HIV+ woman may lose custody of adopted daughter

MADURAI: The Madurai Network of Positive People's Society is trying to get a girl child, who was adopted by an HIV positive woman, enrolled in school, as the woman was unaware of the consequences when she decided to bring up this orphan as her own, four years ago.
Speaking to TOI, B V Babu, president of the society said that the woman Jaya (name changed) (40) had enrolled in the society in 2009 a few weeks after she tested positive for HIV. "She is one of those lucky ones where the virus had been dormant for over 15 years," said Babu, who himself had tested positive 13 years after being infected.
The woman had told the society members that her husband left her 20 years ago after infecting her with the dreaded
disease. The couple had a daughter, who was married off last year. However, the woman, who was employed as a sweeper in a private nursing home in Vadipatti near Madurai, hid her HIV condition from her daughter's in-laws.
In the meantime, the woman applied for the Rs 1000 assistance given by the government towomen who had been abandoned by their husbands. She had sought Babu's help for obtaining the same. After filing up her application, he asked her to meet him in his office.
"When she came on Tuesday, I was surprised to see her being accompanied by the four-year-old child," he said. When Babu inquired with the woman who the girl was, she told him that it was her daughter. "Immediately, I questioned her how she could have such a daughter of that age when her husband had left her 20 years ago. I even asked her angrily if she had an affair," he said.
That was when the woman broke down and narrated the story of the girl. She told him that the child was abandoned by her biological mother in the hospital where she worked and the authorities entrusted her with the duty of putting the child in the cradle baby scheme. "I did not have the heart to abandon the child and decided to bring her up as my own as she would be of support to me," she said.
Babu said that he found the woman's claims to be genuine and explained to her that what she had done in her ignorance was a grave mistake. She was told that the child would have to pursue a good education to become self-sustained in future. "My only fear is that I will lose this daughter if I have to educate her with the help of officials," Jaya told TOI.
Madurai district social welfare officer M Jayalakshmi told TOI that the woman was not justified in bringing up the child illegally. The child would immediately be handed over to the child welfare committee in Muthupatti and if there are no claimants, then the girl would be produced in court and her foster mother would have to make a claim from there. "If the court deems her unfit to bring up the child, she would come under our care and we will take care of its proper adoption," she said. Enrolling the child in school is not an immediate possibility according to her.

Delhi to have new licence plates by Dec end

Implement high security number plates for vehicles by March 31, 2012: SC to states

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday set March 31, 2012 as the deadline for states to implement the scheme for fixing high security registration plates (HSRP) in motor vehicles, while directing Delhi government to complete the process by this yearend.

"We extend the period for implementation of the scheme till December 31, 2011, by which date, all steps, complete in all respects, should be taken by the Delhi government," a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar said.

The court asked Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS), which has been constituted by the Delhi government as a special purpose vehicle for overseeing transport in the Capital, to ensure that a single person is in charge of supervising manufacturing, affixation of seals, imprinting of numbers and affixation of HSRP on vehicles in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Like Delhi, Kerala and Manipur have also been directed to implement the scheme by December 31, 2011. West Bengal will implement the scheme by January 31, 2012 while Andhra Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Tripura will fully operationalise HSRP by February 29, 2012.
States and Union Territories given March 31, 2012 as deadline to implement HSRP are Bihar, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Puducherry, Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The deadline of April 30, 2012 for implementation of HSRP was stuck on Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Uttarakhand.
Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland will be the last among the states to implement HSRP by June 15, 2012. The apex court asked the high courts not to entertain any petition, as part of judicial propriety, in relation to implementation of HSRP.
It warned the defaulting states of contempt action. "In the event of default and non-compliance of any of the directions contained in this order by any authority, this court would be compelled to initiate proceedings against such officer/officers in accordance with the provisions of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, without any further notice to them," said Justice Swatanter Kumar, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench.
The court took exception to non-filing of affidavits by Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Goa and Karnataka, who cited pending litigation relating to tender process as the reason. Dadra and Nagar Haveli has not even initiated the tender process.
"For non-filing of affidavits, these states/UTs have already violated the orders of the apex court," the SC said and granted time till December 31 to file affidavits.
On the litigation relating to HSRP pending in various courts, the bench said, "In the interest of justice and to ensure proper implementation of the judgments and directions of this court, as contained in its various orders, in regard to manufacturing and affixation of the HSRP, it is imperative for this court to direct that it will be in the fitness of things and even judicial propriety would demand that no high court should pass any interim order cancelling or staying the tender process in relation to implementation of the scheme."

Death sentence of 2 Indians commuted after blood money deal

DUBAI: Two Indians, who were facing death sentence in the UAE for killing a compatriot, are set to be released this month as their death penalty was commuted by a Sharjah Sharia court after Rs eight lakh was paid in blood money to the family of the victim.

The two youths from Punjab had been awarded death sentence in Sharjah for bootlegging and murdering another Indian from Andhra Pradesh.

Talwinder Singh from Kapurthala and Paramjiit Singh from Gurdaspur were in prison since 2009 for murdering Chinna Ganganna Chepuri from Hyderabad. The case was being heard at a Sharia court in Sharjah.

"We have paid blood money, which alongside other expenses, have cost around Rs 10 lakhs. Their death penalties have been waived and they will now only get three years of jail, which they have almost served," S P Singh Oberoi, a local businessman and founder president of Indian Punjabi Society told PTI.

Oberoi said the verdict was delivered on Tuesday after a pardon letter was signed by the family of the victim.

"It will take around a week to 10 days for the two Punjabis to be released," Oberoi, who has been making efforts to get several of such individuals released, said.

Oberoi had paid Rs eight lakh as 'diya' or blood money to the family of Chepuri last month.

Earlier, the hotelier was instrumental in securing the release of 17 Indians, who were awarded death penalty for killing a Pakistani in Sharjah. Oberoi had helped raise blood money for the Indians.

Feds give green light to $9-billion Joslyn oilsands mine project

CALGARY - The federal government has given the green light for the Joslyn oilsands project to go ahead, nearly six years after it was first proposed, and added fuel to the debate over what message Canada should send to the world.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Thursday that construction can now begin on the mine, about 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta., though there remains a two-week consultation period with local First Nations.

He said the prolonged review process for Joslyn shows the need for Canada to streamline its regulatory system so the process goes faster.

"It is crystal clear that we need to put an end to unreasonable delays - delays that can jeopardize the viability of projects like Joslyn and harm our reputation as an attractive place to do business," Oliver said.

"In particular, definitive timelines from the beginning to the end of the regulatory process are needed to improve the timeliness and predictability of the regulatory environment, and support investment and planning decisions."

Total E&P Canada first proposed the mine in February 2006 and has since partnered with Canada's largest energy producer to build it at a cost of between $7 billion and $9 billion.

Jean-Michel Gires, who heads up the Canadian division of French energy giant Total SA, called Canada's regulatory system "very structured."

"I understand it reassures many stakeholders about the quality of this regulatory process," he told reporters on a conference call. But he said he would welcome changes to the system that would see projects undergo just one review, undertaken by the best-placed regulatory body.

Environmental groups were quick to blast the approval, particularly since it comes during a United Nations climate-change conference in South Africa. The oilsands have been criticized, among other things, because of the greenhouse gases that are emitted when fossil fuels are burned.

The Canadian delegation has faced criticism at the Durban talks for refusing to sign on to a second commitment period under the expiring Kyoto Protocol, the only international treaty that sets binding targets for signatory countries to lower their greenhouse-gas emissions.

"Approving Total's Joslyn tar sands mine during the UN climate summit in Durban is like poking the international process in the eye," Gillian McEachern of the group Environmental Defence, said in a statement.

"This decision will mean another one and a half million tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution each year, the equivalent to putting over 270,000 cars on the road.

"This represents the wrong direction if Canada is serious about tackling global warming. Canada's reputation has already been battered on the world stage because we're siding with big polluters instead of taking action on global warming, and this new tar sands mine will reinforce that."

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has never been a fan of the Kyoto protocol, which was signed by the Liberals but received lacklustre support from them. Harper has argued it doesn't make economic sense for Canada to bind itself to restrictions when large greenhouse gas producers such as the United States, China and Russia aren't.

The Joslyn approval "removes any doubt that the Harper government does not care about the climate and shows how hollow his tar sands commitments are," said Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema in a statement.

"Clearly, the Harper government is more concerned with tar sands company profits than the health and well-being of communities and the environment."

Oilsands opponents often use the phrase "tar sands" as a derisive way to describe the resource.

The Canadian Building Trades labour group said it was encouraged by the approval, saying it will create jobs.

"It means good news for construction and maintenance contractors and it means good news for construction apprentices from across this country," said director Robert Blakely.

"Young Canadians work on these projects, learn a trade and make careers in the skilled trades."

In January, a regulatory panel approved the Joslyn mine, albeit with 20 conditions related to the environmental and technical aspects of the project.

The mine is part of a joint venture announced a year ago with Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU), Canada's largest energy company.

That $1.75-billion partnership also includes the undeveloped Fort Hills oilsands mine and the Voyageur upgrader, which has been dormant since the recession hit in late 2008.

Gires could not say exactly when Total and Suncor will decide whether or not to go ahead with the project.

"I would say just in the near future," he said.

The 100,000-barrel-per-day project is targeted to start producing oil in 2018.

Gires said "the beauty" of the partnership with Suncor is the ability to control the pace of construction on the two mines and the upgrader that would process bitumen from them into refinery-ready crude.

"We are very cautiously working on this level of co-ordination with Suncor."