It's a problem many landlords in India face: how to get long-staying tenants to vacate.
Only this time, it is the Indian government trying to evict former ministers and other VIPs who are refusing to leave their sprawling homes that were allocated as a perk when they were in office.
On Monday, the government told the Supreme Court it is facing a major problem in repossessing state-owned homes. It says nearly 500 houses are being occupied illegally by former ministers or their relatives, former police officers and other dignitaries. The government had submitted the names of 465 offenders earlier, and 32 more names were added on Monday.
The multiple bedroom, colonial-era homes with wooded lawns in central New Delhi are prized because of their location, prestigious addresses and assured water and electricity supply, something of a luxury in the capital known for its creaking infrastructure.
Among the prominent unwanted guests of the government is K. Gill, a former police chief of Punjab credited with breaking the back of a Sikh separatist insurgency in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Another is Bihar State governor Buta Singh, a former minister who retains the government house in New Delhi although he lives in a palatial governor's mansion in Bihar's capital, Patna. He has refused to leave even though the Supreme Court had recommended in a ruling on Oct. 24 that Singh should be "thrown out."
The government has not said why it can't forcibly remove the occupants, but the reasons are many. Authorities are reluctant to embarrass well known personalities; many such as Singh are from the ruling party; some might become ministers again and penalize bureaucrats who sign the eviction orders, and some like Gill enjoy popular support and public sympathy.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
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