Professional & Knowledgable Law Team

Monday, October 10, 2011

Botswana - Country Profile

City centre buildings in Gaborone, Botswana


Tourists swarming to see young leopard at Chobe National Park, Botswana

Indians in Botswana do not form a very large population. There are 3,000 PIOs and 6,000 NRIs in Botswana.[


For More Info visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botswana

Punjab Advocate-General Baldev Singh quits


Chandigarh, October 9
Refusing to “succumb to pressure”, Advocate-General Baldev Singh today put in his papers. He is expected to be replaced by Punjab and Haryana High Court’s senior advocate Ashok Aggarwal.
Available information suggests that Baldev Singh resigned on the question of principles regarding the issue of representing the Punjab State Electricity Board.
The board is to be represented by the Advocate-General. But for several years now it was being represented by an Additional Advocate-General.
On September 23, a notification was issued appointing Baldev Singh as senior standing counsel for the board cases, a move that did not go down well with his detractors.
Indications are that Baldev Singh was under “tremendous pressure” to hand over the cases to an Additional Advocate-General ever since the notification was issued.
It is believed that Principal Secretary to Chief Minister DS Guru’s visit to Baldev Singh’s house this afternoon preceded the resignation. Indications are that Guru had suggested that the cases be handed over to an Additional Advocate-General.
Baldev Singh is the second Advocate-General appointed by the SAD Government to have resigned on principles. On October 5, 1998, GS Grewal had resigned from the post after levelling serious allegations against the Punjab Government. Grewal had opposed the state government’s move to defend its "corrupt" and "guilty" bureaucrats on state expenses, which offended a section of the bureaucracy. A renowned criminal lawyer, Baldev Singh was reportedly recommended for elevation as a High Court Judge more than a decade ago. But he did not agree to it. During his short tenure of four months in office, Baldev Singh initiated a slew of measures to streamline the functioning of the office.
On Baldev Singh’s missive, the state govt had recently circulated instructions to all heads of departments, Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners. In a communication to the Chief Secretary, Baldev Singh had warned that the Judges “may be constrained to require personal appearances of senior officers in court”, if the “situation doesn’t improve and the depts concerned do not properly assist the law officers”.

California passes Dream Act for immigrant students


Ana Maria Archila (R) and Carly Fox, of the New York State Dream Act Task Force, hold each other during a mock graduation ceremony at the West Front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, 2004. California governor Jerry Brown signed the California Dream Act into law Saturday, making illegal immigrants eligible for state money to attend American universities and colleges, his office said.
California governor Jerry Brown signed the California Dream Act into law Saturday, making illegal immigrants eligible for state money to attend American universities and colleges, his office said.
Under the act, illegal immigrants who have attended high school in the Golden State can receive Cal-Grant aid, which last year gave grants to more than 370,000 poor students of an average $4,500 each.
"Going to college is a dream that promises intellectual excitement and creative thinking. The Dream Act benefits us all by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us," Brown said.
California officials estimate that around 2,500 students will qualify for the grants under the new state legislation, called AB 131, costing $14.5 million, Brown's office said in a statement.
The overall Cal Grant program is funded at $1.4 billion, meaning that only 1 percent of all the program's money will be potentially impacted by AB 131 when the law goes into effect, it said.
Brown, a veteran Democrat, took office in January, succeeding Republican actor turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had vetoed the legislation.
The passage of the law in liberal California, which has a massive immigrant population, could be seen as a signal to lawmakers in Washington, over the controversial Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.
The federal DREAM Act would give a six-year resident's permit to high school graduates who came to America illegally, and let them pay the much cheaper residents' tuition rates or obtain a scholarship to attend a US university.
It would affect 55,000 immigrant children brought to the United States illegally by their parents who have been through the public school system only to find college off-limits because of their legal status and high tuition fees.
Backers of the DREAM Act say the United States should encourage youths to pursue higher education as a key to their own and the nation's economic success.
But opponents say it would send a message to migrants that it was acceptable to come to the United States illegally, and should not be passed without a thorough reform of American immigration rules.

California allows college aid to illegal immigrants


SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a bill giving illegal immigrant college students access to state-funded financial aid, the second half of two-part legislation known as the "Dream Act."
The controversial measure, which passed the Democrat-controlled legislature on a party-line vote in September, represents a victory for immigrant-rights activists ahead of the 2012 presidential election. California is the nation's most populous state.
Only two other states, Texas and New Mexico, allow illegal immigrants to qualify for state financial aid for college, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"Going to college is a dream that promises intellectual excitement and creative thinking," Brown said in a written statement issued by his office.
"The Dream Act benefits us all by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us," he said.
Brown in July fulfilled a campaign promise by signing into law a companion bill to allow illegal immigrants to receive privately-funded college scholarships. Together the two bills have been dubbed the "California Dream Act."
A federal Dream Act that would have created a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who attend college or serve in the military failed in Senate last year.
Opponents of the California Dream Act have argued that public funds should not be used to help illegal immigrants, especially as California faces deep budget woes that have prompted cuts in education and higher tuitions at the state's public colleges and universities.
"Citizens are having a hard enough time getting the classes they need now," Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a Hesperia Republican, wrote in a September 9 letter to Brown urging him to veto the legislation.
"(California already offers) students in the country illegally in-state tuition; legally documented students from the next state over can only dream of such a benefit," Donnelly said.
California is one of about a dozen states that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, based on attendance and graduation from a state high school.
Under the new law, written by Senator Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles Democrat, those same illegal immigrants would be eligible for aid from the University of California, California State university system and the state's 112 community colleges.
They could also apply for Cal Grants, which are cash awards based on academic performance.
For the 2007-2008 academic year, the University of California reports that less than three-tenths of one percent of the system's 220,000 students were immigrants who qualified for in-state tuition.
More than 68 percent of those 1,941 students were U.S. citizens or "documented" immigrants, according to the University of California.
At the state universities, the new law would affect 3,633 students, or less than one percent of the 440,000 students enrolled in the current school year.
Of the nearly 2.9 million community college enrollees, 34,057 would be affected

Alberta farmer who shot thief will go to jail


A central Alberta farmer who shot a man stealing his ATV more than two years ago will serve 90 days in jail.
Brian Knight learned his sentence in a Red Deer courtroom Friday after pleading guilty to criminal negligence in January.
Knight chased and used a shot gun to fire at a man who was stealing Knight's ATV from his farm near Tees, Alta.
In the early morning of March 26, 2009, Knight found three men in his farmyard.
He jumped out of bed and gave chase clad in boxer shorts and rubber boots to a man riding Knight's all-terrain vehicle.
Knight rammed the ATV with his car and, when the man abondoned the machine and began running, Knight pulled out a shotgun, firing two rounds at him, police said.
The man was eventually caught after Knight called friends and relatives to help in the search, police said.
The Crown recommended Knight be sent to jail for 90 days to be served intermittently.
The prosecutor told the judge the shooting was a vigilante act and the court must send a message that behavior of this sort is wrong.
However Knight's lawyer argued the shooting was not a vigilante act, but a spontaneous reaction.
Knight did not shoot to the man to kill or hurt him, but merely wanted to scare him, his lawyer said.