Lankan refugees held on way to Oz
A bid by 151 people, including 148 Sri Lankans, to illegally migrate to Australia via the Kollam coast was foiled by the police on Sunday midnight. Among the Sri Lankans, 121 were from 17 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.
Some local people who spotted 18 Tamilians near Kavanadu here on Sunday evening alerted the police. Subsequently, the police with the help of the Coast Guard intercepted the fishing boat that was thickly packed with illegal migrants. Besides the refugees, there were 27 Sri Lankans from Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Jaffna and three, from Tamil Nadu.
The team consisted of 107 men, 19 women and 25 children. Nine Sri Lankans did not even have passports.
One person, identified as Dinesh, who was among those who arranged the boat and other logistics for the illegal migration, was being quizzed by a police team led by Kollam city police commissioner Debesh Kumar Behera.
Sakthikulangara natives Alex and Johnson, who earlier owned a fishing boat, told the police that they recently sold the boat, but did not know the buyers. Though the boat bore the name St. Antony, the registration records show it as Kottaram.
The police has registered a case.
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CPIL: Auction of resources ONLY rational option
New Delhi, June 4: The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) told the Supreme Court on Monday that auction was the only “rational and legal” way for allocating the nation’s natural resources to private parties for commercial exploitation.
The CPIL said this in its response to the presidential reference seeking opinion of the court whether the allocation of natural resources for commercial exploitation across all the sectors and in all the circumstances could only be done through auction. “The rule of law mandate would obviously mean that if and when scarce and limited natural resources are allocated to private parties for commercial exploitation then the only rational and legal method (which minimises abuse and maximises public interest) is a properly designed transparent public auction,” the CPIL said. “This would be consistent with ... The constitution of India,” it said.
An apex court constitution bench comprising Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice D.K. Jain, Justice J.S. Khehar, Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Ranjan Gogoi had May 11, issued notices on reference to all states. Presidential reference seeking clarity on the methodology of allocating natural resources was made April 12. — IANS
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