Kolkata, April 18
Violence erupted at Nandigram again today as activists of the CPM and the Trinamool Congress clashed, using firearms, bombs and other lethal weapons freely.

Over 30 persons were injured in the clashes, many of them from gunshots. The injured were admitted to various hospitals. The police arrested 15 persons, but later released four of them.

According to reports reaching the state government in the afternoon, the groups belonging to the CPM and the Trinamool Congress were involved in a clash during the noon over the taking out of their processions.

They clashed again near the Tekahli bridge and used bombs and lathis. During the clash, five Trinamool supporters were allegedly kidnapped by CPM activists and were kept confined in the local CPM office, where they were beaten mercilessly.

However, soon a large number of Trinamool workers and their supporters carrying firearms and other weapons attacked the CPM office and rescued their kidnapped men. But when the Trinamool workers were carrying the rescued persons several CPM workers carrying guns and other lethal weapons attacked them. The CPM workers allegedly fired indiscriminately at them, injuring several Trinamool wokers.

Meanwhile, the police arrived and controlled the violent groups. The police reportedly had to fire several rounds in the air to disperse violent mobs. However, IG (law and order) Raj Kanwar denied that the police opened fire.

The five CPM activists arrested with firearms from the CPM office were later

released, angering the Trinamool workers. The Trinamool workers organised a demonstration in front of the Nandigam police station in protest against the release of CPM activists who were caught with firearms and other weapons. They gheraoed the police station and demanded the transfer of policemen supporting the CPM. Afterwards, some senior officials arrived there and pacified the angry Trinamool workers.

The clashes had nothing to do with the Nandigram land agitation and were pre-poll violence before the forthcoming panchayat elections.

Cases of pre-poll violence were now being reported almost every day at the Writers Buildings from various districts, as the panchayat polls were nearing, leaving the government worried. The panchayat elections would be held in three phases beginning from May 11. 

New Delhi, April 18
In an indirect message to the Left, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee today stressed upon the virtues of sewing up civilian nuclear cooperation with “various countries” to ensure energy security at a time of ever-increasing international oil prices which breached a never-before $ 115 per barrel mark yesterday.

Turning arc lights on the Indo-US nuclear deal after a long lull, Mukherjee gave a message to the Left parties through his address at the India-Arab Investment Projects Conclave here. “Our aim is to enter into long term arrangement for guaranteed supply of energy. We are simultaneously making efforts in the area of renewable energy and new technologies. Civil nuclear cooperation with various countries will also help in the achievement of our energy security objectives,” Mukherjee pointed out.

The minister, who is the UPA’s pointman for the nuclear deal, not only spoke of the challenges facing India today, but also flag-marked the solutions that the government was taking with the help of the Arab world to upgrade the infrastructure capacity in a big way.

Mukherjee pointed out that infrastructure alone would require an investment of more than $500 billion in the next five years. He told the India-Arab Investment Projects Conclave that India was on track to take speedy and faster decisions regarding investments in infrastructure such as rail, ports, airports, transport corridors, shipping and telecom.

To make this dream a reality, Foreign Direct Investment had to increased substantially in these sectors to complement domestic investments. This conclave is aimed at businesspersons and potential investors keen on establishing or expanding their existing projects through enhanced financial, technical and managerial participation in India and the Arab countries.

It is also reflective of the Indian industry’s desire to engage and increase its involvement in its extended neighbourhood. Its focus areas are going to be as diverse as IT, telecom, auto parts, healthcare, biotech, food processing, education, manufacturing, construction and banking services.

New Delhi, April 18
For two years, a team dedicated to anti-human trafficking operations worked in India’s four most vulnerable states to see if the training of law enforcers strengthened the combat strategy.

By the end, total cases registered under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) in these four most affected states -- West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Goa -- had surged to 1,700 as against zero at the start. What was better - the victims of trafficking were no longer viewed as accused, marking a welcome shift in the mindset of the law enforcing agency.

Two years later, the government wants to replicate the strategy across the country, where an estimated three million girls and women are working in the sex industry against their will, and two lakh are trafficked into and through annually.

No wonder the government has now decided to set up 297 dedicated anti-human trafficking units to deal effectively with the crime. The Planning Commission has set aside Rs 74 crore for the purpose. The units will be set up in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which earlier partnered with the ministry of home affairs to establish 11 anti-human trafficking units in four states, which are hubs for potential traffickers.

For the while, the UNODC along with Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research (CSR), and P.M. Nair, project coordinator, anti-human trafficking, has developed the manual for police training on anti-human trafficking in India. The manual features protocols for the effective rescue of victims by law enforcers and was commissioned at the behest of the home affairs ministry.

Significant is the foreword of the manual, where union home minister Shivraj Patil admits: “Human trafficking is increasingly becoming a worldwide phenomenon with its presence at trans-state, trans-border and trans-national level. In the current situation, law enforcement agencies, with special focus on police personnel, are experiencing difficulties in implementing the provisions of the law. Time has come to concentrate all out efforts on strengthening and sensitising this machinery for effectively dealing with human trafficking, especially of women and children.”

The manual, presented to Patil today by the CSR, is the first step in the direction. It seeks to empower law enforcers in a way that they can increase the risk-reward ratio for potential traffickers.

“Right now this ratio is not serious. But we have to readjust this perception in the mind of the traffickers. Across four states, where traffickers are particularly active, we have trained 10,000 law enforcers to achieve this objective,” Garry Lewis, South Asia representative for the UNODC, today told The Tribune. The manual has, meanwhile, been sent to the Bureau of Police Research and Development for translation and supply to all police establishments in the country.

New Delhi, April 18
The Indian government has suggested to the Pakistan High Commission that a system of having multiple visa application collection centres across cities in India would be of help to people seeking a Pakistani visa.

The system is successfully followed by the Indian High commission in Pakistan. The Indian high commission does not have a visa issuing centre outside Islamabad, however, it has out sourced collection of visa application forms and passports to two agencies in Pakistan, who collect the applications and submit the same to the Indian High Commission. Once visa is given or rejected the passports are returned back through the same agencies.

Though the Indian government has not specified any cities where such outsourcing could be done by Pakistan, the demand is huge in Amritsar, Lucknow and Hyderabad, besides Mumbai. Opening of so many visa issuing centres would not be possible for Pakistan and would also be impractical.

The external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee in a letter to BJP MP from Hoshiarpur, Avinash Rai Khanna, has said it is not possible to have a visa centre at Amritsar, however, the suggestion of outsourcing the same to a private agency has been made. Khanna had demanded that a visa centre for Pakistan be opened at Amritsar. 

Bhubaneswar, April 18
The Orissa government today transferred nine police officials, including eight senior IPS officers, in the wake of failure to arrest the prime suspect accused in the murder of Biranchi Das, coach of child marathon runner Budhia, and allegations of police-criminal nexus.

The government also asked the Lok Pal to probe the alleged criminal-police nexus, which had come to light during the investigation into the killing of Das.

Bhubaneshwar deputy commissioner of police Amitabh Thakur and Bhavani Patnaik, the investigating officer in Das murder case, have been shunted out.

While Thakur was transferred to police headquarters in Cuttack, Patnaik’s new posting was yet to be decided, highly placed sources here said, adding that more police officials were likely to be transferred.

Gangster Raja Acharya, the prime suspect in Das murder case, has remained elusive ever since the incident took place.

Bhavani Patnaik, who headed the police station at Badagada locality, where Das was murdered, had recommended the release of Acharya in a complaint of harassment lodged by actress Leslie Tripathy against the gangster, who reportedly had been drawn to her.

The transfer of Thakur came following a recommendation to this effect by Bhubaneshwar police commissioner Binay

Behera, who had levelled the allegation of police-criminal nexus just two days ago. In fact, Behera recommended the transfer of some other police officials, who had been staying in one place for long.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters here today that since “there are allegations of nexus between criminals and officers, I have requested Lok Pal to probe the matter”. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
With any eye on the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party today decided to launch a nationwide agitation on the issues of prise rise and farmer problems.

The decision was taken at the two-day office-bearers meeting of the BJP which concluded here today. The meeting was presided over by BJP president Rajnath Singh. The meeting also decided to hold its next meeting of the National Executive in Jaipur sometime in May or early June.

Briefing newspersons about the two-day meeting, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said the decision on the date of the nationwide agitation would be taken at the April 21 meeting of the National Democratic Alliance.

A six-member committee, consisting of party leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Vijay Goel, Balbir Punj, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar, has been constituted to chalk out the detailed programme of the of agitation, the spokesman said.

The meeting also decided to organise Kisan Adalats (farmers’ courts) at panchayat level from May 1 to June 15, Javadekar said and added that the party would get the farms filled up by those farmers who were entitled for loan waivers.

The BJP would particularly focus on those farmers who have taken loans from private moneylenders and are not covered under the loan waiver scheme announced in the union budget, the spokesman said. 

New Delhi, April 18
A Parliamentary panel has taken exception to the fee hike by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and asked as to why IIMs should raise their fees without waiting for the report of the Bhargava Committee, set up to review functioning of the institutes.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, which tabled its report in the Lok Sabha, said, “The committee fails to understand why some IIMs went ahead with raising their fees, without waiting for the Bhargava Committee report.”

It said no other IIM should do the same till the committee report is submitted. “In future, no IIM should go ahead with increasing the fees before the Bhargava Committee submits its report,” the panel said.

The Bhargava Committee under Maruti Udyog Limited chairman R.C. Bhargava was appointed in October, 2007, to submit a review of functioning of IIMs within six months.

Terms of reference of the review included the existing fee structure in IIMs, use of their corpus funds, number of scholarships, freeships, their status, existing courses, organisational and administrative structures, etc.

The Standing Committee said a plan allocation of Rs 98 crore has been made for IIMs in 2008-09. This includes Rs 53 crore for implementation of Oversight Committee recommendations for meeting the requirements of increased number of students. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
Seventeen years after Jatinderbir Singh’s wife allegedly deserted him and the two later got divorced in a sessions court, the Supreme Court wants the couple to reunite. A bench of Justices B.N. Aggrawal and G.S. Singhvi upheld a high court’s judgement, quashing the sessions court’s decision to order their divorce.

“We do not find any ground to interfere with the impugned order,” the Bench observed while referring to the judgement passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing the couple to resume their married life.

The apex court also dismissed Singh’s plea that the marriage had broken irretrievably and any attempt at reconciliation would be futile.

The High Court on July 19, 2006, had quashed the order of the additional sessions judge, who by an order dated August 16, 1999, passed a decree of divorce to the couple.

In his order the additional sessions judge held that Singh’s wife Sukhwinder Kaur had left his house in May 1991 and did not return thereafter.

“Thus, it has been abundantly proved that Sukhwinder Kaur deserted the petitioner continuous ly for more than six years,” the judge observed while passing the divorce decree.

However, Kaur appealed in the high court, which set aside the divorce decree on the ground that there was no evidence to support the allegation that she had deserted her husband.

The high court took the view that though Kaur was willing to go back to her husband along with the couple’s daughter, Singh had taken the stance that he was willing to die rather than take her back. Hence, it quashed the divorce decree directing the couple to live together again. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
The Supreme Court has held that even the landlord of a commercial property in Delhi can seek the eviction of the tenant on the ground of bona fide requirement.

The Supreme Court in a landmark judgment ruled that section 14 (1)(e) of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 (DRCA) is also applicable to tenants, running shops from tenanted premises.

A Bench comprising Justices B.N. Agrawal and G.S. Singhvi removed the word residential from section 14 (1)(e) of the DRCA.

The apex court in its judgment written by Justice Singhvi said: “Legislation which may be quite reasonable and rational at the time of enactment may with the lapse of time and due to change of circumstances become arbitrary, unreasonable or violative of the doctrine of equality.”

With this judgment the apex court has cleared the decks for the landlords of commercial properties in prime commercial centres of the national capital such as Connaught Place, Chandni Chowk, Karol Bagh and South Extension and others, to seek eviction of their influential and wealthy tenants who have been enjoying the properties for over 50 years without fear of eviction, on payment of paltry amount of rent. — UNI

New Delhi, April 18
The Supreme Court has sought response from the Centre on a petition, which alleged that the appointment of the chairman of the Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange was in violation of the Delhi High Court order.

Admitting the petition, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan issued notices to the ministry of law and justice, tribunal chairman O.P. Nahar, member R.N. Poddar and others.

The high court, in its ruling on April 12, 2004, had held that the members of the executive cannot be appointed as chairman/member of the Appellate Tribunal, as this was in conflict with the doctrine of independence of judiciary and executive functions and Section 21 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

However, the apex court, on appeal by the government, has ordered status quo as on April 12, 2004, the date of the Delhi High Court ruling.

The petition, filed by a lawyer, Vadakara V. Menon, an aspirant for the post of the chairman of the Appellate Tribunal, pointed out the manner in which the chairman and the member of the tribunal continued to occupy office in spite of being disqualified by the high court.

He said the respondents were appointed blatantly in violation of the high court order, that set aside the appointment of law ministry officials as part-time chairman and part-time members of the tribunal.

In deliberate violation, Menon said, the ministry vide notification dated July 5, 2005 had re-appointed Nahar as the chairman with effect from July 2005 for a period of five years or till attaining 65 years of age, whichever is earlier. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
Holding the view that “a person cannot be a judge in his own case,” the Supreme Court has ordered reinstatement of an employee sacked 16 years ago by the Cantonment Board, Pune.

A Bench of Justices A.K. Mathur and L.S. Panta while rejecting the plea of the board that the principle of “no work no pay” should apply, ruled that aggrieved employee Vijay D. Wani would be entitled to 50 per cent back wages and continuity of service.

“Once the disciplinary committee finds the incumbent guilty; they cannot sit in judgment to punish the man on the basis of the opinion formed by them,” the apex court observed while dismissing the appeal filed by the board against a Bombay High Court judgment.

The Bombay High Court had earlier passed a similar order of reinstatement with 50 per cent back wages, which was challenged by way of appeal in the apex court by the board.

Vijay, who worked as a section engineer, was sacked by the board on October 25, 1991 on the basis of an inquiry committee report which held him guilty of preparing estimates for certain works with “total non-application of mind”.

The aggrieved engineer filed an appeal before the GOC-in-Chief, Southern Command, Pune who dismissed it and his second appeal before the Ministry of Defence met the same fate, following which he appealed in the High Court.

While rejecting some of Vijay’s arguments, the High Court, however, upheld Vijay’s contention that the action was vitiated as the three-member inquiry committee also participated in the deliberations of the subsequent board meeting which voted in favour of the engineer’s dismissal. — PTI

Jhansi (UP), April 18
High drama was witnessed in this town in Uttar Pradesh today when Rahul Gandhi was stopped by the police while leading scores of farmers to meet the divisional commissioner provoking the young Congress leader to sit on the road on a dharna.

The general secretary of the Congress was on his way for a meeeting with P.V. Jaganmohan in a carcade which also included buses carrying the farmers but could not proceed after the local administration barricaded all roads leading to the DC’s residence since the office located nearby was closed being a holiday.

Rahul was on the concluding leg of his three-day visit of drought-prone Bundelkhand which is billed as an exercise to take on Chief Minister Mayawati for alleged acts of omission and commission in giving succour to drought affected farmers.

The administration was adamant that a delegation of not more than five people, including the scion of the Gandhi-Nehru family will be allowed to proceed.

Soon arguments followed with local Congress leaders trying to impress upon the police that all the farmers from Ghisoli and Badora village accompanying Rahul and numbering nearly 300 should be allowed.

Some tense moments were witnessed when the Congress leader, meanwhile, squatted on the road reportedly telling the local officials that farmers must be present when their grievances are brought before the district authorities.

The administration later relented and allowed the farmers to accompany Gandhi for the meeting with the divisional commissioner after identifying themselves. In Delhi, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari accused Chief Minister Mayawati of high-handedness and said it was “unfair” on the part of the police to stop Rahul. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
The drive on the Delhi-Jaipur highway and the Delhi-Agra highway is all set to become further smooth with the government planning to widen the roads in the Golden Quadrilateral to six lanes.

This includes the stretch of the highway from Gurgaon till Jaipur. While the decision has been taken to make the highway a six-lane one, but the work on acquiring land for the purpose is to get underway. The government has already issued a notification for the acquiring of land for the widening of the highway on two of these sections - the Vadodara-Bharuch and Bharuch-Surat sectors of NH-8.

According to reports, the balance four sections, that being of the Surat-Dahisar and Gurgaon-Jaipur on NH-8, Chennai-Tada and Chilkaluripet-Vijayawada on NH-5 were awarded in February last but the action for land acquisition is yet to be initiated. The government is also planning to make widen some other sections also, but will initiate action after awarding of the project.

According to reports, land for these projects to meet the contractual requirements for award of concession is already available. However, additional land would be required for facilities like service road, flyovers and interchanges, acceleration and deceleration lanes, entry-exit ramps etc. The requirement of the additional land would be assessed only after the concessionaire finalises the design of the project, which is his responsibility under the approved build operate and transfer (BOT) system of implementation of these projects.

The project for making Delhi-Agra section six-lane is under submission for Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) for approval and an estimated area of 180 hectare is to be acquired for this project.

Guwahati, April 18
The Assam police and wildlife personnel have run into an ‘international racket’ involved in trading in wildlife parts, venison, Indian bison meat that was thriving in the city during the course of investigation as a sequel to the arrest of a deputy director in the Assam Veterinary Department, Sibaji Baruah, for poaching.

The veterinary department official was caught red-handed by local villagers with the carcass of a barking deer stuffed in a sack near Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary near here on Tuesday last while at least two of his accomplices managed to give a slip.

He was then arrested by wildlife personnel on charges of poaching.

Acting on a tip-off provided by the arrested veterinary department official who is now in the custody of the police, a joint team of the Assam police and wildlife personnel raided the residence of a well-connected city-based businessman, Manu Bezboruah, near Dispur capital complex and recovered 5 kg of fresh venison, hides of Indian bison, crocodile skins, two horns of deer and Indian bison, three teeth of wild pig.

The raiding party also recovered a double barrel gun with 75 rounds of ammunition, two rifles with 29 rounds of ammunition, two magazines of small arms, two leather covers of pistols and 132 rounds of small arms from the residence of the businessman who is now absconding along with his two small arms.

A wildlife department source said the arrested veterinary department official during interrogation confessed that the absconding businessman was with him when the villagers had caught him with deer meat near Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary.

The government official has confessed to have been hunting deer and Indian bison in the wildlife sanctuary located closer to the state’s capital city along with some well connected and influential persons. The investigating team suspects that a deep-rooted international racket involved in trading in wildlife parts, venison and bison meat that has very high demand in some Asian countries like Hong Kong was flourishing in the state under the leadership of the absconding businessman.

Meanwhile, green brigades in the state are demanding uprooting of the well-organised racket involved in trading of wildlife organs and venison.

“All along it has been suspected that a well coordinated racket of smugglers of wildlife organs is active in the state.

Now, since the police and wildlife staffs have got the wind of it, we demand a thorough investigation into it,” said Dr Bibhab Talukdar, secretary-general of Aaranyak, a reputed wildlife NGO in the Northeast.

Mumbai, April 18
Two women from UP were raped in Nashik district during the anti-north Indians campaign led by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the incidents went unnoticed, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi alleged today.

“Two women from Uttar Pradesh were raped and no complaint has been lodged so far. Local people know the culprits but they are frightened to name them,” he claimed and condemned the incidents. — PTI

Chennai, April 18
On August 15, when India celebrates her 61st Independence Day, Nalini hopes to be freed, courtesy Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Nalini, the prime accused in the Rajiv assassination case, managed to get her sentence commuted to life after petitioning Sonia Gandhi for mercy, pleading that her daughter Meghara, born in prison during the trial, would be orphaned if both parents, Murugan and she, were hanged. Now, she hopes that Priyanka Vadra, who visited her at the Vellore central prison on March 19, would follow in the footsteps of her mother Sonia Gandhi and get her freed on Independence Day.

The life sentence she is serving in the depressing cell of the Vellore jail does not seem to have defeated Nalini, as she has just completed the three-year masters in computer applications from the Indira Gandhi National Open University securing a first class.

While in prison, Nalini enrolled for MCA at IGNOU. She proved to be a “highly diligent student” and a “highly disciplined and principled inmate of the women’s jail,” to quote an official source.

“Despite being locked up in jail and unable to access general sources of information and study materials, such as libraries, she has done exceptionally well,” said the Vellore-based IGNOU academic counsellor, N.G. Karthikeyan, who visited the special prison for helping the convicts in computer architecture and networking classes. “Nalini would ask a lot of questions. She was often diffident asking whether she would be able to cope with it all, but in the end, she almost always came out quite well,” he said. 

Hyderabad, April 18
In an initiative to expose corrupt deeds of politicians, a political party floated by former IAS officer Jayaprakash Narayan will conduct people’s ballot on disproportionate assets acquired by legislators.

Lok Satta, an NGO turned political party, would ascertain public opinion on the constitution of special courts to inquire into assets amassed by MLAs.

The fortnight-long ballot would be held from May 1, said Narayan, who had quitted his job about 10 years ago to launch a movement for democratic reforms.

“The MLA Raj has become the kingpin of legal plunder and constitutional brigandage in independent India. However, we acknowledge that several MLAs are personally clean and honest, but they are helpless victims of a vicious cycle. The whole corrupt structure of government is symbolised by vote buying and multiple returns on investment, making politics a big business and citizens, mere vote banks,” he said.

It is a common practice for MLAs to splurge crores of rupees to buy voters outright and once in office, they carve out a mini evil empire of their own in the constituency to recoup ten times their investment in the business of politics.

“Projects, roads and buildings contracts, transfers and postings, police cases, houses, pensions and all schemes come in handy for milking people. In the MLA’s empire, panchayats, municipalities and zilla parishads all stand emasculated,” said Narayan whose party’s aim is to cleanse politics of corruption.

The focus on corruption of legislators is part of the ongoing four-month-long “Surajya” campaign launched by Lok Satta on March 31.

The campaign seeks to educate people on how “Swarajya” has been distorted into a “Swaharajya” and galvanize them into action.

The party is mobilising nearly 25,000 volunteers to spread the movement to every nook and corner of the state.

Several exhibitions and cultural programs will be conducted throughout the state to expose the “loot and plunder” being indulged in by MLAs.

As part of the “Surajya” campaign, the party will organise mega sit-ins outside government offices between May 15 and 25, demanding curbs on liquor consumption, which is playing havoc with people.

The party had been arguing that the government should run liquor shops in limited numbers, instead of auctioning them with an eye on maximising revenue.

BRIEFLY

Man kills family over wife’s affair with father
FATEHPUR: Enraged over an alleged illicit relationship between his wife and father, a man hacked his wife and four children to death before committing suicide in Bavaipur village of the district, the police said on Friday. Before consuming poison, Pal also attacked his father Devicharan with whom his wife was stated to have an illicit relationship. — PTI

8 baratis killed in mishap
AMBEDKARNAGAR: Marriage celebrations turned into a grief after eight ‘baratis’ were killed and 15 severely injured in a road accident in the Sammanpur area here. The accident occurred on Akbarpur-Azamgarh road, where a marriage procession was being taken out. The ‘baratis’ were hit by a speeding Jeep coming from Akbarpur, police superintendent O.P. Sagar said. — UNI