CHENNAI, Apr 20: A Fast Track Court here today awarded life imprisonment to retired Army Officer Ramaraj in the sensational teenager Dilshan murder case.
Delivering the verdict in the packed court hall, Fifth Fast Track Court Judge Radha said the prosecution had proved the case beyond any doubt.
Thirtten-year-old Dilshan was shot dead on July 3 last year when he entered the high-security Army residential quarters by scaling the compound wall to pluck almonds.
The judge said 58-year-old retired Lt Col Kandaswamy Ramraj, a native of Madurai, was convicted and sentenced to life under Sec 302 (murder) and Sec 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of IPC, and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000.
The judge also found Ramraj guilty under two sections of Arms Act and awarded him three years and one year jail term respectively, besides a fine of Rs 10,000.
All the sentences would run concurrently, the judge said and directed that Rs 50,000 of the fine amount should be given to Dilshan’s parents.(UNI)

PUNE, Apr 20: Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare will kick off an awareness campaign for a strong Lokayukta in Maharashtra From May 1.
The 74-year-old Gandhian will begin his campaign from world famous temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar district, Hazare said here today.
During the campaign, Hazare will meet presidents of all political parties in the state and explain to them the importance of a strong Lokayukta.
“A detailed investigation of tainted and corrupt ministers must be carried out and if they are found guilty, they should be awarded life imprisonment’, Hazare said.
He said it was necessary to change the wrong image of Team Anna versus parliament. An awareness of Jan Lokpal needs to be generated among citizens, he remarked.
When asked about the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) report and its findings, Hazare said the ministers are representatives of society, so if they are found guilty in the CAG findings they should be sent behind bars.
The social activist said he would join Baba Ramdev in Delhi on June 3 for a rally.(UNI)

PUNE, Apr 20: The Symbiosis University has decided to set up a centre of Entertainment Technology, start a few short term courses on screenplay writing, television news reporting, acting and film appreciation this summer.
In the first stage, programmes like screenplay writing, sound recording, acting for theatre and screen, film appreciation, art of make up, television news reporting and advanced Photoshop will be conducted under the centre of entertainment techonology.
Most of the workshops will be held at Symbiosis studio at the Symbiosis’ Lawale campus.
Senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar who is also the R K Laxman Chair Professor at Symbiosis University, is the driving force behind the intiative. Renowned professionals and experts in their respective fields will conduct these workshops. Prof Suresh Chabria, former director, National FIlm Archive of India and a well known film theoretician, who has spent several years teachinng film appreciation at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and unversities in India and abroad, will conduct some sessions in the workshop. The screenplay writing workshop will be conducted by Charudatt Acharya, who is an alumnus of the FTII and a prolific film and Telivision writer. Tushar Bhatia, a well known music composer. Wil be conducting the music workshop.(UNI)

MUMBAI, Apr 20: A body of a three-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped and murdered, was found floating in the sea off Cuffe Parade last evening, police said.
The girl was reported missing went from her house in Ambedkar Nagar slums on Wednesday midnight.
Post-mortem report indicate that the girl had been raped before being murdered, police said.
Police suspect her father Rajeev Sharma to be the prime suspect as he has been missing for past two days. He had divorced his wife, who had remarried, police said adding they has a heated argument over the girl’s custody two days back.
Earlier, two girls of the same age had been murdered in the area and their bodies were found abandoned in Cuffe Parade last November. However, there had been no breakthrogh in the case. (UNI)

MUMBAI, Apr 20: Shiv Sena corporator Kishori Pednekar was among 30 people arrested for assaulting three senior employees of the marketing and circulation department of the Week News magazine at lower Parel over regularising services of some workers, police said,
A mob alllegedly barged into the company’s fourth floor office yesterday and vandalised office of thw senior regional manager before assaultng him and others. They threw his phone on the ground and beat him up, the protestors also broke a glass pane.
Most of the protestors were members of Bhartiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), the trade union wing of the Shiv Sena. They demanded that 38 contract workers, employed there, should be regularised by the company. The matter is already in the Industrial court, soources said. However, the BKS denied their activists had attacked the office.
The 30 had been booked for rioting, criminal intimidation and assault. Police are on look out for five others. All of them will be produced in a local court later today, said a senior police official. (UNI)

JAKARTA, Apr 20: Jakarta aims to issue Indonesia’s first ever municipal bonds this year to take advantage of the country’s new investment grade status to fund infrastructure, a Finance Ministry official said on Friday.
The planned first issue would be small at 1.7 trillion rupiah ($185 million), but if successful it could pave the way for other regional and local governments to raise money from international and domestic investors to overhaul the dilapidated roads, ports and airports that are obstacles to long-term growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Industrial province West Java, coal-rich East Kalimantan, port cities Surabaya and Makassar and tourist centre Yogyakarta are also considering issuing municipal bonds to finance public projects, though these plans are at an early stage, said Marwanto Harjowiryono, director-general in charge of regional funds at the ministry.
‘Everyone is hoping for a success story from this first municipal bond … We are really hopeful for Jakarta,’ Harjowiryono told Reuters in an interview.
‘If this one succeeds, hopefully the next ones will succeed because they will give regions the chance to improve their source of financing,’ said Harjowiryono, a former director at the Asian Development Bank.
Indonesia sold $2.5 billion in U.S. Dollar bonds this week with yields at record lows, as it drew strong global investor demand in the first such issue since the G-20 economy won a second investment grade rating from Moody’s in January.
TRANSPORT AND SANITATION
Investors said Indonesia should issue more bonds, given bidding of $7.9 billion for the global bonds, though some recent auctions for local rupiah-denominated debt have failed to meet expectations given worries over the currency and inflation.
The proceeds from Jakarta bonds would be used to develop a hospital, public housing, a bus terminal and improved sanitation in the sprawling capital of 10 million, helping take budget pressure off the central government.
Harjowiryono, who has a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said local and foreign financial institutions such as the World Bank had expressed interest to buy the Jakarta bonds.
According to the Finance Ministry, around 60 percent of annual state spending is allocated for regional development in the archipelago’s decentralised political system. This amounts to roughly 950 trillion rupiah this year, but only 20 percent of the money is allocated for capital spending.
Economists have repeatedly said Indonesia should spend more for infrastructure to achieve the growth potential of above 7 percent a year targeted by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
U.S., Mexican and Australian states are regular issuers of municipal bonds, but outside Japan few other Asian countries look to debt markets for local government funding. The Chinese Ministry of Finance has been issuing bonds on behalf of local governments, and last year selected four trial cities to start issuing bonds on their own.
NO NATIONAL GUARANTEES
Indonesia’s central government will not guarantee bonds issued by regions. The Finance ministry expects regions to be fiscally prudent before issuing any bonds and said they should draft dedicated regulations to guarantee the debt.
‘We must protect, so when regions issue municipal bonds, they won’t be harmed. We also want investors’ trust…That there’s a certainty their money will return,’ said Harjowiryono.
Existing regulations say that each region can only borrow a maximum 75 percent of its total income so it will be able to pay off debt. Its debt-service coverage ratio – the amount of cash flow available to meet annual interests and principal payments on debt – is also set at a minimum 2.5 percent.
Indonesia’s prudent fiscal policies led ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s ratings to restore its investment status in December and January. Standard & Poor’s, which had a team in Indonesia last month, is widely expected to do likewise soon.
However, concerns over a higher central budget deficit and inflation, should there be a fuel price hike sometime this year, have led investors to take profits on local assets in recent weeks, with the 10-year government bond yield trading at 5.9 percent on Thursday from a record low 5 percent in February.
If inflation expectations intensify, investors will ask for higher yields when Jakarta issues its municipal bonds. Jakarta’s inflation in March was at 4.13 percent year-on-year, higher than the country’s 3.97 percent, data from the statistics bureau shows.
‘We cannot separate the (local) economy from the health of the national economy… We expect Indonesia’s economy to improve, which means the organs in Indonesia – not only regional governments but also corporates – can be trusted more so the price that they have to pay, interest or yields, will be lower,’ said Harjowiryono. (agencies)

CHENNAI, Apr 20: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has taken exception to the Centre introducing the issue of amendments to the BSF Act, 1968, in the supplimentary agenda at the Chief Minister’s conference held in New Delhi earlier this week.
In another demi official letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh, copy of which was released to the media this morning, Ms Jayalalithaa said “I wish to categorically register my disapproval of the manner in which the subject was sought to be introduced as a supplementary agenda item.”
She said in the context of the Conference, she wished to highlight that the issue concerning the amendments to the BSF Act, 1968 was contained in the Supplementary Agenda notes and they reached the Chief Ministers present at the conference only on the day of the meet.
‘Hence my views expressed at the Conference did not carry my state’s response to this matter’, she pointed out.
The members of the Rajya Sabha had as early as on the March 29 this yer, requested that the subject be discussed in the Conference of Chief Ministers. With more than two weeks at the Centre’sdisposal, she was surprised that the Ministry of Home Affairs had proposed this as a supplementary agenda item.
‘The provisions of the proposed amendments to the BSF Act smack of a desire to smuggle in a mechanism inspired by the same goals as those behind the setting up of an operation division in the NCTC, through the back door,’ she alleged.
Ms Jayalalithaa, however, expressed happiness that based on her request, the Centre directed the Union Home Minister to convene a separate meeting of Chief Ministers to discuss matters concerning the NCTC on May 5 in New Delhi.
“Since the amendments proposed to the BSF Act seem to have a similar motive, it would be appropriate if these are also discussed at the same Conference”, she suggested. (UNI)

LUCKNOW, Apr 20: Bahujan Samaj Party today alleged that the ruling Samajwadi Party Government in Uttar Pradesh was just indulging in ‘drama’ to appease the people while it has turned ‘deaf and dumb’,towards problems of common man.

” Goondaraj has returned in UP with law and order situation being out of control as the criminals are running a parallel Government in the state,” leader of the opposition in the assembly and BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya said here.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Maurya said ‘ Janata Darshan’ of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was totally a ‘ drama’ to appease the people whereas by stopping the Thana and Tehsil Diwas, started by the previous Mayawati Government, this Government was forcing the people to come to Lucknow for their petty problems.

” SP had announced that if voted to power, it will provide unemployment allowances, laptops and tablets but now they have turned deaf and dumb towards the problems of the common people,” he said.

The former state minister criticised SP leader and state urban development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan over his statement against the party.” We should avoid commenting on any statement of an insane leader,” he remarked.

Talking about the failures of the Akhilesh Yadav Government, Mr Maurya said though it has completed just one month, the situation had already gone bad to worst. ” Police personnel are feeling insecure from the goons of the ruling SP besides thousands of BSP supporters are being targeted by the ruling party activists,” he said and alleged that the SP leaders were not even sparing the dalit voters who have supported the BSP in the election. The leader of the opposition also narrated in Detail about the incidents during the past one month.

Commenting on the announcement of the SP Government to construct hospitals and colleges in the open space of the Parks and memorials built by the previous regime, Mr Maurya claimed that such a move would certainly threaten the law and order situation in the state.” Interference with the Dalit memorials and statues will lead to large scale violence in the state and the SP Government would be responsible for it,” he threatened.

The BSP leader announced that the party would not tolerate sufferings of the people and would be forced to stage agitation inside and outside the assembly. (UNI)