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Telangana Issue
Prevent attacks on north Indians, Centre to M’rashtra
Allow unhindered screening of ‘Jodhaa Akbar’: SC to states
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‘Climate change may lead to food shortage’
Student killing
Office of Profit Act
Barak Deal
UPA pursuing vote bank politics: BJP
IT company’s offices attacked
AIADMK to protest PSU closure
Missing ship: Maritime board’s help sought
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Telangana
Issue
Hyderabad, March 4 A day after the resignation of four MPs, including founder president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the party’s 16 MLAs and three MLCs followed the suite and dared the Congress leaders from the region to quit and seek fresh mandate from the people. “It is a historic day in the movement for a separate Telangana state. Our resignation is a death warrant for the Congress,” the TRS floor leader Vijayarama Rao said in a brief submission in the Assembly before submitting the resignation letters to the Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy. The TRS, which had fought the 2004 elections in alliance with Congress, has a strength of 26 in the 294-member Assembly. Of them, 10 legislators have turned rebels and dissociated themselves from the party. The sub-regional party had earlier set March 6 as deadline for the UPA government to initiate the process for formation of separate Telangana state. It has subsequently decided to implement the resignation threat much before the deadline. After failing in its innumerable attempts in the past to put pressure on the UPA government to grant statehood, the TRS has finally decided to go back to the people in a bid to exploit to the hilt the perceived Telangana sentiment. “The people will teach the Congress a fitting lesson at the hustings. It will be wiped out in the region,” the TRS floor leader said. After the resignation, the TRS is now fully geared up to hit the streets on the single point agenda of achieving the statehood goal. Telangana region, comprising 10 out of the total 23 districts in the state, had witnessed a violent agitation for a separate state in 1969 that claimed over 300 lives. Founded in 2000, the TRS revived the movement and aligned with the Congress, which was in the opposition then, to reap rich benefits in the 2004 elections. However, the political marriage between the two parties was flawed from the beginning with TRS constantly mounting pressure on the statehood issue. Its ministers had quit the Congress government in AP in July 2005 accusing Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy of pursuing “anti-Telangana policies”. The sub-regional party pulled out of the UPA government in September 2006 protesting the delay in formation of a separate state.
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Prevent attacks on north Indians, Centre to M’rashtra
New Delhi, March 4 Home minister Shivraj Patil told the Lok Sabha, “Every citizen of the country has every right to go and work anywhere in the country.... It is not just a constitutional right, but part of our composite culture as well.” Patil’s statement came in response to an impromptu discussion in the House yesterday, which saw several members demanding action against Thackeray for his controversial statements that provoked violence against the north Indians. He said neither the people of Maharashtra nor the government had supported the agitation. The home minister said no one could be stopped or restricted from going to any place for work. “Certain statements were made by some people... But these have not been supported by the people of Maharashtra, neither by the state government and nor by the people of the country,” he said. He said whatever was necessary was being done by the state government. If it failed to do it, the Centre will tell it to do so. Maintaining that MCOCA was operational in the state, he said the state government had filed more than 300 cases against over 1,500 persons for substantive offences. This was besides preventive action taken against 5,000 persons. Asking members to desist from giving high figures of exodus of non-Maharashtrians from the state, Patil said caution was needed due to the sensitivities involved in the issue and its impact on other states. The policy of the state government as well as the Centre was to ensure that no migration took place under threat from anywhere, he said. In an obvious reference to Thackeray’s statement, that his organisation would not allow performing of ‘Chhat Puja’ (north Indian festival) in Mumbai, Patil said no one could stop these celebrations. And action would be taken if anybody tried to do so. “All festivals are celebrated by the people across the country and that is the strength of our culture,” he said. The home minister said Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, was the pride of India and people from all regions had contributed to it.
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Allow unhindered screening of ‘Jodhaa Akbar’:
New Delhi, March 4 An interim direction to the three states was issued by a Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal after former attorney general Ashok Desai, appearing for the producer UTV claimed that the ban was imposed without any sound reason and rather was “politically motivated”. The court said the notification of the three states would remain stayed till next hearing on March 14 when the petition of the UTV is listed for pre-admission stage hearing. Similar relief to the producer had been granted by the High Courts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh earlier by staying the orders of the respective state governments banning screening of the movie, which had landed in a controversy. Desai said the producer, who had spent Rs 40 crore on production of the film and Rs 4 crore in its publicity, would be put to a great financial loss due to “unreasonable” ban orders. The ban was a direct attack on the right of freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the Constitution, he said adding it was the duty of the government to enforce the rule of the law. The state governments could not shirk their responsibility of enforcing the fundamental rights, neither could they express “inability” to enforce the rule of the law as it was a duty cast on them under the Constitution, Desai argued. Initially the Bench was reluctant to hear the UTV petition and advised it to move the respective High Courts but when Desai said it would create problem of multiple litigation for the producer, the CJI agreed to hear the case. The film had landed in several controversies mainly arising out of the questions being raised on the historic authenticity of the character of Jodhaa Bai, a Rajput princess shown to be married to Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Mohammed Akbar in the movie. Many historians questioned the very existence of Jodhaa Bai while others claimed that she was not married to Akbar, but to his son Jhangir. Amidst the controversy, there were attacks on some cinema halls in these states following which the ban was imposed by the authorities.
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‘Climate change may lead to food shortage’
Guwahati, March 4 He said the only way to mitigate the adverse impact of global climate change, which may lead to food shortage besides its other affects, was to reduce the level of emission of greenhouse gases through the use of sophisticated technologies. Addressing the public function, where he was accorded a warm felicitation by the Assam government, Dr Pachauri called upon the governments all over the world to ensure that public policies be influenced by ‘knowledge and science’ keeping in mind the urgent need to adapt to the global impact of climate change. “Looking at the future in the context of climate change means taking new initiatives for a pattern of sustainable development,” he said making a clarion call to the global community to provide resources to developing countries to safeguard themselves. “Problem of climate change is a part of unsustainable development that was adopted by the world about 150 years ago through use of steam locos, coal and other fossil fuels replacing human and animal power. The industrialisation process imposed a major burden on the globe. Climate change is a system that disrupts the environment, where there was a possibility of having stability in the climate,” he said. According to the director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the 20th Century recorded average of 0.74 °C rise in global temperature, while the sea level rise caused by melting of glaciers was recorded at an average of 17 cm in the same period.
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Student killing
Lucknow, March 4 Through an adjournment motion, SP members demanded that Etawah SSP Siyaram Saran Aditya, ASP Rampal Gautam and four constables be put behind bars. Following the court's directive, a criminal case of murder had been finally registered against them at Seifai police station. Speaking on the issue, SP member Shivpal Singh Yadav said that on January 9, the accused SSP had ordered police firing murdering a student Mukesh Yadav in a cold blood and injuring four others while they were appearing for an examination at Chaudhury Charan Singh College at Seifai. “Finally, the court had to intervene for directing the state government to register a case against the accused police officials. Still the government is not taking any action under the law,” he charged. Responding to the accusation, parliamentary affairs minister Lalji Verma said that the police had already completed its investigation on the court’s orders and given a clean chit to the SSP and other policemen in the case. "On March 2, inspector at Jaswant Nagar kotwali has submitted the final report in the case and the district magistrate has accepted it on March 3,” pointed out the minister. Reacting sharply, SP deputy leader Mohammad Azam Khan cast suspicion at the government’s statement. "Just imagine that the court ordered the case to be registered on March 1, investigations were complete the very next day on March 2 giving a clean chit to the police officers. And a day later, the DM approves the final report. Justice should not only be done but should appear to be done," he quipped. Charging the state government of shielding the reportedly guilty police officers, the SP staged a walkout. Despite the college peon Ram Gopal's appeal to Chief Minister Mayawati, Union minister of state for home affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal, IG and DIG, no FIR had been registered against the police officials. He finally moved the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Rakesh Nain.
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Office of Profit Act
New Delhi, March 4 In this context, references came to the chief of the Shantiniketan Development Authority, which was headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, and another CPM leader from Tripura, holding the office of the Tripura Khadi Board, as the court examined the list of 55 exempted such office-bearers. Though without mentioning the name of Chatterjee directly, the court pointed out that from the list it looked that “you (government) have exempted the holder of the office not the office…if your intention was to protect the office, what you should have done that you should have exempted the holders of the office of all development authorities in all states”. “But you have made it with reference to holder of the office not the office (itself)…you have not identified the office but the people holding the office and then granted them exemption,” a Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal told additional solicitor-general Gopal Subramaniam. In the context of the Tripura Khadi Board head, the court pointed out that there were khadi boards in every state and it would have been prudent to exempt their heads as a general principle but in the list it was not done as the government had identified a board of a particular state only. “Is it not prejudicial? This is discriminatory,” the Bench said, pointing out that for 55 persons the exemption seemed to be temporary relief granted before a final relief. However, Subramanim said the identification of the offices was a continuing exercise and a Joint Parliamentary Committee has already been set up for this purpose, which has written to the states seeking their responses on the nature of the office and the allowances attached to them. Once the details are received, the identification would be made “broad based”. But when the Bill was passed to have a detailed research was difficult and that was the reason for identifying the 55 offices given in the list in the Act. The court was hearing two PILs filed by the Consumer Education and Research Society and Dinesh Trivedi challenging the validity of the Act passed in 2006.
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Barak Deal
New Delhi, March 4 Kumar’s questioning would be followed by the quizzing of former defence minister George Fernandes and the then Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley. Sources said the CBI sleuths questioned Kumar, who retired as Navy chief on December 29, 2001, at his Noida residence and asked him certain points about purchasing of the Barak missile systems despite opposition from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). They said the CBI sleuths also quizzed the formal Naval chief about middlemen’s alleged presence at the house of Fernandes and whether the missile purchase from Israel was ensured keeping in mind the interest of a few individuals or companies. Efforts to reach Kumar did not fructify. The CBI claimed in its FIR that the contract price for purchasing seven Barak systems was about $ 17 million higher than the price offered by Israel in early 1996. The CBI has also booked Fernandes and Jaitley for alleged corruption in the Rs 1,150-crore deal. “Fernandes wanted the proposals to be initiated from below and he eventually overruled the learned opinion of the then scientific advisor to raksha mantri (defence minister) in order to favour Israel Aircraft Industries and others,” the CBI alleged. Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who was then the scientific advisor, had “strongly opposed” the proposal made in 1999 by Admiral Kumar to import two surface-to-air missiles, but Fernandes “overruled” this view and gave the go-ahead, it charged. — PTI
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UPA pursuing vote bank politics: BJP
New Delhi, March 4 Participating in the debate on the on the motion of thanks on the President’s address senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha that during the last four years, the UPA government had been direction-less and divisive. It had sacrificed larger interest for the sake of vote bank politics. Referring to the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver package, he said the government was shedding crocodile tears for farmers at the fag end of its term with an eye on elections. He sought a clarification on as to how the government would raise such large sum of money for such a large package without the budgetary provision. There was a doubt not only in the minds of opposition but also the members of the government, he said. He also charged the UPA for debasing the office of the Prime Minister and changing the government structure upside down by creating power centres outside it. He pointed out that although the President’s address was full of kudos and praises for the government, the political reality was totally different. He reminded the Congress of debacles in Bihar, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and said it would be difficult for it to remember when it last won an election. He said despite these series of poll debacles, the UPA had refused to learn a lesson and asked the coalition not to live in an illusion that it would continue in power till infinity. The Congress-led coalition should realise that defeat was staring it in the face, he added. He questioned the track record of the government and said that the country was paying a price for the political insecurity of the Congress. He also accused the government of subverting institutions like CBI, and said opposition leaders in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were being targeted. He charged finance minister with resorting to fudged mathematics. He said if Chidambaram could actually raise Rs 60,000 crore without budgetary provision, he would bow his head before him for not being the greatest magician but for being a great finance minister.
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IT company’s offices attacked
Bangalore, March 4 The incident, which occurred yesterday afternoon, with Vedike activists holding a demonstration outside the office of the state IT secretary demanding the arrest of the person responsible for authoring the poem besides calling for a code of ethics in IT companies to protect the cultural identity of Kannadigas working there. According to sources, a Canadian executive was responsible for writing the alleged derogatory poem. The trouble started yesterday when five north Indian employees started singing the poem in the office corridor. This was recorded by an employee on his mobile who forwarded it to Kannada news channels and also the KRV. Following this, around 100 activists of the KRV barged into the Sasken office at the Electronic City and damaged computers, furniture and window panes besides damaging equipment in its research wing on the third floor. Another group of KRV activists attacked the Sasken office on Airport road in a similar fashion forcing closure of all Sasken offices in the city. Justifying the attack, KRV spokesman Saneerappa said a poem insulting Kannada had been written by a Sasken employee called “Lee”. He said the poem had been in circulation on e-mail and was even being recited in the office without any check for three months because “north Indians working in the company were supporting the activity”. A case of rioting has been registered against KRV activists who were involved in the disturbances but no arrests have been made.
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AIADMK to protest PSU closure
Chennai, March 4 She said the Centre had never bothered to revive the sick PSU (public sector undertaking) despite several protests by the public and workers of the company. “I have been continuously pressing the Centre to revive the company as it is an important source of employment and economic growth in Udhagamanlam district in the Nilgiris. But, neither the Centre nor the state government has taken any step to save the company and help the workers,” she said.
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Missing ship: Maritime board’s help sought
Mumbai, March 4 The directorate-general of shipping has sought assistance from the International Maritime Board (IMB) in this regard, according to sources. The decision to bring in the IMB into the search follows indications that pirates may have hijacked the ship carrying a 25-member Indian crew.
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