New Delhi, January 22
Three newly appointed Governors- K. Sankaranarayanan (Maharashtra), ESL Narasimhan (Andhra Pradesh) and MOH Farook (Jharkhand)- took their oath today at ceremonies held in respective state capitals.

Kateekal Sankaranarayanan, who replaced SC Jamir as the Governor of Maharashtra, was sworn in today at Raj Bhavan by Acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court JN Patel here. K Sankaranarayan (79) is a veteran Congressman, who began as a student leader before Independence. According to his biography put out by the Maharashtra government, Sankaranarayanan went on to become president of the Kerala Congress in 1977. He went on to be elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly several times.

Farook was administered oath of office and secrecy by Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra at the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. A former Chief Minister of Puducherry, he was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 2004.

Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court AR Dave administered the oath of office to ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad. Narasimhan, Governor of Chhattisgarh, was sworn in Decemeber 27 after being given additional charge of Andhra Pradesh, following resignation of ND Tiwari over allegations of his involvement in a sex scandal. After being appointed full-time Governor last week, Narasimhan was sworn in again in accordance with the constitutional requirements.

President Pratibha Patil had appointed the new Governors on January 16. The new Governors of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal are expected to assume charge of their offices before Republic Day. 

New Delhi, January 22
Having supported JMM leader Shibu Soren as the chief minister of Jharkhand, BJP is 
now caught in a fix over the Naxal issue.

Even as Home Minister P Chidambaram held a meeting of five Naxal-affected states in Raipur today to review the anti-naxal operations in these states, reports emanating from Jharkhand indicated the reluctance of the JMM/BJP government to participate in such operations.

Instead, Soren has offered to hold talks with them. Immediately upon assuming charge on December 30, he said, “We will talk to the Central government over operations against the Maoists. Any such operation cannot take place without the consent of the state government.”

There were also reports that he has ordered the Central forces deployed in his state to return to barracks. Jharkhand IGP V.D. Deshmukh, however, denied this.

This ambiguity of the Jharkhand government has added to the problems of the security agencies which have deployed 42 companies of Central forces in the Maoist-affected districts of the five major states where the Maoists exercise considerable influence. These are West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. The borders of Jharkhand touch all these five states and other states complain that Maoists operating in their jurisdiction flee to their safe havens in Jharkhand.

The BJP has been advocating a tough policy against the Maoists and showcases their Chhatisgarh chief minister Raman Singh as the ideal who has tackled the Maoists in his state through operation Salwa Judum with the help of Central security forces.

Unlike Shibu Soren, the BJP opposes any talks with the Maoists till they give up arms. Even today BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “No talks should be held with the Maoists till they give up gun.” But under pressure from alliance partner Prasad also added, “Naxalism is a political, economic and social problem.”

For all its advocacy of a tough police, the BJP knows that the Naxalites helped Shibu Soren win as many as 18 seats in the recently concluded state assembly elections. JMM had also given tickets to three former Maoists and one of them Poulus Surin won from Torpa. Therefore, it is conscious of the fact that Soren is no Raman Singh.

Instead, it admits privately that “Soren is a revolutionary who has been associated with the revolutionaries” and, therefore, he cannot be expected to fall in line so soon. BJP leaders have been counselling patience and hoping that eventually he may fall in line with them.

New Delhi, January 22
More than one third of the Indian women, aged between 15 to 49 years, have experienced some kind of physical or sexual violence. The latest India human development report puts the percentage of women suffering gender violence at 35.4.

Bihar is the most hostile to women, with 55.6 per cent of 15 to 49-year-olds, the highest in the country, experiencing violence, as per the latest crime records cited by the government’s report on gender imbalances. Other women-unfriendly states are Madhya Pradesh where 46.8 per cent women faces violence, Tripura (44.7 per cent), Rajasthan (44.6 per cent), Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Orissa and Jharkhand.

However, Himachal Pradesh is the safest sate for women, with just 5.6 per cent facing violence; next are J&K (with 12.9 per cent women being affected) and Goa (15 per cent). The last claim, however, puts the credibility of the government claims at stake, considering Goa has been seeing sexual violence against women. The state’s tourism minister, on record, went on saying Goa could pip Delhi to become the rape capital of India.

Delhi, as per the India gender development report, has just 16.5 per cent of women facing violence - a gross understatement in the wake of recent trends. Punjab and Haryana are also no better, with report citing 30 and 29 per cent women being affected by violence, respectively - a fact which Minister of Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath today acknowledged after the release of her ministry’s report.

She admitted that sex determination was going on across north states, with Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP continuing to report low child sex ratios. The minister, however, felt that the gender violence was on the decline.

New Delhi, January 22
With the Congress still grappling with the Telangana crisis and hit by a spurt in prices of essential commodities, party president Sonia Gandhi will be calling a meeting of its working committee within a fortnight to brainstorm and prepare a roadmap on tackling these ticklish issues.

“The Congress Working Committee is meeting within a fortnight,” party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said here today.

While the agenda of the working committee is yet to be finalised, the first meeting of the party’s highest decision-making body is being held against the backdrop of the ongoing violence in Andhra Pradesh over the demand for a separate state of Telengana and concern in party ranks over the rise in prices of essential commodities like sugar, dals and vegetables.

Organisational elections, currently underway, are also likely to figure in the deliberations. Since the CWC is meeting ahead of the budget session of Parliament, it will draw up a wish-list for the government while Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to hold a customary round of consultations with party office-bearers on this issue.

Taking a cue from its cadres, the party has officially expressed concern over rising prices and, on one occasion, even launched a veiled attack against Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for not taking steps to bring down prices. This is not the first time that a CWC has been convened on this particular issue.

The working committee had met last August when prevailing drought conditions in several parts of the country had pushed up prices of essential commodities. While the party will deliberate on tackling this issue politically, the UPA government has initiated several steps to curb prices. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened several meetings of the Cabinet Committee on prices where it was also agreed that the measures taken by the Centre be effectively communicated to the people to dispel the widespread belief that the government is not doing enough to redress their grievances. The forthcoming working committee will be expected to formulate a strategy on involving the party cadres in publicising the government’s message.

This is also the first CWC meeting after the Telangana crisis erupted in Andhra Pradesh. The Congress state government has been unable to douse the simmering fires over the demand for a separate state. The Centre had convened a meeting with all major political parties from the state and promised to ste up a committee on this issue. The promised “mechanism” has yet to be announced by Home Minister P Chidambaram. The protests over the emotive demand refuse to die down, creating deep fissures along regional lines. The Congress has not been spared either as the pro and anti-Telangana factions in the party are battling it out openly. The party top brass is particularly worried as the Andhra Pradesh state assembly has to convene its budget session next month. It is imperative for the party and the state government to restore peace at the earliest, failing which it will be difficult to conduct the session.

New Delhi, January 22
The BJP may formally elect Nitin Gadkari as its ninth president on February 8, when process of nomination and withdrawal completes, but without the endorsement of major BJP states.

That is because the organisational elections, to any of the important states with strong BJP presence, have not completed and does not appear to be nearing completion anywhere before February 8. These include Gadkari’s state Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and even Karnataka. There is some hope though that Karnataka may complete its organisational polls before the set date.

The party constitution makes it obligatory to complete the election process in half the states before electing the national president. After repeated extensions these were to be completed by December 15. But a one month later, the process remains incomplete. To meet the constitutional requirement, the BJP has appointed presidents in states that have either no or marginal presence of the saffron party. These include Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, Tripura, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

The party sources said the reason behind the delay in completing organisational elections in the BJP stronghold states is the tremendous amount of infighting there. For instance the party has been repeatedly trying to announce the name of its president in Delhi, but sensing the hostile mood of the Delhi BJP leaders to the high command’s choice, it is still holding its horses.

In Rajasthan, it had to cancel the election process on the penultimate day of the polling, faced with the hostility of the troika of Vasundhra Raje, Ramdas Agarwal and Om Prakash Mathur to the BJP appointee Arun Chaturvedi.

In Assam, the party appointed Ranjit Datta, ignoring the protest from almost all four party MPs and 8 out of 10 MLAs. Contrary to the BJP practice, where no one was allowed to file his nominations against the high command nominee (the same would happen in case of Gadkari), three times BJP MP from Nowgaon Rajen Gohain filed his nominations for the presidential elections. But ignoring these nominations, national general-secretary Thawarchand Gehlot supervising the organisational elections, called up the party office in Guwahati and declared Ranjit Datta as the Assam BJP president, causing considerable heartburn in the cadre and leaders there.

Thus, Gadkari’s presidentship would be endorsed by its presidents from Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, while the mass base of the BJP would watch the election of the new president from the sidelines.

New Delhi, January 22
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman RK Pachauri today termed as “regrettable error” the claim that Himalayan glaciers will disappear by 2035 and indicated that there will be no action against any scientist for the controversial conclusion.

However, he said that the IPCC would review and strengthen its processes in the future.

“There is a full process that is followed and attributing responsibility on specific experts may not be desirable, particularly since the error was more of one of judgement,” he said.

Pachauri said the controversy over the claim that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 “should not in any way detract from the work done by hundreds of eminent scientists carefully selected and nominated by governments.” This was stated in a ‘press advisory’ prepared and issued in the form of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ by Pachauri a day ahead of his media interaction on the controversy generated by the claims.

The IPCC is under fire for having included in its 2007 report -without proper peer review - an assertion that glaciers in the Himalayas will disappear by 2035 due to global warming. It had retracted the statement just two days back.

Researcher Murari Lal was in-charge of editing the chapter on glaciers in the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC and had based the controversial finding on a media interview of glaciologist SI Hasnain. — PTI 

New Delhi, January 22
Blinding spell of fog continued today and severely disrupted air and rail traffic again. And it was little consolation for passengers that fog was a bit lessharsh today.

The Northern Railways said around 100 trains were delayed with more than 50 cancellations and 40 trains being rescheduled. And schedules of 75-odd domestic and international flights were affected today. As many as six flights were cancelled and nearly 30 flights were rescheduled.

Fog started to descend at the Indira Gandhi International Airport from 1.30 am, reducing general visibility to near zero, an official said. The runway visibility was above 600 metres but dropped to 75 metres in the early hours and low visibility procedures had to be implemented, he said.

Scene in and outside railway station was that of a complete mess and confusion as hundreds of passengers were seen enquiring from officials about their train timings. Trains like Jammu Tavi-Mangalore Express ran 30 hours behind schedule while Himalayan Queen was delayed indefinitely.

The cancelled trains included Sampoorna Kranti Express, Poorva Express, Garwal Express and some Rajdhani trains as well.

A Met official said fog is currently stretching from Pakistan to Bangladesh, covering large parts of the northwest plains in India. It has held the capital in its grip since Tuesday night and would so for some more days, said BP Yadav, Director, Indian Metrological Department.

What is worrisome is that the Met department has predicted for the fog to stay till the next five to six days due to “unstable weather conditions” and high humidity level.

New Delhi, January 22
Senior BJP leaders from Bihar met here yesterday under the chairmanship of their president Nitin Gadkari to fine-tune their strategy in the state going to polls later this year, while caste polarisation in Bihar may still make things a bit difficult for the party.

The meeting held at BJP’s Bhagalpur MP Syed Shahnawaz Husain’s home was attended among others by party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, former Union minister C.P. Thakur, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, state BJP president Radha Mohan Singh and some other state leaders.

Officially the party claimed that their discussions were limited to discussing only strategy and preparations for the impending Bihar Assembly election due later this year. But meanwhile Gadkari’s main concern is to choose an appropriate Bihar BJP president as well as to look for a suitable in charge of the state here in Delhi.

The name of BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad was doing the rounds here. But sources said Prasad is more keen on being elevated here to the post of general secretary. On the other hand a section is suggesting the name of Syed Shahnawaz Husain to head the state unit, pleading that this could help them dent the Muslim vote bank.

In fact Shahanwaz Husain had recently met Gadkari and mentioned that though he was the sole Muslim in the BJP to have won several terms of Lok Sabha elections, he had not been suitably rewarded. Sources said Shahnawaz was also expecting to be elevated to the post of general secretary of the national BJP. But alternatively he would be happy if asked to head the Bihar unit.

But party sources indicated that it might prefer an appropriate Brahmin or Bhumihar leader to head the state unit to retain its Brahmin-Bhumihar vote bank and neither Shahnawaz nor Prassd meet this caste criterion.

The party has also to look for a dynamic leader from Delhi to take charge of the state unit. As long as Arun Jaitely was the general secretary of the party he also held the charge of Bihar. But now that he is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, he cannot be given formal charge of the state. But if Jaitley has his way, Gadkari may appoint some younger junior in charge who will seek Jaitely’s counsel to take crucial decisions in Bihar.

Meanwhile at a time when there is already some tension between the BJP and JD-U on a number of issues, party spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy has stirred the hornet’s nest by participating in a function organised by his fellow clansmen, the Rajputs, to deride Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The occasion was the birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap and prominent JD-U leader and a former MP Prabhunath Singh had organised it. Since his defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, Singh is annoyed with Nitish Kumar holding him responsible for his defeat in the general elections. Another Nitish baiter and former Union minister Digvijay Singh was also present and spoke there. Digvijay left the JD-U and got elected from Banka parliamentary constituency as an Independent.

Since Rudy is considered close to former BJP president Rajnath Singh, a Thakur, his detractors see in it a design by Rudy to deliberately create an embarrassment for the BJP leadership and alternatively emerge as the new Rajput face of the BJP now that Rajnath Singh is out.

New Delhi, January 22
Lt Gen VK Singh, GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, was today appointed the next Chief of the Army Staff. He will lead the 1.3 million-strong Indian Army from March 31 when he takes over following the retirement of General Deepak Kapoor.

It is normal for the government to announce the name of the new chief two months in advance.

Lt Gen VK Singh, an infantry man, was commissioned into the Rajput Regiment in 1970. During his long career he has participated in the 1971 operations against Pakistan and the IPKF operations in Sri Lanka in 1988. At present, he is serving as the Eastern Army Commander, Kolkata. Prior to that he commanded vital Ambala-based 2 Strike Corps of the Army.

He is an honours graduate of the US Army Infantry School, Georgia. He studied at the Defence Services Staff College, the Army War College and the US Army War College, Carlisle.

Notably, the Court of Inquiry into the “Darjeeling land scam”, that has led to disciplinary and administrative action against four senior generals, was ordered at the behest of Lt Gen VK Singh. The present chief Gen Deepak Kapoor partially differed with his immediate junior. Now, as per Army practice, Lieut Gen VK Singh will be kept in the loop for all major decisions like appointments, promotions and transfers.

Meanwhile, a statement issued on behalf of the Army-Chief-designate, said “..I am grateful for this honour and the responsibility which our leaders have bestowed on me”. It quoted him as saying it will be his endeavor to lead the brave men while keeping up with the best tradition of the Indian Army and upholding the Indian Constitution.

New Delhi, January 22
The Supreme Court today indicated that it did not find any merit in the objection of ‘burqa’-clad Muslim women to the Election Commission’s photo voter identity cards.“If you are so religious then don’t vote,” a Bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma observed while hearing an appeal by one M Ajmal Khan from Tamil Nadu against the Madras High Court order.

The High Court had ruled on September 7, 2006 that wearing of ‘purdha’ did not form part of Islam and that the EC’s photo identity cards scheme did not violate religious rights guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution.

The CJI also asked the petitioner what he would do if a Muslim woman had to contest the election as the contestants had their photographs printed on posters and displayed these all over the constituency.

Chandigarh, January 22
Eight top hotels having prime land New Delhi owe the government Rs 516 crore on account of recoverable dues and outstanding ground rent.

Revealing this, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report of 2009-10 has cited formal lease deals not being executed, ground rents not being revised or continuation of age-old ad hoc formulas for enhancement of rent that had no relationship with current market values of these properties as the reason.

The CAG report stated that according to the Ministry of Urban Development, the sites of some of the said hotels had originally been allotted to the New Delhi Municipal Corporation, which sub-leased these without permission of the Land and Development Office (LDO)

The LDO is part of the ministry and is responsible for the administration of the properties of the Government of India in Delhi. The LDO had allotted land to 21 hotels in Delhi.

Pointing out that the documentation of leases records and maintenance of necessary records by the LDO was poor and incomplete, the CAG report said in the absence of details of total outstanding dues, audit scrutiny of specific categories of lessees - hotels, presses and petrol pumps - revealed total outstanding dues of Rs 968 crore. “Even this figure is incomplete as only partial details in respect of only a few lessees were furnished by the LDO,” CAG said.

According to the report, Bharat Hotel, earlier known as Hotel Inter-Continental and since renamed as Hotel Lalit, which occupies 6.5 acres of Barakhamba Avenue has outstanding dues of Rs 304 crore.

Hotel Samrat in Chanakya Puri owes Rs 100 crore. The dues of Le Meridien in Connaught Place have been pegged at Rs 61 crore and that of Taj Man Singh at 30 crore. Ashoka Hotel in Chanakya Puri owes Rs 23 crore, while Claridges on Aurangzeb Road and aj Palace Hotel in Dhaual Kuan owe Rs 13 crore and Rs 3 crore, respectively, the report said.

The authorities concerned have issued demand notices for recovery. In some instances, the issue of outstanding dues is pending with the courts while in certain cases it is with the vigilance section of the LDO.

CAG has recommended review and replacement of the existing formula with a system that is closely aligned with current market letting values of land to generate reasonable revenue from LDO’s holdings in prime locations. AN effective oversight system in the ministry and restructuring and streamlining of the LDO’s functioning to ensure greater transparency and accountability has also been suggested.

Lucknow, January 22
Samajwadi party vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP Janeshwar Mishra (76) today died on his way from Allahabad to Lucknow where he was being taken for treatment. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Described as “Chote Lohia” (junior Lohia) among the socialists, he was a close associate of Ram Manohar Lohia.

Janeshwar had been ailing for some time. However, his ill health did not deter him from leading the SP ‘jan andolan’ against price rise and corruption in Allahabad in January 19.

In 1969 he entered the 4th Lok Sabha by defeating KD Malviya from Phulpur. He was the first non-Congress MP to win from Phulpur which was once represented by Jawaharlal Nehru.

In 1977 he once again entered the Lok Sabha by trouncing VP Singh by almost 90,000 votes from Allahabad parliamentary constituency. He served as minister of state in the ministries of Morarji Desai, Chandra Shekar , Dewe Gowda and I K Gujral.

Describing his death as a great loss to the party and socialist movement of the country, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav said that his death was a personal shock to him.

Lucknow, January 22
All government services, including hospitals and schools, remained paralysed today in Uttar Pradesh following an indefinite strike by government employees across the state.

Close to 16 lakh state employees and teachers associated with the UP Karmachari-Shishak Mahasangh have called for an indefinite strike to retaliate against the lathi-charge on government staffers in Lucknow yesterday.

Adding fuel to the raging fire, Lucknow DM Ashok Ghosh reportedly slapped an employee leader at the Directorate of Agriculture here this morning. Ghosh was touring government offices in the state capital to ensure that employees were not prevented from attending work by their leaders.

The incident took place at Krishi Bhawan when the employee leader did not recognise the district magistrate and reportedly asked him to show his ID. The DM lost his temper and slapped the employee. 

Despite TV channels repeatedly showing the incident since morning, ADG (Law and Order) Brijlal feigned ignorance about the incident. “We have no information of this incident and the context in which it may have occurred,” he told the media, while briefing them this evening.

Large contingents of the police were deployed at all the government installations to prevent any untoward situation in view of the strike called by the joint forum of employees’ unions.

Around a dozen office-bearers of the unions have been taken into custody after yesterday's agitation.

The state government has given an ultimatum to the striking employees and threatened to invoke Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against them if they continue their strike. 

Maya govt’s act barbaric: Cong Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi has demanded a probe by a sitting High Court judge into the ‘barbaric repression’ of state government employees in Lucknow yesterday.

Bahuguna today demanded the suspension of the Lucknow DM for slapping an employee and the DIG ‘responsible for violence’ against the government staffers, who were agitating in favour of their demands. She also demanded registration of criminal cases against the Lucknow DM and the DIG. 

Addressing a press conference here, the UP Congress chief alleged that the repression of employees is yet another example of the ruling party’s misgovernance. 

“If the Mayawati government does not invite the agitating employees for talks within 48 hours then the Congress would hold a symbolic protest march on January 24 to express solidarity with the government employees,” said Bahuguna.

She claimed that during the Congress rule (1975-85) in the state it had been decided in principle that there would be no separate state pay commission. The recommendation of every Central pay panel has been adopted till now. The state government employees are justified in demanding the recommendations of the 6th pay commission,” she said.

She said that in recent weeks the Mayawati government has been busy oppressing various sections of agitating government employees.

Guwahati, January 22
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has found an issue to pin down the ruling Congress in Assam over the failure of the UPA government to raise the issue of “unabated illegal migration” from Bangladesh to Assam with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her recent visit to New Delhi.

The BJP today demanded that government of India should not waste more time in persuading Bangladesh to sign an agreement for deportation of illegal migrants from Assam and other parts of the country.

The newly-appointed chief of Assam BJP, Ranjit Dutta, today said: “The BJP hails Sheikh Hasina’s promise not to allow the soil of Bangladesh for anti-India activities, but it was unfortunate that PM Manmohan Singh did not raise the issue of illegal migration from Bangladesh to Assam and other parts of the country.”

The BJP today vowed to make illegal migration from Bangladesh an issue against the ruling Congress in the next round of Assembly. election in Assam.

Jaipur, January 22
Noted actor Om Puri today lambasted the publishers of his biography, penned by his wife Nandita Puri, for “selective leakage of sections about his past sexual encounters and relationships”.

Interacting with a jam-packed session of audience on the second day of Jaipur Literature Festival, Puri said: “I was not upset about the book. But I was upset with the way it was presented by the publishers.”

Asked whether it was a publicity gimmick, he said: “Yes it was a publicity gimmick, not by Nandita, but by the publishers. They thought it would sell more after the leak. It would have sold as much even otherwise. It was a mistake on their part and it was not tasteful. It didn’t send right signals to the readers.”

Puri said the selective leakage of sections of his biography created a furore in the media due to which all other aspects of his life recounted in the biography were forgotten. The book, “The Unlikely Hero: Om Puri”, tells about his unlikely rise to fame from an extremely deprived childhood to one of the most talented actors of Hindi cinema, who also made a mark in global cinema with his performances in films like “East is East” and “My Son the Fanatic”.

Expressing shock at the selective leak of her husband’s biography, Nandita said: “I understand Om being upset. It was no way to introduce his biography.” She said the row also left a deep impact on her family. “It did affect my sanity, and my child was hurt,” she said, adding she had no regrets about the material she chose to include in the book. “It was very difficult as a wife to write about it, but a biography should be about a person in their totality, and that means the good and the bad.”

Talking about his cinematic journey, Om Puri dubbed 80s and 90s as the golden period of his career when he worked with directors like Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, and Ketan Mehta. On his foray into commercial cinema, he said it was purely for monetary reasons. “While art cinema gave me credibility and status as an actor, commercial cinema gave me money to live a decent life,” he averred.

Interestingly, he admitted that good roles were not coming his way as he had now got competition from megastar Amitabh Bachchan. “I pray to God that Amitabh gets so many roles that he had to turn down a few of them and tell the filmmakers to sign me instead,” he said in a lighter vain.

On his preferences in the crossover cinema, Puri said he preferred British cinema to Hollywood as the subjects of the former were rooted in society while a Hollywood film may not necessarily have a message. About his future projects, he said his film “Road to Sangam” will soon hit the theatres, adding he was also willing to make a comeback to the theatre.

Mumbai, January 22
An FIR has been registered against the principal and and a clerk of Swami Vivekananda School here on charges of abetment to suicide. Khalid Sheikh, a Class VIII student of the suburban Chembur school, had on Wednesday allegedly committed suicide following his suspension from the school for a week by principal Anita Nair.

ACP Jalinder Khandagale said, "The FIR has been registered. A further probe is on and we will arrest the duo after it is over.” The action was taken after the boy allegedly beat up his classmate causing him injuries, the police said. Khalid's uncle Abdulla Sheikh was called to the school and told not to send his nephew for a week as he has been suspended for "misbehaviour". Subsequently, his uncle lodged a complaint against the principal and the clerk. — PTI 

Puri, January 22
An elderly man died after taking a holy dip at Chandrabhaga near the Sun Temple of Konark about 30 km from this temple town.

The 65-year-old died about 15 minutes after taking the holy dip when he was sitting near the water body in wet clothes, Puri SP Sanjay Kumar said, denying any stampede at the site.

A preliminary medical report suggested that severe cold and cramps might have caused a heart attack resulting in the pilgrm’s death. Over two lakh devotees had congregated at Chandrabhaga as mythology suggests that Shamba, son of Lord Krishna, had been cured of leprosy after a holy dip in the water body on this day. — PTI

Hyderabad, January 22
Fake stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi and five others were today sentenced to four-years rigorous imprisonment by a special CBI court here after they pleaded guilty in the case.Judge V Raghunath Rao pronounced the terms for Telgi, P Abdul Waheed, Thomas Jacob, Badruddin K Jamadar, B Sadasiva and K Mohd Yousuf after they pleaded guilty on charges under section of 120-B of the IPC pertaining to criminal conspiracy and under sections 258 (Sale and circulation of fake stamps), 260 (possession of fake stamps) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC, with fine of Rs 500 each.The judge, however, dropped charges under IPC section 255 dealing with counterfeiting (printing) of government stamp papers against Telgi on the grounds of lack of material evidence. — PTI

Chennai, January 22
Even while the lawyers boycotted court proceedings today condemning the CBI charge sheet in the case relating to the police assault on lawyers inside the Madras High Court premises on February 19, a metropolitan court here directed the CBI to investigate the case further and file a final charge sheet within a month.

The Magistrate Killivalavan, who heard the lawyers' contention that the names of four IPS officers had not been included in the charge sheet, even while there were several evidences against them, directed the lawyers’ associations to submit the evidences to the CBI.

The advocates' associations have filed petitions before the metropolitan court praying for the return of the charge sheets filed by the CBI, saying that they were clumsy and lacking in critical details. They said there were several discrepancies, loopholes, deliberate omission and misinterpretation of law by the CBI.

They also prayed for a direction to the CBI to file a charge sheet "according to law, without any discrepancies, loopholes or deliberate omissions of the accused".

Those who filed petitions against the CBI charge sheets include M Basker, secretary of Tamil Nadu Advocates Association, M Velmurugan, secretary of Madras High Court Advocates Association, and V Nalini, secretary of Women Lawyers Association. The lawyers said the charge sheets had been filed without including several police officers and constables as accused.

Notable omissions according to the lawyers were K Radhakrishnan, former Chennai Police Commissioner, AK Viswanathan, Additional Commissioner, M.Ramasubramani, Joint Commissioner, and Premanand Sinha, Deputy Commissioner of Police.

The CBI's contention that their names could not be added since there was a case pending against them in the Supreme court was not correct, the lawyers, in their petition, said and added that the Supreme Court had only stayed the recommendation regarding departmental action and suspension proceedings.

The CBI either had not understood the actual position of law or deliberately omitted a few police officers with the obvious intention of helping them since they were higher police officials belonging to the Indian Police Service, the petitioners said.

Describing the charge sheets as "biased and one-sided" against a few policemen who made a lathicharge on the orders of the four senior police officers. There were several other documents, photographs and video clippings to implicate other officers and policemen, the lawyers said.

Chennai, January 22
Former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and his father and PMK leader S Ramadoss will have to face a murder case against them as the Madras High Court has set aside the orders of a lower court taking cognisance of the final report filed by police, excluding their names.

Allowing a revision petition from former AIADMK minister and sitting MLA CV Shanmugham, Justice S Nagamuthu set aside the orders of the Judicial Magistrate in Tindivanam in the murder case of the AIADMK cadre Muruganandam.

The judge directed the magistrate to issue notices to Ramadoss and Anbumani and include their names in the final report, while quashing the orders dated August 28, 2009, of the Fast Track Court-I in Tindivanam, refusing to order further investigation in the matter.

Shanmugam, in his revision petition, had alleged that a 15-member gang, headed by Preethiban, Srinivasan, NM Karunanidhi, all close relatives of Ramadoss, party cadre Raghu and others attempted to attack him in his house with deadly weapons due to political rivalry on May 8, 2006. When Muruganandham tried to prevent them, they attacked him, killing him on the spot.

Shanmugham lodged a complaint with the police, who registered a case against Ramadoss, Anbumani and other accused numbering more than 15. The police had filed a charge sheet implicating only the coolies, without holding a proper investigation.

When the petitioner came to know that the names of the prime accused had been omitted, he filed a petition for further investigation. The Additional District and Sessions Judge, FTC-I in Tindivanam, had dismissed it, leading to the present revision petition.

The relationship between the AIADMK and the PMK was severed after the Lok Sabha elections, since the former refused to withdraw the case against the PMK chief and his son. 

Bangalore, January 22
To attract foreign investment in the field of electronic warfare system, an international conference would be held in Bangalore next month. The Electronic Warfare India Conference (EWIC) could also see the Indian defence forces zeroing in on some foreign equipment for purchase.

At least 50 exhibitors and 500 experts in the field would assemble in the city for the conference, being organised under the theme “Partnering for success”. The three-day event, which is slated to take off on February 9, would be the first international conference on electronic warfare to take place in the country. The EWIC would showcase the full spectrum of modern electronic warfare from the collection of intelligence in peacetime to electronics’ attacks in war (communication jamming, integrated air defence system suppression, laser attack and expendable decoys), and protection of land, sea and air platforms to counter threats from terrorists and external aggressors.

Till date, India’s achievement in the field of electronic warfare is the development of the “Samyukta” electronic warfare (EW) system for the Army. Mounted on mobile platforms, the EW system can intercept, detect, search, identify and locate communication and radar signals in an area measuring roughly 100 square km. A naval version, christened “Sangraha”, which includes five EW systems with different capabilities for installation on ships and submarines, has also been developed. The state-run the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully met the challenge of developing these two systems after international sanctions, imposed on India following the Pokhran 2 blasts, cut off the possibility of importing advanced technology to India.

There was also resistance in the country’s defence establishment against roping in foreign suppliers as fear prevailed that the operational capability of a system might be leaked to the enemy at the time of a conflict. This mindset has evidently changed. Exhibitors assembling at Bangalore for the conference are hoping to generate some business from their participation in the event. “The India Electronic Warfare market is vibrant, growing and developing at a rapid pace. Indian offset requirements add to the importance of this field for companies wishing to invest in India,” a spokesman of the Shephard Group, UK, a foreign partner of the event, has been quoted to have said.

The Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), a DRDO outfit, is one of the key organisers of the conference that is also actively supported by the Joint Electronic Warfare Board, the apex forum overseeing EW preparations of all three branches of the Indian defence forces. The Defence Electronics Research Laboratory of Hyderabad and the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) are also among the organisers of the conference. The foreign partners of the event include the Association of Old Crows (AOC), a non-profit international professional organisation specialising in electronic warfare, which is headquartered in the US.

Foreign collaboration in the field was initiated earlier when the Bharat Electronics Limited signed a MoU with Italian firm Selex Galileo and Astra Microwave Products of Hyderabad to initiate business in the area of electronic warfare. DARE and the Elisra Group of Bene Beraq, Israel, are reportedly working to develop advanced electronic warfare systems for fighter aircrafts.