Milk
adulteration non-bailable offence in
Maharashtra
MUMBAI, Jan 15: Food adulteration,
especially in milk becomes a cognisable
and non-bailable offence in Maharashtra
from today with the government amending
an act which gives sweeping powers to the
police.
The
Prevention of Food Adulteration
(Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 2006
authorises police officials of the rank
of inspector and above to arrest the
culprits without warrants.
The Act
has been amended specifically to check
milk adulteration which has assumed
alarming proportion in Mumbai and
elsewhere, Minister of State for Food and
Drug Administration, Baba Siddiqui said
yesterday.
With the
offence now becoming non-bailable, the
government hopes to reach the kingpin of
the milk adulteration rackets, the
minister said adding, it would also help
in police investigations.
There is
an organised racket in adulteration and
that is why the State Government amended
the Act, the minister said. The Act was
passed in April 2006. Maharashtra is the
first state to enforce such provisions to
curb food adulteration, he said.
Two new
laboratories of the Food and Drug
Administration have been set up at Mumbai
and Aurangabad.
The state
legislature had proposed amendments so
that the Act can be strengthened to
tackle the growing menace of food
adulteration. The amendments received
Presidential assent late last year. (PTI)
HC
grants relief to woman sacked for immoral
conduct
MUMBAI, Jan 15: A woman who was
sacked by the district administration for
alleged immoral conduct, was granted
relief by the Bombay High Court when she
challenged the dismissal.
Division
bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and
Roshan Dalvi yesterday observed that
having an extra-marital affair was not a
ground for termination of the
petitioner’s services while setting
aside the dismissal order.
The court
also observed that her termination was
"strange" and
"shocking" as no action was
taken against the man with whom she had
the affair and was also a employed by the
same Zilla Parishad.
However,
the court granted liberty to the Zilla
Parishad to take action, if necessary, in
accordance with law.
The woman
had moved the High Court in December
last, alleging that Satara Zilla Parishad
had not awarded her a single opportunity
to be heard and neither conducted any
inquiry before sacking her.
In
November 2005, ZP terminated her service
saying her character is questionable.
According to her, the sole basis of this
indictment was a resolution passed by
village panchayat of Taldeo in
Mahabaleshwar taluka, where she worked.
The Child
Development Project Officer for
Mahabaleshwar S D Shedge had said in an
affidavit filed before the court that her
"moral character is not good".
"She
has committed sexual offense and extra
marital relation and such a lady cannot
be allowed to continue as Aanganwadi
assistant which may have a bad effect on
the character of the children, hence not
fit to continue on the post", the
affidavit stated.
A
complaint regarding her affair had been
made to the child development project
officer by the village headman.
Her lawyer
Uday Warunjikar had urged the court to
quash and set aside the order, which was
accepted by the court.
Warunjikar
also argued regarding the right to
privacy of a female employee, pointing
out that anything she does, outside her
nature of work, should not be the concern
of the authorities.
The court,
however, refused to deal with the larger
issue but accepted that the dismissal was
stigmatic and an allegation on the
petitioner’s character, Warunjikar
said.
The bench
had earlier asked the counsel for the
state government if an employee can be
removed from services without conducting
an inquiry. Assistant Government pleader
Sudeep Nargolkar citing Supreme Court
judgments told the court that post
decision enquiry also can be done after
suspending the employee.
According
to the petitioner, before passing the
resolution that she be removed, the
Panchayat had allegedly forced her and
her husband to sign a confession that she
was having an extramarital affair. She
stated that she had even received the
Ideal Anganwadi Assistant Prize in the
Mahabaleshwar Taluka. (PTI)
Better
facilities for research in nuclear
studies: Kakodkar
MUMBAI, Jan 15: India’s top
atomic scientist today urged Government
to create better facilities at centres
like the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to
attract younger students and visiting
scientists and to encourage research in
nuclear studies and related subjects.
The number
of students and visiting scientists for
research in fields like nuclear studies
in the country had been small so far and
in this context moves had been made to
create facilities to accommodate them at
BARC, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman
Anil Kakodkar said today.
"This
will give a boost to scientific research
and neutron-based research,"
Kakodkar said while inaugurating an
International Symposium on Neutron
Scattering at BARC.
"We
were close to setting up a reactor in a
university here but had to back off due
to constraints, which we need to
overcome," he said.
The
presence of a nuclear reactor in a
university would increase access to
research in the subjects like nuclear
sciences which could attract more
students, he said.
Speaking
on the need for self-reliance of research
institutes, Kakodkar said it was
important for researchers to help build
scientific experimental facilities.
"Unless
we are able to build our own experimental
facilities we end up working on ideas
that can be done on existing facilities
and leave out those which require us to
build our own equipment," he said.
Kakodkar also stressed the importance of
international links and collaborations
between institutes like BARC and foreign
counterparts saying it helped in
improving the scientific facilities
Indian scientists had access to.
"These
collaborations would result in a larger
number of younger people being involved
in scientific projects and can be
utilised to create attraction for younger
researchers to get into scientific
research," Kakodkar, who is also
secretary of the Department of Atomic
Energy, said.
He pointed
out that presently there was a global
problem in attracting young students to
nuclear research.
Kakodkar
also praised the neutron scattering
scientists of the country who were at the
forefront of self-reliance in terms of
scientific instruments.
The
three-day-long symposium is to be held
till January 18 and will feature about
100 papers being presented on neutron
scattering by specialists from India and
abroad.
Eminent
scientist Dr G Venkataraman, who was also
present at the innauguration, sought that
a large neutron source be built in Indore
which could cater to the needs of the
African and Asian region.
He
proposed the creation of centre for
scientific research to facilitate greater
studies in inter-disciplinary topics.
Teachers
from universities should take a greater
role in scientific research and experts
from the industrial sector should also be
allowed to participate in research
projects along with Government scientists
to ensure that all available talent is
utilised to the fullest, Venkataraman
said. (PTI)
Govt
places Argentinian court order
in
Bofors case before SC
NEW DELHI, Jan 15: The Central
Government today placed before the
Supreme Court the English translation of
Argentinian Court order dismissing the
application of the Central government
seeking extradition of Ottavio
Quattrocchi, a suspect in Bofors gun
scandal, to India.
The bench
comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan
and Justice R V Raveendran granted three
weeks time to the petitioner Ajay Kumar
Aggarwal, an Advocate of the Supreme
Court to file his response to the stand
taken by the Indian Government before the
Argentinian Court.
According
to Mr Aggarwal, the Indian Government was
not serious in seeking extradition of
Quattrocchi.
The
Italian fugitive was nabbed by
Argentinian authorities on January 23
last year and the Government of India was
informed about his detention by the
Interpol. Quattrocchi is wanted in Rs
64.5 cr payoff scandal since 1996 and he
is facing allegations of receiving
illegal kickbacks in the deal. (UNI)
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