NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday dismissed the debate over two power centres as “useless” even as he did not rule out his accepting the third term.

“This is the creation of the media. It is a useless debate,” he said in New Delhi when asked about the issue of two power centres coming into focus after senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh raked it up recently.

Digvijay had said the two power centres — one the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and another the Prime Minister — had not worked well and should not be repeated.

Congress officially rejected this contention of Digvijay and said it was an “ideal model” for future also.

When asked whether he would accept the third term as Prime Minister, Manmohan said, “It is a hypothetical question... We are yet to complete this term.”

The current term of the government will end in May 2014.

Asked whether he was ruling himself out, he said, “I am not ruling it in, I am not ruling it out.”

Queried whether he would welcome Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister, Manmohan replied, “Oh yes, anyday.”

Rahul, who was appointed as vice-president of the Congress in January, has been reluctant to join the government.

Even on Thursday he dubbed as “irrelevant” the questions over whether he would become the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister, who was interacting with the mediapersons at Rashtrapati Bhavan after presentation of Padma Awards, was also asked to comment on Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the CII on Thursday to which he remarked, “excellent”. — PTI

Thane building collapse toll rises to 37

THANE: The death toll in the under-construction building collapse in Shil Phata area of Thane has risen to 37 as rescuers recovered more bodies from the site on Friday, Thane police control room said.

While 60 people were injured, rescuers fear that some victims are still trapped under debris, they said. The deceased included nearly ten children, women and some construction workers. A pregnant woman, identified as Shakila Imran Siddiqui, was among the deceased, Thane civic officials said. The remaining bodies are yet to be identified. 

The Daighar police have registered a case against builders Salil and Khalil Jamadar under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC, police said, adding that efforts were on to trace them.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar are likely to visit the site today.

According to a construction worker, Shanti Jadhav, while they were calling it a day on Thursday evening and planning to return home, the contractor asked them to unload bricks from trucks. The workers stayed back and started unloading bricks after the contractor threatened to beat them and at that time the building came crashing down, Jadhav alleged.

The seven-storey illegal under-construction structure, located in Shil Phata area between Mumbra and Dombivli townships, collapsed at around 6.30 pm on Thursday.

The injured have been admitted to various hospitals in Thane and some have been shifted to Mumbai's JJ and Sion Hospitals for better treatment, police said.

Relief and rescue operations are being carried out under the supervision of Civic Commissioner R A Rajeev and District Collector P Velarasu.

MNS legislator from Kalyan township of Thane, Ramesh Patil alleged that he had complained to the municipal commissioner the previous week about the building being unauthorised and unfit for occupation, but no action was taken.

Civic officials had said on Thursday that the building in Shil Phata area in Daighar village was unauthorised. They claimed that it was built on forest land and was occupied at least up to the fourth floor. There were around 35 families residing in the building, they said. — PTI

Washington: A staggering 94 per cent of fresh recruits of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) see Jammu and Kashmir as a "fighting front" and hail mostly from Pakistan's Punjab province from families having links with the powerful army and intelligence network, according to a US military report.

The eye-opener report from the US Military Academy in West Point is result of a multi-year research effort conducted by a lead team of five eminent authors including C Christine Fair, Don Rassler and Anirban Ghosh, and is based on a study of over 900 biographies of the deceased LeT militants.

According to the report that runs into nearly 60 pages, the vast majority of LeT's fighters are recruited from Pakistan's Punjab province and are actually rather well educated compared with Pakistani males generally.

While LeT's recruitment is diversified across the north, central and southern parts of the Punjab, the highest concentration of militants have come (in order of frequency) from the districts of Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Sialkot, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Khanewal and Multan.

LeT training has historically occurred in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's capital Muzaffarabad and in Afghanistan. Together these two locations have accounted for 75% of LeT militant training over time, the report said.

"94 per cent of fighters list Indian Kashmir as a fighting front," the report said. Although less relevant, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Tajikistan and Bosnia are also identified in the biographies as other fronts.

"According to our data, the districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and Poonch in Kashmir account for almost half of all LeT militant deaths since 1989. Kupwara, the district with the largest number of militants killed, appears to be becoming less important overall as a fighting area, with its share of deaths declining over time," it said.

The report added that the number and share of LeT deaths in Baramulla and Poonch have been increasing. — PTI

LUCKNOW: Former Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya, has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to appear before it within a week, in connection with the triple murder at Balipur village March 2.

Reports indicate that the preliminary investigation by the CBI has found nothing incriminating against the former minister in the murders of Balipur village head Nanhe Yadav, his brother Suresh and Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq.

Sources in the CBI said the summons were issued to "clear some doubts". The former minister has been asked to present himself at the camp office of the CBI. The notice was sent to Raja Bhaiyya's houses in Kunda and Lucknow on late Thursday. 
Raja Bhaiyya has been mentioned as a conspirator in the murder of the police official by Haq's widow, Parveen Azad, a medical student.

Officials say the former UP minister would be interrogated on his whereabouts at the time of the triple murder. He would be grilled on any "insights" into the role of his close aides and a driver, who have been arrested in the case.

Earlier, the agency grilled his cousin and former MP Akshay Pratap Singh alias Gopalji.

The investigating team of the CBI has also questioned Kunda Nagar panchayat head Gulshan Yadav, representative of the former minister, Hari Om Srivastava, driver Rohit Singh and legislator Vinod Saroj.

Haq's widow recently visited Kunda to take back her husband's belongings from his official residence, and expressed satisfaction at the probe so far. She said she expected investigations to be "free, fair and without any political influence."

The family of village pradhan Nanhe Yadav has alleged, meanwhile, that the CBI was trying to "water down" the case.

The CBI, earlier this week, sought the transfer of four station house officers at Kunda and of other police officials outside the area, citing "political influence".

Following this, the state government transferred 108 policeman out of Pratapgarh district. — IANS

WASHINGTON: Even as it acknowledged that a US congressional delegation's visit to Gujarat had official sanction, the US said there was no immediate change in its stand on a visa to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but he is "welcome to apply".

"Visits like this do help support a deepening of business-to-business ties, of people-to-people ties, across India, in Gujarat," US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters on Thursday in response to a question.

"So from our perspective, the more congressional delegations that visit India and understand its dynamism and diversity, the more likely we are to continue to deepen those important ties," she said.

But this did not foretell a change in its policy towards Modi, who has been denied a US visa for his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, Nuland said.

"With regard to Modi, our lines have not changed here. He is welcome to apply," she said. But "All visa decisions are made on a case by case basis, and I'm not going to prejudge it here."

The US ambassador to India Nancy J Powell met the congressional delegation led by Republican member of the House Aaron Schock, Nuland said. But she was not sure if the envoy accompanied the delegation that met Modi March 28 and invited him to visit the US.

"I don't know if our ambassador accompanied them to Gujarat. She obviously sees all congressional delegations which come through Delhi," the spokesperson said. She also didn't believe that Powell had met Modi.

Asked if the State Department was obligated to issue a visa to a person invited by a member or members of Congress, Nuland repeated: "We've said at all points that like any other visa applicant he's welcome to apply and we'll review the case on the merits."

"Every visa is adjudicated on the merits and in the context of US law individually," she added.

Asked if the Congressional delegation had met Secretary of State John Kerry before going to India or would brief him on their return, Nuland said "I expect they had a good discussion" with Powell, who would convey the results of their trip back to Washington. — IANS