Gujarat
to bring new legislation after repeal of POTA
New
Delhi: Gujarat government is adopting its own anti-terror
law as the POTA has been repealed, the firebrand Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi said today. Modi said the Hindu-majority
state, which borders Pakistan and has faced attacks by Islamic
guerrillas in the past, needs the legislation to control
organised crimes and terrorist activities. Modi said the
state's powers have been eroded after the repeal of the
controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which
many human rights groups had termed as draconian. "POTA
was a big help in punishing and dettering terrorists but
unfortunately the federal government has repealed the law.
In Gujarat, which is a border state, we need to be very
cautious and keeping that in mind, the state government
has come up with a (proposed) new law Gujarat Control of
Organised Crime Act," Modi said on the sidelines of a chief
ministers' summit here. The new draft has been made on the
line of a similar law in Maharashtra and still awaits centeral
approval.
PM
voices concern over judicial delays (Go
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New
Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday voiced
concern over judicial delays and the huge backlog of cases
pending before courts. The overstretched judiciary has been
struggling to cope with mounting cases. Several proposals
have been made, but very few have actually been implemented.
"There are aspects of our judicial system which had come
under increasing public scrutiny. There are concerns that
are being voiced in some quarters about the delays in disposal
of cases and the consequental backlog that has built up
over the years, " Singh told a day long conference of Chief
Justices of high courts and state Chief Ministers in New
Delhi. The 85th report of the Standing Committee on legal
delays says more than 24 million cases are pending before
courts in the country, some pending since 1950. About 20
million of them are pending in the lower courts, 3.1 million
in the 18 high court benches and another 150,000 before
the Supreme Court. More than half of them are criminal cases.
Official statistics for the year 2001 say, of the total
382,000 prisoners in the country, more than 270,000 or 71
percent of them are undertrials. Singh emphasised on the
need to empower and multiply fast track courts and "Lok
Adalats" (People's Courts), which have emerged as useful
forum for quick and alternative dispute resolution comprising
arbitration, conciliation and mediation. He also called
for undertaking judicial reforms, hanging for several years,
modernisation of justice delivery system and improving service
condition of judges. "It is incumbent upon any healthy institution
to continue to reflect from time to time on its role, on
the expectations from it and on its deficiences in the larger
scheme of governance," Singh added. The judicial delays
are blamed primarily on the large number of vacancies in
the post of judges and antiquity of laws. Cases are still
conducted by the archaic British era laws such as Evidence
Act of 19th century and the Code of Criminal Procedure,
1905. There are 13 judges for every one million people in
India, compared to 137 judges in the U.S. and 107 in the
U.K. for every million people. That makes India's ratio
of judges to people among the lowest in the world. Every
judge is expected to squeeze in as many as 50 cases everyday.
PM
meets left leaders (Go
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New
Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the Left,
whose support is crucial, that he would "fulfil their expectations"
today. "Of course we have to take all our colleagues and
coalition partners into confidence and we will fulfil their
expectation," Singh told reporters after a luncheon meeting
with the veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) --CPM--
leader Jyoti Basu. CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh
Surjeet and the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) Sonia Gandhi were also present in the meeting.
The CPM, the biggest ally of the ruling government is particularly
miffed over the UPA government's non-implementation of the
National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) or agenda of governance.
Communists have also opposed a government move to raise
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) caps in telecoms and domestic
aviation. CPM politburo member Sitaram Yetchuri said most
of their demands were under consideration of the government.
"The Prime minister has assured us that most of the concerns
that we have raised in our politburo meeting, all of them
are in the pipeline and very shortly much of this will find
a tangible shape," Yetchuri said. The ruling coalition has
decided to raise foreign investment limits in the telecoms
sector to 74 percent from 49 percent, and from 40 to 49
percent in aviation. The government also plans to increase
FDI limits in insurance to 49 percent from 26 percent, but
this is considered to be even more difficult because it
will require parliament approval.
Congress-NCP
accord in Maharashtra (Go
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New
Delhi: The Congress on Saturday announced that it has
clinched a seat-sharing deal with NCP in next month's Maharashtra
Assembly elections. The party will announce tomorrow its
list of nominees, featuring "many" new faces, Congress general
secretary Margaret Alva told newsmen here. "Everything has
been clinched, there are no obstacles now, but discussions
are on with Left parties over adjustment of seats," she
said without disclosing details of the deal. "It will be
a grand alliance in Maharashtra, we will give seats to all
our allies," Alva said when asked about the seat-sharing
talks with the Left parties.
Has
Pak foreign office been taken over by armed forces? (Go
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Islamabad:
Pakistan's armed forces have for all practical purposes
taken over the country's foreign office. According to the
Daily Times, as many as nine retired officers of the armed
forces are heading Pakistani missions abroad. In a communiqui,
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said that nine
retired officers were serving in various missions. They
were: Air Marshal Mohammad Farooq Qari (Libya), Lt. General
Agha Jahangir Ali Khan (Mexico), Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza
(Saudi Arabia), Air Marshal Qaiser Hussain (United Arab
Emirates), Major General Syed Mustafa Anwer Hussain (Indonesia),
Major General Budrud Din Hussain (Brunei Dar-us-Salam) Major
General Sabhiuddin Bokhari (Bahrain), Major General Talat
Munir (Malaysia) and Major General Tajul Haq (Ukraine).
Madonna's
bodyguards pummel paparazzi (Go
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Washington:
Pop diva Madonna's bodyguards were arrested in Tel Aviv
when they entered into a brawl with photographers who tried
to take pictures of the star. In a bid to prevent them from
getting too close to the star, Madge's bodyguard's knocked
a photographer to the ground and kicked him in the face,
before attacking another photographer who reportedly tried
to intervene. According to Eonline, Madonna, who is in Israel
with her hubby Guy Ritchie to celebrate the Jewish New Year
along with 2000 other Kabbalah followers has created quite
a furore in the country with extra police personnel being
employed for the security of her retinue and the papparazi
going bonkers to get a shot of the 'Material Girl'.
Brad
Pitt to do Dallas (Go
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London:
Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt is slated to lend some star
power to the film version of hit Eighties series. According
to The Sun, it is still not clear if he will play JR or
brother Bobby. Catherine Zeta Jones has been asked to play
Pamela, while Melanie Griffith might play Sue Ellen. Mel
Gibson, John Travolta, George Clooney and Matt Damon may
also appearin the movie.
Paltrow
to earn 2 m pounds for a song (Go
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London:
She might be no match for Barbara Streisand when it
comes to her singing abilities, but Gwyneth Paltrow is getting
paid an amazing 2 million pounds to sing one three-minute
song in a movie. According to The Sun, she will play American
singer Peggy Lee in the new film Every Word Is True, which
is being shot next year. She will sing 'What Is This Thing
Called Love' in the opening scene of the film that lasts
for 90 seconds and will have to shoot for just one day.
"No actress has ever earned this sort of dough for just
one day's work. And no singer, not even Barbra Streisand,
has earned this for warbling one song. But we feel the money
isn't an issue," an insider was quoted as saying. "When
you're talking about someone as beautiful and iconic as
Gwyneth making her filming comeback after having her baby,
then it's the performance that counts. She will set up the
movie perfectly with a superb glittering performance," he
added.
John
Kerry's key role in exposing BCCI scam (Go
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Washington:
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry played
a key role in exposing the nefarious activities of the Bank
and Credit and Commerce (BCCI) in the 1980s. According to
an investigative report by David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin
of the American Progress Action Fund, Kerry decided to probe
the finances of Latin American drug cartels in 1988. Over
the next three years, he fought off intense opposition from
vested interests at home and abroad, none of whom was eager
for him to carry on, reports the Daily Times. Kerry turned
to BCCI early in the second year of the probe against the
bank when his investigators learned that Panamanian dictator
Manuel Noriega was laundering drug profits through the BCCI
on behalf of the Medellin cartel. The report appears in
this month's issue of the Washington Monthly. "By the end,
Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise
and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated
institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today
acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist
financing," says the report. The two writers allege, "BCCI
went beyond merely offering financial assistance to dictators
and terrorists." By July 1991, British and US regulators
finally responded to the evidence provided by Kerry and
a concurrent investigation by the US Federal Reserve. Thereafter,
its operations were shut down in seven countries and restricted
in dozens more, and served indictments for grand larceny,
bribery and money laundering.
