NEW DELHI, Apr 29: An inferno may be in the making in Government-run Ram Manohar Lohia hospital that caters to over 7,000 patients a day as it has not been able to “correct” 16 fire-prone areas inside its premises.
Pointing to the loopholes, Delhi Fire Services (DFS) had written to the hospital in December 2011 that the “perusal of the fire and life safety aspects in the hospital is alarming” and gave them 90 days time to correct themselves.
However, the hospital could not meet the deadline and has asked “some more time up to the end of May 2012” to complete the work of upgradation of fire fighting and fire alarm system at various locations of the hospital, Mumbai-based Ajay Marathe said from a reply from DFS he had received to his RTI query.
“The approach to the hospital has been found blocked, escape routes blocked/locked in all the high rise blocks, sprinkler system, smoke management system and public addressing system out of order and the basement found full of waste materials,” according to the inspection of the Delhi Fire Services.
Fire extinguishers were found empty at some places, hose reel found defective/missing, Manually Operated Electrical Fire Alarm System in all blocks was out of order/removed, Compartmenting found removed/not provided, no trained manpower was available in the hospital and exit signs found removed at some places, the report read.
In a written communication to the RML administration, A K Sharma, DFS director said, “In most cases systems have been provided but they are not functional for want of regular maintenance while the exit ways/corridors are blocked. The housekeeping is far below the acceptable standards. In some of the blocks of the hospital even NOC has not been obtained from the department viz. Trauma Center.
“All the blocks in default have been allowed time up to 90 days to rectify the shortcomings as permissible under the Delhi Fire Services Rules 2010 and in the meantime the NOC issued if any, shall remain suspended and continuing with the occupancy is unsafe.”
Marathe filed the RTI to know the preparedness of Delhi hospitals in fighting fire after the blaze in AMRI hospital in Kolkata last year that choked 94 people to death.
“After the deaths in AMRI hospital, all hospitals including AIIMS in the city were asked to have the fire safety measures in place by March end. It is surprising that RML hospital that caters to so many bomb blast victims, the Trauma Center especially, is functioning without an NOC. Is three months not enough time to cater to the shortcomings?” he said.
The executive engineer of the Central Public Works Department in the hospital cited “contractual reasons” as reason for extending the time of completion to the end of May 2012.
Routine testing of fire fighting and mock drill in each block of hospital, however, is being taken up every month by the fire safety staff and the locations wherever fire alarm system is to be provided, have been taken up on priority to ensure life safety from fire in the hospital, the official said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: The Supreme Court has ruled that long term possession of land by caretakers or agents does not give them the right of ownership of the property.
“Watchman, caretaker or a servant employed to look after the property can never acquire interest in the property irrespective of his long possession. The watchman, caretaker or a servant is under an obligation to hand over the possession forthwith on demand,” a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra said.
The bench dismissed the plea of a watchman claiming ownership of a plot on the basis that his family was taking care of property for two generations.
“The watchman, caretaker or agent hold the property of the principal only on behalf the principal. He acquires no right or interest whatsoever in such property irrespective of his long stay or possession,” the bench said.
The apex court also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the watchman for litigating over the ownership of the land which belonged to his master and who dedicated the suit land for construction of a dharamshala.
“The principles of justice, equity and good conscience, courts are not justified in protecting the possession of a watchman, caretaker or servant who was only allowed to live into the premises to look after the same,” the bench said.
“In the instant case, we would have ordinarily imposed heavy costs and would have ordered restitution but looking to the fact that the appellant is a watchman and may not be able to bear the financial burden, we dismiss these appeals with very nominal costs of Rs 25,000 to be paid within a period of two months and direct the appellant to vacate the premises within two months,” the bench said.
The bench also expressed concern over the litigants deliberately create confusion on the basis of irrelevant facts.
“False averments of facts and untenable contentions are serious problems faced by our courts. The other problem is that litigants deliberately create confusion by introducing irrelevant and minimally relevant facts and documents. The court cannot reject such claims, defences and pleas at the first look,” the bench said.
“Unless wrongdoers are denied profit or undue benefit from frivolous litigations, it would be difficult to control frivolous and uncalled for litigations. Experience also reveals that our courts have been very reluctant to grant the actual or realistic costs,” the bench said.
“We need to decide cases while keeping pragmatic realities in view. We have to ensure that unscrupulous litigant is not permitted to derive any benefit by abusing the judicial process. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: In a move which may make public the names of judges against whom complaints have been received by the Law Ministry, the CIC has directed the ministry to disclose the forwarding letters attached with such complaints referred to the Supreme Court and the High Courts by it.
The Ministry had earlier claimed that it cannot provide copy of complaints because these complaints are forwarded to Chief Justice of India and Chief Justices of High Courts in respective cases.
It had also said that the ministry officials do not keep a record of these complaints.
While hearing the plea of RTI activist Subhash Agrawal, the Central Information Commission found his demand of the letters “reasonable” and ordered the disclosure of such letters dating back to last one year immediately and asked the officials to trace records for three years and provide it to the applicant.
Information Commissioner Sushma Singh also directed the Ministry to maintain the records in such a manner that they can be retrieved easily whenever requested for by the applicants.
During the hearing, Agrawal emphasised that forwarding letters of complaints against judges must be in ministry’s records and should be provided to him.
The officials claimed that although office copy of forwarding letters are available in their record, the process to club these office copies of the last three years would be a time consuming task.
Agrawal then requested Singh that he should be provided with as many copies of forwarding letters of the past one year. The Information Commissioner termed the request as “reasonable”.
“The respondent CPIO is therefore directed to provide to the appellant copies of such forwarding letters as they can trace for the past 3 years but certainly information for the past one year should be provided,” she directed. (PTI)

HYDERABAD, Apr 29: Indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’ will be inducted into the Indian Air Force this year, DRDO chief V K Saraswat has said.
“With ‘Tejas’ completing almost 1,855 flying hours (flight tests) and all problems it encountered during the initial operational clearance having been solved, it is ready to enter into the final operational clearance phase. With production also having taken off at HAL… We are now at the verge of writing history as far as aeronautics is concerned,” he said here.
“LCA will be inducted this year in the armed forces where our own squadrons of Air Force will be flying this aircraft,” he said.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) director general was speaking after inaugurating the ‘Aerospace Luminary Lecture Series’ organised by Hyderabad chapter of Aeronautical Society of India last night.
Referring to the recent successful maiden flight of the Naval variant of LCA, Saraswat said, “The first flight trial of LCA Navy achieved capability, particularly on take off and landing, from an aircraft carrier. The Naval variant will certainly be a force multiplier for Indian Navy.”
The LCA has been conceived and designed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Agency and manufactured at Bangalore- based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
Saraswat said April 2012 will go down in the history as a historic month as it saw successful launches of Agni-V, RISAT-I (radar imaging satellite) and first flight trial of LCA Navy.
India today has a potent long-range ballistic missile system, said Saraswat, who is also the Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister.
Nuclear capable Agni-V ballistic missile, with a strike range of over 5,000 km, was successfully test-fired on April 19.
Agni-V is a game changer in terms of technology, the DRDO chief said, adding, “it has taken the country to a higher pedestal in terms of deterrence.”
“We have joined a select group of countries who have this technology and capability,” Saraswat said.
“Agni-V has allowed us to take this technology to higher level, be it for anti-satellite mission or launch of satellites on short notice.”
However, there is still a long way to go for programmes related to UAVs, advance medium combat aircraft and a variety of long-range missiles, he said.
There was a need for almost 400-500 engineers every year to accelerate and complete the ongoing projects/programmes, the top defence scientist said.
“If we don’t have that kind of manpower… We are going to lag behind. The moment your are not in a position to provide systems on right time, with right quality and right numbers, there will be pressure on us to allow their imports. And once you have imports, our goal of self-reliance will take a beating,” Saraswat noted.
“Our goal is to provide self-reliance in the area of aerospace, aircraft and defence equipment. If we can have great designers and production centres, I think this country can become self-reliant and master any technology.” (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: Highways development in the country requires an investment of Rs 200 crore every day in the next 15-20 years, according to a Parliamentary panel.
“The quantum of financial resources required for implementation of highway projects is significantly high. An estimated investment of Rs 200 crore is required every day for a period of 15-20 years,” the Committee on Estimates, Chaired by Francisco Sardinha, said in its report on National Highways Development Project (NHDP).
The Project is aimed at upgradation, rehabilitation and widening of major highways to international standards. Projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore are likely to be put on bidding under the programme, which is being executed in seven phases.
Since the government resources are not enough for such capital intensive activity, “an efficient financing plan mobilising all resources needs to be worked out to ensure steady flow of funds”, the panel said in the report tabled in Lok Sabha.
The need for such a plan assumes significance in the wake of public-private-partnership (PPP) mode being preferred for highway construction. Under PPP, “highways concessions have tenures extending up to 30 years and they need loan facilities for up to 75-80 per cent of such tenure,” it added.
“Since both the capital market and institutional mechanisms appear to have constraints in providing long-term structured sources of funds, private investors pick the project selectively as they find it difficult to access capital,” it said.
The committee said it is of “firm opinion that the government intervention is not only desired but also indispensable to enable faster capital inflows and resource mobilisation”.
For availability of long-term debt, the committee in its report said that the Ministry of Finance is already pursuing the matter.
“In this regard, the committee are of the firm opinion that the government intervention is not only desired but also indispensable to enable faster capital inflows and resource mobilisation in this infrastructure sector,” it said.
Agreeing with suggestions in the World Bank report on financing infrastructure, the panel said there is a need for specialised infrastructure institutions such as Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS) and Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) to participate at the design stage/DPR stage of a project.
Noting that Ministry of Power has reportedly set up an inter-institutional group (IIG) consisting of infrastructure developers and senior representatives from banks and financial institutions, which has been helpful in resolving disputes between developers and agencies, the committee has suggested Highways Ministry to emulate such model.
The highways ministry, it its reply, said it is examining the recommendations of the Committee to emulate the model, which is being followed by power ministry. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: After the success of Agni-V project, India is developing an Anti-Radiation Missile (ARM) which can hugely multiply the strike capabilities by destroying the enemy’s advance warning system.
Production of the ARM, which are among the most advanced missiles, is being undertaken on priority basis by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which specialises in the missile development.
Such missiles can be mounted on Sukhoi fighter planes Su-30 MKI, 140 of which have already been acquired by India from Russia and around 100 more are expected to be delivered in due course of time.
These missile can detect a radar by tracking its electro-magnetic radiation and pulses generated, an official told, adding these would be independent of the radar wavelength and be able to destroy it.
Such missiles, currently in use of some major powers like the US, can detect and attack a radar antenna or transmitter with minimal aircrew input.
The proportional guidance system that homes in on enemy radar emissions has a fixed antenna and seeker head in the missile’s nose.
The Anti-Radiation Missiles in use by the US Air Force move at the speed of over Mach 2, propelled by a smokeless and solid-propellant rocket motor.
The US Air Force introduced High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM) on the F-4G Wild Weasel and later on specialised F-16s equipped with the HARM Targeting System (HTS).
Other projects being undertaken on priority basis by the DRDO are Long Range Air-to-Air Missile and Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile.
The flight test and production clearance of Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missiles is also on the cards.
The DRDO is also planning guided flight of Astra Missile from ground and air in the near future.
Operationalisation of the third regiment of BrahMos missile for Army, its integration with Su-30 MKI as also underwater trials from pontoon are also on the priority list.
DRDO is also working on early static validation trials of Pinaka MK-II rocket, with an extended range of 60 kms, along with user trials of its warhead.
The present range of the Pinaka rocket, launched in clusters of 12 from indigenously-built multi-barrel launcher, is 39-40 km in 40 seconds with 1.2 tons of high explosives.
Fitted with a variety of warheads like anti-tank mines and blast-cum-pre-fragmented high explosives, Pinaka can destroy an area of 350 sq kms.
Army has already raised two regiments of Pinaka and more are planned.
Flight trial of ‘Prahar’ missile as tactical battlefield surface-to-surface weapon system is also in the pipeline. (PTI)