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Demolition law: SC gives govt 10 days to clarify
Cong plays Jat card for UP Assembly elections
Sonia to convene meeting of Cong CMs on farm sector
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Passport, visa must for truckers to
Bangladesh
Pravin Mahajan’s bail plea rejected
Govt bans kids as domestic help
Government begins implementing CAS
Maharashtra floods: 20,000 being evacuated
Recruitment of Navodaya teachers to be state specific
Fastest trial in rape case
Centre asks Nepal to protect Indians
Meteorite fragments rain in Gujarat
LeT, JeM among 32 banned terror organisations
Security at Tarapur beefed up
2 Naxals killed in encounter
Metro extension okayed
New assignment for Deepa Jain
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Demolition law: SC gives govt 10 days to clarify
New Delhi, August 1 In strongly worded observations, a Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice C.K. Thakker and Mr Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan went on to ask Solicitor-General G.E. Vahanvati, appearing for the government “What Parliament was doing (when illegal constructions and commercialisation were on). Was it sleeping for the past 20 years?” On the question of issuing an interim stay order on the Delhi Laws (Special Provision) Act, 2006, providing one-year moratorium on demolition and sealing, the Chief Justice said “We are not inclined to say no to stay, or complete stay, we are for a middle path… prima facie we are of the view that this type of statue has been passed only in this nation. It says all the (court) orders and laws abide by the citizens are suspended. You have suspended it for one year, you can extend it to 20 years.” The Bench asked the Urban Development Ministry to come back with its stand on August 10 on the issue of stay of the Act, reminding both government and legislature that all illegal activities had been taking place under their nose during the past 20 years and the courts had been making consistent efforts to stop them since 1991-92 by issuing judicial orders from time to time, be it the lower judiciary, Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court. “We talk so much of making the nation a developed country. You say that for the past few decades the development has not taken place as per the master plan. Who is to be blamed for. Even a former Lt-Governor of Delhi (P.K. Dave) has to come to the court to challenge the Act. It is unheard of that a past Lt-Governor has to seek shelter in the court. We are talking of good governance. Is it the way to do this?” it asked. The court told the government that it was the question of maintaining the “sanctity and majesty” of the rule of law and reminded its counsel that there were hundreds of persons who had given affidavits to the court with undertaking that they would abide by the law. “What will happen to those premises which have been demolished? What message Parliament and the Government want to give… should the citizens not abide by the law?” the Bench asked, while admitting a bunch of petitions, including the one filed by Dave and some residents’ welfare associations challenging the constitutional validity of the Act on moratorium. The court made it clear that on August 10 it would pass some order whether it would be to stay the process of the new law or something else, it all would depend upon the stand of the government and assistance given by it.
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Cong plays Jat card for UP Assembly elections
Jhinjhana (Muzaffarnagar), August 1 Mr Hooda, who flew in here straight from the site of the tragic incident at Sonepat, boasted about the progress made by Haryana in various fields and said Uttar Pradesh could catch up with Haryana only if the Congress was voted to power in the state in the coming elections. Sensing the mood of the organisers of the meeting, he also played his role of a popular leader to the hilt. He travelled the distance between the helipad and the site of the meeting by standing inside his Mercedes with the sunroof of the car open to enable him to stand erect and accept the greetings of the people. He talked about the traditional ties between people of western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, which was obviously a hint about the common link between the Jat folk living in the two states. “We share the same food and we also give our daughters to each other in marriages,” the Haryana CM said. Mr Hooda, who was the last speaker in the meeting and presented to the audience by the organisers with much fanfare, talked about his government’s steps such as waiving off power bill arrears of farmers and reinducting employees retrenched by the previous Chautala regime in Haryana. He said while the farmers in Haryana were having a decent life, the same was not the case with Uttar Pradesh. He said the toll charged for crossing over to Haryana from Muzaffarnagar would be abolished for two-wheelers and tractors. Also, a counter for selling pesticide, medicine, etc., and a petrol station would be opened on the Karnal cooperative sugar mill premises for catering to the people of Muzaffarnagar, he added. The meeting, organised by the UP unit of the Congress, was attended by a large number of leader, including AICC general secretary and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gahlot, Congress MP Sachin Pilot and Congress leader from Benares Rajeshpati Tripathi, who also happens to be the grandson of the late senior party leader, Mr Kamlapati Tripathi. Mr Salman Khurshid, president of the UP Congress and former Union minister, was also there. He said today was the beginning of the election campaign of the Congress in the state and a series of similar meetings would be organised in future. Mr Khurshid said an election rally would be organised at Kanpur on August 8. It would be addressed by AICC chief Sonia Gandhi.
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Sonia to convene meeting of Cong CMs on farm sector
New Delhi, August 1 Dwelling at length on the twin issues of agrarian distress and price rise in her address at the general body meeting of the Congress parliamentary panel meeting today, she reiterated that transformation of the agriculture sector remained party’s top priority as laid down in its election manifesto and the UPA’s common minimum programme. Prefacing her remarks by referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to Vidarbha and the series of measures he announced for alleviation of rural distress, she said, “At our next formal meeting of the Congress chief ministers later this month, we will focus on agriculture.” Realising that the party is drawing flak for not delivering on its “pro-poor” agenda, she also underlined that the 11th Five-Year Plan, currently under preparation, should accord overriding priority to the farm sector. Referring to the other sticking point — price rise of essential commodities — which continues to be matter of serious concern to the party, she sought to blame the NDA government’s faulty policies for the problem. She said the UPA government was still dealing with the consequences of the BJP-led NDA regime’s insensitive decision to export 14 million tonnes of wheat during its tenure. Making a strong case for empowering state governments to take tough and preemptive action against hoarders, she pointed out that it was the NDA government that had withdrawn these powers. This is the second time in three months that Ms Gandhi has expressed concern on price rise. Faced with growing public anger over escalating prices, she had spoken on the matter at the last CPP meeting, followed it up with a meeting of the party’s working committee and subsequently convened a meeting of Congress CMs on the issue. She drew attention to the CMs demand for a more effective regulatory framework to deal with forward trading in wheat. Meeting for the first time after the “barbaric attack by terrorists in Mumbai”, she said there could be no compromise on internal security. At the same time, she cautioned that steps must be taken to ensure that no community felt that it was under siege or was being targeted. The statement comes in the backdrop of some Muslim MPs who had complained that their community was being targeted after the blasts. Ms Gandhi also expressed anguish over the Maoist killings in Chhattisgarh and the spate of terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
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Passport, visa must for truckers to
Bangladesh
New Delhi, August 1 At present, Indian traders were allowed to take trucks into Bangladesh up to 1.5 km at certain trade points without any passport or visa under a bilateral agreements between the two countries. The industrial chambers have condemned the order saying that it would be impractical to implement it and it would adversely affect the trade with the neighbouring country. Rather, the government could introduce smart cards at the border point to check unauthorised crossing of unwanted people, said FICCI in a statement issued here today. Its members, engaged in trade with Bangladesh, felt that recent order issued by the District Magistrate of North-24 Parganas (Barasat), West Bengal, making passport and visa mandatory for truck operators, cleaners, customs agents or anyone related to export of cargo seeking entry into Bangladesh to deliver the export cargo at Benapole through Petrapole LCS was impractical to implement. The order would only result in bringing India-Bangladesh Trade, which was worth over Rs 6,000 crore and was growing every year, to a “grinding halt”. Indian truckers drove about 1.5 km into Bangladesh to Benapole to deliver export cargo. Moreover, for the certification of LCs the Indian agents were required to cross the border three or four times a day. The order necessitated the truckers and others to obtain their immigration documents by September 30, 2006. It states that if they do not have proper documents, they will be denied entry into Bangladesh from January 1, 2007. The federation said it would be an unviable proposition to have passports for all truck drivers crossing Bangladesh border to deliver the goods at Benapole, most of whom were illiterate and without permanent residential addresses. “Any such arrangement at the border must be implemented only after discussions with the Bangladesh Government”, it said. Since Indian trucks arrive at Benapole from across India, it would be difficult to send all truck drivers with passport. Transport companies did not have driver categorisation for Bangladesh. The industry representatives said there was no assurance from the Indian Passport Authority that jumbo-passports would be issued to all truckers carrying goods to Benapole within the stipulated time of 45 days. Each passport would have to be endorsed with multiple-entry Bangladeshi visas and at present facilities for getting Bangladeshi visas existed only at New Delhi, Kolkata and Agartala.
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Pravin Mahajan’s bail plea rejected
Mumbai, August 1 Sessions Judge Abhay Thipsay agreed with the police submission that a prima facie case had been made out against Pravin and turned down his bail plea. The prosecution opposed Pravin’s plea, saying he might abscond if he was granted liberty. While seeking bail, Pravin said since the investigations were over and the charge sheet had been filed, he should be granted liberty to prepare to defend himself. Pravin contended the motive for the murder had not been established in the charge sheet. Except for his statement to the police, there was no evidence to corroborate his involvement in the crime, he claimed. Pravin’s lawyer Nandkumar Rajurkar said the police had not recorded the statement of Rahul Mahajan, the son of late Pramod Mahajan, who had talked to his father when he was fighting for life at Hinduja Hospital. Rajurkar said it was necessary to find out what Pramod had told Rahul. The police had not recorded the dying declaration of Pramod, Pravin’s bail petition contended. — PTI
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Govt bans kids as domestic help
New Delhi, August 1 “The ban has been imposed under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and will be effective from October 10, 2006,” the Labour Ministry said today. The Act prohibits employment of children as domestic servants or in dhabas (roadside eateries), restaurants, hotels, motels, teashops, resorts, spas or in other recreational centres. The government warned that anyone employing children in these categories would be liable to prosecution and other penal action under the Act. The decision has been taken on the recommendation of the Technical Advisory Committee on Child Labour, headed by the Director-General,
ICMR. The committee considers the occupations mentioned in the above notification as hazardous for children and has recommended their inclusion in the occupations which are prohibited for persons below 14 years under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. The committee, while recommending a ban on employing children in these occupations, had said that these children were subjected to physical violence, psychological traumas and at times even sexual abuse. It said that invariably such incidents went unnoticed and unreported as they took place in the close confines of households, dhabas or restaurants. It said these children were made to work for long hours and were made to undertake various hazardous activities severely affecting their health and psyche. The committee has said that the children employed in roadside eateries and highway dhabas were the most vulnerable lot and were easy prey to sex and drug abuse as they came in contact with all kinds of people. The measure is expected to go a long way in ameliorating the condition of hapless working children. The Labour Ministry is also contemplating to strengthen and expand its rehabilitative scheme of the National Child Labour Project, which already covers 250 child labour-endemic districts in the country.
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Government begins implementing CAS
New Delhi, August 1 Introduction of the system had been deferred in 2004 following intense
opposition from the people and broadcasters. The notification for having CAS in place in the three metropolitan cities had been issued following the Delhi High Court order of July 20. From December 31, it shall be mandatory for every cable operator to transmit or retransmit programmes of every pay channel through an addressable system in the areas notified by the government in its order of July 10, 2003, said the notification issued late last night. If the subscriber wishes to view pay channels he would now have to use a 'Set Top Box' (STB) for it. No STB is required if the subscriber wants to watch only free to air
(FTA) channels. STBs would be made available to the subscriber through various mechanisms depending upon the business models of the cable
operators/MSOs through outright purchase, hire purchase, financing schemes etc. Consumers in the country today have to pay a fixed price for receiving approximately 80 to 100 channels without a choice. The channels are distributed by about 20,000 cable operators spread all over the country. With
CAS, consumers would be able to choose the channels they want to view and pay for. The work on CAS had first commenced when the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj set up a task force in September 2001. Following its report, the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 was amended and a notification was issued for introducing the system within six months and a new task force set up to ensure the same. The
government had to defer implementation following intense opposition from the people and broadcasters. The government’s decision to defer the
implementation was challenged in court, which had, in March this year, ordered the Centre to implement the system in four metros within four weeks. The government had then moved the Delhi High Court seeking more time on the ground that four weeks was not enough in view of the complexity involved in the matter. The court in its order last month gave the government time till December 31 to implement
CAS. Attempts to introduce CAS in Delhi and other metros in 2003 had failed in the face of resistance by citizens' bodies. Chennai is the only city where CAS has been implemented so far.
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Maharashtra floods: 20,000 being evacuated
Mumbai, August 1 The administration has begun to shift people to safer locations as the situation is expected to worsen.
So far 1,96,000 cusecs of water have been released from the Almatti dam, 1,04,000 cusecs of water from the Koyna dam, 40,000 cusecs from the Panchganga dam, 16,000 cusecs from the Varana dam, 23,000 cusecs from the Dhoom dam and 22,000 cusecs from the Kaneri dam. The Krishna river is said to be flowing above the danger mark.
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Recruitment of Navodaya teachers to be state specific
New Delhi, August 1
Corrective action might be taken up by asking the prospective candidates to indicate the cadres for which they were replying and preparing a cadre-wise merit list of candidates. Referring to the vacant posts of teacher in various Kendriya
Vidyalayas, the minister said out of 4,853 vacant posts in the vidyalayas as on June 30, 825 posts had been filled. Filling of these vacant posts, she said, is a “continuous process”. Ms Purandeshwari said schools had been authorised to appoint teachers on a contract basis to make good any shortage in the
vidyalayas, so that teaching did not suffer. She said even the afternoon shifts had regular teachers and wherever there were vacancies, teachers were being appointed on contract, as it was the practice for regular shifts. The quality of education was not compromised, she added.
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Fastest trial in rape case
Patna, August 1 After the DNA report of the rape victim, Justice Arun Kumar Srivastava started hearing the case on July 25 and sentenced the two accused to jail term of seven years each on July 27. The judge reportedly only had asked the doctor to confirm whether the girl had been raped based on the DNA report. On receiving confirmation, he asked the police whether the persons arrested were found involved in the incident. And finally hearing the victim’s story, the judge pronounced the verdict. The judgement has come as a morale booster for the ruling NDA in Bihar that had been promising faster trial of criminals to establish rule of law in the state.
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Centre asks Nepal to protect Indians
New Delhi, August 1 Asked about reports that Indians were being hounded out of Nepal, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu had received a complaint from Rakesh Wadhwa, executive director of the Nepal Recreation Centre Private Limited. This was about the threat he had received from the Maoist-affiliated All-Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union. Mr Sarna said the matter was strongly taken with the Nepalese government by the Indian mission in Kathmandu. There had been incidents of extortion against Indian businessmen and industrial units in the Hetavda-Birgunj area.
— TNS
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Meteorite fragments rain in Gujarat
Ahmedabad, August 1 Meteorite fragments rained down in Kutch, Jamnagar and Rajkot districts around 9.30 last night, prompting people to make frantic calls to the local authorities. The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), a premier institution of the Department of Space, would conduct tests on fragments collected from several villages of Kutch region, a scientist said today. The fragments would be brought to the PRL here this evening, the scientist added. Kutch Collector Dhananjay Diwedi said meteorite fragments had been collected from Bharuch district also. Meteorites are small bodies from outer space that consist of rock and metal. On entering the earth’s atmosphere, these start glowing due to heat generated by friction. The sight of these objects hurtling down to earth created considerable excitement among people.
— PTI
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LeT, JeM among 32 banned terror organisations
New Delhi, August 1 “Flow of funds to terrorist groups is estimated to be of the order of several crores every year though the exact quantum of funds being received by them is difficult to estimate,” he said. The minister said the banned outfits include Babbar Khalsa International, the Khalistan Commando Force, the Khalistan Zindabad Force, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, ULFA, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, the People’s liberation Army and the LTTE. Some other banned outfits are SIMI, CPI-ML, the MCC, the Al-Badr and the Jamat-ul-Mujahideen, he added.
—PTI
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Security at Tarapur beefed up
Mumbai, August 1 The entry of people and vehicles into the complex is being tightly screened after the NSA warned that suicide bombers may target these installations. “The entry of outside vehicles inside even the administrative buildings in the complex has been stopped,” Chief Security Officer N.C. Gop said. The number of commandoes from the Central Industrial Security Force manning the facilities has been increased as an added security measure. The complexes of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, Uranium Corportion of India Ltd, Electronic Corporation of India Ltd are among the most sensitive facilities in the country.
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2 Naxals killed in encounter
Nagpur, August 1 The police said that a group of Naxals opened fire on the police force which intensified its combing operation to thwart destructive activities of naxalites during their “shaheed saptah (martyrs’ week)” in Gadchiroli. The police retaliated, forcing the Naxalites to run away into the thick jungles this morning. It also seized two bodies of naxalites from the spot. The two policemen injured in the encounter have been admitted in the hospital. They also recovered three rifles, three bombs and some literature.
— UNI
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Metro extension okayed
Lucknow, August 1 According to Chief Secretary N.C. Bajpai, the 170-crore project would be taken up by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in its second phase. The Ghaziabad Development Authority, with which the DMRC has already had preliminary discussions, would raise the money for the project. There would be a station at Kausambhi that would become operational in two years.
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New assignment for Deepa Jain
New Delhi, August 1 Before joining the ministry, she was Secretary in the National Commission for Minorities. She has worked in key departments and ministries of the Central Government and Haryana.
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