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Kids will have to wait for right to education
Prosecuting Retired Officials
Now, all-party team to calm tempers
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Decision on federal agency pending
CBI may probe fake currency racket
Marry or languish in jail, Orissa HC to ‘rapist’
Tackling AIDS
UPCC chief for White Paper against Maya
Natwar may join BSP today
Delete spoof scene from OSO: Court
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Kids will have to wait for right to education
New Delhi, August 8 But that was not to be, with the Union Cabinet referring the matter to the group of ministers, spelling further delay for the law considered critical to complete eradication of child labour in India. That because it seeks to target children aged 6 to 14 years - the age group considered most vulnerable to exploitation by way of labour. Census data says there are 1.26 crore-child workers in this age group in India. Close to 1.34 crore children in this bracket are out of school. No wonder the Bill, mooted two years ago, seeks to guarantee free and compulsory education up to elementary level to these children. The draft legislation proposes to secure children’s right to education in a neighbourhood school, besides seeking to define the responsibility of stakeholders like the state, teachers and parents in the process of educating the child. Ironic, however, is the fact that this is not the first delay the Bill has faced. It was earlier pending with the ministry of law that kept asking human resource development ministry for clarifications. Even today, the matter was put on the hold, with the government citing “debate on the role of states and their contribution to the area” as the reason for sending it to group of ministers (GoM). After the Cabinet meeting, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal, who will be part of the GOM on Right to Education Bill, said the Prime Minister considered the Bill a priority and asked the GoM to study the matter and submit recommendations at the earliest to enable tabling of the Bill in Parliament. Sibal said the bill would be passed in the UPA government’s tenure, adding that the NDA had failed to pass it. The GoM, meanwhile, is likely to be headed by HRD minister Arjun Singh and would have on board finance minister P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, besides Sibal. As for the Bill, it would require close to Rs 2 lakh crore for implementation over the plan period. That apart, the government officers and NGO representatives felt the law was an absolute necessity. This for simple reasons - 52 per cent children drop out before class VIII or don’t attend school at all. Moreover, the National Child Labour Programme has also not succeeded much in educating working children. That’s why the child rights activists have been demanding the programme be scrapped and its funds shifted to enforce child labour laws.
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Prosecuting
Retired Officials
New Delhi, August 8 The Cabinet approved the introduction of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2008 in Parliament for making changes in the 1988 Act, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal told reporters. The move was aimed at checking harassment of retired government officials at a time when they did not have the means to defend themselves, the minister said. Further, retired officials were sought to be prosecuted for alleged corruption during their services and as such the protection provision available to servicing officials should be extended to retired officials as well, he explained. At the same time, once the sanction was given to proceed against a retired official, the prosecuting agency would be able to have the properties of the officials concerned attached, he said. The measures would help prevent filing of frivolous complaints against retired officials and provide a deterrent provision in the form of attachment of property of such people, Sibal explained. At present, government’s sanction is necessary for prosecuting officials of the rank of joint secretary and above on corruption charges and this is being sought to be extended to retired officials who demitted office when they were holding similar positions. — UNI
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Cabinet okays changes in PGI Act
New Delhi, August 8 This was a long-pending demand of aspirants to these courses, and would boost their professional profile by enabling them with better prospects.
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Now, all-party team to calm tempers
New Delhi, August 8 With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh making it clear that this issue has to be resolved in the state, it is hoped the two-day visit of political leaders will cool temperatures and facilitate discussions between the four-member panel, named by Jammu and Kashmir governor N.N.Vohra, and the agitators. “The solutions have to emerge from the discussions conducted by this panel,” said a senior UPA minister. The delegation, headed by home minister Shivraj Patil, has representatives from 11 political parties, including the BJP, which gave its consent for this trip rather reluctantly. Having been at the forefront of the month-long agitation in Jammu, the BJP had initially tried to wriggle out of this trip and had even sent feelers to its allies in the NDA to dissociate from the Centre’s move. Sources in the opposition camp said the BJP had planned to call an NDA meeting today to dissuade its partners to boycott tomorrow’s visit but it dropped its plans when it found itself isolated. NDA partners told the BJP very firmly that they stand with the secular parties on this matter. Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal is learnt to have conveyed to the BJP leadership that there should be no compromise as far as the country’s unity is concerned and that all political parties should take care to see they do not play into Pakistan’s hands by unnecessarily fomenting trouble in the border state. Janata Dal (U) president Sharad Yadav is also of the same view. The BJP asked party general secretary Arun Jaitley to join the delegation after party president Rajnath Singh spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Apparently not happy with this arrangement, Jaitley did not even attend the special briefing session called by home minister Patil this evening for members of the all-party delegation. The delegation, which has about a dozen leaders from different political parties, comprises Prithviraj Chavan and Mohsina Kidwai from the Congress, Naresh Gujral from the Akali Dal, Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D.Raja, RJD’s Raghuvansh Prasad and K.C.Tyagi of JD (U).
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Decision on federal agency pending
New Delhi, August 8 Separately, the MHA did some plain-speaking with the assembled chief secretaries and DGPs of all states, telling them that no improvement in policing was visible at the ground level. Mistakes are being repeated, intelligence gathering was a low priority subject while the beat constable system has collapsed, the MHA officials pointed out to the state officials. Blasts are occurring as modules of terrorists are active in cities across the country. The meeting at the Vigyan Bhawan here was more of a brain-storming session of some of the senior IAS and IPS officers of the country. Functionaries of the MHA did talk about the federal agency but no discussion was carried out. Visiting officials were informed that a concept paper on the agency and its proposed constitution would be circulated to states as this entailed an amendment to the Constitution. Sources said the federal agency need not be a body that works from the national capital alone. It could have nodes in all major Indian cities and draw manpower from the state police forces. But these are just initial estimates. Some states like Goa and Uttarakhand suggested that the intelligence bureau units in the states needed immediate augmentation and the same was promised. The MHA was asked to provide the latest equipment and train the manpower. A matter of serious concern discussed in the meeting was the easy availability of pre-activated mobile SIM cards of Indian as well as international mobile service providers. Also Chinese mobile handsets, that do not have an EMI identification number, have flooded the market. This EMI number is particular to a handset and it is through this number that the security agencies track down the numbers they want to. Cases have been detected where pre-activated SIM cards of national companies were sold in small towns in border states. Another facet is the sale of pre-activated SIMs of international companies being sold in Indian cities. The MHA also asked the states to constitute permanent anti-terrorist squads, use funds for police modernisation properly, create separate intelligence cadres and also have separate wings for investigation and maintaining law and order. All this was envisaged under the Police Act.
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CBI may probe fake currency racket
Lucknow, August 8 While ADG law and order, Brijlal, admitted that the case was fit to be investigated by the central agency he did not say when it would be formally handed over. He said the DGP office was considering the matter and a decision would be taken soon. A similar fake currency case that came up in Aligarh a few months ago was finally handed over to the central investigating agency, he pointed out. Amidst speculation that the case would soon be handed over to the CBI, a special investigation team (SIT) led by SP Anil Kumar reached Domariaganj late this evening to take over the case from the local police. The ADG said efforts were also on to get an extension of the police remand of the main culprit; SBI head cashier Sudhakar Tripathi. Yesterday, he was taken in police remand for nine hours. “We need more time to get additional details out of him,” he said. Tripathi had reportedly told the investigating team yesterday that he had exchanged only Rs 1.25 crore fake notes. However, with much more tumbling out of the chest today it appears that he probably wanted the counting to stop. According to the ADG, the RBI chest at Domariaganj has Rs 186 crore as it caters to nine branches in the region. Today, a team of officers from the SBI also joined the counting exercise to accelerate the process. “The pace at which counting is being down by the RBI it would not take less than two months to scan all the currency notes here,” said Brijlal. Incidentally, Tripathi the cashier popularly known as Babu in Domariaganj city, has been posted in the same branch since 1972. He has not taken any leave for the last five years, informed police sources. Meanwhile, the state government is in the process of collecting adequate documentary evidence to press its case that the present racket in Domariaganj became possible due to the complete indifference of the RBI and other Central agencies to various requests of the state government after the discovery of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in recent years, especially from the districts bordering Nepal.
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Marry or languish in jail, Orissa HC to ‘rapist’
Cuttack, August 8 Justice Laxmi Kant Mishra while granting bail to Maheswar Naik on August 5 for two months asked him in “no uncertain terms to either languish in jail without bail or marry the victim and enjoy the freedom.” Maheswar (30) of Jaripada village was released on bail yesterday with a condition that if he wanted to stay away from jail, he had to marry the girl he allegedly raped nine months ago. Maheswar was lodged in jail for past few months on charges of raping a girl of his own village. Now in advanced stage of pregnancy, the girl alleged that Maheswar had established sexual relationship with her under the pretext of marriage. However, as she conceived, Maheswar backed out from his promise and was, therefore, booked on the charge of rape under Section 376 of IPC.
— PTI
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Tackling AIDS
New Delhi, August 8 The minister conveyed the government sentiment on the controversial subject soon after he had said that discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs) must end for HIV care and prevention strategies to work. “Structural discrimination against those vulnerable to HIV such as sex workers and MSMs must be removed if our prevention, care and treatment programs are to succeed,” Ramadoss said, making a clear case for the HIV/AIDS Bill that seeks to address the issue of stigma and discrimination among HIV infected. The Bill, pending with the law ministry for vetting, drew the minister’s support on world stage today. Batting for the rights of PLHAs, the minister said India could not afford to be complacent though it had started seeing stabilisation of HIV epidemic. “Our focus on HIV prevention is fetching dividends but we must not be complacent. The key to overcoming the epidemic is to take HIV services to those in the margins. We need to provide them with an enabling environment,” Ramadoss said. He was addressing world health experts at a time when the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has compiled the findings of its annual sentinel surveillance that maps the spread of HIV across India. The findings suggest that India can’t actually be complacent, with the virus now infecting general population in districts in low HIV prevalence states. Moreover, HIV positivity among three high-risk groups - MSMs, female sex workers (FSWs) and injecting drug users (IDUs) - has been found to grow significantly in new areas like Punjab and Delhi. Some distress also stems from the findings of the Commission on AIDS in Asia, which said unprotected sex would be a major determinant of HIV in future. The Commission found that 10 million Asian women sell sex and 75 million men regularly buy sex, making unprotected paid the single most powerful determinant of HIV rates in the future. The potential of unprotected commercial sex has also caused the health minister to resist the proposed changes in the Immoral Prevention of Trafficking Act, where the women and child development ministry wants amendments to make clients of commercial sex liable for punishment. The view within the health ministry is that the provision might push sex trade behind the curtain, and place curbs on the bargaining power of FSWs. This will increase their vulnerability to HIV.
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UPCC chief for White Paper against Maya
Lucknow, August 8 She accused Chief Minister Mayawati of personally encroaching upon at least 7 bighas of high-priced land in Badalpur by surreptitiously including it in her plot of 45 bighas that she had bought in 2005-06. “A 100-room mansion having a fortress like 5,000 feet boundary wall is being built in that land of 52 bighas” Joshi while addressing a press conference said. Around 100 bighas of additional productive land from three adjoining villages of Sadhupur, Achheja and Bisnauni is being forcibly acquired at below market prices to build a Disneyland sort of recreational resort, charged the UPCC president. “While the land in these villages are being acquired at the rate of Rs 710 per sq meter even the official circle rate for registration is Rs 8000 per sq meter. The market price of course is anything between Rs 15,000 to 30,000 per sq meter,” she said. Claiming that the state government had virtually clamped unofficial curfew in the region following farmers’ protest over this, the UPCC president informed that she had been twice detained while addressing the farmers once along with AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and MP Sachin Pilot.
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Natwar may join BSP today
New Delhi, August 8 BSP president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is holding a public rally in Lucknow tomorrow and Natwar Singh is expected to join her at the rally and make an announcement there. Natwar is closely related to former Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh. He had to leave the government under cloud of the Volcker Commission allegations of being a beneficiary of the payoffs by former Iraqi President Saddam Husain on what Volcker described as oil for food scam.
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Delete spoof scene from OSO: Court
Mumbai, August 8
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Rangarajan resigns as PM’s adviser Puducherry, TN institutes to be deemed varsity Japanese encephalitis toll 124 Emergency landing 
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