Showing posts with label state news.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label state news.. Show all posts
on Friday, April 29, 2011
on Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Mr K. N. Srihari of Malkajgiri municipal area is one such consumer who has proof of his bill payments. “I have been served with a demand notice to pay `9,258. I went to the general manager of the Water Board in the area and showed him paid bills. There are 10,000 such cases,” he said. Enquiries by this correspondent revealed that the Water Board does not have details of all connections existing in the surrounding municipalities. Moreover, the Board does not have accurate bill payment information of consumers in peripheral areas. This is due to lack of coordination between HMWS&SB officials and the GHMC.
on Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Advts: Retail Plus | Classifieds | Jobs | Obituary |
Front Page 
Lokpal should cover politicians, bureaucrats: Justice Hegde
PANAJI: The Karnataka Lokayukta and Member of Jan Lokpal Bill Joint Drafting Committee N. Santosh Hedge on Monday made a forceful plea for bringing politicians and bureaucrats under the jurisdiction of the proposed Lokpal at the Centre as maladministration and corruption could not take place without the nexus between the two.
Speaking at a public meeting at the International Centre Goa (ICG) at Dona Paula near here on Monday on “Role of Lokayukta in good governance”, Mr. Hedge, a retired Supreme Court judge, likened the bureaucrats and their political bosses to conjoined twins. Nothing happened without their collusion. They had to be surgically separated if the country were to fight maladministration and reduce corruption.
In this context, he sought to know: “If a bill is created after 40 years only for MPs, Ministers and Prime Minister under certain circumstances, will it have any effect?”
The lecture, the first in the series of lectures on ‘good governance”, was organised by ICG. The trustees of ICG, industrialist Dattaraj Salgaoncar, the former Advocate-General of Goa Atmaram Nadkarni, and Director of ICG Nandini Sahai were present.
Referring to cynicism whether the Lokpal could get rid of corruption, Mr. Hedge said it was indeed true that the corruption and maladministration was a growing disease of “greed over need” and that a Lokpal or a Lokayukta alone could not get rid of it. “But does that mean we should not start fighting?” said Mr. Hedge.
The Lokayukta said that corruption was a growing disease but “when you start fighting, it stunts its growth.”
“I agree with Digvijay Singhji,” he said sarcastically referring to the Congress leader's recent comment that he had been ineffective in controlling corruption in Karnataka. “Corruption in Karnataka has not gone down, I agree, but its growth has been reduced. It is something that an institution like Lokayukta does. It creates a fear which at least reduces the growth,” said Mr. Hegde.
IAS cadre for Goa
Speaking about Goa, Mr. Hedge expressed surprise that even after so many years since attaining Statehood, Goa continued to rely on AGMU cadre instead of having its own IAS cadre.
“I think you got to wake up and fight for certain basic rights,” said Mr. Hedge.
He regretted that every organ of the constitutional democracy today was suffering from the disease of “greed over need” and lamented that the media which had on its hard work got recognition as the fourth organ has recently failed to keep their reputation, he said referring to the growing instances of “paid news syndrome”. However, he hastened to add that the only saving grace for the media was that unlike other institutions, where outsiders had to point out about the corruption, in case of media they themselves brought out their corruption.
He assured the people that a good institution of Lokpal, empowered and headed by some who are committed to the cause of good governance could bring about a change. He hoped that society changing on its own would make a real difference, but that would take some time. And till such time, the Lokpal and the Lokayukta could certainly take care of the maladies afflicting the governance.
Earlier, Mr. Hegde told presspersons that 90 per cent of his time as Lokayukta was allocated in responding to the people's problems of maladministration and poor governance and only 10 per cent in attending to cases of corruption.
To a question, he dispelled the apprehensions that the proposed Lokpal would be a dictator or a monster stating that all his decisions would be prone to judicial review.
Not seeking extension
Mr. Hegde said that he was not even dreaming of having a second term and there was no question of his asking for any extension of his tenure.
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Thousands throng Puttaparthi
D. Sreenivasulu
Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and his wife Anjali paying their last respects to Sathya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh on Monday.
PUTTAPARTHI: Thousands of grief-stricken devotees thronged Prashanthi Nilayam here for the second day on Monday as the body of Sri Sathya Sai Baba lay in the sprawling Sai Kulwant hall.
According to one estimate, over two lakh devotees have had darshan of the mortal remains of the Sai Baba till Monday evening. Andhra Pradesh Revenue Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy said the public would be allowed to have darshan till 6 p.m., Tuesday.
Volunteers and key functionaries of the Sathya Sai Trust handled the flow of people inside Prashanthi Nilayam, while the situation outside was left to the police and revenue authorities to tackle.
In tears
Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, playback singer P. Susheela and veteran actress Anjali Devi, who have been long-standing visitors to Prashanthi Nilayam, were among the mourners.
Sachin, who sat on the floor close to the coffin, was in tears. He had tried hard to control his emotions. Ms. Susheela, who wept uncontrollably, was consoled by Major Industries Minister J. Geetha Reddy. Ms. Anjali Devi too broke down.
Union Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Praful Patel, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, actor Arjun and Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy also paid their last respects.
Every street was choked with grieving devotees descending on the small town. There was an outpouring of charity with volunteers offering water and packets of lemon rice.
Many devotees have come from far off places in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The global following for the spiritual leader was visible in the presence of a considerable number of foreigners.
Serpentine queues were seen as men and women walked separately covering over two km. In spite of heavy barricading of the roads leading to Prashanthi Nilayam, stray incidents of jostling or stampede were reported. Pressure was felt in the evening when crowds swelled beyond the expectations of officials and Trust members.
Manmohan, Sonia
coming today
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi are coming on Tuesday, security has been beefed up. They will arrive in a special flight from Delhi at the Puttaparthi airport at 4.40 p.m. and drive straight to Sai Kulwant Hall.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Orissa counterpart Naveen Patnaik are among the other dignitaries slated to arrive on Tuesday.
Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani will attend the funeral on Wednesday.
on Monday, April 25, 2011
The Committee had asked the Centre not to disclose the chapter, which deals with the implications of Telangana statehood on the law and order situation. A single judge of the HC had on March 23 directed the Centre to make the chapter public, and the MHA had filed an appeal before a division bench.
Secret T-report in sealed cover
April 25: On Monday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru and Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar of the AP High Court stayed the March 23 order to make public the secret Chapter 8 of the Justice Srikrishna Committee report. When the matter come up for hearing, Justice Kakru had a brief discussion with Justice Afzulpurkar and granted the interim stay and directed the Centre to submit the secret report to the registry in a sealed cover.
Mr Gandra Mohan Rao, representing the petitioner, Mr M. Narayana Reddy, a former MP, urged the bench not to grant any interim order without seeing the secret report. He pointed out that the Centre had anyway not made the chapter public. He said that the petitioner did not want to file a contempt petition on the Centre till the final outcome of the appeal. At this, Justice Kakru asked counsel: “Keep aside your case. If anyone goes to the Centre along with the judgement and applies for a copy of the secret note, what would be the say of the Centre?”
When the counsel did not reply, the Chief Justice said they have to know what is in the secret report to apply their mind in passing final orders. That is why they had granted the stay till final disposal of the case, Justice Kakru explained. Mr Vivek Tanka, additional solicitor-general, told the court that the secret chapter would be furnished to the registry within a couple of days.
on Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Vehicles and infrastructure damaged on college campus
: A group of students belonging to the Dr. Ambedkar Government Arts College at Vyasarpadi here went berserk damaging vehicles and infrastructure on the campus on Monday.
They were protesting against the college authorities for detaining some students and not issuing hall tickets to a few others because of inadequate attendance.
The police used “mild force” to chase away the protestors. Several students were taken into custody.
According to police sources, the students raised slogans holding the college management responsible for the suicide of D.Ilayaraja (20), a BBA student of Tiruvallur. They alleged that Ilayaraja took the extreme step after he was denied hall ticket due to poor attendance.
When they blocked traffic on the Erukkanchery High Road for about an hour demanding hall tickets to all students, police intervened and persuaded them to disperse.
“Ilayaraja had only 40 per cent attendance. However, he was given hall ticket considering his participation in National Cadet Corps (NCC) activities. A few students who were detained for want of attendance are exploiting the situation,” M.B. Chandrasekar, Principal (in-charge) said.
He said the agitating students prevented others from appearing in the semester examinations forcing the college authorities to postpone the examinations indefinitely. “We anticipated trouble and informed the police well in advance. A police team arrived and acted only when things almost got out of control. It was only after we informed the Police Commissioner that action was taken,” he said.
Prof. Chandrasekar said a complaint would be lodged against the students who damaged the vehicles of staff members and ransacked the water-treatment plant in the campus. He said as per the college rules, students with less than 50 per cent attendance had to repeat the course while those with 50 to 60 per cent attendance had to write the examination in the next academic year.
Joint Commissioner of Police (North) S.N.Seshasai said police resorted to a mild chase after the students damaged public property. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Pulianthope) N. Baskaran said 20 students were arrested on charges causing damage to public property. More than 100 students who resorted to road roko agitation were arrested and released on bail.
: A group of students belonging to the Dr. Ambedkar Government Arts College at Vyasarpadi here went berserk damaging vehicles and infrastructure on the campus on Monday.
They were protesting against the college authorities for detaining some students and not issuing hall tickets to a few others because of inadequate attendance.
The police used “mild force” to chase away the protestors. Several students were taken into custody.
According to police sources, the students raised slogans holding the college management responsible for the suicide of D.Ilayaraja (20), a BBA student of Tiruvallur. They alleged that Ilayaraja took the extreme step after he was denied hall ticket due to poor attendance.
When they blocked traffic on the Erukkanchery High Road for about an hour demanding hall tickets to all students, police intervened and persuaded them to disperse.
“Ilayaraja had only 40 per cent attendance. However, he was given hall ticket considering his participation in National Cadet Corps (NCC) activities. A few students who were detained for want of attendance are exploiting the situation,” M.B. Chandrasekar, Principal (in-charge) said.
He said the agitating students prevented others from appearing in the semester examinations forcing the college authorities to postpone the examinations indefinitely. “We anticipated trouble and informed the police well in advance. A police team arrived and acted only when things almost got out of control. It was only after we informed the Police Commissioner that action was taken,” he said.
Prof. Chandrasekar said a complaint would be lodged against the students who damaged the vehicles of staff members and ransacked the water-treatment plant in the campus. He said as per the college rules, students with less than 50 per cent attendance had to repeat the course while those with 50 to 60 per cent attendance had to write the examination in the next academic year.
Joint Commissioner of Police (North) S.N.Seshasai said police resorted to a mild chase after the students damaged public property. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Pulianthope) N. Baskaran said 20 students were arrested on charges causing damage to public property. More than 100 students who resorted to road roko agitation were arrested and released on bail.
Shobha Karandlaje
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shobha Karandlaje on Monday said that of the 71 lakh gas connections in the State, 20 lakh were suspected to be bogus, and they would be cancelled after the formalities were completed.
She told presspersons here that the verification of RR numbers of LPG consumers by the department was coming to an end and 20 lakh gas connections, belonging to both the APL and BPL categories, were bogus. She said cylinders were being sold illegally for commercial use by gas agencies in collusion with some unscrupulous elements in oil companies as well as the State and Union governments.
The Centre was giving a subsidy of Rs. 365 a cylinder for domestic use and was losing thousands of crores on account of bogus gas connections, and Karnataka was the first State to take steps to stop this drain on the exchequer.
Interestingly, many information technology and biotechnology professionals, numbering around five lakh in the State, are said to be using bogus gas cylinders because the Government had failed to supply them with gas connections.
Issue escalated
Ms. Karandlaje said she had raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the oil companies were aghast at the enormity of the illegal trade in gas cylinders and hoped that the Centre would take steps to punish the guilty.
She appealed to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to continue the ban on use of endosulfan in the State. She said that people in many States, including West Bengal, Orissa, Punjab and Haryana, had been affected by the chemical used under different names. She expressed displeasure over the open support extended to endosulfan manufacturers by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. The Minister said that the demand for power came down to 160 million units on Sunday following rain in the past four days.
Accusing the Centre of diverting power to those States going to the polls, she said that it was giving excuses such as breakdown at the Ramagundam plant for not supplying power from the central grid.
She said that the Centre imposed a fine on States for overdrawing power and the rule should apply to it as well.
Teenaged victim not gang-raped, say police
The accused in the rape case of a teenager at Narayanaguda turned out to be a car driver, K. Venkatesh, the police said on Monday, after arresting him. They also confirmed that the victim was not gang-raped.
The Additional CP (co-ordination), A.R. Anuradha, said the victim had been meeting the accused for quite some time. On Sunday, he had picked up the girl after she came out of the church near Shanti theatre. The teenager who was with her visually challenged mother told the latter that she would return soon after meeting a friend and left the place, Ms. Anuradha said at a press conference here on Monday.
The accused drove the teenager to a commercial complex near Cherma's showroom at Abids. The 23-year-old Venkatesh from Nalgonda was hired by a car owner whose vehicle was rented out to an Assistant Commissioner of the CT department, office of whom was located in the complex.
The teenager and the driver spent some time in the cellar of the building after which she started bleeding. At Venkatesh's instance, she rang up her mother from his mobile phone explaining her condition. Later, he drove the teenager back to the church, from where he picked up the girl's mother and proceeded to the nearby Sai Ram hospital.
He waited till the hospital staff wheel-chaired her inside and disappeared. “The hospital watchman witnessed this,” Narayanaguda Inspector C. Gandhinarayana said. After extending first aid, the doctors decided to shift her to a Government hospital as it turned into a medico-legal case after the local police team arrived there. The girl was first shifted to the Osmania General Hospital in an ambulance and then moved to the Government Maternity Hospital, Puranapul. The police launched a hunt for the accused after registering a rape case following a complaint from her mother. They traced the phone call received by the mother to Venkatesh and caught him.
Venkatesh claimed that he had been meeting the teenager for over a year but the call data record of their phones suggested they were in contact for the past three months. Venkatesh is a cousin of the teenager's friend Laxmi. She met Venkatesh for the first time at Laxmi's village in Nalgonda a few months ago. Earlier in the day, former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu called on the victim at the hospital and announced an aid of Rs.50,000 to her. BJP MLA G. Kishan Reddy and representatives of women organisations too met the girl.
KOLKATA: When the Amritsar Mail reached Howrah on Monday, the CU students molested by goons in the train lodged a written complaint with the GRP. Senior GRP officials, however, said that they could do little in the matter. "This did not happen within our jurisdiction. We shall forward the complaint to Patna where the incident took place," said Rabindranath Mukherjee, superintendent of railway police, Howrah.
Eastern Railway officials were unaware of the incident. "No complaint was lodged with us. However, we shall provide all assistance if the police approach us," an official said. Barely a week ago, a budding volleyball player was thrown off a running train near Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh by a group of snatchers. She lost one of her legs due to the fall. None of the miscreants could be arrested. While railways minister Mamata Banerjee immediately announced a job in the railways for the victim and monetary assistance poured in from various quarters, it is clear that no lessons were learnt.
Eastern Railway officials were unaware of the incident. "No complaint was lodged with us. However, we shall provide all assistance if the police approach us," an official said. Barely a week ago, a budding volleyball player was thrown off a running train near Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh by a group of snatchers. She lost one of her legs due to the fall. None of the miscreants could be arrested. While railways minister Mamata Banerjee immediately announced a job in the railways for the victim and monetary assistance poured in from various quarters, it is clear that no lessons were learnt.
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