CHANDIGARH, Mar 14: Punjab Assembly Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal today suspended nine Congress MLAs for a day for their unruly conduct in the House yesterday.
The suspended members were Jagmohan Singh Kang, Charanjit Singh Channi, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Hardyal Singh Kamboj, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Balbir Sidhu, Parminder Singh Pinki, Kuljeet Nagra and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
The Speaker said these MLAs violated the decorum of the House by throwing paper missiles towards the Chair, some of which hit the Vidhan Sabha Secretary. One of the member even occupied the Speaker’s Chair.
“This was very unfortunate development, the kind of which I have never witnessed during my life” Mr Atwal said.
The remaining Congress members present in the House rose up in protest and staged a walk-out from the House. The Speaker then adjourned the House for an hour. (UNI)

NEW DELHI, Mar 14:The Supreme Court today restrained the Italian Ambassador from leaving the country without its permission, taking exception to his government’s refusal to send back marines charged with the killing of two fishermen.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir issued notice to Italian Ambassador Daniele Mancini and the two marines, Massimiliano Lattore and Salvatore Girone.
The two marines were allowed by the apex court to go to Italy to cast their vote in the elections there after the Italian Ambassador had given an assurance to send them back.
The bench, also comprising justices A R Dave and Vikramajit Sen, passed the order after it was brought to its notice that the Republic of Italy has reneged on its assurance given to the apex court.
Attorney General (AG) G E Vahanvati brought the issue before the bench, saying that “its a breach of undertaking given to the highest court of the land and the government is extremely concerned about it”.
After hearing the AG’s submission, the bench issued notices to the Ambassador and the two marines and asked them to file their response by March 18.
The bench further said that if notice is not served to the marines, who are right now in Italy, then it will be served through the Italian Ambassador.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on coming Monday after the AG pleaded for an urgent hearing on this issue.
The two marines were on board Italian vessel ‘Enrica Lexie’, when they shot dead two fishermen off the Kerala coast on February 15, last year.
The two accused marines were allowed by the apex court on February 22 to travel to Italy for four weeks under the control and custody of the Italian Ambassador, to cast their ballot in the elections scheduled there for February 24-25.
The court had said that the marines are only allowed to travel to Italy and remain there and will have to return to India.
The Italian government, which had given an undertaking before the apex court that the marines will be sent back, had on March 11 sent a ‘Note Verbale’ to the Indian government informing it that the two will not be sent back.
Earlier, on January 18, the apex court had turned down the Italian government’s plea that the Indian courts had no jurisdiction in the case and had held that the two marines should be tried by the Centre by constituting a special court to conduct their trial.
It had directed that the two be shifted to Delhi and would remain under it’s ‘custody’ till the special court is set up.
The court had said that the Kerala government did not have the jurisdiction to prosecute the two foreign marines and it is to be done by the Centre in the special court to be set up after consulting the CJI.
The court had also said that all the conditions imposed on them by the Kerala court, while granting them bail will remain till the special court is set up and the marines will mark their presence at least once a week before Chanakyapuri Police Station. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: The Lok Sabha today witnessed heated exchange of words between the BJP and the J&KNC when Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj took up the issue of terrorist attack on a CRPF camp in Jammu and Kashmir saying despite these serious incidents, there was a demand to lift Armed Froces (Special Powers) Act from the state.
Soon after the House re-assembled following being adjourned during the Question Hour, Ms Swaraj expressed concern over the yesterday’s terroist attack on the security personnel, in which five CRPF jawans were killed.
She said it was shameful that when the obituary reference was being made, no body on the tresuary benches was present.
The trouble stated when Ms Swaraj said even after the earlier incidents of this nature, there was a demand to lift up the AFSPA from Jammu and Kashmir.
Reacting to this, Mehboob Beg and Sharifuddin Shariq of the J&KNC started shouting that the Act would have to be scrapped soon no matter what.
The prevailing din led Speaker Meira Kumar to make repeated appeals to all the members to maintain calm to run the day’s business.
The verbal duel between the Opposition and the J&KNC continued for some time as both the J&KNC members got furious over Ms Swaraj mentioning the issue of the AFSPA.
Ms Swaraj then urged them to forget differences and get united to respond to Pakistan, which according to her, was supporting terrorists and creating problems in India.
She also expressed unhappiness over how Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf, who visited India on March 9 for religious purpose, was treated well but his country did not bother to stop exporting terror in India. (UNI)

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: Late as it may be in entering the diesel segment in the Indian auto market, Honda is, however, leaving no stone unturned to ensure that its entry level sedan ‘Amaze’, slated for launch next month, becomes a success.
Apart from readying maintenance package, extended warranty schemes and exchange offers with the Amaze, top executives of the company’s Indian arm Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) are even doing home visits of first time buyers, who bought its Brio hatchback earlier, to learn from their needs.
“The Amaze is a critically important car for us. Not only that we are entering a new segment of entry level sedan, we are also introducing our first diesel engine here. It is a growing segment and this should help us grow,” HCIL Senior Vice President (Sales and Marketing) Jnaneswar Sen told.
Stressing on the importance to meet customer requirements, he said: “With Amaze, we are expecting a lot of first time buyers. Our senior management people, even including our Senior Vice President and Director Shigeru Yamazaki, are doing home visits of Brio buyers to understand their needs and learn from them.”
Sen further said the company expects a lot of self driven customers for Amaze as compared to its other sedans which are mostly chauffeur driven.
“Therefore, we are preparing for quick service, road-side assistance, maintenance package of two years or 40,000 km, extended warranty. We are ensuring that cost of maintenance is low,” he said, adding HCIL would also have exchange offers for Amaze with old cars of any brand.
The entry level sedan Amaze qualifies for the excise duty benefit, enjoyed by small cars in India and will directly take on Maruti Suzuki’s Swift DZiRE, the current undisputed segment leader. At present, any car with a petrol engine capacity under 1,200 cc or diesel engine under 1,500 cc, but length shorter than four metres, attract an excise duty of 12 per cent.
HCIL will introduce the Amaze in both petrol and diesel options. It has already been launched in Thailand with a petrol engine only. The car is based on the platform of its existing small car Brio, which was developed exclusively for the Asian markets.
The company had said it would locally produce the 1.5 litre diesel engines for Amaze at its Tapukara plant in Rajasthan while, the car will be rolled out from its Greater Noida plant. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Mar 14: Airports Authority of India has spent over Rs 34 crore on maintenance of 31 non-operational airports in the country in the last three years.
Apart from the 31 non-operational airports, there are 45 defence airports, 83 state government airports and five private air strips lying unused, K C Venugopal, Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed the Rajya Sabha today.
The 31 non-operational airports are located in 16 states and AAI has spent a total of Rs 34.43 crore since 2009-10 on their maintenance.
In 2009-10, AAI spent Rs 8.07 crore, in 2010-11, RS 19.23 crore and in 2011-12 Rs 11.46 crore, he said, adding AAI has incurred a loss of Rs 38.74 crore on these airports in last three financial year.
In reply to a separate question on audit of flying clubs, Venugopal informed the House that there were 44 private and government flying schools in the country and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had audited 39 of them.
During the audit, irregularities pertaining to upkeep of documents like compendium, flying training circulars, completion of flying training dossiers briefing, de-briefing, maintenance of dissemination register for information to working engineers and false logging were found.
The Minister, while replying to a question on failure of radar at the Delhi’s IGI airport, said, “In the last six months, radar services got disrupted only on two occasions.” (PTI)