pal observed. Haryana’s counsel said since the Centre in its reply, filed earlier, had stated that it was willing to complete the SYL canal in the territory of Punjab, there should be no difficulty in issuing a direction to it. As the Centre had taken no further steps to start the work on the unfinished project, on which over Rs 700 crore had been spent, a direction is required to be issued to it to nominate an agency for completing the work, otherwise such a huge amount of money would go down the drain, he argued. The Bench was hearing Haryana’s suit against the Centre and Punjab seeking completion of the controversial SYL canal as per the January 15, 2001, order of the court. |
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Opposition attacks govt on CAS New Delhi, July 28 Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, allaying the fears of the members, said the government would not “impose” the STBs on cable TV viewers and they were free to opt for only free-to-air (FTA) channels. Mr Prasad said though the task force on CAS, after its discussion with the Finance Ministry, had decided that a minimum of 30 channels should be provided for a fee of Rs 72 per month, many cable operators had agreed to provide 60 to 70 free-to-air channels for Rs 72 per month. He justified the proposed introduction of CAS from September 1 and said the government had not taken the decision in a hurry. Mr Prasad said the Centre had decided on a phased roll-out from September 1 to ensure adequate availability of set-top boxes which would be required to access pay channels under the CAS regime and to ensure smooth implementation. He assured the members that there would not be any shortage of the STBs in the first phase which would cover 15-20 per cent of the population. Mr Prasad said the digital STBs would cost around Rs 2,500 to 2,700 each while the analogue ones would be priced at Rs 1,800 to 2,000. The boxes would also be available on a monthly rental of Rs 35 against a security deposit. He said the prices of set-top boxes would come down after the market picked up. However, people would be free whether or not to have the STBs. While direct-to-home (DTH) option would be available to those who could afford it, CAS would be available at a cheaper price to make it more consumer-friendly. Mr Prasad was repeatedly interrupted by Opposition members who said the government was in a hurry to implement the measure. “Is there any lobby at work?” Ms Sarla Maheshwari (CPM) asked. The minister admitted, without taking any names, that many vested interests were determined not to allow CAS to take shape as numbers and viewership would get exposed. He informed the House that the Centre was contemplating the inception of a broadcasting regulatory authority on the lines of TRAI as there had been an enormous expansion in the broadcasting sector and a regulator was a must. |
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No move to privatise Airports authority New Delhi, July 28 Replying to a debate on the Bill, which got parliamentary approval with the Upper House also passing it today, Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the legislation did not seek privatisation of the AAI but merely of the two airports in New Delhi and Mumbai. He said even in the event of privatisation of these airports, security and air traffic control would be vested with the government. “There should not be any apprehension on that count,” Mr Rudy assured the elders. The Bill, which seeks to provide a legal framework for private investment in “greenfield” airports, levying of development fees on passengers and setting up of an airport appellate tribunal, was subsequently passed through voice vote. However, the government had to face some embarrassment, when members from its own allies — the Shiv Sena and the DMK — opposed the Bill saying privatisation of international airports would be a big threat to the security of the country and also privatisation of profit-making airports was unadvisable. Shiv Sena member Sanjay Nirupam demanded that if at all the government went ahead with privatisation of airports, it should be open only to Indian players and not foreign companies as that would threaten the security of the country. He also wanted to know how the government would manage the loss-making airports which were surviving due to the cross-subsidy they were getting from the profit-making airports, which are sought to be privatised. The Bill seeks to provide for eviction of unauthorised occupants of airport premises. |
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Kin of 131 HC judges practising in same court New Delhi, July 28 Releasing the list to the media, BCI Vice-Chairman Adish C. Aggrawala said allowing their relatives to practise in the same high court where the judges were posted was against judicial propriety and ethics. He said the list compiled on the basis of information received from the state bar councils had been sent to Union Law Minister Arun Jaitely with a request to take steps for transferring such judges. As per the information received from the state bar councils, out of 499 high court judges, relatives of 131 had been allowed to practise in the court of their posting, the BCI leader said. According to the list, the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court each had 10 such judges, followed by the Calcutta High Court (11), Delhi High Court (15) Rajasthan (7), Madras (9), Guwahati (3), Madhya Pradesh (7), Jharkhand (4) Karnataka (17), Himachal (3), Allahabad (12), Bombay (8), Cuttack (3), Kerala (10), J&K (1). He said in Gujarat and Sikkim High Courts, no such violations had been reported. Mr Aggrawala said the list would be presented to the Chief Justice of India, Mr V. N. Khare, tomorrow, requesting him to take up the matter with the government for the transfer of such judges. He said the BCI would wait for action for a month and if nothing concrete emerged within this period, a meeting of the chairmen of state bar councils would be called to take further action. |
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CAG should enable development: PM New Delhi, July 28 “Clearly the time has come to take a serious re-look at the accountability framework within which the government-owned enterprises and senior officers in the government operate”, Mr Vajpayee said while inaugurating a three-day conference of Accountants-General here. He said one of the shortcomings in our government system was that evaluation of the country’s policies and programmes was not sufficiently based on outputs and outcomes. “This must change. We must remember that the people have become more demanding vis-a-vis the performance of the government they elect. Therefore, I urge the office of the CAG to sharpen its focus on what has been achieved with what has been spent”, Mr Vajpayee. Stating that the tasks of the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) were increasingly getting more difficult, the Prime Minister said it was important to hasten the pace of execution. “But lack of accountability in the executive can subvert even the best of initiatives... an atmosphere in which the auditor is on the offensive and the executive is on the defensive is detrimental to good performance”, he said. “You will agree that this, too, is as much a violation of the principle of accountability as any act of financial irregularity”, he added. Finance Minister Jaswant Singh urged upon the need for responsibility-sharing between the government and CAG. “Auditors tend to evade responsibility in the case of frauds claiming that professional audit practices do not provide a guarantee against feuds or scams. While this might be valid enough for the private sector, there is obviously a much greater burden of expectations from the CAG in his capacity as one of the watchdogs of public finances”, Mr Jaswant Singh said. |
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North India in Parliament New Delhi, July 28 He said the states were entitled to funds over and above the entitlement under Article 275(1) for innovative projects sanctioned on a case-to-case basis, subject to fulfilment of conditions laid down in the guidelines. The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Mr A. Raja, informed the Rajya Sabha that the government was implementing a major national health programme throughout the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, for control of diseases like malaria, TB, blindness, leprosy and AIDS. He said Rs 382.43 lakh were incurred for the anti-malaria programme, Rs 82.19 lakh for the leprosy eradication programme, Rs 49.86 lakh for the AIDS control programme, Rs 83.40 lakh for the blindness control programme and Rs 31.95 lakh for the TB control programme. In reply to another question, the minister said the provisional data of the decadal growth rate of population (1991 to 2001) indicated that the country witnessed 21.34 million growth during the period, Jammu and Kashmir (29.04), Himachal Pradesh (17.53), Punjab (19.76), Chandigarh (40.33) and Haryana (19.20). The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Mr Kailash Meghwal, today informed the Upper House that no request has come from Himachal Pradesh MPs and MLAs to declare the carpenter community as Scheduled Castes, like ironsmiths. |
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Turmoil in RS over Arunachal crisis New Delhi, July 28 Leader of the House and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh countering allegations by the Opposition that the Centre had toppled the Congress government with the help of insurgent groups, said, “Law and order is a state responsibility.” If there is a violation of the Constitution, then the Home Ministry will not hesitate in coming into the picture. Mr Jaswant Singh said the insurgent group had been active for a long time and the Union Home Ministry would ask the state government if there was a constitutional violation in the state. With Assembly poll in the state due in a year, the Congress government was reduced to a minority yesterday as 35 legislators quit the party to align with former chief minister Gegong Apang and form the United Democratic Front (UDF). The issue generated immense heat as ruling and opposition parties traded charges, leading to a brief adjournment. Claiming that the NSCN (Issac-Muviah) group, currently engaged in peace talks with the Centre, was behind the move to topple the Arunachal Government by holding party rebel MLAs at a secret place, senior Congress leaders, including Mr Manmohan Singh, Mr Pranab Mukherjee and Mr Arjun Singh, warned that this would have “great ramifications for the sensitive region”. Leader of the Opposition Manmohan Singh drew the attention of the House to Manipur Chief Minister’s writing to the Home Ministry charging that then NSCN(IM) group was being used to topple elected governments in the region and the Nagaland experience was sought to be repeated everywhere. The three Congress leaders said such moves, if allowed to go unchecked, would have serious ramifications. |
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Cong has double standards on selloff: BJP New Delhi, July 28 Briefing newspersons, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the disinvestment exercise of the NDA government was nothing but the continuation of the policies initiated by the Congress. Blaming the disinvestment of profit-making units by the NDA government as ‘treason’ against the country, he said Mrs Gandhi was blind to the same exercise by the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states, be it Punjab, Karnataka or the Left party-ruled West Bengal, Mr Malhotra said. Now the Punjab Government was carrying out disinvestment in all 19 PSUs, including the Rs 100-crore-profit earner Punjab Tractors. The disinvestment process in five PSUs was at an advanced stage, he said. The disinvestment was hailed by the Congress as something extraordinary while the same action by the NDA was termed as ‘treason and anti national activity’, Mr Malhotra pointed out. Condemning the violence during the rath yatra of Rajasthan party chief Vasundhara Raje Scindia resulting in the death of two innocent youths at Bhavani Mandi in the state, Mr Malhotra said though the BJP was not against the Congress opposing disinvestment through democratically acceptable ways, holding black flag demonstrations or pelting stones at the rally of another political party was just not acceptable. Mr Malhotra warned that the party would not, in future, condone such undemocratic ways of protest and the Congress should understand and work accordingly in the Assembly elections due later this year in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. |
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SP was target, not Manipur Chief
Minister
Imphal, July 28 Two police personnel were killed and five injured in the attack, which took place at Wangjing Bazaar. The DIG, however, said the attack was not an attempt on the life of the Chief Minister but aimed at the Thoubal Superintendant of Police, escorting the convoy. According to him the attack was masterminded by PLA’s self-styled Corporal Gojen. Two women were arrested last night in connection with the attack, the police said, adding that their link with any underground outfit was yet to be ascertained and interrogations were on.
— UNI |
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Expedite hearing in
Bhattal case: SC New Delhi, July 28 A
Bench, comprising Mr Justice M.B. Shah and Mr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan,
issued the direction on a petition by Ms Bhattal, who is facing trial
for the alleged withdrawal of Rs 20 lakh from the Chief Minister’s
discretionary fund illegally as Chief Minister. Ms Bhattal has sought the conduct of trial proceedings independently by the prosecution without any interference by the complainant. The
court adjourned further hearing till August 18 after it was informed
by Punjab’s counsel Atul Nanda that the Special Judge is slated to
hear the case on August 1. The apex court in its April 21 order had
given liberty to Mr Balwant Singh Dhillon, the complainant, to assist
the prosecution in pointing out any deficiency in the prosecutor’s
submissions during the trial proceedings. Mr Dhillon had filed a
complaint against Ms Bhattal in the trial court alleging that when she
was the Chief Minister she had withdrawn Rs 20 lakh illegally and used
the money for personal purposes. |
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Tehri project to start production by December Hardwar, July 28 The minister said Uttaranchal would earn a revenue of Rs 120 crore per year after the project became fully operational. Replying to a question, she said now the VHP was not opposing the construction of the dam. “After the recommendations of the committee, constituted under the chairmanship of the Union HRD Minister, Dr M.M. Joshi, some alterations have been incorporated in the design of the dam to ensure that the continuous flow of the stream of the Ganga is not obstructed by the dam”, she said. She said 162 new power projects had been sanctioned in the 10th five year plan to generate 50,000 MW of additional power. Of these 18 new projects would be in Uttaranchal, she said. |
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Insurance doctors defer protest New Delhi, July 28 The council had given a call for a one-day strike on August 5 to press for fulfilment of their demands. They have been demanding benefits on a par with Central Government Health Service doctors; regular meetings of the department promotion committees; and increase in the number of posts in Senior Administrative Grade. Dr P.K. Jain, convener of the council, said today that the government had appointed the Chief Labour Commissioner as the chief conciliation officer under Section 12 of the Industrial Disputes Act to restore the dispute between the ESI management and doctors. |
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Paramhans still critical Lucknow, July 28 AIIMS doctors T.K. Chattopadhyaya and Randip Guleriya, who were accompanied by VHP working president Ashok Singhal to the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute here today, conducted a comprehensive examination of the ailing Mahant and held discussions with the doctors here. The Mahant was diagnosed with cirrhosis of liver and underwent a surgery on Saturday here. Dr Guleriya said the condition of the Mahant was critical and he continued to be under observation at the ICU and put on ventilator. ‘’Taking him to the AIIMS in such a condition would not be prudent,’’ he added. The Paramhans had been stable but he was still not out of danger, he said. As per the Mahant’s wish, he would be taken to his Digambar Akhara at Ayodhya in a couple of days after consultations between his supporters and the doctors.
— UNI |
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Lok Sabha pays homage to Eden New Delhi, July 28 Paying tributes to Eden, Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed said he had lost a friend whom he had known for many years. Deeply mourning the loss of the sitting member, the Lok Sabha observed a two-minute silence and offered its condolences to the bereaved family. As a Lok Sabha MP, Eden was a member of the Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests, from 1998 to 1999 and the Committee on External Affairs from 2001 to 2003. He was a member of the Consultative Committee, Ministry of Tourism, from 1998 to 1999 and the National Shipping Board from 2001 to 2003. |
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Order to arrest Hrithik stayed Mumbai, July 28 Hearing a petition filed by Hrithik and Rakesh Roshan, Justice V.M. Kanade restrained the Khar police here from arresting the father-son duo till August 5 and adjourned the matter for further hearing on that day. The petition urged the high court to quash the criminal proceedings launched against them in a magistrate’s court on the basis of a complaint filed by Jayantilal Gada, Managing Director of Popular Entertainment Network Ltd. It urged the court to restrain the Khar police from arresting them. It also sought quashing of an order delivered by the Magistrate in Bandra in May directing the police to investigate the complaint of alleged cheating and criminal breach of trust registered against Hrithik and his father. According to the complaint filed by Gada, Roshans had entered into a contract with his company, which gave it film and TV merchandising rights for Hrithik’s first film “Kaho Na Pyar Hai”, besides all forthcoming home production films. However, Roshans and their company, Film Kraft Productions (India) Pvt Ltd, did not honour the contract.
— PTI |
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Hindujas allowed to go abroad New Delhi, July 28 A Bench comprising Mr Justice M.B. Shah and Mr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, however, kept the application of the Hindujas pending to discuss as to why the trial in the case had not been carried out expeditiously despite the apex court orders. The Bench said it would hear the application on August 29 after acceding to the request of the Hinduja’s counsel to allow the three brothers to go abroad together till the re-commencement of the trial on August 27.
— UNI |
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Shammi Kapoor’s condition worsens Mumbai, July 28 Kapoor was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital this month after he developed bronchitis. Subsequently, he developed serious lung congestion and was shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU).
— IANS |
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PAK NATIONAL HELD IN
RAJASTHAN 4
HELD FOR LOOTING TRAIN PASSENGERS EME EXPEDITION FLAGGED OFF MCC
ULTRA KILLED IN ENCOUNTER |
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