New Delhi, December 12
The Supreme Court today restrained the CBI from filing a chargesheet against former Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat (RDP) Minister Nirmal Singh Kahlon but allowed the agency to continue with the investigation against him in connection with the alleged irregularities in the appointment of panchayat secretaries.

The CBI is investigating the case against Kahlon, who was RDP Minister in the previous Akali government after the Congress government had handed over the case to the agency on May 2, 2003, following the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court even after the Vigilance Bureau of Punjab Police had filed a chargesheet against him in speicial court at Ropar.

A Bench of Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice P.P. Naolakar passed the order while issuing notices to the CBI and the Punjab Government on Kahlon’s special leave petition against the high court’s October 4 order, rejecting his plea for quashing of the FIR registered by the agency in the case.

His counsel R.K. Jain and Gurinder Singh alleged that the notification for the CBI inquiry by the Congress government was motivated after the Vigilance Bureau had already filed a chargesheet in the case.

The government had concealed this fact from the high court when it issued the order for the CBI probe on April 13, 2003, the counsel said, adding that this way their client would be proceeded against doubly for the same offence if the agency filed another chargesheet against him, which was not permitted under the law.

At the most, the CBI could do was to file only a supplementary chargesheet against him under the same FIR, registered by the Vigilance Bureau, they contended.

After the alleged irregularities came to light, the appointment of all 909 panchayat secretaries was scrapped, the apex court was informed.

New Delhi, December 12
After losing its status of a state with the highest per capita income in the country, the “granary of the nation” Punjab has now gained first position also in the field of foodgrains, but only as the most corrupt state in the distribution of foodgrains through the public distribution system.

“In Punjab as much as 76.50 per cent of total highly subsidised foodgrains meant for below poverty line (BPL) families through public distribution system is diverted to the market, in addition to the 13 per cent reaching the above-poverty line (APL) families, followed by 55.65 per cent leakage in Haryana and 38.97 per cent in Uttar Pradesh,” stated a report “Performance Evaluation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) conducted by Planning Commission.”

The Planning Commission has found that over 36 per cent of the total budgetary subsidies, estimated at Rs 20,000 crore annually, is “siphoned off” in the supply chain and another “21 per cent of the subsidies reach the APL families.”

It is understood that the depot holders divert subsidised foodgrains to the market in connivance with the local politicians and officials in the state Food and Supply Departments and other bureaucrats.

Notably, in Punjab only 10.50 per cent of the subsidised food is reaching the targeted BPL families through TPDS, while as much as 13 per cent of the food subsidy was availed off by the rich families in villages and towns. However, the leakage of foodgrains through “ghost BPL cards” is negligible as against 54.48 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 33.35 per cent in Assam, 31.03 per cent in Himachal Pradesh.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Akhilesh Prasad Singh said, “The state governments have been asked to take necessary action on the report.” He admitted that the cost of income transfer to the poor through PDS was much higher than through other modes. “Leakages and diversions of subsidised grains are large and only 42 per cent of subsidised grains issued from Central pool reaches the target group.”

Under the TPDS, 35 kg of foodgrains per family at a subsidised rate is allocated by the Centre to the states and UTs for 6.52 crore BPL families across the country.

The commission noted that in Haryana only one-third of the food subsidy was reaching the targeted BPL families, as against 73 per cent in West Bengal, 65 per cent in Rajasthan, 63 per cent in Orissa and over 60 per cent in Kerala - considered to be successful states in implementing the PDS system.

Incidentally, the commission has found that as much as 16.67 per cent of the subsidised foodgrains is leaked through “ghost cards” to other people.

New Delhi, December 12
To debar involvement of any outside elements in the election to student unions and suggest if their affiliation with political parties was “desirable”, the Supreme Court today appointed a six-member committee under the chairmanship of former Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh to lay down rules and code of conduct for union polls.

The other members of the committee will be Jawahar Lal Nehru University professor Zoya Hassan, noted academicians Bhanu Pratap Mehta and Dayanand Dongaunkar with the latter being its convener.

A Bench of Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S H Kapadia, which ordered the appointment of the committee after receiving the consent of Mr Lyngdoh, directed the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to nominate one more academician and a financial expert, preferably a chartered accountant as its two other members.

“The committee shall invite suggestions from interested parties and recommend how academic atmosphere in the universities and colleges is not vitiated due to entry of undesirable (outside) elements in the student unions’ elections,” the court said.

The Ministry was directed to put in place the committee within two weeks. It would recommend how the student union elections be conducted in a democratic manner as well as suggest whether there was any “desirability” of political affiliation of the unions, the Court said.

Earlier, Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the Union Government said Mr Lyngdoh had agreed to head the committee.

He suggested that there should be a three-point agenda before the panel that the student unions were saved from criminalisation, polls were held in transparent manner and the unions function in democratic manner.

The matter was brought before the court by University of Kerala in a special leave petition, challenging the state High Court’s order setting aside the guidelines laid down by it for student unions election on the ground that there was no law under which the university could lay such rules.

New Delhi, December 12
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Union Government on a petition seeking to ensure that every child up to the age of 14 is enrolled in school as under Article 21 of the Constitution education to them had been made their fundamental right.

Taking cognisance of a public interest litigation (PIL), filed jointly by Prof Shanta Sinha from Hyderabad, the Centre for Child Rights and a civil right group, Social Jurists, a Bench of Ms Justice Ruma Pal, Mr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Mr Justice Dalveer Bhandari sought replies from the ministeries of Law and Justice, Human Resource Development and Labour and Employment.

Petitioners’ counsel Ashok Agrawal said though education to children between 6 to 14 years had been made compulsory under Article 21, still 100 million children of this age group were out of schools as they were engaged in various types of child labour across the country.

“Permitting any form of labour from children below 14 years of age is negation of Article 21-A itself,” he said, adding that the state governments were not taking steps to ensure that all children of this age group were enrolled in schools.

Depriving the children of the basic minimum education also ran contrary to the UN Convention on Rights of Child and ILO Convention on minimum age for labour, the PIL said.

The petitioner also sought a direction to the government to make all labour laws in conformity with Article 21-A of the Constitution.

New Delhi, December 12
After dragging its feet for almost nine months, the BJP today decided in principle to introduce value added tax in the five party-ruled states from next year.

Announcing this after a conference of Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states, former Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh told newspersons that the implementation of VAT would depend on the roadmap for phasing out Central sales tax, the compensation package and other things.

“The conference decided in principle that BJP-ruled states will adopt VAT. While doing so, due care will be taken to fully establish the tax information network and to educate not only the officials but also the trading community and the public,” he said after the day-long meeting.

The Finance Ministers of BJP-ruled states — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — will meet on December 15 and convey their views to the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on VAT on December 16.

Mr Jaswant Singh did not wish to comment on whether the BJP-ruled states would implement VAT from January 2006 or from the beginning of next fiscal, that is April 2006.

“There are several deficiencies and concerns which subsist. VAT and the CST can not live together,” he said, adding that “ultimately, the CST must go. But the roadmap for abolishing the CST still remains unclear.”

Even assuming that the VAT panel recommends reduction of the CST from 4 to 2 per cent from the next fiscal, he said “issues would still remain concerning compensation to states which will lose on account of abolition of the CST.”

Mr Jaswant Singh said, “It is essential that compensation for loss of revenue needs to be provided to the extent of 100 per cent in the first year of adoption of VAT.”

He favoured for a share of service tax collection to states, saying “the empowered committee needs to formulate proposals for enhancement of avenues of state finance by measures such as devolution of service tax to the states.”

Listing out other deficiencies, he said, “The flexibility given to states for exempting items of local importance is still limited to 12 items. That inflexbility is inadequate.”

Maintaining that it was not possible to have an “instant decision” on the CST rate cut, he said the problems vary from state to state.

The problem faced by a manfacturing state like Gujarat was different from states like Chhattisgarh and Jhakhand which were rich in raw materials and minerals.

The BJP Chief Ministers also expressed concern over the reduction in the Central outlays for various poverty-alleviation schemes after the UPA government assumed office.

Mr Jaswant Singh said the BJP Central leadership also made a critical review of actions taken by the states for poverty reduction.

Chief Ministers have been asked to send detailed narration of all schemes and have them analysed so that unduly-fragmented schemes could be consolidated.

The proposal to implement the new tax regime across the country, interestingly, was first mooted during the Vajpayee government. Compulsions of electoral politics, arising mainly out of the concerns for the interest of the trading class, which forms an important constituent of its support-base, forced the BJP to oppose it once it was voted out of power.

When the new regime was implemented on April 1 this year, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Pondicherry, besides the BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat, held out.

Meanwhile, BJP President L.K. Advani today asked the party organisation and its state governments to have “cordial relations” based on trust and understanding as the two have been at loggerheads in several party-ruled states.

“There should be cordial relations, understanding and trust between the government and the organisation and it is for the government to take the initiative as only through organisation can we touch the support base,” he said inaugurating the BJP Chief Ministers’ conclave here.

Maintaining that often the good performance of the government did not reflect in subsequent poll verdict, he said, “Every party has its own constituency and the government should keep in touch with it and apprise it of its views on all aspects of governance.”

Bangalore, December 12
The IT capital is set to revert back to its pre-colonial Kannada name Bengaluru from November 1 next year when the state will observe its golden centenary.

The name change has come about at the instance of Kannada activist U R Ananthamurthy, who voiced this demand along with other litterateurs during a meeting with Chief Minister N Dharam Singh to discuss preparations for the golden centenary.

The name may go in for a further change with Ananthamurthy saying that it should be Bengalooru and not Bengaluru as announced by the Chief Minister at Gulbarga yesterday. According to popular perception, Bengaluru is the colloquial translation of the name Benda Kalooru, literally meaning the town of boiled beans. According to legend the Hoysola king Veera Ballala had got lost in the vicinity of the area during a hunting expedition in the fourteenth century and was offered cooked beans by an old woman. Happy at the hospitality the king named the place Bengaluru.

The Karnataka Government website, however, maintains that the name Bengaluru appears in the ninth century and was seen in a Ganga stone inscription found at Begur village, about 14 km south of Bangalore. There is also a belief that Kempe Gowda, modern founder of the city in the sixteenth century, named it Bengaluru because his mother and wife belonged to a tiny hamlet called “Hale Bengaluru” or Old Bengaluru. Bangalore is the anglicised form of Bengaluru.

For Kannadagas the name change heralds a victory for their culture and gives back the city its old name which they claimed the British anglicised for their convenience. Kannada poet K.S. Nisar Ahmed says there is no reason for the residents of the city to remain culturally enslaved, adding that the British had played havoc with the names of towns and cities of the country. For others like Ananthamurthy the name change is also an emotional issue which is close to the hearts of the people of the city. “We must recognise this sentiment”, he adds.

Those conscious of the brand name that Bangalore has created for itself are, however, indignant, specially the young working in the IT sector. K. Raju says the name change will only create confusion at a time when the city was already facing a rough patch. “Instead of changing the name of the city and creating another issue, the Chief Minister should announce steps to raise its status to a world class city, which it deserves”.

NASSCOM chief Kiran Karnik, who represents the IT industry, says the renaming of the city will not impact the future growth of the city as it already has a presence in the world. He said there might be initial hitches in rebranding the city under the new name but the phase would be temporary. 

New Delhi, December 12
Pointing out that the handloom and the handicrafts sectors together provide livelihood to more than 12 million people, the President, Dr Abdul Kalam said there is a need for capacity building in the sector for potential employment generation.

“Handicraft and handloom sector has enormous potential to provide productive employment to large number of craftsmen and weavers. There are also opportunities to create enterprises in rural, semi-urban and urban areas but we have to see how we can empower our craftsmen and weavers such that people will get interested in crafts work and specialised weaving work,” he said.

Presenting the National Awards to master craftspersons and weavers, he said, “For empowering the handloom and handicraft workers we have to build capacity amongst artisans and handloom weavers through technology and training.”

For empowering the sector, exclusive design centres should be established to promote handloom products with inbuilt knowhow from the fashion design centres of the country, he said adding that the centres could be established in all the regions, where handloom work is predominant.

Design centres can be created on the lines of Tiruppur Garment design centres, Mr Kalam said. The market in India and abroad for handloom and handicraft products should be created through proper business development practices and aggressive advertisement.

The skill of the weavers should be elevated and their looms and processes upgraded taking into account the environmental needs and the international market demand, he said.

“A country wide mission project, ‘India Brand’, for handloom products should be created,” adding there was a need for intense collaboration between master weavers in the villages, NIFT, Textile Research Associations, Cotton Research Association, textile industrialists and the government.

“This will also be a large-scale generator of employment, particularly in the rural areas. By tripling the export of apparels, we can add more than 5 million direct jobs and 7 million indirect jobs in allied sector, by diversifying the handloom sector into apparel and other usages such as bandage cloth,” he said.

Dr Kalam said traditional knowledge has to be integrated with technology, value addition and pro-active co-operative societies to empower craftspeople and artisans, making avenues for direct marketing.

“Instead of craftspeople coming to urban marketing centres, the reverse phenomenon has to take place. I would recommend the young graduates coming from the National Institute of Fashion Technology and sculptors and architectural institutions to create small and medium enterprises in the 7,000 PURA complexes planned in different parts of the country, based on the core competence of the craftsmen available locally in each of the PURA complex,” he said.

New Delhi, December 12
The Lok Sabha today passed, by voice vote, the Appropriation (Railways) Bill, 2005, authorising the Railways to withdraw Rs 200,00,66,000 from the Consolidated Fund of India during the fiscal 2005-06 to defray several service charges.

The Supplementary demands, amounting to Rs 200,00,66,000, are for the new Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla, with the amount being contributed by the Central Government as dividend-free Budgetary support.

Piloting the Bill, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announced the creation of a new Railway division, headquartered in Salem, based on the persistent demand of the Parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

“The requisite formalities will be completed soon,” he said.

He also announced, in principle, approval of the electrification of the Villupuram-Tirruchrapalli line.

Assuring the members of rapid completion of the ongoing projects, the Minister said he was seeking the Prime Minister’s intervention to declare the rail bridge projects near Bogibil over the Brahmaputra in Assam, over the Ganga near Patna, and over Kosi river in Munger (both Bihar) as ‘National Projects’ to get additional funding.

Mr Prasad informed the House that adequate priority will be given to safety measures, to further bring down the incidence of rail accidents, which he said had already come down to 234 in 2004-05 from 325 in 2003-04, while the figure for earlier years was 351 in 2002-03, 415 in 2001-02 and 473 in 2000-01.

He said that despite railway freight encountering challenge from road transport, the Railways has already surpassed its target of an additional 33 million tons for 2005-06, achieving 37 million tons or 112 per cent of the total.

“We had a projected earnings of Rs 2702 crore from freight earnings, but we have already earned Rs 3378 crores upto now,” he said, amidst thumping of tables from the treasury benches.

Mr Prasad noted that despite a sharp hike in diesel rates and increase of salary expenditures, the Ministry had not taken recourse to hiking the freight rates or the passenger fares.

Earlier, the discussion saw most of the members seeking an increase in the number of general coaches in long-distance express trains, computerisation of all stations and strengthening of the railway service in various parts of the country. — UNI