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Issue 12 Vol I, March 31, 2006 newsbag Tardy Indian Criminal Justice System: Samba Spy Case is Back to Delhi High Court ON march 22, the Indian Supreme Court directed the Delhi High Court to re-examine the three-decade-old much talked about Samba spy case afresh to find out if the General Court Martial (GCM) proceedings against a number of army officers and some Junior commissioned officers were based on correct facts or not. It comes as a shock to the officers who have struggled hard since 1978 to get justice. The case had taken ten long years for the Delhi High Court to decide and once the decision came in 2000 exonerating the officers, the Defence Ministry went to Supreme Court and the ball is back to the Delhi High Court. A Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Tarun Chatterjee on an appeal of the Ministry of Defence, challenging the December 21, 2000 judgement of the High Court giving a clean chit to nine officers accused of espionage for Pakistan in Samba Sector of Jammu and Kashmir between 1972-78. All officers, removed from the Army in view of the GCM inquiry were exonerated by the High Court, holding that no material about their involvement in the spying for Pakistan was brought on record. The Court had directed the Ministry to grant all consequential monetary benefits to the officers within four months of its December 21, 2000 order. The apex court gave four months’ time to the High Court to decide the matter afresh by taking into account the material documents, the MoD claimed to have placed on record, saying that there had already been an inordinate delay in deciding the matter. The MoD had appealed against the judgement in the apex court, claiming that there were sufficient proofs about the involvement of these officers in espionage activities and the High Court had failed to appreciate them. The officers exonerated by the High Court are: R. K Midha, N.R Ajwani, S.P Sharma (all holding ranks of Major at that time), Arun Sharma, Kulwant Singh, Vijay Kumar Dewan, J.S Yadav, Ranbir Singh Rathaur and Ashok Kumar Rana (all Captains). The main ground raised by the Ministry and of Defence was that the High Court’s verdict had come in the course of it deciding the question of maintainability of the writ petitions of these officers, whose cases had attained finality after the Supreme Court had rejected their special leave petition (SLP) in 1981. The High Court had admitted their criminal writ petition afresh in 1995 and decided the matter on the basis of it when the government challenged its maintainability, the MoD had said. For details look for our
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Indo-Canadian Water Man Bags 2006 Stockholm Water Award
The Stockholm Water Prize is a global award founded in 1990 and presented annually for outstanding water-related activities within fields like education and awareness raising, human and international relations, research, water management and water-related aid. The Stockholm Water Prize Laureate receives USD 150,000 . A professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico and an international consultant on water resources development and environmental management; he is the President of the International Society for Ecological Modelling and past President of the International Water Resources Association. He was one of the founders of the World Water Council and serves on its Government Board and has been a senior advisor to several governments and U.N. agencies. A leading international authority on water and the environment, Dr. Biswas has 64 books and over 550 papers to his credit. He believes that the main crisis facing the world in the next two decades will not be scarcity of water, but the continuing deterioration of water quality. “The global statistics grossly underestimate the present water quality situation. Our Centre conducted a study on the state of the world's waters, supported by the Nippon Foundation in Japan. It indicated that only about six percent of wastewater generated in Latin America is properly treated. The situation is similar in other Asian and African countries. Almost all water bodies near urban centers in developing countries are seriously contaminated. And the huge investments needed on water supply and wastewater services, are likely to precipitate the water crisis,” he points out. His argument which not many developing countries with millions can not easily accept run like this: “The days when people could drink directly from streams, rivers, and lakes are coming rapidly to an end, partly because of increasing contamination. If there are costs involved with transporting water, water providers can charge for that. So today, when dams have to be built to store water, or water treatment plants and pipelines have to be constructed, or drainage systems and treatment plants are necessary to collect and treat wastewater, consumers can be charged for these services.” Water has to be managed efficiently and not wasted. It is more precious than gas. “My prediction is that water management practices will change more in the next 20 years than they have in the past 2,000 years. The water profession thus far has basically ignored this change, much of which will stem from outside the water sector,” he maintains. For Professor Biswas it's a myth that the private sector is inherently more efficient than the public sector. The two most efficient urban water systems in the world, Singapore and Tokyo, belong to the public sector. Their current water losses are 6 and 7 percent respectively. Not a single private sector company, anywhere in the world, can boast a loss of less than 10 percent. However, the fact remains that most public sector companies are managed inefficiently. “In my view, the future solution will lie in public-private sector partnership,” He sums up. “My prediction is that water management practices will change more in the next 20 years than they have in the past 2,000 years. The water profession thus far has basically ignored this change, much of which will stem from outside the water sector,” he said. Professor Biswas is an Indian-born Canadian citizen and president of the Mexico City-based Third World Centre for Water Management. The Stockholm Water Prize is a global award founded in 1990 and presented annually to an individual, organisation or institution for outstanding water-related activities. The activities can be within fields like education and awareness raising, human and international relations, research, water management and water-related aid. The Stockholm Water Prize Laureate receives USD 150,000 along with a glass sculpture, which will be presented during the 2006 World Water Week in Stockholm, August 20-26. |
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