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Molestation Charges
MLAs arrive in Assembly on bullock cart
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PMK fumes over seat denial
Uttarakhand
Himalayan glaciers receding: Meena
Fighter aircraft shortage on INS Viraat: Antony
Assam bans testing of controversial vaccine
Mother drowns daughters for being ridiculed
NHRC asks Bihar to pay Rs 1.5 lakh for prisoner’s
death
Can Pak citizen own property in India?
Lata: Music industry needs a revolution
Exam stress claims two lives
Ex-minister of Tripura dies of head injury
Soren acquitted
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Molestation Charges
Chandigarh, March 6 Sources in Army Headquarters reveal that the GCM is scheduled to assemble in Jammu and Kashmir on March 24. Headquarters Northern Command issued the GCM’s convening order on directions of
Lieut-Gen H.S. Panag a few days before he moved to Central Command. Sources said Maj-Gen A.K. Lal faces four charges. He has been charged for molestation under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 69 (civil offences) of the Army Act. Three other charges pertain to conduct unbecoming of an officer, leveled under section 45 of the Army Act. General Lal was posted as the General Officer Commanding 3 Infantry Division near Leh last year, when a woman officer, Capt Neha Rawat, had in a written complaint alleged sexual misconduct on his part on the pretext of holding meditation classes at his residence. In September, the Army ordered a court of inquiry (COI) into the matter and General Lal was removed from command and attached to Headquarters 15 Corps. When the matter had become public, the General’s family, in a press conference held in Chandigarh, had strongly defended him and had termed the charges levelled against him as incorrect and motivated. The COI, presided by Lieut-Gen A.S. Sekhon, the then corps commander had, in November, 2007, held him prima facie blameworthy and thereafter summary of evidence was recorded in the case. Sources said holding the GCM within Northern Command may have technical lacunae.
Lieut-Gen P.C. Bhardwaj, as GOC 14 Corps, was the accused’s commanding officer. He has now been elevated as the
GOC-in-C Northern Command, and is technically the GCM’s convening authority and the proceedings of the GCM would be put before him for necessary action. The accused’s commanding officer also being the GCM’s convening authority or confirming authority is in contravention of military law.
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MLAs arrive in Assembly on bullock cart
Patna, March 6 The unusual sight of Singh and RJD MLAs Rajesh Kumar Roshan, Bima Bharti and Akhtarul Iman, standing on the cart with sugarcane caught the attention of all this morning as they entered the legislature complex having prevailed upon the security personnel at the main entrance, who meekly gave in. As the cart headed straight for the Assembly portico, few others, including a former cabinet minister in the erstwhile RJD government Gajendra Singh, clambered up the cart. The MLAs raised slogans demanding payment of the arrears of sugarcane farmers and reopening of closed sugar mills. Before the cart left after the MLAs had disembarked, one of the bovines splattered the portico with dung. The House marshal was seen ordering the watch and ward staff to fetch the sweeper to clear the muck. The RJD MLAs, who tried to enter the House with sugarcane were persuaded to leave the stuff behind. Later, raising the issue during zero hour BJP MLA Bhola Singh expressed disapproval of the conduct of the RJD members and sought a ruling from Speaker Uday Narain Chaudhary. “Today they came to the House on bullock cart to protest the plight of farmers, tomorrow somebody may come on a donkey to demand a proper place for washermen. What would happen to the decorum of the house?” Singh said. Sharing the member’s concern, the Speaker said he would give his ruling on the matter later.
— PTI
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PMK fumes over seat denial
Chennai, March 6 Angered over the fact that out of the five Rajya seats which the DPA would contest for the forthcoming polls to the Upper House on March 26, the DMK conceded two seats to the Congress and one to the CPM and kept two for itself, Ramadoss said, “Karunanidhi, who has a long-standing political experience, should prove that he had not ignored the PMK.” Though the PMK has only 18 MLAs in the 234-member state Assembly, the PMK wanted one seat for the party. However, a nominee needs 34 votes to win a seat. Ramadoss was peeved over the fact that though the CPM has only nine MLAs, it has been allotted a Rajya Sabha seat and during the polls last year, the CPI, with only six MLAs, could get its national secretary D. Raja elected from Tamil Nadu with support from DPA legislators and described it as a “preferential treatment” to the Left parties. He had even threatened to quit the DMK-led alliance if PMK was not allotted a seat this time. But after meeting of party legislators and MPs, he decided it otherwise as he knew he would meet the same fate as of MDMK leader Vaiko who left the DPA before the last Assembly polls and was subsequently chucked out of the UPA at the Centre. Though Vaiko did not have any member from his party in the union cabinet the PMK has two ministers, health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss and minister of state for railways R. Velu. Ramadoss knows that he cannot afford to forego two union cabinet berths at the cost for a single Rajya Sabha seat. Realising that the Congress was dependent on the DMK in Tamil Nadu, Ramadoss played safe today by saying, “We are in the alliance with the Congress at the Centre” and added that it would keep its options open about remaining in the DPA till March 15.
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Uttarakhand
Dehra Dun, March 6 The development followed the stalemate between the government and the Opposition members for the third day. The Opposition members stalled the proceedings of the House all these days on different issues and continued dharna in the well of the House demanding a discussion on the above said issue. Speaker Harbans Kapoor ruled out need of any discussion since an all-party House committee has been looking into the matter. The Opposition members were not relented even as parliamentary affairs minister Parkash Pant assured the House that caste certificates were being issued as per the earlier system prevailing under the previous Congress government. But the Opposition alleged discrimination against the applicants belonging to the SCs and STs under the incumbent BJP government in issuing these certificates. The Opposition conducts since beginning of the session forced the Speaker adjourn the House 10 times. This led the Speaker asking the Opposition members to leave the House but they remained adamant on their demands and refused to relent. Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat maintained that since the state government was unwilling to listen to them in the Assembly there was no alternative for the Opposition members than to boycott the entire budget session.
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Himalayan glaciers receding: Meena
New Delhi, March 6 The fact is majority of these glaciers serve as the lifeline of north India. But apart from some conservation efforts the government has not undertaken any specific studies with regard to the impact of melting glaciers on environment and threats to the ecological system. “Recession of the glaciers is a process which cannot be checked in absolute terms. However, the government has identified the possible measures for reducing the recession of glacier, which include conservation activities such as afforestation, removal of garbage, restriction on human interference on glaciers and promotion of sustainable eco-tourism,” Meena said. Findings of a report “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, prepared by Working Group II of IPCC last year, were clear that majority of Himalayan glaciers, which serve as the lifeline of north India, were melting at a faster rate. It added that “Not just Gangotri, many other glaciers in the Himalayas were melting faster due to global warming,” posing a great threat to water security in the region as it was fed by these glaciers. Meena, however, said no abnormal rate of recession has been reported by Geological Survey of India (GSI), adding that “Even in the Himalayan region, the rate of recession in different climatic zones is found to be variable on average and in year to year basis”. He admitted that retreat parameters of 35 glaciers showed that 43 per cent of glaciers in the Himalayan region were retreating in the range of 10 to 20m/yr, attributing causative factors for the variable retreat to subnormal snowfall, higher temperature during summer, less severe winter or a combination of all of them. “It could also be attributed to the phenomenon of rise in temperature, global warming, a topic which is still under debate,” he added. The minister also said no specific studies had been undertaken with regard to melting glaciers impact on environment and threats to the ecological system. “Recession of the glaciers is a process which cannot be checked in absolute terms. The GSI has carried out few pilot studies on retardation of ice melting. However, the thick supra-glacial moraines cover on majority of the Himalayan glaciers may not yield desired results. Thus artificial reduction in melting rate may not be possible because of its economic feasibility, scale of operation and pollution hazards.”
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Fighter aircraft shortage on INS Viraat: Antony
Mumbai, March 6 Union defence minister A.K. Antony admitted as much on the floor of Parliament recently. “The Indian Navy is facing shortage of Sea Harrier aircraft. The ongoing upgrade of Sea Harrier programme has also temporarily affected the availability of the aircraft,” Antony said. Naval sources admit that the INS Viraat has been completely stretched due to the regular crashes that have forced the aircraft carrier make do with just a handful of fighter aircraft. “The whole purpose of having an aircraft carrier is defeated if there are not enough fighter aircraft for deployment,” a naval official told The Tribune. However, sources refused to confirm the actual availability of Sea Harriers for deployment on board INS Viraat or if the country’s lone aircraft carrier has had to make do without any fighter aircraft on board for operations for certain periods of time. The Indian Navy was to have scrapped the Sea Harriers following the decommissioning of INS Viraat in 2010. But with Russia delaying the sale of replacement aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, India has had to prolong the life of INS Viraat. At present the Indian Navy has just 13 Sea Harriers from the original fleet of 30 acquired by the government more than two decades ago. 17 of these have crashed without even seeing any action. The remaining aircraft are being refurbished by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in a phased manner. This has sharply reduced the number of Sea Harrier aircraft available for deployment, Antony admitted.
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Assam bans testing of controversial vaccine
Guwahati, March 6 Assam health minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma today informed the state Assembly about the government’s decision while replying to a call attention motion of Opposition CPM legislator Ananta Deka. "If the doctor has developed any vaccine against high blood pressure and stress-related diseases as has been claimed by him, then he should follow the routine practice of placing it before the global scientific community before going for clinical test in the state,” the minister said. Dr Baruah, who found himself behind bars about a decade ago after he had claimed to have replaced an ailing man’s heart, kidney and liver with those extracted from a pig much to the chagrin of the medical fraternity, often resorts to addressing the local media here to claim 'startling medical discoveries' about his “secret genetically engineered drugs”. Last month in a such press conference here, the controversial doctor claimed to have invented genetically engineered injection to cure heart diseases. He, however, has never allowed his method of treatment for any independent scrutiny. “Why should I allow my injection to be inspected by conventional science who knows nothing about my treatment,” he had said in the last press conference. Health minister Dr Sharma today said, "Dr Baruah has to go through the conventional practice. We suspect that he may be an agent of any Western World laboratory which does not get licenses for the clinical tests of their different vaccines and pushes the same to the unsuspecting areas of the Third World." Dr Baruah, who has a residential clinic atop a hillock at the outskirts of Guwahati city announced in his last interaction with the media that he was planning to use his vaccine against high blood pressure and stress related diseases on 200 children of Nagaon and Morigaon districts. According to him, the vaccines can protect children against stress related diseases including heart ailments. The doctor also claimed to have treated hundreds of terminally ailing patients with genetically engineered drugs and lined up “cured patients” in front of the media. But medicos of the region have always looked at him with utter suspicion and one of the senior most cardiologists of the region Dr Amrit Barua recently raised serious questions about the credentials of Dr Dhaniram Baruah and his method of treating patients in his clinic that is kept out of bounds for everybody except the vulnerable patients. Members of Assam Assembly cutting across party lines today extended support to the state government’s decision to banish the controversial doctor for testing his vaccines against stress-related diseases on human beings.
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Mother drowns daughters for being ridiculed
Kolkata, March 6 The confession by the woman, identified as Seema Soi, a resident of Chagram at Burdwan district, ended the mystery of the discovery of two bodies from a reservoir at global headquarters of the Ramkrishna Math and Mission at Belur in Howrah. “She confessed that she killed her two daughters because everyone, including her husband, ridiculed her for giving birth to girls,” Howrah district superintendent of police, Neeraj Kumar Singh, said today. The police arrested the woman following the interrogation after her confession statement. “She also wanted to drown herself in the Hooghly river but found too many people around and returned home to Burdwan,” Singh said. The woman had boarded a train to Liluah on Tuesday, when her husband Kanchan asked her to take the elder daughter to a doctor, as she was ill. After alighting from the train at Liluah, she took a rickshaw to the Math when evening prayers were on and drowned the two girls, aged four and seven months, one by one, Singh said, adding that she chose this time because people were at prayer. After reaching Burdwan, Seema took a bus home to Chagram, but fainted after alighting and was taken to a nursing home by the police. Seema’s brother Ranjit Mondal, a resident of Anandnagar in Liluah, who came to know about the discovery of the bodies from the newspapers, went to the Bally police station and identified them. — PTI
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Goonj, NGO of the year
New Delhi, March 6 Giving away the India NGO awards 2007, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said it was inspiring that many young men and women were in pursuit of other’s happiness, rather than their own. He said civil society organisations had a great role to play in reaching out to the marginalised sections of society. Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy said it was necessary to spend money to make money. In this regard, he said, we had to learn a lot from the Americans, who mastered the art of fund-raising. Mr Murthy said while India had achieved a lot of progress during the last 15 years, illiteracy, poverty and ill health were some of the problems that plagued the nation. He complimented the award winners for promoting good standards and practices in resource mobilisation and creating examples and inspiration for others. Goonj, a Delhi-based NGO, was declared the NGO of the Year. Other awardees were the Banyan, Childline India Foundation, Child Rights and You (CRY), Dream a Dream, Pragati, Society for Promoting Rationality (Sprat), Raigarh Ambikapur Health Association (Raha), SOS Children’s Villages of India, Aide et Action, Bharat Integrated Social Welfare Agency (Biswa), Centre for Environment Education (CEE).
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NHRC asks Bihar to pay Rs 1.5 lakh for prisoner’s
death
New Delhi, March 6 Expressing doubts over the findings of magisterial inquiry reports submitted by Bhagalpur district jail officials, the commission rejected the authorities’ plea that the inmate, Padum Sorren, died accidentally after a tree branch fell on his head in 2002. State undersecretary Ravi Shankar Sinha in his reply to a show cause notice had pleaded that the prisoner sustained fatal injury in the incident which resulted in his death. However, the National Human Rights Commission refused to buy the theory, pointing discrepancies in the reports. “While, one of the report says that the magisterial inquiry was conducted by the SDM, Sadar in Bhagalpur, another claims that the death of the prisoner had occurred in Patna,” the NHRC noted. The commission said, in the report submitted by Patna’s executive magistrate, there was no mention of tree felling. “The plea of accidental injury does not, therefore, sound credible.” “Even if it is assumed that Sorren died due to felling of tree, the jail administration cannot be exonerated of the charge of negligence. If a tree was being felled, the jail officials should have taken precautions to prevent prisoners from going in the direction of the tree,” the NHRC observed. Therefore, considering all the circumstances, the commission finds no reason why monetary relief should not be given to the bereaved family, the NHRC said in its order issued recently. It has asked the authorities to file the compliance report in the case within next eight weeks.
— PTI
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Can Pak citizen own property in India?
New Delhi, March 6 The issue was raised by a petitioner Bhai Lal Shukla, challenging the Allahabad High Court order which had allowed a Pakistani national, Suhel Siddiqui, to take possession of the land belonging to his uncle who was a bachelor. The High Court had also dismissed the testamentary case, filed by administrator general of Uttar Pradesh who contended that the Pakistani national cannot own property in India and hence it should be declared evacuated and the possession be handed over to the state government. Shukla had claimed the ownership of the property on the basis of a will purportedly executed by late Siddiqui. According to Shukla, who was gardener of late Siddiqui, the property was gifted to him in August 1996. The High Court had ordered prosecution of Shukla for filing false affidavits in the court and directed him to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh to the administrator general of Uttar Pradesh. A Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and P. Sathasivam has fixed the petition for final disposal next month. The apex court, however, yesterday turned down the request of Shukla for stay of the High court order which had permitted Suhel to take possession of the property.
— UNI
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Lata: Music industry needs a revolution
New Delhi, March 6 “If things have to improve, one of the two has to happen.” Either a new musical phenomenon must emerge in composing, or some playback singer or the other should get into composing, taking charge of the music they get to sing,” a new book -- ‘Bollywood Melodies’ -- quotes Lata as saying. But Lata is doubtful if either of these will happen. “For the sake of film music, I wish it did,” she hopes. But according to the singer, dubbed as the ‘nightingale of India’, there is no dearth of talented singers in the country. “It is just that there’s no composer to test a singer’s range; work on exploring the voice of the singer the way composers used to do in the 1950s.” Lamenting that the emphasis of present-day music is on instant popularity and not on creating something that is original, the book quotes, “Creative music is not happening anywhere -- not in Mumbai, not in the south or even in Bengal. How can you blame the singers alone for it?” The book, written by Bangalore-based organisation development consultant Ganesh Anantharaman, traces the evolution of the Hindi film song to its present status as the cultural barometer of the country, through an evaluation of the works of over 50 leading composers, singers and lyricists -- from K.L. Saigal to Sonu Nigam, Naushad to A.R. Rahman, Sahir Ludhianvi to Javed
Akhtar. — PTI
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Exam stress claims two lives
New Delhi, March 6 According to police sources, Manju (16), of north-west Delhi’s Jehangirpuri, hanged herself at her residence last night after she performed badly in her Sanskrit paper yesterday. Manju, a Class XI student at a government school, left no suicide note but her family members said she was feeling low, as her paper had gone bad. In the second incident of the same district in Rohini, a first year student Dolly (21), was found hanging at her Sector 3 residence. Family members said she was finding it difficult to cope with the stress due to her forthcoming exams. A student of SPM Girls College, Dolly left no suicide note. In the third incident of suicide Sadhana (23), from north-east Delhi’s Karawal Nagar allegedly committed suicide due to depression as she was being forced to shift to her in-law’s house in a village. Sadhana’s neighbours told the police that accustomed to city life, Sadhana, a student of BA (Final year), was married last June to Kaushal, in a village she was not comfortable going to. A resident of Johripur in Karawal Nagar, she was found hanging late last night. However, no suicide note has been recovered, the police added.
— UNI
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Ex-minister of Tripura dies of head injury
Agartala, March 6 The police arrested the accused Usha Roychoudhury, who is said to be mentally challenged. The East Agartala police has launched an investigation. However, the Left Front smelt a political conspiracy in it. Front spokesperson Goutam Das claimed that the accused had joined the Congress recently and it was a political attack on the eve of counting. Bhowmik was elected to the Tripura assembly as an independent candidate in 1978 and had become health minister and later assumed the charge of the Chairman of Board of Tripura Khadi and Village
Industries. The veteran leader was one of the first contestants whose fate was decided through EVMs in 1983.
— UNI
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Jamtara, March 6 The court would pronounce the quantum of punishment for remaining seven convicts tomorrow. — UNI
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