BJP workers forge Jayant Sinha’s sign to dupe youth

Some BJP workers in minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha’s constituency forged his signature to trick local unemployed youths into paying money for jobs, Hazaribagh police said on Sunday.

A complaint lodged with Barkagaon police station of Hazaribagh by one of the duped youths stated that a few local BJP workers assured jobs to ten unemployed youths in the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for which they had to pay a certain amount of money.

The party workers showed the letter to the unemployed persons as proof of their job recommendation and extorted money, police said.

The fraud came into light when the youth came to know that no such letter has been written by the Sinha, police said.

Dilip Thakur, one of the victims, said that he had met two people few months ago who introduced themselves as BJP party workers and assured employment in exchange of money.

“I paid them the asked amount and he was shown the letter with the forged signature which was supposed to be sent to NTPC AGM BB Mohapatra.”

The fraud came to light when the victimes met Mohapatra personally, not having received their appointment letters.

Sinha has directed the police to investigate the entire matter and arrest the imposters as soon as possible.

The bench found the GR was “prima facie” unsustainable in the eyes of the law and stayed its operation until further orders.

According to the GR, 50% seats for PG courses in private and deemed medical and dental colleges, in addition to half of the 35% institution quota seats — 17.5% seats — were to be filled with students domiciled in Maharashtra. For the first time, 25% of the seats in deemed medical and dental institutes were also reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Vimukta Jati, Nomadic Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Currently, the government and private institutes have 50% and 25% of their seats reserved for these students. While the online admission process for post-graduate medical courses in all government, civic and private medical colleges across Maharashtra started in January 2017 and the first merit list was to be published on April 30, the medical education department issued the GR, which in one stroke made several candidates who did their MBBS courses from colleges in Maharashtra ineligible for admission to post-graduate medical courses in the state.

Five such students, who are not domiciled in Maharashtra, approached high court through advocate Pooja Thorat challenging the controversial GR. They said the state had no authority to modify the earlier rules at a later stage in admission.

The counsel for the state, on the other hand, contended that at a time when the selection list has already been published, there should be no interference in the admission process. The state justified that a higher number of medical practitioners domiciled in Maharashtra are needed to provide healthcare in the state.

However, the court decided to provide interim relief to the petitioners and asked the state to file its reply within two weeks. The court also directed the medical education department to take appropriate corrective steps, in view of the fact that the first merit list was already published on Sunday (April 30) by the time the order was passed.

The state, which was planning to come up with a similar GR for undergraduate (UG) courses, will now move the Supreme Court (SC) against the HC order. “We will see what the SC has to say on the matter. Based on that, we will issue new rules for UG courses,” said Pravin Shingare, director at the state’s directorate of medical education and research (DMER).

Colleges had also criticised the government ‘control’ over their admission process and were planning to intervene in the matter. “Due to domicile reservation, the deemed colleges may find it difficult to fill their seats. Their high fees will deter many Maharashtra-domiciled candidates from seeking admission there in these institutes. The state should provide them ample time to fill their seats with students from outside the state, in case the reserved seats remain vacant,” said a parent.

Deemed colleges have welcomed by the judgment. “Whatever rules are to be framed, should have been framed early on. If the rules are changed at the eleventh hour, everyone from students to parents will panic,” said the spokesperson for a deemed medical college.

It remains to be seen whether the state will issue a fresh list for selection. “We will plead before HC to give us some time to implement its order. In that period, we will try to get a stay on the order. Otherwise, we will have to issue a fresh list,” said Shingare. ting a positive response from all fronts,” said DK Jain, additional chief secretary, finance department. A pick of his sharpest jabs: 1. “The president didn’t show up. Because Donald Trump doesn’t care about free speech. The man who tweets everything that comes into his head doesn’t show up to celebrate the amendment that allows him to do it”

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off last week a scheme to make flying cheaper, aiming to put air travel in reach for the middle class with more flights to smaller towns.

The year also saw the highest number — 151 — of pilots being suspended for violating safety protocols, a 38% increase from the previous high of 109 suspensions in 2012.

A majority of them were found to have consumed too much alcohol in either pre- or post-flight medical checks.

HT had, on the basis of figures for the 2016 January-may period, reported in August that the year was shaping up to be the worst in terms of air safety.

Indiscipline and attitude issues were found as major reasons for pilots violating protocol.

But a bulk of last year’s mid-air scares, 22 of 32, were due to errors by the air traffic control (ATC).

ATCS in India, sources there and in the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) said, are overwhelmed by widespread issues of bad infrastructure and few staff.

“Under pressure from the International Civil Aviation Organization (a United Nations specialised agency set up to recommend air safety standards to its member countries), the Airport Authority of India recruited 1,000 air traffic controllers in 2016 but its three training colleges in Allahabad Hyderabad and Gondia don’t have the capacity to train all of them at one go”, an official working in the ATC told HT on the condition of anonymity,

He said that after training, when new recruits reach control towers for on-the-job training, many have to stand in queue for their turns since there are not enough terminals. Some end up waiting for months, he added.

ATC job is considered to be one of the most stressful jobs in the world. And, according to the source, the mass recruitment has compromised on quality. “Out of the 1,000 Btech graduates, less than 1% come from reputed colleges such as NITS.”

Another ATC official, who too did not want to be identified, said the profession is full of “downsides”. “Unattractive salary structure is one of them. To control high attrition, AAI introduced new job conditions that include a 5-year bond. If candidates leaves within five years, they will have to pay Rs 5 lakh to AAI. This further discourages the best minds to take the ATC job,” he said.

In addition to the manpower woes, the ATC sources said, controllers have to make do with very limited airspace despite the increasing flight volumes.

“Delhi’s 65% airspace is with Air Force. We have 1,300 daily take-offs and landings of aircrafts only in 35% airspace,” one of the sources said. PH Singh, former general secretary of the ATC Guild, said developed nations “have a system of need-based optimization of airspace, but that’s not here in India.”

“Before any enhancement in traffic, there must be a matching enhancement in infrastructure like airspace, technology, number of trained controllers and ground infrastructure. Surveillance and advanced warning and communication systems should be adequate. There should be honest, continued safety assessment”, said Singh.

ATCS, he added, should have the complete authority to say “NO”, when they feel they do not have the handling capacity.

Emails to the secretary of civil aviation asking about the safety measures being taken to meet increased flight operations and address near-miss incidents were not responded too.

Senior officials, requesting anonymity, said that such increase in near-miss cases is natural when operations expand.

“Increasing traffic is no justification for increase in near-miss as human error can be minimised with well-structured training and upgradation of technology,” said SS Panesar, a veteran pilot.

Lalit Gupta, joint director general, DGCA, did not respond but one a senior official from the civil aviation regulator said pilots and ATCS are regularly sent for skill enhancement as needed.

The DGCA also refused to share ICAO’S air safety audit and action-taken report through an application under RTI.

Tuhinanshu Sharma, director of Airworthiness in DGCA replied, “The information is outside the purview of RTI Act.”

Singh, a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, lost charge of Karnataka as well. That was apparently done on the request of state leaders and legislators, who complained against his work style. Dissent could trip the party’s chances of retaining power in the southern state that votes in April-may next year.

The BJP is trying hard to make a comeback in Karnataka, but bitter infighting could give the Congress the window to check the anti-incumbency.

There is also an indication that the Congress leadership is relying on a mix of experience and youth to steer the party.

The 66-year-old former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Kerala parliamentarian KC Venugopal, who is 54, were appointed general secretaries. These were clear examples.

Young leaders have been made party secretaries and given charge of different states with a long-term aim to build a team for the future.

Situations such as the one in Assam might have prompted a course change. The Congress lost the northeastern state and became vulnerable in the region after young regional leader Himanta Biswa Sarma broke ranks and joined the BJP before the 2016 Assam polls.

The party had to forego Arunachal Pradesh because of dissension and is facing an exodus of lawmakers and leaders in Manipur, where the BJP ousted a 15-year Congress rule in this year’s elections.

Sarma is among the main leaders credited with the BJP’S success in Manipur. The Congress repeated the Goa story here too — emerged as the single largest party with more legislators but fell short of a majority and couldn’t get any allies to support it to form the government.

The Congress leadership, however, has yet to move fast and bring changes in states such as Bihar, Punjab, Kerala and Odisha.

Besides, there is still no clarity when Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will formally take over the reins of the organisation from his mother, Sonia Gandhi, who has been at the helm since 1998.

“But that it runs so very deep, I just experienced, when the government recently decided that no person, whatsoever his status might be, will move with a red beacon atop his vehicle.”

He linked the mantra of treating every person important to his idea of New India.

And he asked all to “warmly accept” that each of the 1.25 billion Indians is a person of importance and “possesses a sagacious aura, Mahaatmya, in a unique manner”.

“In place of VIP, more priority should be accorded to EPI. And when I’m saying EPI in place of VIP, the essence of my sentiment is clear, every person is important. The divine greatness of a hundred and twenty five crore Indians and we’ll garner strength of immense magnitude. We have to do this together.”