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Don't allot petrol pumps to MPs: SC

     New Delhi: The committee constituted by the Supreme Court of India, which advised cancellation of 296 petrol pump allotments of the 409 it scrutinised, has now recommended that MPs should not be allotted dealership of petroleum products. And if at all they are alloted with such dealerships, they should resign from their membership of Parliament before taking up the dealership. The two-judge committee has said in its report The two-Judge Committee appointed by the apex Court by its December 12, 2002 order, in its report has said an MP has to attend Parliament and meetings of Parliamentary Committees entailing long absence from his place of allotment of the retail outlet. The report furthersaid, "They cannot thus run the Dealership/Distributorship themselves but have to engage employees to supervise work. They, therefore, do not fulfill the necessary condition of 'Full Time Working Dealer'." Various recommendations of the committee report has been quoted in the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas while responding to the query of the Supreme Court about the supply position of the petrol, diesel and cooking gas in the allotted areas in the event the Court decided to cancel the 297 allotments termed illegal by the Committee. While responding to the Court query, the ministry has said out of the 296 allotments not approved by the two-Judge Committee, only 201 dealerships have been commissioned and 95 were yet to be commissioned.

Five militants killed in early morning encounter (Go To Top)

     Poonch: Five militants were killed in an early morning encounter with the security forces in Mendhar area of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir. Reportedly, security forces challenged a group of about ten infiltrating militants in Balnoi area of Mendhar in the wee hours. Five of them were killed in the subsequent gun battle. Meanwhile, the encounter was on in the area. The security forces also busted two militant hideouts in Rajouri district and recovered a huge cache of ammunition and explosives. According to the sources, two grenades of under barrel grenade launcher, four hand grenades, five anti-personnel mines, two gelatine sticks, five bundles of cordex wire, 540 rounds of LMG ammunition, 420 rounds of sniper ammunition and 767 rounds of AK ammunition were found from a hideout in Nowshera area of the district on Monday. Another raid in a militant hideout in Darrah in Thanamndi area yielded one AK magazine, 25 rounds of AK ammunition, one pistol with two magazines and one hand grenade.

SC sets aside Pappu's bail (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Patna High Court order granting bail to the jailed RJD MP Pappu Yadav was today set aside by the Supreme Court. Pappu is currently lodged in Patna's Beur jail in connection with the Ajit Sarkar muder case. The Supreme Court Bench of Justice N Santhosh Hegde and Justice S B Sinha allowed the appeal filed by Sarkar's brother challenging the High Court order and said the prosecution has been able to establish a prima facie case against Yadav. Pointing towards the attitude and conduct of the jailed MP, the court said, the conduct of the accused clearly indicated that enlarging him on bail at this stage would impede the progress of trial as many witnesses are yet to be examined. The court said that granting bail to Yadav was totally in error by the Patna High Court. Yadav's seven bail applications had been rejected before, and the accused who filed successive bail pleas has raised no fresh grounds, either legal or factual.