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Reddy’s celebrations focus on
aam aadmi
SC seeks explanation on Pak prisoners
Poor infrastructure cause of slow disposal: SC judge
Suspension of rly official revoked
Swarup Shrivastava remanded in police custody
Insecurity grips immigrants in Assam
SC Bar opposes abolition of
tribunals
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Broadcaster Awasthi dead
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Reddy’s celebrations focus on
aam aadmi
Hyderabad, May 14 Here in Hyderabad, far away from the Capital, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy decided to celebrate his government’s first anniversary in style. The city has been plastered with banners and hoardings hailing YSR, as he is called fondly, as the state’s new hero and saviour. The local newspapers have been inundated with advertisements listing the Congress government’s achievements. A massive public rally was organised at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium to mark the occasion. Except for an occasional photograph of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, pictures and cut-outs of the Nehru-Gandhi family dominated the cityscape. Andhra bidda, P.V. Narasimha Rao, was given a complete miss. For the rest, however, the Andhra Chief Minister did not waver from the Congress script with the focus being firmly on the aam aadmi, the poor farmer and the marginalised sections. While Mr Rajasekhara Reddy was projected as a friend of farmers, his government’s one year in office was described as a “common man’s rule”. The theme of the celebrations was, “Every minute is for farmers, every step is for workers”. This was clearly an effort to contrast the Congress government’s developmental initiatives with the “anti-poor” policies of the previous TDP regime. Mr Reddy’s carefully cultivated persona is a far cry from former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s computer-savvy image. In keeping with his party’s pro-poor policies, the Chief Minister used the occasion to announce a new Rs 1,300 crore welfare scheme, “Rajiv Abhyudaya Yojana”, meant to benefit 10 lakh families of the backward and poor sections in the state. The new programme, Mr Reddy told the well-attended public meeting, would provide financial assistance to the backward classes engaged in traditional occupations. Listing out his achievements during the past one year, Mr Reddy said in their effort to establish “Indiramma Rajyam” his government had provided free power to 95 per cent of 23 lakh farmers as promised in its election manifesto and had waived the power dues of farmers, totalling about Rs 1,200 crore. He also promised to complete 26 major irrigation projects over the next five years. Although there have been reports of the Congress and the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) pulling in different directions, the two allies put up a united front today at the public meeting as the TRS ministers were seated along with all Cabinet ministers on the dais. While the Chief Minister did not refer to the contentious Telengana issue in his speech, there were some embarrassing moments when senior Congress leader G. Venkatswamy declared that the state of Telengana would be created. A frantic Chief Minister signalled him from proceeding further as he was quickly reminded that this was a government programme and not a party function.
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SC seeks explanation on Pak prisoners
New Delhi, May 14 A Bench, comprising Mr Justice P.V. Reddi and Mr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, asked Additional Solicitor General Amarendra Sharan and the Jammu and Kashmir counsel to submit their replies within six weeks. The issue was brought before the apex court by the Jammu and Kashmir Legal Aid Committee (JKLAC). JKLAC counsel Bhim Singh said the detainees were proceeded against under the Public Safety Act and had completed their sentences several years ago. Seeking their immediate deportation, he said maximum sentence under the Act was only two years, but these people, many of whom had been shifted to jails outside Jammu and Kashmir, continued to be detained "illegally and in violation of the constitutional provisions". Mr Sharan told the court that the Union Government had no objection to their deportation if the Jammu and Kashmir Government forwarded a proposal to that effect. According to a list submitted by the JKLAC, 14 prisoners were held in Kathua jail in Jammu and Kashmir, five in Jodhpur, four in Varanasi, three each in Tihar (Delhi) and Hazaribagh (Jharkhand) and one in Sangroor (Punjab). The Court has ordered listing of the matter for further hearing after the summer vacations in July. |
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Poor infrastructure cause of slow disposal: SC judge
New Delhi, May 14 Speaking at a seminar on "Justice Delayed and Justice Denied", organised by the Observer Research Foundation here last evening, he said from his personal experience as Chief Justice of High Court he had found judicial officers working without electricity and having only one chair in their court room that too with broken legs. In many states judicial officers have to write the lengthy judgments themselves as no typists or stenographers were made available to them, he said. Stating that something drastic needed to be done to improve the justice delivery system at the lower level, he said if all pending cases had to be disposed off quickly, the number of judicial officers in the country had to be increase by at least six times. In order to curtail the time limit for finality of judgment in a case, Justice Singh underlined the need to reduce the number of appeals and revisions in higher courts. He appreciated the work done by fast track courts, especially in Maharashtra where they have achieved the conviction rate as high as 80 per cent. He also suggested that some obsolete laws should be abolished as too many laws were overlapping with each other.
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Suspension of rly official revoked
Allahabad, May 14 The suspension of Additional Divisional Railway Manager was revoked this afternoon, North Central Railway spokesman R.K. Srivastava said. The official, who led the drive against ticketless travellers in the AC first class coach on April 29, was suspended on charges of carrying out the inspection at a late hour with RPF and GRP jawans and allowing mediapersons to enter the compartment on April 29. Mr A.K. Singh had tried to evict some supporters of a group of MPs from Bihar, who included Union Minister Shakeel Ahmed of the Congress and the RJD’s Raghunath Jha, Mr Devendra Yadav and Mr Magnilal Mandal, when they were found travelling without tickets. Railway employees in Allahabad junction had struck work for a couple of hours yesterday.
— PTI |
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Swarup Shrivastava remanded in police custody
Mumbai, May 14 Mr Shrivastava, Chairman and Managing Director of the Swarup Group, was arrested by the Economic Offences
Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police on Friday night. He was today produced before a local court, which remanded him in police custody till May 21. Two chartered accountants from Mumbai had earlier complained to the Income Tax Department, alleging that their signatures were forged on a balance sheet and audit reports of the Swarup Group. The documents were allegedly used by Mr Shrivastava to borrow Rs 60 lakh from HDFC to purchase a flat in the city. A police complaint has also been filed by the HDFC against the industrialist. The financial controller of the company, Mr Ganeshaan Laxmanan Iyer, has also been arrested. |
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Insecurity grips immigrants in Assam
Guwahati, May 14 The immigrants are leaving from Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Golaghat in Upper Assam to the five immigrant-dominated districts of Dhubri, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Morigaon and Nagoan in Lower Assam. Youth under the banner of ‘Chiring Chapori Yuva Manch’, in Dibrugarh, and various students’ union and others have been holding door-to-door campaigns and against the suspected immigrants since mid-April. have imposed “economic sanctions” — PTI
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SC Bar opposes abolition of
tribunals
New Delhi, May 14 In a resolution passed by the executive committee of the SCBA, it has been decided that the Bill for the abolition of the tribunals will be opposed by the lawyers as it will affect many advocates practicing in them, Bar's president Prain H Parikh said today. The move is a "retrograde" step as the tribunals have achieved the purpose for which they were constituted and has helped in resolving cases relating to civil servants, he added. |
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Broadcaster Awasthi dead
New Delhi, May 14 A retired Indian Information Service officer, Awasthi breathed his last this morning at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. |
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