Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: BJP senior leader & Convenor of Tawi Andolan, Chander Mohan Sharma has lauded the call of State Chief Minister Mufti Mohd. Sayeed to promote and explore the unexplored tourist destinations of Jammu province in missionary mode.
The implementation of the direction of coalition Government of the State will bring satisfaction and hope for future of youth of Jammu province whose aspirations were always belied by the previous Governments.
Sharma drew the attention of the Government toward river Tawi, which has got tremendous potential of being a beautiful tourist destination and also pilgrim as being Surajputri at has got status of a shrine. In appreciation to its cultural, historical, religious and heritage value a special focus is required to be on it. He further said that pre-requisition of Artificial lake on Tawi is to tame 17 filthy nallahs which carry garbage from city to river. The Government has no proper planning to divert these nallahs towards solid waste management site. The plan requires a change so that water of proposed lake does not become stinking and render the lake health hazard.
Sharma demanded creation of Tawi Development Authority (TDA) for rejuvenation, glorification and beautification of river Tawi.
Sharma for creation of Tawi Development Authority
Relief to Manmohan Singh, others in coal scam case
NEW DELHI, Apr 1:
In a relief to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Supreme Court today stayed the trial court order summoning him as accused in a case pertaining to grant of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 to Aditya Birla group company Hindalco.
The stay, which also applied to Hindalco Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, former Coal Secretary P C Parakh and three others, came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal questioned the legality of the summons to the former Prime Minister citing lack of sanction as required under the CrPC and contended that allocation of a coal block was an administrative act without any criminal intent.
“We issue notice on all six petitions. The trial court order shall remain stayed,” a bench of justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said after hearing arguments by Sibal, who represented the former Prime Minister, and other lawyers in the case.
82-year-old Singh’s daughters, Upinder Singh and Daman Singh, were present in the court during the proceedings.
The bench also stayed the proceedings before the trial court and issued notice to the Centre on a plea challenging constitutional validity of section 13 (1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The other three summoned as accused are Hindalco, Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya, its officials. All the six were summoned by Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar to appear before the court on April 8.
“I must confess that I have not been able to find out what is the illegal act done by the petitioner in the case,” Sibal said at the outset of the 35-minute proceedings.
Sibal said it is not an illegal act to allot a mine contending that the administrative acts of the Prime Minister cannot be faulted on the ground that he did not follow the recommendations or procedures adopted by the screening committee.
He also referred to the earlier Supreme Court judgement by which all the coal block allocations were quashed on the ground that screening committee procedures were illegal.
“The trial court, in its order, says that you did not follow the screening committee and this is contrary to law,” Sibal said, adding that the order summoning the PM does not stand the scrutiny of “public reasoning”.
He also said that the trial court order does not deal with the provisions on requirement of prior sanction to prosecute a public servant under the criminal procedure code (CrPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Referring to the essential ingredients of an offence, Sibal said that “there is no reference of meeting of minds to commit an illegal act by the accused persons”.
During the hearing, the bench asked the counsel for Singh to satisfy it on provisions relating to grant of sanction to prosecute a public servant.
Sibal referred to various Supreme Court judgements and said “even if I am the Coal Minister at the relevant time, I don’t lose the status of the Prime Minister who has got plenary power. Everyday, I take decisions as minister and reject the advice, should I be sent to Tihar Jail?”.
There has to be a meeting of minds to do a criminal act with regard to allocation of Talabira coal mines to a private firm, he said, adding, “Where is the criminal conspiracy? Is it an offence to grant coal mines to a private sector company?”
Sibal said a decision may be “right or wrong” but it cannot be said to be an illegal act and the trial court order does not stand the scrutiny of public reasoning.
“There was no final allocation. There was no communication of the decision. A decision unless communicated, does not become a decision,” he said.
Sibal also referred to the December 16, 2014 order of the trial court by which CBI was asked to question the former Prime Minister, and said that “a judge cannot do this. This is not fair. This is maverick.”
A judge can reject the closure report and may take cognizance of the closure report but cannot decide the nature of the investigation, he said.
The former Prime Minister had, on March 25, moved the apex court seeking quashing of the summons against him and stay of criminal proceedings in a CBI court.
Singh had sought quashing of the summons on the ground that the March 11 order of the trial court was passed without application of mind.
The former Prime Minister had also sought a stay on the criminal proceedings contending that there was no element of criminality in his decisions taken in the capacity of Coal Minister.
The plea had said that there was nothing on record to point out that Singh had done any act which may constitute any offence, adding that the former Prime Minister had only taken a decision as a competent authority on allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco on the representation of Odisha Government.
The Special CBI court had on March 11 said that prima facie it is clear that the criminal conspiracy which was initially conceived by Birla, Hindalco and its two officials, was carried out further “by roping in Parakh, and thereafter the then Minister of Coal, Manmohan Singh”. (PTI)
Rs 1.05 cr received under RAY
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: Minister of State for Public Works and Revenue, Sunil Kumar Sharma while replying on behalf of Minister for Housing and Urban Development said that an amount of Rs. 1.05 Crore stands received by the State Government during 2014-15 under Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for meeting wages of manpower engaged in State/City level technical cells.
While replying to a question of Ali Mohammad Dar in the Legislative Council today, the minister said no funds were released to the State by the Union Government under RAY during 2014-15 as the Centre is replacing RAY with a new scheme namely “Housing for All”, hence no allocation was made.
The Minister said that an amount of Rs. 6.25 crore has been released by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation during the year 2013-14 for Leh Project, which has been released during the year 2014-15 in favour of District Development Commissioner, Leh.
Mr. G. N. Monga raised supplementary to the question.
In reply to another question of Master Noor Hussain, the Minister on behalf of Revenue Minister said that the benefit of the Roshni scheme has percolated to all eligible occupants, who fulfilled the conditions prescribed in the J&K State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 and the rules made there-under.
The Minister further said that 16431 applications in District Jammu and 2545 applications in District Samba have been rejected under Roshini Scheme.
The Minister said the District Price Fixation Committee has cleared 7933 applications in Jammu district ,which include 3139 in Akhnoor, 419 in Bishnah, 3574 in Jammu, 466 in Jammu Nazool and 281 in R. S. Pura tehsils. Similarly, in Samba District 1420 applications have been cleared including 481 in Samba, 198 in Bari-Brahmana, 127 in Ghagwal, 350 in Vijaypur, 123 in Ramgarh and 141 in Rajpura tehsil.
Vibodh Gupta and Dr. Shahnaz Ganai raised supplementaries to the main question.
JDA VC inspects ongoing works
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: Vice-chairman (VC), Jammu Development Authority (JDA), Mubarak Singh, today visited various areas of city outskirts including Narwal, Birpur and Gole Gujral, and inspected the ongoing works.
During the course of inspection, he directed the Superintendent Engineer, JDA, to expedite the pace of works of office building complex, parking lot and approach road of the complex, at Narwal while maintaining the quality parameters of the construction works.
While visiting upcoming colonies at Birpur and Gole Gujral, he conveyed instruction that developmental works of these upcoming colonies be taken up without any loss of time, so as to complete the works in time. He also directed enforcement staff to maintain strict vigil to thwart any attempt of encroachment of the land of these colonies.
He further passed instructions to the staff deployed in the colonies in Birpur, Gole Gujral, Roop Nagar and Kot Bhalwal to handover the possession of plots to those allottees who have deposited full payment towards the cost of plots.
The vice-chairman also asked the engineering staff to ensure that the works be carried out expeditiously to complete the project in time, so as to avoid any escalation of cost.
He also paid surprise visits to the office of Executive Engineer, JDA, Division No I, JDA, Sub Division office Narwal, office of the Executive Engineer JDA, Division No II and office of the Tehsildar Zone A, to check the attendance and working of the offices. He issued strict directions to the controlling officers to ensure punctuality amongst employees and to redress grievances of public in time.
Superintendent, Engineer, JDA, Secretary JDA, Director Land Management, JDA and many senior officers of the JDA accompanied the vice-chairman during the visit.
NDMA conducted shoddy work at Phuktal: Jora
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: Congress Legislature Party leader Rigzin Jora today alleged that National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has done shoddy work at Phuktal river blockade.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Legislative Assembly, Mr Jora said that multi- disciplinary team under the aegis of NDMA that camped at the site 15 km upstream of Phuktal river managed to dig up 100 meter long, 2 meter wide and 2 meter deep channel, which is grossly inadequate.
How can water from 14 km long, 50 meter deep and 100 meter wide river be channelized through a mere 2 meter wide and 2 meter deep channel? he asked, adding “the nature of the soil is such that when the melted water from the glacier begins to get channelised the walls of the channels will erode”.
“Not only large number of villages downstream will get affected, it will severely damage the Nimmu Bazgo project at Alchi which is the life line of Leh district”, he said, adding “there is still time to make amends as disaster is still looming over the locals”.
Jan terms rescue operation biased
Excelsior Correspondent
POONCH, Apr 1: Terming rescue and relief operation as biased, former MLA and senior National Conference leader Ajaz Ahmed Jan today said although Government has deputed teams to Kashmir Valley, no attention is being made towards Jammu areas especially Poonch, where people have also been facing flood situation for last 48 hours.
In a statement issued here, Ajaz Jan said that neither any Minister visited Poonch nor the MLAs or MLCs are there among the people to share their sufferings. He said that Poonch is being ignored and legislators are enjoying Air Conditioned accommodations at Jammu. He said that people of Poonch are suffering for the last 48 hours and Government has not even said a single word for Poonch.
Demanding immediate rescue and relief for Poonch, Ajaz Jan said that people residing near Abdullah Bridge, Betar Nallah, Khanater Nallah, Mandi to Chandak Nallah, Loaran, Arai, Sawijan and Suran River are facing flood threats and they need to be rescued well in advance.
He threatened to launch an agitation against Government if it does not react to the floods in Poonch.
ICAI organizes seminar on ‘Statutory Bank Audit’
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: J&K Branch of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) hosted a seminar on the topic of “Statutory Bank Audit”, here today.
CA Ajay Kumar Jain from Delhi and CA Vinay Saraf from Jammu were the guest speakers. Both the speakers deliberated in detail and enlightened the members about the various important aspects of conducting the Statutory Bank Audit.
They discussed the various provisions of RBI, including latest master circular and all other circulars governing bank audit, restructuring of advances by the bank, prudential norms of classification of assets, etc.
Speaking on the occasion, chairman, J&K Branch of ICAI, CA Anil Sharma, in his inaugural address emphasized on the importance of the topic of the seminar. He highlighted the role of Auditors during bank audit and apprised the members about the various activities being undertaken by the branch.
CA Deepak Kapahi, vice-chairman, J&K Branch of ICAI, conducted the proceedings and presented the vote of thanks.
CA Dalip Kaul (ex-chairman), CA Vikram Garg (ex-chairman), along with a large number of CAs and students from the profession participated in the seminar.
AKMMC calls on Minister for Relief, Rehabilitation
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: A meeting of All Kashmiri Muslim Migrants Committee, (AKMMC) Jammu calls on Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation Department, Basharat Bukhari, today.
The delegation led by president, Nazir Ahmed Lone, chairman Fida Hussain and Sajad Ahmad Khatana brought into notice day to day problems to the Minister and urged for immediate redressal.
The charter of demands brought into consideration included bifurcation of muslim migrants, pending files in the screening committee, unknown/fake complaints against these poor Muslim migrants, Government accommodation (TRTS) at camp Jagti, enhancement of monthly cash assistance, proper receipt of ration facilities and sympathy with the Gujjar and Bakerwal community.
They were assured by the Minister that the demands will be look into for early consideration.
Top income tax official arrested on bribery charge
JODHPUR, Apr 1:
CBI today arrested Jodhpur’s Chief Commissioner of Income Tax PK Sharma on bribery charges after Rs 15 lakh were allegedly received by a local jeweller on his behalf.
CBI had last night detained Income Tax Officer Shailendra Bhandari in connection with the case, agency sources said.
It is alleged that Bhandari was acting on behalf of Sharma and had sent a jeweller Chandu for the delivery of Rs 15 lakh bribe, the sources said.
They said after getting input and surveillance, CBI team laid a trap and nabbed the jeweller while he was allegedly receiving bribe from a person whose case was to be settled by Sharma.
Soon after Bhandari was also taken in detention where he allegedly admitted that bribe was meant for the Chief Commissioner and he was acting on his behalf as middleman.
Based in the information given by him, CBI arrested Sharma this morning. (PTI)
Sub Jr Men Hockey trials on Apr 8-9
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: To pick the team for 5th Hockey India Sub Junior Men National Hockey Championship 2015 being held at Jammu from May 6 to May 17, 2015, Hockey J&K is conducting selection trials at KK Hakhu Astroturf Stadium on April 8 and April 9, 2015.
According to a handout issued here, the players born on or after January 1, 1999 are eligible to take part in the trials.
The Association has advised the players desirous to take part in the trials to bring with them date of birth certificates.
“Selected players will undergo a month long coaching camp from April 10 to May 5, 2015,” said general secretary Hockey J&K, Romal Singh.