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Isolated, Congress consults allies for better coordination
Give same scale to promoted staff as direct appointees: SCS S Negi
US official’s visit to focus on Pakistan terror support
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31 ISI-backed spying modules neutralised
Unidentified body perplexes police
Plea to introduce women’s quota Bill in both Houses
Lok Sabha passes Actuaries Bill
LS mourns kids’ death
in Sonepat
Bihar Govt mulls four-lane expressway to Patna Sahib
Old couple murder case: servant held
Bollywood-mafia nexus
is state’s problem, says Centre
Oppn seeks increase in paddy MSP
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Isolated, Congress consults allies
New Delhi, August 2 Intensifying their efforts in this direction, the three leaders have met RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran and JMM president Shibu Soren and the Left leaders separately over the last two days to ensure that the ruling combine presents a united face in Parliament. This exercise has been undertaken after the Congress was acutely embarrassed when its allies walked out during last week’s debate on price rise in the Lok Sabha and the Left parties were willing to join hands with the BJP to bring a resolution on the Indo-US nuclear deal. In his meeting with CPI leaders this evening, the PM is learnt to have told them in no uncertain terms “if they (the Left) go along with the BJP, it will be the last day of this government.” At the same time, the PM held a high-level meeting today with his senior Cabinet colleagues on how the government should proceed with regard to the implementation of OBC quotas in Central educational institutions. Although the government has declared its intention to table a Bill in this regard in the ongoing session, there are divisions in the UPA and the Congress over the timetable for the introduction of OBC quotas. Backed by strong support from the Left parties and key allies like the DMK and PMK, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh wants these reservations to be implemented in one go from the next academic session even if it is at the cost of general category seats. The government had earlier assured students that the OBC quotas would be implemented by increasing the seats and without disturbing the present set-up. Recalling this pledge others have argued that the implementation be staggered to enable the concerned institutions to improve their infrastructure and increase their seats to accommodate the additional 27 per cent OBC quota. Today’s discussions, which included Union ministers Arjun Singh, P.Chidambaram and H.R.Bharadwaj, took note of the interim report submitted by the Oversight Committee, headed by former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerappa Moily which has said that implementation of quotas will require an additional expense of Rs.16,000 crore. Meanwhile, Mr. Arjun Singh has been asked to prepare a draft Bill that will be placed before the UPA allies and the Left parties for further discussions. There was general consensus at today’s meeting that the Bill should be able to withstand legal scrutiny so that it is not struck down by the courts like the Bill on unauthorised buildings in Delhi. In addition to the controversial quota Bill, the government is also grappling with other contentious issues like the Indo-US nuclear deal and the legislations on banking regulation. Since these consultations, which will also include BJP and SP leaders, are continuing, the PM’s statement on the nuclear deal, which was expected tomorrow, has now been postponed till next week. Although the Left parties are not insisting on tabling a resolution on this issue, as they had said earlier, they do want to convey the “sense of Parliament” regarding its opposition to the additional conditions being imposed on India by the US legislations on the nuclear deal. While ruling out a resolution, the government has said that an assurance by the Prime Minister should suffice, as a resolution is tantamount to a no confidence.
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Give same scale to promoted staff as direct appointees: SCS S Negi
New Delhi, August 2 A Bench of Mr Justice K G Balakrishnan and Mr Justice D K Jain directed the Haryana Government to bring all promoted group C and D employees on a par with the direct recruited ones in terms of awarding the ACP benefits. The “appellant (government) will provide pay scale to them on a par with the direct recruits if they are getting lesser pay scale. It will be stepped up within two months,” the court said, while disposing of an appeal of the Haryana Government against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, holding such distinction between the promoted and direct recruited employees as unsustainable under the law. The court further said the government would not demand any refund of money from any employee if he or she had been paid in excess due to the anomaly and if any amount became due to any employee on account of up-gradation, it would be paid within six months. The court was of the view that the government could not discriminate between employees in the same post merely on the ground that one set of them had come from direct recruitment and the other through the promotional route. Senior advocate Mahabir Singh, who defended the employees in the main petition of Ram Sarup Ganda and others with which a huge bunch of other petitions were tagged to be decided in a common order, told the court that making such a distinction between direct recruited and promoted employees in the same post violated of the right to equality guaranteed in the Constitution. Mr Singh described the August 5, 1998 order of the Haryana Government, issuing a clarification regarding applicability of ACP benefit as contrary to the law of equality and clearly discriminatory against the promoted employees. The effect of the order was that senior promoted employees were placed in lower pay scale than the direct recruited ones under the ACP scheme, Mr Singh argued. On the other hand Haryana Government counsel M L Verma challenged the High Court order on the ground that the validity of the ACP scheme itself was not challenged before it. The ACP scheme introduced in 1991 provided for two progression grades to the C and D group employee after 10 and 20 years of service if placed in the same post without any further promotional avenues to save them from stagnating on the same salary at the end of the scale. But the Haryana Government had issued a clarification order in 1998 stating that under the ACP scheme the number of financial up-gradations to be given to class C and D category employees “shall” be counted from the grade where he was inducted on direct recruitment basis in a particular post.
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US official’s visit to focus on Pakistan terror support
New Delhi, August 2 India and the USA will review bilateral ties and a range of other issues here for four days beginning August 5 when Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher holds talks with Indian officials. His most important meeting will be on August 7 when he meets senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs. Mr Boucher’s India visit comes close on the heels of a major development in a Cincinnati court in the US where the Bush administration produced satellite imagery and other evidence in a criminal case to prove that terrorist camps existed in Pakistan and territories under Islamabad’s control. This will be the first direct official-level contact between the two governments after Mr Boucher’s controversial statement on July 17 that got published in the Indian media in a distorted way. The media here had erroneously quoted Mr Boucher as saying that Washington asked for evidence for linking Pakistan to July 11 Mumbai blasts. According to the official transcript released by the State Department, this was what Mr Boucher had said in his July 17 foreign press briefing at Washington: “The Mumbai bombings were a horrible tragedy. They were obviously well-prepared by somebody with evil intent, by somebody with local knowledge, by somebody with - or some group, some individuals, some people with a lot of planning and malice ... and a lot of malice. The evidence, as far as who they were, who was responsible, I don’t think we’ve seen all that yet. That’s to be expected. The Indians are conducting the investigation and investigators usually don’t talk about their investigations until they’ve reached firm conclusion. So we look forward to seeing how the evidence develops. We look forward to hearing the firm conclusions of the investigators ... We need to be led by the evidence before we start trying to draw conclusions and make policy pronouncements on it.” During his four-day visit to India, Mr Boucher will visit Kolkata on August 4 for meetings with state government officials and representatives of West Bengal’s civic community. He will be in New Delhi from August 5 to 8, where he will hold meetings with senior government officials, business leaders and a cross section of Delhi’s society, the US embassy here said. “Mr Boucher will pursue the agenda outlined by President Bush and Prime Minister Singh to advance the US-India strategic partnership and review regional and global issues and common efforts to combat the scourge of terrorism,” the US embassy said.
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31 ISI-backed spying modules neutralised
New Delhi, August 2 The government had been pursuing a well-coordinated and multi-pronged approach to tackle activities of the ISI by strengthening border management, gearing up the intelligence machinery and ensuring close coordination between the Centre and state agencies, Mr Jaiswal said in a written reply. Replying to another question, he said the available inputs did not confirm direct presence of the Al-Qaida in the country. On the question of extradition to India of persons connected with militancy in Punjab, he said at least nine persons, including Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Daya Singh Lahoria, Ranjit Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Harpal Singh Cheema, Kulbir Sin Singh Barapind, Kamaljeet Kaur and Gurbachan Singh, had been extradited/deported to India. He informed the House that 32 organisations continued to be banned as terrorist organisations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, as amended in September, 2004. He said there had been demands to bring back POTA, but the government was of the view that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act had provisions necessary to deal with various facets of terrorism. The minister also informed the House that till June this year, a total of 360 incidents of Naxal violence and 244 casualties (190 civilians and 54 security forces) had been reported in Chhattisgarh as against 198 such incidents and 50 casualties in the same period last year. On the question of Gujarat riot cases being referred to the CBI, another Minister of State for Home Affairs S. Reghupathy said only one riot case relating to Limkheda police station (district Dahod) had been referred to the CBI. He said the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill, 2003, had been pending with the Central Government for approval. There were policy issues that needed to be sorted out and no time frame could be fixed for achieving the same.
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FM’s resignation
sought
New Delhi, August 2 When the Rajya Sabha reassembled at 2 pm following an adjournment over the issue during zero hour, Samajwadi Party member Amar Singh said Mr Chidambaram should uphold the tradition set by his predecessor Mr T.T. Krishnamachari, who quit following the Mundhra scam. During zero hour, leaders belonging to the AIADMK, TDP and Samajwadi Party trooped into the well of the House waving copies of a book, “Vedanta’s Billions,” authored by Rohit Poddar on the functioning of Vedanta Resources Plc and Sterlite companies owned by Anil Agarwal. They demanded a discussion on the matter. Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan told the members that they had given a notice against the minister to the Chairman. He said the notice had to be sent to the minister. When the members continued raising slogans, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House till 2 pm. Mr Amar Singh told mediapersons outside the House that the book contained references linking Mr Chidambaram with Mr Anil Agarwal, who had a majority stake in Sterlite Group. This group had bought BALCO. He demanded that the book be examined by the CBI to get to the bottom of the truth. The spokesperson for the Finance Ministry told TNS this evening that the Finance Minister would only respond to a notice issued by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and not to a matter raised during zero hour.
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Unidentified body perplexes police
Mumbai, August 2 With no one coming forward to claim the body of a man, around 40 years of age, the authorities believed that he could be one of the bombers who failed to escape in time. According to investigators of the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), forensic experts have reconstructed the man’s face using digital technology and attempts are being made to trace his origins. The probe into the man’s origins has taken the police to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as well. Incidentally, the police is not sure on which blast-site the body was found. With victims of the Matunga and Mahim blasts being taken to the Sion Hospital, the victim could have been in either of the two trains, the police felt. Another angle being probed is whether the man was a suicide bomber. Though several terror groups, like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, are accused of carrying out bombings in various parts of India, none of them has so far used suicide bombers. Meanwhile, the police here claimed to have averted fresh blasts following the arrest of several suspects days after the July 11 blasts. The police said Faisal
Shaikh, one of the alleged LeT men arrested after the July 11 blasts, was planning to set off bombs at vital installations like the Army Headquarters in
Colaba, the nuclear power plants at Tarapur and the World Trade Centre in South Mumbai. Shaikh, along with his co-conspirators, including his brother, Muzammil, city-based doctor Tanvir Ansari, Jameer Shaikh and Sohail Shaikh were among those arrested.
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Plea to introduce women’s quota Bill in both Houses
New Delhi, August 4 Raising the issue during zero hour, Ms Karat said that the Bill had been hanging fire for the last 10 years. She informed the House that representatives of national women organsiations had gathered in front of Parliament to press for the passage of the Bill. Ms Karat said that in the present Lok Sabha, women constituted only 8 per cent of the total strength. She said that in 14 state Assemblies constituted between 2004 and 2006, women accounted for only 6.4 per cent strength. “This is not a matter of man and woman. The Bill should be tabled, debated upon and passed by vote.” She said that the democratic system would remain weak till the Bill was passed. BJP member Sushma Swaraj said that those who used to oppose the Bill inside the House now voice their opposition in the Cabinet and therefore the Cabinet was not able to reach a consensus on the issue. She said that the Congress-led UPA government had not even been able to prepare a draft of the Bill despite being in office for two years. Ms Swaraj said that as Parliamentary Affairs Minister, she had got the Bill for discussion twice. Sitaram Yechury (CPM) said, “Who did what is not the question. Everybody is associating with it.” The demand for immediate introduction and passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill was also made in the Lok Sabha. Raising the demand in the Lok Sabha, CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta said that the government should not make the Bill a matter of political controversy but bring it immediately. Dasgupta’s demand was supported by the Left constitutents and Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress. Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.R. Dasmunsi assured the Lok Sabha that the government would not go back on its commitment on the Women’s Reservation Bill. He added in the same breath that the Bill would require support from all sections, as it was a Constitution Amendment Bill. He said that the Home Minister was actively engaged in talks on the issue with
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Lok Sabha passes Actuaries Bill
New Delhi, August 2 The Actuaries Bill, 2005, saw the government introducing a number of amendments to the original proposal following suggestions from the Standing Committee on Finance. These were accepted by the House which passed the Bill by a voice vote. The Bill seeks to establish an Institute of Actuaries on the pattern of such bodies for Chartered Accountants, Cost and Work Accountants and Company Secretaries which are regulated by their respective Acts. The legislation, inter alia, makes a provision for an Appellate Authority, a Tribunal and a Quality Review Board. Replying to a brief debate on the Bill, the Minister of State for Finance, Mr P. K. Bansal, said the government, through the amendments,had expanded the definition of actuaries
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LS mourns kids’ death
in Sonepat
New Delhi, August 2 While speaking on the issue, Mr Hooda expressed grief over the demise of the children hailing from Bali Kutubpur village, who were students of Satkhumba Vidhya Mandir, as the bus carrying them plunged into a canal yesterday. Appreciating the timely help of villagers, he said, “The brave villagers of Khubru and Aahulana and labourers working near the site saved 23 lives by risking their own lives.” Speaker Somnath Chatterjee joined him and paid condolence to the families of the children.
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Bihar Govt mulls four-lane expressway to Patna Sahib
Patna, February 2 The road is christened as ‘Sudarshan Path’. Sources in the Patna Regional Development Authority said the project envisaged a cost of Rs 12.30 crore. This included Rs 1.37 crore for land acquisition and Rs 28 lakh for the survey of the road. It has, however, not yet been decided whether the Urban Development Department or the Road Construction Department will undertake the construction of the ‘Sudarshan Path’. The proposed four-lane road will be 4600-ft long and 160-ft wide. The project was conceived during the President`s rule and the credit for it reportedly goes to former Governor of Bihar Buta
Singh.
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Old couple murder case: servant held
New Delhi, August 2 The police had sent special teams to his hometown at New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to trace him when he was found missing after the brutal murder of Ved Raj Grover, a retired income tax officer, and his wife Vimla Grover at their residence in East Park.
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Bollywood-mafia nexus
is state’s problem, says Centre
New Delhi, August 2 It instead chooses to pass the buck to the state government, saying that the “police” and “public order” are state subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, therefore, the primary responsibility of detection, registration, investigations, prosecution and prevention of crime lies with the state governments. Minister of State for Home Affairs Manikrao Hodlya Gavit told the Lok Sabha yesterday that as per available information, involvement of some actors/actresses with criminals had been reported but the Union Government had not conducted any inquiry in this regard as it was a state subject. In the past few years, especially since 1997, Bollywood’s intimacy with dreaded underworld criminals, including Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel and Abu Salem, have resulted in several fatalities. Financial incentives apart, gangsters are known to have a passion for movies and starlets. The financial involvement of underworld in the film-world dates back to more than 30 years when Haji Mastan, the original crime lord, is reported to have produced films for his sweetheart, who was an aspiring starlet. Superstar Sanjay Dutt was arrested on the charges of dealing with the mafia following Mumbai blasts of 1993, Monica Bedi absconded with Abu Salem and in June, 1997, producer Bharat Shah and music maestros duo Nadeem-Sharavan came to be known for their mafia links. Since then this relationship has resulted in several film personalities have being targeted by the mafia, including producer Mukesh Duggal who was shot in June, 1997, and cassette king-turned-producer Gulshan Kumar, who was killed in August, 1997, by the underworld. Director Rakesh Roshan survived an assassination bid in January, 2001. Directors J.P. Dutta, Subhash Ghai and Ram Gopal Verma have been targeted and producer Pahlaj Nihalani, directors Mahesh Bhatt and Karan Johar, besides actors Hritik Roshan and Govinda have asked for police protection after receiving threats.
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Oppn seeks increase in paddy MSP
New Delhi, August 2 Raising the issue during zero hour, Mr Tarlochan Singh said increasing the MSP of paddy by Rs 10 was not encouraging for paddy growers. He said paddy growers in Punjab and Haryana were sitting on dharnas. He said electricity was not available in several areas and diesel cost Rs 35 a litre. He said agricultural lands in Punjab and Haryana were being sold to big industrialists and had been converted into Special Economic Zones (SEZs). He said the paddy price should be fixed taking into account the cost price of the farmers. If Punjab and Haryana farmers did not get good price, they would switch over to other crops. “This is a warning to the government. Farmers don’t have the capacity to repay loans. You claim to be with the common man. Does the farmer not figure in your list then?” he asked. When senior Opposition leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu and Sushma Swaraj rose to make a point on the issue, Deputy Chairman Rahman Khan said, “Please sit down. Please understand. In zero hour, I cannot allow a structured discussion and a total debate on this. The Business Advisory Committee will fix a time for a structured debate. It is a very important issue.” Mr Venkaiah Naidu said the token raise of Rs 10 in the MSP of paddy was awfully inadequate. “Homegrown food security is the need of the hour. I would like to share the concern expressed by members. I come from Andhra Pradesh, a state that produces paddy. You have seen farmers committing suicides,” he said.
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