Boy burnt alive

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: A 10-year-old boy, who protested against his bicycle being damaged, was burnt alive here allegedly by a group of men belonging to a marriage party.

The shocking incident came to light when the charred body of Sanjeev, son of one Vijender Singh, was recovered in an agricultural field in Alipur village on the outskirts of the city.

The recovery of the body led to tension in the area and police detained five persons, including two cab drivers, for questioning in connection with the case, a senior police official said.

Though police said it was not yet clear as to what led to the murder, locals claimed the boy was hit by a vehicle of the marriage party travelling to the village from Meerut.

The boy apparently demanded a compensation to repair his bicycle and enraged over this, four men came out of the car and allegedly beat him up.

"The boy was riding his bicycle when a white-coloured Qualis hit him. The boy demanded money for getting his cycle repaired. Then some men got out of the vehicle and started abusing and hitting him. Then they took him away," Vijay, a local resident who claimed to have witnessed the accident, alleged.

Sanjeev’s father Vijender Singh said the family was looking for the boy since 7 pm as he had not returned home.

"We could not find him anywhere and when we came here (near the spot where the body was recovered), we saw fire. We identified him by his legs," Singh said.

Suspicion fell on the marriage party and a group of locals stopped the marriage. Even the marriage party tried to flee from the scene fearing backlash, the police official said.

"We have detained five members of the marriage party including two cab drivers in this connection," official said adding they were being interrogated.

The body of the boy was found one km inside the village and investigators said there were no preliminary evidence to suggest that someone in the marriage party was involved in the murder.

"We think that someone known to the boy is behind the murder. The location of the recovery suggests that as it is one kilometer from the road, only a person who knows the locality can dump the body," the official said.

The body has been sent to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital for post-mortem.

A murder case has been registered against unidentified persons and investigations are on to nab the killers.

Tension prevailed in the area after the body was recovered. A case has been registered and investigations are on. (PTI)

Child Sex ratio declines to 927

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: With continued preference for sons, neglect of the girl child, female infanticide and foeticide, high maternal mortality, the child sex ratio in the country has declined to 927 from 945.

The sex ratio (SR)(number of females per thousand males) increased from 927 to 933 from 1991 to 2001, but the child sex ratio dipped during the same period.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said easy availability of sex determination tests may also be proving to be catalyst in the process, which may be further stimulated by pre-conception sex selection facilities.

The Minister said some of the steps taken by the government to improve the Child SR in the country are constitution of the Central Supervisory Board under the Chairmanship of the Minister for Health and Family Welfare whose function is to review and monitor implementation of the Act and rules. (UNI)

Farm debt waiver not distress bill left by NDA: Swain

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: Mr Kharabela Swain (BJP) today rejected in the Lok Sabha Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s contention that the NDA did nothing for the farmers during its six-year rule till 2004, stating that the UPA Government had admitted in its Economic Surveys and other documents that the kisan credit card launched by the A B Vajpayee Government had become "very popular."

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had also acknowledged that institutional credit to farmers had gone up to Rs 80,000 crore in 2003-04, up from Rs 31,956 crore in 1997-98, Mr Swain said resuming the debate on the Budget 2008-09.

Taking strong exception to Dr Singh’s remark that the Rs 60,000 crore farm debt waiver announced in the Budget was nothing but the distress bill passed on by the NDA, the BJP member said data released by Reserve Bank of India and the National Statistical Organisation (NSO) had placed the farm loan outstanding only at Rs 32,000 crore.

The Government had "exaggerated" the farm loans that were overdue to arrive at the Rs 60,000 crore figure, he said.

Further, it was the NDA-ruled states which were implementing properly the rural employment guarantee scheme, flagship programme of the UPA, while the Congress-ruled states were floundering. Similar was the case with the 15-point programme for the minorities, he contended.

Mr Chidambaram had also admitted in his Budget speech that he was lucky to inherit a good economy from the NDA regime, which had contained the inflation at 4.2 per cent, from the 10.6 per cent witnessed during 1991-96 when Dr Singh was Finance Minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government, Mr Swain said.

Mr R L Jalappa (Cong) asked the Finance Minister to write off all "outstanding" farm loans, instead of the loans that had become "overdue," to benefit all the farmers who had borrowed from institutions.(UNI)

Exam centres in Orissa jails for student inmates

CUTTACK, Mar 14: Examination centres would be opened in Orissa’s Berhampur and Phulbani jails to help inmates appear in this year’s matriculation examination beginning on March 26.

At least five jail inmates - two convicts and three others under trial - in these jails are getting ready for the examination, jail officials said.

"Arrangements to open two centres have been made. Teachers from nearby high schools will invigilate and respective jail superintendents will perform as centre superintendents," Board of Secondary Examination Secretary Prasant Kumar Samal said.

Four inmates of Berhampur jail would appear in both regular and ex-regular streams while one under-trial person in Phulbani jail, Bibhisan Kananr, would write the test as an ex-regular candidate.

Twenty-five-year-old Dilip Kumar Sahu and 22-year-old M Balaprasad, serving life sentence for separate murder cases in Berhampur jail, would appear the examination in regular stream.

"Budhia Sethy and Rabindranath Das, who had earlier been unsuccessful would appear again as ex-regular candidates," Welfare Officer of Berhampur Jail, Subash Chandra Pradhan said.

"They are preparing seriously for the examination. Jail teachers, fellow wardens and educated inmates are helping them," Pradhan said.

The jail authorities have procured books, test papers and other study material for them, he said.

Eleven jail inmates appeared in Matriculation examination in various jails of Orissa last year. Four were successful.

"Recently, more inmates are showing interest in continuing studies while undergoing jail term. We cannot dampen their spirit," Himanshu Mishra, Welfare Officer of Choudwar jail said.

Mishra took the initiative to open IGNOU study centres in jails of Orissa.

Currently, more than 20 jail inmates across the state have enrolled themselves with IGNOU for degree courses in various subjects. They are receiving study material and are appearing in the examinations regularly.

Two under trials at Dhenkanal jail had appeared for engineering examinations conducted by Biju Patnaik University of Technology last year, sources said. (PTI)

SC virtually drops criminal proceedings against Gere

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: The Supreme Court today virtually dropped criminal proceedings against Hollywood actor and active anti-HIV/AIDS campaigner Richard Gere against whom arrest warrants were issued for publicly hugging and kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at a function here last year.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran granted permission to Gere to come to India and also to leave the country whenever he wants.

The apex court also stayed the arrest warrant issued against Gere by a Jaipur court. The court severly reprimanded Counsel for the complainant and observed, "such complaints are publicity hunting. You are bringing bad name to this country."

"A magistrate has no business to prevent a man from entering or leaving the country. And it is for the concerned authorities to decide. You will file complaints if someone embarasses someone."

The court also made it clear that Gere need not appear before any court in the country.

Application was filed by Gere in transfer petition filed by Ms Shetty for permission to come to India as he wants to meet Tibetian spiritual leader Dalai Lama on March 21.

The court was surprised to see that arrest warrants have been issued against a person, whose address has not even given in the complaint and he was also not served with court summons. The address was later given by the American Embassy.

Ms Shetty is seeking transfer of all such complaint cases to Mumbai. (UNI)

BJP debunks UPA claims on 2008-2009 budget

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: The BJP today sought to tear apart the claims made by the Government in the 2008-2009 budget, saying most of the schemes announced were old, re-packaged and presented in a new format and conceived in a way which would not benefit the needy.

Mr Arun Shourie (BJP), while resuming in Rajya Sabha the debate on the 2008-2009 Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on February 29, said some concessions including the farmer’s debt waiver scheme, would benefit only the influential ‘kisans’ who had access to commercial banks and other loan giving bodies.

Such influential farmers "doubled up" as private money lenders who did not come under the debt waiver scheme. In reality, the needy farmer would not be benefitted while all the incentive would go to the influential kisan, he said while quoting from the Saxena Committee report.

Referring to the claims made about development of Mumbai, Mr Shourie said out of the Rs 1000 crore promised, only Rs 16 crore and 16 lakh had been given out.

"And the Government claims that action had been completed," he said while quoting Mr Chidambaram.

Accusing the Government of "lifting helplessness to new heights," Mr Shourie also came down heavily on the claims regarding the Rural Employment Scheme, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Scheme etc.

Earlier, after the Question Hour ended, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar laid a statement on the table of the House regarding the status of implementation of recommendations contained in the 34th Report of the Department-Related Standing Committee on Agriculture. (UNI)

Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor and Carlos Saura honoured

MUMBAI, Mar 14: Veteran actor Dharmendra received the Lifetime Achievement award and Rishi Kapoor was acclaimed for his significant contribution to Indian cinema for over 35 years at the concluding ceremony of the 10th MAMI International Film Festival, Mumbai.

Acknowledging this recognition at the function last night, Rishi Kapoor said, "Usually, film industry personalities do not reveal their age but I want to say that I have not been working for 25 years instead I have been working for 35 years and I am proud of that."

The First Global Lifetime Achievement award was given to Carlos Saura, a renowned Spanish filmmaker, while lyricist-filmmaker Gulzar was conferred the award for outstanding contribution to Indian film music. "Each artist needs this kind of reassurance to prove that whatever he has been doing is right," Gulzar said after receiving the award.

Speaking to newspersons, Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) Festival Chairman Shyam Benegal expressed confidence that this festival had come to stay in the metropolis and the edition was better than the previous ones.

A total of 140 films from 45 countries were showcased in the Festival held from March 6 to 13. It also included 92 films showcased in the Global Vision section. The foreign and Indian retrospectives were devoted to films by Andrej Wajda and Ritwik Ghatak respectively. The country in focus was China and the filmmaker in focus was Carlos Saura.

The Chief Guest of the event, evergreen Bollywood star Dev Anand, senior filmmaker Yash Chopra, Aishwarya Rai, and Shyam Benegal gave away the awards.

The Kodak award for technical excellence in sound recording was presented to Hitendra Ghosh who has been in the industry for more than 25 years and has worked on about 1800 films including all those of Benegal.

In a new concept called "Dimensions Mumbai", five-minute films based on different aspects of Mumbai were showcased by aspiring filmmakers under 25 years of age. A total of 82 entries had been received for this section. "Vapsi" by S Srinivasan on the hardships that a young aspiring actor faces in Mumbai, bagged the first prize, while Aishwarya S got the second prize for "Mumbai Half Marathon" and Ganesh More bagged the third prize for a film "Life in Mumbai". The awards carrying cash components of Rs 100,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 were sponsored by Mrs Jaya Bachchan and given away by her daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The special jury awards were given to "Handful of Sky" by Neha Singh and "Patri" by Akshara Prabhakar.

In the Indian feature Film Competition, Darsheel Safary was awarded for playing the dyslexic child Ishaan Awasthi in "Taare Zameen Par", Swathee Sen for playing Janki in "Antardwand" while both, the Best Film and FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) awards were bagged by the Marathi film "Tingya" by Mangesh Hadawale on the delicate issue of farmers suicides. "Frozen" which is the first full length feature film to be shot in Ladakh won the Special Jury Award for its director Shivaji Chandrabhushan.

Tina Ambani representing Reliance (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) which sponsored the Festival, MAMI Trustee Kiran Shantaram, Manmohan Shetty, Festival Artistic Director Sudhir Nandgaonkar, Yash Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor, and his mother Neetu Kapoor, Indian Documentary Producers Association President Jahnu Barua, Amit Khanna of Reliance Entertainment, filmmaker Vinod Pande, and several other celebrities were present on the occasion. The event was conducted by television star Gaurav Kapoor. Singer Mansi Scott also performed at the function on English and Hindi songs. (UNI)