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BJP CMs to meet today
CBI files fresh case against Reliance
SC notice to Haryana
EPF rate: protest by trade unions on Dec 20 |
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Defence Ministry told to file reply
Lalu does some soul-searching
Mulayam attacks Cong’s foreign policy
Poor girl dares to dream, sets example
Left partners lash out at CPM
Dalits seek quota in pvt sector, Army
Misra for closure of case against Rajiv’s secy
Sponsors, not govt, paid Jaya
Prada: panel
Dilip Kumar turns 83
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BJP CMs to meet today
New Delhi, December 11 The Chief Ministers of the states ruled by the party had earlier abstained from the Chief Ministers’ conference called by the UPA Government on VAT. “Party President L.K. Advani would chair the meeting, which would also deliberate upon the issue of cow slaughter in the light of the recent Surpeme Court verdict, upholding the Gujarat Government ban on it,” BJP vice-President M. Vankaiah Naidu said. Emboldened by the apex court’s order, the BJP had demanded that the ban on cow slaughter be extended to the entire country. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is also expected to attend the meeting as special invitee, as the party is a coalition partner in the state, he said. The meeting would be addressed by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and other senior leaders. The BJP ministers from Orissa and Nagaland, where the party is a coalition partner, would also attend the conclave. Mr Naidu said the steps taken by the UPA government to tackle the Naxal problem were not adequate and the issue would be discussed in detail at the meeting. “The UPA government has not been able to comprehend the magnitude of the Naxal problem and failed to take follow-up action on initiatives taken by Mr Advani, when he was the Union Home Minister,” he said. It will discuss threadbare the “Antyodya” programme for upliftment of the poorest of the poor, strengthening the public distribution system and other poverty alleviation schemes . The focus would be on how the pace of development, especially in infrastructure improvement, education and health service could be achieved. |
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CBI files fresh case against Reliance
New Delhi, December 11 This was the second case registered against the Reliance Industries in less than a month. The first was registered against Reliance on November 12 for allegedly causing a loss to the Department of Telecommunication (DOT)by re-routing international calls as local ones. The fresh case pertains to insurance of handsets and non-billing by customers, thereby causing a loss of over Rs 200 crore to the exchequer, CBI sources said. The three-year deal, signed between NIC and RIL in 2003, had covered both a special contingency policy (for loss of handsets) and a default liability policy (for non-payment of bills) for a three-year period for company’s WLL handsets. While the insurer received a premium of Rs 45 crore for the period, the claims soon exceeded the premium. The CBI alleged that on scrutiny of documents, it became known that the Reliance deal had been sealed by some NIC officials in violation of set norms and procedures and without authorisation from the top brass. The CAG report had also stated that NIC had suffered a loss of Rs 126.58 crore due to the Reliance deal. Claims of Rs 66.54 crore and Rs 31.74 crore, among others, had to be left pending by the insurer on the basis of paid and outstanding claims, it added. The allegation against the NIC was that the company had failed to comply with regulatory norms while offering tailor-made risks to the company. The insurer failed to comply with guidelines issued by their head office, the Insurance Regulatory Authority and the General Insurance Public Sector Association, the CAG said. The Insurance policies were devised primarily to suit the requirement of the insured without safeguarding the interest of insurers owing to non-adoption of prudent guidelines, the CAG had noted. |
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SC notice to Haryana
New Delhi, December 11 Issuing notices to the state government and the Haryana
Public Service Commission (HPSC) on a public interest litigation (PIL), filed jointly by four academicians from the state, including former Chairman of the commission, Mr L D Mehta, a Bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Mr Justice C K Thakker directed the respondents to file their replies in the form of affidavit on the issue. The other three petitioners are; former
Kurukshetra University Vice-Chancellor A K Chawla, its former law professor Surinder Kumar Ohlayan and former Maharshi Daynand University Vice-Chancellor O P Chaudhary. Senior advocate R K Jain, appearing for the petitioners, said appointing gazetted officers through DSCs was clear violation of Article 323 of the Constitution, which makes it mandatory for every state government to process the appointments of officials of the government, specially those of the gazetted officers through the state public service commissions. “This is a clear attempt by the new Haryana Government to do something indirectly what it could have not done directly under the law,” Mr Jain said contending that the state government could not withdraw work from the commission in such an “arbitrary” manner. The petitioner cited the example of recent appointment of Rohtak’s Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) Director B D Sharma and some Civil Judges (Junior Divisions) in the Haryana Judicial Service through DSCs and never sending the request for processing these appointments to the HPSC. “This is clear violation of Article 21, 14 and 16 of the Constitution and is against the constitutional mandate under Chapter II of Part XIV Article 315 and 323,” Mr Jain argued. He said the posts of PGIMS Director and Civil Judges apart from being the gazetted posts, which should have been processed through the HPSC, were also “sensitive” posts and could not be left to the discretion of DSCs. It was perhaps for the first time that the state government had done so otherwise “ever since the inception of the state of Haryana, the sensitive jobs of selections to various posts - be that of Class-I or Class-II - to various services of the state, have been tackled successfully by the HPSC.” “Without any reason, the state government has issued a notification on June 15 taking all Group B posts out of the purview of the HPSC and by various subsequent letters withdrawn the work of selection of Haryana Civil Service, Haryana Medical Services, Haryana Judicial Services from it,” the PIL said. Instead the said appointments had been either handed to the DSCs or the Departmental Promotion Committees, constituted by the state government, virtually rendering the HPSC a defunct or a non-existent body, it said. |
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Defence Ministry told to file reply
New Delhi, December 11 A Bench of Mr Justice Mukul Mudgal and Mr Justice H R Malhotra issued notices to the Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters last week on a petition, filed by Brig (retd) R P Singh. The court has given four weeks time to the ministry and the AHQ to submit their affidavits. Brigadier Singh, in the petition moved through his counsel M S Dalal alleged that Lieut Gen Lohchab, when posted as Additional Director General, Administration and Coordination at AHQ between 1996-97, had illegally allotted a shop in Delhi cantonment to a private person even when he had no “authority” to make any allotment to a civilian. He also alleged that Lieut Gen Lohchab had “misused” government transport and soldiers of Army Intelligence Corps for his personal use at his farmhouse. “Army men and other services were also used by him to construct the farmhouse and boundary wall around it,” said the petition, seeking investigation into all these matter by the CBI. Brigadier Singh’s counsel told the Bench that his client was forced to move the court after the ministry and AHQ failed to take any action on his three separate complaints on these even when he had provided “audio, video and pictorial proof” on the allegations to the Defence Minister and Chief of Army Staff in 2002. To a query by the court about delay in filing the petition, his counsel said that due to his client raising these issues, disciplinary action was initiated against him in 2004 which resulted in his trial by General Court Martial (GCM). “Therefore, he was not able to pursue his complaints, though he raised these issues during the recording of summary of evidence” before the GCM, the counsel said. |
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Lalu does some soul-searching
Patna, December 11 He is hardly perturbed over the decision by the state HRD Minister Brishen Patel to exclude the chapter on his life in the Class VIII
curriculum. After a fortnight of his party`s defeat, Mr Lalu broke his silence at an interactive session yesterday, which was attended among others by senior JD(U) leader Digvijay Narayan Singh. Mr Lalu Prasad admitted that he might have deviated from Jay Prakash Narayan`s path of “total revolution” and spoke in favour of taking development to the doorstep. The RJD supremo was of the view that Biharis were more responsible than others for wrecking the image of Bihar. “Bihar was still divided into castes and communities, with havenots, backbenchers and poor forming a major section of the society,” he remarked, who despite the defeat, commanded largest vote share by any single party based on his mythical MY (Muslim-Yadav) equation. Even the analysis by the Election Commission suggested that although the RJD was positioned third by bagging 54 seats, after BJP’s 55 and JD(U)’s 88, as a party it still enjoyed the largest share of 25 per cent of votes. He claimed of converting Bihar into a state surplus in foodgrains than a deficit one when he had inherited the state from the previous regime. With regard to Naxalite problem, Mr Prasad was of the view that it was a result of feudal mentality. |
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Mulayam attacks Cong’s foreign policy
Lucknow, December 11 Addressing journalists here on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of a Hindi news magazine ‘Charchit Rajniti’, Mr Singh continued his criticism of India’s foreign policy initiated at a joint Samajwadi Party-Left parties forum in Lucknow last
month. Disheartened by his friends in the Left, Mr Singh remarked “They only bark and refuse to bite.” Condemning the Congress-led UPA government of letting down Iran on the nuclear issue, he accused the government for playing into the hands of powers that advocate an unjust world. Questioning India’s categorical support for the US, Mr Singh wondered how it can support a country which justifies nuclear arms for one set of nations but creates such a commotion when others want to acquire it. “Today India has angered all its immediate neighbours,” accused Mr Singh and said it could not even count on the support of traditional allies like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He charged India for not respecting countries like Iran, Iraq and Turkey who had been solidly behind it when it was struggling to make the international community appreciate its point of view on Kashmir. “Today we have bartered away the good will of time tested allies for a seat in the Security Council,” alleged Mr Singh. Recalling the principled foreign policy of the country in its early years after independence, Mr Singh said that while India at that point was not as strong a country, it was well respected for its independent foreign policy. |
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Poor girl dares to dream, sets example
Patna, December 11 The girl from Parswan in Gaya left for London today from Patna. Dressed smartly, the girl hardly looked the daughter of her illiterate parents, Mohammed Salim Ansari and Rehana Khatun, who did not dare to dream beyond the brick-kilns in Gaya where they worked as labourers. Gudia is the eldest of six siblings. According to Vijay Raj Bhandari, Unicef’s Bihar-Jharkhand representative, Gudia was selected after a search among the children of Mahila Sikshan Kendra and Mahila Samakhya as her struggle was found to be exemplary. Like other poor children of her village, education was a distant dream for Gudia too who had started working at the age of nine. However, she was determined to pursue her dream for education which forced her mother to send her to the village madarsa where she studied Urdu for two years. It was then that Gudia came to know about the Jagajgi Kendra, a place run by a local women’s self-help group outside the
village, with the help of Mahila Samakhya,a project run by the Bihar Education Project Council. Her mother tried to dissuade her, saying that they would be shunned by the Muslim community if she went outside the village for education. However, the undaunting Gudia succeeded at lastand joined the centre where she learnt about the Mahila Samakhya Sikshan Kendra which provided a nine-month residential abridged course. According to Mr Vijay Raj Bhandari, after clearing five years of studies in just nine months,she is now registered in
class VII at a middle school at Bhalua and has also mastered the art of Karate, apart from learning to ride a bicycle,stitching and weaving. Her mother, Rehena, who came to Patna to send her off, is now proud of her
daughter. Never mind even if she could not manage two square meals for her family, Rehena admitted that Gudia was now an inspiration for other girls of her community and others in the village. “Three girls have already enrolled at the local madrasa”, she said. Gudia, who dared to break the socio-religious shackles to achieve her dream, aspires to become a karate teacher after completing her studies. |
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Left partners lash out at CPM
Kolkata, December 11 CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, MP Gurudas Dasgupta and state irrigation minister Nandagopal Bhattacharyya, in their speeches squarely blamed the CPM leadership for siding with the capitalist lobby against the interest of the working classes, the poor and landless farmers. Mr Bhattacharyya accused the CPM of duping poor peasants and small landowners with false promises and forcing them to hand over their agricultural lands to industrialists for real estate business. The Forward Bloc (FB) warned the CPM that it would not hesitate to pull itself out of the Left Front if they continued to serve the capitalists and the business lobbies. Addressing a rally, FB state secretary Ashoke Ghosh and its President Kamal Guha, who is also the state agriculture minister, charged that the CPM had been taking all major decisions arbitrarily ignoring the small parties,which was an insult to them. Mr Guha declared they would not even allow an inch of agricultural land in the state to be handed over to Indonesia’s Salem group. |
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Dalits seek quota in pvt sector, Army
New Delhi, December 11 Dr Udit Raj, confederation chairman, charged the UPA government with failing to fulfil its commitment to provide reservation in the private sector. He said the confederation had also submitted a memorandum to the US President seeking his help in ensuring reservation for the Dalits in US businesses in India. The Dalits are unhappy with the UPA government for not doing anything in the past one and half years, he said. He alleged that the Scheduled Caste Commission and the Scheduled Tribe Commission were not able to further their cause because they lacked judicial, administrative and financial autonomy. He urged the government to ensure compulsory and equal education, time-bound promotion of safai karamcharis, ban on contract system and making caste certificate of one state valid in the other for the purposes of reservation. The inclusion of the Dalits in the Army would strengthen it and their representation in the judiciary would ensure that judgements had views of all sections of society, he said.
— UNI |
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Misra for closure of case against Rajiv’s secy
New Delhi, December 11 The investigations in V. George’s case were completed in the middle of this month but Misra was of the opinion that a closure report should be filed in the case for reasons best known to him, CBI sources said here. The CBI had booked George in 2001 for allegedly owning properties worth several lakhs of rupees in Delhi and elsewhere in the country and also claimed that he had fixed deposits and cash amounting to more than Rs 1.5 cr in various banks.— PTI |
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Sponsors, not govt, paid Jaya
Prada: panel
Lucknow, December 11 “The government has nothing to do with Lucknow Mahotsav. There is a committee which organises it every year,” festival committee chairman and Commissioner of Lucknow Division R K Mittal told reporters here. He said the dance programme of Jaya Prada was sponsored by Sahara India and Zee and they paid the entire amount while Pandit Jasraj was paid the amount he quoted for his programme. Mr Mittal said Jaya Prada had performed a similar programme at the Taj festival at Agra and the committee was keen to organise the same here also. “After getting to know her rates, we looked for sponsors and a letter was written to Sahara India in this regard,” he said.
— PTI |
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Dilip Kumar turns 83
Mumbai, December 11 Several film personalities, including actors Kamal Hasan, Dharmendra, Anupam Kher, Nagma and director Mahesh Bhatt met Kumar and wished him on his birthday. The actor, who is generally addressed in the film world by his real name Yousuf ‘Sahab’, celebrated his birthday by cutting a cake with his family members. The actor lives with his wife and former actress Saira Banu in suburban Bandra here. Though he has long retired from acting, it is a measure of his popularity that the digitally coloured version of his 1960 film ‘Mughale Azam’ ran to full house when re-released last year. He started his film career with 1944 movie ‘Jwar-Bhata’ and performed lead roles in successful movies like ‘Naya Daur’, ‘Devdas’, ‘Ram Aur Shyam’, to name a few. He has won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award as also the highest civilian
award of Pakistan ‘Nishan-e-Pakistan’(Dilip Kumar was born in Pakistan).
— PTI |
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Mild quake hits Gujarat
Ahmedabad, December 11 |
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