L A T E S T      N E W S

GMR seeks over $ 800 mn; Maldives insists on forensic audit

MALE: Indian infrastructure firm GMR will seek a compensation of over $800 million from Maldives for the termination of its airport deal here but Male is insisting on a “forensic audit” as it feels the actual amount would be less than half.

“We have sent a letter to the Maldivian government indicating a number of more than $800 million as compensation amount. This is our initial estimate. The final figure would be based upon various calculations, loss of profit among others,” GMR (Airports) CFO Sidharath Kapur said.

The Maldivian government, however, debunked the calculations and insisted on getting a forensic audit done through an international firm.

“We will go in for a forensic audit as we want to see how much money has poured in to GMR coffers through the Male International Airport and how much actual money has been spent here. As per our information, GMR has cashed in only $150 million of the about $350 loan it had bagged through a bank,” Maldives President Mohamed Waheed’s press secretary Masood Imad said.

Asked if GMR is open to a forensic audit, Kapur told PTI, “Our books are transparent. The concession agreement signed with Maldives government did not have the clause of forensic audit. Having said that, I must add that we don’t have any objection to an audit but it has to come through proper legal process”.

Sources in the Maldivian government say that the compensation amount, as per their calculations, should come to about a lower limit of $150 million and an upper limit of $350 million.

“We will present our case before the Singapore Court and let them take the call,” a source said.

The $500 million airport project contract awarded to GMR for modernising and operating the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA), signed in 2010 during the previous regime of Mohamed Nasheed, was “unilaterally” terminated by the current government on November 27.

The airport was taken over by the Maldives Airports Company Limited after a high-voltage legal tussle in which GMR had initially got a stay order on the termination from the Singapore High Court.

However, the Singapore Supreme Court ruled on November 6, a day before the notice period expired, that Maldives has the power to take over the airport on November 6.

Replying to a query if GMR is not welcome in Maldives anymore, Masood said, “We don’t have anything against GMR. We had objection to the contract that was signed under dubious conditions. We will in the future initiate a lot of infrastructure projects and GMR is welcome to bid for it.”

However, sources in the know said that the “unlawful” termination of the contract sends a “negative signal” to foreign investors, a stand taken by Indian government too.

“It now feels that any contract signed with a particular regime can be scrapped when a new government comes in. It is a risky proposition,” a source said.

Asked if Maldives will seek fresh bids for the modernisation and the operations of the airport, Imad said the cabinet has given the nod to set up a new company called Maldives International Airport Limited that will takeover from MACL. However, he added the structure of MIAL is yet to be finalised.

Refuting the allegations that the move to terminate the contract was a political one to whip up emotions before the elections next year, Imad said, “Protests against the contract have been taking place since the first day it was signed by Nasheed. There were regular protests and marches happening“.

He added, “We had a set of issues that needed to be looked into after we came to power. We are tackling them one by one and airport issue was one of them. We consulted reputed international law firms and they agreed with us that the contract was not valid. It is only then we terminated“.

“The President has not even said if he might or might not run for Presidency. It is completely wrong to say that it was done for political mileage. We are only setting the wrong done by Nasheed right,” he added. — PTI

Walmart case: Law will take its own course, says govt 

NEW DELHI: The government today said that law will take its own course if investigations establish that there has been any violation by global retail giant Walmart in its attempts to gain entry into the Indian market.

It also said that it was not proper to make any judgement one way or the either before probe is completed.

"If at all any investigation does conclusively establish that there has been a violation of the Indian laws....law will take its own course," Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told Karan Thapar's Devil's Advocate on CNN-IBN.

He was responding to a question on the ED probing alleged violation of investment rules by Walmart in India and charges that Walmart invested in India even before the government took a policy decision on FDI in retail.

Tewari at the same time repeatedly cautioned against "innuendos and insinuations" till an inquiry is completed.

He said government has already announced a probe by a former judge into the allegations of Walmart spending money on lobbying to get entry into Indian market and that now "the inquiry commission should be allowed to come to its independent conclusion.

"I do not think it is proper to second guess the results of an inquiry. Let the inquiry play itself out. We would not put the cart before the horse," he said.

Tewari also hit out at the BJP over the issue alleging that the principal opposition has "reversed criminal jurisprudence on its head".

"They make an allegation, then they reiterate it and they start believing it and then they ultimately expect the country to convict a person without a trial," Tewari said, adding "if all this process exonerates Wal-Mart completely, who is going to compensate individuals, associations or companies for the damages done as a result".

The Union Minister also exuded optimism that it will be able to pass the crucial bills on banking, pension and insurance reforms passed in Parliament despite the existing political contradictions as "the real faultline in this country is communalism versus pluralism".

Tewari also dismissed questions on whether a recent judgement by the Supreme Court on cases against SP Mulayam Singh has helped the government unintentionally.

"Those are parallel facts. Criminal investigations, judicial adjudications follow a particular track. Politics follows its own track and there is no convergence," he said.

The minister said that the government is hopeful, engaged and optimistic about the passage of the crucial bills on banking, pension and insurance and these are very important bills for the development of the country.

On the issue of lobbying, Tewari at one point even said, albeit in his "individual capacity" that India should make a Lobbying Disclosures Act like the US, which makes it compulsory for political lobbyists to be registered and make periodic disclosures of amount spent.

"Time has come. We need to put in place a statutory architecture, which makes these declarations essentials, even legislators, MPs and people in the executive, if they have in the past or continue to represent a particular company or a group of company, that interest must be declared even before they participate in a debate," Tewari said.

At the same time, he sought to make a difference between lobbying and illegal gratification.

"How can you be certain that lobbying automatically translates into illegal gratification? There is nothing to suggest either in jurisprudence or otherwise that the term lobbying is synonymous with illegal gratification. It could it equally couldn't be. Therefore, an inquiry will bring out the facts and Govt has agreed to inquiry," Tewari said.

He also stressed that when the government makes a policy, it does not facilitate only one company's coming in when repeatedly asked about the controversies surrounding Walmart.

Tewari also accused BJP of "clutching on to straws" on the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail after "they lost the votes substantially in both Houses". — PTI

No hopes from Pak: Capt Kalia's father

Pak police battles militants after deadly airport raid

PESHAWAR: Four persons were killed on Sunday when the police and troops battled militants armed with automatic weapons, grenades and mortars in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar, a day after a deadly Taliban raid on the city's airport. 

Fierce firing broke out after police acting on an intelligence report tried to storm a building near the airport, where a suicide and rocket attack on Saturday evening killed five civilians and the five attackers and wounded 50 other people.

The assault late Saturday, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, sparked prolonged gunfire and forced authorities to close the airport, a commercial hub and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Peshawar on the edge of the tribal belt.

It was the second Islamist militant attack in four months on a military air base in nuclear-armed Pakistan. In August 11 people were killed when heavily-armed insurgents wearing suicide vests stormed a facility in the northwestern town of Kamra.

Three militants and a police officer were killed in Sunday's fighting, senior police official Imran Shahid told AFP. Troops also took part in the clashes.

Five insurgents took refuge in the half-built building overnight after the airport attack, Shahid said, and the two survivors were still firing at security forces.

Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain confirmed the casualties and said the raid was launched after intelligence reports that militants were hiding in the construction site.

Live television footage showed troops and police entering a street amid gunfire, while an AFP reporter heard fierce firing in the area.

A PAF statement said five attackers were killed on Saturday and no damage was done to air force equipment or personnel.

Doctor Umar Ayub, chief of Khyber Teaching Hospital near the airport, said five civilians had also been killed and some 50 wounded.

"The Base is in total control and normal operations have resumed. The security alert was also raised on other PAF air bases as well," the air force added.

Peshawar airport is a joint military-civilian facility. Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said the passenger side remained closed but there had been no damage to the terminals.

The air force said Saturday's attackers used two vehicles loaded with explosives, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. One vehicle was destroyed and the second badly damaged.

Security forces found three suicide jackets near one of the vehicles, it said.

"Security forces consisting of Pakistan Air Force and Army personnel who were on full alert, cordoned off the Base and effectively repulsed the attack," the air force said.

Television pictures showed a vehicle with a smashed windscreen, another damaged car, bushes on fire and what appeared to be a large breach in a wall.

Five nearby houses were destroyed after rockets landed on them and several other houses developed cracks, while the bomb squad detonated five out of eight bombs found near the base after the attack.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location that the group would continue to target the airport.

"Our target was jet fighter plans and gunship helicopters and soon we will target them again," he said.

The armed forces have been waging a bloody campaign against the Taliban in the country's northwest in recent years and the militants frequently attack military targets.

Aside from the August attack on Kamra, in May 2011 it took 17 hours to quell an assault on an air base in Karachi claimed by the Taliban. The attack piled embarrassment on the armed forces just three weeks after US troops killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Its forces have for years been battling homegrown militants in the northwest. — AFP

India Gate right place to build war memorial: Antony

NEW DELHI: India Gate is the right place to build a national war memorial, Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Sunday said, against the backdrop of opposition by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to the proposal.

“As far as we are concerned, this (India Gate) is the place to have a war memorial. We are very clear,” he told reporters after laying wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the Indian victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan.

The Defence Minister was asked to react to the separate letters written by the Delhi Chief Minister opposing the construction of war memorial at the India Gate.

He said after long years of efforts, a Group of Ministers (GoM) set up by Prime Minister and the three Services chiefs had agreed to set up the war memorial here.

“Before taking the proposal to the Cabinet (for approval), the Urban Development Ministry has written to all the stakeholders to seek their comments and views. But I am sure that we will be able to clinch the issue,” Antony said when asked if Dikshit’s letter may delay the process of building the war memorial at the India Gate complex.

In separate letters to Antony, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, she has said that an alternative site should be found for the memorial.

Dikshit said India Gate is the only popular hangout place for people of the city and coming up of the memorial there would restrict movement of people in the area due to security reasons, top sources said.

She has said that setting up of the memorial would also affect the ambience of the area.

The armed forces have been demanding a war memorial in the national capital to honour their men who made supreme sacrifice in various wars, conflicts and militancy-related incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast.

The Defence Ministry has been pushing for construction of the memorial near India Gate which is a memorial for soldiers killed in action during the First World War.

In view of the demand of the armed forces, the government had set up the GoM in 2009 which was headed by Pranab Mukherjee before he became the President.

In reply to a query on the proposals cleared by the Cabinet to enhance pensions of ex-servicemen, Antony said the orders in this regard would be issued by next month which would enhance their pension by Rs 2,300 crore.”

“Five orders are to be issued of which three have been cleared by the Finance Ministry. I think we would be able to issue all the orders by New Year. Government has twice enhanced the pension at the cost of Rs 4,500 crore in the recent past,” he noted. — PTI