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Advise EC to resign, NDA urges Kalam
DGCA comes down heavily on A-I |
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FM holds pre-Budget consultations
Hike in petroleum prices likely
NCW seeks report from AMU on molestation
All-party meeting on state funding of elections today
Need to reduce BPL population to achieve millennium goals
BJP hails Bush visit, concerned over N-deal
Impasse over heap of coins
India, Mauritius to strengthen tourism ties
Air Sahara pilots call off stir
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Advise EC to resign, NDA urges Kalam
New Delhi, February 14 NDA leaders, who met the President to express views on the probe conducted by the high-level committee headed by a retired judge on the issue of number of Muslims in armed forces, said several MPs were deeply disappointed over the conduct of Mr Chawla as an Election Commissioner following the disclosure that he had received funds from the MPLAD accounts for furthering activities of his private trust. “This indicates cementing bond between Mr Chawla and the Congress. It creates a reasonable apprehension of bias in the minds of people and in our minds about Mr Chawla’s ability to conduct himself impartially and independently,” the leaders told the President in a memorandum. NDA convener George Fernandes, leader of the Opposition L K Advani and Jaswant Singh told the President that the NDA MPs would submit a detailed memorandum against Mr Chawla shortly, mentioning his role as a bureaucrat in dark emergency days. He had obtained plum postings for himself whenever the Congress was in power and was personally on “close family terms with Congress President and her family”. “We told the President that the NDA MPs would request him to refer this issue to the Chief Election Commissioner for his recommendation under 324 (5) of the Constitution. If Mr Chawla resigns under the President’s advise, it will prevent a ‘serious constitutional embarrassment’’, Mr Advani said. When asked about the President’s response to the NDA’s demand, Mr Advani said he would get the matters raised by the NDA examined and act appropriately. |
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DGCA comes down heavily on A-I
New Delhi, February 14 Capt T Manilal, who travelled as a supernumerary or passenger in uniform on January 25 on A-I-127 from Mumbai to Frankfurt and then operated the onward flight from Frankfurt to Chicago has been suspended for a month and another aviator Capt V Vasavda operating the Dammam-Cochin sector on December 12 last year uncontrollably climbed from 37000 feet to 40,600 feet has also been taken off the roaster pending a proper inquiry. Capt Vasavda, who is the chief of training of Air-India Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air-India, conveniently failed to file an Operational Incident Report (OIC) which is mandatory under the rules and procedures as the incident could have resulted in a calamitous situation several miles up in the sky. Authoritative sources in the regulatory authority said the Director (Operations) of Air-India, Capt, M.K. Hathi, held discussions in this regard with the DGCA here yesterday. Capt Hathi was directed to scrupulously adhere to CAR while selecting pilots for Check Pilot training as well as instructor/examiner. The DGCA rejected A-I’s request for granting instructorship to Capt Amitabh Singh on the newly acquired B 777-200 type of aircraft for lacking 500 hours as pilot in command at the time of commencing the instructor training on the aircraft. The DGCA has sought the files containing the details of the training of all the aviators sought to be recommended by Capt Hathi for being made instructor/examiner. It also desired proper procedures being followed like Air-India’s screening committee going through the due process and keeping the DGCA duly informed. Seasoned aviators insist this a serious rap for A-I which in turn raises a host of uncomfortable questions about the ad-hocism in training in the company. It is after much humming and hawing and at least two reminders from the DGCA to the CMD of Air-India V Thulasidas that Capt Hathi wrote to the DGCA on February 3 and found it necessary to follow it up with a meeting on February 13. Ironically, Capt Hathi observes in his letter that for safety reasons, A-I needs to immediately utilise Indian Captains as instructors who have also been asked to prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for standardisation across the fleet. “The foreign Captains are from all over the world which is leading to certain variation in procedures.” Here again aviation experts are aghast that SOPs are not in place. This is a pre-requisite as evidenced in all carriers across the world and find it amazing that Capt Hathi admits to difficulties in putting in place the SOPs. Further, Capt Hathi states: “We wish to reiterate that nowhere in the CAR of the DGCA is it written that we cannot commence training. It is up to the operator to optimise his resources and provide training depending on availability of slots, instructors, etc.” Member of Parliament Ramdas Athawale, in a letter to the Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, has accused Capt Hathi of serious air safety violation and fraud. As a member of the Standing Committee on Civil Aviation, he stressed he had a chance to peruse the details of the case involving the B 777-200 instructor training for pilots of Air-India. Despite the media outcry and protests from senior pilots within the company, Capt Hathi vide a letter dated January 18, 2006 disdainfully forwarded the proposal for approval of one pilot as instructor on the B-777-200 aircraft. The DGCA, realising that as per the regulations, the pilot did not possess 500 hours experience as mandated for commencing the training, sought the comments of Air-India CMD vide letters dated January 25 and February 2. Rather than the CMD communicating to the DGCA, Capt Hathi, virtually assuming the authority of the CMD, has submitted his comments to the DGCA and “made convoluted submission. Capt Hathi shockingly mentions that the regulation does not debar a pilot from commencing his training before he has accumulated the requisite flying experience under the regulations.” Mr Athawale underlined the need for the “strictest action to be initiated against Capt Hathi for fraud, misrepresentation and wrongful declaration to the DGCA and for having attempted to jeopardise the lives of hundreds of gullible passengers. Capt Hathi’s actions are nothing short of culpable homicide,” Mr Athawala added. Simultaneously, senior executives in a fresh communication on February 8 to the CMD pointed out that Capt Hathi’s continuation as Director (Operations) during the inquiry by senior Directors “is against all norms and propriety as he can threaten pilots and tamper with the evidence. We therefore request you to remove him from the helm of affairs during the ongoing inquiry.”
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FM holds pre-Budget consultations
New Delhi, February 14 Presenting a wishlist to him at a pre-Budget meeting at the AICC headquarters, Congress office-bearers and functionaries also wanted him to create more jobs, improve rural infrastructure, rationalise the tax structure and cut interest rates on farm loans. There was also a strong plea for scrapping the controversial fringe benefit tax and hiking the minimum alternate tax
instead. Still others wanted the tax net to be widened and conspicuous consumption to be taxed. This is the second consecutive year that Mr Chidambaram has held pre-Budget consultations with party functionaries. Members of the Congress Working Committee, AICC office-bearers and chiefs of frontal organisations attended the two-hour meeting which focussed primarily on the kisan, khet mazdoor, rural and urban youth and weavers, AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi told presspersons. While promising to incorporate their suggestions, Mr Chidambaram said it was not enough for the Finance Ministry to make allocations and that the performance of the different departments and ministries should also be assessed and audited regularly. Practically all the 25 AICC functionaries who spoke made a strong pitch for greater allocations for the rural and social sectors. They wanted subsidies on agriculture to continue, made a strong plea for providing credit to farmers at a better interest rate and for provision of cheaper loans for purchase of agriculture equipment and goods. The poor conditions of weavers and the handloom sector was highlighted as also the need for strengthening cooperative banking. AICC Secretary Manish Tiwari, it is learnt, made a strong plea for scrapping the fringe benefit tax and curbing the parallel economy fuelled by black money. Mr Jyotriraditya Scindia cited the example of the scheme for improving water bodies to point out how such ambitious programmes get lost in paperwork. Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan wanted specific provisions to be made for women, especially rural women. In this connection, she pointed out that the money collected and saved by the self-help groups set by women fetch a very low interest rate while they are forced to borrow at a much higher rate and suggested that this
anomaly be corrected.
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Hike in petroleum prices likely
New Delhi, February 14 “The government is fully seized of how to rationalise petroleum prices,” said Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri at a conference on energy security. The prices could be hiked only after a green signal from the Cabinet considering its political implications, maintained official sources adding it would be difficult for the government to hike prices during Budget session of Parliament starting from
February 16. Meanwhile, the Rangarajan panel on pricing and taxation of petroleum products has prepared a roadmap for reducing the burgeoning under-recoveries of the oil marketing companies
(OMCs) estimated to touch Rs 40,000 crore. It is learnt that the panel has recommended a hike in the petrol price by around Re 1 per litre and of diesel by about Rs 2 a litre to recover Rs 6,000-7,000 crore. The committee is expected to submit its report to the government this week, and is likely to be considered in Budget preparations as well. Official sources said the Finance Minister P.Chidambaram had already indicated that “it would not be possible to bring down oil duties in the coming Budget, given the amount of funds required for priority sectors like National Rural Employment Guarantee project, Urban Renewable Project and other infrastructure projects.” The panel has noted that oil companies are losing around Rs 242 on every LPG cylinder sold and around Rs 12 a litre on kerosene though government has fixed annual subsidy of Rs 3000 crore for this purpose. It has recommended hike in price of LPG cylinders by Rs 75 from April 1 this year, and later Rs 25 per cylinder from July this year. |
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NCW seeks report from AMU on molestation New Delhi, February 14 NCW chairperson Girija Vyas has asked AMU Vice-Chancellor Naseem Ahmed to send a comprehensive report on the incident. Taking suo motu cognizance of news reports, the commission has asked the AMU to report if it had constituted a complaints committee according to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the Vishakha case to deal with cases of sexual harassment at workplace. Last week, an AMU student alleged that she was molested for wearing jeans and T-shirt for classes and even harassed for registering a complaint.
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All-party meeting on state funding of elections today
New Delhi, February 14 The Union Cabinet in December had cleared the concept of the state funding of elections in the wake of cash for query scam, and the move is aimed at reducing the politician-criminal nexus and minimise the use of money power in electioneering. The UPA government had requested the Election Commission to recommend in consultation with the recognised political parties, the quantities of certain specific items to be provided to political parties or candidates. Of the 10 proposals cleared by the Cabinet, three pertained to the recognised political parties and seven to their candidates. For recognised political parties, the government has elicited the commission’s views on suitable rent-free accommodation for its headquarters, one rent-free telephone with STD facility and time to be allocated to them on private TV channels. So far as candidates of recognised parties are concerned, the EC’s opinion has been sought on quantity of petrol/diesel, paper for printing and minimum arrangements for the candidates’ camps at each polling states on the polling day, among others. The question of removing money power in elections and the malpractices connected therewith has been receiving the Central Government’s attention for quite some time. In 1972, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Amendments to Election Laws had suggested that the burden of legitimate election expenses borne by candidates or the political parties be shifted to the State. The Tarkunde Committee (1978) appointed by the Citizens For Democracy had also suggested the form of financial assistance, which may be given through public revenue to the candidates. The Committee on Electoral Reforms (Dinesh Goswami Committee, 1990) had also recommended state funding of elections but only in kind. The Law Commission of India in its 170th Report on Review of Election Laws (1999) recommended that in the present situation only partial state funding could be contemplated as a first step towards State funding. On June 7, 2004, the President in his address to the joint session of Parliament had announced that as part of the government’s commitment on electoral reforms, it would consider steps to introduce state funding of elections. The state funding of elections is one of the items of the National Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance Government. |
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Need to reduce BPL population to achieve millennium goals
New Delhi, February 14 This was stated in the India country report, which was released yesterday by Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation G.K.
Vasan. The millennium development goals include eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV\AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environment sustainability and developing a global partnership for development. To achieve universal primary education, India should increase the primary school enrolment rate to 100 per cent and wipe out the dropouts by 2015 against 41.96 per cent in 1991-92, the report said. The gross enrolment ratio in primary education has remained near 100 per cent for boys and recorded an increase of nearly 20 percentage points in the10 years period from 1992-93 to 2002-03 for girls (93 percent). The literacy rate (7 years and above) has also increased from 52.2 per cent in 1992-93 to 65.4 per cent in 2000-01. To ensure gender parity in education levels, the country will have to promote female participation at all levels to reach a female male proportion of equal level by 2015. The goal aims at reducing under five mortality rate (U5MR) from 125 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1988-92 to 42 in 2015. The U5MR has decreased during the period 1998-2002 to 98 per 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate
(IMR) has also come down from 80 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 60 per 1,000 in 2003 and the proportion of 1-year-old children immunised against measles has increased from 42.2 per cent in 1992-93 to 58.5 per cent in 2002-03. India should reduce maternal mortality
(MMR) from 437 deaths per 1,00,000 live births in 1991 to 109 by 2015. Goal-7 aims at ensuring environmental sustainability. The proportion of population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation is to be halved by 2015 and India is on track to achieve this target. Goal-8 is regarding the developing global partnership for development. It is basically meant for the developed countries to provide development assistance to developing countries. |
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BJP hails Bush visit, concerned over N-deal
New Delhi, February 14 “We welcome the visit of President Bush to India early next month and expect of the government to avail of this opportunity to put India-US relations back on a balanced and an equal and even keel”, said a statement after a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Party executive, chaired by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Criticising the UPA government for not keeping the country fully informed about the July 18 nuclear deal, the statement said: “It is of paramount importance that India takes no such step that would deny it the needed flexibility of maintaining a minimum credible deterrent enshrined as a policy postulate in India’s nuclear doctrine”. “Today, unfortunately all indications from Washington lead to the conclusion that through the nuclear deal, India will have to cap its capability of fissile material production. “What is at stake here are national security issues, autonomy of India’s decision-making processes, autonomy and independence of our nuclear programmes, the inviolability of the principles of a minimum credible deterrent, where decisions about numbers, size and contents are a sovereign national function not a result of any bilateral agreement; plus, the future of our scientific and technological research in the nuclear field”, it said.
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Impasse over heap of coins
Bhubaneswar, February 14 In an unprecedented act, the Opposition members spent the night in the house itself as the coins were kept on the reporters’ table. The Congress members had brought in several bags of coins into the house yesterday and placed it on the table claiming it amounted to Rs. 60,000 which they had brought to pay the fine imposed on three party members for damaging microphones during the monsoon session of the legislature. The three members, Mr Nimai Sarkar, Mr Rabindra Mallick and Mr Debasish Patnaik, had been asked to compensate the loss. When the House assembled today, the heaps of coins were still lying on the table with half a dozen Congress members sitting around it. Speaker Maheswar Mohanty said since the House had to transact several important business during the day including the presentation of the budget for 2006-07, the opposition members should cooperate. Congress Deputy Leader Narasingha Mishra said the opposition never wanted to disrupt the proceedings. “All we are saying is that you accept the money and give
us the receipt”, he said. As the Speaker proceeded with the question hour, OGP member Arun Dey staged a walkout saying “nowhere in the world a House is run in this manner.”
— PTI |
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India, Mauritius to strengthen tourism ties
New Delhi, February 14 This was decided in a meeting between visiting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism of Mauritius, Mr Charles Gaetan Zavier Lue Duval and Ms Ambika Soni, Minister for Tourism and Culture, here today. It was also decided that both the countries would explore investment opportunities for creation of tourism infrastructure. Recalling traditional close cultural ties between the countries, Ms Soni said that India would like strengthening these further. She offered expertise for preservation of heritage buildings and development of human resources in the hospitality sector. Ms Soni added that cooperation in the area of medical tourism could also be an important avenue of cooperation. Both the countries also agreed to explore possibilities of including tourism as one of the key areas of comprehensive economic agreement between Indian and Mauritius. |
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