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Nitish defends himself on Godhra
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Centre: States using MNREGA funds to ‘wall’ forests
Reprieve likely for 3 MLAs suspended for hitting cop
BABRI DEMOLITION
Jaitley’s phone-tapping case: Four named in chargesheet
Apex court to hear Dutt’s plea today
India to assist Libya in drafting Constitution
10 Naxals killed
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Nitish defends himself on Godhra
New Delhi, April 16 Reflecting the growing rift between the two NDA allies, BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi had yesterday reminded Nitish that he was a part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government when the Godhra incident took place in 2002 and still continued to be a part of the NDA. Taking a cue, RJD chief Lalu Prasad moved in, saying if the CM was so genuinely opposed to Modi why he did not quit as the Railway Minister after the Gujarat riots. While Nitish’s reply was intended for Lalu it was also a rejoinder to the BJP’s observation on his responsibility as the Railway Minister in 2002. “The job of a Railway Minister is to look after railway safety, but the responsibility to look into the problems of law and order is that of the states,” he said in Patna. Ruptures in the NDA surfaced after the JD-U on Sunday virtually vetoed Modi’s much-speculated projection as BJP’s prime ministerial nominee, demanding a “secular” candidate for the job. Whether the Nitish-Modi face-off will split the NDA is to be seen but senior party leaders believe the gap between the two allies is widening. However, despite the visible escalation in the offensive at both ends, the alliance may continue, at least for some more time. According to reports, Nitish was today seen sharing dais with BJP leaders Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh at an event. Both Sushil Kumar Modi and Giriraj Singh had criticised Nitish for his comments on Modi. Officially, the BJP also maintained that there was no threat to the alliance in Bihar. “There is no threat to the alliance in Bihar and it is on. There is also no immediate dispute,” BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain was also quoted as saying in Kolkata. Analysts believe both parties want the other to make the first move. As speculation continues on the future of Bihar’s ruling alliance, JD-U leaders say there is no threat to the Nitish Kumar government even if the BJP walked away. The party needs the support of 122 legislators in a House of 243. The JD-U has 118 legislators and is counting on the support of six Independent legislators. The BJP has 91 legislators, Laloo’s RJD 22, the Congress four and the Lok Janshakti Party and the CPI one each. The BJP state leadership will discuss the issues pertaining to the developing situation in Bihar on April 18. Senior state leaders CP Thakur, Ashwani Choubey, Giriraj Singh and Chandramohan Rai have reportedly told BJP president Rajnath Singh that the party was not growing in Bihar due to the alliance with the JD-U and conveyed their opposition to continuance of ties with it.
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INFO COMMISSIONERS
New Delhi, April 16 A Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and AK Sikri passed the stay order while hearing review petitions against the September 13, 2012 SC judgment on the issue. Only judges should be appointed to the post of CICs in order to make the people’s right to information “more objective and meaningful” and “serve the larger public purpose,” the SC had ruled. The apex court had delivered the verdict on a PIL which had prayed for declaring Sections 12(6) and 15(6) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 as “unconstitutional” as no proper qualification or experience had been prescribed under these sections. Partly allowing the prayer, the SC had said Information Commissions should henceforth work in Benches of two members each. One of the members should be a “judicial member,” while the other an “expert member.” In today’s order, the SC stayed this condition as well. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, arguing for the review petitioners, contended that these two directions had created a lot of uncertainty in the functioning of the commissions. The SC clarified that its stay order was limited to these two points and not the entire judgment running into 107 pages. “We further direct that wherever the CIC is of the opinion that intricate questions of law will have to be decided in a matter coming before the Information Commissioners, he will ensure that the matter is heard by a Bench of which at least one member has knowledge and experience in the field of law,” the stay order said. It also clarified that information commissioners could be appointed to fill up vacancies in accordance with the RTI Act and the judgment under review.
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Centre: States using MNREGA funds to ‘wall’ forests
New Delhi, April 16 In a letter addressed to chief ministers of states, Tribal Affairs Minister KC Deo has lamented the development saying it’s ironic how MNREGA funds were being used in states to build “high stone walls around government forests” thereby denying tribals and traditional forest dwellers access to their own land and produce. The states are using funds from one flagship scheme of the UPA-MNREGA-to thwart the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, also called the Forest Rights Act (FRA). This law seeks to correct the historical injustice done to tribals and recognise and register their preexisting rights over forests. Deo’s letter, written to highlight the continued failure of states to implement FRA despite several revisions in rules, mentions how states hadn’t even yet evolved mechanism to review illegal rejection of claims by tribals over forest land. The minister also added in his communiqué that many states, particularly West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, were using police and forest officials against tribal communities trying to protect forests against felling. “Rejection of rights of tribals is not being reviewed and their land is still being taken over without recognition of rights; this despite the Centre repeatedly seeking a review of illegal rejections. There are instances where the Forest Department has been systematically building high stone walls (ironically with MNREGA funds) around government forests. This is happening regardless of whether people’s rights have been recognised under the FRA or not. People are thus forced to walk for several kilometres to access their land and produce in the forest,” KC Deo says in the letter (a copy is with The Tribune). The Centre admitted that continued mining in Schedule V (tribal) areas was hampering the implementation of the law.
Gram sabhas being throttled
The Centre has written to states questioning the formation of joint forest management committees by forest departments to grant community forest resource rights under the
FRA. In states like Gujarat, Tripura and Jharkhand, no community forest rights are being given on the grounds that JFMs are there. “You can’t equate JFM with a committee appointed by the gram
sabha. That’s against the law,” Deo says.
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Reprieve likely for 3 MLAs suspended for hitting cop
Mumbai, April 16 A formal recommendation by a House panel granting reprieve to Pradeep Jaiswal (Independent), Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena) and Jaykumar Rawal of the BJP is likely to be made in the coming days, say sources. Based on an FIR filed by police officer Sachin Suryavanshi who was assaulted on the Assembly premises last month, the Mumbai police had arrested Kshitij Thakur of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi and Ram Kadam of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Both of them have been released on bail. There is no case against the other three MLAs thus making it easier for them to return to the House, sources said. During their suspension, MLAs are not allowed to enter the legislature premises. Several MLAs cutting across party lines had opposed the measure.
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SC to take up CBI appeal after hearing Advani,
others Legal Correspondent
The CBI has filed the appeal challenging the dropping of the conspiracy charge against Advani and MM Joshi by a trial court which was subsequently upheld by the Allahabad High Court. After being asked by a Bench comprising Justices HL Dattu and JS Khehar to explain the delay, the CBI said the delay was due to several reasons, including the need to translate voluminous documents in Hindi to English and the pre-occupation of government law officers with the 2G Spectrum case. CBI’s senior counsel PP Rao pleaded with the court that irreparable damage would be caused if the appeal was rejected on account of delay. He pleaded for condoning the delay without hearing arguments of Advani and others. Pointing out that counsel for Advani and others were pleading for the dismissal of CBI’s appeal only on account of the delay, the Bench said it would hear their arguments before admitting its appeal. The CBI has challenged the May 21, 2010, order the Allahabad High Court months after missing the 90-day deadline. The HC had upheld the May 4, 2001, decision of the Special Judge, holding trial at Rae Bareilly, to drop conspiracy charges against Advani and 20 others, including Vinay Katiyar (BJP), Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharati and Mahant Avaidyanath (all former BJP leaders) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Ram Vilas Vedanti and Paramhans Rmachandra Das. The Rae Bareilly court is, however, proceeding with the trial against them on the charges of promoting enmity between classes (Section 153A of the IPC), circulating rumours to disturb public peace (Section 505 of the IPC) and making statements prejudicial to national integration (Section 153B of the IPC).
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Jaitley’s phone-tapping case: Four named in chargesheet
New Delhi, April 16 Out of the 52 CDRs, 30 were obtained by using the official email-id of the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) (Operations), New Delhi,. The ACP is the complainant in the case. The chargesheet was filed by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Bansal. The next hearing in the case will take place on April 30. “Anurag was obtaining these CDRs for the purpose of finding contacts in the circles of political or business or media houses, which he thought could be exploited in his efforts of rescuing himself from the criminal legal processes staring at him in the Amar Singh phone-tapping case,” reads the chargesheet. In the present case, investigators claim, “an official email-id of the Delhi Police had been used to seek CDRs of a mobile phone number, belonging to Arun Jaitley.” They discovered that a leading service provider sent Jaitley’s CDR to the ACP’s email-id. According to the police, Anurag and Nitish ran a racket of obtaining CDRs through Neeraj and Arvind. The CDRs were first received on the email-id of the ACP, New Delhi, and then sent to other email-ids that the accused had created.
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Apex court to hear Dutt’s plea today
New Delhi, April 16 A Bench headed by P Sathasivam said the plea would be taken up tomorrow when Justice BS Chauhan would be part of his Bench which had delivered the verdict on Dutt’s appeal against his six-year conviction by the trial court. His petition was listed for hearing today but Justice Sathasivam told senior counsel Harish Salve that it would be appropriate if the matter was taken up tomorrow. Today, Justice MY Eqbal was part of his Bench.
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India to assist Libya in drafting Constitution
New Delhi, April 16 Libyan President Mohammad Yousef Al-Magarief and Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told Ahamed that their country desired to be benefited from India’s experience in strengthening democratic institutions in the Arab republic. Ahamed conveyed to them India’s readiness to extent all possible assistance to Libya in political transition and rebuilding the economy. Sources said India, with its vibrant democratic institutions, was fast emerging as a role model for new democracies across the world, especially those born after the ‘Arab Spring.’ India had also assisted Egypt in drafting its Constitution as also in the conduct of elections there. Sources said a high-level team of Indian jurists and legal experts was expected to visit Libya soon to suggest how the new Constitution could be drafted based on the needs of the Arab country. A delegation of the Constitution and Legislative Committee of the Libyan General National Congress was in India recently to take lessons in Constitution-drafting and legislation preparation from the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training of the Lok Sabha. Ahmed’s visit is the first high-level interaction between India and Libya after the 2011 revolution that ousted Dictator Muammar Gaddafi from power after four decades of rule. Both the Libyan President and the Prime Minister have soft corner for India, having been associated with this country in one way or another. The President was the Libyan Ambassador to Delhi from 1978-1981 while the Prime Minister studied at the
JNU.
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10 Naxals killed
Raipur, April 16 Eleven guns and ammunition were recovered from the scene in Puwarti village under Jagargunda police station area of the district in south Bastar. Acting on a tip-off, a search operation was launched by a special commando unit of Andhra Pradesh, the CRPF and state police force early this morning. “The Naxals opened fire and in the retaliatory action, nine were killed and several others injured,” IGP (Bastar) said. — PTI
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New Delhi, April 16