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Getting into UK may get
tougher
Left sets terms on patents
Bill
Munda meets President
Man kills five daughters,
self
Kalyan ‘justifies’ Hindu claim over Ayodhya
site
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LS okays vote on account
for Goa
Banerjee panel finds fault with Rly admn
Pervez’s mother visits AMU
Brar told to observe restraint IFJ comes to aid of Nepalese journalists Child abuse: experts object to
cross-examination
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Getting into UK may get
tougher
New Delhi, March 18 The youths of Doaba, who have mastered the art of entering the foreign countries by hook or crook, will not find it easy any more to get a UK visa. “All non-EU citizens, including Indian citizens in lower skilled categories, will be affected once the 5-year strategy for immigration and asylum system meant to enforce strict controls to root out abuse and illegal immigration is implemented,” said Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed in a written reply to the Parliament yesterday. In fact, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke has asserted that their government would change the immigration and asylum system if it wins the May Elections. His report — “Controlling our borders: making migration work for Britain”— proposes to introduce a “ points-based system on the pattern of Australian visa rules for different categories of migrants.” Visa experts say with the expansion of the EU to 25 countries and under pressure from the anti-out sourcing lobbies, the British Government will soon phase out the current quota-based schemes for migrants coming in agricultural, food processing and hospitality sector. However, the UK will continue to offer visas on lenient conditions to students and tourists who are ready to spend money there. To meet the growing demand for low-salaried workers, they say the British government has plans to introduce “tightly managed quota- based schemes for specific shortage areas and for fixed periods only, with guarantees that migrants will leave at the end of their stay.” For the highly skilled categories, including doctors, engineers, finance experts and IT specialists, the labour government has proposed to introduce points on the basis of their educational qualification, skills, current salary and their ability to invest in the destination country. Under the current rules in most cases, migrants from outside the EU can only gain permission to work in the UK if an employer applies for a work permit or if they came under the existing points-based immigration scheme. The immigrants will also be asked to submit their fingerprint on visas at ports of entry by 2008. Identity cards will also be introduced for all foreign migrants who will be in the country for more than three months. However, for the second-category skilled workers, including nurses, teachers and administrators, the government has proposed to make it mandatory for them to get job offers before entry. Employers would be allowed to sponsor only if they fail to get local talent. In fact, British Home Secretary David Davis admitted that the government had failed to remove 250,000 failed asylum seekers from the UK and limits on economic migrants had been in a “shambles” while justifying the new rules. |
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Left sets terms on patents
Bill
New Delhi, March 18 They said the government had accepted seven of the 12 amendments suggested by the Left. “Talks are now on with the government for the remaining five amendments we have suggested to the Bill,” Mr Basu said. The CPM leaders said three of the five remaining issues were important as they were regarding micro-organisms, infringement of patent safeguards and pre-patent objections. On product patenting, Mr Basu said the UPA government was favouring post-patent objections instead of pre-patent ones. They said the government needed to make use of the provisions of flexibility available in TRIPS to guard the interests of the country’s industry and agriculture and health requirements and food security. The product patent regime, in its proposed form, is going to damage the industry and agriculture and allow multinational companies to widen and harden their grip over the economy. The All-India Forward Bloc urged the government to keep all options open to protect biodiversity and public health. The government could consider the Articles of the Doha declaration in this regard. The Left parties lashed out at the BJP for opposing the Bill. |
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Munda meets President
New Delhi, March 18 Mr Munda said he had extended invitation to Dr Kalam to visit Jharkhand. Mr Munda said he would expand his Cabinet after he returned to Ranchi. Earlier in the day, Mr Munda met BJP President L K Advani and had a separate meeting with senior JD(U) leaders George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav. New Delhi, March 18 The 15-member delegation, which also met Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Home Minister Shivraj Patil, submitted a memorandum which complained about "forcible lifting" and "illegal confinement" of Independent MLAs by the NDA. The delegation will meet Congress president sonia Gandhi tomorrow. Mr Soren said the recent developments in Jharkhand leading to installation of the NDA government was a challenge to the well-entrenched democratic norms of the country. "A kind perusal of the recent sequence of happenings regarding the formation of NDA government in Jharkhand would reveal that blatant violation of the democratic norms, large-scale horse-trade amounting to several crores of rupees coupled with misuse of state machinery was the order of the day," he said. Mr Soren said despite a "clear-cut majority", the UPA alliance was deprived of an opportunity to prove it because of "blatant illegal activities of the NDA team”. |
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Man kills five daughters,
self
Dehra Dun, March 18 He along with his daughters — Suman (22), Reena (18), Ritu (16), Alka (13) and Anjula (9) — were found dead by the police at their Kedarpuram MDDA MIG flat. Married thrice and father of 10, Verma was a heart patient. In the past few months he remained worried about getting the girls married off, neighbours said. The man was working in a nursery. While two of his daughters were studying at a school nearby, the older three stayed home. Verma, who lived in Meerut earlier, had shifted into his flat in Dehra Dun a few years ago, where he lived with his five daughters. The SSP, Dehra Dun, Mr P.V.K. Prasad, along with a police team and a dog squad examined the site. The youngest child, Anjula, had bruises and blood over her face. She probably resisted consuming the poison. |
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Kalyan ‘justifies’ Hindu claim over Ayodhya
site
New Delhi, March 18 Placing his additional affidavit before the commission, with the “official” summery of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report on the excavation of the site, done on the orders of the
Allahabad High Court, Mr Kalyan Singh contended that the report had substantiated the existence of a temple there. Singh’s counsel B.B. Saxena sought the examination of the original report of the ASI report by the commission. The former Chief Minister, during whose tenure the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, in his affidavit said that the ASI report clearly indicated that Babri Masjid was built in Ayodhya in 1528 after demolishing a temple which existed at the disputed site prior it. |
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LS okays vote on account
for Goa
New Delhi, March 18 The plan outlay had been increased substantially at Rs 975.87 crore as against Rs 847.50 crore. The increase in the plan outlay was mainly on account of higher allocation to the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation for creation of infrastructure in health, education, roads and bridges. |
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Banerjee panel finds fault with Rly admn
New Delhi, March 18 In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Railways R. Velu said broken parts of window panes and shuttlers and burnt vestibule of S-7 Coach were disposed off in scrap. Replying to another question, he said of the 16 Railway zones in the country, the Northern Zone had registered the maximum earnings of Rs 4288.43 crore during April 2004-January 2005. |
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Pervez’s mother visits AMU
Aligarh, March 18 The dignitaries then visited the Jama Masjid inside the AMU premises, placed a wreath at the ‘mazar’ of university founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and offered special prayers. The Begum studied at the university in the early forties. Her husband Mushrafuddin Musharraf had also been an alumnus of the prestigious institution.—
PTI |
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Brar told to observe restraint New Delhi, March 18 Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is in charge of Punjab, said Congress leaders in the state had been advised not to air their differences publicly and resolve grievances within the party fora. Mr Mukherjee had received complaints from the Punjab PCC about reported statements of Mr Brar against Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh over violence during the Ajnala by-election. Mr Mukherjee indicated that the party leadership was not in a mood to act on the suggestions of the Disciplinary Action Committee of the state Congress which had “suspended” Mr Brar and sought his “expulison” from the party. “He is an AICC member,” Mr Mukherjee said. |
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IFJ comes to aid of Nepalese journalists New Delhi, March 18 The journalists, 28-year-old Rewati Sabkota from Rajdhani, a national daily of Nepal and 29-year-old Editor of Sagarmatha Times, a monthly (now defunct), have been staying with friends and relatives in Delhi and Ghaziabad. While Rewati came to Delhi two weeks back, Jeetman came in February. IFJ South Asia coordinator, Laxmi Murthy told TNS here they had committed support to the two journalits and would devise a long term and short-term startegy to deal with the issue of exiled Nepalese journalists in and outside Delhi. She said the support would be given from the IFJ safety fund for journalists administered from the IFJ Secretariat headquarters in Brussels. "Only affiliates are eligible to get such support. The IFJ has a membership of half a million journalists in 110 countries.'' During a visit to Kathmandu last month, a team of the IFJ had said the repression of the journalists' right to freedom was unacceptable. The journalists said their colleagues in the Himalayan kingdom were facing a tough time following the Emergency. On Thursday, Narayan Waghle, Editor of Kantipur, a widely circulated Nepalese daily, was summoned by the police for carrying an article on the arrest of 750 demonstrators throughout Nepal.
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Child abuse: experts object to
cross-examination Lucknow, March 18 Still every time she has to appear for an in-camera court date the mere physical presence of her father reduces her to jelly. The merciless crossing examination of his lawyer makes her relive the trauma that with great effort she tries to forget. Quoting her case, Maheshwari from Vanagana in Chitrakoot asserts that though cases of child sex abuse were the most challenging to handle, the procedural legal problems here are perhaps most damaging. Especially so, when the protector becomes the abuser. This was mostly in cases of incest when a close family member upon whom the child depended betrays the trust. Activists from across the country are participating in a two-day national consultation on “Combating Child Sexual Abuse-Changing Realities” organised by Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives. It is looking into the roles and responsibilities of the state vis-a-vis gaps in redressing the issue of child sexual abuse. It will also attempt to formulate broad strategies in relation to child sexual abuse. Chairing the session on “Child Abuse: Legal Framework and Practices”, Justice Vishnu Sahai said ultimately it depended on the judge to disallow such cross-examination that could cause trauma to the child. Very often they do not exert their authority and regulate such cross-examination. Sharing a “very practical” aspect of such cases he said often judges succumb to pressure from the Bar that protests at this so-called gagging of the lawyer. |
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