CAIRO, Nov 1: There is an urgent need to simplify legal procedures and set a time limit to bring people with ill-gotten money to book, the chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Dr Trinath Mishra has said.

All our efforts are diluted because of legal procedures which are so long and cumbersome...People with ill-gotten money get the best of legal help to delay their cases, witnesses lose interest and over the years investigating officers retire or new cases come up, Dr Mishra, who headed a high-level Indian delegation to the 67th Interpol Conference here, told recently.

He noted that big cases sometimes stretched for atleast ten to fifteen years. There is a huge gap between chargesheeting and conviction.

The CBI chief said the organisation needed public support to ensure that an offender was convicted. We need support from the grassroot level, of the common man...Mere support from the elite is of no use.

Dr Mishra, said the CBI badly needs officers specialised in handling areas like financial scams.

The types of cases coming to CBI have now changed, we have bank scam cases, non-banking financial cases...We currently need officers who are a cut above others to look into these isues, he said. (PTI)

AIADMK to launch agitation on Chitra case

CHENNAI, Nov 1: AIADMK today said that it would launch an agitation on November 3 and 5, to press its demand for a judicial inquiry into the circumstances that led to a 25-year old woman, Chitra, committing suicide after alleging of molestation by police.

Announcing the dates of the agitation and rejecting the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-CID’s report on the issue, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha said here in a statement that in event of the Tamil Nadu Government not agreeing to order a judicial inquiry, the party would chalk out further plans for continued agitation.

Chitra, who was three months pregnant, committed suicide at her residence after she was released by the police. She had been taken to the police station, where her husband, Ravi, had already been detained in connection with a theft case. A letter purportedly written by Chitra, said she was taking the extreme step as she was sexually assaulted by some policemen.

A public meeting would be held here on November 3 to ‘explain the nuances of the case’ as the first phase of the agitation to press for judicial inquiry.

In the second phase, party’s women’s wing would stage a hunger strike on November 5, Jayalaliha added. (PTI)

Rights of prisoners
Session judges must visit jails: NHRC

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has urged Chief Justices of High Courts of various states and union territories to issue directions to session judges to visit prisons in their jurisdiction regularly to ensure human rights of prisoners.

NHRC sources told today that in a recent communication sent to Chief Justices of 18 High Courts, the Commission has requested them to issue instructions to various session judges to visit jails within their jurisdiction as per the provisions contained in the state prison manuals and in terms of the Supreme Court’s directions to ensure that ‘the conditions of prisoners conform to certain minimum standards of maintenance, health, hygiene, institutional treatment and discipline and for taking corrective action as may be found necessary to uphold human rights of the prisoners’.

The sources said that one of the important functions entrusted to the NHRC under the protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 is to visit various prisons and suggest measures for improving the condition of the prison inmates.

However, the Commission during its visit to various jails has been appalled by the spectacle of overcrowding, insanitary conditions and mismanagement of prison administration. It also noticed with dismay that human rights of prisoners were blatantly disregarded.

Earlier, the Supreme Court has specifically directed that district and session judges must visit jails and make expeditious enquiries into the grievances of prisoners and take suitable remedial action. They are also required to ascertain that grievance deposit boxes were provided to all inmates for this purpose, the Apex Court had stated. The state prison manuals also contain provision for session judges to function as ex-officio visitors to jail within their jurisdiction.

During its visits to various jails the Commission was informed that session judges were not visiting the prisons within their jurisdiction regularly. So the Commission again requested the Chief Justices to issue necessary direction in this regard and inform the NHRC about the action taken.

The condition of jails is a major cause of concern for the Commission as it has found a depressing pattern of overcrowding, lack of sanitation, mistreatment of prisoners and mismanagement of jails. In many jails persons with mental disabilities were sometimes being held as prisoners. In addition prisoners with mental diabilities were being treated as were other jail inmates with no efforts being made to deal with their distinctive problems, the Commission observed.

The problems of women prisoners and lack of adequate knowledge and training to prison staff was another major problem which the Commission felt would take many years of determined effort to remedy as they were related to generations of neglect, shortage of resources and a frame of mind that itself needs drastic altering through re-education, training and better condition of work. (UNI)

PM compliments Bangalore for IT developmen

BANGALORE, Nov 1: ‘Let a hundred Bangalores bloom,’ Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said today, expressing appreciation for what the city has achieved in the field of Information Technology (IT).

‘This beautiful city has earned a proud place on the global IT map,’ he said inaugurating the ‘Bangalore IT.COM ‘98’, near here.

After Bangalore took the lead, he said, many other cities in the country had joined the IT March, adding, that the latter had become active and started to move faster.

‘There is, thus, a healthy competition among cities and states, which is leading to the creation of better infrastructure facilities and more attractive investment options. All this is good for the country,’ Vajpayee said.

Emphasising that it was never easy to be a Pioneer and a Trailblazer, he said when Bangalore started software development and export, all it had was a dream and immense self-confidence. ‘What it lacked I financial resources was more than made up by its bright and youthful human resources.’

The Prime Minister expressed happiness that a vast nation-wide network of computer education centres had come into being in the past few years.

‘IT reaches many states, even small towns and big villages — and, significantly, it has come up without any Government support,’ Vajpayee noted. (PTI)

Major quake likely in Central India, warns scientist

HYDERABAD, Nov 1: A major earthquake is likely to rock the Son-Narmada-Tapati (Sonata) basin in Central India, according to a warning issued by Dr J G Negi, senior scientist at National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), here.

However, the timing of the earthquake was unpredictable, Dr Negi said.

The epicenter of the quake measuring above six on the richter scale in likely to be in the Kandwa-Pandhana of Madhya Pradesh region.

This is for the first time that a detailed study of the region has been done to predict a forthcoming quake.

Dr Negi, who conducted the study, said the prediction follows a string of minor quakes rocking the region almostaily since September 9 in the Barwani-Sukta fault region. In two months, 935 ‘felt tremors’ were reported, 14 of which were three or above in magnitude. On October 11 alone, there were 101 ‘felt tremors’.

Such high frequencies are a clear signal that a major quake is to strike the area, he said.

Dr Negi said the people of the area have learnt to identify the tremors as ‘halka’ (minor), ‘bhari’ (major) and ‘bahut bhari’ (very major) depending on the intensity.

Seismic huts too have come up in the area following Negi’s warning. People spend the nights in these seismic bamboo huts.

This is because all major quakes strike between 1930 hours and 0630 hours in India, he said.

Apart from the minor tremors, there is a 50-year cycle for major quakes in the region. The first quake was reported in 1863 followed by one in 1938.

Since some quakes have a periodicity, time looks ripe for a major earthquake in the region, Dr Negi said.

However, from the series of events, the quake seems to moving southwards, he said, adding though the time cannot be predicted, the region has been identified.

Following these events, ngri has declared the area as a ‘hot spot’ of seismic activity.

Scientists consider these cluster events as ‘fore-shocks’ for the big one that might strike the region. Many houses in Pandhana village have developed cracks due to the cluster shocks, indicating that the intensity is getting severe.

The village has a population of more than 12,000, while the entire region has more than two lakh people, all living under the deadly shadow of a mighty quake.

Scientists have found a similarity of the cluster events in the Sonata basin to the ones in Killari and Latur. In these two areas in Maharashtra, a series of ‘fore-shocks’ came as a warning before the powerful quake of September 30, 1993.

The picture of Sonata is also very similar, scientists point out. (PTI)

Delhi junction for yard remodelling

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: The ‘Delhi junction’, capital’s oldest railway station’s yard, is all set for remodelling, with the Northern Railways embarking upon a plan to add more routes to ease congestion.

The remodelling of the yard, groundwork for which has already started, will be carried out in a record time of 48 hours to minimise inconvenience to travellers, Northern Railways General Manager S P Mehta said today.

The actual work would be taken up sometime in February when almost all the trains would either be cancelled or diverted to New Delhi and Nizamuddin stations for two days, he said in an interview.

The remodelling work will include improving the network of signals and tracks for achievement of better reception and despatch of trains, and doubling of the number of route interlocking from 548 to 1122.

The railways have already completed remodelling of New Delhi and Ghaziabad stations. While the work in New Delhi station was completed in 40 days, for Ghaziabad it took just 11 days, Mehta said.

Remodelling of a railway yard, taken up after 12 to 15 years, normally takes 60 to 70 days leading to slight disruption in train services.

Mehta said the Phase III and IV of the New Delhi station remodelling project was being delayed due to the presence of some ‘Jhuggis’ in the area and admitted that political and administrative pressure was in a way responsible for that.

About Nizamuddin station, which has the reputation of being the most congested in the capital, he said while a new building would come up there soon, the proposal for a second entry to the station was being hindered due to some DDA constructions which come in the way.

"The DDA has not yet demolished the constructions as promised," he said, adding measures had anyway been taken to improve the station and that the circulation area was bigger now.

The railways also has an ambitious plan to instal automatic water vending machines at all major stations in the Northern zone to provide potable drinking water to over 11 lakh passengers ferried by it every day.

Two such machines have already been set up at the New Delhi railway station and tenders were now being floated to ensure installation of such machines before the next Summer.

The water from the machines would be sold at cheaper rates than the mineral water bottles, Mehta said, adding purifiers would be attached to the existing water connections for the passengers who cannot afford to buy drinking water. (PTI)