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Centre checking facts on Chatwal
BJP warns govt of ‘egg on its face
Ravi Varma Paintings
Ragging drives student to suicide
Centre seeks list of judges with kin in same HCs
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Attach proof while charging govt staff: SC
21 get life term for murder
Crack down on hoarders: Pawar
Maya takes the House for a ride
Moolah Matters
Now, health facilities at railway stations
BJP feels Sharm el-Shaikh agenda is back
IAS officer with 220 bank accounts
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Centre checking facts on Chatwal
New Delhi, February 6 “We are trying to ascertain facts,” Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said when asked about the reports that there are three criminal complaints with the Kerala Police besides four cases in the Delhi and Kerala High Courts that named Chatwal and his associates. He, however, made it clear that no probe had been ordered nor any report sought from anyone. According to media reports, all cases against Chatwal were filed or registered after April 2009 and in two of those cases, Chatwal was served summons as recently as last month. The cases reportedly related to “non-payment of bills” by Chatwal to the suppliers of furnishings to his newly constructed Kochi hotel and “criminal intimidation” of them on the night of the launch party. —
PTI
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BJP warns govt of ‘egg on its face
New Delhi, February 6 “Selection of Chatwal has made the whole process (of choosing Padma awardees) suspect and has lowered the dignity of the awards. It is the duty of the government to maintain this dignity as it is also a matter of prestige of the awards,” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said. He said the BJP was aware of the filing of PILs in the case and also of reports that Chatwal offered to fund Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign, but the latter politely declined. “If the government wants to prevent egg on its face, it should take appropriate action, lest other institutions should have to take corrective action,” Rudy said. Some eminent journalists have also filed an RTI application to know how Chatwal figured in the list of Padma Bhushan awardees. Reports suggest that though Chatwal’s name did not figure in the initial list, his name was recommended later by the Prime Minister’s Office. Chatwal was earlier indicted by the CBI in a bank fraud involving $9 million and was under arrest for a short period. — PTI
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HC seeks state’s views
Kochi, February 6 A direction in this regard was issued yesterday by a division bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice P R Raman on a petition filed by Archana Narayanan, advocate and great grand-niece of Raja Ravi Varma. The petitioner submitted that as per records of the Kilimanoor Palace, over 75 paintings had been handed over to the then government. But only 55 had been exhibited at the Thiruvananthapuram-based Sree Chitra Art Gallery, managed by the Directorate of Museum and Zoo. She alleged that some private art galleries had openly auctioned Varma's masterpieces without prior permission from the Archaeological Survey of India. Though an inquiry was conducted earlier on a petition filed by a relative of the petitioner, the report was "vague" and "contradictory", Narayanan pointed out and sought a CBI probe. The petitioner alleged that Indian art treasures were freely put on auctions abroad. To prevent such illegalities, the CBI should be directed to seize works of Varma from those who indulged in such smuggling, she added. — PTI
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Ragging drives student to suicide
Chennai, February 6 According to information, Sridhar, who poured kerosene over himself and then dropped a match, succumbed to the burns at a nearby hospital. Initially when a group of seniors ragged him, Sridhar reported the matter to his father, Kuppusamy, who called on the college authorities, requesting them to take action against the erring students. Apparently taking the complaint lightly, the college management let off the seniors with a warning. And infuriated over the complaint, they allegedly started torturing Sridhar even the more. As his complaints against ragging worsened his plight, Sridhar returned home yesterday before the lunch hour and allegedly committed self-immolation. The police have registered an FIR and are on the lookout for the
students who allegedly drove Sridhar to suicide.
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Centre seeks list of judges with kin in same HCs
Chandigarh, February 6 The communications have been shot off in less than six months after the Law Commission discussed the issue in its 230th report. The commission had made it clear that it was against the policy of transferring Chief Justices; and he should rather be from the same high court. But while making appointment of judges, advocates with kith and kin practising in a high court, should not be posted in the same high court.” This would eliminate “uncle judges”, it said. The suggestion was part of the commission’s recommendations on pressing reforms to streamline the functioning of the judiciary and to quicken the pace of justice. The Punjab and Haryana High Court advocates have also time and again sought the transfer of judges with kith and kin in the same court. Making it clear that they were not in favour of judges with practicing sons and relatives to stay in the same court, over 800 advocates had signed a requisition, which was subsequently passed by the Bar association last year. The issue had gained momentum after the circulation of a few anonymous letters in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. There were reportedly three such letters in circulation. The “eye opener”, on a retired apex court judge and his advocate son, made attempts to establish apprehensions of a nexus between judges and their wards practising in the high court. Apparently, almost all sitting and some of the retired judges of the high court had received these letters, “eye openers”, by a “law-abiding citizen”. Though the identity of the author is a secret, the language used in the communiqués hints that he belongs to the legal fraternity.
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Attach proof while charging govt staff: SC
New Delhi, February 6 “Non-disclosure of documents having a potential to cause prejudice to a government servant in the inquiry proceedings would clearly be denial of a reasonable opportunity to submit a plausible and effective rebuttal to the charges being inquired into against the government servant,” a Bench comprising Justices VS Sirpurkar and Surinder Singh Nijjar observed. Rejecting an appeal by the Uttar Pradesh Government in a case relating to the dismissal of an Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department, the Bench said the disciplinary authority “is duty bound” to make available all relevant documents that were sought to be relied upon against the government servant in proof of the charges. “It is only when the chargesheet together with documents is supplied that the government servant can be said to have had an effective and reasonable opportunity to present his written statement of defence,” the court observed. Under the state rules for enforcing discipline and major penalties against government servants, the charges framed should be “so precise and clear” as to give sufficient indication to the charged government servant of the facts and circumstances against him. “It is mandatory that the proposed documentary evidence and the names of witnesses proposed to prove the charges together with any oral evidence that may be recorded be mentioned in the chargesheet,” the court said. The engineer, who joined service in 1971, had been charged with committing a fraud by making some wrong entries as regards a payment of Rs 58,742 in 1998.
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21 get life term for murder
Nagpur, February 6 Two rival political groups at Badegaon village, Saoner taluka, Nagpur district were involved in a violent clash resulting in the murder of one Ashok Deshmukh immediately after the gram panchayat elections on October 26, 2002. Two others persons, Vilas Bhaurao Deshmukh and Vivek Deshmukh, survived the murder attack. About 25 witnesses had turned hostile during the trial. — PTI
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Crack down on hoarders: Pawar
New Delhi, February 6 “Those states which have not yet utilised the provisions (of the Essential Commodities Act) may consider doing the same. However, while undertaking steps under the Act, we must ensure that a balanced approach is taken and undue harassment is not meted out (to traders),” he said. Assuring the Centre’s support to the states, Pawar said the battle against rising prices had to be waged jointly by the Centre and the states. On sugar, he supported the industry’s demand and said import parity of domestic prices must be considered, if more sugar were to be brought in from outside. The Indian Sugar Mills Association had recently sought import price parity to facilitate more buying from overseas markets in view of the higher rates prevailing in the global markets. Pointing to UP’s decision not to allow processing of imported raw sugar, he said, “I would urge the UP government to remove such restrictions, which create an artificial scarcity in the market”.
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Maya takes the House for a ride
Lucknow, February 6 Mayawati had made this declaration on the floor of the house on January 29 while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to Governor B L Joshi’s address to the joint session of the legislature. While Finance Minister’s budget speech mentions nothing about this money for the memorials nor does the budget highlights provided by the Directorate of Information. However, scanning the fine print of the budget documents brings out the apparent bid of the ruling party to take the house for a ride. Volume 5 (Part 1) of the item wise estimates for 2010-2011 budgets includes the Department of Housing Budget. Under the urban development head on page 25 and 26 it mentions allocation of funds to the tune of Rs 456.58 crores for providing long-term stability to the structures of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajid Parivartan Sthal.Under the same sub head, Rs 77 crores have been set aside to reinforce the embankments of river Gomti up to La Martinier Boys School that is part of the memorial complex in Gomti Nagar. Under the same sub head, another Rs 224.75 crores has been set aside for the construction of Manyavar Shri Kanshiramji Green (Eco) Park at Jail Road. Continuing under the same sub head Rs 36.67 crores has been allocated for the construction, development and other works at the Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan. Interestingly, the second supplementary grants to the tune of Rs 3,132.56 crores for the current fiscal 2009-10 that was presented along with the budget revealed the intention of the government. On page 3 of the Supplementary Grants document a token budget of Rs 1000 each had been allocated for various memorials and parks. They included the remaining work at the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal, for the corpus fund created for the security and maintenance of the parks and memorials, beautification of Manyavar Shri Kanshiramji Smriti Upvan which had been renamed as Smriti Upvan and the Manyavar Shri Kanshiram ji Green (Eco) Garden. However, the last line of the last footnote on page 3 that mentions the token amount for all these memorials in the Supplementary Grants document proved to be a give away. It clearly mentions that on the basis of item wise estimates provision of funds is being made in the 2010-11 budget.
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Moolah Matters
New Delhi, February 6 Justice Vikramjit Sen's wife has four properties against her name, including a property in DLF, Gurgaon, and jointly owned shares of 22 blue chip companies and investment in 11 mutual fund companies. Justice A.K. Sikri's wife has 1,850 sq feet property in a Gurgaon housing society along with huge investment in shares and a PPF account. Justice S.Muralidhar purchased a three-bedroom flat in his wife's name in Mayur Vihar, while Justice J.R. Midha has two properties in his wife's name in south and east Delhi. On the other hand, Justice Mukta Gupta has only one property in her name, for which she took a loan from the bank and is still
repaying it. For Justice A.K. Pathak and Justice Indermeet Kochhar, who are husband and wife and co-own a property in Greater Noida, there is more investment in Kochhar's name with fixed deposits of Rs.60 lakh. -
IANS
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Now, health facilities at railway stations
New Delhi, February 6 The two ministries will collaborate to develop allopathic and Indian systems of medicine as well as diagnostic centres, OPDs, inpatient medical treatment centres, super speciality hospitals, medical colleges and nursing colleges in the land around selected railway stations. —
TNS
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BJP feels Sharm el-Shaikh agenda is back
New Delhi, February 6 BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said yesterday, “This initiative is uncalled for and seemingly taken without the approval of the CCS. This will also undermine Home Minister P. Chidambram’s efforts to discuss terrorism with his Pakistan counterpart. This will prove to be yet another foreign policy blunder after Sharm el-Shaikh.” Privately BJP leaders felt that the Prime Minister has gone back to the Sharm el-Shaikh position. They recalled that at Sharm el-Shaikh they had decided to carry on with composite dialogue notwithstanding terrorism and while Pakistan has done precious little to curb terrorism, India has decided to resume dialogue. BJP whose leaders had, immediately after Sharm el-Shaikh, strongly opposed any resumption of composite dialogue with Pakistan till the neighbouring country curbed terrorist attacks on India, recalled that even then the Prime Minister appeared determined to resume composite dialogue with Pakistan, much against the advice and opposition of his then NSA Narayanan. But with Naryanan out the road is clear for the Prime Minister. The BJP has already characterised new NSA Shiv Shankar Menon as soft on Pakistan and China. The BJP also recalled how “Army chief Deepak Kapoor is on record stating that Pakistan is attempting large-scale infiltration and terror infrastructure there is still intact…To cap it all, Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is on record saying that he cannot guarantee that 26/11 won’t happen again. Pakistan has already gone back on its written promise of January 6, 2004, that it will not allow its territory to be used by terrorists. It shows that Pakistan has not changed a bit.” BJP leaders also apprehended that the composite dialogue was building towards working out some “Sell-out” on Kashmir. “On the one hand Pakistan, under pressure from the US, and other Western powers, is dismantling its jehadi outfits on its Western borders adjoining Afghanistan to East. Salahuddin and others have again started operating in these areas,” said the
BJP insiders.
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IAS officer with 220 bank accounts Raipur, February 6 I-T officials searched the residence of the state agriculture secretary as well as business establishments of his close relatives on Thursday. On Friday, the officials similarly raided his chartered account Sunil Agrawal’s house and came across documents suggesting that the IAS officer had amassed assets disproportionate to his known income. The officer had at least 220 bank accounts, several of them opened on fake names and addresses, and a few in the names of his domestic helps. — IANS
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