New Delhi, June 9
The Centre has started working on a new law to ensure payment of adequate and timely compensation to the victims of industrial accidents like the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

According to law ministry officials, the proposed legislation would be on the lines of the Law of Torts in Britain and the United States which allows advocates to share about one-third of the compensation amount instead of charging professional fees.

In the absence of such a law, those affected by industrial accidents were reluctant to stake their claim to financial compensation by filing petitions and fighting legal cases, which normally took several years for adjudication, the officials acknowledged.

The draft law was expected to be finalised within a couple of months and the relevant Bill would be moved in Parliament during the winter session beginning in November, they said.

Reacting to the trial court verdict in the Bhopal gas leak case earlier this week, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily has acknowledged the need for fast-tracking such cases and indicated that the government was thinking of putting in place within six months a mechanism to speed up payment of compensation.

Under the tort law, pro-active lawyers, known as “ambulance chasers”, approach the victims, record their statements and file claims on their behalf. Once the compensation amount is awarded, such advocates are allowed to take a sizeable cut. This works to the advantage of both the legal system and the affected people.

At present, victims of such disasters are wary of fighting court cases as it entails huge litigation costs, besides the inordinate delays the cases are subjected to by the industrial houses concerned by filing appeals in the higher judiciary against each and every order passed by trial courts.

New Delhi, June 9
Warren Anderson flew into Bhopal on December 7, 1984, four days after the gas-leak. He was taken into custody and confined, ironically, at the Union Carbide guesthouse on Shamara Hills, Bhopal.

But within hours, however, he was granted bail for a surety of Rs 25,000 and driven to the Raja Bhoj airport, where a state-government-owned Cessna was parked to fly him to New Delhi. From Palam, he took a commercial flight to New York, never to return.

While the former CBI Director, Vijay Rama Rao, on Wednesday denied any pressure on the central agency to go soft on Anderson, the speculation is that either the PMO or the Home Ministry would have intervened and allowed Anderson to escape. Rajiv Gandhi was then the Prime Minister and Narasimha Rao the Home Minister.

The then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Arjun Singh, has never spoken on the issue or on the message he received that day and from whom. But Singh, now 81, lives the life of a recluse in New Delhi and is said to be busy writing his memoirs.

Anderson, who is accused of not ensuring the same safety standards in the Bhopal plant that he had in Carbide’s plant in West Virginia (US), retired in 1986. Greenpeace activists tracked him down in 2002 at his luxurious home in Long Island, New York.

Though he is an absconder who jumped bail and never faced trial in an Indian court, US authorities have consistently turned down efforts to get him extradited to India. US courts are said to have held that Anderson was not responsible for the operations of the Indian holding company, and hence, could not be held responsible for the world’s worst industrial disaster that took 15,000 lives and more.

Kolkata, June 9
Sunirmal Chakraborty, principal, and four other teachers of Kolkata’s premier La Martiniere School, who had been accused under Section 302 of the IPC for allegedly causing the death of a Class Vlll student, Rouvanjit Rawla, are likely to be suspended in a day or two following the recommendation of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, a school managing committee member told The Tribune today.

Police officials investigating the case did not rule out the possibility of the arrest of the Principal and the other teachers. The commission said it appeared prima facie that Rouvanjit had committed suicide under depression after he was allegedly humiliated and tortured by the Principal and the other teachers inside the classroom.

Rouvanjit’s father Ajay Rawla and his classmates reportedly told the police that the English teacher, Partha Dutta, made Rouvanjit stand outside the classroom for no major mistakes in the subject, while LG Gunnion, head of the middle school, allegedly slapped him. They alleged that the Principal caned him in front of others only four days before the boy committed suicide.

Several guardians made some serious charges against the Principal and teachers to senior school board member Neil O Brien and KS David.

Recently, a student of Class lV, Srijan Banerjee, had been allegedly denied promotion for “failing to gift” a laptop to the class teacher, Sanjay Smart. On the basis of a complaint by Srijan’s father, Smart had been arrested.

It is learnt that both Brien and David had sought explanation from the Principal and the teachers about the complaints against them and soon they were dropped from the school board.

Members of the commission held an on-the-spot inquiry into the student’s death during which allegation of graft were also made against the teachers.

The Shakespeare Sarani police investigating the case said it had registered an FIR on the basis of the complaint lodged by the student’s father.

New Delhi, June 9
The monsoon progress is on the right track and there is another positive news for farmers from the government’s side with sources indicating a hike of Rs 50 in the procurement price of paddy and a bigger increase in the MSP of pulses.

The sources say the issue is on the agenda of a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), scheduled for tomorrow. While food inflation is still way above the comfort zone, the plea for a hike in the MSP of paddy is that it is important for the food security of the country and last year the country saw a shortfall in production due to a bad monsoon.

The current recommendation is for Rs 50 per quintal increase in the MSP of paddy. Last fiscal, the government increased the MSP of common grade paddy to Rs 950 per quintal and that of grade ‘A’ paddy to 980 per quintal. Later, it announced Rs 50 per quintal bonus over and above the MSP.

The sources say farmers can expect a similar bonus this year also, but at a later stage. In the meantime, if approved by the CCEA, the MSP of common grade paddy will rise to Rs 1,000 per quintal and of grade ‘A’ paddy to Rs 1,030 per quintal, the same as the final price that the farmers got last year.

The country’s farm-based economy, already on its road to recovery, is likely to get a boost by the normal rains predicted this year. Farmers in many parts of the country have already started sowing kharif crops in anticipation of a normal monsoon. The quantum of rainfall in the crucial sowing month of July and the distribution of rainfall during the season also holds the key.

However, as per official data till May 28, rice plantation was down by around 6 per cent to 337,000 hectares from 361,000 hectares in the same period last year. Officials say sowing will pick up pace once the full monsoon season starts. Last year, India’s rice production suffered badly due to a poor monsoon with production dropping by almost 9 to 10 per cent from that in 2008-09.

Meanwhile, the sources indicate a big increase in the support price of pulses to ensure that farmers go in for large-scale production of the essential food commodity, which the government is forced to import to fulfil the requirements here. They say the MSP of “arhar, moong and urad” may see an increase in the range of Rs 300 to 500 per quintal. The MSP of maize may also be raised to Rs 880 per quintal from the current Rs 840.

The government is also making efforts to make available 141.93 lakh quintals of certified and quality seed of major crops during the current kharif season against the total requirement of 123.11 lakh quintals. It represents a surplus quantity of 18.81 lakh quintals for the season. The sources say 59.99 lakh quintals of paddy seed is available against the required quantity of 53.53 lakh quintals.

In respect of maize, the availability is 9.03 lakh quintals against the requirement of 7.55 lakh quintals. The position is similar in respect of other major cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fibre and fodder crops.

Meanwhile, according to the IMD, the conditions are favourable for the further advance of the monsoon over some parts of Konkan and Goa and Madhya Maharashtra and some more parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh during the next two to three days.

Mumbai, June 9
The criminal conspiracy to carry out terror strikes at ONGC and two markets in the prime areas here was hatched in Pakistan allegedly by absconding 1993 bomb blast accused Bashir Khan, according to the chargesheet filed by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in a local court. Bashir is a close aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who had masterminded the serial blasts of 1993 along with another absconding accused, Tiger Memon.

The 653-page chargesheet filed against terror suspects Abdul Latif, alias Guddu (29) and Riyaz Ali (23), both in custody of ATS, and Bashir in the court yesterday said ONGC headquarters, Thakkar Mall in suburban Mumbai and Mangaldas market in south Mumbai were the targets.

On March 13, ATS had arrested Guddu and Riyaz from near Matunga Railway Station in central Mumbai.

The duo had conducted recce of target sites as per the instructions of a person in Karachi, whom they referred to as ‘Uncle’, an ATS official said. — PTI

New Delhi, June 9
India and the US have agreed to work toward attaining equivalence of degrees in the higher education sector.

Sharing this information with the media today, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who yesterday returned from his US tour, said the two countries were in agreement on the issue and standards would be evolved soon to ensure the equivalence.

If this arrangement succeeds, management, medical, technical graduates and undergraduates would not need to pass a test in the US to get their degrees recognised. India is also working on equivalence issues with Australia, New Zealand and China.

Two deliverables that Sibal mentioned for the President Barack Obama’s visit in November include the Indo-US Education Council and the innovation universities.

“We can constitute the council that I discussed with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Its first meeting for example can take place when the US President comes. Hillary was very positive about the proposal,” Sibal said.

Moreover, Sibal said the US universities were excited about the idea of collaborating with India considering their population is graying fast.

Ranchi, June 9
As many as 20 people, on their way back from a wedding, were killed and more than 30 injured when their bus hit a tree and skidded off the road near Barwara village in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand early Wednesday.

According to the Superintendent of Police, Dhanbad, the injured have been admitted to the Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH). The condition of 13 people is stated to be serious.

One of the injured said that the driver had dozed off to sleep on their way back to Asansol. — IANS

Bhopal, June 9
A Hyderabad-bound Jet Airways flight with 36 passengers on board had a close shave after the nose wheel of the aircraft broke off while landing at the Raja Bhoj Airport here today, airport sources said.

"The nose wheel of the plane approaching the runway suddenly broke off. However, the pilot managed to land the aircraft safely," sources said. The flight, which arrived here at approximately 9 am and was scheduled to take off at 9.35 am, was cancelled and passengers were accommodated in other flights.

Jet Airways, however, denied that the aircraft's nose wheel broke and said it was a technical snag which delayed the flight. "A technical snag was reported in the Jet Airways flight 9W 2509 which arrived here from Ahmedabad via Indore and was on its way to Hyderabad via Raipur, following which it was stranded at the Bhopal Airport," a Jet Airways spokeswoman said. "The aircraft was taken to the parking bay in Bhopal for inspection," she said. — PTI

Lucknow, June 9
Following the transfer of Chief Judicial Magistrate Gulab Singh, the Special CBI court in Rae Bareli has deferred the hearing in the Babri Masjid demolition case to July 12. The hearing in the crucial case could not be taken up here as former CJM Gulab Singh has been promoted and transferred out of Rae Bareli.

The newly appointed Chief Judicial Magistrate, Preeti Srivastava, has fixed the next date of hearing on July 12.

“As the notification nominating the new magistrates is yet to be issued by the Allahabad High Court, the cross examination of senior IPS officer Anju Gupta could not take place,” said CBI counsel KP Singh.

The court is presently recording the statement of Gupta, the seventh witness in the case. She was deployed as the personal security officer of BJP leader LK Advani on December 6, 1992 - the day the Babri mosque was demolished.

Panaji, June 9
One of the five absconding accused in the Margao blast case surrendered before the sessions court here yesterday.

Public Prosecutor SB Faria said that Prashant Ashtekar, a native of Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), surrendered yesterday.

He is among the five accused wanted in connection with the conspiracy to execute serial blasts in the state on Diwali eve last year. The National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is probing the Margao blast, has already arrested Prashant's younger brother Dhananjay.

Two persons, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, were killed while ferrying explosives in Margao town on October 16, 2009. The police had arrested four persons - Vinayak Patil, Vinay Talekar, Dhananjay Ashtekar and Dilip Mangaonkar - in connection with this case. Prashant, who reportedly shifted the hard-disk of his computer which was used to prepare circuit diagrams, was wanted by NIA. Before surrendering to the court, Prashant had told a newspaper that he shifted the hard disk as "the computer belonged to him." — PTI