Rail staffer fighting 10-year battle finds saviour in RTI Act

NEW DELHI, Feb 10: A simple RTI application has got a railway employee what he could not get even from as many as 14 representations in a period of 10 years — a response on his transfer.

However, for R K Gupta, a resident of Patna, the issue was only half-resolved as railways turned down his request for the documents on the transfer of his service from East Central Railway to Eastern Railway.

For over a decade, Gupta had been making desperate requests to railways for a response on his transfer getting no reply at all.

For a change, he took recourse to the Right to Information Act in April last year seeking documents on the issue.

This time, however, the railway gave him a response Albeit belatedly as per the provisions of the RTI Act.

In response, it turned down his request for the documents in July — two months after the period prescribed for the provision of information under the act.

Not deciding to back down, Gupta did not lose his grit and approached the Central Information Commission (CIC) with a complaint for denial of information.

And to his credit, the Commission has actually ruled in his favour.

"The Commission feels that since one of the objectives of the RTI Act is bring about systematic changes, what could be a better example of the insensitivity of the department than a case where an employee makes 14 representations without any response," Information Commissioner O P Kejariwal said, sharing Gupta’s frustration.

The East Central Railway officials, on their part, however, contended that the case was still in process.

"The Commission fails to understand why a case such as this should be kept pending as many as 10 years or so. If the case cannot be attended to positively, the complainant should have been informed of the decision," the CIC said.

Observing that it was not for the Commission to recommend as to how a case should be treated, Kejariwal said, "the railway should decide the case one way or the other by February 15."

The Commission has also issued a show cause notice to the Public Information Officer asking him to explain why a penalty should not be levied for delay of over two months in giving a response to Gupta, a section engineer.

According to the RTI Act- 2005, any public office is required to reply within one month to any application.

Expressing concern over the treatment meted out to Gupta, the Commission said, "it recommends and hopes that such a case does not recur and that employees’ grievances are attended to within a reasonable period of time." (PTI)

Cong leaders favour drastic action for party

NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Sonia Gandhi is creating a record next month by completing ten years as Congress president and a senior leader cautioned of "difficulties" ahead unless she emulated Indira Gandhi and shake off the coalition mentality.

"Congress today is finding itself in great difficulty and unless something is drastically done following Indira Gandhi’s path and her example to reorganise the party, I am afraid things will be very difficult," former Union Minister Vasant Sathe said.

Sathe, who once said his last desire was to see Gandhi as Prime Minister, reminded her that people rallied round Indira in the 1980 polls after she rebuilt party following the split, shunned alliances and brought up several young leaders at a time when the stalwarts targeted her.

"We have to pull up Congress from the grassroots whether we win or lose. People must be given confidence only then they will rally round. If you don’t do this, then there are permutations and combinations. Unless you are strong enough, why other parties would like to collaborate with us," he queried while talking.

The veteran Congressman at the outset, however, paid glowing tributes to Gandhi’s "tremendous sagacity at great odds" to retrieve the party which was virtually in the dumps during Sitaram Kesri’s tenure.

Sathe, however, said Gandhi herself could not be blamed for the failure to build the party on its own strength but the responsibility was mainly of her advisers.

Apparently referring to her Italian origin and her earlier aversion to politics, Sathe said she began right from scratch and "what impresses me most was that she not only learnt Hindi but did it through Devnagri script. Today she has virtually mastered the language."

Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi described as an "unprecedented historical event" Gandhi’s stewardship of the party for ten long years. He recalled that the UPA was formed only under her leadership which ensured ouster of power of the BJP-led NDA.

Gandhi’s renunciation of the Prime Ministership had given her such a moral authority that she nominated the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world, he noted.

Noted journalist and political analyst Kumar Ketkar is convinced that she is more Indian than many who proclaim rather too loudly their claim to be "born Swadeshi".

A known admirer of the Congress chief, he said he is not surprised that she is "more savvy in politics" than her detractors thought.

"If politics in India continues even today to be divided into `pro-Sonia’ and `anti-Sonia’ groups, this smacks of Indian racism and belies the complacent belief that Hindus are more tolerant than all the other faiths". (PTI)

‘Good bacteria’ can fight HIV transmission: Study

NEW DELHI, Feb 10: A beneficial bacteria, widely found in Yogurt, might help the scientists to stop or slow down HIV transmission rate, a recent study has revealed.

The research, presented at the conference on retroviruses and opportunistic infections in boston this week, was conducted by physicians and scientists of the University of Washington and the University of Rochester Medical Centre to learn more about how the HIV virus survives and spreads from person to person.

The Lactobacillus Bacteria, commonly found in the vagina of most women, produce Hydrogen Per-Oxide(H2O2) inside the body which hinders spread of the human immunodeficiency virus, responsible for causing AIDS, the researchers found.

According to experts, vagina is one of the most common routes for the viruses causing Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), including AIDS.

"The research opens up some doors. These findings are striking, though preliminary, and should be looked at further," amneris luque of strong memorial hospital says.

The team found that the amount of the virus in the vagina varied in step with the presence of the ‘good bacteria’, a close cousin of Lactobacillus Bacteria found in the small intestine of human beings.

"Sexual activity is most common mode of transmission of HIV. Perhaps, we can make it less likely to spread by somehow taking advantage of good bacteria like this as a natural way to stop HIV and prevent transmission," he explains.

This finding boosts the possibility that the bacteria could be trapped in near future and be used in fight against aids worldwide, say scientists.

The team studied the vaginal environment, examined the mix of bacteria that reside there and took into account several other factors like possibility of other STDs.

"I hope that we can explore Lactobacillus replacement in future for women who do not have this bacteria" to deal with the deadly virus, Jane Hitti of University of Washington School of Medicine said. (PTI)

Kalka-Shimla rail competes with Swiss Bernina line for WHS

NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Leaving nothing to chance, the railway officials are pulling all stops to strengthen the case for kalka-shimla track as it competes with the Swiss Bernina line for the entry into the World Heritage Sites (WHS).

"We submitted a detailed report including the digital map of the 25 buildings and structures along the 96-km long Shimla-Kalka track last week as the details were sought by the UNESCO for consideration before granting the WHS status," a senior railway official said.

"Since the Swiss Bernina line, which connects northern Italy with Switzerland with its state-of-the-art rolling stock, is also in the race for inscription we took extra care in submitting all details sought by the UNESCO," the official said.

"Since they asked for clarifications on certain properties located along the track and sought its digitised map, we prepared the same accordingly. Each location was marked on the topographic map with exact altitude and longitude of the properties.

"The clarifications were sought in December and we submitted the details by the first week of February. Though the work was voluminous, we however managed to do it in time," the official said.

A two-member UNESCO team, led by Robert Lee of western Sydney university had inspected the entire track including all the 20 stations, 102 tunnels and 917 curves along the route in September last year to assess the credentials of the historic Kalka-Shimla railway track after the nomination by the Government for inscription.

The Kalka-Shimla Railway (KSR), which opened in 1903, is an effective link across a mountain terrain.

Constructed with great technical skill in harmony with the beauty, serenity and grandeur of its surroundings, it is fully operational even now.

There are three basic factors which are taken into account before according world heritage status by the UNESCO.

First, it should be more than 100 years old.

Secondly, it should contribute to the welfare of people living near the tracks and thirdly, the property should stand out as a heritage site.

The 105-year-old KSR meets all these requirements. While children use it to reach school, it is also used for general transport purpose.

Once the KSR is declared as a world heritage site, it would heighten the potential for international tourism, officials said. (PTI)

No leniency for accused who wins over witnesses: Court

NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Courts cannot be lenient towards an accused who wins over witnesses by using coercive methods and hampers the cause of justice, a Sessions Judge here has said while sending three men to jail for three years each in a robbery case.

Dismissing the appeal of the trio, Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar hit out at their attempts to influence the complainant and eye-witness in the case and held that only those who follow the rules of fair play could plead for leniency.

"Showing leniency (while awarding) sentence where the offenders have won over the witnesses by persuasion, coercion or threat would only encourage such practices," the court said in a recent decision and upheld a Magistrate’s conviction order against the accused.

Raju, Mukesh and Jaresh were awarded three years’ jail term each by the Magistrate in October last year for robbing Rajender of cash and other valuables near Khanpur in 1993.

Interestingly, though complainant Rajender and an eye-witness had turned hostile during their cross-examination and refused to identify the accused, the lower court had relied upon their previous statements to the prosecution and blamed their volte-face on the misconduct of the offenders.

The trio claimed in an appeal that the Magistrate’s view was erroneous. The court, however, threw out their plea saying the accused had taken the criminal justice system for a ride by deferring witnesses’ examination till they were won over.

"Unfortunately, it has become a trend that the accused would not cross-examine the witnesses till they are won over," said the court recently.

The court also rejected the trio’s plea for leniency due to the prolonged trial observing that they themselves were responsible for it. (PTI)

SC upholds discharge of habitual offenders in Air Force

NEW DELHI, Feb 10: The Supreme Court has upheld the discharge of certain Air Force officers by the Government for being habitual offenders.

A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P Sathasivam said the Government had sufficiently followed the Air Force Rules, 1969, while discharging the delinquent officers.

The apex court upheld the discharge orders while allowing a bunch of appeals filed by the Union Government against the Rajasthan High Court’s orders.

The High Court had quashed the discharge orders on the ground that the disciplinary authority did not give proper consideration to the replies filed by the aggrieved officers in the show-cause notices issued to them.

However, the apex court after perusing the documents held that the authorities had followed the relevant rules and had given adequate opportunities to the delinquent officers to voice their views before discharging them from service.

The habitual offenders policy was formulated by the Air Force mainly to weed out indisciplined personnel from the force.

The policy was formulated on the basis of a study conducted by the defence management, wherein it was held that a core group of airmen had been regularly contributing to the annual offences statistics in the Air Force.

It was stated that the behaviour of such officers had an adverse effect and influence on the general morale and discipline of others, particularly the younger recruits. (PTI)

First diagnostic centre for PID of infants, children set up

MUMBAI, Feb 10: India’s first diagnostic centre for primary immunodeficiency diseases of infants and children has been established at National Institute of Immunohaematology (NIIH) here.

NIIH, a unit of Indian Council of Medical Research will work closely with the Wadia Children’s hospital and has already begun diagnosis of some types of the primary immunodeficiency diseases in children, Manisha Madkaikar, Assistant Director and incharge of the new centre said.

"This is the first such diagnostic centre in the country and we are planning to expand the diagnosis to almost all primary immune deficiency diseases," she said adding that "we will also have a antenatal diagnosis eventually."

There is no systematic data bank on the Primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID) in the country and therefore, ICMR has established this centre, according to director NIIH K Ghosh.

"We are also planning to have a Registry of PID in the near future," he said.

Primary immunodeficiency diseases are group of single gene disorder of immune system and more than 80 such diseases are described by World Health Organisation but less than 20 diseases are common, Madkaikar said.

Although diverse, PIDs share common clinical features and the clinical hallmark of PID is increased susceptibility to infection, she said.

The severity of the infection depends on the type of the defect in the gene and the common features of the disorders are an unusual rate or severity of infection, that is, infection with unusual organism.

Madkaikar said, "these diseases also carry increased risk of malignancy-especially lymphoid malignancy," she added.

The paediatricians should think about possible PIDs in cases where children suffer from recurring diarrohea and weight loss, she said.

Most important thing in PIDs is prompt diagnosis and early treatment which can result in marked improvement in quality of life in the young patients.

Primary immunodeficiencies are inherited, that is, they are passed down from parents to children. These immunodeficiencies range from very serious manifestations within six months of a child’s life to a milder form noticeable later in life.

"The serious forms are often noticeable at birth or shortly thereafter. However, very mild forms may not be diagnosed until later in life, during adolescence or young adulthood," the scientist said.

The PIDs are classified into mainly categories for the easy purpose of diagnosis and are---Antibody deficiency; combined T and B cell deficiency; defects in the phagocytic system and defects in complementary system.

Some disorders, such as Selective IgA Deficiency can be quite common, occurring as often as 1/500 to 1/1000 individuals. Others, such as Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID), may be as rare as one individual affected per million.

Untreated primary immune deficiencies may be characterised by frequent life-threatening infections and debilitating illnesses.

Because of advances in our medical understanding and treatment of primary immune deficiency diseases, individuals who in the past would not have survived childhood are now able to live nearly normal lives.

Many individuals affected by primary immune deficiency diseases require life long therapies including intravenous gamma globulin infusions, antibiotic therapies, or bone marrow transplantation at a very early stage of their lives.

Some of them are even treated by gene therapy but currently are under clinical trials, Madkaikar added. (PTI)