Oil giant Chevron's $19 billion assets in Argentina frozen over rainforest damage charges

The author has posted comments on this articleSubodh Varma, TNN | Nov 17, 2012, 01.23PM IST

NEW DELHI: A court in Buenos Aires has frozen up to $19 billion worth of assets owned by Chevron, one of the world's largest oil companies, following its refusal to pay that amount as penalty for damaging Ecuador's rain forests.

California-based Chevron Corporation had worldwide revenues of over $253 billion in 2011, with operations in 180 countries. It is one of the world's six super-major oil companies also known as Big Oil.

Adrian Elcuj Miranda, a judge at the Commercial Court in Buenos Aires, passed the order on Nov 8. Plaintiffs are seeking similar action in Brazil, Colombia and several other Latin American countries. The legal action in Argentina derives its authority in part from an international treaty in Latin America called the Inter-American Convention on the Execution of Preventive Measures, which allows for the automatic freezing of assets of a defendant that fails to abide by the law and refuses to pay a final foreign judgment. It has been ratified by Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Uruguay. Venezuela and Chile have signed the treaty but not ratified it.

The Argentinean action follows last year's ruling by an Ecuadorian court that ordered Chevron to pay for massive damage caused to the rain forests in Ecuador's remote northern region between 1964 and 1992.

The region known as Oriente is home to several indigenous inhabitants including the Cofan, Siona, Secoya, Kichwa and Huaorani. The Chevron subsidiary Texaco carved out 350 oil wells in the pristine rain-forest, and upon leaving the country in 1992, left behind some 1,000 open toxic waste pits, ChevronToxico, a campaign for justice in Ecuador said. Many of these pits leaked into the water table or overflowed in heavy rains, polluting rivers and streams that 30,000 people depended on for drinking, cooking, bathing and fishing. Texaco also dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic and highly saline "formation waters," a byproduct of the drilling process, into the rivers of the Oriente. At the height of Texaco's operations, the company was dumping an estimated 4 million gallons of formation waters per day, a practice outlawed in major US oil producing states like Louisiana, Texas, and California decades, the group said. By these means, Texaco saved an estimated $3 per barrel of oil produced. Texaco was taken over by Chevron in 2001.

Soil tests of Chevron wells sites during the Ecuador trial indicated the oil giant left massive quantities of cancer-causing hydrocarbons, sometimes at levels hundreds of times higher than permissible norms. Approximately 9,000 people are expected to contract cancer as a result if there is no immediate clean-up, according to a study by Dr Daniel Rourke, formerly of the Rand Corporation, according to activists.

Chevron refused to pay the penalty and tried to appeal against it in US courts. ""The Ecuador judgment is a product of bribery, fraud, and it is illegitimate ... We do not believe that the Ecuador judgment is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law," the company said in a statement.

Since Chevron has refused to pay the Ecuador judgment, lawyers for the affected rainforest communities filed an action last week to seize the oil giant's assets in Argentina. The affected communities filed asset seizure actions against Chevron in the last few weeks in Canada, Brazil, and Ecuador.

"We consider this to be an exemplary ruling," plaintiffs' lawyer, Enrique Bruchou said. ""We are letting the world know that foreign investment is welcome in Latin America, but that investors must adhere to the same environmental standards that apply in their own countries."

Filled with intrigue, accusations of corruption, bribery and dirty tricks, the complicated case in Ecuador had been fought for nearly two decades, mainly in courts in Ecuador and the United States. Chevron filed for arbitration in 2009, accusing Ecuador of violating a treaty with the United States requiring the OPEC-member country to guarantee Chevron a fair trial. The company has also accused the plaintiffs, their legal team and their advisers of fraud in a US court. The trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 15, 2013.

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Air India starts hourly flights on the Mumbai/Delhi sector

MUMBAI: Responding to the increase in demand for flights because of the holiday season, Air India, on Monday, launched a schedule that has flights operating between Mumbai and Delhi (both ways) every hour.

"Passengers can travel on the Mumbai/Delhi/Mumbai sector every hour starting from 6am in the morning to 11pm in the evening daily,'' said a release issued by the airline. The Mumbai /Delhi/ Mumbai sector of the airline is operated with Airbus A-320 and A- 321 aircraft. The hourly flight operation amounting to 18 flights on this route was started on Monday. ``Passengers can avail of mostly direct flights and a few one stopover flights on this sector,'' the release said. Air India flies to 63 domestic stations and 27 international destinations.

However the Air India hourly flights have not bought down airfares on this route. The reason is that there has been no increase in the number of flights operated by Air India on this route. The airline has stuck to its winter schedule, but earlier, like all other carriers, Air India too bunched its Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai flights with a spike in flight frequency during the peak hours of morning and evening. The difference now is that the airline has evenly spread out its flight schedule throughout the day to ensure one departure every hour from each of these airports.

On Saturday, Air India one -way airfare on the route for the weekend and for next week started at Rs 8,600. The cheapest fares for a Mumbai-Delhi flight was being offered by low-cost airlines and was in the range of Rs 8,200. But a few weeks ago, during the current peak season, the fares on this route were very dynamic with the cheapest fare starting at Rs 9,000-Rs 11,000 on some days, especially for early morning flights. The Air India scheme may get the lowest airfares on the Mumbai-Delhi route average out at Rs 8000-Rs 9000.

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Court summons Digvijaya Singh in defamation case by Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was on Saturday summoned by a Delhi court to face trial in a criminal defamation case lodged against him by BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

"Accused Digvijaya Singh has been summoned for the offence under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code to face trial for criminal defamation. Let he be summoned for December 21," Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar said.

The court on October 16 had reserved its order on the BJP president's complaint after recording the statements of two witnesses.

The court had recorded the statement of Gadkari and BJP national secretary Bhupinder Yadav, also a Rajya Sabha MP.

Gadkari has filed the criminal defamation case against Singh, who had accused him of having business links with his party MP Ajay Sancheti who allegedly pocketed a huge sum in the coal block allocation.

Gadkari, in his statement recorded in the court, had denied having any business ties with Sancheti and had said Singh had levelled "totally false and defamatory" allegations against him to "give the impression that I have been responsible for allocation of coal mines" to Sancheti.

In his petition, filed through advocate Ajay Digpaul, Gadkari has sought Singh's prosecution under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC.

In his complaint, Gadkari has said the Congress-led UPA government is facing a lot of heat on account of its irregularities as brought out by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India ( CAG) in coal blocks allocation and accused Singh of making baseless allegations against him to divert attention from the issue.

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Tributes to Bal Thackeray from across the party lines

MUMBAI: Personalities across the political spectrum and social sphere today condoled the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

"Maharashtra has lost a veteran, experienced leader....He was a politician, cartoonist, editor, organiser as well as art-lover and orator," Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said.

Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that Thackeray, as cartoonist, arrived on the scene like a storm after the collapse of communists in Mumbai, and took forward the legacy of his reformist father, 'Prabodhankar' Thackeray.

Shinde said he knew Thackeray for over four decades, and always felt he will survive the current bout of illness.

"He considered King Shivaji his idol. He worked for the people all his life. We took inspiration from him while governing in Maharashtra," said BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, who served as a PWD minister in the saffron alliance government in the state between 1995-1999.

State PWD minister Chhangan Bhujbal, a former Sena leader who later switched loyalties to the Congress and then NCP, said Thackeray created history by founding Shiv Sena and taking it to great heights politically.

"He was fearless while speaking...word 'compromise' never existed in his dictionary," Bhujbal said.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar's daughter and MP Supriya Sule said the Pawar family had very close relations with the Thackerays, though in the political arena the two rivals never spared each other.

"There were political differences for sure. But Pawar and Thackeray were the best of friends in the personal sphere. Thackeray helped a lot ahead of my marriage," she reminisced.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said Thackeray was a strong patriot and a good cartoonist who carved an identity of his own in Maharashtra. "He had great affection towards me and was a guide for me," Modi said, offering his condolences.

Singer Asha Bhosale said she had lots of memories and it was a "sad day" for her. Lata Mangeshkar said Maharashtra has been "orphaned" today.

Tamil superstar Rajnikant described Thackeray as a great personality, and said he has lost a "father figure".

The 86-year-old cartoonist-turned-politician breathed his last at 3.30pm today at his residence Matoshree in suburban Bandra.

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I am not Dhritharashtra, Bal Thackeray during Raj face-off

MUMBAI: "Even if I wear black goggles I am not Dhritharashtra."

This was how Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who died today, had responded after he was called Dhritharashtra during the intense faction fights in his party which had led to his nephew Raj Thackeray leaving the party and floating his own outfit Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

During the course of an interview to Sena mouthpiece "Saamna" during which he spoke his mind after Raj's departure from the party, a question - "In this entire episode you are being called Dhritharashtra" - was posed to him.

"Even if I wear black goggles, I am not Dhritarashtra of Mahabharat", replied Thackeray, who often wears dark glasses. Dhritharashtra is the fabled blind king and father of the Kauravas in the Mahabharat epic.

After Raj left the party, the Sena boss had asserted that he was not saddened by his exit. But a day later he said those who have left the party should return.

"Ya chimnyno parat phira re.... Gharakade apulya (little sparrows should return to their nest)," he said, quoting a popular Marathi folk song.

"I was shocked and hurt. I did not expect this from Raj. I did not even think that Raj would do such a thing even in my dreams," he had said.

"Whatever Raj wanted, I and Uddhav had agreed to. But I can not tell which 'guru' advised and poisoned his mind," he added.

Thackeray also had said it was he who runs the Shiv Sena. "I told Raj that he and Uddhav should sit together and discuss."

"My writ still runs in the party," he added.

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Public health system has collapsed in the country: Jairam Ramesh

NEW DELHI: Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday the country's public health system had "collapsed" in a blunt assessment of his government's failure to extend a social safety net for the poor.

Jairam Ramesh, known as a maverick with often outspoken views, stressed that 70 percent of spending on health was out of people's own pockets, making it the single most important reason for indebtedness in rural areas.

"We all know that the health system in India has collapsed," he told a forum in New Delhi.

"India is a unique country in the world where 70 percent of expenditure is private expenditure at a time when most other countries are having a debate on how to increase public investment in health," he added.

"In many poor areas of India, the public health system simply does not exist."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged earlier this month that health spending would triple in a five-year plan adopted by the government.

Spending in 2010 was 4.0 percent of gross domestic product, according to the World Health Organization -- less than many African countries or Afghanistan and a fraction of developed nations, which spend around 10 percent.

Indians of all backgrounds and economic means generally choose to absorb the costs of a trip to one of India's booming private hospitals instead of their public equivalents, which are often under-staffed and poorly equipped.

Ramesh said the other important factor pushing people into poverty in India, where 40 percent of the population live on less than $1.5 a day, was degradation of the environment.

"The last 25-30 years, with accelerated economic growth and the pressure that economic growth has brought to bear on our natural resources, it has created this new animal of ecological poverty that we have to now address," he said.

He stressed the poor had "a disproportionate dependence" on forests, rivers and farm land, which are being steadily degraded under the pressure of the country's rising 1.2 billion population and economic development.

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Naveen Patnaik expels Pyari Mohan Mohapatra from BJD

BHUBANESWAR: Less than six months after suspending him from the party, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday expelled Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra from the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for anti-party activities.

Patnaik also expelled party general secretary Jagneswar Babu on similar charges after holding a meeting of the party executive committee here.

"Pyarimohan Mohapatra and Jagneswar Babu are expelled, removed from the BJD," Patnaik told reporters here after the meeting.

Mohapatra was Patnaik's non-official advisor for over a decade. He was suspended from the party after he allegedly plotted an unsuccessful coup to unseat the chief minister May 29.

Challenging Patnaik's leadership, Mohapatra subsequently launched Odisha Jana Morcha (OJM), a political forum, saying that he wants to "establish internal democracy" in the state's ruling party.

Reacting to the announcement made by the chief minister, OJM leader Mihir Mohanty said Patnaik ceases to be the president of the BJD as per the constitution of the party. Since there has been no executive committee party meeting since 2010, the meeting which was held Friday was illegal, he maintained.

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'Amul' loses trademark battle against US giant in Gujarat HC

The author has posted comments on this articlePTI | Nov 16, 2012, 05.57PM IST

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court has refused to set aside an order which cancelled Amul's registration of its trademark 'TRIX', on which a US firm has claimed its right.

In July this year, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board had directed Registrar of Trademarks to cancel Amul's registration of TRIX trademark.

A division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala, in a recent judgement, dismissed the petition filed by Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd, owner of Amul, seeking cancellation of trademark 'TRIX' registered in favour of US food giant General Mills.

Amul, 35 years after registering the trademark and after General Mills' entry into Indian market as late as in 1995, had questioned the US firm's right over TRIX.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMFL), which markets milk and milk products under Amul brand under a licence from the petitioner, registered TRIX (coined from the word TRICKS from the concept of appearing and disappearing tricks as in magic show) as a trademark in 1977.

"In 1986 we launched a chocolate under 'TRIX' trademark. We advertised it in a manner that it was so tasty that the chocolate bar just disappears/melts in mouth quickly," according to the petition.

However, Amul stopped using TRIX in 1987. US food giant's subsidiary, General Mills India Pvt Ltd, came into existence in 1995. In 2005, it aplied for registration of trademark TRIX claiming that in various countries it was holding the same trademark since 1910.

Since Amul already owned the trademark, General Mills India's application for registration was rejected.

Meanwhile, the US firm forayed into the Indian market by introducing a snack under the trademark 'DIP-TRIX'. At the same time Amul also planned a re-launch of its TRIX brand for a wafer-chocolate, which was introduced in 2007.

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If you can't, let Laloo Prasad Yadav run the railways: Pak lawmaker to govt

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani lawmaker surprised his colleagues today by suggesting that the country's railways should be handed over to former Indian railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav if the government was unable to tackle the state-run entity's numerous problems.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Sajid Ahmed made the suggestion in the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament while parliamentary secretary for railways Noman Islam Sheikh was answering questions about the performance of the railways.

Yadav is widely credited for guiding the turnaround of the Indian Railways.

Pakistan railways has been plagued by several problems over the past few years, including the lack of locomotives, shortage of spare parts and fuel and the cancellation of dozens of trains due to lack of financial resources.

Sheikh said new locomotives would have to be purchased for reviving the railways and making it a profitable organisation.

He said the railways ministry had floated a tender for purchasing 69 new locomotives.

All non-productive expenses had been stopped and expenditures were being incurred in line with available resources, he said.

The Pakistan railways had received only Rs 6 billion out of a total bailout package of Rs 11 billion for 2010-2011.

A separate programme had been drawn up for repairing 96 locomotives with a loan from the National Bank of Pakistan.

Sheikh further said there was no proposal being considered for privatising the railways.

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Hi-tech Narendra Modi to campaign simultaneously in four cities of Gujarat through 3D

AHMEDABAD: As the Gujarat assembly elections nears, chief minister Narendra Modi is all set to unleash a hi-fi virtual audio-visual three-dimentional campaign through which he will address the audience in four major cities of the state simultaneously.

Talking to media about the new strategy ahead of the elections, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley and Modi said this mega blitzkrieg on the opposition will starts from 6pm on November 18 from four cities — Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat.

"This technology is being utilize first time for elections campaign in Gujarat. The audience will have a feel that he (Modi) is addressing right from there in all four cities. We will also organise such virtual campaigns in other cities of the state later," said Jaitley.

Modi is seeking to perpetuate his support base with youth who constitute over one-fourth of total voters in Gujarat as about one crore out of a total of 3.79 crore voters in the state belong to the age group of 18-29.

Assembly polls in Gujarat will be conducted in two phases on December 13 and 17. On November 17, the Election Commission is expected to issue a notification for filing of nominations for the first phase of elections for 87 constituencies including four in Ahmedabad rural area, 48 seats in all districts of Saurashtra region and 35 seats in south Gujarat.

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