The Week That Was

the week that was September 15-21 2009 Page 4

Online RTI to empower masses In a significant step to increase the reach and accessibility of the Right to Information (RTI) for the public, the filing and complaining procedure has been made simpler. Complains and second appeal on RTI can now be filed online with all documents to be attachments in digital form.

AlterEgo

By Mehnaz

For the sake of ‘honour’ Every year 5000 females are killed in so-called ‘honour killing’

The Chief Information Commissioner, Wajahat Habibullah also suggested the use of credit cards for submitting the required fees. After inaugurating the Central I n fo r m a t i o n C o m m i s s i o n p o r t a l (www.rti.india.gov.in) for filing complaints and second appeals online, Wajahat H a b i b u l l a h s a i d , “ Wi t h i n te r n e t penetration improving, we have to look at new ways for filing RTI applications including payment through credit cards.” The new system will co-exist with the existing system, i.e. the manual one where the applicants send their complaints and appeal via post. Another highlight of the new website, which has been developed by the National Informatics Centre, is that it empowers the visually challenged to file the applications. This feat has been achieved by designing the website in such a way that the visually challenged can hear the instructions and details on the portal through speakers on their computers and proceed accordingly. The new website is designed in

Man as a social animal has to abide by the so-called laws of a society. And when one tries to go against this code of life, one has to pay for it. Honour killing is one such norm of some communities where one has to pay one's life for violating the rules of the community. In India and other co u nt r i es , fe m a l es a re considered to be the honour of the family. When such women go against the fami ly wishes especially when they marry or elope with their partners belonging to a different caste or community; the members of the family ' kill' them for the sake of defending their honour. In India alone, hundreds of women if not thousands are killed in the name of honour. Thirteen females per day are killed for the sake of honour worldwide, according to a UN report. However, the reports of the killings go off the record and the culprits or the perpetrators are left unpunished. Honour killings are not always committed by the kin of a family, the announcement of the brutal punishment is done by a Khap Panchayat (prominent in UP and Haryana) or a Caste Panchayat, a court which protects traditional norms of a particular caste in a village. Even if a household agrees to the will of their children, this panchayat does not go with the decision of the family instead such families are asked to leave the village. Ravinder Singh Gehlout's family was a recent target of Khap Panchayat at Dharana village in Haryana's Jhajjar district in which the family had been asked to

leave the village as Ravinder had married a girl called Shilpa belonging to the same gotra. Same gotra means sibling like relationship therefore according to the khap, the marriage in the same category is equivalent to incest. This is one such instance in Haryana where family was asked to vacate the village. However, in some cases like Ved Pal Maul's case, on July 22, the man was murdered brutall y by t he members of the panchayat at Singhwal, in Jind district when he came to take his wife back whom he had married against the consent of the girl's parents. In this case, there was no issue of different caste or same gotra, it was just that they opted for 'love marriage'. There are innumerable cases like Ved Pal's or Ravinder Gehlout's. If, in 2007, the murder of Manoj and Babli shocked the region, in 2004, a pregnant woman, Sonia, and her husband, Rampal, of Asanda village in Jhajjar grabbed the attention of the masses when they were almost forced to declare each other as brother and sister. Last year, in Bhiwani, two girls were burnt alive just because they went to greet some male friends on Diwali. Despite of knowing the consequence of such acts, there are some girls in Haryana who get married secretly in courts and never confront their parents as they know they will be killed the very moment they open their mouth. According to a native girl, she secretly got married to her lover of different caste a year back but she continues to stay in her

paternal house as she knows her confession about her marriage will only lead her into the worst. These caste panchayats are illegal in nature but still people in villages continue to obey their rulings. According to P Chidambaram, Union Home Minister, “Caste panchayats are informal bodies and have no legal status as such. Often, villagers give precedence to the judgement of a caste panchayat rather than that delivered by the courts of law.” Honour killing is not limited to Haryana only, it is prevalent in western UP and Punjab as well. In the name of tradition, the caste panchayats reward murder of a married couple or declare the man and woman as brother and sister or even sit on an indefinite protest to throw out a family from a village. These acts are done in front of everyone's eye but nobody is taking that needed extra step to stop such a crime. As honour killings do not come under the National Crime Bureau, there are no enough records on this dreadful act and that is why the culprits are roaming around without any hesitation. It is due to t h e l a c k o f gove r n m e nt ' s intervention that this heinous crime is increasing day by day. The policy makers in the government knowingly stay away from these issues to satiate their political desires. They know that if they interfere in this matter, they will lose handsome vote banks from the region. With such malice prevailing in the society, the country can hardly progress and will be unable to compete on international platform.

the week that was September 15-21 2009

insidestory Mongolia signs civil nuclear pact with India Page 2 Chinese cuisine Page 2 President visits Russia and Tajikistan Page 2 Economy business Page 3 Stampede in MCD school Page 3

Special Lok Adalats to settle power cases Page 3

Rupee climbs on stock inflows

Layout Supervisor:Pawan Koundal

India's rupee advanced against the U.S. dollar as overseas investors added to holdings of the nation's assets amid signs of accelerating economic growth . Funds based abroad bought $8.7 billion more Indian equities than they sold this year, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The $1.2 trillion economy expanded 6.1 percent in the three months, accelerating for the first time since 2007, the government said last month. The rupee climbed 0.3 percent to 48.585 per dollar as of 11 a.m. in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency has advanced 0.5 percent this month.

Student Editors: Ajeet, Pawan, Garima, Mamta, Dipika, Mehnaz, Ruchi, Upmanyu, Ritika, Jasneet, Rocky

Garima

accordance with the international guidelines for such portals. Undoubtedly, the new system incorporates more people in its ambit; thereby, more people can use this system to seek response to their queries. By making the system more user- friendly, it truly empowers the masses to exercise their Right to Information and makes the government institutions and state powers accountable to the citizens of India

Dipika

Editorial Supervisor: Prof. Ambrish Saxena

Editorial Advisor: SD Tripathi

VOL 1

ISSUE 5 A weekly production by Journalism students of CMS

India initiates revival of Doha round talks New Delhi on September 14 agriculture and Non-Agriculture Ministers of almost 35 countries hosted Ministerial Meeting of Marketing Access (NAMA), on also agreed to review the WTO nations as a 'breakthrough' which consensus had been progress of the talks after three in Doha round of talks which had reached in December 2008 months and do all that is possible ended in a deadlock in to wrap up things by J u l y l a s t y e a r. 2010. Much has been Tra d e / C o m m e r c e invested in the ministers of the key World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations of Doha member nations of Set up- 1 January 1995 Round and it was time WTO announced the Deals with the rules of trade between to take things further." resumption of talks on nations at a global level T h e W T O the Doha round. Doha Development Round or Doha n e g o t i at i o n s w e re After concluding Development Agenda (DDA) facing this deadlock t h e m e e t i n g , Started in November 2001 since December 2008. Commerce and Industry It is the current trade-negotiation round of After the failure of the M i n i s t e r a n d t h e WTO talks in July last year in c h a i r m a n o f t h e Objective - to lower trade barriers around Geneva, the Director ministerial meeting General of WTO, Pascal the world to allow countries to increase Anand Sharma said, Lamy made a strong trade globally "We have reached an push for convening Major issues of conflict (July 2008, Geneva)agreement to intensify another meeting to t h e D o h a R o u n d agriculture, industrial tariffs and non-tariff finalize the modalities n e g o t i a t i o n s . T h e barriers, services, and trade remedies for agriculture and i m p a s s e h a s b e e n Conflicting Groups: developed nations led NAMA. A revised draft b r o k e n . A l l t h e by the European Union (EU), the United modalities for participating countries States (USA) & Japan and the major agriculture and NAMA a g r e e d b y s t r o n g developing countries led and represented was brought out on consensus that the chief mainly by India, Brazil, China & South December 6 last year. negotiators and the Africa. Earlier in 2009 the senior officials from the Director General WTO countries will proposed resumption meet in Geneva on September would form the basis to resume of negotiations using the revised 14 to re-start and re-energise the negotiations. draft as a starting point but the The members unanimously negotiations had not resumed trade talks, for which India had re-affirmed to conclude the since then. taken the lead," Doha Round within 2010. Mr. Mr. Sharma informed that Upmanyu S h a r m a expressed, “ The the two drafts pertaining to

Fact file

Jet strike called off Jet pilots back to work after 5 day strike which affected over 20000 passengers Jet Airways flights resumed on Sunday after a 5 day strike with the settlement among the National Aviator's Guild and the m a n a g e m e n t . Management took back the four sacked pilots and created a consultation committee with five pilots and five management representatives to discuss other issues, including the formation of the union. Immediately I nte r n at i o n a l f l i g hts we re resumed, giving awaited break to domestic flights for further few hours.

T h e Natio n al Aviato r's Guild(NAG), an unapproved union of Jet Airways Pilot began strike on 08 Sept,2009 at the issue of sacking two of the senior pilots with no proper reasons. More than thousand flights were cancelled ,irrespective of the measures taken by the organization to reduce the impact of crisis. The organization also approached the aviation ministry to look into the matter. Matter got more worse when on Wednesday organization took disciplinary action against 5 more

pilots as they went on sick leave to join the protest. Earlier more than 760 employees went on sick leave. The company suffered losses estimated at eight million dollar daily. Putting an end to the fragile relationship between the management and employees on Saturday Cpt. Balaram reinstated the duty. The dispute has exemplified the touchy labour relations in the country.

Jasneet