Bill on workplace predators tabled

The Telegraph,December 8,2010

New Delhi, Dec. 7 (PTI): The government today introduced in the Lok Sabha a bill aimed at preventing sexual harassment of women at workplace in various forms, including implied or overt promise of preferential treatment or threat or interference in her work through intimidation.

The Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, provides for mandatory setting up of an internal committee by a company or any other institute to probe a written complaint by an aggrieved woman employee or settle the matter through conciliation.

Moving the bill, women and child development minister Krishna Tirath said the objective was to enact a comprehensive legislation to provide safe and secure and an enabling environment free of all forms of sexual harassment to every woman, irrespective of her age or employment status (other than domestic workers).

It fixes the responsibility on the employer as well as the district magistrate, additional DM, the collector or deputy collector of every district in the state as a district officer and lays down a statutory redressal mechanism.

The proposed legislation makes it incumbent on the employer to order a probe into any complaint and provides for a fine of Rs 50,000 in case an internal inquiry is not set up by the employer or an attempt is made to contravene the provisions of the new law. However, in the case of false or malicious complaints, the bill provides for action against the complainant in accordance with service rules and in any other manner in case no service rules exist.

The “malicious intent or falsehood” on part of the complainant shall be established after an inquiry in accordance with the procedure prescribed before any action is recommended, says the bill introduced amid pandemonium caused by the Opposition in demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the 2G spectrum issue.

But mere inability to substantiate a complaint or provide adequate proof need not attract action against the complainant, it says.

The bill has identified actions that would come under its purview as “implied or overt promise of preferential treatment in her (any woman’s) employment; or implied or overt threat of detrimental treatment in her employment; or implied or overt threat about her present or future employment status”.

Other cognisable actions are: “Conduct of any person which interferes with her work or creates an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment for her; or humiliating conduct constituting health and safety problems for her.” 

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Death for death in torture bill

The Telegraph,December 8,2010

Calcutta

J.P. YADAV

New Delhi, Dec. 7: A parliamentary committee has fine-tuned the definition of torture and recommended stiff punishment in an attempt to ratify the UN convention against torture.

Death caused by torture in custody can attract capital punishment, according to the recommendations the Rajya Sabha select committee presented today along with the amended Prevention of Torture Bill.

The minimum compensation has been fixed at Rs 1 lakh.

The bill to provide for punishment against torture by public servants was passed by the Lok Sabha in May but was referred to the Rajya Sabha committee following concerns over inadequacies in the draft.

The amended bill incorporating the recommendations will go back to the Union cabinet and will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha. Once passed, it will go to the Lok Sabha for concurrence.

Employees of government-run organisations and educational institutions should be brought under the ambit of public servants, the committee has recommended.

Committee chairman Ashwani Kumar said the proposed law would humanise the administration of criminal justice and spare India negative publicity at international fora. “Even Pakistan has signed the UN convention. It was a cause of negative publicity at international fora. Now India can notify the UN convention against torture after over 13 years of the convention being signed by India.”

India had not been able to notify the convention for lack of an enabling legislation.

The definition of torture in the proposed law includes sexual abuse of women. “Even a threat of rape becomes an act of torture and it has been added in the legislation,” Kumar said.

The proposed law would override the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, he said.

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Man dead

The Telegraph,December 8,2010

Calcutta

An unidentified man in his mid-30s, who was found lying unconscious on the footpath beside Panchanantala Mandir on Tollygunge Circular Road on Tuesday morning, was declared dead at MR Bangur Hospital. Police said there was no injury mark on his body.

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Bike thieves held

The Telegraph,December 8,2010
 
 Calcutta

Hafizul Mondal, Javed Miandad alias Bapi and Abdul Hakim, of Amdanga in North 24-Parganas, and Md Amir, of Nadia, were arrested in the city on Tuesday for allegedly stealing two-wheelers. The gang used to sell the stolen motorcycles in Bangladesh, said cops. Mondal was the kingpin. Hakim and Amir used to work as informers while Miandad used to steal the bikes. ondal and Amir were arrested in Ekbalpore while Hakim and Miandad were picked up from Sudder Street.

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Gang busted

The Telegraph,December 8,2010

Calcutta

Md Mustafa and Munna Kumar Chowdhury were arrested at Ghora Sawan in Bihar on Tuesday for robbing a mobile phone shop on MG Road in November. Police said the three were part of a gang of 10 that took away 166 cellphones and Rs 63,000. The gang is believed to have looted another mobile store in Dum Dum a couple of days earlier.

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Hasina hits, Yunus breaks silence

See http://indiancrimenews.blogspot.com/2010/12/bangla-nobel-laureate-accused-of.html for earlier news.

The Telegraph,December 7,2010

ANANYA SENGUPTA

Dhaka, Dec. 6: A withering statement from Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has prompted Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus to break his silence on allegations of international aid diversion to a for-profit venture.

Speaking out for the first time after a Danish documentary levelled the charges, Yunus said in a statement emailed from Lisbon: “The Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for an investigation into the press reports that have surfaced recently with regard to Grameen Bank. We welcome such initiative and I am confident that this will resolve the matter and bring the truth to the citizens of Bangladesh as soon as possible.”

The statement came four days after a controversy erupted around the Danish documentary.

Till now, the general manager of the Grameen Bank, M. Shahjahan, has been denying the allegations.

However, Hasina’s unequivocal statement at a media conference that the charges needed to be probed appears to have prompted Yunus, called the “banker to the poor”, to step forward and issue the statement.

The Danish documentary, aired on Norwegian national television, had alleged that around $150 million in foreign grants were transferred a year ago to two ventures that were not involved with microcredit operations.

Led by Yunus, Grameen Bank had attracted worldwide fame and donors as the institution that revolutionised banking for the rural poor.

In a scathing attack on Yunus, Hasina, who addressed the media yesterday after her return from a three-nation tour, compared the Nobel laureate’s obsession with Grameen Bank to Opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s preoccupation with her Dhaka Cantonment house.

“Grameen Bank had been grabbed in such a manner as if it’s a personal property. This should also be investigated. Poor people are becoming paupers. They have been tricked by sweet talk. Finally, things are getting out. Grameen Bank is a public property. But it’s being privatised out of ‘love’.

“Yunus Sahib has fallen in love with Grameen Bank,” she said, implying that the alleged diversion of funds was an attempt to evade taxes.

Responding to the allegations made in the documentary, titled Fanget i Mikrogjeld (Caught in Micro debt) and aired on November 30, Hasina seemed in no mood to forgive Yunus if any wrongdoing was established.

“Bangladesh has set many examples. Deceiving people by siphoning off their money is another such example. This is nothing but sucking money out of the people after giving them loans.

“There has been no improvement in the lifestyle of the poor so far. They were just used as pawns to get more aid,” Hasina said.

The controversy comes at a time microcredit has run into a storm in Andhra Pradesh. Some microfinance companies in Andhra have been accused of persuading clients to take loans beyond their means and then using strong-arm tactics to recover the dues. Several suicides in the state have been blamed on this reckless attitude.

News agencies in Dhaka said the government, which once owned 60 per cent of Grameen Bank, now holds only a 25 per cent stake.

Hasina’s party members too have come out and criticised Yunus. Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif has gone as far as calling Yunus “corrupt”.

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Arrest ruling

The Telegraph,December 6,2010

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has ruled that arrest should be the last option used by police as unnecessary imprisonment of a person violates the fundamental right to personal liberty. “… It (arrest) should be restricted to those exceptional cases where arresting the accused is imperative in the facts and circumstances of that case,” the apex court said in a judgment.

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