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Kalam for 10 pc growth in GDP
Need for codifying privileges: Speaker
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Zooming prices leave Centre groping for solutions
Drunkenness no defence in murders: SC
Notification on forest panel stayed
No SC relief for daily wage workers
SC revives plea against Una MLA
Mulayam raises MLA fund by
25 lakh
Sari woven in record 1.6 lakh colours!
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Kalam for 10 pc growth in GDP
New Delhi, December 15 There was a need to improve the economic condition of more than 220 million out of the one billion plus population as a large part of the growth comes from the manufacturing and services sector. "For this purpose employment generation, particularly in the rural areas, is very essential. This necessitates the spread of the development process to rural areas," the President observed at the first
Asia-Pacific Conference here today on Housing and Human Settlements. Dr Kalam said Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) programme could be a
vehicle of sustainable development. The aim is towards sustainable development by using the core competence of the rural sector. Emphasising that development of the rural sector was very important, the President said the government as well as the private and public sectors had been taking up rural development. However, PURA envisaged an integrated development plan with employment as the focus. He said it was very rare that a country simultaneously witnessed an ascending economic trajectory, ever increasing foreign exchange reserves, reduced rate of inflation and global recognition of technological competence. Referring to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, he said it was effectively addressing the need for development of existing slums so that existing and future cities cater to the needs of the poor and improve their quality of life. Dr Kalam said the reason for diminishing water resources was that monsoon water went unutilised in the absence of storage facilities in urban and rural areas. He called for water harvesting and recycling systems in each habitat.
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Need for codifying privileges: Speaker
New Delhi, December 15 “The Parliamentary Committee on Privileges is considering that issue,” Chatterjee said, inaugurating the national seminar on “Legislature and Media: Reflections on role and relationship.” Stating that the functioning of Parliament was not just the floor of the House, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the Speaker said parliamentary committees attached to different ministries did a lot of work. Chatterjee said, “There is a proposal under consideration to throw open the deliberations of these committees to the media.” He urged the media to report not merely adjournments and walkouts but also constructive and informative discussions and debates in the House. The Speaker expressed concern over the growing cynicism about Parliament and urged the media to dispel that impression among the people for the strength of Parliamentary democracy. Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune H.K. Dua expressed concern over the increasing number of persons with criminal background getting into Parliament and state legislatures. When lawbreakers were lawmakers, cynicism was bound to grow which was dangerous for the survival of democracy; he said and urged upon the political class to find some ways to ban criminal and corrupt persons from entering Parliament and legislatures. Emphasising the need to codify the privileges of Parliament, especially state legislatures, he pointed out to the failure of even judiciary during emergency to stand up to protect the rights of the media. Dua said there were no definitive judgements from the Supreme Court, which gave protection to journalists from privileges. N.Ram, Chairman of The Hindu, said there were three areas of major concern, namely contempt of court, law of criminal defamation and doctrine of unlimited legislative privileges. He urged the MPs to have a look at these issues as they were not in tune with the needs of the 21st century. Former Speaker and MP P.A. Sangma said Parliament proceedings were not just the floor of the House but the work done by various committees and there was a need for a balanced flow of information. He said political parties resort to adjournment of the house as it was the simplest form of disseminating information to their voters.
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Zooming prices leave Centre groping for solutions New Delhi, December 15 It is for this reason that the Centre has not allowed sugar imports despite pressure from the sugar lobby which wants the government to take a lenient view because of the glut in production. With the price of the humble ‘dal’ touching a new high, the UPA government has been making frantic efforts to mop up all the surplus pulses in the international market. UPA sources said while decreasing domestic production of pulses had resulted in the present crisis, international availability of ‘dals’ was also very poor as very few countries cultivate pulses. The government has already warned that the projections for wheat production in the coming months do not look very promising. Worse, it might not be able to procure sufficient quantities from the international market as Australia, one of India’s main suppliers, has suffered a bad drought
year. The government had hoped that its advance announcement of the minimum support price for wheat would improve procurement but the
feedback has not been very encouraging as several states have already rejected the Centre’s offer. Similarly, the Centre was hoping to push down prices of wheat and pulses through an amendment to the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act which is aimed to curb forward trading of commodities and preventing hoarding by allowing state governments to take action against hoarders. But these initiatives have been virtual non-starters. Very few states have taken advantage of the Centre’s changed policy to crack down on large stockists. In fact, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh admitted as much when the issue of price rise was raised at the last Congress Working Committee. The forward trading Bill, providing statutory backing to the Forwards Markets Commission, could not be passed in the winter session as the standing committee scrutinising the legislation was yet to submit its report. It is expected to table it on the last day of this session, which means the
government will not be able to pass the Bill till the Budget session. Faced with crucial Assembly elections early next year, the Centre is seriously mulling the option of promulgating an ordinance. However, it is not clear if Mr Sharad Pawar, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, will consent to this proposal. The Congress has been alive to the issue of rising prices for
several months and has been taking it up at various party fora. Congress MPs expressed their concern over spiralling prices in their interaction with Finance Minister P.Chidambram and earlier at the CWC meeting. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had called a special meeting of the CWC and party chief ministers on this issue in June, which was followed up with Chief Ministers Conclave in Nainital in October where agriculture was the main subject of discussion. |
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Drunkenness no defence in murders: SC
New Delhi, December 15 The apex court sent Bablu alias Mubarik Hussain from Nagaur in Rajasthan to the death row for murdering his wife Anisha, three daughters, aged nine, six and four years, and two-and-a-half-year-old son on December 10, 2005, in cold blood in a drunken state. “Merely because he claims to be a drunk at the relevant point of time, that does not in any way get diluted not because of what is provided in Section 85 of the IPC but because one after another five lives were taken and that too of four young children,” a Bench comprising Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia ruled. Bablu was sentenced to death by a fast track court at Nagaur and the judgement was confirmed by the Rajasthan High Court. He moved an appeal against the verdict in the apex court. The apex court said the case by all standards fell in the “rarest of the rare” category and the provision of law was correctly applied by the trial judge and the high court in awarding the capital punishment to the accused. The court said the defence of drunkenness for taking a lenient view could only be availed when intoxication produced such a condition that the accused had lost the requisite intention for the offence but in that case the onus of proof about the reasons of intoxication entirely lied on him to show that his thinking power was incapacitated. The court laid three parameters for deciding the nature of “insanity” caused due to drunkenness. These are: whether it was result of drunkenness or otherwise, substantial evidence of drunkenness which renders the accused incapable of performing the specific intent essential to constitute crime, evidence of drunkenness falling short of a proved incapacity in the accused to form the intent necessary to constitute the crime. It said an aspect of Section 85was that for taking the defence of intoxication, the accused had to establish that it was caused against his will. It found that all these tests failed in favour of the accused in the present case and there was no scope for a lenient view against him.
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Caste, regional identities have furthered democracy: Desai
New Delhi, December 15 “The more caste and deeper regional divisions there are, the less it is likely that any one group will dominate the union,” Lord Desai said while delivering the third annual “Sher-e-Punjab” Maharaja Ranjit Singh Memorial Lecture, on “India and Pakistan-Divided by Democracy”, here this evening. “By creating hundreds of such votebanks one is ensuring that there is no one single votebank, that is what Jinnah could not quite understand and that is what the BJP is now sadly realising…There is no single Muslim or Hindu or Punjabi vote bank. That is the way it is in India,” he said adding “though it is a great paradox, it is amazing that the more diversity and division there is, India’s democratic set up is getting further strengthened.” Lord Desai also pointed out that though democracy practiced in India is borrowed mainly from the West, the adoption of adult franchise soon after independence, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, and Indianisation of West Minister Constitution, has made Indian democracy a vibrant one. Hailing former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for following the democratic procedures in letter and spirit, he said “Nehru could have easily said that India is a poor country, it cannot afford democracy and it needs faster development so democracy is an impediment… But he did not and laid a strong democratic foundation within the Congress”. He also countered the argument in some quarters that democratic set up in India is halting its growth, saying “India is a democracy and nothing has stopped it growing from just 3.5 per cent to about 9 per cent growth rate.”
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Notification on forest panel stayed
New Delhi, December 15 Terming the December 12 decision of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF) disbanding the earlier FAC, approved by the court, and Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by it, a Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S H Kapadia described it as an “unfortunate” development and stayed the government notification on appointment of the new committee. The court directed that the old FAC would continue to function, while asking the Secretary, MOEF, to file an affidavit by January 3, explaining the reasons and circumstances under which the new committee was constituted without taking it and the CEC into confidence. The matter was listed for further hearing on January 5. The Bench also took strong exception to Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikas Singh’s statement that it was not only the Supreme Court that could protect the environment but the government also had its responsibility. Stating that the court was not claiming the “sole protector” of environment and the forest wealth, the Bench pointed out that MOEF had given credit to the apex court for saving the forests from depletion since it started monitoring the activities in different states that posed grave threat to the forests.
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No SC relief for daily wage workers
New Delhi, December 15 The apex court said it could not ignore its earlier rulings rejecting the claim of similarly placed daily paid workers for regularisation. The services of these workers were transferred to the municipal corporations of Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur for maintaining the water supply and sewerage lines under different schemes. The Court said they themselves had agreed to be appointed on contractual basis by the WSSB. “The High Court order cannot be sustained,” it ruled. “At this juncture they cannot be heard to say that the purported transfer of their services by the State of Punjab to the Board was illegal. Even no such case has been made out in the special leave petition,” the Bench said, setting aside the High Court order passed last year.
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SC revives plea against Una MLA
New Delhi, December 15 Setting aside the order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, rejecting the petition of defeated Congress candidate Virender Nath Gautam from the Una constituency, a Bench of Mr Justice C.K. Thakker and Mr Justice R.V. Raveendran revived his election petition and asked the high court to re-hear it on merits. Directing the high court to decide the case on priority in view of almost over three years had lapsed after the February, 2003, Assembly elections, the apex court said the high court had not applied the law properly in rejecting the petition at the threshold. The order was passed on the appeal of Gautam, who had challenged the order, which said the allegations made by the defeated candidate were vague, indefinite and bereft of material facts. Gautam had alleged that the returning officer had rejected his plea for deleting from the electronic voting machine many “void votes” allegedly cast due to defect in it.
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Mulayam raises MLA fund by
25 lakh
Lucknow, December 15 This decision, having huge fiscal implications in an election year, was taken at the spur of the moment just before the monsoon session of the House was adjourned sine die, possibly for the last time in the life of the 14th Vidhan Sabha. It came just after the passing of a vote of account and interim budget for the first four months of the next financial year 2007-08, which the Chief Minister insisted on being treated as a fresh vote of confidence for his three-and-a-half-year-old government. Soon after the passing of the financial bill, senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari reminded the Chief Minister of his promise of raising the area development fund of MLAs and MLCs by Rs 25 lakh every year.
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Sari woven in record 1.6 lakh colours!
Panaji, December 15 “Fifteen weavers have designed a silk sari with 1,64,492 colours in 45 days. We have sent all the details about this unique product to the Guinness Book authorities and we are sure to notch a place in it,” M.P. Nirmala, special officer of Co-Optex, said. The Tamil Nadu Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society Ltd, popularly known as Co-Optex, has all seven wonders painted on the sari. “The colours of this sari are certified by the Government of India’s Textile Committee, depicting the elaborate carvings on the ceiling of the Madurwiieenakshi temple,” she said during an exhibition of Co-Optex products in Goa that was inaugurated by Governor S.C. Jamir this morning. The sari has 164 shades in its length while 1,003 shades in its width. What has excited Co-Optex officials is that it has already begun evincing interest from customers.
— PTI
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VP fails to get Mamata to break fast
Kolkata, December 15
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Marriage decided by voting Minorities Rights Award
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The codification of the much- contentious and ambiguous privile- ges of MPs is being considered by a parliamentary committee, said Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today.
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