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Kejriwal firm on demand for
Khurshid’s resignation
BJP for minister’s ouster, wants Virbhadra probed |
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Won’t allow dilution of RTI Act by any agency: Govt NAC’s Aruna Roy questions Manmohan’s RTI remark
2G: Ex-Cabinet Secy to depose before JPC
Army to get air firepower
Brazilian pedals his way to land of Mahatma Gandhi
India to hold defence talks with Indonesia
Narrow win for Pranab’s son
‘NSG’s regional hub expansion pointless’
College student drugged, gangraped in Bengal
Pain of Partition revisited at Lit Fest
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Kejriwal firm on demand for
Khurshid’s resignation
New Delhi, October 13 Even after a night-long detention at the makeshift jail in Bawana, Ramdev and the activists remained form on action against Khurshid and his wife Lousie who have been charged with siphoning off funds by forging signatures of UP government officials to receive grants from the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry. This morning, the Delhi Police released them around 11.30 am following which Arvind, Manish Sisodia accompanied by nearly hundred others once again headed towards the Parliament Street where Kumar Vishwas and Sanjay Singh continued their tirade against the Congress-led establishment. The deadlock continued till late evening. Kejriwal along with 150-200 activists remained stationed at Parliament Street where several battalions of Delhi Police stood barricading the VIP area since morning. They kept pointed his guns on Khurshid and his wife. Kejriwal told that Khurshid and his wife Louise had siphoned off the funds provided by the Central government for differently abled in Uttar Pradesh and even the Comptroller and Auditor General had been critical of the NGOs affairs. "In a nation does a law minister, who forges signatures of officials and steals funds of the handicapped, deserve to stay on?" he asked. Later in the evening, he rubbished the defence of Louise Khurshid that it is only CAG's draft based on which the allegations are being made. "If the draft highlights this extent of corruption, what the final CAG report will reveal," he said.
Louise files defamation suit
Law Minister Salman Khurshid's wife Louise Khurshid Saturday slammed activist Arvind Kejriwal and a television channel for alleging that their NGO siphoned off lakhs of rupees meant for physically challenged people. She said the charges are false. "Our papers are open to scrutiny. Every allegation they have made, we have countered. We have got the bills for everything I have all the facts and figures the allegations are false," Louise Khurshid told news channel NDTV Saturday. Louise has filed a civil defamation case in the Delhi High Court against the TV Today Group seeking damages of Rs.100 crore, said court sources.According to the Aaj Tak report, the union social welfare and empowerment ministry had granted Rs.71.50 lakh to the
Khurshids' Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust for distributing tricycles and hearing aids to the disabled in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh. While Salman Khurshid is the president of the trust, his wife is the project director. — IANS
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BJP for minister’s ouster, wants Virbhadra probed
New Delhi, October 13 "The Congress party is making virtue out of corruption…it's making a fallen guy a hero. The Congress is projecting Virbhadra Singh as the hope of the future in Hiamchal Pradesh while everybody can see his real face now,'' BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said at a press conference here. He was referring to a media report which referred to a document, claimed to have been seized by the Income Tax Department during a raid in December 2010 from the New Delhi offices of a steel company which had records of off-book cash transactions made by the company staff from 2007. It purported to show that payments were also made to an individual identified as 'VBS'. Javadekar dismissed the argument advanced by Singh, who is in the midst of the campaign for the Himachal Assembly polls, that he wrote his name as 'VS' and not 'VBS'. The BJP spokesman said: "It is not important how he writes his initials but what matters is how it has been mentioned in the document." Referring to Khurshid, Javadekar said the charge against him was 'an open and shut case of forgery'. He said it was shocking that the Law Minister of the country was indulging in unlawful activities. "Khurshid's position in the Union Cabinet has become untenable…we demand his immediate resignation." Cash transactions
A media report which referred to a document, claimed to have been seized by the IT Department from the New Delhi offices of a steel company, had records of off-book cash transactions made by the company staff from 2007. It purported to show that payments were also made to an individual identified as
'VBS'.
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Won’t allow dilution of RTI Act by any agency: Govt New Delhi, October 13 At the end of the two-day Annual Convention of Central Information Commission, where commission heads and RTI activists opposed the apex court judgment, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy today said: "I know you all have a lot of grievances on the judgment. I also have a lot of grievances on the judgment. The government has already sought review of the order in the Supreme Court. We want to assure you that the government will not allow dilution of RTI Act by any agency." The assurance came after Chief Information Commissioner Satyanand Mishra yesterday said in his inaugural address that over-judicialisation of information commissions would be dangerous and would rob the institutions of their vitality. Mishra batted for the existing system of appointment (states have appointed retired bureaucrats, civil society leaders and even journalists as commission heads) and said in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday: "We do not lack judicious minds, which we think we always possessed." He even went to the extent of adding that "serving information commissioners were like umpires standing in the field with players and helping them around and instead of passing judgments from the side". The PM yesterday told the gathering about the review of SC order the government has sought. Today, stronger voices emerged against judges being appointed as information commission heads. All the visiting information commissioners said such a system would lead to delays and complicate the current uncomplicated and informal mechanism. "Chief Information Commissioner at the Centre or state-level shall only be a person who is or has been a Chief Justice of the High Court or a judge of the Supreme Court of India," a Bench of Supreme Court Justices AK Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar had ordered last month. But the CIC Convention had people like former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah commenting, "Honesty should be the sole qualification for appointment as head of information commission." Habibullah added that the SC order had roots in the Government's tendency to over bureaucratise the information commissions. "Repeatedly, the government has appointed retired bureaucrats as CICs. There should have been representation given to all as Punjab has done," he said. So far, out of the 20,000 appeals and complaints disposed of by the Central Information Commission annually, only a couple of hundred cases have been challenged in courts annually. Meanwhile, information commissioners today said in 40 pc cases where they have ordered disclosure of information, public authorities were not complying with the time line given in the orders, leading to concerns around implementation of the law.
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NAC’s Aruna Roy questions Manmohan’s RTI remark New Delhi, October 13 Chairing the concluding session at the two-day Convention of the Central Information Commission, Roy voiced the apprehensions which RTI campaigners raised all day on the PM’s statement on frivolous complaints, exemption to private companies in the PPP and privacy argument against the right to know. “In a country where not just the government, even water, electricity and everything else is being privatised, exempting private companies from the RTI Act will render it hollow. It will be dangerous,” she said. Roy, a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led NAC, also questioned the PM’s remarks that the RTI Act was being used in a frivolous way. “No dictionary in the world can define the words frivolous and vexatious. We can’t accept the PM’s words at all. If you go to a ‘patwari’ in a village and seek land record information, he will call your motive vexatious. The PM’s statement is deeply suspicious,” she said. A leading RTI supporter, Roy, also disagreed with the PM on the issue of privacy being an important concern vis-à-vis delivery of information under the RTI Act. Speaking to The Tribune, she said: “The law has enough protections built in on that front. Section 8 bars the delivery of private information sought without public purpose. The government should penalise public authorities which still part with such information. The government’s take on privacy is an overreaction.” Roy said the real problem was that the government was not willing to share power with the people. On whether or not the NAC had taken a view on the proposed Right to Privacy Bill, Roy said she had “no clue to what the Bill looked like.” Meira for privacy In her valedictory address, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said the RTI Act should be strengthened but concerns of privacy should also be kept in mind. She also lamented that only 13 pc of the rural population and 12 pc women knew about the law. “We must take this law to the villages and the most disempowered,” she said. .
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2G: Ex-Cabinet Secy to depose before JPC
New Delhi, October 13 While the deadlock between the main Opposition party, the BJP, and JPC Chairman PC Chacko continues, with the former boycotting the last meeting over its demand for summoning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Finance Minister, Chandrasekhar will depose before the committee of parliamentarians. The serving secretaries in the telecom and law ministries are also expected to depose before the committee. High drama was witnessed at the last meeting of the JPC on Thursday, with the BJP members staying away and CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta storming out in protest over a Congress member trying to shield a witness. After the meeting, the JPC Chairman had said that the decision to summon the Finance Minister before the committee would be taken by the Lok Sabha Speaker. Chacko said he had written to the Speaker seeking her advice on whether or not to summon the Finance Minister before the committee. The BJP has been claiming that both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister are key witnesses in the case and should be called to depose before the JPC. But Chacko, who belongs to the Congress, has been refusing to do so. “This is the predicament of the chairman of a parliamentary committee. Political parties try to score brownie points. They know very well, under the rules, we cannot summon the Prime Minister or a minister,” Chacko had said after the last meeting. The BJP demand got a major boost after the last meeting, with Dasgupta writing to the JPC Chairman seeking to summon Chidambaram. Government ally Samajwadi Party also feels that the Finance Minister must testify before the JPC, studying the allocation of spectrum during 1999 to 2009. The BSP, another ally, is also in “favour” of the Finance Minister being summoned to the JPC as a witness. BJP’s six members in the JPC - Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Gopinath Munde, Harin Pathak, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Dharmendra Pradhan - had not attended the last meeting. Besides, Dasgupta had walked out of the meeting, alleging that Congress member Shashi Tharoor had intervened to help an official who was being questioned by him. It was in violation of the protocol, he said. The CPI leader has also written to Chacko demanding that the Finance Minister be called before the JPC as a witness. In the letter, Dasgupta has said that the Finance Minister will be able to explain his ministry’s “inability to prevent the DoT from unilaterally going ahead with the allocation of 2G licences in spite of opposition from various quarters”.
Spectrum Probe
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Army to get air firepower
New Delhi, October 12 In a letter yesterday, the Joint Secretary (Ground and Air) in the MoD conveyed to the Army that the attack helicopters procured in the future will go to the Army. The existing fleet of 22 Russian-origin Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters will continue to be operated by the
IAF, while the next lot of helicopters will go to the Army. It is yet be decided if the forthcoming purchase of the 22 Boeing Apache attack helicopters will go to the Army or stay with the
IAF. The IAF has selected the future attack helicopters at the cost of $ 1.4 billion but the deal is yet to be inked. The MoD will lay down a detailed policy at a later stage which will list out the operating procedures, force strength among other things. The
MoD, in its letter, has clarified that the medium-lift helicopters - Mi-17 - will continue to be operated by the
IAF, but it will review the prioritisation of tasks, sources said. The Army had highlighted the need for having a squadron of attack helicopters at each of the three ‘Strike Crops’ based at
Ambala, Mathura and Bhopal. These three corps have their forward formations along the Western border with Pakistan. The Army had also projected the need for having light combat helicopters for each of the six pivot crops based in the North and North-West. This has also been “accepted” by the
MoD. These pivot corps will get the armed version of the Dhruv helicopter produced by the Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The Army has been demanding attack helicopters for its strike corps formations, as these support tank and ground troops. The IAF helicopters are currently attached with the Army formations. This also means that the IAF will now have an increased number of attack helicopters. The light attack helicopters are already being test-flown and their weapons are being tested. So far, the helicopter assets have been divided under the Joint Army and Air Implementation Instructions, 1986. The Army Aviation operates utility helicopters like the
cheetah/chetak, while the IAF operates the attack helicopters, medium-lift helicopters and heavy-lift helicopters. The Navy helicopters are separate from this division of assets. The decision has come after dramatic developments over the issue in the past one week. At a press conference on October 5, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne had said it was not possible to have “little air forces”. On October 9, Defence Minister AK
Antony, termed the tussle between the IAF and Army a “family problem”.
More teeth
Division of assets
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Varsha suicide: Gun used went missing 30 yrs ago
Mumbai, October 13 The singer had told the police that the Baby Browning gun used by Varsha to kill herself was lost by her more than 30 years ago. Asha Bhosle had purchased the weapon after her house was burgled. After she filed a report of the missing weapon, the police officially reprimanded her and cancelled the licence but apparently no investigations were conducted to trace the weapon. The police department has stated that it does not have records of lost weapons beyond 10 years. “The pistol has been sent for forensic examination and we are awaiting the results. If it is proved that the weapon was maintained regularly then there will be further investigations,” Inspector Pradip Lonankar of the Gamdevi police station said. Considering Bhosle’s celebrity status, the police may seek legal opinion, sources said. The police is expecting the results of the forensic tests in a day or two. The police has so far questioned the deceased’s relatives and employees. Apart from Asha Bhosle, her sister Lata Mangeshkar and other relatives, the family’s servants have been questioned. It is still not clear how Varsha came to get hold of the gun which was lost so many years ago, the police said.
'Missing' Weapon
Asha Bhosle had purchased the gun after her house was burgled. But she reported it missing more than 30 years ago
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Brazilian pedals his way to land of Mahatma Gandhi
Pune, October 13 Currently in the city on the solo bicycle tour which has so far taken him to 18 Indian states covering over 10,000 km of distance, Silvio says India is a "unique destination" with its diverse culture. Silvio, who teaches history and philosophy in Brazil and has been influenced by Gandhian thoughts, was toying with the idea of visiting India to have a feel of the country that gave the world the greatest icon of truth and non-violence and shook the imperialist powers in 20th century. Sponsored by three Brazilian companies, Silvio undertook his journey on June 27, pedalling his way through Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Orissa and other Indian states, trying to know the roots of people from where the preacher of non-violence emerged. Acknowledging his language handicap, Silvio, who knows only Portuguese, said, "I started using signs and gestures and slowly picked up some English words to find directions while interacting with people on the way whom I found very friendly and honest." Initially worried about parking his bicycle during his travel, Silvio said he gradually developed the confidence that no one would steal it. "I even took a dip in holy river Ganga with the bicycle parked away at a distance laden with my belongings", he recalled. In his quest to relate to life in India and the people, the idealist adventurer camped on farms, cowshed, a rice mill and even a hospital ward. Silvio survived a minor mishap when a car brushed past his bicycle with its handle poking his stomach. "It hurt for a few days and doctors prescribed painkillers. I became more careful along the way," he added. Asked what he thought was the greatest quality that impressed him about Gandhi, Silvio said, "As a teacher of history, I think the greatness of this man served and still serves as an example of humanity. His philosophy of non-violence conquered the rulers and tyrants of the world armed with weapons." With an energy level that defies his age, Silvio said after his current bicycle tour, he is contemplating repeating his India experience next time on a motorbike.
— PTI
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India to hold defence talks with Indonesia
New Delhi, October 13 The defence dialogue mechanism at the highest level was agreed upon during the visit of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to India in January last year. Defence ties between India and Indonesia have been progressing steadily ever since the two sides signed the Agreement on Defence Cooperation in the year 2001. The Armies of the two countries held the first-ever joint exercise in India this year. There are regular training interactions between the armed forces of the two countries.
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Narrow win for Pranab’s son
Kolkata, October 13 The Trinamool Congress did not field any candidate in the byelection as a mark of respect to the President who won the seat for the last two consecutive terms. Of the total 8,47,872 votes cast in the byelection, Abhijit Mukherjee got 3,32,919 votes, while CPM’s Mustaque Hossain got 3,30,383 votes. The BJP candidate could secure only 85,887 votes. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Pranab Mukherjee had won the seat by a massive of margin of 1,28,252 votes. In the 2011 Assembly elections also, the Congress candidates had won five seats out of seven, while the remaining two seats, Sagardhigi and Nabagram, were won by the Trinamool and the CPM, respectively. District Congress president Adhir Chowdhury has accused the TMC of sabotaging Abhijit’s poll prospects alleging that TMC workers had openly campaigned in favour of the CPM in Muslim areas. CPM state secretary Biman Bose has congratulated the people for supporting party candidate in the election. He hoped the people would continue to lend their overwhelmingly support to the CPM and other Left parties in future against the Congress and the
TMC.
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‘NSG’s regional hub expansion pointless’
New Delhi, October 12 Narayanan, who is now the Governor of West Bengal, has been a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau. Delivering a lecture on “Internal security role of special forces”, he elaborated on what was needed from the force and its readiness. Four additional hubs of the NSG had been created during the tenure of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram following a media-driven public outcry over the “delayed response” of the NSG in reaching Mumbai during the November 2008 terror attacks. The NSG teams, headquartered at Manesar, near Gurgaon, had boarded an IAF plane requisitioned from Chandigarh and reached Mumbai after 12 hours of the commencement of the attacks. Besides its main facility near Gurgaon, the NSG now has regional hubs at Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Narayanan said the expansion has diluted NSG’s mandate. According to Narayanan, the NSG should be prepared and be aware of the challenges it could face. For this, it should have a very close coordination with external and internal intelligence gathering agencies. He voiced concern over NSG having a special rangers group (SRG) that provides security to VIPs. “Does the NSG want to be special force or is it a force that guards people,” he asked.
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College student drugged, gangraped in Bengal
Kolkata, October 13 The student of Rupnarayanpur Nazrul Centenary Polytechnic College was sexually assaulted on Tuesday in the college premises in Rupnarayanpur, about 200 km from Kolkata. She was found in an unconscious state and admitted to hospital for treatment, police said. Her father alleged that she was first drugged and then gangraped. The accused also videographed her while she lay at the college union room. He named several people in the complaint, including three students, one of whom is believed to be a leader of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) - the student wing of the ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Asansol-Durgapur) Subrata Gangopadhyay told IANS: "We have arrested a man following a complaint of gangrape.” — IANS
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Pain of Partition revisited at Lit Fest
Kasauli, October 13 Many sessions were planned through the day that brought to the fore the pain of Partition the North Indians had suffered; the sense of loss, nostalgia and also the subsequent coming to terms with the changed political realities. “Train To Pakistan” and “Many Partitions Many Legacies”, two sessions dedicated to a historical perspective on Indo-Pak relations, touched the right chord with the audience. When Salima Hashmi read out letters written by her late father and well-known poet Faiz Amhad Faiz to his wife during the 1940s, describing the precipitation of communal violence in the country, there was pin-drop silence in the auditorium. Almost everyone present could recall some memories; something heard or said about those traumatic days. Mani Shankar Aiyar, who participated in a panel discussion along with Rahul Singh and Prem Shankar Jha on “Train To Pakistan”, justified pre-dominance of this theme for the day. As Shankar rightly observed, Khushwant Singh’s 163 works touched almost all aspects of life, and one of his major concerns had been the people-to-people contact between India and Pakistan. The day began with Yashodhara Dalmia’s brilliant presentation on “Art in the Mountains”. Author of “Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life”, Dalmia introduced the audience to the love Amrita shared with the mountains and its people. With the help of a slide show, she offered an insight into the dualities and conflicts of Amrita Sher-Gil’s life and how it found expression in her work in the shifting tonalities of colour and texture. The duality of Indian women, their truncated lives and her compassion gave layered shades to her works. Her disclosure before the audience that for her works on South Indian men and women, she used her “pahari” servants as models, took the audience by surprise. Deepti Naval, actor, shared her connection with the famous painter. She said she wanted to make a film on Amrita Sher-Gil’s life, and in that connection she met Khushwant Singh, who advised her to play Amrita. Though, the project never materialised. Shobhaa De, in an interaction with Ashok Chopra on “Shobhaa and Khushwant: Where Mars and Venus meet”, regaled the audience with her candid views on everything under the sun. Yes, she had no qualms repeating, “writing is pure sex”. Taking her discourse beyond its shock value, she said: “It’s our duty to speak our mind. Imagine if many more people could speak up their minds, we would be living in a different India.” Talking about her yet-to-be-released novel “Sethji”, she once again created sensation with her disclosure when she said readers would be able to relate to at least five politicians while reading “Sethji”. Anand Sethi took the Kasauli lovers on a well-researched pictorial journey in his presentation “A Passion Unchained: Dagshai & Its Jail Museum”. Gillian Wright, who has translated Shrilal Shukla’s “Raag Darbari”, Rahi Masoom Raza’s “Adha Gaon” and Bhisham Sahni’s Selective Stories, said she preferred translating the regional literature, since it never reached the mainstream reader.
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Police station torched 29 fishermen detained Maoist commander held Guard shoots colleague Rlys' awareness campaign
Poachers kill rhino Bihar ex-minister assaulted
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New Delhi, October 13
The second day of the Khushwant Singh Lit Fest came to life rather languidly, after getting over the previous evening’s literary hangover.
Many sessions were planned through the day that brought to the fore the pain of Partition the North Indians had suffered; the sense of loss, nostalgia and also the subsequent coming to terms with the changed political realities.
The Ministry of Defence has agreed “in principle” to split the helicopter force between the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army. The MoD has “accepted” the projected requirement of the Army for having attack helicopters - so far being operated only by the
IAF.
Black panther found in well