Marching orders for 10

By Suman K. Shrivastava

Ranchi, May 28: The state government has decided to terminate the services of 10 judicial officers of various ranks through compulsory retirement on the recommendation of Jharkhand High Court for their "doubtful integrity and inefficiency".

Chief minister Arjun Munda today approved the high court's recommendation in anticipation of cabinet approval. The officials facing compulsory retirement will receive three months' salary in lieu of prior notice.

This is the second time that the high court has embarked on a major "cleansing exercise" since coming into existence in 2000. Around 25 judicial officers were given marching orders in 2002. Thereafter, two to four officers have been axed annually over the years.

Last year, the government terminated four judicial officers.

Those facing termination now are principal judge of the family court in Dumka Mahesh Prasad Sinha, additional law adviser Indradev Mishra, civil judge, Ranchi, Murari Prasad Singh, secretary, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) in Jamshedpur, Brijesh Bahadur Singh, special secretary, cabinet (vigilance) department, Pradeep Kumar Singh, chief judicial magistrate of Seraikela Kharsawan Indrasan Yadav, district and additional sessions judge of Giridih Nirmal Kumar Agarwal, secretary of DLSA in Sahebganj Ashok Kumar, additional chief judicial magistrate of Godda Sayed Mohammad Wasim, and subdivisional judicial magistrate, Deoghar (Madhupur), Radha Bhatnagar.

According to sources, the high court move was prompted by a letter from the Chief Justice of India in 2010, prompting an exercise of screening and weeding out deadwood as recommended by the Shetty Commission, which was implemented in the state in 2006. The recommendations guide the pay, perks and service conditions of judicial officials.

The Shetty Commission recommendations stipulate that judicial officers have to undergo three layers of screening after they attain the age of 50, every year. The first level of screening will be done annually for those between the ages of 50 and 55, the second level for those aged 55 to 58 and third for 58 to 60 years.

Jharkhand Service Rules section 74 (B) also states that any judicial official can be compulsorily retired on reaching 50 years of age or after completing 20 years of service if their service record is not up to the mark.

Around 130 of 410 judicial official across all ranks ' from magistrates to district judges ' fell under the bracket of 50 to 55 years when the high court began the exercise after constituting a committee of three judges in January this year. The high court sent the recommendations to the state government on May 17.

Sources said the disturbing feature was that some of the officers had faced serious charges from the very beginning of their service as was evident from their files and yet they continued in office.

Meanwhile, the chief minister also approved the transfer of two judicial officers ' additional judicial commissioner (CBI court), Ranchi, Dinesh Chandra Rai, who has been transferred to Bokaro as family court principal judge and civil judge Ranchi Satya Prakash, who has been transferred as deputy registrar, Jhalsa.

The above is from mu Yahoo mail.

I would say this is a very good job done.

The judiciary is the fountainhead of justice and unless the judiciary is steeped to be incorruptible, how can the other be free of corruption.

I have from personal experience in Bihar and Jharkhand know that the lower courts are steeped in corruption in these two states. I cannot say for the other sates, as I have no experience there.

In these two states, even to move a file in front on the judge or magistrate, you have to pay a bribe to the peshkar. The peshkar shares the money with everybody.

If this cleansing helps to stop the rot, so be it.

Congratulations to Arjun Munda.

Let us hope he follows Nitish Kumar in ridding Jharkhand of corruption.

Aussie Immigration..........?

A Parsi gentleman went to Australia to watch the cricket series there. The Aussie at passport control sat thumbing through his passport for a while. Unable to find anything objectionable, he growled: "Have you got a criminal record"..? The Bawa smiled and replied, 'I am terribly sorry, sir; unfortunately, I don't have one. Nobody told me it was STILL a requirement to get into your country'...!!! Sent by Prakash Bhartia

Troubles galore as BJP enters final year of rule

Bangalore, May 26 (IANS) Karnataka's scandals-scarred, dissidence-riven Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government completes four years of its maiden rule in the state next week, depending heavily on its troubled national leadership to stay in power in the final year of its five-year term.

As the party celebrates May 30 the fourth anniversary of its rule in the only southern state it is in power, the greatest consolation for it will perhaps be that it survived the years, though paying a heavy price for its claims of being the 'nation-first' party.

A small relief for the BJP - and the people of Karnataka as well - is that no major scandal has hit the government since August last year when the party forced its first chief minister in the state, B.S. Yeddyurappa, to quit over mining graft charges.

But the party's downhill journey continues unabated as there is no end to dissidence or attempts by Yeddyurappa and his supporters to throw out his successor D.V. Sadananda Gowda who assumed office last Aug 4.

Gowda has managed to survive, falling back on what his party makes fun of as a trademark of the Congress party - high command is seized of the issue and we will abide by its decision.

With the BJP 'high command' caught in its own wrangles, the party's Karnataka problem has become a classic case of buying time and stitching piecemeal deals in the hope that better days, if not better sense, will dawn among the increasing number of 'my way or the highway' leaders in the party.

That the party can have little hope of better sense dawning on its dissident Karnataka leaders out to unseat Gowda is illustrated by the latest row set to rock the party - over illegal mining again.

Gowda is being accused by Yeddyurappa and his supporters of being 'soft' on former state chief ministers S.M. Krishna and N. Dharam Singh of the Congress and H. D. Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), who are also alleged to have allowed illegal mining during their tenures.

The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) looking into illegal mining in Karnataka had sought the Gowda government's response on whether the allegations against these three former chief ministers call for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.

The apex court has ordered a CBI probe into graft charges against Yeddyurappa and his kin on the recommendation of the CEC.

The CEC asked the Gowda government for its stand following a petition to it by a Bangalore-based social activist T.J. Abraham that says a CBI probe is needed to establish the role of the three former chief ministers in illegal mining.

The Gowda government is reported to have not taken a clear stand for or against a CBI probe and left it to the CEC to take a decision on the issue.

The government has not officially made public its response to the CEC. However, Yeddyurappa as well as Abraham claims that the Gowda government has passed the buck to the CEC instead of taking a clear stand.

While Abraham told reporters in Bangalore Friday that he would approach the CEC again challenging the government response, Yeddyurappa demanded that "the chief minister must give the CEC a true picture."

With dissidents set to step up attack on Gowda over the sensitive issue, neither can Gadkari rejoice at getting a second term as BJP president nor can the party celebrate completing four years of its rule that made Karnataka hit the headlines for all wrong reasons.

What a study in contrast.

We have a BJP government in Gujarat and another BJP government if Karnataka.

The former runs like a well oiled machine, free of any corruption charge.

The latter staggers along like a asthmic super-annuated pregnant woman with one leg missing.

Why the difference?

Just one person, the Chief Minister.

It proves that if the top person it good, the rest will follow.

On the other hand, if the top is rotten, the rest is going to be rotten.

The ends do not justify the means.

For short term gains, if you chose a corrupt person to lead, the whole party will suffer.

It is better to forgo power than chose a corrupt person to lead.

More harm was done to the BJP poll prospects in UP by admitting corrupt ministers thrown out by Mayawati than anything else.

People got a confirmation of their doubts that the BJP was just as corrupt as the Congress Party

Woman kills children, hangs self in Delhi

New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) In an shocking incident, a 27-year-old woman in south Delhi Friday killed her two infants - a boy and a girl - before committing suicide after killing her two children, police said.

Vineeta Katara, her daughter Harshita, 3, and son Arpit, 1 and a half were found dead in their residence at Deluxe Apartments at Chhattarpur in Mehrauli.

"Vineeta's and her daughter's body was found hanging from ceiling fan while her son's body was lying on the floor," a police official said.

No suicide note has been found but the investigation has been launched to ascertain the reason of this extreme step, he added.

According to the officials, Katara had earlier come to Mehrauli Police Station to lodge a complaint against her in-laws for harassing her for dowry. Later, she called her brother in Kota (Rajasthan) to inform him of her complaint.

Around 3 p.m., police got a call from Katara's brother, who had been unable to contact his sister. A police team rushed to their home and discovered the bodies.

"The bodies have been sent for post-mortem but it seems that she first strangulated her son, then hung her daughter and herself from the ceiling fan," a police official said.

Katara had lodged a complaint against her husband Deepak, her brother-in-law and other family members. The couple had married six years ago and were living in a rented accommodating.

Police said that Deepak, a nursing student at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, had been questioned and investigation was under way.

It is shocking to see and read about these dowry deaths.

The last episode of Aamir Khan's "Satyamev Jayate" dealt with this problem.

In spite of the government claiming to speak against it, ministers and government officials continue to spend ostentatiously during marriages and ask and give dowry.

This sets a standard for society and everybody is made to spend beyond their means, even taking loans.

If the government truly wants to eradicate this scourge, it should ban all government officials and politicians from taking or giving dowry and to control their expenses in marriage.

If anyone is found to disobey this instruction, he/she should dismissed after proper enquiry.

Next, dowry deaths should be considered as serious as death after rape with equal punishment.

The cases should be fast-tracked and the culprits should not be given bail until the outcome of the case.

Motive 'hole' in Shehla case

By Rasheed Kidwai

Bhopal, May 25: The CBI today filed its chargesheet in the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood but legal experts claimed the agency had failed to substantiate its claim that jealousy arising out of a love triangle was the motive.

The key accused, Bhopal-based interior designer Zahida Pervez, 35, has been charged with murder and conspiracy but the agency has not named Bhopal's BJP MLA Dhruv Narain Singh, whose name had figured in earlier CBI briefings and media reports on the murder.

Shehla, 38, was shot outside her Bhopal home on August 16 morning last year, the immediate suspicion linking the murder to her 40-odd RTI applications on the role of forest and police officials in tiger deaths.

However, in February, the CBI arrested Zahida and pointed to a crime of passion. It claimed that both Shehla and Zahida were in a relationship with Dhruv, 62, and that the interior designer had hired contract killers through her associate Saba Farooqui to murder her "rival".

The chargesheet, filed with the CBI court in Indore, accuses Saba and the alleged killers ' Saqib "Danger", Irfan and Tabish ' of murder, conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Like Zahida, the four men are in custody.

However, Shehla's family and close friends insist that she had never had an affair with Dhruv and that Zahida could have had no reason to kill her. They said Shehla had moved to Delhi almost two years before her murder and was in a relationship with a BJP member of Parliament. Besides, they said, Shehla and Zahida hardly knew each other.

The only purported evidence that the CBI has offered about Dhruv and Shehla being lovers are the telephone calls they reportedly exchanged, most of them made by the politician.

Legal experts in Bhopal say they are appalled that the CBI has failed to establish a clear motive. "If Dhruv was not involved with Shehla," one of them said, "why would Zahida attempt to eliminate her?"

The CBI appears to have better proof of the relationship between Zahida, a mother of two, and Dhruv. The agency has seized Zahida's telltale diary that officials say contains graphic accounts of her many sexual encounters.

However, the sleuths claim, the diary makes no reference to Dhruv in any of the entries that appear related to Shehla's murder.

On the day of the murder, Zahida is said to have written that Saqib had called her around 11.15am and said: "Mubarak ho! Ghar ke samne kaam ho gaya (Congrats! The job has been done right outside the house).''

However, Zahida's diary doesn't mention Dhruv even once in the entire month of August 2011, CBI officials say.

In the months after the murder, the CBI had grilled the MLA for hours and subjected him to a lie-detector test. Now the agency seems to have given him a clean chit, saying his only fault was that he had been a reckless Casanova.

The above is from my Yahoo mailbox

Have you ever seen an India politician being convicted.

It is not that they are honest.

They are the worst scums in society. Rather it is one of the qualifications required to be a politician.

You have to be a scum.

Rather, the system has been so designed by the politicians themselves that all probes on them are scuttled.

So, how could the CBI find anything wrong in this BJP politician in a BJP ruled state.

It seems if the truth is to be found, the media will have to take up the case and the Supreme Court will have to interfere.

NDA calls for nationwide shutdown on May 31 to protest petrol price hike

New Delhi, May 24 (ANI): The NDA has called for a nationwide shutdown on May 31 to protest against the UPA Government's unilateral decision to increase the price of petrol.

"The important thing is that the petrol price has been hiked up to seven rupees.

People don't know the reason behind this big jump. The government is raising its hand on the issue, saying this is all based on the international market. We have decided to do a 'Bharat Bandh'," said NDA convenor and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav.

Yadav also appealed the leaders of various other political parties to support this shutdown.

"The government took a one-sided and unilateral decision. The government should have discussed this issue in the Parliament. I would appeal everyone to participate in this 'Bharat Bandh'," said Yadav.

"I have doubts in my mind that the government will incase the price of LPG and diesel after the presidential polls," he added.

Meanwhile, the government has asked Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister S. Jaipal Reddy to cut short his official visit to Turkmenistan by a day, and return to New Delhi to explain to the people the reasons for going ahead with the petrol price hike.n the steepest ever increase, the UPA-II Government on Wednesday raised petrol prices by about a massive Rs 7.54 per litre, the first hike in rates in six months.

The hike in prices means that the price of petrol in Delhi will go up from Rs.65.64 per litre to Rs.73.14 per litre. In Mumbai, the price will go from Rs.70.66 per litre to Rs.78.16 per litre. In Kolkata, the price will go from Rs.70.03 per litre to Rs.77.53 per litre In Chennai, the price will go from Rs.69.55 per litre to Rs.77.05 per litre.

State-owned oil companies have decided to raise petrol price by Rs 6.28 per litre excluding local sales tax or VAT. The hike translates into Rs 7.50 per litre in Delhi and is the steepest ever.

The decision to hike petrol prices came a day after the end of the Budget Session of Parliament. (ANI)

Isn't it ironical that the Congress which swears by the supremacy of Parliament should increase the price of only after parliament has shut down after the budget session.

This is the contempt that the congress holds parliament and MPs.

India's payment condition is only going to get worse.

We are increasing the number of cars produced and the car companies and banks are competing with each other to make the customer buy their products.

Driving additional cars requires more fuel.

We do not produce much fuel in India, so we have to import the fuel by using scarce foreign exchange.

So, the more cars we produce, the more the outgo of our foreign exchange.

What is the solution?

Make the car companies export ten cars for every one made for home use in India.

This will earn us foreign exchange for running our cars.

There should be a differential petrol price.

The higher price for cars and a subsidized price for two-wheelers.

Similarly there should be a differential price for diesel.

For Trucks, public buses and taxis, there should be a subsidized rate.

For cars used for company purpose and private purpose the diesel should not be subsidized.

Jogi targets Sangma, Congress distances itself

New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) The Congress Wednesday distanced itself from the remarks of its tribal leaders, led by former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, opposing the candidature of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader P.A. Sangma for president.

Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said "it was his personal opinion".

Jogi, along with party's tribal leaders, told reporters here that Sangma was "playing into the hands of communal forces represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies".

Sangma has sought support from various political parties for his presidential bid.

"One should not declare himself as a presidential candidate. It is such a high office. It has never been demanded by any individual. The country chooses... the electoral colleges decide it. But Sangma has claimed it as tribal leader which is wrong," said Jogi.

On supporting a tribal candidate for presidency, Jogi said the party had not decided yet. "If the party decides for a tribal candidate we will definitely support it."

The Congress is in the habit of making all issue "WE vs THEM" with the result that it has become prone to the blackmail of the likes of Mamata Banerjee. India is in terrible condition with labour pains and there may be a major abortion. With the value of the Rupee sinking to historical lows and no end to the pains in sight. It is obvious that the Rupee may go to as low as Rs 60/- to the dollar. Our infamous corruption scams have become headline news throut the world so much so that businessmen are afraid to come to India. We change our laws retrospectively to suit ourselves. There is no rule of law. Why can't the Congress show the world that they are above politics and select an apolitical candidate who would be respected by the whole world. There is no point in taking Jogi's views in account as he himself has been mired in corruption charges. The last choice, Pratibha Patil, was the worst President, India has had since Independence. Let them select a candidate who is respected by everybody and does not hold brief for any political party. I am of the opinion the Mr. Sangma would fit the bill perfectly as although he is from the NCP, his party have already disowned him. Or better still, Dr. Abdul Kalam whom the whole nation wants, except the Congress party