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Contractor,
labour not staff of employer, says SC
Fresh rioting in Nanded; three cops, 19 others hurt
BJP leaders’
names were not in chargesheet: CBI CBI for closing
LPG connection case |
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Madhumani
continues to elude CBI Laloo to meet PM
on Assam violence Govt decides to
club RRBs with Railway divisions 300 starvation
deaths in Bengal village in one year Nepalese PM reaches Delhi EU for bilateral
talks on Kashmir ‘Khamosh Pani’
enthrals Mumbai
Ex-VC, son held
on fraud charge
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Contractor, labour not staff of employer, says SC New Delhi, November 23 “Normally, the relationship of employer and employee does not exist between an employer and a contractor and the servant of an independent contractor,” a Bench comprising Mr Justice Shivaraj V. Patil and Mr Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari said in a judgement. The court said, however, where an employer retained or assumed control over the means and method by which the work of a contractor was to be done, the relationship of employer and the contractor and the contractor’s servant would, of course, be established. The ruling came on petition of certain employees of the Department of Engineering of Chandigarh Administration, who were engaged to supply electricity to Government Medical College and its hospital, Chandigarh, through different contractors and to maintain a sub-station established in the college complex. They had moved the Supreme Court after their petitions for regularising their services in Engineering Department of the Chandigarh Administration were dismissed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Dismissing their appeals, the court said a Constitution Bench in BHEL and Steel Authority of India cases, had given a clear ruling earlier that without ascertaining through an industrial forum, the factual aspects of the “inter se” relationship between the employee and the organisation for which they were working, no relation of an employer and employees could be established. Stating that the employees had failed to establish their claim for regularisation, the court said “The actual nature of relationship concerning a particular employment being essentially a question of fact, it has to be raised and proved before an industrial adjudicator.” But where a contractor’s employer assumed control over the means and method of work to be done by him, “The here fact of formal employment by the contractor will not relieve the master of liability where the servant is, in fact, in his employment,” the court ruled. “In that event, it may be held that an independent contractor is created or is operating as a subterfuge and the employee will be regarded as the servant of the principal employer,” the Bench ruled. |
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Fresh rioting in Nanded; three cops, 19 others hurt
Nanded, November 23 Trouble started when curfew was relaxed in Itwara this morning in view of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal’s visit here and nearby Parbhani, where a mosque was attacked on Friday last, the police said. Miscreants burnt two shops in Itwara and pelted stones at the state transport buses at the Deglurnaka area today. Three policemen — an officer and two constables — were injured in the stone throwing incident. The police later opened fire to quell the irate mob, the sources said. There were also reports that two persons were injured in the police firing, however, the police has not confirm this. Curfew would be in force at Itwara from 2 pm today to 6 am tomorrow morning. Curfew was also reimposed at the neighbouring Parbhani town from 7 pm today till 7 am tomorrow after a relaxation of two hours from 5 pm today to 7 pm. Mr Bhujbal announced a CID inquiry into the bomb attack and violence at Parbhani and Nanded. The Deputy CM, after returning here from Parbhani, chaired a meeting of peace committees. He said Prevention of Terrorism Act would be invoked against the miscreants responsible for rioting. An inquiry into the delay in deployment of police force at Parbhani would be conducted by the DGP. The Deputy CM assured the traders that they would be compensated for the damage to their property after conducting a survey by the local authorities. BJP’s Maharashtra unit president Gopinath Munde also visited the riot-hit localities of Nanded and Parbhani. Mr Munde condemned the incident and said that the repeated incidents of violence indicate that organisations like the SIMI was active in Marathwada.
— UNI
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BJP leaders’ names were not in chargesheet: CBI
New Delhi, November 23 Making the agency’s stand clear, CBI Director P.C. Sharma said, “I can only say this much that it was a case which was originally investigated by Uttar Pradesh police. It was chargesheeted in the Rae Bareli court by the state police.” He said the case was transferred to the CBI after the Rae Bareli court had taken the cognizance of the state police chargesheet, which did not have Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy charge). The agency had come in for severe criticism from political parties for allegedly diluting the case against Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and others by removing Section 120-B charge from the chargesheet. Mr Sharma said the controversy was “totally unfounded. I will not accept this criticism that the CBI did something or took away the charge when it was never there.” Giving the chronology of the case, Mr Sharma said after it was handed over the CBI investigated it and the trial was going on in Lucknow. “But while the trial was going on some writ petitions were filed in high court. The court observed that there was a flaw in the notification regarding this particular case which should be rectified after which we asked the UP Government to issue a fresh notification. “In the meantime, the Supreme Court observed that when there was a Judge and a court in Rae Bareli, the case should go back,” the CBI Director said. He said the agency had no option than to obey the order of the apex court and “return the case to the Rae Bareli court in the same form in which it came to us.” “It did not have section of criminal conspiracy then and there is no question of taking it away when it was not there in the original form,” Mr Sharma said.
— PTI |
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CBI for closing LPG connection case
New Delhi, November 23 The case against K. Peria Swamy, a clerk with Syndicate Bank here, was registered in June 1999 following a complaint that between 1991 and September 1997, certain MPs conspired with him to allot the coupons (for LPG connections) to some persons in Tamil Nadu on the payment of premium ranging between Rs 4,000 and Rs 7,000. They allegedly concealed the fact that the allottees were not required to pay at all for the coupons and collected crores of rupees from the allottees, which was deposited in the name of Peria Swamy and others in Delhi. However, investigations failed to bring out any evidence against the MPs, the CBI said and added that there was also nothing to show that they acted with a corrupt motive. The facility of the coupons for MPs was introduced in 1993 by the then Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Capt Satish Sharma. During the course of investigations, the agency scrutinised 2,117 coupons issued in the name of 62 MPs. But it could find the counterfoils of only 1318 coupons. Of the 1318, only 122 consumer copies of coupons matched the counterfoils, while 846 did not match at all and 122 were found to be blank. Further probe revealed that all LPG coupons had found their way to Tamil Nadu and gas connections had been obtained by consumers from 60 distributors of the state, located in Coimbatore, Salem, Dharmapuri and Dindigul. The indication was that the “the priority gas coupons for MPs were freely traded in the market by gas distributors and others at a price.” MPs whose coupons were found during investigations admitted their signature on coupons but denied having sold them, CBI said.
— PTI |
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Madhumani continues to elude CBI Lucknow, November 23 A CBI source said she was served a notice to depose before the agency by 3 pm today but she did not turn up. The agency had already sent five notices to Madhumani to be present at her house for interrogation. The CBI team went to her residence at around 1 pm but did not find anyone there. Meanwhile, CBI teams were despatched to other parts of the state in search of Madhumani. A team has also reportedly gone to Bareilly to trace her. The agency is considering taking legal action against the absconder. Agency officials said by ignoring notices, Madhumani was only paving the way for the CBI to move court for her arrest. Recently, the CBI provided Madhumani’s father-in-law with three cell numbers on which she could contact them. However, Madhumani’s family members have assured the CBI officials at Gorakhpur that she would appear before the agency on November 23.
— UNI |
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Laloo to meet PM on Assam violence Patna, November 23 Mr Yadav is also likely to submit a memorandum to Mr Vajpayee, seeking adequate deployment of paramilitary forces in the Assam to tackle the spiralling violence unleashed by banned
ULFA, which has triggered an exodus by Biharis. Chief Minister Rabri Devi had appealed to Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani to visit Assam to take stock of the situation. Meanwhile, the Jamalpur police yesterday arrested the suspected rapist of the Naga girl, travelling by the Guwahati-Dadar Express near Ratanpura station on November 12. Official sources said a police officer carrying the suspect's photograph had been sent to Mumbai where the rape victim is studying. The RJD supremo has already discussed the situation with Mr Advani and Assam Chief Minister Tarun
Gogoi. — UNI |
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Govt decides to club RRBs with Railway divisions New Delhi, November 23 Railway Minister Nitish Kumar told newspersons that the Railway ministry has also decided to club together 19 RRBs with 67
divisions of the Railways for the benefit of regional people in the recruitment of Group “C and D” categories of jobs in the next phase. Dismissing the charges of “favouritism and regionalism” as “baseless”, the Railway Minister said “Railways has been a symbol of national integrity and requested all people, state governments and others to let Railways continue its national duty”. In fact, he said the Ministry has introduced regional languages in examinations primarily for the benefit of the local people. On the demand for fixing state-specific quotas in railway recruitment, Mr Kumar said there were legal complexities involved in it as out of the 67 divisions, only 18 were with single-divisions and rest 49 were multi-division states with more than one Railway division in them whose operation is not “state centric but Railway centric”. Mr Kumar regretted that a case was deliberately being made against Bihar and the Railway Ministry just because the Minister belonged to a particular state. |
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300 starvation deaths in Bengal village in one year Kolkata, November 23 He alleged a second Khalahandi was being created in the village which was inhabited by employees and family members of 14 different tea gardens , now under closure since last year. Recently 19 workers and labourers had been burnt alive at the adjoining Dalgaon tea estate following dispute between two rival CITU groups over new recruitment in this extremely unemployment-infested backward area. Mr Guha alleged neither the Centre nor the state government had done anything for re-opening the closed gardens and rehabilitating the distressed workers. Quoting an official record, he said extreme poverty had killed altogether 320 tea garden workers which was a matter shame for all of us in power, he remarked. The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was in Jalpaiguri last week admitted some hundred people had starved to death in Khaltalguri and the adjoining tea garden areas. But he assured they would not allow a second Khalahandi to happen in the state. Mr Bhattacharjee said the state government had already taken some appropriate steps to save the local people from starvation. The Chief Minister admitted several tea gardens in the Duars-Jalpaiguri-Darjeeling region were now in extreme difficulties for want of financial resources and some other reasons. He demanded that the Centre should come forward and help these closed and sick gardens for their revival. The Forward Bloc General Secretary, Mr Ashoke Ghose, alleged that CITU, which was controlling all tea gardens unions, was indifferent to the needs of the hundreds of helpless tea garden workers in North Bengal. |
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Nepalese PM reaches Delhi
New Delhi, November 23 Thapa, who will hold talks with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee tomorrow on SAARC issues as well as bilateral relations between India and Nepal, said his country desired the progress of SAARC for the overall prosperity of the region. Asked if he was carrying any message for Vajpayee, Thapa, who is accompanied by senior officials, said: “I am carrying the good wishes of the King and the people of Nepal for the Indian people.” The Nepalese Prime Minister was received at the airport by Foreign Secretary-designate Shashank.
— UNI |
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EU for bilateral talks on Kashmir
New Delhi, November 23 “Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan with international dimensions but it has to be resolved by the two countries themselves,” senior EU officials have said. The political dialogue, which is a key element of upcoming two-day fourth India-EU summit beginning on November 28, will clearly outline the EU’s stand on the Kashmir issue, which may form part of the joint declaration to be issued by the two sides, they added.
— UNI |
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‘Khamosh Pani’ enthrals Mumbai Mumbai, November 23 Directed by Sabiha Sumar, a Pakistan-based film-maker, ‘Khamosh Pani’ attempts to connect with the present generation by examining the effect of Islamisation of Pakistan on women during the reign of Gen Zia-ul-Haq. The film's main protagonist is Ayesha, brilliantly essayed by Kiron Kher, who chooses to convert to Islam from her original Sikh faith to save her life. The film looks at the insensitive Recovery Act from a woman's viewpoint. Under this law, women left behind during Partition were forcibly resettled in the countries their menfolk opted for regardless of whether they had begun new lives after a period of trauma and tribulations. In the film Ayesha marries a Muslim and settles in Pakistan keeping her original faith, a secret. Her son, played by Amir Malik, becomes a fundamentalist and Ayesha's life takes a tragic turns when her long-lost brother, a Sikh comes to visit her from the Indian Punjab. "We found a number of interesting stories surfacing while looking at the Recovery Act. It made sense to look at them 30 years later," Sumar told journalists in Mumbai. She went on to say that Ayesha was portrayed as a Sufi character inspired by her own mother. "It is not a trend to make Partition films; it's an issue that concerns us," says Sumar when asked if Partition films were a new trend in the sub-continent. Shot in Wah, a Pakistani village, the film had an international crew of Germans, British, French, Sri Lankans, Indians and Pakistanis. Though not yet released in Pakistan, the film has received rave reviews from the audience to whom it was screened privately, says Sumar. The film bagged the Golden Leopard and the best actress award for Kher at Lo Carno. Sumar, herself lives in New Delhi with her Sri Lankan husband S.
Sathanandan. |
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Knitting, smoking to be banned in UP schools Lucknow, November 23 Over one lakh women teachers are up in arms against the order likely to be issued at the behest of Basic Education Minister Kiran Pal Singh. The state Director of Education has admitted that he has learnt of such a government order but copies of that order have not been received. “We shall implement it in letter and spirit once we receive the copy of the GO,” he said. Mr R.P. Misra, district president of the UP Secondary Education Teachers’ Association, has condemned the government for initiating such a ‘draconian’ step. |
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Ex-VC, son held on fraud charge Ahmedabad, November 23 “Gujarat University ex-Vice-Chancellor K.S. Shastri and his son Pragnesh Shastri were arrested around midnight following complaints that he used to charge fees excess than that prescribed by the state government and the University Grants Commission from students studying in the Somlalit Institute of Management Studies,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone 1) Ajay Tomar said. The duo are alleged to have charged excess fees to the tune of nearly Rs 4.5 crore by charging Rs 7,000 more than the actual fees in many courses, he said. Shastri and his son were arrested following “evidence provided by Gujarat University that the
institute run by him and his son was charging excess fees”, Tomar said. The former Vice-Chancellor had been booked under sections of the Forgery, Cheating and Prevention of Corruption Act and further investigation was being conducted, the DCP said. The arrest of Shastri is significant after the current Vice-Chancellor A.U. Patel blew the cover of a major marksheet printing scam involving the long-serving Registrar M.P. Jadia and controller of Exams Satish Bhatt last month.
— PTI |
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Patna, November 23
