The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	The Tribune wins the 2012 IPI-India award New Delhi, December 28 The Tribune has been selected for the pretigious IPI-India Award for Excellence 2012 for outstanding journalistic work. The jury headed by former Chief Justice of India AS Anand chose the newspaper for the award for an exclusive report by Prabhjot Singh on the loot of Punjab's public transport by powerful politicians and bureaucrats, leading to huge burden on the people of Punjab, the India Chapter of International Press Institute (IPI) said in a statement here. The other members of the jury are IPI-India Chairman and The Hindu Director N Ravi, PTI Editor-in-Chief M K Razdan, Business Standard Chairman and Chief Editor TN Ninan and Malayala Manorama Senior Assistant Editor Riyad Mathew. The jury commended that the investigation published in five parts by the newspaper is an example of "crusading journalism" in the cause of large public interest. The award, which carries a cash prize of Rs two lakh, a trophy and citation, will be presented at a function in New Delhi by the first week of February next year. IPI-India had instituted the annual award in 2003 to recognise and honour the best work done by an Indian media organisation or journalist working in print, radio, television and internet media, in furtherance of public interest, including safeguarding of freedom of press and other freedoms such as human rights. Last year, the award was given jointly to 'Tehelka' for its expose of the 'rent a riot' tactics of Sriram Sene in Karnataka and 'The Week' for its sustained investigation into the sham medical and dental colleges which had no doctors, no patients and no facilities but were permitted to run medical colleges. In 2010, 'Tehelka' was selected for the award for its expose of execution of an innocent bystander by security forces in Manipur, the statement said. — PTI The jury headed by former Chief Justice of India A S Anand chose the newspaper for the award for an exclusive report by Prabhjot Singh (pic) on the loot of Punjab's public transport by powerful politicians and bureaucrats, leading to huge burden on the people of Punjab
	Gang-rape victim shows signs of severe organ failure Singapore, December 28 The Indian trainee physiotherapist, who was gang-raped in New Delhi, had suffered "significant brain injury" and continued to be in an "extremely critical condition" at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital here, a media report said on Friday. Besides a prior cardiac arrest, she also had infection of her lungs and abdomen, "as well as significant brain injury", Kelvin Loh, the hospital's chief executive officer, was quoted as saying by the Straits Times. "The patient is currently struggling against the odds, and fighting for her life," he said. He said a multi-disciplinary team of specialists has been working round-the-clock to treat her since her arrival Thursday. He said they were "doing everything possible to stabilise her condition over the next few days". The 23-year-old victim was brutally beaten and raped by six men on a moving bus in Delhi on December 16. She is fighting for her life with severe multiple intestinal, abdominal and other injuries. The case shocked India, triggering protests by college students and calls for death penalty for the criminals. The six suspects have been arrested. — IANS Cop’s Death Probe on to locate scene of assault New Delhi: Investigators probing the Delhi Police constable Subhash Chand Tomar murder case are trying to ascertain the location at India Gate where the policeman was allegedly attacked. The police will examine the CCTV footage of India Gate to determine the location and identify those who allegedly attacked the constable. The police claims Subhash was on duty at India Gate on December 23 when clashes broke out between the police and protesters. One of the eyewitnesses, Yogendra Tomar, told the police yesterday that he didn’t see anyone attack the constable. Another eyewitness, Pauline made a similar statement to news channels. However, a third eyewitness, Saleem Alvi, yesterday alleged that he saw someone from the crowd throw a stone, which hit Subhash on the thigh. He claimed that the constable fell down and was kicked by several people. — TNS
	No logic in taking victim to Singapore, say Delhi doctors New Delhi, December 28 As the 23-year-old gang-rape victim struggles for life in Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, doctors in the national capital said moving her abroad in such a condition was "unusual". There was "no logic" behind it, they said. "I can't understand the logic behind it, or rather it is unusual to transfer the girl from Delhi to Singapore when the patient has suffered a cardiac arrest, as I have been informed by the media," Samiran Nundy, chairman, department of surgical gastroenterology and organ transplantation, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, told IANS. The 23-year-old victim was brutally beaten and raped by six men on a moving bus in Delhi Dec 16. She now fights for life with severe multiple intestinal, abdominal and other injuries. She was flown to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital late Wednesday night. "My suggestion would have been to stabilise her in India and get her out of the crisis; then do her intestinal transplant later. One cannot think about intestinal transplant at this moment. First, the infection spreading in her should be stopped, then one can think about transplant," Nundy said. Another senior doctor from the trauma centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, requesting anonymity, said: "Maybe it was politically logical to shift the patient. But as a doctor, I would say it is totally insensitive to shift the patient with her infection spreading. Shifting now, that too within a few hours of cardiac arrest, is thoughtless." Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where the woman is being treated, Thursday confirmed that she had a cardiac arrest in the early hours of Wednesday. Nundy also said that in case of intestinal transplant, chances of survival are five years in 60 percent of cases, and one year in 80 per cent. — IANS
	Sonia, PM say guilty won’t be spared New Delhi, December 28 Congress chief Sonia Gandhi today stressed that no time should be lost in bringing the perpetrators of the barbaric gangrape to justice while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the guilty will not be spared. Addressing the media on the sidelines of the 127th Foundation Day of Congress at AICC headquarters here, both Gandhi and Singh said they shared the anguish and the anger of the country over the December 16 incident. Gandhi, who usually extends New Year wishes on this occasion skipped doing so, saying, "Our thoughts are with the young woman, who is fighting for her life after the barbarous attack on her. "And our only wish today is that she recovers and that comes back to us and that no time is lost in bringing the perpetrators of such barbarous act to justice," Gandhi said in a voice choked with emotions after hoisting the party flag at 24 Akbar Road. The PM, who stood by her side, gave the asssurance that "our government is committed to bringing the guilty to justice as soon as possible." Asked about the government's initiatives for speedy trial of rape accused, the Prime Minister said the government has appointed a committee under Justice JS Verma, former Chief Justice of India, to suggest ways and means for modifications in the laws related to crime against women. "The Congress chief has mentioned that we share the anguish and the anger of the country over this heinous crime. Our prayers are with the brave young girl and that best possible medical care is being provided to her," Singh said. He said that a committee under Justice Usha Mehra, has also been appointed to examine if there were any lapses on anybody's part in the aftermath of the incident. — PTI
	India feels the dengue sting Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 28 India remained in the grip of dengue fever through 2012 which saw ace filmmaker Yash Chopra succumb to complications caused by the bite of the female Aedes Aegypti mosquito which carries the deadly dengue virus. Even as cases of dengue fever surged astronomically over 2011, registering a 97 per cent increase this year, the government was found wanting in containing the spread of the infection-causing mosquitoes which breed in open containers kept in households and bite generally during the day. As many as 227 deaths were reported this year and these did not include deaths in the private health sector because the Ministry of Health, for the purposes of reporting dengue, continues to depend on data received from government hospitals and cases confirmed through government laboratories, exposing itself to the vulnerabilities of under-reporting. In effect, even the 37,070 dengue cases reported in 2012 were a clear underestimation, given ample evidence of breeding grounds for the mosquito across India. The disease continued to flourish not just in urban poor areas, suburbs and countryside but also the more affluent neighbourhoods. Kerala reported the highest deaths followed by Karnataka and New Delhi. Such was the alarm over dengue that parliamentarians - stung themselves - moved a calling attention motion in the Lok Sabha to discuss the epidemic proportions of the vector-borne disease. The government admitted that rapid urbanisation had created breeding grounds for mosquitoes helping in its spread. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad insisted that the dengue vaccine was in the final stages of trial contrary to such evidence from the world over. The New York Times around the end of the year quoted Dr Scott Halstead, a tropical disease expert focusing on dengue research as saying, “I think we’re looking at 10 to 12 years before we see an effective vaccine...and that’s if we’re lucky.” Policy paralysis Back home, dengue wasn’t the only bad news for India’s health sector this year. Save the drop in Infant Mortality Rate - to 41 per 1000 live births - policy paralysis marked the Health Ministry. The promise of raising public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of the GDP, which the PM had made, was not kept. The 12th Plan limited the spending at a meagre 1.94 per cent of the GDP though overall allocations improved significantly over the last Plan. The clinical trial sector remained unregulated despite concerns around the increasing number of deaths of participants in such trials. The avowed amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules to make the drug trial sector safer had not come till the end of 2012. These include videography of consent of volunteers in trials and fixed compensation formula. The idea of a National Commission for Human Resources in Health (to subsume existing regulators like the MCI and Dental Council) was virtually rejected by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health. The standing committee trashed the Bill that the ministry had prepared for the purpose and asked it to go back to the drawing board and redraft the whole thing. The government will now have to either continue giving customary yearly extensions to the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India or amend the Indian Medical Council Act to resurrect the MCI with conditions such as fixed tenures for the president. The scheme for free supply of drugs in government hospitals was repeatedly announced this year but not rolled. The modalities of the much-talked-about 3.5 year BSc in Community Medicine Course were not finalised though a committee appointed by the government drafted its curriculum and clearly stated that these community workers, meant to serve villagers, could not be called doctors and could only prescribe generic medicines for common ailments. The good news The good news was - the first common national test for entry to PG medical courses was finally held in November after a delay of two years. Even here, several states like Karnataka and J&K and minority medical institutions managed exemptions from the courts. Also, India's CDSCO (Central Drug Standards Control Organisation), the national regulatory authority for vaccines, passed WHO's most stringent safety tests enabling India's vaccine makers to improve their exports to the rest of the world. India already supplies vaccines to over 150 countries.
	Cong ‘chintan shivir’ to chalk out strategy for LS polls Anita Katyal/TNS New Delhi, December 28 The political challenges facing the Congress and the state of the organisation will top the agenda of the two-day ‘chintan shivir’ being organised in Jaipur next month to get the party battle-ready for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The other issues identified for discussion at the brainstorming session include the state of the economy, the agriculture sector and foreign affairs. Senior Congress leaders, who will be chairing the session on each subject, have been asked to put on their thinking caps and prepare draft reports on these subjects which will then be compiled and disseminated to the participants for a wider discussion. While Defence Minister AK Antony has been asked to draw up the report on political challenges, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will be doing the same on organisational matters, Transport Minister CP Joshi on agriculture, AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh on the economy and former Union Minister SM Krishna on foreign affairs. Their reports will set the tone for the two-day deliberations. The session on political challenges and organisational matters will be the most crucial as the Congress is facing its worst credibility crisis today while party structures and cadres are in a state of disarray. As the party heads into assembly elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi, the Congress has to ensure that its faction-ridden state units present a united front, are headed by strong leaders and put up an effective fight. The recent Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls have clearly demonstrated the importance of projecting a credible leader with a mass base. The party has necessarily to address itself to the youth as the country has a sizeable young population which is more demanding and wants quick results, a trend which was discernible during the street protests against graft and the gang rape of a young girl in the Capital. With less than eighteen months left for the next general election, the chintan shivir faces the tough task of energising its cadres which have been feeling demoralised following the electoral defeats suffered by the Congress during the year and the growing public disenchantment with the party. The alienation of the middle class voters, which had gravitated towards the Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, is a major worry for the party. While the growing clout of regional parties is a big challenge for the Congress, it has been further challenged by the proliferation of Muslim parties like Peace Party and the AUDF which are eroding the party’s minority support base. Another source of concern for the Congress is its inability to implement its agenda at the Centre because of coalition compulsions. Having extended wholehearted support to UPA government’s reforms agenda, the Congress will have to do a balancing act when it articulates its position on economic affairs by ensure that its pro-poor stance is not compromised by its excessive emphasis on liberalisation.
	India, Pak mull N-CBMs to reduce trust deficit Ashok Tuteja/TNS New Delhi, December 28 India and Pakistan are believed to have considered a series of nuclear CBMs, including the possibility of Islamabad joining global talks on the Fissile Material Cut off Treaty (FMCT), at the seventh round of expert level talks on the issue between the two countries here today. The FMCT talks at the Conference on Disarmament (CoD) in Geneva can move forward only by consensus. Therefore, Pakistan ought to be on board for concluding the talks. Pakistan has so far refused to join the talks, arguing that any deal must also require India to reduce its existing stockpile. Islamabad also claims that India's nuclear initiative has made things much difficult for it. India, on the other hand, has taken the stand that if the existing stockpiles were to be made part of the negotiations at Geneva, the proposed deal would no longer remain the FMCT and rather become the nuclear weapons convention. The two sides also considered fresh CBMs in a bid to lower the level of trust-deficit. The Indian delegation at today's meeting was led by D B Venkatesh Varma, Joint Secretary (Disarmament) in the External Affairs Ministry while the Pakistani side was headed by Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Additional Secretary in the Foreign Ministry. The talks, which were held in a cordial and constructive atmosphere, focused on review of implementation and strengthening of existing CBMs in the framework of the Lahore MoU, as well as possibilities for mutually acceptable additional CBMs, a joint statement said.
	Cold claims 15 more lives in UP New Delhi, December 28 As many as 15 more person succumbed to extreme cold in north India as minimum temperatures continued to fall across the region. In Delhi, the maximum temperature was recorded at 19 degree celsius, 2 degrees less than normal and the minimum was 6.3 degree celsius, 1 degree less than the usual temperature. Chilly winds swept large parts of Uttar Pradesh, claiming 15 more lives. Three persons each lost their lives in Mirzapur, Jhansi and Ballia followed by two deaths in Varanasi and one death each in Sant Kabirnagar, Chandauli, Azamgarh and Baghpat. The meteorological office said maximum temperatures were 6 to 13 degree Celsius below normal in some parts of the state. Night temperature fell in Moradabad, Bareilly and Meerut divisions. The temperature in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Faizabad, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Moradabad, Jhansi and Meerut divisions was also below normal. Lowest minimum temperature in the state was 1.8 degree Celsius recorded at Muzaffarnagar. According to Sources in the meteorological department, weather would be mainly dry in the state and fog would occur in most parts. The meteorological office said visibility would be 200 m or even less in some parts of the state. Cold wave swept across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with minimum temperatures plummeting up to three notches below normal while fog and mist continued to play havoc with normal life in most parts of the region. “The minimum temperature hovered between 6 degree Celsius above the normal temperature to three notches below the normal temperature in most parts of Punjab and Haryana with cold winds blowing across the region,” said the meteorological office.—PTI
	RTI activist sends notice to chief of US website Tribune News Service Lucknow, December 28 Lucknow based RTI activist Nutan Thakur today sent a legal notice to New York based ceo and editor-in-chief of a US website for an unsubstantiated article describing Congress President Sonia Gandhi as the 4th richest politician in the world. The notice was sent to the businessinsider.com head Henry Blodget with reference to an article about Congress President Sonia Gandhi, “Meet the 23 Richest Politicians in the World” by Natalia Angulo on March 2, 2012. The article places Sonia Gandhi at 4th richest politician in the world assessing her net worth between 2-19 billion US dollars. According to Thakur, the article quotes websites like World's Luxury Guide along with OpenSecrets.org, Forbes.com, Bloomberg.com, Wikipedia.org and Guardian.co.uk to substantiate its point. Thakur said, “World's Luxury Guide website could not display the pages. The requested page could not be found. There is no reference to Sonia Gandhi’s wealth in any of the other websites too.” Thakur said, “It is clear that the writer Angulo was well aware that her article regarding Gandhi’s was not based on authoritative sources.” “The article comes under the category in which deliberately a false statement was used against the person concerned to deeply harm her in various ways. It has also given a bad reputation to India,” the notice observes. Thakur said this constitutes criminal and civil offences under various provisions of law in India and must also be so in the US. The violation is covered under the IPC Sections 193 (fabricating false evidence), 195 (fabricating false evidence for conviction), 426 (mischief) and 505 (statement conducting to public mischief) along with Section 500 (Defamation), pointed out Thakur. In her notice she has requested the editor of website to either get the facts verified or clarify in print how and on what basis the article had been written. Thakur also requested suitable legal action against the writer if the facts were found to be without substance.
	Tribal girl raped in Gujarat Our Correspondent Ahmedabad, December 28 A class-VIII tribal student was allegedly raped by her 19-year-old neighbour in the temple town of Ambaji in north Gujarat on Thursday night. The police is looking for the accused, Dillip Vargi, also a tribal. The police said the accused, known to the victim, lured her with the promise of marriage when she approached him to help her with studies. The accused took her to a secluded place and allegedly raped her before fleeing. The girl was taken to the Ambaji government hospital today for a medical check-up where the doctors confirmed rape. A large number of women held a rally in Unjha town demanding stern punishment for the perpetrators of crime against women.
	NIA to arrest Samjautha accused for Malegaon blasts Mumbai, December 28 Months after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the investigation into the 2006 Malegaon bombings, the anti- terror agency is set to arrest a suspect in the case, who is currently in Delhi Police custody for the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts. The suspect, Rajender Chaudhary, will be produced before a special court here in January 3. The Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court today issued a production warrant for Chaudhary in connection with the Malegoan blasts, which according to NIA, were the handiwork of right wing groups. "The court has issued a production warrant and he will be brought to the court on January 3," Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian said. The multiple bomb explosions in Malegaon, a communally-sensitive powerloom town in Nashik district, about 200 km from here, had occurred near a mosque on September 8, 2006, killing 37 people and injuring over 100. The alleged role of Chaudhary in the terror attack came out through statements of some of the right wing activists who are in custody of NIA in different cases, sources in the National Investigation Agency said. More arrests will follow once Chaudhary is taken into custody and interrogated, they said. After the explosions, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested nine suspects — Salman Farsi, Shabir Ahmed, Noorulhuda Doha, Rais Ahmed, Mohammed Ali, Asif Khan, Javed Sheikh, Faroogue Ansari and Abrar Ahmed. — PTI
	Andhra ups bounty on Maoist heads Tribune News Service Hyderabad, December 28 As part of a strategy to stamp out ultra left extremism, Andhra Pradesh Government has announced a substantial increase in the cash rewards on the heads of Maoist top guns. According to a recent order issued by the Home Department, the bounty on Naxalites’ heads ranges from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. The highest reward of Rs 25 lakh has been proposed for the capture or surrender of high-ranking central committee members of CPI (Maoist) like Ganapati alias Muppala Lakshman Rao, central military commission secretary Namballa Kesava Rao, Dandakaranyam area in-charge Mallojula Venugopala Rao, Katakam Sudarshan, Malla Raji Reddy, Rama Krishna and central military commission members Tipparti Tirupati. “If a Maoist surrenders, the reward money will be given to him. If he is killed in an encounter, it will be shared between the informant and the policemen involved in the exchange of fire,” said a top police official. These rewards are in addition to what the Central Government has announced for the capture or surrender of Maoist leaders. The bounty on the heads of central committee members would go up from the present Rs 12 lakh to Rs 25 lakh while state committee members will carry a reward of Rs 15 lakh each as against Rs 10 lakh now. Similarly, the rewards have been hiked for regional committee members from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, district committee secretaries from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, district committee members from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, commanders of a guerilla squad from Rs 2 to Rs 3 lakh, deputy commandants from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh and squad members from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The Centre has already revised the incentives for surrender of weapons, offering Rs 5 lakh to anyone laying down a light machine gun (LMG), and Rs 3 lakh to those depositing an AK-47 assault rifle. According to official figures, there are about 335 underground Maoist leaders from AP operating within or outside the state. This is the lowest figure in the three-decade-old history of the extremist movement. A majority of the top Maoist leaders have been operating from outside the state, particularly in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. The policy of fixing rewards had drawn flak from the civil rights groups in the past who alleged that it amounted to encouraging police to indulge in fake encounters and eliminate large number of Naxalites and their sympathisers for the sake of money. “It is a shame on the part of the government to fix cash rewards on the heads of leaders of revolutionary movements,” said Varavara Rao, Maoist sympathiser and a poet.
	Jayalalithaa warns PM on NCTC Chennai, December 28 A day after walking out of the NDC meet, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today said renewed moves were being made to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) despite opposition to it by several states. “The proposal for the setting up of a single point of control under the Home Ministry for all anti-terrorist measures was objected to by almost all the chief ministers. Co-ordination and not control was considered to be the right way,” she said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The present system of a multi-agency centre at Delhi interacting with the subsidiary multi-agency centres at the level of states was considered to be working well, she said. “The establishment of an operations division under the NCTC with the powers of arrest and seizure and armed with the freedom to operate independent of the state police was a proposal completely unacceptable to even the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states,” she said. “Action in the form of counter-terrorist operations is better left to the state police to perform,” she said. Jayalalithaa said a Rapid Action Counter-Terrorist Force (RACTF) should be created in every state to function under the nodal state agency with liberal Central funds. Jayalalithaa while reminding the Centre of the commitment made at a conference of chief ministers that further action on NCTC would be taken only in consultation with the states, said: “It appears that these commitments are all being thrown to the winds when it comes to the point of considering the views of chief ministers before finalising policy in the ministries of the Union Government". “The situation has deteriorated to such a level that today the views of the chief ministers are not even heard, let alone be considered for policy making. The indifferent treatment meted out to chief ministers at the NDC meeting held yesterday is one such instance,” she said..—PTI
	Book to highlight DRDO’s public friendly face Tribune News Service Bangalore, December 28 “What is the point in launching high technology missiles like Agni and BrahMos when the common Indian is still dying of dengue or malaria spread by mosquito bites?”, cynics often ask such questions to run down Indian achievements in the field of defence technology. Vijaykumar Dillibabu, a young scientist of Bangalore-based Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) lab Gas Turbine Reasearch Establishment (GTRE), has a written a book to answer such critics. “The DRDO not only makes missiles but has also developed mosquito repellent creams, bio-toilets and light weight calipers for public use”, mentions the book written by Dillibabu. Aptly titled ‘Missiles and mosquito bite’, it is a collection of essays written by Dillibabu addressing the central question, that is, does India has world class brain? It has essays on the benefits of R&D in defence technology. The book also includes an interview with Sivadhanu Pillai, CEO, BrahMos, recollecting his association with former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
	Embezzlement charge against Minority Affairs Minister Tribune News Service Bangalore, December 28 The Karnataka State Minorities Commission today filed a complaint against Union Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan before the Lokayukta alleging misappropriation of public money in Amanath Co-Operative Bank by him, when he was its president. The complaint was lodged against Khan and others by the commission chairman Anwar Manippady before upalokayukta SB Majage. It also named land developer Ziaulla Sharieff, Al-Ameen Trust chairman Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, besides some directors and officers of the bank, officials of Karnataka cooperation department and local officials of RBI. According to Manippady, the commission received a complaint on November 6 this year from S Ahmed Ibadullah, a lawyer, on alleged misuse of funds by former presidents of the Bangalore-based bank. He said, “The commission examined the issue and found that though the misappropriation of funds is clearly established, no action has been taken so far against the culprits by either cooperation department, police or RBI.” Manipaddy said as per the 2008 balance sheet of the bank, more than Rs 3,500 crore of misappropriation by benami sanctions to firms owned by relatives of ex-presidents and ex-directors of board was prima facie. He alleged that more than Rs 300 crore was misappropriated by K Rahman Khan, when he was holding the post of the president of the board of directors. Earlier, Karnataka government had registered an FIR against Khan and two others on charges of committing financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 102.02 crore in the bank which was formed in 1977 to help the poor belonging to Muslim community. The FIR accused Khan of granting 48 loans to the extent of Rs 57.66 crore in benami names when he was the bank president during 1989-2002.
	Privilege motion against CPM MLA for ‘sexist’ remark Kolkata, December 28 The Trinamool Congress moved a privilege motion in the state Assembly today against CPM MLA Anishur Rahman for making objectionable remarks against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The West Bengal Human Rights Commission also ordered a suo motu inquiry by DGP N Mukherjee into Rahman’s obscene comments against the Chief Minister. Further, the Alipore Court Bar Association moved criminal proceedings against the CPM leader in the Calcutta High Court. Two days ago, Rahman had accused the Chief Minister of protecting rapists by underplaying their crimes and trying to compensate rape victims with financial aid to evade public criticism. He went on to make a personal attack on the Chief Minister, which drew sharp criticism from the public. President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit is already under fire for his irresponsible remarks on women protesters in Delhi against the gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student. Abhijit, a Congress MP from Jangipure, had to tender an apology after his sister Sharmistha came forward and aplogised on behalf of the family. The CPM leadership has also apologised for Rahman’s remarks against the Chief Minister. — TNS More heat The West Bengal Human Rights Commission has ordered a suo motu inquiry by DGP N Mukherjee into Rahman’s obscene comments against Mamata The Alipore Court Bar Association has moved criminal proceedings against the CPM leader in the Calcutta High Court
	25 fast-track courts for crime against women Tribune News Service Mumbai, December 28 The Maharashtra Government will soon earmark 25 fast-track courts exclusively for crimes against women. The state currently has 100 fast-track courts to tackle criminal matters. According to state Home Minister RR Patil, the state government would soon approach the Bombay High Court to expedite the matter. However, sources in the legal department said that all the fast-track courts are not functioning due to a dearth of judges. “The government will soon fill vacancies to ensure that all the courts begin functioning normally," a senior official said. The fast-track courts were originally set up to hear matters on a day-to-day basis and pronounce the verdict in one-and-a-half months. According to Patil, the 25 fast-track courts reserved for women would do just that to ensure that justice is delivered speedily. "Cases regarding rape and violence against women will be heard daily and hearing held in-camera," Patil told reporters earlier this week. Incidentally, the number of rape cases that are pending before various courts remains high in Maharashtra.