Chennai, July 30
Former DMK Minister Veerapandi Arumugam and a party MLA were today arrested in land grabbing cases and their leader MK Stalin was detained during a stir, prompting DMK chief M Karunanidhi to accuse the Jayalalithaa government of indulging in political vendetta.

The police arrested former minister Veerapandi Arumugam and DMK MLA J Anbazhagan in two different land grabbing cases and detained Stalin, Karunanidhi’s son, for staging a road roko near Tiruvarur, leading to sporadic protests across the state.

Arumugam was arrested in a land grab case in Salem when he appeared before the police as per his bail conditions in two cases filed earlier. He has been lodged in a Coimbatore prison. Protesting his arrest, Arumugam's followers pelted stones at buses in Salem, injuring two drivers, the police said.

Anbazhagan, party legislator from Chepauk constituency in Chennai, was picked up by a team of Tirupur police a land grab case filed in that district.

Stalin was held when he along with his aides allegedly squatted on the road after police sought to take into custody Tiruvarur District DMK secretary Kalaivanan in connection with a case related to the death of a school student in a road mishap yesterday. Stalin was later let off, the police said.

Jayalalithaa had blamed the DMK's school boycott call to press for implementation of the uniform education system for the death of the boy, alleging Kalaivanan instigated his partymen to force the students, including the boy, to go out of the school.

The boy died when the bus in which he was returning home was involved in an accident. DMK workers courted arrest at several places protesting against the detention of Stalin. Chennai Mayor M Subramaniam was among those taken into custody, the police said.

Unfazed by the spate of arrests, Karunanidhi said in Chennai that the DMK would go ahead with its scheduled state-wide protest on August 1 against “foisting” of “false cases” against his partymen.

“Jayalalithaa's vendetta and the police action are exceeding the limits," Karunanidhi said shortly after Stalin was detained when he visited Koradacheri village near Tiruvarur to condole the death of the boy. To a question, he said Jayalalithaa needed no reason to wreak vengeance (on the DMK).

The DMK had called for the protest in the backdrop of a number of party functionaries coming under the police scanner over land grabbing charges.

Fulfilling one of its electoral promises, the ruling AIADMK has launched a crackdown on land grabbing during the previous DMK regime and set up special police cells across the state to deal with the complaints.

At Kumbakonam, 300 DMK workers were taken into custody when they tried to stage road roko to protest Stalin's detention.

A clash broke out between DMK and AIADMK workers and a vehicle belonging to a AIADMK functionary was damaged. Following this, the rival groups hurled stones at each other and five buses, including one private vehicle, were damaged.

In Puducherry, about 300 DMK workers courted arrest when they staged picketing at an important traffic junction.

A Coimbatore report said 250 DMK activists were arrested in various places in the city, when they attempted to stage picketing. The arrested include former minister Pongalur N Palanisamy, former MP M Ramanathan and Coimbatore Corporation Deputy Mayor N Karthik, police said. — PTI 

MK Stalin was detained when he along with his aides allegedly squatted on the road in protest aginst police inaction in a student’s death case. He was later let off

Former DMK Minister Veerapandi Arumugam was arrested in a land grab case in Salem when he appeared before the police as per his bail conditions in two cases filed earlier

Anbazhagan, party legislator from Chepauk constituency in Chennai, was picked up by a team of Tirupur police a land grab case filed in that district

Chennai, July 30
Taking on the UPA government, Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK today demanded an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram on former Telecom Minister A Raja’s charges in 2G spectrum scam of "Himalayan proportions".

"The Prime Minister and the Home Minister have not given any reply days after the former Telecom Minister had named them in connection with the scam of Himalayan proportions," said a resolution adopted at the AIADMK Executive Council meeting chaired by party general secretary Jayalalithaa here.

It said the "Congress president and UPA chairperson has not expressed her opinion," on the issue so far. "The people have a right to know the truth. The Executive insists that in deference to the people's views, the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Congress president should immediately reply to Raja’s charges," the resolution said.

In his deposition before the court early this week, Raja had dragged the Prime Minister and Chidamabaram, the then Finance Minister, in the 2G case, saying the issue of sale of equity by spectrum licencees was discussed with them. The resolution comes close on the heels of Jayalalithaa asking her party MPs to take on the Congress on a host of issues, including the 2G spectrum scam and spiralling prices of commodities, in Parliament session beginning Monday. — PTI 

New Delhi, July 30
For the first time, India’s frontline fighter aircraft, Sukhoi-30-MKI, will be based very close to the Indo-Pak border, only around 150 km away, at Halwara, near Ludhiana.

Sources in the IAF said the runway reconstruction at the Halwara airbase was nearing completion and the first squadron of the Sukhois would move there by the end of the year or at best early next year.

The twin-engined Russian-origin Sukhois, which are now produced under licence in India, are one of the leading warplanes of the world. These are set to become deadlier with the slated fitting of super-sonic cruise missile BrahMos under its belly.

A Sukhoi-30-MKI flying at top speed of around two mach, about 2,450 kmph, will be able to reach the western border of India within 4 minutes of the take-off from Halwara.

The original plan was to have Sukhois at Halwara at the start of this year itself, however, it was held back due to the runway reconstruction project. The stationing of the warplane is significant as it can travel up to 5,200 km in one go and carry around 8,000 kgs of weaponry. As part of the beefing up of operations in eastern India, some Sukhois have been stationed at Chabua and Tezpur.

The warplane will provide additional capability to the IAF, which has a Sukhoi-30-MKI base at Bareilly in western Uttar Pradesh.

Over the past few months, the entire lot of 62 Russian-built MiG-29s has been deployed at Adampur, near Jalandhar. All three squadrons, around 62 fighters, are now based at Adampur which is nation’s second largest IAF base and had MiG 29s for long. Now all the MiG 29s from across Gujarat have been moved to Adampur, around 100 km away from the Indo-Pak border and less than 250 km from the Chinese border on the eastern side. The MiG 29s are under the process of being upgraded to carry better weapons, a state-of-the-art radar and advanced avionics.

Another important addition would be midair re-fuelling capability. A more powerful and latest series-III version of the existing RD 33 engine of the MiG 29 will be housed in the upgraded planes. A multi-functional radar will guide weapons with better precision. It will also enable the pilot to “see” even small targets like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A new weapon-control system will enable better targeting of aims and also upgrade the weapon delivery system. The existing flying range of the MIG-29 is around 2,100 km. Post add-ons, it will go up to 3,500 km.

After the upgrade, the MiG-29s, inducted in the late 1980s, will be just a shade lower than the Sukhoi-30-MKI in strike capability.

Meanwhile, the IAF has launched a major drive to fill vacancies of pilots. As per latest figures, the IAF has a shortage of 1,016 officers out of which 400 are the vacancies of pilots. The IAF has a sanctioned strength of 12,211 officers. It will be adding newer warplanes in the next 6 to 8 years as the supply of the 126 MMRCA fighter planes will start while the supply of the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) is expected to commence in 2019.

Chandigarh, July 30
Eighty-six per cent of country’s future teachers are not eligible to teach as only 97,919 out of the 7.1 lakh candidates passed the first-ever Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) which was held last month. The test, which will from now on be a qualifying, benchmark for new teacher appointments for CBSE schools will be conducted annually as per the directives of the HRDMinistry. The CTET certificate is now mandatory for any new appointments to CBSE-affiliated schools, especially government ones.

This dismal show in the first-ever test has however left the board officials perturbed over the quality of educators. “Implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 requires the recruitment of teachers across the country in a time-bound manner.

Despite the huge demand, the act stresses that quality will not be compromised at any cost. The test is a way to ensure that persons recruited as teachers possess the essential aptitude and ability to meet the challenges of teaching at the primary and upper primary level. Poor results has brought not just the candidate’s capabilities but even the standard of BEd education is under the scanner,” said a senior official from the CBSE.

On their part, the candidates have blamed the lengthy question paper and a high qualifying percentage as the key reasons for their failure in the exam. There were two papers in the eligibility test, each consisting of 150 multiple choice questions. Paper I is for those who want to teach from Class I to V and paper-II is for those candidates who wish to teach from Class VI to VIII. 

Chandigarh, July 30
BJP president Nitin Gadkari today accused the UPA government of adopting double standards on Lokayukta reports, saying the government insisted action be taken on the reports when they pertained to the BJP states, but remained silent when the Lokayukta spoke out against a Congress-ruled state like Delhi.

Participating in a regional conference on policies of the UPA - a threat to federalism at the PGIMER, here, the BJP president was at his combative best and even gave a bugle call to fight against the discrimination being meted out to the NDA-ruled states. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal seconded this.

Without naming Karnataka or its Chief Minister YS Yeddyurappa, the BJP president asked why no action had been taken against Sheila Dixit when the Shunglu committee indicted her with regard to the Commonwealth Games scandal. He said similarly the Congress continued to maintain that both Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram were above board despite the fact that they had been named in the 2G scam.

The BJP leader also accused the Centre of blackmailing leaders opposed to them by misusing the CBI whom be termed as the Congress Bureau of Investigation.

Gadkari said the CBI had twice changed its affidavit in the Supreme Court in the case filed against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. He said similarly the affidavit in a case against former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh had also been changed once.

Gadkari also seconded the “discriminations” faced by Punjab and Haryana as described by their Chief Ministers.

Badal said despite agriculture being a state subject and a 60 per cent contribution in the national grain pool, it had no say in the fixation of MSP (maximum support price). He also claimed that all Union ministers were taking funds and infrastructure to their areas. He said Punjab was continuously discriminated against by the Congress-led governments and called for an agitation to bring in federalism in the country. Badal said even Punjab ministers at the Centre had no say with Ashwani Kumar being given a “nikamma” department.

Dhumal pointed out that the inter-state council had not met for three years. He said the states were being made responsible for monitoring of flagship programmes even though they were run by societies. Dhumal said the centre had failed to provide a rail line linking Himachal to Leh despite the fact that China had laid out 16 such lines as well as airstrips along the border with Tibet. He said establishment of such a rail link would reduce the cost of airlifting supplies as well as tanks to Leh.

New Delhi, July 30
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said today that the attitude of the Delhi High Court over the plea of jailed MP Suresh Kalmadi to attend proceedings of Lok Sabha was “not conducive to strengthening of Parliamentary democracy”.

"While judicial proceedings are important, Parliament proceedings are also important,” he said The court had observed that “there is no such important issue going to take place in Parliament that if you (Kalmadi) do not attend the session, then the government will fall”.

At the same time, Chatterjee, who has strong views on judicial activism, made it clear that “it is certainly for the judiciary to decide whether a case is made out or not dehors the right to attend Parliament.” The legal definition of “dehors” is outside or beyond the bounds of.

Chatterjee insisted that every Member of Parliament is representing a constituency. “The problems of the people may arise today, tomorrow or the day after. Therefore, to apply what has happened in the past is not proper.” Kalmadi, who is an accused in the alleged multi-crore scam in the CWG projects, case has sought permission to attend the monsoon session of Parliament beginning Monday. He was yesterday asked by the high court to produce his attendance record in Lok Sabha for the last five years. — PTI 

Pune, July 30
In a feat that can boost the spirit of adventure among Indian women, 33-year-old Sucheta from Pune, has successfully crossed the 1,623-km-stretch of the Gobi desert, the largest in Asia and the fifth in the world, in a multi-national expedition.

Sucheta, who was part of a 13-member team led by Ripley Davenport, accomplished the expedition on July 15, nine days before the stipulated 60-day deadline, braving rigours and heat of the sands in Mongolia. She became the first Indian woman to cross Gobi desert.

Only seven of the 13 stayed and lasted the course, Sucheta Kadethankar being one of the three successful women trekkers along with one each from Australia and Singapore. Six of them opted out of the expedition due to either injuries or of their own volition.

“The main challenge in crossing the Gobi was how to keep oneself motivated to complete the mission. In contrast to the visual appetite one gets while on a mountain expedition with a changing scenario at every step, you are confronted by the monotonous sight of an unending stretch of sand in a desert trek,” said Sucheta, on her return to the city.

She walked an average 25-32 km per day after setting out on the expedition on May 25 from the north of the Khongoryn Els, the landmark sand dunes in Mongolia along with the teammates and of course camels, the ship of desert carrying provisions.

“As expected we encountered extreme weather — hot days and cold nights — and sandstorms during our journey. But there was also the most pleasant sight of an oasis that seemed to make up for the rigours of the trek momentarily,” Sucheta, who is supposed to be the first Indian woman to have crossed the great desert in a record time, said. — PTI 

Mumbai, July 30
The Maharashtra's Minorities Commission today called for the arrest of Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy for his “extreme xenophobic right-wing thoughts” expressed in a newspaper article.

State Minorities Commission vice-chairman Abraham Mathai wrote to Mumbai police chief Arup Patnaik, urging him to initiate criminal charges against Swamy under Section 153 (A) of the IPC.

“I am writing to you following uproar and a feeling of insecurity among the minority community caused by an article written by Dr Subramanian Swamy entitled ‘How to wipe out Islamic terror’ published in the DNA of July 16, 2011,” the letter said.

Swamy, a doctorate from Harvard, penned an oped that advocated denial of voting rights to non-Hindus with the goal of stemming terrorist attacks in India.

“The extreme xenophobic right-wing thoughts expressed in it are quite disturbing and the article is socially irresponsible and completely anti-Islamic. It is also alarming that Swamy is trying to incite Islamophobia using his freedom of expression to propagate hate through stereotyping,” Mathai said.

Mathai also said there were “Hindu terrorists” as well in jails who have equally perpetrated heinous acts.

“As a matter of fact, the Muslim community has as much stake as any in the progress, security and well being of India as a nation. Swamy’s bizarre solution is converting Muslims into Hinduism, rather than allowing each individual to choose to live as he/she wishes as expressed in Article 25 of the Constitution,” he said. — IANS