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Friday, April 13, 2012 DECCAN HERALD 7 Maoists release Italian hostage. P8 » State NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought an explanation from the State government for the al- leged violation of its 2006 directive for maintaining the minimum two-year term of any police chief in a state. A bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice C K Prasad pulled up the State govern- ment for failing to adhere to its order with regard to police re- forms in the ‘Prakash Singh versus Union of India’ case. The court was hearing two special leave petitions (SLPs) by ousted DG&IGP of the State, Shankar Bidari, and the State government, challenging the order of the High Court of Karnataka order which had termed the IPS officer “worse than Saddam Hussain or Muammar Gaddafi” for the al- leged atrocities committed by the STF team led by him dur- ing the hunt to nab forest brig- and Veerappan in 2004. The bench, which refused to pass any interim order to pro- vide relief to Bidari, issued no- tice to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the State government seeking their responses on April 18, as to why then DG&IGP N Achutha Rao was not allowed to complete his two-year term and made to demit office. “We want the state of Kar- nataka and Bidari to satisfy us to how and under what circum- stances UPSC felt persuaded by the State government to take steps for appointment of a panel for the appointment of DGP and meeting of the em- panelment committee for the appointment of DGP on No- vember 30, 2011, in violation of this court’s direction in Prakash Singh Vs Union of In- dia in 2006 in as much as N Achutha Rao could not com- plete two years term,” the bench said. “How could you (State gov- ernment) disobey this court? The role of State government has not been very fair vis-à-vis this court. How could you de- bunk Rao. You (State govern- ment) seemed to be in a hurry to bring this man (Bidari),” Jus- tice Alam said. Senior advocate Raju Ra- machandran, appearing for the State government, had a tough time in putting forth any expla- nation. He went on to withdraw from the case. He submitted that since he had assisted the apex court in the Prakash Singh case, he would wish not to continue ap- pearing for the State govern- ment in the present case. Appearing for Bidari, senior counsel and former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam challenged the HC’s order say- ing it had disregarded the find- ings of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the alleged atrocities. The apex rights panel had closed the proceedings in the matter. The counsel claimed that the Justice Sadashiva panel report, which was referred to by the HC, was not made available to the petitioner. The NHRC had set up a com- mission of inquiry headed by Justice A J Sadashiva, a former judge of the High Court of Kar- nataka, to investigate the al- leged atrocities committed on residents of 48 villages in the border areas of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu by security forces during the operations to nab Veerappan in 1999. The HC had last month up- held the CAT order and quashed the appointment of Bidari as DG&IGP. The divi- sion bench had directed for the appointment of A R Infant in his place. The apex court ver- dict on police reforms has faced roadblocks on various counts - one, the fixed two-year term to the DGP and other police heads in the districts, with the Centre expressing reservations in the matter. The respective state govern- ments have also been found wanting in implementing fully the other seven directives, in- cluding setting up of the police establishment board and police complaint authority. Speaking to Deccan Herald, petitioner and retired IPS offi- cer Prakash Singh said no state had implemented the two-year tenure in letter and spirit. "If any state has implemented it - I recall Rajasthan doing it and probably Odisha - it is only by default. Perhaps, the state gov- ernment would have acted had the apex court punished one or two of them for not implement- ing the order." DH News Service SC slams Karnataka for ignoring order on DGP term State govt earns court ire for being ‘in a hurry to bring’ Bidari to top cop’s job BANGALORE, DHNS: Former RBI governor and chairman of Prime Minister‘s Economic Advisory Council C Rangara- jan on Thursday held a discus- sion with Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda regarding ushering in reforms in the sug- ar industry, a sector still under State control. In January this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had set up an expert panel un- der C Rangarajan to chalk out a policy prescription for dereg- ulation. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Rangarajan said the committee is exploring the possibility of recommending revenue-sharing mechanism between the sugar industry and sugar cane growers. The panel is visiting various sugar cane-growing states to gather their views before sub- mitting its recommendations to the prime minister. Rangarajan said the State government suggested a rev- enue-sharing formula such that if the sugar industry makes profit above a particular mar- gin, it could be shared with sug- ar cane growers. This would be in addition to the minimum price given to the growers. Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti, Horticulture Minister S A Ravindranath and Chief Sec- retary S V Ranganath were present at the meeting. The sugar industry in India is controlled right from the pur- chase of sugar cane to sale in the open market. Karnataka sugar industry ranks third in terms of its contribution to the total sugar production in the country. Discussions on reforming sugar industry Shankar Bidari NEW DELHI: The country’s first two multi-skill development centres - set up in Bangalore and Gulbarga - to supply skilled workforce for industries, will be opened next week. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will inaugu- rate the centres; Gulbarga Cen- tre will be inaugurated on April 16, while the Bangalore Centre will be opened the next day. For both the centres, which are being started on a pilot ba- sis, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 50 crore each. The State government has also sanctioned matching grants, Union Labour and Em- ployment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge told Deccan Herald here. The Bangalore centre will come up at Peenya where the State government has allotted five acres of land while the Gul- barga centre will be at Badepur on a 20-acre land. The institutions are a joint venture between the Union Labour and Employment Min- istry, German Society for Tech- nical Co-operation, of Ger- many and Karnataka government, he said. Initially, five courses, includ- ing those in automobile, elec- trical and electronics sectors will be taught in the institu- tions. The courses will be for a period of one-year to three- year depending on stream and academic sessions will be start- ed from this year. These centres will be totally autonomous institutions and will be supervised by a high- level committee comprising representatives of the Union Labour and Employment Min- istry and the State Department of Employment and Training, headed by the State Chief Sec- retary. The institutions will also of- fer courses to upgrade skills to those who are already em- ployed in industries, Kharge said. The primary mission of the centres is to provide multi- disciplinary programme in var- ious industrial technical fields on a par with the international standards, he said. These cen- tres if run successfully, will be set up in other places also, he said. DH News Service Multi-skill development centres in State BANGALORE: The State gov- ernment plans to give greater priority to micro, small and medium enter- prises (MSME) during the second edition of Global In- vestors Meet (GIM) sched- uled to be held in June, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda announced in Banga- lore on Thursday. Speaking after launching the brochure for GIM- 2012 Expo, which will be held alongside the investors meet, Gowda said the State govern- ment believed that the back- bone of development is MSME and there was a need to strengthen the sector. “At GIM Expo, we will bring MSME in contact with nation- al and international industry and large public sectors units”, Gowda said. The sec- ond edition of GIM will be held on June 7 and 8, while the expo for the event will be launched on June 6, a trade show covering a wide spec- trum of industries as its focus area. Both the events will be held at Bangalore Internation- al Exhibition Centre (BIEC), on Tumkur Road. The chief minister said the State would soon come out with an “aerospace policy” to further promote the sector in the State. The new policy will ‘MSMEs to get top priority at GIM’ Focus area be in tandem with other poli- cies like the Electronic Hard- ware Policy, Semiconductor Policy and Biotech policy. These policies had received positive response and had been implemented in the right earnest, Gowda claimed. Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries K Jothirama- lingam said the State govern- ment was providing substan- tial impetus to attract MSME companies. In this regard, the small scale industries depart- ment was in touch with trade associations across the State, he said. According to the organis- ers, GIM Expo 2012 will have 14 focus pavilions, spread over 20,000 sqm of showcase area. The organisers are expecting 600 exhibitors to register for the expo. The focus areas in- clude aerospace and defence, agrotech and food processing, automobiles, energy and envi- ronment, health, electronics and hardware, infrastructure, tourism and hospitality among others. Thursday’s event also wit- nessed the State government signing MoUs with Rwanda, which has evinced interest to set up its pavilions at GIM-2012. DH News Service
