Kochi, July 20
The families of victims of the Air India Express crash in Mangalore last year are entitled to a minimum compensation of Rs 75 lakh each, the Kerala High Court held today.

Justice PR Ramachandran Menon passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Abdul Salam and Ramla, parents of B Mohammed Rafi (24), who was killed in the crash.

As many as 158 passengers and crew on board the Air India aircraft from Dubai had died in the worst air disaster in the last decade, when the plane caught fire after one of its wings hit a hillock before landing at Kenjar in Mangalore.

The deceased’s brothers and sisters are also party to the petition. The Union Government and National Aviation company (erstwhile Air India) are the respondents in the case.

There were 166 persons on board the flight IX-892, piloted by a Serbian national. Operating the Boeing 737-800, the pilot had first tried to land and later attempted to gain altitude. The court held that the carrier was liable to pay no fault liability of Rs 1 lakh SDR (Special Drawing Rights equal to Rs 75 lakh) to the petitioner. The SDR is a special currency issued by the IMF. This is apart from whatever other compensation the petitioners are entitled to. The petitioners had sought Rs 1.5 crore as compensation.

Noting that India was a signatory to the Montreal Convention, the court said, “It is clear that the intention of lawmakers was to bring about parity in the matter of payment of compensation to the passengers, irrespective of the class of travel, while providing for a “two-tier system” of compensation as adopted in Montreal convention.” About Rs 20 lakh has already been paid to the petitioners and the rest should be paid in a month’s time, it added. The petitioners said the deceased, working in the UAE, was returning home to Kumbala in Kasaragod in the ill-fated flight. — PTI

Lucknow, July 20
The Allahabad High Court today asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to submit to it the chargesheet and the case diary along with the entire records related to the murder of two Chief Medical Officers, Family Welfare.

The Lucknow Bench of the court comprising Justices Pradeep Kant and Ritu Raj Awasthi directed the state government to submit the records on July 22.

The court was hearing a PIL seeking direction for a CBI probe into killing of the two CMOs - Vinod Kumar Arya and BP Singh.

Appearing on behalf of the petitioner, counsel Prince Lenin submitted that Deputy CMO YS Sachan was held accused for the murder of two CMOs and his death is already being probed by the CBI.

The petitioner counsel said that as all the cases were co-linked, it would be appropriate to hand over the investigation into the murder case of the CMOs to the agency as well.

The government counsel, however, submitted that as the investigation into both the cases was complete and chargesheets had already been filed, there was no need for a CBI inquiry.

While CMO Arya was shot dead in October last year, BP Singh was killed in Gomti Nagar area on April 2.

Sachan, who was named as the conspirator in BP Singh's murder case, was found dead inside the Lucknow district jail hospital on June 22.

A judicial probe by Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Upadhyaya concluded that Sachan's death was a case of murder.

While the state government recommended a CBI inquiry into the mysterious death, the court had also directed a probe by the agency.

Meanwhile, with the Allahabad High Court asking the Uttar Pradesh Government to reply to a PIL seeking CBI probe into alleged swindling of funds under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the state government has asked divisional commissioners (DC) to probe utilisation of funds in the past four years.

“Chief Secretary Anoop Kumar Mishra has directed all the divisional commissioners to submit their report by July 23 on the NRHM funds,” a senior official said.

The DCs have been asked to give details of the NRHM schemes, money alloted to districts under the scheme, eligibility/standard for doing work under them, besides covering other points, he said.

The Lucknow bench comprising Justices Pradeep Kant and Ritu Raj Awasthi fixed July 25 as the next date of hearing of the PIL filed by a local scribe alleging big scam in the NRHM implementation and sought a CBI probe into it.

The matter of anomalies in the NRHM funds came to light during a probe into CMO BP Singh murder case after which Family Welfare Minister Babu Singh Khushwaha and Health Minister Anant Kumar Mishra had resigned taking moral responsibility.

Earlier, CMO Vinod Kumar Arya was murdered in October last year and the accused of Singh murder Deputy CMO YS Sachan died under mysterious circumstances in the district jail. — PTI

New Delhi, July 20
Lt-Governor of Delhi Tejendra Khanna assured a delegation of Sikhs that all the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots would be given financial compensation provided they had evidence to prove that they were riot victims.

SGPC member Kuldeep Singh Bhogal, who led the delegation, said, “The victims will have to submit receipt issued by government hospitals to prove that they had sustained injuries during the riots and were treated in the government hospitals.”

Khanna also asked for a list of total number of victims who had not been given compensation so far.

He directed the Revenue Commission, Delhi Government, that each victim should be given compensation of Rs 1.23 lakh within a month after the list 
of victims was submitted by Bhogal.

Bhogal said still thousands of such victims were there in Delhi as well as in Punjab. Just after the riots people felt insecure in Delhi and had moved to for Punjab.

Recently riot victims from Punjab came to Delhi to demonstrate at Jantar Mantar demanding the compensation announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament a few years back. They said during riots their economic condition was ruined. Some of their family members were killed and properties damaged. But the government had not helped them in rehabilitation.

New Delhi, July 20
The Union Cabinet is all set to bring a new law on benami transactions allowing the government to confiscate such properties as part of the Centre’s ongoing efforts to stamp out corruption.

The Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Bill is listed for approval at tomorrow’s weekly meeting of the Union Cabinet. It was on the agenda last week but the Cabinet meeting was called off as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to go to Mumbai following the bomb blasts.

The new Bill will replace the old legislation prohibiting benami transactions which was enacted in 1988 but its implementation has always been lax. Consequently, there has been a proliferation of benami property deals through the use of black money resulting in huge revenue losses to the government.

The government decided to tighten the rules after it came under renewed pressure following a series of corruption charges. There is an urgency to tackle this menace on a war-footing especially after the Adarsh Housing Society scandal came to light and revealed that a number of flats in this complex were acquired through benami deals.

Besides giving the government powers to acquire benami properties through a specially designated competent authority, the proposed law has a number of other stringent provisions. For instance, this legislation will have greater powers to act against offenders, putting the onus of proving that the disputed property is not benami with the owner and not the government. The new Bill also contains provisions for the constitution of fast-track courts to handle such cases.

Under fire for showing undue laxity in handling scams and scandals, the government is making valiant attempts to refurbish its image by bringing in measures to plug sources of corruption. The proposed legislation is a step in that direction.

Guwahati, July 20
Witch-hunting has taken a huge toll on innocent lives in Assam. It has resulted in deaths of 116 persons in the state from 2001 to June 30 this year.

According to figures provided by the Assam Home Department, 66 women and 50 men have been slaughtered in the state by miscreants in witch-hunting cases during the period.

Ninety-six cases have been registered in connection with these barbaric incidents and 420 accused arrested. Chargesheets have been filed only in respect of 54 cases so far.

Most of the incidents take place in remote parts of the state, where the police and the administration have no strong presence and where illiteracy and superstitions reign over society. The social evil has especially crippled areas inhabited by various tribes, including “adivasis”.

In the absence of proper health-care facilities in remote areas, the tribal villagers depend on sorcerers for curing diseases. The sorcerers, who practice magic with “evil spirit”, often try to cover up their failure to cure diseases by putting the blame on a “witch” in the village. This often leads to murder of innocent tribal women and their family members after they had been pronounced witch by those doctors.

Additional Director-General of the Assam Police Kuladhar Saikia, who supervises an innovative community policing project, “Prahari” (acronym for “people for progress”), against witch-hunting, said illiteracy and superstitions prevailing among the tribal villagers in remote parts of Assam were mainly responsible for the problem.

He said there were certain difficulties in investigating these cases of murder as the information reaches the police very late because of remoteness of the location. It is difficult to get hold of an eyewitness given that most of the community members participate in the crime.

The official advocated for a special law to tackle the menace of witch-hunting in view of the participation of the local community in these cases on most of the occasions.

The state government has been facilitating only awareness camps, with the help of women groups, NGOs as well as the police, in tribal areas against the social evil.

Allahabad, July 20
The Allahabad High Court today deferred its hearing on a petition challenging the acquisition of over 460 hectares in a village in Gautam Buddh Nagar district till July 26.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Amitava Lala and Ashok Kumar Srivastava deferred the hearing on petitions filed by farmers of Roza-Yaqoobpur village in Gautam Buddh Nagar district, who had challenged the acquisition of 468 hectares by the state government in 2007-2008.

According to petitioners’ counsel Pankaj Dubey, the court “is likely to club all related matters, including the acquisition of 608 hectares in Bisrakh-Jalalpur village, which was listed for tomorrow and hear them together on July 26”.

Noida-based lawyer Parveen Singh Bhatti, who had also appeared on the petitioners’ behalf, said “the farmers have challenged the state government’s acquisition proceedings, wherein land was acquired invoking Section 4 (17) of the Land Acquisition Act.

The aforesaid clause is said to be an emergency clause which is invoked only when there is an urgency for acquiring land.

“However, the entire land has been handed over to real estate developers who are building spanky residential complexes and other buildings and making money by selling the same to prospective buyers at exorbitant rates,” Bhatti said.

“The farmers’ contention is that they should not have been deprived of an opportunity to file their objections, by invoking the emergency clause, which was the only way they could have bargained for an acceptable rate of compensation,” he said.

Earlier yesterday, the High Court had set aside the acquisition of nearly 590 hectares in Patwari and Deola villages of the district.

The order comes barely a fortnight after the Supreme Court had upheld its order dated May 12, 2011, whereby acquisition of more than 150 hectares in Sahberi village was quashed. — PTI 

Mumbai, July 20
Last Wednesday’s triple bomb blasts in Mumbai have forced the Maharashtra Government to hastily revive a proposal to install 5000 closed circuit televisions across the city. These measures were mooted to enhance security in the metropolis following the 26/11 attack.

“The Maharashtra Government had proposed to install 5000 CCTVs across Mumbai as it is not possible for the police to be present everywhere,” Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Jayant Patil told reporters earlier this week.

Patil had made this proposal shortly after he was allotted the Home Ministry following the removal RR Patil from the same post in the wake of the terror attacks. Jayant Patil went on to say that he was not kept abreast of the matter after RR Patil was brought back as Home Minister even though he remains the guardian minister for Mumbai.

“You should ask RR Patil about the proposal," Jayant Patil curtly told reporters. RR Patil is now under fire following Jayant Patil's revelations that the Home Minister has been sitting on the crucial file for more than two years. Incidentally, investigators probing last week's blasts have reportedly obtained significant clues from CCTVs installed at Zaveri Bazar and Opera House.

Under pressure from the public, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has promised that the proposal to install CCTVs would now be speeded up. Chavan told reporters that the state government would be sending officials from various departments to London to study the CCTVs installed in that city.

Egged on by NGOs and some corporate houses, a High-powered committee of ministers and officials had a meeting on the issue on Tuesday, sources said.One of the NGOs, Bombay First, which is pushing for this measure, said the CCTVs should be monitored regularly by the police. 

Chandigarh, July 20
While refusing to stay the trial by the general court martial (GCM) of some officers for allegedly selling off personal weapons in contravention of existing rules, the Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) today issued notices to the Union of India and the Army authorities concerned.

The GCM of some of the officers involved commenced at Hisar military station today.

According to sources, the officers will be arraigned separately. The trial of some other officers is already underway at Bikaner and more trials are expected to commence later.

A large number of officers and ex-servicemen had reportedly sold-off their non-service pattern (NSO) weapons, procured from Ordnance Depots at concessional prices for personal use to civilians at higher rates. A PIL filed in the Rajasthan High Court had alleged that these weapons were falling into the hands of dubious elements. Further, these officers had not taken prior permission from the competent authorities before selling their weapons. Based upon this, the Army had conducted a court of inquiry into the matter.

Documents attached with the petitions revealed that the Military Intelligence had complied a list of 113 weapons that were disposed off in this manner. The persons “involved” in the sale of weapons include three major-generals, six brigadiers and three women, presumably wives of officers. Some names figure several times in the list.

In their petition before the Tribunal, some of the officers held blameworthy have claimed that the said weapons were sold on cash payments by the ordnance depot on the basis of allotment made by DGOS. They have alleged that the particulars of all the officers and weapons are available with them, yet on the pretext of non-identification some officers have been left untouched which appeared a deliberate attempt to hide their identity. Also, no action has apparently been initiated to identify them even after the lapse of three years.