New Delhi, December 4
A day after Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel warned private airlines against predatory pricing, civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday tried to reason out with top executives of low cost carriers on high airfares.

While newly appointed DGCA EK Bharat Bhushan held discussions with representatives of SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo officials, Patel again sent out a firm message to private airlines insisting on reasonable fare hikes, asserting that “corrective action” would be taken within a week.

Full-cost carriers Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines will present to the ministry their side of the story on Monday.

However, if the tone and tenor of Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya, who today lashed out at DGCA’s attempts to rein in prices and asked the government to cut “excessive” sales tax on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), is any indication, the aviation industry can expect a turbulent week ahead.

“There has not been an unjust increase in airfares. Bandwidth pricing is followed across the world. We too are following that. After all, airlines are commercial commodities,” Mallya said in Bangalore, questioning “why should government regulate anything in an era of deregulation and competition”.

Mallya justified recent increase in airfares by saying that an airlines seat was a perishable commodity, dictated by demand and supply. “Dynamic pricing is practiced all over the world by every airline without exception. I do not understand why we are making a song and dance of it in India," he said.

Passing the buck to the government, Mallya in fact asked the government to bring down “highly excessive sales tax on ATF, which the industry was willing to pass on to consumers”. He also criticised the media for creating a “controversy that did not exist”, saying “you have taken the highest band that exists now, comparing it with the lowest band several months back. People pay much less than these prices even during peak season”.

Aviation industry believes that airlines are free to set their fare range depending on cost and demand and supply factor.

Airlines claim that fares can be raised even beyond this limit and all they had to do was to inform the DGCA and public within 24 hours of doing so. Top executives say that passengers will get reasonable fares if they book in advance and spot fares or day before travel fares will be high in peak travel season. The airlines’ proposal of kilometre-based fare slabs has already been rejected by the Civil Aviation Ministry. Bhushan said the airlines had been told that the government wanted “some predictability and fairness in the fares which they charge.”

New Delhi, December 4
Water shortages are expected to aggregate 40 per cent in developing Asia by 2030 and in some countries like India, demand may exceed supply by 50 per cent, says an Asian Development Bank (ADB) draft report.

The report said that India’s aggregate gap of 50 per cent across all basins was driven by very rapid growth in agricultural, municipal and domestic demand. Aware of the acute water deficit India may face in future, the government hopes to bridge the gap by increasing level of efficiencies in water utilisation and conservation.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal told Parliament last week that average annual water availability for the country had been assessed as 1,869 billion cubic meters (BCM) with estimated utlilisable water of about 1,123 BCM

Increase in population had resulted in per capita water availability, Bansal said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, adding that while in the year 1951 per capita water availability was about 5,177 cubic metre a year, it worked out to about 1,820 cubic metre a year on the basis of the 2001 Census.

In view of topographical constraints and hydrological features, utilisable water has been assessed to about 1,123 BCM. The country’s total water requirement, including agriculture, industrial and domestic uses, has been assessed to be about 813 BCM, 1,093 BCM and 1,447 BCM by 2010, 2025 and 2050, respectively. However, the requirement can be brought down to 710 BCM, 843 BCM and 1,180 BCM for 2010, 2025 and 2050, respectively, with efficiency in utlilisation.

Bansal said that the National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development had assessed that with the desired level of efficiency, the water requirement by 2050 can be brought down to about 1,180 BCM in a high demand scenario. Bansal explains that considerable emphasis has been laid on efficiency in water utilisation for all purposes. The National Water Policy states that efficiency of water utilisation should be optimized and measures for improved management are underway. Further increasing water efficiency use by 20 per cent has been identified as one of the important goals under the national action plan on climate change.

The ADB report says aggregate 2030 demand and supply would be 1498 billion cubic metres (BCM) and 744 BCM, respectively. 

New Delhi, December 4
An Indian warship on anti-piracy patrols in the Arabian Sea has apprehended 19 foreign nationals, including 14 suspected Pakistanis, on board a dhow sailing suspiciously off the Bitra Island in the Lakshadweep Islands chain.

INS Rajput, a destroyer, was on patrol in the Exclusive Economic Zone west of Bitra in the Lakshadweep Islands when it spotted the dhow sailing suspiciously at around 2pm yesterday. “INS Rajput was on anti-piracy combing operations in the Eastern Arabian Sea and it apprehended a suspicious dhow. The dhow, with 19 foreigners on board, is being escorted to Kavaratti in the Lakshadweep Islands to be handed over to the police,” a Navy spokesperson said here today.

Sources said 14 of the 19 people are suspected to be Pakistani nationals and the rest Iranians. However, they refused to give further details. They said no arms and ammunition were found on the dhow and the apprehended people said they came to the sea to fish. Sources, however, said that the nets on board the dhow were dry.

The successful operation comes just four days after India deployed a multi-ship force in the Arabian Sea, which has been witnessing a spurt in piracy in the recent weeks, to ward off the sea brigands operating there. — PTI 

New Delhi, December 4
Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian firm that makes BlackBerry mobile devices, said on Saturday that it is working to provide the Indian Government lawful access to BlackBerry Messenger Services.

“RIM confirms that it is fully cooperating with the government of India and is enabling carriers in India to be able to provide the same degree of lawful access to consumer data services, including BlackBerry Messenger, that occurs with respect to other consumer products and services offered by other companies, including RIM’s competitors,” the company said in a statement.

Minister of State for Communication Sachin Pilot said on Friday that security agencies were unable to intercept and monitor communication made through BlackBerry Messenger Service and enterprise services in readable format. The government is engaged with RIM to find out a solution for the interception and monitoring of messenger chat and enterprise email on the BlackBerry.

“Voice, SMS and individual email communication can be intercepted and monitored by security agencies in readable format. However, security agencies are not able to intercept and monitor the communication made through BlackBerry Messenger and enterprise services in readable format,” Pilot said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

The government has given BlackBerry time till January 2011 to create lawful interception facilities with all operators offering the service. — IANS

Lucknow, December 4
Ending weeks of anxiety the once Muslim mascot of the Samajwadi Party, Mohammad Azam Khan, today finally rejoined his old party but turned down the offer to accept the post of Leader of the Opposition.

Khan’s return raises hopes for the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party to reclaim some of its lost ground with the Muslims who have been disillusioned with the party since Yadav’s fill-fated alliance with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.

Khan chose a state-level meeting of office bearers to formulate its strategy for the upcoming 2012 Assembly elections in the state at the party headquarters today as the occasion for his formal home coming. At the meeting party chief’s brother Shivpal Singh Yadav announced his resignation from the post of Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha to pave the way for Azam Khan.

However, later addressing the well attended meeting Khan refused to accept the post saying that it would send a wrong message to his supporters that he had agreed to return to the party fold for a price while he would continue to remain an ordinary party member struggling to regain its past glory.

The return of Khan was preceded by a public apology by Mulayam Singh Yadav in August this year for letting down his Muslim supporters by teaming up with Kalyan Singh before the 2009 Lok Sabha election. A day after the Ayodhya verdict he had issued a public statement condemning the judgment for giving precedence to faith and belief over facts and evidence and the same causing widespread despondency amongst the Muslims.

Quoting both these instances as proof of ‘netaji’s genuine concern’ for the Muslims, Khan in his home coming address said that it required a big heart to accept once mistakes in politics and apologise as well as empathise with Muslims in today’s political scenario.

Hyderabad, December 4
Suspense continues in the Andhra Pradesh political drama as the Congress leadership is still grappling with internal rebellion over allocation of portfolios in the new cabinet. Intense lobbying is on for key posts of the Deputy Chief Minister, the PCC president and the Assembly Speaker.

As party president Sonia Gandhi held talks with APCC chief D Srinivas and other leaders from the state in New Delhi, an uneasy calm prevailed in the state with CM N Kiran Kumar Reddy trying to cope with cold reception from several of his sulking cabinet colleagues.

Though rumblings over portfolio allocations, caste and regional representation in the new cabinet have subsided for now, following high command’s intervention, the usual bonhomie associated with any new government is missing.

Intense lobbying is on for the post. Industries Minister Dr J Geetha Reddy and Higher Education Minister D Rajanarasimha, both Dalits from the Telangana region, are the front-runners for the post. In fact, Geetha Reddy met Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today to push her case.

The ruling party is facing a tough task in choosing an acceptable candidate to head the state unit. It is not willing to continue Srinivas, whose term is scheduled to end soon, as he had lost in the Assembly elections twice in a row. City legislator M Shashidhar Reddy, who is the son of former Chief Minister Dr M Channa Reddy, is tipped for the post. However, the party leaders from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra have been demanding that someone from their regions be chosen for the post.

Deputy Speaker N Manohar, who hails from coastal Andhra region, is said to be aspiring for Speaker’s post. The high command is faced with an unenviable task of balancing the regional and caste equations while filling up the posts.

The government is already in a state of turmoil over allocation of portfolios and the alleged disproportionate representation to the “Reddy” community in the cabinet. There are 14 members from the Reddy community in the 40-member cabinet.

At least 10 ministers are understood to be upset over portfolios allocated to them.

The Congress leadership is worried that internal rumblings could weaken the party and trigger exodus to the camp of Jagan Mohan, who quit the party recently and is all set to launch a new political party soon to carry forward the political legacy of his father and former CM late YSR Reddy.

BRIEFLY

Maoist leader held 
Kolkata: Prominent Maoist leader Kanchan and his four other companions had been arrested on Saturday from Northern parts of the city following a tip-off from the intelligence sources. Kanchan was heading the CPI(M-L) state committee after the incumbent had been shot dead in an encounter with the joint action force in the Jangalmahal area. — TNS