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WEST Bengal ASSEMBLY POLL
Cong, Trinamool begin seat-sharing talks
Sukhoi alteration talks won’t delay BrahMos
Key witness in ‘encounter’ of Chhota Rajan’s
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Jantar Mantar
India-Japan nuclear deal in limbo?
PM to be called, only if necessary: JPC chief
Govt mulls law to combat pirates
Jats to cut off water, milk supply to Delhi
An Andhra mother on a mission
IT Dept to get richer by over Rs 300 crore
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WEST Bengal ASSEMBLY POLL
Kolkata, March 13 The list shows that a little over 60 per cent of the 230 Left Front sitting MLAs, a majority of whom belonged to the CPM, have been denied the ticket for the crucial elections to the 294-member House. There are 149 new faces in the list of candidates as well as 46 women candidates - the highest ever. Fifty-six Muslims are also in the fray. “The ministers who do not figure in the list are needed for strengthening the party organisation given their seniority in politics,” said chairman of the Left Front committee and member of the CPM Politburo Biman Bose, who released the list at a press conference here. Reacting to the LF's list, the Trinamool Congress termed it as its moral victory. "It is a moral victory for the Trinamool Congress as the Left Front has changed candidates for 149 seats out of fear, but this will not help it to avoid defeat in the upcoming elections," Partha Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition, said. He said by giving a considerable number of tickets to the SC and ST, women and minority candidates, "The Left Front has suddenly remembered them at the time of exit... For so many years these people were a forgotten lot, but their sudden elevation in status will not be able to win the hearts of people." The Left Front swept the polls in 2006 by winning 235 constituencies, but thereafter its electoral fortunes dwindled suffering humiliating defeats to the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine in the Lok Sabha battle and in subsequent statewide civic elections and the Assembly byelections. None of the candidates who had lost in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections was given the ticket. Of the 292 candidates announced, the CPM will field 210, Forward Bloc 34, RSP 23, CPI 12, WBSP five, RCPI, MFB and DSP two each and the RJD and the Biplobi Bangla Congress one each. — PTI
New Delhi, March 13 While sources said Trinamool chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee would take a final call on the issue, the first round of formal talks between the two parties began with Union Ministers Sultan Ahmed and Mukul Roy from Didi’s party meeting Congress Working Committee’s in-charge for Bengal, Shakeel Ahmed here. Congress screening committee’s Bengal in-charge Janardan Pujari and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee member Manas Bhulia were also present at the meeting. Reports suggested that Roy would now fly back to Kolkata tonight and brief Banerjee. Ahmed remained evasive on the number of seats being sought by each party after the two-hour meeting between the parties, but said that the alliance was strong. “Trinamool Congress is a very strong partner of UPA. Our alliance is there and we do hope it will continue. We are very hopeful of forming an alliance and we will defeat the Left Front government in West Bengal,” Ahmed told reporters. The West Bengal Assembly elections will be held in six phases from April 18. The Congress has six MPs and 19 MLAs in the state while the Trinamool has 19 MPs and 30 MLAs. The meeting between Ahmed and Roy assumes significance in the backdrop of the Congress seeking to contest nearly one-third of the 294 assembly seats in the state and Banerjee's reluctance to part with those many seats. Reports said that Banerjee was inclined to give about 68 seats to the Congress, whereas it was seeking around 75. Earlier, the Congress was seeking over 100 seats while Banerjee was ready to give just about 45. There is trouble over seat sharing in Assam too. While the Congress is seeking greater number of the seats in West Bengal, it is not inclined to give the Trinamool a share in its Assam pie. Seeking a negotiating point, the Congress had hardened its position on seat sharing and had also cancelled the visits of senior party leaders Pranab Mukharjee and Ahmed to Kolkata. The two are expected to now travel to Kolkata tomorrow for a meeting with Banerjee. “There is nothing wrong in political parties seeking larger number of seats for themselves. It is so natural in an alliance. Every party wants the best deal for it,” Ahmed said. Asked about the number of seats to be shared by each party, Ahmed said seat sharing was not done through media.
Buddha faces challenge from ex-chief secy
Kolkata: Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will be facing a challenge from his one-time chief secretary Manish Gupta in the coming Assembly polls at Jadavpore constituency.
Mamata Banerjee has nominated Gupta for fighting against Bhattacharjee with Trinamool’s ticket which Gupta also agreed. “I have expressed my desire to Ms Banerjee to contest the polls as the TMC candidate and if the party wants I will certainly fight elections against the Chief Minister at the Jadavpore seat,” Gupta told The Telegraph. Trinamool Congress and the Congress are yet to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement but the CPM at the state committee on Sunday approved their candidate list which would be formally announced after the Left Front committee’s meeting on Wednesday. — Subhrangshu Gupta
JD-U tries to secure its flock of MPs
New Delhi: Fearing poaching by the Congress, the JD-U is anxious to secure its flock of 20 MPs and ensuring that they refrain from exploring greener pastures.
JD-U Bihar president Vashisht Narain Singh met national president Sharad Yadav and handed him a list of 11 MPs against whom the disciplinary committee had recommended action for working against party candidates during last year’s Assembly poll. However, sources said except for Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lalan and Upendra Kushwaha, the party is not inclined to act against others. They say the JD-U has been watching developments in the Congress and the UPA, particularly concerning seat-sharing as it feels if talks failed and any party pulled out from the UPA government, the Congress might try to encourage defections in smaller parties. — Faraz Ahmad
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Sukhoi alteration talks won’t delay BrahMos
New Delhi, March 13 “Trials of launching BrahMos cruise missile from air will begin in 2012 and there will be no delay in the programme due to this (cost-sharing,” BrahMos Aerospace chief A Sivathanu Pillai told reporters here yesterday evening, denying that there was a “dispute” between India and Russia on the issue of Sukhoi modification. Besides this, India will test-fire the submarine-launched version of the 290-km range BrahMos by the end of this year. An underwater weapon-delivery system mounted on a submarine is considered to be the most potent second strike capability of a country. These missiles could be used as weapons on the upcoming line of Scorpene submarines. India has successfully test-fired the nuclear capable 700-km range K-15 Shaurya missile from an underwater canister to mimic a submarine. On the air-fired-version of the missile, Pillai said a launcher had been developed and the weight of the missile was being reduced to two tonne from the original 2.5 tonnne. Sources told The Tribune that the Russians wanted hundred of crores to modify the lethal Sukhoi-30-MKI fighter. Today, Pillai admitted that drawings of the fighter’s design were with the Russians. “We are seeing if we can make adjustments to the fighter. However, the first preference would be to have the Russians do it since they know the design parameters,” he said. Sources said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) wants its Russian partner NPO Mashinostroeyenia to foot the bill to redesign the Sukhoi, but the latter feels India should do so. Pillai admitted that “negotations are on”. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) technicians have done a preliminary study and conveyed to BrahMos Aerospace that they can undertake the task.
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Key witness in ‘encounter’ of Chhota Rajan’s
Mumbai, March 13 “Anil Bheda, a prime witness in the killing of Chhota Rajan's aide Gupta, is missing since morning. His wife Aruna lodged a complaint in our police station,” said Sanjay Surve, Inspector at Vashi Police Station, said. A team of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case has rushed to Vashi. Aruna claimed that Anil left home at 11.30 am in his car saying he was going to meet his businessman friend but did not return home and his mobile was also switched off, the police said. Aruna started searching for Anil when she found his car abandoned on a highway near their house, the police said. Gupta, alias Lakkhan Bhaiya, was allegedly killed in a fake encounter by the police on November 11, 2006, in Versova on suspicion that he was a member of the Rajan gang, the police said. — PTI
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Jantar Mantar Senior BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi, who currently heads the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Parliamentary panel looking into the 2G scam, is a man in a tearing hurry. With his term as the PAC chairman slated to expire this month-end, Joshi is racing against time to complete the 2G report. In fact, he is working doubly hard as he wants to make sure that his report is so comprehensive that the recently constituted JPC, also enquiring into the same issue, is virtually rendered superfluous. After all, Joshi has a point to prove. When his party colleagues, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, were insisting that the government should set up a JPC to probe the 2G Spectrum allocation on the plea that the PAC's mandate was limited, Joshi had differed with them, stating that the PAC was fully competent to go into all aspects of the issue. Jaane wo kaise log the...
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, BJP leader Arun Jaitely and Congress MP Rajiv Shukla, who are closely connected with cricket administration, are having a hard time these days fending off demands for free passes for the ongoing World Cup tournament. While passes for the initial matches were being doled out generously, the supply has subsequently dried up for the bigger games, like the last week's match between India and South Africa at Nagpur. Even former minister Vilas Muttemwar had no luck, though he did plead his case for extra passes with both Pawar and Shukla. The rejection was particularly galling for Muttemwar, who incidentally happens to be a seven-term MP from Nagpur. Wringing his hands in despair, Muttemwar wondered what explanations he would offer to his extended family, including his sons' in-laws, who had landed up in Nagpur to watch the match, secure in the belief that MP "sahib" had sufficient clout to arrange necessary passes. Last seen in Parliament, a disconsolate Muttemwar was busy singing, "Jaane wo kaise log the jinko cricket ki ticket milee". It’s good to give suggestions
As a special Women's Day gift, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee recently announced free monthly seasonal tickets (for local travel) to girls till their college-level education. The suggestion for such a facility was made by Congress MP Narendra Budhania during the debate on the rail budget in the Rajya Sabha. He had argued that many families forced their daughters to drop out after school as they found that the colleges were located at a distance from their villages. Free travel, he felt, would motivate parents to send their girls for higher education. Even as the discussion in the Rajya Sabha was still continuing, Mamata walked across to the official gallery to discuss the feasibility of the proposal with her ministry officials. She made the announcement 20 minutes later, in the course of her reply to the debate.
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India-Japan nuclear deal in limbo?
New Delhi, March 13
But diplomatic sources acknowledge that the radiation fallouts could affect the deal that the two countries were considering to formally announce during Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s visit to India towards the end of the year. There is an apprehension now that the Japanese Government would come under renewed public pressure to reconsider its move to go in for an accord with India, a country which is not a signatory to the CTBT and the NPT. Even otherwise, India and Japan have been at odds over provisions attached to their civil nuclear cooperation pact, including the one that bans the transfer of “sensitive technology” from Japan that could be used to develop atomic weapons. The two sides are divided over a provision that could give India the ability to reprocess spent nuclear fuel discarded by power plants, which would be built using Japanese machinery and materials, to extract plutonium. These differences have already prolonged negotiations over the pact. India has been demanding that the accord, which would set a legal framework for the peaceful use and transfer of nuclear power technologies, include a clause to ensure the deal’s conclusion would not hamper its nuclear weapons programme, a demand Japan has rejected. Japan is seeking to include wording that it would halt nuclear technology transfers if India scraps its current freeze on nuclear tests. India, in turn, has resisted the inclusion of such wording. The talks on the pact had triggered an outcry in Japan from survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who expressed fears that the deal would hamper global efforts to realise a world without atomic weapons. In the event of an India-Japan nuclear deal not materialising, American and French nuclear majors too would find it difficult to enter the Indian nculear market. They can’t sell nuclear plant technology to India without the approval of Japanese industry. The disaster in Japan has already sparked a debate in India over the safety of nuclear plants being set up in India and that of the people living in their vicinity.
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PM to be called, only if necessary: JPC chief
New Delhi, March 13 Pointing out that none of the four earlier JPCs had called any Prime Minister, Chacko said such a step should be taken only if it was required for the “fair conclusion” of the committee’s work. The Congress member appointed as the JPC chief said, “Calling the Prime Minister before the JPC is the last step and not the first one. Such a step can be taken only when it is absolutely necessary and if there is consensus among the members.” Chacko, who is an MP from Thrissur in Kerala, said the 30-member JPC, which will hold its first meeting on March 24, will examine the telecom policy in place from 1998 to 2008, its implementation, pricing of Spectrum and issuance of licences. He was, however, of the view that the first meeting would only be a preliminary one where the members would deliberate on the road map to be adopted for the inquiry. The second meeting of the committee might take place at a much later date due to the forthcoming Assembly elections in various states. The aim is to ascertain if there were any problems in the system and its implementation and recommend actions accordingly. In this connection, the committee intends to seek all relevant documents from the ministries concerned and communications between various departments. The committee will call secretaries and other top officials concerned of the telecom and other relevant ministries. Ministers, present or former, would be called only if necessary. The Joint parliamentary Committee was formed after a three-month deadlock in both Houses between the government and the Opposition, which wanted a JPC probe following the CAG report
on alleged irregularities in 2G Spectrum allocation pegged the presumptive loss to the national exchequer at Rs 1.76
lakh crore.
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Govt mulls law to combat pirates
New Delhi, March 13 Official sources yesterday said pirates off the Somali coast were now moving towards the Indian coast. Claiming that the navies of India and other countries had succeeded in curbing Somalian piracy to an extent, the sources said: “As a result, they have spread to the Indian Ocean.” Admitting that the situation was “serious” and “bad”, they said the Indian government was doing its best to free the 53 Indian sailors still in the custody of Somali pirates. The absence of an international law to check piracy was one of the factors causing the problem to fester. “There is no international law to deal with piracy,” the sources said, adding that New Delhi was working on a domestic law to combat the increasing menace. The proposed Indian law would be used exclusively to haul up pirates who come in Indian waters. Equally important reasons for the growth of piracy in Somalia were the lack of a central government, proliferation of pirate gangs and the links some of them were forging with terrorist groups. Working non-stop and without break, the Indian Navy has escorted since October 2008 more than 1,500 ships to safety in the Gulf of Aden that is a key maritime route, the sources said. “We have been able to prevent 28 attacks by pirates,” the sources said, adding that they had ensured that no Indian flagged ship was harmed. Somali pirates took 1,016 hostages in 2010, of which 638 still remain in their custody. A total of 49 ships were hijacked last year.
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Jats to cut off water, milk supply to Delhi
Lucknow, March 13 Around 52 long-distance trains were cancelled due to the agitation completely throwing the rail traffic in North India out of gear causing huge hardship to passengers wanting to go home for the approaching Holi festival. The mahapanchayat held at Muradnagar in Ghaziabad today, the ninth day of the Jat protest, decided to take the agitation to the next level in order to grab the attention of the Central government. The Jats from across religious divides are demanding 27 per cent reservation in Central jobs under the OBC category. To press their demands they have been squatting on the railway track at Kafurpur railway station near Amroha for the last nine days causing diversion and cancellation of dozens of trains. The scene at Kafurpur railway station, since re-christened, as ‘Jaatpur’ appeared like a village fair. A large number of women and children in their festive clothes arrived on tracker trolleys. With the sun getting harsher tents have been erected on the track and ‘langar’ (community kitchen) continuing round the clock. Samiti president Yashpal Mallick, speaking to the media at Kafurpur railway station, asserted that till now the agitation had remained peaceful. “But things can go out of hand if our patience is tried endlessly by the Central government.”
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An Andhra mother on a mission
Hyderabad, March 13 Six years ago, Sujatha took up the cause after her young son K Venkatesh, afflicted with debilitating muscular dystrophy, stirred the nation’s conscience by pleading for mercy killing. A chess player, he died here on December 17, 2004 after being in a wheelchair for over 10 years. The High Court had rejected Venkatesh’s plea for mercy killing on the ground that the present laws did not permit euthanasia and human organs could be harvested only from a brain dead patient. With the Supreme Court permitting passive euthanasia, Sujatha now feels vindicated. “No doubt, we should exercise extreme caution in permitting euthanasia. It should be done on a case-by-case basis; that too if a terminally ill patient wants withdrawal of life-support so that his organs can be donated. Nobody else should be allowed to take such a decision on behalf of the patient,” says Sujatha, who now runs the Venkatesh Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, a city-based non-profit organisation that promotes awareness about the disease and care for those suffering from it. “Initially, I was not in favour of my son seeking euthanasia but after seeing him suffer because of the grave medical condition and his own keenness to donate his organs, I was convinced,” Sujatha recalls. The image of her 25-year-old son scribbling his last words, pleading for advancing his death so he could donate organs, still haunts her. But, a much larger goal lies ahead. Sujatha has become the rallying point for parents and social workers concerned about the plight of muscular dystrophy patients. Welcoming the apex court’s ruling on euthanasia, Sujatha, however, sounds a word of caution. There should not be a general law granting euthanasia in all cases as it could be misused for organ trading, she warns.
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Tax recovery
Chandigarh, March 13 The Central Circle of the IT Department, responsible for recovery, has set in motion the process to realise the 35 per cent tax (plus interest) allegedly evaded on the amount. The assessment notices have already been issued. The northwest Income Tax Deparment region comprises Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal and Jammu. With the recoveries taking place in the next few months, the department will end up by getting richer to the tune of almost Rs 300 crore or more. According to officials, while the tax on the “additional income” will have to be paid by all companies and individuals to whom the assessment notices have been issued, they will have an option to appeal against the order with appellant authority. The tax deposited will only be refunded after the case is decided in their favour. Some of the companies which will have to deposit the tax on their “additional income” include Laxmi Energy and Food Ltd (Punjab), fast food chain Hot Millions (Chandigarh), Motia Builders (Mohali), JMD builders (Gurgaon) and Star Wire India Ltd and Aspaze (Faridabad). Talking to The Tribune, Director General Investigations, Jaswant Singh, confirmed that assessment notices had been issued after the completion of investigations, including searches, conducted by the department on various premises of the “defaulters” under Section 132 of the IT Act. It is learnt that additional income to the tune of Rs 215 crore was detected during investigations launched against Laxmi Energy and Food Ltd (LEF) for the assessment years 2006 to 2010. In 2006-07, the company had filed a return of Rs 24 crore but the department assessed their income to an additional Rs 18 crore. Similarly in 2008-09, the company filed a return of Rs 33.12 crore but the department assessed it Rs 123.17 crore, a evasion of Rs 90 crore during the assessment proceedings. Interestingly, 2009-10, the LEF filed a “NIL” return whereas the department assessed their income at Rs 99.50 crore. The Punjab based firm operates from six districts of the state - Ludhiana, Sangrur, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali and Roopnagar. The Chandigarh-based fast food chain, Hot Millions, which has now spread operations in Punjab, Haryana and HP , was assessed with an additional income to the tune of Rs 4 crore. The company made no surrenders during the raids conducted in September 2008. In the case of Motia Developers, the department assessed additional income of Rs 10 crore. The company has three ongoing housing projects going in Zirakpur, Derabasi and Baddi. At the Gurgaon-based JMD builders, the department assessed Rs 3 crore additional incomein assessment year 97-98 and Rs 15 crore in 2009-10. Giving details of the process of issuing assessment notices, officials said after completing the search and seizure operations, the investigation wing prepares an appraisal report within 60 days in which the “modus operandi” of tax evasion and the details of the search are mentioned. Thereafter, the assessing officer examines details of the immediate previous six-year returns filed by the company/individual and issues assessment order after ascertaining the alleged evasion.
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Centrestage
After a cataclysm so powerful that it moved the Earth 10 inches off its axis, Japan woke to find itself a country that had, literally, been shunted two metres from where it was on Friday morning.
Neighbourhood after neighbourhood is submerged under a grotesque soup of water and debris. Homes have been flattened as if by the swiping forearm of an angry giant. Tens of thousands of once orderly acres look like the world's ugliest landfill - a jumble of broken homes, cars, boats, and concrete, with shipping containers cluttering the landscape like Lego on an unkempt nursery floor. And somewhere, under all this vast mess, are four entire trains, small towns, villages, and a fearful number of bodies. It could be 10,000, or many times that number. In one town alone, 9,500 people are unaccounted for.
Humanitarian crisis
Millions of Japanese went without drinking water or electricity on Sunday, surviving on noodles and rice balls two days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the northeastern coast. The Japanese government deployed 100,000 soldiers in the rescue and relief effort. Rescue teams continued to search for survivors and the missing along the Japanese coast even as survivors huddled in darkened emergency centres. Fuel stations are closed and people are running out of fuel for their cars. As many as 380,000 people had been evacuated to emergency shelters. Miraculous survival
A Japanese man who was swept 15 kilometres out to sea by the deadly tsunami was rescued on Sunday after he was spotted clinging to a piece of wreckage. Hiromitsu Shinkawa (60) was found floating on a piece of roof. The man , from the city of Minamisoma which has been virtually obliterated, was swept out along with his house. " I ran away after learning that the tsunami was coming," Shinkawa told rescuers, " but I turned back to pick up something at home, when I was washed away". He is conscious and is said to be in good condition. Old debate revived
The possibility of the radioactive meltdown in Japan has sharpened the debate over nuclear power, which its critics have always described as " high cost and high risk electricity option" that has no place in a sustainable energy future. The current government in Australia opposes atomic energy at home. Germany's parliament decided in 2009 to prolong its dependency on nuclear power, rolling back plans to phase out nuclear power. Even in the United States, where 20 per cent of electricity comes from nuclear power, no new nuclear power plant has been built in the last 30 years. The developments in Japan will also have a bearing in India, where the government has been keen to promote the 'cleaner' but expensive energy source. India rushes blankets
Blankets from Haryana and Punjab are being flown to Japan. A plane-load of blankets left for Japan on Sunday. " India sending good quality woolen blankets for the people of Sendai and others affected by Japan quake. First plane load being readied," tweeted Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. " Discussed this with the Japanese Ambassador in Delhi and we felt this would be the most useful and needed item, given the cold weather conditions in affected areas," she said. Governments of Punjab and Haryana are helping in procuring the blankets. Unimaginable destruction
The humanitarian crisis being faced by Japan is on a scale not seen since the second World War, acknowledged the Japanese Prime Minister on Sunday. It has been a triple tragedy for the nation as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of the quake, tsunami and a nuclear meltodown. Water, food, gasoline and kerosene are all in short supply. An estimated 20,820 buildings have been destroyed or badly damaged, reported Kyodo News Agency. The media quoted the police chief of Myagi Prefecture as saying that 10,000 people were feared killed in Myagi alone. And, as if that were not enough, only 150 miles from Tokyo, radiation is leaking from a nuclear plant crippled by an explosion. Officials were swift to assert that any meltdown, if it came, would not be on anything like the scale or severity of Chernobyl, but thousands of people were evacuated, and iodine distributed to some. It would not be the first nuclear incident where initial assurances proved optimistic. But despite everything, Japan's spirit remains intact. As one anonymous blogger wrote yesterday: "Our grandparents rebuilt Japan after the war and the growth was considered a miracle around the world. We will work to rebuild Japan in the same way again. Don't give up Japan! Don't give up Tohoku [the north-east region]!" A stupendously large task, however, faces it. Friday's quake was the most monstrous that even this, the world's most tremor-prone country, has ever recorded. This was strong enough to leave a 186-mile rupture on the ocean floor, but it was the subsequent tsunami - sending 30ft-high waves lashing into Japan's north-east coast - which has turned a disaster into a cataclysm. The wall of water, moving at an estimated 25 mph, swallowed boats, homes, cars, trees and even small planes, and used these as battering rams as it charged up to six miles inland, demolishing all that stood in its way. The town of Rikuzentakata, population 24,700, in northern Iwate prefecture, looked largely submerged in muddy water, with hardly a trace of houses or buildings of any kind. And in Kesennuma, where 74,000 lived, widespread fires somehow burned, despite a third of the city being submerged. And then there is - or, to be more accurate, was - the port of Sendai, which had the misfortune to be only 80 miles from the epicentre of the 8.9 quake. Here, until Friday early afternoon, was the city of a million people. Now, at least a third of it lies beneath the filthy waters and mud, and what isn't drowned is largely destroyed. The city's Wakabayashi district, which runs directly up to the sea, remained a swampy wasteland, with murky, waist-high water. Most houses were completely flattened, as if a giant bulldozer had swept through. Police said they found 200 to 300 bodies washed up on nearby beaches, and grief-stricken residents searched for their former homes, but, faced with dark waters where streets had been, many couldn't even tell where their houses once stood. Occasionally, there was something recognisable - a chair, a tyre, a beer-cooler. In the city's dock area, cars swept away by the waves sat on top of buildings, on the top of other cars, or jammed into staircases. Rescue workers plied boats through murky waters around flooded structures, while smoke from at least one large fire billowed in the distance. Power and phone reception were cut while hundreds of people lined up outside the few still-operating supermarkets for basic commodities. The petrol stations on streets not covered with water were swamped with people waiting to fill their cars. The situation was similar in scores of other towns and cities along the 1,300-mile eastern coastline hit by the tsunami. Early yesterday morning, Atsushi Koshi, 24, a call-centre worker in the coastal city of Tagajo, about 10 miles east of Sendai, said his cousin remained trapped on the roof of a department store with 200 to 300 other people awaiting rescue. The rest of his family was safe, but he wondered what to do, since the house he shares with his parents was tilting after the quake, and a concrete block wall had fallen apart. In five prefectures, or states, more than 215,000 people are now living in 1,350 temporary shelters. At an evacuation centre in Iwate, more than 1,000 people evacuated there had next to no supplies, gas, electricity, or running water. They had only been allowed one glass of water, one rice ball and half a piece of bread as rations yesterday - a typical allocation in evacuation centres in all the hardest hit areas. Most of all, beyond the most stricken places, people are without power; some four million have no power, one million lack water. Although Tokyo's inner-city transport is tentatively beginning a return to normal, all highways from the capital which lead to quake-hit areas were closed, except for emergency vehicles. Tens of thousands of people had been stranded on Friday with the rail network down, and, despite the city setting up 33 shelters in City Hall, on university campuses and in government offices, many spent the night at 24-hour cafes, hotels and offices. Mobile telephone communications were patchy, and calls to the devastated areas were going unanswered. All this, in a nation which may seem the epitome of industrial efficiency, but is the most heavily indebted major economy in the world. The first estimates of the total insured loss caused by the quake and tsunami were put yesterday at (pounds sterling)9.3 billion - a wickedly unwelcome burden on an economy just starting to show signs of revival. Japan will need all its famed organisational powers in the coming days and weeks. — The Independent |
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It happens in films, but in real life?
A wrecked airplane lies nose-deep in splintered wood from homes in the port city of Sendai. About an hour's drive away, workers in white masks and protective clothing scan thousands of people for radiation. Two days after a ferocious earthquake and tsunami submerged Japan's north-east coast, killing thousands and forcing tens of thousands from their homes, Japan is struggling to comprehend the scale of one of its worst disasters.
"Is it a dream? I just feel like I am in a movie or something," said Ichiro Sakamoto, 50, in Hitachi, a city in Ibaraki Prefecture. "Whenever I am alone I have to pinch my cheek to check whether it's a dream or not." In Sendai, a port city of one million people, survivors and rescue workers picked through piles of rubbish mixed with wood, and other debris from buildings and homes, searching for belongings and removing bodies. "There have been tsunami before but they were just small. No one ever thought that it could be like this," said Michiko Yamada, a 75-year-old in Rikuzentakata, a nearly flattened village in far-northern Iwate prefecture. "The tsunami was black and I saw people on cars and an old couple get swept away right in front of me." In Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, about 105 km south (65 miles) of Sendai, thousands of people evacuated from areas around a crippled nuclear power plant were scanned for radiation exposure as authorities struggled to cope with the aftermath. Although the government insists radiation levels are low following an explosion in the main building of the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, workers wearing white masks and protective clothing used hand held scanners to check everyone arriving for radiation exposure. "There is radiation leaking out, and since the possibility (of exposure) is high, it's quite scary," said 17-year-old Masanori Ono, queuing at a centre in Koriyama city, in Fukushima prefecture. The earthquake was the world's fifth-most powerful in the past century. As many as3,400 buildings were either destroyed or badly damaged. In Rikuzentakata, survivors scrambled to retrieve their belongings, at times clambering over uprooted trees to reach levelled homes. Several neighbourhoods of the city were completely swept away by the tsunami and all that remained was a vast wasteland of mud, pieces of wood, and random household goods, along with a few sturdy buildings that withstod the devastation. Cars were flipped, sometimes atop one another. A train station remained standing, its small building filled with mud and wood. A family photo stuck out of the muddy ground near one of the many destroyed homes. About 1,340 people took refuge at local shelter overnight in a school during near-freezing temperatures. Inside, people slept curled up in the cold, covered in blankets. Some sat on chairs around heaters, talking with family and friends. Worried relatives checked an information board on survivors, some weeping, others crying and huddling in a group. "I am looking for my parents and my older brother," Yuko Abe, 54, said in tears. "Seeing the way the area is, I thought that perhaps they did not make it....I also cannot tell my siblings that live away that I am safe, as mobile phones and telephones are not working." In Tokyo, where many have long feared another powerful earthquake of the scale that killed about 140,000 people in 1923, many watched seemingly endless televised footage of fires, collapsed buildings and the deadly waves. "Even in the bar, we kept staring at the news," said Kasumi, a 26-year-old woman meeting a friend for a drink in the central district of Akasaka on Saturday night. "I looked at the tsunami swallowing houses and it seemed like a film." |
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7 Pak nationals held off Gujarat coast
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New Delhi, March 13
Senior BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi, who currently heads the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Parliamentary panel looking into the 2G scam, is a man in a tearing hurry. With his term as the PAC chairman slated to expire this month-end, Joshi is racing against time to complete the 2G report.
India is also planning to deploy BrahMos on the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft
(FGFA) being co-developed with Russia. “If we are able to bring the weight of the missile below two
tonnes, we can deploy it on the FGFA and we are looking to do that in the future,” Pillai said, while adding that light combat aircraft Tejas could not carry it.
