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Worst floods in
Jammu & Kashmir in six decades
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SC: Consider unified authority for relief work
Air-dropping supplies a tricky task
3% disability quota covers recruitment, promotion: SC
Centre outlines PM’s smart city concept
paid
news
fishermen
killing
CBI chief files affidavit in SC
SC stays Koli’s execution till Oct 29
Cong secys meet today to discuss party ideology
Cong trashes Vinod Rai’s allegations as cheap publicity
Law panel recommends repealing 72 archaic laws
Dance bars: SC notice to M’rashtra
BJP woos M’rashtra Muslims
Singer held in Saradha case
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Worst
floods in Jammu & Kashmir in six decades
New Delhi, September 12 The work of the forces in the J&K flood operations has changed in the past 24 hours and it will change further in the next 48 hours. Now, the focus is on relief work and providing essential commodities. The floodwater of the Jhelum river has started receding and people who had been evacuated want to go back to their homes, while in other localities where people wanted to stay put inside their homes have been assisted with provisions. The number of Army columns (comprising 160 men each) on duty was also reduced to 265 from 329 today. Sources said there were four aspects from here on. Firstly, thousands of people have to be evacuated from Srinagar and Jammu on IAF’s transport planes as the national highway is snapped. Secondly, tourists trapped across the right bank of the Jhelum – that criss-crosses Srinagar – need to be rescued on boats to the left bank where the airport in located for onward evacuation to Delhi or to Chandigarh. Thirdly, the forces need to bring in a lot of things that will be needed immediately such water suction pumps and generators. Drinking water is being picked up by the IAF from Chandigarh and Pathankot. The Army moved in its field hospital — the fifth one since operations began. Each can have up to 15 patients. Fourthly, the relief material has to be distributed in localities. With winter setting in, it is expected to be a long haul. The Army is currently running
five relief camps where food and lodging are being provided. The forces have been tasked with sending relief material till everything normalises, but its distribution will be the work of the local administration. Sources say one of the reasons is that separatists may incite people against the forces and things may turn ugly as the soldiers are carrying their weapons. This was the first rescue operation conducted by the soldiers while wearing bullet-proof jackets, said a senior functionary in Delhi. Today in Srinagar, relief was provided to around 11,000 civilians in the most affected areas of Shivpora, Ram Munshi Bagh, Haft Chinar, Rajbag Tatoo Ground, Tankpura, Jawahar Nagar, Gorgi Bag and other adjoining areas. The Army used 13 Cheetah helicopters and a similar number of advanced light helicopters to drop in food packets, water bottles and medicines to a large number of villages in south Kashmir, Srinagar and some areas of north Kashmir. The other aspect of rehabilitation is restoring communication lines. The Army, BSNL and some of the private companies have been dispatched to restore the communication system in the state. To meet the immediate energy requirement, 22,000 litres of fuel from Ambala have been transported to the Valley. At least 8,200 blankets and 1,074 tents were provided to the flood victims. Eighty medical teams of the armed forces are already operating in full swing. A mobile oxygen generation plant is also being transported from Delhi to the flood-affected area. So far, 1,34,000 persons have been rescued by the armed forces and the NDRF from different parts of Jammu & Kashmir in the ongoing rescue and relief operations.
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Finance Ministry releases Rs 865 cr
Haryana CM flags off relief material for J&K
Leh town expresses solidarity with Valley
Be present at health centres: CMO to officials
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SC: Consider unified authority for relief work
New Delhi, September 12 Acknowledging the misery of the people, a Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha refused to pass any order directing the government to deal with the situation in a particular way as pleaded by PIL petitioners. “We can’t decide all this sitting here,” the CJI pointed out. “It needs no emphasis from us that a calamity and disaster as huge as this deserves national response so that immediate relief material is made available to the victims.... We are sure that the Union Government will take all necessary steps urgently in accelerating the rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations,” the court said in the order. Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in charge of a committee monitoring the rescue and relief work being carried out under the supervision of the Army Chief.
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Within minutes, a prosperous village turned into a graveyard
Panchari (Udhampur), September 12 Though teams have been air-dropped to start rescue operations, the exact number of bodies buried under the debris is yet to be ascertained. The village, 55 km from Udhampur town, has turned into a graveyard after the devastating landslide struck the area on the intervening night of September 5 and 6 due to incessant rain. Residents of a nearby village said within five minutes, the entire village turned into a graveyard. It is believed that bodies of inmates of 48 houses have been buried under the debris spread in 3 sq km area. Due to the accumulation of mud, choppers pressed into service by the IAF to send a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) could not land at the affected village. NDRF personnel were air-dropped because chopper could not find space for landing. Even six days after the devastating floods, IAF pilots made attempts for landing, but to no avail. Carrying mediapersons, MI-17 chopper tried to land adjoining the Sadhota village on Thursday, but they could not succeed. Recovering bodies buried under the debris is a difficult task before the rescue teams because it is not possible to send heavy equipment to this inaccessible village. The team is doing rescue operation manually and it would be impossible to recover the bodies which are buried 40-50 ft under the debris. Yasha Mudgul, Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, who has not yet visited the affected village, expressed helplessness to retrieve the bodies. “So far we have recovered only seven bodies from the debris,” the Deputy Commissioner told The Tribune.
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Air-dropping supplies a tricky task
On board Army helicopter (Kashmir), September 12 The Tribune team, on board a chopper, found air-dropping relief material a mammoth task. Two helicopters hovered above a marooned area in Sannat Nagar and gradually lowered their machines to a certain height. Then dispatchers got down to their task — dropping water, food packets and medicines for the people. The helicopters dropped these supplies on higher and dry grounds for obvious reasons. The Tribune team found several people beneath eagerly awaiting the relief material to be air-dropped. “Once we see people crowding a place of air-drop, our pilots shift to a place close by to avoid melee among the people because everyone should get relief,” said a senior Army officer. A single Advanced Light Helicopter (Dhruv) in Kashmir lifts and drops 30,000 kg of supplies from dawn to dusk in a single day. At the same time, this indigenously built flying machine — ALH — rescues and evacuates 500 people daily. “We are into all sorts of operations. From dropping supplies to evacuating people and carrying heavy equipment such as battery-operated water pump sets and pipes,” said Col Vikram Khatri. “As stagnant water has started receding gradually in Srinagar, water pump sets and pipes are being airlifted and then ferried to places where they were required. An exercise seems to be on the cards to start draining out water from where it has receded. We work for 14 to 15 hours a day picking up relief material from the JAKLI headquarters and then carrying it to the Badami Bagh cantonment, Bemina, Rajbagh and Qazibagh,” he added.
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3% disability quota covers recruitment, promotion: SC
New Delhi, September 12 The Centre had come to the SC challenging a Bombay High Court order passed in December 2013 clarifying that the “appointment quota” under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 was meant for all categories as well as promotions. Refusing to entertain the appeal, a Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha took the government to task for denying candidates with disabilities the full benefit of the quota provision. “This is a beneficial legislation and the word appointment in the Act is comprehensive term covering recruitment, promotion and deputation. Parliament has deliberately used the word appointment, instead of recruitment, in the Act,” the apex court pointed out. It was unfortunate that the government had restricted the quota to just recruitments for 19 years since the enactment of the law in 1995, the Bench lamented. The high court had directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the Centre to increase the number of reserved vacancies from the notified 26 to 39 as the proposed examination was for 1,291 advertised vacancies. It had rejected the
government’s plea that the quota did not cover posts under the A and B categories.
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Centre outlines PM’s smart city concept
New Delhi, September 12 Discussing the concept, the Union Minister said such cities should have efficient healthcare services and education system, uninterrupted power and water supply, efficient transport, high-quality sanitation, employment to the needy, robust cyber connectivity and benefit all irrespective of income, age and gender. "The ultimate objective of developing a smart city is building wealthier, healthier and happier cities," said Venkaiah Naidu. Naidu said the Draft Concept Note on smart cities made public would be revisited based on the suggestions of states and UTs. He also asked all state governments and UTs to send their final views in a week. In such cities, people should be alert, able to question, pay the cost of services, prevent fellow citizens from violating rules and demand their due. Only then would the task of developing smart cities be realised, Naidu emphasised. The minister further said effective urban governance should aim at prudent utilisation of natural resources, minimum waste generation, recycling, water harvesting and efficient energy use.
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paid
news
New Delhi, September 12 Justice Suresh Kait ruled that even if Chavan had declared this amount to the EC his total election expenses would not have exceeded the Rs 10 lakh ceiling prescribed under the rules. — TNS
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Rajnath says ready to tackle Al-Qaida threat
New Delhi, September 12 Rajnath, who was addressing a press conference to mark the 100-days of the BJP-led NDA government, said: “Nothing can be said about the authenticity of an Al-Qaida video which is still under examination by expert agencies. The security agencies are well prepared.” He said the policies to tackle extremism in the country — especially in Jammu and Kashmir, north-eastern states and Maoist-affected areas — were being given a final shape. Responding to a query, he stumped media saying he has “no idea” about “love jihad”. “What is love jihad?” was his prompt reply with a smile when he was asked about his views on it. The term “love jihad” is used by the right wing groups to describe what they consider an Islamist strategy to marry Hindu women after converting them. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is linked to the BJP through its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has allegedly circulated pamphlets on “love jihad” in Gujarat’s Vadodara. Dismissing reports of any differences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Home Minister described his relationship with Modi as harmonious. “Our relationship was always harmonious, is harmonious at present and will remain so in the future,” Rajnath said, adding, “He is our Prime Minister and an effective Prime Minister and I am the Home Minister in his government. What else.” On internal security, he said: “An integrated action plan for strengthening internal security will be prepared after consultations with all stakeholders.” Talking specifically about Maoists, Rajnath said comprehensive policies were being framed to weed out Left-wing extremism from the country. He said the policy to combat Left-wing extremism would be finalised as early as today. He said the government was open to hold talks with any group that was ready to give up violence.
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Irani wants national ranking system for quality education
Chandigarh, September 12 HRD Minister Smriti Irani, who is in the city for two-day retreat meetings with the vice-chancellors of central universities, today proposed drafting of ranking plan and its implementation. Sources said some representatives of the universities pointed out that there was a gap between the infrastructure and funding of various universities and institutes in the backward areas and they would not be able to cope with the competition. Irani proposed a single Act for all central universities. She talked about introducing e-learning strategy under which free-for-all e-libraries would be launched. To keep tabs on fake degrees, she suggested digitisation of degrees of all institutes. About staff crunch in universities, she said the authorities failed to find eligible candidates for senior posts. “One-circular, one-test should be devised to admit students to any institute across the country,” she said.
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fishermen
killing
New Delhi, September 12 A Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha passed the order after a family member of one of the victims withdrew his plea for subjecting the marine, Massimilano Lattorre, to medical examination to ascertain the claim of stroke. Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha said the government had appointed a special court to hold trial. He did not raise any serious objection to sending the accused to Italy, except suggesting that Lattorre should file an affidavit specifying the dates of departure and return, which the SC accepted. — TNS
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CBI chief files affidavit in SC
New Delhi, September 12 The affidavit has been filed in compliance of the order of the apex court which had on September 8 directed him to respond to the averments made against him, holding that they were “serious” in nature. The court had asked the CBI Director to file the affidavit, saying: “Whatever you want to tell us, tell us in black and white.” The matter will be taken up for further hearing on September 15. During the last hearing, the Bench had taken serious objection to Sinha’s reluctance to file an affidavit on merits of the allegations and had directed him to file his response on a plea for a direction to the Centre to take steps for his removal and for ordering an SIT probe against him for allegedly abusing his authority. The Bench had taken on record a register of guest list at the CBI Director’s residence which was handed over by advocate Prashant Bhushan. Bhushan had submitted that some unidentified persons had turned up at his residence and had given him the documents without revealing their identities. — PTI
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SC stays Koli’s execution till Oct 29
New Delhi, September 12 A Bench headed by Justice HL Dattu posted the case for hearing on October 29 on Koli’s plea seeking review of the SC’s verdict upholding his conviction and death sentence in one of the murder cases. On September 8, another Bench had stayed the execution of death sentence of Koli for killing children in a house in Nithari village in Noida in 2006, for a period of one week. The plea on behalf of Koli (42) was moved by a team of lawyers led by senior advocate
Indira Jaising. — PTI
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Cong secys meet today to discuss party ideology
New Delhi, September 12 At least 14 secretaries of the party, mainly those close to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, have convened an informal session on Saturday to debate Congress’ ideology and its “idea of India”. Invites have been extended to all 41 secretaries though not all are likely to attend. People behind the move are the ones who had last week written to Congress veterans requesting them to maintain party discipline and not blame each other for the losses. This group has now decided to start talking reasons behind the party’s rout with most believing that the dilution of party’s ideology led to its decimation and loss of face in the elections. A secretary said: “Party restructuring can happen when it will but what nothing stops us from talking. Ideas for revival will emerge from discussions. We have to discuss when and why we dithered from our ideology. A report from the discussions will be submitted to Congress leaders.” Asked what was meant by discussions on party’s ideology, a young AICC office-bearer explained: “People in the government betrayed party’s ideology by putting themselves ahead of the organisation. Time has come for Congress workers and leaders to ask themselves if they are ready to sacrifice positions and work for the organisation.” There is a growing sense in the party that the RSS worked selflessly on the ground to mobilise support for the BJP, which won a landslide LS victory. “Contrarily, we don’t have that kind of committed workers. We have to build that commitment. People are disenchanted. We must find out why,” said a secretary organising the discussions.
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Assembly polls first big test for Shah
New Delhi, September 12 “We are confident of winning with two-thirds majority in both states. People are angry and ready for a change in the regime,” said Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar. However, the minister refused to divulge much on the ongoing seat-sharing tussle with Maharashtra ally Shiv Sena or speculations of possibility of an alliance on some seats in Haryana with Chautalas’s INLD. “Everything would be clear in the next one week,” he said. “There is not much time left. Within one week the candidates for the two states will be announced. From October 1 to 13, the party will completely concentrate on electioneering,” Javadekar said. Though on a day when senior INLD leader Surender Singh Barwala joined the BJP, party sources dismissed any chance of giving a soft treatment to the INLD. “If there is a need there can be a tie-up, but only after the results,” a source said. While the party has announced the first list of 43 candidates for the 90-member Haryana Assembly, suspense continues over its seat-sharing formula for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. The BJP is certainly taking no chances. After a not-so-good performance in the recent state byelections, for BJP president Amit Shah, Maharashtra and Haryana are his first big challenge. For Uttar Pradesh byelections, he discovered the merits of Yogi Adityanath and it would be interesting to see the kind of election pattern he chooses for the two states, currently ruled by the Congress. However, BJP sources agree the polarisation card practiced by Adityanath in UP may not work in Haryana and Maharashtra. “Corruption, particularly by ‘jijajee’ (Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra) would be the main poll plank in Haryana and likewise in Maharashtra,” a source said. But first, the BJP, which has managed to increase its seat share from 105 to 119 in the last Maharashtra Assembly elections, has to resolve the basics with its “mahayuti” allies. Though Javdekar made it clear that they would approach both Assembly elections without a Chief Minister candidate, a stalemate continues in Maharashtra. BJP-Shiv Sean’s other partners in Maharashtra “mahayuti” — the Republican Party of India (RPI) led by Ramdas Athavale, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana of Raju Shetty, Rashtriya Samaj Party of Mahadeo Jankar and Vinayak Mete-led Shiv Sangram Party — are all clamouring for more seats. The sources say the BJP and the Shiv Sena may reach an agreement to distribute 20 to 24 among smaller allies and equally divide the rest amongst themselves.
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Cong trashes Vinod Rai’s allegations as cheap publicity
New Delhi, September 12 "The disease of book promotion with attendant marketing is assuming epidemic proportions. We need a new antibiotic for this viral. Former CAG's comments around the 2G case are repetitive and smack of political opportunism. It is unfortunate that a former holder of a constitutional position is involved in this political conspiracy against the Congress," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. The party also rebutted Rai's charge that some Congress MPs in the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament had approached him to leave the ex-PM alone in the 2G issue. "This cannot be possible because the MPs being referred to were not around when the 2G report was prepared. The allegation that they tried to influence Rai is impossible," Singhvi added.
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Law panel recommends repealing 72 archaic laws
New Delhi, September 12 One of the laws — Bengal District Act — recommended for repeal dates back to 1836. Several other laws recommended for revoking belong to period dating from 1838 to 1898. In its “interim” report to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Commission said it will further study 261 more statutes “with a view to providing a firm recommendation for repeal of obsolete statutes and those inconsonant with modern times”. — PTI
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Dance bars: SC notice to M’rashtra
New Delhi, September 12 A Bench comprising Justices SJ Mukhopadhaya and PC Pant issued notice to the state on a petition by the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, contending that the ban imposed by amending the Maharashtra Police Act on June 13 this year was unconstitutional as it deprived thousands of dance girls of their livelihood. The state government had gone for a fresh amendment to nullify the July 16, 2013 verdict upholding the quashing of the previous ban order, issued in 2006, by the Bombay High Court. The ban which was supposed to be a cure was worse than the disease, the SC had remarked in its verdict which also directed the state government to take measures to ensure the safety and improve the working conditions of the persons working as bar girls.
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BJP woos M’rashtra Muslims
Mumbai, September 12 The party has embarked on a major mass contact programme across the state to reach out to the minority community, which is seen to be hostile to the ruling party. In the first of the mega meetings held today, party’s senior Muslim leaders Najma Heptulla and Shahnawaz Hussain backed several demands of the community such as improved education for its members. “The Congress, in the past 65 years, has done nothing except pushing the Muslims away from the path of growth. But it calls itself secular,” Heptuallah said. Party leaders said the BJP made a small beginning by hosting an iftaar for Muslims earlier this year, which was attended by leaders such as HRD Minister Smriti Irani. The Muslim community accounts for 11 per cent of Maharashtra’s population.
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Singer held in Saradha case
Kolkata/New Delhi, September 12 Meanwhile, a local court remanded suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh in five-day judicial custody after pleaded for either bail or CBI custody to “assist” the agency in its Saradha probe. — TNS & PTI
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