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SC notice to Centre, EC
Govt unveils schemes to woo 30 m people of Indian origin
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses delegates at the opening ceremony of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2008 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Tuesday.
— Tribune photo by Mukesh Aggarwal
Madonna gets taste of Mumbai
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Reliance Project
Climate Change
Wildlife institute to come up with tiger population soon
Missile programme scrapped
Nitish defends IIT location near Patna
BJP forms poll panel
Turban Issue
India to explore oil in Syria
Now, Velvet female condoms
Car in Dasmunsi’s convoy overturns, 7 injured
Officials held for bribe
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SC notice to Centre, EC
New Delhi, January 8 The effect of the Amendment in Article 1 “Preamble” of the Constitution made in 1976, declaring India a “socialist” state had resulted in insertion of section 29A(5) in the Representation of People Act (RPA) that made it mandatory for the political parties to swear by “socialism”. Noted constitutional laywer Fali S. Nariman, challenging the Amendment on behalf of an NGO, Good Governance India Foundation, said it was against the basic structure of the Constitution. Taking cognisance of Nariman’s strong arguments on a vital constitutional question, a Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal, issued notices to the Centre and the EC, seeking their replies. By inserting the word “socialist” in the Preamble by Parliament on a move by the then government, had, in fact, changed the whole character of the Constitution, which had never aspired to force the ideology of “socialism” or any other ideology on political parties in a democratic set-up sought to be established by the framers of the Constitution, Nariman argued. During an interesting argument, the Bench put various questions on the political ideologies to Nariman and the noted constitutional expert said even Dr B.R. Ambedkar had “specifically” explained the reasons for “non-inclusion” of the world socialist in the Constitution when it was approved. Section 29A(5) of the RPA makes it mandatory for all political parties to swear by “socialism” under the effect of the 42nd Amendment. “It is hypocritical for the political parties who do not believe in it. It is a live issue for a vast section,” he argued. Therefore, the question needs to be defined by the Supreme Court whether the insertion of word “socialist” in the Preamble of the Constitution does not amount to tampering with its basic structure. “The political philosophy in a democracy has to change with the change in circumstances and passage of time,” Nariman said. When the court said why it should be looked in “narrow” sense and why a “wider” perspective not be given to it, Nariman said: “A permanent doctrine cannot be fixed for the political parties in a democracy”. The court, after his forceful argument, issued notices only on two out of the four reliefs sought by the Foundation. Of the two, the first prayer sought striking down Section 29A(5) of the RPA to the extent that makes it mandatory for political parties to adhere to the policy of socialism. The second prayer sought derecognition of all political parties who have “wrongly" sworn allegiance to the socialist ideals “contrary” to their objectives as evident from their manifestos, political speeches and the common-minimum programmes.
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Govt unveils schemes to woo 30 m people of Indian origin
New Delhi, January 8 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today inaugurated the 6th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet at Vigyan Bhavan here and announced setting up of a Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council of PIO. The council will serve as a high level platform to draw upon the experience and knowledge of the best Indian minds from all over the world. The Prime Minister also announced launching of an Overseas Workers Resource Centre (OWRC) to provide relevant information and assistance to potential migrant workers. It would also operate a multi-lingual helpline for grievance redressal and interventions for overseas workers in distress. He announced a proposal to promote an ‘India Development Foundation’ to direct overseas Indian philanthropic efforts into human development activities in the country. “The security and welfare of Indian residents living abroad is a top priority to our diplomatic missions,” the Prime Minister declared. “I urge community leaders to develop better liaison and coordination with our missions to better serve our non-resident communities. It is through such engagement that the embassies will become more responsive to the needs of overseas Indians,” he said. Apart from these, the government gave the PIO community a peep into what was in the pipeline, summed up below: 1 Efforts are being made to provide opportunity to overseas Indian professionals like doctors, dentists, architects and chartered accountants for working in India. 2 Government is in touch with several European countries to work out bilateral agreements to ensure secured working opportunity for the PIO. 3 MoU is being stressed with the countries, where protection of the labour laws was not available to safeguard the interests of the PIO working in informal sectors. 4 Such agreements were already signed with Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. A similar “in principle” agreement had already been reached with Malaysia, Oman and Bahrain and was ready for signing later in 2008. He said there was a clear recognition in India of the “growing clout and influence” of Indian communities in their adopted homes. In 2007, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced the setting up of a PIO university, an Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) and Council for Overseas Employment Opportunities. The OIFC was set up in August 2007 and was now getting an increasing number of queries on investment, tax and real-estate procedures, while the Union Cabinet had to approve the name of an operator, recommended by a government committee - to start and run the PIO university. Overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi said the government had issued over two hundred thousand Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards during the past two years and a much larger number of overseas Indians would be provided these cards in the ensuing year. In a bid to provide secured working opportunities abroad and to safeguard interests of persons of Indian origin, the minister said the government was working on bilateral agreements with number of European countries. Over 1,500 overseas Indians from 50-odd countries attended the inaugural event, organised on January 8-9 every year to mark the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India, where he led the struggle for freedom some hundred years ago. The gathering included Leader of the Opposition L. K. Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Sops at a glance
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Madonna gets taste of Mumbai
Mumbai, January 8 The singer-actress, who is shooting in India, arrived the city from Udaipur on board a chartered aircraft today morning. Her entourage included an Israeli security group, her children Lourdes, Rocco and David and husband Guy Ritchie. The group also included Madonna’s five friends. Shortly after touching down at Mumbai airport today, Madonna was whisked away to her suite at Taj in downtown Mumbai, where an entire floor was booked for her group. Evading the media contingent awaiting her arrival, Madonna managed to reach her room. After a quick change, she visited the slums along Colaba and Cuffe Parade. Gregory Roberts, author of Shantaram, a semi-autobiographical novel set in the Mumbai of the 1980s, guided Madonna and her entourage. After interacting with the slum dwellers, Madonna and her group broke for a lunch at Hotel Saurabh. The proprietor of the hotel, S.M. Shetty, told reporters that his guests were fed with the typical South Indian restaurant fare of idli-vada sambhar, masala dosa, and sev puri apart from jeera fried rice with sambhar. Like most Mumbaiites, they finished with masala tea, Shetty told the reporters after the nearly two-hour lunch.
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SC to examine acquisition of farmers’ land in UP
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, January 8 While issuing notices to the Centre and the UP government on a petition filed by a society formed by the affected farmers of seven villages, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, however, refused to stay the project. The court even deleted the name of Reliance Energy Generation Ltd (REGL) from the list of respondents in the petition filed by farmers’ organisation, Sahyog, and confined its notice to a question how far government can use its powers to acquire land for private projects. The court said it would restrict the hearing to only one prayer of Sahyog whether farmers’ cultivable land could be acquired for a project purely in a private sector under the Rule of Law Acquisition (Companies), 1963. Sahyog’s counsel K.T.S Tulsi said though the rules provided for a mandatory inquiry by the government whether such acquisition would not adversely affect the people whose land was sought to be acquired, the then government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, had not met this legal requirement. According to Sahyog, the acquisition orders were issued “arbitrarily” without the landowners’ consent and hundreds of “poor” farmers with small land holdings in the seven villages of the area were forced to part with their fertile cultivable land. The orders were issued by the Mulayam Singh regime in 2004 but present Chief Minister Mayawati on assuming power last year, had declared to review the entire project, but till date nothing of the sort had been done by her government, it said. The court, however, said since it had admitted an identical petition from Karnataka also involving an identical question of law, therefore, both the cases would be heard together. The refusal for grant of stay and direction for deleting the name of Reliance from respondents’ list was ordered by the court after the company’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi said the stay and retaining the name of the company in the litigation would adversely affect its IPO expected to hit the market on January 15 to raise funds for the project. He said since the court had only restricted the petition to examine the powers of the government to acquire land for project in private sector, there was no point in continuing the name of the company in the list of respondent. According to Sahyog, the farmers’ land was acquired at the rate of Rs 300 per sq yard, while its value was far more than this considering the close proximity of the area to industrial townships Ghaziabad and Noida.
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| SC notice to Bhansali on ‘Black’@@New Delhi, January 8@@The Supreme Court today sought response from director Sanjay Leela Bhansali on a plea seeking vacation of stay on criminal proceedings against him in connection with a fire on the set of his film
“Black”, which was allegedly caused due to use of LPG cylinders.@@A Bench, comprising Justices C.K. Thakker and D.K. Jain, issued notice to Bhansali on a petition filed by Farida Husseinally, a dealer in antiques,
who had sourced some unique furniture for the set of the movie.@@The dealer, who allegedly had lost furniture worth Rs 2 crore, in a complaint in the magistrate’s court in Borivali had contended that the use of LPG cylinders on the set was a criminal offence under the provisions of law regulating the petroleum gas.@@The furniture included heavy bronze and copper items.@@Husseinally, through her counsel Vishwnath Chaturvedi, has challenged the Bombay High Court order staying the criminal proceedings claiming that the director was in the habit of putting his sets on fire for duping the insurance companies.@@She alleged that during the shooting of the film on February 18, 2004, the set was put on fire to seek hefty compensation.@@The dealer further claimed that on her inquiry, she came to know that before the alleged fire, Bhansali had removed all items supplied by her from the set.@@After the complaint was lodged in 2006, Bhansali had moved the High Court, seeking the quashing of the criminal case registered against him in the court in
Borivali. — PTI
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| Ex-AEC chairman backs N-deal@@Chennai, January 8@@Backing the Indo-US nuclear deal strongly, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission M.R. Srinivsan said today that the pact would help India come out of the ‘nuclear isolation regime’ and emerge as an influential player in the international arena.@@If successful, the deal would also enable India have more access to international nuclear technology and import of uranium, Srinivasan told reporters here.@@“We can even import nuclear power stations from France, the USA and Japan, while uranium can be imported from countries like Australia and Canada,” he said on the sidelines of an international welding conference.@@Srinivasan also exhorted those opposing the deal “not to be captive to imaginary fears”.@@“Political parties opposing the 123 Agreement should take a long-term view and see the good the deal would bring to the country (in terms of fuel supply),” he said, in an apparent reference to the Left parties and the BJP, which have been opposing the agreement.@@He also allayed fears that the USA was trying to ‘impose’ itself on India through the conditions in the 123 agreement.@@“I don’t believe there is such a situation. Only some politicians have got themselves into it. There is no provision to control India and there is some fear complex in them (those opposing it) that the USA can dominate our foreign policy, which cannot be done,” he asserted.
— PTI
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| Gandhi impact: Reformed prisoner’s term reduced@@Nasik, January 8@@Reading the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi led to a change of heart in a 30-year-old prisoner who, after deciding to follow the Gandhian path of truth and non-violence, confessed to his crime before the judge who reduced his jail term by two years.@@Laxman Gole, who hailed from Lahan village in Nanded district and ran computer classes in the suburban Vikhroli, had 19 cases of extortion, threatening and attacks filed in Chirag Nagar police station in Ghatkopar, Mumbai.@@While he was acquitted in 18 cases, the court sentenced him to four years and two months' imprisonment in one.@@Following his change of heart, the Vikhroli court judge reduced Gole's imprisonment by two years. Now Gole, who has spent 16 months in Mumbai and Nasik jail, will be a free man after four months, jail superintendent Ashok Rane told mediapersons yesterday.@@During his Nasik jail stay, Gole wrote to Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal and Gandhi Book Centre expressing his desire to read the autobiography of Gandhiji. They provided him books in April 2007 and Gole, after maintaining his routine jail work, started reading books on Gandhian philosophy.
— PTI
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Greenpeace raises alarm on automobile emissions
Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 8 The environmental NGO urged the government to establish mandatory fuel efficiency standards for light passenger vehicles, saying that it would soon launch a campaign to improve energy efficiency in the automobile sector. It is demanding, “CO2 emissions labelling” on all new cars in India as a mandatory basis “to enable consumers to make informed and responsible car buying choices”. Vehicular fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions regulation was being practiced in various countries, including China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, Greenpeace said, explaining that fuel efficiency not only reduced CO2 emissions and fought climate changes but also reduced fuel consumption. Campaigners said normal Euro standards followed by the auto industry were emission norms that ensured that the air coming out of exhaust pipe of an automobile was clean but did not care of CO2 emissions. But CO2 emissions did contribute to the climate changes, they added. “Consumers are aware of and even troubled by the noxious fumes and the pollution that vehicular emissions cause. But they may not be completely aware of the fact that vehicles emit CO2, the biggest contributor to global warming. Automobile manufacturers pass their vehicles off as ‘Green’ by following Euro emission standards. The truth is only toxic pollutants and not CO2 emissions are factored in these emissions norms. The more fuel a vehicle guzzles, the more CO2 emissions it is responsible for,” explains Soumyabrata Rahut. The transportation sector in India accounts for around 18 per cent of India’s total CO2 emissions, Rahut says, adding that the country is the second largest consumer of energy. According to statistics from the Indian Automobile Association, India is the second fastest growing market for cars globally. C02 emissions from the Indian car market are bound to increase substantially over the coming years, making it a major contributor to global warming. And Greenpeace believes that with climate crisis looming and with less than eight years to act and avoid it, the Indian car industry needs to take responsibility for excessive CO2 emissions it will cause. The NGO says the onus is now on manufacturers to deploy advanced technology to drastically reduce emissions. “As first step, manufacturers must label their cars and disclose information about contribution of their vehicles to climate change as consumers should be aware of environmental impacts of their purchase decisions”. It is also demanding that the Indian government set mandatory CO2 emission standards for the industry that will require car manufacturers to progressively reduce CO2 emissions from new cars.
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Wildlife institute to come up with tiger population soon
New Delhi, January 8 The number of big cats as per the partial data released by the WII in mid-2007 was far from encouraging. Data released on the basis of a new tiger estimation method devised by the National Tiger Conservation Authority along with the WII pointed how deep the crisis was getting. Though officials were hopeful of better results this time with several new initiatives to conserve the tiger underway, mid-2007 estimates suggested that the tiger population was going from bad to worse with figures showing how badly were tigers being pushed to margins in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Interim results showed that there were only 490 tigers in reserves across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, a fall from 1,233 in 2002. They revealed that tiger numbers had fallen in Madhya Pradesh by 61 per cent, in Maharashtra by 57 per cent and in Rajasthan by 40 per cent. The figures were so shocking that the ministry officials washed their hands off the study, terming them as the WII figures. WII officials, on other hand, called earlier tiger census figures faulty. The government’s first tiger census conducted under the Project Tiger initiative in 1973 when 1,827 tigers were counted in the country. Since then the big cat population saw an increase and in 2002 their number was stated to be definitely over 3,600. Te infamous Sariska disaster showed that there were actually no tigers to speak of in the Sariska forest reserve, thereby initiating the formation of Prime Minister’ Tiger Task Force to save the remaining tigers in the country and the scientific exercise of counting exact number of big cats began.
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Missile programme scrapped
New Delhi, January 8 However, longer-range missiles, under-sea launched missiles and futuristic weapons systems like electronic counter-warfare measures would be “undertaken in-house,” said one of the country’s top defence scientists, Dr S. Prahlada. He said “closure” of the integrated missile programme had been done as the manufacturing of missiles to be developed under the project, had been completed, and inducted into the Armed forces. “Unlike post-Pokhran, when doors to technology transfers were closed on us, the doors of frontline armament technology transfer are now open,” he said. “New missile and weapons systems will be developed within a five-year time frame at low costs, with foreign partners and private industries,” Prahalda, chief controller at DRDO headquarters, said. The first of such ventures, Prahalda said, would be the development of quick reaction missiles to counter threats from low-flying missiles and fighters and Astra, India first bid to develop a beyond-visual range air-to-air missile. While India would be collaborating with Israel for development of surface-to-air upgraded spyder missiles, for Astra, New Delhi has roped in French and Russian collaborators.
— PTI
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Nitish defends IIT location near Patna
Patna, January 8 The development followed the recent move reported in a section of the media by railway minister Lalu Prasad to take the IIT project to Chhapra, a Lok Sabha constituency represented by him, to outsmart the Nitish government on development agenda. Bihar received the sanction in 2005, along with Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, to set up the premier institute in the state. However, the actual work with regard to the site selection for the IIT project had started after Nitish Kumar took over as Chief Minister in November, 2005. A visibly enraged Nitish, unhappy over the unnecessary controversy created over the site selection for IIT, did not rule out the possibility of alleged foul play by some quarters to scuttle the project. Without directly naming anyone, Nitish remarked to the media saying, ”I do not know whether somebody was trying to put the project on hold. The state government is not aware of any such move. For us the IIT project is on”. Incidentally, the Bihar government has already acquired some 500 acres at Bihta for the project. Nitish said while his government promised to provide 500 acres of land free of cost to the human resource development (HRD) ministry for setting up the institute, a five-member committee headed by HRD joint secretary Ravi Mathu had approved the proposed site after visiting Bihta in August last year.
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BJP forms poll panel
New Delhi, January 8 The panel, headed by BJP president Rajnath Singh, followed an informal decision taken at a meeting at the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate L.K. Advani’s residence on December 29, which was attended by top party leaders. A five-member panel was formed to prepare an action plan for the party to face the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in nine states at the meeting. The panel had submitted its plan to Advani and Rajnath Singh last night after which the committee was constituted, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said. Swaraj has also been made coordinator to handle the party’s relations with the NDA parties. The panel will have its first meeting on January 15, she said, adding that George Fernandes will continue to be the convener of the NDA. His continuance on the post was supported by all NDA constituents, including the Janata Dal (United). “Both Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar have favoured his continuance,” Swaraj said. Dismissing reports that the Trinamool Congress had walked out of the NDA, she said there had been no official communication or statement before the NDA to this effect. Till such time, “I will continue to liaise with Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee and Dinesh Trivedi,” she said. The NDA partners will meet in the third week of January. She said BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar had been made in charge of rally organisation in the states facing elections. The rallies would be completed by March, 2008, she added. — UNI
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Dastar panel to challenge French law
S.Satyanarayanan Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 8 “France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil D’Etat, last week upheld French law banning the wearing of turban by Sikh children in schools. DAC, along with United Sikhs, will soon file a legal challenge before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg,” Gurdial, who was here to participate in the Sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, told The Tribune. Gurdial said DAC is also contemplating filing an appeal before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in New York. Besides legal battle, the Sikh community in France has been trying to build public opinion against the French law passed in March 2004 banning the wearing of religious symbols, including the turban, in public schools. Since the passing of the controversial French law banning religious symbols in 2004, including the turban, in public educational establishments, six French Sikh school boys have been expelled from school. “Sikhs are required by religion to wear their hair unshorn and covered at all times by a turban, an article of faith and an intrinsic aspect of the Sikh identity. Moreover, the ban on turbans amounts to violation of not only religious freedom but also of human rights,” Gurdial said.
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India to explore oil in Syria
New Delhi, January 8 In this partnership, India wanted that Syrian and Indian public sector companies could think of partnerships based on long-term strategic and economic considerations in which both sides offered and committed more to each other than it was possible under separate self-contained market transactions. Abdullah Dardari along with the oil and gas company officials would visit India between 14-21 January and would hold the meeting of the Syria-India Joint Commission. The aim of this oil exploration would be to assist Syria to become a strategic hub between Southern Europe and North Africa, and between Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf and to develop north-south and east-west oil and natural gas transportation pipelines.
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New Delhi, January 8 Hindustan Latex Ltd (HLL), a state-run condom manufacturer which markets the popular 'Moods condom', has just launched, Velvet female condoms. "Female condom is the only power that a women has in her hands to protect herself from both pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases at the same time. Till now, this power rested with men. It is only now that women are getting to know about such a condom being available in the market," Rajeev Kumar, product manager, Consumer Business Division, HLL said. — PTI
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Car in Dasmunsi’s convoy overturns, 7 injured
Siliguri, January 8 Superintendent of police, S.B. Purnapatra, said the car carrying district Congress leaders overturned at Tunivita as the driver tried to avoid a speeding truck coming from the opposite side. The car before falling into the ditch hit a cyclist, injuring him, Purnapatra said. Among the injured, the condition of Soumesh Lahiri and Ramprasad Sikdar, who were admitted to the Raiganj District Hospital, was stated to be serious, he said. The condition of the cyclist was also serious, he added. Dasmunsi visited the hospital and inquired about the injured.
— PTI
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Officials held for bribe
Patna, January 8 Additional director general of police (vigilance) Neelmani told reporters here today that a resident of Kismat Barul village Yogendra Paswan had complained to the bureau headquarters that BDO Suresh Kumar was demanding Rs 20,000 for clearing the second instalment of the 10 houses being constructed under the Indira Awas Yojna.
— PTI
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New Delhi, January 8
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