Lokpal Bill will be introduced in current session: Chidambaram

With pressure mounting on the Centre for enacting a strong anti-graft legislation, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said the Lokpal Bill will “certainly” be introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament.


“Lokpal Bill will certainly be introduced in the ongoing Parliament session,” Chidambaram said at a function to celebrate Congress president Sonia Gandhi's 66th birthday.


Team Anna has stepped up pressure on the UPA government for passing the Bill in the current session and threatened to intensify protests, including an indefinite fast by Anna Hazare, if it was not done.


Besides Lokpal Bill, Chidambaram said a host of other Bills, including the Food Security Bill, would be introduced in the session.


“I hope the draft Food Security Bill will be cleared in the Cabinet on Monday,” he said.


Claiming that the UPA government has implemented progressive schemes and legislations, he said all these measures were borne out of the UPA chairperson's vision. “The progressive steps taken by her needs to be celebrated..,” he said

Doubt Lokpal will be passed in Winter Session: Anna Hazare

Anna Hazare today wrote a fresh letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying doubts have arisen over whether Lokpal Bill will be passed by December 23 when Parliament session gets over and threatened to go ahead with his proposed fast and 'jail bharo' agitation.


In a four-page letter, he alleged that the government's behaviour was "not at all right" and asked why Singh changed his stand on Citizens' Charter despite giving a written assurance that it will be part of the Lokpal bill.


He said in the past few months, Singh was giving him assurances through letters that a strong Lokpal Bill will be passed in the Winter Session of Parliament.


Hazare said in the last one year, the government has given a lot of assurances on Lokpal Bill but every time they have betrayed the countrymen.


"We suspended all our agitations till Winter Session taking your word on face value. Reports published in media now says that the Winter Session will end on December 23. Will the Lokpal Bill be passed by then. We have doubts on this," he said.

Now, breath test can detect, characterize lung cancer

A new breath test will now help in identifying and differentiating between the types of lung cancer in humans with high accuracy, a new study has suggested.


Metabolomx, a diagnostic company focused on the detection of the metabolomics signature of cancer from exhaled breath.


This seminal study, conducted at the Cleveland Clinic and led by Dr. Peter Mazzone, used Metabolomx’ first-generation colorimetric sensor array, and reported accuracy exceeding 80 per cent in lung cancer detection, comparable to computerized tomography (CT) scan.


Further, the study found that Metabolomx’ first-generation colorimetric sensor array could identify the subtype of lung cancer (small cell versus adenocarcinoma versus squamous cell) with accuracy approaching 90 per cent.


“Our research shows that breath testing may help identify patients with lung cancer, as well as provide us with information that can help with treatment decisions, such as the type of lung cancer, its stage, and prognosis,” Dr Mazzone said.

Zardari says he will continue as Pak President

Pakistan's ailing President Asif Ali Zardari has scotched speculation that he could be ousted under a constitutional provision that provides for the removal of a head of the state on the ground of "physical or mental incapacity".


Talking to a senior Pakistani journalist who had written a column on the same issue, Zardari said he was "absolutely fine" but doctors treating him in Dubai were not giving him permission to travel back to Pakistan.


Zardari questioned how the first clause of Article 47 of Pakistan's Constitution could be used to remove him if he was absolutely fine.


If the constitutional provision was "forcefully imposed on him", he would reject it, Zardari was quoted as saying by the journalist. Clause (1) of Article 47 of the Constitution states, "Notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution, the President may, in accordance with provisions of this Article, be removed from office on the ground of physical or mental incapacity.

Season's coldest morning in Delhi (Lead)

Delhiites experienced the season’s coldest morning Thursday with the minimum temperature settling three notches below average at 5.9 degrees Celsius. The met office has forecast a chilly weekend ahead.
“The maximum temperature was recorded at 22.2 degrees, a notch below average," said an official of the India Meteorological Department.
The maximum and minimum humidity levels wavered between 89 and 31 percent.
According to the IMD, similar weather can be expected Friday as a lightly misty morning will be followed by clear skies throughout the day.
"The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 22 and 6 degrees Celsius, respectively," added the official.
Wednesday's maximum temperature was recorded at 22.4 degrees, a notch below average while the minimum settled two notches below average at 6.4 degrees.

CPI-M men behind hooch tragedy: Bengal minister

The hooch tragedy that has claimed 128 lives in West Bengal so far has turned into a political issue, with state Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee Thursday accusing opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) activists of mixing "chemical in the liquor" to embarrass his government.
The CPI-M countered by challenging the government to prove its allegation and demanded a judicial probe into the "callousness" of the administration in treatment of the victims.
"The members of CPI-M are behind it. They have hatched the plot and carried out this heinous crime of mixing chemicals in the liquor to kill people. They want to embarrass the government," said Chatterjee while addressing reporters here.
State leader of the opposition Surya Kanta Mishra was quick to react and challenged the state government to prove that CPI-M was behind it.
"If they have honesty then let them prove it. They are running the government. Earlier also they had made such allegations," Mishra said.
CPI-M state committee member and former MP Sujon Chakraborty described the allegation as the "biggest joke of the year".
"It's a most callous administration. There was no arrangement for treatment of the hooch victims. They started the treatment late. No standard treatment protocol was followed. The seriously ill should have been shifted to Kolkata hospitals in time. It's a scam."
"Let there be a judicial probe," he said.
In less than a week, West Bengal suffered another major blow as 128 people, mostly masons, labourers and hawkers, died and over 100 were hospitalised after consuming spurious liquor in drinking dens at Sangrampur village of South Parganas district.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered a Criminal Investigation Department probe into the liquor deaths, one of the worst such tragedies in India in recent times.

Our high streets hit 'crisis point': There are too many small stores and thousands must shut, says PM's retail guru

Britain has too many shops and thousands will have to close, according to the retail guru hired by David Cameron to save the nation’s high streets.
In a report containing 28 recommendations to halt their decline, Mary Portas said they had reached ‘crisis point’ with the rise of super-malls, out-of-town supermarkets and internet shopping.
But she warned town centres would never return to their traditional image of butcher, baker, greengrocer and fishmonger.

Disappearing high streets? David Cameron and Mary Portas walk through the street market in Camden, north London, today as her report on the decline of the town centre is published

HOW A NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS BECAME A COUNTRY OF FAST FOOD ADDICTS

Clapham High Street, in South London, has changed dramatically in the past 35 years.
In 1976, when this photograph was taken, it was home to traditional shops including gentlemen’s and ladies’ outfitters and a butchers.
Now, those local, independent shops have been replaced by a bland string of fast food outlets and chains. The Majestic Cinema – built in 1914 – still stands, but has been turned into a nightclub.
Men’s clothing specialist Jesky, which sold suits at £15 off at the time of the original shot, has been replaced by downmarket fried chicken takeaway Roosters Spot, while what was once Marks and Spencer is now home to the all-too familiar golden arches of McDonald’s.
Indeed, three fast food shops can be seen on this stretch of the street alone, with Art Wallpapers, an independent décor shop, replaced by Kebab Express. Further along Cards Galore, a UK-wide chain, has taken root in what was once Easiephit, a women’s clothing shop.
The traditional butchers is long gone, replaced by a discount homeware store.  And Zanelli, an off-licence, has been swapped for that modern staple of British high streets – a pawnbrokers.

Instead, they would have to be reinvented, with shops turned into gyms, crèches, youth clubs, arts buildings, coffee bars and community town halls. Planning rules would have to be relaxed to allow shopping parades to be cleared for house building, while schools could move into empty shops and offices.

 

More...

• Will you fall for Santa frauds? Britain flooded by 'designer' Christmas gifts that are actually dangerous fakes
• So why don't YOU shop on the High Street any more?
• RIGHTMINDS: Mary Queen of Shops won't be able to revive the high street... But does she even want to?
• LIZ JONES: Sorry, but shops MUST work harder

The Portas Review on the future of the high street also recommends encouraging car-boot sales and markets in town centres and reducing parking charges.

Twenty-five thousand shops have been lost in the past ten years, and Miss Portas warned many more would go because families had switched to malls, supermarkets and the internet for shopping.

‘Yes, we have thousands too many shops. They will have to close and do other things,’ she said.

‘So I have come up with a model that gives an opportunity for other types of business to come on to our high streets.’

She said town centre vacancy rates had doubled in the past two years and more than 50 per cent of consumer spending took place off high streets.

Mr Cameron and Miss Portas discuss the her report on the decline of town centres in a cafe in Camden today

Vanishing town centres: Mr Cameron talks to a stall holder in Camden today as Miss Portas, left, unveiled proposals to reinvigorate the high streets

Mr Cameron poses for a photograph with restaurant staff in Camden after visiting with high street guru Mary Portas 'Queen of Shops'

Miss Portas added: ‘The big boom years are over. We will never go back to those retail shops we had. The future is not more shopping.

‘I am not going to be nostalgic about our high streets as they will never be what they were.

‘We need to stop seeing our high streets as just shops. We now need to get people back into our high streets and that requires creating a place that is about enjoyment, creativity, learning, socialising, wellbeing, health.’

The Portas Review criticised the rise of out-of-town supermarkets and the fact that too little had been done to protect high streets. As a result, out-of-town retail space had grown by 30 per cent over the past ten years, while falling by 14 per cent in towns and cities.

Food for thought: Ms Portas said in her review, presented to David Cameron, that the Government had only called in one out of town development since 2008 even though it had been given the chance to review 146 schemes

Miss Portas wants planners to support town-centre development ahead of new malls. This includes a recommendation for all mall applications to be referred to ministers for scrutiny.

Miss Portas said she was worried the big supermarkets no longer sold only food, ‘but all manner of things that people used to buy on the high street’.
She added: ‘My concern extends to the progressive sprawl of the supermarkets into needs-based services such as opticians and doctors’ surgeries, which were once the exclusive preserve of the high street.

‘These critical high street and town centre services must not be simply gobbled up by major supermarkets.’
Despite these concerns, she rejected an idea to impose a charge or tax on free parking offered by supermarkets after the stores said they would simply pass it on to customers.

Andrew Simms, a fellow of the New Economics Foundation and author of Tescopoly, said the review did not do enough to challenge the power of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Depressed: Boarded up shops in Swindon, Wiltshire. Mary Portas complained that many areas had been 'clone towns' and said the recession was giving an opportunity to create something new

A bustling Oxford Street in London. Ms Portas said she wants people to look at shopping in a different way, and create 'multi-functional social and shopping' high streets

‘The big supermarkets lurk like a shadow over this report’s ambitions,’ he said.

‘Experience suggests that more checks and balances are needed to keep the retail market open for new and local enterprise.’

Phil Dorrell, director of the retail consultancy Retail Remedy, said shopping malls had replaced the high street. ‘It’s a battle that town centres have already fought and lost,’ he said.
‘Faceless and bland they may be, but out-of-town shopping centres have the irresistible gravity of convenience – and free parking.’

The British Retail Consortium’s director general, Stephen Robertson, said: ‘It would be too easy to blame out-of-town retailing for the decline of our high streets.

‘This plan should be about supporting a rich mix of retailing, not striking dividing lines between big names and independents, or town centre and others.’

The Government has promised a response to Miss Portas’s recommendations by next spring.

Shops closed in Stoke-on-Trent: A report found that one in three shops are empty in some parts of the country, with one in seven shops nationally remaining vacant over the past year

Cirencester in the Cotswolds, pictured, has some of the lowest shop vacancy rates in the country alongside Falmouth in Cornwall and Clapham Junction in London

WH Smith is a dump, says Portas

WH Smith, the high street chain with a history dating back to 1792, is ‘a dump’, according to Mary Portas.

The language is distinctly more colourful than most government tsars would use at the launch of an official review. But Miss Portas insists her criticism, first made on Twitter in November, remains valid.

Then, she wrote: ‘I truly hate WH Smith. Used to be a loved British biz & now a dump. Rush hour, 7.45am at Euston. One person on till. Queues. And s****y promos.’

Yesterday she explained her attack: ‘When I review, I review as a shopper and as a shopper we should be demanding better. I’m sorry, I believe that.’

The chain hit back, saying: ‘WH Smith is one of the biggest supporters of the UK high street, having opened 39 new high street stores last year. We are proud of the service offered by our 15,000 colleagues, who serve an average of 12million customers a week.

Reliance Insurance: Rs 17,500 cr potential fine is finally Rs 20 lakh

Can a potential Rs 17,500 crore penalty for gross violation of the Insurance Act be whittled down to Rs 20 lakh?
Surely not, one may say. But this, in fact, is exactly what the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has done for Reliance General Insurance Co, an Anil Ambani group company.
Simply put, this is the violation. Reliance sold 3.5 lakh health insurance policies without informing Irda – which is illegal. So when Irda found this out, in an order dated 23 July 2009, it pointed out that it could levy Rs 5 lakh for each policy – but chose not to do so.
The order said: “Under the provisions of section 102(b) of the Insurance Act 1938, the company would be liable for a penalty not exceeding Rs 17,500 crore.”

Reliance sold 3.5 lakh health insurance policies without informing Irda – which is illegal. Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

But, obviously conscious of the fact that a Rs 17,500 crore penalty would sink any company, the regulator whittled it down to Rs 20 lakh, in a “judicious exercise of the powers and the discretion vested in the authority” under section 14 of the Irda Act 1999 read with section 102(b) of the Insurance Act, 1938.”
Firstpost checked to see if similar discretion is exercised in other cases. In another 2009 case, HDFC Ergo was penalised Rs 5 lakh for not fulfilling its rural sector coverage quota by 137 policies. Again the penalty was a maximum of Rs 5 lakh for each instance. But, in this case, instead of a maximum levy of Rs 6.85 crore, Irda used its discretion to levy only Rs 5 lakh on HDFC Ergo.
The wide variance in the use of discretionary power in these two instances – Rs 17,500 crore whittled down to Rs 20 lakh, and Rs 6.85 crore to Rs 5 lakh – suggests that the scope of discretion and its proportionality in connection with the transgression needs to be more transparent.
Irda is chaired by J Hari Narayan, who retired from the Indian Administrative Service in 2008 as Chief Secretary, Andhra Pradesh.
Repeated e-mail messages over more than two weeks in late-November and early-December to the Irda chairman seeking clarifications on what this “judicious exercise and discretion” meant evinced no response.
Responding to an email message, Sharad Goel, senior vice-president, corporate communications, at Reliance ADAG, spoke on the phone to one of the writers of this article. He said he would get back with a response after checking “old” records but did not, despite reminders.
Here’s the background to the story.
In December 2005, Reliance General Insurance filed a healthcare product called Reliance Health Care Policy before Irda. This was approved in February 2006. This policy sought to provide insurance cover under various health conditions subject to specified exclusions at a specified range of prices.
In September 2006, Irda issued revised guidelines for ‘File and use’ specifying various procedural requirements. These required the prior approval of Irda in case of a change in name or any other terms and conditions or an increase in the price of the product.
In January 2008, it was brought to the notice of Irda that Reliance General was selling a policy called Reliance Health Wise Policy which had not been approved by it. On being asked, the insurer admitted that it had introduced the policy earlier as Reliance Health Care Policy, and that in 2007 it had reintroduced it under a new name and at new prices.
A show-cause notice was subsequently issued by Irda on 13 April 2009. Reliance General Insurance officials presented their case to the regulator, which found that the insurer had violated clauses 4 and 9 of the Irda ‘File and Use’ guidelines.
The provisions provide for levying a penalty not exceeding Rs 5 lakh for each violation. Since Reliance General Insurance had already sold 3,50,000-and-odd policies by that time, each policy sold constituted a violation. The entire fine would have amounted to a maximum of Rs 17,500 crore.
Reliance argued that the company had reverted to the original approved rate of 2005 and that it had refunded Rs 1.07 crore to policyholders. The Irda order of 23 July 2009, however, had specifically said that the claim made by the company had not been supported by documentary evidence, but still used its discretion to fine the company Rs 20 lakh.
This episode raises a number of questions. All these were put forward to the head of the Irda but neither he nor any of his colleagues responded to repeated email messages.
Though Reliance General Insurance claimed to have refunded Rs 1.07 crore to policy-holders without furnishing any documentary evidence, it remains unknown whether such evidence was provided subsequently, or any certification from their statutory auditors obtained.
At Rs 20 lakh, the penalty for each violation effectively comes to Rs 5.70 paise when the law provides for a maximum of Rs 5 lakh for each failure, and punishable with fine and imprisonment.
In this case, only a penalty had been imposed, but there was no mention of a fine. Insurance industry sources point out that the fine could have acted as a deterrent for future violations.
A number of other questions remain unanswered. What happened to the claims under these policies? Were these returned? Or were these kept with Reliance? What happened to the claims under these policies in the interim period? Were they paid to the insured persons? What happened to the interest accrued?
What would happen to a person who purchased this particular insurance policy product from Reliance in this period and his money was thereafter returned to him? What if thereafter this person suffered a heart attack and survived? If this individual had not bought a new policy with another insurance company before his heart attack, he would have received no compensation for his medical expenses.
But what is an even bigger cause for concern is that Reliance General Insurance could sell 350,000 policies and file monthly returns with Irda about the sales without the latter even realising what was going on. Irda may have eventually fined Reliance, albeit very lightly, but what is also clear is that policyholders’ interest were violated blatantly and with impunity.
According to Irda’s own published figures, during 2009-10, in the list of complaints registered directly by non-life insurers, Reliance General Insurance topped the chart of 24 companies with 65,160 complaints reported out of a total of 1,86,615 complaints.

UPA on the mat, it’s now or never for the BJP

From the perspective of an opposition party, everything is going right for the BJP at the moment. It has put the rudderless UPA government in an embarrassing position on all major issues; it has refused to give the government the breathing space to function normally; negotiated the Anna Hazare wave cleverly to gain popularity points; and managed to distract attention from its own scandals in states. Its only problem is, there’s not a general election around the corner.
There’s no way it can translate the current anti-Congress and anti-UPA mood into electoral dividends. Had there been an election now, it could have hoped for a better performance compared to 2009, cashing in on the support of the neo middle class. That the party is caught in its own contradictions, has its own leadership crisis and does not have any answers to the problems bothering the Congress, which leads the UPA, would have been overlooked by the voters desperately seeking change.
It realises that as the principal opposition, it has the advantage of taking a populist position on issues comfortably even though it might have to do a U-turn on these when it comes to power. It does not have to bother too much about siding with Team Anna on the Lokpal controversy and getting the government to put FDI in different sectors on hold. The UPA and the Congress are under siege. The popular mood is not exactly in BJP’s favour but it is not against the party either. It would be politically foolish to let go of any opportunity to make a statement.
One such opportunity comes for the party on Wednesday when all political parties meet, under the shadow of Anna Hazare’s threat to go on fast again, to take up the Lokpal Bill cleared by the Standing Committee of Parliament. The UPA’s desperation to avoid any confrontation with Team Anna is clear. It would like some kind of consensus on the bill, so that it does not look ridiculous in Parliament once more. Its effort to push through the FDI in retail proposal was a disaster. The BJP, of course, was the major opponent. It is not likely to make things easier for the government or the Congress this time too.
The equations around are interesting. Team Anna is using the BJP in its fight for the Jan Lokpal Bill; the BJP is using Team Anna to take on the Congress. It’s an equation of mutual benefit. The Congress wants the BJP on its side to take on Team Anna – after all the ultimate power at the Centre stays with either of them, the other parties are too small to challenge that order. So they could be partners against a common adversary for the moment. The BJP, which is not fully convinced about Team Anna’s proposals, loses face if it takes a position that helps the UPA. It has committed itself to adversarial politics too far to make such compromises. The others in the picture—elements in the NDA, the UPA and those outside—have to take calls that are nuanced. But the present scenario does not allow nuanced positions.
The complicated equations leaves one party with all the advantages: the BJP. But without elections the advantages make little sense. Thus party’s strategy would be to bring down the government and force an election. With more than two years to go for the government, the situation could change dramatically. It’s possible that the Congress would go for a leadership change and announce policies that could influence voters. At that point, Team Anna might have lost its appeal or would have turned favourable to the UPA.
Thus now is the moment for the BJP. The party realises this. It shows in his aggressive actions in Parliament and outside it. But there is a catch here. Are the allies in the NDA ready for it?
Without allies on board, the BJP’s political game plan is bound to crashland.