New Delhi, July 25
The Indian diplomatic establishment is on tenterhooks as it has yet to receive any definite message from China on its support for the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement.

On the contrary, if diplomacy is all about subtle messages and signals, then New Delhi has reasons to worry. While key world leaders have called to congratulate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on winning the trust vote in Parliament, there has been no word from Beijing.

Among those who greeted the PM included US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani.

China’s silence is worrying as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board is meeting in Vienna on August 1 to consider the India-specific nuclear safeguards agreement. Once the IAEA clears the agreement, India will approach the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to seek a “clean waiver” to enable India to undertake nuclear commerce.

Although New Delhi is quite optimistic that Beijing will eventually support India, it will be anxiously monitoring the August 1 meeting of the IAEA board to see how China plays its cards. India expects to get majority support at this meeting but is not sure if the matter will be put to vote.

“In case it is, it will be interesting to see how China votes,” remarked a senior UPA minister, adding that the forthcoming meeting will be the first occasion when Beijing will have to spell out its stand on the Indo-US nuke deal. It will have a bearing on its position in the subsequent meeting of the NSG, which works on the basis of consensus. One discordant note and the deal is off.

Aware of China’s crucial role, New Delhi is straining every nerve to get Beijing on board. As part of these efforts minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithiviraj Chavan will be in Beijing next Tuesday to deliver a personal letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Chinese president Hu Jintao to canvass support for India at the NSG. Chavan will be carrying similar letters for the heads of state of Itlay, Spain and Portugal also.

Once it won the trust vote, the UPA government promptly launched a diplomatic offensive to hardsell the deal to the IAEA and NSG countries. Union ministers Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal along with foreign secretary, national security advisor M.K. Narayanan and PM’s pointsman on the nuke Shyam Saran have been assigned to cover all the NSG countries.

New Delhi is depending on the US, which has given a firm assurance that it will take up India’s case both at the IAEA and the NSG meetings. Washington is hopeful that the NSG meeting will take place within 10 days of IAEA’s approval of the safeguards agreement.

Meanwhile, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, in an interview to a television channel, today said India was hopeful of getting China’s support at the NSG.

“The Prime Minister had discussed (the issue) with President Hu Jintao. We also had some discussion with my colleague Yang Jiechi on different occasions,” Mukherjee said.

New Delhi, July 25
After unearthing Rs 500-crore scam in Orissa, a second survey carried out by the Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has claimed to unearth yet another multicrore scam in the UPA government’s flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and this time in Madhya Pradesh.

Alleging a Rs 2,100 crore scam in the rural employment guarantee scheme of MP, the organisation, on the basis of a survey, says that only 25 per cent of NREGS funds were actually spent on providing employment to the poor and remaining 75 per cent were siphoned off through fake job entries in muster rolls and job cards.

According to CEFS director Parshuram Rai, the sample survey was conducted in MP between December 2007 and January 2008 in 125 poorest villages spread over five poorest districts of the state in Shivpuri, Chhattarpur, Tikamgarh, Dhar and Jhabua.

As per data posted on the NREGA website, the state was provided Rs 3,288 crore under NREGS and was able to spend Rs 2,891 crore during 2007-08. With this expenditure, 2753 lakh persondays of wage employment was given to 43,46,916 households during this period. In other words, 43,46,916 households were given 63 days of average employment during 2007-08.

Ray, however, says that during first 10 months of 2007-08 (April 2007-January 2008), sample households got only 10.61 days of average employment and just 2.36 per cent sample households got 100 days of wage employment. “It was shocking to note that 65.39 per cent of sample households did not receive even a single day of employment between April 2007 and January 2008. Moreover, 38.49 per cent of sample households never got any employment under the NREGS,” he alleges.

The CEFS study suggests that really speaking not more than 16 days of average employment was given to needy households during 2007-08. Since sample households in MP were given only 10.61 days of average employment during first 10 months of 2007-08, the average employment during 12 months of the financial year 2007-08 came to about 13 days.

“Even if three days more are added on account of margin of error, the average employment figure for the year comes to only 16 days. Therefore, average employment figure of 63 days claimed by the state government is about four times more than the CEFS figure of 16 days,” he says.

The difference is because only about 25 percent of the job figures given by the MP government are actual and remaining three-fourth are based on faked job entries in job cards and muster rolls, he adds

In other words, only 25 per cent of NREGS funds actually reached intended beneficiaries in the state while the remaining, about 75 percent, were siphoned off by officials. 

New Delhi, July 25
Perhaps with an aim to counter Taliban and warlords’ control, Afghanistan wants to empower its people at the grass-root level. To achieve this, Kabul is keen to adopt the Indian Panchayati Raj system for local self-governance.

An Indian NGO, the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), enjoying the United Nations’ special consultative status, has been identified to assist Afghanistan to implement the local governance model.

All over Afghanistan, the warlords and tribal chiefs exert local control. More traditional elements of political authority such as Sufi networks, royal lineage, clan strength and age-based wisdom also play a role in the Afghan society.

The tribal system is potent in political terms. Local government is the face of government for most Afghans, yet reforms at the local level have been slow and difficult. Large parts of Afghanistan still suffer from weak, ineffective and, in some places, corrupt and jihadi governance.

Now, the attention of the government, policymakers and donors is focusing with increasing urgency on governance structures and processes outside Kabul.

The Dehra Dun-based RLEK has been identified to help Afghanistan to frame and draft the policy paper as well as an Act for the local governance.

The RLEK has been a pioneer in protecting the rights of the people, especially “Van Gujjars” (who live at higher reaches of the Himalayas and deal in milk and ghee) and elected women leaders. It is considered to be an authority on the Panchayati Raj’s three-tier institutions.

The RLEK has been requested by the ministries of panchayati raj and of rural rehabilitation and development, and the Kabul government to frame and draft the policy paper as well as an Act for the local governance in Afghanistan.

“We have also been asked by the two ministries to train the officials and elected representatives of the government of Afghanistan,” RLEK chairman Avdhash Kaushal said. “We have to complete this assignment within a year,” he added.

An all-women body of the RLEK, the Panchayati Rule and Gender Awareness Training Institute (PRAGATI) is in the process of preparing a three-member team to be deployed in Afghanistan for this purpose.

The India-Afghanistan cooperation deal in local governance has come through two years after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and India’s union minister for panchayati raj Mani Shanker Aiyar during the former's visit to India.

As per the MoU, the two countries had agreed to cooperate in the field of local self-governance by way of capacity building and training, academic exchanges and research programmes and interaction between local government representatives.

A high-level Afghan delegation will visit Dehra Dun this winter to attend the RLEK-PRAGATI’s three-day open forum of the elected women representatives of Uttarakhand’s panchayati raj institutions.

Afghanistan has traditionally remained divided into provinces governed by centrally appointed governors with considerable autonomy in local affairs. During the Soviet occupation and its resistance, local areas came increasingly under the control of mujahidin groups that were largely independent of any higher authority.

Local commanders, in some instances, asserted a measure of independence, establishing their own systems of local government, collecting revenues, running educational and other facilities, and even engaging in local negotiations. This way, no development work worth the name has happened at the grass-root level.

The Taliban set up a shura (assembly), made up of senior Taliban members and important tribal figures from the area. Each shura made laws and collected taxes locally.

In the absence of an overall vision or strategy for local government, a multitude of uncoordinated and potentially contradictory bodies are now running at provincial and lower levels.

“The social and cultural fiber of Afghanistan is similar to India. Even Afghan women are facing problems like illiteracy and unemployment,” said PRAGATI’s chairperson Ruchi Kukreti adding that ``it would be a challenge for us to work out a self local governance framework for a war-torn nation.” 

Bangalore, July 25
Shivakumar, who works in the National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, was having his lunch when he heard a deafening noise. “I thought the noise was caused by explosion of an electric transformer”, he said. The thought of an earthquake also flashed through his mind when he first heard the noise.

“But soon we got to know that a bomb had exploded and the place where it had taken place was not too far from our office”, Shivakumar, whose office is in Shanthi Nagar, said.

In fact, most of the people who heard the explosions in different parts of the city initially thought these to be caused by electric transformers going awry. Gopalkrishnan, near whose stationary shop at Adugodi another explosion occurred, also at first thought it to be a transformer going burst.

The shop adjacent to Gopalkrishna’s establishment was closed for the afternoon recess when the explosion occurred. It, however, could not prevent the owner to return to his shop at the usual time at 4 pm and resume his business.

The blast at Adugodi drew only a trickle of onlookers. This was perhaps because the blast at the spot did not leave much of an impact. In fact, the metal BSNL line box, behind which the bomb was planted, was standing intact without bearing any sign of the explosion.

This was not the case with the explosion sites at Shanthi Nagar and Koramongola, both of which were drawing large crowds of curious onlookers. At both these places, the police had to cane charge onlookers.

I did not realise that I have already completed one year after demitting office on July 25, 2007. This one year has been an extremely eventful one me having visited over 12 states in India and nine countries.

It is pertinent to note here that I have not been able to accept more than 10 per cent of the total invitations received.

In this period, I have intensified my interaction with students, having met and interacted with over one million youth of different age groups. I have utilised this interaction with students and faculty members of 19 universities abroad to create a linkage between Indian universities for intensifying socially and technologically relevant research areas.

In fact I have been concentrating my reach to internal areas in the country like Meerut, Aligarh, Khurja, Pantnagar, Moradabad, Gandhigram, Karur, Gwalior, Mathura and other remote places.

My main message to the youth is - work with integrity and succeed with integrity, have a dream resulting into a goal for personal growth and the growth of the nation and acquire as much knowledge as possible for realisation of the growth through the association of good books, good teachers and good human beings.

Apart from motivating youth, I am guiding three students for a PhD programme. One pertains to brain research, the second on ICT knowledge products and third on education and economics.

Through the Lead India movement, I have participated in the teacher’s training programme for translating the 10-point oath on enlightened citizenship towards actions by the youth of the nation.

I have addressed the Lead India youth at Karimnagar and Medak district of Andhra Pradesh involving over one-lakh students each.

Lead India movement is now spreading to Maharashtra. The youth trained are empowered with the spirit "I can do it" and they are transforming many other youth in the region.

In this period I have also addressed a number of national and international conferences on space research, energy independence, healthcare, agriculture, corporate social responsibility, innovation and education. Through this programme, I have identified national and international research programmes for the year 2050.

In space research, I have given world space vision 2050 to the World Forum and have been suggesting integrated work towards low cost excess to space for realizing the goal of reducing the present cost of access of US$20,000 per kilogram to US$2,000 per kg.

In this energy independence area, I have suggested progressive reduction in the use of fossil fuel by resorting to bio-diesel and ethanol and environmental upgradation through the use of diesel emulsified with 25 per cent water.

I have also suggested the development of high efficiency CNT based solar photovoltaic cell with an efficiency of 50 per cent and innovations in wind energy.

In the nuclear arena, I have been emphasising the thrust for thorium based nuclear power plants and also in the process of facilitating the creation of number of PURA complexes in the country.

As for healthcare, I have been spearheading the Emergency Management System, which is a public private partnership enterprise with a mission of dealing with all medical emergencies such as cardiac, childbirth, fire and road accidents.

This movement was localized in Andhra Pradesh till recently. Now it has spread to 8 states with a mission of saving one million lives by the year 2010.

In the last year I have also been concentrating on motivating the youth towards the realization of Vision 2020, creating a long term vision for scientific and technological community of the nation and abroad, developing methods through which we can quickly realize the goals of energy independence and faster implementation of PURA complexes in different parts of the country for bridging the rural urban divide.

For the upcoming year, I would like to intensify my efforts in motivating the youth of the nation, particularly in rural areas, enhance the reach of quality education to the rural areas with technological inputs from the department of space, spread the emergency management system to at least 18 states and facilitate the creation of public private partnership cultures for enhancing production of bio-diesel and ethanol.

I would also urged the youth to use the youth satellite which will be in orbit for promoting prosperous and a peaceful planet earth. — IANS

(A.P.J. Abdul Kalam can be reached at apj@abdulkalam.com)

New Delhi, July 25
The six rebel Samajwadi Party MPs today joined the ranks of Lok Sabha members of different parties expelled for defying the party whip during voting on the crucial July 22 confidence motion the UPA government had brought in on the nuclear deal.

The six MPs--jailbirds Atiq Ahmed and Afzal Ansari, and Raj Kumar Budholia, Jai Prakash Rawat, S P Singh Baghel and Munnawar Hassan, had voted against the government while their party had issued whips for voting in favour of the trust motion.

SP general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh told the media here that parliamentary party leader Ram Gopal Yadav would meet Speaker Somnath Chatterjee tomorrow to hand over the list of the six rebel Lok Sabha members.

Earlier, 17 MPs from different parties were shown the door for cross-voting.

So far, 23 of the 28 MPs from rival camps have been divested of their party membership for violating the party whip. — UNI

Lucknow, July 25
A Samajwadi Party worker today filed a complaint in a local court here, accusing BJP leader L K Advani and three of his party MPs of attempting to defame his party leaders by levelling allegations of bribery in connection with the July 22 trust vote.

Besides Advani, the complainant, Kishore Lal Yadav, a former SP corporator and advocate, has named three BJP MPs--Ashok Argal, Mahavir Bhagora and Fagan Singh Kulaste in his complaint.

In the petition filed under Section 500 of the IPC before the court of Special Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate R P Tripathi, Yadav alleged that the three MPs, while displaying bundles of currency notes in the Lok Sabha had claimed that the money had been given to them by SP general secretary Amar Singh for abstaining during the confidence vote.

Special Additional CJM Tripathi ordered registration of the defamation complaint and has fixed August 8 for recording the statement of the complainant.

New Delhi, July 25
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP traded charges yet again on buying MPs for the confidence vote last Tuesday, even as the BJP lodged a formal complaint with Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee over attempt to bribe three of its MPs.

Addressing newsmen along with the three MPs who were involved in the “Sting operation”, BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra declared that the trading in MPs to secure the success of the vote of confidence was being done at the level of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He said the Prime Minister bought out JMM leader Shibu Soren by offering him a Cabinet berth and his son deputy chief ministership of Jharkhand, though the same Prime Minister had thrown out Soren twice from the Union Cabinet after he was jailed.

Swearing by his MPs Malhotra urged the Speaker to release the concerned CD to the media immediately for everyone to see and take severe action against the guilty as promised by him on the floor of the House.

He also alleged that the Central government submitted a fresh affidavit on the Ram Sethu to the Supreme Court only to please the DMK.

He said, “First, they said Ram did not exist, now they say Ram himself destroyed the Ram Sethu. This is nothing but playing with the religious sentiments of 100 crore Hindus of India.”

He reminded Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister that every year they go to Ramleela and perform puja. “If Ram is only a figment of our imagination, why do they perform their pujas at the Ramleela,” the BJP leader asked.

Meanwhile, SP general secretary Amar Singh has called BJP a fascist party for allegedly organising the attack on the premises of their expelled MPs and stubbornly defending these attacks.

He announced that “our parliamentary party leader Ram Gopal Yadav will meet the Speaker tomorrow and move for the disqualification of these six MPs.

Lucknow, July 25
The Congress and Samajwadi Party today attacked chief minister Mayawati for her statement proclaiming the winning of the trust vote in the Lok Sabha earlier this week as a blot on Indian democracy.

At separate press conferences, UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi and state Samajwadi Party President Shivpal Singh Yadav hit out at the BSP supremo, accusing her of making a mockery of democracy and, therefore, having no moral authority to make such charges against their parties.

The SP state president wondered if Mayawati even knew the meaning of democracy. " She knows and pursues the politics of tyranny. After destroying Uttar Pradesh, she is now hell-bent on destroying the nation by projecting herself as a prime ministerial candidate," said Yadav.

Corroborating his charge, Yadav said the BSP chief had single-handedly undermined basic norms of democracy in the state by refusing to extent the courtesy of interacting with the Leader of the Opposition and other elected representatives.

Calling it a case of the pot calling the kettle black, UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said Mayawati had used all tactics in her arsenal to pressurise MPs into opposing the trust vote and had no business of blaming the Congress.

“Mayawati did not refrain from using her IAS officers to exert pressure on MPs. Our advise to her is that she should concentrate on the grave flood situation in UP and leave other things to people who can deal with them," said the UPCC president.

Refusing to comment on an electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party, Rita Bahuguna Joshi said such decisions were taken by the party high command. She said the Congress was prepared to contest all 80 seats but all was up to the party high command. 

New Delhi, July 25
The Union government will issue a commemorative coin to launch and mark the tercentenary celebrations of the “Guru-Ta-Gaddi Diwas”.

Meanwhile, union home minister Shivraj Patil also agreed to the Punjab government’s proposal to sanction an additional 5 per cent funds above the already sanctioned amount of Rs 179 crore for the development of Anandpur Sahib and Talwandi Sabo. The decision was taken at a meeting of the national committee for commemoration of tercentenary here today.

Punjab Chief Minister’s media adviser Harcharan Bains said the home minister accepted Badal’s proposal and promised to release adequate funds for the worldwide campaign.

Meanwhile, Patil also constituted a committee comprising the Punjab Chief Minister, deputy speaker Lok Sabha Charanjit Singh Atwal and union tourism and culture minister Ambika Soni, to finalise the design and inscription pattern of the commemorative coin to be released on the occasion. Patil also asked Soni to involve the representatives of the SGPC and the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

He also announced a grant of Rs 1 crore for the translation of the Guru Granth Sahib in English and Hindi to be distributed in public libraries and other educational institutions.

Madurai, July 25
The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court ruled condoms cannot be marketed with obscene visuals either printed on the wrappers or in advertisements issued in visual and print media.

Chief Justice A.K. Ganguly and Justice P. Jyothimani gave the direction last evening on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by C. Ravikumar, a city-based businessman, seeking to ban obscene pictures on packages and advertisements for condoms.

The petitioner claimed the obscene pictures created wrong impression about condoms which were primarily medical products and not inducers of sexual desire.

The Bench ordered that all marketing activities should be certified by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory voluntary organisation of the advertising industry.

The certification should be issued in accordance with Article 51 A (f) of the Constitution which stipulates it is the fundamental duty of every citizen to value and preserve the rich heritage and composite culture.

The judges further said the right to carry on business, protected under Article 19 (1) (g) of the constitution, also stipulated that such right was subject to reasonable restrictions that could be imposed in the interest of decency and morality.

Stating that it is difficult for the court to fix standards of decency and morality, the Judges said the ASCI would be in a better position to deal with such issues.

The judges passed the orders after hearing assistant solicitor-general of India C. Arul Vadivel on behalf of the Centre. —UNI

Mumbai, July 25
With the view to encourage the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students to pursue higher education in abroad, the state government is planning to accommodate more students in the scheme.

“Altogether 72 students have been sent abroad for various courses so far and the government is thinking to allow more students,” minister for social welfare Chandrakant Handore said in the Legislative Council today.

The government has made provision of Rs 19 crore for the students and spent Rs 10 crore in the past four years, the minister said.

There is also a provision in the scheme that the students should serve to the government for at least three years after completing their course.

They could even refund 50 per cent of their scholarship if they fail to work for the government, he said. — PTI

New Delhi, July 25
In a bid to regulate the “television audience measurement, television rating points (TRPs)”, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) yesterday issued draft recommendations on the policy guidelines on the issue, whereby, it has recommended that regulation of content should be transferred to it.

“With increased convergence and the blurring of boundaries between carriage and content, and significant influence exercised by content on the society, the authority strongly recommends that regulation of content should also be transferred to TRAI,” the authority said in a statement.

This suggestion has been made with the idea of having an appropriate framework, which ensures transparency, independence of rating agencies and increased coverage reflecting the plurality of regions and viewer ship.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had sought recommendations of TRAI on the system, framework of television ratings and the policy guidelines to be adopted for rating agencies.

Presently, two private agencies namely TAM Media Research and Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (aMAP) are carrying out TV ratings on a commercial basis. Their operations are limited to a few large cities with a population above one lakh.

Within big cities too, their sample homes are limited. TAM Media Research covers all states except Jammu and Kashmir, North-East, Bihar and Jharkhand, whilst aMap sample covers all states except Jammu and Kashmir and North-East but includes Jammu and Guwahati.

Television ratings are primarily meant to guide the broadcasters, the media agencies and the advertisers, to determine their programme scheduling, advertisement spending and placement of advertisements. They have often also influenced the content as well as pricing of channels.

The authority is of the opinion that in such a scenario self-regulation may work best and a framework laying specific guidelines, including certain reporting requirements, will effectively address the shortcomings.

It has suggested that the industry initiative-the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) be recognised as the institutional framework for the ratings.

Once BARC starts functioning, the inadequacies of the present system will have to be effectively addressed in close and coordinated manner with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, it feels. It is also of the opinion that any form of government intervention in the form of an enactment is not desirable at this stage.

Therefore, self-regulation through the industry led, not-for-profit body BARC, has been recommended with government guidelines covering, BARC’s organisational structure, functioning and methodology. The television industry in India has estimated Rs 22,600 crores as its annual revenues in 2007. Of this 35 per cent, approximately Rs 8,000 crore comes from television advertising.

Dehra Dun, July 25
Uttarakhand has decided to launch an attractive campaign to motivate people to switch over to Condensed Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) from the traditional yellow bulbs in a bid to save energy.

State power secretary Shatrughan Singh said this at a function to inaugurate the new building of the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Headquartres here today.

Speaking on the occasion, power secretary said an attractive package would be offered to the state people to change their traditional bulbs to CFL. After the capital city, the scheme would be launched in the entire state

“We aim to save up to 50 MW by turning to CFL in the state,” said Singh.

He further said the state has succeeded in bringing the lines losses in its’ transmission lines from 44 per cent to 27 per cent in the last year. The Uttarakhand Power Corporation proposed to bring it further down to 24 per cent by year-end.

Singh further said every effort was being made to meet the national goal of bringing the line losses to 15 per cent by 2012.

He said all this was possible due to introduction of new technology in the billing system of the corporation for its’ users.

Chief Minister Khanduri reiterated his resolve to make Uttarakhand one of the leading power producing states’ in the country. “We have abundant water resources and by tapping these, we will be able to do well in the power sector,” said Khanduri.

Guwahati, July 25
The ministry of communication and IT has recommended massive facelift to the rural postal network in terms on improvement of service, products and service conditions of the staff to compensate for loss of urban areas business to private courier companies.

At the initiative of minister of state for communication and IT Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, the India Post has drawn up an action plan to gear up its rural postal services to counter the stiff competition from private courier services that have usurped a major chunk of its personal mail service business in urban centres in the country.

Chief postmaster-general of Assam circle Monojit Kumar today informed that besides improving the mail delivery system in rural areas, the department had decided to extend its hitherto urban area service of acceptance of telephone and electricity bills to rural post offices.

There will soon be a tie-up with the self-help groups (SHGs) whose products would be carried and marketed by the Postal Department through its retail postal services. It will help SHGs to have access to markets in different parts of the country through the vast network of the department.

In order to make the postal saving schemes more attractive, India Post has requested the ministry of finance to increase the rates of interest applicable to the Postal Savings Schemes. The ministry has been asked to introduce loan facility against the Post Office Savings Bank Deposit Schemes.

BRIEFLY

Meira Kumar for stricter provisions in Dalit Act
KANPUR: Condemning the UP government for its failure to curb crimes against the Dalits in the state, minister of social justice and empowerment, Meira Kumar, on Friday appealed for stricter provisions in the Dalit Atrocities (prevention) Act. “The data available with the ministry shows that there is a rise in the cases of atrocities on the Dalits in UP,” Kumar told mediapersons here, adding that the state government has failed to curb the rising crime. — PTI

Dawood’s nephew held
MUMBAI: Nephew of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, Sajid Wagle, has been arrested for the second time this year on charges of extortion, a senior police official said. “We have arrested Wagle, a cable operator, for demanding an extortion amount of Rs one lakh from a person,” said additional commissioner of police Deven Bharti. He had been arrested earlier this year in February in a similar case where he tried to extort money from a businessman. — PTI

Officer convicted for graft
BHOPAL: A special court of Satna has sentenced three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 to tourism officer Anuj Pratap Singh for misuse of his position. A case was lodged against the tourism officer on January 10, 2006 and challan was presented in the court on September 25, 2006.The complaint alleged misappropriation of Rs 25,000 by not showing in the cashbook amount received against receipts of the tourism development corporation. — UNI

Land for IT Park
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government will provide three acre of land each at Bhopal and Gwalior for setting up of software technology park .The decision to allot the land was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here on Thursday. — UNI