New Delhi, April 30
The Parliamentary Committee of Privileges, in its 12th report tabled in the Lok Sabha today, has sought amendments to the Right to Information Act to “guard information under the jurisdiction of Parliament.” 

The committee has stated that irrespective of the fact as to what the citizens ask for under the RTI Act vis-à-vis matters related to proceedings of Parliament and its committees, it should be made mandatory for them to state reasons for which they are seeking the information so that the Speaker of the concerned House can take a decision on the matter. Right now, Section 2 (f) of the Act exempts information seekers from stating any reasons for seeking information under the Act. 

The committee goes on to add: “If the Speaker is of the view that the document sought for has the potential to call in question proceedings of the House or its committees, he may refer the matter to the Committee of Privileges of the House for examination and report.”

In such cases, the committee has even sought to dispense with the time limit of 30 days prescribed under the RTI Act and has said the documents may be furnished only if recommended by the committee and agreed to by the House.

Not stopping at that, the committee members seek more immunity from the RTI Act, stating, “It may be open for the Committee/House to decline furnishing of documents sought for if the committee/House feel that furnishing the same would result in calling in question proceedings of the House or its committees.”

Interestingly, the report comes just a day after a parliamentary panel held that the judiciary came under the purview of the RTI Act with regard to all activities of administration except “judicial decision making.” With regard to Parliament, however, the committee of privileges want the information seeker under the Act to disclose the intent of seeking information. This despite the fact that Section 2 (f) of RTI Act does not require people to state reasons.

Notwithstanding this provision, the committee feels, that “Parliament certainly has the right to know the reason for which a citizen of the country requires documents and information pertaining to the proceedings of the House, its committees and members so that it can decide for itself whether the request has any potential of calling the proceedings of the House or the committee into question in any court or needs to have the discretionary power to decide whether to part with the information sought.”

Justifying its stand in the report, the committee said, “This right is ordained by the Bill of Rights of the United Kingdom - is a Magna Carta of sorts - so far as laws governing parliamentary conventions in this regard are concerned, and secured to Parliament by constitutional provision referred to above.” 

The committee goes on to add, “The RTI has a special significance for Parliament in as much as it has a tendency to infringe upon the domain of Parliamentary privileges.” It further bases its observations on Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, which provides that notwithstanding anything contained in the Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen information the disclosure of which would constitute a breach of privilege of the Parliament. 

At present, requests received from courts of law for documents relating to proceedings of the House for production in courts are acceded to only with the leave of the House; purpose behind asking for such information is also largely sought. 

The privileges committee cited this situation as piquant and said, “While courts and investigating agencies would be required to state the purpose for seeking information, information seekers under the Act would not have to do any such thing.”

All these observations are a part of committee’s report on “Requests from courts of law and investigating agencies for documents pertaining to proceedings of the House, parliamentary committees or which are in the custody of the secretary-general, Lok Sabha, for production in courts of law and for investigation purposes.”

New Delhi, April 30
In a ruling that will open the financial activities of political parties to public scrutiny, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has said citizens can seek their income tax returns to get details on their fundings.

The landmark decision, bringing political parties’ within the ambit of the RTI Act, came on an appeal of an NGO -Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) - seeking disclosure of income tax returns and assessment orders pertaining to such organisations. 

“The laws of the land do not make it mandatory for political parties to disclose sources of their funding and even less so the manner of expending those funds. In the absence of such laws, the only way a citizen can gain access to the details of funding of political parties is through IT returns filed annually with IT authorities,” information commissioner A N Tiwari said.

The CIC said since political parties influence the exercise of political power, transparency in their organisation and functions, and more particularly, their means of funding is a democratic imperative and therefore is in the public interest.

“There is unmistakable public interest in knowing these funding details, which would enable the citizen to make an informed choice about the political parties to vote for, “the CIC said, in its 24-page order, allowing ADR’s appeal.

The IT authorities, in response to the plea, claimed that the information, containing details on the commercial activities of the political parties, were exempted under the RTI Act.

They further said the IT returns were “confidential” in nature as the assessees submitted them in fiduciary capacity. —PTI

New Delhi, April 30
The recently installed government in Islamabad is increasingly coming under critical focus of the western and its own media for its “one step forward, two steps backward” approach in dealing with the menace of terrorism.

The Washington Post, in an article “Try ‘Pakistan First’” on April 25, said the new regime was cutting back even on President Pervez Musharraf’s already feeble efforts to curb the movements of Al-Qaida, the Taliban and other Islamic extremist forces that operate in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the remote tribal frontier regions of Pakistan.

Officials in Islamabad have indicated that flights over FATA by the US unmanned aerial vehicles based in Afghanistan may soon be forbidden.

These predator missions gather intelligence and strike enemy targets with precision. Their loss would be a major setback for the United States.

Equally alarming are reports that the government is shelving counter-insurgency efforts in the tribal areas in favour of dealing with Islamic militancy “through dialogue and development.”

Last week, this shift produced a new truce with the Taliban forces in FATA and the announced release of Sufi Mohammad, the founder of an outlawed jihadist movement that fights in Afghanistan.

Writing in The Washington Post, Jim Hoagland takes on the Democratic Party’s version of the global war on terrorism as enunciated by Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The Democratic recipe to the Bush administration is: “Get out of Iraq and put more US forces in Afghanistan to win that conflict decisively”.

The Republicans are also increasingly urging President Bush to adopt an Afghanistan-first policy. “Pakistan, with its two dozen nuclear weapons, popular and official support for Kashmiri and Taliban terrorism, and political instability, is ultimately a greater threat to the world peace than Afghanistan and Iraq combined. That is the unavoidable reality that campaign promises should not obscure,” says The Post.

The International Herald Tribune wrote in today’s issue that American counter-terrorism officials were concerned that the new coalition government in Islamabad may withdraw some of the 120,000 Pakistani troops in the border area or curtail flights by the Central Intelligence Agency’s armed predator aircraft in the region.

The Bush administration is getting increasingly alarmed that a deal being negotiated between the new Pakistani government and militant tribes in the country’s unruly border area will lead to further unravelling of security in the region.

“American officials say that Washington’s options now are even more limited, in part because Musharraf is no longer calling the shots, and that the situation in the tribal areas is unlikely to significantly improve before President George W. Bush leaves office.

American economic and development aid aimed to help wean the region off the militants’ influence is just now seeping into the tribal areas, while a tribal paramilitary force still needs years of training and equipping to be an effective counterinsurgency unit,” the IHT says.

Pakistan’s own media is unsparing. Leading English daily “The Dawn” today commented on Pakistan’s handling of the terrorism problem thus: “If you nurtured a nest of snakes in your backyard, would you be surprised if the snakes slipped through the fence or underneath the doors and bit your neighbours and friends? Apparently, if you were one of this country’s foreign policy mandarins, you would be.”

New Delhi, April 30
Stung by a depleting stock of food grains, the government would now work for a strategic food grain stock, as the procurement of wheat was in full swing and beyond the expectations.

Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, while replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Finance Bill, said, “We would exceed the target of procurement, as 134 lakh tonnes of the targeted 150 lakh tonnes had been procured.”

“We would exceed the target of buffer stock and also build a strategic stock of food grain,” said the finance minister, while giving out an opinion on the farm sector.

The Rajya Sabha later returned the Finance Bill, completing the process of the budget for 2008-09.

Speaking for the government, the FM said the country had enough stock of food grains and there was no need to panic. The government was ready to bear higher subsidy for fertiliser and ramp up production of fertiliser. But, he ruled out going back on the controversial commodity transaction tax (CTT) on the futures market.

“We will do nothing to hurt farmers. If that means higher imports of fertiliser, bearing higher subsidy... Everything of that will be done,” he said.

He added CTT was the mirror image of securities transaction tax (STT), which was also imposed on the stock markets and met with similar resistance.

He put the onus of not providing enough grain to the poor.

The finance minister quoted from a report of the standing committee of Parliament that said, more than one third of the public distribution system (PDS) grain was diverted. He said he was refraining from taking names of the states that were indulging in diversion of grain. The Centre gave good price to farmers and producers of food grain. However, the states had to ensure that there was no diversion and no leakage of the PDS stock.

New Delhi, April 30
The Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) here plans to extend the pilot project on use of Hand Held Terminals (HHTs) to a few trains in the western railway.

Train ticket examiners of the western railway are being trained to use these friendly gadgets to convey the exact number of vacancies on a moving train to the next halting station. The information, transmitted electronically to stations en route the starting point and the destination, gives passengers definite information on the availability of seat.

This initiative is a blessing for passengers on the waiting list and even those, who wish to join the journey en route.

In January, CRIS imparted fortnight-long training to 28 TTEs of the northern railway to use these gadgets and put it to optimum use.

Sources in Rail Bhawan confirmed that the railway board is keen on extending the use of HHTs aboard the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi and the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani over the next couple of months.

CRIS was entrusted the task of executing the project to fulfil the railway minister’s budgetary promise of 2007-08.

Introduced simultaneously on the Amritsar, Ajmer and Dehradun Shatbadi, all day trains, in the northern railways on January 28, 2008, the project is expected to be rolled out to all important mails and express trains across the vast network of Indian railways, in the next couple of years.

Sources in CRIS said two clear advantages should flow from this system.

“It will bring about transparency and expedite process of refund claims filed by passengers, who cancel the tickets after the departure of the train. The computer device is a valuable and time saving tool in the hands of the TTE, as it saves all the information on the hard disc,” they said.

Balasore (Orissa), April 30
Lakshya, India's indigenously developed micro-light and pilotless target aircraft (PTA), was successfully test-flown today from the integrated test-range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 15 km from here.

"Lakshya fitted with an advanced digitally controlled engine was test-flown at about 12 noon successfully and it was carried out to check the validity of its engine and duration enhancement," defence sources said here.

Usually, the flight duration of the six-feet-long microlight aircraft is 30 to 35 minutes.

Lakshya, a sub-sonic and re-usable aerial target system is remote-controlled from the ground and designed to impart training to both airborne and air-defence pilots.

The PTA has been developed by India's Aeronautic Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore to perform discreet aerial reconnaissance of battlefield and target acquisition. Lakshya was introduced in the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2000. — PTI 

New Delhi, April 30
A total of 3,649 officers have been released from services of the Army, the Air Force or the Navy, in the past five years after they sought pre-mature retirement or opted to resign.

This exodus of officers had bothered the forces, as these highly trained men were opting for lucrative career in the private sector.

The minister of defence A.K. Antony today gave these figures in the Rajya Sabha, but claimed there was no large departure of officers from the defence forces. In these five years, on an average two officers had been released from the service everyday. There are 1,865 days in five years, while the releases have been 3,649.

Antony said defence personnel left service on account of various reasons. They were allowed to leave on extreme compassionate grounds, low medical category and failure to acquire minimum educational qualification among others. However, these cases were examined on case-to-case basis. 

New Delhi, April 30
Vice-Admiral Raman Prem Suthan today took over as the new Vice-Chief of Naval Staff at Naval headquarters here. Suthan will replace Vice-Admiral Nirmal Verma, who has been appointed as the Flag officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Vishakapatnam based Eastern Naval Command. Verma is the senior most Naval officer and is slated to succeed as the next Naval Chief.

Having commanded the Navy’s five frontline warships, Suthan earlier held posts of Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, defence advisor to High Commission in Singapore, controller personnel at Naval headquarters and commanding the Navy’s Eastern and Southern Command. — PTI

New Delhi, April 30
Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss has raised heckles once again and this time it is over a statement he made in the Rajya Sabha a couple of days ago about transmission of poliovirus taking place because of migration of people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Reacting to the statement, Virendra Bhatia of the Samajwadi Party said the health minister’s statement came as a shock especially after people from north India were already being targeted in Maharashtra and some other parts of the country.

Raising the matter during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Bhatia said Ramadoss should clarify his remarks, otherwise a privilege motion should be moved against him. Bhatia, who also made a reference to actor Amitabh Bachchan being the target of MNS leader Raj Thackeray’s tirade against migrants from north India, was supported by the Samajwadi Party members.

“This is a factually wrong information. People from Bihar and Utter Pradesh are being branded as root cause of the disease...this is shameful. The health minister should give a statement in this regard,” he said.

Last week, Ramadoss had said in the Upper House that transmission of poliovirus was found only in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The reasons for it were poor sanitation, unclean drinking water and high density of population.

Chennai, April 30
Nalini Murugan, serving a life term after being convicted for her role in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, today moved the Madras High Court for her early release, six weeks after her meeting with Priyanka Vadra.

Priyanka meeting Nalini not to impact case: Cong New Delhi: The Congress said today that the last month’s meeting between Priyanka Vadra and her Nalini would not have any legal bearing on the case. “'I don’t think there is any connection between the meeting and Nalini moving the Madras HC, seeking early release from prison,” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.

Justice P. Jyothimani admitted the “pre-mature release” petition in which Nalini sought freedom on the grounds of having completed nearly 17 years in jail with good conduct.

The Judge ordered that notices be issued to the Union home ministry, state home secretary and Additional DGP (prisons) returnable and posted further hearing on the petition to June 10. Nalini (37) knocked at the doors of the high court after her plea for release on the grounds of good conduct during her prison term was rejected by an advisory board in 2007. The board’s decision was also accepted by the TN government.

Nalini’s lawyer S. Doraiswamy said the probation officer at the Vellore central prison had recommended that Nalini be released for her good conduct and for having spent nearly 17 years in jail.

Doraiswamy said Nalini was entitled to seek “pre-mature release”. “Life term in Tamil Nadu as per the state jail manual is 20 years,” he said.

Nalini was initially sentenced to death along with her husband Murugan and two others in the case. Nalini’s capital punishment was later commuted to life following an appeal by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on humanitarian grounds after she delivered a baby girl in the Vellore prison. — UNI

Mumbai, April 30
A political rally, planned by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on May 3 at Shivaji Park grounds here, is giving sleepless nights to leaders of all political parties.

Thackeray, who has been quiet since his arrest and a gag order preventing him from speaking in public earlier  this year, is expected to unveil the party’s future course of action at  the rally.

MNS office-bearers say they have been asked to mobilise huge crowds for the rally. “We have been told to carry out a huge propaganda campaign at the local level to mobilise the cadres,” a party activist at the MNS shaka at Borivli in North Mumbai said.

It is clear that efforts to woo the Marathi-speaking public of Mumbai will be high on the party’s agenda.

“We have sent feedback to the party leadership that jobs for locals should be the priority for the MNS,” said one MNS leader.

Leaders of other political parties in the state are apprehensive that Raj Thackeray could play a spoiler during the elections to the Maharashtra Assembly. So, measures to woo the Marathi voter are being contemplated.

Earlier this week, deputy Chief Minister R.R Patil threatened to close down Mumbai cinemas that have not been screening Marathi movies for four weeks every year.

Sources say many single screen cinemas may just use this excuse to close down and pave the way for shopping mall cum multiplexes.

MNS Rally Don’t cross limits, Raj Thackeray told The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has told Raj Thackeray “not to cross his limits” during May 3 rally. The SHRC was acting on a complaint filed by activist Medha Patkar, who had alleged that the Maharashtra government has been lax in pursuing cases against Thackeray. While 41 cases have been registered against him, Thackeray was made accused in only one case, Patkar contended.

The ruling Congress party, led by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, too, has been aggressive in forcing corporate houses in Mumbai to give preference to Marathi-speaking locals. Deshmukh drew much ire from industry houses recently when he called upon companies to compulsorily employ Marathi-speaking people as personnel managers so that local residents are given preference for jobs.

None other than Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray praised Deshmukh for carrying out his original agenda.

On Thursday, Maharashtra Day, the Shiv Sena is organising huge celebrations to celebrate the formation of Maharahstra state.

New Delhi, April 30
President Pratibha Patil’s son Rajendra Singh Shekhawat, who accompanied her on her trip to Latin America in April, went away briefly to the US to attend to personal business, sources said. Shekhawat flew to Miami in the wee hours of April 17.

According to sources, many in Mexico, the second halt in the President’s three-nation tour, were taken by surprise by Shekhawat’s trip to the US, where he is believed to have discussed a business tie-up for his family-run educational institutions. Queried by IANS, Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson Archana Datta said: “There was a long pending invitation from the University of Florida for academic purpose. Since Shekhawat was in Mexico, he took the opportunity to visit the university. He bore the expenses for his visit.” The President’s family runs a chain of schools and colleges in their home district of Jalgaon in Maharashtra and in Mumbai.

Shekhawat’s absence was noticed at the banquet hosted by Mexican President Felipe Calderon at Castilo de Chapultepec. According to those who attended the banquet, a seat was reserved for Shekhawat. Indian external affairs ministry officials admitted that his visit to the US was a breach of protocol because the President’s son was considered a VVIP in the delegation.

According to diplomatic sources, the Indian missions in the US were roped in for his trip. The embassy in Washington sent an officer to Miami to receive the VVIP.

Shekhawat spent only a day in Miami where he held his discussions at his hotel. Shekhawat was also missing from the President’s team when it visited the Teotihuacan Pyramids in Mexico April 18. However, he was present at the lunch hosted by Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez Marquez at his palace in Guadalajara on April 19. Besides her son, the President was accompanied by her husband Devisingh Ram Singh Shekhawat. President Patil visited Brazil, Mexico and Chile from April 12 to 23. It was her first foreign trip since she became the head of state last year. 
— IANS

New Delhi, April 30
The Delhi High Court today issued a notice to the Centre on a petition filed by an English daily, “The Statesman”, to scrap wage boards constituted by the government for working journalists and non-journalists.

A Bench comprising Justices Manmohan Sarin and Manmohan asked the government to file its response by May 13 when the matter would be taken up for further hearing. The newspaper has also sought a stay on the proceedings of the wage boards, which were constituted in May last year.

Senior Advocate Soli J. Sorabjee and Arjun Harkauli, appearing for the daily, sought a direction to declare as null and void the proceedings of wage boards headed by Justice K. Narayana Kurup.

The newspaper has challenged the constitution of the wage boards alleging that its composition reflected a pro-labour/employee bias.

“None of the three members are independent members but have been co-opted to the wage boards to introduce a pro-labour/employee bias.

There is every likelihood of bias in the working of the wage boards,” Sorabjee contended. — PTI 

BRIEFLY

MUMBAI
Kambli’s sister-in-law killed in mishap: Cricketer Vinod Kambli’s sister-in-law died on the spot, while her husband was injured when their motorbike was knocked down by a truck here on Wednesday. The police said Vishakha (25) and her husband Vidhyadhar, younger brother of Vinod, were on their way to work when a truck dashed their bike from behind, throwing Vishakha onto the road. She was crushed under rear tyre of the truck. Vidhyadhar, who received minor injuries, is admitted to the civil hospital, they added. The truck driver is absconding and a case has been registered. — UNI

RANCHI
22 more convicted in fodder scam: A CBI court on Wednesday handed down punishment to the remaining 22 accused in the multi crore-fodder scam case unearthed in Bihar. They were handed down jail terms varying between three to six years. The court also slapped fines varying between Rs three lakh to Rs 1.2 crore on the accused. A charge sheet was filed against 39 persons in the case. — UNI

CHENNAI
ISRO receives first picture from IMS-1: ISRO on Wednesday announced that both CARTOSAT-2A and IMS-1 satellites, launched by PSLV-C9 on April 28 from Sriharikota, were functioning satisfactorily and the first picture was received from IMS-1. An official release here said the telemetry data indicated that all the subsystems of both satellites were functioning satisfactorily. — UNI

BASTI
SP leader guilty in murder case: Charges on Wednesday were proved against former Samajwadi Party district chief Ramvriksha Yadav and six others in a murder case. According to the prosecution, on August 25, 2007, a pan died after being indiscriminately fired at by desperadoes during gram pradhan election at Jainarayan Inter College in Dhanghata area. The court reserved its verdict till May 2 and sent the accused in judicial custody till the next hearing. — UNI

SIDDHARTHNAGAR
3 minors burnt alive: Three children were burnt alive after a fire broke out in their house in Mehdawal tehsil here on Tuesday, the police said. The incident occurred in Gatukhore village, where fire engulfed the house of one Harishchandra’s house, killing his three children. The deceased were identified as Dinesh (8), Laxmi (5) and Jyoti (2). The district magistrate has announced Rs 3 lakh compensation to the deceased’ family. — UNI