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Centre opposes proposal for 10 pc quota this year
SC declines to entertain PIL
North Grid faces power crisis
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Sarus crane gets new lease of life Monica Bedi moves SC for bail
Imported Australian wheat unfit for consumption
Intensive watershed plan must to meet food demands: report
High-level Army appointments
SC takes MP Govt to task
3 National Research Professors appointed
Dabhol plant begins power generation
Pak team
arrives for talks SC stays seer murder trial
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Centre opposes proposal for 10 pc quota this year
New Delhi, May 1 Additional Solicitor-General (ASG) Gopal Subramaniam told a Bench of Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice D.K. Jain that the fixation of counselling schedule for PG admissions, providing 10 per cent reservation to SC and ST candidates in all-India quota, was not practically possible for this year even as an interim measure. He said if 10 per cent reservation in the Central quota seats was permitted for the current year, it would open a “floodgate” of litigation, as such a provision had not been provided by the apex court itself in its earlier order when the all-India and states quota seats for PG courses were fixed at 50 per cent each in every medical college across the country. For this purpose, the entire counselling process has to be stopped and it would be difficult to decide how the reserved seats have to be filled without any clear guidelines on the issue, he said. Many students have already filed petitions on the issue, raising the question that when such provision was not specifically made in the admission schemes announced by the medical colleges, how could it be extended in midway of the admission process? he asked. SC and ST candidates had not even applied under the reserved category for admission under the all-India quota, knowing fully when that there was no reservation for them. But the government was “alive” to the issue and would come up with a comprehensive scheme in consultation with states within three months, he said. When the court still insisted that certain suggestions be placed on record by the Centre to find out a solution for the current year, the ASG sought time and the matter was adjourned for May 5. On April 25, the court, in an interim order, had directed to keep 10 per cent seats in the all-India quota separate from the ongoing counselling process for SC and ST candidates. |
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SC declines to entertain PIL
New Delhi, May 1 A Bench of Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice A.K. Mathur, however, gave liberty to a private organisation VOICE (Consumer Care Council) to file the petition if any cause of action arises in the future (on enactment of any legislation). “We are not here exercise advisory jurisdiction,” the Bench said, making it clear that the 93rd amendment was only an “enabling” provision. At this, VOICE’s counsel sought to withdraw the public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue. The 93rd Amendment Act passed by Parliament in 2005 has included Clause V in Article 15, empowering the Central and state governments to enact a law to extend reservation to private educational institutions. The amendment was made by UPA government to overcome the Supreme Court Constitution Bench judgement in the P.A. Inamdar case, holding that any reservation in the unaided educational institutions, except those run by minorities, was unconstitutional. The government already notified the amendment in the official gazette on January 20. |
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North Grid faces power crisis
New Delhi, May 1 The power deficit has increased to about 13 per cent as against 11 per cent during last year’s peak season, and ironically, the state and Central governments have failed to increase the generating capacity, which has lead to the present crisis. The North Indian power grid is waiting to collapse anytime, confirmed official sources, as the state electricity authorities are vying with each other to get more power from the grid. The power situation has already worsened in the UP and Delhi. The power situation is relatively better in the southern and eastern grid. In the south, says industrial chamber Assocham, power shortages will be minimal as the level in the reservoirs has gone up due to excessive rains last year. In an analysis brought out by Assocham on Power Sector Performance, it has projected that since only about one-third of 10th plan capacity target addition has been accomplished by March, the impact would be much higher in the northern and western regions, which suffered power shortage to the extent of 11 and 14 per cent during 2005-06. Notably, Andaman & Nicobar have suffered power shortage to the extent of 30.8 per cent in 2005-06, followed by UP, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Tripura where the power deficit has respectively been recorded 20.9 per cent, 18.1 per cent, 17.2 per cent, 15.4 per cent, 14.2 per cent and 10.6 per cent. In the northern region comprising Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Uttaranchal, the power availability in the period was 168, 511 million units (MU) against the requirement of 188,418 MU. This region suffered a shortfall of 19,907 MU in 2005-06 which works out to be 10.6 per cent. The situation will further deteriorate until efforts are made to narrow the gap between power availability and its demand in these states. Officials in the Power Ministry has warned that if the states failed to take necessary steps in time, it would be difficult to save the grid from collapsing which would lead to huge losses. |
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Suryanarayan’s ‘second wife’ pleads for justice
Hyderabad, May 1 Swapna, who claimed that Suryanarayan had married her in 2004 and had fathered a child, met Deputy Commissioner of Police Soumya Mishra, and pleaded to be allowed a glimpse of the body which is being flown in today. ‘‘I went to his residence yesterday, but they did not allow me to go inside,’’ she told reporters after meeting the DCP. Swapna, who lives in Warangal, said Suryanarayan’s family, including his first wife Manjula and his parents, knew of his second marriage. In fact, he had been supporting us with their knowledge, she said. ‘‘I want to be recognised as a member of his family. I want my daughter to be accepted by the family’’, said Swapna, who was carrying her nine-month-old child. She said she had nowhere to go, as she had married a father of three children against her parents’ wishes. DCP Misra said Swapna came to her with photographs of her marriage with Suryanarayan. I told her she can approach the court in this matter as it is a civil issue, she told reporters. The family of Suryanarayan had been promised Rs 20 lakh compensation by his Bahraini employer. The state government had announced ex gratia worth Rs 5 lakh and a job for a member of the family. |
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Sarus crane gets new lease of life Lucknow: The state Cabinet has decided to set up a Sarus Crane Protection Society, giving the state bird of Uttar Pradesh a fresh lease of life. It has set aside a corpus of Rs 10 crore as a non-recurring grant for the purpose. Almost 50 per cent of the approximately 8,000 global population of the sarus crane, zoologically known as Grus antigone, is found in the state, particularly in the wetlands of the four districts of Mainpuri, Etawah, Etah and Aligarh. While earlier it was commonplace to locate the bird in rural countryside, in recent years its population has seen a nose dive. According to Chief Wildlife Warden Mohammad Ahsan, the bird is under threat, as its natural habitat is under pressure from thoughtless development. “Crane Capital” — a study by the Wildlife Trust of India — points out that the greatest threat to the bird is the loss of natural wetlands. Other threats listed in the study include mortality due to contact with high-tension power lines, indiscriminate use of pesticides, hunting, egg stealing, capture of adult birds for pet trade and disturbance by farmers in fields during the nesting period. The Cabinet decision is an almost four-year delayed followup of the Allahabad High Court March 19, 2002 decision given by the then Chief Justice S.K. Sen and Justice V.M. Sahai. The order was in response to a PIL filed by the Wildlife Trust of India seeking an order to protect the state bird. The PIL had specifically sought the protection of wetlands in Etawah and Mainpuri, particularly the five wetlands of Sarsai Nawar, Gaad, Sauj, Ambarpur and Khuddaiya. In their order, which was delivered within record two and half months, the Judges had directed the state government to “take necessary steps to implement the orders of the state government”. Representatives of the state government had assured the court of not widening the existing nullah drainage in the area and stopping any activity that adversely affected the natural habitat of wildlife within these protected areas.
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Monica Bedi moves SC for bail New Delhi, May 1 Taking congnizance of her petitions, a Bench of Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice D.K. Jain issued notices to the two states and CBI, seeking their replies by the first week of June when the matter would be listed before a Special Bench during the coming summer vacation. Bedi’s counsel K.T.S. Tulsi challenged her continued detention by the CBI in the two cases pertaining to obtaining passports from Bhopal and Hydrabad passport offices on forged documents, on the ground that she has already been convicted for the same offence by a Lisbon court and could not be tried again. Stating that after serving three-year sentence for the offence, any prosecution of her by the CBI would amount to “double jeopardy”, be against the constitutional-provision giving right of fair trial to an accused and the principle of natural justice. Bedi, who allegedy had married Abu Salem, which she denied after being extradited to India, had obtained passports on assumed names and travelled abroad on them on several occasions before being caught at Lisbon airport by the Portuguese authorities.
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Imported Australian wheat unfit for consumption
New Delhi, May 1 The government had imported wheat for the Southern states to meet the growing demand in the region and to replenish the depleting buffer stocks. The State Trading Corporation (STC) had imported 5 lakh tonnes of wheat from Australia on behalf of the Food Corporation of India. At the Chennai port, when the wheat was tested, it was found that the pesticide content was 0.25 ppm —around 50 times more than the permissible limit of 0.05 ppm. Following the Chennai laboratory report, which declared the imported stock was unfit for human consumption, the unloading of the shipment of 50,000 tonnes was suspended by the port authorities. More samples have, however, been referred to the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) for further confirmation of the initial testing report. A team of Australian Wheat Board (AWB) members are expected to arrive soon to ascertain the veracity of the laboratory report. The contention of AWB is that the methodology for testing the pesticides content in the sample was different from the one adopted by it. STC officials were of the view that the AWB should be given the chance to counter the laboratory report. Meanwhile, the Forum for Biosecurity and Food Safety claimed that Australian wheat contained 14 weeds, of them 11 are exotic for India. There are reports that three weeds found in Australian stocks also are already present in India. Opposing the import of Australian wheat, Forum Chief Devinder Sharma said there are high probability of Australian weeds entering into India like that of parthenium, popularly known as a congress grass, which came to India from USA with the imported wheat stocks under PL 480. |
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Intensive watershed plan must to meet food demands: report
New Delhi: For the country to meet its food security demands by 2020, an increased thrust is needed on rain-fed areas through a reformed, more intensive and improved watershed development programme.
A report on watershed programmes in India, which was released by Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, has suggested setting up a National Authority for Sustainable Development of Rainfed Areas (NASDORA) to manage the watershed programmes under an umbrella and implement these in a mission mode. The performance of NASDORA will be reviewed by an apex rainfed areas stakeholders council, headed by the Prime Minister. The report, prepared by a technical committee headed by Mr S. Parthasarthy, says that it will take around 75 years for watershed treatment to be completed at the current levels of outlay. It says that the government needs to allocate around Rs 10,000 crore per annum every year for the next 15 years for the work to be completed by 2020. The report says that while doubling of current programmes outlays on watershed development will yield around Rs 5,000 crore, an allocation of Rs 5,000 crore from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme should be earmarked for watershed works. Pointing out that the most important weaknesses of the programme is inadequacy of durable village-level institutions and participatory processes, the report proposes an eight-year three-phase programme with first two years of preparatory phase, Resource Augmentation and Institution Building for four years and sustainable livelihoods and productivity enhancement in the last two years. It suggests raising the cost norm from Rs 6,000 per hectare to Rs 12,000 per hectare. It calls for separate provision of time and money for social, financial and physical audit of the programme. The report says that watershed programmes may be executed by Village Watershed Committee of Gram Panchayat. The committee should have 50 per cent women members and 33 per cent from among the SCs and STs. The report expresses concern that for the first time since mid-60s, rate of food production has been lower than the rate of population growth in the 1990s. “The data for 1990-2000 shows that the overall growth rate of crop production declined from 3.72 per cent per annum in the 80s to 2.29 per cent in the 90s and the crop productivity fell from 2.99 per cent to 1.21 per cent in the same period.” It says that while the irrigated agriculture appears to be hitting a plateau, dryland farming has suffered neglect. The report says that the limits to further expansion of surface and groundwater irrigation through big dams and tubelwells was being reached rapidly. “This makes the urgency for more intensive and improved watershed development programmes,” it says. Mr Singh said the ministry was examining the recommendations of the committee in detail and was engaged in discussions with the Planning Commission, Cabinet Secretariat and other ministries concerned. He said till 1994, the three areas development programmes — Drought Prone Areas Programme, Desert Development Programme and Integrated Wasteland Development Programme — were being implemented on a sectoral basis. Following recommendations of a technical committee, guidelines were framed for implementing the programmes in an integrated manner from 1995-96.acThe minister said the ministry felt the need of re-looking at the implementation of the programmes and the Parthasarthy committee was constituted in February, 2005. |
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High-level Army appointments
New Delhi, May 1 Lieut-Gen Susheel Gupta, who replaces Lieut-Gen Mohinder Puri who retired on April 30, was commissioned in the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles in December 1967. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and then the Indian Military Academy, he participated in the 1971 Indo-Pak War in the Western Theatre and in counter-insurgency operations in the North-East. Having commanded a Unit and a Brigade in mountains and high altitude areas, Lieut-General Gupta has vast experience of operations in mountains and in active areas along the Line of Control. He has participated in operations in Sri Lanka and has been the Chief Military Personnel Officer at the United Nations Mission in Iraq-Kuwait. He has graduated from the Defence Services Staff College, qualified in Higher Command Course, attended National Defence College and obtained M.Phil in Management and Defence Studies from Indore University. Besides, he has held instructional appointments at the Infantry School and the Army War College, Mhow. Lieut-Gen B.S Dhaliwal , who has taken over as Engineer-in-Chief at Army Headquarters here, has replaced Lieut- Gen Ranjith Singh who retired yesterday. An alumnus of National Defence Academy, Lieut- General Dhaliwal was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers on December 25, 1966. He received the `Silver Grenade’ as the best Young Officer in the very first Course of the Young Officers Course. Lieut-General Dhaliwal is a member of a large number of professional societies namely the Institution of Engineers, Indian Building Congress, Indian Road Congress, Institution of Bridge Engineers and Indian Council of Arbitration. In another appointment, Lieut-Gen Sudhir Sharma has taken over as Quarter Master General replacing Lieut-Gen A.S Bahia who retired yesterday. Commissioned in June 1968 in the elite Regiment of the Guards, Lieut-Gen eral Sharma has a distinguished and brilliant career spanning 36 years. After a tenure with the Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT) in Bhutan, he went on to graduate from the prestigious Staff College in the United Kingdom. He later served as Brigade Major of the Poonch Brigade during 1984-85. Having successfully commanded 16 Guards in ‘Op Pawan’ and Samba, Lieut-General Sharma went on to serve as an Instructor at the prestigious Defence Services Staff College in Wellington. On promotion to flag rank, he commanded an Infantry Brigade in the Western Theatre and served as Brigadier General Staff of a Corps in the North- East. Thereafter, he was appointed as the Military Advisor in the Indian High Commission in London, UK, where his excellent performance earned him a ‘Vishisht Seva Medal’. During ‘Op Parakram’, Lieut-General Sharma commanded the crucially important Infantry Division at Akhnoor, where he was awarded the ‘Yudh Seva Medal’ for creditable performance and leadership. |
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SC takes MP Govt to task
New Delhi, May 1 A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, told government counsel that complete rehabilitation programme had to be in place one year before the submergence of the villages from where people had been displaced whereas the state had issued notices to them only six months before. “Wherever oustees go they have to be rehabilitation as per the guidelines,” the Bench having Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha, the other two judges, observed. Emphasising that the rehabilitation has to be done as per the 2000 order, the court asked counsel Harish Salve how the state could make a “distinction” about the time frame of one year vis-à-vis the state of Gujarat. The query came after Narmada Bachao Andolan counsel Shanti Bhushan quoted from the government’s affidavit that the time frame of one year for completing the rehabilitation would not apply to it as it was only applicable to Gujarat from where the dam would start filling up. |
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3 National Research Professors appointed
New Delhi, May 1 Their appointments have been made on the recommendation of a committee under the National Research Professorship Scheme. The scheme was instituted in 1949 to honour distinguished academics and scholars in recognition of their contribution to knowledge. |
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Dabhol plant begins power generation
Mumbai, May 1 Indian and foreign
engineers, who were struggling to meet the April 30 deadline to restore the power plant, managed to do so on
Sunday morning and the plant began operations today. Confirming the development, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said here today that the Dabhol Power Company renamed Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited will generate
740 mega watts of electricity in its first phase. |
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Pak team
arrives for talks New Delhi, May 1 The Indian delegation will be led by Mr Dilip Sinha, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran) in the Ministry of External Affairs. The talks will cover the arrangements for the operationalisation of the truck service for trade on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route, the commencement of a bus service between Poonch and Rawalkot and the opening of the two meeting points on the LoC.
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SC stays seer murder trial
New Delhi, May 1 “The Pondicherry court shall not proceed with the trial of the case till further order,” a Bench comprising Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice D.K. Jain said. — PTI
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