The Union Cabinet tonight cleared the much-delayed Women’s Reservation Bill which provides for 33 per cent reservation to the fairer sex in Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

The Bill has been hanging fire for close to 14 years due to lack of political consensus on the issue.

The approval for the bill — easily one of the most contentious pieces of legislation to be considered by Parliament — was given at a meeting of the Union Cabinet presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The bill found significant mention in the President’s address to Parliament on Monday when it was stated that efforts would be made to get it passed in the ongoing Budget session itself. It was first drafted by the United Front government headed by H D Deve Gowda and brought to Parliament in September 1996.

The bill has already been introduced in the Rajya Sabha and was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice and Personnel.

The Congress appealed to all parties to adopt a constructive approach towards the Bill’s passage while principal opposition party BJP pledged support but RJD appeared to be sticking to its stand of a quota within quota.

The Standing Committee which gave its report in December last had recommended passage of the Bill in its present form and suggested that the issue should not be left to the discretion of political parties.

Sources said since the Bill is the property of the House, the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) would decide on when to take next step such as initiating debate and the passage.

Samajwadi Party and RJD sought a quota within quota for women from backward classes.

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A mysterious consignment of 10 AK-47 rifles along with telescopes landed in Chennai in a cargo plane three days ago and now security agencies are hot on trail of a man from Uttar Pradesh.

Yusuf, a resident of Varanasi and a Customs Clearing agent in Chennai, is on the run and the police are looking for him after a person to whom the cargo was addressed claimed he had nothing to do with it.

The cargo plane from Dubai landed at Anna International Airport on February 20 and the consignment including 10 rifle scope (AK-47 rifles and telescopes) was marked for a person identified as Vijayan, official sources said here today.

They said the Customs department registered a case and carried out a thorough check of the cargo after which it summoned Vijayan and his customs clearing agent Yusuf.

There was no mention about the presence of arms in the inventory by the cargo company, they said.

While Vijayan, who had arrived here from Dubai on February 12, pleaded ignorance about the arms, his clearing agent did not turn up for questioning.

Raids were carried out at various places to trace Yusuf, but no breakthrough has been achieved so far.

The Uttar Pradesh police has been informed about the case and efforts were on to nab him.

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A massive avalanche slammed the popular ski resort Gulmarg killing 17 soldiers and injuring an equal number when the troops were in the midst of a winter warfare training on steep slopes about 70 km from here today.

The avalanche came hurtling down on the 60-strong combat troops as they were scaling the icy walls of high-altitude Khilanmarg peak in near zero visibility, police and army said.

Seventeen jawans were buried alive under huge piles of snow, 17 were extricated while 26 were rescued, army spokesman Col. J S Brar said.

The injured, all in serious condition, were admitted to the army hospital here, he said.

The dead included an officer, Lt. Prateek, and 16 other jawans, all from Army’s prestigious High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS), Col. Brar said.

The 60 were part of a group of 350 soldiers selected for advanced winter warfare course by the Gulmarg-based school, Col Brar said.

It has been snowing heavily in Gulmarg and its surrounding areas in the past few days with reports pouring in of six-foot of snow in certain areas.

This was one of the most tragic incidents in the ski resort which draws a large number of tourists every year, Col. Brar said.

He said the troops had left Gulmarg at 0800 hrs and after traversing eight-km uphill reached Khilanmarg to set up the training camp when the avalanche struck the mountainous area.

Last evening, Snow Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) had issued an avalanche warning and advised people living in high altitude areas not to venture out.

“Avalanche warning still exists in high altitude areas. People are cautioned not to venture out of their houses when it is snowing,” SASE said.

“I am hearing about the tragic death of army personnel in the avalanche,” Defence Minister A K Antony said in a statement.

He expressed “deep anguish” in a condolence message to the families of the deceased and to the army units which lost its men.

Antony also urged the army and local authorities to expedite rescue operations and provide adequate medical aid to the injured.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said two army personnel were still missing and search operations would resume tomorrow morning.

He said there were no tourists among the injured in the incident.

Soon after receiving the news about the tragedy, Omar Abdullah despatched Minister of State for Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani to Gulmarg to personally oversee the rescue operations.

The Chief Minister also offered his condolences to the bereaved families, an official release said in Jammu.

No tourist or civilian was among the dead or trapped under the heaps of snow, it said.

So far, 70 people had been rescued from the area despite the heavy snowing hampering the operations, the release said.

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Sydney Opera HouseTo curb ‘back door’ permanent residency through its skilled migration scheme, Australian government has decided to overhaul the immigration rules which is likely to affect over 20,000 visa applicants, including Indians.

The changes would focus on overhauling of the queueing system that identifies occupations in demand and creates a points system.

The immigration minister would have the new legal authority to set a maximum number of visas for a single occupation.

The state governments would be asked to develop new migration plans. The Australian immigration department would tightened the rules from today, The Age reported.

Foreign students, who have a qualification for an occupation which is no longer in demand, could apply for a temporary 18-month visa.

This would allow them to gain work experience and give a foreign graduate time to find an employer willing to sponsor their application as a skilled migrant, and if they failed in their attempt they will have to return to their country of origin.

The cancelled applications apply to all offshore general skilled migration claims lodged before September 2007.

For onshore overseas students, government would introduce transitional arrangements to apply until 2012.

The new system would set a new list of occupations in demand and expected to favour skilled workers, including nurses, general medical practitioners, mechanical engineers and teachers instead of groups such as cooks and hairdressers.

Meanwhile, immigration minister Chris Evans was likely to argue that the skilled migration programme had not worked in Australia’s [ Images ] economic or demographic interests.

“The program has been delivering self-nominated migrants from a narrow range of occupations with poor to moderate English language skills who struggle to find employment in their nominated occupation,” Senator Evans said.

He was also likely to acknowledge the impact of changes on the foreign students, but said ‘they can still gain residency if they gain qualifications in professions that are in demand’, The Age reported.

He said the current tensions and misunderstandings have been made worse by unscrupulous migration agents.

“[These agents] have been misleading many international students into believing that a course in Australia gave them an automatic entitlement to permanent residence,” Senator Evans said.

“It does not, and it will not” Evans would also argue that the government supports skilled migration and continues to want migrants, “be they from India [ Images ], the United Kingdom or China — our three largest source countries or elsewhere”.

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