New Delhi, January 30
Ahead of German President Horst Koehler’s state visit to India from February 1, Berlin is peeved that none of the four pacts it had been discussing with New Delhi for a while, including one on security and counter-terror cooperation, will come through during the week-long trip due to “bureaucratic procedures”.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, German Ambassador to India Thomas Matussek said the Indian side had sought the accord on security and counter-terrorism, which involved laying down a legal basis and framework for training of Indians by anti-terror specialists in Germany. “We have sent a draft to the home ministry… it is being looked at by the external affairs ministry,” Matussek said.

The envoy added that he had spoken to Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who had said he would push the pact, but the agreement was still not ready for signing.

An agreement on economic and technological cooperation involving 500 million dollars has apparently also met the same fate. “It’s currently with the MEA (external affairs ministry) for approval,” Matussek said.

Two other pacts expected to be signed included a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on social security and another on corporate responsibility. Asked whether his remarks were an indictment of Indian bureaucracy, Matussek tried to play it down, saying every country has its procedures and Berlin respected them.

The pact on counter-terrorism could be a big boost to India as Germany has proven expertise in anti-terror equipment and training. The issue was discussed when the German Interior Minister had visited India last year to express solidarity in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks.

Since then, Matussek said Germany had sold India some anti-terror equipment and helped in training. The envoy also underlined the need for both countries to share real-time intelligence to avert terror attacks with transnational links. The German Ambassador also expressed Berlin’s keenness to cooperate with India in the civil nuclear energy field with if New Delhi requested so.

“We have not got a specific request (from the Indian side.) If the request is made, we will look at it in a positive manner,” he said. “We are one of the leaders in nuclear safety. We can share our expertise in this area. But nothing has been requested so far,” Matussek said.

The envoy indicated that Berlin’s desire to cooperate with New Delhi in the area of civil nuclear cooperation was part of a broader diplomatic thrust to deepen its strategic partnership with India.

New Delhi, January 30
The United States has issued a travel alert to American citizens on current security concerns in India while Britain announced its decision to temporarily suspend accepting new visa applications for students from North India from February 1.

In its fresh travel alert, the US State Department said the American administration continued to receive information that terrorist groups might be planning attacks in India. Terrorists and their sympathisers have demonstrated their willingness and capability to attack targets where US citizens or Westerners were known to congregate or visit, it added.

New Delhi, January 30
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to raise five India Reserve Battalions for Punjab.

This, the Punjab CM said, would effectively tackle cross-border terrorism and help maintain law and order in the state. He pointed out that the cost of raising an IRB unit worked out to be about Rs 20 crore and the annual recurring expenditure of the battalion would be about Rs 26 crore.

Badal also requested the Home Ministry to bear the costs.

Chief Minister's Media Adviser Harcharan Bains said Badal also asked the Union Home Minister to grant Rs 21.78 crore for the mega city policing project in Ludhiana.

The Chief Minister also raised the issue of upgrading visitors' facilities at Hussainiwala in Ferozepur district and demanded Rs 10 crore to provide civic amenities for the thousands of spectators who witness the retreat ceremony.

Parkash Singh Badal also urged the Home Minister to issue a no-objection certificate for a proposed memorandum of understanding between Punjab and Canada’s British Columbia province for skill development and education.

New Delhi, January 30
India today submitted its proposed emission intensity cut targets by 20-25 per cent by 2020 to the UN, a day before the world body’s January 31 deadline for submitting the climate change mitigation steps under the Copenhagen Accord.

However, it made it clear to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that its all domestic mitigation actions were entirely voluntary in nature and not legally binding, a position it had maintained at last month’s Copenhagen Summit in Denmark.

“India will endeavour to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 20-25 per cent by 2020 in comparison to the 2005 level through domestic mitigation actions,” said a statement from the Environment Ministry here.

India also made it clear that “while these actions will be in the nature of its contribution to the global efforts to address climate change...it will be entirely voluntary in nature and will not have a legally binding character”. The announcement came a day after the US and European Union (EU) committed to the UN to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Though agriculture sector contributes around 14 per cent of the total GHG emissions, India has kept it out of the purview of the mitigations actions in its blueprint submitted to the UN to ensure food security and not compromise with the needs of teeming population. — PTI

Lucknow, January 30
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi today warned that Congress would launch a public agitation if the culprits behind the five murders that rocked Lucknow yesterday were not put behind bars within 48 hours.In a letter to the DGP Karamvir Singh, Bahuguna voiced concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state capital.

She pointed out that five persons, including four women, were murdered in Lucknow in two separate incidents in one day. An attempt to murder and molestation of a Dalit woman in neighboring Sitapur district also took place on Friday, she added. “If no concrete step is taken within 48 hours to arrest the culprits, the Congress would be forced to launch a massive stir,” she warned.

Unidentified persons killed three members of a family --- a retired couple and their granddaughter in Thakurganj area of old Lucknow. In another incident in the posh Gomti Nagar locality, a mother and a daughter were murdered.

Amar warms up to BSP, Congress

New Delhi, January 30
Rebel SP leader Amar Singh today fired fresh salvos at his party detractors while apparently warming up to BSP supremo Mayawati and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Singh said the BSP supremo has proved herself against all odds and he can understand her "pain" when she was "humiliated" by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Breaking his silence since Singh quit key party posts, the SP chief said nobody was indispensable.

"Kya Nehru nahin hain toh Congress nahin hai, kya main nahin rahoonga to SP nahin rahegi, SP barkarar rahegi (hasn't Congress survived without Nehru, wouldn't SP be alive without me, it would)," he told reporters in Hardoi.

Amar Singh, who has been taking potshots at his critics demanding his resignation from Rajya Sabha, said at a public meeting in Ghazipur that he would do so if Yadav returned him his kidneys he had sacrificed in the service of the party.

"To those who have been demanding my resignation from the Rajya Sabha, I have to say that if Mulayam Singh Yadav returns my kidneys I would resign," he said.

On Mayawati, he said in a television interview, "Now I can sense her pain of the guest house episode." He was recalling the incident in which Samajwadi Party workers had surrounded the Uttar Pradesh State Guest House in Lucknow in 1995 and roughed her up after BSP had withdrawn support to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

Stating that he was not without alternatives, Singh also heaped praise on Gandhi. He told CNN-IBN that both Mayawati and Gandhi have “proved themselves against all odds.” “Both of them are political personalities in their own right. One lady has proved herself in the state of UP against all odds and the other has proved herself in the country against all odds,” he said.

However, Congress took a jibe at Singh’s remark that he can understand Mayawati’s “pain” saying it took him so long to understand it. AICC general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh, at the same time, made it clear that if Singh wants to join Congress, the initiative should come from him.

On whether Amar Singh is warming up to BSP because Congress is not welcoming him, the AICC leader said, “There is no question of welcoming or not welcoming Amar Singh ji. There is a process for it in the party.”

Reacting to Singh’s statement, SP spokesman and general secretary Mohan Singh said he is praising Mayawati and Gandhi because he has run out of options. — PTI

Jaipur, January 30
Activists of the Rajput Karni Sena today staged a violent protest against Salman Khan-starrer Veer, saying the movie hurt the sentiments of the community and showed them in bad light.

Angry protesters ransacked Triton Mall in Jhotwara area of the city in the presence of police personnel, who remained mute spectators. Subsequently, the protesters headed to INOX theatre at Vaishali Nagar where, too, they staged a demonstration.

Claiming that in the final few scenes of the movie the Pindaris make comments that were detrimental to the community, Sena leader Ajit Singh said they would also sue the makers of the film. He said they handed over a memorandum to the district collector yesterday, urging him to stop the screening of the film. “We staged the protest as the administration didn’t act on our demand,” he added.

Later, the police arrested about a dozen activists of the Sena for their alleged involvement in the violent protest. However, what has come as a surprise is the timing of the protest as the movie was released nine days ago. Many believe it was nothing but a game of one-upmanship as the Karni Sena had split into two factions sometime back and all this was an attempt by one faction to show that they were the ones who “bothered about Rajputs’ interests”.

New Delhi, January 30
BJP is red-faced and embarrassed over an attempt by an apparent insider to peak into the personal bank account of its office secretary Shyam Jaju.

A person named Chandan Jha is reported to have gone to Andhra Bhawan branch of Andhra Bank where Shyam Jaju maintains an account and tried to get details of Jaju’s account. The bank, smelling some foul play, informed Jaju over phone who reportedly sent some men and brought this man to the party office.

He was later handed over to the police ostensibly for posing as Shyam Jaju. But he was later released by the police, which claimed that he could not be charged because he seems to have committed no offence. In fact, initially the police denied it had detained any person in this connection.

Jha was reported to be taking training in journalism with Sadhana TV a spiritual TV channel in which Sadhvi Ritambra seems to have some financial interests. He was also reported to be staying at 11A, Ashoka Road, next door to the BJP office where Shyam Jaju also resides.

According to sources Jha was brought and questioned by the BJP officials in the Investors’ Cell. The convener of the party’s investors’ cell is a gentleman named Dinesh Gupta, who also has some financial interests in Sadhana TV.

Formally, the BJP is tight-lipped about the whole episode. Jaju avoided the subject when asked saying, “Oh there is nothing. This was my personal account. The party had nothing to do with it.” Before the regular media briefing started on Friday, he was overheard instructing a BJP media manager not to talk about this.

But this episode has suddenly opened the closed issue of the theft of Rs 2.6 crore from a locker in the party office way back in November-December, 2008 soon after the Delhi Assembly elections.

Sources in the BJP said “That time also some people had raised some questions and suggested investigating Jaju’s personal account which some alleged had an amount of Rs four crore in it. But the party decided not to pursue that matter any further.

BJP treasurer Ramdas Agrawal had held a couple of meetings to, as he claimed, “Reconcile the accounts.” That time there were reports that some private detective agency was also discreetly hired to get to the bottom of the missing Rs 2.6 crore. But soon enough the matter was buried.

Now that some insider tried probing Jaju’s account people were left wondering whether persons and organisations like Sadhana TV who are regular donors to the party fund, are keen to find out where all the money went.

Hyderabad, January 30
The competitive resignation drama by supporters as well as opponents of the proposed separate Telangana state reached a predictable climax today with Andhra Pradesh Speaker N Kirankumar Reddy rejecting the resignation letters of the legislators.

After consulting legal and constitutional experts, the Speaker decided not to accept the resignations, as they were found to be in violation of the Assembly rules.

While MLAs from Telangana, cutting across political spectrum, had quit their posts pressing for formation of separate state, the members from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions had dashed off resignation letters in support of the cause of integrated state.

“Out of the 130 resignation letters that are with me now, I have rejected 129. Only one resignation letter is in order and I will discuss the matter with the concerned member individually,” the Speaker told reporters. However, he refused to disclose the identity of the member.

The UPA government’s flip-flop on Telangana issue had triggered a series of resignations from MLAs, who are vertically divided on regional lines.

The legislators from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra had submitted their resignations soon after the December 9 statement by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram announcing the initiation process for carving out Telangana state.

Later, it was the turn of Telangana legislators to do the same in the wake of another statement by the Centre on December 23, stressing the need for “wide-ranging consultations” on the statehood issue, a position viewed by Telangana protagonists as a U-turn.

Since then, pressure has been mounting on the Centre to break the impasse over the issue. The January 5 all-party meeting convened by Chidambaram failed to arrive at a consensus as representatives of various parties stuck to their respective regional interests.

The recent announcement by the Centre that a committee would be constituted next week to examine Telangana issue has succeeded in placating Telangana leaders within the ruling Congress and prevented them from pressing for an acceptance of their resignations.

However, it has failed to impress the members of an all-party Joint Action Committee (JAC), particularly the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which is spearheading the statehood movement.

Following a request from the Congress, the JAC has extended the deadline for the Centre to announce a specific time-frame for bifurcating the state to February 7.

In the 294-member Assembly, as many as 222 legislators belonging to various parties had resigned in tune with the public sentiments in their respective regions. Subsequently, 92 members withdrew their resignations, the Speaker said.

“No one has a right to force fresh elections upon the people. It will cost over Rs 100 crore for the exchequer,” the Speaker remarked.

Chennai, January 30
Oscar award winner AR Rahman will compose the music for World Classical Tamil meet’s theme song written by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

Rahman met the Chief Minister and held elaborate discussions about the music and tune that will be appropriate for the song, which highlights some of the values revered by Tamils through the ages, hails ancient Tamil literary works and greets the classical language.

Popular vocalist Bombay Jayashree is likely to sing the song which begins with a verse of Tirukkural (the most revered Tamil composition that deals with moral values, politics and love) that stresses on equality. — TNS

New Delhi, January 30
India's leprosy elimination targets look grim. If performance indicators under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) are anything to go by, the Eleventh Year Plan target of eliminating leprosy and reducing its prevalence rate to less than one per 10,000 remains to be achieved.

Anti-Leprosy Day, January 31, marks the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Among states with leprosy prevalence rate of more than one per 10,000 are seemingly empowered ones like Chandigarh and Delhi, which are bracketed in this category with Bihar and Jharkhand. Most recent audit findings of the National Leprosy Elimination Programme (NLEP) under the NRHM further confirm Orissa's position as the most leprosy-vulnerable state with a prevalence rate of over one per 10,000 in 16 of its 30 districts and 94 of its 314 blocks.

Dissection of National Rural Health Mission performance targets shows that total cases of leprosy as well as new cases remains high, especially in the study period that stretched from 2005 to 2008 to get a broad idea of how healthcare goals were doing. Between 2007 and 2008, new leprosy cases increased in Bihar, Chattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, finds the latest CAG report.

What's most worrisome is the dearth of medication at several surveyed centres. Medicines were not available in 29 community health centres and 82 primary health centres test checked by audit teams in Bihar, Haryana and Punjab. The Ministry of Health, for its part, says the country had achieved leprosy prevalence rate of less than one per 10,000 at the national level in 2005 - a goal earlier set by the National Health Policy, 2002. It also adds in a reply to the auditors' observations that as of March 31, 2009, of the 35 states and UTs, only Bihar, Chattisgarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli had a prevalence rate of more than one per 10,000.

Out of 630 districts, data shows that 510 have achieved elimination status. Among those still struggling, the concern of availability of multi-drug therapy remains. These include Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Manipur, where supply of medicine has been found wanting, warranting adequate supplies from the government. But the biggest drawback in the elimination programme is the inability of certain state governments to maintain a two-month buffer stock in all districts and all primary health centres.

For the emergence of new cases, the government has an answer. "Under National Leprosy Elimination Programme, more emphasis was given to detection of new cases and completion of their treatment. Increase in the number of new leprosy cases suggests that states are now making efforts to detect new cases at an early stage so that they don't have to suffer the consequences," the government replied to auditors' observations on the NLEP.

New Delhi, January 30
About four weeks after the major grid failure on January 2 which crippled North India, pollution emanating from industrial units and lack of installation of critical equipment on the high-tension lines have been identified as the causes by engineers who have reviewed the matter.

The failure of the northern power grid at 3 am on January 2 had left hundreds of trains stranded mid-way; it had led to tripping of all major thermal and hydro power stations in the region; and stopped work in manufacturing units leading to losses for the industry.

Such was the impact of pollution that even those lines which had anti-fog polymer insulators broke down on January 2, the review committee has been informed. All these lines where the anti-fog equipment failed were close to heavy polluting industries.

While Haryana disclosed that one of the anti-fog insulators on the Daulatabad-Luna Majra 220 kv line got punctured, three such insulators failed near Dhandari Kalan, Ludhiana, Punjab officials have said in the review committee. Separately, three more such insulators failed on the Bhakra Beas Management Board line near a dyeing unit near Ludhiana. Notably, the power grid, has mentioned that none of the new anti-fog insulators on its lines collapsed.

The Northern Regional Power Committee (NRPC) has now asked all states to review their pollution zones to find out where additional precaution is needed. The pollution-causing installations near transmission lines need to be removed, says the NRPC. Haryana, Punjab and UP have been asked to have only polymer anti-fog insulators through pollution prone areas.

Another cause attributed to the grid failure is the presence of porcelain insulators instead of anti-fog polymer insulators. It has been found that cleaning of the existing insulators was running behind schedule. Separately, sources said the power ministry has taken a serious view of the lackadaisical attitude of the states in installing under-voltage load shedding relays. This equipment shuts off a high-tension line in case the voltage drops below a certain specified level.

The Railways has been advised to make arrangements for additional supply points at Panipat and other important locations to keep the trains running in case of an emergency. The Railways has also been asked to replace all porcelain insulators of 132 kv and 220 kv lines with polymer insulators.

Kolkata, January 30
The Trinamool Congress and Congress have demanded immediate Assembly elections in West Bengal on the plea that the ruling Left government had lost the people’s mandate.

Leaders of both parties separately met newly-appointed West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan and alleged that a reign of terror had been unleashed in most districts by the CPM while the police looked the other way. They said after the CPM’s defeats in the Lok Sabha and other elections, it had launched a massive “area capturing drive” by driving out TC and Congress workers and supporters from the localities.

The CPM, which began a three-day special meeting of the state committee at its Alimuddin Street office yesterday, rejected the demand for advancing the Assembly polls. Party secretary Biman Bose said the election would be held as schedule, some time in May-June 2011. He counter-alleged that the TC and the Congress were trying to create law and order problems in order to advance the poll. He said TC activists and Maoists were now jointly operating in several areas in south Bengal districts and attacking and killing CPM cadres and supporters.

Railway minister and TC supremo Mamata Banerjee said the party was not demanding application of Article 356, but a fresh elections in the state since the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government had lost the people’s support. She alleged that during the past 32 years of Left rule, cadres had kept busy amassing enormous wealth and assets by misusing official machinery.

Kolkata, January 30
West Bengal Chief Secretary AM Chakraborty today said the state government had, following an alert about threat from Maoists, beefed up the security of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and some other politicians.

Chakraborty said the government was giving topmost priority to Maoist menace, which had assumed a serious magnitude. He said additional six battalions of central paramilitary forces would soon be deployed in the three Maoist-infested Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore districts. Also, the finance department had sanctioned Rs 27 crore for setting up a special task force in the state, he said.

Talking to mediapersons at Barrackpore Gandhi Ghat, where he accompanied Governor MK Narayanan for a function on Mahatama Gandhi’s death anniversary, Chakraborty said the state was taking the Centre’s alert seriously and accordingly, necessary security arrangements had been made.

Notably, Bhattacharjee was targeted by Maoists last year as well near Salboni in West Midnapore.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram would be meeting the chief ministers of four Maoist-infested states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal on February 6 here to discuss the Naxal menace and a strategy to tackle it.