New Delhi, February 25
The Centre had advised Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik to negotiate the release of abducted Malkangiri District Collector RV Krishna and Junior Engineer Pabitra Mohan Majhi without giving in to the demands of the Maoist groups as it would set a bad precedent for the future.

New Delhi, however, could not succeed in convincing Patnaik as he was stated to be “desperate” to resolve the matter at the earliest.

Well-placed government sources today revealed that Home Minister P Chidambaram had told Patnaik about the perils of acceding to the demands of Maoists, but could not go beyond giving him advice as law and order is a state subject.

On his part, Patnaik requested the Centre not to intervene and to refrain from commenting publicly on the issue. He feared this would complicate the matters for him as he put together a team of mediators to negotiate with the Maoists who had set 14 demands, including the halt to anti-Maoists operations, release of all political prisoners and scrapping of all agreements with multinational companies for the transfer of land for their projects and compensation for the families of Maoist sympathisers killed in police custody.

“The Centre cannot intervene in such matters... it can only tender advice to state governments. Ultimately, it is their call,” government sources said. There were no agreed guidelines on hostage negotiations as each situation was different and had to dealt with accordingly, they added.

The Maoists had been demanding release of their jailed colleagues, including Ganti Prasadam who was released on bail on Wednesday. Another Maoist was granted bail in one case, but will have to stay in prison as he has more cases against him.

Despite the Centre’s reservations about Patnaik’s handling of the abduction case, it grudgingly admits that it “eventually worked out well” if the reaction of the people is anything to go by.

The Collector’s release was a big relief for the Orissa Government that went through eight days of tense negotiations. The rebels had first agreed to release the two officers on Wednesday after the state authorities agreed to their demands. However, they only released the Junior Engineer and set fresh conditions to free Krishna. The state government conceded to the demand and rushed two mediators to Koraput for further negotiations.

New Delhi, February 25
The Supreme Court today ordered a probe by its committee into the alleged illegal mining in Bellary and other forest areas of Karnataka.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia asked the apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee to conduct the probe and file its report within six weeks.

The court passed the order on an oral mention made by advocate Prashant Bhushan who said that the report of the Karnataka Lokayukta clearly stated that mining activities were being carried not only illegally but also stretched to areas categorised as forest land.

“Rampant illegal mining is going on in Karnataka and the same has been recorded by a detailed report of Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde,” he pleaded before a bench also comprising justices Aftab Alam and K S Radhakrishanan.

Earlier, the bench had directed the CEC to probe the Andhra Pradesh side of the Bellary region.

The apex court’s direction came over a petition filed by an NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya alleging that the governments in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have failed to stop the rampant illegal mining of iron ore.

“The failure of the respective states to control the illegal mining has led to large-scale destruction both of forest land as well as non-forest land and adversely affected the livelihood of local people, especially the rural poor,” the petition alleged. It accused the Centre of having failed to check the menace of illegal mining in Karnataka.

“The Union of India through both the Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Ministry of Mines has not exercised enough checks and balances to curtail illegal mining in the two states,” the petition submitted. It alleged that illegal mining has resulted in “an encroachment of 1114.8 hectares of forest land in Karnataka”.

“This problem was recognised by the state of Karnataka when the issues of illegal mining were raised in the legislative Assembly and the Justice UL Bhat Commission of Enquiry was constituted under the Commission of Enquiries Act to inquire into various aspects of illegal mining and certain allegations raised against the Government of Karnataka,” the NGO submitted. Later, the Karnataka Lokayukta also submitted a detailed report on large-scale mining-related irregularities in the state of Karnataka, showing “how through the active connivance of miners, officials and politicians, established laws and procedures were given a go-by to benefit a few mining companies at the cost of the ecology as well as revenue of the state”. It further submitted that the Lokayukta report highlighted that forest area to the extent over 2000 sq km were made available for mining by private entities despite specific objections by the Forest Department. — PTI 

Ahmedabad, February 25 
The prosecution today demanded death sentence for all 31 persons convicted in the 2002 Godhra train burning case, a plea contested by the defence which said the punishment for each of the guilty should depend upon the individual role in the incident.

After hearing arguments from both the sides, the Special court reserved to March 1 its order on the quantum of punishment. Special public prosecutor J M Panchal told reporters after coming out of the court: “We have prayed for death sentence for all the 31 convicted. We have made submission in support of our demand. The matter is now sub judice and I cannot disclose anything further. We will have to wait till March 1.”

IM Munshi, one of the defence lawyers, said: “We have opposed the prosecution's demand for death sentence for all the 31 persons... we believe that this is not the rarest of the rare case.” — PTI

BRIEFLY

Chandolia, Balwa denied bail
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday rejected the bail pleas of former Telecom Minister A Raja's personal secretary RK Chandolia and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa arrested in the 2G Spectrum case, saying they can tamper with evidence and influence witnesses if let out. The judge also took into account the “initial stage of the investigation and other facts and circumstances of the case”. The court considered the fact that Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, promoted by Balwa, was ineligible for 2G licences as the holding firm of the company was indirectly funded by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG).— PTI

Budget session likely to be curtailed
New Delhi: The Budget session of Parliament is likely to be curtailed, government sources say. This is because five states are going to the polls in late April or early May and the members from these states are anxious to return home to plunge into poll campaign. The members are suggesting two way outs. The first is to do away with the Budget session interval this year and pass the Finance Bill, after necessary discussions right away. The other alternative is to have a short interval of about a week and thereafter reassemble to pass the Budget. However, any decision in this regard is likely to be taken only after the EC announces poll dates for these states. — TNS