Nagpur, December 30
The Maharashtra government today announced a Rs 6,208-crore loan waiver package to benefit about 41 lakh farmers in the state not covered by a similar scheme announced by the Centre earlier, including those having pre-1997 debts and those being regular in their repayments.

The package gives complete loan waiver for debts up to Rs 20,000, waiver of Rs 20,000 for debts over that amount if the borrower repays the excess, and adjustments for those who have repaid their loans regularly. Making identical announcements in the two houses of the legislature here, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said loans worth Rs 2,860 crore, for debts up to Rs 20,000, would be waived completely, to benefit 24.24 lakh farmers in the state. Similarly, for debts over Rs 20,000 wherein the borrower repays the excess amount, the government would extend an assistance of Rs 3,348 crore to 16.76 lakh farmers by way of waiver, he said.

Giving details of the scheme, Chavan said the government would give full waiver for crop loans, amounting to Rs 257 crore, to 2.13 lakh farmers, provided their outstanding amount was upto Rs 20,000 each. Similarly, 1.42 lakh farmers would be given a flat waiver of Rs 20,000 for loans over that amount, provided they repaid the excess amount, which was estimated to be Rs 488 crore, he said. Such waiver would be worth Rs 284 crore, he said. The total benefit on this count, thus, would be Rs 541 crore for 3.55 lakh farmers, he pointed out.

Similarly, the government would give full waiver for supplementary loans, amounting to Rs 134 crore, to 2.29 lakh farmers, for outstanding amounts up to Rs 20,000, the CM said.

A flat waiver of Rs 20,000 for loans over that amount would be worth Rs 184 crore, with the total benefit on this count being Rs 318 crore, he said.

There would be a waiver worth Rs 36 crore for loans below Rs 20,000, and a flat waiver of Rs 168 crore for loans over that amount, provided the borrowers paid the excess of Rs 728 crore, for loans taken for poultry and fishing, Chavan said, adding that this would benefit 88,000 farmers.

There would be a waiver worth Rs 341 crore to 3.50 lakh farmers for loans below Rs 20,000, and a flat waiver of Rs 304 crore for loans over that amount, provided the borrowers paid the excess of Rs 446 crore, for term loans, he said. — UNI

New Delhi, December 30
After more than a week of speculation about the theft of Rs 2.6 crore lying in a safe vault in the BJP headquarters 11, Ashoka Road, the party has finally reacted describing media reports as highly exaggerated.

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said here today, “All reports about the BJP office are highly exaggerated. BJP treasurer Ramdas Agarwal has come to Delhi and he will be able to say anything only after properly reconciling the accounts.”

Agarwal too tried to play down the theft saying, “I am still counting. Cash is stashed away at several places. Only when I have counted the entire amount can I account for the loss if any.”

The BJP insiders have been talking in hushed tones of the theft of cash worth Rs 2.6 crore from a safe vault fixed in a room right behind president Rajnath Singh’s room. But on record most of them feigned total ignorance about any missing cash.

The BJP has also not reported the matter to the police and sources said it had engaged a private detective agency to find out who stole such a huge amount. Though some in the BJP say it is an insider’s job.

The reasons, according to sources, for avoiding any police complaints are many. For one there is some restriction on the amount permissible by the RBI to be retained as cash in any premises and the BJP will have to own up to illegally keeping large amounts of cash in its possession. Besides it will then also account for the source of that amount and perhaps much more still lying inside.

Hyderabad, December 30
Reversing its earlier order, the Andhra Pradesh High Court today lifted ban on political road shows on the condition that parties must adhere to strict guidelines on conduct of such meetings.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Anil R Dave and Justice R Subhash Reddy, allowed the conduct of road shows in accordance with the government guidelines, stipulating that crowds should not be mobilised for such meetings and traffic should not be disrupted. “Stringent action should be taken if parties mobilise crowds and disrupt traffic on the main roads,” the court said while vacating stay on road shows.

The court had last month ordered ban on road shows on the ground that they were causing public nuisance.

Following a directive from the Bench, state DGP SSP Yadav submitted the guidelines to the court governing the conduct of political meetings.

The ruling Congress has been opposing political road shows in the backdrop of huge public response to actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi’s mass contact programme across the state.

As per the guidelines stipulated by the government, road shows should be avoided at the main junctions and thickly populated areas and the leaders should not waive at the crowds en route or use loudspeakers.

While welcoming lifting of ban, the opposition parties, particularly Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party and Telangana Rashtra Samithi, resented the restrictions on road shows.

“We will approach the Supreme Court challenging these conditions,” a counsel for TRS Satyam Reddy said.

The fledgling PRP will be affected most by the conditions as the megastar is gearing up to reach out to people in a big way with Assembly elections just a few months away.

The main opposition Telugu Desam Party, along with PRP, TRS and Nava Telangana Party, had moved the court seeking reversal of its last month?s order banning road shows. The court’s interim ban order was based on a Public Interest Litigation filed by a local NGO.

The direction came against the backdrop of death of six persons in three separate incidents of stampede during Chiranjeevi’s road shows.

The matinee idol, who had launched PRP in August, was drawing huge crowds all along the routes of his road shows.

The ban order had poured cold water on the plans of various parties to conduct road shows ahead of the elections.

While Chiranjeevi was gearing up for another round of mass contact programme in south coastal region, another actor and NTR’s son N Balakrishna, roped in by the TDP, was set to hit the roads when the ban order came.

New Delhi, December 30
Justice Barin Ghosh, a Judge of Patna High Court, has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

An official press note today said the appointment, made by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil under the powers conferred by Section 95 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, would be effective from the date Justice Ghosh assumes charge.

Excercising the powers conferred by clause (1) of article 224 of the Constitution, the President has appointed four additional judges for the Kerala High Court. They are Surendra Mohan Kuriakose, Parappillil Ramakrishnan Nair Ramachandra Menon, Chandra Villa Koyanalipilla Abdul Rehim and Chudalayil Thevan Ravikumar (all of them advocates at present). They will have seniority in this order. The appointment is for a period of two years and would be effective from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices.

Similarly, the President has appointed Arun Chandra Upadhyay and Chitta Ranjan Sarma have been appointed Additional Judges of the Gauhati High Court.

Mumbai, December 30
The Maharashtra government has set up a two-member committee to probe last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan announced in the state Assembly today that the panel would be headed by former Nagaland Governor RD Pradhan, with former IPS officer V Balchandra the other member. The duo are expected to submit their report in two months.

Among other things, the panel would look into the security lapses that allowed the terrorists to enter the city and carry out attacks in public places like the CST railway station, the crowded Colaba Causeway and the Taj and Trident hotels.

The panel would also look into the killing of three senior police officers who died while they were travelling together in a police vehicle.

Pradhan, a former bureaucrat of the Maharashtra cadre, was Union Home Secretary in the mid-1980s. He played a major role in the peace process worked out by the Rajiv Gandhi government in the North East.

New Delhi, December 30
The government should take “concrete action” to ensure statutory status for CBI to enable the premier investigation agency to function “effectively and impartially,” feels the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel and Law and Justice.

The panel’s recommendation has come just days after CBI did a U-turn in the disproportionate assets (DA) case against Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his relatives in the wake of SP’s support to the UPA in the July 22 trust vote in Parliament.

The CBI has approached the Supreme Court recently, seeking withdrawal of its affidavit in which it had expressed its unwillingness to submit a report in the DA case to the Centre. The agency had earlier wanted to submit the report to the apex court, but now favours closure of the investigation for lack of evidence.

"…if we aspire CBI to transform into an organisation of international standards, an effective statutory support is inevitable. The committee, has time and again, felt the necessity for a separate enactment for CBI. It is of the opinion that the Constitution of India itself envisages the same, as has been observed by this committee in its 24th Report,” the panel said.

But the government, in its action taken report (ATR), maintained that CBI already had a separate and exclusive enactment in the form of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DPSE) Act, 1946, allowing it to maintain its reputation by functioning “with credibility and impartiality within the federal structure.”

The MPs' panel, however, rejected this contention and reiterated its recommendation, asking the government to “earnestly consider” an independent statutory provision. “The committee is of the strong view that lack of a separate enactment for CBI is a major hindrance in the effective and impartial functioning of the premier investigating agency,” the panel said in its 31st report. The panel, however, did not refer to any specific CBI case in the report.

Shillong, December 30
The terror strikes in Mumbai seem to have an adverse affect on the 96th edition of the Indian Science Congress to be hosted here from January 3 with Nobel laureates abstaining on grounds of security.

“Over five Nobel laureates from across the world were extended invitations for the congress. But, unlike previous years, they have expressed their inability to attend due to security advisories imposed by their respective countries against travelling to India in the wake of the recent terror strikes in the country,” Pramod Tandon, vice-chancellor of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), which is hosting the mega event, told reporters today.

However, the congregation, to be held for the first time in the Northeast, will see around 50 delegates from abroad, including contingents from Japan, US, China and Bangladesh, he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the congress on January 3, while former President APJ Abdul Kalam will do the honours at the children's congress on January 5.

The five-day scientific conclave, which concludes on January 7, will have as its focal theme, ‘Science education and attraction of talent for excellence in research’'. A total of 4000 participants are expected to attend the event, that would include eminent scientists and experts from various fields.

The VC informed that adequate security arrangements were put in place to ensure that the meet passes off smoothly. — PTI

New Delhi, December 30
The legal dogma - everyone is equal in the eyes of law - was virtually put into practice in 2008 by Delhi courts which did not hesitate in punishing the rich and mighty offenders including Sanjeev Nanda, IPS officer RK Sharma and politician’s son Vikas Yadav.

Sanjeev Nanda, a hotelier and grandson of former Naval chief SM Nanda, got a five-year jail term for mowing down six persons, including three policemen, with his BMW car in 1999 in a high-profile case that raised questions about the dark side of the criminal justice system.

Two noted criminal lawyers, defence counsel RK Anand and public prosecutor IU Khan, faced the consequences in the HC for their bid to subvert the process of law and attempt to win over a key witness in the case.

RK Sharma, a 1976-batch Haryana cadre IPS officer who once served at the Prime Minister’s Office as officer on special duty, was awarded rigorous life imprisonment along with three hired assassins for plotting the killing of senior Indian Express journalist Shivani Bhatnagar in 1999.

The court, which though termed Sharma as “an asset to the nation”, held him accountable for his complicity in the murder as he wanted to get rid of the scribe with whom he had developed intimate relations.

Besides Sharma, Vikas Yadav, son of controversial UP politician DP Yadav, and his cousin Vishal too got a treatment like any other offender with a trial court judge sentencing them to life imprisonment for killing business executive Nitish Katara after abducting him from a marriage party in 2002.

The Yadavs, who disapproved the intimate relations of their sister Bharti Yadav with Nitish, took away the victim to a secluded place near Hapur in UP on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 and hammered him to death.

The relentless and spirited long battle for justice of Neelam Katara, mother of Nitish, against high-profile offenders bore fruit and re-affirmed the impartiality of the judiciary. The verdict boosted the common citizens’ faith in the dogma that everyone is equal in the eyes of law.

Another interesting case that made headlines was that of former Army officer SJ Choudhary, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing businessman Krishan Sikand in a parcel bomb explosion 26 years ago to avenge the victim’s alleged proximity with his estranged wife.

Septuagenarian Choudhary was found guilty for the murder of Sikand (40), who had died in an explosion caused by the parcel bomb delivered at his Sunder Nagar residence here on October 2, 1982.

Justice was also done in the killing of elderly Australian Dawn Emilie Griggs and sent two killer cab drivers to gallows for their offence against “defenceless foreign guest” who came here to undertake a meditation course at the Brahmakumari Aishwarya Vidyalaya.

Griggs was murdered after being raped in a deserted area on March 17, 2004 within hours of landing at the IGI airport from Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific Flight.

In yet another high-profile conviction, Romesh Sharma, alleged front-man of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who is facing a dozen of other criminal cases, was awarded rigorous life imprisonment for conspiring to kill his fashion designer girlfriend Kunjum Budhiraja nine years ago.

Sharma’s associates - his nephew Surinder Mishra, Hemchand, Santram, Ramesh and Tejinder Virdi, alias Dolly - were also held guilty for killing 29-year-old Budhiraja.

Sharma, who is in jail since 1999, was also sentenced to two years jail term this year for evading income tax and not paying dues amounting to Rs 50 crore in a 12-year-old case.

The year saw major administrative changes in lower judiciary as nine district courts were constituted in the Capital with the aim to provide speedy justice close to the litigants’ homes.

However, protracted, perennial and seemingly endless trials in some cases such as - railways minister L N Mishra’s murder case of 1975, anti-Sikh riots cases of 1984, transistor blasts cases of 1985 - stood out as mute testimonies to the limitations of a judicial system suffering infrastructural problems.

Some influential persons including a former Delhi High Court judge, various politicians and others will have to wait, at least till the next year, to know their fate in some of the high-profile pending criminal trials against them.

Corruption charges were framed against Shameet Mukherjee, former judge and ex-DDA V-C Subhash Sharma. The ex-judge is in the dock for allegedly giving an order favouring a co-accused who encroached DDA land and was involved in legal battle with the land-owning agency.

Meanwhile, a court rejected CBI’s closure report and ordered prosecution of ex-Railway minister C K Jafar Sharif, a member of Narasimha Rao cabinet, for allegedly forcing PSUs, RITES and IRCON, to grant sanction for the travel of three Ministry employees to London in 1995 as he wanted them to be with him during his treatment.

Former External Affairs Minister Madhav Singh Solanki, another cabinet colleague of Rao, is stuck in legal wrangles for his alleged attempt to scuttle the probe in the Bofors pay off case in Switzerland by handing over a “fabricated” document to his Swiss counterpart in 1992.

The trial against Sukhram, yet again a cabinet colleague of Rao, is in full swing as recording statements of accused persons in a disproportionate assets case is going on.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala his son Ajay Singh and others have recently been charge-sheeted by the CBI for their involvement in JBT recruitment scam case.

The much-awaited trial in Rahul Mahajan drug abuse case, which was stuck up following filing of appeals and counter appeals in the High Court, is likely to resume next year in a court, which has received back the judicial records.

The court has started recording of evidence in a drug abuse case against former cricketer, Maninder Singh, who was apprehended on May 22 from a park near Defence Enclave Colony in South Delhi while buying 1.5 gm cocaine.

This year also saw courts experimenting more on more with reforming the accused than just awarding harsh punishment. An MLA was asked to do community service to settle a case. An eve-teaser was asked to serve in blinds’ school while another such offender was asked to distribute pamphlets in a college prescribing the punishment. — PTI