Month: July 2010

New Delhi, July 26: Sports Ministry today decided to launch its own probe into the allegations of sexual harassment against former women’s hockey coach M K Kaushik by handing the task to its internal committee.

Kaushik had resigned after player Ranjita Devi complained to Hockey India that he sexually harassed her during the recent Canada and China tours. HI had already referred the case to Delhi Police after examining the report of its five-member inquiry committee set up after Ranjita’s complaint.

New Delhi, July 26: Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Monday said Islam has played a ‘great role’ in shaping the country’s ‘Indianness’ in terms of art, culture and social behaviour.

‘Islam stands for peace, brotherhood and prosperity and in India this religion has played a great role in shaping the art, culture and social behaviour that today typically signifies the ‘Indianness’,’ Khurshid said, releasing a book on Islam here.

He stressed on the need to ‘soak our souls into the idea of secularism’.

New Delhi, July 26: The orange city of Nagpur appears to be getting tinted red as Maoist elements have begun using it as a potential transit and medical utility hub.

Security agencies were keeping a close watch on this central Indian city in Maharashtra since there were enough indications that Maoists often used it as a transit point to travel to different parts of the country, sources said today.

The orange city’s proximity to Naxal hotbeds of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand could be the reason behind the Maoists often using it as transit point.

New Delhi, July 26: Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today assured Punjab that 345 megawatts will be allowed from unallocated power of Central Sector to the state from mid-July to mid-October to ensure eight-hour uninterrupted electricity supply for the paddy season.

The assurance came when Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and PWD (Bridges and Roads) Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa called on Shinde at his office here, according to a release from the CM’s Office.

New Delhi, July 26: The Delhi High Court today directed the Centre to nominate a person except one who has taken part in the election for National Haj Committee to look into all works for this year’s Haj pilgrimage arrangements.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan told the Centre’s counsel Atul Nanda that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should not nominate any person who has participated in the election held in March.

New Delhi, July 26: The Supreme Court has quashed the CBI inquiry and contempt proceedings initiated by the Madhya Pradesh High Court against the State Electricity Board/ regulatory commission officials and said courts have no business to run the government.

A Bench of Justices Harjit Singh Bedi and K S Radhakrishnan held that it was beyond the jurisdiction of courts to decide in PILs on issues like supply of electricity as it was in the domain of independent state agencies.

New Delhi, July 26: The CBI is not the “Congress bureau of investigation”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday, refuting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s allegations of conspiracy behind the arrest of its leader Amit Shah.

“CBI… Is not Congress bureau of investigation. The CBI is not a mouthpiece of the Congress”. Manmohan Singh told reporters outside Parliament before the beginning of the monsoon session on Monday.

New Delhi, July 26: The Supreme Court today asked lawyers to be internet savvy to help smoothen the processing of petitions for quick hearing, particularly in commercial matters.

The apex court said the use of e-mails by advocates and the apex court registry during the course of pendency of matters would help in reducing the arrears as the delay in judicial proceedings are due to late servicing of the documents to the contesting parties.

Ahmedabad, July 26: CBI has summoned two retired IPS officers, who had at one point of time headed the probe into the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case as chiefs of state CID, and questioned one of them.

G C Raigar and O P Mathur, who have already been questioned earlier by the CBI in connection with the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and killing of his wife Kausarbi in November 2005, have been called for further questioning, sources in the CBI said today.

Raigar is being questioned at Gandhinagar, they said.

New Delhi, July 26: The mystery about who facilitated the escape of Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson’s from the country after the Bhopal gas tragedy, may never be solved.

The then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh has said in the past that Anderson was allowed to leave Bhopal to prevent a law and order situation in the city, but it was assumed that the orders to let him fly out of India on December 7, 1984, came from a higher authority in Delhi. Had Anderson been promised “safe passage” by the External Affairs Ministry?

Whether that was in fact the case may never be known.