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Delhi LG ‘move’ may pave way for BJP to name Mukhi as CM
Brigadier, Lt Col cashiered, get jail for selling off salvage
Less than 1% Indian hospitals accredited
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Rise in sexual assault cases worries NHRC
Sathasivam sworn in as Kerala Guv
‘Coal production below target’
Cong issues gag order to check dissidence
SC tells states to file status report on encroachments
Task force to monitor citizenship process for Pak, Bangla Hindus
4 AP students planning to join ISIS rounded up
Coal scam: Special court returns CBI’s chargesheet
Engg student ends life after ragging in Kanpur college
Black buck case: Apex court questions relief to Salman
tatra scam
Golan Heights op: UN backs Indian officer Onion prices may rise as rains lash
Maharashtra Full-fledged IAF bases in Ladakh, Kargil Modi-Sharif meet at UNGA unlikely
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Delhi LG ‘move’ may pave way for BJP to name Mukhi as CM
New Delhi, September 5 The move came after Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay today met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and explained the position of the party in Delhi and its ability to not only form the government but also run it effectively. He pointed that the party had decided to form the government in Delhi. Jung had earlier this week written to President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his clearance to invite the BJP to form the next government. The President had forwarded the report to the Home Ministry. The move assumes importance as the Supreme Court is set to take up the issue of the government formation in Delhi next week. It had given the Lieutenant Governor and the Centre time till September 9 to come back on the possibility of formation of a new government in Delhi or holding fresh elections. Sources said Jung was all set to call the special session of Assembly where the leader of the House would be elected through a "secret ballot". Sources said Mukhi was the frontrunner for the CM's post. There are two options available in the LG's report sent to the President on the issue of forming the government. The first option provides for calling the single largest party to form the government and the second one provides for the "secret ballot". The latter would ensure that cross voting in favour of the BJP takes place without inviting allegations of open 'horse-trading'. This would also protect the legislators from other parties voting in favour of the BJP. Earlier in the day Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay met Rajnath to discuss the issue. Sources said independent MLA Rambir Shokeen has agreed to join the BJP. Besides, Vinod Kumar Binny who has been expelled from AAP has also reportedly expressed his willingness to join the saffron party for formation of the government. In the event of a secret ballot, however, all this would become irrelevant.
LG acting at Home Minister’s behest: Cong
Jung promoting horse-trading: AAP
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Brigadier, Lt Col cashiered, get jail for selling off salvage
Chandigarh, September 5 Besides, a Lieutenant Colonel, who was in charge of the salvage section, has also been cashiered and awarded one-year rigorous imprisonment, while two others, a Colonel who was the deputy commandant of COD and the depot's security officer, a Captain, have been awarded loss of seniority for their role in the matter. The GCM presided by Major General Suresh Gupta, General Officer Commanding, Lucknow sub-area, concluded today. The GCM's findings and sentence are subject to confirmation by the convening authority. Six charges under Sections 52 (f), 63 and 69 of the Army Act pertaining to conspiracy, fraud and violation of good order and discipline had been leveled against the accused. The charges included allowing private contractors to lift thousands of tonnes of salvage from the COD, creating fake vouchers and fabricating documents and board proceedings to cover up their deeds, and intimidating witnesses to give false statements before the court of inquiry. The Brigadier also faced two additional charges under Section 57 for making false declarations before high-ups in official reports. While the GCM held the Brigadier, the Lieutenant Colonel and Captain guilty of all charges on which they were tried, the Colonel was acquitted of the four charges of conspiracy and fraud and held guilty of two charges for violation of good order and military discipline. All four officers had pleaded not guilty to the charges against them and had contended that a motivated case was made out against them. A ourt of inquiry to investigate into allegations of impropriety had held the commandant of the COD, along with the other officers blameworthy of misappropriation.
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Less than 1% Indian hospitals accredited
Goa, September 5 Of the 30,000 hospitals in the country (both private and public), only 240 have obtained accreditation through NABH. Nearly 1,000 have applied and are in the process of being reviewed on quality parameters. NABH CEO Dr KK Kalra, in an interview to The Tribune on the sidelines of HEAL Foundation’s fourth National Health Writers and Editors Conference in Goa, said: “Hospitals are approaching us to seek accreditation but their number is abysmally low. I think it is time when we ought to start discussing transition from voluntary accreditation of health delivery institutions to a mandatory system.” NABH has already mooted the proposal of mandatory accreditation of hospitals. It has asked the Medical Council of India (MCI) to use its powers to direct all medical colleges with hospitals in India to get accredited. “We have asked the MCI to at least get all medical colleges with associated hospitals to get accredited. They are yet to take up this request,” Kalra said. He was particularly worried about the state of affairs in healthcare delivery in government hospitals and the inability of public institutions to subject themselves to accreditation. So far, of the 240 accredited hospitals in India, only 16 are government hospitals, the rest being private. “Around 100 government hospitals have applied for accreditation but again it is a very low number. We understand these hospitals lack the budgets and the infrastructure required to meet stringent NABH healthcare delivery norms but it is expected that they will rise to the occasion,” Kalra said, adding that a lot of countries in the world were now mooting mandatory hospital accreditation and moving away from the traditional voluntary accreditation regime. The NABH had earlier helped hospitals to register critical medical equipment in most hospitals, especially government. Earlier, X-Ray machines and other radiation equipment were not registered, but today NABH reports its 80 per cent registration. Kalra expressed apprehensions about the quality of C-Arms, the new-age X-Ray techniques used for orthopaedic procedures. “C-Arms are being routinely used in OTs but not all of them are registered. We are encouraging hospital managements to seek C-Arm registration,” Kalra said. As for government hospitals, the NABH chief said they found it difficult to even comply with the oldest guidelines on biomedical waste treatment and disposal.
Hospitals reluctant for quality check
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Rise in sexual assault cases worries NHRC
New Delhi, September 5 Issues related to human rights of women, lack of political system and weak laws in some countries were raised by National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs). APF is a regional body of NHRIs of the Asia Pacific countries. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member Justice D Murugesan said the NHRC had taken cognisance of rights violation of women and girls and since January 2011 to August 2014, over 29,935 issues had been taken up. “Ending gender-based inequities, discrimination and violence is an over-riding priority in the 12th Five Year Plan. The NHRC is making all efforts in creating awareness among women about the laws and their rights which needed to be supplemented by the national, state and district legal services authorities,” he said. Justice Balakrishanan hoped that the discussions would play a vital role in the implementation of the five strategic objectives of the APF. Two girls found hanging from tree in Assam
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Sathasivam sworn in as Kerala Guv
Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 5 He was administered the oath of office by Acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, Justice Ashok Bhushan, at the Raj Bhavan here. He is the first Chief Justice of India to be appointed to the post which is lower in warrant of precedence to the CJI. He is also the first non-political person appointed for a gubernatorial post by the new NDA government. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, his cabinet colleagues, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha P J Kurien and Kerala Assembly Speaker G Karthikeyan were present at the function. However, LDF leaders did not turn up for the function. After his appointment on September 3, Sathasivam had said, “I can utilise my service to the people of the state in a better way compared to other politicians.” “I want to utilise my experience for the people of the particular state (Kerala),” he had said.
— PTI
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‘Coal production below target’
New Delhi, September 5 The information comes just days before the Supreme Court is set to take a decision on the scraping of allotment of 218 coal blocks allocated between 1993 and 2009. The apex court has already observed that these allocations were illegal. The ministry has told the PMO that against the production target from the captive coal blocks of 50 million tonnes in FY 2013-14, they had managed to produce just 39 million tonnes. The information came as the PMO sought to know the status of the case pending in the Supreme Court, the final verdict on which is expected on September 9. The apex court has held that all coal blocks since 1993 have been allocated illegally and arbitrarily, bringing uncertainty to the fate of 218 block allocations. In the last hearing earlier this week, the government had asked the Supreme Court to spare 46 of the 218 coal block allocations declared illegal last week as they had already begun production or were close to doing so, but said the Centre would have no problem if the court cancelled the blocks. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi suggested companies mining the 46 blocks should be directed to pay up for the losses incurred by the exchequer due to the illegal allocation but added that the NDA government was open to re-auctioning the coal blocks if they were cancelled. The government was not championing anyone’s cause, he added. Of the total, 40 blocks are in production and six are likely to become operational in the current fiscal, a source said. Giving reasons for low production, the ministry said low output was due to factors such as “pending court cases in matters relating to the captive coal blocks”.
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Cong issues gag order to check dissidence
New Delhi, September 5 Dwivedi, who is the general secretary in-charge of the
organisation, issued the advisory a day after 14 young Congress secretaries wrote a letter to him attacking the senior leaders for going public with “negative” comments. Dwivedi has forwarded their letter along with his advisory to all members of the Congress Working Committee and senior leaders. Controversy had erupted after party general secretary Digvijay Singh’s remarks that Rahul’s silence on critical issues had contributed to their loss in the “war of perception” and that he should have spoken more. The young secretaries close to Rahul have interpreted it as an attack on their vice-president. Dwivedi himself had made certain comments prescribing an age limit for Congress leaders for taking active posts within the party. Those remarks, too, came in for criticism from leaders.
— PTI
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SC tells states to file status report on encroachments
New Delhi, September 5 Arguing for the petitioner, its chairman Dhanesh Ieshdhan said such unchecked encroachments posed a huge law and order problem, besides causing inconvenience to the pedestrians and other bonafide users of such public places. He said his organisation had already complained to most of the state governments, seeking action against the culprits, but there was not even any response from many of them. However, Haryana’s urban local department sent stern instructions to all the commissioners of municipal corporations and executive officers of other civic bodies directing them to take immediate action against encroachments.
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Task force to monitor citizenship process for Pak, Bangla Hindus
New Delhi, September 5 Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed matters relating to grant of citizenship that takes a long time for completion of the entire process and decided to set up the task force. “In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs has received representations from time to time. The Home Minister approved the setting up of a task force to monitor and expedite processing of Citizenship and Long Term Visa (LTV) applications, which will start functioning in two weeks time,” a Home Ministry statement said. Delay in processing applications cause hardships and difficulties to applicants, especially to minorities from neighbouring countries who are often of poor economic standing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, said in separate rallies in West Bengal and Rajasthan that Pakistani and Bangaladeshi Hindu refugees will be treated like other Indian citizens. There are about 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee settlements in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jaipur while most of the Hindu refugees from Bangaldesh live in West Bengal and some in Northeastern states. There are around one lakh Hindu refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh in India, according to official sources. — PTI
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4 AP students planning to join ISIS rounded up
Hyderabad, September 5 The youths were “attracted” by the ISIS propaganda on social networking sites and net-based mobile messenger, he claimed. “However, it were the parents who got “suspicious” about their children and got in touch with the city police, who in turn picked them up from Kolkata last week based on their parents’ information,” the police officer said. The youths were then counselled and sent back to their parents, he added. Reacting to a query, the officer further said the four youngsters were not in touch with ISIS operatives or vice-versa and it was only through social networking platforms that they were drawn to ISIS.
— PTI
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Coal scam: Special court returns CBI’s chargesheet
New Delhi, September 5 The CBI has got a jolt in the coal blocks allocation scam probe as a special court has “returned” its charge sheet in a case involving a
Kolkata-based company, saying it has failed to give any plausible explanation on its queries and reasons for dropping four accused from it. The case involves allocation of coal blocks to Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd in Jharkhand’s Rajhara town in which its directors and unknown public servants of the Ministry of Coal, Government of Jharkhand and others were made accused in the FIR lodged by the CBI in September 2012. The agency came up with its charge sheet before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar who asked certain queries from the investigating officer (IO) regarding the final report in which eight accused have been chargesheeted while four have been dropped for want of prosecutable evidence. The court noted that CBI has not given any “legally admissible logic” for keeping four persons away from the involvement of criminality by merely saying that “no prosecutable evidence could be collected against them during the course of investigation”.
— PTI
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Engg student ends life after ragging in Kanpur college
Lucknow, August 5 The deceased’s brother has lodged an FIR against two senior students of the college — Karan and Vijay —and others who were reportedly ragging his brother. No arrests have been made so far. Preliminary investigations reveal that the student was depressed after ragging on September 1 and he committed suicide two days later. College principal FR Khan has set up a seven-member committee to probe the incident. Members of the anti-ragging unit are also being questioned. The incident comes days after the eardrums of six first-year students of Lucknow Polytechnic were ruptured when they were beaten up by their seniors for refusing to carry out tasks as part of ragging.
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Black buck case: Apex court questions relief to Salman
New Delhi, September 5 “You may have a good case for suspension of sentence but not conviction,” a Bench comprising Justices SJ Mukhopadhaya and PC Pant told Khan’s senior advocate KV Viswanathan. The Bench was hearing an appeal by the state government challenging the HC order granting relief given to the actor. Staying the conviction involved re-appreciation of evidence, the SC pointed out. “Let law apply equally to everyone. There should be no discrimination of one convict against the other,” it clarified. The Bench posted the case for final hearing on October 28 and asked the state government to file its response to Khan’s contentions. Courts’ oral observations are no indicator of the final outcome of the case, which depended on the merits and legal aspects raised by contending parties.
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Lt Gen Tejinder gets bail
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, September 5 The trial court had ordered his arrest for allegedly offering a bribe of Rs 14 crore in 2010 to the then army chief Gen VK Singh for clearing the purchase of 1,676 sub-standard trucks. The HC noted that the CBI had not opposed the bail plea apprehending that he would influence the witnesses. CBI had cited the number two position held by Lt Gen T Singh in the army and the magnitude of the alleged offence. The reasons given by the trial court for denial of bail on September 1 “are against the settled legal principles” laid down the HC and the Supreme court, the judge held.
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Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 5
The CBI has got a jolt in the coal blocks allocation scam probe as a special court has returned its charge sheet in a case involving a
Kolkata-based company, saying it has failed to give any plausible explanation on its queries and reasons for dropping four accused from it.
The CBI has got a jolt in the coal blocks allocation scam probe as a special court has “returned” its charge sheet in a case involving a
Kolkata-based company, saying it has failed to give any plausible explanation on its queries and reasons for dropping four accused from it.
