NCM chairman Mohammad Shafi Qureshi said the commission would send a team to look into the facts.

Separately, the National Commission for Women would visit Orissa and investigate the matter, as a woman employee of a missionary school was burnt alive.

Meanwhile, Qureshi said the NCM had asked Patil to take immediate action so that the safety of life and property of people belonging to the community was ensured.

The commission has also written to the state government to send it a report on the situation, and decided to send a team later, after obtaining preliminary information.

Meanwhile, minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal is visiting the trouble-torn Kandhmal in Orissa today to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

In another development, Shivraj Patil said no political party or group should be accused of involvement without proper evidence. “Who has actually done it we have to find out.”

The home ministry also believes that Naxalites could have killed VHP leader Saraswati leading to violence. So far nine persons have been killed.

Around 20 companies of paramilitary and some helicopters have been provided to Orissa to deal with the violence, that continues to rock the state.

The Congress today used strong words against the BJP and its ancillary organisations saying they were using the murder of a VHP leader in Orissa as an excuse to create havoc against minorities. It displayed their naked communal agenda, it alleged.

The BJP and its associated organisations, VHP and Bajrang Dal, deserved the strongest condemnation for following the path of hatred and mistrust, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.

Alleging that the communal agenda of the BJP and others had been exposed, Singhvi said communalists like Praveen Togadia had been allowed to roam freely by the BJP-BJD government to create communal tension in Orissa.

Singhvi said the Christian community was being singled out for intimidation
in the state.

Ranchi, August 27
JMM president Shibu Soren was today sworn in as the sixth Chief Minister of Jharkhand after a wait of nearly three-and-a-half years.

Governor Syed Sibtey Razi administered the oath of office to Soren and eleven of his cabinet colleagues at the historic Morabadi ground here.

The ministers who took oath were Stephen Marandi (Ind), Sudhir Mahto (JMM), Kamlesh Kumar Singh (NCP), Anosh Ekka (Ind), Hari Narayan Rai (Ind), Joba Majhi (Ind), Nalin Soren (JMM), Bandhu Tirkey (Ind), Aparna Sengupta (FB), Dulal Bhuiya (JMM), Bhanu Pratap Sahi (Ind).

Today’s development ended the more than week-long political drama that began with the withdrawal of support by the JMM to the Madhu Koda-led UPA government on August 17 that finally forced the Chief Minister to resign on August 23.

On August 25, Soren staked claim to form the government after submitting a list of 42 MLAs before the Governor and made it a point to meet all the independent MLAs, who had been standing united with Koda, individually.

Significantly, the independents shifted allegiance to Soren in exchange of their 12-point demand.

During his first stint as Chief Minister that lasted only for nine days, Soren had to step down as he failed to obtain majority on March 11, 2005.

According to JMM sources, Soren would face the floor test on September 1. — UNI

New Delhi, August 27
Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda may have gone to China on his first overseas visit after becoming Nepal’s Prime Minister, but his foreign minister Upendra Yadav is coming to New Delhi on his maiden diplomatic assignment.

Yadav is arriving here tomorrow on a four-day visit, primarily to attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of seven BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries to be held here on Friday.

According to official sources, Yadav is likely to stay in New Delhi for two more days after the BIMSTEC meeting.

This will provide him an opportunity to discuss bilateral matters with the Indian leaders, marking the first high-level contact between the two countries after Prachanda took over as Prime Minister.

Yadav is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and other Indian leaders.

During the foreign ministers’ meet, India and the other six BIMSTEC countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand are expected to finalise a pact on combating terrorism.

Senior officials of the seven BIMSTEC countries began a two-day meeting here today to work out their recommendations, which will be discussed during the meet.

Sources said the leaders are likely to discuss the proposed pact on fighting terrorism, which is likely to be on the lines of the one signed by SAARC nations at their summit in Colombo earlier this month.

The agreement, which will focus on closer coordination and intelligence sharing on terror outfits active in the region, is to be signed at the BIMSTEC summit to be held in India in November.

The pact has assumed urgency as all seven BIMSTEC countries are grappling with terrorism, accentuating the need for cooperation among them to fight the scourge.

Energy security and issues relating to environment and climate will also be discussed. The member countries will also discuss how they could further cooperate in economic, social and other sectors, and increase connectivity.

Setting up a permanent secretariat for BIMSTEC, which currently functions from Bangkok, will also be high on the agenda.

This issue is, however, likely to see some renewed lobbying by Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand, which are keen to host the secretariat. A decision on this is likely to be taken during the foreign ministers’ meeting.

Surat, August 27
Two persons who allegedly played a major role in the planting of 25 bombs in the diamond city were arrested today, after which the police claimed to have cracked the case.

“We have arrested Tanveer Pathan and Jahir Patel, two locals, who played a major role in helping those who had come from outside to plant bombs in the city,” Surat police commissioner R M S Brar said.

Pathan and Patel were held on the basis of confessions of those arrested in connection with the Ahmedabad blasts.

“Mufti Abu Bashir, Sajid Mansuri, Yunus Mansuri and Samsuddin Sheikh, arrested for the Ahmedabad blasts, were directly involved in planting bombs in Surat. They all are associated with SIMI,” Gujarat director-general of police P C Pande told reporters here.

Pande said the bombs planted in the city were as lethal as those in Ahmedabad but did not explode due to faulty mechanism.

“The output current of transistor used in bombs planted in the city was insufficient to detonate the explosives,” J M Vyas, Director of FSL, Gandhinagar, which studied the unexploded bombs, said.

“When we set it right for experiment in our office, they exploded,” Vyas said. Pande said they have detained several people for interrogation.

Pande said they have detained several people for interrogation. “Interrogation is going on and we cannot give further details at this stage,” he added.

Pande said the police was able to crack the Ahmedabad blasts case and planting of bombs in Surat due to the help of central agencies and police forces of other states. — PTI

New Delhi, August 27
The next time you head for Nirman Bhawan, the health ministry’s official premises, remember to leave your cigarettes behind.

The building, from now on, is strictly a no-smoking area -- the first ministry office in India to become a no-smoking zone ahead of the October 2 deadline that will ban smoking in public, workplaces included.

At the entrance, a massive board warns smokers against believing they can have a free run inside the building.

Posters and placards bearing anti-tobacco messages stare at you from every corner, flashing a singular appeal: “Help us make India healthy; stop smoking”.

And if you still don’t fall in line, be ready to shell out anything up to Rs 200, penalty under the anti-tobacco law.

That there is no safe passage for anyone is clear from the fact that the health ministry has chargesheeted tens of its own staff to remind people of the seriousness of ban on smoking in public places.

News is that TV surveillance of smokers may be planned in the near future.

As for the law, it has existed for long, with no one caring to follow. The health ministry, it seems, wants to lead by example.

As an official points out: “Charity begins at home. We wanted to enforce the law in our premises before expecting others to do the same. That explains the massive anti-tobacco campaigning across Nirman Bhawan. No one can now smoke in this building. We have written to all state governments and union ministries to ensure their buildings also become smoke-free soon.”

The letters highlight the nuances of new anti-tobacco rules notified this May.

The rules have an enhanced definition for public places to include workplaces, airport lounges, restaurants with a seating capacity of over 30 and hotels with a residential capacity of over 30 rooms.

The onus to prevent smoking will lie on owner/supervisor of the place in question.

“We have informed every one of the details of physical separation of smoking and no-smoking areas as laid down under new rules,” said health ministry sources, who have in Nirman Bhawan indicated at every floor and wing the names of officers, with whom to lodge complaints against smokers.

The most interesting bit of the story is that the ministry is willing to offer recourse to people who want to quit smoking.

Soon Nirman Bhawan under health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, famous for his anti-tobacco crusades, will become the first Indian public establishment to have a Tobacco Cessation Centre, where counsellors will be on duty to help people cast away that die-hard old habit.

“That’s the way to go. If you want people to quit smoking, you have to also tell them how,” says an official.

Lucknow, August 27
The Kanpur blasts killing two Bajrang Dal activists and the recovery of huge amount of explosives from the site is now mired in a political controversy.

Chief Minister Mayawati today hit out at the Congress-led UPA government for requesting a CBI probe into the Kanpur incident describing it as a central government ploy to bail out the BJP.

Addressing a press conference at her official residence today, Mayawati declared that she would agree to a CBI probe into this incident only if the Congress-led UPA government accepts a similar probe into earlier blasts cases at Lucknow, Varanasi, Faizabad, Gorapkhpur and the terrorist attack at the CRPF camp in Rampur.

She was reacting to a letter sent to her by minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal, who also happens to represent Kanpur. He had written that if she so decides, a CBI probe could be initiated into the matter.

“Why a probe only into the Kanpur blasts and not the earlier blasts which had caused considerable damage to life and property. It is clear that the central government is trying to help the BJP”, charged Mayawati.

She made it clear that her government would not allow the Kanpur blasts alone to become the subject of a central probe leaving out the remaining incidents.

She also wondered how the CBI now had the time for UP when 19 major probes forwarded by her government have not been accepted on the ground that there was a shortage of officers.

“This includes inquiry into the police recruitment scandal for which the High Court had suggested a CBI probe”, she pointed out.

On Sunday, two persons, identified as Bhupinder Singh and Rajeev Mishra, alleged members of the Bajrang Dal, were killed in a mysterious blast while they were engaged in making bombs.

The anti-terrorist squad probing the blasts was investigating the likely target of the bombs that went off as well as the links of the killed persons.

The recovery of the massive haul has made it clear that there was indeed a plan to cause damage that went awry.

Two days later 8 kg of low-grade explosives was found abandoned next to a canal in Kanpur which prima facie appears to be the same chemical that was used in Sunday’s blast killing two.

Mumbai, August 27
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray today warned shopkeepers in Mumbai that they would have to reckon with his followers if they did not display their name-boards in Marathi prominently by Thursday.

Addressing a gathering of his party workers at the Ravindra Natya Mandir in Central Mumbai today, Raj even took on the police and warned members of the force against beating up his workers while they went about imposing his diktat.

He said most of the policemen deployed in Mumbai were of Marathi origin and sympathised with the Marathi cause.

“Except for some North Indian IPS officers, most men in the force are hurt that Marathi was given a step-motherly treatment in Mumbai,” Raj told his party workers.

He said he has written a letter to the police asking them to “think twice” before beating up his activists.

The MNS, which hit the headlines over the attack on North Indian migrants earlier this year, is now forcing shopkeepers in Mumbai to follow an old law that makes it mandatory for them to display their shop names in Marathi.

Most shopkeepers still write the names of their establishments in large font with the Marathi translations pushed to a corner of the signboard.

Raj Thackeray had, however, warned that these should be as prominent as the display in other languages.

Over the past week, MNS activists have been visiting shopkeepers and even doctors asking them to display the names of their establishments in Marathi.

But a section of shopkeepers are opposing the move. Today, Raj named Viren Shah and accused him of insulting Marathi. Shah has been given police protection.

Meanwhile, a shopkeepers’ association has moved court against the pressure tactics of the MNS.

New Delhi, August 27
Taking a serious view of the alleged circulation of spurious HIV kits in India, the Delhi high court today issued notices to the health ministry and the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) to explain their position in the matter of grave public interest.

This is the first time NACO’s role has come under the judicial scanner for allegedly having suppressed the findings of the World Bank that poor quality HIV kits were in use in India, and for allegedly lying that US Center for Disease Control (CDC) had verified the kits used in Indian hospitals and blood banks during National AIDS control project II.

The claim was refuted by CDC. Hearing on priority the petition filed by Dr Kunal Saha, an eminent Indo-American HIV researcher from Ohio, the division bench of Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar asked NACO to explain its position by October 22, the next date for hearing.

So cut up was the court that it did not allow NACO to contend its position and asked it to file the affidavit.

The Chief Justice at one point even asked if Monozyme India Limited, the main manufacturer of the kits in question, was still functional.

Monozyme is currently facing a criminal case in West Bengal. The petitioner contended that NACO had again tied up with Monozyme despite dubious credentials.

Part of the World Bank team in 2007 that investigated the complaints of bogus HIV kits in India, Saha has sought CBI probe into the complaints of sub-standard HIV kits that caused potential danger of HIV transmission to unsuspecting people through contaminated blood transfusion.

“This lawsuit seeks justice for those infected with HIV as a result of flawed kits and underscores the criminal case in West Bengal against Monozyme India Ltd,” Saha told The Tribune from Ohio today.

He has also demanded retraction by NACO of the false claim that CDC certified the kits, and compensation for victims of the public health system failure.

“A catastrophe is waiting to explode. We are already the TB and diabetes capitals of the world. Can we afford to make it the AIDS capital as well?” the petitioner's counsel argued today.

The basis for the petition is the investigation by World Bank in 2007 of complaints of defective HIV kits.

New Delhi, August 27
The BJP has blamed the government’s indecision on the Amarnath land row for today’s terrorist attack in Jammu.

Reacting to the incident, BJP spokesman Prakash Jawadekar said, “Had the government not ignored the demands of the Hindus of Jammu in handing over the 100 acre forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, the fidayeen would not have been encouraged thus.”

A day earlier, the BJP had called upon the government to step-up vigil on the Indo-Pak border, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, in view of the prevailing fragile political situation in Pakistan to prevent any misadventure from across the border.

Jawadekar called upon the government to “immediately announce all that has been agreed upon between the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS) and the government” in the series of meetings held so far.

Though Jawadekar did not spell out what has been agreed upon, he implied that the government had in principle agreed to the most important demand of the Jammu agitators to transfer 100 acres of land to the SASB.

New Delhi, August 27
The parliamentary panel investigating cash-for-votes scandal that rocked the Lok Sabha on July 21 today sought yet another extension of tenure.

Meeting this morning to look into merits of the evidence at hand, the panel decided to ask the Lok Sabha Speaker for more time until September end.

Earlier, it was to submit its report on August 11, but was granted time up to August 29. The second deadline is nearing an end, with business yet to be transacted.

Today, the panel recorded comments of every individual member on the evidence submitted so far.

The committee has on board CNN IBN tapes, statements of the three petitioning BJP MPs, depositions by the CNN-IBN team and evidence of witnesses.

Among witnesses, whose testimonies have been recorded, are Samajwadi MP Reoti Raman Singh (whose name figures among the accused along with Amar Singh and Congress’ Ahmad Patel), L.K. Advani’s political aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, who prepared the transcript of the tapes submitted as evidence; the man who carried bribe money to BJP MP Ashok Argal’s house Sanjeev Saxena, and BJP worker Suhail Hindustani, who admitted before the panel that he was a witness to the deal that was fixed up with the help of Amar Singh and Reoti Raman Singh.

“Today, every member has given their observations about the evidence collected so far. We will now meet again on September 11 to discuss the issue further,” V. Kishore Chandra Deo, panel chairperson today told The Tribune.

He said the panel would try to submit its report by September 17 when the Parliament session commences.

Deo also did not rule out summoning Rajya Sabha members Amar Singh and Ahmad Patel if needed.

The visiting leader also met President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and other Indian leaders. He will also visit Agra, Kolkata and Gaya during the visit.

Having also served in ISRO, his area of research includes coastal and ocean processes and ocean-atmosphere interaction.

New Delhi, August 27
The government today appointed retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur as the first chairperson of the country’s newly announced Armed Forces Tribual that would hear grievances of serving and retired personnel.

The tribunal, which was approved by the Cabinet on July 24 this year, will help in reducing the burden on high courts and the Supreme Court, where over 9,800 cases filed by armed forces personnel relating to courts martial and service-related grievances are currently pending.

Other members of the 31-member, nine-bench Tribunal are yet to be named. Justice Mathur’s tenure would be for a period of four years from the date of assumption of office, a government order issued here said.

The chairperson’s superannuation age has been fixed at 70 years. However, the person holding the post would have to demit office if he or she completed the mandated four-year service before attaining the age of 70. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Tallest Hanuman statue in Asia
ROURKELA: Rourkela city in Sundargarh district of Orissa has to its credit of having the tallest statue of a Hindu deity in Asia. On entering the city, one cannot miss to have a look at the giant statue of Lord Hanuman, measuring 74 feet and one inch. The statue was sculpted by a renowned artist of Andhra Pradesh, Togu Laxman Swamy who took about two years to complete it. — PTI

Residential school for Gypsies
DHARMAPURI: In a rare initiative to motivate children of nomads to take to education, the district administration and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan have started an exclusive residential school for children of Gypsy families in Pachinampatti, 48 km from here. The school, launched under an initiative of Gypsy Development Society, an NGO, would cater to children of 75 Gypsy families living in the area. — PTI