New Delhi, Jan 31: The government is planning to abolish all posts which have been vacant for more than five years, and has directed all ministries and department to submit a comprehensive report on the matter.
In an office memorandum, the Finance Ministry said it had asked all ministries and departments to submit an action-taken report regarding abolition of posts vacant for more than five years.
According to a preliminary estimate, there are several thousand central government posts which are lying vacant for five or more years, the official said.
Mumbai, Jan 31: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said the IPL has made people familiar with phrases like “betting and fixing” and in view of the alleged violations of foreign exchange rules it was time to see if the tournament was in interest of the game of cricket.
The scathing remarks were made by a division bench of justices S C Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre while passing its order on a petition filed by former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi challenging a July 2015 order of the adjudicating authority of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) refusing him the permission to cross-examine witnesses in a FEMA case.
The ED has alleged violations of foreign exchange rules during the 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) held in South Africa.
The court allowed Modi’s petition and permitted his legal counsels to cross-examine the witnesses but made strong observations on the tournament.
“If IPL has led to serious violations then it is high time the organisers realise whether what has been achieved by conducting the tournament since the past ten years can be termed as a sport or game…for it is full of illegalities and breaches of law,” the court said.
“IPL has made us familiar with phrases like betting and fixing of matches. It is for the central government, RBI and organisers to now consider if conducting IPL is in interest of the game/sport,” the court said in its order.
The bench while allowing Modi’s petition said the impugned order grossly violates the principles of natural justice as the adjudicating authority was going to rely on the statements of the witnesses against Modi.
The court also noted that the proceedings have been dragged for too long now.
“We direct the adjudicating authority to issue summons to the witnesses to appear before it on March 2. The cross- examination shall be concluded positively by March 13. The proceedings shall be completed by May 31,” the court directed.
In 2013, the ED initiated adjudication proceedings against Modi under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regarding a bank account opened by the BCCI and IPL authorities in South Africa ahead of the 2009 edition of the IPL.
Ahmedabad, Jan 31: On the run for the last 16 years, an accused in the 2002 Godhra train carnage was arrested by the Gujarat Police, an official said.
Yakub Pataliya (63) was arrested from Godhra by a team of B Division police in the town after they received a tip-off that he was spotted in a locality this morning, the official said.
“During patrolling, a team of Godhra B Division police received information about the presence of the accused. He was arrested soon after,” the official said.
He will be handed over to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is investigating the case, the official said.
Pataliya is accused of being a part of the mob that torched the coaches of Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002, killing 59 kar sevaks and triggering state-wide riots.
An FIR was registered against him in September 2002 and he faces charges under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 143 and 149 (unlawful assembly), 147 and 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 332 and 352 (causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 153 A (causing enmity among members of different religious g groups), among others as well as certain sections of the Railways Act.
“He had been evading arrest ever since,” police said.
Pataliya’s brother, Kadir Pataliya, was also arrested in 2015, and he died while being in jail while undergoing trial.
His other brother, Ayub Pataliya, is serving life imprisonment in Vadodara Central Jail.
In a judgement passed in October 2017, the Gujarat High Court had commuted the death sentence of 11 to life imprisonment, while upholding the life sentence of 20 other convicts.
A trial court had convicted 31 and acquitted 63 accused.
New Delhi, Jan 30: Child and maternal malnutrition continues to be the most challenging risk factor for health loss in India, the Economic Survey said on Monday.
It listed air pollution, dietary risks, high blood pressure and diabetes as other key health risk factors facing the country.
The Survey noted however that there has been significant improvement in the health status of the individual as life expectancy at birth has increased by approximately 10 years from 1990 to 2015.
Limited affordability and access to quality medical services are however among the major challenges contributing to delayed or inappropriate responses to disease control and patient management, said the Economic Survey for 2017-18, tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The share of out of pocket expenditure (OoPE) on health stands at a staggering 62 per cent and adversely impacts the poorer sections and widens inequalities, it said.
While the expenditure by the government healthcare providers accounted for about 23 per cent of the Current Health Expenditure (CHE) as per National Health Accounts 2014 -15, the share of private hospitals and clinics stood at 31 per cent.
The findings of household health expenditure survey in India indicate that about 10 per cent of OoPE on health was spent by households on diagnostics (including medicines and diagnostic test as part of package) during 2013-14, the survey said.
There is a wide difference in average prices of diagnostic tests across various cities in India, and the range in the prices is substantial, it noted.
“There is a need to prioritise standardisation of rates by devising appropriate quality assurance framework and regulatory mechanism,” it added.
The Survey said that although the government has already enacted “Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 and notified the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012 to regulate the clinical establishments across the country, presently, the act is applicable in 10 States/UTs, which needs to be taken up by remaining States while ensuring strict compliance as well”.
New Delhi , Jan. 27 : The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) auction for the 11th edition of the tournament will begin on Saturday.
Up to 578 players, out of the 1,122 players, have been kept for the final two-day auction, which includes 244 capped players (62 from India), 332 uncapped players (34 from overseas), and two players from Associate countries.
The players have been divided into different sets and the auction will kick start with the ‘marquee’ list, where 16 players, in two batches of eight each will go for the bid.
The marquee list includes Gautam Gambhir, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Harbhajan Singh from India while from overseas, players such as Ben Stokes, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, Christopher Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Shakib Hasan – each priced at Rs 2 crore – are on that list.
The auction pool will also include players from the Under-19 India team squad in the form of skipper Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Himanshu Rana, Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Arshdeep Singh and Harvik Desai.
Players who have already been retained by the franchises are- MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja- by the Chennai Super Kings; Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah by the Mumbai Indians; Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan by the Royal Challengers Bangalore; Sunil Narine, Andre Russell by the Kolkata Knight Riders; Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris, Shreyas Iyer by the Delhi Daredevils; Axar Patel by the Kings XI Punjab; David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar by the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Steven Smith by the Rajasthan Royals.
The eight IPL franchise have been allowed to spend a maximum of Rs 80 crore on their squad salaries.
Madurai, Jan 25 : The Madras High Court has allowed a 40-year-old convict serving life imprisonment in the central prison in Tirunelveli district to go on a two-week leave for the “purpose of procreation”.
A division bench of Justices S Vimala Devi and T Krishna Valli granted the two-week temporary leave to Siddique Ali, an inmate of Palayamkottai Central jail on a Habeas Corpus petition filed by his 32-year-old wife.
The bench then observed that it was time the government forms a committee to consider allowing conjugal visits to prisoners and that many countries had given them such rights.
“It is time the government constitutes a committee to consider possibilities of providing conjugal visits and analyse the merits and demerits of permitting conjugal visits,” it said.
The judges further noted that the Centre had already passed a resolution that conjugal visits are a right and not privilege and prisoners should be entitled to have their wish.
“The right of prisoners for conjugal visits has been recognised in a few countries. If prisons are overcrowded the government should find solution for such problems,” they said.
“Conjugal visits help prisoners maintain relationship with families, reduce recidivism and motivate and an incentive to good prisoners. Reforming the prisoners is part of the correctional mechanism provided in the criminal justice,” the judges observed.
In the present case, the judges said preliminary investigation has found that there was a possibility of the prisoner having a child.
After due medical treatment on release, an additional two weeks leave could be considered, they added.
Rejecting the plea of prison officials that Ali’s s life was in danger and there was no provision in the prison manual for giving leave on such grounds, the judges stated that under extraordinary reasons prisoners could be given leave.
“Providing for release of prisoner for the purpose of procreation of child with available law can be done. It can be interpreted as a request covered under extraordinary reason” they said.
The judges then directed the prison authorities to follow usual procedures and safeguards when the prisoner was out of jail.