Mumbai, July 31
Investigators probing last weekend’s bomb blasts in Ahmedabad are looking at the possibility of Mumbai’s underworld being involved in the terror attacks.

Based on information provided by their counterparts in Gujarat, the Mumbai police is looking for members of car thieves and those who are specialised in pilfering explosives from quarry sites in and around Mumbai.

“Four cars involved in the Gujarat blasts were stolen from Navi Mumbai earlier this month giving rise to doubts that a well-organised network could be involved in the attacks,” a senior police official said.

The network involved in stealing cars is well-entrenched and cars stolen from Mumbai are taken as far as Nepal in weeks after their registration and engine numbers are changed.

The other cars used in the blasts may have been sourced from other parts of the country thus indicating the hand of a well-organized network, say sources.

The police officials also suspect that at least some of the explosives may have from the quarrying sites of Navi Mumbai, while initial investigations indicated that detonators used in the Ahmedabad blasts could have come from the stone quarries of Andhra Pradesh.

With the Mumbai angle in the blasts coming to the fore, the police here has quickly put together teams of police officers who have investigated bomb blasts in the city.

While some of the officers were part of the teams that probed the 1993 serial blasts that rocked Mumbai, others were involved in investigating subsequent incidents.

Param Bir Singh, additional commissioner of the police, who is in charge of the anti-terrorism squad of the Mumbai police, said 25 teams had been set up to assist investigators from Gujarat.

Earlier this year, the authorities had installed closed circuit television cameras at many places across the city to record suspicious movements.

The CCTVs recorded at the toll plaza on the Mumbai-Thane road out of the city were to have recorded the vehicles and their drivers while they waited to pay toll.

However, the police officials today indicated that most of the cameras had stopped functioning after a few weeks.

Investigators are now trying to piece together data on hard disks connected to the CCTVs in the hope of finding some clues on the men who transported the stolen cars out of the city.

Ahmedabad/Surat, July 31
The Ahmedabad blasts and planting of bombs in Surat were carried out with substantial local support, the authorities in Gujarat said today even as police conducted combing operations and detained several persons for questioning in a bid unravel the conspiracy.

Investigating agencies have launched an all out effort to nab locals who helped in carrying out the operations on such a major scale, senior police and government officials said.

“Though the conspiracy has a pan-national angle, it could not have been possible without the local support,” they said.

Surat police commissioner R.M.S. Brar claimed that “some leads” have been found but refused to go into details.

“The terrorist operations of such a massive scale are not possible without the local support. The planting of bombs, selection of places and transportation of explosive materials were not possible without locals,” he said.

Raids were carried out by both Ahmedabad crime branch and Surat police last night and several persons were detained.

Joint commissioner of police H.P. Singh said in Ahmedabad that “massive combing operaitons were conducted by different teams in various party of the city last night. Several people have been detained for questioning”. — PTI

He was under the scanner of the ATS as the e-mail was sent from his computer just five minutes before the Ahmedabad serial blasts. — UNI

New Delhi, July 31
The government today hiked the export price of onion by $25 per metric tonne to discourage its overseas sale and augment domestic supply.

Officials from the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), the main government agency exporting onion, told The Tribune that minimum export price (MEP) of onion had been increased by $25 for all destinations.

The MEPs, which for different destinations in July were between $ 200 and 395, now stand increased to between $ 220 and 415 with effect from August 1.

This is the second increase in the onion MEP in the past two months and this decision is expected to cool down spiralling prices of the most essential commodity of Indian kitchens.

Onions have the ability to reduce political parties to tears. In 1998, they led to the downfall of the BJP government in Delhi.

The onion prices have been surging and there has been a substantial increase in the domestic prices of the commodity throughout the country.

Wholesale and retail prices of onion in Delhi and other main markets of North India have risen by almost 50 per cent during the past couple of weeks.

Farmers from western parts of the country - the Nasik and Pune areas of Maharashtra that contribute almost two third to the total onion produce of the country- prefer to export large quantities of their produce to earn maximum profits.

This in turn has a rippling effect on domestic market. During 2008-09 up to June 28, 5.29 lakh MTs onion was exported whereas 3.11 lakh MTs was exported in the same period last year.

The quantum jump in exports has been largely on account of substantial increase in production, which was estimated to be around 74 lakh MTs in 2007-08 as compared to 64 lakh MTs last year.

Experts say spiralling prices of onion this year can be attributed to delayed monsoon in important onion-growing areas, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Agriculture Ministry officials say Kharif season accounts for around 40-45 per cent of the total onion produced in the country, while the rest is grown during rabi season.

The farmers have been releasing their stored stock rather slowly this year. July and September is the lean period for onion and during this period it is mostly stored onion that is consumed.

Ministry officials, however, add that while sowing has got delayed due to weather related and other factors, it is now picking up in all major onion-growing states due to good rainfall activity over central, pensinsular and Western India.

The MEP of onion is overseen and is fixed by a committee headed by NAFED. The committee meets every month and the MEP is fixed keeping in view availability for domestic consumption and production and availability and production in  theneighbouring countries.

New Delhi, July 31
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has ruled out any post-poll alliance with the UPA. Karat recently spoke to Kairali TV, a Malayalam TV channel in which CPM members hold majority shares.

The English version of the interview was being carried by some English television channels. In his interview Karat said, “there is no question of a tie up with the Congress at all.”

He also conceded that the Left had made a miscalculation in trusting the Congress party on the Indo-US nuclear deal. He said, “It seems it was a mistake.”

Karat’s assertion comes in sharp contrast to the stand taken by several UPA partners, including many Congress leaders who are still hoping to strike an alliance with the Left after the next general elections, despite the recent bitter parting of company between the two, earlier this year.

The CPM general secretary explained that, “Political parties which were not a part of the Congress and the BJP-led coalitions joined forces with the Left only after realising they had a common agenda - opposition to the nuclear deal.”

Asked about the credibility and viability of a third front with Mayawati who had three stints with the BJP, Karat said, “I never talked about the third alternative. Our party’s understanding of the third alternative is not some combination to fight elections. The third alternative should be in terms of policies and programmes. We didn’t consider the UNPA as the third alternative. We told them that this alternative we were thinking about.”

Stating his stand and his support for the third front, Karat said, “We can support and stand by them on issues of price rise, fighting inflation, going against Nuclear deal. A third alternative should be something which is more stable, which runs on certain programmes.”

Karat said, “We will fight the Lok Sabha elections by not speaking of a third alternative. There can be a non-BJP and non-Congress force which can be considered as a third electoral force. This is what we are working for.”

Meanwhile, speaking exclusively to The Tribune Karat said, “I had said in this interview that coalitions will be there even after the next general elections. But there need not be a Congress-led government necessarily.”

The CPM general secretary said, “We are opposed to the BJP but we are not bound to support a Congress-led government. There can be other alternatives too and we are working towards that end.”

The BSP has welcomed Karat’s declaration. BSP Rajya Sabha member Ambeth Rajan said, “Good step. This is the last chance for the Congress to lead the government at the Centre. They will either have to support us or sit in the opposition.”

New Delhi, July 31
Although Beijing has kept up the suspense on its stand regarding the Indo-US nuclear agreement, the diplomatic establishment here is feeling reassured after it was unofficially conveyed to them by the Chinese that its decision will not be affected by its friendly relations with the India’s Left parties.

While this message is being seen as a positive signal, New Delhi is, nevertheless, unsure about the Chinese response when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board takes up the India-specific safeguards agreement for approval at its meeting in Vienna tomorrow.

China is an important member of the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which will meet to give India a waiver for doing nuclear commerce after the safeguards agreement has been ratified.

Living up its reputation of being “inscrutable”, the Chinese have refrained from giving any firm reassurance to New Delhi on its support on the nuclear deal issue.

More recently, however, some hope was held out when Chinese ministers and party functionaries said their decision would be independent of their relations with the Left parties here.

In their meeting with Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the PMO, Chinese party functionaries admitted that they had friendly relations with several parties in India whose views on the nuclear deal were known to them.

For the record, the Chiense have, so far, maintained that they have no objection to peaceful international cooperation on nuclear energy provided this agreement adheres to international non-proliferation commitments.

This statement was duly repeated to Chavan when he visited Beijing earlier this week to hand over two letters from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, seeking their support for the Indo-US nuclear agreement .at the IAEA and at the NSG.

The letters were handed over to Dai Binguo, state councillor in charge of foreign affairs and China’s special representative to the border negotiations with India.

Chavan, who also met Wang Jia Rui, minister for the International Department
of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, and assistant foreign
minister Liu Jia Yi, explained India’s position on nuclear energy in the context
of global warming concerns.

Kolkata, July 31
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has been acting as a mediator for bringing Mamata Banerjee close to Sonia Gandhi and Mulayum Singh Yadav so that they are on a common platform against the Left parties.

In West Bengal, the Samajwadi Party will jointly fight with the Trinamool Congress against corporate players’ participation in the retail sector and also in support of the landless at Singur and Nandigram.

Accordingly, Singh met Mamata during his one-day visit to the city on yesterday at her Kalighat residence. They held closed-door talks for over a hour. Before arriving in Kolkata, he met Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi

The SP leader said he wanted to rope in Mamata in the UPA-SP alliance against the Left. He hoped in West Bengal the Congress and the Trinamool Congress would now jointly fight the CPI(M), along with the SP and other secular parties.

Singh told mediapersons he was not acting as Sonia Gandhi’s emissary in trying to bring Mamata into the UPA fold.

But he was of the firm opinion that Mamata’s inclusion would be of tremendous help in fighting the BJP and Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh and the CPI(M) in Bengal .

The SP leader said they had earlier made common cause with the Left parties against the Congress in the interest of poor peasants and landless labourers, but then the situation was “otherwise”.

In the changed political situation, when the Left parties were acting “against” the national interests, the SP found it necessary to protect the UPA and the Manmohan Singh government.

He said they were now wooing other secular forces and like-minded parties. Singh said the SP would participate in Mamata’s proposed agitation in the state from August 20 against the participation of large business houses in the retail sector.

New Delhi, July 31
The BJP has decided to launch a nationwide agitation against the restitution of land acquired recently in the Kashmir valley by the Amarnath Trust.

The land was acquired sometime back by the outgoing Congress-PDP government for putting up temporary structures to facilitate the stay of pilgrims to Amarnath.

However, there were violent protests against this and the PDP withdrew support to the government on the issue.

In the meantime, state Governor Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha, who was the inspiration behind the move, retired and the new Governor N.N Vohra as chairman of the Amarnath Trust, on the advice of the government, returned the land.

The BJP has made a big issue of this in Jammu and now plans to extend this to the rest of India, said former BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu, here today.

“We insist that the said land be returned to the Amarnath Trust forthwith. We will march to every Raj Bhawan in each state on August 11, 12 and 13 to draw peoples’ attention to this blatant capitulation of the Central Government before pro-Pakistan elements,” he said.

Recalling that former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had described the PDP, led by Mehbooba Mufti and Mufti Mohammad Sayed, as working in tandem with Pakistan, the BJP leader said the UPA government became subservient to such elements only to secure votes for the confidence motion on July 22.

It has a range of 160 nautical miles (220 km). It uses an ARGS-54 active radar seeker and Glonass satellite and inertial guidance.

New Delhi, July 31
Human resource development minister Arjun Singh is said to be stable after he was admitted to the ICU of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences late last night.

Arjun has been diagnosed with a condition called cholicysitis, which is normally
linked to diabetes.

Gall bladder stones have also not been ruled out by the team of doctors attending to Singh, who was brought to AIIMS with multiple health problems.

The immediate complication the minister was suffering was stomach pain, said the doctors attending on him.

Singh, 77, is under the care of an expert team headed by Dr T.K. Chattopadhyay, head of department, gastrointestinal surgery and Dr Chandralekha, head of department, anaesthesiology.

Guwahati, July 31
A prominent NGO working against insurgents in Assam today demanded separate jails for the arrested jehadi elements to prevent them from recruiting other criminals lodged in the same prisons for the fundamentalist outfits.

“About 250 jehadis are lodged in different jails in the state. They could easily recruit ordinary criminals they meet in the jails that will result in massive increase in cadre strength of the jehadi groups active in the state unless a separate jail is created to lodge these anti-Indian fundamentalist elements,” said Abhijit Sharma, managing director of Assam Public Works (APW).

He also demanded that hardcore arrested the ULFA militants or members of other banned militants groups in the state should also be kept separated from other prisoners in jails and these militants leaders were likely to utilise their time in jail to carry out recruitment for their outfits from among other prisoners.

Several top leaders of the banned ULFA are now lodged in Guwahati jails for years. Vice-chairman of the outfit Pradip Gogoi has been lodged in the jail for 11 years.

The proscribed ULFA, which is accused of having nexus with the fundamentalist groups based in Bangladesh, maintains that the APW is nothing but a covert front of the Assam Police Intelligence Branch.

The APW of the view that it was unabated infiltration from Bangladesh that has facilitated uprising of the jehadi groups in the state.

Referring to a recent Gauhati High Court judgment accusing ‘certain political parties’ of safeguarding the illegal Bangladesh infiltrators for political gains, the APW urged the court to name the parties and sought strict action against them.

APW secretary Bitu Talukdar said, “Bangladesh’s voters’ list has shown a negative growth while the number of voters in the state has shown an alarming growth rate.”

He said Assam had 63 lakh voters in 1991, which went up to 1.90 crore in 1996, and is now 2.25 crore. The state has registered an average annual rise of 21 per cent in case of voters while the national average is 2.5 per cent.

On the other hand, Bangladesh has witnessed a negative trend, Talukdar said, adding that number of voters in the neighbouring country went down from 6.21 crore in 1991, to 5.60 crore in 1995.

The security forces operating against militants in the state believe that there has been a steady proliferation of the jehadi groups in the state that is reeling under infiltration from across the border.

Among applications invited on May 24 are those from top doctors, academicians and administrators from across the world, including one from an NRI doctor in Canada.

New Delhi, July 31
The cabinet committee on economic affairs approved the proposal to continue Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme, (APDRP) during the Eleventh Plan with revised terms and conditions as a Central sector scheme.

The Centre approved an allocation Rs 17,033 crore aimed at cutting commercial and other losses of state utilities.

This decision will cover 571 projects in the first phase. Out of the total allocation of Rs 17033 cr, the grant component is Rs 6,445 crore and the loan component is Rs 2,274 crore, said finance minister P Chidambaram. He added that the loan will be for those who accept certain parameters both in the utility and project areas.

In the project area the utilities have to bring down aggregate technical & commercial (AT&C) losses to below 15 per cent, whereas in the utility area which is a larger area, they have to bring them down by 3 per cent or 1.5 per cent depending upon where they are.

If they achieve the parameters, 50 per cent of loan will be converted as grant, Chidambaram said.The government had approved APDRP in March 2003 to accelerate distribution sector reforms.

Besides reducing AT&C losses, the scheme seeks to bring commercial viability in the power sector and reduce outages and interruptions.

New Delhi, July 31
The Government of India, tonight appointed Ashwani Kumar, a 1973 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre Indian Police service officer as the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the nation’s premier investigation agency.

He replaces Vijay Shankar, who superannuated today after more than two years and seven months at the top post.

Ashwani Kumar emerged as the front runner as he had served as the joint director and also additional director of the CBI between 2000 and 2006.

Notably during his earlier stint in the CBI, he handled the much-talked about secret operation to arrest underworld don Abu Salem and his girlfriend Bollywood-starlet Monica Bedi in Portugal and the subsequent extradition of Salem to India.

The CBI had earned huge allocades for the arrest of Salem as he had lived in hiding for long and was one of the key players. The appointment is for a period of two years as the CBI director enjoys a fixed tenure.

Since Ashwani Kumar has two years and six months to retire he will not be getting an extension in service and will complete his two-year period within his normal length of service.

Ashwani Kumar has also served as the IG, Vigilance, in Himachal Pradesh. It is for the first time that an officer form the Himachal Pradesh Cadre will hold one of the top posts in the country.

When contacted at his home in Shimla, Ashwani Kumar refused to comment. He was selected ahead of present special director, CBI, M.L. Sharma, a Rajasthan cadre officer of the 1972 batch. Sharma has long served in the CBI and was thought to be a top contender.

Sources said since Sharma was senior to Ashwani Kumar he may be slotted elsewhere on some other senior post.

This evening, Vijay Shanker retired and the government had not issued any order about his successor or to whom the charge should be handed over.

Shanker informed the Department of Personnel and Training, this evening that he was relinquishing his charge as he could not continue in the post beyond the office hours, said the sources.

He handed over the charge to M.L. Sharma as the CBI could not have remained without a chief.

New Delhi, July 31
State-run oil companies today hiked Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices by 2.8 per cent on the back of a surge in the international oil prices.

Jet fuel in Delhi will cost Rs 1,931.07 per kilo litre (kl) more from midnight tonight. The fuel will be priced at Rs 71,028.26 per kl from August 1 as against Rs 69,097.19 per kl. In Mumbai, the prices have been hiked to Rs 73,673.56 as against Rs 71,630.53 per kl.

This is the second state increase in ATF prices, which are revised once a month based on monthly average of global oil prices.

The fuel will cost $ 41.68 per kl more for the international airlines refuelling at Delhi. The new rates for ATF for foreign lines that do not pay local sales tax, will be $ 1,290.58 per kl.

BRIEFLY

Top LTTE man held 
Chennai: The Q Branch police, dealing with cases of extremism and terrorism, arrested a top functionary of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) here on Wednesday. The branch arrested J Thambi Annan alias Daniel (46), hailing from Kilinochchi in Sri Lanka. Daniel has been the pivot in procuring major consignments, including explosive substances, for the LTTE from India and other parts of the world. — UNI

Missing alligators found 
New Delhi: Two alligators that were washed away in floods from the Tata Zoological Park in Jamshedpur last month are back into their enclosure. “We are relieved that they are back, but the third alligator is yet to be traced,” said M.S. Jain, director of the park in southern Jharkhand. Jain said the site was being shifted to a safer place as the present location was near the boundary wall which ran along the river. — PTI

e-savvy post offices
Shillong: With the department of posts rolling out plans to provide various e-enabled services in all post offices across the country, the telegram is bracing for consignment to history. As per the department's pilot project 'Arrow', about 200 post offices across the country would be upgraded in terms of various kinds of e-enabled services in the first phase, said S.K. Chakrabarti, Chief Postmaster General of North East Circle. — PTI