New Delhi, June 23
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appears all set for undertaking the much-awaited Cabinet expansion-cum-rehsuffle soon with a majority of them being from the Congress bar the reinduction of JMM chief Shibu Soren who has been cooling his heals after the fiasco in Jharkhand.

Dr Singh has held intense consultations in this regard with UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi and his senior ministerial colleagues. The Cabinet expansion is expected to pave the way for Mrs Gandhi to revamp the party organisation. Some ministers like Oscar Fernandes are likely to be drafted for party work and party officials like Moti Lal Vora and Ambika Sonia might make their advent in the Manmohan Singh government.

Though the PMO has consistently said that Dr Singh has not prepared any report card about the performance of his ministers, weightage is being given to those in the government who can help in strengthening the Congress organisation and vice versa. The Prime Minister and Mrs Gandhi are also keen on ensuring proper representation to the states in the Union Council of Ministers.

There has been intense speculation for some time about Mrs Gandhi being keen to reorganise some of the state party units. Then there is also the appointment of new Governors. Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna is disinclined in continuing with his gubernatorial assignment but it was not clear if he is returning to active politics either in the party or in the UPA government.

Though the Left parties have sought changing the Finance portfolio of P Chidambaram, it is unlikely to materialise. It appears that the Prime Minister was not keen in changing the portfolios of those handling key economic ministers as well Defence.

There are indications that the Prime Minister will fine-tune the charge of ministries and departments of his ministers. Representation to Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chattisgarh and Punjab appears high on the cards. Former Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony, who has recently been elected to the Rajya Sabha, and former Union Minister Girdhar Gamang are in line for ministerial berths. The name of Vyalar Ravi for a ministerial berth is also doing the rounds. Tamil Nadu, which has the highest complement of a dozen ministers at the Centre, might find that its contingent gets enlarged with Mr Vasan being the most likely candidate.

Dr Singh will also have to fill the slot of Union Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Sunil Dutt who died suddenly of a heart attack. Those tipped for the slot are either Suresh Kalmadi or Gurudas Kamat, both from Maharashtra.

Mrs Gandhi had indicated that the brigade of the young turks in the Congress may be singled out for greater responsibility in the party organisation. At the same time, there is a likelyhood of least of them being inducted in the Manmohan Singh Council of Ministers. The name figuring most prominently for a ministerial berth is that of Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The strength of the Manmohan Singh's Council of Ministers at present is 65. It has 27 Cabinet Ministers, 10 Ministers of State with independent rank and 28 Ministers of State. Dr Singh can induct 16 more ministers as the size of the Government at the Centre cannot exceed 81.

Dr Singh is unlikely to fill all the berths and leave some cushion for any exigency.

The earlier talk of Satish Sharma being inducted in the government is being discounted. Mani Shankar Aiyar may be left undisturbed with the charge of Petroleum and Natural Gas as well Panchayati Raj. he might be given a junior minister to assist him in the two ministries being overseen by him.

With the news of an impending Cabinet reshuffle spreading, Mrs Gandhi's residence has been flooded with requests for interviews by Congressmen from all over the country to present their case either for a ministerial berth or a weighty post in the party organisation.

Tonk, June 23
On a visit to commisserate with the families of five farmers killed in police firing in the BJP-ruled state, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today expressed “shock” over the police action and offered Centre’s help to Rajasthan to tide over the water crisis.

“It is shocking. One can’t understand how and why this (firing) was done. People have died,” she told reporters after she called on the bereaved families at Bhawari and Jhirana villages.

The UPA chairperson, however, parried a question when asked about the possibility of the dismissal of the Vasundhara Raje government in the state.

She announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the kin of the dead, including a woman, and Rs 10,000 for the injured in the June 13 police firing on farmers demanding water for their crops at Sohella village.

Ironically, rains lashed the area as Ms Gandhi visited the parched region to console the farmers who had been demanding adequate water from the Beesalpur dam to their lands in the Tordisagar area.

She said there was enormous need for water and offered Central Government’s help to tide over the crisis if the local authorities came forward with plans in this regard.

Ms Gandhi visited the houses of all five persons who had died in the firing and expressed condolences to the bereaved families at Bawari, Jhirana and Sohella villages. She also enquired about the health of those undergoing treatment in Tonk district hospital.

As she arrived at the Sanganer airport in Jaipur and changed over to a helicopter to fly to Tonk, BJP workers led by MLA Kalicharan Saraf and party general-secretary Arun Chaturvedi demonstrated with black flags to protest against her visit.

The families submitted a memorandum to her seeking legal action against the police officials involved in firing and also release of water from Beesalpur dam for their crops.

The Jat Mahasabha in the district also gave a memorandum demanding withdrawal of 49 cases filed against the farmers who took part in the June 13 demonstration for water. Hundreds of villagers turned up at the Bawari helipad when she landed there. — PTI

New Delhi, June 23
To ensure free and fair poll in Bihar, the Election Commission today directed the state government to execute all non-bailable warrants pending against criminals and conduct special search operations to unearth illegal arms ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar.

The commission ordered preventive action against habitual offenders and anti-social elements to prevent them from participating in the electoral exercise.

The poll panel has asked the state government to send a district-wise consolidated report on these directions every week from next month. The commission has already indicated that the elections in the state could be held only in October-November.

The poll panel concerned with the role of criminals in the state at the time of previous elections in February, issued the directions after its two-member team visited the state and submitted a report on the law and order situation.

The preventive arrests of criminals would enable the commission to hold “free and fair” elections in the state, official sources said.

The commission also directed the state government to provide proper communication facilities like telephones, wireless sets with necessary accessories, to all police stations and immediately repair damaged roads and other infrastructure after the rains and floods.

The EC directed the maintenance of arterial and important roads and providing of necessary funds to the Chief Electoral Officer for electronic photo identity cards (EPIC) programme.

It also asked the state government to direct all authorities concerned to implement the Prevention of Defacement of Property Act in letter and spirit “from now onwards”.

The commission has also directed the district collectors to conduct special comprehensive training programmes on the functioning of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) immediately for the representatives of political parties and officials.

The poll panel was keen to take all precautionary steps before the announcements of the election schedule.

In the run-up to the elections the commission has also sought weekly report from the district authorities in order to ensure that anti-social elements remain out of the election arena.

The commission is now busy in finalising the dates for the Assembly polls.

In the wake of the Election Commission’s directive, the Bihar police today announced its decision to intensify the ongoing drive of executing non-bailable warrants pending against criminals, including those who possessed political credentials, ahead of the Assembly elections.

State Director-General of Police (DGP) Ashish Ranjan Sinha said the police were acting as per law without taking into consideration the political affiliations of warrantees.

“We are on the job and more than 2,000 non-bailable warrants of arrest have been executed during the past three-four months, pending for quite sometime in the past,” Mr Sinha claimed.

New Delhi, June 23
The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) today demanded a CBI enquiry into the manner in which the Mulayum Singh Yadav government “manipulated” electoral lists to win the panchayat elections.

Accusing Chief Minister Mulayum Singh Yadav of perpetrating the biggest “fraud on democracy”, UPCC president Salman Khursheed today said the Congress would launch a state-wide agitation from June 29 on this issue.

Mr Khursheed said that this “fraud on democracy” was recently exposed in the public interest litigations filed in the Allahabad High Court, which stayed the panchayat elections to be conducted this month.

He said it had come to light how the rapid survey, conducted by the UP Government, had distorted the state’s demography by inflating the figures for backward classes and squeezing the figures of the other communities. All this, he charged, was done at the behest of the Chief Minister.

According to Mr Khursheed, although a fresh list for reservation of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, backward classes and women was to be issued on May 30, it was held back as it showed that Mr Yadav’s own village of Safai, had now been reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates.

Consequently, a fresh order was issued on June 6 with a proviso that villages with 50 per cent and more population of backward classes, and SC and STs would be restricted to rotation between man and woman of that caste group only.

This, Mr Khursheed said, was a clear violation of the law which requires rotation of reserved seats among all reserved categories.

Mr Khursheed said the Allahabad High Court stayed the panchayat elections and restrained publication of lists of reserved categories in panchayats. The matter is to come up for hearing next month now.

New Delhi, June 23
An insurance company which refused to indemnify the owner of a lost mobile phone merely for the reason that she did not produce an FIR has been ordered by a consumer court to pay the claim of Rs 8,700 along with compensation.

The National Insurance Company (NIC) had repudiated Deepika Verma’s claim citing an “exclusion clause” that only a “Non-Cognizable Report (NCR) was lodged mentioning that the cell phone was taken away by somebody” while the claim covers only “theft through force or violent entry or exit”.

Rejecting the contention, the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (North) said “It is very clear that the theft took place. Twisting of words will not change the primafacie meaning of the crime. A lay man is unable to differentiate between cognisable and non-cognisable offences”.

“When one informs the police about such incident he or she always thinks that a complaint has been registered”, Forum President K.K. Chopra and Member Neeru Mittal said ordering the college girl a claim of Rs 8,700 and a compensation of Rs 2,000 for the “harassment and mental agony” caused to her. — PTI

New Delhi, June 23
The Centre today advised the pilgrims to the cave shrine of Amarnath in Jammu and Kashmir to defer their pilgrimage by 15 days due to heavy snowfall and inclement weather.

“The weather is not conducive for travel for public. Still there is heavy snowfall in the region and one of the two routes to the cave shrine, Pahalgam route, is still blocked by snow and the other route, Baltal, is also not fully operational,” Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told newspersons here.

He said though state Governor S.K. Sinha had inaugurated the pilgrimage yesterday but it was only for personnel of Central Para-military forces willing to go on the ‘Yatra’.

“The Yatra would commence for public from July 6 only and people are advised not to undertake the pilgrimage till then,” Mr Jaiswal said.