News4u – News Desk : (PTI) The government today cleared a proposal for setting up a commission in an effort to check illegal mining and it has been asked to submit its report within 18 months, according to official sources.

The decision follows several meetings that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has held with senior Mines Ministry officials to ensure that illegal mining is checked across the country.

The commission has been asked to submit its report within 18 months after monitoring the progress of state-governments like Karnataka in checking the menace, the sources said.

“The Union Cabinet today approved proposal for setting up a commission to check illegal mining in the country. The commission will focus on alleged illegal mining in Karnataka and other mineral producing states,” said a source.

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News4u-News Desk-Sri Lankan government on Tuesday announced formation of a reconciliation commission aimed at building mutual trust among various communities in the country and easing of some emergency regulations like restriction on holding meetings.

Newly-appointed Prime Minister D M Jayaratne made this announcement in Parliament while participating in a debate on a proposal to extend the state of emergency by a further month.

Jayaratne said the ‘Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ is being formed with the objective of forging closer cooperation among various communities of the society in the island nation.

The Prime Minister also said the state of emergency will be used only to protect the citizens’ rights and not to obstruct the state security.

Some have forgotten the “terror period” in the country during the past, Jayaratne said, referring to the LTTE which was defeated by security forces in may last year.

The government considers its responsibility to hand over the future of the country to the younger generation, he said.

The Prime Minister said that during the last stage of the Eelam IV war, 2.8 lakh civilians were freed from the “terrorist areas.” Out of them, 11,700 were LTTE members.

The government has implemented a systematic plan to bring them into the mainstream of the society, Jayaratne said, adding more than 2,400 LTTE members have been rehabilitated till now.

Information has been received that some LTTE members are reorganising themselves internationally to raise their heads again, Jayaratne warned.

He said action will be taken to eliminate such LTTE networks with the help of intelligence sources from the security.

Parliament was told that LTTE leader Rudra Kumaran has said that he plans to build an Eelam state outside the country.

The House was also told that LTTE remnants planned to hold a conference in Switzerland in this regard, the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister D M Jayaratne

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News4u-News Desk-Pakistan government Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it will establish a judicial commission to address the issue of thousands of “missing persons” or people who are believed to have been detained by security and intelligence agencies.

Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan told a three-member bench headed by Justice Javed Iqbal that all concerned ministries will be accountable to the proposed judicial commission on missing persons.

The commission will comprise a retired judge of the Supreme Court and two retired judges of High Courts. The apex court is hearing a clutch of petitions asking the court to direct authorities to trace the missing persons.

The Foreign Office presented a report in the court that said about 6,000 Pakistanis are currently being held overseas.

Rights groups and relatives of the missing persons have alleged that security agencies are holding thousands of people without charge.

Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, one of the members of the bench, observed during hearing that the formation of the judicial commission will ease the burden of the apex court.

Justice Iqbal remarked that the basic problem in the matter is that there are different stakeholders who are not performing their functions efficiently.

“The government could have taken the issue of the missing persons seriously,” Iqbal said.

He added it was deplorable that the number of missing persons had increased instead of going down and thus the situation is alarming.

Only about 237 people had been traced since the judicial proceedings started and a majority of the missing persons hailed from Balochistan, he said.

Iqbal also remarked that the government should change current laws governing the arrest of people if they are flawed.

The bench also directed the Chief Commissioner and Inspector General Police of Islamabad to appear before it on 5th April and inform it about the actual number of people killed in the 2007 military operation against radical elements and militants holed up in the Lal Masjid.

The bench said it would hear the Lal Masjid case separately from that of the missing persons.

The army has maintained that about 100 people were killed in the Lal Masjid operation. However, several religious groups and political parties have claimed the toll was higher.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairperson Asma Jehangir presented a list of 51 missing persons to the court.

This included 27 people from Balochistan, 10 from Punjab and seven each from NWFP and Sindh. Jehangir asked the court to order the government to inform the HRCP about the laws under which the intelligence agencies are working and to whom

they are accountable.

Amna Masood Janjua of the NGO Defence for Human Rights, whose husband is among the missing persons, opposed the proposal for setting up a commission and said the Supreme Court was the only hope for the relatives of the missing.

However, the apex court suspended the proceedings in the case after a serving lieutenant colonel allegedly threatened a lawyer.

The court took serious notice of the incident and directed the army officer, who is a legal officer in the defence ministry, to explain why he had threatened the lawyer in the court.

The Lieutenant colonel tendered an unconditional apology, following which the court adjourned the hearing till 5th April.

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News4u-News Desk-Strongly opposing any move by the Centre to constitute State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) on the Telangana issue, CPI General Secretary A R Bardhan on Wednesday said it will open the ‘pandora box’ and encourage demands for bifurcation of states from other quarters.

Talking to mediapersons in Bangalore after a National Council from December 27 to 29, he said, ”it will encourage ’seperatists’ in all states division of states into two, three or even  small units.”

Bardhan wondered why such a Commission was not formed during the formation of states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

CPI

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News4u-News Desk-At a time when reforms both in the direct and indirect taxes areas are likely to be in place in the next couple of years, the 13th Finance Commission submitted its recommendations on sharing of the Central tax receipts between the Union and the states.

The report of the Finance Commission, headed by former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar, assumes importance since reforms in the direct and indirect taxes areas are likely to be in place in the next couple of years in the form of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Direct Taxes Code.

Kelkar presented the report to Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The report will be given by the President to the Finance Ministry, which will take it up with the Cabinet. Cabinet will then adopt the report and is expected to table it in the Budget session of Parliament.

Former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar

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News4u-News Desk-The United Nations is “positively considering” a three month extension to the commission probing into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said.

The mandate of the Commission expires by the end of this month.

Ban said he has received an official request from Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, who is the chairman of this inquiry Commission investigating into the death of Bhutto to extend it for another three months, because of limited time.

“They need more time to continue their investigation. I think this is reasonable. And I am positively considering extending it for another three months,” Ban told reporters at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Bhutto was killed on 27th December, 2007, in a gun-and-suicide-bomb attack as she was leaving an election rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.

“As for United Nations activities in Pakistan, because of these very serious security concerns after the killing of five WFP staff, we have been considering what would be the best way to continue our humanitarian support to the Pakistani people without much impact on the part of the UN,” he said.

“I have discussed with (Pakistan) President (Asif Ali) Zardari, and we discussed among ourselves, and we are now taking some temporary measures of relocating some of our staff. But our basic commitment, our basic activities will continue, without much being affected,” Ban said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon

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News4u-News Desk-Islamabad, (PTI) Indian High Commission today denied reports that it had not issued visas to Pakistani cricketers who want to play in next year’s IPL and said it is processing the applications of the players.

The High Commission said it was not informed by the Pakistan Cricket Board or the Indian Premier League of any deadline for issuing the visas.

“The High Commission was approached by the Pakistan Cricket Board for issuance of visa to only one player (Sohail Tanvir), while three other players submitted visa applications to the High Commission of India in Wellington. These visa applications are being processed,” said a statement issued by the mission.

“The High Commission of India was not advised about any deadline for issuing visas to Pakistani players either by the IPL Organising Committee or the Pakistan Cricket Board,” the statement said.

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News4u-News Desk-The UPA government has decided to form a National Rehabilitation Commission to ensure adequate compensation and proper rehabilitation to people willing to part with their land for development, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday.

“The commission would ensure that villagers who are willing to part with their land for development were compensated adequately and rehabilitated properly,” she said.

“We want development but not at the cost of displacement of tribals,” Gandhi said while addressing a election meeting in East Singhbhum district.

Referring to the prevailing Naxal activities, she said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already said development work and law and order machinery will go along simultaneously.

The UPA government was ready for talks with Naxal outfits to find out an amicable solution to their problems but they would have to shun violence first, the AICC chief said.

Gandhi said the Congress was committed to development and maintaining peace so that benefits of various schemes reach the poor and tribals of the country.

Sonia Gandhi said mineral-rich Jharkhand was lagging behind on all fronts because of political instability for the last nine years and appealed to masses to vote for Congress, which would take the state forward on the path of development.

Claiming that Congress has always fought for the interest of the tribals and weaker sections of the society, Gandhi said former prime minister Indira Gandhi had nationalized the mining sector and framed mining policy which benefited local people and industries set up.

However, several of these industries were now closed owing to misrule of the previous governments, she said promising that Congress would take all possible steps to revive the closed units.

The UPA chairperson claimed that several welfare measures including introduction of midday meal in schools, distribution of bicycles and scholarship among meritorious tribal students, construction of two lakh houses under Indira Gandhi Awas Yojana have been taken ever since President’s rule in Jharkhand came into force.

People have voted the Congress-led UPA back to power at the Centre, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana only because of its performance, she said and appealed to give the Congress a chance to serve Jharkhand too.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi

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News4u-News Desk-Varanasi, Rejecting the Liberhan Commission report indicting senior BJP leaders in the demolition of Babri Masjid, Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has termed it as nothing but a collection of newspaper clippings brought out with a political motive 17 years after the incident.

“No one, not even Justice M S Liberhan, visited Ayodhya during the 17-year period and the report is based on newspaper clipplings and statements of politicians and others,” Singh told reporters here yesterday.

Calling the report “meaningless” as it was inordinately delayed, the BJP leader alleged that it was leaked with “political motive” since the people in power were out to use it for political gains.

Asked about recurring incidents of naxal violence in his state, the Chattisgarh CM welcomed the initiatives taken by the Prime Minister but dubbed them as “too little too late”.

Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh

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News4u-News Desk-The UN investigation body probing former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination has met and questioned former President Pervez Musharraf in a “frank and cordial” conversation.

The body, looking into the facts and circumstances behind the assassination, has met “dozens” of officials during its investigation, a spokesperson from the Secretary General’s office told journalists in UN on Thursday.

“The Commission of Inquiry says that it had a frank, open and cordial conversation with former President Musharraf, having been able to pose to him many queries on issues central to its mandate,” the spokesperson said.

While the UN did not reveal the location of the meeting, a media report in Pakistan quoted Musharraf’s spokesperson Nasim Ashraf as saying that the meeting took place in Philadelphia on 27th Oct.

A brief statement carried by Dawn newspaper, quoted Musharraf as saying: “While I met the team, I strongly oppose any international probe into Pakistan’s domestic affairs”.

Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack at a rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi in December 2007 while campaigning for parliamentary elections.

Investigations carried out by the then Musharraf government blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban commander who operates in the lawless tribal areas of northwest region.

UK’s Scotland Yard was also called to investigate the killing.

Bhutto’s supporters, not satisfied by Pakistani investigations, have accused Musharraf of having involvement in the assassination.

After Asif Ali Zardari became president, Pakistan requested the UN to conduct an independent investigation.

The Commission, that started its work on 1st Jul to perform “fact finding activities in Pakistan and abroad”, was criticized for having a limited mandate.

The mandate of the body is limited to determining the facts and circumstances of the assassination and does not have any competence to establish criminal responsibilities.

The commission members have already met Zardari and members of his cabinet, including Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and will soon be meeting opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.

It is expected to submit a report to UN Chief Ban Ki-moon within six months of starting its work in July.

Ban will then share the report with the government of Pakistan and submit it to the Security Council.

Former Late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto

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