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AICTE approvals go online from Jan 10
NRIs discuss property disputes; blame judiciary
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Gadkari to be elected on February 10
China okay, but keep our concerns in mind, India to Nepal
Nothing new in ULFA threat: DGP
Basu still in coma; PM inquires about health
Cong seeks explanation from Sodhi
Soren wins floor test
Rail wagon project for Patiala
SC judge opts out of RPL case
Security beefed up at Nariman House
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AICTE approvals go online from Jan 10
From January 10, the government will end the system of manual applications by institutes for operational approvals from the AICTE. The idea is to stem corruption that has come to haunt the statutory body, which monitors technical education in India, with its top officials in the CBI net. The new system seeks to end inspector raj and allow institutes to self disclose details of infrastructure, courses, seats, faculty and students on the AICTE web portal (www.aicte-india.org <<http://www.aicte-india.org>>) launched today. The portal will open for online registration from January 10 and will have a system of assigning IDs to students and faculty to ensure that teachers teach only in one institute and don’t hop around (as earlier) and students are admitted as per norms. The portal will also enable students to raise grievances online. As for seats, engineering institutes can now have 300 instead of 240 seats and management colleges can have 120 seats instead of 60. Land requirement for institutes has been relaxed from three to 2.5 acre in mega cities, and five to four acre in metros to push technical education. The new decisions will affect institutes in engineering, technology, architecture, town planning, management, pharmacy, applied arts and crafts, hotel management and catering technology. Considering 2,237 proposals for new technical institutions came last year (maximum 886 for engineering), this means a lot of space for students. The HRD ministry today further gave 25 per cent relaxation to PGDM institutes to offer courses in whatever discipline they want. Distance education will, however, be allowed only in MBA and MCA. Even the existing institutes (The AICTE has about 6139 approved degree level institutes alone), will have to make self disclosures on the new portal within a month. As for the new system-unlike earlier when AICTE gave letter of intent to the institute before it proved its credentials, now institutes would have to make 42 online disclosures. Upon making of 20 (including visuals of campus infrastructure), it will get a provisional ID. A permanent ID will come upon full disclosures along with names of director and faculty. “Once an institute fulfils all obligations under the law, it will get a letter of approval from AICTE. We have 2500 listed experts to inspect campuses before admissions can start. The system will randomly throw up names of inspectors to prevent corruption. Also, the National Board of Accreditation will be set up as an independent body of AICTE to make it eligible under the Washington Accord,” Kapil Sibal, HRD minister, today said. Once the institute feeds into the portal, its details will be frozen to cut chances of tampering. “Only one appeal will be allowed to the permanent appeal committee which will be set up,” Sibal said.
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NRIs discuss property disputes; blame judiciary
New Delhi, January 7 On day one of the three-day Pravasi Bhartiya Divas organised by the Government of India and CII, NRIs from across the globe turned up at a seminar “property-related issues of overseas Indians” here today. The major blame was on the slow Indian judicial system; fear of not getting justice and plain cheating. “It was discouraging the NRIS from investing in real estate and buying homes in India”, this was the consensus of hapless sufferers who suggested setting up of fast track courts. A man from UK said he had purchased around 300-acre land from the government liquidator; however, he could not get its possession as he was told there was some problem in handing over the land. The shocker was Parray Singh, who represented a US-based company. He said his company had invested around $ 300 million in real estate in India, however, a project in Bangalore was delayed by two years as the committee on environment did not meet, hence, the mandatory clearance was held back as the case was not considered. A software engineer from New Jersey said he purchased two-acre land in Vizag to start an IT company. Now, he does not have the land. Gurpreet Kinra, a professor in Canada, added that he was about to retire after 32 years of working and booked a flat in Delhi with a “reputed builder”. “But, my friends advised me to forget about it. For I will be dead by the time the matter is decided,” Kinra said, adding that the builder refused to hand over the flat. Allaying the concerns of the investors, particularly NRIs, Salman Khurshid, Minister of Corporate and Minority Affairs, Government of India, said a viable solution had been found to safeguard the interests of the investors in Maytas Properties. Khurshid said easier access for NRIs to their property in India through changes in law would be formulated at the state level. Property records are being progressively computerised. Justice A R Lakshmanan, Former Chairman, Law Commission of India, said setting up fast track courts was the need of the hour. Summing up the suggestions at the seminar, Chandigarh-based lawyer Anil Malhotra said: “Make a “will” and it will be governed by the Indian Succession Act; make only specific special power of attorney and do not give GPA to even your brother; do not buy any property that is being sold on GPA basis. He further said an alternative dispute mechanism was needed to act like an ombudsman.
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Gadkari to be elected on February 10
New Delhi, January 7 Gadkari was appointed as the party president by the BJP parliamentary board on December 19 and would be confirmed in his office exactly two months later by the national council in Indore. BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said later, “The process of nomination for the presidential elections will commence from February 8, February 9 has been scheduled for withdrawal of nominations and the election will be held on February 10. But the BJP constitution requires that the national council has to finally ratify the president’s election. For this purpose, the national council has been summoned in Indore on February 18 and 19 and the national executive which decides the council agenda will meet in Indore on February 17, said Prasad. The party constitution requires that organisational elections for at least 50 per cent states should be completed before the presidential elections. So far most of the important states have not completed the process and some of them, including Gadkari’s home state Maharashtra, is not likely to complete it even after the national council meet. But party sources said the party has hurriedly announced completion of elections in smaller and insignificant states like the north-eastern and southern states where it has negligible or no presence at all. Meanwhile, the office-bearers meeting also drew up a detailed programme of agitation against price rise which would start from district headquarters to state level to a final rally in Delhi on March 10 in the middle of Budget session of Parliament. Today’s meeting set up a task force to organise and mobilise its workers for this purpose. A five-member committee has been constituted under BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar. Other members on this committee are vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Kiran Maheshwari, Mahila Morcha president Kiran Maheshwari, Yuva Morcha president Amit Thakkar and general secretary Gopinath Munde.
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China okay, but keep our concerns in mind, India to Nepal
New Delhi, January 7 Krishna, who is scheduled to visit Nepal later this month, was asked how he viewed Nepal’s growing ties with China since they could affect the Indo-Nepal relationship. India has a special and time-tested relationship with Nepal and it was for Nepal to decide what kind of relationship it wanted with other countries. “But Nepal should take our security concerns into account while carrying forward relations with others,’’ he said at a function here today. He reiterated India’s position that New Delhi did not view China or China’s economic development as a threat. “We recognise that cooperation and competition can overlap as it is not possible to have a perfect congruence of interests between the two nations as vast and diverse as India and China. Such competition or lack of cooperation must not be misunderstood as antagonism,” the minister said. Releasing two new books on China and India, brought out by the Observer Research Foundation, he said: “Our differences, when they exist, must be handled with dialogue and diplomacy.” The minister noted that both countries had a vibrant system of political exchanges and created a full-fledged architecture of dialogue at all official levels, covering all fields with the parameters of the strategic and global partnership. Underlining the importance of people-to-people friendship which New Delhi wants to put on faster track in the New Year, Krishna said the two governments were planning to commemorate the 60th year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China in a befitting manner. He announced that spectacular Festivals of India in China and China in India would be organised to commemorate this milestone. He said he was looking forward to his China visit later this year to further strengthen and reinvigorate the relations.
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Nothing new in ULFA threat: DGP
Guwahati, January 7 Director-General of Police Shankar Barauh today said, “Threat from ULFA has always been there. We are not much worried about the statement issued by the ULFA leader that is basically aimed at hogging headlines in the media.” The police chief further said, “We remain extra vigilant in the run-up to important occasions like Republic Day, Independence Day etc. to thwart any attempt by militants to strike terror. This is like a football game where both the sides -- the police and ULFA -- want to score goals.” Even as the government is hoping to persuade jailed leaders of the ULFA, including its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, to sit for dialogue without Paresh Baruah, the ULFA commander in a show of belligerence issued a statement announcing a “20-point” directives to the cadres of the outfit for “intensifying” the freedom movement of Assam”. The ULFA commander stated the officials, who have amassed wealth by exploiting gullible people in villages and tea gardens, would be warned first and meted out with “supreme punishment”. He warned locals of Assam against selling land to “foreigners” whom he identified as anyone from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal.
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Basu still in coma; PM inquires about health
Kolkata, January 7 The 96-year Marxist patriarch, who had been ailing for some time past due to cardiac problems and several old-age diseases, was admitted to a private nursing home at Salt Lake with severe pneumonia on the New Year day. The anxious Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, phoned Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee from New Delhi and enquired about Basu’s health. Politburo leaders Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yechuri were rushing down to Kolkata. Mamata Banerjee drove to the nursing home by curtailing her programme on the Metro rail expansion at Dum Dum Cantonment.
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Cong seeks explanation from Sodhi
New Delhi, January 7 Congress General Secretary in charge of Punjab Mohsina Kidwai has dashed off a letter to Sodhi, asking him to explain his conduct, which has left many red faces in the grand old party. After confirming from Kidwai, party spokesperson Manish Tewari said an explanation had been sought from the Guru Harsahai Congress MLA. Meanwhile, sources said Sodhi had told Kidwai that besides the written explanation, he would also come to Delhi to explain his side of the story. A senior party leader from Punjab said senior party men had taken a grim view of the episode that had conveyed a negative message across the masses. “Public figures are supposed to be law abiding, setting an example for others to follow. Besides, the Sodhi-episode appears to have also sent a message that senior leaders are on a perpetual holiday at the cost of the party,” he added. Sodhi landed himself in a soup after it came to light that he had taken his friend along from Pakistan to Jaipur on the New Year Eve despite she not having a visa.
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Soren wins floor test
Ranchi, January 7 Sixty-five-year-old Soren received 45 votes in the 81-member House, while 26 were cast against him. All five RJD members abstained from voting, while Enos Ekka of Jharkhand Party, Independent Harinarayan Rai, Congress' Gopal Nath Sahadeo and Arup Chatterjee of the Marxist Coordination Committee were absent. Ekka and Rai are in jail in a disproportionate assets case. Soren was invited by Governor K Sankaranarayanan on December 27 to form the government and asked to seek a vote of confidence by January eight when he was sworn-in for a third time as the Chief Minister on December 30. Besides his 18-member JMM , Soren claimed the support of NDA-20, AJSU-5, Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch-1, Rashtriya Kalyan Paksh-1 and one Independent MLA Bidesh Singh. Replying to the confidence motion, Soren claimed that the people of Jharkhand did not get justice which led to the statehood movement. “Now is the time to meet the aspirations of the people. Delhi cannot understand our problems. We have to understand our problems and address them,” Soren said. Noting that around 80 per cent of the state’s population depended on agriculture, he said the need of the hour was irrigation facilities. When the Opposition demanded declaration of the state as famine-hit, Soren said the issue would be discussed.
— PTI
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Rail wagon project for Patiala New Delhi, January 7 Sanjeev Bhasin of the company apprised Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that he had already approached the state government for facilitating the project, “Amtek Railcar Industries”, to manufacture wagons for the Railways, private operators in India, the Southeast Asian market and West Asian market. He said the Phase-I of the project would be set up in Patiala district with an investment of Rs 330 crore with a capacity to manufacture 2,400 wagons per annum. This capacity would be enhanced to 3,600 wagons per annum with an additional investment of Rs 220 crore in phase-II of the project. There was a potential for direct employment of 550 persons and indirect employment of 1,200 persons. Amtek was Rs 6,000 crore manufacturing group having 39 plants across North America, Europe and Asia to produce wide range of automotive components and assemblies for engine, transmission and suspension exceeding 300 varieties for use in passenger cars, two-wheelers, tractors, light commercial vehicle, medium commercial vehicle and stationery engines.
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SC judge opts out of RPL case
New Delhi, January 7 When the matter was taken up by a Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice Chauhan, who was the other Judge, said he had heard the case when he was in Allahabad HC. “It would not be proper for me to hear the matter.” Upon this, the CJI adjourned the hearing for January 18 when it would be put up before an appropriate Bench.
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Security beefed up at Nariman House
Mumbai, January 7 According to the Colaba police station, the security has been beefed up at the premise that was attacked by terrorists on November 26, 2008. Among those killed were Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, in charge of the premises. According to reports appearing in the Israeli media, a badly worded letter, carrying a photograph of Adolf Hitler, threatened to carry out another strike on the premises.
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today with NRIs narrating stories that how they were cheated in property matters in India and thus, felt insecure investing in the real estate sector.
New Delhi, January 7