New Delhi, November 30
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha demonstrating its dissatisfaction with the government’s response to the recent murders of political leaders in Uttar Pradesh.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, senior BJP member Murli Manohar Joshi drew the attention of the House to the killing of BJP MLA Krishnanant Rai and his seven securitymen yesterday. “Such incidents are on the rise,” said Mr Joshi and recalled how the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member Raju Bal was killed in daylight in Allahabad. He said that Uday Bhan Karvaraia, another BJP MLA from Bara constituency also met the same fate. He complained that the State government did not consider their demand for a CBI inquiry into the Mau riots and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister instead gave a clean chit to the accused. “From Benaras to Gorakhpur, people are shocked,” he said.

When Dr Joshi tried to impress upon the government that inquiry into these murders is imperative, the Deputy Chairman, K. Rahman Khan reminded him that a full-fledged discussion was not possible in the Zero Hour.

The Samajwadi Party members led by Mr Shahid Siddqui and Mr Uday Pratap Singh objected to Dr Joshi’s allegations and sought the Chair’s permission to counter the charges made against their government in UP. The Deputy Chairman said that all political parties cannot be allowed to participate in the discussion. “This is against the rules,” the Deputy Chairman emphasised.

BJP leader Sushma Swaraj pressed for a discussion and led the walkout. She was joined by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and S.S. Ahluwalia.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil informed the House that the Central Government had sought information on the matter from the Uttar Pradesh Government. “We all feel sad when somebody is killed. We will give whatever directions that are possible Constitutionally,” the minister explained.

Patna, November 30
The Vigilance Department has decided to probe Mr Sadhu Yadav, brother-in-law of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, for the alleged involvement in the multi-crore flood relief scam issue, because of his past association with one of the main accused, the supplier of relief materials, Santosh Jha.

The probe into the flood scam which began in June this year, when the state was under President’s rule, has already put the then DM, Patna, Mr Gautam Goswami, the then IDBI manager Sanjay Jha and the supplier Santosh Jha behind bars.

Despite allegations against Mr Sadhu Yadav for his involvement into the scam, where the main accused Gautam Goswami reportedly siphoned off Rs 17 crore meant for the flood ravaged people of the state, it was widely felt that the brother of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi was spared primarily because of the Central rule in Bihar with a friendly government in Delhi.

The NDA government in the state, both the JD (U) and the BJP gave green signal to the Vigilance Commission to probe afresh the role of Mr Sadhu Yadav in the scam.

The ADG (Vigilance) Neelmani has questioned Mr Sadhu Yadav about the transfer of a draft of Rs 6 lakh, debited in his account, from the bank account of Santosh Jha in January last year.

Then Santosh Yadav had shifted his allegience to Ramvilas Paswan by fighting February polls on LJP ticket. Later on Mr Ramvilas Paswan pleaded ignorance of Mr Santosh Jha’s involvement into the scam.

According to Vigilance Commission, the scamsters had opened a forged account in the name of “BSSI” with IDBI Bank.

Sources disclosed that a number cheques issued against the purchase of flood relief materials were issued in the name of “BSSI”, finally enabling the scamsters to siphon off the money .

The Vigilance Commission has also decided to investigate the role played by Nidhi Jha, who was said to be a close associate of Santosh Jha.

Mr Neelmani said a sum of Rs 1 crore, suspected to be scam money, was deposited in Nidhi`s bank account.

Meanwhile, the RJD spokesman Sivanand Tiwari charged the NDA with “political motive” to defame his party. Mr Tiwari claimed that Mr Sadhu Yadav already pleaded his innocence on this issue soon after the probe was ordered in June, much before the Vigilance Commission served notice on him yesterday.

New Delhi, November 30
Although the BJP in Madhya Pradesh is in turmoil, the Congress has little choice but to play the waiting game in the state.

Party managers concede that with only 39 legislators and the new anti-defection law in place, the Congress can do little in the circumstances to capitalise on the crisis in the BJP. Nevertheless, the Congress is optimistic that the BJP graph is on the downslide and it will eventually stand to gain from it.

The Congress assessment is that firebrand Uma Bharati’s suspension and possible expulsion from the BJP is only going to add to the BJP’s woes given her reputation as a successful rabble rouser. Nobody believes the BJP government will not last its full term as most legislators known to be loyal to Uma Bharati are unlikely to take the extreme step of walking out of the party.

At the same time, the BJP government under its new Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan is not expected to have a smooth run. Perceived widely as a choice of the BJP central leadership, Mr Chouhan does not command the loyalty of a large section of legislators. It is generally believed the new Chief Minister will have a tough time managing the highly demanding and assertive MLAs.

While the party has no choice but to “wait and watch”, Congress insiders believe it should not do anything to give the impression that it is responsible for the crisis in the BJP. “We should ideally use this opportunity to build the party organisation so that we are once again seen as the party capable of providing a stable government as compared to the squabbling BJP,” said a senior AICC functionary.

Nevertheless, the ongoing drama in Bhopal has provided enough fodder for the Congress to take potshots at the BJP. Describing these developments as a “soap opera”, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma today said these only showed that the BJP gained power by duping the electorate into believing that it will provide good governance and development.

“The BJP has failed on both counts. It has changed three Chief Ministers in two years time while its promise of providing bijli, sadak aur paani has also remained unfulfilled,” he said, adding that the BJP owes an explanation to the people as to how serious it is about meeting its election promises.

Panjim (Goa), November 30
Amrithraj brothers set the trend of NRIs taking to film-making in the US in a big way. And they were fairly successful at that. Manoj Night Shyamalan took it further.

The lead has been followed by many more. Some of them have even managed to persuade the organisers of the 36th International Film Festival of India currently on here to earmark a section for them.

“The Dukes of Hazzard” has been directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, born in a family of Indian origin in Chicago. The film has grossed $ 100 million in the first few days of its release. It is a slapstick comedy, in fact a typical Bollywood farce with no claims to quality but it is successful and that matters a lot in the cineworld.

It is based on a hit television series that ran from 1979 to 85. It follows the adventures of over-the-top cousins Bo (Sean William Scott) and Luke (Johnny Knoxville) who with the help of their pretty cousin Daisy (Jessica Simpson) and moonshiner uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson) try and save the family farm from being destroyed by Hazzard county’s corrupt commissioner Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds). The Duke boys constantly try to elude authorities in their ramshackle Dodge called “General Lee”.

Jay is an accomplished film-maker and also serves as director of the Broken Lizard comedy group.

The film was released by Warner Bros in the United States.

***

A good outcome of Indo-German cooperation in film production is the German entry in the cinema of the world section called “Schatten der Zeit” (Shadows of Time) which is also there in Bengali.

Its director-scriptwriter Florian Gallenberger studied direction at the Academy of Television and Film in Munich and in 2001 he won an Oscar for his graduation film “Quiero Ser” (short).

“Shadows of Time” is a defiantly romantic and emphatically tragic love story reminiscent of the days when grand passions ruled the movies and cast their spell on ill-fated lovers and rapt audiences.

It is set in a carpet factory in the countryside near Kolkata before Independence. Ravi (Prashant Narayanan) and Masha (Tanishta Chatterjee) working there as child labourers fall in love.

Ravi wants to earn his freedom and works his way up from a common worker to the best carpet knotter. Learning that factory owner wants to keep Masha for himself, he sacrifices his all to buy Masha’s freedom. As Masha leaves she promises to wait for him in Kolkata’s biggest Shiva temple every full moon.

Years later, Ravi has won his freedom and become prosperous. Masha, now a sought-after dancer in a brothel, still goes to temple in search of Ravi. He also visits it but fate prevents them from meeting. They marry others but their hearts still pine for each other.

They meet, enjoy a few moments of bliss before their love threatens to destroy them. The never-ending cycle of love continues.

The film has been to Toronto, Buenos Aires, Kiev and Seattle and won the Best Feature Debut and Cinematography awards at Bavaria.

New Delhi, November 30
The long queues of people waiting to get an LPG cylinder are likely to continue for the coming days, as the Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar today unsuccessfully tried to convince Parliament to wait for another month before he could assure the nation to fully solve the fuel supply crisis.

Putting a brave front before agitated members of the NDA and Left Parties in the Lok Sabha, the Minister put the blame on the state governments for not taking action to check the huge diversion of highly-subsidised domestic LPG supply worth thousands of crores, and on complaints of less-weight of gas in cylinders.

However, he tried to evade any direct answer, when members asked what action had been taken by the oil marketing companies against the LPG dealers engaged in the diversion of domestic LPG cylinders to the auto owners, restaurants and other commercial establishments.

“The marketing officers of oil companies are not in favour of taking any stringent action against the dealers,” the minister said meekly. Faced with fuel shortage, the oil companies had almost stopped the release of new connections to the customers, while putting restrictions on refilling of cylinders.

Dissatisfied with his half-an-hour long answer on the calling attention motion, the NDA members led by BJP later walked out of the House.

New Delhi, November 30
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) today signed an agreement with an Andhra Pradesh-based construction company for the four-laning of high traffic density corridor connecting two important cities of Punjab-Jalandhar and Amritsar-on the National Highway-1.

The Rs 263-crore Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) concession agreement to four lane the 49-km stretch is part of the NHDP-Phase III and will be executed by the Jalandhar-Amritsar Tollways Ltd, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by the IVRCL Infrastructure Projects Private Ltd.

The four-laning of the busy 48.738-km highway between Jalandhar and Amritsar, stretching between km 407.100 to km 456.100 on the NH-I, is expected to be completed in 30 months. The contract involves a concession period of 20 years. The agreement also involves a negative grant to the NHAI, meaning that the Jalandhar-Amritsar Tollways Ltd., will pay the NHAI a grant of Rs 6.88 crore, which is the net present value discounted at the rate of 10 per cent during the concession period.

The concession agreement for four-laning the 35.096 km high-traffic density corridor between Ambala and Chandigarh, costing Rs 298 crore, was signed just last week. The stretch is expected to be completed in 30 months on the BOT basis.

The segment, connecting the two important cities of Punjab, at present has two lanes. On completion, it will be a four-lane road with paved shoulders. In addition, the stretch will have nearly 14 km of service roads on either side in Beas, Rayya, Khalchian, Tangra, Jandiala, Umranangal and Duburji.

There will be four major bridges-Beas bridge, Dera Baba Jaimal Singh bridge, Patti Nallah bridge and Kasoor Nallah bridge-on the section. Besides this, there will also be 11 minor bridges, four railway over-bridges and nine under passes as well. The widened and strengthened road will have 11 bus bays. 

New Delhi, November 30
The Supreme Court has rejected a petition for the review of its judgement striking down the reservation in unaided private professional institutions other than those run by the minorities across the country.

The review of the August 12 judgement of the apex court was sought by the Tamil Nadu Government on the grounds that it had passed an Act in 1993 “obliging” the state to provide reservation even in unaided private institutions and the verdict came in the way of the state to implement its law.

A seven-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, rejected the petition in a chamber hearing yesterday, holding that the validity of the Tamil Nadu Act on reservation was not questioned before the apex court when it had decided the issue of reservation in the unaided private institutions on August 12, and, therefore, seeking a review on this ground could not be sustained.

In the brief order made available to the media today, the Bench having Justices, Mr B. N. Agrawal, Mr Arun Kumar, Mr G. P. Mathur, Mr C. K. Thakker, Mr Tarun Chatterjee, and Mr P. K. Balasubramaniyan as other judges besides the Chief Justice said “we have carefully gone through the petition… in our view no case is made out to review the judgement”.

The apex court’s seven-judge Constitution Bench, headed by the then Chief Justice R. C. Lahoti in the August 12 order had said that the government could not foist its reservation quota in private institutions not getting any aid from it.

The court had further said that only minority institutions, not getting any aid from the government, were free to admit students of their choice from their own community, or even those from non-minorities from other states but in a manner that such admissions did not disturb their minority character.

New Delhi, November 30
There is a need to expand protected territories to save the endangered animal and bird species from extinction, said foresters during an open debate after a workshop on “Environment and wildlife awareness” held at American Center, here yesterday. The workshop was jointly organised by the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy and the Trust Legal, an environment law firm, for journalists.

The foresters, comprising Mr A.K. Gulati, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Himachal Pradesh, Mr Sanjeeva Pandey, Director, Great Himalayan National Park, Kulu, and Mr S.S. Rasaily, Conservator of Forest, Nainital, sensitised the mediapersons to the management of sanctuaries in India vis-à-vis in the USA.

Mr Sudhir Mishra of the Trust Legal, who is satisfied with the wildlife Act, said the government should set up a special crime-fighting network to combat a booming illegal wildlife trade both within India and outside the country. The trade worth billions of dollars threatened many species with extinction.

“The butterflies trade is flourishing these days and India is emerging as a major centre. China is too, emerging as a major hub for the wildlife trade,” said Mr Mishra, who has taken up a number of environment-related cases in the Supreme Court.

Patna, November 30
The senior JD(U) MLA from Imamganj in Gaya, Mr Uday Narain Chaudhury, is the first Dalit Speaker of the Bihar Assembly after he was unanimously elected to the post today.

Talking to the media here today, the Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar said for the first time since Independence it was the 14th Bihar Assembly which elected a Dalit leader for the august post.

It may be noted that the name of Mr Uday Narain Chaudhury was earlier proposed by Mr Kumar himself yesterday, following which it was a mere formality to elect him as Speaker because of absolute majority of the NDA in the House.

Apart from supporting him on the floors of the House, the elected representatives of the CPI and the Samajwadi Party in particular came out in support of Mr Nitish Kumar’s decision for suggesting Mr Chaudhury’s name for the post.