L A T E S T      N E W S

Cong indicates partial rollback of petrol price hike

New Delhi: With the UPA allies crying foul over petrol price hike, the Congress today indicated that there might be a "partial rollback" of the hike in the next few days and urged the government to provide "healing touch" to the common man.

"The Congress party is very concerned about the price rise and calls upon the government to take measures, and hopes the government will look into the matter very seriously," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here.

He said the party believed that the government would not only take efforts to control the price rise but also consider other ways and means to give relief to people, adding that such a "healing touch" and urgent measures were required.

A senior party leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, made it clear that the partial rollback of petrol price would probably happen once Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from abroad tomorrow. The leader also said the consultations with other UPA allies on this issue would also take place after PM's arrival.

At the AICC briefing, Singhvi, however, refused to go into the specifics of the measures that are likely to be taken in this regard.

"I am not going into the specifics. We are not here to fetter the jurisdiction and work of the government. Whichever means has the desired effect will be highly desirable. But we leave it to the discretion of the government to decide these steps," he said. — PTI

Trinamool protests petrol price hike

Kolkata: UPA's largest ally Trinamool Congress on Friday strongly protested the unilateral petrol price hike, but said it has not taken any decision to pull out of the government and entrusted party supremo Mamata Banerjee to have the 'final word' on the issue.

"The Trinamool Congress parliamentary party registers its strong protest with the UPA government for keeping allies in the dark while taking such a decision which has angered the people," party Chief Whip in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay told reporters after an emergency meeting.

"No decision was taken to pull out of the government.

We will report back to party chief Mamata Banerjee. Whatever decision will be taken by her," Bandopadhyay said when asked if the party would pull out of the UPA government. "Our party chief Mamata Banerjee is angry that she was not consulted and UPA's largest ally was kept in the dark. The way in which the petrol price hike was effected, was opposed by our party," Bandopadhyay said.

Maintaining that it was difficult for the Trinamool Congress to accept the petrol price hike, he said, "We are deeply concerned as it has affected the common man." The meeting, held at Trinamool Bhavan, was attended by all party Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, besides Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and union ministers of state and chaired by all-India general secretary and minister of state for Shipping Mukul Roy.

Bandopadhyay earlier said that the "lack of coordination" in the UPA was manifest in the unilateral decisions that the Centre was taking on vital issues. The Trinamool parliamentary party leader said the party's suggestion for a meeting with UPA allies at least once in two or three months had not been heeded.

Satyam's founder Ramalinga Raju, brother granted bail

New Delhi: In a relief to Satyam's disgraced founder B Ramalinga Raju and his brother B Rama Raju, the Supreme Court on Friday granted them bail in the multi-crore accounting fraud involving the software firm. Along with Raju brothers, a Bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra also granted bail to Satyam's former Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh each with two sureties of same amount.

While enlarging the trio on bail, the court directed them to surrender their passports before the trial court if they had not done that so far.

There are ten accused in the case. While five others were granted bail by the apex court on October 12, two were given bail earlier by other courts. The court also allowed CBI to approach it for modification of its bail order in case the accused were found misusing their freedom granted by it. While passing the order, the court took into account the fact that the accused have already spent two years and eight months behind bars for their alleged offences carrying a maximum punishment of seven years.

Hazare to campaign against Cong if Jan Lokpal Bill not passed

New Delhi: Changing his stand, Anna Hazare on Friday said he will campaign against Congress in the five poll-bound states if the UPA government fails to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed in the Winter Session of Parliament.

"Let anybody say anything. I will campaign against those who did not bring the bill. I will go and campaign and say do not give vote to Congress if the Bill is not passed in the Winter Session of Parliament," he said addressing a press conference shortly after breaking his 19-day 'vow of silence' at Rajghat.

Hazare said if the Bill is not passed, he will fast for three days and then will go for a nation-wide tour.

Asked if he will campaign against BJP, he said he will not campaign for the party. "I won't campaign for BJP. There is no difference between Congress and BJP," he said.

However, Hazare praised Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri for bringing a strong Lokayukta Bill and said he will honour the Chief Minister here for his "bold step".

On Monday, Hazare had blogged that he would campaign in the five poll-bound states if the bill was not passed but would not name any party. Team Anna had come under attack for campaigning against the Congress during the Hissar Lok Sabha by-poll with critics saying they are indulging in politics though they were claiming to be campaigning against corruption.

Govt to unveil National Telecom Policy in January, 2012

New Delhi: The much-awaited National Telecom Policy-2011 will be unveiled in January next year, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday. The policy was earlier expected to be unveiled by December this year, but delays in receiving recommendations have pushed the date to next year.

"The (draft) policy I have already announced as I had committed. Industry wants some more time to respond, we will give them time. All what will happen is finalisation of the policy will happen in January instead of December," Sibal said here at an event. He added that Trai's recommendations on the National Telecom Policy have just come in and the Department of Telecom is looking into the same. 

"The Trai recommendations have just come, we will consider them, call Telecom Commission (meet)... move to Cabinet," Sibal said. He said the media was confusing between Trai's recommendations and the Telecom Policy. "People must understand the difference between policy and Trai's recommendation. The Trai recommendations deal with the nitty-gritty of mergers and acquisition and all the other specific issues which never go in to policy," Sibal said. 

The draft of the National Telecom Policy, 2011, was announced by Sibal in early October with a major thrust on transparency, an improved investment climate and promotion of consumer interest. Under the draft plan, the Telecom Ministry is also looking to facilitate nation-wide free roaming, frame an exit policy for operators to surrender licences, give a push to indigenous manufacturing and promote an eco-system for development of a self-dependent telecom industry.

Yeddyurappa’s bail hearing adjourned to Nov 8

Bangalore: Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa will continue to remain in jail as the state high court on Friday adjourned to November 8 further hearing on his second bail application in a graft case.

Justice BV Pinto, who on Thursday granted conditional bail to Yeddyurappa in another corruption case, said he needed time to study it and wanted some more clarification. With this, hopes of walking free on Friday have eluded 68-year-old Yeddyurappa who is in judicial custody for the past 21 days.

"I am still studying the case. The study is in progress and not yet completed. I need further clarifications", Justice Pinto observed. Justice Pinto had on Thursday allowed the bail plea by Yeddyurappa in one of the two complaints in which he has landed in jail and reserved order for Friday on the other.

Even as Yeddyurappa got relief on a complaint in which he has been accused of denotifying government land for personal gains, the order on another complaint was awaitedon Friday. Yeddyurappa, who has been accused of illegally denotifying land, is facing trouble for his alleged involvement in the scam that saw his family members getting prime land at throwaway prices during his Chief Ministership.

Yeddyurappa and his family members have filed anticipatory bail applications in three other cases on which the hearing was adjourned to November 8 by the high court.

Besides Yeddyurappa, his two sons, BY Raghavendra, a Lok Sabha member and B Y Vijendra and son-in-law RN Sohan Kumar who are among the other accused, have sought anticipatory bail, fearing arrest in the complaints, filed by advocate Sirajin Basha, proceedings of which are on before the Lokayukta court.

ED to attach assets of Hasan Ali

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate will attach an estimated Rs 50 crore of assets of Pune stud farm owner and alleged tax defaulter Hasan Ali Khan and his Kolkata-based associate Kashinath Tapuriah in a money laundering case.

The Adjudicating Authority of the agency based here recently endorsed an order of ED's Mumbai office in this regard, paving way for attachment of the duo's immovable properties in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi and other assets, agency sources said.

As per the procedure, a regional unit of ED has to get endorsed its attachment order under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) from the Adjudicating Authority.

The attachment order, according to the sources, includes Ali's high-end imported cars, including Mercedes and Porche, a flat in Pune's posh Koregaon Park area and a residential building in Mumbai besides Tapuriah's property on Prithviraj Road in Delhi.

Khan, accused of money laundering, has a Rs 62,000 crore tax liability and penalty proceedings are pending against him.

The total pending tax demand against him and his associates has been pegged at Rs 89,000 crore by the Income Tax Department.

Under the PMLA, the ED has powers to attach properties of a person as "proceeds of crime" to obtain the amount that has been laundered, the sources said.

Khan and Tapuriah are now lodged in jail under judicial custody in Mumbai after they were arrested by the agency earlier this year for alleged contravention of anti-money laundering laws in India and abroad. The I-T department has raised a tax demand (without penalty) of Rs 50,329 crore against Khan, Rs 49 crore against his wife Rheema Hasan Ali Khan, Rs 591 crore against Tapuriah, Rs 20,540 crore against Tapuriah's wife Chandrika and a Rs 336 crore against a business firm floated by Tapuriah -- R M Investment and Trading Company Private Limited.

Time to change policy towards Pakistan: US lawmaker

Washington: Pakistan is making no effort to reign in the Lashkar-e-Taiba or other terrorist organisations and it was time America changed its policy towards the country, a top US lawmaker has said.

"It is not a secret that LeT which was responsible for the horrific November 2006 massacre of civilians in Mumbai, an attack that clearly implicated the Pakistani military, operates openly in Pakistan," Congressman Gary Ackerman said at a Congressional hearingon Thursday. The Government of Pakistan, he said, has made "no effort to interfere, disrupt, arrest, or shut down any of these groups or their activities" and it is "no secret" that Osama Bin Laden was living comfortably in Abbottabad.

"Pakistan insists it had no knowledge or complicity in his presence there. I'd like to think that if the most wanted criminal in the history of criminals purchased a sizable parcel of land and built a secure compound less than a mile from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, just 32 miles from our capital, we would know about it.

"Pakistan is not our pal, our buddy or our chum. It is a sovereign state pursuing its own self-defined interests in what it perceives to be a tough neighborhood, but they help make it tough," Ackerman said.

As such, the lawmaker demanded that it is time the United States changes its policy towards Pakistan.

"... We need to rid ourselves of the absurd notion that we can change Pakistan, reform its government, or create real trust. We have neither the capacity nor the capability, and we certainly don't have the spare billions to keep throwing away on these fool's errands.

"No more magical thinking. It's time to grow up and deal with Pakistan as it is, not as we hope or wish it to be," he said at the hearing on Afghanistan and Pakistan held by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Banned terror outfit involved in Advani bomb case

Madurai: Two former hardcore members of banned terror outfit Al-Umma have been identified as the masterminds behind the plot to target the convoy of BJP leader L K Advani during his yatra near here and a manhunt is on to nab them, Special Investigation Team officials said here.

"Police" Fakruddin and Bilal Mallick, close associates of slain terrorist Imam Ali, had started hatching the conspiracy as the schedule of Advani's yatra was announced last month, they said.

The STF suspect that the two were hiding in either Bangalore or Andhra Pradesh and special teams have been sent there for investigation, the officials said.

Fakruddin, son of a retired police constable, was involved in a blast case at Ovamalai in the district in 2002, in which Imam Ali was arrested. He had helped Ali to escape when he was being taken to Palayamkottai prison. Ali, a dreaded terrorist, was killed in an encounter in Bangalore in 2002.

Bilal Malik was one of the accused in the murder of Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Kalidass five years ago. When he was in Vellore Prison he had attacked the jailor and a case was still pending, the police said.

A powerful pipe bomb was unearthed from under a bridge and defused on October 27 at Alampatti village, about 30 km from here, on the route of Advani's yatra.

The Police on Nov 1 arrested Ismath and Abdullah Rahman, both city residents, and detained one Usman Ali on Wednesday in connection with the incident.

STF officials said Ismath and Rahman were only perpetrators who had given their vehicles. "It was information about the motorbike of Ismath, a watermelon seller, which was noticed continuously for three days on the bridge at Alampatti, that helped police to nab the two culprits," they said.