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Pranab Mukherjee clears official amendments to Lokpal Bill, Sources informed

Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has cleared two official amendments to the Lokpal Bill. The amendments will be sent to the Cabinet and once cleared; the amended bill will be introduced in the Rajya Sabha too.

The first amendment now allows only Members of Parliament to move for removal of a member or the head of the Lokpal panel. Sources add that the two clauses, which allowed the President or any citizen to move for their removal, have now been removed. According to the amendment, the move for removal can be made now only through a petition signed by not less than 100 MPs.

The other amendment is that the Lokpal Bill will be applicable to a state only upon passing a resolution by the state legislature. The Lokpal refers to a national ombudsman agency which will investigate complaints of graft against government servants.

In December, the Lok Sabha passed the Lokpal Bill. It was then discussed heatedly in the Rajya Sabha but after a lengthy debate, the session was adjourned without a vote. The Opposition accused the government of conniving to avoid a vote because it knew it would lose. An amended Bill will now be brought to the Rajya Sabha, and after it is cleared there, it will be sent to the Lok Sabha for discussion and a vote.

New Delhi, Feb 23 The government might take on all the financial burden of the ambitious Rs.12.5 billion a year proposal to provide compulsory education to children all over the country after the states expressed their reluctance to bankroll the scheme.

The Right to Education Bill, 2005 has been on the backburner for two years but may finally be introduced in the budget session of parliament that kicks off next week, said officials in the ministry of human resource development (HRD).

This has already been communicated to the Planning Commission by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The scheme had been riddled with problems from the start as states rejected the central government’s proposal to share one-fourth of the funds for the purpose. Now, however, the union government is considering taking on 90 percent or maybe all the costs involved, officials said.

Concerned over the inordinate delay in getting the plan off the ground, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced last fortnight that the central government would be coming up with the Right to Education Bill “very soon”. His announcement came a day after HRD Minister Arjun Singh met him seeking help to paper the differences, particularly after the states made it clear that they could not afford the money involved.

Over the last two years, Arjun Singh had been writing to state chief ministers hoping that they would come on board. But the response was uniform – fund the scheme. This, notwithstanding the central government’s willingness to shell out 75 percent of the cost for implementing the scheme.

According to HRD ministry officials, the states had a problem with a particular clause in the bill that makes it mandatory for schools to pay the fees and other expenses of students from Classes 1 to 8. This, officials said, was because under the draft bill all out-of-school children between the ages of six and 14 (including disabled children) would have to be in school and state governments would have to pay for their education.

The central government has earmarked a whopping Rs.850 billion ($21 billion) towards education in the Eleventh Plan, which ends in 2012.

This is five times the allocation for the education sector in the Tenth Plan. A ministry official said once the bill is cleared, the funds would be raised from the budget allocated for the Eleventh Plan.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had earlier stated that the central government could not afford the funds needed for the Right to Education Bill and there was no need for it. He was of the view that the government could widen the scope of its existing flagship programmes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the midday meal scheme to meet the target for free and compulsory education for all.

New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS) India will impose “severe and exemplary” penalties on those indulging in human trafficking and launch a nationwide awareness campaign on the risks of illegal migration, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said Tuesday.

Major amendments would be effected to the Emigration Act of 1983 to introduce a provision to prevent “human smuggling”, Ravi said here.

“We are going to make the penalties for those who indulge in such crime severe and exemplary,” he said while delivering the inaugural address at the consultation meeting of the National Media Coalition against trafficking.

Over 100 journalists from across the country, besides civil society activists and UN agencies participated in the meeting.

“In the next few weeks, we will launch a nationwide awareness campaign on the risks of illegal immigration,” Ravi said, adding: “It must be remembered that illegal immigrants are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.”

In this context, Ravi pointed out that his ministry’s effort “has been to transform international migration into an efficient, transparent, orderly and humane process and at the same time to actively discourage and prevent illegal migration”.

He also contended that a more equitable global development process will help combat the scourge of human trafficking and other associated trans-national crimes.

“We need to make globalisation and its benefits more inclusive. This simply means giving millions of people around the globe the hope that they have an opportunity to improve their quality of life,” Ravi said.

“At the heart of the discourse on combating the scourge of human trafficking and other associated trans-national crimes is the need to make the global development process more equitable,” he added.

Ravi noted that despite recent prospects of rapid economic growth in some of the highly populated developing countries, “the economic divergence between the rich and the poor countries is wider today than at any time in human history.

“Quite simply, we need to address the problem of a world profoundly divided between the haves and the have-nots. Indeed, those of us in government as also those in civil society must meet the challenge of inclusive development by which all people have access to a better quality of life – the challenge of the greater good of the greater numbers,” the minister maintained.

Jaipur, Aug 30 (IANS) The government in Rajasthan has imposed a new property tax in urban areas of the state.

In a notification issued here late Wednesday evening the state government imposed urban development tax with immediate effect. The urban development tax is being levied as an alternate to house tax, which was abolished in January.

Abolition of house tax was one of the promises made in the Bharatiya Janata Party manifesto released at the time of the assembly elections in 2003.

As per the new tax proposal, the government now plans to impose tax on residential plots of 300 square yards or more, on flats of over 1,500 sq feet and on commercial houses of more than 100 square yards.

The tax will be calculated on the basis of local district level committee (DLC) rates that will be divided by 2,000 to arrive at the tax figure.

However, the opposition Congress has decided to oppose any move to impose this tax.

“BJP government is trying to fool people by imposing the tax under a new name,” said Pratap Singh Khachriawas, a Congress leader.

“We will hold agitation against this stubbornness of the state government,” he said.

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) A parliamentary panel Friday recommended drastic changes in a proposed law to discipline errant judges, virtually junking the bill in its original form.

The changes recommended to the Judges (Inquiry) Bill, 2006, ranged from the composition of the proposed National Judicial Council (NJC) to an impeached judge’s right to move the apex court.

Strongly disapproving the all-judge composition of the NJC, the panel, headed by Rajya Sabha member E.M.S Natchiappan, asked the government to broad base it and include members from the executive, legislature and from among the lawyers as well.

The panel, referring to the judiciary’s last word in appointment of judges, said, “Judges appointing judges is bad enough in itself; judges judging judges is worse.”

The panel also recommended complete omission of section 30 of the bill, which entitles an impeached judge to move the Supreme Court against the president’s order of his dismissal passed on the basis of a two-third majority decision of both houses of parliament.

“The president’s order of removal of a judge is the result of parliament’s decision after due process and resolution of 2/3rd majority by each house. Therefore, allowing the president’s decision to be challenged by a dismissed judge is totally unwarranted and uncalled for,” said the panel, following a nine-month-long scrutiny of the bill.

The panel, officially known as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Law and Justice, also fiercely disapproved other provisions of the bill, which would amount to curtailment of parliament’s existing power on removing judges.

“The committee takes strong exception to the fact that the provisions of the bill have the effect of curtailing the parliament’s right to discuss about the conduct of a judge,” it said in a report.

“The committee categorically observes that the powers of the parliament with regard to impeachment of a judge should in no case be diluted or shifted to any other institution or body,” the panel said.

In a suggestion, not related to the scrutiny of the bill, the panel also suggested providing for reservation for scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes people for appointment as judges in the higher judiciary “to meet the ends of social justice and equity”.

Hyderabad, July 24 (IANS) A legislation to provide four percent reservation to backward classes of Muslims in government jobs and educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh has been passed by the state assembly.

On Monday night, the Andhra Pradesh Reservation in Favour of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims Act, 2007, replaced the ordinance issued last month.

Ignoring objections from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the house passed the bill, paving the way for reservations for 15 backward Muslim classes.

While MIM, which has five members in 294-member house, demanded reservations for the entire community and took exception to the division of the community into castes, the BJP opposed reservations in the name of religion. The BJP, which has two members, staged a walkout.

MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi argued that there was no caste system among Muslims. However, the amendments moved by MIM were defeated by a voice vote.

Replying to a debate on the bill, Minister for Minority Welfare Mohammed Ali Shabbir said several states were providing reservations to backward classes of Muslims. He said the government wanted to provide five percent reservations to the entire community but was compelled to reduce the quantum and also confine it to only backward sections.

It may be recalled that the Andhra Pradesh High Court had twice set aside the government order and legislation for 5 percent reservations to Muslims.

However, some students have also challenged the move in the court while the BJP and its youth and student wings have intensified their agitation.

Delhi, June 28: The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for introduction of the ‘Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2007’ in Parliament.

The proposal would provide a legislative framework for the registration of clinical establishments and also to provide minimum standards for facilities and services with a view to standardizing health care services and for achieving improvement of public health.

It would also initiate the process for the creation of a national registry of clinical establishments.

The Bill will be introduced in the next session of Parliament.

PIB Press Release