The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Govt refuses follow-up info on Shunglu report
PMO cites exemption clause of transparency Act as reason

New Delhi, October 6
The government has declined to disclose details of follow-up action on the Shunglu Committee report on large-scale financial and managerial irregularities in the Commonwealth Games related projects.

Replying to an RTI query, the Prime Minister's Office cited an exemption clause of the transparency Act and denied details of correspondence with different ministries and departments on the Shunglu panel reports.

The PMO said that correspondence relating to the matter is subject of a Group of Ministers (GoM) which is to look into issues relating to the reports of the high level committee and consider the views expressed on its findings and recommendations by the concerned ministries/departments/ governments.

"As such the correspondence constitutes papers for the Group of Ministers. In terms of rule 6 (4) of the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, a Group of Ministers is an ad hoc committee of the Cabinet.

"As such, the information sought is exempt from disclosure in terms of Section 8 (1) (i) of the Right to Information Act, 2005," the PMO said in reply to an RTI query filed by PTI.

It was asked to give details of action being taken on Shunglu Committee reports and provide copies of all correspondences from PMO with concerned ministries and departments, including their replies.

The section bars disclosure of "Cabinet papers, including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers" provided that the decisions of the Council of Ministers, the reasons thereof, and the material on the basis of which the decisions were taken shall be made public after the decision has been taken, and the matter is complete, or over.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had last year announced a high level committee under the chairmanship of former Comptroller and Auditor General V K Shunglu to look into various lapses in executing projects related to mega sporting event held here from October 3 to 14, 2010.

The committee has submitted six reports - on host broadcasting, Commonwealth Games Village, city infrastructure, games venues, Organising Committee and Organisation and Conduct of Commonwealth Games 2010, to the PMO.

The PMO had then asked the ministries/departments concerned to give its replies which are now being examined by a GoM specifically constituted to look into the matter.

The Prime Minister had on August 2 this year constituted a ministerial panel, headed by Defence Minister A K Antony, to examine the findings of the Shunglu Committee and submit its report within three months.— PTI

	Punjab set to have tracking devices to check sex selection Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 6 Punjab has become the first state to opt for unique indigenously developed ultrasound tracking technology to prevent sex selection and protect the girl child. The state has invited tenders for procurement of the device and these will soon be opened to procure 1300 machines for 1200 sonography centres. “We will be opening the tenders soon. We want 1300 devices for 1200 centres. We are deciding whether to install the devices in one or two phases,” outgoing principal Secretary, Health, Punjab Satish Chandra told The Tribune. Punjab’s child sex ratio is 846, the second lowest in India. Called Active Tracker, the technology which involves embedding each ultrasound machine with a device that captures and stores images of each sonography test conducted on a pregnant woman, has helped Kolhapur district authorities improve the reporting of ultrasounds by 34 per cent. Hitherto, the doctor-patient nexus was leading to massive underreporting of sonography tests being done on women for the purpose of sex selection. Radiologists, who are supposed to fill F forms for each ultrasound test and store data for two years, were violating the laws and entering false data. “We found several instances of false reporting where doctors would understate the age of the foetus to enable medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) for sex selection. Under the law, a doctor need not mention the gender of a foetus under 12 weeks of age. Several doctors were understating foetal age to allow the MTP for sex selection whereas in the F form they would say they allowed the same for medical reasons. Once we fitted each ultrasound machine in all 250 centres with the Silent Observer device whose improved version is called Active Tracker, we could cross check the information in F form with the images in the ultrasound test. Doctors could no longer lie to us,” Laxmikant Deshmukh, District Collector, Kolhapur, told TNS. The device worked wonders. Kolhapur’s child sex ratio went up from 839 per 1000 boys in May 2010 to 876 in January 2011. Such was the social impact of the innovation that the Bombay High Court recently ruled in favour of Kolhapur DM in a case where the Radiologists Association of Maharashtra had challenged the use of the device on the grounds of invasion of privacy. Punjab, which had invited tenders for the machine earlier this year, was awaiting the HC’s ruling. Chandra said, “Now that the court has ruled in favour of the device, we can go ahead.” Punjab had decided to procure this device after former health minister Laxmikanta Chawla personally visited Maharashtra to check it out. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry, in its affidavit to the High Court supported the use of Silent Observer, saying, “Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act, 1994, appropriate authorities, DCs in this case, have the discretion to facilitate mechanisms to check illegal sex determination, including innovations like the Silent Observer.” Active tracker Called Active Tracker, the technology involves embedding each ultrasound machine with a device that captures and stores images of each sonography test conducted on a pregnant woman. The technology has helped Kolhapur district authorities improve the reporting of ultrasounds by 34 per cent. The nexus Hitherto, the doctor-patient nexus was leading to massive underreporting of sonography tests being done on women for the purpose of sex selection. Radiologists, who are supposed to fill F forms for each ultrasound test and store data for two years, were violating the laws and entering false data.
	Second Cong list for UP Assembly polls announced New Delhi, October 6 AICC Secretary Abdul Mannan, UPCC spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh and former NSUI President Nadeem Javed figure in the second list of 62 Congress candidates announced today for the 2012 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Mannan will be contesting from Kanpur Cantt while Singh will be in the fray from Rudrapur in Deoria district. Javed will contest from Jaunpur while Mohammad Muslim, a former minister, has been given the party ticket for Tiloi constituency in Raebareli. In the second list, candidates for 17 reserved constituencies have also been announced. The Congress has already announced its first list of 73 candidates. Polls for the 403-member Assembly are due in April next year. — TNS
	My husband being treated like a terrorist, says Bhatt’s wife Ahmedabad, October 6 Shweta Bhatt, wife of arrested IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt who had testified against Narendra Modi in the post-Godhra riots case, has written a second letter to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram alleging that her husband was being treated like a terrorist by the Gujarat police. In the letter, she has also accused the state government of using all possible ways to deny bail to her husband. Shweta had written her first letter to Chidambaram a few days ago saying that there was danger to the life of the IPS officer from the "vindictive administration". In her second letter yesterday, she has said that her husband was being treated like a terrorist despite him neither being a serial offender nor a criminal. She said she had just come to know that Bhatt was kept in a dingy, filthy, stinking room in the city crime branch lock-up after he was arrested on September 30. She further alleged that he was kept in the room with hardened criminals without food and water. Shweta has also enclosed a CD which, according to her, contains video footage purportedly showing how Bhatt was being "ill-treated". Bhatt was arrested on the basis of an FIR filed against him by police constable KD Pant for allegedly threatening and forcing him to sign a false affidavit with regard to a meeting called by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on February 27, 2002, - hours after the Godhra train carnage. Expressing apprehensions about more false cases being concocted against the arrested IPS officer, his wife has once again raised the point of his safety saying, "I am terribly concerned about the life and liberty of my husband." — PTI
	Won’t withdraw Manipur blockade if no separate district, says Sadar Hills panel Bijay Sankar Bora Tribune News Service Guwahati, October 6 Even while an unrelenting economic blockade has crippled life in Manipur, the agitating Sadar Hills District Demand Committee (SHDDC) has told Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that it would not withdraw the blockade unless its demand for a separate district is met. In a memorandum to Chidambaram, the SHDDC has alleged that the state government of Manipur had failed to respond to the instructions of the Home Minister for an early settlement to the Sadar Hills issue. Chidambaram had stated that the issue should be solved by the state government and that the Manipur Government had constituted a district re-organisation commission to look into the issue. However, the SHDDC has stated that Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has constituted a Committee on Re-organisation of Administrative and Police District Boundaries (CRA&PDB) in total disregard to the demand of the people of the Sadar Hills. It said that the Manipur administrative boundaries had never been an issue or under question during the past 39 years, but a committee on the re-organisation of district boundaries was constituted as soon as demand for a separate Sadar Hills district was raised. Meanwhile, various organisations of Manipur have submitted their representations to the CRA&PDB which will be brought up during the third round of the committee’s public hearing to be held tomorrow. According to an official source, the organisations which have submitted their representations include Tonjei Marin District Demand Committee, Naga Peoples Organisation, United Committee Manipur, Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur and Saikul Area Naga Peoples Organisation. The CRA&PDB headed by the state Chief Secretary was constituted following a Cabinet decision in order to bring an amicable solution to the various demands for separate districts in the state, including the demands for separate Sadar Hills district, Tonjei Marin district and Jiribam district. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Centre and the Manipur Government of failing to check the spiralling prices of essential commodities precipitated by the economic blockade and demanded an explanation in this regard.
	Bhagwat flays NAC over draft Communal Violence Bill Nagpur, October 6 Dubbing the draft of Communal Violence Bill as a "deceitful action of destructive minds detrimental to democratic values," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today questioned the Constitutional propriety of the National Advisory Council. Even though the Prime Minister has assured to prepare a revised draft, the proposed legislation is a "distorted ideology which will destroy the very spirit of the Constitution," he told the annual Dussehra rally at Reshmibagh ground here. Bhagwat also warned that any attempt to bring the legislation will be met with stout opposition and disapproval from the people. Addressing the swayamsevaks, the RSS chief derided the constitutional propriety of the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by UPA chairperson without taking any names. Referring to the proposed Bill, he said it would provide wide-ranging powers to an extra-constitutional body like NAC which is against the basic principles of public administration. Integrity of some members of NAC is under cloud and is being questioned by the Supreme Court, Bhagwat said, adding "whether this country is run by Cabinet or by such elements with a distorted and anti-national mind". Terming the proposed Bill "unjust, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional legislation," Bhagwat said it was a product of "perverted" minds who are set to destroy national unity and divide the society on communal lines. Bhagwat also spoke on a wide array of topics, including anti-corruption movement. Voicing concern over reports of "intrusion" of Chinese troops into Indian border areas, Bhagwat asked the government to remain vigilant and build necessary infrastructure there without making any compromise on military preparedness. Bhagwat also underlined the need for India to influence international diplomatic dialogue more effectively to garner global support for itself. Bhagwat said instances like "intrusion" by the Chinese troops in Leh and Ladakh regions and reported threats to the Indian Naval ships in the South China sea were an "utter violation" of principles of international treaties. — PTI
	Save Rajiv killers, Karuna appeals to PM, Sonia Chennai, October 6 DMK chief M Karunanidhi today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to make attempts to save the three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. In a statement, the former Tamil Nadu chief minister said the three convicts — Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan — had been languishing in prison for more than 20 years after being awarded capital punishment. "Despite pleas by many to the Tamil Nadu government to pass a Cabinet resolution to recommend to the Governor to commute their sentences, no steps have been taken. At least the Centre should do so. I urge the Prime Minister and UPA chairperson to do the needful," he said. On September 9, the Madras High Court had stayed the execution of the accused for eight weeks. Meanwhile, Perarivalan’s mother, Arputham Ammal, today met former Supreme Court judge VR Krishna Iyer, seeking his intervention to save her son’s life. —PTI