Front page of The Indian Express. (Archives)The President today gave his assent to the 44th Amendment Bill restoring to the Constitution to a great extent what it lost during the Emergency — it has been passed by the Lok Sabha and, with some modifications, the Rajya Sabha. The Bill seeks to undo the damage done to the Constitution by Indira Gandhi’s 42nd Amendment and to deprive the executive possible avenues of cutting into the democratic content of the Constitution.
Rough Flight
The parliamentary committee on public undertakings, in four reports, has voiced “serious suspicion” about the bona fides of Air India’s purchases of Boeing 747 aircraft, and recommended that “further deals with the Boeing company should be stopped immediately”. The committee had pointed out that the airline paid no income tax on its profits for three years, allowed its outstanding sums to mount to over Rs 45 crore, and built serious imbalances into its fare structure.
Family Goals
The joint conference of the Central Councils of Health and Family Welfare has scaled down the national family planning target for 1979-80 in the light of poor performance by some states on the family planning front in 1978-79. The earlier national target was to cover, through different methods, 10.7 million people. It has now been scaled down to 9.65 million.
Probing PM’s Family
The Chief Justice of India refused to look into the corruption charges against the family members of Prime Minister Morarji Desai and Deputy Prime Minister Charan Singh. The matter has been placed before a retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Vaidialingam, who will say whether any prima facie case exists in respect of charges which pertain to the period after the Janata government came to office.
