New Delhi, December 25
The details of disciplinary proceedings against an employee cannot be withheld from disclosure on the grounds of being personal information and should be made public under the RTI Act, the Central Information Commission has held.

The decision of the transparency panel came on the plea of an RTI applicant, Deshbandhu Marwah, who demanded records relating to an inquiry into the alleged misconduct by an officer A K Gupta of the State Bank of Mysore but was denied the same.

The bank refused to disclose any information about its officer by invoking section 8(1)(h), which bars the disclosure of information which could impede the process of investigation, saying the CBI had been investigating this matter and the bank had also filed an application before the Debt Recovery Tribunal for recovery of its dues.

The bank also invoked section 8(1)(j) which allows withholding personal information from disclosure.

"Disciplinary proceedings are regarding the public conduct or misconduct of an employee of public authority, all the records and files in this regard are public records and have to be disclosed subject, of course, to other exemptions of the Act," Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said.

"The files and records relating to the disciplinary proceedings instituted by the bank against A K Gupta, an officer of the Bank, can never fall in the category of personal information," he said. More

Mishra, in his decision, said, "In any case, there is nothing in the Act which exempts the disclosure of any information merely because a related matter is pending in a court of law".

He rejected the grounds cited by the bank to invoke section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act for dismissing the RTI application and said, "The section cited by the Central Public Information Officer in one of his replies is hardly attracted in this case as the disciplinary proceedings are over and the competent authority has passed his orders".Making a strong statement, Mishra said such iquiries are held for public interest.

“Once the inquiry is over and the competent authority has passed its final orders, by no stretch of imagination, the records and files of the disciplinary proceedings can be denied by claiming it to be personal information merely because the proceedings are against an individual employee," he said.

“We are of the view that the CPIO and the Appellate Authority have seriously erred in invoking the provisions of Section 8(1)(h) and (j) in this case in denying the information," he said while ordering to provide the details to Marwah. — PTI 

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha finally appears to be getting quite close to its aspiration of forming the next government in Jharkhand with party chief Shibu Soren as the Chief Minister.

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister and JVM chief Babu Lal Marandi beats a drum during a rally in Ranchi on Friday. — PTI

With its 20 MLAs, the NDA (BJP, JD-U) is learnt to have agreed to support JMM’s claim for government formation. Together, the two parties (groups) have 38 MLAs in the 81-member House.

Insiders in the BJP and JMM were confident of getting the support of All-Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) having five MLAs, which would take the tally to 43. Senior JMM leader Hemlal Murmu announced it officially to mediapersons after the legislature party meeting at party headquarters here on Friday.

But the BJP leaders were apparently waiting for their senior leader Anant Kumar to make this announcement. Kumar has been deputed by the party leadership to handle the government formation, it has been learnt.

He is expected to come here tomorrow morning.

Sources in the BJP also indicated that the party was yet to decide whether it would be a part of the new government or extend support to it from outside. A section of party leaders are opposed to the idea of being part of the government led by JMM while another section sees no harm in it. Of course, the final decision on this issue would be taken by the top brass of the party.

On his part, AJSU chief Sudesh Mahto was a bit guarded on the issue of extending his support to the JMM and NDA combine for government formation. Mahto, who happens to be the former Home Minister of Jharkhand, said several issues, including the ‘common minimum programme’, needed to be sorted out prior to extending support or being part of the next government.

But he would try his best to contribute his bit for a stable government in Jharkhand, Mahto admitted. However, his partymen gave sufficient hints that Mahto was all set to be the Deputy Chief Minister in the new government.

Even though the combination of JMM-NDA and AJSU may have agreed to join hands and form the government with Shibu Soren as the Chief Minister, there are many more issues to be sorted out between the three of them.

As Jharkhand can have only 12 ministers, including the Chief Minister, they will have to decide on their share in the ministry, post of Speaker, portfolios etc.

Notably, the Congress had still not lost hope for government formation. Senior party leader and Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay on his return from New Delhi this evening said his party still expected Shibu Soren to be part of the secular government.

Meanwhile, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) chief and new ally of Congress, Babulal Marandi, has left for New Delhi to discuss his plans of government formation minus Shibu Soren with the top leadership of Congress. But by all indications, it seems that the Congress has missed the bus.

New Delhi, December 25
Authors of musical, cinematographic and literary works may now be entitled to royalty in case their works are used for commercial purposes, a benefit denied to them so far.

This can be possible because of certain amendments in the Copyright Act of 1957, which was approved by the Union Cabinet yesterday for introduction in Parliament.

The amendment is proposed to give “independent rights to authors of literary and musical works in cinematograph films, which were hitherto denied and wrongfully exploited by producers and music companies”, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after the meeting.

It will ensure that authors retain the right to receive royalties and benefits enjoyed through the copyright societies, she said.

Another amendment ensures that the authors of the works, particularly songs included in the cinematograph films or sound recordings, receive royalty for commercial exploitation of such work, Soni said.

“It has been proposed to introduce a system of statutory licensing to ensure that the public has access to musical works over the FM radio and TV networks and at the same time the owners of copyright works are also not subject to any disadvantages,” she said.

The News Broadcasters Association had been apprehensive about the amendments and asked the government to ensure that nothing was done to hurt the “well-established and understood rights of broadcasters to fair use of material, including broadcast reproduction rights”. — PTI

Mumbai, December 25
The Maharashtra government will procure around 2,000 bullet-proof jackets as part of efforts to modernise the police force in the backdrop of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

"Home Minister R R Patil has directed the authorities to initiate the process for buying the jackets from an agency certified by the Centre," an official said. The agency supplies these jackets to the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and National Security Guard.

The jackets cost between Rs 32,000 and Rs 45,000 and have been tested at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh.— PTI

Mumbai, December 25
In a U-turn, a sweeper of a government hospital and key witness in the 26/11 trial who had claimed he disposed of the bulletproof jacket of slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare long ago, today said he had no idea about the protective gear.

Dinesh Gataar, a sweeper in JJ Hospital, said he had kept the jacket in a bag and placed it in a ward. He said he had no idea as to what had happened to the jacket. Earlier before a magistrate, Gataar on Wednesday said he had stuffed the jacket in a bag and sent it to the dumping ground at Deonar for disposal. His statement had been recorded by the magistrate on a complaint filed by social activist Santosh Daundkar praying for a probe into the missing jacket.

The magistrate had earlier ordered the police to register an FIR to probe the missing jacket. A year after the incident, Gataar broke his silence and said he had disposed of the jacket. The change in Gataar’s stand that he had not personally disposed of the jacket has created a flutter, with the police saying they will now probe who had discarded the vest. — PTI 

Jaipur, December 25
Even as Rajasthan would not like to remember the year gone by as it began with drought and ended with H1N1 scourge, the New Year promises to be a good one for the state with projects like Metro and monorail in the pipeline besides Commonwealth Games in New Delhi auguring well for its tourism industry.

After three elections in a row in the last one year, the new year will begin with yet another election -- panchayat poll -- in February with the ruling Congress riding high on the success of Assembly, Lok Sabha and civic elections. While the Congress will hope to continue with its winning streak in the elections, the BJP, which is grappling with intense infighting, will have to put its house in order at the earliest to give even a sense of competition to the ruling party.

Though the Congress government failed to achieve much in its first year in office, it would be interesting to see in 2010 as to how Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot delivers on his ambitious promises of Metro in Jaipur, monorail in six towns and making Jaipur a world-class city. The state government has already named the board of directors of the proposed Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation which will plan and execute the project which involves an investment of Rs 7,500 crore.

The project would cover 30-km stretch in and around the Pink City, of which 20 km would be an elevated route. Also all eyes would be on the progress on two major industrial projects -- Rs 45,000-crore Silicon Complex to be set up in Bikaner and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, whose 39 per cent area falls in Rajasthan.

After two dull years of business, the tourism industry, which is the mainstay of Rajasthan’s economy, also hopes to do well in 2010 with over 2 million foreign tourists and 3.5 million domestic tourists likely to throng New Delhi for the prestigious Commonwealth Games. The industry had been reeling under crisis for one reason or the other for the last couple of years, first it was terror attacks, then came recession, followed by the IOC blaze and now swine flu.

On the economic front, the scenario is not at all rosy. Even as Rajasthan’s debt burden touched a whopping Rs 84,300 crore by the end of March 2009, its income had been badly hit by recession. The rate of growth of commercial tax, which was touching 25 per cent in September 08, has fallen to a mere 4 per cent, while the stamp duty collection has also declined by nearly Rs 350 crore. Expenditure on merely keeping the government running has also doubled. The government’s salary bill has gone up from Rs 7,700 crore to Rs 14,000 crore, courtesy the Sixth Pay Commission.

In the new year, the government faces the challenge of giving higher salaries, cutting taxes, borrowing more money, bringing down its deficit and at the same time spreading the benefits of development far and wide. The industrial scenario may improve in 2010 with the state government announcing a series of measures to attract investment in the state, which includes introducing a Bill in the Assembly facilitating single window clearance for industrial projects and formation of a Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) to redress the investors’ woes.

As agriculture in Rajasthan is primarily rainfed, the year gone by has not been good for the farming community due to severe drought. However, the state claims to have created irrigation potential of 36.46 lakh hectares and hopes to achieve a total food grain production of 159.53 lakh tonnes, a decline of 0.81 per cent as compared to last year.

Regarding employment scenario, the state government has announced recruitment of around 30,000 persons in different sectors in the current fiscal. These vacancies include 17,000 teachers, 5,000 auxiliary nurses, 1,000 physical training instructors, 540 medical officers, 5,000 constables and 480 sub-inspectors, besides 850 personnel in the newly constituted India Reserve Battalion.

However, the biggest challenge in providing gainful employment to the people comes in the form of proper implementation of NREGA, under which a whopping Rs 9,500 crore will be spent in the state in the current fiscal year. Social audit in Bhilwara, the Lok Sabha seat of none other than Union Minister for Rural Development CP Joshi, has already exposed the loopholes in the implementation of the ambitious scheme.

Various anomalies like panchayat staff withholding job cards, lack of transparency, forging of muster rolls, use of substandard material, purchase of material from unregistered firms and use of JCB machines have come to light. The state government will have to remove these irregularities to ensure that the NREGA funds reach only those whom they are meant.

On the economic indicators, Rajasthan has a total literacy rate of 60.4 per cent, which gives it the 14th rank among different states. The state has improved its position on the human development index (HDI), getting 9th rank among 15 major states as compared to its 12th rank in 1981.

The general index of industrial production of the state stood at 263.40 in the current fiscal year, registering an increase of 3.10 per cent over the previous year. As far as power generation is concerned, the state generated 287.90 crore units of power this year. The state registered an increase of about 10 per cent in its installed capacity which rose from 6420.69 MW to 7019.59 MW. The state’s total foodgrain production stood at 160.83 lakh tonnes.

Noted economist LN Nathuramka said the biggest challenge before the state government is the deteriorating situation of state finances. “The outstanding debt of the state stood at Rs 90,000 crore at the end of September 2009. In such a scenario the government would have a tough time garnering the resources for development, though the Centre as well as the World Bank has promised additional funds,” he added.

According to him, it has been only six months since the new government presented its first budget and it would only be after the next budget is presented that the guidelines for development of Rajasthan’s economy will be set. “At present, the policy framework is missing. Once the policies are framed, there would be an effort to implement them,” he averred. 

Chennai, December 25
Although, the century-old King Institute of Preventive Medicine, situated at the heart of the city had won several laurels in the past, it was an ordinary old building for the city people, till fears of swine flu swept Tamil Nadu this August.

Hundreds of people queued up at the institute to undergo the swine flu test, the only laboratory in Tamil Nadu which initially had testing facilities in the state. To its credit, the institute rose to the occasion, even when the number of test cases were very high.

What started as a smallpox vaccine department in 1897, has grown into a major research centre winning the accreditation of UNESCO and WHO, and has won the UNESCO award for commendable role in eradication of smallpox in 1970. It also has a polio vaccination lab accreditated by the WHO. The institute provides state-of-the-art training in interdisciplinary methods of virus research to young scientists.

The institute was carrying out its preparation of vaccines and bacterial and viral diagnostics throughout the year, while continuing its research and educational programmes, said Dr J Revathy, director of the institute. Second and third generation sophisticated diagnostic tests, ELISA, and molecular tests, PCR and Real time PCR, were conducted this year and were made available free of cost for the poor and economically backward population, she said.

"Today we are self sufficient in the required Dengue and JE antigens. Elisa and molecular based diagnostic tests are now possible. An added achievement is the standardisation of tissue culture antigen in place of mouse brain antigen, thus, reducing the dependence on maintaining an animal house, she said.

Next year, the institute is planning to manufacture pertussis vaccine. Pertussis, also known as the whooping cough, is a highly contagious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis and is spread by contact with airborne discharges from the mucous membranes of infected people. Infants easily get infected by it and even death occur in some cases.

The institute is also planning expansion of activities in the area of virology, to pave way for rapid diagnosis of viral diseases that is of public health importance. It is aiming to produce oral rehydration salt, which is used in Oral rehydration therapy (ORT), a simple treatment for dehydration associated with diarrhoea, particularly gastroenteritis, such as that caused by cholera or rotavirus. It is used around the world, but is most important in a developing country like India, where it saves millions of children from death every year, as diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death in children under five.

The institute plans to use plasmapheresis technology in the preparation of anti-snake serum venom. It is a process in which the fluid part of the blood, called plasma, is removed from the blood cells by a device known as a cell separator. The cells are returned to the person undergoing treatment, while the plasma, which contains the antibodies, is discarded and replaced with other fluids. Preparations are afoot to set up an epidemiology unit soon.

New Delhi, Decmber 25
In a major seizure, the Directorate of Revenue intelligence has seized over 400 kg of ketamine, commonly known as 'date rape drug', valued at over Rs 50 crore in the international market, from Tamil Nadu. The DRI has also arrested three persons in this regard yesterday.

Official sources said the 440 kg of the narcotic substance was recovered in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu.

Based on specific intelligence, the DRI carried out searches of a consignment of salt meant to be exported. The inspection of over 400 bags of salt revealed that about 27 bags contained ketamine.

The presence of the contraband was established only after chemical analysis of the consignment, since, it looks like salt.

Sources said the abuse of ketamine is not much known in India, but it is in high demand in South Asian countries, where it is commonly used in parties.

Ketamine is a recreational drug often misused for committing sexual assaults and is generally referred to as 'date rape drug'. — PTI 

Mumbai, December 25
After a gap of nearly four decades, parochial politics reared its head once again in Maharashtra as the Shiv Sena and its offshoot, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, locked horns to garner the Marathi vote in the state’s main urban centres.

The rivalry between the two parties exposed the soft underbelly of the Shiv Sena. In the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year and later during the Maharashtra Assembly polls, Raj Thackeray’s MNS damaged the Shiv Sena founded by his uncle Bal Thackeray more than four decades ago. The elder Thackeray was forced out of retirement at 82 to rescue the party he founded on the platform of Marathi parochialism.

After showing signs of mellowing down under Bal Thackeray’s son and heir Uddhav, the Shiv Sena is back to its street fighting ways to prevent its core constituency from drifting to the MNS. The weeks since the October Assembly elections have seen both the Senas play the Marathi card in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and other cities.

That regional politics would continue in the near future also became evident when Raj Thackeray unleashed his handful of MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly on the very first day when legislators were being sworn in. The target of their ire happened to be Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi, who dared the MNS to prevent him from taking oath in Hindi.

The Shiv Sena played its own Marathi card by taking on cricketer Sachin Tendulkar for his remarks about being an Indian first and a Maharashtrian later.

Since there have been one-upmanship between the two outfits in the streets of Mumbai where their hapless targets have included mediapersons and offices of media houses.

The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance holding power in Maharashtra has more than benefited from the Thackeray family feud. In fact, the two are believed to have played a major role in fueling the fire between Raj and Uddhav Thackeray.

Having scored at the national and state levels, the national parties are hoping to stage an encore in the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation due to be held later in the new year or in early 2011. The contest is expected to be ferocious than ever before since the demographics of Mumbai have undergone a sea change in the latter half of this decade.

Marathi-speaking people account for just a little more than a third of the 49 lakh voters who live in Mumbai and its suburbs with the bulk of the native population having moved out of the city to outlying areas of Thane, Kalyan, Dombivli and other places. In their places have moved in people from other parts of the country, mainly northern India who account for about 30 per cent of the population.

The Congress and the NCP see the forthcoming municipal elections as an acid test to displace the Shiv Sena from the BMC where it has held power for more than two decades. While Raj Thackeray’s fledgling outfit may lend itself as a useful tool for them to hack at the Shiv Sena’s base, Bal Thackeray seems to have realised the enormity of the battle at hand.

Despite ill health, the founder of the party is camping at the party headquarters in central Mumbai and has thrown open his doors to ordinary workers in a bid to rejuvenate the party.

The shrill editorials penned in his name in party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, of course, adds to the punch sometimes a bit too literally!

New Delhi, December 25
Inspections conducted by the University Grants Commission into the functioning of private universities have found a number of irregularities, including running non-approved courses by some of them like Amity University.

None of the innovative professional and technical courses offered by Amity University has got approval of relevant statutory bodies, a UGC committee has found.

The UGC had set up separate committees to inspect the functioning of eight universities as part of the process to include them in the list of recognised universities being maintained by it.

The committees were critical of the functioning of two universities - Amity University in Uttar Pradesh and Martin Luther Christian University (MLUC) in Meghalaya.

The committee, led by Prof B S Sonde, visited the Amity University in July this year.

In its report, the committee said: “The university is offering a range of innovative professional and technical programmes in emerging areas. None of the programmes has received the approval of relevant professional councils”.

The Bar Council of India’s approval is for the school of law and it was obtained before the university was born, it said. The approval needs to be revalidated by the university now, it said.

Giving details, the committee has said the university, set up by an Uttar Pradesh Act, is operating at Lucknow and Noida.

It conducts a number of distance learning courses in professional subjects like MBA and MCA. “As per UGC regulations, they are not authorised to do so. Further, they have not obtained the approval of the UGC-AICTE-DEC joint committee for running these programmes,” it said.

The committee also said the university requires a “vibrant quality assurance activity”. There is an urgent need for getting its programmes accredited by the National accreditation and Assessment Authority or National Board of accreditation.

It found the university does not follow reservation policy in recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff and admission of students. This violates the University Act and the UGC-Regulations-2003.

A separate committee has given adverse report against Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU), which has opened many off campuses.

The committees inspected the Eastern Institute For Integrated Learning In Management, Sikkim, The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India University, Mizoram, Jagan Nath University, Jaipur, Sarva Vidyalaya Kelvani Mandal Gandhinagar Gujarat, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gujarat, Amity University, MLUC, Shillong and Ganpat University, Gujarat. — PTI

Shimla, December 25
Who needs hotels, resorts, golf courses, plush bungalows, high-rise apartments and factories in Kasauli? “Not us,” says Baljit Malik, a former educationist, and several other residents of the township that was built on Kasauli Hills by the British. After the High Court lifted the stay order on constructions costing over Rs 25 lakhs in October-end this year, they fear an invasion by the outsiders that will change the face of Kasauli forever.

Water in Kasauli, points out Malik, a retired teacher of Doon School, is rationed. “Only 70 litres/person is supplied per day. But has anyone wondered how much water will be required to maintain golf courses and hotels and from where will the water be sourced ?” he questions.

The state government had designated a part of Kasauli as an industrial zone and allowed roads to be widened for heavier traffic. Permission was granted to fell trees and drill deep borewells.

Buildings came up in the middle of the natural course of water , while builders hacked away at the slopes. The already fragile Kasauli Hills, the residents claim, would become even more vulnerable to an ecological disaster if commercial construction was allowed. They had filed a petition and obtained a stay in the year 2007. But the stay was vacated in October after the Himachal Pradesh government submitted a plan to protect Kasauli’s eco-system.

But the state government’s ‘Kasauli Development Plan’, they suspect, is too little and has come too late. Making sloping roofs mandatory for water harvesting, exhorting builders to use solar energy, banning cutting of hill slopes inclined at more than 45 degrees and a set of guidelines for apartments, which are all part of the Plan, are wish lists that are difficult to monitor and implement, feel residents.

Malik and the like-minded members of the Kasauli Bachao Andolan are disappointed at the lifting of the ban on ‘mega construction’ in Kasauli. “ The information about the last court hearing was conveyed to us at the eleventh hour and since we were away, we failed to be present in person there,” rues Malik. A copy of the Development Plan was also delivered to them after the court gave its order, he claimed. Malik is now planning to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

“It would be a pity if Kasauli is allowed to go the Shimla’s way and becomes another concrete jungle,” says the ‘Save Kasauli Committee’. But there is already a scramble for construction, alleges Malik, with an ‘infectious free-for-all building-spree getting generated’.

Excessive urbanisation, commercialisation and additional stress on land, water and electricity would affect the old-world charm of Kasauli, say locals. The fresh building activities, they strongly feel, are designed to benefit contractors, non-Himachalis and bureaucrats.