NEW DELHI: Amid the slugfest over poverty level estimates, Congress today distanced itself from controversial remarks made by party leaders Raj Babbar and Rasheed Masood on meals being available for Rs 12 and Rs 5.

"The party has disapproved of the Rs 12 and Rs 5 remarks," a senior party functionary speaking on the condition of anonymity said.

Downplaying the controversy surrounding BPL figures and Planning Commission report about reduction in poverty levels, the functionary said, "It should be kept in mind that after promulgation of the food ordinance, out of about 150 centrally sponsored schemes, now only one scheme of old age pension is linked to the below poverty line categorisation.

"Even that one scheme will be delinked from BPL by next year," the functionary said.

"Many centrally sponsored schemes, such as NREGA, ICDS, MDM, NRHM, SSA are universal whereas others such as IAY use a more complex formula... thus fixing of consumption at Rs 27 and Rs 33 for rural and urban areas have no bearing on government schemes," the Congress leader said.

He also attacked BJP for fuelling a controversy over the lower consumption limit and reminded that during the BJP led NDA regime in 2003, as per the NSSO's 59th round survey, the minimum consumption for poverty line in rural areas was Rs 16.73 only.

At that time BJP was in power, hence BJP has no moral authority to question the UPA government on this issue, the source said.

While Congress spokesperson Babbar had commented that a hearty meal in Mumbai can be bought for Rs 12, party leader Masood had claimed just Rs 5 was sufficient for a meal in Delhi. — PTI

NEW DELHI: In the eye of a storm over his remarks that Bharat Ratna should be taken back from Amartya Sen, BJP MP Chandan Mitra on Friday expressed regret over them, saying he “oversaid it”.

“I think I may have exaggerated. I do regret the part about taking away of Bharat Ratna from Dr Sen, I oversaid it,” Mitra said in New Delhi.

BJP has distanced itself from Mitra’s remarks. He too maintained on Friday that his tweets on the issue reflect his personal views and not the party line.

But Mitra was critical of Dr Sen’s economics and described them as “outdated and one that needs to be discarded”.

He also advised D. Sen to not engage in politics. “Dr Amartya Sen should behave like a Bharat Ratna does,” he said.

Dr Sen had earlier said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should not be the Prime Minister of the country. This had led Mitra to hit out at him.

Incidentally, Dr Sen was given the Bharat Ratna by the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government.

Distancing the party from Mitra’s strong views, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman had said on Thursday that the debate over Dr. Sen’s Bharat Ratna is unfortunate.

“BJP is not a part of it. Views expressed by member/s can only be construed as their personal opinion,” she said.

Dr Sen had hit back at Mitra, saying if former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asks him to return the Bharat Ratna, he will do so. — PTI

NEW YORK: BJP president Rajnath Singh on Friday challenged Congress to declare its prime ministerial candidate before losing sleep over the nominee of his party. "Will the Congress dare announce who will be the Prime Minister candidate before the general elections?" he said addressing members of the India-America Chamber of Commerce in New York.

Claiming that there are too many contenders for the job in the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and other unnamed dark horses, Singh said Congress leaders and workers are confused as to who would be the next prime minister if their party returns to power.

He said his party followed democratic principles in the selection of campaign committee and there was consensus unlike in the dictatorial Congress party.

"Did we have any problem when we named senior leader LK Advani as prime minister candidate in 2009 and did we had any issues when Atalji was made prime minister in 1999. Congress is now trying to divert the attention of the people from its scams and failures," he said.

Singh asserted that there are no differences whatsoever in the choice of BJP's prime ministerial candidate and it will be a smooth sailing.

"The BJP is to bring out a vision document on the state of economy with the help of experts and will be made public end of next month. The document will highlight what we will do in the areas of infrastructure, heavy engineering, manufacturing, energy and technology," he said.

Turning to the state of economy, he said India is now facing a serious financial crisis of grave magnitude despite the fact that no one in the global economy can ignore India.

"The economy of India is not something that makes us feel comfortable or feel proud of. But India was regarded as third largest economy of the world," he said, recalling that when the NDA government stepped down in 2004, the fiscal deficit was 2.5 per cent and current account deficit was surplus.

"The economy witnessed a boom period during 1999 to 2004 when the country was ruled by the NDA and the slide started in 2004. The boom that we created lasted till 2008 and then we are now witnessing is one of the worse economic downturns," Singh said.

"The rupee value has depreciated drastically to the USD dollar from Rs. 37 a USD in 2008 to Rs. 60 in 2013 almost doubling in five years. We thought this would be offset by increase in exports and that did not happen too which went up by just one per cent," he said.

"It's very unfortunate that savings that has been the biggest strength of India as it provided capital is now falling at a very rapid rate. The small businesses tend to grow with the increase in savings and in the absence they take a major hit. Savings drop and growth rates drop and what else to drop.

"The success of Indian story is over. The success story of India is waiting for the BJP to return to power. The UPA had ruined all the economy," he said.

Singh said, "We have proved in the BJP-ruled states how we prioritize economic reforms and Gujarat is a shining example of India. The whole world is now talking about Gujarat and foreign governments are keen to study the success story."

Singh said the average GDP of BJP-ruled governments are about 10 per cent whereas the nation is only experiencing a growth rate of less than five per cent.

"There are only two models ? BJP model for growth and Congress model for destruction," he added.

The BJP-led NDA government created 67 million jobs in less than five years whereas the Congress-UPA created less than 2.7 million jobs between 2004 and 2009," he claimed.

On his visit to Washington, Singh said he had discussions with the Congressmen and the Obama administration officials on the issue of difficulties faced by candidates in H1B and L1 visa to work legally in the US. The GDP cost burden will go up by 0.3 to 0.4 per cent due to increase in fees.

"We had lodged our protest against the comprehensive immigration reforms bill and they had raised the issue of patents and compulsory drug license issues. There was only one case under these CDL whereas Indonesia had six cases and Canada four cases," he added.

He said the BJP government would not be either a capitalistic government or a socialist government but a nationalist government with the interest of India in mind.

"We are not against FDI and in fact Vajpayee government was the one that initiated FDI but we are against FDI in retail sector as it would affect the livelihood of many a small business owner," he said.

He said that his party would demand to investigate the issue of forgery of signature of MPs in a letter sent to US President Barack Obama. — PTI

CAIRO: An investigating judge has ordered the detention of Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsy over alleged contacts with Hamas to help in his escape from prison in 2011, the official state news agency reported on Friday in the first official word on his status since a military coup on July 3.

The MENA news agency said Morsy has been detained for 15 days for investigation into the charges. His detention can be extended as the inquiry continues.

The announcement comes after military strongman Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi called for mass demonstrations on Friday to oppose what he called “terrorism,” a reference to Morsy’s Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood also called for mass protests on Friday, escalating fears of clashes between the two opposing groups of demonstrators or with the military, which has pledged to keep order and prevent violence.

The case concerns the mass jailbreak of dozens of Muslim Brotherhood leaders during the popular uprising in 2011 that toppled Morsy’s predecessor, President Hosni Mubarak.

Muslim Brotherhood officials have said they were aided by local residents in breaking out of prison, not foreigners.

The MENA report said Morsy is being investigated over allegations of collaborating with Hamas “to carry out anti-state acts, attacking police stations, army officers and storming prisons, setting fire to one prison and enabling inmates to flee, including himself, as well as premeditated killing of officers , soldiers and prisoners.” — AP

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed senior Gujarat IPS officer P.P. Pandey, an absconder in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, to appear before a trial court in Ahmedabad on July 29 and restrained the CBI from arresting him till then.

A Bench headed by Justice B.S. Chauhan, however, made it clear that the protection from arrest to Additional DGP Pandey, a 1982-batch IPS officer, will come to an end if he fails to appear before the special CBI court on Monday.

The court passed the order after senior advocate Jaspal Singh, appearing for Pandey, assured that the police officer will appear before the concerned court and he should be protected till then.

Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising, appearing for the agency, vehemently opposed court’s order for giving any protection to Pandey.

“He has gone underground and there is no need to give him any protection. He is an accused in the case,” she said.

The court, however, granted him interim protection and said that due procedure of law should be followed after he appears before the trial court.

“Pandey will appear before the concerned court on Monday and the law will take its course,” the bench, also comprising justice S.A. Bobde, said while making it clear that if the IPS officer fails to appear before the trial court on Monday then he will not get any relief.

However, the Bench said on appearing before the trial court, Pandey would be at liberty to move application for bail which would have to be dealt strictly in accordance with law.

The Gujarat High Court had on July 1 dismissed Pandey’s plea seeking quashing of FIR against him in the fake encounter case.

The High Court, while rejecting Pandey’s plea, also declared him an absconder in the 2004 fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others.

Pandey, as the Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, was heading the Crime Branch when Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter allegedly with Gujarat Police on the city outskirts on June 15, 2004. — PTI

BANGALORE: India's advanced meteorological satellite INSAT-3D was successfully launched by an European rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana early on Friday, giving a boost to weather forecasting and disaster warning services.

European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket launched INSAT-3D and Alphasat satellites.

Alphasat is Europe's largest telecommunication satellite-ever manufactured and results from a large-scale public-private partnership between the European Space Agency and Inmarsat.

The workhorse vehicle lifted off exactly on schedule at 1:23am IST from the Spaceport's ELA-3 launch zone in French Guiana for a nearly 33-minute flight.

This launch provided an excellent view of the flight's initial trajectory, as the Ariane 5 began its vertical ascent, then rotated East arching over the Spaceport's main base area as it progressed downrange.

The flight path was visible between scattered cloud layers and the clear meteorological conditions enabled an excellent view of the launch's first phase including separation of the two solid propellant boosters at an altitude of 67 km.

Alphasat was deployed first in the flight sequence, nearly 28 minutes after the liftoff.

Some five minutes later, Ariane 5 completed its mission with the successful separation of INSAT-3D, which carries a six-channel imager and 19-channel sounder, as well as a data relay transponder for satellite-aided search and rescue operations.

"I am happy to inform you that the Master Control Facility at Hassan in India has already received signals from INSAT-3D", chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan said minutes after the launch.

"We are looking forward to an excellent operational performance of INSAT-3D for the next seven years making a difference for the weather forecasting and disaster warning systems for the country", added Radhakrishnan, also secretary in the Department of Space, in comments telecast live by Doordarshan.

Radhakrishnan did not travel to Kourou for the launch of INSAT-3D, designed to provide meteorological observation and monitoring of land and ocean surfaces.

According to ISRO, INSAT-3D adds a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, which provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone from surface to top of the atmosphere.

The imaging system of INSAT-3D has significant improvements over that of KALPANA and INSAT-3A, the space agency said.

INSAT-3D will provide continuity to earlier missions and further augment the capability to provide various meteorological as well as search and rescue services.

INSAT-3D had a lift-off mass of 2,060 kg.

INSAT-3D also carried the newly developed 19 channel sounder, the first such payload to be flown on an ISRO satellite mission.

The Data Relay Transponder (DRT) will be used to receive meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic data from remote, uninhabited locations over the coverage area from Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) like Automatic Weather Station, Automatic Rain Gauge and Agro Met Stations.

India Meteorological Department and ISRO have established more than 1800 DCPs.

INSAT-3D is equipped with a Search and Rescue payload that picks up and relays the alert signals originating from the distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land based users to the Indian Mission Control Centre located at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore.

The major users of Satellite Aided Search and Rescue service in India are Indian Coast Guard, Airports Authority of India, Directorate General of Shipping, Defence Services and fishermen.

The Indian service region includes a large part of the Indian Ocean region covering India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Tanzania for rendering distress alert services. — PTI