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Hearing on Ayodhya Verdict
Mayawati appeals for calm
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Ayodhya under tight vigil With the stage finally set for history to be made, the Uttar Pradesh government and state judiciary is going all out to ensure that September 30, the day of the verdict in Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, passes off without communal flutters.
UID project to be launched today
Almora disaster
Sukhois deployed for CWG security ITBP vehicles to be tracked via satellite Antony asks US to remove
Pokhran-test era sanctions Kasab challenges death penalty in Bombay HC
Efforts on to rope in Barua for talks
Delay in DA case
India needs ‘agile’ food policy, says PM
‘Breast cancer more prevalent in metros’
Centre to frame guidelines to check builders
Vishwanathan is LS Secy Gen
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Hearing on Ayodhya Verdict Eye on polls? While Digivijay Singh openly distanced the Congress from the deferment petition pointing out that “RC Tripathi, who had moved the petition was a kar sevak and Tripathi’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi has represented the BJP and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi”, sources said the Congress did not want to be seen standing in the way of a verdict, especially when much is riding on its Muslim vote bank in crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
New Delhi, September 28 “I welcome the decision on behalf of the party. The party has always maintained that the solution to the dispute should be found through talks or the decision of the court should be respected. Everyone should wait for the high court judgment,” Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said today after the Supreme Court order. The Congress also appealed to all to maintain peace and communal harmony, stating that irrespective of the final verdict, the aggrieved party could move the Supreme Court for a final verdict. Although the party believes the Mandir-Masjid issue does not have the same resonance as it did in 1992, the party is taking no chances and has asked all its workers, MPs and legislators to remain in their constituencies on September 30 to ward off any communal flare-up. About the Congress’ diametrically opposite reactions to the Supreme Court decisions, party general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Digvijay Singh attributed it to the Congress’ “long maintained position of always welcoming all judicial pronouncements”. “There is no question of any change in the stance. We supported the first judicial pronouncement and we have welcomed the second judicial pronouncement as well,” he said. On whether Ram was an emotive issue, Digivijay Singh agreed, saying, “Ram is an emotive issue. He is a deity worshipped by Hindus all over the world,” adding that people have understood that Ram is only an electoral issue for the BJP, which has used religion to create
divisions.
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Mayawati appeals for calm
Lucknow, September 28 Chairing the meeting she instructed her officers to put the security arrangements in top gear as was initially planned when the verdict was to be delivered on September 24. Reiterating her government’s firm commitment to maintain law and order at all costs Mayawati directed all district level administrative and police officials to personally supervise the preparedness and be accessible at all times.
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Ayodhya under tight vigil With the stage finally set for history to be made, the Uttar Pradesh government and state judiciary is going all out to ensure that September 30, the day of the verdict in Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, passes off without communal flutters. In Faizabad, where Ayodhya is situated, security personnel have encircled every sensitive location, right from the houses of local petitioners like 90-year-old Hashim Ansari and 70-year-old Haji Mehboob to the headquarters of Nirhomee Akhara, lone defendants who wanted advancement of the orders. Back in the capital, unprecedented arrangements are being put in place by the Allahbad high court whose special bench in Lucknow will deliver the verdict of the 61-year-old case, which, from being the country’s most high-profile property dispute, became a watershed in the annals of minority-majority polarisation. That the state is determined to prevent this polarisation from playing out in the streets is evident from the fact that no casual entries will be entertained in the High Court complex in Lucknow on September 30. A stern advisory came today instructing every lawyer visiting the compound to carry identity cards issued by the Oudh Bar Association. Lawyers with no listed cases on September 30 have been asked to stay away. Even among litigants, only the ones with listed suits would be allowed in with passes. No electronic equipment --- cell phones or cameras -- can be taken in that day, nor can vehicles, other than official and those of the judges, enter the area. Parking arrangements have being altered for the D-Day. The high court has already admonished the media against speculating on the contents of the order. In a rare appeal today, it asked newspersons to quote only from the operational part of the judgment, which will be posted on www.allahbadhighcourt.in/ayodhyabench.html after 3.30 pm the day after.
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UID project to be launched today
Nw Delhi, September 28 The ambitious project of the Congress-led UPA government has seen preparations being made over past one year with the infrastructure for this complex project being set up under the command of the former Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani. As per Nilekani, the unique identification cards will enable the poor and the marginalised sections on society to avail of the government's various social and economic schemes. With the rollout of the 'Aadhaar' scheme, India will become the first country in the world to implement a biometric-based unique ID system for all its residents. The Aadhaar number aims to establish a cost-effective, ubiquitous authentication infrastructure to ease the difficulties in identification, especially of the poorest and the most marginalised, who face challenges in accessing various public benefit programmes due to the lack of possessing a clear identity proof. "The national launch of Aadhaar on September 29 will herald a new chapter in the efforts of the government in enabling inclusive growth and bringing in greater efficiency and transparency in governance. Aadhaar has the potential to fundamentally transform the service delivery and governance in the country," the government said in a statement. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) promises to ensure the uniqueness of the Aadhaar numbers through the use of biometric attributes (finger prints and iris) which will be linked to the number. This will help agencies and service providers across India clean out duplicates and fakes from their databases. The elimination of duplicate, ghost and fake identities across various schemes is expected to substantially improve the efficiency of the delivery systems by ensuring that the leakages are reduced and the benefits reach the right people," the UIDAI said.
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Almora disaster
Chaamriya, September 28 Large stretches of the road, which was once proudly called the Almora Highway, offering a drive that was any driver’s delight have been washed away or are buried in debris. The drivers who managed to stop on the stretch between Lohali and Jurasi villages consider themselves very lucky as they survived gushing waters and landslides along with their vehicles. There have been many not so lucky ones as they had to abandon their vehicles to save their skin. A testimony to this lies in the fact that there are six trucks and a car that are buried in the debris near Jurasi and people are now walking over these vehicles. “I have been stranded with my bus since September 17. I just managed to go to Almora to collect my salary and hand it over to my family. I have been pleading with my department to send a watchman to take care of the vehicle but my pleadings have gone unheard till now. I do not even have clothes to change,” told a bus driver on a contractual employment with Uttarakhand Transport. The man sat only in his briefs inside his bus as the single pair of clothes he had was being dried out. He further related,” I am a contractual employee and I just earn according to the length of kilometers I drive. These days I am as good as unemployed as my department would only pay the night allowance which is a paltry sum of less than Rs 100.” Telling his woes Santosh Joshi said, “I was driving my truck to Gwaldam. The memory of that night still sends ripples down my spine. On one side the water level was up to the window of the truck and on the other there was the fear of a landslide. I had decided not to abandon the truck and had climbed on top of the roof amidst the pouring rain. I just managed to survive.” Joshi is now trekking about five km to have his food at a relief camp set up by the administration. These people do not know when they would be relieved from the spot. Mahesh Chand Nainwal of Berinag told this correspondent, “Passing the day has become a problem. We just go around trying to console the villagers who have lost their hearths and home. We have been telling them to approach us as and when they require any help. That is all we can do. We have to stick together at this hour. The villagers have been very kind to us.” A truck driver from Kapkot area in Bageshwar could be seen pleading with a journalist from a local television channel, “I cannot get in touch with my family. Perhaps they too are not able to call me up. Please show my footage along with the number plate of my truck so that they may get to know that I am alive.” This stretch of road that connects the villages on the border of Nainital and Almora is going to take months to get repaired. In fact the road network in both these districts has been very badly affected. According to a senior functionary of the Public Works Department (PWD) in Nainital,” There are 18 motorable roads that are still disconnected in Nainital and it is only when these are opened that the link roads can be approached.” Incidentally the Haldwani Nainital road which is the shortest way to approach Nainital from Delhi has been lying closed for the last 10 days and there is no chance of it being opened for another fortnight. Traffic nowadays is being diverted through the Bhimtal-Bhawali
road.
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Sukhois deployed for CWG security New Delhi, September 28 While the Army’s surface-to-air missiles have been deployed, the Indian Air Force’s frontline fighters, the Sukhoi-30, will be scrambled from an airbase at Barreily to fly full throttle to be over Delhi within 10 minutes off a call, MI-35 and MI-17 armed choppers will hover over the Capital to meet any exigencies, hi-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will monitor each movement and trained snipers will be stationed atop buildings. Hand-held thermal imagers and night vision goggles, normally used by the infantry at borders, will be employed to maintain vigil at night alongside the latest surveillance equipment. Bomb disposal squads and the sniffer dog squads of the Army will be at all venues. Super-specialised teams that tackle chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats will be sanitising each venue. Each of these teams will have around 35-40 men, including engineers and medical personnel. The Army’s air defence guns and medium machine guns, too, would be deployed during the period, they said. Sources said apart from the Sukhoi , the IAF MiG-29s based at Adampur in Punjab and the MiG-21s based at Sirsa and Srinagar will be pressed into service if any maverick pilot tries to attempt a crossing from the across the border from Pakistan. The IAF fighter formations will be on operational readiness, a senior functionary said. They will also deal with any eventuality such as a hijacked plane or a fast flying aircraft. The IAF will have two UAVs hovering between 6,000 to 10,000 feet altitude on all days of the CWG from October 3 to 14. They carry high resolution camera and infrared equipment. The Home Ministry will be the lead agency in the air defence of the city with agencies from the Home Ministry and Delhi Police supporting the effort to secure the skies. The IAF and Army will place its anti-aircraft surface-to-air weapons such as Pechora, OSA-Ak and Igla. These can be used to bring down any object. The IAF’s Mi-17 helicopters would be on standby for casualty evacuation, apart from its Chetak and Cheetah helicopters carrying out reconnaissance and surveillance flights. The Delhi Police snipers have been trained over a period of time to identify any suspicious airborne objects. The men will be manning observations posts and they will be coordinated with the UAVs to bring down any such object. The air space over Delhi would be a no-fly zone for all unscheduled aircraft during the CWG for which the Aviation Ministry has already issued guidelines.
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ITBP vehicles to be tracked via satellite Chandigarh, September 28 ITBP officers said plans had been drawn up to install GPS tracking and navigation systems in vehicles that would provide real-time information on their location besides other relevant data. “We have just finished trial runs of the pilot project to validate the concept,” an ITBP officer said. The pilot project involved installing such systems on 10 vehicles in specified battalions. An ITBP battalion is authorised 60 vehicles of different categories. The ITBP is the only central police organisation among six such security agencies to get installed such systems on its vehicles. Based on feedback from the pilot project and consequential modifications, tracking and navigation devices would be installed in all vehicles in a battalion. The entire project, sources said, was expected to be undertaken over the next five years. A Noida-based firm has been contracted to install the gadgets and set up control facilities at the ITBP Headquarters in New Delhi. While the navigation system would be installed in the vehicle cabins, the tracking and control systems would be retrofitted in the engine compartment and would allow ignition to be enabled or disabled remotely from the control centre. “Besides assisting in monitoring vehicle usage, these systems are also important from the safety point of view, in the sense that a signal can be transmitted in case of an emergency. The devises losing contact with the control centre will trigger an alarm,” an officer said. Significant features of the tracking devices include sending an alert whenever the vehicles crosses a defined geographical limit, exchange phone-calls between the vehicle and control centre, maintaining a log of distances, speed and locations and having inbuilt maps of all cities, towns and districts where the ITBP operates. The devices would also send an alert if a vehicle proceeding on a specific mission along a stipulated route fails to cross predefined checkpoints within specified time frames.
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Antony asks US to remove
Pokhran-test era sanctions New Delhi, September 28 Sources said Antony expressed New Delhi’s concerns to Washington over the “delayed and denial of export licences” with respect to Defence undertakings and DRDO laboratories. The Indian bid is to get the US to remove key units of its “entities list” which stops US-based companies from conducting business with them. DRDO units such as the Aeronautical Development Establishment, the Aeronautical Development Agency and the Gas Turbine Research Establishment, which are involved in the Light Combat Aircraft project, still face sanctions which had been imposed after the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1999.
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Kasab challenges death penalty in Bombay HC
Mumbai, September 28 “We have filed an appeal today,” his lawyer Amin Solkar said. Kasab has challenged death penalty saying it was a harsh punishment imposed on him and pleaded that there were lapses in evidence produced by the police in the trial court. The appeal has challenged identification of Kasab in the court saying the eye witnesses had easily identified him because his photograph had appeared prominently in newspapers and television on the day of attack. The appeal also challenged trial court’s ruling which upheld Kasab’s confession as “true and voluntary”, Kasab’s lawyer said. The appeal would be heard by the high court along with the matter pertaining to confirmation of death sentence awarded to him. The court has decided to hear both matters on a day-to-day basis from October 18 and allowed Kasab to appear through video conferencing. — PTI
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Efforts on to rope in Barua for talks
Guwahati, September 28 Gogoi exuded confidence about materialisation of the much-awaited talks in the outfit emerging out of a one-to-one meeting with Centre’s interlocutor for talks with ULFA, P C Haldar, at his official residence here this morning. Gogoi said ‘the ongoing peace process is moving in the right direction’. Lauding the slew of steps initiated by Haldar in taking the peace process forward, Gogoi said he was optimistic that the peace process with ULFA would be taken to its logical conclusion. Apprising the Chief Minister about the initiatives taken so far to prepare the ground for negotiated settlement with ULFA, Haldar said he held discussions on how to take the peace process forward not only with the ULFA but also with representatives of civil society like Sanmilita Jatiya Abhibartan that is rooting for holding dialogue with jailed ULFA leaders, including the ‘chairman’ Arabinda Rajkhowa. Meanwhile, trying to put up a brave front in the face of several hawk of the outfit turning doves thereby giving a fillip to the peace initiatives of the Government of India, ULFA ‘commander-in-chief’ Paresh Barua has claimed there had not been a split in the group though he has admitted there are ‘differences’ within about how to arrive at the negotiation table to find a political solution to “India-Assam” conflict. In a statement e-mailed to the media here Paresh Barua stated: “The ‘enemy’ (colonial Indian state) would continue its efforts to trigger a split. Now, it is up to the chairman (Arabinda Rajkhowa) to resolve the current temporary differences within the outfit in order to thwart the design of the enemy to trigger a split in the outfit.” “We have serious doubt if those ULFA leaders enjoying hospitality of the enemy will be given an opportunity to sit for negotiations without sacrificing ideology and principles. Still we welcome their avowed stand not to sacrifice their ideology,” Barua said referring to top ULFA leaders lodged in jail.
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Delay in DA case
New Delhi, September 28 Pointing out that the petition had been filed by Mayawati far back in 2008 seeking quashing of the charges against her, the Bench said every time the case was listed for hearing one party or the other was trying to have it adjourned by seeking time. As Mayawati kept on filing applications, the Centre and the CBI were seeking time to reply to all these, the Bench said. A junior lawyer, deputising for Attorney General GE Vahanvati, said the AG was on his way. Nevertheless, he prayed for an adjournment as the CBI would like to file its response to the latest application by Mayawati. The Bench, however, said it would wait for the AG and hear the case later. But, when the case was called out again, the court adjourned the hearing for six weeks. In April, Mayawati contended before the court that the CBI was pursuing the disproportionate assets (DA) case against her under “political pressure” despite the findings that she had no role to play in the Taj Corridor scam. The CBI had conclusively recorded that “not even a single penny came into my hands out of the Rs 17 crore disbursed in Taj Corridor case” and in view of this the present DA case “should have been dropped immediately” by the investigating agency, she had said in an affidavit. The DA case was being kept alive “in a most illegal and arbitrary manner simply to harass and defame the deponent who is the Chief Minister of the largest state of the country,” she said. She said she had also written to the CBI Director seeking a review of the DA case against her in view of two judgments of the Income Tax Commissioner (Appeals), New Delhi, giving her clean chit for the assessment years from 1998-99 to 2004-05. The CBI, however, said the Commissioner’s order had been challenged before the IT Appellate Tribunal.
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India needs ‘agile’ food policy, says PM New Delhi, September 28 “We need to move towards an agile food procurement and distribution policy that can respond to the market quickly so that prices do not fall to the extent of hurting the farmers or rise to the extent of hurting the consumers,” he said speaking after releasing a book on “From Green to Evergreen Revolution - Indian Agriculture : Performance and Challenges” written by eminent agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan. Food inflation has been hovering over 15 per cent for over a fortnight now and the country is yet to put in a place a National Food Security law that will ensure cheaper food to the poor. — TNS
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‘Breast cancer more prevalent in metros’
Chennai, September 28 Pendharkar said as many as 80,000 breast cancer cases were reported in the metros every year and added that it was an unseen phenomenon a decade ago. Giving a lecture at the textile city of Coimbatore, he said breast cancer had overtaken cervical cancer and hence topped the list of the cancer types in India. Quoting the Indian Council of Medical Research data, Pendharkar said as many as 25 per cent of the cancer patients in the metros were breast cancer patients and attributed this trend to the changing lifestyle in the cities. With increase in the number of cancer cases in the country, oncologists would have to look for improving the quality of life, since curing the patients would not remain the only challenge. The treatment of breast cancer too was undergoing rapid changes and doctors have been providing tailor-made treatments to suit the needs of patients, he said. Urging doctors to conduct all necessary tests on breast cancer patients, Dr Pendharkar said the results would be helpful if the patients have to return in case of relapse of the disease.
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Centre to frame guidelines to check builders
New Delhi, September 28 Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told a three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia that the guidelines were being finalised in consultation with the state
governments and the local bodies. The Solicitor General said the government would submit these proposals to the court once these were ready, possibly in six weeks. Upon this, the Bench, which included Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar, posted a PIL relating to the issue for next hearing after six weeks.
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Vishwanathan is LS Secy Gen
New Delhi, September 28 Viswanathan, presently Adviser to the Union Minister for Law and Justice and former Union Law Secretary (holding concurrent charge of Legislative Secretary from 31 August 2008 to 21 October 2009), will bring vast judicial experience to the LS Secretary General’s post, being closely involved with the process of judicial reforms in the country. Vishwanathan was earlier Secretary to the Government of India from April 1, 2000 to October 1, 2003; member secretary, Law Commission of India from October 1, 2003 to March 31, 2006 and Secretary, Legislative Department from April 1, 2006 to October 31, 2009.
— TNS
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Lucknow, September 28
