Somnath's poser to poll commission / Indian women deliver low weight babies: Study

Somnath's poser to poll commission
Neena Vyas
Should it not be more circumspect in dealing with another constitutional
authority?

Allegation by Trinamool Congress office-bearer "an insinuation"
EC has besmirched the reputation of MPs, Speaker by displaying their names
on the website: Chatterjee
Supreme Court ruled that SSDA was a statutory body

NEW DELHI: Should a constitutional authority like the Election Commission
besmirch the reputations of MPs, the Speaker and others on the basis of
unsubstantiated allegations and when no prima facie case has been made out?
Should it not have been more circumspect, especially when dealing with
another constitutional authority, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha?

At a press conference here on Wednesday, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee raised
these questions in connection with the Commission's action placing on its
website the names of all those against whom it had received complaints
related to the office-of-profit issue. Mr. Chatterjee's name has also been
on the website for some time.

"This is not the way to cast aspersions... it is nothing but insinuation,"
Mr. Chatterjee said referring to a complaint filed by a Trinamool Congress
office-bearer against him on March 8 just ahead of the Assembly polls.
Further, the Commission "permitted the insinuation to continue" by placing
his name on the website, thus creating the impression that the Speaker held
an office of profit and should be disqualified from being an MP and,
therefore, as Speaker.
Mr. Chatterjee challenged anyone to prove that the position he held as
Chairman of the Sriniketan Santiniketan Development Authority (SSDA) was an
office of profit. "The position carries no salary, no allowance, no car, no
house, not even a payment for attending meetings." He had not received a
single paisa for that office. And yet the insinuation was allowed to spread.

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Indian women deliver low weight babies: Study
Kanupriya Vashisht
Phoenix, May 25, 2006

Compared to the strapping Americans, Indians in America are considered small
and petite.
The trend continues even among babies born to second generation Indians.
Despite having fewer risk factors, US-born Indian women are more likely than
their Mexican-American counterparts to deliver low birth weight infants,
according to researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and
Stanford's School of Medicine.
The finding confirms previous research that showed a similar pattern in more
recent immigrants, and suggests that physicians should consider their
patients' ethnic backgrounds when planning their care.

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