 |
|
|
Foreigners’ Death
India ranked 46th in e-governance
Benefits must reach the poor, says Kidwai
Attack On Dera Chief’s Convoy |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
High Court
State dominates exhibition
Learning programme for cerebral palsy-hit
Janhit Cong’s 2nd office-bearers’ list
Rs 22 crore power plan for Rohtak, Jhajjar
Kidnapped dentist found murdered
Reply To Notices
CM performs groundbreaking ceremony of Hollister
Cops attacked, 1 injured
Refund interest to allottee, HUDA told
|
|
Dr Upender, hospital manager booked
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, February 7 The three Turkish nationals had died in separate cases in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Cardiac arrest was cited as the cause of their deaths by the hospital, according to the police. The manager of the hospital, Jaswant Singh, has already been arrested by the police. SHO of the Sector 55 police station Udai Raj said the police would get to Dr Upender, who was at present in the custody of the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with the kidney racket. The police has registered the case under section 304 and 34 of the IPC. The case is said to have been registered following a report of the health department of a prima facie case of negligence against the hospital. The report was submitted by the civil surgeon of Faridabad to the district police chief. A team from the PGIMS, Rohtak, visted Shriram Hospital today for inquiry and took some documents along with it. Although cardiac arrest has been cited as the cause of the foreigners’ death, the police is trying to ascertain whether these were related to the kidney racket. The fact that the foreign nationals had died on separate occasions and all of them related to Dr Upender and his hospital has further alarmed the police. However, eyebrows are being raised over the “delay” shown by the health department and the police in the matter of investigation relating to the deaths of the foreigners. During a raid conducted by the police on the hospital immediately after the racket was busted, a notebook was seized, which contained several names of foreigners which, the police believes, were those of beneficiaries. Pooja’s bail plea
GURGAON: The next date of hearing on the bail application of Pooja, wife of Dr Jeevan (an accused in the kidney racket) has been fixed for February 13 by District and Sessions Judge Ranjan Aggarwal. The advocate of Pooja had filed her bail application on Wednesday. The police had arrested Pooja on January 31 to grill her about her role and the involvement of her husband in the kidney racket, which shocked the nation. The court had extended Pooja’s remand on Wednesday. |
|
India ranked 46th in e-governance
Panchkula, February 7 A report titled India e-Readiness Assessment Report released at the 11th National e-Governance Conference here today stated that EIU e- Readiness Ranking for 2007 places India on 46th (53rd in 2006, 49th in 2005) and 10th in the Asia-Pacific region. The APEC’s (The Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) e-Commerce readiness assessment was published to help governments develop their own focused policies adapted to their specific environment for the healthy development of e-commerce. The EIU rankings for 2007 tallies scores for 68 nations across six categories, including Connectivity and Technology Infrastructure, Business Environment, Consumer and Business Adoption, Social and Cultural Infrastructure, Legal and Policy Environment, Supporting e-Services. The India e-readiness assessment report, however, counting on the bottlenecks on the way to e-governance found lack of development of software in the local language making it difficult for a common man to derive the benefits of IT. Still the report showed a remarkable improvement in many sectors linked with IT and communication. The Indian IT-BPO sector (including the domestic and exports segments) grew at an estimated 28 per cent during last fiscal, the report said. Similarly, total revenue for the sector is expected to exceed $47.8 billion, nearly a 10-fold increase over the aggregate revenue of $4.8 billion, reported in 10 years ago in 1998. The progress in the sector also contributed in improvement of job opportunities in the country. According to the, report direct employment generated by the sector is likely to cross 1.6 million. |
|
|
Brother-in-law of Baksheesh held
Karnal, February 7 Baksheesh Singh had allegedly planned the bomb explosion on the convoy of the dera head in the district last week. The Haryana police raided Ganga Nagar village in search of Baksheesh Singh, who used to take shelter in this village of his in-laws. The police took into custody Dharmender for questioning as during investigations it came to light that about six months ago Baksheesh Singh had taken his brother-in-law along with him to Punjab. Meanwhile, investigations by the Forensic Science Lab, Madhuban, have revealed that failure of the brakes of the truck used in the attack could be the reason for the failure of the attackers to hit their target. FSL officials said Mohinder Singh, driver of the truck, became jittery when he found that the brakes of the truck had failed. In panic he triggered the blast, hitting the “wrong” vehicle in the convoy of the dera chief. Mohinder's cellphone calls revealed that he had been in constant touch with Baksheesh Singh before the blast. — UNI
|
|
|
Court refuses to reduce term of minor’s rapist
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 7 In a ruling on an appeal filed by a Rewari district resident, Rajender Singh, convicted and sentenced to seven years for the rape of a minor, Justice Sham Sunder of the high court has held: “In my opinion, the appellant by committing rape with a minor girl caused a permanent slur on her entire life. Her chances of marriage became very bleak.” Justice Sunder further ruled: “She would be looked down upon in society on account of the stigma caused by the appellant. Therefore, there is no ground to reduce the minimum sentence awarded to the accused by the trial court.” Going into the background of the matter, Justice Sunder observed: “The counsel for the appellant contended that the accused/appellant was convicted as far back as on June 5, 1995, and has been facing the agony of protracted criminal proceedings for the past about 12 years. He has further submitted that, under these circumstances, leniency be shown to him in the matter of sentence. He has also placed reliance on Mohinder versus State of Haryana and Satbir versus State of Haryana cases in this regard. In his detailed order, Justice Sunder added: “The cases were decided in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances prevailing therein. These cases do not lay down an invariable principle of law that in every case in which the accused has been facing the criminal proceedings for a long period, his sentence should be reduced…. Therefore, there is no ground to reduce the minimum sentence awarded to the accused by the trial court. The submission of the counsel for the appellants in this regard stands rejected.” The Judge concluded: “The judgement of conviction dated June 5, 1995, and the order of sentence dated June 6, 1995, are upheld. The accused/appellant, who is on bail, is ordered to surrender his bail bonds to undergo the remaining part of the sentence. The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rewari, shall take all necessary steps in accordance with the provisions of law to comply with the order with due promptitude.” Police pulled up in dowry death caseThe functioning of the Haryana Police has come under the Punjab and Haryana High Court scanner with Justice L.N. Mittal expressing surprise at the failure of the police to transfer a dowry death case to the crime branch even after the recommendation of a Superintendent of Police. Taking up a petition filed by Rajinder Singh of Rewarikhera village in Jhajjar district for an independent probe into the dowry death of his daughter Reema, Justice Mittal observed: “It is surprising that in a case of dowry death, even decision on the request of the SP for the transfer of investigations to the crime branch has not been taken for two months”. The case will now come up for further hearing on February 22. Going into the background of the matter, Justice Mittal observed: “The perusal of a reply reveals that the SP, Rewari, had sent a request on December 6, 2007, to the IG, Gurgaon, for the transfer of investigations of the case to the crime branch as the complainant had lost faith in the local police. “It is further mentioned in the reply that the IG, Gurgaon, intimated the SP, Rewari, vide endorsement dated December 11, 2007, that the request had been forwarded to the ADGP (Crime), Haryana, Panchkula, for further necessary action and the matter was still under consideration”. In his petition against the state of Haryana, Rajinder Singh had sought directions for handing over the investigations of case FIR number 274, dated November 27, 2007, to an independent agency like the CBI. He had alleged that his daughter Reema had died of burn injuries. Notice to home
secretary On a petition by ruling Congress member of the state Assembly Rakesh Kamboj for the registration of a case and an independent probe into alleged police excesses against him and his supporters, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a notice of motion for May 19 to the Haryana home secretary, state police chief and others. Kamboj submitted in the petition that a large number of his supporters had assembled at Atal Park, Karnal, on December 1, 2007, for a rally at Rohtak the next day. However, the police arrived at the scene and cane charged his supporters. In the incident, a number
of his supporters, who were to attend the rally to be addressed by three-time Chief Minister Bhajan Lal received serious injuries. |
|
Benefits must reach the poor, says Kidwai
More than 1,000 delegates from all over the country are participating in the two-day conference. Calling upon eminent professionals, practitioners and experienced policy makers to ensure that benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) must touch the lives of poor, and these technologies substantially contribute towards achievement of social developmental objectives, the Governor said. “It is an accepted fact that India is the nursery for some of the brightest ICT technologists and scientists in the world, some of you are present here today. However, the same nursery continues to house largest number of poor in the world and no technological advance can be truly complemented if it doesn’t touch the lives of these people.” It is this challenge that the industry, academia, civil society and the government agencies concerned with the ICT would have to keep in mind when they chart the future ICT policy for India, he said. Dr Kidwai further said the ICT revolution bypassing the poor had both economic and social costs. The gap between the have and the have nots would increase in economic terms if benefits from the ICT did not percolate, he cautioned. Union minister of communication and information technology A. Raja, who delivered the inaugural address, said the success of e-Governance initiatives would be judged mainly by the benefits it bring to the common man. “We now have more than a decade of experience behind us, and we have seen very interesting and innovative projects in many parts of the country, but many of them remain localised successes. We must design systems that go beyond small pilots - to achieve speed, certainty and consistently high-quality in the delivery of services along with comprehensive geographical coverage”, he said. Describing the National e-Governance Plan adopted by the Central government as a major policy initiative, which has the potential to transform the socio-economic landscape of rural India, Raja said the setting up of 1 lakh common services centres in 6 lakh villages across India would bring convenient services to the doorstep of the citizens in both urban as well as rural areas. The infrastructure projects under the National e -Governance Plan (NeGP) were at an advanced stage in the state while the State Wide Area Network (SWAN), which is also known as “ADHAAR” has been established to provide a dependable and secure communication corridor between state headquarters, district headquarters and block and tehsil headquarters.
|
|
State dominates exhibition
Chandigarh, February 7 The IT players from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh as also from Uttar Pradesh were relegated to the back-burner in terms of rapid stride made in the sector to take technology to the people. Beginning with a stall showcasing the work done by HARTRON, the stalls in the Haryana pavilion explained how it had touched the lives of people by reaching out to them whether it was about paperless admissions in technical colleges or about reaching the remotest of villages through its EDUSAT programme of providing quality education. In the tourism sector too, the department is planning to launch its e-booking programme for hotels owned by Haryana tourism. “We are projecting the integrated delivery of public services through the use of IT, including the e-disha programme in our stalls and how the various departments are adapting technology in their setups,” secretary, IT, P. K. Chaudhary said. The IT Department of Himachal Pradesh represented by officials put up the stall at the exhibition. Similarly, Punjab has sent a contingent of 20 officials to the conference, but no stall has been put up. While the organisers from Haryana confirmed that officials of the two states were present but had not participated in the exhibition which was a voluntary exercise. Who launched SWAN first?
The debate over who launched the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) between Haryana and Himachal Pradesh first continued to rage on with senior officials of both states maintaining they were the first ones. Though both states had launched the programme the same day, Haryana maintained that it was connected right down to the tehsil and block-level while the job is only “partially” done in Himachal Pradesh. Senior functionaries of Himachal said their HIMSWAN project had wireless connectivity to panchayat-level and they had managed lease lines. “Having a mesh of wires does not mean anything till the services like land records and other services cannot be thrown open through the system. Our services began the same day,” an official maintained |
|
Learning programme for cerebral palsy-hit
Chandigarh, February 7 Since such children suffer from difficulty of coordination, movement and/or speech, this programme helps them communicate through pictures and icons which represent words or complete sentences. Available in English, Hindi, Bangla, Mizo and Nepali, the programme is being extensively used by societies helping spastic children and has been developed with aid from the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy. Speaking on the sidelines of the 11th national e-Governance conference here today, Webel’s CEO Gautam Burman explained that they had a database of nearly 2,000 pictures or icons put in sequence, which either represented words, sentences or were theme-based. This innovation earned the Webel group a special mention at today’s award ceremony at the conference in the category of Exemplary Usage of the ICT by PSUs. “All the child needs to do is to select the icon and the sound card in the computer spells out his feelings. Since this disorder manifests itself by way of lack of motor skills and those suffering are unable to use a keyboard or mouse, we have replaced these with two touch-sensitive switches which help in the selection of the icons on the screen. For those who cannot use their hands, we have foot switches also,” he explains. Realising that children need to convey their feelings even when there is no computer available, the same company has come out with a colourful vanity bag-sized box which has pre-recorded messages. “At present, we have a box which can record four sentences. It displays four pictures which can be selected by the child to say what he wants to. However, we are working on a similar device which can store 16 such sentences while the size of the box remains the same. We are hopeful of bringing it out in the next couple of months. Though the prototype is ready, we are working on making it compact and colourful,” he stated. While this has been especially prepared for children with cerebral palsy, it can also be used as a voice-operated communication aid by patients with restricted movement and speech problems. |
|
Janhit Cong’s 2nd office-bearers’ list
Chandigarh, February 7 Comprising former ministers and MLAs associated with former Chief Ministers Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal, the list also includes the name of Pratap Chautala, brother of Indian National Lok Dal supremo Om Prakash Chautala, as its general secretary. The list, prepared “under the dynamic leadership and directions of Kuldeep Bishnoi”, continues to be silent about the president of the party. It has former ministers Surinder Madan, Brij Mohan Singla, Devender Sharma and Hassan Mohammad and former MLAs Narain Singh Balmiki and Ran Singh Beniwal besides Umed Singh Kashyap as its vice-presidents. Of the 37 general secretaries of the party, which far exceeds the number of district presidents appointed by the party, former ministers who have made it to the list include Subhash Batra, Narbir Singh, Satnarain Lathor, Om Prakash Jain, Bijender Kadiyan, Dr Dharamvir Yadav, Jaswant Bawal, Tek Chand Nain and Shanti Rathi. While the jumbo-sized executive has 140 members in addition to 87 secretaries, sources in the party said that efforts had been made to accommodate senior leaders without compromising on delivery. In contrast to the list of district presidents, where a sizeable chunk of posts were given to the youth, this list “makes an effort to gain from the experience of senior leaders”. While the names of eight women have made it to the second list, “adequate care” has been taken to balance the caste equation among non-Jats and members drawn from diverse backgrounds though the Jats have also got representation.
|
|
|
Rs 22 crore power plan for Rohtak, Jhajjar
Rohtak, February 7 Disclosing this here today, deputy commissioner R.S. Doon said the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) authorities had made a comprehensive plan to strengthen the distribution network of these districts to meet the growing demand of electricity. The plan includes setting up of 11 substations of 33 kV at Dighal, Hassangarh, Senior Secondary School, Rohtak; Sector 6, Rohtak; Baniyani, Rohad, Ritauli, Kharawar, Dubal Dhan, Sampla Road, Jhajjar; and an unmanned substation at Bal Bhawan, Rohtak. The unmanned substation is the first for the state and will be constructed using the latest technology. This will be set up on a 700 sq yd plot as against 5,000 sq yd required for a traditional fully manned substation.
|
|
Kidnapped dentist found murdered
Gurgaon, February 7 While talking to The Tribune Rewari superintendent of police Ram Singh Bishnoi confirmed that the body of Sunil had been found near Sahabi River near National Highway-8. After inspecting the condition of the body it was believed that Ahuja had been strangulated to death and his body was lying there since last night. The family of Sunil had registered a compliant of missing yesterday morning after getting a ransom call of Rs 20 lakh from his mobile by some unidentified person. According to family members, Ahuja after coming back from his clinic on Tuesday evening went to get his car repaired but after that he went missing and did not return to his residence in Sector 9. The police had recovered his Alto car from the petrol pump situated at Sector 9 Gurgaon on Wednesday morning. |
|
|
Rebel Cong MLAs get more time
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 7 Today was the last date for replying to the notices issued to the rebels by the speaker in connection with the petitions moved against them by the Hooda loyalists. Rebel MLAs Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj met the speaker yesterday and sought extension of the time period for themselves and for their leader Bhajan Lal. They sought four more weeks for replying to the notices. None of the three rebel MLAs turned up before the speaker today even as the latter extended the deadline for their replies to February 15. The petitioners and their counsel had come to take part in the hearing.
|
|
CM performs groundbreaking ceremony of Hollister
Rewari, February 7 Describing it as a positive outcome of his recent visit to North America, he said he was delighted to state that this was their first project in Asia and more significantly they selected India and Bawal in Haryana for this purpose. Asserting that the IGC, Bawal had been developed as a mega industrial hub and HSIIDC had allotted 78 industrial plots under prestigious category to numerous MNC’s with a capital investment of $1.18 billion in the past three years. |
|
Cops attacked, 1 injured
Jind, February 7 The injured cop, identified as Mahender Singh, has been admitted to the civil hospital here. The accused managed to give a slip to the police, which has again launched a hunt. According to police sources, three persons, identified as Naresh, Goddu and Pappu of Kahsoon village, had been wanted by the police in certain criminal cases, including assault on police and some theft incidents. The police conducted a raid after information of their whereabouts. It is claimed that while two of them had been nabbed, they managed to flee after the locals, including their kin, started pelting stones on the police. |
|
Refund interest to allottee, HUDA told
Fatehabad, February 7 Vinod Kumar, a resident of Bhattu Kalan in this district, had filed a complaint in the forum in this regard. He had alleged in his complaint that plot number 326 of 500 yards in a sector carved by HUDA was allotted to him on July 25, 2000. He said he had been paying his instalments well in time, but HUDA recovered interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum though it had failed to develop the sector as assured. Forum president N.C. Nahata and members Rajiv Mehta and Raj Bala Sheoran found HUDA on the wrong foot and directed it to refund the interest to the consumer.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Even as the major strides in Information Technology sector, the country is far behind in e-governance.
Panchkula, February 7