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In the dock Triumph of justice |
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Compounding a crime
Milch cows and white elephants
Bhujbal’s new morning routine
Sharp rise in number of abandoned babies From Pakistan
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In the dock THE CBI inquiry ordered by the Supreme Court in the primary school recruitment scam comes as a major embarrassment for Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala at a time when he is busy campaigning in the neighbouring Rajasthan. It shows that the allegations of forgery, manipulation and corruption against the political leadership, including Mr Chautala, are not entirely without substance. Moreover, the apex court has also told the CBI that it is not required to table the report but file an FIR against the guilty if it found that material collected during the investigation disclosed commission of an offence. The unusual step increases the discomfiture of the Chief Minister accused of subverting the selection of 4000 primary school teachers three years ago. The court's concern over "rampant corruption in the corridors of politics and bureaucracy" is a telling commentary on the state of affairs. One hopes that the CBI will live up to the faith reposed in it. The Haryana Government had tried hard to convince the court that the matter should be looked into by a commission of enquiry. The court's rejection of this option indicates that it is fully alive to the clever ploy of various governments to circumvent legal action through this route. The court has rightly observed that such reports are not only submitted after an inordinately long time but the follow-up action depends more on political consideration than public good. The CBI has been told to complete the enquiry in six months. What is heartening is that there are officers who are willing to take on the might of the government and expose the wrong-doing of the political bosses. The way departmental enquiries were instituted and FIRs lodged against Mr Sanjeev Kumar, the then Director of Primary Education, when he refused to substitute the actual selection list made on merit with another made by the government, is a big stigma. His brave fight will perhaps encourage others to take a more principled stand. Also, the poor jobless who have been exploited all along can now breathe a little easier. |
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Triumph of justice THE award of life imprisonment to 12 accused and two years’ rigorous imprisonment to three others by the Nadiad sessions court judge for their involvement in the massacre of 14 Muslims in Gujarat’s Ghodasar on March 3, 2002, is historic. It symbolises the triumph of the majesty of law and reinforces the people’s abiding faith in the judiciary. The conviction of the accused also assumes special significance because it is the first case of sentence in Gujarat in a riot-related case after the fiasco in the Best Bakery and other riot cases. All the accused in the other cases were acquitted as the witnesses turned hostile, apparently under pressure from various lobbies. Equally significant is the fact that unlike the Best Bakery case, none of the 46 witnesses examined by the Nadiad court had retracted from his earlier testimony. The Gujarat riots are a blot on the nation’s conscience. They were an act carried out by malcontents to tear asunder the social fabric of the country. The grisly episode of Godhra and the backlash in various parts of the state that left over 1,000 dead were disturbing pointers to the explosive communal build-up in the country. The Nadiad convictions are bound to send a stern message to anti-social elements that if they take the law into their own hands and indulge in violence, the long arms of the law will not fail to catch them. It is debatable whether the accused in Ghodasar killings deserved capital punishment as sought by the prosecution. But to say that capital punishment is the only alternative to check crimes of this nature is to make an overstatement. It is a time-tested maxim that it is not the severity of the punishment but the certainty of it that deters crime. Clearly, life imprisonment too can act as a strong deterrent. It also restores the sagging confidence of the people in the judicial system of the state which suffered a knock or two in the recent past following the Best Bakery verdict. The life sentence for the 12 accused would have served its purpose if it succeeds in making them repent for the heinous crime and finally reforms them as good citizens. |
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Compounding a crime IT speaks volumes for the kind of clout that liquor-shop owners continue to enjoy that they have been able to operate in the prohibited areas in spite of the spotlight turning on them. This also shows the apathy of various government departments and functionaries towards a crime that affects a large number of persons—2202 lives were lost in road accidents in Punjab in 2002-03. The fact that liquor shops continue to operate a few metres away from National Highway-21, near Kurali, is dismaying. What is worse, in this case, they are situated on land that belongs to the Public Works Department. It seems that a large number of such kiosks are on government land. The rules are clear: liquor shops should be at least 150 metres away from a national or state highway. In reality, many are less than 5 metres away. Clearly, all this is in connivance with the officials and a major share of the blame should go to the Excise Department. One look at such kiosks would confirm that most of the customers are motorists and professional drivers. Drinking and driving do not mix, and anything that makes it easier should be banned. Not only should the sources be checked but also more proactive measures need to be taken to check inebriated drivers, and this includes breathalyser tests. It is also shameful that many kiosks are located near educational institutions, which again violates the law. This should simply not be allowed to happen and the governments should act promptly and effectively to save the citizens from these hazardous outlets. |
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Thought for the day Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. —Albert Einstein |
Milch cows and white elephants BOTH the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Mr P. Shankar, are right, technically at least. Evidently, no names were mentioned when the CVC discussed with the Head of Government the unacceptable manner in which public sector undertakings (PSUs) are being run by the Union ministries overseeing them. It follows that wayward ministries were also not identified specifically during their meeting at which the Cabinet Secretary, Mr Kamal Pandey, was the only other person present. For, the wide world knows who presides over which ministry. As the CVC has explained publicly, without naming names he had given Mr Vajpayee “several instances of the type of insecurity (that prevails) and the kind of delays that are taking place”. And he went on to add that he had pleaded “for the PSUs to be managed by their boards rather than be tied to the apron strings of ministries”. In view of this, it is no surprise that the Union Commerce Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, has extracted an apology from the Hyderabad newspaper that had named him and five of his colleagues as the “culprits”. At one remove, the Congress, that had demanded the dismissal of the “gang of six” and claimed that it was relying not merely on newspaper reports but had information from other sources as well, is clearly embarrassed. The BJP is delighted. In the course of the escalating pre-election rhetoric, Atalji and his deputy, Mr L.K. Advani, have been lambasting the principal Opposition party for its “irresponsibility”. Lesser lights of the BJP have demanded that the Congress must apologise to the six ministers, the NDA government, the CVC and the country. The Congress, however, is fighting back and demanding that entire correspondence and exchanges between the CVC and the Prime Minister must be made public. After December 1 this blame game and shouting match is almost certain to come to an end. But the pertinent question is whether this is enough. For the first time, a constitutional authority has, at long last, spoken out about a monstrous but sadly established pattern of the exploitation of the public sector for personal purposes and of siphoning funds from it for the party in power. Shouldn’t something have been done about this terminal malaise immediately, instead of making it the football of partisan politics? The least the Prime Minister ought to have done after receiving the CVC’s letter and hearing him personally was publicly to issue a directive to all ministries to halt to the prevailing pernicious practices. No more extortion of favours from the PSUs and a full stop to the PSUs being treated as fiefdoms of the controlling ministries. They must be allowed to function as autonomous corporate bodies. Not to put any gloss on an extremely ugly situation, let it be recorded that if a large number of public undertakings eventually ended up as white elephants, it is because they were treated for years and years as milch cows by all successive governments without exception. The surprise is that all units did not go down the ruinous road. Some of them are flourishing creditably and contributing huge sums of money to the national exchequer in spite all the depredations to which they have been subjected. Ironically, it is these that are being milked recklessly for personal rather and parochial gain. Another fact, well known but seldom faced, is that the public undertakings are exploited not merely by ministers but, in the words of the CVC, “by the entire hierarchy” of the controlling ministry. “It is not only the minister but also the secretary, even the joint secretary who could be putting the PSU officials on tenterhooks,” says Mr Shankar, himself a former Secretary to the Government of India and Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu. At a time when the controlling ministry's joint secretaries can routinely double up as chairmen and managing directors of major public sector units, this should only be expected. Leave alone major transgressions such as demand for funds “for the party” or large-scale employment for proteges, let the Prime Minister hold a discreet inquiry into how many airconditioners in ministerial or bureaucratic homes have had to be provided by various PSUs. The number of cars the PSUs are forced to hire almost for the use of the “bosses” in ministries would not bear scrutiny. As for personal entertainment the PSUs have to pay for, the less said the better. As part of its policy to privatise public sector undertakings that the state need not run on its own, the Vajpayee government had nationalised most of the hotels of the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). But it made a conspicuous exception in the case of the flagship, Ashoka Hotel, in New Delhi. Why? Ask anyone knowledgeable about the seamy side of life in the Capital. He or she would tell you that for the powerful and the influential the hostelry has become a pleasure dome. Last year, an intrepid functionary of the ITDC published a list of the high and mighty, including some former ministers and MPs, who owe the hotel large amounts of money, running into lakhs of rupees each in several cases. No one is prepared to say how much of this sum, if any, has been recovered since. Even all this pales, compared with what has been done to nationalised banks. The CVC’s observation about the unhappy situation in which “top officials of banks cannot act independently or take commercial decisions” must be reckoned to be the understatement of the century. Mercifully, the loan melas, pioneered by a Congress Minister of State for Finance, have become a thing of the past. But what about the Himalayan backlog of unpaid loans charmingly called non-performing assets (NPAs). The problem is not NPAs. The NPCs are the problem, the abbreviation standing for non-paying crooks. None of them is being pursued, as petty borrowers from banks would be because they are men of tremendous political clout and wealth to match. They are also leading lives of obscene luxury. No one dares to say boo to them. A former Union Finance Minister, Mr P.C. Chidambaram, has calculated that the interest on the investments in the public sector and other government projects that are languishing uncompleted adds up to Rs 1 lakh crore a year. Is no one accountable for this gargantuan national loss? |
Bhujbal’s new morning routine
“I have stopped reading newspapers since they began publishing details of the Telgi Stamp scam”. SCENE: Outside Bhujbal’s ministerial bungalow in Mumbai. The newsboy comes out with a bundle of undelivered newspapers. He is met by the milkman whose bag is empty. Newsboy:
I don’t know how long this will go on. The minister saab asked me to go away, said he no longer read the newspapers. I am losing business because he used to buy all the English, Hindi and Marathi dailies. Milk Man:
I have no such problem. In fact, the minister is buying more milk. The watchman told me Newsboy:
He had been such an avid reader of newspapers, I don’t know how he does without them. I mean spend his mornings. Milk Man:
The watchman told me about that also. Ever since Bhujbalji stopped his newspapers, he had acquired some new hobbies. That is, according to the watchman. Newsboy:
Hey, this is interesting. What does the minister do in the mornings? Milk Man:
Oh, several new things. I am told the minister spends a lot of time over his stamp collection. Newsboy:
Does he have one? Milk Man: I was also not aware of it. But the watchman told me that of late, the minister began collecting stamps and make albums. He spends his mornings looking at the stamps. By the way, I was told he also collects stamp papers. You know, the ones which are used for making affidavits and so on. Newsboy:
Does he get the stamps from the post office? Milk Man: Don’t ask me, the watchman did not give me the details. But the minister has built up a huge stamp collection and he spends his entire morning looking at them. Newsboy:
Rather unusual, I should say. Any more morning activities? Milk Man:
I think so. There is another watchman, who is quite friendly with me. He told me the minister also spends hours in the morning playing computer games, the ones called Transfer Games. Newsboy:
Arre, this is news. How does one play this game? Milk Man: Look, I am only a milkman, I don't know anything about computer games. But this watchman is quite smart. He watched how the minister played this game. He was really engrossed, muttering all the time, “Transfer the officers, send this one to the Special Branch, Put this one to the Crime Branch, This one should be sent out of Mumbai to Latur, why not I bring this one from Osmanabad to Mumbai, kick this one upstairs to the Police Provident Scheme section. Ask this one to look after the Police Housing schemes……” and so on. I simply cannot make much out of all these. After all, I am a simple milk man. Newsboy:
That is all right. But can all these be a substitute for reading newspapers? Milk Man:
But there must be something in these computer games to divert the minister from his paper reading habit. Newsboy:
When will the minister saab resume reading the newspapers? I am incurring losses and the boss can fire me. I find all these computer games rather silly. But I know something about stamps, some of them can be quite expensive. I don’t know, I am going to ask my boss to change my route, to transfer me to the area where Sharad Pawar saab lives. I am told he buys papers from different countries, except of course, Italy. Milk Man: Don’t worry, if that did not work out, you can come with me and sell milk. People don’t stop buying milk even if they were involved in milk scandals.
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Sharp rise in number of abandoned babies
A
new born baby girl, wrapped in a black polythene bag, was thrown by a woman in the Sidhwan canal in Ludhiana. A 10-year-old boy, passing by saw a packet being thrown in the canal and swam towards it and brought the packet out of the water. He opened the packet, and to his surprise found that a baby had been wrapped in it. He took the baby home and his parents took the girl as their own. The girl is now four years old. But since no legal procedure was followed, her “parents” are not recognised by the law. Every other day instances of babies, mostly girls, being abandoned in bushes along the roads, or wrapped in a piece of cloth and thrown in river/canals; and surprisingly, also abandoned in the hospitals itself, after they have been delivered. On many an occasion these babies have not even been washed and thrown away with minimal clothing in order to ensure that they die in the cold. With both Punjab and Haryana governments putting pressure to check female foeticide and infanticide, the number of girls being abandoned has increased manifold in the past two years. The baby girls are in abundant supply at the seven adoption placement agencies in these two states, while boys are rarely received at these Shishu Grehas. Because of availability, these girls can easily find a home, but the fact remains that the baby boys are still preferred. The list of childless couples giving preference for a boy in adoption placement agencies in both Punjab and Haryana is quite exhaustive. A baby girl, wrapped in a polythene bag, was found abandoned near Quila Mubarak in Bathinda on September 1. The child was taken to a nearby gurdwara and as word of the child being found got around, many childless couples visited the gurdwara to adopt the child. Acting on its own in violation of the Supreme Court directions on adoption and against the guidelines of the Ministry of Welfare, the gurdwara management accepted the plea of a childless couple and handed them the child. Since the baby girl was not legally adopted nor did the couple get legal guardianship, the birth registrar in Bathinda deemed it fit to write “lawaaris” against the names of parents, while issuing a birth certificate to the child. The Supreme Court’s directions and subsequent guidelines by the Ministry of Welfare clearly state that each child has a right to a birth certificate. The birth certificate is to be prepared after the child is legally adopted and with the names of his adoptive parents. In 2001, the SDMs at Dera Bassi in Patiala and Kharar in Ropar had given away two abandoned children by way of taking a draw of lots of childless couples. Following this, a civil writ petition was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging that the Punjab Government was not following the set rules for adoption. The petition was disposed of in January, 2003, after the Social Welfare Department, Punjab, submitted affidavits that the rules would be followed. Also, the two children were legally given away to the couples who had “ won them in the draw.” Though officials of the Social Justice and Empowerment Departments in both states maintain that they have been doing their level best for disseminating information on the set procedure to be followed in case a child is found abandoned, it has been observed that whenever a child is found, the district administration acts on its own and hands over the child to any childless couple — without verifying the antecedents, economic or social condition of the child. Early this month a baby boy, who had been delivered in the open at Barwala, near Panchkula, and then abandoned, was found shivering in the cold. The baby was hospitalised and within two days, it was sent to Bal Kunj at Chhachhrauli, instead of being sent to the nearest placement agency at Panchkula according to the guidelines of the Central Adoption Resource Agency. Since no data on the number of children abandoned is available, it has also led to trafficking of babies from hospitals and nursing homes. While a Ludhiana hospital had gained notoriety for this sale of children in the ‘80s, and ‘90s, various adoption placement centres in the region allege that the trade in children is now being unscrupulously carried on by certain nursing homes in Ambala in Haryana. The health authorities as well as the Social Welfare Department, however, deny these allegations and say that they have never received any complaint. According to the set procedure, whenever any abandoned child is discovered, the district authority concerned (Juvenile Welfare Board in Haryana and District Social Security Officer in Punjab) has to take possession of the baby and the same is to be handed over to the nearest recognised placement agency. The local police is to search for the child’s parents while it is kept at the Shishu Greha, and, if in 45 days the police is unable to locate the parents, the Shishu Greha concerned requests the district administration to issue an abandonment certificate for the child, so that it can be given in adoption. The child is finally adopted only on the directions of a local court. While Punjab has four recognised placement agencies for adoption, Haryana has three. In Punjab, Yadvindra Puran Bal Niketan, Patiala, Shishu Greha Nari Niketan Trust, Jalandhar, the Children Welfare Society (Pinglaghar), Jalandhar and Nishkam Sewa Ashram. Inquiries made about these agencies revealed that while no child has been given in adoption from Yadavindra Puran Bal Niketan this year, there was one adoption in 1998- 99, and two adoptions from Nishkam Sewa Ashram this year (it was recognised as a adoption agency this year only). The two other agencies are reportedly awaiting extension from the Social Welfare Department, and cannot initiate any adoption proceedings. In Haryana the recognised placement agencies are: Bal Niketan, Panchkula, Bal Kunj, Chhachhrauli and Bal Gram, Rai (Sonepat district). Dr Madhu Sharma, Honorary Secretary, Bal Niketan, a recognised placement agency in Panchkula, says that there is a need to sensitise the administration towards the issue of adoption. “ Many a time we have to wait for months in order to initiate the adoption process by the district administration. There have been cases where we have been forced to wait for more than one year in order to get the certificate of abandonment for the child from the Juvenile Welfare Board. By the time, we manage to get the certificates, the child is more than a year old. Their adoption becomes difficult as most couples prefer younger children.” |
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From Pakistan KARACHI: Is the Al-Akhtar Trust a terrorist support organisation? Despite being designated by the US as a terrorist support organisation, and with its bank accounts frozen by the Pakistan government, the Karachi-based Al-Akhtar Trust continues unhindered in its work. On October 14, just two days before it declared Dawood Ibrahim a global terrorist, the US Treasury Department designated Al-Akhtar Trust as a terrorist support organisation under executive order 13224, and also requested the United Nations to list the organisation in the same category. The decision led to the freezing of the trust’s assets within the US besides prohibiting transactions with American nationals. A likely UN listing will require that all UN member-states take similar action against Al-Akhtar Trust. Despite being tagged as a terrorist support outfit, the trust management seems unmoved and sounds confident about its future. “All of the trust’s operations are being carried out according to normal routine and from the same platform – Al-Akhtar Trust.
— Herald
Patch-up on LFO
GUJRANWALA: The PML leader and an aide of the ruling party, Chaudhry Hamid Nasir Chattha, predicted that the government and the joint opposition, including the MMA, would reach an agreement on the LFO and other disputed issues after Eid. Speaking at a meeting of party workers here the other day, he said the political situation in the country would improve after the settlement of the disputed issues. He criticised the PML-N for making an unnecessary hue and cry over the arrest of Mr Javed Hashmi.
— The Dawn
Currency notes
business
LAHORE: New currency notes business is at its peak. The area adjacent to the State Bank of Pakistan building and private as well as foreign banks are the hotbed of business, despite the fact that the city government has imposed Section 144 to prevent black-marketing of new notes. The copies of Rs 5 and Rs 10 were being sold Rs 550 and Rs 1,050 respectively while Rs 5,150 and 10,150 were being charged for Rs 50 and Rs 100 copy of new notes. Meanwhile, nationalised and privatised banks have complained of receiving less new currency notes from the State Bank.
— The Nation
Poverty a major
challenge
ISLAMABAD: On the completion of the first year of the Jamali government, the Ministry of Finance has claimed all is well on the economic front. “Economy has made progress with the continuity of reforms, macroeconomic improvement and consistency of policies,” Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said at a press conference. He, however, admitted that poverty remained the major challenge. The coalition government led by Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has followed the economic policies initiated during the three-year military tenure, in close coordination with international financial institutions (IFIs). This approach helped stabilise the economy.
— The News International
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The Vedas tell us man is a rational being; so he has rational thinking. Through his devotional insight he finds out the reality and existence of nature. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya The greatest proof that we have the existence of God is not because our reason says so, but because God has been seen by the ancients as well as by the moderns. — Swami Vivekananda If the idea of impurity (by birth or death) be entertained, impurity will be found in everything. There is the life of worms in dung and wood as well. — Guru Nanak If you weigh a pledge against a sum of hundreds of thousands, the pledge will be seen to be of greater consequence. — Mahatma Gandhi If you do what you should not, you must bear what you would not. — Franklin |
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