New Delhi, January 14
Armed with the opinion of Attorney General Milon Banerjee, the CBI has decided to drop one of the politically sensitive cases of the previous NDA regime against former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati in the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor scam.

But Mayawati is not out of trouble yet as the disproportionate assets case against her, stumbled upon while probing the corridor scam, would continue, agency sources said.

“Attorney General Milon Banerjee very recently gave his opinion that the evidence so far collected by the agency against Mayawati in the scam was not enough to send the case for trial before the court and hence should be closed,” they said.

The agency had sought the opinion of the Attorney General who felt that the CBI could neither prosecute her under the Prevention of Corruption Act nor the Indian Penal Code.

A status report stating this would soon be filed before the Supreme Court, which on September 18, 2002 had directed a probe into the multi-crore scam involving high and mighty of the Uttar Pradesh Government.

The curtains would also fall on the probe against Mayawati’s then Cabinet colleague Nasiuddin Siddiqui, as the CBI decided to close the case against him as well under similar circumstances.

As far back as October 25 last year, the CBI had informed the Supreme Court about its inability to link the Taj Corridor Scam, which took place during Mayawati’s tenure as Chief Minister, to her disproportionate assets.

The court had directed the CBI to file a status report on the scam while asking the agency to independently probe the disproportionate assets case without coming back to the court periodically with a status report.

However, the case of disproportionate assets against the former UP Chief Minister has not been closed and the agency would file a status report on this before the agency asking for more time to complete the investigations.

The sources said the evaluation was still continuing and the figure about the assets was running into crores of rupees as she had immovable property in the name of brother, mother, father, sister-in-law and even some of her close aides who had no substantial sources of income.

According to the FIR, the CBI is looking at her income from April one, 1995 to August 29, 2003 when she was either Chief Minister or MP or MLA.

Her income during the period was calculated at Rs 1.12 crore but her income tax returns from 1997-98 till 2002-03 showed it to be Rs 88.70 lakh. — PTI

Lucknow, January 14
President APJ Abdul Kalam’s magical hold over his audience was complete - be they school-going children at the Rudhai Primary school compound, bright young doctors at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences or the veteran scientists being felicitated at King George Medical University today. The positive message emanating from the visionary President clearly energised every citizen it touched. As hundreds of schoolchildren repeated his easy-to- follow magic mantra it was clear that superpower India of the President’s dream was where every single person mattered

During his day-long trip to the city, the First Citizen of India landed at the Bakshi-ka- Talab Air Force airstrip on the outskirts of the city this morning. Nearby at Rudhai village, hundreds of schoolchildren from various government primary schools of rural Lucknow had been sitting patiently in the cold since early morning to have a rare glimpse of the President, who had specially made a request to meet them during his visit. They were not disappointed.

Arriving with Governor T.V. Rajeswar and Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, the President made a special effort to establish a rapport with his audience by speaking in Hindi. Bridging the age barrier ,the President struck an instant bond by answering questions put by the children in the language they understood.

In an eight-point pledge he made children repeat. He made them promise to study hard, not waste their time and resources on liquor and gambling, have a small family, protect environment, plant five tress and teach five persons and be a model for others to follow.

Among the audience was Riyaz, the winner of last year’s National Bravery award who lost a leg and arm in his valiant attempt to save his seven-year- old playmate, Shazia ,from being run over by a train.

President Kalam presented cheques under the state’s Kanya Vidhyadhan Yojna to 33 adolescent girls.

Later addressing an august gathering of super-specialists at the city’s premier Sanjay Gandhi Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences convocation ,President Kalam hoped that they would work towards research that would make latest technology like liver transplants within the reach of the poorest of the poor.

Expressing satisfaction at the steady progress Uttar Pradesh was making in the eradication of polio ,Mr Kalam asked the audience to strive to make the state polio- free. He also gave away the maiden Prof S S Aggarwal Award to Geeta Upadhyay in recognition of her paper on molecular biology.

At the inaugural convocation of the now -upgraded King George Medical University , the President honoured Nobel laureates with honoris causa degrees. 

Lucknow, January 14
It was a tribute President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam would cherish for times to come.

Two snake charmers played the National Anthem on their ‘been’ (flute made of gourd) as soon as the President stepped on the dias in the village of Rudhai.

Kancheepuram, January 14
Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswati, who is staying at Kalavai, around 40 km from here, today performed special poojas on the occasion of “Maha Sankranthi”.

Mutt sources said the seer also performed “Dhanur Masya” pooja in the wee hours of the day and also the traditional “Chandramouleeswarar” pooja.

Meanwhile, Mutt advocate Y. Thiagarajan told reporters outside the Kalavai Mutt that the video footage shown by some private satellite channels was manipulated.

Dehra Dun, January 14
The police has arrested a man impersonating a television channel producer for duping wannabe models and actors on the pretext of raising funds for tsunami disaster relief in Dehra Dun.

Umesh Sharma, who made false claims to represent a well-known television channel, also trapped the Mayor of Dehra Dun, Ms Manorama Sharma ,into being the chief guest at the cultural programme the funds from which would go to tsunami victims.

The police, however, nabbed Mr Sharma on a complaint from television channel employees, even as the programme was under way yesterday.

The man had advertised for openings in an album being produced by ‘Ganpati Films’ for the television channel, inviting applications for auditions, the police said. He charged a fee of Rs 200 from each applicant and directed them to gather at the Town Hall auditorium yesterday.

New Delhi, January 14
Witch hunting — one of the most cruel and barbaric forms of violence against women — is still prevalent in Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

According to a report on situational analysis of women and girls in Chhattisgarh by the National Commission for Women (NCW), which outlines a rather sad picture of the condition of women and children in the state, a woman is branded a witch and then considered responsible for all ill luck befalling any person in the village.

"To identify a "tonhi", a man, known as a "baiga", randomly identifies the "witch". Thereafter the whole village turns against her, subjecting her to most cruel and inhuman forms of physical and mental assault," says the report.

Quite often, accusations of witchcraft are prompted by relatives wanting to get hold of property and assets of the "tonhi", it adds.

Although resource rich, Chhattisgarh is home to a large number of people who are among the poorest in the country. Mostly migrants and skilled labour from outside have reaped gains of development and industrialisation in the state.

Child molestation, trafficking and rape of minors are among other heinous forms of violence against women in the state, says the report, adding that poverty was driving more and more women into prostitution.

Women in the state are also suffering due to socio-cultural practices relating to marriage and custodial rights, which are discriminatory against them.

The practice of child marriage is another cause for mental and physical ill health in women. As many as 34 per cent of women are married in the age group of 15-19.

The overall scenario of mortality and morbidity of women and children is also miserable, says the report, adding that the state has as many as 58 per cent of chronically under-nourished children, while the percentage of women with anaemia was 69.

There is a shortfall of medical personnel in the primary health centres in the state and the percentage of women doctors was negligible.

New Delhi, January 14
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to be gloating over division of votes of the United Progressive Alliance in Bihar as it today exuded confidence over the possible end of the 15-years “misrule” of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) government in Patna.

While the in charge of Bihar Arun Jaitley trained guns on the Congress for its effort to wean away upper caste voters, BJP MP from Bhagalpur Sushil Kumar Modi called the country’s oldest party as vote spoiler.

In the same breath, Mr Jaitley said “we are happy that pro-UPA votes which the RJD-Congress-Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)was able to poll in the Lok Sabha elections are being divided into at least three camps”.

“Our efforts would be to keep the NDA votes intact and try to convert so called friendly contests into a nightmare for the UPA”, Mr Jaitley said and added that the NDA drew a very bitter lesson of “friendly contests” in the last Assembly elections when the BJP and the then Samata Party fought elections without a seat sharing arrangement.

While the NDA had won the overwhelming number of Lok Sabha seats leaving just 7 seats for the RJD, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav’s RJD managed to win a number which catapulated his party to power again, Mr Jaitley pointed out.

“In multi-cornered contests, winning margins come down and in Assembly elections winning or losing margins are invariably very low”, he pointed out deriving a sadistic pleasure from the Congress-RJD fight over seats.

“But what gives us a tremendous advantage is that in this friendly contests between the RJD and the Congress, neither party can go all hog against the other. Moreover, Congress President Sonia would suffer from a serious handicap as she would not be able to undertake a massive campaign. Without Sonia, there is no one else in the Congress party who has the mass appeal”, he said giving arguments in favour of the NDA.