Pairokar

 The horrific terrorist attacks in many Hotels and Churches of the small but beautiful island country of Sri Lanka have left almost every Indian dazed and shell-shocked. Our country has seen innumerable serial blasts in temples, educational institutions, bazars and other public places. Not long ago, every Indian used to avoid going even to Railway, Bus stations or other crowded places, unless it was very necessary, for fear of bomb blasts. Thanks to the present Central Government of Modi that terrorists have largely been cornered. One can find the watchful eyes of the security forces that deter the terrorists from hitting their targets. The public has now become more awakened, the use of modern technology like CCTV cameras has also helped in tackling terrorism. But as they say, no amount of security, howsoever and vigilant and strict, can prevent the determined terrorist attacks. And that is what has exactly happened in Sri Lanka, where one terrorist in a hotel was found to be a ...

The pension of the private sector employees will shoot up under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), thanks to a Supreme Court ruling which has dismissed a Special Leave Petition filed by Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) against the judgement of the Kerala High Court. The High Court had asked the retirement fund body to give pension to all retiring employees on the basis of their full salary, rather than capping the figure on which contribution is calculated at a maximum of Rs 15,000 per month. All employees in the organised sector currently contribute 12% of their salary (basic salary dearness allowance) to the EPF. The employer makes a matching contribution, of which 8.33% goes to the EPS.       Back in March 1996, the EPS Act was amended to allow members to raise the EPS contribution to 8.33% of their full salary (basic + DA) provided the employee and employer had no objection, thereby doing away with the cap on salary. This raised the pension amount expo...

The amount of work that Narendra Modi has done in the last five years is mind-boggling and unimaginable for any government to do in country and population of this size. It will take years for the researchers to properly comprehend and evaluate it. Almost every household in the country has now got toilet facilities, which was unthinkable only a few years back. When he declared from the ramparts of Lal Quila that every house will soon have 'izzatghar', he was being pooh-poohed by the prophets of doom, but they all proved wrong. Go to any village in the country, there is hardly any family, which does not have a pucca house with modern facilities of kitchen, electricity and toilet. Every house has LPG and the subsidy goes directly to the consumer, which was earlier gobbled up and pocketed by the agents, middlemen/women and brokers. There is one briefless Advocate, who sits in the Supreme Court, who during his service, was caught by the CBI red-handed taking bribes, although ...

Who listens to Lachhaman Singh?        I read a heart-rending story of a father of martyred Jawan of Indian Army, in the ‘Indian People’s Congress’ being edited and managed by the Supreme Court Advocate Shreepal Singh and written by Wing Comdr Venky Aiyer. He says that I informed Lachhaman Singh Rathore “Deeply regret to inform that your son Flying Officer Vikram Singh lost his life in a flying accident early this morning. Death was instantaneous.”       He was brought by a helicopter and we all received the frail old man of nearly 80 years. He was in immaculate Dhoti. We helped him alight and then he asked me after getting down from the helicopter, “are you Venky?”  I said yes sir, The distraught father took me to some paces away and told me that 'you have lost your friend but I have lost my son, you tell me what do I have to do? My only desire is to meet his friends and spend the whole night in the room where he was sleeping an...

Those who have been advocating that ‘capital punishment’ should be completely taken off the statute must be disappointed by the judgement of the Supreme Court in ‘Khushwinder Singh vs. State of Punjab’ case. The Court reiterated that the death sentence will continue to remain valid in the ‘rarest of rare’ cases.   In the previous piece of the Judicial Panorama, it was discussed how the six innocent persons, who were waiting to be hanged were acquitted because they were falsely implicated by the Police. In this case, the court has said that anything less than the death sentence will be an injustice. The case of the prosecution is that one Jasmeen Kaur who was married to Rupinder Singh in the year 2005. They had two children from their marriage. However, the atmosphere in the family of Jasmeen’s in-laws was not good. So, she started living along with her husband and children at her natal place. Her brother was a drunkard. Jasmeen was approached by Manjit Kaur, wife of ...