The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Shashi Kant sworn in as new CAG
New Delhi, May 23
Even as a public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court and the Opposition raised propriety questions, Shashi Kant Sharma was today sworn in as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of the country by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

4 new colleges to come up on defence varsity campus
Binola (Gurgaon), May 23
The Indian National Defence University (INDU) will be set up as a fully autonomous institution constituted under an act of Parliament. While the President of India would act as the Visitor, the Defence Minister will be its Chancellor. The vice-chancellor, who will carry the rank of President of INDU, will be an officer in the rank of the Army Commander or equivalent from the IAF or the Navy. The vice-chancellor’s selection will be based on merit and qualifications. Rank-seniority, a major factor in deciding postings in the forces, will not be a determining factor.

Chandila ‘paid Rs 12 lakh for spot-fixing in IPL-5’
New Delhi, May 23
Ajit Chandila was allegedly paid Rs 12 lakh by a bookie for spot-fixing in the last year’s IPL but the attempt to manipulate matches failed as the cricketer could not play many matches, Delhi Police sources claimed today.

UPA not interested in food, land Bills: BJP
New Delhi, May 23
Policemen use water cannons on Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha workers during a protest against alleged corruption by the UPA government in New Delhi on Thursday. The BJP today accused the Congress of covertly stalling the National Food Security Bill and misleading the people with wrong facts and figures on the country's economic situation. A day UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticised the saffron party of disrupting Parliament proceedings and preventing crucial legislations from being passed at the UPA-II's fourth anniversary bash,

Angry voices: Policemen use water cannons on Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha workers during a protest against alleged corruption by the UPA government in New Delhi on Thursday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Mumbai woman hangs self as husband watches on webcam
Mumbai, May 23
A 27-year-old woman hanged herself to death even as her husband helplessly watched her die on webcam. According to police, the incident happened on Wednesday at the woman’s home in suburban Vile Parle. After an argument with her husband, the woman put the camera of her laptop on recording mode and hanged herself to death from the ceiling fan.

GoM meets on CBI autonomy
New Delhi, May 23
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) today opposed scrapping of the provision which requires the CBI to seek government's permission for probing bureaucrats in corruption cases.

AIDS control support project cleared
New Delhi: The government on Thursday approved a proposal by the Department of AIDS Control for the implementation of National AIDS Control Support Project. The clearance for the project came at the meeting of the CCEA. — TNS

Blast on Assam Rifles premises
AIZWAL: An explosion ripped through a temple inside the premises of the 26th battalion Assam Rifles in Aizwal early Thursday morning. The explosion shattered 26 window panes and some window frames, the police said. PTI

433 'fake' arms licences in Amritsar
GS Paul/TNS

Amritsar, May 23
Following the busting of a fake arms licences racket in Patiala in October last year, around 433 suspected fake arms licences have been unearthed in Amritsar now.

Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal has lodged a complaint in this connection at the Civil Lines police station. A case has been registered under Sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

The administration has already initiated the process of issuing notices to such arms licence holders. They have been asked to furnish requisite information by a stipulated date or else criminal proceedings would be initiated against them.

The Amritsar team undertook the scrutiny of arms licences issued after 1993 and found that the number of suspicious arms licences was much more than what was estimated earlier. The exercise was initiated in Amritsar at the instance of the Patiala police, which had then put the number of suspected fake licences at 291 in Amritsar alone.

The probe team has reportedly found involvement of some arms branch officials in the issuance of fake licences. Several licences have been issued by preparing duplicate files of already existing licences. In some cases, signatures of the authorities concerned had also been forged. Rajat Aggarwal said most of these licences were issued by making double entries.

"During the over five-month-long probe, we were able to zero in on 433 suspicious arm licences. The addresses of these licence holders fall under the jurisdiction of 18 police stations. They are being issued notices to furnish details of their antecedents. Let's see how many of them come forward to furnish the information by the stipulated date. Licences of those not coming forward would be terminated and criminal proceedings initiated against them," he added.

Earlier, the Patiala police had arrested Gaurav Arora, owner of the Amritsar-based Arora Gun House, and seized 17 weapons, including guns and pistols, from his possession.

The police had claimed that Arora, in connivance with some officials in the Amritsar arms licence branch, procured fake licences for several persons belonging to Delhi, Haryana and other states. He charged each of them between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000. All these persons were shown residents of Amritsar for the purpose of issuing arms licences.

Under the package, the customer was to buy weapons from his gun house only. The racket was busted after a team of the Rajpura-Patiala police arrested two Noida residents, Parveen Kaur and Prem Mohan, from Shambhu barrier. They were in possession of fake licences and weapons purchased from Arora Gun House.

FORGERY AT WORK

Most of these licences were issued by preparing duplicate files of the already existing arms licences

In some cases, signatures of the authorities concerned were also forged

Some officials of the Amritsar arms branch were reportedly involved in the racket

Suspected fake arms licence holders have been issued notices to furnish requisite information by a stipulated date

Criminal proceedings would be initiated against all those who failed to do so in the allotted time

	Delhi’s shame Departmental probe on against 7 policemen New Delhi, May 23 The Centre today informed the Delhi High Court that departmental inquiry has been initiated against seven policemen in connection with the December 16 gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus here. Those policemen, who were manning the PCR van in the locality through which the bus had passed, have also come under the scanner of inquiry. Appearing for Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rajeeve Mehra told the bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath that "departmental inquiry has been initiated against as many as seven police personnel including staff of a PCR van who were on duty on December 16, 2012". The senior law officer told the bench that communication was sent to police commissioner in this regard. The senior counsel also sought more time for government to act upon the recommendations of Justice Usha Mehra Commission, constituted to look into various issues relating to safety of women in Delhi. Earlier, the court had asked the MHA to file an affidavit detailing the departmental action taken against policemen who were manning the PCR van in the locality where the incident had happened. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police informed the bench that it has taken initiatives to give training to its personnel on gender sensitisation and crime against women and submitted the Police Calendar 2013 before it showing how the agency intends to go about providing the training. The court recorded the submission of special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan that as per the police calendar, the training courses will be provided to personnel from constable to inspector levels for five days every month over gender sensitisation. He also submitted that one day in each of the next three months, will be allocated to provide training on issues related to crime against women. — PTI
	Mamata govt to take over two Saradha group TV channels Subhrangshu Gupta/TNS Kolkata, May 23 The West Bengal Government has decided to take over two Bangla TV channels owned by the Saradha chit fund group. Announcing this at the Writers Buildings here today, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the government would “temporarily” take over the management of two channels and run them. The government would sanction Rs 16,000 for every employee of these channels from the Chief Minister’s relief fund for the time being. Mamata said the government was exploring legal opinions if it could permanently take over these channels and run these as official channels in future. The CM said over 4 lakh defrauded depositors and agents of the Saradha group had submitted applications to the Shyamal Sen’s judicial commission requesting for the return of their deposited money. The commission would advise the government how these depositors could be given financial relief or compensated otherwise. Leader of Opposition Suryakanto Mishra said it was good that the CM decided to take over the two Bangla channels. But he wondered if the government could legally do so as the chit fund issue had been lying in the court.
	Gang of girl traffickers busted Manas Dasgupta Ahmedabad, May 23 The Gujarat Police is claimed to have busted a gang allegedly involved in abducting young girls from border areas of Rajasthan and “selling” them in tribal areas of Gujarat. The issue came to light after a young married girl kidnapped from Rajasthan was rescued from the clutches of a middle-aged tribal in Banaskantha district in a joint operation by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police. The girl was kidnapped in February this year while she was going from her in-laws’ house in Gaupipla village in Rajasthan to her parents’ house in the neighbouring Jogiwad village, near Udaipur. She was reportedly “kidnapped” by her cousin Laxman with the help of his three accomplices. She was brought to Ganer village in Sabarkantha district of north Gujarat and was kept in the house of one Ramji. The girl told the police that she was repeatedly raped by Ramji’s younger brother Popat for five days. The gang managed to strike a deal with one Hira in Charna village in the neighbouring Banaskantha district. Hira told the police that he “purchased” the girl for Rs 70,000. The girl’s father lodged a police complaint about his “missing” daughter at the Kotda police station, near Udaipur, on April 7 following which the police had been on her trail. In a joint operation, police teams of the two states not only rescued the girl, but also managed to arrest all four accused who kidnapped her. Girl’s buyer Hira had also been arrested.
	PGI ex-Director Talwar replaced as MCI chairman Aditi Tandon/TNS New Delhi, May 23 Former Director of PGI Chandigarh KK Talwar was replaced today as Chairman of the Board of Governors of Medical Council of India with the Ministry of Health approving a new team comprising seven members. Talwar will be replaced as BOG Chairman by former Director General Health Services Dr RK Srivastava who retired a while ago from service. New members in the BOG include BK Rao, Chairman of Critical Care Unit of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi; Manoj Kumar Singh, pathologist from AIIMS, New Delhi, Raja Babu Panwar, Vice chancellor of Rajasthan Health University; and Dr AB Bardhan, a cardiologist from Kolkata. Only two members of the outgoing BOG have been retained in the new team. These are K Mohan Das, V-C of Kerala University and Kailash Sharma, who works for the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai. The new seven member team was approved by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today. The government will issue a notification in this respect by tomorrow giving the new BOG a term of six months. The ordinance for reconstitution of the MCI will also be issued tomorrow. The ordinance will mention that the new BOG will have a term of six months within which elections to the MCI will be held to restore its erstwhile character. The term of outgoing MCI BOG ended on May 14 this year and a new Ordinance was required to give life to it. The Cabinet approval for issuing the ordinance came last week.
	Shashi Kant sworn in as new CAG Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 23 Even as a public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court and the Opposition raised propriety questions, Shashi Kant Sharma was today sworn in as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of the country by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan here. The 61-year-old 1976 Bihar cadre IAS officer replaced Vinod Rai, who superannuated yesterday after a five-and-a-half year eventful tenure as the head of the CAG, embarrassing the government on various occasions. “Shashi Kant Sharma will have a tenure up to September 24, 2017,” an official statement said. He was holding the post of Defence Secretary prior to this new assignment. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP leader LK Advani, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari and Congress leader Rajiv Shukla, among others. Sharma took over the hot seat at the CAG office here even as a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court challenging his appointment. The Opposition called it a case of conflict of interest. The CAG is appointed for a term of six years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65. Sharma handled several defence acquisitions before being appointed as the CAG. The Supreme Court will now hear the matter in July. BJP leader Arun Jaitley said he was not making any comments on the individual but it was an “institutional conflict of interest”. Pointing out that a substantial part of the budget was spent on defence procurement, he questioned, “He will audit it himself. Is it appropriate?” Incidentally, Sharma's appointment comes at a time when CAG has come under sharp attack from the government and ruling party for its reports on assessment of Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss in allocation of 2G spectrum. Sharma, a Bihar cadre IAS officer, will have to handle, among other reports, the audit report on AgustaWestland chopper deal. He was closely associated with the deal from its early days till its completion in 2010. Reports have suggested that Rai, before demitting the office, has already made the draft report regarding the AgustaWestland chopper deal. His earlier reports on the 2G spectrum and coal blocks allocation had raised the hackles of the government, besides bringing in the concept of presumptive loss in audit. Sharma, who holds a masters degree in political science from the University of York, has served as secretary in the department of financial services. He has spent over 10 years in the defence ministry in different capacities. Aam Aadmi Party leader and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan has flayed Sharma’s appointment as the CAG, terming it illegal and unconstitutional. Appointment challenged A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging his appointment The Opposition called it a case of conflict of interest He handled several defence acquisitions before being appointed as the CAG BJP leader Arun Jaitley said his appointment has resulted in an "institutional conflict of interest" Saying that a substantial part of budget was spent on defence procurement, he questioned, "He will audit it himself. Is it appropriate?"
	4 new colleges to come up on defence varsity campus Tribune News Service Binola (Gurgaon), May 23 The Indian National Defence University (INDU) will be set up as a fully autonomous institution constituted under an act of Parliament. While the President of India would act as the Visitor, the Defence Minister will be its Chancellor. The vice-chancellor, who will carry the rank of President of INDU, will be an officer in the rank of the Army Commander or equivalent from the IAF or the Navy. The vice-chancellor’s selection will be based on merit and qualifications. Rank-seniority, a major factor in deciding postings in the forces, will not be a determining factor. The varsity would develop and propagate higher education in defence studies, defence management, defence science and technology and promote policy-oriented research related to national defence. Four new colleges will be set up under the varsity at its Binola Campus -- National College of Defence Studies (NCDS), Indian Institute of Defence Technology (IIDT), Indian Institute of Defence Management (IIDM) and Defence Institute of Distance & Open Learning (DIDOL). Existing defence institutions such as the National Defence College, New Delhi; College of Defence Management (CDM), Secunderabad; Defence Service Staff College Wellington; and National Defence Academy, Pune; are proposed to be brought under the ambit of the Indian National Defence University without diluting their powers or autonomy for award of degrees and diplomas. These existing institutions will continue to function in the existing administrative set up and will continue to enjoy existing powers, academic freedom and autonomy. The varsity will conduct courses of varying durations on subjects ranging from strategic studies, war gaming and simulation, neighbourhood studies, counter insurgency and counter terrorism, Chinese studies, evaluation of strategic thought, international security issues, maritime security studies, Eurasian studies, South East Asian studies, material acquisition, joint logistics, national security strategy in peace and war, etc. Diverse faculty Teaching faculty will for the varsity be drawn from the armed forces, civil services, paramilitary forces, friendly foreign countries, diplomats, academics and strategic planners, among others Existing defence institutions such as the National Defence College, New Delhi; College of Defence Management, Secunderabad; Defence Service Staff College Wellington; and National Defence Academy, Pune; are proposed to be brought under the ambit of the Indian National Defence University These existing institutions will continue to function in the existing administrative set up and will continue to enjoy existing powers, academic freedom and autonomy
	Chandila ‘paid Rs 12 lakh for spot-fixing in IPL-5’ Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 23 Ajit Chandila was allegedly paid Rs 12 lakh by a bookie for spot-fixing in the last year’s IPL but the attempt to manipulate matches failed as the cricketer could not play many matches, Delhi Police sources claimed today. Sources said Chandila gave three cheques of Rs 4 lakh each, two of which bounced, after the alleged bookie-cum-fixer Sunil Bhatia insisted on repayment of the money as he did not deliver as promised under the deal. The sources also said the police has issued look-out notices against some persons in connection with the spot-fixing scandal besides asking official broadcaster Setmax to provide raw footage of all matches involving Rajasthan Royals. Investigators claimed that Bhatia paid the money to the off-spinner last year and after he could not act according to the fixers, the player was asked to return the money. Chandila, the sources claimed, could play only three to four matches last year and that was why he could not do spot-fixing. Bhatia, they said, wanted Chandila to return the money. On Sreesanth said, the official said, the pacer fought with coach Paddy Upton under the influence of alcohol for not including him in the playing team after the May 9 match in which the police claimed that he indulged in spot-fixing. “He consumed alcohol and fought with the coach after he was excluded from the team after the May 9 match. For this, he was suspended from the team. That was why he was not staying in Hotel Trident where players were staying.
	UPA not interested in food, land Bills: BJP Vibha Sharma/TNS New Delhi, May 23 The BJP today accused the Congress of covertly stalling the National Food Security Bill and misleading the people with wrong facts and figures on the country's economic situation. A day UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticised the saffron party of disrupting Parliament proceedings and preventing crucial legislations from being passed at the UPA-II's fourth anniversary bash, the BJP retaliated saying that if the government was really interested in seeing through the Food and the Land Acquisition Bills, it would have anyhow pushed them through like it did in the case of the FDI in multi-brand retail and the Indo-US civilian-nuclear deal. "They managed to push through the retail FDI and the civil-nuclear Bills despite our opposition to them, so why did they not follow the same strategy for the food and the land Bills. The fact is the first two were matters of political interest to them, but these two Bills are not," debutant party spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi said. In fact, as per the BJP, if even after 56 years of its rule the Congress still feels the country needs a legislation like the food security, it should be apologising to the people. "The UPA accepts that the proposed Bill will cover 75% people in rural areas and 50% in urban areas, meaning that two-third population of the country requires food security. If after 66 years of Independence, during which the Congress was in power for as many as 56 years, the majority still needs food security it should apologise to the people for keeping the country in such a pitiable situation," Trivedi said.