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Patnaik linked to other mine allotments
Gold hunt: SC against monitoring ASI work
SC: See safety before allowing drug tests
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Pak says India can’t overlook UN resolutions on Kashmir
Mumbai’s Mithi river to be cleaned
Investigating officer gets threatening calls
Electoral Offences & Corrupt Practices during Elections
Snubbed by Indira, Nixon never forgave India
Mastermind behind NHPC officer’s abduction held
Army’s technical arm to automate its operations
Buddhist tourism yields big returns for Maharashtra
Telangana divides Left parties in AP
Indian geneticists achieve major breakthrough
British national molested in Mumbai
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Patnaik linked to other mine allotments
New Delhi, October 21 Patnaik, who had in August 2005, recommended to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh allocation of Talabira II mine to Hindalco, had on June 22, 2002 written to the then Coal and Mines Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for allotment of the Utkal B-1 mine to JSPL by cancelling an earlier allotment of the coal block to Talcher Mining. Like in the case of Hindalco, the Coal Ministry agreed and allocated the mine to JSPL. "Since allotment of Utkal B-1 coal block is very vital for setting up the sponge iron/steel plant in the state, I would request your personal intervention in the matter and consider the allotment of Utkal B-1 coal block in favour of Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) on cancelling the prior allotment to Talcher Mining Pvt Ltd," Patnaik had written
to Prasad. The Utkal B 1 coal block in Talcher coalfields of Odisha was alloted to Naveen Jindal-led JSPL in September 2003 when NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power. When contacted, Prasad said, "A recommendation came from the Chief Minister and to the best of my knowledge, the allotment of coal block made to the earlier allottee ws cancelled as the company did not start production within the stipulated time. Everything was done fairly." "The crucial consideration is of fake coal block allocations," he told the reporters, adding that no comparison can be made between this case and Hindalco. He wanted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to respond to other coal block allocations which the CBI is now probing under Supreme Court monitoring as he has acknowledged being the 'competent authority'. The CBI is probing alleged irregularities in allotment of Talabira II and Talabira III mines to Hindalco and has registered case against the firm Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P C Parakh. — PTI
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Gold hunt: SC against monitoring ASI work
New Delhi, October 21 “We are not inclined to intervene now, assuming that the Centre and the state government are not aware of their duty,” a Bench comprising Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi remarked while hearing a PIL plea for court monitoring of the digging to prevent the misuse of the precious metal. The Bench, however, agreed to keep the PIL pending, instead of dismissing it, and granted liberty to the petitioner, advocate ML Sharma, to come back to the court to press his pleadings if the need arose. “Can we intervene in every sensational matter,” the Bench asked the petitioner who apprehended that the treasure might vanish in thin air as had happened in Jaipur in the 1970s. The Bench also noted that the ASI and the Geological Survey of India (GSI) were carrying out the excavation after doing some scientific tests and not on the basis of any seer’s dream about the presence of gold. Sharma, however, persisted with his plea for installation of a closed circuit television (CCTV) system to monitor the digging. The state police was not allowing TV news channel crew and the public anywhere near the site of excavation and this accentuated apprehensions over possible misuse, he said. “The GSI has confirmed the presence of silver or gold, but the authorities might say at the end that they did not find anything,” he pleaded.
Modi's U-turn
Ahmedabad, October 21 Modi tweeted 'Sant Shobhan Sarkar ke prati anek varsho se lakho logo ki shraddha judi hui hai. Main unki tapasya aur tyag ko pranam karta hun' (For many years, faith of lakhs of people is linked with seer Shobhan Sarkar. I salute his austerity). While ridiculing the UPA government for undertaking the digging operations to unearth 'hidden gold' at Unnao, he had also mocked the seer whose "dream" prompted the Archaeological Survey of India to agree for the massive operation. He asked the Centre that instead of undertaking the hunt for the gold, it better brought back the black money stashed in the foreign banks. — TNS
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SC: See safety before allowing drug tests
New Delhi, October 21 A Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and SK Singh also directed the government to subject the volunteers to drug trials only after obtaining their “informed consent,” which should be video recorded without affecting their right to privacy. Of the 162 new drugs cleared by the New Drug Advisory Committee (NDAC) for clinical trials, the Bench allowed only five to be tested on humans for now after a mechanism was in place. The remaining 157 drugs/chemicals would be subjected to additional clearances by the Drug Consultative Committee (DCC) and the apex body before being allowed for trial tests on patients as assured by the government, the Bench clarified. The apex court asked the government to base the clearances mainly on three aspects. (see box)
Guides for govt
* The apex court asked the government to base the clearances mainly on three aspects. First, the risk assessment should be weighed against the likely benefits to patients *
The need for innovation should be decided on the basis of the requirement for replacing the existing treatment options *
The trials should mainly benefit patients in India, not in other countries *
The SC also asked the government to specify how many of the 157 new chemicals sought to be tested in India were patented abroad
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Pak says India can’t overlook UN resolutions on Kashmir New Delhi, October 21 Reacting to yesterday’s statement by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid that Kashmir was an integral part of India, a Pakistan foreign office spokesman asserted that the Kashmir ‘dispute’ was the core issue that remained unresolved between the two countries. “It is unfortunate that Indian leadership continues to refer to the state of Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India, when the reality is clearly otherwise.” The strongly-worded statement from Islamabad came less than two days before Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif meets US President Barack Obama in Washington. Sharif has again sought America's intervention on the Kashmir issue but Washington has turned down the request. The Pakistani spokesman said as a member of the United Nations, India should not overlook or undermine the numerous UN Security Council resolutions on this issue. In an obvious reference to the Shimla Agreement, he said while bilateral agreements might exist, the sanctity of the UN resolutions could not be understated. “The Kashmir dispute remains a fundamental component of the bilateral dialogue process and resolution of this dispute is vital for maintaining peace and security in the region. India's continued intransigence over this issue is counterproductive and is unhelpful in the efforts to resolve this dispute.” He said Pakistan remained committed to a purposeful, constructive and result-oriented dialogue with India and believed that serious efforts need to be made in maintaining a positive atmosphere and avoid negative propaganda.
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Mumbai’s Mithi river to be cleaned
Mumbai, October 21 MPCB officials who conducted several surveys along the Mithi river say scores of industries that were in the metal fabricating business and processing industries were releasing untreated chemicals into the river. The board also submitted a list of polluting industries to the tribunal which is hearing pleas by various groups. — TNS
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Asaram case: SC rejects plea for curbs on media
New Delhi, October 21 Rejecting Asaram’s writ petition on the issue, a Bench comprising Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, however, granted liberty to him to approach the SC again if he felt a section of the media continued to distort the facts relating to the case. Appearing for Asaram, senior advocate Vikas Singh said some of the newspapers and television channels were sensationalising the court case and related developments in order to increase their circulation and viewership, capitalising on the fact that his client had crores of followers and thousands of ashrams within the country and abroad. The trial by media should stop, Singh said citing SC verdicts, including by a five-judge Constitution Bench, on the need for clamping curbs on reporting court cases as every accused had the right to the presumption that he was innocent until his conviction. While the case against Asaram pertained only to molestation, a section of the media was describing it as rape, which was not the allegation of even the victim who was a minor girl, the senior advocate pointed out. The Bench, however, said it was not inclined to place any restrictions at this stage on the media, the complainant in the case, the police or the advocates. Arrested in August following the allegation, the 72-year-old godman is kept in a Jodhpur jail.
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Investigating officer gets threatening calls
Ahmedabad, October 21 The police is claimed to have traced the mobile phone number on which the threat call was issued to the Surat DCP to one Jashrat Singh in Ashoknagar in Madhya Pradesh. According to the complaints registered by the DCP, she received the threat calls last weekend, asking her to refrain from hunting and arresting the rape-accused Narayan Sai or to face "dire consequences". Earlier some senior police officers of Jodhpur had received similar threat calls when they were hunting for the Bapu in connection with the sexual assault of a minor in the Rajasthan city. Narayan Sai, who is absconding ever since the rape complaints were registered against him and his father by two Surat-based sisters earlier this month, is believed to have shaved off his hair and beard to hoodwink the police. The hearing on his anticipatory bail plea, claimed to be carrying his forged signature, scheduled to be taken up by the Surat sessions court today, was again deferred till tomorrow. Meanwhile, the police grilled wife and daughter of Asaram, Laxmi and Bharati respectively, in Ahmedabad for the second consecutive day today. After some three and half hours of grueling session, the police said their questioning had been concluded “for the time being,” while it was trying to present Akhilesh Gupta and his wife Varsha, the cook of Asaram, who were picked up in UP.
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Electoral Offences & Corrupt Practices during Elections
New Delhi, October 21 The survey says 30 sitting MPs have declared cases of electoral offences in their self-sworn affidavits. The analysis of contestants in Parliamentary and Assembly elections since 2008 found 30 sitting MPs and 127 sitting MLAs with declared cases of electoral offences. The list has representation cutting across the party lines with some prominent names being that of BJP president Rajnath Singh, his colleague Varun Gandhi and Ashok Tanwar of the Congress. Singh, who represents BJP from Gaziabad (UP) has case against him for “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony (IPC Section-153A)”, as per the ADR report. The analysis is based on self-declared cases of sitting MPs and MLAs falling under the section for “Corrupt Practices and Electoral Offences” (inclusive of Model Code of Conduct violations) as provided in the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP Act). Among the sitting MPs and MLAs, 36 are from the Congress (seven MPs and 29 MLAs), 34 from BJP (nine MPs and 25 MLAs), 16 from JD(U) (two MPs and 14 MLAs), 13 from SP (three MPs and 10 MLAs), seven are from RJD (two MP and five MLAs), five from AIADMK (one MP and four MLAs) and five are from BSP (all MLAs). “Candidates who contest elections should display the kind of responsible behaviour and conduct that upholds the integrity and value of fair and free elections. Candidates should refrain from activities that are considered to be electoral offences and corrupt practices during elections under the RP Act,” counsels ADR and NEW. Being a voluntary set of guidelines given by the political parties unto themselves, there is no penal provision mentioned therein as far as the Model Code is concerned. Though the commission does take remedial action for violations and in appropriate cases may express and convey its displeasure against violators in the form of reprimand or censure, advising them to be careful in future. A reply on the Model Code issue in the Parliament in 2012 by the then Law Minister Salman Khurshid says the code has no statutory backing as many of its provisions are not legally enforceable and hence not legally punishable. However, there are certain provisions in the Model Code, the violation of which also constitutes violation of some provisions in the election laws and or the Code of Criminal Procedure.
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Snubbed by Indira, Nixon never forgave India
New Delhi, October 21 He scorned a "phobia" among some Americans that "everything India does is good, and everything Pakistan does is bad", and once told the military leader of Pakistan (Yahya Khan), "There is a psychosis in this country about India," writes Princeton University professor Gary J Bass in "The Blood Telegram: India's Secret War in East Pakistan." The book, published by Random House India, is a riveting history of the Pakistani army's crackdown on the then East Pakistan (today's independent Bangladesh), killing thousands of people and sending ten million refugees fleeing into India. It describes how Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger supported Pakistan's military dictatorship. According to Bass, "The Americans who most liked India tended to be the ones that Nixon could not stand. India was widely seen as a State Department favourite, irritating the president." "I don't like the Indians," the author quotes Nixon as saying at the height of the Bengali crisis. Bass says beyond his prejudices, he had reason piled upon reason for this "distaste" for India and Indians. "The most basic was the Cold War: presidents of the US since Harry Truman had been frustrated by India's policy of nonalignment, which Nixon, much like his predecessors, viewed as Nehruvian posturing. India was on suspiciously good terms with the Soviet Union," the book says. Another reason was realpolitik. "Some Americans romanticised India's democracy but not Nixon. He was unimpressed with the world's largest republic, believing to the end of his days that the US should base its foreign policy on what a country did outside its borders, not on whether it treated its people decently at home," the author says. He described Americans' popular sympathies for India as a "psychological disorder", he says. On top of that, Bass says, there was a mutual loathing between Nixon and Indira Gandhi. He had not cared for Jawaharal Nehru, either, but she had an extraordinary ability to get under his skin. "Back in 1967, while Nixon was out of power and planning his way back, he had met again with Gandhi on a visit to Delhi. But when he called on her at her house, she had seemed conspicuously bored, despite the short duration of their talk. "After about 20 minutes of strained chat, she asked one of her aides, in Hindi, how much longer this was going to take. Nixon had not gotten the precise meaning, but he sure caught the tone," he says. And finally, Bass says, there was friendship between Nixon and Khan. 'Over and over, he privately spoke of Yahya with an uncharacteristic blend of admiration and affection." Drawing on recently declassified documents, unheard White House tapes, and meticulous investigative reporting, Bass gives an unprecedented chronicle of the break-up of Pakistan, and India's role in it. Nixon and Kissinger, unswayed by detailed warnings of genocide from American diplomats witnessing the bloodshed, stood behind Pakistan's military rulers. Driven not just by Cold War realpolitik but by a bitter personal dislike of India and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Nixon and Kissinger helped the Pakistani government even as it careened toward a devastating war against India, the writer says. They silenced American officials who dared to speak up, secretly encouraged China to mass troops on the Indian border, and illegally supplied weapons to the Pakistani military, an overlooked scandal that presages Watergate, he says. The name of the book comes from a telegram of dissent sent by Archer Blood, who was the Consul General of the US mission in Dhaka in 1971. The telegram was signed by most of the US consulate staff and other American officials in Dhaka at that time, against Washington's policy towards Bangladesh. — PTI
* A new book based on declassified documents says that Nixon scorned a "phobia" among some Americans that "everything India does is good, and everything Pakistan does is bad" *
The book is a riveting history of the Pakistani army's crackdown on the then East Pakistan (today's independent Bangladesh), killing thousands of people and sending ten million refugees fleeing into India *
It describes how Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger supported Pakistan's military dictatorship. "I don't like the Indians," the author quotes Nixon as saying at the height of the Bengali crisis
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Mastermind behind NHPC officer’s abduction held
Guwahati, October 21 A joint team of the Assam Police and Arunachal Police on Sunday night arrested the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping incident, Anil Tamang from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Tamang is a contractor with the NHPC and hails from Tawang where the NHPC is executing hydroelectricity project. Police sources earlier claimed that said the NHPC official was abducted for money reportedly with the help of anti-talk faction of the Bodo tribe insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland led by Sangbijit. So far police have arrested 12 persons in connection with the abduction. Director General of Police Jayanto Narayan Choudhury said the police were adopting a cautious approach and “all-out operation” was not being carried out to ensure safety of the NHPC official who is in the captivity of militants. The DGP said the abductors have served a ransom demand to the family of the NHPC official. Agarwal was kidnapped on September 21 last from the Assam-Arunachal border when he was travelling from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to Tezpur in Assam. Fifty six-year-old Agarwal is a resident of Delhi and was in Tawang to oversee the works of a hydroelectric project being executed there. He was traveling without any PSO at the time of the abduction.
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Army’s technical arm to automate its operations
Chandigarh, October 21 Currently, it is totally dependent on manual paper based transactional processes and procedures. Termed as Project EMERALD (EME Reliability Availability Logistics Delivery), it will establish an integrated information environment for the entire organisation by interconnecting the relevant engineering and business processes that heretofore were operating in a stand-alone mode. Executing EMERALD, sources said, is a mammoth task as it would require interlinking EME establishments from the Directorate General of EME at Army Headquarters and base repair depots down to light repair workshops at the unit level located at over 600 locations across India. Data support, control process and accounting procedures would have to be developed to cater to over 1,500 types of equipment consisting of more than 25 lakh items and over a million spare parts. Headed by a Lieutenant General, EME provides maintenance, repair and overhaul support to the army for the entire range of equipment, including weapons, vehicles, tanks, artillery, missiles, radars helicopters, UAV’s, communication and surveillance equipment and electronic gadgets, through its network of workshops and where required, through outsourcing, both in peace and during war. EMERALD would be able to provide the necessary realtime information to decision-makers at all levels and also integrate the corps with other arms and services of the Army as well as agencies with which it is functionally associated. The system would be able to operate in an operational environment in forward areas as well as in field exercises where connectivity with the primary data centers could be limited. EME is also undertaking a total revamp of its eight base repair workshops that form the backbone of its technical support capability and are also engaged in technology development, upgrade of weapon systems and indigenisation and manufacture of spare parts.
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Buddhist tourism yields big returns for Maharashtra
Mumbai, October 21 According to information available from the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), the number of tourists has shot up sharply in just one year. “The number of tourists at Ajanta and Ellora has gone up from 10,000 to 18,000 every weekend in one year’s time,” says Sanjay Dekhne, Manager, MTDC. According to sources, a large number of visitors are from abroad particularly from Japan which is seeing renewed interest in Indian heritage sites. Maharashtra had tied up with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to fund the project. The final phase of the restoration project was completed earlier this year. Encouraged by the response from abroad, the Maharashtra Government kicked off a Buddha Circuit in the state under which more than 25 new destinations across the state have been opened up to attract high-spending tourists from Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore. Among those that have been spruced up for visitors include ancient shrines including cave temples in a number of places in the state like Aurangabad, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Raigad, and
Satara.
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Telangana divides Left parties in AP
Hyderabad, October 21 For the first time in the state’s history, the 2014 General Election might see the CPI and CPM in the opposite political camps. The Telangana statehood issue saw the two parties taking diagonally opposite stands. While the CPI has been steadfastly supporting the demand for separate Telangana state, the CPM is strongly opposed to the state’s bifurcation on the ground that such a move could lead to similar demands across the country. This is the first time that the Left parties have differed on a major political issue. The gulf between the two communist parties widened further with their top leaders indulging in war of words over potential electoral allies. State CPI secretary Narayana has alleged that the CPM was in “secret talks” with the YSR Congress Party, headed by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, for a tie-up in the next Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in April/May next year. His CPM counterpart BV Raghavulu has hit back and accused the CPI of making ideological compromises on several issues. Both parties have been, over years, facing a steady erosion of their support base in the state. In the 294 member Assembly, the CPI has four MLAs, while the CPM has a lone representative. The left parties were part of “Maha Kootamai” (grand alliance), comprising the main opposition Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, in the 2009 elections. However, in the changed political dynamics, they have fallen out with the TRS. While the CPI continues to maintain friendly relationship with the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, the CPM has distanced itself from the Opposition party with differences cropping up on several issues. As part of efforts to break new ground, the Marxists seem to have kept their doors open for a possible understanding with the fledgling YSR Congress Party, a move that has angered their co-traveller, the CPI. According to an assessment by CPM leaders, Jagan could emerge as a more effective alternative to the Congress in the state.
Widening gulf
* For the first time in the state's history, the 2014 General Election might see the CPI and CPM in the opposite political camps *
While the CPI has been steadfastly supporting the demand for separate Telangana state, the CPM is strongly opposed to the state's bifurcation *
The gulf between the two communist parties widened further with their top leaders indulging in war of words over potential electoral allies
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Indian geneticists achieve major breakthrough
New Delhi, October 21 Around 15 to 25 per cent patients on oral anticoagulant therapy, given to patients with blood clots (a condition called Thrombosis), report minor to major bleeding episodes due to excessive thinning of blood post medication. Of these patients, around 2 per cent die on account of excess bleeding. But with the new Indian breakthrough validated by genetic scientists from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, the risk of bleeding on minor and adult patients on anticoagulant therapy can now be predicted and therapy accordingly altered to ensure patient’s safety. Led by IC Verma, Director, Centre of Medical Genetics, Gangaram, the team of researchers has developed a tool called Genetic Bleeding Risk Score which takes into account genetic and non genetic factors in a patient to rate his risk of bleeding while on oral anticoagulant therapy. This is the first score in the world which factors in genetic mutations to predict patients’ bleeding risk. It is also the first such score which has been validated by the International Journal of Genome Medicine that published the findings of the Indian team in its recent edition. The few existing bleeding risk prediction scores in the world are based on studies in white populations and on non genetic factors in patients such as age, disease conditions etc. “We have analysed four mutations in the study. A patient carrying any of these mutations and in an advancing age of over 60 years is a patient at high bleeding risk. Our score will allow doctors to classify anticoagulant therapy patients in two categories - low risk and high risk. Those on high risk would have to be prescribed very low doses of the oral anticoagulant to prevent excessive thinning of blood which sometimes manifests as bleeding during shaving among males,” said Risha Nahar, scientist involved in the research. “Moreover, patients on high risk can then be subjected to more frequent blood tests to gauge the extent of thinning of blood, ” says
Nahar.
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Former US President Richard Nixon was baffled and annoyed by Americans' sympathies for India, which he described as a "physiological disorder", says a new book based on declassified documents.
He scorned a "phobia" among some Americans that "everything India does is good, and everything Pakistan does is bad", and once told the military leader of Pakistan
(Yahya Khan), "There is a psychosis in this country about India," writes Princeton University professor Gary J Bass in "The Blood Telegram: India's Secret War in East Pakistan."
