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CHOGM, 13th amendment on Khurshid’s Lanka agenda
IAF’s microlite aircraft makes emergency landing at Delhi park
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Campaign on malnutrition against Gujarat false, says BJP
Dress code: Judge-advocate verbal spat hits high court
Poll plan: BJP open to outsiders, but refuses to guarantee ticket
AICC gen secy hints at Bansal as Cong candidate from Chandigarh
Rabri to lead RJD in convicted Lalu’s absence
On age proof, go by litigants’ honesty, not school record: SC
33 flee Delhi juvenile home
Won’t seek extension: Kayani
INS Vikramaditya to be inducted into Navy next month
Private hospitals ‘overcharging’ for ECHS services
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CHOGM, 13th amendment on Khurshid’s Lanka agenda
This will be Khurshid’s first visit to the island nation after assuming office. The last visit to Sri Lanka by an Indian Foreign Minister was in January 2012 by SM Krishna. The visit is important since the PM is under intense pressure from political parties in Tamil Nadu to boycott the summit to register India’s protest against the atrocities on Tamils during the 2009 conflict. Several other nations are in a dilemma on whether to attend the summit in view of Lanka’s human rights record. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons of the UK has also asked British Prime Minister David Cameron to pull out of the summit. Lankan External Affairs Minister GL Peiris had visited New Delhi in August to personally invite Manmohan Singh for the summit on behalf of his President Mahinda Rajapaksa. During his visit, Khurshid will hold detailed discussions with his counterpart Peiris on the entire gamut of bilateral relations. Issues relating to fishermen are likely to be a major focus of discussions as the number of Indian fishermen arrested so far in 2013 exceeds the annual numbers during the last year. India has been attaching high priority to the welfare, safety and security of fishermen and has been emphasising on the need to address the issue in a humanitarian manner. The discussions between the two ministers are also likely to encompass trade, investment and development cooperation. They will also address issues relating to the Sampur Thermal Power Project and aspects of Indian technical assistance to Sri Lanka. Khurshid is also expected to call on President Rajapaksa. In addition, he is scheduled to meet leaders from across the spectrum of the Sri Lankan polity and pay his respects at the IPKF Memorial.
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IAF’s microlite aircraft makes emergency landing at Delhi park
New Delhi, October 6 The aircraft (number CH 701) landed at a park where about 60 children were playing at about 10.30 am. The aircraft had taken off from the Hindon air base at Ghaziabad at about 8:40 am for checking bird activity around the base. The Indian Air Force (IAF) was carrying out a full dress rehearsal of its 81st Indian Air Force Day parade. "The aircraft was to return to the base after completing its flight. But it developed a minor technical fault and had to make an emergency landing," said a police officer. Wing Commander Bidyut Ghose and co-pilot Sumit safely came out of cockpit of the aircraft. Ghose informed the base camp at Hindon and then the local police officers. Ghose told reporters: "At about 10.25 am, I felt some technical fault in the engine of the aircraft. During that time I was hovering above the park and saw children playing. I spotted a space at the corner of the field and managed to safely land the aircraft by about 10.28 am." Locals of the area had gathered at the ground to catch a glimpse of the lightweight aircraft. Fisal Manan, who lives nearby, said: "I saw the aircraft coming down and I fled. We (he and his friends) were playing cricket. We heard a loud noise and when we looked up at the sky we saw that the plane was coming towards us. We returned after we saw two people coming out of the aircraft." The police reached the site of the incident and had a tough time managing the crowd. They cordoned the area and with the help of ropes and a mini truck pulled the aircraft away from the ground. A few Air Force personnel arrived at the spot at around 1.30 pm and the aircraft was placed on a truck and brought back to the Hindon base.
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Campaign on malnutrition against Gujarat false, says BJP
New Delhi, October 6 Senior BJP leader Ravi Shanker Prasad said the state-wise nutritional status of children from the year 2006-07 to 2010-11 showed that all the BJP-ruled states had done remarkably well in reducing grade I & II malnutrition. Grade III & IV i.e. severe malnutrition is below 1 per cent in all the states except two. Gujarat has done remarkably well in reducing it from 70 per cent (69.83) to 34 per cent (34.21 per cent). If the data of March 2013 is taken into consideration, it is 25.09 per cent. In comparison, the record of all the Congress-led state governments, except Maharashtra, has been very poor in reducing it, Prasad pointed out.
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Dress code: Judge-advocate verbal spat hits high court
Chandigarh, October 6 The issue is threatening to snowball into a major controversy with Justice Rakesh Kumar Garg referring the conduct of senior advocate Virender Kumar Jain to Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul. Justice Garg is seeking the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against advocate Jain. The incident is an echo of another happening that took place in the Punjab and Haryana High Court a few years ago. At that time, Justice JC Verma, appearing as an advocate before the Bench in a case, entered into a verbal spat with then HC judge, Justice Mehtab Singh Gill. The matter was resolved only after the then Chief Justice intervened. It was work as usual in the high court on Saturday afternoon, till a ``junior'' advocate sought adjournment in a case, after appearing before Justice Garg. Available information suggests that the prayer for adjournment was objected to by the other side. One of the grounds was that the advocate, seeking adjournment, was not the ``regular'' junior. Taking note of the objection, Justice Garg called advocate JL Malhotra to appear before the Bench, as his name was mentioned in the affidavit. Soon after, Malhotra appeared before the Bench, along with advocate Jain, who was wearing a kurta pyjama. Justice Garg then told Jain he did not recognise him, as he was not in proper dress. After arguments broke between the lawyer and the judge over the issue of dress, Justice Garg retired to his chamber. But, lawyer Jain refused to change his stand. After the judge resumed court work, another argument took place. Jain allegedly started shouting in the courtroom. At that time, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association president and High Court Registrar-General were present in the courtroom. Justice Garg then took cognizance of the alleged misbehaviour and shouting in the courtroom and referred the matter to the Chief Justice for his intervention. Jain refused to comment on the issue. Insisting his action did not amount to contempt, Jain only said the ego of the judge was apparently hurt. So far I have not received the notice, and will react only after going through the orders, Jain added.
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Poll plan: BJP open to outsiders, but refuses to guarantee ticket
New Delhi, October 6 Former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar’s son Pankaj Singh, who joined the BJP yesterday, has also received no assurance so far, they insist though, considering his political stature, it is unlikely that he walked into the BJP without first settling the issue. Chandrashekhar’s other son Neeraj Shekhar is a Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha member from Ballia. BJP sources say it was Pankaj Singh, who sent feelers to the saffron party, expressing his desire to join the party. There are many more aspirants, including those from the Congress, the BSP and the SP, who have expressed similar sentiments. Fearing no future in the Congress, some Congress leaders from Haryana and elsewhere have sent similar signals to the BJP. But while they feel that their interests would be better secured if they joined the Modi’s bandwagon, there is a section within the BJP that believes that ‘outsiders’ would spoil the mood of the cadres, who are emerging the biggest strength of the party.
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AICC gen secy hints at Bansal as Cong candidate from Chandigarh
Chandigarh, October 6 In the city to attend the party meetings of the state party units of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the party in-charge for the three states, said: "No other leader has come forward to stake claim for the Chandigarh seat. All have supported Pawan Kumar Bansal". Addressing NSUI leaders in a close-door meeting, Dr Ahmed while praising the sitting MP went to the extent of indicating that Bansal could be a minister in the next Congress government after the 2014 elections. On being quizzed about the Rahul Gandhi's stand on tainted leaders contesting elections, he said the stand was against the convicted leaders, not tainted, clearly giving a reprieve to Bansal. At the Sector 35 office of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee (CTCC) to attend a gathering of local party workers, Dr Ahmed claimed that there was consensus for the name of Bansal. "I am not alone to decide about the tickets. It is the job of the core election committee. But I am here to listen to the leaders and party workers and convey the same to the leadership", he said while being quizzed by scribes after the meeting.
Differences in local unit come to fore
AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed and local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal witnessed unpleasant moments when Pawan Sharma, vice-president of the CTCC, used strong words against CTCC president BB Behl and alleged non-functional election committees constituted by Behl. Though polite in words, Bhupinder Badehri, CTCC members and another leader, Devinder Babla, also sought re constitution of the committees at different levels.
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Rabri to lead RJD in convicted Lalu’s absence
Patna, October 6 "Lalu is our leader and will remain so in future...In his absence, Rabri will guide us as she had done in the past," RJD's national general secretary Ramkripal Yadav told reporters after emerging from the meeting. Rabri while addressing the meeting scotched speculation that she will contest the 2014 General Election from Chapra parliamentary seat of her husband, saying she was not greedy for any political post. Lalu is set to be disqualified from the Lok Sabha after his conviction in the fodder case. Lalu is lodged in a Ranchi jail after being convicted in a fodder scam case which handed him five years imprisonment. Rabri asked party leaders and workers to maintain rock-like unity in the hour of "crisis". "I appeal to you all to maintain rock-like unity and carry forward the party's programme and social justice agenda," she said. RJD national spokesman Iliyas Hussain said the reins of the party still remained in the "strong hands" of Lalu. — PTI
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On age proof, go by litigants’ honesty, not school record: SC
New Delhi, October 6 A Bench comprising Justices Anil R Dave and Dipak Misra delivered the verdict while refusing to go by the matriculation certificate of an employee of Eastern Coalfields Limited, a state-owned enterprise, to determine his age. The SC noted that the litigant had kept on changing his DoB according to the requirements of the situation. Whenever a litigant approached a high court with a writ petition invoking its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to resolve any controversy over his age, the HC should take “cognisance of the entire facts and circumstances and pass appropriate directions to balance the justice. The jurisdiction being extraordinary, it is required to be exercised keeping in mind the principles of equity. It is a well-known principle that one of the ends of equity is to promote honesty and fair play,” the SC ruled while accepting the contention of senior counsel Mahabir Singh, who appeared for the Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited. The public sector enterprise had come to the SC, challenging Calcutta HC’s verdict deciding the age of its employee Bajrangi Rabidas on the basis of his matriculation certificate. The apex court noted that the DoB of Rabidas was April 2, 1948, as per his matriculation certificate, but he gave his DoB as April 2, 1946 while appearing for the Gas Testing Examination held on May 5, 1969, just to meet the minimum age requirement of 21. For the same purpose, he had stuck to 1946 for appearing in Sirdarship examination in 1969 and Overmanship certificate examination in 1973. It was only in 1987, he sought to correct the DoB as April 2, 1948, on the basis of his matriculation certificate, the SC noted. Setting aside the HC verdict, the SC held the HC “has erred” in ruling in favour of Rabidas who had deliberately given his year of birth as 1946 “to get entry into service”. “If an employee has taken an undue advantage, the court in its extraordinary jurisdiction would be within its domain to deny the discretionary relief,” the SC held. Yesterday, another Bench of the SC issued a show-cause notice to Gen VK Singh for prima facie committing contempt of court by reportedly criticising the apex court for not deciding his age last year on the basis of his school leaving certificate, the criterion for deciding the juvenility of accused in cases of rape and other heinous crimes.
The case
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33 flee Delhi juvenile home
New Delhi, October 6 The juvenile convicted in the December 16 Delhi gang-rape case had also spent a week in this juvenile home. A police patrol is always present outside the home. “But we are not allowed to either lathicharge juveniles or beat them up. To do so, we need permission of the home officials, which they don’t give,” said a policeman on duty there. The trouble started around 9 pm on Saturday when seven-eight “trouble-makers” asked officials for drugs. “Hume nasha chahiye. They told us,” said an official of the observation home. Many of these juveniles have been detained for their alleged involvement in cases of murder and dacoity. After being denied drugs, they allegedly started beating up other inmates in the dormitory. “They began inciting other juveniles to create ruckus. They also beat up a security guard,” said the official. “A group of juveniles rushed to the kitchen and brought out two LPG cylinders. They started a fire by creating a spark from an electricity socket. We then heard a loud explosion,” said the official. To prevent officials from coming in, the group started a fire near the gate. “They asked us to come closer for resolving the matter. But we knew they were planning to throw a cylinder at us,” the official said. Juveniles then entered the office of the welfare officer and set the record on fire. A medical unit attached to the office was also destroyed. They also started a fire at the ground floor of the dormitory. Some of them stole a chest of money containing Rs 35,000, meant for daily expenses. Many juveniles rushed to the first floor of the dormitory. “After breaking open a door there, they jumped onto an adjacent building. They laid mattresses on the barbed fence to facilitate their escape,” the official said.
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Won’t seek extension: Kayani
Islamabad, October 6 Kayani was appointed the army chief by Pervez Musharraf in 2007. He was given an unprecedented three-year extension by then premier Yousuf Raza Gilani in 2010. —
PTI
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INS Vikramaditya to be inducted into Navy next month
New Delhi, October 6 "The Defence Minister is expected to induct the warship into the Navy during his visit for the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission for Military and Technical Cooperation meeting, now expected to be held in November," sources said. The visit was earlier scheduled to take place in the third week of October, but was put off by the ministry.
Vikramaditya, formerly known as Admiral Gorskhov, has completed all its trials in the
last two months in the Barents Sea and the White Sea. Once inducted, it will be the second aircraft carrier in the Navy after INS Viraat, giving a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean. — PTI
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Private hospitals ‘overcharging’ for ECHS services Chandigarh, October 6 “Audit of bills submitted by hospitals and the scrutiny of procedures has revealed excess billing and irregularity of payments,” Upendra Sah, Principal Controller of Defence Accounts, Western Command, said. Consequent to the findings of Defence Accounts Department’s (DAD) Western Command Branch, the functioning of the ECHS all across the country will be scrutinised and financial transactions audited. This would help in revamping policies where required, fine-tuning procedures and streamlining the system. Sah, however, declined to state the quantum of irregular payments that has been detected or the hospitals involved on the grounds that the audit exercise was still on and some clarifications on policies and procedural process has been sought from the Ministry of Defence that could sort out some of the cases. With an annual budget outlay of about Rs 1,500 crore, the ECHS has, in addition to its own 333 polyclinics, 693 civilian hospitals across the country empanelled with it that provide cashless treatment to its subscribers. The bills for the treatment and medicines are reimbursed to the hospitals by the defence ministry. Last year, about nine lakh patients had been hospitalised under the ECHS. The scheme has a clientèle of about 44 lakh ex-servicemen and their dependants.
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External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will pay a two-day visit to Sri Lanka from tomorrow during which he is expected to clarify whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be hosted by Colombo next month.
Force's National Cadet Corps wing made an emergency landing at a Delhi Development Authority park in East Delhi's Shastri Park locality this morning, after the pilots found some technical glitches.
In what is a usual exercise before any elections, the BJP is encouraging lateral entries but this time it is giving no guarantees of a ticket, party sources say. Senior leaders are clear that members of the rival parties will be fielded only on those seats where the BJP has no hope of winning.
New Delhi, October 6