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Yeddy’s BJP emerges major winner
Assam Election
Bainsla agrees to talks with govt
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Prof hand-chopping case
A Tribune Special
Antony: Coastal
security govt’s immediate agenda
FIR against Citibank global CEO, 10 others in fraud case
CBI likely to quiz Suresh Kalmadi today
Krishna to visit Kabul on Jan 8
Cold claims 8 lives in Allahabad
Health Ministry puts on hold common medical entrance
Plot Allotment
Victims say their securities encashed
PU prof is V-C of Agra varsity
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Yeddy’s BJP emerges major winner
biggies eat humble pie Reddy
brothers BS
Yeddyurappa Three-phase poll Over 65 pc of the around 21 million voters cast their ballots in the elections to 30 zila, 176 taluka panchayats Triangular contest BJP, Congress and JD-S were locked in a three-way fight in majority of 1,013 zila, 3,659 taluka panchayat seats Congress second Of the 30 zila panchayats, BJP bagged 12, Congress and (JD-S) four each. In remaining 10, it was a hung verdict
Bangalore, January 4 Though the party would have certainly liked to do better on the home turf of Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and the powerful Reddy brothers, the performance would ensure that Yeddyurappa breathes easy for the time being. Of the 30 zila (district) panchayats, the BJP bagged 12, Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) four each while in the remaining 10 it was a hung verdict. Of the 176 taluka (sub-district) panchayats, the BJP won 68, Congress 31 and JD-S 29. No party emerged a clear winner in the remaining 48. For Yeddyurappa, whose continuance hinges on the BJP’s show in these polls, it was a major setback in his home district of Shimoga. The party barely scraped through in the zila panchayat, bagging 16 of the 31 seats while it conceded 13 to the Congress and two to the JD-S. The Reddy brothers (mining barons and ministers) also ate the humble pie as the BJP failed to get a majority in the 36-member Bellary zila panchayat. It won 18 seats, with the Congress taking 17 and the JD-S one. Yeddyurappa expressed happiness at his party’s show, though it fell short of the grand sweep that he and state BJP president KS Eshwarappa were predicting. Both leaders had been claiming that their party would capture power in at least 20 of the 30 zila panchayats and over 100 of the 176 taluka panchayats. “I thank the voters for their support to the BJP,” Yeddyurappa, who is facing charges of nepotism in prime land allotment to his kin in and around Bangalore, told reporters. “Earlier, the BJP was considered an urban-based party. These results have shown that the BJP has a huge rural base,” he said. At a separate press meet, Eshwarappa said the BJP would be in power in 14 of the 30 zila panchayats, 12 on its own and two with the help of Independents. The Congress, though putting up a poor show compared to the 2005 zila panchayat and taluka panchayat polls when it was a clear winner, appeared happy with its performance in Bellary and Shimoga. State unit president G Parameshwara and Union Labour Minister Mallikharjun Kharge said the BJP’s show in the two districts considered its stronghold showed “people's resentment over corruption in the government”. Over 65 per cent of the around 21 million voters, nearly half of them women, cast their ballots in the elections to the 30 zila and 176 taluka panchayats held in three phases from December 26. The BJP, Congress and JD-S were locked in a three-way fight in a majority of the 1,013 zila and 3,659 taluka panchayat seats. These are the first elections to the local governing councils after the BJP came to power in the state in May 2008. While the BJP won the maximum number of panchayats, the Congress got the second slot and the JD-S third.
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Assam Election
New Delhi, January 4 In his submission to the Election Commission, Goel said, “The continuous migration of illegal Bangladeshis to Assam, coupled with a high fertility rate among the immigrants, is now threatening to become a ‘political bomb’ that could seriously threaten the political security of the indigenous people of Assam.” Stressing upon the need for distinguishing between the Hindu and Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, he said India had a moral responsibility to accept all Hindus, whether they be from Pakistan or Bangladesh, who were displaced due to “discrimination” or “prosecution on religious grounds”. Goel, the BJP in charge for Assam, said, “The displaced Hindu Bengalis from Bangladesh who are currently residing in Assam have been facing a lot of intimidation and harassment from the government. They should be given citizenship immediately, and if necessary through amendments in the Foreigners’ Act, 1946 and Citizenship Act, 1955.”
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Bainsla agrees to talks with govt
Jaipur, January 4 “My delegation held a meeting with state ministers in Jaipur yesterday and the community is of the view that the talks should move in a more positive direction,” he said. “Before meeting any minister or the government representative, I will discuss the issue with my delegation, which is staying in Jaipur,” he said. G S Sandhu, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, said the next round of talks would be held between Bainsla and a committee of ministers comprising Energy Minister Jitendra Singh, Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal and Transport Minister B K Sharma. “Based on the outcome of the meeting, the decision may be taken to hold the next round with the Chief Minister,” he indicated. Bainsla will decide how many delegation members will be there in the next round of meeting, a Gujjar leader said. An over 50-member delegation is staying at a hotel here and has held two rounds of the talks with ministers over the last two days but could not reach a consensus on the issue of 5 per cent reservation. The stir entered the 16th day today.
— PTI
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Prof hand-chopping case
New Delhi, January 4 “Just as it is the duty of a lawyer to defend an accused, so also it is the duty of a doctor to heal,” a Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra ruled in a judgment yesterday. The Kerala Government had appealed against the High Court order granting bail to Dr Raneef who had treated one of the seven assailants who cut off the palm of Prof TJ Jacob in July 2010. The assailant had suffered injuries on his back in a scuffle with the victim’s son, who had tried to prevent the attack on his father. The doctor was under the “Hippocratic oath to attempt to heal a patient” and prima facie the only offence that could be levelled against him was the failure to inform the police about the crime, the Bench noted. The prosecution had arrested Dr Raneef also for possession of a book titled “Jihad” and for being a member of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The seven assailants were also members of the two organisations. The Bench noted that there was no history of crimes against the organisations or their workers, nor had the two been banned. The SDPI was a political party recognised by the Election Commission, while the PFI was registered under the Societies Registration Act. The Supreme Court further observed that the book “Jihad” was a Malayalam translation of a book written in Urdu in 1927 by a “well-known and respected religious scholar, Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Mandoodi, and has been in circulation for 83 years, and is available in many book shops.”
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A Tribune Special
New Delhi, January 4 It has also proposed the establishment of learning facilitation centres at various levels across the country to improve teaching capacities of medical faculty. In this respect, a National Centre for Medical Education Research and Training has been suggested for making guidelines for regulation of minimum teaching standards and accreditation. At every medical college level, the panel wants an education unit where level-1 teacher training programmes should be conducted. Such a unit is proposed to house a patient simulation centre and a training centre for the faculty and students. After every 10 medical colleges, an education department has been recommended to offer level-2 teacher training programmes. Above these departments would be a Health Sciences University (to come up region-wise) to work as a centre for conducting educational research in collaboration with colleges, universities and other national bodies. The overarching body for faculty development would be the National Centre for Medical Education Research and Training, the panel proposes. “Defining career paths for teachers is also important and the national strategy for the development of faculty must be instituted immediately,” the panel report on undergraduate medical reforms adds. It lists the following basic faculty development courses to begin with: three-day basic course for teachers; six-month advanced certificate course; one-year Train the Trainer (diploma in medical education); 2-year Master’s programme in health profession education. Even as the new proposals take shape, some of the old moves of the MCI are bothering the medical faculty, which says the system does not offer ample growth opportunities to teachers. Earlier, a three-year senior residency was a must for anyone seeking assistant professorship in any medical college. Recently, the MCI abandoned this requirement. “The move is retrograde. Senior residents have the required maturity for medical teaching and actively participate in all activities of the department concerned to learn the practical aspects of theoretical knowledge gained at the postgraduate level. Now the MCI has put senior residents along with fresh postgraduates. This is frustrating,” Punjab-based organisation Doctor’s Forum today told The Tribune. In its response to The Tribune reports on proposed medical reforms, the forum has said those directly appointed as assistant professors should become eligible for associate professorship after five years and senior residents should become eligible after two years. “Also, those who are working or have worked full-time in teaching departments -- like general duty medical officers (with teaching duties but without teaching designations) --- should be given weightage, enabling them to have their served period counted as teaching experience. Several efficient doctors with interest in teaching stand excluded from joining the profession just because their experience is not counted and they are seen as junior to fresh postgraduates. As a short term measure, honorary system should be restored where colleges are allowed to hire the services of qualified medical personnel on a part-time basis,” the forum adds.
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Antony: Coastal
security govt’s immediate agenda
‘Indigenous
aircraft carrier by 2014’ Defence Minister AK Antony has
expressed the hope that the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier, being
constructed at the Cochin Shipyard Limited, would be ready for the
final launch in 2014.
Kozhikode, January 4 “In earlier days, we considered our
coastal region more secure. But that is history. Fourteen ships have
been attacked by pirates off Lakshadweep. Such attacks will affect the
peace and security of the nation. Coastal security has now become the
immediate agenda of the government,” he said. Antony said despite
the presence of naval forces from nearly 18 countries, piracy incidents
in the Indian ocean had not come down. “It is not possible to say that
the Somalian pirates alone are behind these acts. There are certain
forces that are helping these pirates…. However, it is not possible to
pinpoint who these external forces are,” he opined. During his
visits abroad, said Antony, several other nations, too, had expressed
the doubt regarding “some forces being behind these pirates”. Antony
was speaking after laying the foundation stone for the Rs 600 crore mega
National Institute for Research and Development in Defence Shipbuilding
(NIRDESH) at nearby Chaliyam.
— PTI
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FIR against Citibank global CEO, 10 others in fraud case
Gurgaon, January 4 ”We got the complaint and immediately registerted the FIR (First Information Report),” Gurgaon police commissioner S S Deswal told PTI. In the FIR, Agarwal, who is a resident of Gurgaon, alleged criminal breach of trust, falsification of accounts, cheating and criminal conspiracy by the officials of the Citibank.
“All persons named (in FIR)... in collision and conspiracy with each other and other known or unknown persons, (and) have misappropriated large sums of money to the tune of Rs 32.43 crore" Agarwal said in his complaint. The case has been registered under sections 409, 477A, 420 and 120B of
IPC.
The others who have been named in the FIR include Citibank's senior officials CFO John Gerspach and COO Doughlas Peterson (both based in New York). Others who figure in the FIR are Amit Zarpuri, Ashwini Chaddha, Amrita Farmahan, Rahul Soota, N Rajshekaran, Pramit Jhaveri and Shivraj Puri, the main accused in the fraud case.
— PTI
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CBI likely to quiz Suresh Kalmadi today New Delhi, January 4 Kalmadi is learnt to have told the CBI that he would come to the CBI headquarters tomorrow after he was asked to appear before it. The CBI had earlier raided the premises and other properties of Kalmadi in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, and has already questioned some of his closest aides, including Organising Committee Secretary General Lalit Bhanot, his political adviser PK Srivastava and his assistant AK Sinha, among others. Kalmadi, however, today claimed that the CBI had still not confirmed when it would be questioning him. The CBI has registered two FIRs in connection with the alleged irregularities in awarding contracts connected with Queen Baton Relay. The third FIR is about a Rs 107-crore deal which the OC had struck with a Swiss firm for an electronic scoreboard. Kalmadi has been claiming that the different decisions taken by the OC were collective and he had nothing to hide. However, the CBI has contended that Kalmadi and Bhanot have tried to sabotage their probe by hiding many relevant documents.
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Krishna to visit Kabul on Jan 8
New Delhi, January 4 Official sources said the minister would be travelling to Kabul on January 8-9 to discuss various India-aided projects with President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul. India has also been in discussions with the US for undertaking joint projects in Afghanistan. Krishna had briefly touched upon the subject during his talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during their telephonic conversation on December 22. India has been the sixth largest contributor in reconstruction of Afghanistan, with bilateral assistance programmes worth over $ 1.3 billion. New Delhi has also conveyed to Afghanistan its interest in Indian mining companies investing in the mineral sector in Afghanistan. In his interactions with the Afghan leaders, Krishna is expected to highlight India's stakes in peace and stability in Afghanistan. He is also likely to reiterate India's apprehensions on the West-backed proposed for the integration of the Taliban into the mainstream of the Afghan society. In international conferences in London and Kabul last year, Krishna had backed an “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned” peace deal, on the condition that the Taliban cuts links with terrorism and accepts the Afghan constitution.
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Cold claims 8 lives in Allahabad
Allahabad/Srinagar, Jan 4 Railway traffic was also hit due to fog, with certain trains like the Prayagraj Express, Sangam Express and Reeva Express running three to four hours behind schedule, railway sources said. In Kashmir, Leh town registered a low of -20°C, even though the minimum temperatures across the region appreciated by a couple of degrees.
— PTI
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Health Ministry puts on hold common medical entrance
New Delhi, January 4 The ministry has directed the Medical Council of India (MCI) Board of Governors to withdraw the December 21 notifications it issued formalising common tests to both undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses. “The said notifications were not issued with prior approval of the Central Government. Under the Indian Medical Council Act 1956, the MCI can make regulations with the Centre’s previous approval only,” states the ministry’s letter to the MCI, which is under obligation to withdraw the notifications though the Board of Governors was noncommittal on the issue today. “I cannot comment,” said board member Ranjit Roy
Choudhary. — TNS
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Plot Allotment
New Delhi, January 4 “Merely because HUDA delayed the allotment… does not mean that the appellants (oustees) become liable to pay the allotment price prevailing as on the date of allotment,” a Bench comprising Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik held in a judgment yesterday. Six persons, whose 38 bighas of land in Kasba Karnal had been acquired by HUDA in 1990, had sought plots from HUDA under the 1990 oustees’ policy in the same year. But HUDA sent the letters of allotment only in September 1993 and that too claiming Rs 1,342 per square metre, instead of the 1990 rate of Rs 1,032 per sqm. Even this allotment offer was made at the instance of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court, however, rejected the oustees’ objection to the higher amount, prompting them to approach the SC. The Bench accepted the contention of the oustees that allotment of plots to land losers should be at actual cost (acquisition cost of land plus development cost), acknowledging that the argument “appears to be reasonable and attractive.”
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Victims say their securities encashed
Gurgaon, January 4 “We are examining the complaints of HNIs,” a senior police official said. These investors were lured into investing funds on promise of high returns by Puri, the main accused in the Rs 300-crore scam. Police, sources said, was in touch with all HNI investors which include about 20 corporate entities. These investors have complained to the police about fraudulent liquidation of their shareholding.
— PTI
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PU prof is V-C of Agra varsity Chandigarh, January 4 He has been appointed to the post for a period of three years. He has received a formal communication in this regard from received the formal communication, with regard to his appointment, to the post for three years, which is signed by B.L. Joshi, Chancellor of the University and Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Born in Chhintanwala village of Patiala, Professor Jauhar studied law at Panjab University. With approximately four decades of teaching and research experience, he is only the second scholar in the North-West region whose research work on landlord-tenant relations has been cited by name and is quoted with approval of the SC. — TNS
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The mining barons and ministers failed to get a majority in the 36-member Bellary zila
panchayat, their home district. BJP won 18 seats, with the Congress taking 17 and the JD-S one.
Major setback for BJP in his home district of
Shimoga. The party barely scraped through in the zila panchayat, bagging 16 of the 31 seats while it conceded 13 to the Congress and two to the JD-S.