Cuttak, August 29
The Orissa High Court on Friday directed the Centre to provide the adequate central para-military force as and when required by the state government to contain the violence in the riot-hit Kandhamal and other places in the state.

A Division Bench of the Court, comprising Chief Justice B S Chouhan and Justice B N Mohapatra, also issued notices to both the Centre and the state government to clarify their stand on the demand for a CBI probe into the violence.

The Utkal Christian Council (UCC) had moved a writ petition before the Orissa High Court, seeking a CBI probe into the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmananand Saraswati and the subsequent violence in the state.

The UCC also prayed that the ''Orissa Bandh,'' called by the VHP and other organisations and supported by the ruling BJP on August 25, be declared illegal.

The petitioner urged the Court to direct the state government to rescue the
people, who had fled to the forest in the wake of violence in Kandhamal, and
rehabilitate them.

It also demanded deployment of the Army and Central paramilitary forces in Kandhamal to protect the lives of the people and urged the Court to direct the state government to provide adequate compensation to the victims and repair the houses and churches damaged in the arson and violence.

The Bench directed the state government, the director general of police and the district collectors of nine affected districts to file their affidavits within four weeks.

The court further directed the state government to request the Centre its requirement of force to be deployed in the affected areas to contain the law and order situation. — UNI

New Delhi, August 29
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is learnt to have done some tough talking with Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik over his handling of the recent incidents of communal violence in the state even as the issue cropped up in the Union Cabinet meeting today.

The PM had called up Patnaik last night after a delegation of Catholic Bishops Conference of India along with Archbishop of Delhi met him to apprise him of the situation in Orissa. The PM described the Orissa violence as a “national shame” in this meeting.

UPA sources said the Prime Minister was upset with Patnaik for not dealing firmly with the situation and allowing it to slip out of control.

He is learnt to have ticked off Patnaik for not visiting the violence-scarred Kandhamal district and reassuring the villagers who were forced abandon their homes and seek shelter in the nearby forests.

Stating that the Chief Minister should be seen to be acting firmly, the Prime Minister also advised him to provide immediate relief to the affected people.

The Centre, Singh said, is at hand to provide all possible assistance required by the state government.

The Orissa situation figured at today’s Union Cabinet meeting when several ministers expressed concern over the spate of communal violence witnessed in the state.

Worried that the BJP and Sangh Parivar’s strategy to create a communal divide could have repercussions outside the state, they wanted to know how the Centre proposed to handle the situation.

Home minister Shivraj Patil, it is learnt, explained that minister of state for home affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal had already visited Orissa and the Centre had rushed additional forces to the state following a request from the Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Orissa government over incidents of communal violence in the state.

The notices have been issued to the chief secretary and DGP of Orissa, who have been asked to “submit a detailed report of the violence in the state since the killing of religious leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others,” an official spokesperson said. The Commission wants the report within two weeks, he said.

As many as twelve persons have been killed in the communal clashes and although there was no fresh outbreak of violence today, the situation continued to be tense.

New Delhi, August 29
The Congress on Friday "condemned Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik for his inability in containing communal violence in Orissa" and endorsed the demand for a CBI probe into the role of Bajrang Dal and VHP in the incidents.

During a Cabinet briefing earlier in the day, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had said that the Centre favoured a CBI probe into the Orissa violence.

AICC spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said there were reports about involvement of VHP and Bajrang Dal in arson, loot and murder in Orissa, adding that demands for the CBI probe were coming in from several sections of the society as people had faith in the investigating agency.

"Role of VHP and Bajrang Dal in Orissa is very serious. According to media reports, they are involved from Ground Zero, ” Ahmed said, stressing that the necessity of probing activities of these organisations was a serious issue.

He hoped that the Centre and the state would take notice of reports on their role in such incidents.

He also came down heavily on the Patnaik government for its “inability to take firm action due to pressure from the BJP."

During the Cabinet briefing, Sibal said that the government would like the matter to be handed over to the CBI because those responsible should get justice immediately as judicial probe takes longer time.

Responding to whether the Orissa violence had come up for discussion at the Cabinet meeting, he, however, added that it was for the state government to recommend a probe by the CBI as the Centre could not do it on its own.

He said the Prime Minister had spoken to Orissa Chief Minister and the Governor had assured the state government that the Centre would give whatever help needed to bring back normalcy.

However, when asked whether Bajrang Dal would be banned as its activists were caught making bombs, he parried a direct reply saying it was a very serious situation and communal elements were responsible for it.

Meanwhile, Ahmed said that proposed talks with the Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti had been postponed just by a day due to the indisposition of the Governor's aide and not that there was a deliberate move on the part of the administration, as alleged by the BJP.

New Delhi, August 29
The Central Government today made it clear that it will not intervene in the standoff over the Tatas’ Nano car project in Singur and underlined the need for balancing investment and justice.

“We should not damage the investors’ confidence in the country. We should not be unjust to people”, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal told reporters here when asked whether the government was planning to play the facilitator in the Singur case.

He said that there was no role for the Central government in this. This is for the state government to decide and it should act, he stressed.

“We need an investor-friendly climate. Investment is not an end in itself. It should come with justice”, he said after a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Sibal's remarks came even as security was tightened in Singur after protesters blocked entry to the factory on Thursday evening.

The Trinamool Congress is spearheading the campaign to force the state government to accept its demand of returning 400 acres of land, which the party claims was forcibly taken from farmers.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, has threatened to shift the factory out of West Bengal, which would mean a loss of a Rs 15-billion (around $400 million) investment.

Kolkata, August 29
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Battacharjee's remarks on bandhs, which was strongly opposed within the party and by its allies, continued to haunt him with two senior CPI(M) leaders saying he has been “publicly censured” for his statement and he has “accepted” it.

A day after the CPI(M) Polit Bureau in New Delhi justified right to strike by working class as a fundamental right, the Left Front chairman in the state, Biman Bose, a Polit Bureau member, and Shyamal Chakraborty, a Central Committee member, said today, “The party's statement from Delhi ‘is itself a censure’ of the Chief Minister for his anti-bandh stand.”

Both the leaders said the Chief Minister had been censured for his stand on the bandh and had not opposed it. He has accepted the decision.

“The chapter is now closed,” they said in separate press conferences.

“The Chief Minister is already publicly censured. It is a big punishment for a communist leader and a communist. So it is enough. A person cannot get any punishment twice for the same crime. For the party it is over. The chapter is closed,” Chakraborty, also president of the state unit of the CITU, told reporters.

Bhattacharjee had created a storm with his statement at a meeting of ASSOCHAM on Tuesday that he does not support any bandh as it is not helping anyone.

Unfortunately, he added, he belonged to a political party and he had to keep mum. “But I have finally decided that next time I will open my mouth”. — PTI

New Delhi, August 29
In a startling revelation, a Union Home Ministry report has warned the usage of chemicals, biological, nuclear or radiological weapons against India, initiating a form of "super terrorism", by terror groups backed by Pakistan's ISI.

With ISI spreading its tentacles across the country - from Jammu and Kashmir to down South - the report spoke of active terror-modules mushrooming in Bihar, Assam and West Bengal, where sleeper cells have been assigned specific targets.

The report also said the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar is being used for smuggling arms, explosives, fake currency into the country, while the agency was focusing on Uttar Pradesh to fund Madrasas and recruit youngsters for subversive activities.

South India too is figuring in the ISI’s overall game plan, wherein unemployed youths are being targeted.

The report also mentions that ISI is trying to revive Punjab militancy and forming new anti-India groups in the state.

Underworld gangs, which have strong links with ISI, also find a special mention in the report for being approached by the Pakistan agency to expand the terror network in Gujrat after their successful run in Maharashtra.

These gangs are already using the coastal line for transporting arms and running drug operations. — PTI

New Delhi, August 29
Terming the issue of transfer of government land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board and its subsequent revocation as the immediate, not the basic, cause of turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir, leading intellectuals of the country have called for an early resolution of the Kashmir issue.

The transfer merely provided a flash point to the alienation of the people of Kashmir, which continues to exist and the accumulated discontent among the people of Jammu, mainly over the perceived lack of share in political power, the group said in a press statement today.

It added that the root cause of regional tension was the present over-centralised system of governance in the state.

“We support Balraj Puri’s formula for autonomy for regions within Jammu and Kashmir for which he has been campaigning for 60 years. His formula provides for the share of political power in a five-tier internal constitutional set up at the state, region, district, block and panchayat levels,” said the group.

Puri’s report as the head of the Regional Autonomy Committee (1999) elaborated on the constitutional, political and economic aspects of this formula.

The formula had won support of the widest possible spectrum of Indian political leadership. It had got the approval of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, the intellectuals said.

They added that the Jana Sangh founder-president Shyama Prasad Mukerjee endorsed the idea in a letter to Nehru in which he offered to support the Delhi Agreement, guaranteeing autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, provided regional autonomy was granted to Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir.

“Sarvodaya leader Jayaprakash Narayan, leftist parties and socialist groups also have supported the proposal. The State Peoples’ Convention convened by Sheikh Abdullah and attended by all political parties of Kashmir valley also unanimously accepted it,” the group said.

The group urged the government and all political parties and leaders to give serious and urgent consideration to Puri’s formula as a basis of a dialogue to defuse the situation in the state before it explodes into a catastrophe.

The statement was issued here by Prof Ashis Nandy, ICSSR national fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, Prof Yogendra Yadav, senior fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, among others.

New Delhi, August 29
Over 50 lakh government employees, including armed forces personnel, will receive an enhanced pay packet beginning September 1, with the government today notifying the revised recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC).

The much-awaited CPC had received a seal of approval from the union cabinet a fortnight ago after it amended certain recommendations of the Justice Sri Krishna-led Pay Commission that submitted its report to the government on March 24 this year.

The CPC recommendations and the subsequent government decision with regard to revised scales of pay and dearness allowance for civilian employees of the Central government would be made retrospectively effective from January 1, 2006, the notification said.

However, the revised allowances, other than dearness allowance, would be effective only from September 1 this year.

On payment of arrears, the government has modified to the extent that the arrears would be paid in cash in two instalments - first instalment of 40 per cent this financial year (2008-09) and the remaining 60 per cent in the next financial year (2009-10).

The government has approved the setting up of a committee to examine individual, post-specific and cadre-specific anomalies.

The committee should try to complete the work in one year, the notification
said. — PTI

Raipur, August 29
Six personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed Friday in a landmine blast in Chhattisgarh’s Maoist stronghold of Bastar.

According to the police, the incident took place in Narayanpur district’s Chheribera area, about 350 km from here, when the jeep in which the troopers were travelling was blown up by a landmine explosion triggered by Maoist guerrillas.

“Four constables, besides an inspector and a driver, were killed instantly when a jeep ran over the landmine in forested Narayanpur,” Girdhari Nayak, who heads anti-Maoist operations in the state, told IANS.

The team was on its way to an area in the interiors for the opening of a road and Maoist guerrillas were waiting for them at a turning point, he said. — IANS

BRIEFLY

Dalai Lama undergoes tests
Mumbai: The Dalai Lama underwent tests at the Lilavati Hospital here today. According to hospital officials, the Tibetan spiritual leader had complained of discomfort in the abdomen and was rushed to the Mumbai hospital where he had been under treatment before. Hospital officials say there is no cause for concern about the Dalai Lama’s health for them moment. He is in a reserved room and not in the Intensive Care Unit. — TNS

Marathi actress dead
MUMBAI: Noted actress Jayshree Gadkar (66), one of the last living legends of the golden age of Marathi cinema, passed away on Friday following brief illness. She made her debut on the silver screen in 1955 as a group dancer in V.Shantaram’s ‘Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje’. Her autobiography ‘Ashi Mi Jayshri’ was released some years ago. — PTI

10 hurt in communal clash
JAIPUR: At least 10 persons, including four policemen, were injured on Friday when the police resorted to a lathicharge to remove road blockades laid by members of the Mali and Muslim communities in Lalwas village following clashes over an eve-teasing incident. Extra force was deployed to maintain the law and order situation, the police said. — TNS

39 ultras surrender
GUWAHATI: The banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) suffered another blow on Friday as 39 militants, including 32 from the outfit, gave up arms at an Army base at Rangiya here. Those who surrendered, included four from the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front and three from the All Adivasi National Liberation Army. — PTI