Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde’s announcement on Monday that she plans to visit the drought-hit Marathwada region from August 12 sparked off a slug fest between the ruling BJP and the opposition NCP, which termed her move as “an immature political strategy.”
Munde said that her three-day visit to the region in order to visit people affected by drought, is part of her duty and it should not be politicised.
Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) legislator Jitendra Awhad called her move “an immature political strategy”.
Munde announced today that she plans to visit Latur, Nanded, Parbhani as well as Beed districts and take stock of irrigation facilities, besides crop conditions there.
“During her visit, the minister is likely to take stock of crop losses due to drought conditions, oversee irrigation facilities there and talk to farmers as well as understand their problems,” an official from Munde’s department said.
NCP legislator Jitendra Awhad said that his party president Sharad Pawar is known throughout Maharashtra for being there with people facing problems and that Munde can never compare herself with Pawar.
“I would simply call her (Munde’s) trip to Marathwada region an immature political strategy. Sharad Pawar is known to visit every part of the state and talk to people who face problems due to any natural calamity. Can anybody else have a stature like him (Pawar)? They (the BJP) are merely making a mockery out of themselves,” Awhad said.
However, Munde attacked the opposition and said that it is making an issue where there is none and unnecessarily engaging in a political blame game.
“I reviewed a meeting of officials from my district on August 7 and on the same day I declared that I will be touring the region. I am not interested in politicising the issue and there is no question of doing it for any publicity,” Munde told PTI.
“I hail from Marathwada and being a part of the government, it is my duty to visit people there and listen to their problems. We will keep working for the people no matter what happens. I feel this is a publicity stunt of the opposition, which is unnecessarily engaging in a political blame game,” she said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that it was probably calls by some gangsters which led to the large crowd at the funeral of 1993 blasts case convict Yakub Memon in Mumbai following his hanging at the Central Prison.
The chief minister, however, dismissed media reports about Tiger Memon, a key absconding accused in the blasts case and Yakub’s elder brother, calling his mother Hanifa in Mumbai.
“There were no mourners at the Mumbai airport when Yakub’s body reached (on July 30 noon) but, later, probably the (absconding) gangsters instigated people to attend the funeral,” Fadnavis told reporters here last night.
Mumbai police were on their toes for Memon’s burial in south Mumbai, which was attended by a large crowd. The funeral had passed off peacefully.
About the reports that Tiger (said to be hiding in Pakistan) calling his mother and swearing revenge for his brother’s hanging, Fadnavis said, “There is no truth (in them).”
The BJP-led Maharashtra government is well-prepared to deal with security concerns during the coming festival season, the chief minister said, adding that the vigil has already been tightened after Memon’s hanging.
Maharashtra government was considering inclusion of whistle-blowers and RTI activists in the proposed Witness Protection Act, it told the Bombay High Court.
While a policy to provide police protection to witnesses in sensitive cases was already in place, a legislation would be framed soon, additional government pleader Nitin Deshpande told the division bench of justices A S Oka and Revati Mohite-Dere.
Apart from the witnesses, the government was considering inclusion of RTI activists and whistle-blowers in the Act, he said.
Giving the government three months to frame the law, the High Court said until it came into effect, the police should provide protection to whistle-blowers and RTI activists upon request.
The issue of protection of witnesses, whistle-blowers and activists was taken up suo moto (on its own) by the court after the murder of Pune-based RTI activist Satish Shetty in 2010.
Station masters in Mumbai division of Central Railway and Western Railway have sought Union Finance Ministry’s speedy clearance to the Railway Board’s proposal for increase in minimum grade pay.
The station masters, united under the banner of All India Station Masters’ Associations (AISMA), made this demand in a press conference here today.
“We are getting salary, which is lower than those who are working under us. This is ridiculous! Railway Board took note of our demand and approved an increase in minimum grade pay from Rs 2,800 to Rs 4,200. However, the Finance Ministry has been sitting on it since the last four years,” Shashi Jaiswal, Secretary of AISMA, Mumbai said.
He said that as per the safety advisers’ observations, the work pressure of station masters has gone up by 500 per cent. “However, our pay-scale and other benefits have never been upgraded,” Jaiswal said.
“If our valid demands were not met soon, all the station masters will be forced to stop working,” he said.
As per the official figures, there are almost 35,400 station masters working at 7,146 railway stations and 300 major yards in India, who supervise the safety and punctuality of train movements.
Mumbai cricketer Hiken Shah has approached the Bombay High Court against his suspension by BCCI for allegedly flouting its anti-corruption code.
The cricket body suspended Shah, a batsman who was a part of Mumbai Ranji squad, on July 13 after he was found guilty of making “corrupt approach” to a team-mate who was also a member of Rajasthan Royals IPL franchise.
According to BCCI’s version, the franchise informed the cricket body about the incident and BCCI president Jaganmohan Dalmiya asked its anti-corruption unit to conduct an inquiry.
The inquiry commissioner found Shah guilty of “breaching” its anti-corruptiion code, it said.
Shah has moved the HC through his lawyer, advocate Som Sinha. The petition claims that he was not given a hearing before the order was passed and it should be set aside.
The division bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla has directed BCCI to file its reply. The next hearing would be on August 12.
An anonymous call claiming that a bomb was planted inside Bombay High Court premises sent security agencies into tizzy, who later found it was a hoax.
“There was an anonymous call on the police extension line in the High Court this morning claiming that there is a bomb in HC premises. As a precaution, we carried out searches in the High Court building,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deven Bharti.
Soon after the call, policemen swung into action with two sniffer dogs and thoroughly checked the courtroom of a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla at around 12 noon but no suspicious object was found there, police said.
The judges who sat at 11 in the morning for court proceedings had to go back to their chambers to enable cops to carry out searches.
When asked if the caller specifically said that the bomb was planted in Justice Kanade’s court room, Bharti said, “No, it was a general alert saying there was a bomb in the High Court.”
Justice Kanade has been hearing several sensitive cases including the petitions on beef ban, Nestle Maggi case, Best Bakery convictions, Haji Ali women entry case among others.
Police on Monday filed a charge sheet against 35-year corporate lawyer Jahnvi Gadkar, who was arrested on June 10 for drunk driving and killing two people.
The charge sheet, running into around 560 pages, includes statements of 57 witnesses, besides the 14 witnesses whose statements have already been recorded by a court.
Filed before the Kurla metropolitan magistrate`s court, the charge sheet also contains Gadkar`s medical reports, autopsy reports of the victims, forensic reports, CCTV footage details, statements of doctors and her friends, besides other evidence.
Gadkar, who was released on bail on August 5 by the Mumbai Sessions Court, was present in the court on Monday.
In the early morning of June 10, Gadkar`s speeding car, on the wrong side of the Mumbai Eastern Freeway, rammed into a taxi killing its driver Mohammed A. Sayyed and his passenger Mohammed S. Sabuwala, and injuring four other people.
Previously, two bail pleas by the corporate lawyer were rejected by the metropolitan magistrate`s court after which she moved the sessions court.
The apex court said the attitude to arrest first and then proceed with the rest is “despicable” which must be curbed and directed all state governments to ensure that police do not resort to arresting in all offences punishable up to seven- year jail term including dowry harassment cases.
The Supreme Court also said women were increasingly using the anti-dowry law to harass in-laws and restrained police from mechanically arresting the husband and his relatives on mere lodging of a complaint under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. Citing very low conviction rate in such cases, it directed the state governments to instruct police “not to automatically arrest when a case under Section 498A of IPC is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters (check list) provided under Section 41 of criminal procedure code”. Section 41 lays down a 9-point check list police to weigh the need to arrest after examining the conduct of the accused, including possibility of his absconding. It also said that this check-list for arrest and detention would apply to all offences, which are punished with a prison term less than 7 years. Punishment under Section 498A is a maximum of three years but it had been made a cognizable and non-bailable offence, which made grant of bail to the accused a rarity in courts. It said that the police officer shall furnish the reasons and materials which necessitated the arrest before the magistrate. Section 498-A of the IPC was introduced with avowed object to combat the menace of harassment to a woman at the hands of her husband and his relatives.
The fact that The Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code allows the police to arrest the persons mentioned in the complaint without a warrant or without any investigation. The crime is non-bailable, so chances of getting a bail are low and husbands usually lose their jobs. There is no provision of withdrawing a complaint in case of reconciliation.
In July 2005, the Supreme Court admitted that in many instances complaints under the Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code are not bonafide and have oblique motives. The court added that acquittal in such cases doesn’t erase the suffering the defendant has to go through, which is compounded by adverse media coverage. Then the court also directed the legislature to find ways to check such false cases. In August 2010, the Supreme Court directed the government to amend Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code in view of the rising numbers of false or exaggerated complaints against husbands and their relatives by women. It further added that such complaints result in the husband and his relatives remaining in custody until trial or bail, which kills all chances of an amicable settlement. In January 2012, the Law Commission of India recommended that Section 498a should be made a compoundable offense. Let’s see, this new verdict may bring some relief to men’s married life.
Expressing concern over misuse of anti-dowry law by “disgruntled” wives against her husband and in-laws, the Supreme Court ruled that police cannot arrest the accused in such cases “automatically” and it must give reasons for taking such steps which would be judicially examined. In the recent past, many innocent men and their families were victimised under section 498A, as after filing an FIR it was mandatory for police to arrest the family and its members (abettors).
To prevent dowry deaths and cruelty to married woman, anti dowry laws were implemented. However, most of the time ‘victim’ would misuse the laws and complain just to take revenge from husband and her in laws. The ‘dowry’ gift, often as financial assistance, has a long history in many parts of the world. In India, the payment of a dowry has been prohibited since 1961 under Indian civil law. Subsequently, Sections 304B and 498A of the Indian Penal Code were enacted, making it easier for the wife to seek redress from harassment by the husband’s family. Delhi alone accounts for 18.7 per cent of dowry death cases and 17.1 per cent of cruelty by husbands and relatives, according to a 2006 report by the National Crime Records Bureau. Domestic violence is a two-way road and need not always refer to wife-bashing as per popular perception. If you are a married man, you know the deadly effects of silent treatment, constant nagging or sulking for days. But actual cases of male victimisation are far less compared to the abuse and domestic violence women endure everyday across the country. Delhi High Court judge observed that laws were made to protect hundreds of women tortured and killed for dowry every year but have become a tool for urban middle or upper-middle class women looking to make a quick buck through divorce.
Anti-dowry laws are meant to give voice to silent victims of social abuse — a Herculean task in a country where family pride, fear of retribution and illiteracy pose stumbling blocks. The National Commission for Women is campaigning for stricter punishment for offenders and demanding that the scope of the Act be increased. A reality check in largely illiterate rural India, where women fight poverty and domestic violence every day, throws up questions whether anti-dowry laws can be effectively implemented. But in Urban areas the cases are quite different.
Time has come to review the impact of anti-dowry laws on the lives of men and women and the burden on judiciary with every false claim of harassment. Often police fail to conduct proper investigations before hauling off an elderly family member to jail based on a complaint by a woman. Laws are necessary to protect women against abuse. Laws that will deter repeat offenders. However, they should be implemented through an unbiased and transparent police system with wider reach and humane approach.
The Central government has no plans to prevent citizens from watching pornography in private, it has told the Supreme Court.
“Government supports the right of a person to watch porn in private,” Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu as it began hearing a petition seeking a ban on porn websites.
The government told the Supreme Court that “it cannot ban porn except for child pornography.”
“It’s a question of a person’s right to speech and entertainment,” the government said, dispelling doubts that it may be mulling a blanket ban on pornography.
The state cannot be present in every household to check what people were watching in private and interfere with their entertainment, Rohatgi added.
Telling the court that there has to be some self regulation to check the viewing of porn websites, the AG told the court that the state could not be totalitarian.
The clarification came just days after the Central government imposed a ban on 857 porn websites and asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to them.
The government had later, however, asked ISPs to review the ban and allow access to those of the 857 websites which were non-porn.
“The government has asked the ISPs to go through the 857 sites again as the government has received complaints that some of the sites which are banned are of non-pornographic nature,” an official source said.
Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that the ban was a temporary measure till final orders are taken by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had in its observation on the issue on July 8 said that banning such sites would be violation of an individual’s right to liberty.
The government ban on porn sites evoked sharp reactions and was slammed from all quarters. The move was even dubbed ‘Talibanisation’ and netizens on social media accused government of infringing on liberty of individuals.
A high-intensity earthquake struck the Hindukush region in Afghanistan on Monday, tremors of which were felt in several parts of North India including Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 on the Richter Scale hit Afghanistan at around 3.35 PM.
Tremors were also felt in the neighbouring Pakistan. The Hindukush mountain ranges are known to be prone to earthquakes. Tremors were also felt in Srinagar and adjoining areas of JK.
Incidentally, another high intensity earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 on Richter Scale hit the Solomon Islands at around 9.42 AM on Monday.
Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde’s announcement on Monday that she plans to visit the drought-hit Marathwada region from August 12 sparked off a slug fest between the ruling BJP and the opposition NCP, which termed her move as “an immature political strategy.”
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that it was probably calls by some gangsters which led to the large crowd at the funeral of 1993 blasts case convict Yakub Memon in Mumbai following his hanging at the Central Prison.
The Central government has no plans to prevent citizens from watching pornography in private, it has told the Supreme Court.