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Food Security Bill put on hold
Gadkari tells workers to target Delhi
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Yet another ‘honour killing’
Scarlett Trial
Come 2011 & Nanded will be slum-free
Delhi HC rejects plea against Padma Bhushan for Chatwal
Tribunal for overhaul of court martial procedure
Rajasthan Notebook
US military has ‘more to learn’ from India than China
Suicide by HP teacher: Father ropes in Ruchika’s
lawyer
Sea Scare Dinakaran defies
collegium, does not proceed on leave 10 dead in Pune accident
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Food Security Bill put on hold
New Delhi, April 5 Playing extremely safe, after the acute criticism of the EGoM’s March 18 decision to provide 25 kg foodgrain to a family at Rs 3 per kg, the government today said it needed more time for a detailed study on the mechanism that makes food a legal right of the poor. Headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the EGoM on food deferred any decision on the draft National Food Security Act (NFSA) till the Planning Commission gave a report on the number of below poverty line (BPL) families qualifying for the UPA’s ambitious social welfare scheme. The EGoM will meet again within three weeks and the Planning Commission, in the meantime, will provide the exact definition of the BPL category to remove the current ambiguity on the issue. The number is important to work out the money the government would have to spend for the success of its new programme. After the meeting, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said as many as 22 countries in the world provide legal food security to the poor and the government would study their systems as well. He said ministries under his domain had been asked to give a report on how similar food security legislations had been enacted and implemented in these countries. Obviously, the more in-depth study of the proposed law comes at the behest of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who wants a more radical law for the poor instead of the diluted version served by the EGoM on March 18. After criticism from rights groups, the Congress president asked for the Food Security Bill to be revamped, stressing that the ambitious scheme, which makes food the right of every citizen, be expanded to cover women, children and vulnerable sections of society who don’t figure in the official below-poverty-line rolls. The draft Bbill cleared by EGoM restricted beneficiaries to those below the ceiling specified by the Planning Commission, leaving women, children, and vulnerable groups out of the purview. Sources said Sonia had written to the PMO, urging the government to include destitute and vulnerable households, besides BPL families and those eligible under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, or poorest of the poor, in the list. However, when asked whether the EGoM or the PMO had received any communication from the UPA chairperson on the NFSA, Pawar said: “I have not received any letter”. Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi, as the National Advisory Council chairperson, will be closely associated with the Bill now. She is finalising her new team and several names are doing rounds, including that of former Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. The council is likely to be in place before Parliament reconvenes and the Bill will be vetted by the NAC to ensure that it is up to the mark. Meanwhile, the Congress said there were no differences between the party and the government on the Food Security Bill and both were working for the “most virtuous coverage” of the needy people. Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Bill was a revolutionary step and inputs from all sections should be welcomed.
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Gadkari tells workers to target Delhi
Guwahati, April 5 Addressing a rally of workers here as part of the party’s nationwide campaign against the Congress-led UPA government over the ‘unprecedented price rise’, Gadkari said: “Prices are increasing, farmers are committing suicide and development in the country has taken a back seat. This is happening not because of your religion, caste or creed, but because of wrong economic policies being pursued by the Congress to serve the interests of handful of businessmen.” He alleged a massive ‘sugar scandal’ behind the steep rise of price of the commodity and demanded an explanation from the UPA government about the reason behind exporting 48 lakh tonnes of sugar at cheaper rate last year without assessing the domestic demand and importing the same commodity at much higher prices later. “Similar, faux pas was made in respect of wheat by the UPA government,” he alleged. He accused the Congress of allowing its ‘election-oriented politics’ coming in the way of tackling terror with a firm hand and asked why the UPA government had failed to execute the death penalty awarded by the Supreme Court to Afzal Guru, the key accused in attack on Parliament. “There has not been any terror strike in the US after 9/11 as no one would dare to target the country which has taken a very firm posture against terror. But there has been regular terror attacks all over India even after 26/11, thanks to the soft attitude of the Congress government in tackling terror,” the BJP president stated. He came down heavily on Congress’ ‘ vote bank’ politics that had been a major hurdle in arresting illegal migration from Bangladesh to the country especially to Assam and other bordering states. “In no country in the world except India, foreigners can sneak in and get their names enrolled in the voters’ list,” he said lambasting the Congress of practising the brand of secularism that amounts to appeasement of minorities. He dismissed the ‘motivated propaganda’ against the BJP branding it a communal party saying “For the BJP all those who consider India as their motherland are Hindustanis irrespective of whether they go to mandir, masjid, gurdwara,church or any other place of worship.”
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Yet another ‘honour killing’
Panipat, April Police sources said Vikas, who was a student of Class XI at SD Vidya Mandir School, had gone missing about 15 days back. He reportedly had an affair with a girl, who studied in the same school. The sources said Vikas’s father Karambir Singh, who is a junior engineer in the local irrigation department, told them that they had been getting threats from the girl’s family and they were even contemplating to leave the city in view of these threats. But, before they could take any action, their son went missing. Later, his body was found in a canal. After the boy’s family members approached the police demanding action against the accused, the police booked six persons, including the girl with whom Vikas allegedly had an affair along with her parents and some other family members. The case was registered under Sections 302, 201 and 120(B) of the IPC. The police said all accused were absconding and investigating teams had been dispatched to track them. The boy’s father stated that the girl’s family had even got his son implicated in a false case of theft recently.
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Scarlett Trial
Panaji, April 5 Constable Gurunath Naik, 29, attached to the Anjuna Police Station, gave his witness before the judge BP Deshpande, reconstructing the events that occurred soon after unknown caller informed the police about unidentified body lying on the shore. Naik, the first policeman to see the corpse lying in the sea water on Anjuna beach, had earlier deposed on three occasions - two times before the Goa Police and once before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 20, 2008; March 1, 2008; and June 16, 2008, respectively. Two local accused - Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho, have been booked by the CBI for drugging, sexually abusing and leaving Scarlet to die at the beach waters on February 17, 2008. Defence lawyer Ryan Menezes cited contradictions in the statement given by the witness earlier to the Goa Police and CBI compared to his fresh testimony today. CBI’s counsel SR Rivonkar, talking to media after the trial, however, termed these contradictions as ‘non-fatal’ and ‘minor’. “He has given three statements on different occasions. There are bound to be some differences. They are not fatal. They are minor contradictions,” Rivonkar told the media. — PTI
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Come 2011 & Nanded will be slum-free
Mumbai, April 5 Nanded is home to Gurdwara Sachkhand Darbar Shri Hazoor Sahib, one of the five most revered shrines of the Sikhs. A massive rehabilitation programme is underway for those living in hutments under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM). In the first phase, 6,000 tenements are being constructed and allotted to slum-dwellers. According to Nanded Municipal Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, next year, another 20,000 homes will be completed and readied for allotment to the remaining slum dwellers. A survey put the number of slum dwellers at around 1.51 lakh. They are spread over 343 hectares in different pockets of the town. The total number of slum clusters was put at 58, mainly on the outskirts of Nanded. The town is part of the larger Nanded district, which falls under Chief Minister Ashok Chavan’s constituency. So far, the Maharashtra Government has spent over Rs 1,100 crore on houses for slum dwellers and upgrading the infrastructure of the town. By 2012, more than Rs 2,500 crore would have been spent from Central Government funds on upgrading the town’s infrastructure, according to state government officials here. Apart from wider roads and a complete revamp of the sewage network, a new airport complete with night-landing facilities has come up at Nanded. Earlier this year, the Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation inaugurated a new water treatment plan for the city. However, the city continues to suffer from poor quality of water. A survey conducted by the state laboratory indicated that 30 per cent water supply in Nanded district was contaminated. A town of great antiquity
Largely famous for Sikh Gurdwaras, it is said that during the Puranic days, Pandavas travelled through Nanded district. Nandas ruled over Nanded through generations. Nanded also formed part of the Mauryan Empire during the reign of emperor. A mention of Nanded is also found in the Lilacharitra, a treatise written about 700 years ago by Mhaimbhatta. During the very first invasion by the Muslims, this territory subjugated to them and after a few years it became a part of the fief of Malik Kafur, the general of Alauddin Khilji.
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Delhi HC rejects
plea against Padma Bhushan for Chatwal
New Delhi, April 5 Appearing for the government, Additional Solicitor General had submitted that following a Supreme Court ruling, a high-level committee was constituted to consider every aspect of all applicants before finalising their names. "You cannot level wild allegations. There is a report of the committee which has already considered all the aspects...," the Bench had said. Shah, appearing in person, had alleged that Chatwal was involved in various economic offences. The petitioner had earlier sought a direction to the Centre to rescind the decision to confer the award on Chatwal on various grounds, including his alleged involvement in several cases. —
PTI
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Tribunal for overhaul of court martial procedure
Chandigarh, April 5 Observing that elementary mistakes were committed in the conduct of criminal trials under court martial proceedings, the tribunal’s Principal Bench, comprising Justice AK Mathur and Lt Gen ML Naidu, in its order on April 1, said the court martial relating to civil offences like murder or other penal code offences or offences under other Acts are not properly conducted like regular criminal trials and, as a result, these result in acquittals. The tribunal acquitted Maj SS Chillar, who had been charged with possession of an explosive substance under suspicious circumstances. Ruling that the charge could not be brought home, the tribunal observed elementary mistakes were committed in the conduct of criminal prosecution due to lack of training of court officials. The court martial was conducted in November, 1987. Pointing that the four-tier process from the stage of a preliminary inquiry through hearing of charge and summary of evidence before the trial started, was cumbersome, time consuming and totally unwarranted, the Bench said the exercise be shortened like a criminal trial, so that court martial proceedings could be expedited. The Bench observed that now a proper appeal against court martial proceedings lies before this tribunal, the tribunal has to examine all the procedure as well as substance of the criminal trial like in a court of appeal, including appreciation of the evidence. Therefore, when court martial proceedings are amenable to regular appeal, the authorities have to undertake overall review of conducting court martial trials pertaining to offences under the IPC or civil offences by a competent prosecutor having experience of trials. The court martial’s presiding officer should also be a trained person. Such presiding officers as well as prosecutors and judge-advocates in courts martial should be sent for training in criminal courts, where trials are conducted, the Bench said.
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Rajasthan Notebook Jails are meant to reform criminals, but if the number of mobile phones and SIM cards recovered from Rajasthan’s jails is anything to go by, then this doesn’t seem to be the case with the state. The state Home Ministry recently admitted in the Assembly that around 615 mobile phones and 135 SIM cards were recovered from various jails across the state in 2009. No wonder the Jaipur Police ended up busting an extortion racket being operated by a notorious history-sheeter with the alleged assistance of jail staff from inside the state capital’s Central Jail from where an astounding 355 mobile phones, 112 SIM cards and 135 mobile chargers were recovered during 119 raids over the last one year. The kingpin of the racket, Deepak Gujjar, used to harass new inmates in the prison,. Security woes for IPL ties The state government had a tough time ensuring security for the Jaipur leg of IPL Season 3, in which Rajasthan Royals will play three matches on April 7, 11 and 14. While the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) was mired in a controversy over the credentials of the private security agency it engaged during the India-South Africa ODI on February 21, the city police wasn’t willing to extend security to the visiting teams as it was yet to be paid for making security arrangements in IPL’s inaugural season despite IPL commissioner Lalit Modi’s assurance. It took a high-level meeting among the likes of Union Minister and RCA chief CP Joshi, Rajasthan Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal and IGP BL Soni to sort out the issue. The police told the meeting that they were yet to be paid Rs 80 lakh for IPL Season I and Rs 17.5 lakh for the India-South Africa ODI played here a couple of months back. Atithi tum kab jaoge? The Rajasthan government is asking this question to as many as 29 of its high-profile officials who have been staying in the government houses in an unauthorised manner. These include bureaucrats, cops and officials serving at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). While some of these officials have failed to vacate their government accommodation after being transferred, others are not authorised to stay in them. If Babus’ names figure in this list, can politicians lag behind? There is also a significant number of politicians, who, too, have been occupying government houses in an unauthorised manner. The government also admitted that 13 IAS officers, owning private houses in Jaipur, are staying in government accommodation. However, CM Ashok Gehlot has taken a strong note of the issue and said such officials would be punished.
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US military has ‘more to learn’ from India than China
Chandigarh, April 5 The study, focused on what the US can learn from others about how better to prepare for full-spectrum operations and deployments in future, reveals that it has more to learn from India than from China. While insights into training processes in vogue at India’s numerous battle schools are considered by the study as valuable for the US, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has, on the other hand, closely copied American procedures and hence has little to offer in terms of unique training perspective. Tittled, “Preparing and Training for the Full Spectrum of Military Challenges: Insights from the experiences of China, France, United Kingdom, India and Israel”, the study was undertaken by the Rand National Defense Research Institute, a respected US think-tank and is now being circulated in the Indian military establishment. Emphasising that the PLA has not been involved in even low-intensity combat operations for over 20 years and hence is today fundamentally different from that of the 1980s, the study remarks, “Thus, current PLA leadership has no recent combat experience, much less any experience in conducting combat operations while leading a modern military.” Deliberately casting aside its earlier doctrine and training models, the Chinese are looking at Western countries for examples and guidance. Since the strategic objectives and perceived deployments are different for western countries and China, the study opines that not all training methods that are effective for the US are applicable to others. On China’s training methodology, the study cautions that it has moved from benign conditions to that occurring on unfamiliar terrain, bad weather, under intense electronic-warfare and cyber-war conditions and frequently involving joint operations of relatively large-scale with emphasis on logistics, support functions and integration of information warfare. At the tactical level, the Indian approach appears to be adequate and Indian forces have been fairly successful in conducting several long-running counter-insurgency campaigns across the country, including the Kargil conflict. In the light of Kargil operations, the mobilisation during Operation Parakram in 2002, the study notes that though there is some inefficiency at every level, the Indian armed forces have consistently demonstrated a high level of effectiveness and at the level of the force, a high level of adaptability. The insight drawn by the Americans from the Indian experience is that a small group of subject-matter experts, in this case mountain warfare experts, can rapidly infuse capability into units by enabling forces trained for one environment or contingency to improve their performance in a different set of circumstances. “In the USA, this approach could be a way to improve training for specific deployments or to improve performance of units that are deployed for contingencies that were not the focus of pre-deployment preparations,” the study recommended.
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Suicide by HP teacher: Father ropes in Ruchika’s
lawyer
Shimla, April 10 Bhardwaj will seek justice for Ritu in Himachal as he is likely to file the petition here on Wednesday. He is the lawyer who has been carrying on the legal crusade on behalf of the family and friends of Ruchika, who committed suicide after having been allegedly molested by former Haryana DGP Rathore. “I will fight for justice for my daughter till the last and as such I am not willing to take any chances, which is the main reason for engaging the services of the same lawyer who contested Ruchika’s case,” said Sampuran Singh Kalmotia, Ritu’s father. Ritu had committed suicide on March 28 after her relationship with Siddharth, a sub-judge and son of IG (law and order), Pradeep Kumar, failed to materialise into marriage. “There is a lot of similarity between the two cases as Rathore was an IG when Ruchika became his victim while in this case too Ritu was pushed to commit suicide. What is most shocking is the manner in which the IG himself landed up at her house and broke open the door,” said Bhardwaj. He said the IG should have been booked under Section 302 and not 306 as it was a very serious offence. O.C.Thakur (IG), CID, said the IG and his family had been questioned while the girl’s family had sought time till April 6 after which they would join investigations.
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Sea Scare
New Delhi, April 5 Somali pirates, who seized 11 dhows (slow-moving vessels) over the past 10 days have released two boats with 26 Indians on board and the government believes the remaining hostages are safe. The nine vessels, along with 95 Indians, still in captivity of the pirates, have been traced to Mogadishu off Somalia, an official of the Shipping Ministry said. The government is in constant touch with Indian High Commissions in Seychelles and Nairobi to secure their safe release. India has approached Somalian government for help to ensure release of the captured dhows. “We believe the captured Indians are safe as the pirates have not caused any harm to the seafarers on board two Dhows released so far,” he said. Pirates have so far released two Indian Dhows. Six Indian Dhows with 78 seafarers and three foreign vessels with 17 Indian crew are still in the custody of Somali pirates.@2Repeated attacks on Indian vessels prompted the government to issue warning to warning to Dhows about the dangers in those waters, particularly along the sea-lanes of Salalah and Male. The merchandise conducted on seas is worth about USD 110 billion annually, with Indians being the major players. India has positioned a naval warship in the Gulf of Aden region since October 2008 to provide escort to its merchant ships. However, the latest hijackings took place far from the Gulf of Aden, indicating that the pirates are operating much beyond. Sources said there were indications that the pirates were operating in south of the Indian Ocean as Maldives has spotted some of them. — PTI
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Dinakaran defies collegium, does not proceed on leave Bangalore/New Delhi, April 5 Justice Dinakaran is continuing with his administrative work “as of today”, sources said, adding he has given no indication of proceeding on leave. A piquant situation has, thus, arisen with the high court having a Chief Justice and CJI KG Balakrishnan shifting Delhi High Court acting Chief Justice Madan B Lokur to Karnataka. Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan said Justice Dinakaran could defy the collegium's advice to go on leave. He said an acting chief justice could only assume charge if the chief justice proceeded on leave. Justice Dinakaran has not been performing judicial functions after Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari admitted a motion in December seeking his removal on charges of corruption, land-grab and abuse of judicial office. Allegations listed in the impeachment motion against Justice Dinakaran included possessing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income, unlawfully securing five housing board plots in the name of his wife and two daughters, entering into benami transactions, and acquiring and possessing agricultural holdings beyond ceiling limit. Other allegations related to illegal encroachment on government and public property to deprive the Dalits and poor of their livelihood, violation of human rights of the Dalits and poor and destruction of evidence during official enquiry. Justice Dinakaran has denied the allegations and claimed that it was orchestrated to stall his elevation to the Supreme Court. —
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10 dead in Pune accident
Pune, April 5 The incident occurred near the newly-constructed Katraj tunnel at about 4.30 am. Most victims belonged to two families of Vavar village in Satara district and were going to Mumbai via Pune. The dead include three women and an infant. —
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The 90-minute meeting of the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on the Food Security Bill ended with a decision for more in-depth study on the draft legislation, a move clearly motivated by UPA chairperson Sonia
Gandhi
The Delhi High Court today dismissed a petition challenging the Centre's decision to confer Padma Bhushan on NRI hotelier Sant Singh
Chatwal.A Bench headed by acting Chief Justice Madan B Lokur, after going through the original documents placed before it by the Additional Solicitor General PP
Malhotra, found no substance in the allegation that proper procedure was not followed in the case of
Chatwal. The High Court had on March 25 asked the petitioner, SK Shah, to show furnishing documents as to where has the selection committee failed to meet the guidelines while considering Chatwal's name for the prestigious award.
