New Delhi, November 4
All cleared by the Union Cabinet, the Right to Education Bill is every bit radical. Its most ambitious provision relates to penalising school managements that screen children; seek donations in any form or operate without clearances from the regulatory authorities.

The bill stipulates that no school will charge capitation fee. If it does, it will have to shell out as penalty 10 times the amount it charged. Any management that screens students will be similarly placed, and will have to pay up Rs 25,000 for the first violation of the rule.

The second infringement will cost the school Rs 50,000. The bill further provides for a penalty of Rs one lakh on a school operating without proper recognition from the body concerned.

With significant provisions seeking to revamp the educational system, the government is in the process of framing rules for the Act, which will be tabled in Parliament in December.

Importantly, the bill provides for a teacher-student ratio of 40 to 1 and 25 per cent seat reservation for the poor and disadvantaged children in neighbourhood schools.

The reservation is available in Class I, and may be extended later. As per the bill, the government will reimburse the cost to schools that accommodate the poor.

The cost of implementing the bill, which seeks to guarantee free and compulsory elementary education to children from 6 to 14 years, will be borne by the states and the Centre.

The ratio will be later worked out after deducting the costs already being covered under existing programmes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan etc. In case any state is reluctant on cost sharing, the matter can be sorted out by the finance commission.

The group of ministers looking into the legislation had earlier recommended that the finance commission should work out a formula for finance and resource allocation.

The recommendation is being incorporated into the body of the bill, which clearly specifies the duties of stakeholders in guaranteeing education to children.

As reported earlier, the bill will require Rs 2.28 lakh crore for implementation during the seven years of its period.

New Delhi, November 4
In conformity with the demands of environmentalists and social organisations, the government today decided to declare Ganga as a national river and also to set up a high-powered Ganga River Basin Authority to protect the most revered river in the country from further pollution and other degradation.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to review the Ganga Action Plan. Ministers of water resources, environment and forests and urban development attended the meeting.

Among major rivers in India, Ganga has the longest stretch and is also one of the most polluted in terms of biochemical oxygen demand load.

It is also one of the rivers most threatened by climate change, according to the IPCC report.

The river continues to be polluted despite the government till date spening a huge amount on pollution control projects.

Under the new plan, current piecemeal efforts will be replaced with a new model that will see the river as an ecological entity and address issues of quantity in terms of water flows along with its quality.

With this, Ganga becomes India’s first national river with a separate river basin authority to monitor its cleanliness.

The proposed authority will be chaired by the Prime Minister and will have as its members chief ministers of the states through which the 2,510 km river flows.

According to the PMO, the Prime Minister strongly stressed the need to set up a model for cleaning of rivers through the new institutional mechanism.

“It was decided that there is a need to replace the current piecemeal efforts taken up in a fragmented manner in select cities with an integrated approach that sees the river as an ecological entity and addresses issues of quantity in terms of water flows along with issues of quality,” the PMO said.

The details of the authority to be vested with appropriate powers would be worked out in consultation with state governments and Central ministries.

The proposed authority will promote intersectoral coordination for comprehensive planning for the river.

Various agencies working on different aspects of river conservation and pollution management will be brought together under it.

In the meeting, the Prime Minister referred to the special place Ganga has in hearts and minds of all Indians and stated that this emotional link needs to be recognised.

It was also recognised that the spirit of the Ganga Action Plan, as conceived in 1985 by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of making the cleaning of the Ganga a people’s movement, should be restored.

The Prime Minister also directed that detailed final proposals would be prepared within two months after necessary consultations.

Ganga begins at the Gangotri glacier in Uttarakhand and drains into the Bay of Bengal through its vast delta in Sunderbans. Official figures suggest that it receives about 5,044 million litres a day (MLD) of sewage.

Of this only about 1,095 MLD passes through sewage treatment plants (STPs) at different places while bulk of pollutants remain untreated.

Environmentalists and religious organisations have been stepping up efforts to save the Ganga.

Recently, a delegation led by Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati and Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh also met the Prime Minister, pressing for making the Ganga a national river.

Mumbai, November 4
Chhat Puja began on a peaceful note in Mumbai amidst tight security. The police said security had been tightened in 19 locations across Mumbai where thousands of worshippers are congregating to pray to the setting sun.

Almost all locations are beaches in and around Mumbai, the police said. According to state government officials, the police and para-military forces, including contingents of the State and Central Reserve Police Force, and the Rapid Action Force have been deployed in different parts of the city.

Closed circuit televisions had been installed at many places to keep an eye on trouble makers, the police said.

The biggest location happens to be Juhu beach where the largest number of devotees are expected to congregate.

Abiding by a Supreme Court order, the Maharashtra government has asked the organisers not to play political messages on loudspeakers.

Only messages essential for crowd control may be played on sound systems, the police have decreed.

Residents of Juhu had gone to court stating that Chhat Puja celebrations in the past had caused noise pollution and left the beach dirty.

The organisers have been asked to deposit Rs 1 lakh in all the locations and the money would be forfeited if the venues were not cleaned up.

So far, activists of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have desisted from disrupting the celebrations.

Patna, November 4
In line with RJD president and railway minister Lalu Prasad’s call for resignation of elected representatives from Bihar against the anti-north Indian violence by the MNS in Maharashtra, the party legislators and parliamentarians have started submitting their resignation letters to the party leadership.

Till today, 75 per cent of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, and nearly 35 of its 55 MLAs and eight of 15 MLCs had submitted their letters of resignation, Shyam Rajak, RJD’s spokesman, told the media.

Rajak said all the RJD MPs and members of the two houses of state legislature would submit their resignation by November 15, the date Lalu Prasad had fixed for putting in their papers. The party has 24 members in the Lok Sabha and four in the Rajya Sabha.

“Premchand Gupta, Akhilesh Singh, Rajniti Prasad were among the MPs, who have put in their papers. The first two are Union ministers. Leader of opposition in the state Assembly Rabri Devi and senior leaders including Ramai Ram, Krishnandan Verma and myself have submitted our resignations to Laluji,” Rajak said, adding that the rest could not submit their papers due to the Chhath festival and would do it soon.

Earlier, on Sunday last, Lalu Prasad called for resignation by all MPs and legislators from Bihar to put pressure on the Maharashtra government to check anti-north Indian violence and mobilise public opinion against divisive forces like the MNS.

The proposal was, however, rejected the same day by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who contended that it would result into imposition of President's rule in Bihar.

“As victims, we have sought the Central rule in Maharashtra, but if we accept Lalu’s suggestion, Bihar will come under President’s rule,” Nitish Kumar had said. — PTI

New Delhi, November 4
The Supreme Court said today political will, not judicial intervention, was necessary to check hate attacks on north Indians in Mumbai.

A Bench comprising Justice B. N. Agarwal and Justice G. S. Singhvi made the observation while hearing a PIL seeking protection to north Indians in Maharashtra.

The petitioner said they had of late become the target of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) headed by Raj Thackeray.

“If there is a political will it can be stopped. This can’t be stopped by a court order. People have to be educated,” the judges said.

The court said it was willing to consider the petition, provided it was redrafted, incorporating facts and figures in view of the seriousness of the issue.

It also acknowledged the constitutional provision, contained in Article 355, for Centre’s intervention in the event of the state failing to maintain law and order. The matter would be listed again on November 10.

Music School: A Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and M.K. Sharma ordered a high-level inquiry into the affairs of the controversial Mumbai-based Boss School of Music, whose members are facing contempt proceedings for making insinuations against the Chief Justice of India and judges of the Bombay High Court.

A police officer not below the rank of DIG would inquire into the affairs of Boss School and submit its report to the court within 10 weeks.

Bangalore, November 4
The unmanned Chandrayaan-1, India’s maiden moon mission, is knocking at the doors of moon.

The fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre (around the earth) of Chandrayaan was carried out today at 4.56 am.

The spacecraft’s 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about two and a half minutes to put it in the intended lunar transfer trajectory having an apogee (farthest point from earth) of about 380,000 km.

During its revolution around the earth in this orbit, the spacecraft will approach moon’s “North Pole” at a distance of about a few hundred kilometers. Moon, at that time, would arrive at a particular point in its journey round the earth.

Once the Chandrayaan reaches the vicinity of the moon, it will be oriented in a certain way and its motor will be fired.

This time the motor will slow down the spacecraft to enable the gravity of moon to attract it into an elliptical orbit.

According to astrophysicists here, putting the satellite into moon’s orbit, slated for November 8, is going to be the most challenging task before the scientists, who are controlling the spacecraft from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore.

After having accomplished the task of putting the spacecraft into moon’s orbit, the scientists will gradually reduce the height of its orbit around the moon and finally lower it to a height of 100 km from the lunar surface.

The first lunar orbit to be traversed by Chandrayaan-1 (from November 8 onwards) will have an apogee of 5,000 km and perigee (farthest point from moon) of 500 km. The second lunar orbit will have an apogee of 5,000 km and perigee of 100.

The third orbit of Chandrayaan (which will also be its last orbit if everything works according to plan) will be a round one (unlike the previous elliptical orbits) with an apogee of 100 km and perigee, too, of 100 km.

Staring from November 8, it will take around seven days for the Chandrayaan-1 to get into its final orbit around moon.

Once it settles down to the 100-km orbit, which is expected to be attained on November 15, the real operation of the spacecraft will begin.

New Delhi, November 4
In an important strategic move, India today, for the first time ever, landed a fixed-wing aircraft close to the Siachen glacier at a location just 2.5 km inside the line of actual control (LOAC) along China in eastern Ladakh.

The Indian Air Force pilots today landed an AN-32 transport aircraft at Fukche airfield. In IAF records, this is mentioned as an advanced landing ground located at an altitude of 13,000 feet.

Choppers like the Dhruv, Chetak and the MI-17 were landed in the past. Officially, the IAF downplayed the event.

This was the first landing of a fixed wing aircraft and it could facilitate a faster induction of troops in case of exigency and also moving of material. An AN 32 can carry up to 50 people, besides much more quantity of equipment than a chopper.

In the past six months, this is the second high-altitude airfield alongside the Chinese border to have been either activated or upgraded.

The other one was Daulat Beg Oldie airstrip, which was set up in 1962 and was not being used since 1965.

This was re-opened in May this year. This is just 8 km from the Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan with China in the high Himalayas.

It is strategically located on the ancient trade route connecting Ladakh in India to Yarkand in Xinjiang, China.

The revival of these two air fields will allow India to reinforce its troops and continue deploying forces even in the harsh winter months.

Experts believe that this is very crucial in case a conflict happens when roads are in disuse during winter and high passes are closed due to snowfall.

The only way will be to induct troops by air -- that’s what was done during the 1962 Chinese aggression. These will boost the operational skills of the force on the Indo-China frontier.

All this is part of the efforts to improve air maintenance of far-flung posts in the region bordering China and Pakistan, IAF sources said.

Both these airfields lie close to an axis, which could be used by China to threaten Ladakh. India is most vulnerable in this area.

By activating the airfields, India is also exercising a more assertive presence along the boundary with China.

On the other hand, China has built an impressive array of infrastructure on it side of the border with India.

The Indian Army has been carrying out repair work at the airbase in the past few months to make it fit for landing a transport aircraft.

New Delhi, November 4
The visit of Microsoft founder and mentor Bill Gates is good news for India’s polio eradication programme.

He comes at a time when a whopping 496 polio cases have already been reported in India so far this year.

Of these, 53 are wild polio virus type 1, eradicating which is a major priority; the rest are wild polio virus type 3.

To date in 2008, India is making up 35 per cent (496) of all polio cases reported worldwide (1431).

At this time last year, the country accounted for 51 per cent (340) of all cases worldwide (669).

The sad news is that as many as 12 states are in the grip of the deadly virus which invades the nervous system and paralyses people it infects. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, 5 to 10 per cent of which are fatal.

While the focus of polio eradication efforts remains in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which account for 96 per cent of all cases reported this year, the worrying part is that cases have surfaced all over the country.

Among the 12 states, which have reported cases of type 1 and type 3 poliovirus this year, are Delhi (3); Maharashtra (3); Haryana (2); Orissa (2); Andhra Pradesh (1); Madhya Pradesh (1); Rajasthan (1); Assam (1); Punjab (1); West Bengal (1). Bihar and Uttar Pradesh top the list of cases, just as they did last year when they together reported 844 of the total 874 polio cases in India.

The continuing threat from the poliovirus explains why pulse polio immunisation which began in December 1995, remains the single largest health sector endeavour in India.

It covers 172 million children in one round, but is obviously not proving good enough, which is why Bill Gates’s new public healthcare initiative in India becomes important.

To be launched in the capital tomorrow, the initiative will place special emphasis on polio eradication - an area which Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been globally funding to the extent of $400 million.

Co-chairs of the foundation - Bill and Melinda Gates, along with former’s father William Gates Senior, today met health minister Anbumani Ramadoss in the capital to discuss India’s public health initiatives, and progress.

As regards the virus strains in India, public health experts say that although overall polio rates in India have remained relatively high in recent years, rates of type 1 polio virus - one of two strains circulating in India - have dropped significantly.

This year, 18 districts have been infected with type 1 virus, as compared to 40 districts in 2007.

Rapidly eliminating wild polio virus I in India is a priority under the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Polio, it may be mentioned, is caused by three types of polioviruses (type 1, 2 and 3).

New Delhi, November 4
The Congress yesterday alleged that there was a growing proximity between the BJP and its former ally Left, citing the statement that the party claimed CPM Politburo member Brinda Karat had made during her recent visit to Assam.

Trying to pin down the Left on the mat, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said Karat, during her visit to Assam, had said Parliament had not been given time to discuss a stringent law against terror.

Responding to this, Ahmed said when the UPA government moved the Bill to repeal POTA, “CPM Politburo member Brinda Karat was herself present in Parliament. Now, I am surprised how she has forgotten her own contribution to scrapping of POTA”.

The Congress spokesman considered the CPM leader’s reported statement as the initial signs of a growing proximity between the saffron party and the red brigade, which, in his perception, was likely to lead to the Left supporting a BJP-led government from outside.

Bhopal, November 4
The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh has denied tickets to more than one-fifth of its sitting MLAs for the upcoming assembly elections.

Of its 160 legislators, 35 have been axed. The BJP leadership seems to be following the “Modi formula”, which was one of the contributory factors in Narendra Modi’s second consecutive victory in Gujarat and was supposed to counter the anti-incumbency factor.

Though the party leaders concede that many of the MLAs denied re-nomination may turn rebels and join other parties, particularly Uma Bharati’s “Bharatiya Janashakti”, that is not a cause of anxiety for them.

“Even if they walk out from the party, it would not offset the advantage that we would get by presenting a fresh face before the people,” says a member of the state election committee.

Both the Congress and the BJP are facing the post-ticket distribution blues in the state. Demonstrations are being held before the state party offices, effigies of top leaders are being burnt and disappointed ticket seekers are threatening revolt.

The nomination of Jitendra Daga as the party candidate from Huzur constituency in Bhopal district has caused much heart-burn among the party rank.

Daga’s only qualification is that he is close to senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj. A major part of the constituency observed a bandh on Monday in protest.

In the Congress, the state President Suresh Pachauri has cornered the maximum number of nominations for his supporters, leaving other Congress satraps, including Digvijay Singh, Arjun Singh, Kamalnath and Jyotiraditya Scindia, far behind.

New Delhi, November 4
The Sangh parivar has finally put all its weight behind the defence of their fellow Sadhvi, Pragya Singh Thakur, arrested by the Maharashtra ATS in connection with the September bomb blasts in Malegaon and Modasa.

Yesterday, it was the BJP which in a belated move strongly defended the Sadhvi. Today, it was VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia who charged the government with implicating the innocent Sadhvi and appeasing the Muslim voters.

And to strengthen his case, representatives of various wings of the Sangh parivar came together in a rare show of solidarity.

There was RSS sanchalak from Kanpur Ramesh Prakash, there was former working president of VHP Vishnu Hari Dalmia, and a former general secretary Giriraj Kishore, Bajrang Dal president Prakash Sharma and another Sangh leader Onkar Bhave.

They all flanked Togadia on either side while he breathed fire against the government for “victimising an innocent Sadhvi and army personnel”.

And there were many more of them who sat among the audience to lend their total support to Togadia.

Taking a cue from them, Togadia warned of a “Hindu backlash” if the government continued to implicate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Army personnel in terrorist blasts in Malegaon and Modasa.

He warned the government that Hindus would be on the streets if it continued with its plans of implicating “innocent Sadhvi and army officers fighting Islamic terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir” and other Indian frontiers.

Simultaneously, he gave a call to the Hindus to come out on the streets to oppose “victimisation of Hindus, already victims of Islamic terrorism for 700 years since the destruction of Somnath Mandir,” Togadia said.

The firebrand VHP leader insisted that he was personally aware that Pragya Singh Thakur was completely innocent and cited his knowledge of forensic science to claim that “there is no evidence against the poor Sadhvi”.

But he maintained he did not know her personally at all. “None of us know her,” Togadia said in reply to a specific question.

He said, “This is just a conspiracy of the government to appease the Muslim voters. I call upon the Hindus to come out on the streets and fight the Congress which has crossed all limits to appease its Muslim voters,” the VHP leader said.

Mumbai, November 4
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and another person, arrested for their alleged involvement in the September 29 Malegaon blast, were today subjected to narco-analysis test here.

The Sadhvi and Sameer Kulkarni underwent the scientific tests conducted by officials of the Forensic Science Laboratory in a hospital in south Mumbai, Maharashtra, ATS officials said.

The tests on former army officer Ramesh Upadhyay, also arrested in connection with the blast, is likely to be conducted tomorrow, they said.

The permission for the tests was given by the magistrate’s court in Nashik and the trio have already undergone psychological tests like brain mapping and polygraph.

The Sadhvi was arrested after it was found that the motorcycle used in the Malegaon blast belonged to her.

New Delhi, November 4
The government says the steps being taken by it to protect Indian women deserted by their overseas Indian husbands have started yielding results with the number of such cases coming down in recent days.

According to official sources, the government has meanwhile, decided to raise substantially the financial assistance given to these women for defending their cases abroad.

At present, they are being provided only $1,000 for the purpose. The possibility of creating a fund could also be explored by pooling of money by Indian associations. A matching grant from the government could be considered.

Compulsory registration of marriages, proper identification and tracking system, fast tracking of cases through family courts, more effective serving of notices and summons, higher funding for defence of cases in foreign countries are among a slew of measures the government is taking to deal with the problem.

It has accepted proposals like timely registration of FIR, suitable bilateral agreement with foreign countries and information campaign to educate prospective brides.

The recommendation for these steps was made by an inter-ministerial sub-committee, which had representatives from various central ministries, the National Commission for Women, the National Human Rights Commission and state governments of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.

The government feels the problem was more rampant in countries like the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand where a large number of Indians, particularly from North India, are settled.

It has been decided that all marriages solemnised in India should be compulsorily registered and proforma for registration of marriages should be uniform in all states, containing all relevant information that would help identify the people.

The proforma for registration of marriages should also have columns, in the case of overseas Indians, for the social security number, passport particulars and ID card/ labour card in order to build a proper identification and tracking system.

All states and union territories should pass on the information regarding court orders against accused NRIs to emigration authorities to prevent such people from leaving India against court orders.

The government has decided that litigations related to overseas fast-track courts should take up Indian marriages.

It was felt that instead of building up a new system for these courts, the matter should be brought within the purview of the existing family courts.

Whenever there was an ongoing litigation in a foreign court, the Indian bride’s case should not go unrepresented.

Lucknow, November 4
Paying for stalling Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled meeting with students last month, vice-chancellor of Chandrashekar Azad University of Agricultural and Technology, Kanpur, Dr V.K Suri today finally put in his papers.

According to reliable sources in the Raj Bhawan, Dr Suri’s resignation has been accepted by Governor T.V Rajeswar.

Till further orders, Registrar of the university Dr Vijay Prakash Kanaujia has been asked to take over.

On October 24, Rahul Gandhi was to have an interaction with the students of the university. However, at the eleventh hour the vice-chancellor, reportedly under pressure from the state government, refused permission for the meeting.

He even had the auditorium locked. Rahul Gandhi finally met the students in the university cafeteria.

Guwahati, November 4
One miner was killed and 18 others were injured due to gaseous blast inside an underground mine at Ledo coal field of Coal Indian Limited (CIL) in Tinsukia district of Eastern Assam early this morning.

According to a source in the CIL, over 40 workers were working inside the underground mine, Lachit, when the gas explosion occurred at around 5.30 am.

One of the seriously injured miner, Pratul Daimari, later died at Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) hospital at nearby Refinery Township in Digboi.

Eight of the seriously injured persons were sent to Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh, six others were admitted in the CIL hospital at Margherita, one is undergoing treatment at IOCL hospital and three persons suffering minor injuries were sent home from hospital.

BRIEFLY

Naxals release kidnapped persons
CHIKMAGALUR: Eight persons, including a BJP leader, kidnapped by a Naxalite group were released on Tuesday, hours after they were taken to an undisclosed spot inside the forest near Sringeri, the police said. A 19-member Naxalite gang forced its way into the residence of Sringeri taluk BJP president Ranganath at Holale Mavina Kadu village about 5 am and abducted him and seven others. Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa directed intelligence wing IGP Jyoti Prakash Mirji to visit the spot and submit a report to him. — PTI

Goa fest in Delhi
PANAJI: The department of tourism, government of Goa, in association with Goenkaracho Ekvott, New Delhi, will organise a four-day annual Goa festival at Goa Sadan, New Delhi, from November 6 to 9. The festival is designed to promote Goan ambience with authentic Goan cuisine, music, handicrafts and processed foods, and a cultural programme with songs and folk dances. Union minister for power Sushil Kumar Shinde will inaugurate the festival on November 6, while Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat will be the chief guest at the function on November 9. — UNI