MONTH THAT WAS

13 day old in court against Maharashtra Govt.

The Bombay High Court directed a 13-days baby to amend the petition which is filed in her name as the petition lacks some factual information. The court has posted the next hearing after two weeks.

A division bench of Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Justice GS Kulkarni while hearing the petition filed by a 13-days girl child through her mother, directed re-drafting of the petition since as the court was not satisfied by the information provided in the petition. The court has, however, allowed the petition.

The petition which is against the government alleges that the huts of the 13 days unnamed girl were forcibly demolished by government authorities and that the belongings of the child’s families were thrown out.

Poornima Kanthariya, the counsel representing the government, argued that the petition does not have proper information as to when and where were the huts of the petitioner were demolished and which authority (whether BMC, collector) demolished the said huts. The counsel urged the court to quash the petition as it does not carry the basic information of the baby too.

Kanthariya also argued that the Juhu area which is mentioned in the petition, sees a huge number of encroachers who put up their illegal huts even after demolition.

The court has directed the government to submit details of the total number of demolition works carried out in the Juhu area. And also has directed the petitioner to amend the petition and to appear in the court after re-drafting the same.

A ton Wheat = Gangrape in Pak

Islamabad : A gangrape case in Pakistan has been allegedly settled for 30 maunds (1 maund=Around 37 kg) of wheat by local elders, highlighting the grave travesty of justice in the country.

A police case was registered few days ago on complaint of the 14-year-old victim’s brother in Ghulam Nabi Shah area of Umerkot district in Sindh province.

The victim’s father said that following the registration of the case and the subsequent arrest of the main suspect, he was forced to settle the dispute through the ‘Jirga’, a traditional system of settling disputes through tribal elders, and was promised a compensation of 30 maunds of wheat.

The jirga was held under the supervision of a local influential landlord, he added.

He said that after he refused to accept the compensation he was forced to leave the area with his family. He alleged that since local media highlighted the issue, local elites have been threatening him to keep mum and withdraw the case, the report said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Mirpurkhas division Javed Alam Odho, took notice of the incident and directed Senior superintendent of police Umerkot to investigate the case and provide protection to the victim’s family.

The Station House Officer of Ghulam Nabi Shah, Arif Bhatti, said local police had registered the case on March 21 under Sections 376 (2) and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code, and has already arrested the prime suspect.

The official, however, said he was not aware of any jirga being held in the jurisdiction of his police station.

Pakistani courts have declared jirga system as illegal and their decisions as non-binding but such jirgas are held in remote areas.

Garbage disposal : Can TCS find solution!

Mumbai: Following Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta’s meeting with Union Minister of Environment and Forest, Prakash Javadekar, in the backdrop of the Deonar Dumping Ground fire, the Centre has asked Tata Consultancy Services to submit a report suggesting a solution to the problem of garbage disposal.

Javadekar said, “We have taken the issue of Deonar very seriously and we have asked for a short-term, medium-term and long-term strategy from BMC (civic body). Once we receive it, I will be reviewing it on a quarterly basis. Also, we’ve asked TCS to prepare a report.”

 TCS has been asked to advise the government on how to deal with the 12 million tonne of waste pile-up in Deonar.

The ministry will also draft a solid waste management policy with a new set of rules for solid waste management on April 5.

Height of Greed & Cruelty

Bhayandar: In a sensational twist to the bizarre case which saw the brutal murder of 3-year-old toddler, the Kashmir police arrested the paternal grandfather (paternal uncle’s father) of the boy for allegedly ordering the killing which is said to be the fallout of a property dispute.

Hitesh Vikas Choudhary alias Monu (3) had mysteriously disappeared while playing outside his tenement in Kajupada on March 22. A week later, the police recovered Monu’s body, stuffed inside a bag in the jungles behind an ashram on the Ghodbunder Road.

Based on the suspicion raised by the child’s parents and the discrepancies in his statements, the police arrested their neighbor Babasaheb Gautam Vaakle (22) who is a driver and runs an illegal cab service between Thane and Kashmir.

Initially, Vaakle kept denying his involvement, however, after rounds of sustained interrogation, he not only confessed to the crime but also spilled out the name of the person who had given him a supari (contract) to execute the killing. His revelations took the police by surprise as the mastermind turned out to be Vasu Choudhary, the 57-year-old paternal grandfather of the murdered child.

Investigations revealed that Choudhary who was locked into a property dispute with the child’s family, in an attempt to take revenge, had roped in Vaakle promising to pay Rs 15 lakh as supari to eliminate the child. However, he did not shell out a single penny and had assured to pay Vaakle after he executed the murder.

“Choudhary has been arrested and remanded to police custody,” confirmed senior PI Anil Kadam. Further investigations are on.

JPC against Modi!

New Delhi: At the height of the 2G telecom scam during the UPA rule, the opposition BJP had paralysed the parliament demanding the setting up a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe the allegations thrown by a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Now the Congress is deploying the same political weapon against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Demanding that a JPC should be set-up immediately to probe in the findings of the CAG as reported to the Gujarat assembly on March 31st 2016, party spokesperson Anand Sharma said: “The CAG Report for the period between 2011-12 to 2014-15 when he ( Modi) was the chief minister clearly indicts the state government and there is a clear cut case of loss of Rs. 19,576 crore.” He pointed out that as the then chief minister of Gujarat the prime minister had made tall claims of 20 Trillion cubic feet of Gas, but not a single cubic feet had been produced till date.

Sharma who exhibited video clips depicting Modi’s claims that Gujarat would become the petroleum capital of the country said that as a part of the same process the then Gujarat chief minister set up a consortium with the public sector corporation and two private entities invest in 64 other Blocks. He had also said that Gujarat will be the Petroleum Capital of the country and demanded that the government, should hand over this responsibility to him and to 5 Crore Gujaratis. He has also made the Public Sector Corporation create a consortium in which two private entities were involved and then invested in 64 other blocks. “70% of all gas blocks were surrendered and a loss of Rs. 23,000 crore caused to the public exchequer,” he charged quoting the CAG report.

Cat in Post Box

London: A pet cat in the UK has survived an eight-day ordeal in the post, after apparently falling asleep in a box. Owner Julie Baggott did not spot her pet Cupcake when she packed up a box of DVDs and sent it off to a customer.

Eight days later, the female cat arrived in Worthing, West Sussex, after somehow surviving the nearly 420-km journey from Falmouth in Cornwall. The customer was understandably “somewhat startled”, vets said, when the box of DVDs was opened and Cupcake jumped out.

After being contacted, an animal welfare charity collected the cat and took it to a veterinary hospital. Dr Ben Colwell, a vet at Grove Lodge who treated Cupcake, said: “She was quite dehydrated and obviously really quite scared, quite nervous.

“She’s done really, really well, she’s responded to fluids really well. Luckily she was micro-chipped.” After scanning the cat and discovering the microchip, they found Baggott’s details and got in touch. 

High Profile NGOs  More questions than Answers!

NEW DELHI: After targeting Mumbai-based Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand who helped the 2002 Gujarat riot victims for alleged misuse of foreign funds, the Home Ministry has now levelled the same charge of misuse of foreign donations on former additional solicitor general Indira Jaising and her husband Anand Grover that run Lawyers Collective, a well-known Mumbai NGO.

On the heels of the Supreme Court extending the anticipatory bail of Teesta and Javed up to April 29, against the Gujarat Police seeking their arrest for misappropriation of their NGO “Citizens for Justice and Peace,” the Home Ministry put Jaising on notice for alleged glaring violations in the manner her NGO used the foreign donations.

Noting that her Lawyers Collective set up for championing the human rights had misused large part of foreign contributions of Rs 32 crore received between 2006 and 2014 on activities not only outside the list of items for which the funds were collected, the Home Ministry found its illegal use of funds to lobby with the parliamentarians.

The Home Ministry got an inspection report prepared which says the Lawyers Collective had illegally spent Rs 13 lakh on advocacy with 67 MPs in April 2010 and 99 MPs in August 2010. “Utilisation of Foreign Contribution for advocacy, indulging in lobbying with MPs and thereby influencing the political process and Parliamentary institutions is in clear violation of the letter and spirit of Section 3 of the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) that clearly prohibits acceptance of foreign contribution by any member of any party so that Parliamentary institutions are not influenced in any manner.”

The inspection report also faulted the NGOfor giving Rs 88,978 to Delhi Network of Positive People on October 21, 2009 for paying 250 persons hold a dharna outside the Law Ministry. Each demonstrator was paid Rs 200 for food and conveyance to stage a protest for the HIV/AIDS ill. “To hold paid dharnas by utilising foreign contribution is violation of Section 8 of the FCRA, 2010, the report said. The report also questions Jaising travelling to Nepal and the United States using the foreign contributions received by the Lawyers Collective without approval of the Home Ministry and that too at a time when she received compensation of Rs 96 lakh from the government as the additional solicitor general during the UPA II government’s tenure. Anybody being paid a salary by the government cannot receive foreign contributions without the government’s approval. She is accused of violating Sections 3 and 11 of the FCRA.

The Lawyers Collective is a public interest NGO set up in 1981 by Jaising with her husband Grover, Sanober Keshwaar, Norma Alvares, Justice Suresh, Nilima Dutta and Mihir Desai as its trustees.

A billion+ for Queens Birthday

London: Over 1 billion pounds is the expected bill for a UK-wide celebration to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday this year, according to a survey. Almost half of all British public intend to mark the landmark event over April to June this year and more than a third are planning trips to pubs, bars and street parties, said the survey released in ‘The Sunday Times’. Nearly a quarter plan to raise a glass at home while watching the coverage on television. The result will be a total of 1,021,779,027 pounds spent across the nation, says the survey of 2,000 British adults. The survey also said that an average person is planning to spend 42.98 pounds on celebrations, with men intending to spend some 20 pounds more than women around the Queen’s actual and official birthdays – April 21 and June 11 – respectively. Her official birthday will kick off a weekend of festivities across the UK and a ceremonial ‘Trooping of the Colour’ on June 11.

A street party for 10,000 guests will be held on The Mall in London on June 12 with Princes William and Harry acting as joint presidents of the event. Tickets for a street party to mark the occasion will cost 150 pounds.  Across the UK, 15 per cent of people will be throwing or attending a party in the Queen’s honour. London, Brighton, Plymouth and Belfast are predicted to see more than half their population getting on to the streets in party mood. As a reflection of the regional popularity of the monarchy, Scotland will be splashing out the most, with an average of 49.41 pounds per person being earmarked for celebrations — nearly 10 pounds more than those celebrating in England.