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| Defence bribery
affair underscores need for appointing Lok Pal NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The videotaped defence bribery affair has underscored a long-......more SC declines to extend NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The Supreme Court has declined to extend to the victims in the other states. ....more 5 lakh children suffering PATNA, Mar 18: More than 1.35 crore children in the age group of nine months to five years....more ‘Lifers have no right to get NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Clearing a major misconception, the Supreme Court has held that law does....more New special judge NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The politically sensitive Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-offs case will come.....more |
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Yashwant
adopts From B L Kak Jamiat moves HC to NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind has moved the Delhi High Court to become a party in a .....more Pak’s appeal to restore PUNE, Mar 18: "Please do something for peace," is the appeal of the common man in Pakistan which met a delegation of retired defence officers and a....more |
Defence
bribery affair underscores need for NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The videotaped defence bribery affair has underscored a long-recognised need over which the authorities have vacillated while scandal after scandal has rocked the nation’s political life— appointing a Lok Pal, India’s much-heralded anti-corrupt ombudsman conceived 35 years ago but still nowhere in sight. Last heard of, the Lok Pal Bill was the subject of second thoughts: Whether or not Members of Parliament be placed under its purview. This, notwithstanding the fact that a broad cross-section of MPs themselves has voiced support for that and several other measures aimed at promoting accountability. The MPs’ support is reflected in responses already in to an appeal sent out some weeks ago by Lok Sevak Sangh, a Non-Governmental Organisation, and its sister NGO, transparency-international India. Both groups have said they will embark on a Satyagraha if the Lok Pal Bill is not introduced in this session of Parliament. "If the bill is not introduced during the session ending on March 23 or if MPs are excluded from its jurisdiction, we shall resume the postponed Satyagraha on April 16, when Parliament reassembles after recess to continue the budget session," LSS-TII Chairman Shambu Dutta Sharma told UNI. The groups deferred Satyagraha last November after announcement of plans to introduce the bill during the winter session. For decades, the authorities have let the grass grow under their feet while corruption has gone on unbridled— scam after scam bursting forth on the nation’s political stage, eroding public values, chipping away at public morale and cynicising public mind. The concept of Lok Pal— inspired by Sweden’s ombudsman— grew out of an interim report on the problem of redressal of citizens grievances submitted in 1966 by the Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Morarji Desai. The very thought of someone to whom an Indian citizen could turn with a complaint of corruption or administrative excesses against the mighty of the land was a whiff of fresh air. Two years later, the Lok Pal and the Lokayuktas Bill, 1968 was introduced in the 4th Lok Sabha, when late Mrs Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister. It was considered by a joint committee of the two Houses of Parliament and passed by the Lok Sabha in 1969. It was pending in the Rajya Sabha when the Lok Sabha was dissolved. The bill lapsed. Over the years, with political and public life getting increasingly mired in scandalous goings-on and some Governments at the Centre or in states even losing office over issues involving integrity— Bofors, Hawala, Fodder, Urea, Telecom, to name just a few controversies— the need for Lok Pal and other reforms has got more and more acute. But resistance to the bill appears manifest in the fact that even after being tabled six more times— in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996 and 1998, the last time by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee— it has never again been put to vote. The concern was echoed by the Prime Minister while opening a conference of Lokayuktas or state ombudsmen some weeks ago. As Mr Vajpayee put it, rampant corruption over the past few decades and the failure to catch and punish the corrupt has bred contempt for the law and led to widespread cynicism among the people, causing a decline in moral values in Indian society. Experience has shown that our efforts to strengthen probity in civil service and the polity cannot yield desired results without extending the norms of accountability to the judiciary. The inability of our judicial system to deliver speedy justice has itself become the source of much injustice. It has also eroded the credibility of our judiciary in the eyes of the public, Mr Vajpayee told delegates. Noting that corruption was detrimental to development, he announced that a Group of Ministers was putting together a new draft of the Lok Pal Bill, which will be introduced in Parliament soon. On his part, Mr Vajpayee volunteered to submit to its jurisdiction by vesting the Lok Pal "with adequate powers to deal with charges of corruption against anyone, including the Prime Minister." Authorities acknowledge that even the implementation of Lokayuktas in states has not been satisfactory. Lokayuktas exist in barely 15 states and do not have uniform jurisdiction over Chief Ministers or Members of State Legislatures. Nor is the system entirely effective. For instance, between 1986 and 2000, the Karnataka Lokayuktas ordered investigation in 2,840 cases, of which 1,677 were charge-sheeted but only six percent cases ended in conviction. The bulk— 1,118— were pending trial. Originally, the Lok Pal Bill was to place under scrutiny the conduct of all public functionaries and political leaders, including the Prime Minister, the members of the cabinet, as well as all members of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. It would have MPs and members of their immediate family declare personal assets each year they remain in office. The bill was scheduled to be introduced for the eighth time in November 2000, but the move appears to have bogged down because of demands to leave mps out of its sway. An argument advanced for excluding MPs from its ambit is that Lok Pal should only mind the affairs of those wielding Government and ministerial office who take decisions affecting citizens and therefore have the potential to abuse it for personal gain. But activists for MPs’ inclusion point out that legislators exercise enormous influence in shaping laws, policy and decisions which is fundamentally important and has potential for abuse. MPs are also empowered to take decisions such as spending constituency development funds, the LSS-TII spokesman said. A few MPs have been known to accept bribes and misuse Government property and ever increasing facilities and perquisites for personal benefit. A well known example is the acquittal of four Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs who allegedly voted for the Narasimha Rao Government in return for monetary consideration. The magic words that got them off were written into Article 105 of the Indian Constitution: No Member of Parliament shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in Parliament or any committee thereof. The episode has occasioned calls to change such provisions. Law Commission Chairman Justice B P Jeevan Reddy recently sought to kick off a public debate by suggesting that bribe-taking legislators should be liable for prosecution. He suggested including a new clause requiring that nothing... Should bar the prosecution of a Member of Parliament under the Prevention of Corruption Act etc, if they take money for voting in Parliament. Appointing Lok Pal is one of seven measures the LSS has been stressing to further the cause of probity in public life. The others include enacting laws giving citizens access to information, plugging loopholes to discourage defections, requiring declaration of political parties’ assets and accounts audit, debarring corrupt and criminal citizens from contesting elections, speedy trial of erring politicians and forfeiture of illegally acquired property, most of which have been under legislative consideration for years, even decades. The MPs who have stepped forward cutting across the party lines to support the measures include leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, Dr Manmohan Singh, and leading attorney and Congress leader, Kapil Sibal, as well as ruling Bharatiya Janata Party veterans such as B P Singhal, Kailash Joshi and Vijay Kumar Malhotra. They also include Debabrata Biswas of All India Forward Bloc, Nagendranath Ojha of Communist Party of India, Sunil Khan and Subodh Roy of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Chandra Vijay Singh of Akhil Bharatiya Lok Tantrik Congress, Tarlochan Singh Tur of Shiromani Akali Dal, Ananda Mohan Biswas of Trinamool, Prof M Sankaralingam of Dravida Munnetra Kazhgaham, Peter Alphonse of Tamil Manila Congress, Ashok Mohol of National Congress Party, Arun Kumar and Mahendra Baitha of Janata Dal United, Prabhat Kumar Samantray Bharatuya Janata Dal, Prof A Lakshmisagar of Janata Dal, Dr S Venugopal Telugu Desam Party, Ram Prasad Singh of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ravi Prakash Verma Samajwadi Janata Party and S D Shariq of National Conference. Independent member S Roy Choudhary and nominated members writer K S Duggal, journalist Kuldip Nayar and jurist Fali S Nariman, all noted in their respective fields, have also voiced their support. One party from which no response has been received so far is Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. (UNI) |
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SC declines to extend benefit of Delhi HC judgement NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The Supreme Court has declined to extend to the victims in the other states the benefit of a Delhi High Court judgement, directing payment of the capital during the anti-Sikh riots in November, 1984. "It is very difficult for us to extend the decision of the Delhi High Court in Bhajan Kaur vs. Delhi administration to all the states without making a detailed examination of the circumstances arising in each case. "Such an examination cannot be done by us," observed a division bench comprising of Mr Justice S Rajendra Babu and Mr Justice S N Phukhan. Disposing of a writ petition by Mr S S Ahluwaia, the bench, however, directed the High Courts of Delhi, Rajasthan, Orissa, Punjab and Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Panta, Madhya Pradesh Allahabad and Bombay in whose jurisdiction a total of 4,473 Sikhs were killed during the riots and their properties destroyed to deal with the allegations made in the petition filed before the apex court. "These proceedings, therefore, shall stand transferred to the respective High Courts. A copy of the petition with annextures and responses of the respective State Governments shall be sent to the high courts for appropriate action," the court directed. In the wake of the assassination of Mrs Gandhi on October 31, 1984 there were large scale killings of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country between October 31 and November, 1984, involving arson, looting and murder. A committee, headed by former Supreme Court Judge Rangathan Misra was appointed to inquire into the riot. The committee reported that 3874 Sikhs were killed in Delhi, 127 in Kanpur and 69 in Bokargo. Mrs Bhajan Kaur, whose husband was one of the victims filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court praying compensation to the dependants of those killed in the riots as the state had a duty to protect the life of its citizens and it ought to pay compensation for its failure to do so. The High Court by its order dated July 5,1996 held that in the expended meaning attributed to Article 21 of the Constitution it was the duty of the state to create a climate where members of the society belonging to different faith, caste and creed lived together and therefore, the state had a duty to protect their lives dignity and liberty. The High Court said that if the state was not able to protect the lives of its citizens then it could not escape the liability to pay compensation to the family of the person killed during the riots as his or her life has been extinguished in clear violation of Article 21 of the Constitution, The High Court, therefore, directed payment of Rs two lakhs with interest and also made a general direction that this direction should apply to similar cases. Therefore, Mr Ahluwalia approached the apex court by way of a petition seeking a direction to extend the benefit of the judgement in Bhajan Kaur vs. Delhi administration to the entire country and for certain other reliefs. (UNI) |
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5 lakh children suffering from night blindness in Bihar PATNA, Mar 18: More than 1.35 crore children in the age group of nine months to five years would be administered vitamin-a dosage in Bihar today for preventing eye related diseases in the state. State Government’s Blindness Control Programme Coordinator Dr R P Sinha said here yesterday that all 37 districts of the state would be covered phase. He said that 28 flood prone districts were covered in the first phase on August 13 last year under the Netra Jyoti programme. The Netra Jyoti programme is a six-monthly campaign for children of nine months to five years, with a total of five doses, to be given at an intervals of six months. It is a joint effort of Bihar Government and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Stating that over five lakh children were suffering from night blindness in the state, Dr Sinha said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) report had listed vitamin a deficiency as the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness and also a major contributor to the high death rates in infants and young children in malnourished communities. Dr Sinha said that a survey carried out by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) in 1997-98, found the prevalence of Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) in Bihar to be five times higher than the accepted norms for the country. He said the elimination of VAD was now considered an integral element of maternal and child survival programmes. Under the Centre’s declaration of "elimination of blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency", a two pronged strategy was being adopted throughout the country. Dr Sinha said that a short term strategy involved administering megadoses of Vitamin A, five times at intervals of six months to children in the age group of nine months to five years. He said that the long term strategy involved dietary improvements by promoting the production and consumption of locally available inexpensive vitamin a rich foods, especially by pregnant and lactating mothers and children below five years of age. (UNI) |
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Pak’s appeal to restore peace between neighbours PUNE, Mar 18: "Please do something for peace," is the appeal of the common man in Pakistan which met a delegation of retired defence officers and a few others including Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande who visited the neighbouring state for about a week beginning February 23. "We speak the same language and we eat the same food, then why should there be viciousness amongst us," the man on the street asks in desperation. The common man in Pakistan feels that the viciousness has been spread by the soldiers on either side and they acknowledge, though with some trepidation, that it is their own soldiers who are more to blame. The delegation found Gen Musharraf a "very genuine person". The general was very frank and he did not dodge any of our questions, said Mr Dar, a former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Command Lt Gen Moti Dar (retd) relating his experiences in Pakistan. The delegation submitted a list of Indian Prisoners of War languishing in various Pakistani jails and Gen Musharraf is supposed to have assured the members that he would personally look into the matter, according to Mr Dar. Gen Musharraf expressed his desire to start dialogue with India at the earliest. But Mr Dar said the general’s oft-repeated phrase regarding Pakistan’s need to be treated with dignity and honour was only because of the fear of India’s rise to supremacy in South East Asia. People in Pakistan fear that India may spread her hegemony in South East Asia and that Pakistan may be swamped by India — this is the impression that the delegation gathered. Gen. Musharraf told the delegation that the helping hand extended by Pakistan to the quake-affected people of Gujarat was a spontaneous reaction and not to gain any mileage. He also regretted India’s politicising the game of cricket by not allowing her team to tour Pakistan. Gen Musharraf also expressed the need to strengthen South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Mr Dar said while noting that the general had during his scheduled half-hour meeting with the delegation never once mentioned "Kashmir". Mr Dar said they had the feeling that the general was under pressure from the "Jehadis". "When we were in Pakistan, an order was issued to the effect that all non-licensed weapons would be confiscated. However, the order was later modified under pressure from Jehadis. Likewise, an earlier order which banned monetary contributions to "Jehadis" was subsequently modified to allow the contributions but the contributor had to give an account of it," Mr Dar added. (UNI) |
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New special judge to hear Bofors case today NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The politically sensitive Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-offs case will come up for hearing before a new special judge here tomorrow following transfer of Ajit Bharihoke early this month. R L Chugh, who has taken over as the new special judge, will hear the case for the first time, CBI sources said. Europe-based Hinduja Brothers — Srichand, Prakashchand and Gopichand, Kuala Lumpur-based Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, former Bofors agent Win Chadha, former Defence Secretary S K Bhatnagar, the then Bofors chief Martin Ardbo and the Swedish arms manufacturer are facing trial on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption. Last month, Chugh’s predecessor Bharihoke had rejected Hindujas’ application seeking permission to leave the country. The Hindujas, who had appeared before the court on January 19, challenged the trial court order in the High Court. The High Court was yet to decide the issue. Chadha was also denied permission to leave the country after he appeared before the court last year. However, he was granted bail. Bhatnagar is also on bail. CBI is likely to file a detailed report regarding the extradition proceedings against Quattrocchi in Malaysia as also the progress made on the red alert issued against Ardbo. As reported earlier, Bofors company had already submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the court and appointed a Delhi-based advocate to attend trial proceedings on its behalf. (PTI) |
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