MONTH THAT WAS
Bihar electricity department
accuses an 18 month old as thief
Patna: In a bizarre incident, an 18-month-old toddler was charged with power theft in Bihar’s Bhojpur district.
The matter came to light when the mother of the child Shubhanti Devi and her husband Shiv Bahadur Prasad appeared before the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) in Ara pleading for bail for their infant. Taking umbrage at the faux pas, the CJM issued notice to the superintending engineer as well as the junior engineer of the state electricity board asking them to explain how and under what circumstances an 18-month-old child was named an accused in a case related to power theft worth Rs 8,800.
Sources in the electricity department said junior engineer Baleshwar Prasad, during a raid to check power theft at Dhobha Bazar in Bhojpur, lodged an FIR with the police naming the child and others as accused.
The JE had accused them of pilferage of power to the tune of Rs 8,800.This is the second such incident in Bhojpur in the last few years when a tiny tot has been named an accused.
Some years back, a three-year-old-boy was charged with assaulting a girl four times his age. The accused Sajjan Yadav, barely three, was produced in the court of the then CJM B K Singh in Ara where the horrified judge was astonished when he was told that the police had submitted a charge-sheet against the kid.
Illegal school owners to be jailed
Britain’s schools inspectorate Ofsted says it has found evidence of children being taught in squalid conditions in at least three places in Birmingham which have now closed. UK education secretary Nicky Morgan has said that anyone running illegal schools could face a jail term of up to 51 weeks.
“I have asked Ofsted to prepare cases for prosecution against unregistered schools it has identified,” she said. Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw is also to be given powers to prosecute people running secret religious madrasas amid concerns that extremists are radicalising youngsters and pose a threat to child safety, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported.
It is understood that a total of 18 unregulated schools, mainly in Muslim communities in the Midlands region of the country, have been visited as part of an investigation in recent months. Sir Michael said his inspectors were visibly shocked by the conditions they found.
The government has provided funding for a team of six inspectors whose job will be to investigate illegal schools. The schools inspectorate will also be able to prosecute Islamists running registered madrasas but who fail to heed warnings to stop teaching extremist ideology, misogynistic or homophobic ideas or anti-semitism, the newspaper said.
Time to end, False neutrality: Pope
Vatican City: Welcoming the New Year, Pope Francis said it’s time to end indifference and what he calls “false neutrality” regarding the injustice, persecution, wars and misery in the world.
Francis, celebrating Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, said people wonder how it’s possible that “the arrogance of the powerful continues to demean the weak, relegating them to the most squalid outskirts of our world.”
He highlights the men, women and children risking their lives to flee war, hunger and persecution. He is urging people to overcome indifference and “leave behind the false neutrality which prevents sharing.” Francis’ formula for peace centers on cooperating to build “an ever more just and fraternal world.”
He wondered aloud how long human evil will keep sowing violence and hatred.
In China Govt says ‘Yes for 2nd Child', Employer says 'Wait'
Beijing : The implementation of China’s two-child policy from this month is facing difficulties when many working women complained of restrictions imposed by their employers in having second baby fearing staff shortage.
Liu Qian, a 31-year-old bank teller, is eligible to have a second child, but she has to wait because of the unwritten rules of her employer. “We planned to have a second child after becoming eligible, but when I submitted an application, I was disappointed by the rules of our bank,” Liu was quoted as saying by Qilu Evening News.
All Chinese couples have been allowed to have two children since January 1 after the national legislature amended the over three-decade-old controversial one-child per couple family planning policy. “According to the unwritten rules of our bank, those who want to have a second child must give way to those having a first child,” she said.
“I am allowed to have a second child in 2018, according to our bank’s rules,” said Liu.”If I can’t get pregnant within half a year, then I have to wait for the next round,” said Liu. Liu is not alone. A woman surnamed Zheng in Changchun, capital of Northeast China’s Jilin province, said she was told to submit an application one year before she wants to have a child, and then the company will make a timetable for those employees who want to have children in case several employees get pregnant within one year. “Making a timetable for employees who want to have a child is understandable,” said Yu Wei, who manages a laundry shop in Jinan, capital of Shandong. “Half of my employees are female and 20 per cent of them want to have a second child,” said Yu, adding that if several employees get pregnant within one year, it will be fatal to his business.
Justice delayed, But not denied
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has not only reinstated a retired Amaravati polytechnic lecturer nine months after his retirement but appointed him as the principal with retrospective effect from December 2012, but only after an 8-year long legal battle with half-a-dozen petitions. Dr Punjabrao Deshmukh Polytechnic superannuated lecturer Pramod on 4 Jan 2016, on the ground that he has completed 60 years of age. The Apex Court ordered the polytechnic to reinstate him within two weeks and appoint him as the principal from December 2012, within four weeks, with all consequential benefits.
This was one of the six judgements, including one on prohibition of Kerala bars except those run by 5-star hotels, delivered by the Bench of Justices Vikramjit Sen and Shiva Kriti Sigh during the court vacation, a day before Justice Sen retired. It took serious offence to the Shivaji Education Society that runs the polytechnic superannuating Pramod despite the Apex Courts order on 21.11.2014 for maintaining status quo of his services.
Since Pramod, who was working with the polytechnic since 1977, was superannuated despite the Apex Court’s interim order the Bench held that he shall be deemed to have continued in service without interruptions even after 4 Jan, 2016 and entitled to full salary and emoluments for the entire period till reinstatement. The Court also slapped cost of Rs 50,000 on the society, directing it to pay to the lecturer along with other arrears ‘within two months.”The Apex Court said ordinarily it would have directed the management of the society to consider his case for promotion and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law, but it gathered an impression that the management cannot be presumed to be just and fair to the appellant and it decided to order his reinstatement and appointment instead of relegating him to the mercy of the management.
It also held that lecturer Pramod stands promoted to the post of the principal with effect from 01.12.2012 as “this in normal course should have been the time taken for such promotion if the respondent- Directors had not passed a wrong order on 17.10.2012”. The court said if the director had taken correct view by the end of 2012, Pramod would have been occupying the post of principal and would not have superannuated before 65 years or in any case before 62 years of age. It noted that the state government had in 2010 increased the retirement age of lecturers of the private polytechnics from 58 to 60 years, extendable up to 62 years after prior approval of the government and that of the principal to 65 years.
Comments