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N-deal: India woos Democrats
UPA-Left meeting on March 17
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Anand Marriage Act for Sikhs soon
Rationalise road toll tax, panel tells govt
Lapang takes oath as Meghalaya CM
25 Indian sailors on Rezzak feared
dead
Shahbuddin challenges decision to conduct trial in jail
Kannur Fallout
Assam to raise special battalions
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Sarabjit’s sister meets security adviser
New Delhi, March 10 Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur, along with her husband Sardar Baldev Singh, called on national security adviser M.K. Narayanan here in South Block and urged him to impress upon the Prime Minister for immediate intervention in Sarabjit’s case. “I have requested that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should immediately talk to President Musharraf, before any damage is done…. Considerable time has elapsed after reports about rejection of clemency and unless immediate intervention is made from the Centre, it could turn out to be a disaster not only for our family, but also for the nation,” Dalbir told The Tribune after a 45-minute meeting with Narayanan. Three other top officials were present during the meeting, whom she could not recognise, Dalbir said. A visibly upset Dalbir said the Prime Minister should have issued a statement immediately after the news about rejection of clemency came. “Now I urge him to take up this issue on a priority…. I urge him to talk to President Musharraf,” Dalbir, who has been spearheading a campaign in India for her brother’s release, said. Musharraf had recently rejected the mercy petition of Sarabjit, condemned to death in Pakistan for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in 1990. The interior ministry of Pakistan had said Musharraf had rejected the mercy petition of Sarabjit, who Pakistan claims is Manjit Singh. Sarabjit was arrested on charges of spying in 1990. The Lahore High Court sentenced him to death in 2003 for his alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed about 14 persons. Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected Sarabjit’s mercy petition in March, 2006, and upheld his death sentence. Sarabjit’s Lahore-based lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid then submitted another mercy petition to President Musharraf through the interior ministry. In Pakistan, the President is the final authority for granting pardon and there was no other authority that could review Sarabjit’s case. The development came even as Kashmir Singh, another Indian national sentenced to death on charges of spying, was reunited with his family, after Musharraf pardoned him.
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N-deal: India woos Democrats
New Delhi, March 10 Although the ruling coalition’s key interlocutors will make every possible effort to convince the Left parties when they meet on March 17 about the desirability of going ahead with the deal, it is not certain about their consent. UPA sources admitted that since there were lingering doubts about getting the deal through during President George Bush’s regime, New Delhi was also reaching out to the Democrats. “The talks are taking place at every level...through officials, lobbyists and even think-tanks,” a senior UPA minister disclosed here today. When external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, travels to the United States this month-end, his packed schedule is expected to include meetings with Democratic Party leaders. It is well known that both Democrat presidential candidates, Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton, are opposed to the nuclear deal. In fact, Obama was one of the several Democrat senators who attempted to obstruct the deal by tabling what are called “killer amendments” to the Hyde Act, which would have struck down the legislation if these had been passed. The Democrats have always taken a more stringent stand to non-proliferation and many of its senators have criticised the Bush Administration for rewarding India with nuclear technology while not getting tangible gains in return for the US. Aware of the roadblocks which may lie ahead, three important senators who had visited India last month had pressing India to speed up the implementation of the nuclear agreement, failing which New Delhi will not get a similar deal. Senators Joseph Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had said if the deal is not taken up by the US Congress by June and the process completed during President George Bush’s tenure, any new US administration will renegotiate the deal. “It will not be the same agreement,” Biden had said, adding that the next administration, whoever the President is, will renegotiate the deal. If the deal is not placed before the Senate by early June, there will be little chance of it going through, said Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There are fears that the Democrat non-proliferation hardliners may insert fresh conditions to the deal, like reopening the debate on the CTBT and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and seeking stricter monitoring of the nuclear technology sold to India by the US.
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UPA-Left meeting on March 17
New Delhi, March 10 CPM leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury met external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee several times since yesterday. Karat held a one-to-one meeting with Mukherjee yesterday. Yechury met Mukherjee separately twice, once yesterday and the second time today. Mukherjee, who is the government’s key interlocutor for coordinating with the Left and heads the UPA-Left panel on the nuclear deal, is understood to have given a detailed briefing to Karat and Yechury. Mukherjee conveyed to the Left leaders that all national concerns had been met in the India-IAEA negotiations for an India-specific safeguards. Karat had, in a letter to Mukherjee last week, demanded a meeting of the UPA-Left panel by March 15. The panel has not met since November 2007, the crucial meeting when the Left parties had given their green light to the government for going ahead with its negotiations with the IAEA.
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Anand Marriage Act for Sikhs soon
New Delhi, March 10 The issue came up during question hour when Viplove Thakur (Congress) asked the government if it is considering a proposal to make the registration of Hindu marriages compulsory under the law. Bhardwaj replied in the negative and observed that the Supreme Court in its judgement in February 2006 directed that marriages of all persons, who are citizens of India belonging to various religions, should be made compulsorily registrable in their respective states. “The matter is being carefully examined in its full ramifications,” he said. Tarlochan Singh asked whether the government proposed amending the Anand Marriage Act to facilitate the registration of marriages in the Sikh community. He said this demand had been pending for nearly six decades and called for appropriate changes as well as duly incorporating the registration clause in the Act, permitting the registration of marriages in the Sikhs all over the country. Tarlochan Singh recalled that all Sikh MPs and the SGPC had appealed to the UPA government to permit the Sikh community to register the marriages under the Act. This demand also found favour with the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan. The standing committee unanimously recommended that the Centre should come forward with a simple amendment to the marriage Act. S.S. Ahluwalia (BJP) failed to understand why the government had failed to do the needful even when the Pakistan government had passed this Act. Refusing to comment on what the Pakistan government had done, Bhardwaj said: “This is a question pertaining to the Parliament of India. I can assure that we will be bringing a Bill very soon in this session.”
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Rationalise road toll tax, panel tells govt
New Delhi, March 10 The committee also recommended that people travelling on smaller stretches of tolled national highways should be charged lower amount than those using the entire length. There is a need for rationalisation of toll tax being charged on national highways, it stressed. In its report tabled in the Parliament recently, the Standing Committee on Transport on actions taken by the government on its earlier recommendations clearly said the government was not justified in burdening common users of highways with the development and maintenance of roads in the country. The committee headed by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said it had commented on the matter in its previous report on demands for grants by recommending that once the cost of construction of a road or bridge was recovered the collection of toll should be stopped. However, in its reply to the panel the government said that huge amount of resources were required for development and maintenance of national highways. “Considering the quantum of available resources, it was decided by the government to charge user’s fees in perpetuity. This was a change from the previous policy of discontinuation of collection of user’s fees after the cost of bridge along with interest was recovered," was the reply given by the Department of Road Transport and Highways. In fact, the financing of seven phases of the NHDP is based on continuation of user’s fee in perpetuity. But the committee said it was not satisfied with the reply of the government, adding that there was no reason to collect toll tax in perpetuity. “Once the capital and interest is recovered, the users’ fee must be discontinued. The creation of a revolving fund may be further pursued with the Ministry of Finance,” it said, recommending that a one-time revolving fund should be set up for all major road projects in which the share of road projects from the CRF should be kept. The panel also expressed its concern over the multiple-taxation on vehicle owners by way of tax on the time of purchase of vehicles, cess on purchasing of petrol/diesel and collection of toll when the vehicle owner uses the road.
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Ghising quits Hill Council
Kolkata, March 10 Ghising handed over the resignation letter to the Darjeeling district magistrate, Rajesh Pande, at the state electricity board’s guest house at Siliguri around 11.30 am. Pande forwarded it to the Chief Minister’s office at the Writers Buildings through fax. A radiogram message was also sent to chief secretary A.K. Deb and DGP Anup Bhora. As soon as the news of Ghising’s resignation reached the hills, a large number of workers of the rival Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and their supporters came out on the streets in Darjeeling and danced in jubilation. The GJM supporters could be seen beating drums, singing and distributing sweets among people. The GNLF flags from atop the council office at Darjeeling and elsewhere at Kalimpong and Kurseong were soon brought down and GJM’s flags were hoisted. At the Gorkha Bhavan in Kolkata also the GNLF flags were replaced by the GJM flags. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee informed the on-going state Assembly session in the afternoon that he had received Ghising’s resignation letter. The divisional commissioner of North Bengal, D.L. Mina, took over the charge of the council. The government would now negotiate with the Centre and different political parties to discuss how soon elections be held to the council for restoring its democratic functioning. Soon after tendering his resignation, Ghising said he would return to the hills in two-three days and relaunch an agitation for a separate Gorkhaland, which had been their main demand. Ghising, who had been ill of late, was staying in the state electricity guest house at Siliguri under heavy security cover. He could not return to the hills since February 22 after his return from Delhi, where he went to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Shivraj Patil on the Sixth Schedule proposal. The Sixth Schedule proposal had now been abandoned.
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Lapang takes oath as Meghalaya CM
Guwahati, March 10 The Governor administered the oath of office to Lapang in the presence of all other 24 elected MLAs from the Congress at a ceremony that was boycotted by all other 34 elected MLAs, including the 31 from the post-poll Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) comprising the NCP, BJP, two regional parties UDP and HSPDP and two Independents. The NCP leader P.A. Sangma and all other members of the party criticised the Governor’s decision to call the Congress to form the government despite the party failing to attain simple majority in the House. Sangma said: “Governor’s action was unconstitutional and murder of democracy.” The MPA, which had paraded all its 31 MLAs before the Governor earlier in the day, has decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the action of Governor.
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25 Indian sailors on Rezzak feared
dead
Mumbai, March 10 Pelican Marine, the agency which hired the crew for the vessel, has issued letters to the next of kin of all the crew members, the firm’s director said. “The letters have been issued as a matter of regular procedure and it in no way indicates that search and investigations have been abandoned,” Santhosh Biswas, director of Pelican Marine, told PTI. The directorate-general of shipping and Panamian officials are conducting investigations into the missing ship and some results should emerge in the coming days, he said. MV Rezzak, which was carrying steel billets in its cargo, went missing on February 18 in the Black Sea, near Turkey. The ship, owned by a Turkish firm but registered in Panama, left Russia for Turkey on February 17. Meanwhile, families of the victims have demanded a re-search and a CBI inquiry into the matter. In a memorandum to the President, the families have urged for a re-search of the missing crew members. They have also urged for a CBI inquiry, as they suspect that the ship has become victim of foul play. According to family members, the mobile phones of some of the crew members are ringing and SMSs are also being delivered.
— PTI, UNI
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Shahbuddin challenges decision to conduct trial in jail
New Delhi, March 10 Shahbuddin has questioned the validity of the two notifications of the government for setting a sessions court and a court of judicial magistrate inside the jail for exclusively putting him on the fast-track trial on the ground that no consent was obtained from him. His lawyers argued before a Bench of Justices Ashok Bhan and Dalveer Bhandari that Section 6 of the CrPC contemplates obtaining consent from the accused also for setting up of special court inside the jail for his trial. The court issued notice to the Bihar government, asking it to submit its reply as his counsel said though there were several similarly placed accused in the state, he had been “singled” out for the fast-track trial by the government. According to Shahbuddin’s lawyers, he was being “discriminated” in the name of expeditious trial. The Nitish government issued the notifications on June 7, 2006, with the approval of the Patna High Court as taking Shahbuddin out of jail every time for trial in more than 30 cases was a security risk. It was due to the fast-track trial that he was convicted in the 1995 attempt to murder case of CPI (ML) activist Chote Lal Gupta on March 1 and another case related to armed attack on the then Siwan SP S.K. Singhal in May 1996 in which the police officer had a narrow escape.
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Kannur Fallout
Bangalore, March 10 According to the complaint registered with the police, the men gained entry into the house at 10.45 pm claiming they were known to Nair. However, when Rajamma allowed them in, they brandished weapons and pinned her down on the sofa by holding a weapon against her throat. Following this, the miscreants looked around the house searching for Nair, who was away on tour. The report said upon not finding Nair at home, they abused Rajamma and also the Communist party, accusing it of spreading hatred before setting out to ransack the house. They trashed the television set, refrigerator, air-conditioner and glass showcase in the house. The miscreants took away a laptop belonging to Nair and a television set box. Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Ulfat Hussain said Nair’s wife had disclosed that the miscreants spoke Malayalam and referred to the Kannur incidents but said it was still to be ascertained whether they belonged to any particular party.
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Assam to raise special battalions
Guwahati, March 10 The government has announced a slew of measures to ward off the threat from insurgents. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi informed the Assembly that provisions had been made in the budget for the creation of two new battalions of the Assam Industrial Security Force. Moreover, a new Assam police battalion has been created to provide protection to pipelines and oil installations of Oil India Limited and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). The vulnerable installations of the oil industry are often targeted for bombing by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). The Assembly was informed that funds had been sanctioned for the creation of an additional India Reserve Battalion. The state would soon have a full-fledged counter-insurgency academy and a special task force for counter-insurgency operations.
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