Kolkata, June 8
Violence erupted in the plains of Darjeeling - at Bandorga and Naxaliabri today, following clashes between the two groups of people over the Gorkhaland issue in which bombs, brickbats, lathis, soda water bottles and other lethal weapons were freely used.

The police fired a few rounds in the air and burst tear gas shells for dispersing the angry mob. Prior to that the police tried to persuade the two “warring groups” for dispersing them and later also lathicharged the group but failed.

In the incident, over 50 persons, including supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) launching agitation in support of a separate Gorkhaland, were severely injured and had been admitted to Siliguri government hospitals.

Orders under Section 144 CrPc had been imposed at Bagdorga, Naxalbari and other vulnerable areas. A large contingent of the CRPF and other para-military forces were also deployed in the entire Siliguri town and Duars as precautionary measures. The Army had been kept on alert.

According to reports reaching the state government at Writers Buildings in the afternoon from Darjeeling, the trouble broke out at 12 noon when over 5,000 JGM workers and supporters, carrying in their kurkis, lathis and other weapons, started sit-in-demonstration on the NH-31 near Siliguri town, blockading the main thoroughfare connecting Bagdogra airport, when the police and the local people intervened.

The GJM had been continuing agitation for the last one week demanding a separate Gorkhaland for the hill people.

The CPM-controlled Janachetna Manch (the people’s resistance group) was also organising counter-agitation opposing the Gorkhaland move and the two groups were involved in clashes.

The Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee expressed concern at the on-going agitation. He requested the GJM president Bimal Gurung and other hill leaders to come to the negotiating table for resolving the crisis. But he made it clear that they would not allow a separate Gorkhaland for the hill people.

The CPM, the Congress(l), Trinamool Congress and all other political parties were also opposed to any further partition of Bengal by allowing the creation of a separate Gorkhaland. They all were demanding the Gorkha Hill Council to be re-constituted by holding the elections in the council and also the panchayets in Darjeeling, which could be granted special autonomy and constitutional rights for self-governance.

Bangalore, June 8
The allocation of portfolios to ministers in Karnataka today, has exposed the BJP’s bluff.

The saffron party wanted the independent MLAs, supporting the government, to take the blame for the delay in the assigning of departments to the ministers.

G. Shekhar and T. Shivraj got textile and agriculture marketing, respectively.

The departments allocated to Shekhar and Shivraj are not utterly insignificant, but stand nowhere in importance when compared to departments such as home, revenue or water resources. The three remaining independent MLAs, sworn in as ministers, have also got relatively modest departments.

The exercise, which followed a trust vote in the Assembly, made it clear that the race among the BJP’s own MLAs for plum departments was equally responsible for the Chief Minister taking more than a week to allocate portfolios to his colleagues.

Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and all his Cabinet colleagues, barring one, were sworn in on May 30.

The Chief Minister has kept under him 10 departments, including mines and forest. Urban development is another much sought after portfolio that has been kept by him.

The two Reddy brothers, Karunakara and Janardhana, were allocated revenue and tourism, respectively.

Janardhana Reddy has been allocated the infrastructure development department in addition.

B. Sriramulu, a protégé of the Reddy brothers, has got health and family welfare. K. Subramanya Naidu, a close aide of Yeddyurappa, who was inducted in the ministry last evening, has been given excise, IT and information department.

V.S. Acharya, a member of the legislative council, has been given the home portfolio by the Chief Minister. C.M. Udasi, another trusted lieutenant of Yeddyurappa, has been given public works, a department for which there were many contenders.

New Delhi, June 8
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma arrived here today on a four-day visit to India.

He will lead a delegation to enhance the relationship between his organisation and the Congress. Zuma, who is here at the invitation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was received at the airport by minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma and senior external affairs ministry officials.

This is his first visit to any Asian country after becoming the ANC chief last year.

Zuma will interact with the top Indian leadership and also sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Congress to enhance ties between the two parties, which played an illustrious role in shaping the destinies of their respective countries.

He will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi on Monday and hold discussions with deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The ANC and the Indian National Congress will hold delegation-level meeting on Tuesday after which the two parties will sign an MoU.

The visiting leaders will also hold a business meeting with the captains of the Indian industry under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma will host a dinner in their honour on Monday evening.

Zuma, who was also the Vice President of South Africa, will lead the delegation to Mumbai on Wednesday to interact with industry leaders.

New Delhi, June 8
India is all set to send a team to the US to get extradited Narendra Rastogi, who along with his brothers, including London-based businessman Virendra, has been accused by the CBI of defrauding the exchequer to the tune of Rs 43 crore while exporting scrap to CIS countries.

The CBI, which had launched a pursuit of the four Rastogi brothers, Virendra, Narendra, Ravindra and Subash, since early 2000, will now bring back the third brother to India as his sentence in the US was near completion.

American authorities have asked their Indian counterparts to send a team for his extradition. The FBI had arrested Rastogi and three others in May 2002 for defrauding banks around the world of an estimated $600 million by obtaining finance for sham transactions and then pledging them as collaterals for loans.

The US Federal agency had also sent a request to the CBI to give details about the frauds committed by him in India before he fled to the US. When he was about to be extradited to India, the accused pleaded guilty before a New Jersey court that sentenced him to imprisonment till June 2008.

The CBI team, led by the then joint director, Neeraj Kumar, at present special commissioner in Delhi police, had conducted an investigation into the case. — PTI

Khadakvasla, June 8
The lack of a stipend for cadets of the National Defence Academy (NDA) here is proving to be demoralising for them, but there could be light at the end of the tunnel.

Cadets joining the NDA, a premier joint services training institution, get Rs 1,000 as pocket money every month, but their parents deposit this with the academy. Against this, foreign cadets get $100 (Rs 4,250) per month that is provided by their respective governments.

"Our parents deposit Rs 5,000 per semester which the NDA later pays to us in instalments of Rs 1,000 every month," said an Indian cadet, who did not wish to be identified.

A cadet from Tajikistan, who has come to the NDA on a foreign exchange programme, said he received Rs 4,250 monthly as pocket money through his country's embassy.

In a bid to lure the best talent, the NDA has submitted a proposal to pay Rs 10,000 as a monthly stipend to its cadets. The proposal is currently with the defence ministry.

“We have submitted the proposal to the defence ministry. It has been taken well,” NDA commandant Air Marshal T.S. Randhawa said. "Stipend to the cadets is as important as a soldier's pay. Besides boosting their morale, it also shows that the organisation cares for them," an Army officer here said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

While the pocket money is an extra burden on the parents of the cadets, the paltry amount is not sufficient, they say.

“We are allowed to go to (nearby) Pune town on Sundays but with the kind of pocket money we are being given, we cannot afford to do so even twice a month,” a cadet said.

“Given today's cost of living a stipend is very essential for us. When we have decided to serve the country, it is shameful to be a burden on our parents,” another cadet maintained.

The lack of a stipend is quite in contrast to what civil servants receive during their training period. Probationers of the IAS, for instance, get Rs 8,000 a month during their training period. The NDA trains cadets for three years after which they opt for the army, the navy or the air force for further training before they are commissioned as officers.

With salaries and other benefits skyrocketing in the private sector, the NDA, not surprisingly, is facing a talent crunch with just 192 of the 300 cadets selected for the 119th course that began in January showing up.

This translates into a shortage of officers in the armed forces, which annually need 2,100 officers. Against a sanctioned strength of 67,540, the armed forces are currently short of a staggering 14,264 officers. — IANS

New Delhi, June 8
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Japan early next month to attend the G-8 Summit, on the sidelines of which he will hold crucial talks with US President George W Bush to discuss the Indo-US nuclear deal, amid all out efforts by the two countries to rescue the historic pact.

The visit, beginning on July 6, will also provide an opportunity to Manmohan Singh to hold bilateral talks with leaders of other powerful nations. The G-8 Summit will be held at Hokkaido, an island in the North of Japan, from July 7-9. Sources said the PM had still not given up the efforts to convince the Left parties to give the go ahead to the deal.

Bangalore, June 8
Supporting continuation of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India, the Karnataka government, in its affidavit submitted to the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Tribunal, has contended that some of the SIMI members had been in contact with militant outfits.

The state intelligence has quoted the Hubli-Honnali cases to support their contention that the outfit had been in touch with some of the militant organisations that were unleashing terror in the country.

In the Honnali case, two persons were arrested on charges of stealing vehicles. The affidavit stated that a SIMI activist was nabbed, along with Naseer Raizauddin, alias Mohammed Ghouse, alleged to be a Pakistan trained militant, who had been holding meetings with members of SIMI with the agenda of carrying out terror strikes in the country.

In Hubli, the police had raided places that were believed to be a training ground for terrorist activities. The police had recovered explosives from parts of the state.

Those arrested in the Hubli case included members of the outfit, who supported the contention that the organisation was involved with terror outfits, it added.

While supporting the continuation of the ban, the affidavit contended that those arrested in connection with terror plots in Karnataka had links with SIMI.

The affidavit was submitted to the tribunal, set up by the Centre, which concluded its two-day sitting here yesterday. The Tribunal was in the state to review the ban on SIMI. — PTI

New Delhi, June 8
Spare some time and calculate your individual carbon emission or carbon footprint. Environmentalists say each one of us has a carbon footprint or carbon karma, a personal measure of how much carbon dioxide we generate in our day-to-day life as an individual or as a part of the household, leading to climate change and global warming.

Climate change is happening and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are changing the climate.

The main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, produced when fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas are used for generating energy.

For example, carbon dioxide, which an individual produces by driving car, leaving lights on or even taking a flight can jeopardise the future of environment. The stream of white gas behind an airplane is a cocktail of deadly gases that directly contribute to global warming.

It is quite simple to calculate your carbon footprint or carbon karma. There are websites with CO2 calculators. The calculator asks for certain figures and data from day-to-day life that can help an individual get a personalised action plan with recommendations on how climate change can be tackled.

Experts say that each person can take care of his or her carbon karma by planting trees.

Nobel laureate Prof Wangari M. Maathai in an interview with The Tribune said an individual should plant at least 10 trees to take care of the CO2 that he or she is emitting. Maathai, the now legendary mother of the green belt, has been responsible for mobilising women to plant 30 million trees in Kenya alone.

The next target, she said, was to mobilise the plantation of one billion trees.

There are ways to pay off your carbon karma -- plant a tree or donate money to someone who can invest in alternative sources of energy, use eco-friendly gadgets at home and in office, car pooling, if possible travel by trains or buses, as they emit lesser amount of GHGs than cars and airplanes.

New Delhi, June 8
Notwithstanding frequent salary hikes, employers can consider setting off the impact of spiralling prices on their employees by promoting “tele-commuting” by allowing their staff to work from home.

“Companies in India should explore the option of tele-commuting as a means to curb transportation inflation so that their staff can work from home, besides spending quality time with the family,” said Samhita Rao, MD, Grass Roots Indian, a Gurgaon-based management company. “This is relevant for many knowledge industries like insurance, media, finance, public relations, sales and marketing,” Rao said. She said this could be easily done with modern technological aids like computers and emails, telephones and web-conferencing once the security aspects were sorted out.

Many IT companies in Noida and Gurgaon have complained that they are under pressure to revise monthly conveyance billing by 10-15 per cent after hike in oil prices. Consequently, some companies have begun to save on fuel-costs by allowing some of their employees to work from home while allowing others flexi-timing. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Tremor jolts TN town
CHENNAI: A “slight” intensity earthquake rocked parts of Vellore District in North Tamil Nadu on Saturday. The tremor, measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale, occurred at 11.35 pm. The police sources said the tremor lasting two seconds was felt in areas around Gudiyatham town, about 180 km from here. However, there were no reports of any casualty or damage to property. — PTI

12-year-old succumbs to burns
Dehra Dun: After battling for life for nearly 38 days, 12-year-old Pawan Kumar, who sustained serious burn injures in a forest fire, died on Sunday at Doon Hospital. Pawan got trapped in a forest fire near Metakund in Pauri Garhwal on his way back to home on May 1 and received 50 per cent burn injures. He was shifted to Doon Hospital on May 8 as his condition was critical. — TNS

Man poisons 30 dogs to death
MADURAI: In a bizarre incident, a man poisoned to death 30 dogs, giving vent to his anger after one of his goats died due to a dog bite in a village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. Shocked over the incident, the dog owners complained to the village panchayat. On finding him guilty, the panchayat slammed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him, which was distributed as compensation to the dog owners, local officials said. — PTI

Summer festival begins
MUSSOORIE: A three-day summer festival, organised by the Mussoorie Municipal Board, kicked off here on Sunday. Chief Minister Bhuvan Chand Khanduri and tourism minister Prakash Pant were present at the inauguration on Sunday. Songs by Manuvandana, winner of Aawaz Punjab Di, and Vasundhara Raturi of Little Champs will be the main attractions. On Moday, a comedy show by Shiraz Khan and Boogie Woogie competition will be held. — TNS

More women constables
NEW DELHI: Over 1,000 women constables would be recruited in Delhi Police over the next three months. A total of 1,067 women constables would be recruited bringing the total strength of the capital's women police personnel to around 4,600. The Centre had earlier said it intended to increase the number of women in the police forces across the country to 10 per cent. — PTI

Multimedia exhibition
NEW DELHI: A multimedia exhibition on wheels 'Science Express' was a roaring success, especially among children, during its seven-month long journey in the country. A joint venture of Max Planck Society, Department of Science and Technology, and German Ministry of Education and Research, it aimed at promoting scientific interest. The 13-coach train had science exhibits with each bogie displaying models and charts explaining questions ranging from origins of life to current edge topics like nanotechnology. — PTI

5 killed in wall collapse
PANAJI: Five labourers were killed and six others seriously injured when the wall of an under construction hotel building collapsed here on Sunday morning. The wall collapsed following heavy rains in Porvorim area. The labourers were fast asleep in a shed built next to the wall when the mishap took place, the police said. The injured had been admitted to Goa Medical College and Hospital. — PTI