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'Financial
inclusion to
remain pipe...
CBI sleuths
visit NEHU
Tura campus
GUARDIAN NEWS BUREAU
TURA, APR 29: Investigators from the Central Bureau of Investigations
(CBI) visited the North
Eastern Hill University
(NEHU), Tura campus
yesterday in what has
been described as a preliminary stage of verification.
According to an insider,
the sleuths were able to
meet the deputy registrar
of finance and took down
details to start off their verification proceedings.
However the exact details of the verification process are yet to be disclosed as the Pro Vice
Chancellor (PVC), Eugene
Thomas is currently on
leave.
A source from the CBI
informed that the reason
for the visit was not due to
an investigation but only
for verification purposes.
“It is also just a preliminary stage of verification
and the university has
been co-operative on the
details sought. The Deputy Registrar of finance
was present and provided us inputs on what we
required,” the source added.
Govt sanctions
2 new battalions
to NDRF
NEW DELHI, APR 29: Government today bolstered
the strength of the national disaster combat force
NDRF by sanctioning two
new battalions comprising 2,000 personnel to it.
A decision in this regard
was today cleared by the
Union Cabinet chaired by
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi as it approved the
"conversion of two
(Contd. on P-3)
Forces of nature
Online edition: http://mg.glpublications.in
Total Pages: 12 Rs. 5.00
HCputsheadmanbehindbars
GUARDIAN NEWS BUREAU
SHILLONG, APR 29: The
Meghalaya High Court today remanded a traditional chief of a village of East
Khasi Hills district to one
day judicial custody for alleged contempt of a court
order prohibiting headmen from issuing any no
objection
certificate
(NOC) even as it reserved
its order on the matter for
tomorrow.
Skhembor
Khongjirem, a Sordar of
Wahkhen village was arrested by the police after
a hearing was conducted
by the court here on
Wednesday, sources informed.
The Sordar was taken to
the Sadar Police Station
and then was sent to the
Shillong District Jail, they
said.
“He (Khongjirem) was
sent to one day judicial
custody and he would
again be produced before
the court tomorrow,” a senior police official said
here.
According to sources,
the court has reserved its
final order on the matter
till Thursday.
The High Court in an order issued on April 23,
had directed the Sordar to
appear in person before
the court today after taking
cognizance on reports
which alleged that he has
violated the court’s order
by issuing the NOCs for
bank accounts, bank
loans.
Questioning the powers
of the traditional heads in
the state, the High Court
ruling in December last
year, observed that a village/locality headman did
not derive any right from
law, and rule or from the
Constitution of India to
issue NOC for the purpose of birth/death or for
registration of any document as well as for building permission and obtaining loan.
Further, the court order
has also directed the state
government and its district
administration not to indulge or ask people to obtain NOC from headmen.
Earlier, Khongjirem in
his statement made to the
media has claimed that
he has been issuing certificates to the residents
of his village.
“I have been issuing the
certificates since many villagers come to me for issue of certificates either
for opening of a bank account or for submission to
the government departments to avail various
schemes,” Khongjirem
had stated.
He claimed that the certificates have greatly
helped residents, especially farmers who are applying for loan and various
government schemes.
Sordar of Wahkhen Skhembor Khongjirem was arrested by the police for alleged
contempt of court order after a hearing conducted by the Meghalaya High Court
on Wednesday. Guardian Photo
KHADC demands arrest of ‘instigators’
GUARDIAN NEWS BUREAU
SHILLONG, APR 29: Expressing
stiff opposition to the arrest of a
tribal chief, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC)
has demanded immediate arrest
of those involved in insisting the
headman to issue certificates
even as it lambasted the state
government for the current situation arising out of its failure to
clear the Khasi Hills Autonomous
District (Village Administration)
Bill.
The KHADC has also decided
to convene an emergency meeting of the executive committee led
by the All Regional Parties Alliance (ARPA) on the matter.
“We expressed our concerns on
the arrest of the Sordar of Wahkhen
village,
Skhembor
Khongjirem, not because he is a
criminal but just because he has
fulfilled his duties as per prevailing traditional and customary
practices,” KHADC Chief Adelbert
Nongrum told reporters.
The CEM who was accompanied by the his executive members (EMs)
including EM Elaka, KP
Pangniang, Morningstar Mawsor
Naveen Jindal, Madhu Koda
among 12 charged
Coal scam
GUARDIAN NEWS BUREAU
TODAY’S EDITORIAL
fifth city over
2024 bid: Bach
" Court acts against Sordar for issuing NOC violating its order
Sohra SDO
removed
SHILLONG, APR 29:
Ghanshyam Dass, a IAS
officer of Assam-Meghalaya who was serving as
SDO of of Sohra, has
been released from Meghalaya segment to enable him to join Assam
segment, an official statement said.
Nipon Hajong, MCS, Extra Assistant Commissioner (EAC) will take over
as the new SDO (Civil)
Sohra.
Dass has been released after the Government of Assam conveyed
it willingness to have the
officer in the Assam segment in its letter dated
March 31, the statement
added.
to deliver aid to
remote areas in Nepal
SHILLONG ! THURSDAY ! APRIL 30, 2015
VOL. XXVI NO. 114 ! RNI REGD. NO. 40948/90
11 IOC in talks with
10 Rescuers struggle
'Farmers who
commit suicide
are cowards'
Naveen Jindal
NEW DELHI, APR 29: Congress
leader and industrialist Naveen
Jindal, ex-minister of state for coal
Dasari Narayan Rao, former
Jharkhand chief minister Madhu
Koda and 12 others were charged by
the CBI on Wednesday before a
special court in a scam case on coal
block allocation.
Besides them, former coal secretary HC Gupta and five firms, including Jindal Steel and Power and Jindal
Realty Pvt Ltd, have also been
charged as accused in the case.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda
Madhu Koda
Murgadangal coal block in Birbhum
in Jharkhand in 2008.
CBI has charged these 15 accused
for the alleged offences punishable
under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating)
under the IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption
Act.
The charge sheet was filed before
special CBI judge Bharat Parashar
who will take it up for consideration
on Thursday.
CBI had earlier registered a case
against Dasari Narayan Rao,
Naveen Jindal and others for alleged
cheating, graft and criminal misconduct in the coal block allocation.
The agency had alleged that Jindal
Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) and
Gagan Sponge Iron Private Limited
(GSIPL), also a Jindal firm, had
bagged Jharkhand's Amarkonda
Murgadangal coal block in 2008 by
alleged misrepresentation of facts
when Rao was the minister of state
for coal.
It had claimed that the misrepresentation was allegedly done on
three counts — land, water supply
and previous allocations. Jindal and
his companies have denied any
wrong doing.
CBI sources had said that JSPL
allegedly claimed in an application
submitted in January 2007 that they
had only three coal blocks with them
where as actually they had at least six
blocks. Within a year, a block was
allocated to JSPL in January 2008,
CBI sources had claimed, noting that
shares of Rao's firm Soubhagya
Media listed at Rs 28 that time were
purchased by one of Jindal's firm
New Delhi Exim Limited at Rs 100
per share with total investment of
nearly Rs 2.25 crore which is alleged
to be illegal gratification. Rao, a
former Congress Rajya Sabha MP,
held position of minister of state for
coal between 2004-06 and between
2006 and 2008. Agencies
and LG Nongsiej had visited the
Sadar Police Station, where
Khongjirem was taken after being arrested from the court, to express their solidarity with him.
Khongjirem was arrested and
was remanded to one day judicial custody by the Meghalaya
High Court for alleged contempt
of a court order issued on
(Contd. on P-3)
Salman a ‘Hindu
and Muslim’
NEW DELHI, APR 29: Bollywood actor Salman
Khan on Wednesday said
that he has no religion and
that he is both a Hindu and
a Muslim.
The actor had come to
record his statement in a
case under the Arms Act.
When Chief Judicial Magistrate Anupama Bijlani
asked him his name, father’s name, profession
and other details required
by for a legal form, Salman
said, “I am an Indian.”
Then the judge said,
“There is a column which
needs to be filled so you
will have to tell.” To which
Salman said, “I am both
Hindu and Muslim. My father is a Muslim and mother is Hindu.”
While his father, famous
screen writer Salim Khan
is a Muslim, his mother,
Susheela Charak, is a
Hindu.
The arms case against
Mr Khan is 16 years old
and a sort of spin off from
another case that accuses him of poaching
chinkara or black buck, an
endangered species,
while shooting a film in
Rajasthan.
He and a few other Bollywood stars were accused of poaching blackbucks on the midnight of
Oct 1-2, 1998 during the
shooting of a movie Hum
Saath Saath Hain.
Two blackbucks, a protected animal under the
Wildlife Protection Act,
were killed on the outskirts of Kankani village
near Jodhpur.
A verdict in the arms
case was expected in February but was postponed
after the testimony of new
witnesses was requested by prosecution.
The chinkara killing
earned him five years in
prison, of which he served
three days in 2006 before
being bailed while he appealed.
(Contd. on P-3)
Centre offers
to send officers
on deputation
to NE states
NEW DELHI, APR 29: The
Centre has offered to
send its officers on deputation to north eastern
states to help them overcome manpower shortage and execution of policy decisions.
"I understand that you
have acute shortage of
officers at middle level
due to low intake of officers in civil services from
1992 to 2006. "The state
governments may like to
utilise the experience of
the Central Secretariat
Service (CSS) officers at
appropriate level on deputation basis," Department of Personnel and
Training (DoPT) Secretary Sanjay Kothari said in
a letter to chief secretaries of Tripura, Nagaland,
Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh and Sikkim. The
CSS is one of the earliest
organised services in the
country and is an important constituent of the central government machinery. Officers of the service
provide a strong and permanent set up of middle
level functionaries to the
central government and
contribute in policy formulation and its execution.
"The arrangement will
enrich the officers with the
(Contd. on P-3)
2 NDFB(S)
militants
arrested
GUWAHATI, APR 29:Two
NDFB(S) militants were
arrested with arms and
explosives in separate
operations in two districts
of Assam today.
Acting on a tip-off, a joint
team of the police and
army caught one militant
from Parbatjhora area of
Kokrajhar district, a defense
spokesperson
said.
The militant was identified as Sachin Brahma
alias Lalawho and a 9 mm
pistol and ammunition
were seized from his possession.
The militant was allegedly involved in extortion
and providing information
about movement of security forces, he said.
In another operation, a
militant of the same outfit
was arrested from Sopay
Rowmari in Bishwanath
Chariali police district.
The militant, identified
as Dilip Boro, was allegedly involved in the killing
of Adivasis in the district,
Sonitpur Superintendent
of
Police
Sanjukta
Parashar said.
Some explosives and
live ammunition were recovered from them.
Agencies
‘Out of control’ cargo spacecraft plunging into Earth
M O S C O W, A P R 2 9 : A n u n manned Russian cargo
spacecraft ferrying supplies to
the International Space Station
is plunging back to Earth and
apparently out of control, an official said on Wednesday.
"It has started descending. It
has nowhere else to go," an official familiar with the situation
told AFP on condition of anonymity, speaking ahead of an
official Russian space agency
statement expected later in the
day.
"It is clear that absolutely uncontrollable reactions have
begun." The official said the
descent likely marked the end
of the Progress spacecraft's
mission although the Russian
authorities will contact it again
to make sure everything has
been done to rescue it.
"We have scheduled two
more communication sessions to soothe our conscience," said the official, adding it was hard to predict when
exactly the vessel would fall
back to Earth.
A spokesman for the Russian
space agency, Mikhail Fadeyev,
declined immediate comment.
The loss of the Progress supply ship would be the latest
embarrassment for Russia's
space programme that has
been recently hit by a series of
mishaps.
Russian officials said earlier
on Wednesday that attempts to
contact the spacecraft had been
unsuccessful, raising fears it
could be lost for good.
"There have been no improvements," a mission control
spokesman told AFP.
The controllers had on Tuesday opted to change the flight
plan and extend the vessel's
journey to two days instead of six
hours in a bid to fix the glitch.
The mission control spokesman said a decision on the
spacecraft's fate would likely be
announced later in the day.
"It's the first time that we have
such a combination of emergency situations." Agencies
An attendant pours water into the mouth of an injured
evacuee as he lies on a stretcher inside a military
plane evacuating injured and stranded Indians from
Kathmandu to New Delhi during a midnight rescue
mission by Indian Air Force, in Kathmandu, Nepal, on
Wednesday. AP/PTI