Punishment for top corrupt officials on agenda in Lokpal Bill committee meet
New Delhi, May 29-Civil society members are expected to make a strong pitch for graver punishment, including life imprisonment for high ranking officials in cases of corruption, when the joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill meets in New Delhi on Monday.
They will also demand that a corrupt government official serve a minimum of one year rigorous imprisonment and a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
“Punishment shall be higher if the status or rank of the accused is higher,” reads a recommendation of the civil society members led by Anna Hazare.
These issues were discussed by the joint drafting committee on Lokpal Bill chaired by Pranab Mukherjee during a meeting last week.
Mr. Hazare’s team also wants to bring within the purview of the Lokpal, conduct of MPs inside Parliament, if it is an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A proposal to this effect was made during the meeting of the joint drafting committee on May 23.
The joint committee had agreed in principle on a provision to attach the properties of corrupt government officials on completion of investigation of charges against them.
They also agreed on recovering the losses caused by the corrupt officials by auctioning the properties acquired by using ‘ill gotten’ wealth.
However, there were differences on when to issue the notification on the list of assets of an official. The proposal states that the assets cannot be transferred after issuance of the notification.
Meanwhile, the civil society members appear to have raised the pitch for early enactment of the Lokpal Act, saying Mr. Hazare would return to Jantar Mantar on August 16 if the Bill is not passed by Parliament.
The setting up of the joint drafting committee was a key demand of Mr. Hazare and his supporters as part of their agitation for strong measures to tackle corruption in government and public life.
The Committee was constituted through a government notification on April 9 after Mr. Hazare ended his 97-hour fast on the issue.
The Committee is chaired by Mr. Mukherjee and has Union ministers Kapil Sibal, Veerappa Moily, Salman Khurshid and P. Chidambaram as members. Besides Mr. Hazare, the civil society members are Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, advocate Prashant Bhushan, former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal.
Mr. Hazare’s team has voiced concern over the slow progress of the bill drafting process following which it was agreed to hold meetings more frequently.
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Antony warns Pakistan ahead of Defence Secretary-level talks
Mr Antony's comments came just a day before the start of the two-day Defence Secretary-level talks in New Delhi.May 29, 2011-Kannur: Just a day ahead of the meeting of the Defence Secretaries of both nations, India indulged in some tough posturing, once again raising the terror bogey with Pakistan.
Claiming that about 42 terrorist camps were still functioning in Pakistan, Defence Minister A K Antony said that "co-operation" between the two nations wasn't possible if the terror tap continued to flow from across the border.
"Without destroying these terrorist camps, it would be difficult to have permanent cooperation in Indo-Pak relations," he said.
However, the minister said that the government was keen to continue the dialogue process as India wanted to good relations with Pakistan.
"Dialogue is an important factor. Without dialogue nothing can be achieved," he said.
Mr Antony's comments came just a day before the start of the two-day Defence Secretary-level talks in New Delhi.
Mr Antony's comments came just a day before the start of the two-day Defence Secretary-level talks in New Delhi.
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UPA failed to protect farmers: Mayawati
May 29, 2011-CHANDIGARH: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, who attacked the central government for its failure to protect farmers' interests, Sunday urged the Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) workers to prepare for the Punjab assembly elections next year.
At a massive party rally here, one of the most high-tech public rallies the city saw in recent times, the BSP supremo said: "The UPA government has failed to shield the interests of farmers while drafting their land acquisition policies. They have failed to formulate a common policy for all states and farmers are forced to come out on roads to protest."
Her attack came in the wake of recent protests launched by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in support of the agitation by farmers in Greater Noida over land acquisition.
The violent agitation had led to the killing of four people in Bhatta Parsoul village, an incident that the opposition parties made good use of to take on the Mayawati government.
The chief minister added: "This government has also failed to bring the black money deposited in foreign banks. We appeal them to pass a bill in the parliament to bring this money to India."
The BJP had also failed to bring back the black money during their six-year tenure, she charged.
Despite of the scorching heat, thousands of BSP supporters from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir had gathered at the rally ground.
Mayawati addressed the of people, who had come in large numbers from different parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, from an eight-foot high and 30-foot wide stage.
Six air-conditioners kept the an 8 ft by 30 ft stage cool. The make-shift toilet behind the stage had its own air-conditioners.
Mayawati said the BSP will launch countrywide protest against recent petrol price hike.
"The BSP will launch country-wide protest against it from May 31. We will stage a one-day protest demonstration in all districts of Uttar Pradesh Tuesday," the chief minister said.
"Our party is ready for the Punjab elections (in February 2011). We will fight it alone and I am sure that we will come out victorious," she added.
"Our leader Kanshi Ram belonged to Punjab and BSP's victory in this state was his dream. We will put in all effort to fulfill his dream," Mayawati said.
Six wide-screens were set-up at the rally venue, where dozens of fans and water sprinklers comforted the party workers.
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Hospital director suspended after Mamata visit
KOLKATA, May 27-Corporate heads based in West Bengal want Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to send a strong signal to investors that the strategically located state will be a "trend-setter" and "not a spent force" in the country's industrial landscape.
He said that a perception change is required among investors that West Bengal "is not a spent force, but a trend-setter of development and growth".
Radhakrishnan, who runs an engineering consultancy firm from Kolkata, said the new Trinamool Congress-led government has shown a "great deal of energy and confidence". The challenge for the Banerjee government is is to address the problem of huge debt and achieve some easy deliverables in the short-term.
According to Reserve Bank data, the state has a debt of Rs 2 lakh crore.
Sanjay Budhia, the managing director of Rs 200 crore engineering export house Patton, said the initial signals are positive, but problems of perception need to be addressed first through an image uplift.
The state suffered an image setback in the eyes of industry after Tata Motors pulled out its Nano project from Singur in 2008.
"Also, within the state, there is a negative mindset and mental block... We have to create an environment to bring the talent of the state back to West Bengal," he said, adding that the state can be a gateway to the north-eastern states -- Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Mynamar.
Budhia, who is also chairman of the CII National Committee on exports, said the trade unions should be led by people within the organisation and not by outsiders.
Asked about the issue of land and farmers' protests against acquisition, he said the sites locked in sick and closed industries should be released and the land banks should be created.
He suggested "some kind of ownership" for land losers in industrial projects. Besides, the land valuation should be proper and justified.
They also expressed confidence that with industry-friendly ministers like Partha Chatterjee (Industry) and Amit Mitra (Finance), the new government will be able to win back the confidence of investors.
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Manmohan: nothing new in Headley trial
May 28, 2011-Self-confessed Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist David Coleman Headley's ongoing court testimony — in which he has implicated individuals allegedly connected to Pakistan's intelligence agency in the November 2008 terror attack on Mumbai — has not brought out anything India did not already know, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.
He also said he would continue to use the bilateral dialogue process to press home the demand that Islamabad take action to curb the activities of jihadi groups and would also mobilise world opinion to ensure the “terror machinery” in Pakistan was effectively controlled.
Speaking to journalists on his way back from a week-long visit to Africa, Dr. Singh said that even though the Headley trial had not brought out anything new, his government would study the proceedings once it was over. But he gave no indication that a rethink of the current dialogue-based policy towards Pakistan was on the cards. “It goes without saying that we must use every possible opportunity to talk to Pakistan and convince them that terror as an instrument of state policy is simply not acceptable to people in the civilised world as a whole. And as Pakistan's neighbour, we have great worries about the terror machine that is still intact [there].”
The Prime Minister said India had to work on two fronts. “One is the bilateral negotiations with Pakistan. We must convince the Pakistani leadership that it is in their own interest that they must help us in tackling the problem of terror in our region, and that those jihadi groups who target India [are] ... effectively curbed and dealt with.” This was an ongoing process and India must use every opportunity it gets to drive home this point, he said.
The second front was global: “The world has seen as never before that the epicentre of terror is in our neighbourhood, they appreciate India's worry, and it should be our effort to mobilise world opinion to ensure that this terror machine, which operates in our neighbourhood in Pakistan, is brought under effective control.”
In the wake of the recent terrorist attack on a naval base in Karachi, Dr. Singh said he hoped that Pakistan would now recognise that “the monster of terrorism which they unleashed at one time is hurting them as much as it can hurt our country.” The more he saw what was happening there, he added, the more convinced he was that Pakistan's leaders “must now wake up and recognise that that the terror machine that they, or at least some elements of that country, have patronised is not working to anybody's advantage.”
Asked whether he was considering making a visit to Pakistan this year, the Prime Minister said he had not made up his mind on that yet. “But I have always believed that good relations between India and all its neighbours are very desirable and essential for us in South Asia to realise our development ambitions.”
Keywords: Mumbai terror attacks, David Coleman Headley, Manmohan's Africa visit
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