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Friday, April 13, 2012 DECCAN HERALD 7

Maoists releaseItalian hostage. P8 »State

NEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt on Thursday soughtan explanation from theState government for the al-leged violation of its 2006directive for maintainingthe minimum two-year termof any police chief in a state.

A bench of Justice AftabAlam and Justice C K Prasadpulled up the State govern-ment for failing to adhere to itsorder with regard to police re-forms in the ‘Prakash Singhversus Union of India’ case.

The court was hearing twospecial leave petitions (SLPs)by ousted DG&IGP of theState, Shankar Bidari, and theState government, challengingthe order of the High Court of

Karnataka order which hadtermed the IPS officer “worsethan Saddam Hussain orMuammar Gaddafi” for the al-leged atrocities committed bythe STF team led by him dur-ing the hunt to nab forest brig-and Veerappan in 2004.

The bench, which refused topass any interim order to pro-vide relief to Bidari, issued no-tice to the Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC) and theState government seeking theirresponses on April 18, as to whythen DG&IGP N Achutha Raowas not allowed to completehis two-year term and made todemit office.

“We want the state of Kar-nataka and Bidari to satisfy usto how and under what circum-

stances UPSC felt persuadedby the State government totake steps for appointment ofa panel for the appointment ofDGP and meeting of the em-panelment committee for theappointment of DGP on No-vember 30, 2011, in violation

of this court’s direction inPrakash Singh Vs Union of In-dia in 2006 in as much as NAchutha Rao could not com-plete two years term,” thebench said.

“How could you (State gov-ernment) disobey this court?The role of State governmenthas not been very fair vis-à-visthis court. How could you de-bunk Rao. You (State govern-ment) seemed to be in a hurryto bring this man (Bidari),” Jus-tice Alam said.

Senior advocate Raju Ra-machandran, appearing for theState government, had a toughtime in putting forth any expla-nation. He went on to withdrawfrom the case.

He submitted that since he

had assisted the apex court inthe Prakash Singh case, hewould wish not to continue ap-pearing for the State govern-ment in the present case.

Appearing for Bidari, seniorcounsel and former SolicitorGeneral Gopal Subramaniamchallenged the HC’s order say-ing it had disregarded the find-ings of the National HumanRights Commission (NHRC)for the alleged atrocities. Theapex rights panel had closedthe proceedings in the matter.The counsel claimed that theJustice Sadashiva panel report,which was referred to by theHC, was not made available tothe petitioner.

The NHRC had set up a com-mission of inquiry headed by

Justice A J Sadashiva, a formerjudge of the High Court of Kar-nataka, to investigate the al-leged atrocities committed onresidents of 48 villages in theborder areas of Karnataka andTamil Nadu by security forcesduring the operations to nabVeerappan in 1999.

The HC had last month up-held the CAT order andquashed the appointment ofBidari as DG&IGP. The divi-sion bench had directed for theappointment of A R Infant inhis place. The apex court ver-dict on police reforms has facedroadblocks on various counts -one, the fixed two-year term tothe DGP and other policeheads in the districts, with theCentre expressing reservations

in the matter.The respective state govern-

ments have also been foundwanting in implementing fullythe other seven directives, in-cluding setting up of the policeestablishment board and policecomplaint authority.

Speaking to Deccan Herald,petitioner and retired IPS offi-cer Prakash Singh said no statehad implemented the two-yeartenure in letter and spirit. "Ifany state has implemented it -I recall Rajasthan doing it andprobably Odisha - it is only bydefault. Perhaps, the state gov-ernment would have acted hadthe apex court punished one ortwo 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: FormerRBI governor and chairman ofPrime Minister‘s EconomicAdvisory Council C Rangara-jan on Thursday held a discus-sion with Chief Minister D VSadananda Gowda regardingushering in reforms in the sug-ar industry, a sector still underState control.

In January this year, PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhhad set up an expert panel un-der C Rangarajan to chalk outa policy prescription for dereg-ulation.

Speaking to reporters afterthe meeting, Rangarajan saidthe committee is exploring thepossibility of recommendingrevenue-sharing mechanismbetween the sugar industry andsugar cane growers.

The panel is visiting varioussugar cane-growing states togather their views before sub-mitting its recommendationsto the prime minister.

Rangarajan said the Stategovernment suggested a rev-enue-sharing formula suchthat if the sugar industry makesprofit above a particular mar-gin, it could be shared with sug-ar cane growers. This would bein addition to the minimumprice given to the growers.

Agriculture Minister UmeshKatti, Horticulture Minister SA Ravindranath and Chief Sec-retary S V Ranganath werepresent at the meeting.

The sugar industry in Indiais controlled right from the pur-chase of sugar cane to sale inthe open market. Karnatakasugar industry ranks third interms of its contribution to thetotal sugar production in thecountry.

Discussionson reformingsugarindustry

Shankar Bidari

NEW DELHI:The country’s firsttwo multi-skill developmentcentres - set up in Bangaloreand Gulbarga - to supply skilledworkforce for industries, willbe opened next week.

Planning CommissionDeputy Chairman MontekSingh Ahluwalia will inaugu-rate the centres; Gulbarga Cen-tre will be inaugurated on April16, while the Bangalore Centrewill be opened the next day.

For both the centres, whichare being started on a pilot ba-sis, the Centre has sanctionedRs 50 crore each.

The State government hasalso sanctioned matchinggrants, Union Labour and Em-ployment Minister MallikarjunKharge told Deccan Heraldhere.

The Bangalore centre willcome up at Peenya where theState government has allottedfive acres of land while the Gul-barga centre will be at Badepuron a 20-acre land.

The institutions are a jointventure between the UnionLabour and Employment Min-istry, German Society for Tech-nical Co-operation, of Ger-many and Karnatakagovernment, he said.

Initially, five courses, includ-ing those in automobile, elec-trical and electronics sectorswill be taught in the institu-tions. The courses will be for aperiod of one-year to three-year depending on stream andacademic sessions will be start-ed from this year.

These centres will be totally

autonomous institutions andwill be supervised by a high-level committee comprisingrepresentatives of the UnionLabour and Employment Min-istry and the State Departmentof Employment and Training,headed by the State Chief Sec-retary.

The institutions will also of-fer courses to upgrade skills tothose who are already em-ployed in industries, Khargesaid. The primary mission ofthe centres is to provide multi-disciplinary programme in var-ious industrial technical fieldson a par with the internationalstandards, he said. These cen-tres if run successfully, will beset up in other places also, hesaid.DH News Service

Multi-skill development centres in State

BANGALORE: The State gov-ernment plans to givegreater priority to micro,small and medium enter-prises (MSME) during thesecond edition of Global In-vestors Meet (GIM) sched-uled to be held in June, ChiefMinister D V SadanandaGowda announced in Banga-lore on Thursday.

Speaking after launchingthe brochure for GIM- 2012Expo, which will be heldalongside the investors meet,Gowda said the State govern-ment believed that the back-bone of development isMSME and there was a needto strengthen the sector. “At

GIM Expo, we will bringMSME in contact with nation-al and international industryand large public sectorsunits”, Gowda said. The sec-ond edition of GIM will beheld on June 7 and 8, whilethe expo for the event will belaunched on June 6, a tradeshow covering a wide spec-trum of industries as its focusarea. Both the events will beheld at Bangalore Internation-al Exhibition Centre (BIEC),on Tumkur Road.

The chief minister said theState would soon come outwith an “aerospace policy” tofurther promote the sector inthe 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, SemiconductorPolicy and Biotech policy.These policies had receivedpositive response and hadbeen implemented in the rightearnest, Gowda claimed.

Additional Chief Secretary,Department of Commerceand Industries K Jothirama-lingam said the State govern-ment was providing substan-tial impetus to attract MSMEcompanies. In this regard, thesmall scale industries depart-ment was in touch with tradeassociations across the State,he said.

According to the organis-

ers, GIM Expo 2012 will have14 focus pavilions, spread over20,000 sqm of showcase area.The organisers are expecting600 exhibitors to register forthe expo. The focus areas in-clude aerospace and defence,agrotech and food processing,automobiles, energy and envi-ronment, health, electronicsand hardware, infrastructure,tourism and hospitalityamong others.

Thursday’s event also wit-nessed the State governmentsigning MoUs with Rwanda,which has evinced interest toset up its pavilions at GIM-2012.DH News Service