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Gowda submits resignation to Gadkari,
Shettar to be new Karnataka CM
NEW DELHI: Ending the political impasse in Karnataka, BJP on Sunday announced that
Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda has submitted his resignation to the party and will be replaced by BS Yeddyurappa's loyalist Jagadish Shettar.
The BJP high command bowed to Lingayat leader Yeddyurappa'a demand in view of the
Assembly elections due early next year and agreed to replace 59-year-old Gowda, a Vokkaliga leader, with
Rural Development Minister Shettar, 56, who is a Lingayat.
"In view of the current political situation in Karnataka, Sadanand Gowda has handed over his resignation to me. In his tenure, he did good work and the performance of our government was very good.
"There were no complaints against him on grounds of corruption but keeping the party's interest in mind, as a good party worker, he has resigned in the interest of the organisation," BJP president Nitin Gadkari told reporters here.
He also announced that he has accepted Gowda's resignation on behalf of the party.
"Our party has decided to hand over the leadership to Jagadish Shettar," Gadkari said.
Senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley will go to Bengaluru tomorrow to oversee the formal election of Shettar as
Chief Minister of Karnataka by the party MLAs.
Asked if deputy chief ministers would also be appointed by the party as was reported earlier, Gadkari said no such decision has been taken on this issue.
With the Assembly elections just 10 months away, the BJP central leadership realised that to put up a "good show", it will have to fight under the leadership of Yeddyurappa, whom many see as the undisputed leader of the Lingayat community which has always voted for the party, BJP sources said. — PTI 
Jundal, 26/11 dominate Krishna-Khar meeting
TOKYO: External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Sunday met his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar in Tokyo and pressed Islamabad to act on disclosures made by 26/11 handler Abu Jundal that links Pakistani state agencies with the Mumbai terror attack.
The meeting between Krishna and Khar took place on the sidelines of the international conference on Afghanistan in the Japanese capital.
Krishna raised the disclosures made by Abu Jundal, which corroborate claims of David Headley, another 26/11 plotter now in the US custody, about the involvement of Pakistani state actors in the 2008 attack.
The issue figured prominently in discussions between Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani in New Delhi this month.
India had then asked Pakistan to act on the information on Jundal's disclosures and underlined that bringing perpetrators of 26/11 carnage to justice would be the biggest confidence-building measure between the two countries.
Pakistan has denied the involvement of state actors in the Mumbai attack and offered a joint probe into Jundal's disclosures. — IANS
CBI
likely to make 'some significant arrests' in Tatra case
NEW DELHI: Armed with "some crucial" evidence, the CBI is likely to make "some significant arrests" soon in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the procurement and supply of Tatra all-terrain vehicles.
CBI officials, who carried out an on-site verification of BEML facilities in Bangalore for the production of Tatra vehicles, have gathered "some crucial" evidence which indicate alleged involvement of some senior officials of the public sector undertaking, sources said.
The sources said based on the report of the officials, the agency will soon call BEML chairman VRS Natarajan, Vectra chairman Ravinder Rishi and other former senior officials of BEML for questioning.
They said after another round of questioning, the agency may make "some significant arrests" in connection with the case within 10 days.
Natarajan and Rishi have already been questioned by the agency in connection with the case.
Both have refuted allegations of any wrong-doing in connection with the case.
During the inspection, the CBI officials found "very primitive level facilities" where "so-called indeginisation" of vehicles takes place for the supplying them to Indian Army, the sources said.
They said despite the clause of indigenisation and upgradation of technology in the original agreement signed with Tatra a.S, the indigenisation process remained way behind satisfactory levels.
The sources said the trucks, which are now assembled by the BEML and supplied to the Army, have "not performed well in higher altitude and despite red flags raised by Army several times, the PSU continued supplying older technology vehicles."
The CBI sources said the DRDO also procured vehicles from Tatra for its missile systems which fared much better than those procured by the Army through the BEML.
The agency is probing alleged irregularities in assigning supply from the Czechoslovakia-based Tatra, with which the agreement was originally signed in 1986, to the Tatra-Sipox UK owned by Rishi in 1997 showing it as Original Equipment Manufacturer and the fully-owned subsidiary of the Czech company which was against rules, they said. — PTI
Centre mulls bringing RTI in school curriculum
NEW DELHI: With an aim to generate awareness on the Right to Information Act, the Centre is considering introduction of lessons on various facets of the transparency law in the school curriculum.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as a nodal agency for matters related to RTI Act, is in talks with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for the purpose, officials said.
"The government is coordinating with NCERT about possible inclusion of lessons on RTI in school curriculum. A roadmap is likely to be devised soon," a DoPT official said.
The NCERT conducts and supports educational research and offers training in educational research methodology, besides developmental activities in school education.
Officials said the proposal is at a nascent stage and a final decision will only be taken after consultation with the NCERT.
The decision was taken after seeing the growing number of RTI applications filed in central and state government run departments.
"The RTI Act has helped in improving the level of governance. Applicants have brought both the success stories and anomalies in the functioning of some departments. We want that the Act be widely publicised and especially school goers be targeted," the official said.
The RTI Act may be taught, as curriculum or in the form of non-mandatory supplementary books, for the students between upper primary and higher secondary level (class VII and XII). — PTI
Dara Singh continues to be critical
MUMBAI: Wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh, who suffered a cardiac arrest, is still in a critical condition, doctors said on Sunday.
Known for his roles in films like ‘King Kong’ and ‘Faulad’, Singh was admitted to Kokilaben hospital last evening and since then has been in a critical condition.
“He is extremely critical and on ventilator. He is on a high dose of medication to support his blood pressure. We hope to see some improvement through the day,” Dr Ram Narain, Chief Operating Officer at Kokilaben hospital, told PTI.
“But we will continue to keep a watch on him,” he said.
Yesterday, the 83-year-old actor’s son Vindu had said that his father was serious.
“He is serious. There is blood clot in his brain or he has suffered heart attack... We are not sure what has happened. We have been told that he is under observation for 24 hours,” Vindu said.
The veteran actor played the role of Hanuman in Ramanand Sagar’s television series ‘Ramayan’ and was last seen in Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Jab We Met’ in 2007, where he acted as Kareena Kapoor’s grandfather. — PTI
Ladakh landslide: Army rescues 400 tourists
JAMMU: Over 400 tourists and locals trapped at the Changla pass in Kashmir's Leh district after a massive landslide have been rescued by the security forces, an official said.
Nearly 150 vehicles with tourists and locals were rescued by an Indian Army team late Saturday and were offered food and shelter, an army spokesman said.
The Changla pass is at an altitude of 17,590 feet above sea level. The pass falls en route to Pangong lake, one third of which falls in India and the rest in China. The lake is one of the main attractions for tourists visiting Leh. — IANS
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