India to host global meet on teacher training Aarti Dhar Share Comment print T+ India will chair the

the E-9 group later this month when it hosts the Ninth E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting on Inclusive, relevant quality Education for All identified as the theme for the two coming years. The meeting assumes importance as shortage of teachers has been identified as a major challenge in the successful implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. With the government focussing on universalisation of secondary education and the Right to Education act (RTE) that came into force in April 2010, the emphasise in India is more on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the teacher deficit, Amarjit Singh, Joint Secretary, Human Resource Development Ministry told The Hindu. The International Task Force on Teachers for Education for All in collaboration with UNESCO will also organise a conference on Teachers for Education for All. The event will start with the meeting of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education for All to be held for the first time in Indiafollowed by a two day conference on, Teachers for Education for All in India and the E-9 meeting. The E-9 Initiative, a consortium of the nine most populous countries of the South was put in place in 1993, following the World Conference on EFA in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. E stands for education and 9 for those nine countries which are home to over half of the world's population as well as to almost half of the world's out of school children and two thirds of the world's illiterates. These are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan. The E-9 countries identify an EFA-related theme and focus on it during a two-year period. Measures to strengthen cooperation with regard to the identified theme and ways to extend support to other countries of the South are discussed at the biennial E-9 Ministerial Review Meetings and expert meetings hosted by the country that holds the chair for the two-year period. To this end, the meeting of the E-9 focussing on teacher training for inclusive quality will serve as propitious occasion to develop an outline for an action plan that will contribute to the broader thematic of Inclusive Relevant Quality Education in the E-9 countries. To this end, the issues that will be deliberated upon during the E-9 conference are qualifications for teachers to deliver inclusive quality education, harmonisation of competency standards which take account of diverse socio-cultural realities and integration of the inclusive quality education perspective in teacher competency assessment systems. To discuss challenges The meeting will discuss challenges and opportunities to address the issue of inclusive relevant quality education in pre-service and continuous professional development programmes, integrating excluded groups within the teacher force, and pedagogical considerations for the effective delivery of inclusive quality education. The International Task Force on Teachers for Education for All will focus on Teacher Training for Inclusive Quality Education with focus on teacher education, whole-school approach, and financing for the inclusion of teachers training for quality inclusive education. The participants will draft an action plan, including a monitoring mechanism, for E9 countries with

regard to teacher training, provide a framework for increased cooperation among the E9 countries with regard to teacher training for inclusive quality education and identify key areas that need to be addressed within the realm of teacher education and training with regard to inclusive quality education. ========================================= Marriage law amendment Bill discriminatory: AIDWA Special Correspondent It seeks to make irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce The All India Democratic Women's Association has expressed unhappiness over the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and the amendments made to it, as reintroduced in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, that make irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce , giving women the right to marital assets, including the marital home. However, there is no provision for strengthening maintenance laws. In its letter, the AIDWA has appealed to Rajya Sabha members to prevent the perpetration of injustice against women by the highest law making body of our country, and to oppose the law in its present form as there was no move to strengthen maintenance laws. The amendment seeks to make irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce, and proposes that the court may give the wife a share in the property acquired during the subsistence of marriage. Unequal treatment Unfortunately, whether a share should be given at all and the quantum of the share in marital property is left to be decided by the courts on a case to case basis. Our experience in the courts has shown that a large number of courts have been very conservative and close-fisted about granting maintenance for wives and children and have awarded dismal sums. These courts have obviously acted with a bias towards women and have treated them unequally. When women approach the courts for maintenance, they are awarded sums that may normally range between 5 and 35 per cent approximately of the man's income, even if there are children to be supported, the statement said. Short of requirement The courts' evaluation of what constitutes adequate maintenance frequently falls far short of what women and children require even to survive in a dignified manner. Thus, allowing the courts to decide on a share in the marital property is no guarantee that the wife will receive her just entitlements, the statement said. In countries where irretrievable breakdown of marriage has been introduced as a ground for divorce, laws relating to an equitable division of all marital assets also exist. This is because the contribution of a woman in building up the household and in primarily taking care of children is recognised and considered to be as economically valuable as work outside the house. Unless women are treated as equals in a marriage and given the same financial and other security that men have on its breakdown, it would be discriminatory to further liberalise the grounds of divorce. Equal part in property

The AIDWA demands that the amendments be introduced only after a law has been enacted for giving women equal rights in marital property. This law should allow for equal division of the marital property upon separation and not merely on divorce. A provision should also be made for women and children to get more than half the share if the children are living with their mother. The laws relating to maintenance for women and children must be strengthened to ensure that women/children receive an adequate amount of maintenance. ========================================= Ferry operators flout safety norms in Assam Sushanta Talukdar Most ferries are overcrowded and they do not carry lifejackets and lifebuoys Even as Assam witnessed its worst-ever boat tragedy on Monday, the fact that most of the ferries and large boats operated by the Inland Water Transport (IWT) department or private lessee lack the minimum safety norms indicates that more such tragedies are waiting to happen. Overcrowding of ferries and boats is a common scene across the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys. Every day thousands of people commute between the river island Majuli and Neematighat in upper Assam's Jorhat district. On each trip, 50 to 100 commuters can be seen travelling on rooftops, where motorbikes and bicycles are also loaded because these ferries provide sitting accommodation for barely 100 people. Even the little open space that allows commuters to board is used by the lessee to transport three or four more vehicles. Small boulders or wooden blocks are used to keep the vehicles from toppling, as the ferries do not have safety railings. Most ferries do not carry lifejackets and lifebuoys. They charge Rs. 500 for small cars and Rs. 700 for large cars. Rs.30 is charged for a motorbike. One person recently escaped death while taking his vehicle into one such ferry at Neematighat. He accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of applying the brakes and the vehicle plunged into the river. While he was rescued, the vehicle sank and could not be retrieved. Commuters say the lessees turn a deaf ear to their complaints. Most of them, they allege, enter into unscrupulous deals with corrupt IWT officials to obtain fitness certificates without conforming to the minimum safety norms. The IWT department operates 74 ferry services in the State, out of which 54 ply in the Brahmaputra valley and 24 in the Barak valley. Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, V.K. Pipersenia told The Hindu that most ferries were not equipped with meteorological devices. And since they did not issue preboarding tickets, it was often difficult to ascertain the actual number of commuters. Mr. Pipersenia said the Assam Disaster Management authorities would move the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue advance storm warning in coastal regions so that preventive measures could be initiated. 50 to 100 commuters can usually be seen travelling on rooftops The ferries provide sitting accommodation for barely 100 people ==================================================

Now, operate PF accounts electronically Special Correspondent Share Comment print T+ Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday launched the Electronic Challan-cum-Return initiative of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation under which the employers and the employees can operate their PF accounts electronically from office or home. The facilities available under the system include: for employees details of the monthly credit of subscriptions in their account and online access to statement of PF accounts through the employer. For employers: online submission of returns along with remittance of the subscription, submission of one single return instead of 5 or 6, payment through the internet banking of the State Bank of India or at any designated branch of the SBI, confirmation of payment through the SMS instantly, and facility to download and print the monthly and annual accounts slips for their employees. =================================== Army should take decision in 8 weeks, says Supreme Court J. Venkatesan Share Comment print T+ It's for the Army to decide whether its personnel accused in fake encounters in Pathribal in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam be court-martialled or tried in regular criminal courts, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday. Disposing of a batch of appeals, a Bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said: The competent authority in the Army shall take a decision within eight weeks whether the trial would be conducted by the criminal court or court-martial and communicate the same to the Chief Judicial Magistrate concerned immediately thereafter. In case the option is made to try the case by a court-martial, the said proceedings would commence immediately and would be concluded strictly in accordance with law, expeditiously. The Bench further said: In case the option is made that the accused would be tried by the criminal court, the CBI shall make an application to the Central government for grant of sanction within four weeks from the receipt of such option. In case such an application was filed, the Centre should take a final decision on it within three months. If the Centre granted sanction, the criminal court should proceed with the trial and conclude it expeditiously. The Bench said: If the law requires sanction, and the court proceeds against a public servant without sanction, the public servant has a right to raise the issue of jurisdiction as the entire action may be rendered void ab-initio for want of sanction. Sanction can be obtained even during the course of trial depending upon the facts of an individual case and particularly at what stage of proceedings, requirement of sanction has surfaced. In order that the people may feel assured that there is an effective check against misuse or abuse of powers by members of the armed forces, it is necessary that a complaint containing an allegation about misuse or abuse of the powers conferred under the Central Act should be thoroughly inquired into and, if it is found that there is substance in the allegation, the victim should be suitably compensated by the state and the requisite sanction under Section 6 of the Central Act should be granted for institution of prosecution and/or a civil suit or other proceedings against the person/persons responsible for such violation. ========================================

Fast-track defence procurement process, says parliamentary panel K. V. Prasad The parliamentary panel on defence has suggested that the government build capabilities to face any challenge, including the worst scenario of a two-front war, and asked it to allocate funds towards it. It also underscored the need to fast-track procurement of ammunition for the Army considering that the situation is critical. The committee members are alarmed over the way the deficiencies have been allowed to persist leading to criticality in the Army aviation and ammunition all the issues confronting delay in procurement should be dealt with to put the procurement procedures on a fast-track mode and with decentralisation of financial powers. The issue of critical gaps should be addressed without any further delay and also within the stipulated timeframe, the panel said in its latest report to Parliament. This observation by the Standing Committee on Defence came while examining the Demands for Grants for this financial year and also in the backdrop of the letter of Army Chief General V.K. Singh to the Prime Minister drawing attention to problems in defence preparedness. The Army Chief had flagged a few areas of concern tanks do not have critical ammunition, and air defence having obsolete guns. The committee disapproved of the way the deficiency of the gun system has been allowed to reach to the criticality. It strongly recommended that at least now the Ministry take the initiative and put procurements on the fast-track mode. The committee had sought to know the reasons behind delay in upgrading the Bofors field guns even after the government had paid for transfer of technology. The report mentions huge gaps between the sanctioned and the existing machines with Army Aviation, pointing to the shortage of 19 Cheetah/Chetak helicopters, 76 Advanced Light Helicopters and 60 Advance Light Helicopter (Weapons Systems Integrated). Recently, the government appointed a committee to resolve the issue since there are differences between the Army and the IAF over Army Aviation. On the Air Force, the House committee noted with concern the huge gap between the required and existing strengths of Squadrons that would rise to 11 during the 12 Plan (2012-17). At present, the IAF has 34 fighter squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 42 and would be further reduced to 31. The IAF plan envisages 45 squadrons by 2032. ============================================== Dhaka, New Delhi set to speed up implementation of accords Haroon Habib Share Comment print T+ Pranab's Bangladesh visit to inject new dynamism to talks India and Bangladesh are set to review the accords signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's historic visit to New Delhi in 2010 and Manmohan Singh's reciprocal visit to Bangladesh in September last year. Seven months after the setback in signing the Teesta water sharing deal, the two neighbours have embarked on a fresh move to inject dynamism to their negotiations.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will arrive here on May 6, to be immediately followed by Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's visit to New Delhi. The Bangladesh side has indicated that the high-level visits are intended to expedite implementation of the accords. Although Mr. Mukherjee's visit is scheduled for his participation as the Guest of Honour at the concluding session of the year-long celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary, the senior leader is expected to discuss the implementation of the joint statement issued by the two Prime Ministers in September last year. He will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Leader of the Opposition Begum Khaleda Zia. Ms. Moni will visit New Delhi on May 7 to attend the closing ceremony of Tagore's birth anniversary celebrations that the two countries had decided to celebrate jointly. Ms. Moni will hold talks with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna. during the New Delhi Tour. Ms. Moni, who visited Kolkata on May 29 to receive the prestigious Mother Teresa International Award, is expected to be in New Delhi soon to jointly chair the first Joint Consultative Commission meeting, which was formed under the framework agreement on development and cooperation. The JCC meeting will discuss a wide range of issues including water sharing, connectivity, border security and trade. Lok Sabha Speaker of Indian Parliament Meira Kumar is also expected to visit Dhaka May-end, to attend the joint inauguration of the commemorative function on Bangladesh's national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, on an invitation from her counterpart Abdul Hamid. Mr. Mukherjee's forthcoming visit to Dhaka visit will coincide the first official visit to Bangladesh by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will arrive in Dhaka on May 6. She will call on Ms. Hasina and Ms. Khaleda Zia. ==================================================== Bad weather holds up trade through Nathu La Marcus Dam Share Comment print T+ Traders can't go beyond Sherathang mart because of heavy snow and hailstorm This year's trade between India and China through Nathu La in Sikkim, which was to have begun on Tuesday, could not come off because of inclement weather. Traders could not go beyond the Sherathang trade mart owing to heavy snow and hailstorm The trading season is to continue four days a week till November 30, D. Anandan, Collector, East, told The Hindu on the phone from Gangtok. Trade through Nathu La, located at an altitude of 14,140 feet, resumed in July 2006, after 44 years. According to an agreement between the two countries, 29 items can be exported from India and 15 imported from China. Indian traders go so far as the trade mart at Renquinggang in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, while Chinese traders visit Sherathang in east Sikkim.

Among the items allowed for export are agriculture implements, copper products, tea, rice and wheat. Those that can be imported include goatskin, wool, raw silk, butter and yak tail. The authorities in Sikkim are hopeful of a good trading season in the coming months, given the number of applications for trade passes submitted. We have already received 301 applications, out of which 75 have been cleared by the Intelligence Bureau, Mr. Anandan said. Receiving this number of applications at the start of the season is a good sign. Last year, 360 applications had been submitted in the entire season, he said. ============================================ Saudi students lend labourers a helping hand Mohammed Iqbal Share Comment print T+ Saudi Arabian students working at a construction site in Naya Barkheda village of Rajasthan on Tuesday. Photo: Rohit Jain Paras The Hindu Saudi Arabian students working at a construction site in Naya Barkheda village of Rajasthan on Tuesday. Photo: Rohit Jain Paras The group of 12 students is helping in the construction of low-cost houses for two poor families May Day, that celebrates the dignity of labour, turned out to be a unique occasion this year for the residents of the nondescript Naya Barkheda village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. In their midst was a group of young students from a far-off land playing the role of labourers for the construction of low-cost houses for two poor families. Houses for BPL families This is the third group of students from a West Asian country taking part in the house construction, initiated the Habitat for Humanity-India in association with the Lupin Human Welfare and Research Foundation, as a philanthropic gesture. The Habitat for Humanity-India recently sanctioned loans on easy terms for the construction of over 250 brick houses for below the poverty line families living in huts and mud structures in Bharatpur district. The Lupin Foundation selected two beneficiaries, Devi Singh and Karan Raibari, in Naya Barkheda village. Manual labour The group of 12 students from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, had arrived at Naya Barkheda to lend a helping hand. Braving the scorching heat, the youngsters were seen carrying bricks and stones to the construction site, digging the earth, preparing cement and building material, helping the masons and assisting the labourers. Lupin Foundation executive director Sita Ram Gupta said here that May Day had added a distinctive feature to the philanthropic gesture of the students, who had won the hearts of the villagers. The youngsters work at Naya Barkheda the entire day and return to Bharatpur district headquarter every evening. The team is likely to complete the work assigned to it by this

weekend. They are students of Aliha School in Dhahran, situated in Ash-Sharqiyah province of Saudi Arabia. Lesson for students Mr. Gupta said the students had also learnt about the challenges of poverty and deprivation through their exposure to this largely backward rural terrain. Earlier, two groups of girls from the Sharjah Women's College and the American College, Dubai both in the United Arab Emirates had visited Nagla Ghasola and Dharampura villages in Sewar panchayat samiti in March this year to take part in this humanitarian act. ==================================================== No deadline for uranium sale to India, says Australia Sujay Mehdudia The two countries are in talks to clinch a deal, says Minister No timeframe or deadline could be set for Australia to start uranium exports to India. But Australia's decision to export to India is firmly in place, despite opposition in some quarters, and both nations are discussing the issue to seal a deal, Australia's Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said on Monday. There are some groups, including the Green Party, which are opposed to the sale of uranium to India. The [ruling] Labor Party and the present government have decided to allow uranium exports to India only for peaceful use and generation of clean energy. The uranium is strictly for civilian use and not any other purpose, he told a delegation of South Asian journalists here. The exports would come about only after the formalities in respect of issues pertaining to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG) were fulfilled by India, he said. On December 4 last year, the Labor Party of Prime Minister Julia Gillard decided to end the ban on uranium sales to India. Officials say India and Australia are negotiating a bilateral safeguards treaty. Ms. Gillard has made it clear that Australia will apply the same standards to India as it does to all countries to which it exports uranium. These are strict adherence to the IAEA's arrangements, strong bilateral undertakings and measures to ensure that the uranium will be used only for peaceful purposes. Interestingly, India and Australia are also negotiating a Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to boost trade and services. India has refused to sign the NPT, arguing that the treaty is discriminatory, allowing a handful of countries to retain nuclear weapons. Officials say that lifting of the curbs will help to bring in big investments in the uranium sector, as India is seen as a major power attaching importance to nuclear energy. India proposes to generate 20000 MW of nuclear energy by 2022, so it needs uranium imports. It will take some time before uranium starts flowing into India, officials say. The move to export to India has been welcomed by Australia's uranium mining industry, which has come under great pressure after the Fukushima disaster last year. The demand has fallen,

and the news of Australia agreeing to sell to India led to a 10 per cent increase in uranium prices in global markets. Australia is the world's third largest producer and exporter of uranium, after Kazakhstan and Canada. Over the past 10 years, Australia's production has averaged out at 8,500 tonnes a year, around 20 per cent of the world's production from 2000 to 2010. Australia has the world's largest known reserves of uranium, amounting to 23 per cent of the world's total reserves. Mr. Ferguson said the United Arab Emirates had hinted at setting up three nuclear power reactors, for which it would require uranium, and the Chinese were also going ahead with nuclear power generation. =============================================== One step at a time Divya Trivedi Last year, under the command of its woman gram panchayat leader, villagers of Kodoli in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, took an oath to end discrimination against HIV positive persons. In a country where more than a million people are afflicted with the HIV virus, this was the first time that any village had taken such a step targeted towards ending discrimination against such persons. Manisha Jayakar Gavde, sarpanch, Kodoli gram panchayat, led from the front and in order to bring the formerly hushed up issue into the limelight, organised an HIV awareness campaign during the popular Ganesh festival and announced an award. This opened the channels of communication and some people came forward with their stories. After a year of working with the community and discussing the issue publicly through Nukkad Naataks and other campaigns, people have started coming forward for medical tests. Women in the village have shed their inhibitions and now openly talk about sex, she says. Kolhapur is located near the national highway and counts as a high incidence area of HIV/AIDS after Mumbai, Pune, Sangli and Sholapur. In a population of 45,000, around 49 persons including a child are HIV/AIDS positive. The sensitivity of the issue required that various groups were taken on board for the campaign to be successful.Other members of the gram panchayat, anganwadi workers, CFAR, a non governmental organisation and my family all participated in the campaigns, without whom it would not have been possible, said Manisha. She was recently given an award for her achievement by the Institute of Social Sciences when hundreds of women panchayat members and leaders gathered in the Capital on the occasion of Women's Political Empowerment Day. The other awardee was Puniben Chhanabhai Rajpara, sarpanch Mokasar gram panchayat, Surendranagar, Gujarat who has been elected from a general seat twice in a row. Despite taunts and sometimes downright sexist remarks from men, she has been a formidable force in her village. Water scarcity is a perennial problem in Surendranagar. To her credit, she has been instrumental in controlling the problem by building ponds, hand pumps, roads, bore wells and tanks in the village on a shared basis for the community. No private ownership, we don't want feuds, she emphasised. On many occasions, she has single-handedly walked many kilometres to reach the nearest government office and returned with requisite permissions and on one occasion returned with a water pump that she planted into the ground. She has also seen to it that there is proper implementation of the flagship schemes of the government MNREGA, Indira Awas Yojna and others. Such is her aura that even the police

think twice before entering the village without her permission. She says, Once I had to go to the police station and they asked me to give Rs 2,000. When I asked them to reconsider; They asked me for money to fund their petrol at least. I fumed and asked them if the government did not give them salaries that they had to ask money from people like me who break their chappals to visit police stations. She has also ensured that men no longer sign documents on behalf of the women in their families. Shashi Kiran, Member Zilla Parishad, Lahaul-Spiti from Himachal Pradesh, won an award for pursuing NREGA funds for the winter months for clearing the snow and actually having them sanctioned. Winters are a harsh time in the mountains with unemployment for six months. At present, there is a 33 per cent reservation for women in the three-tier panchayat system with a few States such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Uttarakhand having scaled up to 50 per cent representation. ====================================== Fiat to Army: decide on trial or court-martial J. Venkatesan The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Army to decide whether its personnel involved in fake encounter killings in Pathribal in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam should be court-martialled or tried in regular criminal courts. If Army authorities were not keen on court-martial proceedings, the Central Bureau of Investigation could seek sanction from the Centre for prosecution of the erring officers, said a Bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar. The case of killing of five civilians in the March 2000 Pathribal encounter has been pending in a Srinagar trial court with both the Army authorities and the officers challenging the Magistrate's order which asked the Army to explain, under Section 125 of the Army Act, whether it would try its men or wanted the civilian court to do the job. As the Jammu and Kashmir High Court ruled against them, the Army personnel appealed to the Supreme Court. The CBI maintained that no sanction was necessary to prosecute the erring officers under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) as the cold-blooded murders could not be said to fall within the ambit of their official duties. In Assam, the CBI completed the investigation and filed charge sheet against seven Army personnel in the Court of Special Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup, under Section 302/201 read with Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code, for killing five civilians in a fake encounter. In this case, the Centre maintained that sanction from the competent authority was required for the prosecution of Army personnel. Writing the judgment, Justice Chauhan said: The competent Army Authority has to exercise his discretion as to whether the trial would be by a court-martial or a criminal court after the filing of the charge sheet and not after cognisance of the offence is taken by the court. A conjoint reading of the relevant statutory provisions and rules makes it clear that the term institution' contained in Section 7 of the Act 1990 means taking cognisance of the offence and not mere presentation of the charge sheet by the investigating agency. Rejecting the Centre's stand that the Army personnel facing the CBI charge sheet could not be tried as they were discharging their official duty, the Bench said: Facts of this case require sanction of the Central government to proceed with the criminal prosecution/trial. In case option is made to try the accused by a court-martial, sanction of the Central government is not required.

============================================ India will host investors' meet on Afghanistan Sandeep Dikshit India will get more intimately involved in Afghanistan's stabilisation process by hosting a conference of regional investors. Unlike the other conferences that take place around the world, examining the political, security and aid aspects of the post-2014 scenario, when the largely Western forces will have stopped their military operations, this conference will look at the investment opportunities in Afghanistan. Announcing this at a press conference with Afghanistan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Indian assistance to Afghanistan was neither transitory, nor in transition. India, Pakistan and China will have a substantial economic stake in Afghanistan in the coming years. Kabul is poised to earn $500 million a year in transit fees from a pipeline originating from Turkmenistan and supplying gas to Pakistan and Afghanistan. India has won the Hajigak iron ore mine, which officials say is the jewel of Afghanistan's mining sector. After winning three of four blocks on offer, it is looking at six petroleum blocks in northern Afghanistan and copper mines in four different parts of the country . China has won the lucrative Aenak copper mine, but faces the same problem as India and Pakistan: some regions are plagued by conflict and the others are placid. Mr. Krishna and Mr. Rassoul were speaking to journalists after chairing the first meeting of the Indo-Afghan Partnership Council, which was envisaged in the strategic partnership agreement Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed seven months ago. The Partnership Council, to be chaired by the Foreign Ministers, will have four working groups to flesh out the aims expressed in the strategic partnership agreement: capacity-building in the security, education and civil society sectors and scouting for opportunities in the hydrocarbon and mineral sectors. One of the working groups, on political and security consultations, also held its maiden meeting. The three other groups will meet in due course. Mr. Krishna said India would continue to partner Afghanistan to make sure that it would be a source of regional stability and did not become a target for extremist forces. Afghanistan's defence of its own territory is of extreme importance to us. Our security is entwined with the stability and security of Afghanistan. He also underlined the need to adhere to the red lines' in the reintegration process. These red lines for reintegration are crucial in the common endeavour to prevent Afghanistan from sliding back to [being] a safe haven for terrorists and extremist groups, and to preserve the gains made by the international community in [the] past decade. The two Ministers said India had been mentoring Afghan security forces, and both sides were in talks to refine the process. Low-key training had been taking place for quite some time, but it was mentioned up front in the strategic partnership agreement. =============================================

Raman Singh for initiating peace process with Maoists K. Srinivas Reddy A Cabinet meeting convened by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in Raipur on Tuesday approved the agreement prepared by the interlocutors nominated by both sides, thereby giving legal sanctity to the document. On Monday, it was examined and approved by a Cabinet subcommittee. Now anyone need not nurture doubts over what was agreed upon, a senior government official said over phone from Raipur. Informed sources said the interlocutors nominated by the Maoists, Prof. G. Haragopal and B.D. Sharma, gave a letter to Mr. Raman Singh, tracing the origin of several issues faced by the tribals. They also drew the attention of the government to the need for initiating measures to make the tribals stake-holders in development as recommended by the Bhuria committee. With the Maoists announcing that Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon would be released on Thursday, great importance is being attached to the reported observation of Mr. Raman Singh at the Cabinet meeting that emphasis must now be laid on carrying out a peace process. Though none is going on record interpreting what the Chief Minister meant, sources monitoring the developments felt that this could be opening up of a possibility for holding negotiations with the rebels. Violence must stop first The Chief Minister also reportedly said the Maoists should stop violence so that the process of establishing peace could go ahead. His reference, sources inferred, was to the killing of three persons including a BJP leader near Kutru of Bijapur district in the last two days. With just 18 months left for general elections in Chhattisgarh, Mr. Raman Singh might be willing to try out a new political formula of negotiations to tackle the Maoist issue. ============================================ NCW voices concern over rape of minor girl in West Bengal Aarti Dhar Share Comment print T+ Panel meets Mamata, seeks an action taken report within three months The National Commission for Women (NCW) has expressed deep concern over the reported case of sexual assault on a physically challenged minor girl allegedly by a medical professional at the Bankura Medical Hospital in West Bengal. The case is extremely distressing considering that the victim is a person of special needs and she was under the care of a doctor, who not only is alleged to have committed the crime but also breached the trust of the patient. The Commission notes with dismay that the young SP who took prompt action in the matter and ensured timely enquiry has been transferred, a three-member committee that probed the matter said in its report. The committee constituted to enquire into the recent incidents of crime against women in West Bengal, visited the State on April 2 and 3. It comprised Wansuk Syeim and Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar, members of the Commission and Anita Agnihotri, member secretary, NCW. The panel met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and sought an action taken report within three months.

The Commission noted with dismay that the two key officers investigating the Park Street gang rape case and the Bankura case, were transferred before the inquiry could be completed. Both of them reportedly played a critical role in bringing the alleged perpetrators to book, giving courage and strength to the targets of attack and their families, the report said. The women who have been targets of attack should be offered financial compensation under provisions of the law (Section 357-A Cr.PC) by preparing an appropriate scheme, as has been done by other States. Hand-holding of the women should be done by designated field functionaries of the Women and Child Development Department so as to ensure that they do not suffer trauma and disruption of livelihood. If required, special assistance of psychologists and social workers should be provided, it said. The Commission also recommended a review of the convention presently adopted by the Commissionerate of Police, Kolkata, which required an order of a court before a victim of rape is subjected to a medical examination. The Commission would like to point out that this convention is not present in other police organisations including West Bengal, and is against the spirit of law and recent judgments of the Supreme Court and High Courts which clearly indicate that neither the medical officers nor the accused should get any advantage in the process and valuable medical evidence against the accused is lost in any matter. Drawing the attention of the government to the high number of crimes, in particular rapes and gang rapes over a short span of time in recent months, the report quoted an analysis of recent cases by NGO network Maitree that suggested that West Bengal recorded the second highest number of rape cases in the country and the rate of increase in reported cases was twice the national average. Moreover, this State had the second lowest conviction rate in the country. Further, girls from the age of 7 to women of 72 were subjected to rape; this included housewives, working women, mentally and physically challenged women, and tribals; the incidents occurred at all times of the day and night in public places, government hospitals, homes, fields and everywhere. The rapists ranged from students to tutors, teachers, family members, robbers, political party workers/elders and government workers among others. This clearly indicates that no woman is safe anywhere at anytime, the report stated, while suggesting that such a factual study along with an exercise in vulnerability mapping in Crime Against Women would give insights into the mechanism of taking a reported case to the last stage and throw light on measures to be adopted for strengthening the system. The Commission recommended that an advisory to all medical institutions including medical colleges and hospitals be issued by the Department of Health in order to orient and sensitise the medical professionals to the issues involved in crimes against women. It recommended setting up of a 24x7 helpline for women across the State and intensifying preventive action in vulnerable areas. ================================================== Supreme Court grants interim bail to sexual assault victim Special Correspondent Share Comment print T+ Made an accused by Jaipur Police in a counter case to hers against the police

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to a paraplegic and alleged victim of custodial sexual torture from Jaipur. The girl had been made an accused by the Jaipur Police (District East) in a counter case to hers against the police. Justice C. S. Thakur and Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra of the Supreme Court, who heard the matter, noted that the girl was a living corpse and she deserved dignity and not custody. Quoting from the order, the Judges said that the report from the board of doctors constituted under the orders of the High Court showed that the petitioner was a complete paraplegic. Her left leg has been amputated above the knee. She has also lost voluntary control of bowel and bladder, and is completely dependent for all her activities of daily living. She has permanent disability of more than 80 per cent. The girl was represented by senior counsel Colin Gonsalves. The State of Rajasthan was represented by Additional Advocate-General Manish Singhvi. Mr. Gonsalves submits that keeping in view the medical condition of the petitioner and the fact that she has been in custody for past 63 days, this court could consider granting interim bail to her. Dr. Singhvi does not seriously oppose that prayer and submits that pending. Final disposal of the petition and filing of objections by the respondent, the court could grant interim bail to the petitioner, said the Judges. In the circumstances, therefore, we direct that the petitioner shall be released from custody on her furnishing bail bonds in a sum of Rs. 10,000 with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court .This order is only an interim arrangement and shall remain subject to the final outcome of the SLP, they said. The case dates back to January 23, 2011, when the girl was sexually abused allegedly in police custody. She had taken to the police station in the name of interrogation in a missing case of one of her friends. Shattered by the sexual abuse the girl threw herself in front of a train next morning. She survived the suicide attempt, becoming a paraplegic. The policemen allegedly involved were arrested following the public outrage. When the girl's friend returned on May 4, 2011, after having spent time in Mathura, she was made to give statements against the victim. Consequently, victim and two persons who witnessed her sexual torture were arrested. The girl was arrested on the February 29. The law on bail clearly gives powers to police and magisterial courts to grant bail u/s 437 (1) (2) if such person is under the age of 16 years or is a woman or is sick or infirm' but in the case of the victim, neither did the investigating officer of the case, nor the Magisterial court/ the District court granted her bail when she was a fit case of bail at all levels, said Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan. =============================================== Miseries migrate as well Gaurav Sharma A recent eight-hour strike by around 200 workers over non-payment of four months' salaries has brought into focus various issues relating to the exploitation of foreign construction workers in Singapore. Ramakrishnan Kannan, 35 hails from the Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu and has three children and old parents to look after. He took a loan of Rs.four lakh to pay a commission to the recruiting agent in India. I was promised a salary of SG$ 600 by the agent, but was sometimes paid even

less than SG$ 400. Things got worse last June when I broke my hand and leg while pushing a beam at my employer DN Coocon Pte Ltd's work site, said Kannan. Even though the employment of foreign manpower act (EFMA) of Singapore mandates employers to bear all medical expenses for their workers, I am still to receive any compensation, he added. Lakshmanan Prapakar, 31, of Tiruvarur, Tamil Nadu faced a similar tragedy working as a plumber for Soon Heng Sprinkler Pte Ltd. He broke his right-hand thumb in November 2011. For an injury as grave as mine, I was initially sanctioned only three days of medical leave, he said. Foreign workers constitute more than 85 per cent of Singapore's construction workforce from India, Bangladesh and China. There are approximately 1.05 million foreign workers in Singapore, of which 2,45,000 are in the construction sector alone. The relatively low wages, long hours and harsh working conditions make the industry an unattractive sector for most Singaporeans. The most important reason for exploitation of foreign workers is the employer-sponsored work visa policy prevalent in Singapore, which gives employers excessive power and control over their workers, said Debbie Fordyce, coordinator at Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), a non-profit advocacy group working for fair treatment of foreign workers in Singapore. It starts with having to pay high agency fees to secure a job in Singapore. Once here, the workers are made to sign contracts limiting their civil liberties and agreeing to receive lower wages than promised. Additionally, the prevalence of unpaid salaries, long working hours with no offs, forced dangerous work leading to injuries, employers refusing to bear the cost of medical treatment, poor accommodations, passports routinely withheld, and above all, forced repatriation to their home countries without the employer settling their claims, make migrant workers one of the most vulnerable section of Singapore society. Though EFMA lays out a pretty comprehensive protection scheme for foreign construction workers, its enforcement is poor. We have been alerting the ministry of manpower (MOM), Singapore, to these cases for several years with no noticeable improvement, added Ms Fordyce. Instead, the ministry expects these workers - unaware of their legal rights, dependent on their employer for food and shelter, and heavily in debt to agents - to be proactive in reporting abuses. Furthermore, the policy of requiring workers who have made compensatory claims against their employers to stay in Singapore on a Special Pass, which doesn't allow them to engage in any form of employment, is particularly strange. How does the MOM expects the worker to survive in Singapore without any source of income till his claim is resolved - a process which often takes months - is beyond comprehension. High Court of Singapore in a recent case Lee Chiang Theng vs Public Prosecutor SGHC 252 has noted, foreign workers are unquestionably not chattel like the slaves of less enlightened times and are especially vulnerable. Lee, who was the appellant, was sentenced to four weeks jail and SG$36,000 fine by a lower court for illegal hiring, non-payment of salaries and substandard accommodation leading to the death of one worker from chicken pox. Judge of Appeal V.K.Rajah while noting the prosecution's failure to appeal said, Had there been an appeal to enhance the sentences, I would have been inclined to significantly increase the term of imprisonment. Meanwhile, on its part, MOM has launched an awareness campaign among migrant workers by distributing a booklet titled A guide for foreign workers' published in six languages including Tamil and Bengali. All new workers arriving with an in-principle approval for work permit get a copy at immigration informing them that their salaries must be paid at least once a month and within seven days after the salary period. Also, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, minister for manpower, had assured the Singapore parliament recently that his ministry will act tough against complaints of wrongful confinement and forcible repatriation of foreign workers.

=============================================== Porn terror documents outline Mumbai-style attack plans Narayan Lakshman Share Comment print T+ One year on from the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, al-Qaeda has revealed both a technological sophistication and a morbid creativity that nearly flummoxed intelligence officials across the West, from Germany to the United States. This week, documents obtained by CNN showed that pornographic videos seized from an Austrian terror suspect, called Maqsood Lodin, who was questioned by the police in Berlin last year, were cracked open by cryptologists to expose plans for international terror attacks planned by al-Qaeda, many of them following the shooting-spree style of Mumbai 2008. According to reports, more than 100 al-Qaeda documents, including an inside track on some of the terror group's most audacious plots and a road map for future operations, were found within several pornographic videos hidden in Lodin's underpants, contained in a digital storage device and memory cards. U.S. intelligence sources reportedly told CNN that the documents uncovered were pure gold, with one official confirming that it was the most important haul of al-Qaeda materials in the last year, besides those found when U.S. Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's compound. ==================================================

SAARC nations to emulate Indias poll practices PTI Share Comment print T+ Indias success in holding elections through electronic systems including the use of EVMs, has caught the fancy of Pakistan and other SAARC countries, which have expressed the desire to emulate it in their respective areas. As heads of poll management bodies of SAARC countries got together to evolve solutions to common problems at the ongoing 3rd conference of heads of election management bodies of SAARC nations here, India showcased its use of modern technology for strengthening democracy and election management systems. India made a presentation on use of technology in election management which generated encouraging response from Election Commissions of SAARC countries. Yes, we would like to follow the best practices followed by India. We are inspired by Indias controls on use of money power and help us increase voter turnouts, as our voter turnout is very low..., Justice (Retd) Muhammad Roshan Essani, member of Election Commission of Pakistan told PTI on Tuesday. For the 83 million voters in Pakistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan has created a computerised data base of voters and we are trying to make use of IT and EVMs in our election system... For tackling money power and political finance, that legislation is under consideration. We are working on that. A committee has been formed, he said.

Pakistan EC spokesman Muhammad Afzal Khan said, With Pakistan, India and Bangladesh having similar cultures, all should help each other...We must learn from each other... We are trying to use EVMs in our elections. Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan (Dasho) Kunzang Wangdi also said they are trying to emulate many good election practices from India, as theirs was a new democracy formed only in 2008 after years of monarchy. ========================================