New Delhi, April 25
Ahead of Jammu and Kashmir polls, the government has moved in the direction of addressing the long-standing issue of Kashmiri migrants by announcing a package of Rs 1,600 crore for their “dignified return” to the Valley”.

It has also planned to expand travel across the LoC by adopting features like triple entry permits and submission of applications for permits at the district passport collection centre. Besides, it proposes the operationalisation of Kargil-Skardu and Jammu-Sialkot routes and increase in the frequency of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkot bus services from fortnightly to weekly.

These issues will be discussed with Pakistan shortly, said union home minister Shivraj Patil in his suo moto statement on the subject in both Houses of Parliament today.

A major decision relates to the lump sum grant of Rs 7.5 lakh to migrant families to build or buy homes through group housing societies in the state. The proposal will be applicable to all migrant families that left in 1989. The state government has been asked to identify land for the purpose.

Admitting that it was “our collective responsibility to rectify the situation”, the government said the same amount would be given to migrant families, whose houses have been fully or partially damaged.

Meanwhile, it has been decided to continue for two years the monthly financial relief being presently given to migrant families. The idea is to facilitate their smooth transition, said the home minister.

The package for migrants includes 6,000 jobs for the educated among their youth. The Centre will bear the cost towards the salary of 3,000 youths till they are absorbed against regular posts in the state. “We will also provide lump sum grants for restoration of agricultural holdings/ orchards, which may have been lying abandoned. The feasibility of waiving interests on unpaid loans taken by Kashmiri migrants before their migration as a part of a one-time settlement package is also being studied,” the government said.

Significant also is the Centre’s nod to the state government’s proposal of offering one-time compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of victims of militancy-related violence in the state. The money is proposed to be paid against the promised compassionate appointment. Due to lack of adequate number of jobs, there is a huge back of approved cases for appointment.

Among the welfare measures announced, focus has also been given to PoK refugees of 1947. The government said it was willing to meet an expenditure of Rs 50 crore to resolve their cases of land deficiency and those where it has not been possible to allot plots in urban areas to them.

For the refugees from West Pakistan, the government has proposed a dispensation whereby their children can seek admission to technical educational institutions in various parts of the country.

Conceding further to the demand of valley residents with respect to occupation of their buildings, the government said it had issued directions for relocation in cases of occupation of public premises by security forces. Those occupying private properties have been asked to pay rents, the government said.

Mumbai, April 25
Politicians of the Congress in Maharashtra cannot wait to attack ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) even if it means playing into the hands of the opposition BJP.

This time the Congress has decided to use the presence of cheerleaders at the IPL cricket matches to embarrass its ally. After the BJP accused the organisers of the IPL of promoting obscenity by allowing scantily clad cheerleaders to dance at match venues, the Congress’ minister of state for home Siddharam Mhetre immediately promised to ban the dance shows.

Mhetre’s boss happens to be Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil of the NCP whose boss Sharad Pawar is the president of the BCCI, which is the promoter of the IPL matches.

That there is no love lost between the Congress and the NCP is hardly a secret in Maharashtra. So both parties keep looking for opportunities to pull down each other.

“We live in India where woman are worshipped. How can something obscene like semi-nude women dancing in a stadium be allowed,” Mhetre wondered before reporters. For good measure he added that the organisers of the IPL matches would be prosecuted for promoting obscenity. “We will, however, not press charges against the girls,” Mhetre insisted probably apprehensive of the international outcry it would cause if cheerleaders from the US are arrested.

Patil refused to comment on the issue, but Ramrao Wagh, the police commissioner of Navi Mumbai where the next match is to be held on Sunday, said there would be absolutely no ban on the cheerleaders. Wagh is an appointee of Patil and does not hide his closeness to the NCP leader. He, however, said action would be taken against the cheerleaders if their performance was found to be vulgar. According to the police official, a performance licence has been issued for the cheerleaders to dance at the match.

Pawar, who also holds the agriculture portfolio in the union government, has already been at the receiving end of criticism from the Shiv Sena and the BJP for his involvement with the BCCI.

Now even the Congress, it seems, does not want to be left out of the party.

New Delhi, April 25
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today expressed disappointment over the ‘tactics’ used by the Left parties to make their point in the Lok Sabha. “I do not approve of the methods adopted by Left parties. I am hurt and disappointed. You are following tactics that should not be followed”, said the Speaker after Left MP’s from Kerala tried to disrupt the proceedings of the Lok Sabha over the issue of reduced food grain quota to the state.

Demanding immediate restoration of the state’s old food quota, the MPs moved to the Well of the House calling for immediate action on the part of union agriculture minister. The special mention of the issue was made by CPM MP from Palghat (Kerala) N.N. Krishnadas, who said, over the years the food grain quota to Kerala had been reduced by 82 per cent.

“It used to be 1 lakh 30 thousand metric tonnes at one time. The last week’s figure is just 4,000 metric tones”, said the MP, adding, that “this was gross injustice of the Centre to the seriously food-deficit state of Kerala”.

As soon as Das made his point, all the Left party MPs from Kerala joined him in raising slogans; one among them, Thomas rushed to the Well of the House, where he sat down in an act of protest, prompting the Speaker to warn the protesting MPs.

“Those standing in the isle will be in trouble. It is very unfortunate. Such acts don’t add to your glory or help the subject. I will not adjourn the House”, Chatterjee said, specifically naming S. Ajaya Kumar, CPM MP from Ottapalam (Kerala) and saying “the Speaker’s threats were not empty”.

The MPs, however, went on with their sloganeering, halting only when the Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee stood up to assure them that he would convey the sense of the House to the agriculture minister and see what best could be done in the given situation. The protesting MPs kept demanding the restoration of food quota, eventually calming down when the Speaker joined them in their request on the matter.

The union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had earlier said Kerala’s food grain quota had decreased, as average lifting of food stocks in the state was less than four per cent of the total allocation.

New Delhi, April 25
The PMO appears to be facing the heat over the controversy pertaining to surface transport and shipping minister T.R. Baalu with the Opposition asking the government to explain its stand on the union minister.

Demanding resignation of Baalu, Opposition members forced adjournment of the Rajya Sabha for the day, not allowing the House to function beyond question hour for a second consecutive day today.

The government was repeatedly asked to explain its stand on Baalu. For a third day in running, the Rajya Sabha remained embroiled in the controversy that Baalu had used his position as a minister to put in a word with the petroleum minister to make Gail restore supply of gas to two companies associated with his family.

Baalu belongs to the DMK, the most important ally of the Congress in the UPA government. There are allegations that the PMO had also written letters to the petroleum ministry to expedite issue of clearances for the company owned by Baalu’s family.

On Wednesday, AIADMK member V. Maitreyan had alleged that Baalu used his position as a minister to benefit the companies owned by his sons. Yesterday, the proceedings remained deadlocked over the removal of Maitreyan from the House after he repeatedly sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s response to charges against Baalu.

Today, the Opposition again demanded that Prime Minister come in the Rajya Sabha and clarify the government’s position in the light of the minister’s statement in the House on Wednesday. This led to the Rajya Sabha being adjourned twice during the morning session and for the third time after it met during the post-lunch session.

Today the BJP members used a rather innovative way of registering their protest as the House assembled for the day by placing a finger on their lips to show they were not participating in question hour. They did not break the silence even as their names were called by Chairman Hamid Ansari to raise questions.

They broke their silence as soon as zero hour began at 12 noon and home minister Shivraj Patil rose to make a statement on Jammu and Kashmir, Ravi Shankar Prasad got up, waiving some documents and demanding that the Prime Minister clarify the government’s position on the issue. Members of the BJP and AIADMK raised slogans even as P.J. Kurien, who was in the chair, made attempts to run the House.

Kurien announced adjournment of the House for 15 minutes following the ruckus. When the House reassembled at 12.30 pm, BJP members resumed their protest, forcing the chair to adjourn the House again till 2 pm. However, the House could not function even during post-lunch session forcing adjournment for the day.

Baalu had replied on Wednesday: “In 1999 Kings Power Corporation had entered into an agreement with Gail for the supply of 10,000 cubic metres of gas to it. But, the gas company went back on its word as part of revenge taken by the NDA government and the BJP as I quit the alliance in 2003. The employees and shareholders approached me with the problem. I then put in a word with the petroleum minister for supplying gas to the ailing company.”

New Delhi, April 25
The UPA government was pushed on the back foot today as an aggressive Opposition demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh come clean on the latest disclosures that his office wrote eight letters to the petroleum ministry seeking clearances for surface transport minister T.R. Baalu’s company.

The Congress was particularly embarrassed over the involvement of the PMO in the latest controversy that stalled the Rajya Sabha for two days and is threatening to snowball in the coming days. As long as the spotlight was on the DMK minister, the Congress could shrug off charges that Baalu used his office to seek favours for his company but now that the PMO has been dragged into it, the situation has undergone a vast change.

As the government is scrambling to find a cogent reply to the Opposition charges, the Congress today chose to play safe and say nothing on the matter.

Despite persistent questioning, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan’s stock response was: “I have no knowledge about these letters...until I know the facts, I am unable to comment on this issue.”

Natarajan was equally non-committal with regard to Baalu’s admission that he had approached the petroleum ministry about his company.

“The matter is in Parliament...the minister has already replied. Have nothing more to add to it,” she said, adding that as far as the Congress was concerned, it had always stood or the highest standards in public life.

The Congress party’s discomfiture is understandable. It has to tread with utmost caution as the matter involves an important alliance partner, the DMK. On the other hand, it cannot afford to ignore the issue as the PMO has been dragged into the controversy.

Admitting that this controversy has painted them in a corner, UPA sources said it would not just be difficult but impossible for the Congress leadership to suggest to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi that Baalu resign from the government.

Not only is the DMK an adamant ally but also Baalu himself has a “tough guy” image and even his colleagues in the DMK are wary of tangling with him.

While the PMO and the Congress have decided to adopt a wait-and-watch policy, the government is hoping to find an escape route in the fact that it was the NDA government that had allotted 4 lakh cubic meters block of gas to the King Hi-Power, a company based in Tamil Nadu and owned by Baalu in 1999. The NDA government, however, promptly cancelled this allocation once Baalu resigned after the DMK withdrew support to the NDA government. 

Kolkata, April 25
Three CPM ministers, including the high profile tourism minister Manab Mukherjee, of the Left Front government have been “caught with evidences” in defrauding the government by presenting some huge amount of bills for buying ‘spectacles’ and medical treatments.

Both Mukherjee and the Sunderbans development minister, Kanti Ganguly are very close to the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who has already initiated a drive against corrupt officials and employees. He has also sacked two senior policemen and another official on corruption charges.

Mukherjee had submitted a bill of Rs 16,000 for buying a pair of spectacles for his wife Ishita, a lecturer of Economics at Calcutta University. She is also the head of women culture department of the university. While Ganguly had spent about Rs 30 lakh, in total, on his wife’s treatment at the AIIMS, New Delhi. Around Rs 11 lakh had been spent on shifting her to New Delhi by air.

The Chief Minister was aware of the illness of Ganguly’s wife and had himself sanctioned Rs 9 lakh as an advance to Ganguly for the treatment. Unfortunately, Ganguly’s wife did not survive.

Another CPM minister, Bankim Ghosh, who looks after the panchayat and rural development department under Surya Kanto Mishra, submitted a bill worth Rs 28,000 for purchasing two pairs of spectacles, for his wife and himself, for reimbursement.

All the ministers admitted that they had submitted medical bills for reimbursement and found nothing wrong with it since they were entitled to the medical bills as per the Medical Attendance (for ministers and parliamentary secretaries) Act, 1969.

But the officials clarified that neither the minister, nor his wife or any other kith and kin, were eligible to such huge amount of money for buying spectacles.

Moreover, Mukherjee’s wife was in a full-time job at the university and was not entitled to any medical bill for being a minister’s wife.

It is not clear yet if the Chief Minister will exercise his special power and sanction his ministers’ medical bills or censure them and ask them to return the government’s money.

Incidentally, soon after the Left Front government came to power in 1977, two CPM ministers, the late Prasanta Sur, who was in charge of municipalities and urban development and Siben Chowdhury, the state minister for transport, were involved in corruption cases. Both were sacked from the government.

But the present party secretary, Biman Bose has so far not made any comment on the alleged charges of corruption. The matter, however, would be raised at the secretariat meeting and action will be taken accordingly, party sources said.

Hyderabad, April 25
It is time for “political yatras” in Andhra Pradesh as parties gear up for the byelections in the Telangana region next month and the general elections which are just a year away.

No other elections have seen such a competitive display of populism.

It is raining freebies as the main political players- ruling Congress and main opposition Telugu Desam Party-are virtually promising the moon to lure voters.

If the Rajasekhar Reddy government has been dishing out a string of welfare schemes from its armour, the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, once a poster boy of reforms, is on an image makeover mode and rediscovering the virtues of populism.

Launching a marathon 150-day long “rath yatra”, christened “Mee Kosam” (For You), Naidu has promised 12-hour free power supply for farmers and the poor households who consume less than 50 units of power per month, unemployment dole of Rs 1,000 per month, hike in old age pension from the present Rs 200 to Rs 500, loans to farmers at 1 per cent interest rate and free housing for the poor.

During his mass contact programme “Praja Patham”, the Chief Minister has been doling out sops to virtually every section of society and claiming that his government was in the forefront of implementing welfare schemes in the country.

After reviving the Rs 2 per kg rice scheme, which entails an annual subsidy component of Rs 2,000 crore, Reddy has announced that cooking oil and red gram would be also be supplied at a subsidised rate to the poor households from next month.

Seeking to consolidate its “pro-farmer” image, the Congress government has also promised low cost loans for farmers, apart from loan waiver facility. The loan waiver has also been announced for weaker sections.

After steering his party to power in the 2004 polls on populist plank, Reddy has been implementing free power policy and focusing on irrigation, agriculture and rural development.

The Telangana Rashtra Samihti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao is also touring Telangana region extensively as part of his “Ashirwada Yatra” to seek public support for the statehood cause.

The TRS, whose MPs, MLAs and MLCs have quit their posts necessitating byelections in the region, has promised that a Dalit would be made Chief Minister of Telangana state. It has also promised reservation for Muslims and land for all SC and ST families in the new state. 

New Delhi, April 25
The ministry of shipping, road transport and highways is in the process of preparing a detailed project report on four-laning the Amritsar-Pathankot highway which will be operated on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The ministry is also considering to widen the highway between Jalandhar and Amritsar, besides four-laning the Chandigarh-Kiratpur highway.

After the report will be submitted, the ministry will start the bidding process. But this will come after the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee gives clearance.

Similarly, a detailed project report to take up the work on four-laning of Jalandhar-Dhilwan road has been updated by the consultant appointed by the ministry. This highway would also be operated on BOT basis.

Incidentally, the work on four-laning of the section between Dhilwan to Verka Chowk, Amritsar, was started in May, 2006, and is targeted to be completed by November.

On the Chandigarh-Kiratpur stretch, sources said the section between Chandigarh and Kurali is of 28.6 km of which the first 11.4 km stretch is already four-lane and the sanction to widen the next 4 km of road was given late last month at a cost of Rs 13.51 crore. The four-laning of the remaining section would be taken up under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase - III.

However, the contract for four-laning the Kurali-Kiratpur section was awarded in June, 2007, on BOT basis and the work was expected to be completed by June, 2010.

The NHAI has also identified the Delhi-Dehra Dun stretch of NH-58 and 72 for being widened to four and six lanes, respectively, under the NHDP Phase III again on BOT basis on the criteria of high density of traffic and connectivity of state capitals with corridors. 

Hyderabad, April 25
The Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) has come under scanner after its measles vaccine caused the death of four infants in Tamil Nadu.

The vaccine was produced by IIL’s subsidiary Human Biologicals Institute (HBI) at its Gachibowli facility here.

Officials at the IIL maintained that there was nothing wrong with their vaccine as all procedures were duly followed while manufacturing them.

“The vaccine supplied to Tamil Nadu in the first week of this month was vetted by the Central Research Institute (CRI) at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh as per the procedure,” an IIL official said.

The HBI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board, where the vaccines were manufactured, is a WHO-certified organisation, which maintains stringent standards. “We are awaiting the outcome of the investigation taken up by Tamil Nadu health officials,” he said. The HBI is engaged in manufacturing anti-rabies, hepatitis-b, DPT, DT and TT vaccines.

It had obtained commercial approval from the Central government in April last year for manufacture of measles vaccine.

“Our facilities conform to WHO standards. The vaccines supplied to various state governments come under the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI). Designated government officials under EPI visit our facility to pick samples from a batch and send them to CRI for vetting. Only after getting nod from CRI, we release the vaccines,” the official said.

The Tamil Nadu government was supplied 1.5 lakh doses of measles vaccine in the first week of this month while AP received 2 lakh doses.

There are fears that contamination could have occurred during storage and transportation. Vaccines have to be stored at temperatures ranging between two and eight degrees till they are administered.

Meanwhile, the officials of the state Drug Control Administration seized vials of the vaccine from HBI facility and sent them to CRI for analysis.

New Delhi, April 25
The Congress today introduced a new element in its party set-up, which is ostensibly meant to strengthen the organisation, but may end up creating more confusion instead.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has, for the first time, appointed “coordinators” to work along with AICC general secretaries who are in charge of states, a move which has raised more questions than answering them. Not only will it lead to multiplicity of authority, but will also undermine the authority of those general secretaries who have been assigned coordinators as the move will be seen as a vote of no confidence in them.

“Nobody here is senior or junior... both the general secretary and the coordinator will work together as a team,” remarked a senior AICC office bearer, adding that the basic objective is to strengthen the organisation by providing helping hands to “new and inexperienced” general secretaries like Ajay Maken and Arun Kumar. In other instances, it was felt that general secretaries like Prithviraj Chavan had too much on their plate and could do with some extra assistance.

However, it is not just junior office bearers who will now have to work alongside the newly appointed coordinators. For instance, seniors like M. Veerappa Moily and Mohsina Kidwai, known for their proximity to Congress president, have been assigned equally weighty leaders like P.J. Kurien and Janardhana Poojary. Mukul Wasnik, who is in charge of the election-bound state of Rajasthan, will have Haryana minister Birendra Singh as coordinator.

AICC general secretary B.K. Hari Prasad has been paired with high profile AICC secretary Rajiv Shukla and the two will look after Gujarat and Goa. Prasad was considered a rising star in the organisation, but fell from grace after his failure to put up a good show in the last Gujarat elections.

Congress sources explained that in the case of Ajay Maken and Arun Kumar, it was felt they could do with some experienced leaders to help them out. Arun Kumar, who has old organisation hand Vayalar Ravi as his coordinator, will be benefited, as he will be able to deal with a senior leader like Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunandhi.

However, the principle of assigning coordinators has not been applied uniformly. There are general secretaries like Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, Margaret Alva, Ashok Gehlot and R.K. Dhawan, who will continue to function independently. Alva and Dhawan were considered too senior to have coordinators while in the case of Uttar Pradesh in charge Digvijay Singh, a coordinator was considered unnecessary, as Rahul is equally involved in the state’s affairs.

BRIEFLY

Bihar JD(U) V-P quits
Patna: After protests by the BJP MLAs over the recent reshuffle in the Nitish Kumar ministry, discontent appears to be brewing in JD(U) too with state party vice-president Ajit Kumar resigning from his post on Friday. Kumar became the second vice-president of the party to resign after Monazir Hasan. Both Kumar and Hasan had been dropped as ministers in the April 13 reshuffle. — PTI

Answersheets burnt
Chennai: Over 22,000 answersheets of the class X English board exam were destroyed in a fire at an evaluation centre in Tamil Nadu's Vellore district. The fire broke out at Voorhees College in Vellore on Thursday night, education minister said. He said though 52,020 answer papers of various subjects were kept in safe custody after correction, only the English (II) answer papers were destroyed in the fire. — PTI

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra
NEW DELHI: List of 960 participants of the revered Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, scheduled to begin on June 1, was drawn on Friday. The computerised draw for the selection of yatris (participants) was conducted by minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma. Yatris have been selected through a computer-generated, gender-balanced random selection process for a total 960 slots across 16 batches. — TNS

Judicial probe ordered
GUWAHATI: Sensing the belligerent mood of the people against his government in the wake of recent killing of an innocent elderly villager, Dulen Baruah in Savasagar district by a team of the police-CRPF accompanied by a surrendered ULFA militant, the CM has cautioned stern action against any such ‘goof up’ in counter-insur gency operations in future. — TNS