|
|
|
|
|
Reworked anti-rape Bill gets Cabinet nod
PC: Without fiscal cuts, it would have been a disaster
BJP, parties backing UPA, stall crucial Bill
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
15-year run as Cong chief not easy: Sonia
Border talks with Bangladesh next week
HC tells UP to state policy in two weeks
In-laws’ jibes cruelty? Apex court to revisit ruling
|
|
Reworked anti-rape Bill gets Cabinet nod
New Delhi, March 14 The new draft Bill, to be taken up now by an all-party meeting on Monday, will also for the first time recognise a range of non-penetrative sexual offences on women such as stalking, disrobing and voyeurism. These offences replace the outdated notion of “outraging the modesty of woman” contained in Section 509, IPC, and instead acknowledge the demand of women’s groups to address in the law a continuum of sexual assault ranging from stalking to rape (as seen in the Priyadarshini Matoo case). The new Bill marks a major improvement over the 2012 draft the government introduced in Lok Sabha on December 4. That Bill had made rape a gender-neutral crime, failed to include non-penetrative sexual assault and failed to address the issue of forced sexual intercourse on a woman by a man during the period of de facto separation (when decree of separation hasn’t been granted by court). Another improvement is the retention of age of consent for sex at 16 years in deference to the changing biological realities. Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath was isolated on this point as the Cabinet agreed against criminalising consensual sex between teenagers. The new Bill, however, doesn’t address marital rape but is welcome considering the Home Ministry’s High Powered Committee on rape laws had earlier refused to include stalking and voyeurism as offences saying “these can’t be proved in court”. The new Bill makes stalking and disrobing non-bailable offences and voyeurism bailable on first offence and non-bailable subsequently.
Rape redefined
|
|
PC: Without fiscal cuts, it would have been a disaster
New Delhi, March 14 Rising to conclude the debate on the General Budget in the Lok Sabha, he announced that subsidies for UPA's flagship programmes would continue. The Budget for 2013-14 was later passed by the Lok Sabha. It would now be debated in the Rajya Sabha. In a 40-minute defence of his Budget presented on February 28, Chidambaram said, "I speak on behalf of the Prime Minister (who was present in the House) and myself that we were forced to cut expenses to bring down the high fiscal deficit which was leading to rapid inflation." He was referring to mid-year cuts of around Rs 1,10,000 crore imposed this fiscal. He took on critics of the plan to reduce fiscal deficit as he cited three consecutive years of NDA rule (1998-2004) when finance ministers talked about rising deficit and expressed fears. Yesterday, BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi had said" "You are just balancing out (account) books by reducing budgets and patting yourself on the back for reducing fiscal deficit." He said the growth rate of 5.5 per cent projected by the Reserve Bank of India is the third best-behind China and Indonesia-globally. He also questioned critics of the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme saying "This is not a political issue. The scheme is the best way to transfer money. This is indeed a game changer." Yesterday Joshi had come down heavily on the scheme saying "it is like this. I will give you cash you give votes". "We were forced to cut expenses to bring down the high fiscal deficit which was leading to rapid
inflation."
|
||
|
BJP, parties backing UPA, stall crucial Bill
New Delhi, March 14 The Bill was deferred and referred to the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar was saved from the uncomfortable motion of going through the ritual of division of votes -- which would have been the case had the Bill been moved for consideration and passing. The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Bill, 2013, requires to be passed urgently as it has to replace an ordinance, which is expiring shortly. As soon as Kumar began with his introduction to the Bill, members from the BJP, the BSP, the SP and the CPM objected, insisting that it should be referred to the Standing Committee to take all political parties on board, especially because it concerned delimitation of constituencies. Kumar’s argument that the Bill was replacing the Ordinance promulgated by the President and that the government was complying with the Supreme Court’s directions failed to impress the members who demanded due consultations before granting approval. Sitaram Yechury of the CPM said legislative procedures could not be bypassed and even the Supreme Court had not asked the government to do so. Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said that the government had been caught napping on the issue, adding that the judgement came on January 10, 2012, and the government brought the Ordinance a year later after “it woke from a slumber”. Others who insisted on the Bill to the sent to the Standing Committee included Satish Misra of the BSP and Ramgopal Yadav of the SP- both supporters of the Congress-led UPA from outside. Initially Kumar ignored the members' views and insisted that the Supreme Court’s observation was sacrosanct but after Naresh Agarwal of the SP demanded voting he conceded. Kumar, however, sought a specific time frame to be fixed to deal with the issue in the Standing Committee. Going by the sense of the House, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said the matter would be referred to the Standing Committee and the Chairman would fix a time frame for dealing with the issue.
|
||
|
15-year run as Cong chief not easy: Sonia
Sonia has reasons to reflect on this period with immense satisfaction as she successfully steered the party through an extremely rough period to ensure that it remained united and brought it back to power at the Centre for two consecutive terms. But it is also an occasion for her to pause and introspect as the 127-year-old party faces a tough challenge ahead. Having scaled the heights in 2009 when the Congress surprised even itself by winning 206 Lok Sabha seats (the highest since 1991), 66-year-old Sonia today finds herself in the same spot where she was when she took over the party’s reins in 1998 when it was in a state of disarray. The party’s credibility today is badly dented, its cadres are a demoralised lot, the “first family” is once again the target of personal attack while its popularity is fast waning on account of poor governance and corruption scandals. Given this dismal scenario, the forthcoming Assembly elections which will be followed by the 2014 General Election will prove to be an acid test for Sonia. Sonia today acknowledged that heading the Congress had not been easy for her. “It was not an easy task. But it was made possible due to your support and love and affection of the grass-roots and ordinary workers which made the task easier and the credit goes to them,” she told leaders who called on her to congratulate her. Sonia is criticised for her status quoist approach and her inability to take quick and timely decisions. She has also not succeeded in building the Congress as a viable political force in states where regional parties are in command. The Congress remains on the margins in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Odisha with little hope of any revival. Sonia has failed to groom effective regional leaders in states who can take on BJP’s strong chief ministers like Narendra Modi, Raman Singh and Shivraj Singh Chauhan. In fact, she is struggling to hand over the mantle to son Rahul Gandhi whose leadership capabilities remain a matter of debate. Yet, Congress leaders maintain Sonia’s leadership cannot be belittled as she successfully stitched up alliances and brought the party to power in 2004 after a long spell in wilderness.
|
||
|
Border talks with Bangladesh next week
New Delhi, March 14 A delegation of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) led by their Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed will have talks with the BSF team led by their chief Subhash Joshi and representatives of the Union Home Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs. The meeting will begin on March 19. Both the forces will hold talks on a number of issues which are relevant for the security of the open Indo-Bangladesh border including cross-border movement of locals and criminals, smuggling of cattle and narcotics and issues related to Indian insurgents reportedly on the other side of the border. As a symbolic gesture of enhancing confidence building measures (CBMs) between the two countries, both the forces will also play a friendly volleyball match in Delhi on March 16 which will be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs R P N Singh. The DG level talks between the two border guarding forces is a bi-annual affair with each country hosting its counterpart once at its national capital. The BSF guards 4096 km of the Indo-Bangladesh border. — PTI
8 illegal immigrants held in Lucknow
Lucknow: Eight illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Nepal were arrested from Kaiserbagh area of the state capital and fake passports recovered from them. The police today said that the immigrants - three from Nepal and five from Bangladesh - were questioned by sleuths from Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and state Intelligence and security units.
"The group had crossed the border in search of employment. Their handlers remain at large and further probe has been ordered to bust the ring of illegal immigration in the city", the SSP said. — PTI
|
||
|
Compensation for murder Shahira Naim Tribune News Service
Lucknow, March 14 The Division Bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Satish Chandra of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court was responding to a PIL regarding different rates of compensation being paid by the Uttar Pradesh Government in different cases of murder. Petitioner Nutan Thakur had prayed that while Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had paid a compensation of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 20 lakh each in Pratapgarh triple murder, he had not provided any compensation in other murder cases, including that of the Hindu Yuva Vahini district office-bearer Ram Babu Gupta who was killed in Tanda in Ambedkarnagar last week. Citing these double standards, the petition stated that this was against the right to equality enshrined in Indian Constitution. “The Uttar Pradesh Government does not have the right to differentiate cases of murder without sufficient reason,” it pointed out. Urging the High Court to direct the state government to frame a definite policy for compensation in murder cases, the petitioner pleaded that it should pay compensation of a similar amount in all other murder cases that have occurred in recent days.
|
||
|
In-laws’ jibes cruelty? Apex court to revisit ruling
New Delhi, March 14 A three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir set aside the July 27, 2009 verdict on a petition filed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) taking exception to the SC ruling. The 2009 judgment had been delivered by Justices SB Sinha and Cyriac Joseph (both have retired since) on criminal appeal titled “Bhaskar Lal Sharma Vs Monica”. The SC would go into the matter afresh. Monica had filed cases of cruelty and breach of trust against her South Africa-based NRI husband Vikas Sharma and his parents Bhaskarlal and Vimla. Section 498A stipulates that “whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such a woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine”. In the 2009 verdict, the apex court had also held that a mother-in-law giving constant sermons to the daughter-in-law or treating her shabbily by giving her used clothes would not invite prosecution under Section 498A. Further, allegations such as a woman “poisoning the ears of her son” against the daughter-in-law and calling her mother a liar would not come under the meaning of cruelty, it had held. Today’s SC order came on a curative petition filed by the NCW. The apex court also recalled its order, dismissing NCW’s review petition.
|
|
| 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 | |
New Delhi, March 14