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Pay: Armed forces say they won’t back off
New pension order to benefit jawans only
Rahul Raj Killing |
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India, Egypt sign extradition treaty
3 families celebrate Imroz’s return
Advani comes out in support of Pragya Another case against Lt Col Purohit Kandhamal
Orissa seeks plan to solve Kandhamal problem
Campaign stress can be killer
Congress will win: Shinde
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Pay: Armed forces say they won’t back off
New Delhi, November 18 These demands are being looked into by a three-member ministerial committee headed by foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and has defence minister A.K. Antony and finance minister P. Chidambaram as members. In the past few days, a senior government functionary had spoken to the top brass of the forces to find out a “middle ground” where the matter could be
resolved. The same has not been agreed upon in the discussion as the forces have highlighted once again that the status has been lowered vis-ŕ-vis civilian and paramilitary officials. One of the suggestions made during discussions was that Lt Cols be placed in the pay band 4, only after completing 15-16 years of service. The Sixth Pay Commission had placed Lt Cols in the pay band 3. The same was protested by the forces as they wanted Lt Cols in the pay band 4, on a par with civilian and paramilitary officers. This is one of the four core issues being studied by the group of ministers. The government had suggested that an officer becomes Lt Col after 13 years of service. However, to place him in the pay band 4 instead of the existing pay band 3, let the number of years of service for the eligibility be increased to 15-16 years. This was not to affect his promotion as Lt Col that would be due after 13 years of service. Only the next pay band
be given after more number of years, the government had suggested. Another suggestion was for creating a separate pay band for Lt Cols. The forces had pointed out that all officials in the civil and paramilitary had assured promotion. The other three core demands of the forces are higher administrative grade for all Lt Gens. The sorting out of the grade pay that has been lowered and the restoration of 70 per cent of the pension benefits for jawans. The three service chiefs had protested and the Prime Minister had formed a high-level committee. The issue of Lt Cols has led to the most number of debates in the government circles. The central police organisations (CPOs) and paramilitary forces (CPMFs) have demanded that their “second-in-command” rank officers be also placed in the pay band 4 if Lt Cols and their equivalents are included in this pay bracket. The CPOs and the CPMFs decided to make such a demand at a joint meeting of their DGs held a few weeks ago, sources added.
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New pension order to benefit jawans only
Chandigarh, November 18 Pension orders issued by the ministry of defence last week state that the PBOR retiring after January 1, 2006, will be granted full pension on the completion of 15 years of service, but the same will be applicable to commissioned officers only after September 2, 2008, and not January 2006. The Sixth Pay Commission had recommended the scrapping of the requirement of 33 years’ service for earning full pension. Prior to this, pension was proportionately decreased according to the length of service. Officers and the PBOR would be eligible for full pension after 20
and 15 years service, respectively. However, pension orders issued by the Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare on September 1, 2008, the guidelines of which are also applicable to the defence ministry, state that the scrapping of the 33 years’ clause will be applicable to those retiring from September 2008. The recommendations of the SPC are being implemented with effect from January 2006. Commissioned Officers and civilian employees in other departments retiring between January 1, 2006, and September 1, 2008, will remain amenable to the 33-year service
clause for earning full pension. This will affect the fixation of pension for life. Consequent to the Department of Pension’s directives, sources said there would now be three categories of pensioners in the armed forces -- the PBOR retiring after January 1, 2006, who would receive full pension after completing the minimum pension qualifying service of 15 years, commissioned officers retiring between January 2006 and September 2008, who would receive full pension only if they had completed 33 years of service (with or without weightage), and finally
commissioned officers retiring after September 1, 2008, who would receive full pension
after completing 20 years of service.
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Rahul Raj Killing
Patna, November 18 The commission has issued separate notice to the home secretary of Maharashtra and commissioner of the Mumbai police seeking their reply within 15 days. A Member of the commission and former director-general of police, R.R.Prasad told the Tribune that the commission was well within its rights to take cognizance of the incident that had taken place in another state. According to him, neither the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) of Maharashtra nor the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), New Delhi, had taken up the case nor any enquiry commission was constituted by the concerned state government or the Centre to probe into the incident. In view of these circumstances, the SHRC of Bihar was fully competent to take up the enquiry into this case, Prasad said. Moreover, the victim’s father and other family members were all residing in Bihar and therefore they had approached the SHRC here with their complaint, he added. In his petition to the SHRC, Singh had charged the Mumbai police with killing his son in cold blood just to appease their political masters. He had also termed the version of the Mumbai police about the incident as a cock and bull story and sought action against the guilty cops for killing his son in a “fake encounter”. But what if the government officials of Maharashtra did not respond to the notice of Bihar’s SHRC? Prasad said that if they did not reply to the notice issued to them, they would be asked to appear in person by the SHRC on a particular date. Failing which, a warrant of arrest would be issued against them by the SHRC, he said. Meanwhile, the student organisations of left parties like the All India Students Association, the Revolutionary Youth Association and the Youth for Social Justice have demanded trial of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and the policemen involved in killing Rahul Raj on the charge of murder. They have also demanded a ban on the MNS and the Shiv Sena. Their demands also include resignation of the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and union ministers from Bihar-Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan- for their failure to ensure action against the killers of north-Indians in Mumbai. The student bodies had resolved to gherao Parliament in New Delhi
on December 12 in support of their demands.
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India, Egypt sign extradition treaty New Delhi, November 18 The global war against terror must be given a renewed push. The world community ought to take ‘collective action’ against the menace, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after their talks here this afternoon. New Delhi pulled out all stops to accord a red carpet welcome to the Arab leader, visiting this country after a gap of 25 years. Official sources said during the official-level talks, Manmohan Singh and Mubarak touched a wide-range of bilateral as well as international issues, including the situation in West Asia, which has been a cause of concern to both countries. Besides the extradition treaty, the two countries signed accords on the use of outer space and in the areas of trade and technical cooperation. An agreement on the abolition of visa requirements for holders of diplomatic, special and official passports and another on enhancing cooperation in the fields of health and medicine were also inked. The agreements lay a ‘sound basis for a vibrant strategic partnership’ between India and Egypt, the Arab leader said and announced the establishment of a strategic dialogue between the two countries at the foreign ministers’ level. He also called for a broad-based discussion among developed and developing countries for reshaping the international economic order in the wake of the global financial slowdown. India and Egypt have a long history of cooperation and are founding members of the non-aligned movement. Indian companies like Tata Chemicals, Reliance Industries, the Aditya Birla Group and state-run firms like the Oil and Natural Gas Corp and the Gas Authority of India Limited have already invested more than $800 million in Egypt. Cairo has also proposed setting up an industrial zone exclusively for Indian companies. Noting that both India and Egypt have been the victims of terrorism, official sources said the initiation of the strategic dialogue between them would help the two countries cooperate more effectively in tackling the scourge. The Egyptian leader, who has been a strong votary of India playing a more effective role in the West Asia peace process, thanked New Delhi for its support to the Palestinian cause. Manmohan Singh said his talks with the Egyptian leader were extremely productive. In the evening at an impressive ceremony, Mubarak was presented the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, which was bestowed on him by the Indian government in 1995. Past recipients of the award include former South African president Nelson Mandela, former UN secretary general U-Thant, charity worker Mother Teresa and US civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Junior.
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3 families celebrate Imroz’s return
Srinagar, November 18 Nazir Shah and Farooq Gilkar, both residents of the old city, are just two among the thousands still fighting for justice. Both lost their wards in a tragic case that represents the horror of enforced disappearances and custodial killings in Kashmir. At the heart of their battle is Imroz, who will this week take the government to the high court for failing to ensure the conviction of police officers involved in the gruesome killing of three young men - Javed Shah, Nazir Gilkar and Ghulam Matoo - in 1999. They were arrested, labeled as foreign militants, and killed in custody. Five days after the killing, the bodies of Javed and Nazir were exhumed from a nameless grave in village, Chhal Sheri, of the poll-bound Baramulla district; that of Ghulam Matoo surfaced from the Dal Lake. “All three were identified as locals, arbitrarily picked up and surreptitiously eliminated by Khan, the then sub-district police officer at Soura police station,” allege the families. While Khan, the main accused, is still absconding, rest of the six police personnel named in the FIRs were acquitted this March by a local court. The state crime branch, which investigated the case, has since not filed an appeal against this acquittal in the high court. A lacuna in the CrPC has, meanwhile, kept the affected families from appealing on their own. “Under the CrPC, only the state, not the affected person, can appeal against the acquittal. The proposed amendment to the CrPC, to be tabled in Parliament, seeks to correct this malady,” Imroz says. But the families of those killed are not willing to wait, as Farooq Gilkar, who lost his ward Nazir to alleged police atrocity. “Since the acquittal this March, we have been approaching the crime branch and the government departments concerned to file an appeal. We don’t understand what is preventing them from doing so. We have heard of the judiciary’s role in Priyadarshini Matoo and Jessica Lal case, and we hope we too will get justice.” The case goes back to July 23, 1999, when the deceased were returning from a marriage party on their bike. They were arrested at Soura in Srinagar, and later killed. It was only after their bodies were exhumed and the police theory of their being foreign militants busted that murder cases were registered. Despite eight years of tireless pursuit by families, no justice was done. “We will bank upon the past instances where the Supreme Court and the high courts have not only ordered retrials of those acquitted by lower courts on flimsy grounds, but also ensured convictions. In the present case, 64 witnesses have deposed, many of them police officers. All we are asking of the state is an appeal against the acquittal. The state can’t escape its responsibility,” reasons Imroz. Ideally, the appeal should have been filed within two months of acquittal, but eight months have passed, forcing the families to take charge. “We will seek the high court to direct the state to file an appeal against the acquittal and arrest Rashid Khan, who has been missing for nine years,” says Imroz, who has been on the job since he was released from the Bandipora police station late last night.
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Advani comes out in support of Pragya New Delhi, November 18 Advani had been avoiding commenting on the merits or demerits of the accused. Instead his immediate reaction was “if she is found guilty, she should be punished.” But today he virtually demanded scrapping the ATS investigations and instead setting up a judicial probe into the allegations. Advani spoke about this in Raipur today where he had gone to address the current election campaign. He demanded, “A judicial inquiry be ordered to probe the charges made by Sadhvi Pragya and the manner in which unsubstantiated allegations have been made against serving Army personnel. He alleged: “The ATS is acting in a politically motivated and unprofessional manner. After levelling all kind of charges against a serving Army officer, and suggesting he stole RDX from an Army depot to organise blasts in the Samjhauta Express, it has now admitted that no RDX was used in those blasts. Since October 26, when the Sadhvi was arrested, the BJP had been under tremendous pressure from the RSS and its various outfits like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal to come out publicly in support of this former ABVP activist.
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Another case against Lt Col Purohit
Mumbai, November 18 The Army officer was today handed over to investigators probing the assault on a Christian priest in Khadki in
Pune. Samir Kulkarni, who is a co-accused in the Malegaon blasts case, has already been accused in the priest beating case as well. Though Kulkarni was arrested three years ago, he had absconded, according to the police. He moved from Pune to MP to work for Abhinav
Bharat. — TNS
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Kandhamal Phulbani, November 18 Adequate security measures should be taken to ensure quick return of the violence-affected persons from relief camps to their homes by removing fear from their mind, the team led by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said after visiting the strife-torn district, nearly three months after it was rocked by communal violence. “Proper steps should be taken on a war footing for restoration of peace and normalcy as well as rehabilitation of the violence-affected persons,” Pawar said after the team members visited some affected places and relief camps and held discussion with senior officials. During the meeting with officials here before their departure, the members stressed the need to provide work to the riot hit near their respective villages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGS). The three-member team visited Raikia, one of the worst affected areas, and went to a relief camp sheltering about 800 victims of communal violence triggered by the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) leader Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 23. The violence had left 39 persons dead. The team, which also included union social justice minister Meira Kumar and tribal affairs minister
P.R. Kyndiah, spent about an hour at the camp and listened to the problems of the displaced persons who voiced their apprehensions to return home fearing fresh attacks, the sources said.
— PTI
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Orissa seeks plan to solve Kandhamal problem
Bhubaneswar, November 18 Orissa’s suggestion came after the high-level central team headed by union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, which visited Kandhamal today, sought to know what assistance was needed in mitigating the problems there. Identifying backwardness in education, lack of connectivity and poor livelihood means as the cause behind the ethno-communal violence in Kandhamal, the government asked the Centre to set up a campus of the National Tribal University, at Phulbani, the district headquarter town. — PTI
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New Delhi, November 18 “My father was stressed and depressed due to the election campaign since the past few days. Although we were sure he would win a fourth time around, he was still very tense,” Yogi’s son Rajiv said. The police said 73-year-old Yogi, who was seeking re-election from his Rajinder Nagar constituency in the Nov 29 Delhi assembly polls, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his house in west Delhi. Early mornings and late nights, lack of stress busting exercises, high levels of anxiety and 17-18 hours of campaigning - experts say that leading the life of a politician, especially before the elections, is like burning a candle at both ends. Take Chaudhary Prem Singh of the Congress’ schedule for instance. The 75-year-old politician has created a world record by winning 10 consecutive elections from the same constituency and the same party. The pressure to keep up his record in the Delhi assembly polls is, therefore, quite obvious. “This time I will create another record - of winning by a maximum majority of votes,” Singh said. And his schedule? “I start my day at 4 a.m. I go for my prayers and then start meeting the party workers and campaign till late at night. I sleep only by midnight,” Singh said. According to counsellor Praveen Thapar, a hectic schedule makes one forget his or her limitations and this can take serious toll on one’s health - with drastic results at times. — IANS
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Rajasthan: 3,181 in fray
Jaipur, November 18 The rebel factor as well as the delay in naming candidates by the BJP has led to an interesting situation where many leaders have filed nominations as independent candidates much before the party list came out. Some are contesting on multiple seats. A record number of 4,721 nomination papers have been received from 3,181 candidates. Nearly 3,000 nominations were filed on the last day, November 17, which was considered auspicious by astrologers. Jaipur with 19 constituencies had the maximum number of nominations. There were 563 nomination papers that were filed here. It has the highest number of independents also with 350 filing nominations. Jodhpur has 298 nominations in 10 constituencies, while Alwar has 286 candidates from 11 assembly constituencies.
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Bhopal, November 18 “Why Madhya Pradesh, the Congress will win in all other five states where Assembly elections are being held,” Shinde told mediapersons at the state Congress office here. — PTI
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