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MUMBAI: A local metropolitan magistrate's court on Tuesday restrained the media from either publishing or telecasting images related to the CCTV footage of the July 13 triple blasts. Magistrate N J Shende in his order observed, "If identity of the witnesses is disclosed to the public at large, it may hamper the smooth investigation of the case and may cause threat to such persons." "I am of the opinion, in view of the provisions enumerated under Section 44 (of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), in order to safeguard the life of the people and witnesses, the application is allowed," said Shende.

MUMBAI: Teachers from schools and colleges in Thane are a worried lot. A Government Resolution (GR) dated April 18 states that all those teaching at government-aided schools and colleges need to get their Unique Identification (UID) card created before August 20, or they will not receive their salaries for the month. A notice has been pasted at the Thane Zilla Parishad Pay Unit and schools and college authorities have already informed their staff about it. "We have already informed our teachers to get their cards done as soon as possible. We haven't received any circular from the zilla parishad, but the notice has been put up at the bill submission centre and we are only following orders," said Harshida Someshwar, principal (junior college) of NKT College in Thane.

SRIKAKULAM: Department of Fisheries decided to complete process of enrolment of fishermen for the issue of biometric smart cards very soon in Srikakulam district. The department has so far collected photos, finger prints and signatures from 30,000 fishermen and remaining 20,000 will be covered in a phased manner. The department which introduced on-line system for the registration said there was good response from fishermen in the district. Biometric identity cards are compulsory to fishermen engaged in deep-sea fishing as part of beefing up coastal security. The identity card was going to be an important document for a fisherman, the officials said, adding that once the scheme was complete, Coast Guard personnel would not allow anyone to fish without the biometric identity card. The scheme for issuing biometric identity cards for fishermen in the State has been launched as part of a directive by the Ministry of Home Affairs' to keep vigil along the coasts in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

Planning to spend the summer at a favourite getaway? Make sure you plan your travel on your own as the Income Tax (I-T) department is keeping an eye on how much you are spending. About two months after a notice by the department asking all travel agents to provide ample details of passengers planning trips worth Rs 1 lakh or more, tour operators have been busy collecting the data of passengers, who have planned a holiday since the last financial year or are making bookings now. However, operators have now decided to appeal to the department to revoke the notice, as the data collection is labour intensive, requires a lot of time, and is chasing customers away from them. In short, they claim it is bad for business.

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday lifted its gag order on the media that restrained the latter from broadcasting and publishing former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's taped conversations with top politicians and Bollywood stars. File photo of Amar Singh (Pic: BCCL) A two-judge bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly dismissed Amar Singh's petition to prevent the broadcasting and publishing of his taped conversations, and vacated its interim order passed on February 27, 2006 restraining the media from making contents of the conversation public.

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) is set to become the first educational campus in the country to function through unique identification (UID) numbers. The UID-enabled campus will work towards making a cashless environment where all transactions from buying a notebook to a parantha in the canteen will be done through UID numbers and biometric (fingerprint) authentication.

The RFP will be floated on the basis of the recommendations of an expert panel on specifications for cameras and connectivity. The panel includes IIT professors and senior state officials (who are former IITians). The state plans to install 5,000 CCTV cameras at sensitive locations in the city as part of the surveillance network. The project is estimated to cost Rs 600 crore.- Sandeep Ashar