15-member JPC to probe cola controversy
NEW DELHI: A 15-member Joint Parliamentary Committee was constituted on Friday to find out whether the recent findings of Delhi-based NGO Centre of Science and Environment regarding pesticide residues in Coca-Cola, Pepsi and 10 other soft drink brands were correct or not.
A motion to this effect, moved by Health and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, was adopted by voice vote in Lok Sabha.
The motion said that the Committee would suggest criteria for evolving suitable safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juice and other beverages where water was the main constituent.
Of the 15 members, 10 will be from Lok Sabha and five from Rajya Sabha, she said.
Swaraj had stated in the House on Thursday that the soft drinks tested were "well within the safety limits prescribed for packaged drinking water at present."
After her statement, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav had sought setting up of a JPC to probe the matter to which the government agreed.
Speaker Manohar Joshi then observed that the government would move a motion for constituting a JPC in this regard.
The members nominated to the committee from Lok Sabha are: Sharad Pawar (NCP), Ananth Kumar and Sudha Yadav (BJP), Rajesh Chennithala and Avtar singh Bhadana (Congress), K Yerranaidu (TDP), E Ahmed (ML), Ranjit Kumar Panja (Trinamul Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Anil Basu (CPM).
The members from Rajya Sabha to the committee are: Prithviraj Chauhan (Congress), Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena), Prasanta Chatterjee (CPM), S S Ahluwalia (BJP) and Prem Chand Gupta (RJD).
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Govt to amend Immoral Traffic Act
The government has decided to amend the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, on the recommendations of the National Commission for Women, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Jaskaur Meena informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The recommendations had been circulated to all states/Union territories, Central ministries concerned for their comments, which were awaited, she said in a written reply.
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ASI submits final report
LUCKNOW: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Friday submitted its final report to the three-member special full Bench of the Allahabad High Court, hearing Ayodhya title suits.
The ASI team leader Hari Manjhi submitted one final report, which runs into 574 pages, and its 15 copies to the OSD special full Bench Narendra Prasad at the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court in the afternoon.
The reports were contained in two boxes. The special three-member full bench of the Allahabad High Court, comprising Justice S R Alam, Justice Khem Karan and Justice Bhanwar Singh, would open the report on August 25 and allow distribution of its copies to the plaintiffs and the defendants.
On March 2003, the special full Bench had directed the ASI to begin excavations at the disputed site in Ayodhya to corroborate the GPR findings that some structure existed beneath the disputed ground.
The ASI had begun the excavations on March 12 and after nearly five months of digging had ended its operations on August 7. It had studied and verified as many as 1374 objects found during the digging and took the dating reports from its lab in Dehra Dun and BSIP Lucknow while drafting its final report.
Ayodhya title suits may take a new turn when the special full Bench makes public the ASI report which is likely to throw some light on the contentious question whether or not a temple was demolished to construct the Babri mosque in 1528 AD. But the ASI report may also open a plethora of problems as the All-India Sunni Central Wakf Board and six other plaintiffs have already announced to challenge the ASI report.
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Navi Mumbai protest over girl's rape
Agitated residents of the CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai blocked traffic on the Mumbai-Pune highway for an hour on Thursday morning to protest against the rape of a minor girl by a truck driver. The driver, Sukhdev Singh,was arrested.
According to the police, Singh allegedly raped a sixyear-old girl in a ground in Vivekanand Nagar on Wednesday night. He was arrested after the victim’s father had lodged a complaint.
Sources said the local residents in the area had long been protesting against the parking of the trucks in the area and the nuisance caused by drivers and cleaners.
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Mumbai cheapest in survey of 70 cities
The Norwegian capital Oslo has overtaken Tokyo as the world's most expensive city, according to a new survey by Swiss banking giant UBS.
The survey of 70 cities said that Tokyo was now ranked third - behind Hong Kong but ahead of New York, Zurich, Copenhagen and London. Mumbai, India, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, were the cheapest.
Pakistan’s Karachi was more expensive than Mumbai at the 67th spot.
The bank's “Prices and Earnings'' analysis compares incomes and the cost of living based on the cost of a basket of 111 goods and services excluding rents. It said that the Swiss cities of Zurich, Geneva and Basel had the highest purchasing power, followed by Los Angeles and Luxembourg.
In practical terms, the survey said that people in Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago needed to work just 10 minutes to earn the price of a Big Mac hamburger.
This compared with 185 minutes in Nairobi, Kenya, and 132 minutes in Karachi, Pakistan. UBS economists arrived at these figures by dividing the price of a hamburger by the average net hourly pay across 13 occupations.
It said that Oslo had risen to the top of the expensive city list because of the appreciation of the Norwegian krone and the depreciation of the yen combined with the deflationary trend in Japan.
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'Ganesh mandals should avoid gutkha ads'
After banning gutkha across Maharashtra, the government has appealed 'Ganeshotsav Mandals' across the state to refuse offers of advertisements from gutkha manufactueres and dealers during the ensuing ten-day Ganesh festival.
"Help the state government's efforts to make Maharashtra vice-free, by refusing offers of gutkha manufacturers/dealers in the form of the advertisements or any exhibits promoting such vicious products, through sponsorship during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival", state Food and Drug Department Minister Anil Deshmukh has appealed the various 'Ganeshotsav Mandals.'
The Government has already banned its manufacturing, distribution, sale and acts like consuming and or possessing gutkha or its by-products in the form of 'supari' mix.
Keeping in view, the overall interest of the public health, Ganeshotsav Mandals, instrumental in promoting the spirit of social harmony, can play very important role in strengthening the Government's hands by refusing gutkha manufaturers' assistance intending to foot out the festival expenses, he said.
Meanwhile, the minister has convened a meeting in Mantralaya next week to discuss the issue. Convenor of Confederation of Ganeshotsav Mandals Jayant Salgaonkar, Commissioner of Charity and office-bearers of Grahak Panchayat, a representinve body of the consumers, are expected to attend the meeting, official sources said.
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Jains urge closure of abbatoir
The Jain Ekta Manch (JEM) has urged the state government to close Deonar slaughter house during Paryushan, the holy festival of the Jains from August 24 to 31. They also demanded the closure of illegal slaughter houses during this period.
JEM president Mahendra Sangoi told media persons on Thursday that the Deonar abattoir was the largest slaughter house in Asia where about 10,000 animals were killed every day. "Many of those who work in such slaughter houses do not observe the basic rules laid down by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The animals are slaughtered before pedestrians on the open road. This makes it difficult for monks, children and others to use the road," he pointed out.
He pointed out that most of the slaughter houses in the city did not have proper licences. "For every legal slaughter house, there are about 90 others without valid licence," he said. "Meat-eaters must see for themselves how hapless animals are slaughtered and how the meat is cooked without observing basic rules of hygiene. That will turn them into vegetarians," he said.
JEM office-bearers said the Constitution cast a duty on Indians to be compassionate towards all living beings. "Our tradition does not recognise killing of animals as a business. Closing illegal slaughter houses will benefit all and sundry," he added.
"Every year, the state machinery issues directives to shut slaughter houses on the first and last day of Paryushan. We are sure the government will close all slaughter houses during the eight days of Paryushan," he hoped.
India earns about Rs 1,000 crore from export of meat products which is more than that earned by Pakistan. "Bangladesh also exports meat but it is nowhere near India in terms of quantity of export. In the USA and Europe, special areas are designated for slaughter houses to kill animals. But in Mumbai, you can find illegal slaughter houses spread all over the city," he observed.
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All admissions must be on merit: High Court
he Bombay high court on Wednesday stressed that all admissions to private medical and engineering colleges across Maharashtra should be based on merit for the 2003-04 academic year.
The division bench of high court justices A.P. Shah and D.Y. Chandrachud also indicated that all medical admissions—those decided by the state as well as college managements —would be based on the state’s Common Entrance Test (CET) and not any CET given by the college managements.
Engineering admissions would be based on Std XII results. The managements of private colleges, whose association is yet to be heard in court, want to base admissions in the management quota on their own CETs.
The supreme court had recently ruled that for the 2003-04 academic year, private college managements could decide 50 per cent of their seats and the state the rest.
The high court said it would pass a final order on the issue on Friday, when it completes its hearings for a bunch of petitions on the issue. Following that order, admissions to the colleges would be reopened.
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Maharashtra Govt. charts artificial rain plan
Alarmed by scarcity situation prevailing across parts of Maharashtra, the state cabinet today decided to go in for cloud seeding programme in seven districts for artificial rainfall.
"The programme will be implemented from September. Solapur, Sangli, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Beed and Osmanabad districts will benefit from it," Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told a post cabinet news conference here.
The total cost for the project to be implemented by US-based 'Weather Modification Company', is around Rs 4.5 crore, Shinde said.
To tide over drought like situation, Maharashtra has taken a cue from neighbouring Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh by going for the cloud seeding project.
Meteorologists of Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) have stated that rain-deficient areas can get 15-24 per cent of average rainfall by cloud seeding.
The experiment for artificial rains is being carried out in countries like USA, Australia, Israel and South Africa for last five decades.
After a careful study of the clouds, they are sprinkled with chemical like Sodium Chloride and Silver Iodide - which help in the liquification of humidity.
Asked why the decision was taken when the monsoon was coming to an end, he said: "We were waiting for the rainfall. After it became clear that we would not get rains we decided to go in for cloud seeding."
Shinde said the government is spending Rs one crore per month for providing fodder to cattle in affected areas.
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'H1B visa reduction to affect IT industry'
The US move to reduce the number of H1B visas to 65,000 from 1.95 lakh from next month will affect Indian IT industry in the long run, Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom, said today.
"The IT industry is concerned. We have been having some discussions, Indian embassy in US has also been involved," he said on the sidelines of a conference on distance learning.
"It's an issue that substantially affects US industry. Therefore US associations and chambers also are taking it up because they have been the beneficiary," he added.
While Nasscom has not estimated the impact on Indian industry or movement of professionals due to lower number of H1B visas, he said, "It depends on what numbers finally come out. It's not going to have any immediate impact as these visas are extendable for three years. There are already people with these visas. They will continue to be there".
However, the new visas will get restricted. There could be an impact over a period of time, he said.
"We are quite actively engaged on this."
Union IT and Communications minister Arun Shourie said yesterday in Parliament that India was discussing with the US the issues of reduction of professional visa quota.
"India is taking up with the United States the issue of reduction of H1B visas for specialised workers as it would affect movement of Indian software professionals to that country," he told Rajya Sabha.
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Shinde to persuade Sawant to head probe
Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he would persuade the retired supreme court judge P B Sawant to head the one-man probe panel to go into charges of corruption against four DF ministers and alleged irregularities in the public trusts run by noted Gandhian Anna Hazare.
"I will be speaking to Justice Sawant...I will try (to persuade him) as the head of the state+, Shinde told reporters here.
Sawant had refused to head the probe panel after Hazares reported statement that he would not co-operate with a single-member enquiry committee. The anti-corruption crusader had demanded a panel of three retired judges and had recommened the names of Sawant, Narendra Chapalgaonkar and Justice Pendse.
To a query, Shinde said Chapalgaonkar has already expressed his inability to be a part of the probe panel.
The government in its bid to resolve the stalemate, triggered by the fast-unto-death by Hazare and Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister Suresh Jain had announced seting up of Sawant Committee.
The judge, perturbed by Hazare's reported remarks, turned down the governments offer. He even did not budge from his position despite Hazare met him to persuade him.
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Llyod pitches in on behalf of Sunny
Mumbai: Former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd on Friday supported former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar's recent comments in England that sledging should be curbed in international cricket.
Lloyd, who is here in connection with Ten Sports' function to be held later in the day, told here, "I fully support Sunny's (Gavaskar) views on sledging. Sunny might have made those comments after watching the Windies-Aussie Test series recently where there were more than a couple of ugly scenes involving the players."
Aussie fast bowler Glenn McGrath was involved in a heated exchange of words with Windies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan and the two rival captains-- Brian Lara and Steve Waugh—were at loggerheads during the same series.
"The International Cricket Council's (ICC) Code of Conduct has clear rules for sledging and match referees should make it very clear to the rival captains to follow the Code of Conduct strictly or else face the consequences before the start of the match."
"If sledging continues unabated then it might turn ugly in the future. For example, if a senior cricketing nation indulges in sledging while playing minnows like Bangladesh, which have very young cricketers in their ranks, then they will be demoralised completely and may not perform to their full potential," he added.
"Instead of sledging, it would be better if the players from senior cricketing sides encourage and help out the young sides like Bangladesh so that they too become a force to reckon with in the future," the former southpaw, who is also the ICC match referee, said.
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