New Delhi, October 10
With terrorists striking at regular intervals in the two countries, India and Pakistan are seriously considering ways to activate the moribund joint anti-terror mechanism, which they had formed more than two years back amid much fanfare.

As part of the exercise, Pakistan’s national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani is arriving here tomorrow on a five-day visit during which he is expected to meet top Indian leaders besides holding talks with his counterpart M.K. Narayanan, according to sources in the Pakistan High Commission here.

Durrani, who enjoys the status of a federal minister, is expected to work out the dates for the next meeting of the anti-terror mechanism with Narayanan. They are also likely to consider the dates for the talks between representatives of the two countries on the eight outstanding bilateral issues as part of the fifth round of the composite dialogue process, which was launched in New Delhi on July 21.

Both countries have witnessed a spurt in terrorist violence in recent months. While terrorists triggered serial blasts in major Indian cities, Pakistan has been affected by a wave of suicide bombings, including the audacious attack on the Marriott Hotel in the heart of Islamabad last month.

The joint anti-terror mechanism was formed in September 2006 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Havana on the margins of the NAM summit. However, it has failed to make much headway.

When the Indian Prime Minister met Pakistan’s new President Asif Ali Zardari in New York last month, it was decided that a special meeting of the joint anti-terror mechanism would be held in October. However, the exact date was not announced.

During the talks with Durrani, New Delhi is also expected to raise its concerns about increasing ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC) and cross-border infiltration. India is also likely to inquire from Pakistan whether it has conducted a probe into the July 7 suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, for which New Delhi has blamed Pakistan’s ISI. Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had assured Prime Minister Singh in August when they met in Colombo on the sidelines of the SAARC summit that he would order an independent investigation into the Kabul attack.

Durrani, an old India hand and a former ambassador of Pakistan to the US, will also meet foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and discuss with him various bilateral issues.

New Delhi, October 10
Ten-year-old Parvati Daloj had been missing for five months before her family finally traced her to Bhimsen Sadar hospital in Panipat. She was dead -- the cause of death unknown.

All that Parvati’s family ever knew was that one Golok Das, a placement agent who still runs a thriving placement business in Chirag Dilli, had promised to employ their child as domestic help in the Capital.

How she ended up in Panipat is a mystery for the family from East Midnapur, from where thousands of girls are annually trafficked to Punjab and Haryana and sold as brides. Parvati had reportedly died at her employer’s house in Panipat, but the employer was never booked.

To date, the case remains a statistic -- one of the thousands that rot in the official records of women and child development (WCD) ministry, which promises action against child labour but achieves little.

Parvati is one of the many children who go missing from trafficking routes every year. In a recent report on missing children by Save the Children and WCD department in West Bengal, 302 children were reported missing in West Bengal alone last year; only 30 were traced.

The National Human Rights Commission reported that 50,000 children went missing in 2005-2006. Statistics naturally appear like the tip of iceberg, considering that a majority of poor families shy away from reporting cases involving their missing children. This for the fear of law, which holds them liable for pushing their children into labour.

As things stand, the two years of enforcement of amended Child Labour Protection Act 2006 do not seem to have yielded much. Unconfirmed reports suggest millions of children are working under hazardous circumstances, missing from homes and untraceable.

The Tribune has learnt that since the amendment, the number of prosecutions (as per the labour ministry’s records) has been 1,680, with a total number of 6,782 children being rescued. But that is hardly enough, as Thomas Chandy, chief executive officer, Save the Children, admits, "With the amendment on banning employment of children under 14 as child domestic workers, we have seen inspections and rescues increase. But with nearly one million children working in Delhi alone, clearly much more needs to be done to ensure that the law is implemented and acts as a deterrent to the employers."

The Government of India estimates (census 2001) that over 12 million children aged between five and 14 continue to work, with many working in hazardous jobs. But NGOs suggest about 20 million children are employed as domestic workers or in roadside eateries. It is now learnt that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is drafting a new set of amendments to the Child Labour Prevention Act. The idea is to make the Act more practicable. But the buck stops at implementing agencies that remain lax as ever.

New Delhi, October 10
Deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha Charanjit Singh Atwal today led an Indian parliamentary delegation to Geneva to attend the meeting of the 119th assembly of the inter-parliamentary union. The meeting is scheduled from October 13 to 15 at Geneva and is being attended from India by MPs C.K. Chandrappan, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Abdul Rashid Shaheen, Bal Apte, Praveen Rashtrapal, Preneet Kaur, and Lok Sabha secretary general P.D.T. Achary.

The union is meeting to discuss the programme and budget for the next year besides discussing its collaboration with the UN. At a time when the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation deal has been finalised, the union will also talk about the role of parliaments in advancing nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and securing the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban treaty; climate change, renewable energies; and freedom of expression and right to information.

Dehra Dun, October 10
The victory of nine candidates today for the post of zila panchayat presidents out of 12 districts where panchayat elections were held by the ruling BJP has again proved that Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj-Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd) is firmly in the saddle.

Despite the internal dissidence faced by him, Khanduri oversaw that a majority of the Independent members elected to zila panchayats vote for the party candidates. Opposition Congress state president Yashpal Arya could also draw same satisfaction following the victory of party candidates in Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts in the Kumaon region.

The victory of the BJP in five districts of Garhwal, namely Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Pauri Garhwal and Tehri Garhwal showed that Khanduri still had the charisma to woo voters in his own region. However, the BJP was beaten by the wife of its own legislator in Dehra Dun district. Madhu Chauhan, wife of BJP legislator Munna Singh Chauhan, fighting as an Independent, defeated the official BJP candidate by one vote.

She was the lone Independent to win.

Counting in Champawat district was mired in controversy, as officials declared the BJP candidate as the victor despite claims by the Congress that its candidate had won.

New Delhi, October 10
The CPM sees a political connection between Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s movement to drive out Tata’s Nano car project from West Bengal and her long standing association with the BJP, which it argues, ensured its relocation to BJP-ruled Gujarat.

Earlier this week, Ratan Tata signed an MoU with Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi to shift the Nano plant from Singur in West Bengal to Gujarat.

The Tatas had to shift out of Singur because of Mamata Banerjee’s violent agitation against the project, insisting upon return of land acquired for the plant to unwilling farmers.

The CPM party organ People’s Democracy (PD) has taken note of the latest development and recalled that she continues to be a member of the NDA.

The PD says, “Mamata Banerjee has not merely ensured the exit of the Nano project from Bengal, but being a loyal and steadfast ally of the BJP in the NDA, she facilitated the project’s relocation to Gujarat. Remember, she continued to remain with the NDA and thus in a way endorsed the communal carnage unleashed in the state by the BJP’s Narendra Modi government.”

It also noted, “The opponents of then Left Front led by Banerjee have succeeded in driving out the Tata’s car manufacturing unit from Singur. They have thus adversely affected the future prosperity and possibility of improved livelihood for a large number of people in the area as well as the process of industrialisation that would have generated greater employment opportunities (for the state).”

The PD says, “Through these movements, the Trinamool Congress and other opposed to the Left Front are seeking to consolidate their support base. In the final analysis, it is for the people of Bengal to decide on the type of politics that they would want.”

The CPM insists that Bengal and its people “require rapid industrialisation on the basis of the consolidation of the land reforms and attendant increases in yield and productivity in agriculture.”

It also says, “This decision was emphatically endorsed by the people in the last elections to the Assembly when the Left Front won a whopping two-thirds majority on the basis of an election manifesto whose major thrust was on rapid industrialisation” and adds that “the current opposition is a negation of the people’s mandate.”

It ends up saying, “The politics that led to the relocation of Nano from Bengal also needs to be relocated elsewhere in the interests of greater prosperity of Bengal and its people.”

New Delhi, October 10
The process to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir inched ahead as the home ministry today conveyed to the Election Commission that enough forces were available to conduct the poll in the state.

Sources confirmed the stance of the home ministry after a team led by union home secretary Madhukar Gupta met EC officials here this afternoon. The EC team was headed by chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami, who is also a former union home secretary.

The availability of central forces was discussed in detail considering the militancy situation in the state.

The home ministry has said that adequate forces were available and elections could be held. The elections could now be conducted in three or four phases next month, a source said here today. It was now for the EC to announce dates as a nod by the home ministry and its assessment of the security arrangements was seen as the last step. Poll was due in J&K in the last week of September and a poll in November could be a possibility now. The militancy related incidents have come down, as snow is setting in on the high mountain passes and this will stall infiltration.

At present the state is under the Governor’s rule since the ruling Congress and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) called off their alliance a few months ago.

In case the elections are not held in November, the next date could be in April when spring sets in. The Centre is keen to restore democracy in the state.

A major issue raised during the meeting was security concerns since the Valley and the Jammu region had been polarised during the past few months over allotment of land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). Protesters in the Valley even tried to march to Pakistan- occupied Kashmir while protesters in Jammu blocked the national highway — the lifeline of the Valley.

New Delhi, October 10
Farmers are preferring to adopt a wait-and-watch policy during this kharif season as is evident from the paddy arrival and procurement figures released by the government today.

The total paddy arrival in mandis of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Rajasthan till today has been 36,43,512 tonnes, out of which government agencies procured 31,29,880 tonnes. In comparison, last year the arrival during the corresponding period was 46,26,528 tonnes and procurement 32,58,703 tonnes.

As far as Punjab is concerned, last year 36,80,243 tonnes of paddy had arrived in state mandis till October 10 as compared to this year’s 26,49,662 tonnes till the same date.

Officials admit that one of the main reasons for a lower arrival figure could be that till date there has been no official announcement by the government on bonus on paddy MSP announced on June 12.

The issue figured at the last cabinet meeting but apparently saw opposition from some quarters on the basis of raging inflation and economic slowdown. Another reason for the lower arrival figure of the foodgrain is also the late ripening of the crop, they add.

The CACP, which recommends MSP for various crops, had recommended Rs 1,000 per quintal for coarse and Rs 1,050 per quintal for Grade A varieties for the 2008-09 season.

The cabinet, on June 12, had announced an ad hoc MSP for paddy at Rs 850 per quintal for coarse and Rs 875 per quintal for Grade A varities and referred the matter to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.

Most states demanded that the CACP recommendations to be implemented and there are indications that thegovernment could increase the MSP of paddy to at least the levels recommended by the CACP. Another line of thought also is that a bonus between Rs 100 and Rs 50 could be provided to paddy farmers over and above the MSP of Rs 850 and Rs 875 for this year.

Incidentally, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council suggested that the MSP be fixed at Rs 900 per quintal.

Last year, the MSP of paddy, including bonus, was Rs 745 per quintal and Rs 775 for common and Grade A varieties, respectively.

BRIEFLY

Judicial custody of Utsav Bhasin extended
NEW DELHI: The custody of Utsav Bhasin has been extended till October 23, when he was produced before the Delhi Court on the expiry of his remand. Earlier, the Court had dismissed his bail plea on October 6. The teenaged son of industrialist R.K. Bhasin, from Bahadurgarh, Haryana, had surrendered on September 27 before the police after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him anticipatory bail. Later, a magisterial court had sent him to 13 days’ judicial custody — PTI