Archives for February 2018

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging a 2005 order of the Delhi High Court quashing all charges against the accused people in the politically-sensitive Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-off case.

The agency filed the appeal against the May 31, 2005 decision of the high court by which all the accused, including Europe-based industrialists Hinduja brothers were discharged from the case.

The filing of the appeal assumes significance as recently Attorney General KK Venugopal had advised against going for the petition after 12 years of delay, saying it was likely to be dismissed on account of the long delay itself. It is not clear if the CBI persuaded the government’s top law officer to review his opinion.

Venugopal had earlier advised the agency to remain a respondent in the case filed by Ajay Kumar Agrawal, a BJP member and advocate, who in 2017 challenged the high court judgment in the Bofors case. A dismissal of a separate petition by the CBI in the Supreme Court would prejudice this case, the note said.

But the investigating agency is reported to have been keen to file the appeal and there were reports that officers of the CBI had told a parliamentary panel recently that they had the evidence to back up their petition also.

In October 2017, the CBI had indicated that it was considering an appeal against the Delhi High Court decision after Michael Hershman, a private detective from US-based firm Fairfax, alleged that the then Congress government led by Rajiv Gandhi had sabotaged his investigation into the case.

However, sources said that the law officers after consultation were in favour of the appeal as the CBI placed some important documents and evidence to challenge the high court order.

(Agencies)

The CBI on Thursday filed a chargesheet against rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and two of his followers in a castration case in a court in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh.

The chargesheet has been filed nearly three years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the allegations that the controversial sect chief had forced castration of his followers inside the Dera campus near Sirsa town in Haryana.

The petition in the high court was filed by former sect follower Hans Raj Chauhan who alleged that he had been castrated at the behest of the sect chief.

Chauhan claimed that he along with 400 followers were castrated inside the Dera premises after being told that this will lead them closer to God.

Ram Rahim, who is serving a 20-year sentence in Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail for raping two women disciples, is also facing legal proceedings in two murder cases.

(IANS)

New Delhi: An outlay of Rs 2.95 lakh crore was today set aside for the defence budget for the next fiscal which is an increase of 7.81 per cent over last year’s Rs 2.74 lakh crore. Out of the total allocation, the capital outlay for the three defence services for purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware has been pegged at Rs 99,947 crore.

The outlay for defence budget amounted to 12.10 per cent of the total budget of Rs 24,42,213 crore for 2018-19. In his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley appreciated the role played by the armed forces in meeting challenges on the country’s borders as well as in managing the internal security environment, both in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

He said the government will develop two defence industrial production corridors and bring out an industry- friendly military production policy to promote the domestic defence industry. Compared to revised estimate of Rs 2.79 lakh crore for the defence budget in 2017-18, the increase in allocation has been 5.91 per cent but compared to the budget outlay of Rs 2.74 lakh crore, the hike is 7.81 per cent.

Out of Rs 2,95,511 crore allocated for the financial year 2018-19, Rs 99,947 crore has been pegged for capital outlay which includes expenditure on modernisation of the three forces, according to the defence ministry.

The revenue expenditure, which covers payment of salary, maintenance of establishments and other related expenditure, has been pegged at Rs 1,95,947 crore. A separate amount of Rs 1,08,853 crore has been set aside over the above the total allocation for the paying pension to defence personnel.

The amount for defence pension is an increase of 26.60 per cent over the allocation of Rs 85,740 crore last year. In his address, Jaitley said a lot of emphasis had been laid on modernising and enhancing the operational capability of the defence forces in the last three-and-half years.

“The government will take measures to develop two defence industrial production corridors in the country,” he said. Jaitley said the government would also bring out an industry-friendly “defence production policy 2018” to promote domestic production by the public sector, private sector and MSMEs.

He said a number of initiatives had been taken to develop and nurture India’s intrinsic defence production capability to make the nation self-reliant on its defence needs. The minister said private investment in defence production had been opened up, including liberalising foreign direct investment.

(PTI)

New Delhi: In a measure of relief to the Indian salaried class, the government on Thursday announced that it would contribute 12 per cent of the wages to new employees under the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

The announcement was made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Budget 2018-19, which is the last one being tabled by the current government in Parliament before the general elections due in the first half of 2019.

“Government has decided to contribute 12 per cent of wages to new employees across all sectors in EPF,” Jaitley said.

With the existing contribution of 1.16 per cent towards EPFO subscribers’ basic wages, the government bears an annual burden of around Rs 6,750 crore.

The current 8.65 interest rate on EPF deposits was lowered during the last fiscal, from the previous 8.8 per cent prevailing in 2015-16.

(IANS)

REUTERS/Amit Dave

New Delhi: The salaries of the President and the Vice President have been increased to Rs 5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh per month respectively, in a rectification of an anomaly.

Announcing the hike in their salaries in his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the emoluments of the President, the Vice President and the Governors were last revised with effect from January 1, 2006.

Jaitley said, “A new law will be introduced that will automatically revise MPs’ emoluments every five years, indexed to inflation.”

“These emoluments are proposed to be revised to Rs 5 lakh for the President, Rs 4 lakh for the Vice President and to Rs 3.5 lakh per month for the Governors,” he said, amidst thumping of desk by the members in the Lok Sabha.

As of now, the President gets Rs 1.50 lakh per month, the Vice President Rs 1.25 lakh and a Governor of a state Rs 1.10 lakh.

Till now, the President, the Vice President and the Governors continued to get less salaries as compared to the top bureaucrats and service chiefs since the laws were not amended to rectify an anomaly with the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations two years ago.

After the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s awards on January 1, 2016, the Cabinet Secretary, who is the top-most bureaucrat in the country, gets Rs 2.5 lakh per month and a Secretary in the Union government draws Rs 2.25 lakh per month.

The President is also the supreme commander of all the three armed forces — the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

However, the President’s current salary was less than the chiefs of the three armed forces, who draw a salary equivalent to the cabinet secretary.

(PTI)

Jaipur: In a spectacular showing, the Congress on Thursday wrested the Mandalgarh Assembly seat in Rajasthan from the BJP and was on the road to victory in both the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats in the state, sparking wild celebrations. The ruling BJP aso conceded defeat, where the Congress won the Mandalgarh Assembly seat and was poised to grab the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats.

Hundreds of Congress activists burst firecrackers and danced to drum beats outside the party office here as its candidate Vivek Dhakar trounced Bharatiya Janata Party’s Shakti Singh Hada by 12,976 votes. Many amongst them distributed sweets.

While Dhakar got 70,146 votes, Hada secured 57,170 in the by-election held on January 29, Election Commission officials said.

The election followed the death of BJP MLA Kirti Kumari due to swine flu in August last year.

In Ajmer, with 61 per cent of the vote count over, Raghu Sharma of the Congress was leading by 77,868 votes by securing 391,754 votes. The BJP’s Ram Swaroop Lamba had got 313,706 votes.

In Alwar, after 82 per cent of the vote count done with, Karan Singh Yadav of the Congress was leading by 144,914 votes. He had garnered 520,434 votes, leaving behind Jaswant Singh Yadav of the BJP at 375,520 votes.

Congress candidates led from the beginning in vote count in both the Lok Sabha seats and edged past the BJP in Mandalgarh after initially trailing at the second spot.

A total of 42 candidates were in the fray in the three seats, all of which were held by the BJP. There were 23 contestants in Ajmer and 11 in Alwar.

The elections to the Lok Sabha constituencies were necessitated by the deaths of Sanwarlal Jat (Ajmer) and Mahant Chand Nath Yogi (Alwar).

With Assembly elections scheduled later this year in Rajasthan, Congress leaders insisted that the verdict was a rejection of the BJP.

Congress leader and former union minister Sachin Pilot demanded Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s resignation on moral grounds.

“It is a victory for people, party workers and all leaders,” Pilot told the media.

He said the BJP, after failing to woo the voters on the strength of religion, tried to polarize voters on caste lines but failed to fool the young voters.

“Young people in this country have realized that the politics of polarization doesn’t work,” he said. “The high-handedness and arrogance (of the BJP) has been rejected.”

Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the results were a precursor to the 2019 general elections. “This by-election is a vote against BJP’s divisive politics.”

He took a dig at the BJP government in the state, saying apart from changing the names of Congress-era schemes, the Chief Minister had done nothing concrete for the people in the past four years she has ruled the country’s largest state.

“Unemployment is hurting the youth. Today’s trends can be seen as precursor to not just state Assembly polls later this year but also to the next Lok Sabha polls,” Gehlot said.

Rajasthan BJP chief Ashok Parnami told reporters: “We respect the people’s mandate and we will analyse the reasons for our defeat. I am taking responsibility for the defeat.”

The Congress drew a blank in Rajasthan in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

(IANS)

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that he was disappointed with the Union Budget and the BJP-led central government has continued its “step-motherly treatment” to the city state.

“I had expected some financial assistance to important infrastructure projects for national capital. Am disappointed that Centre continues its step-motherly treatment to Delhi,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said in a tweet.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also termed the budget as “disappointing”, saying that the Narendra Modi government has been treating people in Delhi as second-grade citizens.

In a series of tweets, he expressed his displeasure over the budget in matters ranging from absence of plans to regularise unauthorised colonies, to not allocating electric buses to reduce air pollution in the city.

Stressing land in Delhi comes under the central government, he said there still “no plans announced to regularise unauthorised colonies or give more land to Delhi government to build clinics, schools, hospitals and bus depots”.

“Delhi police comes under Centre. Yet no plans or schemes announced to tackle crime and issues of women safety that have made Delhi the crime capital of India. Highly disappointing,” read another tweet.

“Not a single extra rupee increased in Delhi’s share in Central taxes since 2001-02, stays at Rs 325 Cr. No other part of India gets such treatment. BJP government at Center continues to treat Delhi residents as second-grade citizens,” Sisodia said.

(IANS)