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Uproar over SIMI, RSS comparison
UPA govt defends amendment to RTI Act
UPA’s floor managers at work
Education Department
revamped
Govt defends caste-based quota |
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Blast at Assam station: 3 dead
Truth serum for blasts accused
NIEPA calls for regulating foreign universities
Summons to Bangaru Lakshman
Move on minorities in forces flayed
Youth held for threat mail to Kalam
Farm project launched
Nitish okays open trial of criminals
Tributes paid to Kargil martyrs
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Uproar over SIMI, RSS comparison
New Delhi, July 26 As the House reassembled after a brief adjournment over the issue at 5 pm, angry BJP members led by Mr Arun Jaitley along with Ms Sushma Swaraj, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi and former Speaker Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena) were on their feet, raising slogans. Some of them came into the well of the House when Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan refused to accede to their demand for reprimanding Mr Misra if he did not withdraw his comments. Mr Khan, giving his ruling on a point of order, said the remarks made by the SP member were being expunged from the proceedings of the House. This did not satisfy the BJP members and they kept shouting ‘SIMI samarthak murdabad’. Mr Joshi and Ms Swaraj asked Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who was present in the House, to clarify if SIMI was not an anti-national and banned organisation. However, all attempts of the Home Minister to speak failed as the BJP members were in no mood to listen. As all appeals of the Deputy Chairman to BJP members to resume their seats fell on deaf ears, forcing him to announce adjournment of the House for the day. Earlier, the House was adjourned for 20 minutes following the remarks of the SP leader. The trouble started in the post-lunch session when Mr Misra said that “as far as the RSS will remain in action, the SIMI will also continue.” As soon as he made this remark, Shiv Sena members rushed to the well of the House and demanded that the “reference to the RSS should be expunged from the discussion.” In the continuing din, the Deputy Chairman was compelled to adjourn the House for 20 minutes. However, when the House reassembled, the protests continued and the House was thrown into pandemonium when the Deputy Chairman did not accede to the BJP demand that the member should either withdraw his comment or be reprimended. He only ordered Mr Misra's remarks to be expunged. When all his appeals failed to pacify the members, he adjourned the House for the day. Meanwhile, Accusing the UPA government of failing to take adequate measure to combat terrorism in the country, the Opposition today said its minority appeasement was responsible for the rise in such activities. Initiating the debate, Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi referred to the Mumbai blasts and wanted to know why the Maharashtra Government did not take preventive steps, despite intelligence inputs hinting at a terrorist strike. Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said efforts were on to target the country's economy and its religious centres.
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UPA govt defends amendment to RTI Act
New Delhi, July 26 The exempted notings were “related to subjects that are already exempted under sub-section (1) of Section 8 of the Act and to personnel-related matters like examination, assessment and evaluation for recruitment, disciplinary proceedings,” an official statement said. The Act specifically provides that file notings of all plans, schemes and programmes of the government that relate to development and social issues shall be disclosed, it added. The Manmohan Singh government claimed that the amendments approved by the Cabinet would enhance the independence, autonomy and authority of the Centre and state information commissions. These amendments include powers to the commissions to take measures to promote the use of electronic record keeping and to facilitate effective disclosure of information and information management, powers to make recommendations regarding effective implementation and monitoring mechanisms, to make recommendations regarding systems and tools that need to be developed and deployed and development of guidelines, minimum requirements, proactive disclosure of information, and methods of publication.
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UPA’s
floor managers at work New Delhi, July 26 Not happy with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s brief intervention on this issue in the Lok Sabha today, the Left parties have said that they will decide on their next course of action on hearing the PM’s suo motu statement on the Indo-US nuclear deal next week.The Left parties could still table a resolution if they are not sufficiently convinced with the PM’s assurance. The move on introducing a resolution, rejecting the additional conditions incorporated in the US draft legislation relating to the nuclear pact, was initiated two days ago by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and three former ministers, - K.Natwar Singh, Digvijay Singh of the Janata Dal (U) and BJP’s Yashwant Sinha. The proposal was also backed by Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. Although the government has rejected this suggestion and has instead said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will make a suo motu statement on this issue next week, the Left parties are not fully convinced and are keeping their options open. The move on the resolution gathered further momentum today when Mr Natwar Singh, Mr Amar Singh, Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Digvijay Singh, again met Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekawat and urged him to accept a resolution, which reflected the “sense of Parliament” on this sensitive issue. They recalled that Parliament had adopted a resolution against the Iraq war in 2003 when the NDA government was in power. Although the then government was not keen on the resolution, it had no choice but to go along when it found that it had the support of the majority of members. Nervous at being isolated on this issue, Lok Sabha leader Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi had a lengthy meeting with the Left leaders where they tried to dissuade them from going ahead with the resolution. The two ministers maintained that a statement by the Prime Minister should suffice and,in any case, members could always seek clarifications during the course of a debate. They also pointed to the political ramifications of being seen in BJP’s company on this issue.
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Education Department
revamped
New Delhi, July 26 The change has been effected by an amendment in the Business Allocation Rules of the government in July, an official press note said here today. Prior to the amendment, the Department of Elementary Education used to look after work relating to the elementary stage of school education, Classes I-VIII and programmes of Adult Education, while the Department of Secondary and Higher Education was responsible for education at the secondary stage, Classes IX-XII, and for Higher Education, including technical education. Following the reorganisation, work relating to Secondary School Education, including vocational education at the secondary stage, and the NCERT has been added to the work of the erstwhile Department of Elementary Education and Literacy. Thus, the successor Department of School Education and Literacy will be responsible for education at the entire school stage- elementary and secondary--besides adult education. On the other hand, the new Department of Higher Education will now be responsible only for the tertiary stage of education that includes education at the college or university level, including technical education. The changes have been made in view of the fact that all of school education is a single continuum and it is, therefore, desirable that the whole of it is looked after by a single department. It would also, inter-alia, facilitate taking up of a programme on the lines of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the secondary stage of education.
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Govt defends caste-based quota
New Delhi, July 26 The government denied any discrimination against Muslims in matters of reservation. “It is well settled that a reservation policy intended to benefit any one religious community would necessarily fall foul of the constitutional prohibition on discrimination based solely on religion,”said the affidavit filed by HRD Ministry based on data collected from six other ministries and departments. On the much-hyped debate about extending reservation to the private sector, the Government in a 50-page affidavit, categorically said, “there is no policy decision as yet to reservation in respect of employment in the private sector.” The affidavit affirmed by an officer of Joint Secretary rank defended the OBC reservation in higher education institutions like AIIMS, IIMs and IITs stating that “there is consequently no basis for contending that existing or proposed reservation polices are race -conscious measures or religiously packed programmes, or that caste cannot be considered as a valid classification.” But the government categorically ruled out reservation to Muslims or any other minority community on religious lines, claiming that benefits of reservation to Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) from among the minorities were available regardless of their religious faith. The affidavit came in reply to the court’s recent direction in the wake of a bunch of petitions questioning the government’s decision to extend 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in central higher education institutions. The court had sought specific reply from the government as to what was the basis for determining the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and what will be the modalities to implement it. In a particular reference to Muslims, the government denied that the people of the community were being “discriminated ” against in matters of reservation, pointing out that allowing reservation based on religion would violate the fundamental right to equality. The government also brushed aside the view that only the Muslim community was the “worst off” among the economically backward sections, stating that the existing or any prospective reservation policy, envisaged reservation for all backward castes/classes regardless of religious faith in keeping with the principle of secularism. The government admitted that there was no data based on a “head-count” of OBCs, yet it did not agree with drawing comparision on this account with National Sample Survey figures by petitioners. The collection of data by various surveys and their objectives were entirely different than any “head-count of OBC population”. Moreover, no survey had stated that the OBC population was less than 27 per cent, it said. The petitioners, including the Association of Resident Doctors of AIIMS, that had launched an agitation against the OBC reservation in higher education institutions, had questioned the determination of 27 per cent reservation for the category based on the Mandal Commission report in absence of any caste-based census after 1931. The UPA government defended the 93 constitutional amendment facilitated by it last year by adding clause (5) to Article 15, enabling the Union and state governments to formulate laws to implement “appropriate reservation” for SC, STs, OBCs in matters of admission to higher educational institutions from 2007.
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Blast at Assam station: 3 dead
Guwahati, July 26
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Truth serum for blasts accused
Mumbai, July 26 According to state government sources here, the government has permitted the police to approach the courts for subjecting the six suspects to tests like narco-analysis and brain-mapping tests to gauge their involvement in the blasts. Police Commissioner A.N.Roy told reporters here that the police was sure about the suspects' links to the Lashkar-e-Toiba and only their involvement in the serial blasts remain to be proved. Sources say the Mumbai police has fixed time with the forensic laboratory at Hyderabad to conduct the lie-detector tests. While two suspects have been arrested from Bihar, the third hails from Pune while the rest are from Mumbai. According to the police, Tanvir Ansari, a medical practitioner, held on July 24 was the key LeT man in the city who recruited the others to carry out terror attacks. Meanwhile Jamir Ahmed and Sohail Sheikh, who were arrested yesterday, have been remanded to police custody till August 7.
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NIEPA calls for regulating foreign universities
New Delhi, July 26 While the government is readying the draft of the Regulation of Foreign University Entry and Operation (Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialisation) Bill, that is likely to be tabled in the on going Monsoon Session, the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), has suggested that in order to check commercialisation and privatisation of higher education, foreign universities eyeing Indian markets should be reigned in with suitable legislation. NIEPA has pointed out that “foreign universities are promoting the process of privatisation and fuelling commercialisation. Issues like regulation by various professional bodies to control fees, fine tune quality and suitable legislation for the entry of foreign universities would have to be immediately attended to”. With the proposed Bill likely to be introduced in Parliament, concern has been expressed over the need to maintain a check on the operations of foreign universities to rule out commercilaisation and exploitation of Indian students.
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Summons to Bangaru Lakshman
New Delhi, July 26 Patiala House court special judge Indermeet Kaur Kochchar issued notice to Mr Lakshman for August 7, 2006. “There is enough of prima facie evidence against Lakshman and, thereby, this court took the cognizance in issuing summons against Lakshman,” Ms Kochchar said in her order. The CBI on July 18, 2006, has filed its first chargesheet in the case against Mr Lakshman. —UNI
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Move on minorities in forces flayed
New Delhi, July 26 Stating that special recruitment drives were "attempts to woo the voters", BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Home Minister Shivraj Patil had given a clean chit to all madarsas in Parliament whereas the activities of many of these, located on Indo-Pakistan, Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-Nepal borders, had given a rise to suspicion. ''With the Home Minister giving them a clean chit, it will only compound problems for the agencies keeping a tab on the functioning of these organisations,'' Prof Malhotra stressed. ''The committee, headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar, is seeking a head count in defence forces, judiciary and non-judicial recruitments,'' Mr Malhotra said, adding that his party was not against Muslim recruitments but to recruit members of one religion only would send “wrong signals”.
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Youth held for threat mail to Kalam
Indore, July 26 After interrogating more than 50 people, Sulabh Goyal, a resident of Ashoknagar district, was arrested on the basis of investigation aided by cyber crime experts. As the e-mail containing assassination threat to the President reached Rashtrapati Bhawan on July 19, the matter was handed over to intelligence agencies, which traced its origin to Indore. On the basis of information, the police located cyber cafe ‘Cyber Fun’ and sealed it, besides seizing its computers and equipment.
— UNI
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Farm project launched
New Delhi, July 26 The six-year long project would facilitate an accelerated and sustainable transformation of Indian agriculture so that it can support poverty alleviation and income generation. The sector grew at about 2 per cent per annum during the 10th Plan as against the anticipated annual growth rate of 4 per cent per annum. ICAR Director-General Mangala Rai said, “The project would be implemented in consortium mode involving all stakeholders”.
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Nitish okays open trial of criminals
Patna, July 26 The empowerment to convene a jan adalat was based on Section 110 of the CrPC, an act once conceived by the erstwhile British rulers but later on forgotten after the Independence. It was Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who had decided to revive this forgotten law in Bihar by announcing open trial of criminals at a programme in Nalanda a few months back. Sources in the police disclosed that till date about six jan adalats had been held in Nalanda, the hometown of Mr Nitish Kumar. According to a senior official of the police, open trial of criminals was proving to be productive in removing the fear-psychosis of law-breakers from the minds of the people. “Initially people were a bit hesitant. But now they are coming in large numbers as eyewitnesses, framing charges against the criminals in jan adalat,”,sources said. Till date nine criminals of Nalanda district have been punished through their open trials. The Chief Minister has already asked all superintendents of police across the state to prepare a list of top 10 criminals in their areas within a month, and also the names of those related who fund them.
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Tributes paid to Kargil martyrs
New Delhi, July 26 The
Deputy Chairman, who today received ‘Shradhanjali Kalash’ from the
Citizens Society of India to mark the victory of country’s armed
forces in the Kargil War, said the Kalash symbolised the supreme
sacrifice made by brave young martyrs who protected the sovereignty and
honour of the country with exemplary courage and determination. “In
today’s world which is largely governed by selfishness and shattered
by innumerable incidents of violence and terrorism, giving one’s life
to the cause of the nation offers the noblest example of supreme
sacrifice,” he said.
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