New Delhi, January 10
The union cabinet today gave its nod to a ministry of home affairs (MHA) proposal for issuing an ordinance to commence the work of recasting constituencies all around the country. The decision came even as the government is still undecided on how to carry out the delimitation of the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies.

The Delimitation Commission, headed by Kuldip Singh, had earlier submitted its report to the government for all states, excluding Jharkhand and the four northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

Information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi informed reporters after the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that although the decision had been taken but since the Guwahati High Court has stayed the process in the four northeastern states, they had been excluded from the list as of now.

‘The cabinet has decided to bring in an ordinance to exempt the four northeastern states and Jharkhand from the proposed notification that has to be issued to start the exercise to redraw the parliamentary and assembly constituencies in 24 states on the basis of the delimitation recommendations made by the commission,’ he said.

The Election Commission has also been advised that the work on recasting the constituencies should wait and commence only in March, by which time the Election Commission would have notified the mid-term Karnataka assembly elections,’ said a senior minister.

“But we have also to notify the MPs and political parties in time for them to prepare for the fresh contours of their constituencies. Therefore, the MPs and parties are urging the government to start the exercise as soon as possible,’ said the minister.

Therefore, there are divergent views on whether to get the notification issued immediately after the President signs the ordinance or to hold it till the next session of Parliament and issue the notification only after the law is suitably amended.

As for Jharkhand, the minister said: “The commission’s mandate was not to decrease the constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in any state and increase it in proportion to their population increase”.

“But in Jharkhand with large numbers of outsiders settling there the tribal population has decreased and if on that basis we convert a reserved seat to the general category as per the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission, then we will have very serious trouble on our hands,’ he said.

‘Therefore, the proposed ordinance will seek to exempt Jharkhand from the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission,’ the minister said.

New Delhi, January 10
Days ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, the Union Cabinet today gave its approval for the signing of various pacts with the neighbour during his stay there. At a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister himself, the Cabinet gave its nod for the signing of an MoU with China for cooperation in the Railways sector.

The MoU would help promote cooperation in the Railways sector between the Chinese Railways and the Indian Railways and would be valid for three years.

It also gave approval for signing of an MoU between the two countries for cooperation in land resource management, land administration, resettlement and rehabilitation. This MoU would also be signed during the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to Beijing.

The MoU shall facilitate cooperation between the two countries for mutual cooperation based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity on matters related to land resource management, land administration, and resettlement and rehabilitation.

During the visit an MoU would also be signed for cooperation in the housing sector. It would provide a basic framework for cooperation in the area of housing between the two counties.

The Union Cabinet also gave its approval for signing an MoU between India and China for cooperation in the field of geo-sciences by providing an institutional mechanism.

Another MoU to be signed during the visit would be for the development of their respective traditional medicine. This would provide a legal framework to cooperation among the two countries for the development of their respective traditional medicine systems and the adoption of common strategies for global positioning of these systems.

In another major decision, the Union Cabinet also gave its approval for promulgating an ordinance to amend the Railways Act, 1989, for carrying out the amendments for expeditious land acquisition for special railway projects and to replace the ordinance by a Bill by introducing a Bill in the ensuing session of Parliament.

New Delhi, January 10
The offloading of majority stakes by the Centre in public sector company Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) in favour of the Tata during the NDA regime today brought to the fore a major controversy relating to reservation in such privatised companies with still having government’s substantial stakes.

The VSNL Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Samiti alleging that the Tata-majority-stake-holding company instead of protecting their reservation right was “retrenching” employees belonging to these sections, brought the issue before the Supreme Court.

A Bench of Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice R. V. Raveendran issued notice to the government and VSNL seeking their replies.

The court, however, said it would confine its notice to only one of the four prayers listed in the petition, which related to “safeguarding the fundamental rights of members of the petitioner (SC/ST) employees of VSNL.”

It apparently meant that the court would not expand the scope to examine the reservation in such privatised companies as per the undertaking given by the Tata in the agreements of March 16, October 9 (2001) and April 30 (2002).

The SC/ST employees of VSNL alleged that the company after the takeover by the Tata had resorted to assessment of the competence of all employees and stated that it had found the performance of 50 per cent of them as “unsatisfactory” and 25 per cent “marginally” satisfactory.

In the garb of the evaluation and grading of employees, about 75 per cent of them were virtually found to be unfit and asked to take “voluntary” retirement. In the process the SC/ST employees were also largely affected, the SC/ST workers’ association said.

“The whole process was designed to retrench the services of the majority of the existing employees, who have been inherited by the strategic partner along with 25 per cent stakes,” the employees said, terming such a policy as “arbitrary and discriminatory”.

They pointed out that the government still has 26.12 per cent stakes in VSNL in addition to 14.05 per cent share of government financial institutions. Thus, neither any employee could be retrenched as per the agreement, nor could the SC/ST reservation be done away with, the petition said.

“The decision to retrench the employees belonging to weaker sections of society is informal and due to this, now the company has retained only 194 old employees,” they said.

New Delhi, January 10
In view of the state medical councils’ failure to check frequent strikes by doctors hampering even emergency services in hospitals, the Supreme Court today issued notices to them seeking details about action taken against doctors striking work.

A Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P. Sathasivam made the state medical councils (SMCs) party to a PIL after the Medical Council of India (MCI), the apex body regulating health services in the country, submitted that in the states the responsibility entirely rest with the state councils.

MCI counsel Maninder Singh told the court that in case of doctors going on strike in the states, it was difficult for the apex body to monitor each case and the responsibility was, therefore, cast on the SMCs to take action against striking doctors, particularly in government hospitals.

The registration of doctors in the state is also done by the SMCs and the MCI has thus no major role to play in this regard unless a case of a serious nature was referred to it, he said.

The role of the SMCs came under scrutiny of the court during the hearing of a pending PIL by an NGO - People for Better Treatment - against frequent strikes by doctors in almost all states on slightest provocation, affecting the health services very often.

According to the PIL, filed last year after the prolonged strike by doctors in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the backdrop of the OBC quota controversy, the medical services fall in the category of essential service and the doctors have no right to strike work and deny treatment to patients.

Bangalore, January 10
Family members of a 22-year-old youth, who was rebuked for banging his car into the vehicle of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda today, alleged that he committed suicide yesterday after the former Prime Minister’s driver, who even took Rs 10,000 from them, threatened him.

A minor accident happened yesterday when Ramesh’s Maruti 800 struck Gowda’s Chevrolet Forrester SUV at an intersection. Gowda was going from his house in Padmanabhanagar to his other residence in the same locality.

Ramesh got away with a scolding as there was only a small dent on the bumper of Gowda’s car and no police complaint was registered in the matter. However, things got out of hand and the youth panicked when some supporters of Gowda went to his residence along with Gowda’s driver and allegedly threatened him with dire consequences.

The boy’ father Koli Byrappa disclosed that Ramesh got very depressed after Gowda’s driver allegedly demanded Rs 25,000 from them and then took away Rs 10,000. He said Ramesh locked himself in his room in the evening and hanged himself.

His sister-in-law saw him hanging from a window of his room at night, when he did not open the door despite repeated pleas.

Neighbours broke open the door and Ramesh, who was then in a serious condition, was rushed to the Deve Gowda hospital and also later to the Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences.

He however died on the way. No case had been registered by the police till now.

Hyderabad, January 10
Stirring the hornet’s nest over Telangana, the Congress today said a new States’ Re-Organisation Commission (SRC) to examine the demands for smaller states, including Telangana, was on the cards.

The announcement by Congress Working Committee’s (CWC) member-in-charge of Andhra Pradesh Veerappa Moily here was clearly meant to address the public sentiments in the region with elections just over a year away.

Amidst growing pressure from pro-Telangana sections within the party, the high command’s emissary said the party acknowledges that “public sentiments” and was committed to setting up of SRC as promised in the 2004 election manifesto.

However, far from assuaging the ruffled feelings of Telangana protagonists, Moily’s promise had created more heartburn.

Viewing SRC as a ploy to delay the process of the formation of separate state, several senior party leaders from the region, including former union minister G.Venkataswamy, V.Hanumantha Rao and M.Satyanarayana Rao, said it would prove counter-productive for the party in the next elections.

While Moily pointed that the UPA’s sincere efforts to build consensus among its partners over Telangana proved futile, the supporters of Telangana cause warned that Constitution of SRC at the juncture would only amount to hoodwinking the people of the region.

“The matter (setting up SRC) is under serious consideration of the government. Last week, I had discussions with Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the UPA sub-committee on the issue, and there was indication that a decision would be taken soon,” Moily told a press conference on his arrival here. The timing of his announcement was significant as there was a growing realisation that Telangana would be a deciding factor in the next elections.

The members of Telangana Regional Congress Committee (TRCC), a pressure group within the party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, spearheading the statehood movement, and BJP debunked SRC’s proposal on the ground that it would only delay the process indefinitely and amount to betrayal of the people of the region.

Panaji, January 10
Opposition BJP today protested against Goa Governor S.C. Jamir during his address on the opening day of the Assembly session, accusing him of “indulging in Nagaland politics at the expense of the state exchequer”.

As the session began and the Governor stood up to address the House, BJP legislators, led by Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar, displayed placards and termed Jamir, a former Nagaland Chief Minister, as the “most expensive Governor”.

The MLAs later staged a walkout.

The Assembly session will be on till January 18.

“He (Jamir) spends around Rs 3 crore annually just on his visits to Delhi and Nagaland. He is using Goa government’s money to play politics in Nagaland,” Parrikar said after the walkout.

The Governor visits Delhi almost every two weeks and the Northeastern state every month, said Parrikar, a former Goa Chief Minister, whose party has been targeting Jamir for his controversial role during the crisis faced by the BJP-led government in 2005.

“The Governor would not require such a huge security, if he stops indulging in Nagaland politics.” Earlier, Parrikar brought to the notice of the House that the thanksgiving motion on Governor’s address last year had not been passed by the Assembly. In such a scenario, there was no point in making another address, he said.

Speaker Pratapsingh Rane, however, did not pay heed to Parrikar’s contention and the Governor began his address amid sloganeering by the Opposition benches. — PTI