Nation & States  

Centre will scrap terrorism act,
transfer sting to another law

What is India News Service, July 14, 2004, 1700 hrs IST

The UPA government is all set to repeal POTA this monsoon session, but simultaneously plans to add more teeth to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, by including terrorism and funding of terrorism in its ambit. 

This, the government hopes, will ensure that there is a law to tackle terrorism\97in line with other nations post-9/11\97in the absence of POTA. Although POTA lapses on October 24, 2004, the UPA government wants to score a political point by repealing the Act as promised in its Common Minimum Programme. 

Armitage reiterates stand on infiltration: US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage reiterated on Thursday that Pakistan had not yet dismantled militant camps in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, but added that not all the violence in Kashmir came from Pakistan. 

\93I was correctly quoted (in India Wednesday) when I just noted that all the terrorist camps (in Azad Kashmir) have not been dismantled,\94 Mr Armitage told reporters after talks with foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar on bilateral relations, cooperation in the war against terrorism, Pakistan-India relations, and the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sources privy to the talks told Daily Times that Mr Khokhar told the US official that President Pervez Musharraf had repeatedly promised that nothing was happening across the Line of Control in Kashmir and there were no militant camps on Pakistan\92s side. On the contrary, human rights violations inside Indian Kashmir had gone up and the United States should tell India to scale down repression and not to ascribe acts of indigenous resistance to external factors, Mr Khokhar reportedly said. 
 

Seat quota is 50:50: The Supreme Court said on Thursday Karnataka had misread an earlier judgement. It has referred the row on seat sharing between private colleges and the government to a larger bench. But for this year, it is going to be 50:50.

Jaya denounces Punjab: Just because an upper riparian state enjoys a geographical advantage, it cannot deny lower riparian states their rights, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa said on Friday.  


Fire in school: At least 75 students, mostly girls, and some teachers, were charred to death and 100 injured when a fire swept through a private middle school in this town in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district on Friday. 

British girl's killer traced:  : Police arrested on Thursday a truck driver suspected of raping and murdering a British teenager last year. He then returned to India, officials said.

Laloo's move rocks parliament: Railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's announcement that he had ordered a departmental probe into the Godhra carnage sparked off angry scenes in parliament.
 
Praise for tolerance: India hasn't shown much improvement in Human Development Indices (HDI) this year, but has won praise for its initiatives in religious tolerance, legal pluralism and socially just policies.

Overall:

Centre plans to scrap POTA: But it will pack more powers into another law to deal with terrorism. 

Armitage said he was quoted right: He told Pakistan that the Indian media had correctly reported his statements on terrorism in Kashmir. 

Supreme Court fixed seat quota: It is curtains on the row between the Karnataka government and the private colleges, at least for this year.

Girl's killer was traced: Police arrested in West Bengal a truck driver who had allegedly raped a British teenager and returned to India.