Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 26: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today that he had ordered the Home Department, which is held by him, to put the draft of Police Reforms Bill in the public domain in the first instance to get feedback from all sections of the society to prepare a better legislation even as Home Secretary Suresh Kumar said the bill was still at the ‘base level’ and “we are open to any suggestions’’ by the people.
Reacting strongly to criticism of draft bill albeit without naming the Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), separatists and some members of Kashmir’s civil society, who had been claiming that the bill would give AFSPA like powers to police in Special Security Zones, Omar tweeted that the bill was at its initiation stage and public feedback would be incorporated in it.
“Public feedback will be incorporated. Law Department will vet (it). I will clear it. The Cabinet will approve it. Both Houses of Legislature will vote on it’’, he said allaying apprehensions voiced from some sections of the society including the Opposition parties from Kashmir, separatists and others that the law would given unbridled powers to police, leading to lawlessness in the State.
“Even after passing these stages (Cabinet and Legislature approval), the bill would go to the Governor for his signature before being implemented finally. So there is no chance of bad legislation passing scrutiny’’, Omar said after public outcry against the draft bill.
Excelsior had on February 14 exclusively reported contents of the draft bill, which had been put on the website of General Administration Department (GAD) for suggestions and objections by the cross-section of society for a period of one month before being introduction in the Legislative Assembly.
Questioning “manufactured outrage’’ over the draft bill, the Chief Minister observed that the bill hasn’t passed public scrutiny let alone been seen by me and the Cabinet.
“Why this “manufactured outrage’’ regarding the draft police bill’’? he questioned in his tweet.
Asserting that he had himself directed the Home Department of the Government to first ascertain public views over the police draft bill, Omar said: “I had ordered the Home Department to put this (the draft bill) in the public domain at the first instance so that feedback would lead to better legislation’’.
Omar’s response on police draft bill came after campaign by the Opposition PDP, other political parties, separatists and some members of the Civil Society in the Valley especially on the provisions related to Special Security Zones and powers to Village Defence Committees (VDCs).
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference this afternoon at the Civil Secretariat, Principal Secretary (Home), Suresh Kumar said the police draft bill was at its “initial stage’’ as it has been put up on the Government website for inviting objections and suggestions.
“It is not that we have implemented anything or were going to introduce the bill in the Legislature without incorporating the public opinion’’, he said, adding that the State has picked up various provisions of police draft bill from Kerala, which is known as most progressive State and where Human Rights Violations are a very big issue.
Moreover, Mr Kumar said, the draft bill is not a final thing. “Its not that the bill is going to be implemented in the next few days. There were various stages for passing the bill. This is just the first stage wherein we had invited objections and suggestions. After this, the bill would go to the Cabinet and only after clearance, it has to be introduced in the Legislature, where also it can go to Select Committee etc’’, he added.
On powers of the VDCs, the Home Secretary said that in the previous Police Act also, there had been provision of ‘thikri para’ depending on the need. However, he added, “let us seek public opinion on all issues’’.
To a question on magisterial powers shifting to Police Commissioners as per the draft police bill, Mr Kumar said, there was a provision of regulation by the District Magistrate. “Its not that the District Magistrate would be out of picture. He has a role’’, he added.
He pointed out that Model Police Act had been drafted by a high level Committee at the Centre, which comprised Soli Sorabjee and was being implemented on the directions of the apex court.
He said the timing of objections and suggestions for the draft bill has been extended beyond a period of one month.
On threat perception to Sarpanchs and Panchs especially after the killing of another Sarpanch by the militants on Sunday, the Home Secretary said security forces were doing the area domination patrolling while local level officers were in touch with the people, who felt threatened by the militants.
To another question on alleged threats to Panchayat members in Kishtwar, he said he was not aware of the incident.
Why this ‘manufactured outrage’ over police bill? asks Omar
Assam stun MP to enter Vijay Hazare Trophy quarterfinal
Visakhapatnam, Feb 26:
Minnows Assam stunned Madhya Pradesh by four wickets to enter the quarter-finals of the National One Day Championship for Vijay Hazare Trophy here today.
Opting to bat at the Port Stadium, Madhya Pradesh were all-out for 210 in 48.4 overs with Mumbai Indians seamer Abu Nechim Ahmed grabbing five for 32. In reply, Assam scored the required runs in 45.5 overs riding on No 3 batsman Shib Shankar Roy’s career-best unbeaten knock of 97.
Assam will now take on heavyweights and last year’s runners-up Mumbai in the quarterfinal scheduled on Thursday.
It was Abu Nechim’s second spell that started the collapse with MP losing their last six wickets for only 24 runs after being comfortably placed at 186 for four.
For the losing side, India discard Naman Ojha (72, 7×4, 1×6) and Udit Birla (74, 4×4) added 105 runs for the third wicket and the only other score in excess of 20 came from Rameez Khan who made 27.
In reply, Shib Shankar anchored the chase to perfection facing 110 balls hitting eight fours and a six in the process.
He had two crucial partnerships of 55 and 57 for the fourth and sixth wickets with Tarjinder Singh (28) and Rajdeep Das (27) respectively.
Brief Scores: MP 210 in 48.4 overs (Naman Ojha 72, Udit Birla 74, Abu Nechim Ahmed 5/32)
Assam 211/6 (Shib Shankar Roy 97 no, Tarjinder Singh 28, Iswar Pandey 2/36). Assam won by four wickets.
Quarter final: Mumbai versus Assam (Feb 28). (PTI)
Anand held by Gelfand in Zurich Chess Challenge
Zurich (Switzerland), Feb 26:
World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Boris Gelfand of Israel in the third round of Zurich Chess Challenge here today.
For the third day running, Anand strove for an active position and got the complexities he was looking for and Gelfand had to fight really hard to thwart the Indian ace his first victory in the tournament.
In the other game of the day, Fabiano Caruana of Italy played out a draw with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia leaving the deadlock to continue for the third day running.
While there has not been any decisive games yet in the four-players double round-robin tournament, there have been ample excitement for the followers.(PTI)
Pluto’s smallest moon may be named ‘Vulcan’
NEW YORK, Feb 26:
One of the Pluto’s smallest moons may be named ‘Vulcan’ after it gathered maximum votes in an online public contest.
The poll for suggesting names for the planet’s two unnamed moons currently called P4 and P5 was swept by ‘Vulcan’ and ‘Cerberus’ as polling closed.
With a total of 450,324 total votes cast since February 11, ‘Vulcan,’ a Pluto moon name proposed by Star Trek’s William Shatner, is the clear winner, ‘SPACE.Com’ reported.
“174,062 votes and Vulcan came out on top of the voting for the naming of Pluto’s moons. Thank you to all who voted!” wrote Shatner in a Tweet.
Cerberus came in a clear second with nearly 100,000 votes. Vulcan was a late addition to the Pluto moon name contenders, and pulled into the lead after Shatner plugged the name on Twitter.
Vulcan is not just a fictional world in the Star Trek universe.
“Vulcan is the Roman god of lava and smoke, and the nephew of Pluto,” wrote SETI scientist Mark Showalter in a blog officially adding the name to the list on February 12.
“Thanks to William Shatner for the suggestion!” Showalter said.
However, the poll results do not necessarily mean that P4 and P5 will end up being called Vulcan and Cerberus. SETI is going to recommend the winning names to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the organisation responsible for naming the moons.
The IAU will take the results into consideration, but ultimately they have final say over what the tiny moons are named.
Pluto has five moons that astronomers currently know of. Scientists first caught sight of Pluto’s largest moon Charon in 1978, but it was not until 2005 that astronomers discovered two other moons (Nix and Hydra) using the Hubble Space Telescope.
The moon P5 was discovered in 2012, also using the Hubble telescope. The moon P4 was discovered in 2011. Both P4 and P5 are only 20 to 30 km in diameter. (PTI)
Illicit drugs worth Rs 111 cr seized in 2012 on Bangla border
NEW DELHI, Feb 26:
The BSF has seized illicit drugs worth more than Rs 111 crore along the Indo-Bangla border in the last one year, the government told Lok Sabha today.
The border guarding force also apprehended 3,549 criminals during 2012 on this frontier while it intercepted 417 offenders during January this year in the same area.
“BSF has introduced non-lethal weapons and ammunitions like pump action guns, stun grenades/dye marker grenades. 800 pump action guns have been deployed at vulnerable border out posts on Indo-Bangaldesh border,” Minister of State for Home M Ramachandran said.
The BSF, the minister added in his written reply to Lok Sabha, holds meetings at various levels with Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) for better border management as per the issues specified in co-ordinated border management plan along with taking up a host of measures like effective patrolling to check infiltration and smuggling from across this border. (PTI)
Ashwani bags below 55 kg gold
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 26: Ashwani Kumar bagged gold in below 55 kg category, while Omkar Singh and Ajay Bharti claimed silver and bronze medals in this category respectively in the Jammu District Wrestling Championship, which concluded at Indoor Complex, MA Stadium, here today.
In below 60 kg, gold, silver and bronze went to Bhushan Mehra, Irif Khan and Rustam Choudhary respectively, while in below 66 kg, Lobekesh Singh claimed gold, Sahil Singh clinched silver and Hussain Kumar won bronze.
In below 74 kg, gold went to Younis Khan, while silver and bronze were bagged by Dilbir Singh and Reyzak Ahmed respectively.
Bhadur Khan won gold in below 84 kg category, while silver and bronze medals were claimed by Ranbir Singh and Raj Kumar in this category.
In below 96 kg, Javed Khan and Mohd Akram bagged gold and silver respectively, while in above 96 kg, Ishaq Ahmed bagged gold, while Vijay Kumar claimed silver.
Dilip Thussu, Secretary J&K State Sports Council was the chief guest on the occasion, who distributed medals and certificates among the meritorious wrestlers on the occasion, while Dushyant Sharma, former president Wrestling Federation of India and general secretary, J&K Wrestling Association, the organizing secretary of the event was also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Thussu assured the the members of J&K Wrestling Association that a new hall will be provided to the wrestlers for honing their skill in the new Indoor Complex, which is under construction at MA Stadium, Jammu.
Prominent among others present on the occasion were Satish Abrol, president, J&K Wrestling Association, Narinder Mahajan, vice president, Ajay Vaid, treasurer, Amit Sharma, secretary Jammu District Wrestling Association, Ravi Singh, manager MA Stadium, Satish Gupta, manager Indoor Complex and coaches Om Parkash, Dheeraj Sharma, Jai Bharat and Sahil Sharma.
Sikh shot at in US in suspected hate crime
WASHINGTON, Feb 26:
In an apparent hate crime incident in the US, a Sikh man was shot at several times by truck-borne unidentified gunmen in Florida.
Kanwaljit Singh, 46, was attacked by the truck-borne assailants near Daytona Beach on Saturday night. He was later admitted to a hospital where he is undergoing treatment.
Kanwaljit, who was accompanied by his son, received multiple bullet injuries in his thigh and torso, officials said. His son managed to escape unhurt.
“Although no clear motive (behind the attack) has been established, initial indications are this shooting was not a random act. There was no previous confrontation between occupants of either vehicle,” Wayne Miller, Port Orange’s Assistant Chief of Police, was quoted as saying by local daily Daytona Beach News Journal.
Meanwhile, the authorities yesterday said that the incident will be probed by the agencies as a hate crime.
Condemning the act, the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund and ‘Sikh Coalition’ called on the law enforcement officials and requested them to conduct a thorough probe into the incident.
The shooting incident comes days after US lawmakers asked the Department of Justice and the FBI to track the hate crimes committed against Sikhs, Hindus and Arab Americans.
So far more than 40 Congressmen have signed onto the letter addressed to the Department of Justice and the FBI, with lawmakers Judy Chu, Eliot Engel, Bill Pascrell, Adam Schiff, Gary Peters, Tulsi Gabbard, Ami Bera, Michael Honda, and Eric Swalwell being the original signatories. (PTI)
India clinch first Test by eight wickets
Chennai, Feb 26:
India clinched the first cricket Test against Australia with a comfortable eight-wicket victory to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series here today with their spinners taking all the 20 wickets for only the third time in their Test history.
The Indians took about 25 minutes in the morning to finally bring an end to the stubborn last wicket partnership between Moises Hendriques (81 not out) and Nathan Lyon (11) as Australia folded up for 241 in their second innings, leaving the hosts a small victory target of 50.
The hosts lost both their openers Murali Vijay (6) and Virender Sehwag (19) before overhauling the target with more than two full sessions to spare.
Cheteshwar Pujara brought about the winning run off Nathan Lyon to trigger off scenes of celebrations in the galleries and the Indian dressing room as the players congratulated and hugged each other.
It was a commendable show by the Indians, who have been under pressure of late following a series of indifferent performances in recent times, as they dominated the game right through at the M A Chidambaram stadium where the conditions suited the home team.
While captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni expectedly got the man-of-the-match award for his game-changing knock of 224, off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin scalped 12 wickets in the match to also play a stellar role.
The margin of victory could have been bigger had the Indians managed to get rid of the last wicket pair yesterday itself and had they not lost both their openers despite chasing a small total.
The two teams will now travel to Hyderabad for the second Test be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium from March 2 to 6.
This was the third time that Indian spinners managed to take all the 20 wickets in a match.
The first time that Indian spinners bagged all the 20 wickets was at this same venue against England in 1972-73 while the second such instance was against New Zealand in Auckland in 1975-76.
Resuming at the overnight score of 232 for nine, Australia could add just nine runs to their tally much to the relief of the Indians who had a frustrating time trying to dismiss the last-wicket pair.
It took the Indians just nine overs this morning to put an end to Australia’s resistence when Ravindra Jadeja broke the agonisingly long last-wicket partnership between Henriques and Lyon.
Lyon, who showed a lot of grit and temparament to hang on, was dismissed by left-arm spinner Jadeja, caught by Murali Vijay at short-leg.
Henriques followed up his first innings half century with another gutsy unbeaten 81 and together with Lyon added 66 runs for the final wicket to take the match into the fifth and final day and prevent India from recording an innings victory.
Chasing the paltry 50-run target, India suffered two early blows in the form of openers Sehwag and Vijay, whose flop show with the bat continued.
The opening duo of Sehwag and Vijay put on 16 runs before the latter was the first one to depart.(PTI)
SCORECARD
Australia 1st Innings: 380 all out
India 1st Innings: 572 all out
Australia 2nd innings (Overnight 232 for 9):
Moises Henriques not out 81
Nathan Lyon c Vijay b Jadeja 11
Extras: (B-15, LB-2) 17
Total: (all out in 93 overs) 241
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-64, 3-65, 4-101, 5-121, 6-131, 7-137, 8-161, 9-175, 10-241
Bowling: Ashwin 32-6-95-5, Harbhajan 27-6-55-2, Jadeja 31-8-72-3, Ishant 3-1-2-0.
India 2nd innings:
Murali Vijay c Henriques b Pattinson 6
Virender Sehwag c Clarke b Lyon 19
Chesteshwar Pujara not out 8
Sachin Tendulkar not out 13
Extras: (B-4) 4
Total: (for 2 wickets in 11.3 overs) 50
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-36
Bowling: Pattinson 3-1-13-1, Lyon 5.3-0-29-1, Siddle 3-2-4-0.
Tendulkar is now the brand ambassador of Valuemart Retail
Bangalore, Feb 26:
Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has signed a three-year pact with city-based Valuemart Retail (India) Ltd to become its brand ambassador.
Tendulkar would promote a unique range of commemorative products conceptualised by Valuemart Retail, involving the use of his images, photos and logo.
Valuemart Retail has been promoted by C K Vasudevan, an Ex-Banker. He is currently the Managing Director of Valuemart Info Technologies Ltd and Valuemart Retail Solutions Ltd, both of which are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE), a company statement said.
Announcing the signing, Mr Vasudevan, Founder Director of Valuemart Retail, said, “We are extremely honoured to have Sachin as our brand ambassador for the new initiative planned by the company. Sachin is a global sports icon and personifies the highest standards of excellence and integrity. We believe that we share the same values as Sachin and commit ourselves to deliver the same standards of quality and excellence in our new product initiative.”
In his message Tendulkar said, “I have met with Vasudevan and his team sometime back and was impressed by the new initiatives that they are working on. I am happy to be a part of Valuemart’s plans and wish him and his team all success.”
Valuemart Retail offers B2C solutions, RFID Solutions, Smartcards and Web based solutions for Retail & Financial Services sectors.
It’s product portfolio consists of group buying site Value Deals and Valuecard a multi-purpose smart card. Value Deals is India’s fastest growing group buying site offering discounts on Dining, Healthcare services, Beauty treatment, Travel, Leisure and Entertainment. (UNI)
Army provides furniture, other assistance to border area schools
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
KHOUR, Feb 26: Under Operation Sadbhavna, Army presented much needed assistance to six schools located in remote border villages of Khour Block in an impressive ceremony organized by Gigriyal battalion under the aegis of Sentinels of Chenab Brigade at Government High School, Hamirpur Sidhar, here today.
Army provided school furniture and other essential equipment to Government High School, Detyal, Government Girls Middle School, Hamirpur Sidhar and Government Middle School, Matoo. Sports and recreational items were also distributed to Government Primary School, Bhopur and Kharota and Science related equipment for the upgradation of Science Laboratory of Government Higher Secondary School, Khour. Commander, Sentinels of Chenab Brigade while interacting with the students, highlighted the role they play in the overall development of a virtuous society and a strong nation.
Tarsem Singh, representative of Government Higher Secondary School, Khour on behalf of all the teachers, expressed his gratitude to Army for their noble gesture and concern for the children of adjoining schools and said that such assistance will go a long way in meeting the aspirations of the youth of J&K and enable their overall development.
The Sarpanchs and the locals of all the bordering villages participated in the ceremony.