India asks Pakistan for wanted terrorists

India's most wanted that are sheltered in Pakistan:
1. Dawood Ibrahim
2. Hafiz Mohd Saeed
3. Syed Salahuddin
4. Ibrahim Abdul Razak Memon
5. Ayub Memon
6. Chhota Shakeel
7. Maulana Masood Azhar
8. Shahid Akhtar Saeed
9. Mohammed Ibrahim Athar
10. Zahoor Ibrahim Mistri
11. Gajinder Singh
12. Ishaq Atta Hussain
13. Sagir Sabir Ali Shaikh
14. Ranjit Singh alias Neeta
15. Paramjit Singh Panjwar

The state of our Judiciary

We need to do something drastically about the state of our Judiciary.Getting justice in a fast and fair manner is essential in the making of a great nation.
The latest figures released by the Supreme Court tell a story — the state governments are not filling vacancies in trial courts. The ‘all hands on deck’ call by the Chief Justice of India to tackle the monstrous pendency of nearly 3 crore cases in the high courts and trial courts is not yielding the expected result despite best efforts from judges as the judiciary is grappling with large vacancies in the HCs and the lower judiciary. The vacant posts of judges in the trial courts have remained the same for the last one year. If it was 3,233 at the end of last year, at present it is 3,239. The sanctioned strength of judges in the lower judiciary being 16,158, the vacancy percentage works out to 20. The blame should also be shared by the Chief Justice of India and the Collegium headed by him as the high courts, for which they are the sole recommending authority on appointment of judges, are also reeling under a huge vacancy, a little over 30%. The HCs, having a pendency of 38 lakh cases, are functioning with 620 judges as against a sanctioned strength of 886. The biggest high court in the country — Allahabad HC — accounts for the most number of vacancies in a single HC. Against the sanctioned 160 posts of judges, there are only 76 judges — over 50% vacancy. The Punjab and Haryana HC has 21 judges posts vacant, Andhra Pradesh HC 19, Calcutta HC 18, Patna HC 16, Madras HC 15, Bombay HC 13 and 12 each in the HCs of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Kerala. And the situation in the trial courts follow an identical pattern, with Uttar Pradesh accounting for the most number of pending cases and the highest vacancy in trial court judges. While the number of cases pending has touched 50 lakh, the number of vacant judges post is 540.

Vizag, Vijayawada BRTS snippets

In a major boost to the BRTS project, the Andhra government has cleared the proposals for setting up special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to implement the bus rapid transport system (BRTS) in Vijayawada and Vizag. Separate transport companies will be set up to monitor and implement the BRTS corridors in both the cities. While the SPV for Vijayawada will be called as Vijayawada Urban Transport Company Limited, the same in Visakhapatnam has been named as Visakhapatnam Urban Transport Company Ltd. The state-owned Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) will have a shareholding of 51 per cent, while respective municipal corporations will have 25 per cent and the urban development authorities hold the remaining 24 per cent stake in the new companies. Though the civic bodies have lesser share, the municipal commissioners will act as chairpersons of the urban transport companies. The executive directors of the RTC from the respective zones have been named as managing directors. The district collector, the vice-chairmen of the urban development authorities, the RTC regional manager, deputy commissioner of transport and city police commissioners would be on the board of management as directors. Both the companies will be incorporated with an authorised (initial) share capital of Rs 2.5 crore. Government sources said the SPVs would help by way of planning, designing, financing, developing, constructing, maintaining, marketing, operating and enabling BRTS run on the proposed corridors. The companies would also provide and facilitate provision of multi-modal transportation services, including owning, licensing and operating bus routes, passenger and other modes of transport. While the Centre is funding the BRTS projects through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme, the state government has asked the municipal commissioners of VMC and GVMC to file applications with the registrar of companies for registration of companies. Sources said that BRTS is expected to hit the roads by March next year. The BRTS has been planned keeping in view of the massive traffic congestions in the cities, an official said. Proposed routes The BRTS project will be taken up on a 15.5 kms corridor at a cost of Rs 152.64 crore in Vijayawada. It will be laid from Police Control Room to IGMC Street via railway station-C K Reddy road-Satyanarayanapuram railway track road- Machavaram down-Ramavarappadu junction-Health University and Benz Circle. In Visakhpatnam, two separate corridors are planned costing Rs 452.93 crore. While corridor-1 will be laid from Pendurthi transit corridor to Dwarakanagar via NAD junction covering a distance of 22.6 kms, corridor-2 would run between Simhachalam transit corridor (STC) and Dwarakanagar covering a distance of 20.5 kms.

Sir Creek snippets

Sir Creek, a disputed area between India and Pakistan, is once again in focus after the terror attack on Mumbai. This narrow 99-km stretch off Rann of Kutch is where the marine boundaries of the two countries are hazy. The estuary is also a place where trawlers from both countries jostle with each other for a good catch in brackish water. Locals call it ‘Harami Nala’, an abuse reserved for an area which is neither here nor there. But also because a lot of smuggling and other nefarious activities happen in this estuary. There is reason to believe that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26 moved from a Pakistani boat to an Indian vessel (Kuber) in this creek, which has long been a source of infiltration across the border.Border Security Force sources confirm that most infiltrators use Sir Creek to get inside Indian territory in the guise of fishermen. With virtually no check either by Indian or Pakistani agencies, this creek figured as one of eight major issues on the peace agenda of India and Pakistan in 2004. The row between Islamabad and Delhi over Sir Creek, the stretch of marshland that lies partly in Pakistan’s Sindh province and partly in Gujarat, dates back to pre-Partition. Both the countries have made claims over this disputed site. In the absence of any diplomatic control, fishermen freely fish in these troubled waters. In August this year there were reports of increased activities by Pakistan in the creek after both countries pledged a joint patrol in the area. Bharat Modi, a leader of fishermen, says, “Absence of any check promotes illegal activities in Sir Creek”. Among recent incidents of hostilities on the disputed Sir Creek area was immediately after the Kargil war, when Indian Air Force shot down a Pakistani patrol plane, Atlantique, carrying l6 persons in August 1999. Then in November 2000, IAF’s MI-8 helicopter crashed near Harami Nala, 15 km from the official international boundary line, killing seven of the 12 air force and BSF personnel on board. It was initially suspected that Pakistan avenged Atlantique by shooting this helicopter which was on a recce mission. Investigations later revealed that the pilot was “distracted” by fishing trawlers spotted on Sir Creek area below. The crew on board suspected they were Pakistani boats, camouflaged as fishing boats. There are 17 creeks of Sindh coast of which Sir Creek is the 17th. These creeks used to be the main estuaries of river Indus of which Sir Creek, a 99-km long strip of water between the Rann of Kutch (in India) and Sindh (in Pakistan) is the biggest and emerged as a disputed area in the late 1960s. Both countries are staking claim to this creek, not because of security reasons, but economic because Sir Creek has deposits of oil and gas besides it gives a good fresh water fish yield. The dispute is in interpretation of the boundary line between Kutch and Sindh as depicted in a 1914 and 1925 map. At that time, the region was a part of Bombay Presidency of undivided India. After India’s independence in 1947, Sindh became part of Pakistan while Kutch remained part of India. Sir Creek, also referred to as ‘Harami Nala’ by local residents, is a difficult terrain to patrol because it is marshy and floods in monsoons.

Crude falls below $48 on US recession

Crude oil fell to the lowest in more than three years on signs the US, the world's largest energy consumer, may be in the longest slump since World War II. Crude oil for January delivery dropped as much as $1.92, or 3.9%, to $47.36 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the lowest since May 20, 2005. Brent crude oil for January settlement fell as much as $1.95, or 4.1%, to $46.02 a barrel, on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange, the lowest intraday price since Feb 18, 2005. Oil prices have tumbled 68% since reaching a record $147.27 on July 11 as the US, Europe and Japan face their first simultaneous recession since World War II. The US first entered a recession in December 2007, the panel of economists that dates American business cycles said. US manufacturing output in November contracted at the fastest pace in 26 years, a report showed. Crude pared losses as the dollar weakened against the euro, making commodities more attractive as a currency hedge.

Back to Bombay?

The emotional outburst against terrorists and politicians is being circulated as text messages and e-mails. One interesting outcome of this is that some citizens want their city to be renamed back as ‘Bombay’ as they feel that it was much better and luckier than the present Mumbai. Celebrated numerologist Sanjay B Jumaani also prefers the name ‘Bombay’. ‘‘Numerically speaking, the original name of the city adds up to the number 17, which symbolises peace and prosperity. On the other hand, Mumbai adds up to the number 18, which has negative shades and symbolises materialism striving to destroy spirituality,’’ Jumaani said. He said 17 (Bombay) was a highly spiritual number and was expressed in symbolism by the eight-pointed star of Venus: a symbol of ‘‘Peace and Love’’. Jumaani added that Mumbai’s 18 was a warning of treachery, deception by others, as well as danger from the elements like storms, water and explosions. But not everyone agrees with Jumaani’s number play. Astrophysics researcher from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) P C Agrawal stated: ‘‘There is no scientific logic behind certain names and numbers being lucky or unlucky. But I personally do not like names being arbitrarily changed, like Madras to Chennai, Calcutta to Kolkata and Bangalore to Bengaluroo.’ But ardent followers of astrology and numerology argue back that not everything can be totally explained through pure science, like the concept of God or the creation of universe. Infotech professional from SEEPZ in Andheri (East) Umesh Chhajed remarked: ‘‘Anything and everything that can prevent the recurrence of terror should be done, including changing the name back to Bombay if it is good for the city.’’ Chhajed, who is from Anlage Infotech (India) Pvt Ltd, has already given an online petition to the PM Singh to ‘‘cripple terrorism at its source; including the terror camps within India and neighbouring countries, and to make our police better equipped to combat terrorists’’.

Candles in the wind....

Citizens of Mumbai..for Mumbai.