Patna, August 27
The growing emergence of Bihar, the poorest state of the country, as a major transit point of narcotics reportedly worries both Central and state intelligence, as the nexus between “narcotis” and “arms smuggling” is a globally known secret.

The recovery of heroin worth Rs 1.25 crore from a city hotel near the Gandhi Maidan police station on Monday last was reportedly a pointer to this.

The recovery was not an event in isolation, as this was preceded by two more seizures of narcotics in the past three months from Patna alone besides the reported recovery of different forms of narcotics from other parts of the state, too, in the past one year.

While the police had arrested seven persons with the heroin on Monday, sources disclosed that their interrogation revealed a thriving racket in narcotics on the Indo-Nepal border of the state, as well as the use of the state’s soil as a transit point for narcotics by drug traffickers.

Sources further disclosed that the drug traffickers, like extremists, were apparently taking the advantage of the soft border between India and Nepal in Bihar and eastern UP to use the state as a transit point to smuggle drugs in other parts of the country.

The arrest of the aide of Dawood Ibrahim, Fazlu, on August 7 from the Indo-Nepal border at Gorakhpur in eastern UP on his way to his hometown at Darbhanga in Bihar, preceded by the arrests of two prime suspects of 7/11 Mumbai blasts from Madhubani in Bihar last month, again near the Indo-Nepal border, bore testimony to how the Nepal border was fast becoming vulnerable to the country.

Sources also did not rule out the subtle link between the recent substantial increase in trafficking of heroin from across the Indo-Pak border and the related choice of Bihar as a safe corridor to spread the same in other parts of the country.

While Bihar is well connected to Delhi, the eastern and North Eastern states are equally accessible from here through its well spread rail network.

Against this backdrop, the central intelligence has reportedly suggested strict surveillance and enforcement of drug laws, particularly in border areas with Nepal and the various transit points to the state.

It was learnt that the Union Home Ministry was actively considering to setup four integrated check posts (ICPs) along the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar and eastern UP.

Raxaul and Jogbani of Bihar on the Nepal border were the places where the ICPs were expected to be in place shortly.

Besides, the government was considering to develop the road network along the Indo-Nepal border to facilitate patrolling by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which was in charge of manning the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan border.

The SSB alone had seized narcotics worth over Rs 1 crore from the Indo-Nepal border till June this year.

The Bihar government is reportedly also worried over the threats posed to internal security following the concerns expressed by none other than the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi on Saturday with regard to the infiltration of terrorists into West Bengal from neighbouring counties, including Nepal and Bangladesh.

Both Bihar and West Bengal share common borders with Bangladesh and Nepal.

Earlier on August 19, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the Centre was aware that Kolkata, which was just 10 hours away from Patna, had become a transit point for terrorists.

Sources in the inteligence said, “After all one cannot delink narcotics from terrorism under the changed scenario.”

Lucknow, August 27
Playing her ace after being re-elected the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Ms Mayawati today announced that her political successor would be a Dalit, who would take the self-respect movement forward.

Ruling out the possibility of any member of her immediate family being in the forefront of the party or ever being in the running for becoming her political successor, she clearly laid out the qualifications for the next head of the BSP. She said, "It would never be my father, mother, siblings or anyone from my family. It would be a person who would fight against the Manuvadi mindset and be a Dalit or Scheduled Caste. The person would be at least 30 to 35 years younger than me so that he or she could get enough time to take forward the self-respect movement."

Ms Mayawati admitted that she was still "in good health and not at all old" and hoped that with the good wishes of "nature and her supporters" may be around for a long time to "serve the people". Yet she took the occasion of her unopposed and unanimous election as the national president of the party for the second three-year term to lay down the guidelines for the selection of her political successor when the time comes.

According to political analysts, the announcement at one stroke achieved at least two objectives. She not only gave a hard knock at the rampant political culture promoting hereditary rule but also gave a clear message to the Dalits, her core constituency, that the leadership will remain safe in their hands even if the doors of the party have been opened to Brahmins and other upper castes in recent times.

Recalling the circumstances under which she took over the reins of the party at the national level in September 2003 owing to the founder Kanshi Ram's illness, Ms Mayawati declared that much before that Kanshi Ram had been 'grooming' her as his political successor "to take forward the caravan of the self-respect movement".

New Delhi, August 27
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has taken a lead over its political rivals in Uttar Pradesh by selecting its candidates for the majority of the Assembly elections which are due in February next year.

While its opponents like the ruling Samajwadi Party, the BJP, the Congress and host of smaller parties are still struggling to forge alliances and decide on its list of candidates, the BSP has not only finalised its 320 out of 425 total Assembly candidates but is also ahead of its rivals in terms of campaigning.

Talking to The Tribune on telephone, BSP General Secretary Gandhi Azad said not only party meetings have been held in all the 76 districts of the state but the party candidates are engaged in door-to door campaigning.

Citing reasons for the party's confidence to form the next government in Lucknow, Mr Azad said the people are fed up with the government of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav as the state has been reeling under power cuts, maladministration and bad law and order situation.

Talking about other positive factors which are going to favour the party in the next Assembly elections, another BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra Misra said that all castes particularly the Brahmins are coming to the party.

"I have personally addressed over 100 meeting in 70 districts which were attended by Brahmins in large numbers," Mr Misra, who was instrumental in organising a Brahmin Mahakumbh rally in 2005, said.

At this rally, BSP supremo Mayawati announced that the party would give their due to Brahmins by allocating large number of tickets to the community. She also distanced herself from the BSP's earlier slogan of "tilak, taraju and talwar, maro inko jute char" and instead approved a new slogan of "Hathi nahin anesh hain, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hain".

While the first slogan spoke of punishing the upper castes of Brahmins, Thakurs and Vaish, the second slogan said that the BSP's Elephant symbol was representing the revered Hindu God Ganesh which was in other words was nothing else but the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

The rally marked a major shift of the BSP from its sole focus on Dalits to all dominant castes of the state.

Though the BSP's electoral fight is going to be with the Samajwadi Party of UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, but the latter suffers not only from an anti-incumbency factor but also from lot of discontentment prevailing in the party cadres and state leaders, a senior SP leader told the Tribune.

The Samajwadi leader said that non-accessibility of Mr Mulayam Singh to the party leaders and workers has caused lot of heart burns.

Another factor, which would cost the ruling SP heavily, is the role of party General Secretary Amar Singh who has annoyed not only many senior leaders but has also treaded on many toes, the SP leader said elaborating the causes of the party's decline in popular perception.

Mumbai, August 27
Maharashtra ushered in the Ganesha festival amidst tight security today with the Central intelligence agencies warning the local administration of terror attacks during the 10-day celebrations.

Devotees across the state brought in idols of the elephant-headed god home from early morning today braving heavy rains.

At more than 5,000 places across Mumbai, community pandals propped up like in previous years where public worship is held. Only this time the entire police force was out to ensure that no untoward incident took place.

Over 2,000 policemen, 10 companies of the state Reserve Police, six of the CRPF and three companies of the Rapid Action Force will be deployed across the city.

The police has also installed GPRS in 400 vans to enable them to accurately pinpoint a location in minutes.

Police chief A.N. Roy told reporters late this afternoon that the festival was peaceful so far.

Most of the pandals put up metal detectors and asked devotees to taste prasad as safeguards against poisoning.

The most sophisticated equipment has been installed at the GSB Seva Mandal at Matunga in Central Mumbai where the explosive detector can detect explosives within a 100-metre radius.

The mandal has also insured the idol for Rs 5 crore since it is adorned with 60 kg of gold and 175 kg of sliver.

Like every year, thousands of people waited all night outside the Siddhivinayak temple at Dadar to participate in the early morning aarti at 5 am.

The Ganesha Festival is the largest event in Maharashtra with major celebrations in Pune and Nashik as well. The highlight of the festival at Nashik was the 200 kg silver Ganesha.

At Pune, the art and culture festival to coincide with the Ganesha festival organised by local politician Suresh Kalmadi is the biggest draw this year.

At the huge Ganesha pandal at Lalbaugh, where the biggest idol in the city is installed, the mandal has installed closed-circuit televisions.

Several volunteers have been deployed to monitor the televisions round the clock.

New Delhi, August 27
Apart from defining the constitutional provision in upholding the law that opened the boundaries of states for the Rajya Sabha MPs election to citizens from any part of the country, the Supreme Court has said that the concept of domicile, though not provided in the Constitution, has become outdated in the globalisation era.

A five-judge constitution Bench, in a historic decision, was of the view that a distinction has to be made in the Constituent Assembly dealing with the constitutional issues in the capacity of framer of the Constitution and acting as Provisional Parliament before the first election in 1952. The passage of the Representation of People Act by it was purely a legislative business.

The court felt that with the passage of time and the opening of the economy to the world, the question of residence was bound to be changed. In this context, the Bench, headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal referred to the constitutional changes in countries, like the USA and Australia with strict federalism where the role of the Senate, an Upper House, in guarding the interests of the states as "political units has largely disappeared".

It pointed out that the US Senate now functioned more as a national institution rather than a champion of local interests of the states and it was possible with the development of strong political parties advancing national programmes and national integration.

It said the opening of the Rajya Sabha membership for a citizen from any state should be looked into in the contest of opening of the economy in 1991 as since then the "theoretical framework of federalism" has undergone a sea change. "The concepts of words 'residence' and 'representative' are not fixed concepts, therefore, they have to change with time," the Bench with Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia, Mr Justice C. K. Thakker and Mr Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan said.

In upholding the amendment in the Act doing away with the domicile clause for the Rajya Sabha MPs, the court based its findings on constitutional history and said that the Constituent Assembly had left the issue open for Parliament to decide.

"It does not have sanctity or normative value of the Constitutional law. When the Act, 1951 was debated, no one argued that the residence qualification had already been decided upon by the Constituent Assembly and, therefore, no debate should take place," the court said.

Though the Provisional Parliament had made a provision in the Act for residence inside a state as a qualification for the membership of Council of States, yet when it acted as a Constituent Assembly, it "refused to exalt the qualification (including that of residence) to a constitutional requirement and rather showed consciousness that the provision for the qualifications might need to be revisited from time to time."

The court further said that deleting the domicile condition could not also be linked to the question that it hit at the basic federal structure of the Constitution. As long as a state's right to be represented in the Council of States by a person whether born, within it or outside, was not taken away "it cannot be said that residential requirement for MPs of the Upper House is an essential basic feature of all federal constitutions".

The Constitution did not cease to be a federal Constitution simply because a Rajya Sabha MP did not ordinarily reside in the state from which he was elected, the court concluded.

New Delhi, August 27
In a development that may change the scenario on public interest litigations (PILs), the Supreme Court on Friday accepted for examining a petition raising the question whether there ought to be a remedy of appeal in PILs filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution.

Describing it as an important matter needing examination, a Bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice C.K. Thakker and Mr Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan appointed former Attorney General Soli J. Sorabjee as amicus curiea to assist the court in examining this issue.

The Bench also directed Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam to extend his assistance on behalf of the government in examining the matter, saying the court wanted to be more than prima facie assured that this issue was legally sustainable.

“We will examine the issue on legal aspects and only on hearing it will we be able to decide whether to issue a notice to the government”, the court said, posting the matter for hearing for October 16.

The issue was brought in the Supreme Court by former Income Tax Commissioner Shiv Kant Jha, whose petition on tax benefits to foreign investors under the Mauritius double taxation treaty had earlier been rejected by the court.

Since a review petition and a curative petition had also been rejected, he had raised the question that there should be a remedy of appeal available to a citizen in PIL matters before a larger Bench.

His contention was that there was little scope of detailed arguments in the hearing of review and curative petitions.

Mr Jha’s case had been rejected in the review and curative stages on the ground that a five-Judge Constitution Bench in the Roopa Hura case had clearly laid down that any order passed by a Bench of the apex court in cases under Article 32 of the Constitution would be final.

Mr Jha had said in his petition that if some error of fact or law had been committed by the Bench that had heard the matter, a remedy for appeal against its order was always available to a citizen in PIL cases and the Roopa Hura case ruling was not the correct proposition of law.

In the Mauritius double taxation treaty, he had challenged a notification of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, issued during the NDA regime, exempting those companies from paying taxes on capital gains on investment in India which had their registered offices in that country.

He had alleged that due to this provision, the government had suffered losses worth several hundred crores on account of taxes as hundreds of companies had opened their postbox-type offices in Mauritius and paid a nominal tax there to get complete exemption from tax on capital gains in India.

New Delhi, August 27
As the government prepares to set up a national tiger conservation authority and a wildlife crime bureau in the country by approving the Wildlife (protection) Amendment Bill this Friday, its most ambitious wildlife conservation venture, Project Tiger, has came under wide criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Slamming the project for being dogged with mismanagement and violation of norms in tiger reserves, the CAG report tabled in Parliament the same day says that there has been an increase of just 20 tigers in 18 years in 15 Tiger Reserves set up till 1984. This, says the 2005-06 report, highlights the ineffectiveness of measures taken under the project.

In all tiger reserves set up till 1984, the tiger population rose from 1,121 to 1,141 in 2001-02, which, CAG says, highlights the ineffectiveness of measures taken under the project to attain a viable tiger population.

The pug-mark method for tiger census, being used to count tigers till the infamous Sariska episode, also came under much fire. This, incidentally, is one point on which the Environment Ministry also agrees. Admitting that pug-mark method has many loopholes, the ministry says the Project Tiger Directorate and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) are now in the middle of the world's most massive exercise under the “monitoring tigers, co-predators, prey and their habitat project”.

Which means that the question on how many tigers there are in the country will finally be answered by the end of 2007. While the data collection for the phase-I and phase-II of the project is complete, the data collection for phase-III is currently on and the final report is expected to be complete by November, 2007. The elaborate exercise, involving camera traps and digital photography of pug-marks, will be undertaken regularly to arrive at exact number of tigers, density, source population, habitat quality, areas where the number of tigers is decreasing and why, besides other factors, in the six tiger-occupied landscape complexes in the country.

The Project has also been criticised for “adhocism, lack of monitoring and manpower, failure to enforce wildlife protection laws and to remove human encroachment in tiger reserves, contradictions between management plans and annual plans, lack of foolproof methods for counting tigers and lack of norms in the creation of reserves”.

CAG says that the very creation of tiger reserves has been inconsistent with norms. While the Special Task Force decided in 1972 to create tiger reserves with an average area of 1500 sq km with at least 300 sq km as the core area, the 15 Reserves created under the Project Tiger have less than 720 sq km, less than half of the prescribed.

Adverse impact of the continuation of tourism activities and human settlements has also been pointed out, besides the fact that the conflict between promotion of tourism and earning of revenue on the one hand and ecological protection of the tiger habitat on the other remained unresolved. The government, CAG pointed out, should frame a comprehensive tourism management policy for tiger reserves clearly spelling out the role of the Project Tiger Directorate and the state authorities.

In addition, lack of adequate protection measures, absence of measures to combat poaching, poor communication network, inadequate provision of arms and ammunition, deficiencies in creation of strike force, poor intelligence gathering and tardy progress in concluding cases of wildlife crime, added to the woes of tiger conservation project. As a result, poaching of tigers continues and touched an annual rate of 22 over a period of six years.

New Delhi, August 27
The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) has announced its foray into addressing some critical issue like women and sanitation,

female foeticide, child labour, education for the underprivileged and natural resource management.

The RGF in partnership with NGOs is working to give the issue of women and sanitation greater prominence and to persuade the government to recognise that a major reason for India's dismal record in sanitation has been its failure to involve women in its planning and implementation.

The issue is being taken up by the RGF following the revelation that as many as 70 crore people still have no access to toilets and women remain the worst affected, because they suffer the indignity of open defecation on a daily basis.

The RGF is focusing its efforts on Kurukshetra district of Haryana, which has the lowest sex ration of 771 females for every 1000 males. In partnership with a local NGO, the RGF has launched a 'Smart Parenthood Campaign' that seeks to empower women and adolescent girls by educating them about reproductive and sexual health.

In partnership with CRY, RGF is trying to reduce the incidence of child labour in 10 gram panchayatas of Sonebhandra district of Uttar Pradesh. Defunct schools have been restarted and new ones opened along with non-formal education centres. Livelihood options have been expanded to reduce poverty and motivate the families to send their children to school instead of to work.

In Jammu and Kashmir the RGF programmes for quality education are growing with collaborative initiatives on teachers training, libraries and improved school buildings and children's literature in local languages.

The RGF is also making efforts to promote community-based management of natural resources through its 'Green Corps'. The foundation has supported the construction of 193 water harvesting structures spread over 112 villages in Rajasthan, benefiting about 1.30 lakh people and 3.12 lakh livestock.

Mumbai, August 27
Film director Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s biggest achievement is that he successfully uncovered the face of the vast Indian middle class with its virtues and foibles and made it universally appealing on celluloid.

From the laugh-a-minute “Chupke Chupke” and “Golmaal” to the sensitive portrayal of a young couple battling their egos in “Abhimaan”, Mukherjee understood the nuances that characterised the middle class of the 1970s and depicted it with great skill mixing pathos, sarcasm and objectivity.

Shorn of the glamour and glitz that is so much a part of films in today’s cinema, Mukherjee’s films still manage to bring a smile tears whether it is Anand’s (Amitbah Bachchan’s) resounding “Babu Moshai” that echoes in the room minutes after the character played by Rajesh Khanna is dead or Rekha’s daring disregard for rules that results in disastrous consequences in “Khubsoorat.”

Born on September 30, 1922, in Kolkata, Mukherjee began his cinematic career as an assistant to his guru Bimal Roy in 1951 and made his directorial debut with “Musafir” in 1957, an interesting film hat strung together three stories in the form three sets of tenants that occupy a house at various points in time.

Success, however, came with his next venture “Anuradha”, (1960), a sensitive film about a doctor who neglects his family to focus on his work, winning him the President’s Gold Medal.

From then on, there was no looking back for Mukherjee.

He made “Anupama”, a touching film about a daughter who yearns for her father’s affection, a role that earned rave reviews for Sharmila Tagore. He followed it up with “Ashirwaad” and “Satyakaam” which saw macho man and action hero Dharmendra in a totally different role.

The golden phase of Mukherjee came in the 1970s, the first of which was “Anand”, a film that many still consider his best piece of work. Rajesh Khanna’s unforgettable portrayal of Anand, who retains his joie de vivre in spite his impending death of cancer and Amitabh Bachchan’s restrained depiction of the doctor who overcomes his cynicism after meeting him, touched many a heart. To this day, the film’s songs and dialogues echo in the hearts of film lovers.

Some of his best loved films, including “Bawarchi”, “Abhimaan”, “Chupke Chupke”, “Golmaal” and “Guddi” also came during this phase and launched the careers of some of the biggest stars the industry has seen, including Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhadhuri — the Big B in “Anand” and “Jaya” in “Guddi”.

Although Hrishida, as he was popularly known in film world, attempted to make a comeback with the 1999 film “Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate”, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical hit and it seemed that his genre of film making had been buried under the avalanche of glossy, candyfloss romances that seemed to dominate the Bollywood in 1990s. — PTI