|
|
|
|
|
My phone is being tapped, says witness to constable’s collapse
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Victim’s mother collapses
Woman gang-raped, murdered in WB; minor girl assaulted in Gujarat
RAPE & MURDER
New missiles for Navy warships by next summer
UPA mulls Telangana Regional Council
No significant gains on foreign policy front
MoD ‘twist’ leaves SC order on rank pay largely redundant
Karuna criticises Jaya’s remarks
New Year: Mumbai can party till 5.30 am
Assam MLA brings new twist in illegal arms row
Jantar Mantar
|
|
My phone is being tapped, says witness to constable’s collapse
Yogendra, 24, a journalism student, was questioned by officers of the crime branch of Delhi Police after he challenged the police version of the constable Subhash Chand Tomar being beaten by protesters. Constable Tomar, 47, collapsed on Tilak Marg during an anti-rape protest around India Gate Sunday and died of cardiac arrest early Tuesday. Talking to IANS, Yogendra said: "My statement was recorded by the police Thursday, while Pauline's (another witness in her 20s) statement was recorded the next day...but I don't know why they are tapping my phone." "I told the officers what all I said earlier in the media," he said. Police said the constable was trampled upon by the crowd. Yogendra and Pauline said the constable collapsed while chasing the crowd and that he was not beaten or trampled upon by the protesters. While backing Yogendra's version, Pauline explained in detail how their efforts to revive the unconscious policeman failed, and added that she saw "no visible injuries" on the constable's body. TS Sidhu, medical superintendent at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where Tomar died, said Wednesday that the constable had "no major external injury marks except for some cuts on his right knee and bruises on his chest" and "was brought here in a total collapsed stage". Police said they would study video footage from news channels to establish the sequence of events on the day of the incident. Investigators on Wednesday quoted an autopsy conducted on the constable which said he suffered "multiple internal injuries produced with the impact of a blunt object on his neck and chest". They did not talk about a mob attack. — IANS
Victim’s mother collapses
New Delhi, December 30 Doctors at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in west Delhi said the woman underwent through check-ups and was discharged in the evening as "she was doing fine". A doctor said the woman was brought to the hospital at around 8.10 am after her daughter's cremation and was rushed to the Emergency department where she was treated for "grief reaction". Grief reaction comprises somatic and psychological symptoms associated with extreme sorrow or loss, specifically of a loved one. Doctors said the woman appeared very weak and it seemed she had not had proper food while her daughter was battling for life for nearly two weeks. She became unconscious for some time in the morning after the cremation of her daughter, whose body was brought early in the morning from Singapore. "Once she was brought to the hospital, the woman was thoroughly checked. She is completely fine now," Dr S P Barua, Medical Superintendent of the Hospital said. —
PTI
|
|
Woman gang-raped, murdered in WB; minor girl assaulted in Gujarat
Barasat(WB)/Ahmedabad, December 30 In the incident at Jagannathpur in West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district, Police said the woman's son, Alafaz Ali, had filed an FIR last night at Barasat police station stating that his mother was gang-raped and murdered and his father was poisoned and seriously injured. Additional Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Mukherjee said the body of the 45-year old woman was found near a brick kiln last evening bearing sharp wounds on the head. The incident occured when the woman went to look for her husband, a brick-kiln worker last evening. Six persons allegedly assaulted her. Her husband returned home and went to look for his wife when he heard her cry for help and was in turn assaulted, he said. —
PTI
|
||
|
RAPE & MURDER
New Delhi, December 30 This is clear from a Supreme Court judgment delivered earlier this month. “Only in the absence of any matriculation or equivalent certificate or the date of birth certificate from the school first attended, the court needs to obtain the birth certificate given by a corporation or a municipal authority or a panchayat,” a Bench comprising Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipal Misra has ruled, citing earlier SC verdicts. The SC verdict is likely to be used as a guideline for determining the ages of the four accused if any controversy crops up over their dates of birth. The Delhi Police has not disclosed even the name of one of the accused as he is stated to be just a month or two short of completing 18 years of age. Anybody below the age of 18 can’t be tried in a normal court and under laws meant for adults. Such persons would be dealt with by Juvenile Justice Boards under the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 which primarily focuses on reforming the offenders and as such provides for a punishment of only two-three years even for rape and murder. Besides the juvenile, another accused Pawan Gupta, a fruit vendor arrested in the case, is just 18, while two others - gym trainer Vijay Sharma and bus helper Akshay Kumar Singh - are 20. All the four are school dropouts. Only two accused, school bus driver Ram Singh and cleaner Mukesh Singh are above 30, aged 33 and 31 respectively. If convicted, all those above 18 in the case would face a maximum punishment of life term for rape and death sentence for murder. The victim, who had faced the brutal attack in a moving bus on December 18, died yesterday. The SC had made the clarification while setting aide the verdicts of a Sessions Court in Amritsar and the Punjab and Haryana High Court which had treated one Jodhbir Singh, charged with drug trafficking, as an adult on the basis of a village register, ignoring the school certificate which showed him as a juvenile. The SC ruled that the question of obtaining medical opinion from a duly constituted medical board would arise only if the school, corporation, municipal or village records were not available.
|
||
|
New missiles for Navy warships by next summer
New Delhi, December 30 The long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM), being jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI) and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is in the final stages of development. “From now on, all newly inducted Indian naval warships will have these missiles for the protection of strategic assets along the coastline and self-defence,” sources said. The older warships cannot be retrofitted with the system. However, all 18 new warships on order, or under construction, along with the indigenous aircraft carrier, will have these missiles. The new missiles can strike air-borne targets 120 km away. The first warship to have the new set of missiles would be the Kolkata class destroyers. The first of the seven warships of this class is slated to be commissioned in July 2013. The ship is under construction at the Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL), Mumbai. The Rs 2,600-crore project for the LR-SAM aims to develop an advanced naval air-defence system. DRDO and IAI officials have been conducting a series of tests so far. The Indian Navy, along the DRDO and the IAI, will conduct final-user trials in early 2013 on board one of the warships in India before LR-SAM installation. The project is running behind schedule by two years. At a meeting between defence ministry officials of India and Israel in the first week of December, India expressed concern over the delay. It stressed that the mass production of LR-SAM should begin at the earliest. The project was sanctioned in December 2005. So far, the Indian Navy has been relying on Russian-origin “Shtil missiles” and Israeli Barak missiles for its air-defence. These missiles have a range of around 60-70 km. The LR-SAM will be an important upgrade, especially when the Indian Navy has been tasked to dominate an increasingly volatile Indian Ocean region. The LR-SAM variant undergoing testing will have inclined launch. Work is also on to develop another variant having vertical launch. This will save a precious few seconds while counter-attacking an enemy missile. In a real-war scenario, the reaction time to launch an LR-SAM can be less than 30 seconds. A specialised radar will be needed on board warships to locate the incoming threat and then fire the missile. The radars will be part of the kit on board all future Indian Navy warships. The missiles have shown good performance in homing onto desired targets so far. The Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), a DRDO lab, is the Indian partner in the project. It is developing the rear section of the missile.
|
||
|
UPA mulls Telangana Regional Council
Hyderabad, December 30 “Given the bitter regional divide in the state over Telangana issue, the Central leadership is veering round to the view that a middle path will be an ideal option. The current thinking is in favour of adopting Darjeeling model to resolve the Telangana imbroglio,” highly placed sources in Congress said. Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who chaired an all-party meeting on Telangana in Delhi on December 28, had announced that the Centre would take a decision within a month on the demand for separate Telangana state. Though Shinde declined to specify the contours of road map ahead, the party sources say that creation of an autonomous Telangana Council, coupled with an attractive financial package for the region, was under active consideration. “We hope this ad-hoc arrangement will address the concerns of the region. The proposed Council will have adequate powers to prioritise developmental works in the region,” sources said. Though the Telangana protagonists within the ruling party and outside have made it clear that nothing short of a separate state, with Hyderabad as the capital, would satisfy them, the UPA leadership is hopeful of bringing them on board. However, aware of the strong undercurrent of statehood sentiment across Telangana, it will, however, promise to continue its efforts to achieve political consensus on the demand for separate state. The ruling party will cite lack of consensus as the reason for not granting the statehood at this juncture. The Congress leadership is wary of dividing the state as it might trigger similar demands from various regions across the country, a prospect that could spell political disaster for the ruling party ahead of the 2014 General Election. “However, as a way forward and to address the legitimate aspirations of the people of the region, it will announce creation of autonomous council and make a senior Telangana leader as its chairman,” sources said. In fact, Justice BN Srikrishna Commission, appointed by the Centre to go into the issue, had recommended creation of a statutory regional council to address the core socio-economic concerns of Telangana region even while maintaining the unity of AP. “This is the most workable option in the given circumstances and in the best interest of the social and economic welfare of people of all the three regions in the state,” the five-member panel had said in its report in January, 2010. The UPA leadership is said to be convinced about the efficacy of this formula in assuaging the ruffled feelings of the statehood supporters. Already, there is a growing anger among the Telangana protagonists within the party over the “inordinate delay” in taking a decision on the contentious issue. The proposed Regional Council, with a separate budgetary allocation, is expected to boost the development of the backward region. It will be headed by a Chairman who will have the status of Deputy Chief Minister. It would implement the sub-plan for the Telangana region and would be served by its own secretariat headed by an officer of the level of additional chief secretary in the state who would report to the chairman of the council.
Statehood issue
|
||
|
No significant gains on foreign policy front
In the neighbourhood, India’s influence diminished rapidly, thanks to petty domestic politics being allowed to be mixed up with the foreign policy. India failed to fulfill most of the commitments made to the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh, thereby bolstering the BNP-Jamaat alliance. Instead of emerging as a key partner of Sri Lanka in the post-LTTE phase, India finds itself alienated, having voted against the island nation at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March. Even as China’s shadow loomed large over the region, Islamists took reins of power in their hands in the Maldives while India became a mute spectator. In Nepal too, instead of being a dominant player, India now operates inconsequentially on the margins. The less said the better about relations with Pakistan. Islamabad continued to ignore India’s demand for bringing to justice the masterminds of the Mumbai attack. While the two countries did sign a liberalised visa agreement and make progress in enhancing trade links and people-to-people contacts, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s visit to New Delhi in mid-December and some of the controversial remarks made by him yet again reminded India about the hurdles it the path of normalisation. Mutual suspicion and deep distrust marked Sino-Indian relations even in 2012 despite several bilateral engagements between top leaders of the two countries. The border issue remained a major irritant in ties with a solution nowhere in sight. However, bilateral trade continued to boom. China provoked India once again when it started depicting Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as part of the country in its new e-passports. New Delhi resorted to a tit-for-tat response, covering up the controversial map that appears as a watermark on the pages of the latest Chinese passports with a specially redesigned visa that displays India’s version of the border.
|
||
|
MoD ‘twist’ leaves SC order on rank pay largely redundant
Chandigarh, December 30 Not only do the instructions give pay scale upgradation of armed forces officers the go-by, but also leave out the re-fixation of pensions of those who retired before January 1986 as well as consequential benefits for all officers arising out of the implementation of the fifth and sixth pay commissions. Veterans estimate that the new instructions, issued on Friday, are applicable to only about 20,000 officers who were holding the rank of captain to brigadier as on January 1, 1986, where as it should have covered over 80,000 officers, pensioners and widows had the court order been implemented in its letter and spirit. The SC had in 2010 ruled that rank pay, first introduced by the Fourth Pay Commission, is to be included as part of basic pay for the purpose of calculating emoluments, allowances and benefits. Contrary to the recommendations, the orders issued for implementation of the Fourth Pay Commission had deducted rank pay from basic pay, causing financial loss to officers. A similar anomaly arose after the fifth pay commission too. An application by the Union of India before the Supreme Court to recall its order was rejected on September 4, 2012. The court had ordered re-fixation of pay “with effect from January 1, 1986.” By the MoD’s own affidavits and submissions, the implementation of the judgment would involve re-fixing of not only the Fourth Pay Commission but would affect the fifth and sixth pay commissions. The MoD also maintained that it would alter payment of all consequential and resultant benefits of officers and their families wherever applicable. Further in a recently filed affidavit seeking extension of time for implementation of the judgment, the MoD had stated that the judgment related to three successive pay commissions and also affected the benefits of officers who had retired prior to 1986. While the court had ordered re-fixation of scales with effect from January 1, 1986, Para 6 of the MoD instructions issued yesterday grants the benefits to officers “as on 01-01-1986.” “This subtle variation makes world of a difference. The judgment, which was to have a cascading effect on the fixation of pay and pay-scales after January 1, 1986, that is with effect from the fourth pay commission, continuing till date, has been effectively rendered applicable only for those persons who were in receipt of rank pay as on January 1, 1986,” a high court lawyer dealing with service matters pointed out.
|
||
|
Karuna criticises Jaya’s remarks
Chennai, December 30 Charging DMK with inaction in getting the award notified in the Central gazette while in power in Centre and state, Jayalalithaa had said yesterday that people were suspicious if the DMK MPs had orally demanded that the final order should not be notified."This (Jayalalithaa's remarks) amounts to casting aspersion on not only the DMK MPs but also on the Prime Minister's Office," Karunanidhi said in a letter to partymen. Following his statement to the press on December 12 demanding that the final award be notified, he said DMK Parliamentary Party Leader T R Baalu had led a delegation of MPs to meet the Prime Minister to take up the matter. "Immediately they met the Prime Minister who had assured to look into the matter. This had appeared in all newspapers on December 18, 2012. But in her own style, Jayalalithaa had made wrong allegations about this," he said. Jayalalithaa had yesterday said that if the DMK MPs had indeed sought notifying the Cauvery Tribunal order, it must have been given in writing and Karunanidhi should have released that to the media which had not been done, saying this made it clear there was no written representation. "With Karunanidhi, whose party has been in power in the Centre and state for four years not insisting his MPs to meet the Prime Minister all the time, and the fact that AIADMK MPs have not been allotted time with the Prime Minister to discuss the issue.... seeing this now there is a strong suspicion in the minds of people if the DMK MPs had orally demanded that the final order should not be notified," she had said.
|
||
|
New Year: Mumbai can party till 5.30 am
Mumbai, December 30 According to a decision taken by the state home department, owners of hotels, restaurants and bars won't have to down shutters at 1.30 am as on normal days though they will not be allowed to use loudspeakers after 10 pm on New Year's Eve. With a large number of people expected to be on the streets till the wee hours of New Year's Day, Mumbai's famed local trains will ply till 2.30 am. The government also wants the civic-owned BEST buses to ply till the wee hours, officials said. "People have a sense of safety when public transport is operational late in the night. Also those partying late won't be fleeced by taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers," says an official of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) which operates the signature red buses on Mumbai's streets. The state administration has also deployed police personnel at all public places to ensure the safety of women who come out to enjoy New Year's Eve. "We have increased patrolling at all public places and special squads are being deployed to nab eve-teasers and other anti-social elements," Mumbai's police commissioner Satyapal Singh said. These special squads have been set up at all police stations in the city and investigations into complaints will be overseen by the zonal Deputy Commissioners of Police, Singh told reporters earlier this week. The tightening of security follows molestation of women in previous years at Juhu beach and the Gateway of India. In one instance, a woman was almost stripped by a group of revellers some years ago after her companion was beaten up. This year, a number of policewomen in plainclothes have been deployed to catch offenders red-handed, police said. Police personnel have also been equipped with cameras and will use footage from CCTVs at different places to arrest anti-social elements, officials said. Leaves of all police personnel have been cancelled and policemen from VIP duty have been withdrawn and redeployed for bandobust duties, according to sources. The authorities have also roped in Home Guards and State Reserve Police personnel to ensure that New Year celebrations go off smoothly in Mumbai.
|
||
|
Tourists flock to Pink city
Jaipur, December 30 Those in event business have chosen different and unique themes like 'Bhangra masti', 'Arabian nights' to Ghazal and Qawwali programmes to add to the excitement of New Year eve. Sanjay Kaushik, a tour operator, said people, especially students, were arriving in the city from parts of Haryana, Delhi and other states. "Season this year is good and visitors are heading to other cities including Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaisalmer besides Jaipur to celebrate new year," Kaushik told PTI. Amit Kothari, a hotel manager, said response from people has been heartwarming this year and most of the bookings has already been done. Another trend noticed this year has been a shift of venues from traditional hotels and clubs to farm houses and resorts on the outskirts of the city. Party organisers are offering pool-side dance, light shows, fireworks, lavish buffet and beverages along with DJs, dance performers from places like Delhi, Russia and Dubai. "People now prefer to attend parties in resorts and farm houses to avoid hustle bustle of the city and traffic chaos so we planned our party in Kanota, 12 kms from the city," a party organiser Dushyant said. The price of tickets to enter such parties range from few hundreds to Rs 10,000 for a couple, he said. Meanwhile, security arrangements have been tightened to prevent any untoward incident and road mishaps. Police Commissioner BL Soni said additional force has been deployed to keep strict vigil on New Year eve. — PTI
|
||
|
Assam MLA brings new twist in illegal arms row
Guwahati, December 30 The legislator accused Mohilary of leading the BPF in an autocratic way thereby creating rift in the society, key reasons behind the communal violence that rocked the BTC area recently. Basumatary stated there was nothing new in use of illegal weapons in the BTC area to serve the interests of Mohilary and his core team. He raised question about the way the BPF-led by Mohilary has raised hue and cry over the recent directive of Assam Governor JB Patnaik to seize all the illegal weapons available in the BTC area. Basumatary accused Mohilary of converting the BPF party, which has been in power in the BTC since the formation of the council, into his fiefdom where senior leaders no longer have any say. Basumatary who was stated to be expelled from BPF for indulging in anti-party activities, said he was not yet served with any formal communication in black and white from the party regarding his reported expulsion and said he continued to remain a member of BPF legislature party. Meanwhile, a senior BPF leader Chandan Brahma who known to be close to Mohilary, has dismissed the allegation made by party MLA Basumatary against the BTC chief as ‘baseless and motivated’. Brahma stated that people of BTC area knew that Mohilary was not behind the communal clashes and it would be proved in the CBI inquiry into the violence. Brahma also denied availability of illegal weapons with former militants of the now disbanded Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT).
|
||
|
Jantar Mantar
Rahul’s book gift
Mishra and his networking
Guess who is in town these days? It is none other than the controversial NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra who hit the headlines earlier this year when his candidature for a Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand created ripples in the BJP which was supporting him. Mishra has been doing the social rounds during his stay in Delhi and was recently seen at the annual Christmas lunch hosted last week by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise at their residence. The hosts were apparently clueless about Mishra’s presence and said that he had come uninvited. Mishra has been keeping a low profile during this visit. Relatively unknown but obviously well-networked , Mishra arrived on the media scene when several BJP leaders, including Yashwant Sinha, took strong objection to party president Nitin Gadkri’s decision to back his candidature to the Upper House. Mishra was eventually forced to withdraw his nomination after a public hue and cry was raised that money was being purchased to buy Rajya Sabha seats.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
A young man who saw a Delhi Police constable collapse and later die during the anti-rape protest near India Gate claimed that his phone was being tapped after police questioned him on Thursday.
New Delhi, December 30
The New Year is likely to herald an ad-hoc treatment to the festering wounds of
Telangana. Facing political heat over the four-decade-old demand for a separate state, the UPA government is said to be actively considering a proposal to constitute an autonomous Telangana Regional Council, on the lines of Darjeeling Hill Council, to put an end to the political uncertainty in Andhra
Pradesh.
New Delhi, December 30
New Delhi, December 30
In the run-up to any election, Congress functionaries entrusted with its responsibility invariably paint a rosy picture about the party’s prospects. As in the case of Uttar Pradesh, AICC general secretary Mohan Prakash was his usual optimistic self about the party’s performance in Gujarat. As Gujarat incharge, he apparently assured Congress president Sonia Gandhi that the party would win 80-85 seats and could even form the government. Congress leaders were rather bemused at Prakash’s optimism since it was evident even to a layman that Narendra Modi was all set to secure a third consecutive victory. More than that, the rank and file is upset over the lack of accountability in the party as those given specific responsibilities are never questioned when they fail to deliver. On the other hand, they are invariably rewarded with a promotion. Mohan Prakash, for instance, continues to enjoy Congress heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi’s confidence. The general secretary was last spotted escorting Rahul and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah when they visited Amethi recently.
When the street protests against the government’s handling of gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in the national capital were at their peak, a rumour went around that Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi was holidaying abroad. As it happened, the young Congress general secretary was very much in Delhi. In fact, he was spotted at a well-known bookshop in Khan Market on Christmas Day going through the titles at a relaxed and leisurely pace. He was quite forthcoming when some media persons approached Rahul Gandhi and asked if he was searching for any particular book. Chatting amiably, he said he was looking for a present for his mother, who is apparently a voracious reader and is also often spotted browsing in bookshops.