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Jagan gets a warning from Jaipal
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ULFA top gun granted bail
NATO for better ties with India
I-T dept faces acute staff crunch in northwest region
HRD Ministry to set up panel to probe IIT-Kharagpur scam
LOAN SCAM
Sarkozys to keep date with Taj
ISRO satellite to ensure Net link in remote Europe
DGCA suspends licences of 3
pilots for falsifying records
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Jagan gets a warning from Jaipal
taming the rebel Action not soon Will meet Sonia Jaganmohan will meet party president Sonia Gandhi and express his regret over his television channel's attacks on her, Rahul and the party, his uncle claimed on Saturday. Reports quoted YS Vivekananda Reddy as saying that he would also accompany his nephew when he meets Sonia. He however did not not say when the meeting will take place.
New Delhi, November 27 Newly appointed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, meanwhile, met party president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders to discuss with them the Cabinet formation and state’ affairs, including the open rebellion by Jaganmohan The Congress is angry with Jagan after his channel Sakshi targeted top leadership of the party, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and the Prime Minister. Terming Jagan’s actions as “very undesirable”, senior party leader and union minister Jaipal Reddy today said Sakshi was being “misused” to weaken the party. “Everybody knows that the channel is owned by him (Jagan) and the channel is run for his own politics apparently. The channel is being misused to weaken the party. It is very undesirable,” he said. Maintaining that Jagan was “violating party discipline”, Jaipal Reddy said the party High Command was looking into this matter and would take action in due course of time. He said while Jagan’s late father Y S Rajashekhar Reddy was a “tremendously loyal Congressman”, the son, “otherwise dynamic, seems to be confused“. There is speculation that Jagan’s supporters will be wooed with ministerial berths to drive a wedge in his camp. The main agenda of Kiran Reddy, who discussed with the High Command situation in tension-ridden Telangana region and growing trouble in the state party unit in wake of group activities by Jagan, also finalised with it probable candidates for ministerial berths. YSR’s brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy is camping in the Capital in search of a cabinet berth. Sources said he may be accommodated to send across the message that party was concerned about YSR’s family. The Cabinet is likely to be constituted on Sunday, a day before the Winter Session of Andhra Pradesh Assembly begins. Sources say while it will not be an all together new Cabinet as Kiran Reddy is likely to retain most of the ministers from former chief minister K Rosaiah’s Cabinet, he will make some changes. P Subashchandra Bose, social welfare minister, and B Sriniwas Reddy, mines minister, may be eased out. The post of the deputy CM will go to a leader from Telengana and for that Geetha Reddy is the front runner. Open rebellion by Jagan has become a major headache for the party. While YSR’s son is almost daring the party to take some action against him, the party would not like to make him a "martyr" by taking action against him as this is what he wants. Party leaders believe Jagan wants to float a regional party and wants Congress to throw him out so that he becomes a “martyr”. Sources say he may even be issued a show cause notice for persistently “anti-party”
behaviour.
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Chiranjeevi set to join Congress
Hyderabad, November 27 Soon after the change of guard in the state, Chiranjeevi and his brother-in-law and PRP general secretary Allu Aravind called on the new Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and were understood to have discussed about contours of the new partnership. According to Congress sources, the PRP has sought five cabinet berths and, in return, assured the party’s support to the Congress in future. However, the PRP representatives may not be inducted into the cabinet in the first batch but may have to wait for some more time. According to official sources, the new cabinet would take oath tomorrow or on Wednesday. The Chief Minister met party President Sonia Gandhi and other Central leaders in New Delhi today and obtained green signal for his list of ministers. The Congress has been wooing Chiranjeevi for some time now as part of a larger game-plan to checkmate its rebel MP and CM-aspirant YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The popular actor had even met Sonia Gandhi in the past and pledged support for the ruling party. The PRP has 16 MLAs in the 294-member Assembly. These numbers will become crucial for survival of the government in the event of a split in the 156-member Congress and Jagan walking out of the party along with his supporters. The ruling party leaders perceive twin advantages in forging an alliance with the film star who has considerable following in coastal Andhra, particularly among the powerful “Kapu” community. First, Chiranjeevi can bring in the much-needed glamour to the party in the wake of a vacuum created by YSR’s death. Second, the move can help neutralise Jagan.
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ULFA top gun granted bail
Guwahati, November 27 Immediately after his release from the jail, the ULFA leader pledged to work for beginning of a meaningful peace process with the government. He, however, said for that to happen all other senior central committee leaders of the outfit would have to be released from jail so that they could hold the outfit’s central committee meeting in a free atmosphere to take a decision on holding dialogue with the government. Out of jail, he left the jail for his ancestral home at Soria village in Nalbari district. Two major cases against the ULFA leader were related to assassination of an IPS officer who was serving in the rank of SP in Tinsukia district and attempt on the life of then Assam Revenue Minister Dr Bhumidhar Barman in 1995. The bail of the ULFA leader who was arrested in Bangladesh along with the outfit’s chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa in Bangladesh and handed over to the Assam police December last year, was facilitated by the government after it had decided not to contest his bail pleas in order to send a positive signals to the outfit about the government’s sincerity for holding dialogue. The ULFA has been maintaining that all its central executive leaders must be released from the jail to allow the outfit to decide on holding talks with the government. Some of other important ULFA leaders who had been granted bail by the court so far included: ‘vice-chairman’ Pradip Gogoi, central publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary, cultural secretary Pranati Deka, ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain. ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika, foreign secretary Sashadhar Choudhury are still lodged in the Guwahati jail.
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NATO for better ties with India
Why this enhanced
interest?
New Delhi, November 27 Senior NATO officials are believed to have held a few meetings with Indian Ambassador to Belgium Jaimini Bhagwati as part of the overtures being made by the 28-member alliance towards New Delhi. Contacts at lower levels with the Indian authorities have also been established by NATO in recent months, diplomatic sources here said. India has also viewed positively the outcome of the recent NATO Summit at Lisbon at which the grouping gave ample signs of transforming itself into playing a global-political military role. At the Lisbon summit, NATO leaders also agreed to launch a transition process by which Afghan security forces will increasingly take the lead for security operations across the country, starting early 2011 and to be completed by 2014. Shortly after the Lisbon meet, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also called for a dialogue with India to strengthen relations between the two sides. “I see several reasons for an increased strengthened relationship between India and NATO,” he was quoted as saying in the European media. Rasmussen is a former Danish Prime Minister and has met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on several occasions to discuss security issues. The sources gave three major reasons for NATO seeking to build relationship with India. First, NATO members are seeing India as an emerging power, a fast growing economy which will increasingly depend on free access to trade routes, sea lanes and communication network. They believe that India and NATO members share a global security interest and can cooperate in counter piracy and cyber security. Secondly, the sources said, India and most NATO member states share basic values, having been founded basically on the same principles. The third reason being advanced by NATO is India’s crucial role in the region. The NATO members feel India can contribute in a valuable way to development in Afghanistan and obviously it would also contribute to more stability in the region. |
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Malnutrition a curse: PM seeks action soon
New Delhi, November 27 At the meeting of National Nutrition Council, the PM described malnutrition as a “curse” admitting that the rates of reduction in under nutrition had been disappointingly low despite impressive economic growth and programmes to meet nutritional challenge. “The levels of under-nutrition continue to remain high. This is unacceptable,” the PM said in his opening remarks, directing the Plan panel and the Ministry of Women and Child Development to work on a multi-sectoral programme to address the maternal and child malnutrition in 200 high-burden districts; the programme would address the issue of access, availability and absorption of food. Another observation the PM made was the need to strengthen the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) that has failed to focus on children aged 0-2 years. Renewed focus on this category has been sought, with the Prime Minister admitting that under-nutrition began in the womb of the mother and the number of child births with low birth weight and the high level of anaemia among children pointed to this. In the opening remarks, mention was also made of the ICDS lacking. “I am told that though the ICDS has a mandate of addressing children in the age group of 0-6 years and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, the focus on mothers and children under 3 years is weak. There is, therefore, a need to take a hard look at the ICDS to improve the programme,” the PM observed, asking for the programme to be revised. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia suggested at the meeting the possibility of direct cash transfer to the family or panchayat to ensure the money is used to tackle malnutrition. The meeting agreed that the problem was both a consequence and a cause of poverty. So much so, the PM added: “We can’t face the challenge of malnutrition unless we are able to increase the availability of food both quantitatively and qualitatively. High levels of malnutrition in India suggest that access to food alone does not guarantee freedom from under-nutrition. Education and status of women and sanitation also must be improved.”
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I-T dept faces acute staff crunch in northwest region
This manpower shortage would have obviously adversely affected revenue collection but surprisingly no senior officer is willing to accept this on record. “All is well. No problems at all,” is all officials say, even as official records show that almost 30 per cent posts of assistant commissioners and joint commissioners are lying vacant in the region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh. ‘Higher-ups’ in the I-T Department may have their reasons to downplay the staff crunch issue but middle-ranking blame this on the “indifferent” attitude of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). “Existing vacancies can be filled through direct recruitment and internal process but no one in the CBDT seems concerned,” says an officer adding that the crunch was causing a huge backlog, overburdening the staff and adversely affecting output. “At level B and C (ITOs, inspectors and tax assistants), the morale of employees is low due to stagnation,” says another officer, revealing that the department had not called a departmental promotional committee for two years. Further, officials and staff were taking premature retirement to either join the private sector or start their own consultancy, a senior I-T official said. All India Income tax Employees Federation (AIEF) vice-president and North West circle president Parikshit K Vasudeva said that there was an acute staff shortage in the region. The matter can only be resolved after setting up departmental promotional committee, he said. But despite the staff crunch, the division has recorded a 27 per cent increase in advanced tax collection in the first quarter as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.
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HRD Ministry to set up panel to probe IIT-Kharagpur scam
New Delhi, November 27 Amit Kumar Ghosh is charged with setting up the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) on IIT campus and using his official position to run a suspect college. A police inquiry into the case is on with Ghosh accusing several top officials of the IIT of involvement in the said college. The Tribune had in early November reported that subsequent directors of IIT Kharagpur relied on what they claimed was a “Presidential Secretariat letter” to run the said institute on their campus and award diplomas that had no legitimacy. The IEE was set up on IIT Kharagpur campus in 1987 and kept functioning under the patronage of IIT directors claiming legitimacy of courses on the basis of a letter dated January 28, 1987, written by the then private secretary to the President. The letter - which the HRD Ministry suspects is fudged - states: “The Associate Membership Examination of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (India) is recognised at par with Baccalaureate (Bachelor/Graduate) degree in Electrical Engineering of India and foreign universities aid is equivalent to the Associate membership Examination of the IEE (London) which is recognised by the Government of India for the purpose of recruitment to the superior posts and service under the Central Government.” A copy of the letter was submitted to the ministry by IIT director Damodar Acharya and the ministry had referred the same to the President House for verification. Meanwhile, the contentious question is why subsequent IIT directors didn’t get the said Presidential letter investigated by the police for its veracity.
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LOAN SCAM
Thrissur (Kerala), November 27 Asserting that those officials involved in the racket would not be allowed to escape, he said, "There is no cause for any anxiety for investors as not even a single paise would be lost by them due to an aberration of one or two officers in the organisation." "The LIC is very strong and stable. It is too big an institution and its smooth functioning will not be affected by aberrations of one or two officers of the organisation", Mukherjee said while inaugurating the 109th divisional office of the LIC here. The Minister said no guilty person would be allowed to escape from the process of law and stern action would be taken against them. Earlier this week, the CBI arrested top officials of the LIC and its affiliates as also other banks and financial institutions for granting corporate loans in lieu of grafts. Yesterday in New Delhi, the Finance Minister had asked lenders, which have exposure to the estimated over Rs 1,000-crore in dubious deals unearthed by CBI, to ensure their money is safe, while state-run insurer LIC termed it is a case of bribe not a scam.
— PTI
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Sarkozys to keep date with Taj
New Delhi, November 27 But a protocol problem came in the way. The former model had still not married Sarkozy and, therefore, she could not accompany him on his India trip as the First Lady. A disappointed Sarkozy did visit the monument of love but alone and wrote in the visitors’ book: “Unforgettable, see you soon again.” Carla will now accompany the French President on his four-day trip to India from December 4, during which a date with the Taj too is on the itinerary of the famous couple. Indian officials said though final touches were still being given to the French President’s itinerary, Agra is certainly part of it. As of now, the Sarkozys are scheduled to land in Bangalore on December 4. The couple will fly to Agra on December 5 and meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders in Delhi the next day. He is also expected to visit Mumbai on December 7, before flying out of India.
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ISRO satellite to ensure Net link in remote Europe
Bangalore, November 27 The advanced communication satellite HYLAS (Highly Adaptable Satellite), built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on a commercial basis in partnership with EADS-Astrium of Europe, was successfully launched today (November 27) at 00.09 hours IST by the European Ariane-5 V198 launch vehicle. The launch took place from the Guyana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guyana. Thirty-five minutes after its lift-off, HYLAS separated from Ariane-5 launch vehicle after reaching its intended Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). ISRO’s Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka successfully received radio signals transmitted by
HYLAS.
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DGCA
suspends licences of 3 pilots for falsifying records New Delhi, November 27 Three persons, including two Chief Flying Instructors in Rajasthan and Haryana, have been arrested so far, after they granted commercial pilot licences to 14 pilots by allegedly faking the number of flying hours in return for money running into several lakhs. As and when investigation report about other pilots is received, legal action will be taken by the DGCA and the concern airlines will be informed. The Civil Aviation Regulator has also taken some immediate and additional measures to ensure that flying clubs operating in India and abroad, where Indian students undergo flying training, do not supply fabricated documents particularly pertaining to flying hours for obtaining licences. The DGCA teams will visit other countries where Indian students are undergoing training.Verification of foreign licences and rating submitted to the DGCA for conversion to Indian licences will be obtained directly from the concerned regulatory authority of the country. Skill test of candidate seeking conversion of foreign licence into Indian licence will also be conducted in India at controlled airfields only and certified by the ATC concerned. Directions have been issued to all flying training institutes operating in India to strictly ensure correctness and certification of flying hours. Flying schools have been made accountable to furnish a certificate regarding logged hours, while special surveillance to check logging hours is being stepped up. Log hours will be cross-checked with fuel register, bills etc. Official sources said license of three pilots, including one who was working for Air India (domestic), had been suspended by the DGCA which also asked the state-owned airline to take him off duty. “This is only the tip of the iceberg", an official said, adding there could be 40 such pilots who have logged "fake" flying hours to get their CPLs. Some of such pilots are currently reported to be working with Indian Airlines, JetLite, SpiceJet and a few other carriers, they said.
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Two hardcore Maoists held
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Guwahati, November 27
Chandigarh, November 27
