Daily News Mail - News of 03/04/2015

Ominous legislation
Meaning of 'ominous' - giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen; threatening; inauspicious.

• The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill 2015 carries disturbing echoes of draconian anti-terror laws such as the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). Both were considered failed experiments that led to gross abuse. More specifically, the Bill seems to be modelled on the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) that was implemented in 1999 and continues to be in force today. In fact, since 2002 it has also been in force in Delhi after the police insisted that such a law was needed as ‘organised crime has no limits’. 
• The common thread running through all these controversial pieces of legislation is the notion that regular process, as outlined by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, is not enough to deal with a changed internal security situation. GCTOC is therefore the latest chapter in a long-running search to find an ‘ideal’ anti-terror law, but like its earlier versions it raises important questions about the lines the state crosses in its attempts to fight crime and terror. 
• GCTOC, like MCOCA, allows confessions secured in police custody to be admitted as evidence in courts, a disturbing provision that is tantamount to legitimising custodial torture. Similarly, it allows the custody of an accused for 180 days rather than the 90 days provided under normal law. The most troubling aspect of MCOCA has been the way it enables the police to sidestep rigorous investigation. It has been used as a charge in all manner of cases ranging from real estate deals, prostitution and match-fixing, as the police seek to stack the odds in their favour in order to secure a conviction. This practice has repeatedly met with censure from the courts and there is no guarantee that GCTOC won’t go down the same path.
• The debate around GCTOC in the coming days will most likely take a political hue. When the UPA government first rejected Gujarat’s attempts to pass an anti-terror law the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi claimed that he was only presenting a ‘xerox copy’ of MCOCA. 
• The UPA argued that the Gujarat law was at variance(the fact or quality of being different, divergent, or inconsistent) with its policy on terror laws as articulated in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The new government may well have a different national policy. After all, permission for MCOCA was given under the last NDA government. 
• A more useful debate though, is on the manner in which these special laws are created. TADA came into being during the years of the Punjab militancy and POTA after the Parliament attack of 2001, and the genesis of MCOCA was from the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993. Knee-jerk reactions lead to severe laws. The focus should rather be on better resources and training for investigators who can continue to work under the existing Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which is already comprehensive in scope.

Wikipedia

The very first Wiki was launched in 1994 by Howard G. Cunningham in the U.S. for storing his company’s technical knowledge base. When released to the outside world, Wikis were an instant hit among technologists as they were an easy way of creating and maintaining documentation. Through the 90s, their use remained limited to geeks (Geek - an unfashionable or socially inept person,(engage in or discuss computer-related tasks obsessively or with great attention to technical detail). Then, in 2001, Wikipedia happened.

Coal India’s one billion tonne target hinges on output, offtake

• State miner Coal India faces twin challenges of delays in land acquisition and inadequate rail links as it attempts to double output to one billion tonnes by 2020.
• Its Chairman Sutirtha Bhattacharyya told The Hindu that success rests on two things: “It is land on one had and rail links on the other. To me, output and offtake are synonymous.”
• The one-billion tonne target was triggered by an off-the-cuff comment made by the Minister for Power Piyush Goyal during a review meeting. The public sector behemoth, however, has taken the comment seriously, and started preparing a roadmap.
• The attempt is ambitious, given that Coal India has rarely been able to meet its annual growth targets. Also, it would require an annual growth rate of 12%, against 7% now. Delays in land acquisition and regulatory clearances from the Centre and State governments are key reasons for the production shortfall.
• According to the company plan, two of its subsidiaries — Chhattisgarh-based South Eastern Coalfields and Odisha-based Mahanadi Coalfields — will account for half the targeted output. Of the rest, 300 million tonnes will come from existing mines. The remaining will be accounted for by new mines. Mr. Bhattacharyya referred to the one-billion tonne mark as a multi-barrier target, which embraces all the stakeholders — the State governments, the regulatory agencies, the railways.

Indirect tax collection exceeds target

• The indirect taxes collection has surpassed the revised estimates by Rs.4,000 crore to reach Rs.5.46 lakh crore for the fiscal ended March 2015, despite a slowdown in the manufacturing sector.
• The total collection as on March 31 is Rs.5,46,479 crore, based on the provisional report against revised estimates of Rs.5,42,325 crore for 2014-15, an official statement said.
• Revised estimate was Rs.82,577 lower than the Budget estimate of Rs.6,24,902 crore for 2014-15.
• At many occasions earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the Rs.6.24 lakh crore indirect tax collection target for 2014-15 was challenging.