Money transfer
service launched

NEW DELHI, Apr 18: Department of Post (DoP) today joined hands with Western Union Financial Services Inc to launch money transfer service through the extensive reach of its post offices.........more

VHP joins RSS on
"Indianisation
of Muslims"

DEHRADUN, Apr 19: VHP today joined RSS in demanding "Indianisation" of Christians and Muslims in.......more

No threat to Rabri
Govt: RJD LS MP

PATNA, Apr 19: Senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and Lok Sabha MP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today .....more

Court reserves order on
BP Verma’s bail petition

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: A Delhi court today reserved the order on the bail petition moved by ousted Central .........more

HC asks Army, IAF to
explain creation of
non-Governmental funds

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: The Delhi High Court today asked the Defence and Finance Ministries............more

‘Removal of hoardings
does not violate
right to expression’

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: The Supreme Court has held that removal of advertisement hoardings..........more

Prasar Bharati
officer convicted
for accepting bribe

BANGALORE, Apr 19: A CBI court today convicted Prasar Bharati programme executive Kamala Hemmige.......more

Passport centres opened in
each district, says Jaswant

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: All district headquarters will have passport centres to speed....more



Money transfer service launched

NEW DELHI, Apr 18: Department of Post (DoP) today joined hands with Western Union Financial Services Inc to launch money transfer service through the extensive reach of its post offices.

The service would allow credible route for money transfer to the country and the alliance would enable senders residing in 185 countries to send money to anyone in india within ten minutes, Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said launching the service.

"This agreement has a great synergy and potential as its bring together two large networks, Western Union and its Worldwide Network and the India Post Network," Paswan said.

The Western Union money transfer service is expected to offer tremendous convenience to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), international tourists and international students living in India, he added.

In January 2001, Western Union and India post signed an agreement to expand the availability of Western Union money transfer services in India.

Under the upcoming plans, the services would initially be available across 750 post offices in the first year and upto 3000 post offices over the next three years.

While the agreement would allow Western Union to extend its reach to population in rural areas and urban communities through Indian postal system, for the Postal Department the agreement would bring enhanced customer base and revenue earnings in dollars, thus allowing the department to come out of red. (PTI)

VHP joins RSS on "Indianisation of Muslims"

DEHRADUN, Apr 19: VHP today joined RSS in demanding "Indianisation" of Christians and Muslims in the country and expressed its determination to go ahead with construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

"By Indianisation, we are not demanding conversion of Muslims and Christians into Hindus. For the sake of unity and integrity of the country, we are demanding that Christians and Muslims should be indigenised, carrying Indian names", VHP vice president Acharya Giriraj Kishore told newsmen here.

Referring to the Ayodhya issue, he said the VHP would begin the construction of Ram Temple any day after Shivratri next year.

"In February next year, Sadhus would give the final ultimatum to the Centre to remove all hurdles in the way of construction of Ram Temple. If that fails, we will construct the temple come what may," the Acharya said.

On Tehri dam issue, he said the VHP was hopeful of its resolution as the Centre had already set up an expert committee headed by Human Resource Development Minister M M Joshi in this regard.

"We are not against Tehri hydel project but what we want is that the flow of Ganga should not stop and the river’s self purification quality should continue," he added. (PTI)

No threat to Rabri Govt: RJD LS MP

PATNA, Apr 19: Senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and Lok Sabha MP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today claimed that there was no threat to the Rabri Devi Government in Bihar.

Criticising party working president Ranjan Yadav for his alleged involvement in dissident activities, Prof Singh told UNI that Mr Yadav was a betrayer. He alleged Mr Yadav has deceived party national president Laloo Prasad Yadav in the hour of need.

Prof Singh, a close confidant of Laloo Prasad Yadav, claimed the Government would come out of the crisis and curb dissident activity in the party.

He said the rebel leaders had been confused and misled by Ranjan Yadav, who had no hold in the party. He categorically stated that only a handful of party leaders who had grievances against Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav were engaged in dissident activity.

Prof Singh maintained that all such rebel leaders would be taken into confidence and brought to good humour of may be some disciplinary action be taken against them.

To a query he said there was no post of ‘working president’ as per the party s constitution. However he said the post was created verbally under a working arrangement.

He said Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav before going to the jail had made his childhood friend Ranjan Yadav the working president of the party in good faith. He said it was shameful that Mr Ranjan Yadav stabbed him in the back and now trying to take the entire party in his grip on the behest of the BJP.

He said any move to destabilise the Bihar Government would be dealt firmly. (UNI)

Court reserves order on BP Verma’s bail petition

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: A Delhi court today reserved the order on the bail petition moved by ousted Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairman B P Verma, his son Sidharth and other accused for April 30.

Special Judge R L Chugh in his order said the bail applications filed at various stages by other accused - Bhavna Pandey, Vijay Pratap and Shravan Kumar would also be heard on the same day.

However, on the request of senior counsel Gurdail Singh the bail petition of Rajeev Sharma would be heard on April 27.

Whether Verma would undergo the polygraph test or not would also be decided after hearing the arguments from both sides, Mr Chugh said.

Verma’s counsel A U Khan today filed a reply to the charges framed by the CBI denying that the ousted CBEC Chairman accepted any bribe from K Vijay Pratap or Shravan Kumar in connection with the Chennai-based A K Enterprises.

Verma did not call up Mr Prasad, Customs Commissioner of Chennai to influence him to favour the A K Enterprises, he added.

He also did not use the mobile phone of alleged conduit Bhavna Pandey. Verma did not accept any illegal gratification for transferring officers of the Customs department, the application said.

Mr Khan argued in the application that there was no need to subject him to a lie detector test as he had already replied to all questions of the investigating agency to the best of his knowledge.

Considering the health condition of Verma, he should be properly checked by a panel of doctors before undergoing the polygraph test, if at all needed, the application said.

CBI sleuths arrested Verma, Siddharth and broker Bhavna Pandey here on April 2.

The CBI, which raided the office and residential premises of B P Verma on March 30 and 31, has charged the former CBEC Chairman and the other co-accused under section 13 1(d) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-b IPC (Criminal Conspiracy).

CBI sources said scrutiny of documents seized from the houses of Verma and Pandey revealed assets worth more than Rs one crore in the name of Verma and his family.

Among the documents were receipts showing nearly Rs 30 lakh in bank accounts and fixed deposits besides an investment of Rs 20 lakh in a private company in Siddharth’s name.

The assets unearthed included Rs 24 lakh worth of jewellery, besides flats in Kolkata and Delhi. Even documents of a three-star hotel in Nainital and a Farm House in Gurgaon in the names of his close associates were found in his house during the search.

Verma is charged with extending favours to facilitate exports of the Chennai-based firm through false invoicing in return for financial consideration. The CBI registered a case against Verma, his son, owner of the company Kiran Kumar Moolchand and Vijay Pratap on Thursday.(UNI)

HC asks Army, IAF to explain creation of non-Governmental funds

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: The Delhi High Court today asked the Defence and Finance Ministries to explain their stands on creation of non-Governmental funds running into several crore rupees by Naval, Army and Air Force authorities.

A division bench of Chief Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice D K Jain asked Additional Solicitor General K K Sud to take instructions and file the affidavits. The matter will now be heard on May 29.

The court’s action came following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate B L Wadehra which highlighted one instance of creating a private fund out of income generated from Government property. The eastern naval command at Vishakhapatnam sanctioned the construction of an additional gymnasium in February 1996 which was completed at a cost of Rs 69.23 lakh in October 1997.

But no gymnasium apparatus and special items were purchased. The infrastructure constructed as additional gymnasium was never utilised as a gymnasium but put to use as the so-called integrated welfare complex. The building came to be used for commercial activities like running a restaurant, bank, ice cream parlour, beauty parlour, health club, telephone booth, creche, saloon and computer education centre.

The commercial activities were permitted to be carried on mostly by private parties from whom an annual rent of Rs 1.6 lakh was charged. This was not credited to Government account. "The misuse of powers for creating a private fund which could be utilised by naval authorities at their discretion away from Government rules and audit constitutes an act of grave misuse of power and extremely serious violation of the rules and law," the PIL said.

It said an inquiry needs to be set up for identifying those responsible for such immoral and illegal activity of creation of private funds out of Government properties and take penal and administrative action. A large number of funds have been generated continuously in Naval, Army and Air Force establishments all over the country.

"This one example is a tip of the iceberg. Such funds run into several crore rupees. They should be transferred to the Government treasury and their utilisation should be brought under Government control," the PIL added.

Meanwhile, Commodore P C Yadav, Director of Works at the Naval Headquarters, said in an affidavit filed before the court that dues totalling Rs 3.1 lakh owed to the Government as licence fee upto January have been deposited in the treasury.

Out of the balance sum Rs 1.24 lakh held in non-public fund "Avantika," a further sum of Rs 1.03 lakh has been credited to the treasury. The remaining Rs 20,590 being refundable deposit of tenants has also been disbursed and the fund closed with nil balance. (UNI)

‘Removal of hoardings does not violate
right to expression’

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: The Supreme Court has held that removal of advertisement hoardings, visibility of which is hazardous and disturbing to the safe traffic movement, by municipal authorities could not be termed as violative of fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.

This ruling was given by a bench comprising Justice V N Khare and Justice N Santosh Hegde while disposing of a bunch of petitions challenging the Section 326(J) of Tamil Nadu City Municipality Act.

The challenge was to the provisions which conferred power on hoarding other than traffic and road signs "visible to the traffic on road which is hazardous and disturbing to the safe traffic movement, so as to adversely affect free and safe flow of traffic".

Upholding the Madras High Court’s verdict rejecting the petitioners’ plea, the apex court bench said "we are inclined to agree with the High Court that Section 326(J) of the Act is neither ultra vires of Article 14 (Equality) nor Article 19(1)(A) (Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression)."

However, the bench said the High Court erred in coming to the conclusion that "the authorities were bound to remove all hoardings simply because they are visible to traffic and the authorities had no option but to remove all such hoardings which were visible to the traffic." (PTI)

Prasar Bharati officer convicted for accepting bribe

BANGALORE, Apr 19: A CBI court today convicted Prasar Bharati programme executive Kamala Hemmige to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for accepting a bribe nine years ago to telecast a serial.

Judge G T Veerabhadrappa, in his sentence, also slammed a fine of Rs 5,000 under two sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998. The accused, in the event of default, will have to undergo three months of rigorous imprisonment.

Mrs Hemmige was found guilty of accepting rs 10,000 on February 12, 1992 as the "first instalment" for telecasting a serial titled ‘Mylari Sarasa’. She had demanded Rs 50,000 from its producer K A Satya, the investigation later found.

The chargesheet was filed by Deputy Superintendent of Police K Y Guruprasad, who investigated the case. (UNI)

Passport centres opened in each district, says Jaswant

NEW DELHI, Apr 19: All district headquarters will have passport centres to speed up the process of issuing passports to applicants, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh informed the Rajya Sabha today.

Replying to supplementaries during question hour, the minister said the whole process of issuing passports was being decentralised in view of repeated complaints of delays in police verification.

"We have found that in some states and union territories police verification leads to delays of up to 20-22 weeks", he observed. In this context, he said special facilities have been provided in some states whereby verification can be done by civil servants of a certain rank.

The minister said he has personally written to all the Chief Ministers urging that passports be issued with least harassment to citizens.

The district authorities have also been asked to identify police personnel for special training in passport processing. The minister, however, admitted that the response from states was not up to expectations. "I’m sorry to say that only 14 officials attended our training programme", he noted.

To a question by Mr B P Singhal (BJP), the External Affairs Minister clarified that police verification is a state function while issuance of passports is the responsibility of the centre. "While State Governments have adopted their own procedures to verify applications, the Centre has appointed an inter-ministerial committee functioning under the central secretariat to examine all aspects", he said.

Observing that delays in issuance of passports were a big problem in villages given the shortage of police personnel, Gen. Shanker Ray (NOM) urged the Centre to increase the number of police personnel in rural areas.

Stating that the Centre was seized of the matter, Mr Jaswant Singh, however, pointed out that increasing police personnel at the present juncture was not feasible. The Government had its own limitations on the strength of staff in respect of passport offices and, besides, this was a state responsibility, he reiterated.

Ms Mabel Rebello (Cong) sought a clarification from the minister whether passports have got to be issued within 35 days even without police verification. If so, wouldn’t this give a chance for hardened criminals to get passports, she asked.

Mr Singh explained that passports are normally issued within five weeks provided a clear police verification report has been received and the application is complete in all other respects.

However, short validity passports of an urgent nature can be issued on the basis of a verification certificate issued by an officer not below the rank of Deputy Secretary to the Government of india. Whenever a negative police report is received the applicants are contacted for clarification and where necessary their passports are revoked or impounded, he added. (UNI)

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