Excelsior... Nation

Ex-wife takes man to court for calling their child 'haraam'

MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 3: In a new twist to the case of a man refusing custody of his two-year-old child, the divorced mother has filed a defamation suit against him in a local court for calling his daughter "haraam" (born out of wedlock).

The Judicial Magistrate's court has fixed hearing of the case filed by Sajida Begum against her ex-husband Javed, who has remarried, for January 2.

She told the court that her husband had refused to accept custody of their 2-year-old daughter and alleged that he called the child "haraam".

Javed married Sajida three years ago but divorced her when she became pregnant alleging infidelity and refusing to accept the fatherhood of the child.

A Shariat court here rejected her application yesterday, where she complained that Javed refused to take custody of the child as promised before a community panchayat when they were divorced, as the matter was pending before a judicial court. (PTI)

Police raid Jaiprakash's house, return empty handed

JAMUI, BIHAR, Dec 3: Intensifying its efforts to arrest former Union Minister and RJD MP Jaiprakash Narain Yadav, the police today raided his residence at Salaiya under Barhat police station in Jamui district but returned empty handed.

Police Superintendent Arvind Kumar told PTI that police raided the house of the former minister, in hiding since non-bailable arrest warrant against him was issued in the case of "illegal escape" of his brother and party candidate in assembly polls, Vijay Prakash, this morning on information that he was present there.

"Police, however, failed to find him," Kumar said, adding an alert has been sounded across the state for the arrest of the RJD leader.

The SP said he had also informed the Delhi police about the non-bailable warrant of arrest pending against the MP and his official house there too was raided.

Kumar said the police had already approached the chief judicial magistrate here seeking issue of order for attachment of his property and a formal order was awaited.

Jaiprakash has reportedly moved the Patna High Court for anticipatory bail.

After playing hide and seek with the police for about a fortnight, Jaiprakash's brother Vijay Prakash had on October 3 surrendered before the court which remanded him to judicial custody.

Jaiprakash Narain Yadav had to resign following issue of non-bailable warrant of arrest against him for misuse of his oficial position to facilitate the "illegal escape" of his brother from police custody.

He was refused anticipatory bail by a Jamui court on October 27.

A criminal revision petition challenging the issue of nbw against Yadav was also rejected by the district judge in november.

Vijay Prakash was arrested while moving in Jamui constituency with a rifle, ammunition, detonator, Rs 6.68 lakh in cash and liquor bottles during polling on October 18. (PTI)

Sheila against misuse of medical technology for sex selection

NEW DELHI, Dec 3: With the capital having one of the worst sex ratios in the country, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today called on fertility clinics to ensure that the medical breakthroughs are not misused for sex selection.

"The decline in the sex ratio is a matter of great concern to us. You need to ensure that modern technology is not misused and the imbalance does not continue," she said inaugurating the first National Conference on Infertility.

Noting that female foeticide was more rampant among the affluent sections of the society, she said doctors need to take a vow to see to it that the fertility technologies are not misused.

Dikshit, meanwhile, said that her Government was open to suggestions from the medical fraternity on how to make fertility treatments more affordable.

"You have spoken of the need to make medicines more affordable through a cut in the taxation and also how the government can encourage fertility clinics. We would be happy to help in whichever way we can," she said.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, fertility expert Dr Kuldeep Jain asked the Government to reduce taxes on medicines used in fertility treatments.

He also lamented the fact that insurance companies did not cover fertility treatments.

The two-day conference has been organised by the Indian Fertility Society, and it comprises 55 lectures from national and international experts. (PTI)

PM launches National Urban Renewal Mission

NEW DELHI, Dec 3: Launching an ambitious Rs one lakh crore National Urban Renewal Mission to improve urban infrastructure in major cities, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today suggested land rights to urban poor at affordable rates to increase private investment.

"A major failure of city governance has been our inability to address the needs of the poor - basic services like drinking water supply, sanitation, housing and social services are not available to an increasing share of urban population", he said launching the scheme, christened 'Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission'.

Suggesting options like giving the urban poor land rights at affordable rates, he said this in itself would improve the quality of living in cities. Property rights can also be used as a collateral for financing new investment.

"To improve urban infrastructure and provide urban services for the poor we urgently need urban governance reform," he told the gathering which included Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and senior officials.

The scheme aimed at creating an integrated development of urban infrastructure with special emphasis on providing basic services to the poor like housing, sanitation and slum improvement would be implemented over a seven-year period. It would cover about 60 cities with a million plus population, all state capitals and other cities considered important from religious, historical and tourist point of view.

Observing that the vision of urban development has so far been uni-dimensional with a focus more on space and less on people, the Prime Minister said there was a need for an integrated framework in which spatial development of cities went hand in hand with improvement in the quality of living of ordinary people living there.

Noting governance reform should be seen as a catalyst for change, he said while considerable ground has been covered under the 73rd Constitution Amendment relating to Panchayats, the 74th Amendment for decentralization of power to the urban local bodies has not yet been effectively translated into urban governance.

"Cities, unfortunately with some exception, have not been enabled to look inward and build on their inherent capacities, both financial and technical, and instead are still being seen in many states as 'wards' of State Governments. This should change", he said.

Singh said that the municipal finance was in an extremely unsatisfactory state on account of an inability to properly tap and utilise proceeds from property tax, due to the inadequacies of the property valuation system, and inefficiencies in tax collection system.

The Mission seeks to do away with those statutes that inhibit the functioning of land and housing markets and bring in those improvements that would enable the city-level institutions to become financially strong and viable.

Observing that many cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram have come up with citizen initiatives for urban renewal, the Prime Minister said this process would be strengthened through the creation of Voluntary Technical Corps for each city as envisaged in the Mission.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Urban Development and Culture S Jaipal Reddy said major cities suffer from major inadequacies in infrastructure and services and this project seeks to address those issues.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the scheme was conceptualised when the Prime Minister had suggested turning Mumbai into Shanghai. He said in a globalisation era, development of infrastructure in at least major cities was important to attract investment.

Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Selja warned that most of the towns and cities have not geared to keep with the situation and could collapse with the magnitude of the problem.

The Mission would be guided by a National Steering Group chaired by the Urban Development Minister and co-chaired by the Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation.

It would consist of two sub-missions -- one on urban infrastructure and governance and the other on basic services to the urban poor.

The main thrust of sub-mission on urban infrastructure and governance would be on major infrastructure projects relating to water supply, including sanitation, sewerage, solid-waste management, urban transport and road network.

Programmes like slum-improvement and rehabilitation, sites and services, night-shelters, community toilets and housing for the poor would be taken up by the sub-mission on basic services to urban poor.

The underlying objective of these reforms is to improve the financial condition of the urban local bodies, their credit worthiness, ability to access market capital for taking up new projects, secure public participation and confidence and commercial sustainability in the provision of services to ensure sustained service delivery.

The State Governments and urban local bodies would be required to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with the Central government, giving an undertaking to implement the reform agenda, as per a mutually agreed roadmap. Fund releases would be linked to assessment of the implementation of reform agenda.

In addition to the Mission, the Government has also approved two other schemes -- Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme to be taken up by the Ministries of Urban Development and Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation respectively for development programmes in cities and towns outside the Mission area.

Grants under these schemes would also be linked to the implementation of reforms. (PTI)

'Govt and industry should invest in science'

TIRUCHIAPPALLI, Dec 3: The Government and the industry needed to invest and encourage basic sciences more to promote "Science of Highest Order" which would help the country win the Nobel Prize.

Talking to PTI, T V Ramakrishnan, president of the Indian Academy of Science (IAS) and Professor at the Benaras Hindu University, said "It is more than 76 years since a scientist of the country won the Nobel prize, though high quality science institutes and scientists exist in the country. But the Science of Highest order is very small".

"The values of pure science should be borne in mind by the government and the industry. Unless heavy investment is made Knowledge Economy would not grow at the pace at which it should grow, and achievement of Indian science would not be significant like developed countries."

Though the country was strong in manpower in the field of science, its contribution to international science was just three per cent compared to 10 per cent by China, he said.

The IAS and Government should take the initiative and encourage pure science like they encouraged medicine and engineering, Ramakrishnan said adding, if the country wanted to reach greater heights in the field of technology, it should encourage research of "very high order"

He also felt the Government of late was sensitive to the issue and was doing its best within its limitations to promote research activities.

The IAS, which did not want to make comparisons between the countries and within the country, has however prepared "Position Papers" in three or four fields of Science. The Papers revealed India's positions in Space science, Linear Thermodynamics and two other fileds.

The IAS has been asked to produce "Position Papers" in three other fields by the Department of Science and Technology to reveal India's ranking in the these fields.

The IAS was not directly involved in the interaction between the industry and institutes, but some of the Industries like Pharma did not want to take any risk on the innovative proposals put forth by the academics, he said.

The IAS is popularising the basic science in its own way. It had allowed participation of "teaching staff" in its annual conferences so that they know how research papers are presented, according to Ramakrishnan.

Besides, 30 Assistant research fellows also were admitted to the Science Congress for three years continuously so that they could familiarise themselves with senior fellows and know the nuances of a research paper presented at the Academy.(PTI)

'Appoint former judges as Special Magistrates to cut backlog'

NEW DELHI, Dec 3: Terming it as "extraordinary remedy to resolve an extraordinary situation", former Chief Justice of India J S Verma today said retired High Court judges and senior lawyers should be empowered as Special Executive Magistrates to decide petty offences in their localities.

"Petty offences are the artificial areas of litigation. You just need to take it up to dispose it," he said during his speech on 'Speeding Up the Justice Delivery System'.

A chunk of the backlog can be disposed of by using the "huge potential" in the form of these retired personnel, the former CJI said, while adding that petty offences formed 40 to 50 per cent of over 20 million pending cases in subordinate courts across the country.

He said it was time to invoke the powers under Section 21 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which says that the State Government may for such term as it may think fit appoint a Special Executive Magistrate for a particular area.

"We have to try interpret law to find a solution within the existing framework," Verma, also former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, said.

He said this measure was cost-effective as it required only minimum infrastructural facilities and was also an alternative to fresh recruitments to the Bench.

Also speaking at the function, former Attorney General of India Soli J Sorabjee went a step further and said he was even willing to work in Small Causes courts where "judges are paid pittances while they deal with cases involving lakhs". (PTI)

Air Deccan to start nine new routes from Feb

BANGALORE, Dec 3: Low-cost carrier Air Deccan today announced opening up of nine new routes, including five out of Mumbai, in which ATRs would be operated from February one next year.

Announcing the opening up of reservations for 127 ATR flights for February and March from tomorrow, the airline said in a release here that from February one, it would connect Bangalore with Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, besides Chennai with Tiruchirapalli and Madurai with Tuticorin. From Mumbai, it would operate flights to Jamnagar, Rajkot, Aurangabad, Pune and Kandla.

The ATR sectors for which bookings would open were Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bhavnagar, Baroda, Bangalore, Belgaum, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kochi, Kozhikode, Dehradun, Delhi, Goa, Gwalior, Hubli, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jammu, Kandla, Kanpur, Kolhapur, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Nagpur, Pune, Rajkot, Tirupati, Thiruvananthapuram, Tuticorin, Tiruchirapalli, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.

Bookings for the north-east and Kolkata sectors would open shortly, the release said. (UNI)

Cholosterol-free does not mean calory-free scientist

HYDERABAD, Dec 3: Dismissing the advertisements of vegetable oil industry that their products were cholesterol-free as misleading and sales promotion gimmicks, noted nutritionist and former director of the indian institute of nutrition Dr Bamji Mahtab said cholesterol was an animal sterol and contained no vegitable oil.

Delivering the inaugural address at the international seminar on "new horizons in lipids and speciality oleochemicals" at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology here, the eminent scientist said yesterday most of the people were under the mistaken impression that by consuming vegetable oils instead of ghee or hydrogenated fat, they were consuming lesser calories.

The oil industry was playing on the wrong notion by labelling vegetable oil containers as "low cholestorol or cholesterol free", she said.

She said the quality of fat was determined by the composition of fatty acids- saturated, mono unsaturated (oleic acid) and polyunsaturated, where distinction had to be made between N-6 Pufa Linolenic Acid(LIN) and N-3 Pufa Alpha Linolenic Acid (LEN).

She said most of Indian oils like sunflower, safflower, groundnut and coconut had less than 0.5 percent len, rice bran, sesame and cotton seed corn were a little better with 1 to 1.5 percent. She said the richest were soyabean, mustard/rape seed (canola) and linseed or flex oil. (UNI)

26 million cases pending in country: CJI

KOLKATA, Dec 3: About 26 million cases are pending before different courts in the country, Chief Justice of India Justice Y K Sabharwal today said and called for immediate measures to stem the trend.

Expressing concern over the rising number of pending cases before the courts, the CJI said a "reversal of the trend of an increase in pending cases must start immediately."

Inaugurating the West Bengal Judicial Academy here, the CJI said of the 26 million pending cases, at least 18 million are criminal cases.

Most of these cases are pending before Magisterial Courts, Justice Sabharwal said.

"More than three million of the pending cases relate to petty offences and generally invite a monetary penalty as punishment," he said adding such cases can be disposed of quite fast.

The CJI said this number can be brought down drastically and suggested the appointment of retired gazetted officers alongwith retired Judges as special Magistrates to deal with the petty offences.

He said West Bengal was high on the list of states having pending cases before courts and urged the Government to take steps to reduce the number.

Admitting that the number of pending cases in the state was high, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, said new courts were being set up and court buildings constructed for providing a better infrastructure.

"White collar and cyber crimes are on the rise," he said adding that training imparted by the academy would equip the judicial officers to deal with such cases. (PTI)

DDA allows transfer of ownership of properties: Reddy

NEW DELHI, Dec 3: Delhi Development Authority (DDA) allows transfer of ownership in the name of subsequent buyers at a prescribed conversion fee alongwith a surcharge of 33.33 per cent, Union Urban Development and Culture Minister Jaipal Reddy has said.

DDA allowed transfer of ownership under its policy of conversion of properties from leasehold to freehold, he had told Parliament recently.

The buyer was required to submit an application duly supported by necessary documents and the conversion fee as prescribed from time to time along with surcharge of 33.33 per cent.

After the transfer of ownership of the flat, the buyer was required to apply for change in the water bills to the concerned civic authority failing which the water bills remain in the name of the original allottee. (UNI)

‘KBC2’ to be bi-weekly from today

MUMBAI, Dec 3: Popular television quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (KBC2), anchored by Bollywood Actor Amitabh Bachchan, will be a bi-weekly programme from tomorrow instead of the usual three shows a week, as the megastar has been indisposed for some time, following his surgery for an intestinal ailment early this week.

The programme has now been rescheduled to be telecast on Friday’s and Saturday’s, while the Sunday-slot will feature a serial on ‘Sai Baba.’ this has been done so that the pre-recorded episodes with Amitabh last till he recovers.

"If the tri-weekly schedule was to continue, the pre-recorded episodes of ‘KBC-2’ will last till December 23, but with the rescheduled programme, the show will continue till January seven," Star India chief operating officer Sameer Nair said.

Nair said the channel was hoping that Amitabh recovers by then, but at the moment their foremost concern was his health, and the channel would not like to discuss business matters (with anyone) at this stage.

Besides ‘KBC-2’, the actor is also doing six Hindi films that are currently underway, on which an estimated Rs 100 crore have been invested. These are - S Ramanath’s ‘Zamanat’, Karan Johar’s ‘Kabhie Alwida Na Kehna’, Bunty Walia’s ‘Ek Ajnabee’, Raj Kumar Santoshi’s ‘Family’, Ravi Chopra’s ‘Babul’and Ram Gopal Verma’s ‘Darna Jaroori Hai’. (UNI)

BJP intensifies protests in UP over MLA killing

LUCKNOW, Dec 3: Ahead of a state-wide ‘Nyaya Yatra’ to be launched by party president Lal Krishna Advani on December 6, the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party today intensified its protest against the killing of party legislator Krishnanand Rai, taking out a procession in the state capital to press their demand for a CBI probe into the incident.

A procession led by the state BJP president Keshari Nath Tripathi started from ‘Parivartan Chowk,’ and culminated into a public meeting near Vidhan Bhawan, when the winter session of the state legislature is in progress. The party said it would raise the issue on the floor of the House when it meets again on Monday after a brief break.

Waiving party flags, the processionists raised anti-State Government slogans while urging prompt action in the case.

On the other hand, BJP national general secretary Rajnath Singh continued to sit on a ‘dharna’ in Varanasi for the fourth consecutive day in succession today. Planning to convert his ‘dharna’ into a fast unto death, Mr Singh had already announced not to give in till the demand of a CBI probe was met.

Mr Singh has been on dharna since November 30 last to protest the murder of the party MLA. UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had spoken to him over phone a couple of days back, could not convince him to end his ‘dharna’.

Mr Advani is scehduled to reach Varanasi first and launch the ‘Nyaay Yatra’ in the favour of family of the slain MLA. Dharna, demonstrations and violent protests were witnessed in several places in the state during the last few days. East UP had been the most hit by violent protests.

The BJP workers have intensified their protest specially in view of the party pesident’s slated visit to the state. Mr Advani would meet the family of the slain MLA and pay his condolences.

The BJP workers have been highly agitated since the party MLA from Mohammadabad was shot dead in cold blood along with his seven supporters in his constituencies in Ghazipur district on November 29 last. Several incidents of arson and vandalisation had been reported in several parts of east UP after the day-light murder of the MLA.

In fact, the entire state machinery had to strive hard to control the emotional outburst of the BJPbjp workers in the state, specially in the eastern districts of the state.

Addressing the public meeting, the state BJP chief said party workers would not relent till their demand of a CBI probe into the incident was fulfilled. "The party will go to any extent within the constitutional norms to seeks justice for the bereaved family of the slain MLA," Mr Tripathi said addressing the workers.

"Only a CBI probe can help catch the real culprits," ‘’Mr Tripathi said alleging the culprits were being shielded by the Chief Minister.

Coming down heavily on the poor law and order situation in the state, Mr Tripathi said the Mulaaym Singh Yadav-led Government had no moral authority to lead the state.

Meanwhile, there was no headway in the murder case being probed by Special Task Force(STF) and the Ghazipur district police simultaneously.

Mr Akhil Kumar, holding the dual charge of Ghazipur SP and the STF ssp told UNI over phone that investigation was on. He said some raw clues were available about the shooters involved in the legislator killing but finality could be achieved only after the persons named in the FIR were nabbed.

Ten person had been named in the FIR lodged in the case which included Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari, his brother the controversial MLA from Ghazipur Mukhtar Ansari and a notorious gangster Munna Bajrangi.

Of these, Ejaz-ul-Haq, a relative of the Ansaris had surrendered in the court of the Ghazipur Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) while Mukhtar Ansari is already in the jail in connection with the Mau riots. Afzal Ansari had expressed willingness to surender ‘’ at the earliest.’’ He is preently in the national capital attending the winter session of Parliament. (UNI)