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Govt Lokpal to be like SC, says Law Minister
Talks with Maoists to continue after deadline |
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Top Maoist leader eludes capture
Govt set for RTI review, moots rejoinder
Cash for Vote
Anna’s village team fails to meet Rahul Gandhi
Ailing Shri Lal Shukla receives Jnanpith
Advani: Vital to keep our House in order
tardy road-building along china border Sanskriti Awards announced
Probe sought into Naidu’s assets
India bans infertility drug Letrozole
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Govt Lokpal to be like SC, says Law Minister
New Delhi, October 18 Complementing the Lokpal Bill will be the Citizens Grievance Redressal Bill; the Judicial Accountability Bill, the Whistleblowers Protection Bill, Bill to curb bribery by foreign firms; another to enhance CBI’s powers and a set of electoral reforms. As far as the Lokpal goes, the government has made up its mind to give it as much weight as the SC. “When we say that we want to bring an effective Lokpal, we want to look at it as the Supreme Court, which is the most powerful body in the country right now. Anna’s version makes Lokpal look like a weaker institution like the Central Board of Direct Taxes,” Law Minister Salman Khurshid today said, refusing to acknowledge Anna’s threatened campaign in poll-bound states as a factor that could influence election results. He said it would be wrong for the Gandhian’s team to take credit for Congress’ loss in Hisar byelections. “Anna won’t be the sole factor in the forthcoming elections. Single point elections are very, very rare. It will be wrong for anyone to say that the BJP, when it was flying high in UP, was flying high only because of the Ram temple wave. There were other factors,” Khurshid said, cautioning Anna’s colleagues to “respect democracy”. He was speaking to journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps. Importantly, in the context of Anna’s movement, the Law Minister agreed that the government was caught unawares by the changes happening in society. But instead of accepting UPA’s governance deficit, he attributed these changes to social media’s power in shaping movements. “Anna’s movement was a remarkable mix of traditional politics and non-conventional and very modern politics. We were at a disadvantage because we could not use the social media as well as they could,” Khurshid rued. He, however, defended the government’s conduct through Lokpal negotiations with Anna and said, “We had genuine disagreements with them. Our ideas, which they refused to talk about, were rooted in deep understanding of the Constitution to deliver an effective law.” Khurshid’s said the government had no problems with the principles enunciated by Anna. “It is the shape those principles would take in the statute that bothered us. If you take the SC model for the Lokpal, it can’t delegate powers. If it can’t delegate powers because quasi-judicial powers can’t be delegated. It can’t cover the entire bureaucratic footprint as Anna was demanding. “Therefore, we are working towards a Lokpal which will exercise its powers to deal with corruption and a separate Citizens’ Grievance Redressal law which will allow delegation of administrative powers to deal with issues bothering the common man,” he explained. On the CBI’s inclusion under the Lokpal, there is consensus in the Parliamentary Standing Committee deliberations that putting the agency under the Lokpal would create confusion with respect to its role in corruption cases and other purely criminal ones. “The CBI may not be under the Lokpal. But it can investigate cases on Lokpal’s instance and under its superintendence though it otherwise works under the CVC’s superintendence,” the Law Minister said. He added that to bring the PM and other constitutional authorities under the Lokpal, ways would have to be found that ensured the independence of these institutions.
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Talks with Maoists to continue after deadline
Kolkata, October 18 After a two-hour meeting with Banerjee in the presence of three other ministers at the Writers Buildings, negotiating committee chairman and social activist Sujata Bhadra told mediapersons that peace talk process would continue with the Maoists till a fruitful solution was reached. He refused to elaborate on the discussions. Mamata told the negotiating committee that she wanted to resolve Maoist problems in Jangalmahal, Lalghar and other vulnerable areas and was ready to relax the deadline. Reiterating that that Maoists should surrender arms and come to the negotiating table, the CM assured them mass amnesty if they cooperated with the state machinery. The Chief Minister said the Centre had agreed to release Rs 200 crore immediately for the development of Maoist-infiltrated areas. She wanted that the peace and normalcy prevail at all cost in the areas so that development programmes at Jangalmahal, Lalghar, Salboni and elsewhere could be implemented smoothly and promptly.
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Top Maoist leader eludes capture
Jhargram: Maoist leaders, including Akash, who had offered truce to the West Bengal government recently, on Tuesday managed to escape during a raid by joint forces on their hideout at Jhargram in West Midnapore district.
"We had information that Akash and Jayanta were hiding in the jungles of Bankisole and Aulgeria in Salboni police station area, but the Maoists fired on the joint forces when they tried to enter the forest," a senior police officer said. The security personnel fired back forcing the Maoists to retreat and enter the jungle, but could not find the two leaders. One Maoist was arrested and firearms were seized.
— PTI
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Govt set for RTI review, moots rejoinder
New Delhi, October 18 Law Minister Salman Khurshid today said in reply to a query by The Tribune that there was no proposal to have a relook at the Act. He admitted that the government however wanted to talk about the law. “No law is perfect. We want to talk about its provisions and this has nothing to do with the 2G controversy,” Khurshid insisted. He said two ministers would tomorrow brief mediapersons on the intent of the government in respect of the RTI Act and added that there were certain “hiccups” that called for discussions. “For instance, there could be a rejoinder RTI. There are people who say they are RTI activists. They want to put questions to everybody, to the government, to the corporates. But what about they themselves? As of now, they are not even required to justify public interest when they put in applications. It was therefore felt that we may run into trouble,” Khurshid said. He said highly confidential internal government communications might be sought to be protected through a critical review of the RTI Act which the Prime Minister recently hinted at. “Today, I write a confidential note to the PM. Tomorrow, it gets leaked. Where is the confidentiality?” he asked.
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Cash for Vote
New Delhi, October 18 Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal summoned the Allahabad MP citing sufficient evidence against him. “There was sufficient material to show that Reoti Raman Singh was prima facie part and parcel and an important link in the chain of events of the alleged criminal conspiracy. I take cognisance of the offence under Section 120 B (conspiracy) of IPC against Reoti Raman Singh. “He be summoned to appear on November 3, 2011," the court said in an order signed by the judge.
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Anna’s village team fails to meet Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi, October 18 The six-member Ralegan Siddhi team led by sarpanch Jaisingh Mapari, which flew into Delhi on Rahul’s invitation (or so they claimed), was today informed that they had no appointment with the Congress leader and the confusion was the result of a “miscommunication”. This was followed by an apology from “perpetrator” of the “confusion” PT Thomas. Thomas said, “There was a communication gap from my office for which I apologised,” becoming the fall guy for a decision, taken perhaps at the behest of the senior party leadership. “Rahul had no prior knowledge, no consent, no appointment,” Congress media in charge Janardan Dwivedi also asserted after angry villagers decided to return home, saying that now even if they get an appointment with Rahul, Ralegan Siddhi would decide whether to meet him or not. To his credit, Thomas did try to set the record right saying that though the sarpanch and the deputy sarpanch of the village had made a request to him in this regard, no meeting had been confirmed with the Congress leader. Anna’s aide Suresh Pathare said, “We said in our letter seeking appointment with Rahul Gandhi that we wanted to meet him, as suggested by the MP. We were contacted by Thomas’ office several times. Even Rahul Gandhi’s office called our sarpanch several times,” he claimed.
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Ailing Shri Lal Shukla receives Jnanpith
Lucknow, October 18 Arriving along with Jnanpith management representative Akhilesh Jain shortly after 4 pm, the Governor greeted Shukla. The prolific writer of 25 books including classics like ‘Raag Darbari’, ‘Makaan’, ‘Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj’, ‘Pehla Padaav’ and ‘Bisrampur Ka Sant’ could not utter a word in acknowledgement as doctors attending on him have requested him not to talk. Ailing from a lung infection, Shukla was admitted to a local hospital a few days ago. Yesterday, he was shifted to the ICU after his condition worsened. In view of his health, the Bhartiya Jnanpith had decided to immediately confer on him the award at the hospital. Director of Bhartiya Jnanpith Ravindra Kalia said Amarkant, the other Hindi writer who shares the 45th Jnanpith award for the year 2009 with Shukla, would be given the award at a later date. The Governor handed over to Shukla a cheque of Rs 7 lakh, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Indian goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. While Shukla has been suffering from age-related ailments confining him to bed for the last two years, he was shifted to the hospital on October 15 as he was reportedly suffering from a lung infection.
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Advani: Vital to keep our House in order
Nagpur, October 18 However, he asked the Congress to see the writing on the wall in the wake of Monday’s rout in byelections and said the UPA government could be pulled down if any of its allies chooses to do so. Addressing a press conference here, Advani initially parried a question on Yeddyurappa, but later admitted that the party suffered embarrassment on account of former Karnataka Chief Minister’s arrest. “We don’t take our internal weaknesses lightly. This thing was vindicated in Karnataka clearly. We had cautioned him but once the report came, he had to quit.”— PTI
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tardy road-building along china border Ajay Banerjee/TNS New Delhi, October 18 At the start of this summer, a spate of complaints led to a court of enquiry presided over by Lt Gen SS Sengupta, Commandant of the Pune-based College of Military Engineering. It noted: “The existing organisation, procedures and practices followed by the BRO will not hold ground in today’s environment.” The BRO is tasked with strategic road-building in the Himalayas. The Army and states demand high quality work and complete accountability, it said. “There is a need for restructuring the BRO with better practices and transparency,” said the court of enquiry report and recommended formation of a study group. The report was submitted last month and it dismissed most of the complaints since these could not be proven. Even as Defence Minister AK Antony has been upbeat about building roads and infrastructure alongside the Chinese frontier, the ministry finds itself battling the hydra-headed monster at the grassroot level. Problems include self-created turf battles between the Army and civilian functionaries, a vicious cycle of complaints and counter-complaints, officials continuing on posts beyond the three-years tenure fixed by the Central Vigilance Commission and, of course, protection offered by senior functionaries to their immediate juniors. Officials within the Border Roads Organisation have clung to sensitive (read lucrative) posts even after the end of their three-year tenure. Written directives from the Ministry of Defence have been ignored as “favourites” are blatantly protected and allowed to continue. In some cases, letters have been purportedly “managed” from the Central Vigilance Commission allowing certain officials to continue beyond the three-year period. The “letters” were against the CVC’s own guidelines on fixing tenures of officials on sensitive posts! A senior functionary said there was no justification to keep anybody on one post for long, especially after work on important projects is tottering. Sources pointed out that some persons within the Border Roads Organisation have been raising queries specifically and only on roads in the India-China border belt. A query usually stalls a project for a few months. With summer offering the only working window in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, roadwork once halted suffers for long. Following the recent Sikkim earthquake, the Border Roads Organisation and Army engineers have been clearing out debris there on priority, but two important projects are running years behind schedule. The 13.48 km northern alignment between Bheem Base and Dokala is two years behind its original target of 2011. The 33.8 km southern alignment between Road Flag Hill and Dokala is four years behind schedule. In Himachal, the 89-km Wangtu-Pooh road that runs very close to the Chinese border is two years behind schedule.
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Sanskriti Awards announced New Delhi, October 18 This is the 32nd year of
the awards. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam will present the awards in New Delhi a month
from now. Vinayak Lohani, a graduate from IIT Kharagpur and an alumnus of IIM Calcutta, is the recipient of this year’s Sanskriti Award
for social achievement. Inspired by the ideals of Swami Vivekananda, Lohani had set up an organisation in 2003 to take care of destitute and street children. While Parivaar started with just three inmates in
a rented house, it now takes care of over 600 orphans, street kids and abandoned children and girls vulnerable to exploitation and
trafficking. Murad Ali, a sixth generation Sarangi player from Moradabad, hailed as one of the most promising Sarangi players in the country, has been chosen for the award in the category of performing arts. Bangalore-based Abhishek Hazra (Art), an assistant editor with the periodical ‘Tehelka’, Rana Ayyub (Journalism) and a Kashmiri poetess and short story writer Shahida Shabnum (Literature) are the other recipients of the awards this year.
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Probe sought into Naidu’s assets Hyderabad, October 18 In what is seen as a tit-for-tat move, the YSR Congress Party honorary president and MLA YS Vijayamma has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the state High Court, seeking an inquiry into the properties amassed by the Telugu Desam Party supremo and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Vijayamma, the widow of late CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy, alleged that Naidu had misused power during his stint as CM between 1995 and 2004 and amassed huge wealth. She sought action against Naidu under Prevention of Corruption Act and Money Laundering Act. The move assumes significance as the High Court had recently ordered a CBI probe into the alleged illegal properties of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy based on PIL filed by some TDP leaders and a letter by Congress leader Dr P Shankar Rao. In a 2,500-page PIL, Vijayamma alleged that Naidu, who had a humble beginning in politics owning two acres of agricultural land, went on to become one of the richest politicians of the country through misuse of power during his nine-year tenure as CM. The petitioner named 20 respondents including Naidu, his wife Bhuvaneshwari, son N Lokesh, Rajya Sabha MP YS Chowdary, Naidu’s family-owned Heritage Foods, media baron and chairman of Eenadu Group of Publications Ch Ramoji Rao and other close associates of Naidu. Citing instances of quid pro quo deals and violation of laws, she alleged “The offences committed by them attract the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, IPC, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, FEMA, Representation of the People Act, the AP Land Grabbing Act and the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act.”
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New Delhi, October 18
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today asked the nine-member team of interlocutors engaged by the West Bengal Government to continue peace talks with the Maoists.
