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Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security Union Minister for Finance P Chidambaram (L) with Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh during the Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security in New Delhi on Wednesday. Tribune photos: Mukesh Aggarwal
Remove AFSPA in phases, says Omar
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Northern states voice internal security concerns
BJP sees byelection results as verdict in Modi’s favour
Real estate Bill may bring about a sea change
Bypoll win lifts Modi’s chances of heading BJP campaign panel
Memorial dedicated to ’84 riot victims to come up in Delhi
Trinamool Congress wins Howrah LS bypoll
Pocket weather trackers to help pilots fly in hills
Registration for Delhi varsity’s four-year programme begins
CLOSE SHAVE: A man is rescued from a rope car after it got stuck at Palani temple on Wednesday. — PTI
CAD blues: Import duty on gold hiked again
GameShame
CBSE medical results
Nothing wrong in Advani praising Chouhan: Venkaiah
Jiah Khan laid to rest
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Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 5 Chidambaram was the Home Minister when the idea of NCTC was first conceived. After the conclusion of the Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security, he took on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for criticising the NCTC by terming it as a “poorly conceived idea”. The former Home Minister said: “I am afraid the kind of seriousness that we should give to the NCTC is lost. I deeply regret that a couple of chief ministers opposed the NCTC even in its currently modified version. If this is opposed, I am afraid, as I said, the country will pay the price from time to time.” Commenting on Modi’s statement that the country lacks a strong anti-terror law, Chidambaram said the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) has adequate provisions to deal with terror cases, what the country needed was instruments like NCTC to implement the law. “Today, the Chief Minister of Gujarat is praising MAC (multi-agency centre). MAC was operationalised by me after I took over in December 2008. That is one instrument. The NIA is the second instrument. The third, and I maintain, the most important instrument, is the NCTC,” he said. On Modi, he said, “Actually, he wants to bring back TADA and POTA. Why did he not say... that I want POTA back. The Congress is opposed to POTA, the UPA is opposed to POTA.” Modi had said that the proposed structure of the NCTC was not in congruence with the principles of federalism as it essentially tried to create a “federal police” which was an alien concept to the country. Chidambaram also objected to Modi’s criticism of the Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security as being a “ritual”, saying it was unfair to say so as most of the CMs took the meeting seriously.
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Remove AFSPA in phases, says Omar
New Delhi, June 5 Omar Abdullah said, “If no AFSPA-like laws are required in Naxal-affected areas where heinous crimes are being committed, what is the necessity of having such laws in force in Jammu and Kashmir that has become by and large peaceful?” Addressing the Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security here today, Omar Abdullah made a strong case for setting in motion a mechanism which can guide a phased removal of AFSPA from J&K. “We cannot wait for the last gun to fall silent before moving ahead positively on this important issue,” the CM said. Omar’s argument that there was peace in Kashmir was backed by Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. Shinde, in his opening remarks, said, “Jammu and Kashmir particularly has shown marked improvement since 2010.” To back his argument, Omar Abdullah said: “There are many districts which have not witnessed militancy related incidents for quite some time. This gives the confidence to re-visit the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which was enacted to counter the menace of militancy.” “AFSPA can be removed in phases from areas which have been free from militancy for quite some time,” he suggested. Working groups constituted by the Prime Minister have also recommended revocation of AFSPA, so have the interlocutors in their report, said the Chief Minister. He reminded the audience that he has been continuously pitching for partial and gradual revocation of AFSPA and has had meetings with the Prime Minister, Home Minister and at various Unified Command Headquarters meetings and other fora. “If someone feels that I should write a DO (demi-official letter) to the concerned authorities in this regard, I will definitely do the same,” he added. There is also a need to resume talks with the neighbouring country (Pakistan) and further add to the list of confidence-building measures, he said.
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Northern states voice internal security concerns
New Delhi, June 5
“It is a strategic instrument of our national effort to defeat terrorism. The revised draft of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the NCTC has taken care of the concerns and apprehensions of the states,” Hooda said. Earlier, Sukhbir suggested the Union Home Minister convene a state-specific meeting to tackle the problem of each state instead of holding an annual meeting on internal security. He urged the Prime Minister to pay special intention to border states and problems being created by cross-border insurgency, narco-terrorism and counterfeit currency. Sukhbir also questioned the “wisdom” of the Union Government on shifting focus on a problem only after it blows up in the face. “After the Naxal attack, all energies of the Union Government are on anti-Naxal operations. We will wait for other problems till they blow up in the face,” he said. Sukhbir said the Centre was spending Rs 91,000 crore on the Food Security Bill and Rs 33,000 crore on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), but the budget of modernisation of security forces had been brought down from Rs 1,000 crore in 2000 to a meagre Rs 300 crore. “Support Punjab in its battle against counter border terrorism, smuggling of drugs, counterfeit currency and web-based propaganda,” Sukhbir urged the Centre and reiterated the demand for a special package to pay off the militancy period loan. Speaking at the conference Hooda asked for a special financial package for Haryana Police to meet the challenges of policing in the National Capital Region (NCR) districts. He also demanded megacity status for Gurgaon and Faridabad. “Security environment in Haryana is impacted by Haryana’s proximity to Delhi. Seven out of 21 districts of Haryana fall within the NCR. There has been rapid economic growth in areas adjoining Delhi. Gurgaon and Faridabad have unbroken urban continuity with the National Capital territory and cannot be isolated from Delhi, when it comes to law and order and security matters,” Hooda said. Lastly, Himachal Pradesh raised the issue of matching the infrastructure of adjoining China. “Provide an adequate response to the development of civil and military infrastructure by China along the Indo-Tibet border,” said Himachal Revenue and Law Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, who was representing the CM. He demanded increase in financial allocations under border area development programme and subsidised helicopter services to improve connectivity in strategically-located areas. Thakur also proposed construction of a broad gauge railway line connecting Leh through Himachal Pradesh.
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BJP sees byelection results as verdict in Modi’s favour
New Delhi, June 5 While Modi managed to sweep the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in his state with convincing margins, his chief detractor Bihar CM Nitish Kumar failed to replicate the dream run in the Maharajganj Lok Sabha constituency. According to the reports, Lalu Prasad’s RJD won the constituency with a convincing margin of over 1.37 lakh votes. RJD’s Prabhunath Singh polled 3,81,436 votes followed by P K Shahi of JD-U with 2,44,324 votes. Jitendra Swami of the Congress managed to garner only 33,905 votes. The victory has come as a major boost for the RJD, which suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of JD-U-BJP combine in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections. Apparently, the result has not been formally declared because an EVM developed a technical malfunction. Officially, the BJP said it would not like to comment on the loss suffered by the JD-U and “dilute” the happiness of the Gujarat victory. “We were not contesting directly...I would not like to comment on the (Maharajganj) loss and dilute the Gujarat victory,” party spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said. However, expressing satisfaction at the turn of events in Bihar, some senior leaders termed the Maharajganj result a “possible game-changer” which may now mark the beginning of the end to the tumultuous relationship between the BJP and the JD-U due to Nitish’s opposition to Modi. The BJP leaders say Nitish should treat the defeat as a “wakeup call” and “learn to fall in line” because it is now evident that Bihar is not buying his anti- Modi stance. Cold vibes between the two NDA chief ministers were there for all to see when Modi gave a royal ignore to his Bihar counterpart at the CM’s conference. Modi walked past Nitish, who was talking to another BJP CM-Chhattisgarh’s Raman Singh. With the BJP already making up its mind on Modi, it is clear that the JD-U will have to learn to comply or walk its separate path. What gives the BJP confidence is the belief that even if Nitish goes with the Congress party he may not be able to save his government because the grand old party itself is in no good shape in the state. Also, the saffron party is seeing the results in Bihar as a swing in favour of Modi, who being an OBC is set to encash his trump card in caste-centric politics of Bihar and UP.
Nitish suffers a reverse
Cold vibes between the two NDA chief ministers were there for all to see when Modi gave a royal ignore to his Bihar counterpart at the CM’s conference. Modi walked past Nitish, who was talking to another BJP CM-Chhattisgarh’s Raman Singh
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Real estate Bill may bring about a sea change
New Delhi, June 5 The objective of the Bill is to protect interests of consumers, promote fair play in real estate transactions and ensure timely execution of projects. The sector has been largely unregulated and opaque with home buyers often being misled or forced into putting up with delays in project execution. The new legislation will enforce accountability among builders, reduce frauds and delays. Among other provisions, the Bill seeks to register real estate agents with clear responsibilities and functions, thereby leading to money trail and curbing money laundering. The political journey of the legislation has been longish. Pending since 2007, the Bill was deferred twice in the Cabinet meetings earlier, presumably due to resistance from the real estate industry. Yesterday, in the Cabinet meeting there was wider support for the Bill which led to its clearance. It was conceived when Kumari Selja was the Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and was cleared during Ajay Maken’s tenure. The consultation process included real estate stakeholders with 22 states agreeing to the provisions of the Bill through a resolution at a state housing ministers’ conference. The industry has called for expediting clearances even as the onus is being put on the developers. The CII said while it was laudatory that the proposed Bill called for launching of projects only after getting all statutory clearances, it should equally be the responsibility of the proposed regulator to ensure that the competent authorities granted approvals within specified time limits. Brotin Banerjee, MD & CEO, Tata Housing, said the Bill should be more balanced and should include clauses that protected developers as well. “The notion that the industry is not regulated is debatable. It is in fact over-regulated given that a multitude of government agencies need to approve projects that often results in inordinate delays. Even government officials should be accountable for an efficient and transparent approval process,” he added. Firdose Vandrevala, Chairman, CII National Committee on Real Estate & Housing, said the provision of returning money to consumers with interest in case of delays is well meant, it should also be borne in mind that any regulatory frame work should cover all stake holders-promoters, customers and competent authorities-and all obligations should be evenly distributed. Anuj Puri, chairman & country head, Jones Lang LaSalle India, said as and when the Bill got enacted, it would considerable relief to ordinary buyers and investors who had to, at present, go through innumerable obstacles while buying property.
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Bypoll win lifts Modi’s chances of heading BJP campaign panel New Delhi, June 5 The top leadership is understood be mulling over two committees — an election management committee for the forthcoming assembly polls in five states and a campaign committee for the Lok Sabha polls. An attempt will be made to satisfy all the camps through “equitable” distribution of responsibilities and as reported by this newspaper on May 24, Modi is likely to be made head of the party’s campaign committee for the next year’s Lok Sabha polls at the national executive meeting later in Goa. Advani, who was lately being seen as heading the camp opposed to Modi’s being projected as the prime ministerial candidate, seems to have become agreeable to him being appointed as head of the all-important poll panel.
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Memorial dedicated to ’84 riot victims to come up in Delhi
New Delhi, June 5 Five head priests will lay the foundation stone of the memorial with leaders like Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma
Swaraj, BJP president Rajnath Singh, CPM leader Brinda Karat, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and President of Lok Jan Shakti Ram Vilas Paswan present on the occasion. The decision to build a memorial came on the heels of acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar facing the allegations of perpetrating 1984 anti-Sikh riots, by Karkardooma court on April 30. The memorial will have names of riot victims engraved on a wall which will be shaped as per the design selected. The decision to build the memorial was taken by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara management committee
(DSGMC) through its 11-member '1984 memorial committee'. Foundation stone laying ceremony would coincide with the martyrdom day of fifth Sikh Guru 'Guru Arjan Dev'. The DSGMC has given worldwide call inviting concept, model and design of the proposed memorial which the DSGMC has clarified would not be a
gurdwara. "It would be a monument, a symbol of peace, humility, compassion and humanity," said DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK.
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Trinamool Congress wins Howrah LS bypoll
Kolkata, June 5 TMC candidate Prasun Banerjee got 4,26,273 votes, while CPM’s Tridib Bhattacharyya got 3,99,358 votes. Congress candidate Sananat Mukherjee secured 96,727 votes. Of the seven Assembly seats, the TMC won five while the remaining two went to the CPM. Unlike the 2009 Lok Sabha and the 2011 Assembly elections, the TMC and the Congress fought separately in this byelection. The BJP, which bagged around 60,000 votes in the last Lok Sabha election, had withdrawn its candidate at the last moment, reportedly in favour of the Trinamool Congress. TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, denied that the party received BJP support. Her party did not need help from any other party, she said. With this win, the party had started a new chapter in its political journey in the state, she added. She said the Trinamool Congress would go it alone in the forthcoming panchayat elections, too. She said the party was confident of a landslide victory in those elections also. The CM, however, did not rule out the possibility of forging an electoral alliance with the Congress in the next Lok Sabha elections. But there would be no urge from the TMC side, since the party would not need any such alliance with the Congress, she added. Accepting their party’s defeat gracefully, Left Front chairman Biman Bose thanked the people for supporting their candidates despite threats and intimidation by the TMC and the police.
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Pocket weather trackers to help pilots fly in hills
Chandigarh, June 5 Sources said about 100 such gadgets are being procured, which would initially be deployed with aviation units based in the northern command. ACC squadrons and flights based in the Northern Command, which operate helicopters, carry out logistic missions in high altitude areas, where weather changes are frequent and often without warning. Pocket weather tracker is a portable device that provides essential meteorological information like wind speed, maximum wind gust, wind chill, ambient temperature, barometric pressure, altitude and relative humidity to facilitate safe and efficient flying operations. Flying in the mountains is precarious, especially for helicopters which have to navigate through valleys rather than flying high over the ridgelines like fixed-wing aircraft. Sudden changes in wind speeds, unexpected formation of cloud cover and variation in atmospheric pressure are routine. This calls for heightened situational awareness by pilots. Flying in the north-eastern sector also has similar challenges. The Army’s requirement is for light weight, battery-operated, rugged, water proof and snow proof weather trackers that can be strapped on to the wrist and have an inbuilt memory to store at least 2,000 measurements automatically for future reference. A few years ago, the Army had equipped its helicopters with hand held GPS systems for effective navigation when flying in varied terrain and environmental conditions. The ACC, which is operating at just 66 per cent of its sanctioned fleet strength, is desperately in need to new generation utility helicopters to replace the vintage Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. While the indigenously developed Dhruv helicopters are gradually coming in, the process to acquire 197 light helicopters for high altitude operations remain virtually grounded.
The gizmo
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Registration for Delhi varsity’s four-year programme begins
New Delhi, June 5 The university’s alumni, accompanied by others, submitted a fresh petition backed by nearly 4,000 signatures to President Pranab
Mukherjee, PM Manmohan Singh and HRD Minister Pallam Raju after a peaceful demonstration on campus. Also, a faculty member of Delhi University’s Hindi department, Dr Prem Singh, began a three-day fast on Rajpath demanding a rollback of the
FYUP. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police came under attack from social activists for allegedly intimidating Prem Singh, who is also general secretary of the Socialist Party of India, for holding a protest. Reportedly, policemen from Daryaganj police station reached the fast venue and told Prem Singh to accompany them to the police station. They allegedly threatened to arrest him. It was only when former People’s Union for Civil Liberties president and ex-Chief Justice of the Delhi and Sikkim High Court Justice Rajinder Sachar intervened and demanded a warrant that the police personnel left the site. Dr Prem Singh said, “We don’t agree to the
FYUP. The administration is trying to intimidate us and has been lobbying for the implementation of the new
programme.” He said, “The DU should remember that the university is not working in isolation and there is a National Education Policy which mandates the 10+2+3 structure. If any change has to be made, it should happen after following the due procedure.”
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Pilgrims stranded mid-air for 4 hours as snag hits rope car
Palani (TN), June 5 All the pilgrims were rescued after a four-hour battle by the fire service personnel who used rope ladder and bamboo baskets to bring them down. "We got panicky when the cabin got stuck. But the fire service personnel's encouraging words that we will be rescued soon eased the anxiety to large extent," Vijayakumari, one of the devotees, told reporters. The rope car is being operated by a private company and it took two and half minutes to cover the distance of 323 metres from the base station to the temple. After an accident in 2007 in which four devotees died, the capacity of the cabins were re-arranged to carry 16 persons each while going up and 12 on the way down. Temple Joint Commissioner P Baskaran said the reason for the snag was being probed by an 11-member committee set up to study the feasibility of installing another ropecar. It would suggest measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents, he added.
— PTI
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CAD blues: Import duty on gold hiked again
New Delhi, June 5 Policy makers in the past few days have been warning of such steps to follow to curb gold imports which have shot up as prices of gold started falling in April. This is the second hike in the duty in six months as gold imports touched an alarming 162 tonnes in May. The imports touched a staggering figure of $15 billion in the last two months. The government had in January increased the import duty on gold to 6 per cent from 4 per cent. Projections by the World Gold Council (WGC) show that gold imports in the second quarter (April-June) are likely to jump by 50 per cent. Up to 400 tonnes of gold may be imported into India during this period, almost half of the total imports in the whole of 2012, according to the World Gold Council. Several analysts have pointed out that the past increase in duties have not curbed gold demand and falling prices will boost consumption demand. The Finance Ministry's action to raise duty follows curbs announced by the Reserve Bank on import of gold by banks as well as other entities. India accounts for 28 per cent of the world's gold consumption.
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Police questions Royals owner Raj
Kundra, friend
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung/TNS
New Delhi, June 5 Senior investigators claimed that Kundra was questioned from 10 am until late evening. Kundra is a British-Indian businessman and is married to Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty. The police asked him about his ownership details of the Rajasthan Royals and its organisational structure. They also asked him about his responsibility in the team and how he managed it. “We also asked Kundra if he has to say anything about other cricketers (on spot-fixing), besides the three arrested players. But he didn’t have much to share with us. He also claimed that he had informed his team’s players about BCCI’s anti-corruption directives. He told us that players, he doesn’t remember who, had brought bookies as personal guests to their hotel rooms,” said a Delhi Police officer.
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CBSE medical results
New Delhi, May 5 A total of 7,17,127 candidates had registered for the test. As many as 6,58,040 candidates took it at 1,251 examination centres located at 85 cities in India and abroad. Among the various states and UTs, the highest number of candidates qualified in Kerala i.e. 46,049 among 61,042 candidates who took the exams. It was followed by Uttar Pradesh where the figure stood at 44,464 out of 78,237 candidates. Andhra Pradesh was ranked third with 36,587 candidates passing the test. In Chandigarh, of the total 673 examinees, 472 candidates made it through. In Haryana, 12,386 candidates qualified out of the 18,606 candidates and in Punjab, 8426 qualified out of 14,339. From Delhi, 16,200 candidates had registered for the test. As many as 15,562 appeared and 11,500 cracked the NEET-UG 2013. The qualified candidates will have to now complete the formalities with their respective counselling authorities such as DGHS, medical education directorates of states, AFMC, institutions and universities etc for admission to
MBBS/BDS courses.
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Nothing wrong in Advani praising Chouhan: Venkaiah
Hyderabad, June 5 “Some people are trying to read too much into Advaniji's statement in Gwalior. I do not understand where is the controversy. Advaniji praised Narendra Modi, Advaniji has praised Shivraj Singh Chouhan and when he goes to Chattisgarh, he praises Raman Singh,” Naidu told reporters here. “He praised even Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi. Because, our chief ministers are doing an excellent job. The BJP-ruled states are doing very well. The planning commission has also accepted this,” he said. Taking exception to the reported comments made by Congress leaders and the media reports about the internal differences in the BJP, he said there are no differences within the party and that the issue of declaring a leader for ensuing parliamentary elections has not been discussed yet. “There is no discussion at any time, at any level about the issue of leadership for the coming parliamentary elections. Unlike Congress, we are a democratic party. People will have their views. Nothing wrong about it. The appropriate forum is parliamentary board and it will meet at an appropriate time and then decide about leader."
— PTI
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Mumbai, June 5 With moist eyes, family members and close friends buried Jiah at around 2 pm at Juhu crematorium. Celebrities like Aamir Khan’s wife Kiran Rao, Riteish Deshmukh, Aditya Pancholi with son Sooraj, actor Raza Murad, TV actress Urvashi Dhokalia and others were present. It is learnt that Aamir Khan, with whom Jiah starred in ‘Ghajini’, visited her residence last night. Jiah was reportedly in a relationship with Sooraj Pancholi, son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab. She was heartbroken after a failed relationship with him which possibly drove her to commit suicide. Sooraj and Jiah spoke over telephone a number of times on Monday before she ended her life, sources had earlier said. Jiah’s mother and sister had gone out and she was alone at the house when she took the extreme step. Both Sooraj and Aditya were questioned by the police in connection with the case. According to Jiah’s mother, the actress was depressed after having been rejected at an audition in Hyderabad. She wanted to pursue a career in interior designing as she wasn’t happy with her film career graph. Born and raised in London, Jiah, also known as Nafisa, had shifted to India to pursue a career in acting. — PTI
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Breaking his silence on the political bickering over the setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the country would have to “pay a price” if the anti-terror body was not put in place.
