Guwahati, November 8
Linking the October 30 serial blasts to Bangladesh-based terror groups, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today demanded flushing out of terrorists taking shelter in Bangladesh and Myanmar, and pro-active efforts on part of the ministry of external affairs (MoEA) in this regard.

“Assam stands vulnerable for being surrounded by Bangladesh and Myanmar where militants have found shelters. I will move the ministry of external affairs in this regard as it is not possible to contain terrorism in the state without eviction of extremists groups taking shelter in those countries,” Gogoi told the mediapersons here.

He also underlined the need for sealing of entry points along the borders and informed that he would move the Prime Minister’s Office and the Union home ministry for it. “All the entry points in the Northeast and West Bengal along the borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar should be sealed to check cross border movement of terrorists. Terrorists not only come through entry points in the international border within Assam, but through all entry points in others North Eastern states and West Bengal,” Gogoi said.

Emphasising on effective intelligence sharing among police forces and security agencies within the Northeast and West Bengal, Gogoi demanded that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) office in Guwahati should be upgraded to a regional office so that it could act as the coordinator among all the N-E states in tackling terrorism.

Expressing grave concern over growth of religious fundamentalism in the country, Gogoi said “Religious fundamentalism whether it is related to Islam, Hinduism, Christianity or any other religion is very alarming as it breeds religious terrorism, the most dangerous among all forms of terrorism.”

He said religious fundamentalism couldn’t be tackled without support from people and called upon leaders of all religions to find a way to check the growth of fundamentalism.

Regarding the serial blasts, Gogoi commented that such devastating act of terror might not have been carried out without the support from local terrorists groups. “Without the support of local terrorist organisations no foreign terrorists’ force might have executed serial blasts of this magnitude here,” Gogoi said, adding that investigation into the probe was on the right track.

The Assam government has decided to recruit 4,000 more police personnel in all ranks to augment the strength of the force to over 65,000 within the year. Posting of another 4,500 new recruits will be effected soon after completion of training.

Gogoi informed that 605 blasts had taken palce in the state during the last eight years, while security forces recovered or diffused over 5,000 bombs and grenades in the state during the same period. “This indicates the shift in the terror tactics of desperate extremists groups which have lost support among masses,” he said.

Chandigarh, November 8
A Lieut Colonel, who had served as prosecutor in the courts martial of two senior officers in the infamous Tehelka scam, is now himself in the dock over remarks reportedly made by him during the trial of a jawan accused of murder.

According to sources, the Army has attached Lieut Col Sanjay Sitanshu to an armoured regiment at Hisar for disciplinary proceedings. He was posted at Leh and had been detailed as the defending officer of N.K. Sanjeev Sharma during his trial by a general court martial (GCM).

Some remarks made by him in the initial stages of the trial were considered as amounting to contempt of court. The jawan had been accused of shooting dead a JCO in a military station at Taldehad, near Jhansi, and his GCM, which concluded in September this year, had been conducted at Gwalior.

Last month, the officer received a letter from the Army authorities stating that based upon the report of the GCM he was being attached to an armoured regiment in Hisar for the finalisation of disciplinary proceedings.

Earlier, Colonel Sitanshu had been the prosecutor in the GCMs of Brig Iqbal Singh and Col Anil Sehgal, which were held at Patiala and Chandigarh, respectively, about four years ago.

His counsel, Arvind Moudgil, said the officer had moved the Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court against his attachment. The court has already summoned all records of the case.

In his petition, the officer had contended that he was being pressurised to toe a particular line in the case and have the accused plead guilty to the charges of murder against him. The jawan had contended that the JCO was killed during a militant attack.

He had further claimed that the attachment orders were issued without holding any court of inquiry or giving him an opportunity to he heard, which were contrary to the provisions of law. He was on leave when he had received the attachment orders.

New Delhi, November 8
The Chhattisgarh Election Watch (CGEW), a part of the nationwide campaign called the National Election Watch, has come up with interesting data on financial and criminal background of candidates contesting elections from Chhattisgarh.

According to national coordinator of the Association for Democratic Reforms Anil Bairwal, the data is an eye-opener on how there is great need to improve the political and electoral processes in the country.

In the phase I of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, 39 constituencies out of 90 are going to poll on November 14. The CGEW has looked into affidavits filed by all 378 candidates contesting in this phase and come up with some interesting facts.

Bairwal says there are 19 candidates who have declared assets over Rs 1 crore. Of these 10 candidates are from the Congress, five from the BJP and three from the BSP. However, in spite of them being “crorepaties”, many have not given their PAN.

“Several candidates, including those from major parties have not declared their PAN, even though affidavits have an option for giving the PAN card number. Among the candidates who have not given their PAN include 30 from the BSP, 28 from the BJP, 20 from the Congress and 215 others. Several candidates who have not given their PAN despite having assets in excess of Rs 1 crore,” he says.

Interestingly, a staggering 140 candidates have declared that they own no vehicles. The list includes 13 those candidates who have assets running into crores or have declared assets more than 25 lakh. Amongst people who have no vehicle includes the name of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, the report says.

Then there are also 23 candidates with pending criminal cases against them who are contesting phase-I elections. Among major parties, the BJP has four candidates having criminal record, Congress two, BSP and CPI one each and 15 Independents and others.

Bairwal says that some of these candidates are charged with serious crimes, adding that the data shows how criminalisation and rampant corruption in politics needs to be controlled urgently.

Bhopal, November 8
Many top BJP and Congress leaders have chosen to keep away from the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. Some due to age, others for want of a safe constituency and still others for reasons that remain unexplained. Many have chosen to pass on their mantle to their second generation.

Among the bigwigs who are not in the fray are four former chief ministers -- BJP’s Sunderlal Patwa and Kailash Joshi and Congress’ Digvijay Singh and Arjun Singh. The state presidents of BJP Narendra Tomar and of Congress Suresh Pachauri too are not contesting.

Patwa’s nephew is in the fray and so are the sons of Kailash Joshi and Arjun Singh. Two of the “political heirs” are contesting from the traditional constituencies of their predecessors -- Surendra Patwa from Bhojpur and Rahul Singh from Churhat. Deepak Joshi has been forced to shift to a neighbouring constituency as his father’s traditional seat Bagli has been declared reserved.

Digvijay Singh, who handed over the chief ministership to the BJP after the 2003 Assembly elections, says he is no longer interested in state-level politics. The BJP state chief is not contesting on the plea that he does not want to the confine himself to one constituency. Same is the reason cited by his Congress counterpart.

Interestingly, the Congress president is one of the prime contenders for chief ministership in case of Congress victory, but he is keeping away from the contest. Uma Bharati is in the fray and so is Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

New Delhi, November 8
BJP president Rajnath Singh led the party in wishing leader of Opposition L.K. Advani “many, many happy returns of the day” as the political stalwart turned 80 today.

The party also launched a portal on the veteran BJP leader. The portal - www.lkadvani - was unveiled by Lt Gen (retd) S.K. Sinha, former Assam and Jammu and Kashmir Governor, at the party's Asoka Road Headquarters here.

The portal, available in English and Hindi, provides details on Advani's long political career spanning over six decades.

Former vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, party president Venkaiah Naidu, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and general secretary Arun Jaitley were among hundreds of workers, well-wishers and friends who personally greeted Advani at his Prithviraj Road residence since morning.

Among others who greeted Advani were former ministers Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav. — UNI

Chandigarh, November 8
With a little training in mediation, you will soon be able to amicably resolve disputes in alien lands between multinational foreign companies without even moving out of your study room in Punjab, Haryana or any other part of the world - that is if Justice S.B. Sinha’s “Vision 2025” for alternative disputes resolution through “e-courts” and other mechanisms is realised.

Logged on to the concept of “e-courts”, Justice Sinha of the Supreme Court believes cyber courts functioning through the Internet will provide a common platform for “online disputes resolution process”.

Justice Sinha means to say anyone trained in mediation can use the cyber space to transcend political and geographical boundaries and bring together the warring sides, say from America and Singapore, to resolve a dispute may be in Japan by simply mediating through the Internet.

Of course, compared to the traditional means of dispute resolution, the process is cost effective and territorial jurisdiction is not an issue. No wonder, Justice Sinha’s short and crisp message is: Prepare yourself for functioning from the e-courts.

Airing his vision “towards new alternative disputes resolution mechanism” in Chandigarh, Justice Sinha says Internet has made it possible for the Punjab and Haryana High Court to inaugurate through video conferencing 17 mediation and conciliation centres across the two states of Punjab and Haryana.

The same technology, with an expansion in the Internet user base, has now given rise to the concept of “cyber mediation”. Elaborating, Justice Sinha says you have off-line differences and cyber space disputes due to rise in Internet commerce. Both can be cordially put to an end through trained facilitators and mediators.

Once you establish your reputation as a mediator, disputes from across the world can flash on you computer monitor for resolution, he adds.

Referring to the related issue of developing websites for the purpose, Justice Sinha says these help the facilitators, with something like 30 hours training, to work and identify the issues, prepare a data base and come out settlement packages. A final written agreement is then drafted.

A word of caution from Justice Sinha: The system of cyber mediation has certain shortcomings, like confidentiality concerns cannot be ignored. As such, the software should take advantage of the disadvantages.

New Delhi, November 8
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who is the in charge of the party’s campaign committee in the state, is ready with a new formula to form a campaign committee that will manage how the party will go about its efforts.

Amarinder Singh, who reached the national capital today, said he would suggest his formula to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

He said: “It is ideal that we can have a five-member committee at each district that will coordinate at the ground level and work under the main campaign committee. These five members should have a woman and a youth to give representation to all.”

It is expected that the main committee and its members will be picked by the Congress president. It could have Union ministers and other senior Congressmen on board, besides having some representation of all districts.

“We have to see that the work of the committee does not clash with the work being done by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC),” Amarinder said.

He said he was working to see that the campaign peaks at the time elections were held. It should not peak early and then decline, the former CM.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already said elections would held as per schedule that means it would in April or early May. With six months to go the momentum had to be gradual. Already contact programmes were on, the rallies would be in the build up to the polls, he said.

He reiterated that the target was winning all 13 Lok Sabha seats. The delimitation has added new dimension and the Congress stands a chance even in the traditional Akali seats like Khadoor Sahib (at present known as Tarn Taran).