NEWS/INTERNATIONAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2014

AASU admits
to accepting
donation

Ensure students watch PMs

Teachers Day address: CBSE

Sushanta Talukdar

Anita Joshua

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Stu-

NEW DELHI: The Central Board

dents Union (AASU) took Rs.

7.5 lakh as contribution from
the Saradha group in 2010-11.
This was told by AASU president Sankar Prasad Ray to a
CBI team which searched his
house on Thursday in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. The CBI
on Thursday had searched 14
locations in Assam.
Responding to questions by
journalists at a press conference on Friday, the AASU
president admitted, in the
presence of its general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi and
adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattachariya, that the student
body received the contribution in cheques and in
instalments.
We have to seek and accept contributions to run the
organisations. We will extend
full cooperation in the investigation. Nobody is above
law, he said.

of Secondary Education
(CBSE) on Friday asked all its
affiliated schools to make arrangements for children to
watch Prime Minister Narendra Modis address on Teachers Day. Schools have been
told to inform the board by
Monday evening about the
arrangements being made .

A disturbing directive
Some schools described
the CBSE circular as disturbing and said the directive implies it is pretty much
compulsory to keep students
back in school till 5 p.m. to
watch the Prime Ministers
speech.
According to a form that
each school has to ll and return, the CBSE expects students of all classes, including
junior school right down to
Class I, to be kept back in
school for the programme.

In remote areas where TV,

edusat or Internet facilities
may not be available, arrangements have to be made
for children to listen to the
speech over radio. Also,
schools have been asked to
ensure uninterrupted power
supply for the duration of the
two-hour programme by arranging for generators/invertors as back-up.
Earlier this week, State
Education Secretaries, who
were called to the Capital by
the Union Human Resource
Development Ministry to discuss school education, were
told to ensure that arrangements are made in all government and private schools for
the live transmission of Mr.
Modis interactive session
with children at the Manekshaw Auditorium in Delhi.
Advertisements published
in newspapers on Thursday
inviting participation in Gurutsav an essay writing

competition in which students can write about their

favourite teacher have attracted charges of creeping
saffronisation as there was
no mention of Teachers Day
in them though there was a
photograph of Dr. Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan in whose
memory
the
day
is
celebrated.

A gimmick: Congress
Describing Gurutsav as a
gimmick and evidence of saffronisation by renaming
Teachers Day, Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said
the BJPs lack of respect for
teachers was evident when
the party stood by the Akhil
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
after its activists manhandled
and allegedly caused the
death of a professor, Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal, in Ujjain in 2006. First ask their
party workers to be more respectful to teachers, she
said.

SC stays M.P. judicial

panel proceedings
The Supreme
Court on Friday stayed the
proceedings of a judicial committee set up to probe sexual
harassment allegations levelled by a former woman additional district judge of
Gwalior against a Madhya
Pradesh High Court judge after she raised doubts about its
propriety.
A Bench led by Justice J.S.
Khehar stayed the implementation of the August 8 order of
the Madhya Pradesh High
Court Chief Justice setting up
the judicial panel after the
former district judges counsel, Indira Jaising, argued
that the very purpose of an
inquiry was to safeguard the
high institutional integrity
and independence of the judiciary. Ms. Jaisings client has
in her petition to the Supreme Court requested the

NEW

DELHI:

Porn sites hydra-headed: Supreme Court WHO cautions India

Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI: Concerned over the

increasing number of pornographic websites, the Supreme

Court on Friday said these sites
were hydra-headed, and that
if you block one, 10 others will
pop up in other countries.
The court was hearing the
Centres take on a PIL led by
advocate Kamlesh Vashwani
seeking to block porn websites
in India.

The Centre told the Court

that internet porn was getting
too unwieldy to handle and fatally affecting ordinary households.
A complaint was led recently with us about a girl in
Bangalore being harassed on
the Net. We got Google to delete the website. But the next
day it was uploaded on 10 other
sites. The father committed suicide two days ago, Additional
Solicitor General L. Nageswara

Rao recounted to a three-judge

Bench led by Chief Justice of
India R.M. Lodha on Friday in
open court.
Justice Rohinton Nariman
termed porn websites hydraheaded, saying if you block
one, 10 others will pop up.
Mr. Rao said the government
was working to introduce an
Internet security policy and
has taken the matter seriously
with the Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee.

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

NEW DELHI: The World Health

Organisation (WHO) has redagged the growing market

for e-cigarettes in India, underlining that the use of the
device is no less harmful than
the regular cigarettes.
Ahead of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control to be held in Moscow
in October, and a meeting of
South Asian nations in Delhi
in September, India has been
urged to push for regulations
in the use of e-cigarettes. In
India, smoking devices are
This failure to maintain up as a regulatory mechanism easily available on online
proper accounts by Multi Sys- for the broadcast sector is shopping portals.
Vinayak Mohan Prasad, an
tem Operators (MSOs) and borrowing a leaf from the
official from the WHO TobacLocal Cable Operators (LCOs) telecom sector.
as per the prescribed norms is
Cable operators will be co Free Initiative, Switzernot only inconveniencing ned Rs. 20 per subscriber for land, told The Hindu that
consumers but also contrib- the rst contravention and smart marketing and inadeuting to revenue loss by way of a maximum of Rs. 50 for every quate information on the nictaxes for the government.
subsequent non-compliance otine content in e-cigarettes
In proposing nancial dis- of the Standards of Quality of had created a false impresincentives for MSOs and Service (DAS) Regulations, sion that these devices were
LCOs, TRAI which doubles 2012.
not as harmful as regular

Cable operators face nes over billing

Anita Joshua
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) is planning to levy nancial disincentives on cable operators for failing to
provide proper bills and receipts for payments to subscribers
of
Digital
Addressable Cable TV Systems (DAS).

Nepal: 17 CA members nominated

Also issues notice to HC judge

Legal Correspondent

Urges it to push for

regulations in the
use of e-cigarettes
cigarettes.
In the absence of a regulation, the use of e-cigarettes
has grown. They are easily accessible to even non-smokers. In many countries these
e-cigarettes are available in
candy avours, giving an impression that they are not
harmful. We have sought a
regulation on their use to protect public health. There
should be a ban on smoking
e-cigarettes in public as well
and a restriction on their
use, Dr. Prasad said.
From the current $3 billion, the market is expected to
grow 17 times by 2023. As
there is a growing market in
India as well, companies like
ITC, he said, have announced
a foray into e-cigarette manufacturing.

setting up of a new committee

comprising two Chief Justices from outside the Madhya
Pradesh High Court, a High
Court judge and a non-judicial member.
She also urged the Chief
Justice of India to comply
with the house procedure
adopted by a full court meeting of the Supreme Court on
December 15, 1999, as per the
Vishaka case guidelines on
combating sexual harassment
at workplace.
Ms. Jaising invoked the
highest judiciarys commitment to conduct a fair inquiry
if substantive cause for action
was found in case of misconduct or impropriety.
The Bench has also issued
notice to the judge, blamed by
his former subordinate of
sexual harassment. The petitioner had alleged that as she
did not respond to his advances she was transferred.

Visva-Bharati
student alleges
sexual harassment
Special Correspondent
KOLKATA: The father of a rst-

year student at the Visva-Bharati University, who has alleged sexual harassment by
her seniors, said on Friday that
the varsity authorities had
asked him not to approach the
police or talk to the media.
The father and the student
left the university without ling a complaint.
The rst year student of Kala Bhavan of the University alleged that three seniors, on the
pretext of helping her nd an
accommodation, took her to
an isolated place, molested her
and captured the act on a mobile phone. She said they
threatened to release the video
on the Internet.
Sunanda Mukherjee, chairperson of the West Bengal
Commission for Women, said
she had taken suo motu cognisance of the matter.

13

KATHMANDU: Seven months

after the rst sitting of the
Constitution Assembly (CA), the
government on Friday
nominated 17 of the 26 members
to the House, according to Dr.
Minendra Rijal, Cabinet
spokesperson.
The Nepali Congress named
eight of the nine lawmakers as
per share calculated on the
basis of its seats in the
assembly. The CPN-UML

nominated all eight and the

pro-monarchy RPP (Nepal) its
sole member under the
nomination quota. The main
opposition, the UCPN (Maoist), is
yet to name its share of four
members. Smaller parties in the
CA-cum-Parliament get to name
the remaining four.
In the 601-member CA, 575
members were elected, under
direct election and proportional
representation (PR) electoral
system. Twenty-six members
were to be nominated from
among distinguished
personalities and from the
underrepresented Janajati
communities in the election.
Damakant Jayshi

Memorial to be open on 9/11 night

TRIBUTE IN LIGHT: For the first time, the

September 11 memorial plaza is to be open on
the night of the anniversary this year. Visitors
can view the twin beams called the Tribute in
Light, shown in this picture taken in 2013.
PHOTO: AP

Captive academic taught Taliban kids

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani
academic freed after four years
in Taliban captivity on Friday told
how he taught the militants
children maths and English and
met their feared former leader
Hakimullah Mehsud.
The Pakistan Taliban abducted
Ajmal Khan, Vice-Chancellor of
Islamia College University,
Peshawar, in September 2010.
The military said security
forces safely recovered the
professor, but gave no details of
how he came to be freed.
Mr. Khan (63) said he got used
to life in the remote locations
where he was held and had even
helped educate the militants
youngsters.
I was very worried initially

but then I adjusted to the

situation they used to make
me contact my family every
eight or nine months, he said.
During the abduction, one
day two children came to me and
I started teaching them. The
number of such children grew
and at the end I was teaching
English and maths to 32 of the
Talibans children. AFP

NATO asks Russia to halt illegal action Army contradicts Sharif on mediation
BRUSSELS: The North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO)
told Russia on Friday to halt
its illegal military action in
Ukraine after the West accused Moscow of direct involvement in the conict.
Fears of a wider confrontation have spiralled after NATO said Russia had sent
troops to ght in Ukraine and

funnelled huge amounts of

heavy weaponry to proKremlin rebels in what Kiev
described as an invasion.
This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous
pattern over many months to
destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, NATO chief
Anders Fogh Rasmussen said
after an emergency meeting

Russia, Canada trade

geography lessons on Twitter
TORONTO: It began with

Canada tweeting some notso-friendly travel tips for

the Russian military: a map
showing Russia and labelling Ukraine as not Russia. That opening shot was
enough to launch a Twitter
war of words and maps.
Canadas NATO Twitter
account had posted the
map on Wednesday with
the explanation: Geography can be tough. Heres a
guide for Russian soldiers

who keep getting lost and

accidentally enter Ukraine.
The tweet went viral, being retweeted more than
25,000 times by late Thursday, including by U.S. U.N.
Ambassador
Samantha
Power.
Russia struck back by
tweeting its own map
showing Crimea as part of
its territory. Russia had annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March. AP

A military attache examines a seized Russian tank

displayed in Kiev on Friday. PHOTO: AFP
of the alliance.
We urge Russia to cease its
illegal military actions, stop
its support to armed separatists, and take immediate and
veriable steps towards deescalation of this grave
crisis.
Kiev and the West have accused Russian troops of being
behind a lightning counteroffensive that has seen the rebels seize swathes of southeastern
territory
from
government forces, dramatically turning the tide in the
four-month conict.

In a move certain to anger

Kievs former masters in
Moscow, Mr. Rasmussen said
NATO was not closing the
door to Ukraines possible
membership of the alliance
after the government said it
was taking steps to join it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied Moscow is fuelling the
conict or having sent any
troops. On Friday, he demanded that Kiev hold substantial talks with the rebels
who took up arms against it in
April. AFP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistans powerful military on Friday said it

was the government that asked
it to play a facilitative role in
resolving the current impasse,
contradicting Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharifs statement that
protest leaders approached the
Army Chief to intervene.
COAS [Chief of Army Staff]
was asked by the Govt to play
facilitative role for resolution
of current impasse, in yesterdays meeting, at #PM House,
Major General Asim Bajwa
tweeted as Mr. Sharif and protest leaders Imran Khan and
Tahir-ul-Qadri traded charges
over who was responsible for
the Armys intervention.
Maj. Gen. Bajwas remarks
came after Prime Minister
Sharif told the National Assembly on Friday that neither
had I asked Army nor the
armed forces sought a role in
the present political crisis.
Mr. Sharif refuted media reports that it was he who requested the Army to come to
his rescue, saying it was Mr.
Khan and Mr. Qadri who approached Army Chief Raheel
to become a mediator.

chief Imran Khan also

slammed the Premier for saying Mr. Qadri and he asked for
the Army to intervene.
I want to tell you what I told
the Army chief. I told Gen Raheel that I do not trust Nawaz
Sharif at all. I told Gen Raheel
every reason as to why I will
not leave without their resignations, Mr. Khan said, adding that PTI did not ask the
Army to mediate.
I am not going to backtrack
on the resignation of the Prime
Minister on any account, he
said.
The Army had earlier asked
all stakeholders in the crisis to
hold meaningful talks to end
An Imran Khan supporter participates in an antithe crisis.
government protest in Islamabad on Thursday.
In its 67-year history, Pakis PHOTO: AFP
tan has witnessed three coups,
including one against Mr. ShaResponding to Mr. Sharifs
I had not even spoken to the rif in 1999 by the then Army
statement, an angry Pakistan Army chief before our meeting chief
General
Parvez
Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief yesterday [Thursday], Mr. Qa- Musharraf.
Qadri shot back, I say this cat- dri said, adding that Mr. Sharif
The Army, which has so far
egorically that the Prime Min- made the statement after he been passive in the confrontaister asked the Army to saw his government was losing tion between the government
intervene. I am saying, on the strength. The ery cleric and protesters, has a history of
record, that we did not make claimed that Mr. Sharif was capturing power from demoany request asking the Army to lying.
cratically elected governintervene.
Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf ments. PTI

IS planning to weaponise
bubonic plague?
Narayan Lakshman

look like them, he reportedly

said.
WASHINGTON: Western governThe U.K. also appeared to
ments appeared to be increastake cognisance of a heightingly concerned about the
ened risk of attack, with Prime
possibility of a terror attack by
Minister David Cameron tellIslamic State (IS), the militant
ing that IS posed a greater
group that now controls a vast
and deeper threat to our secustretch of territory across Iraq document in Arabic on how to rity than we have known beand Syria, even as a laptop develop biological weapons fore, and Home Secretary
found near the Idlib province and how to weaponise the bu- adding that Theresa May that
hinted at IS plans to weapon- bonic plague from infected the terror threat level being
ise the bubonic plague, and animals.
raised from from substanFurther raising fears of ter- tial to severe meant that an
more evidence emerged of
U.S. and U.K. citizens taking ror attacks, Reuters reported a attack on the U.K. is highly
up arms to ght alongside the conversation that it had with likely, if not necessarily
an IS militant via telephone, imminent.
extremists.
Prospects for controlling in which the man indicated
This week it also became
the jihadist insurrection also that their leader, Abu Bakr al- clear that IS, whose apparent
appeared dim as U.S. Presi- Baghdadi, had several surpris- brutality towards captives
dent Barack Obama admitted es in store for the West.
sent shockwaves across the
[Western law enforcement world last week when they
on Thursday that, We dont
agencies] think they can dis- posted a video showing the behave a strategy yet.
Meanwhile Foreign Policy tinguish us these days than heading of U.S. journalist
magazine reported that a lap- that they dont know we can James Foley, was holding sevtop seized by moderate Syrian play their game in intelli- eral other hostages including a
rebels from eeing IS forces, gence. They inltrated us with 26-year-old female aid worker
said to be the property of a those who pretend to be Mus- whose name media organisaTunisian man ghting for the lims and we have also pene- tions have agreed to keep out
militants, contained a 19-page trated them with those who of publication.
CM
YK

Laptop seized from

fleeing IS forces said
to contain a guide to
developing biological
weapons

ND-ND