Chennai, October 29
Holding four top police officials, including the then city police commissioner K Radhakrishnan, “squarely responsible” for the unprecedented violence inside the Madras High Court premises in February this year, a division bench of the court recommended their suspension till the CBI completes its inquiry.

The bench, comprising Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah and R Banumathi, also directed the government to pursue the charges against the lawyers. The court also disapproved the continuous boycott by the lawyers and said they should look for other forms of protests, which did not affect the litigants.

Radhakrishnan, at present, is posted at Ramanathapuram district, where the communally sensitive “Thevar Jayanthi” --- the birth anniversary of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, a close associate of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose --- is to be held tomorrow. The other officials indicted are: additional commissioner Viswanathan, joint commissioner Rama Subramanian and deputy commissioner Prem Anand Sinha.

The court also directed Tamil Nadu government to pay a compensation of Rs 58 lakh for causing damage in the court complex, besides ordering a compensation of Rs one lakh each for the lawyers and court staff who suffered injuries in the clash. The court also directed the CBI to complete its inquiry on the clashes within three months.

The verdict was contrary to the earlier claims of top police officials that the lawyers were responsible for the clashes.

The police had also claimed that they entered the court premises following orders from the state government and with permission from the court authorities.On February 19, police entered the HC premises to arrest 16 lawyers, who were accused of throwing eggs at Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, who had come to file a petition in the HC. When the lawyers surrendered before the police, another lawyer, who was nearby, said he had filed a complaint against Subramanian Swamy and demanded the arrest of the politician. Some othelawyers too joined him.

As the heated arguments turned into a clash, hundreds of policemen entered the court premises. Justice Arumuga Perumal Adityan, who came outside to pacify policemen, was allegedly attacked with stones by the police personnel and was injured. Many lawyers were also badly injured in the incident. 

New Delhi, October 29
The AIIMS today gave a green signal to a narco-analysis on top Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, who had opposed the move by the Delhi police before a Delhi court, citing his illness.

"There is no evidence to suggest that the accused cannot withstand the narco test. The test should be conducted under strict medical supervision because of the long history of hypertension and urinary tract infection," the AIIMS report submitted to the court said.Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja, who had sought a report from the AIIMS on Ghandy's medical condition, however, reserved till October 31 the order on whether he can undergo narco-analysis test.

Armed with the positive report from the AIIMS, public prosecutor Naveen Kumar said the accused did not cooperate with the police and belonged to a terrorist organisation which had recently been involved in "daily killings" in the country.

Kumar also referred to a Delhi High Court's judgement which, he said, has laid down that an accused, who belonged to a terrorist outift, can undergo the test with the prior permission of a court as there was a provision in the law.

Ghandy's lawyer Rebecca M John, on the other hand, opposed it saying it would violate his Constitutional right under which an accused cannot be asked to be a witness in his own case. She also argued that his health would not allow such a test.

Ghandy, a Politbureau member of the banned CPI-Maoist, was arrested from the national capital in September. — PTI

New Delhi, October 29
Air India airhostess Komal Singh, who had levelled molestation charges against pilots of IC-884 following a mid-air scuffle, has been chargesheeted for “violating the conduct rule” by an inquiry committee set up to investigate into the incident.

An AI spokesperson confirmed that the airlines’ committee has charge-sheeted Komal for violation of conduct rules and not complying with the company policy. She has also been accused of insubordination, disobeying seniors and tarnishing the image of the company.

Sources said the airhostess had been punished for speaking to the media, against company’s policies. The committee also chargesheeted flight purser Amit Khanna for the same reasons.

Air India had constituted an inquiry committee to investigate into the mid-air scuffle between co-pilot Aditya Chopra and flight purser Amit Khanna on-board a Sharjah-Lucknow-Delhi flight (IC 884) on October 3.

Komal had levelled molestation charges against pilots Capt Ranbir Arora and co-pilot Aditya Chopra.

Komal had lodged an FIR at the Palam police station against Arora and Chopra and petitioned NCW, alleging mental, physical and sexual harassment at the hands of pilots in charge of the flight. The NCW also set up a five-member committee to probe Komal’s charges.

The airline has already grounded the pilots and crew members for endangering the lives of passengers. There were allegations that that IC 884 was put on auto mode for nearly 10 minutes as the crew sorted out their differences 30,000 feet above the ground.

Air India, however, denied reports that the cockpit was unmanned during the mid-air scuffle. A committee constituted by the management to inquire into the incident had concluded decisively that the cockpit was not left unmanned at any point of time during the flight phase.

Chandigarh, October 29
Justice Nirmal Yadav will not resume judicial work at the Punjab and Haryana High Court.Information available from Delhi suggests Justice Nirmal Yadav is expected to find herself transferred to the Uttaranchal High Court. It is believed that the Supreme Court, after considering the matter, has cleared her name for transfer to the hill state and formal orders are expected to be issued in the coming few days.

Her name was initially being considered for transfer to the Calcutta High Court. But signals from the Union Law Ministry suggest she was not too keen to be transferred to the Calcutta High Court.

She will be second judge from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to go to the High Court of Uttaranchal at Nainital. Justice JS Khehar’s name too has been cleared for elevation as the Chief Justice of the Uttaranchal High Court.

Justice Yadav is on leave ever since her name surfaced in the “cash-for-judge scam”. It is believed her decision to recuse from judicial work was not voluntary.

As of now a decision has been taken to close the case against her. Only on Wednesday, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily had told The Tribune according to his understanding the matter was treated as closed before he assumed office on May 29.

The “scam” had come to light after Rs 15 lakh was mis-delivered at the house of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by the clerk of a Haryana law officer. A case was registered at the instance of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur after she called in the police and handed over the clerk. Initially, the Chandigarh police investigated the case, but the matter was later handed over to the CBI for carrying out the probe. Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan also appointed a three-judge committee for looking into the matter. A show-cause notice was, subsequently, issued to Justice Yadav. In any case, Justice Yadav had denied before the three-judge committee, as well as the CBI, that she had received any cash at any stage. Justice Yadav, still on leave, had sent her reply to the show-cause notice and is believed to have questioned not only the findings of the committee, but also the three-judge committee. 

Lucknow, October 29
In another dramatic turn of events the Mayawati government today forwarded all documents related to the Amar Singh fraud case to the Director of Enforcement (DE) at the Centre.

The documents were forwarded on a specific request made by the DE that took suo moto cognizance of the case.

Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh in a hurriedly convened press conference told the media about the case being sent to the central agency.

“On October 27, we had received a letter from the DE asking for all related documents. We have finally sent them out today. We have also sent copies of the documents to SEBI and the Serious Fraud Investment Office (SFIO) which works under the Board of Company affairs,” said Singh.

Meanwhile the state government’s Economic Offences Wing will continue investigating the case, said Singh.

Responding to a question, the senior most bureaucrat in the state explained that the FIR lodged by Shivakant Tripathi at the Babupurwa police station in Kanpur on October 15 were related to Amar Singh’s reported falsification of documents, misuse of public office during his regime as chairman of the UP Development Council, enhancement of shares of companies and transfer of huge amounts of money to two companies namely Sarvottam Caps Ltd and Pankaja Art and Credit Private Ltd.

Incidentally, barely three hours before the Cabinet Secretary’s press conference the complainant Shivakant Tripathi had accused both the central and state government of laxity in the case. Addressing a press conference Tripathi had charged that both the central and state government were trying to 'save' the political leader in the alleged siphoning of Rs 500 crore through financial fraud.

Demanding an impartial time-bound probe into his charges, Tripathi said some investigating agency should also probe the role of the Income Tax (IT) and Company Law Board (CLB) on the financial irregularities done by the Samajwadi Party’s high-profile leader in his companies.Tripathi also charged the state government of ignoring the threats being reportedly given to his family members by the SP leader and his supporters. 

New Delhi, October 29
As Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath today said that the new policy for road development in the country would come in the next ten days with the idea of boosting investment, the government today cleared the project for four laning of Rohtak-Bawal section of NH-71 in Haryana.

The clearance came at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI). The clearance has been under the NHDP Phase III on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

The CCI also approved the four laning of 121-km stretch on the Moradabad-Bareilly section of the NH-24 and 84-km Barasat-Krishnanagar section of NH-34 in West Bengal.

The Rohtak-Bawal project cost is estimated at Rs.650 crore under the DBFO pattern.

The concessionaire will make all the expenditure to complete the project and will recover the same by user fee for 28 years, including a construction period of 30 months.

It will facilitate in reducing the time and cost of travel for heavy traffic transporting from Panipat industrial area to Bawal industrial area.

The approval came subsequent to the decision of the Cabinet to give approval for four and six laning of 4000-km of National Highways under the NHDP Phase IIIA on BOT basis in its meeting held in March, 2005. As a result government approved additional stretches in May, 2006, October, 2006 and April, 2007, for implementation of four laning.

The total tentative length of 12,109 km is to be done at an estimated cost of Rs.80,626 crores.The Moradabad-Bareilly four-laning will facilitate reducing the time and cost of travel for traffic plying between Lucknow and Delhi via Bareilly, Rampur and Moradabad.

Chennai, October 29
AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to show the will and the courage to throw out Union Minister for IT and Communications A Raja if the CBI probe into spectrum allocation should have any meaning.

"It was not surprise that Raja, who presided over what is undoubtedly the biggest scam in recent times, has doggedly refused to quit, to make room for an unbiased investigation. From a person who hails from the DMK party, one does not expect anything else. What comes as a surprise is that the Prime Minister of India has not asked Raja to resign", she said.

In fact, Raja had even gone on record claiming that he had done nothing wrong and that he had only followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Dayanidhi Maran, also of the DMK, and that everything he did was with the concurrence and approval of the Prime Minister, the opposition leader said and asked "does Dr Manmohan Singh accept this? Is that why he feels that Raja need not resign?"

Only if Raja was removed from the post of Union Minister of Telecommunications, justice could be done, she said. "Otherwise the CBI will only end up filing FIRs and registering cases against some officials of the Department, who were only doing the bidding of their minister", she said.

The whole episode relating to the sale of 2-G Spectrum was sordid. Valuable airspace was sold at throw-away rates to companies that existed only on paper. Those letter-pad companies, immediately on getting the allotment in their names, sold stakes to international players at fabulous rates. If the Indian Government had sold the airspace directly to the international players, then obviously the huge profits made by the letter-pad companies would have accrued to the Central Government. The was valuated as anywhere between Rs 60,000 crores to Rs 1,00,000 crores, she said.

New Delhi, October 29
The Cabinet today gave its approval to the proposal of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation to introduce a Bill in the coming Winter Session of Parliament to give a constitutional basis for co-operative organisations, similar to panchayats and municipal 
councils.

It also approved the creation of one post of adviser to the Minister for Law and Justice and revision of rates of honorarium, pension and contingency allowances under the Scheme of National Research Professorship.

As per the revision, the rate of monthly honorarium for serving national research professors has been enhanced from Rs 25,000 to Rs 75,000.

Rate of monthly pension for pensioners has enhanced from Rs 9,000 to Rs 25,000 and rate of annual contingency grant for serving national research professors has been enhanced from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000.

Honorarium and pension will continue to be exempt from Income Tax.

“We propose to include new chapter in the Constitution,” Chidambaram told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

The proposed amendment would allow incorporation of special provisions relating to cooperative societies in the Constitution.

The salient features of the proposed amendment to the Cooperative Societies Bill would include insertion of new Article 43 B in Part IV of the Constitution providing for the state obligation to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of the cooperative societies.“It is important that co-operative authorities have a constitutional basis, otherwise they have become the playfield of all sorts of people," said Chidambaram.

New Delhi, October 29
The Ministry of Defence today introduced a crucial amendment to its defence procurement procedure (DPP) and empowered independent monitors to check and probe corruption charges against its officers and manufacturers.

Over all, the amendments would encourage domestic industry besides ensuring transparency and accountability, said ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar while releasing the contents of the amendments here today. These will come in to effect from November 1.

At present the DPP has the scope of an integrity pact for all projects in excess of Rs 100 crore. This is a binding agreement between the government and bidders for contracts. The existing provision provides for appointment of independent monitors (IM) in consultation with the Central Vigilance Commission. The role of these monitors was, however, very limited and undefined.

The new amendment defines and enlarges the role of IMs to enable them to scrutinise complaints with regards to violation of the integrity pact, Kar said.

A major impediment in the growth of defence industry in the country has been lack of information with the domestic industry on defence requirements. Such information has generally been treated as classified. Consequently, the indigenous industry is unable to plan technology, up-gradation or joint collaboration with associated foreign industries.

The ministry also announced a public version of the “long-term perspective plan” of the Armed Forces outlining technology perspective and capability roadmap covering a period of 15 years would be widely publicised and made available on the ministry website. 

Midnapore/Bankura (WB), October 29
Two CPM supporters were hacked to death and three others kidnapped by Maoist-backed tribals in restive West Midnapore district while a Trinamool Congress supporter was killed in the neighbouring Bankura district.

CPM local leaders Tapan Mody and Dilip Mahato were taken away by Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) supporters from Raghunathpur and Goaltore areas last night and their mutilated bodies found today, police said.

Three other CPM local committee members, Ratan Patra, Gadadhar Patra and Kartik Dey, were abducted from Goaltore today in retaliation for the kidnap of a PCPA supporter from Hatipota village yesterday allegedly by Marxists, they said. — PTI 

Kolkata, October 29
A preliminary investigation by the state police has revealed that the Maoists were behind the Tuesday’s New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani express blockade at Banstala in west Midnapore in which the activists of the people’s committee against police atrocities (PCAPA) had taken part.

The inquiry further reveals that the blockade was withdrawn when Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s warning of withdrawal of support to their movement at Lalgarh and Jangalmahal reached the PCAPA leaders. The report denies that the Rajdhani express blockade was a part of the CPM’s on-going agitation at different places against the railways as alleged by Ms Banerjee.

The inquiry report, which was prepared by a special team of officers under the additional DG of police (railways) DK Mitra, was handed over to the home secretary A Sen by the DGP Bhupender Singh today.

Sen told mediapersons that the Rajdhani Express blockade had been masterminded by the Maoists, which the PCAPA had executed. “ They had also a plan to blow up the train and kill the passengers which, fortunately, could not happen at the quick arrival of the CRPF and other para-military forces on the spot”, the report stated..

But the Maoists leader Koteswar Rao (alias Kishenji) publicly denied the Maoists hand in the Rajdhani express blockade incident. The PCAPA leader Santosh Patra and Ashit Mahato, who had participated in the “rail rook” agitation near Banstala on Tuesday as a part of their movement, also denied they had hijacked the train and abducted the drivers as alleged and also reported in the press.

Banerjee, who had initially reacted strongly to the Rajdhani express blockade incident, also later said the incident had been over-played. It was just another incident of train obstruction which, of late, after she had taken over as the Railway Minister, had become almost a day-to-day affair in West Bengal.

She alleged the CPM had launched massive anti-railways agitation to discredit her and her party.

New Delhi, October 29
Amidst tensions between India and China over Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh, two Nobel peace laureates have urged Beijing to adopt reconciliation as policy with true representatives of the restive Tibet region.

Nobel Laureates, Mairead Corrigan and Judy Williams, who are on visit to India, spoke about Tibet at a talk organised by Foundation for Non-violent Alternatives here.

The two had earlier called on the Dalai Lama at his residence in Dharamshala, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is based. Corrigan said the peaceful rehabilitation of Tibetans in their own country also hinged upon political relations between India and China.

“Governments across countries had to be made accountable for the violation of human rights,” said Williams while highlighting the hardships faced by Tibetans. India’s role in providing Tibetans a safe haven was appreciable, she said.

The duo said the fact that Dalai Lama was carrying out a peaceful movement was appreciable, “he could have also procured arms from somewhere and caused a civil war like situation in China,” Williams added.

The two were critical of the decision to award a Nobel Peace Prize to American President Barack Obama and termed it as “pre-mature”. Corrigan said the first step to achieve peace was disarmament and everyone knew that Obama was not going to work towards that. “Even though we were delighted that Obama had come to power because he promised change, we were also disappointed when he did not meet the Dalai Lama,” said Corrigan. 

New Delhi, October 29
The Editors Guild of India today strongly condemned the arrest of AS Mani, editor of Tamil magazine “Naveena Netrikan”, on charges of defamation.

Mani was arrested by the Madurai police following complaint by one Suresh, who alleged that Naveena Netrikan had published an article defaming him and Union Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals MK Azhagiri.

“The Editors Guild of India has consistently held that arrest and imprisonment of editors and journalists for complaints of defamation amounts to intimidation of the media and is an affront to the freedom of the Press,” the guild said in a statement. — PTI

New Delhi, October 29
The Cabinet today approved a proposal to bring in a Bill to fix a fair and remunerative price of sugar. The Bill will replace the ordinance issued on October 21 to amend the Essential Commodities Act that fixed the price of sugarcane at Rs 129.84 per quintal.

The government set the benchmark price at Rs 129.84 per quintal, Home Minister P Chidambaram said after the Cabinet meeting. Until now, the states fixed their own prices often at levels higher than the nationwide cost leading to reduced cane purchases and refined sugar output.

Industry officials are hopeful that the decision to fix sugarcane prices will ease sugar shortages in the country and smooth fluctuations in annual crops. Farmers are protesting the move, demanding higher prices.

According to the government, by introducing fair and remunerative price from 2009-10 sugar season, the farmers will get a higher price in 2009-10 sugar season as compared to Rs 107.76 per quintal which was fixed on June 25.

The ex-post approval by the Cabinet is for changing the concept of “minimum price” to “fair and remunerative price” of sugarcane by Amendment to Section 3 (3C) of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, by promulgation of Essential Commodities (Amendment & Validation) Ordinance 2009 on October 21 and consequential amendment to the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966, vide Order dated October 22.