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War of words on JPC draft report set to grow louder
BJP faces acid test in Karnataka poll
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Put NCTC on hold: House panel
Land norms for setting up medical colleges to be relaxed
Likely meeting between Modi, Thackeray sets tongues wagging
79-yr-old widow seeks support
for legal battle on Facebook
Panel against conversion of SSB units for disaster management
Two Asiatic Lions die in Gir
Testimony of injured victim should be believed: HC
Jantar Mantar
VC against bikes in AMU hostels
Teen killed, 13 hurt as vehicle falls into ravine
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War of words on JPC draft report set to grow louder
New Delhi, April 28 While the Opposition led by the BJP and the Left parties would not stop short of removal of the JPC chief PC Chacko for what they are saying is a “partisan” draft report, the panel head is sticking to the claim that the committee had not found any evidence showing the involvement of either Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Finance Minister P Chidambaram. He is of the view that JPC has seen no record or evidence which shows culpability of either Singh or Chidambaram. The claim from Chacko would have the Opposition up in arms again as they wanted the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to be summoned as witnesses in the scam to which the JPC chairman did not agree leaving a vacuum on the issue. Chacko, however, maintains that Singh and Chidambaram were not called before the Committee despite BJP’s strong demands because majority of the 30 members were not in favour of such a move. The situation has turned all the more complicated with the main accused and former telecom minister A Raja writing to the JPC saying that he had kept the Prime Minister informed about all the action he was taking. Reacting to the letter sent by Raja to Chacko, CPM member Sitaram Yechuri has also written to the member of the JPC pointing out that there were certain question which were needed to be answered by the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister without which the report on the 2G spectrum allocation scam could not be prepared. Certain issues needed to be clarified, he says. He points out that Raja in his letter to Chacko has stated that he had kept the PM informed at each step of the process and through personal meetings as well as during cabinet meetings. The draft report also shows that he indeed wrote three letters to the Prime Minister prior to the January 10, 2008, when the Letter of Intent’s for the 120 licenses were issued. The draft report also states that the PM asked the PMO to prepare a note on Raja's letter dated November 26, 2008 wherein he details the various steps he was proposing to take. Yechuri says that taking the above into account, it is not possible for the JPC to come to any conclusion about the veracity of Raja's claim or the statement in the draft report that the PM was misled without the PM answering some of the questions. Among other things Yechuri has sought to know from the Prime Minister whether Raja had met him personally in the first week of January, 2008 as stated in his letter to brief him about the procedure he was going to follow? The opposition members have also met Speaker Meira Kumar to demand the removal of Chacko saying they had “no confidence” in Chacko on grounds of his “highly partisan, unfair and prejudicial” conduct besides alleged leakage of the draft report. To counter opposition move, Congress members of the JPC have also made a representation to the Speaker seeking removal of BJP members in JPC Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad citing conflict of interest. Contrasting claims
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BJP faces acid test in Karnataka poll
Karwar (Uttar Kannada), April 28 Politics in the coastal region, however, generates interest among politicians and pundits alike because of emergence of the BJP here as a strong force and the possibility that the Congress will this time regain some of the ground it had lost to the BJP. “If the BJP made entry in the south through Karnataka, it made entry in Karnataka through the coastal districts,” says Varadesh Hiregange, director of the Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal, near Udupi. While the BJP’s rise to power in Karnataka in 2008 is attributed to the backing it received from the Lingayats, the community does not matter here. Yet the BJP got four out of the eight seats in Dakshin Kannada district (the Congress got the remaining four), four out of five seats in neighbouring Udupi (one went to the Congress) and three out of six in Uttara Kannada (including one MLA who first won on the Congress ticket and then resigned his seat to win again as a representative of the BJP). Eleven out of the total 19 seats in the three districts were thus bagged by the saffron party, while six were won by the Congress, including one in Uttara Kannada. In Uttara Kannada, two Janata Dal (Secular) candidates also won in 2008 although the Vokkaligas, reputed to be the main backers of the party led by former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, are not found in that area. “The JD(S) candidates did not get any caste-based votes. They got votes from all sections,” said TB Harikantth, executive editor of Karwar-based Kannada paper Karavali Munjavu. “If I remember correctly, even in 1983, the BJP got around 13 seats from the area,” Varadesh Hiregange said. According to him, the layout of the Hindu society here, especially the influence wielded by the Brahmins, played a key role in the expansion of the BJP’s support base in the coastal districts. “The Ramjanambhoomi movement also gave a big boost to the BJP in the coastal belt,” he added. Apparently, the presence of numerically strong and financially prosperous Muslim and Christian population in the coastal belt has also helped in consolidation of Hindus cutting across caste barriers. This very hard-earned entry the BJP made in the coastal belt of Karnataka at the cost of the Congress is now threatened by the anti-incumbency wave sweeping against the ruling party.
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In Bangalore, Modi flays Rahul Gandhi Bangalore, April 28 Addressing a public rally here to campaign for BJP candidates for the May 5 Assembly elections in Karnataka, Modi, referring to Rahul as "born with golden spoon leader" said "an individual can do so many things". Then, he went on to narrate the role of Patel in unification of India and Shastri’s slogan of "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" that led to "revolution" on the foodgrains production front with the country being self-sufficient in this regard even today. He said the party's Jaipur conclave had committed not to give party ticket to those who lost by a huge margin, kin of Congress leaders and criminals. "Congress has thrown water to those commitments", Modi said, adding, "In Karnataka elections, have they not given tickets to those who lost by more than 15,000 votes to kin of leaders and to criminals?" Modi said that in India, the culture is children obey whatever their mother says and then referred to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's statement that "power is poison". "Mother says 'power is poison' and son (Rahul) comes calling in Karnataka seeking power to the party". Seeking to mock Rahul without mentioning his name, Modi said the Congress vice-president would not be able to spell the name of Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar. He alleged that Rahul tried to denigrate the image of Karnataka during election campaign and demanded that he apologise to the people of the state. "See the courage they have to talk on corruption", he said, referring to the 2G scam. Modi said the country has never seen "such a weak" central government, criticising UPA's handling of the Sarabjit Singh episode and Chinese incursions. Despite all the power centres in the national capital, Modi said Delhi is not safe. "You can't protect Delhi. How can you protect Karnataka?" Obviously referring to internal fights in Karnataka BJP during its tenure, Modi sought to draw a parallel with Gujarat and said his state had undergone similar difficulties between 1995 and 2000 as the party was learning the ropes and then didn't had any administrative experience. But BJP came back to power in Gujarat 2000, he said, expressing confidence the party would return to power in Karnataka as well. — PTI
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MLA’s past eclipses BJP’s chances in Udupi
Udupi, April 28 The liberties he took from his wife forced her to run away from him and then committed suicide in Delhi in June 2008, only a month after the BJP formed the government in the state. Apparently, the hapless woman preferred death to putting up with Bhat. Other such scandals involving BJP MLAs followed including the rape charge against Hartalu Hallappa and the infamous episode when ministers were caught on camera watching a porn clip on a mobile phone inside the Assembly. But it was again left to Bhat to figure in a scandal which hopefully would be the last scandal of the first BJP regime in Karnataka whose term practically ended with the announcement of elections in the state. Talking about a CD featuring Bhat and a woman believed to be a prostitute that surfaced in Udupi recently, Dinesh, an employee with a publication house, said: “Nothing was left to imagination. It was all very explicit”. Besides, being sent to various media houses, copies of the CD was also sent to various sections in the Deputy Commissioner’s office here. The employees saw the CD on computers provided by the government and showed it to visitors who had come to the DC’s office for various works. Following the CD disclosure, believed to be the work of an insider, Bhat had no choice but to refrain from contesting in the Assembly polls slated for May 5. In his place, the saffron party has given ticket to Sudhakar Shetty. But the fate of the BJP for the Udupi seat had already been sealed. “The popular mood against the BJP was already in evidence when people voted against the party candidate in the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha byelection last year”, Varadesh Heregange, director, Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal near Udupi, told this reporter. The peccadilloes of Bhat, a two-time MLA from Udupi, was an issue during the Lok Sabha byelection also which was held when the sitting MP from the BJP, Sadananda Gowda, vacated the seat to become the Chief Minister. The BJP also lost the elections to the Udupi city municipal corporation last month after being in power in the civic body for over four decades. Besides the Udupi constituency, there are four more seats in the district taking the total number of assembly constituencies in the district to five. In the 2008 Assembly elections, the BJP had won four out of the five seats. This time the ruling party is favourite only in Kaup constituency because of a likely division in the Congress votes as Congress ticket aspirant Vasanth Salian has jumped in the fray as JD(S) nominee after being denied ticket by the Congress.
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Narendra Modi not an issue for Cong: Digvijay
Bhopal, April 28 He dismissed the BJP stalwart as a creation of “media hype” and challenged his claim of having ushered a new era of growth in Gujarat, where BJP is in power since mid 1990s. “Modi is a media hype and we challenge him on the issue of development as there is no sector in
which Gujarat was at the top of the table,” the Congress general secretary
told PTI here. To a query, Digvijay said in his opinion next month's Karnataka Assembly elections will not be a
fight between Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Modi. He said the Congress hoped to win Karnataka, where people have seen how the ruling BJP
had “looted” the state in the last years. Digvijay said Rahul had been campaigning for the Congress since 2004 and the party won Lok Sabha elections in that year and again in 2009. “The party, heading the UPA Government at the Centre, has also done well at the state-level since 2004 and won elections in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” he said. “The Congress vote share had gone up in all elections held after 2004 and Rahul must be given credit for this,” the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister added.
— PTI
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Naidu’s record walkathon may not yield results for TDP
Hyderabad, April 28 Displaying an enormous grit and determination, the 63-year-old Naidu completed his marathon padayatra, covering 1,250 villages spread over 16 districts in the state, a feat that is unparalleled in the state’s history. Started in Anantapur district on October 2, the walkathon culminated in a massive show of strength in the coastal city of Visakhapanam on April 26. Though the mission has helped in lifting the morale of the party cadre, the regional party, which had lost power in 2004, still faces a plethora challenges ahead of the 2014 Assembly elections. During the last nine years of being in the Opposition, Naidu has been facing a steady erosion of his party base with as many as 10 of his legislators deserting the party. There has been a growing perception that the TDP is rapidly yielding ground to the fledgling YSR Congress Party, headed by the jailed MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions and to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the volatile Telangana region. Once seen as a key player in the national politics, the TDP is now virtually locked in a battle of survival in the state and the walkathon, an audacious attempt by the ageing Naidu, was seen as a desperate, do-or-die bid by the party to regain power. The coming elections to the local bodies would serve as a test to determine to what extent Naidu’s ambitious padayatra has helped the party improve its approval ratings. Once seen as an icon of reforms and a “King Maker” in national politics, Naidu has since undergone a complete image make-over by abandoning the reforms path and embracing the populist agenda. During the padayatra, covering 84 Assembly segments, Naidu has virtually promised the moon to the people. They include farm loan waiver, free education, unemployment dole, free power to agriculture sector, increased reservations for backward classes and minorities, health insurance schemes, house sites and subsidised home loans. “The people are angry with the corrupt Congress government. We are offering a clean, efficient and honest alternative aimed at serving the poor and needy. Going by the response I got during the padayatra, I am sure that people will vote us to power in the next elections,” a confident Naidu said. Naidu, who holds the record for serving as Chief Minister for the longest period from 1995 to 2004, is well aware of the challenges and obstacles in the way of his party regaining power. The TDP has not won a single Assembly byelection since 2009 while his main political enemy Jagan has been gaining ground, particularly in the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions despite being jailed in the illegal assets case. The growing impact of Telangana statehood movement and emergence of Jagan as a new political force are the two major factors that have pushed the TDP into a corner. Besides, Naidu’s flip-flop on the Telangana statehood issue has also weakened the party in the region.
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Put NCTC on hold: House panel
New Delhi, April 28 The committee has taken note of the objections raised by members and the states. "The matter may be sorted out to the satisfaction of all state governments and UTs and
decision may be taken with the consensus of all concerned," the committee said. The suggestion runs contrary to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde who wants to put the NCTC in place quickly. The committee has also told the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to completely abolish the system of orderlies, who serve senior police officers at their homes or offices. The 6th Pay Commission has recommended the same. Orderlies are drawn from within the force and are regular policemen. The committee headed by senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu has come down heavily on the “orderly system” functional in the police and termed it as “discriminatory and reminiscent of British colonial era”. This effects the morale of the personnel who are trained for security duties, said the panel its report tabled in Parliament on April 25. It has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue a mandatory direction to all police heads not to use any security personnel or police personnel for duties other than their mandated work. Police personnel were made to work at the residences of senior officers of the forces for domestic purposes and refusal by some lower rank personnel resulted into their service problems, said the committee. The 6th Pay Commission had recommended abolition of the orderly system and the suggestion had been forwarded to authorities concerned, said the panel. The Home Secretary had assured the committee to look into this issue on priority basis. The Naidu-led committee gave realistic option saying, if it is necessary, then posts of cooks, drivers, attendants should be sanctioned separately. Raj reminder
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Land norms for setting up medical colleges to be relaxed
New Delhi, April 28 The minimum built-up area required for a medical college admitting 150 MBBS students will be reduced to 59,000 sq m from the present 70,000 sq m. Around 20 per cent reduction in the built-up area limit is also in the pipeline for colleges admitting 200 and 250 students annually. The land requirement for new medical institutes in cities having a population of 25 lakh or above (Delhi, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Surat, Greater Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai) is also about to be reduced from a single plot measuring 10 acre to 8 acre. All difficult terrain areas and those with low medicine teaching infrastructure will be allowed to set up colleges in two plots of land instead of the current requirement of a single plot measuring 16 acres. The relaxation will come with a rider that one such plot of land should not be less than 8 acre and the second not less than 5 acre. This relaxation (of setting up a medical college in two plots) will be allowed for all notified tribal areas, northeastern states, hill states, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and states with low medicine-teaching infrastructure, namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The changes, approved in principle by the Health Ministry, follow the recommendations of a high-level Medical Council of India committee chaired by Dr Puroshottam Lal, Member, Board of Governors of the Council. Dr Lal said the idea was to enhance the viability of new medical colleges. “We have recommended reduction in the requirement of built-up area for a medical college by around 20 per cent. Currently, a medical institute admitting 150 MBBS students must have a built up area of 70,000 sq m. We have reduced it to 59,000 sq m. The library area requirement at present is 4,000 sq metre which we have reduced to 2,000 sq m. In this age of the Internet, huge library spaces are not needed in medical colleges,” Dr Lal said. The MCI committee was set up last year to suggest ways to stimulate growth of medical institutions with a target of reducing the doctor-patient ratio from the current 1:2000 to 1:1000. For the first time, the prescribed built-up area required for a medical college would be allowed to be constructed depending on the floor area requirement norms of a given state, he added. “We have fixed the minimum land requirement for a medical college at 16 acre. The minimum built-up area for each college has also been fixed. Now, if a certain state allows more FAR and someone can construct the prescribed built-up area in 12 acres instead of 16, we have no problem. The stress will be on infrastructure, not acres required,” Dr Lal said. These changes will require amendments to the Establishment of Medical College Regulations, 1999, and the MCI’s Minimum Standard Requirement Regulations for Medical Colleges. Two years ago, the land requirement for medical colleges was brought down from 25 acres to 20. IMPROVING HEALTH CARE
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Likely meeting between Modi, Thackeray sets tongues wagging
Mumbai, April 28 However, sources say it is possible that Modi may meet up with MNS leader Raj Thackeray in the backdrop of shrill noises made by his cousin Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv
Sena. Raj Thackeray enjoys good relations with Modi and the latter's supporters have been pitching for including the MNS in the Shiv Sena-BJP-Republican Party of India grouping in
Maharashtra. On its part, the Shiv Sena's noise against Modi is getting shriller by the day. After calling for a consensus among the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance in choosing the Prime Ministerial candidate, the Sena has openly endorsed LK Advani for the top job. Uddhav told a television channel that Advani was best suited for the post of Prime Minister because of his acceptability among the NDA partners, apart from his commitment to Hindutva. So Modi's reactions will be keenly watched during his Mumbai visit. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra unit of the BJP is planning to turn Modi's visit to Mumbai into a grand event. The party was forced to call off a felicitation ceremony for him in March due the prevailing drought in the state. — TNS
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79-yr-old widow seeks support
for legal battle on Facebook
Mumbai, April 28 Mohini Kamwani, along with her 58-year-old son Dilip, have been seeking support on social networking website Facebook, claiming they were illegally arrested by the police last year. The mother-son duo were arrested on January 25 last year for threatening to commit suicide on Republic Day to protest against alleged police inaction over a property dispute. "My son and I were demanding action against certain police officers who were harassing us. Seeing inaction and being helpless, we had written to authorities that we would commit suicide. Following which the police had arrested us and we were put in jail on a local court's order," Mohini said. She claimed that no legal procedure was followed before arresting them. "No women police officer was present when I was arrested with my son. We were bundled into the van with no regard to my age. For which, we moved a criminal writ petition in Mumbai High Court in May last year. The case is being heard by the court," she said. Mohini updates all news related to the court proceedings on Facebook. "I feel sad that a wife of a freedom fighter is being treated like this," she said. There is a group of lawyers who help Kamwanis in their legal battle, said Barbara, an Australian social activist working in India.
— PTI
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NGO to give Rs 2,000 pension to Varanasi widows
Varanasi, April 28 Starting this month, a pension of Rs 2,000 along with medical support and vocational training will come their way, announced Sulabh International founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak here today on the “Dasashwamedh ghat”, one of the 80 famous Ganga ghats where people had come for a holy dip and morning recitals. As a part of its campaign against ill-practices associated to widowhood, the NGO is already extending help to widows at Vrindavan after encouragement from the Supreme Court through the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA). In addition, it also wants the government to a draft Bill and a proposal towards this will be soon presented before Parliament for the protection, welfare and maintenance of the widows, confirmed Pathak. “The sufferings that widows in our country go through are not hidden. It is time that the government brings a law to ensure the welfare, protection and maintenance of widows. The hardships in earning a living that they face can only be reduced by ensuring that their basic needs are looked after through a new law,” said Pathak, while addressing mostly illiterate women with wrinkly faces and brightened eyes. These women -- widowed, neglected and usually abandoned by their families thereafter in Vrindavan ashrams -- have in a way reconciled to the reality. Such is the plight of these women that the slightest love and monetary help that comes their way surely gives them a reason to look forward to life. Among scores of such women one is Savita Agarwal (40) who had been staying in Varanasi for over 19 years and considers herself a widow. Married early, Savita’s in-laws allegedly tried to burn her due to dowry. She managed to escape and come to Varanasi and prefers to remain silent about her husband. “I stayed in another ashram for about 18 years and for over a year, I have been staying at the Sarnath Ashram. Now, I have adjusted and want to stay here for life,” she said. For such destitute women, the proposed draft in line with the Widows (Protection and Maintenance) Bill, 2007, proposed by professor Mahadeorao Shiwankar, calls for a widows’ welfare fund to be set up by the Central government with contribution from the both the Centre and the states. In addition, it suggests the setting up of a National Widows Welfare Board in Clause 3 and presses the need for ensuring medical facilities as available for those employed in government service and making provisions for gainful employment. It suggests that arrangements for providing vocational training and a free habitation should also be made till the woman has no source of income or doesn’t remarry. Those who are staying with their in-laws or parents and do not have a guaranteed source of living will also be covered under the law. And the financial implication in total as worked out in the draft is an annual recurring expenditure of Rs 1 crore and under the non-recurring head, it will be over Rs 200 crore. Extending help
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Panel against conversion of SSB units for disaster management
Chandigarh, April 28 The Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs has observed that converting the SSB battalions would not be the right approach as it would affect the functioning of the SSB. The panel has asked the government to explore other sources for raising additional battalions for the NDRF. The SSB, a border guarding force under the Ministry of Home Affairs, is responsible for the management of the borders with Nepal and Bhutan. The force is also undergoing expansion and reorganisation with additional battalions and sector headquarters being raised. It has a posted strength 49,734 personnel against the sanctioned strength of 65,594 personnel. According to sources, a draft Cabinet note has been prepared by the NDRF for conversion of the two SSB battalions. This will raise the number of NDRF battalions to 12. At present, the force has 10 battalions with three each from the Central Reserve Police Force and the Border Security Force and two each from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and the Central Industrial Security Force. These are located at strategic places across the country. The committee had observed that 10 battalions of a specialised force like the NDRF were inadequate for a vast country like India which is vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters. The NDRF functions under the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). All its battalions are being equipped and trained to handle natural disasters, while four of them are specialised in combating nuclear, biological and chemical disasters. With a sanctioned strength of 1,150 personnel, each NDRF battalion will have 18 self-contained specialist search and rescue teams of 45 personnel each, including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medical staff and paramedics. The panel stressed that states and union territories raise their own respective specialist disaster response forces and train and equip them adequately and that the NDMA should play a pivotal role in this regard. This, the committee observed, need to be prioritised in view of the weak disaster management preparedness of the
country. What the panel says
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Two Asiatic Lions die in Gir Ahmedabad, April 28 Forest Department sources said the bodies of two lions were recovered in the last 24 hours, one from near Una and the other near Veraval, within a distance of about 80 km. The sources admitted that the deaths had not been caused by old age. The department has initiated an investigation to ascertain whether the deaths were caused by any outbreak of disease or was the act of poachers. In either case, the state's case against parting with any Asiatic Lions would be weakened before the Supreme Court when the review petition comes up. The state government has been opposing tooth and nail any suggestion to create a second home for the Asiatic Lions away from its only abode in the Gir sanctuary. The decision to challenge the Division Bench's order was taken by the state wildlife board at its meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week. The state government had expressed apprehension that the shifting of the Asiatic Lions to a new environment could cause outbreak of diseases at the new home or might fall prey in the hands of the poachers, causing irreparable damage to the threatened species. If the same problems confront the big cats at their only abode, the state's arguments against shifting a few pairs to Kuno-Palpur would not hold ground. Meanwhile, the comment by the minister of state for forest Govind Patel that the Central wildlife board did not pay any heed to the state wildlife board's arguments against creating a second home for the Asiatic Lions has created furor among the environmentalists in the state. They have questioned the state's competence to fight the case if it could not bring to the notice of the Supreme Court that the Central board was allegedly functioning in a partisan manner.
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Testimony of injured victim should be believed: HC
New Delhi, April 28 "The testimony of a stamped witness has its own relevance and efficacy. The fact that the witness had sustained injuries at the time and place of occurrence, lends support to his testimony that he was present during the occurrence. The testimony of the injured witness is accorded a special status in law. "This is a consequence of the fact that the injury to the witness is an in-built guarantee of his presence at the scene of crime and because the witness will not want to let the actual assailant to go unpunished merely to falsely involve a third party for the commission of the offence," Justice SP Garg said in a recent judgement. Citing apex court rulings, the court said the evidence of an injured witness "must be given due weightage". The observation by the court came while it rejected the appeals of two convicts, Sarfu and Ramraj, who were earlier awarded five years’ jail term, besides a fine of Rs 2,000 each, by a lower court for assaulting and robbing Rs 86,000 from one Ravinder Chaudhary on the evening of August 1, 1998 at the Okhla Industrial Area here. Dismissing the appeals against the conviction, the court said that there
was "overwhelming evidence" against the convicts as the victim had testified against them. It also asked the convicts to surrender before the trial judge on May 3 for serving the remaining sentence.
— PTI
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Jantar Mantar
Keeping an eye on Bahuguna
When Pranab felt the ‘heat’
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VC against bikes in AMU hostels Lucknow, April 28 In a press statement, Shah said “motorcycle has become a major menace” as criminal elements were operating as “motorcycle gangs” using these vehicles to indulge in crime and then quickly getting away. He said he was writing to parents of all the hostellers requesting them “not to permit their wards to bring motorcycles to the campus”. However, such restrictions would not apply to women students who would continue to be allowed to use motorised two-wheelers. According to the VC’s analysis, another ill-effect of the “motor bike culture” on the AMU campus was aggravating class-conflicts between the rich and the poor students. In a letter to faculty members and students, Shah has stated that if a student can afford a motorcycle, he could well-afford to live outside the AMU campus.
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Teen killed, 13 hurt as vehicle falls into ravine
Dindigul, April 28 They said two families, all hailing from Madurai, were on their way from that city toKodaikanal when the driver lost control of the vehicle and the vehicle plunged down the gorge.
— PTI
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Except for a brief public appearance on Friday, Law and Justice Minister Ashwani Kumar has virtually been underground ever since it was reported that he sought to influence a CBI report on the coal block allocations before it was submitted to the Supreme Court. The beleaguered minister, who has studiously avoided mediapersons, has not been spotted in his Shastri Bhavan office and kept away from Parliament which has been stalled by a belligerent Opposition baying for his blood. As a result, his embarrassed colleagues have been left to defend him, clearly not an easy task since Ashwani Kumar has informally admitted to them that he did call CBI officials to his office to discuss the status report of coal blocks. The minister has, however, been at pains to explain that he did not alter the contents of the report but only corrected the language and deleted a few sentences which had been repeated. Obviously there are not too many takers for his defence. All eyes are now on the Supreme Court which is slated to hear this case on Tuesday.
Inundated with complaints about Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has asked a senior minister and a key member of his team to look into these grievances and submit a report to him at the earliest. Party workers from the hill state have repeatedly pointed out that Bahuguna is inaccessible to them, that he indulges in factionalism and spends most of his time out of the state. These complaints have apparently been piling up for several months now and it was only when Rahul Gandhi realised that the situation could get out of hand that he decided to take matters into his hand. The Congress vice-president had obviously been tracking developments in Uttarakhand for he told the minister who has been entrusted to look into these issues that he could skip the bit about the Chief Minister not spending enough time in the state as he was well aware of this fact already.
President Pranab Mukherjee and his entourage had to really sweat it out when he visited Odisha last week. While the weather in the state is hot and humid at this time of the year, it was made worse because the air-conditioning and coolers provided at the convocation function at the Utkal University for which the President had been invited, were not functioning. Although the organisers had taken care to make all the necessary arrangements, these were thrown out of gear because irate students, who were not allowed entry for the convocation, snipped the electricity wires. Not just that, they did not even allow the electricians to carry out repairs. It was only towards the fag end of the programme that the cooling systems were eventually activated. Till then, the audience as well as the President, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Governor S.C. Jamir who were seated on the dais, sweated profusely without complaining.