New Delhi, November 9
More than a week after the serial blasts rocked Assam, investigators have found clues that the ULFA and NDFB carried out the deadly explosions with the help of Bangladesh-based HuJI’s expertise.

Home ministry sources said the investigators had found enough evidence that the banned ULFA had carried out the October 30 serial blasts with the help of dominant Bodo militant group NDFB.

This comes in the wake of the Centre expressing concern over the “paradigm shift” in the Northeast militancy.

Some people had been detained by the police and central security agencies who had provided logistical support, including procuring cars used in the blasts, that left over 80 people dead and more than 400 injured, the sources said. The people had an allegiance with the two banned outfits, the sources said.

Interestingly, NDFB is currently under truce with the security forces and is engaged with the government in peace negotiations.

“We have found that the Bangladesh-based HuJI has provided the expertise to the ULFA and NDFB as none of them has the technology to explode such devastating bombs which claimed more than 80 lives,” a home ministry official said.

The home ministry sources said the government was worried over the fact that the northeast militants had started using a deadly mixture of RDX, ammonium nitrate and plasticised explosives to carry out explosions which led to greater casualties which was never seen in the past. — PTI

Tawang, November 9
Rebuffing China’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh, India today asserted that the north eastern state is its integral part and ruled out ceding any of its part.

“China is often making claims on Arunachal Pradesh, but Arunachal Pradesh has a special place in our heart,” external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who visited the 400-year-old Buddhist monastery here in this border town, the second in importance to the one at Lhasa, Tibet, said.

“People of Arunachal Pradesh regularly elect two representatives to the Lok Sabha and there is an elected state assembly carrying out the responsibility of administration like any of other 27 states. The question of parting company of Arunachal or any of its part does not arise,” he said amidst defeaning cheers.

Mukherjee’s rejection of the Chinese claim on Arunachal Pradesh follows recent declaration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a visit to the state that Arunachal was ‘our land of rising sun’.

Addressing as chief guest at the 8th Buddha Mahotsava, Mukherjee said “Both India and China are seeking a peaceful solution to the border dispute. The special representatives of the Prime Ministers of both India and China have completed 12 rounds of talks. There are problems in identification of land between the two countries.” — PTI

New Delhi, November 9
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) today slapped a legal notice on a Delhi-based national daily for portraying it in a poor light in the ongoing Malegaon blasts probe.

Calling the news false, baseless, defamatory, the right-wing outfit also sought an unspecified amount of damages from the daily. The daily carried on its front page a piece of news ‘Terror net widens to Gujarat VHP’ today.

The legal notice, a copy of which is available with UNI, reads: “The news had a wrong headline only to catch the readers’ eye with malafide intentions and to send a wrong message that the VHP is linked to the Malegaon blasts.”

“Associating the name of the VHP with the Malegaon blasts is false, baseless and defamatory,” the notice reads further, asking the newspaper to publish an unqualified apology within 15 days or face a defamation suit. — UNI

Jaipur, November 9
Now, money spent by candidates on SMSs sent to woo voters will add to the election expenditure of the candidate,the Rajasthan election commission chief electoral officer (CEO) Vinod Zutshi has said. Rajasthan is probably the first state in the country to check the use of technology for enticing voters.

The CEO has called a meeting of telecom service providers tomorrow to explain to them the procedure under which they will have to inform the Election Commission on the bulk SMSs sent during the election campaign.

“More and more candidates were using the latest technology to reach out to the voters. But all that now amounts to spending money. The candidates have been given a certain limit for the expenditure. Earlier, this expense was not included in the list but for the first time in Rajasthan, the SMS bill may cost dear to candidates,” Zutshi said.

The commission will, however, depend largely on the phone service providers to cath those violating the orders. The commission can only scrutinize bulk SMSs sent from one number, where as supporters or workers may escape easily with sending 10 -odd SMSs at one time.“We will ensure there is no loophole and all bulk SMSs sent are added up." Zutshi said.

He also announced there would also be a total ban on transmitting messages to the electorate 48 hours before polling. Meanwhile, the commission said it was necessary that all political advertisements were passed by the EC’s committee first before it was aired or telecast.

Registered political parties have to make a representation to the committee three days before it wants the advertisement to be aired, while parties not registered with the commission and independent candidates have to apply to it seven days before it wants the advertisement to be aired, he said.

The application should also include the expenditure on the advertisement besides the day it wants it to be aired and the content.Zutshi said all payments to Doordarshan, private channels or cable network has to be done by cheques or a demand draft.

Besides, parties and electronic channels have to ensure that advertisements are not vulgar, immoral, emotional and one that hurts one’s religious and other sentiments, he said. Advertisements that also deride one’s caste, religion, colour and community will also not be allowed, he added.

On the first look, the 2008 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh appear to be issueless, almost lacklustre in appeal. For one there is no wave or even an undercurrent guiding the elections this time, which, political analysts say, would be the first time in the history of the state. There is no scandal staring any leader in the face and the only issue guiding the poll appears is corruption charges that the Opposition is leveling against the ruling BJP.

Interestingly, despite no formal announcement of his party to this effect, former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi seems to be projecting himself as the Chief-Minister-in-waiting making the polls almost poised as Ajit Jogi versus Chief Minister Raman Singh, who, enjoys a squeaky clean image despite charges of rampant corruption against other members of his government.

Other factors that would definitely affect the elections would be the growing influence of Naxalite movement in several districts of the state, especially the five constituencies in Bastar. Government sources admit that it would be a tough call for the Election Commission to ensure peaceful elections in the Naxalite-infested areas, phase-I of which is slated on November 14.

Otherwise, analysts say, the contest between the two main parties i.e. the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress, will be a close one. The Bahujan Samaj Party and the CPI have also fielded candidates. The CPI will definitely affect the Congress while the BSP may create difficulties for both the Congress and the BJP.

Regarding inner politics, there appears to be resentment in ranks and file of both main parties.

The Congress is fighting the elections with corruption as the main calling card. In order to dilute anti-incumbency factor, the BJP dropped almost 20 sitting MLAs and introduced as many first timers.

In all, the BJP has fielded around 45 new faces in current Assembly elections. While rebellion is quite obvious in the ruling party, the only saving grace is that among so-called dissidents there are no big names.

In contrast, the Congress has dropped only three candidates and Jogi has managed to get tickets for his loyalists.

While the Opposition is currently banking upon the single factor of corruption charges against the BJP government at every level, the ruling party’s one-point defence is development that it says is more than evident during the past five years.

Interestingly, as far as the common man is concerned, nobody is saying anything, almost as if underlining the mood of the so-far-lacklustre elections. Ask them who has the chance of winning and the answer would be “fifty-fifty” with a slight edge towards the BJP.

Amongst economically backward, there could be an advantage - the BJP due to the subsidised rice at rate of Rs 3 that the state government is providing to 36 lakh families of the state. The ruling party is actively banking upon the subsidised rice scheme to bring it back to power.

Kolkata, November 9
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee denied today that neither Jyoti Basu nor CPM general secretary Prakash Karat had ever asked him to step down from the Speaker’s chair on the eve of the “confidence motion” moved by the BJP and other Left parties against the Manmohan Singh government in the Lok Sabha on July 22.

Talking to a private TV channel today, Somnath said during the controversy over his role as the Speaker, he met Jyoti Basu at his Salt Lake residence and held detailed talks with him, but Basu had never asked him to resign. He, however, declined to elaborate anything about his talks with Basu.

The Speaker said Karat also did not request him to resign. But what Karat said was that: “Some politburo members in the capital and the state did not want that he should remain in the Speaker’s chair”, Somnath claimed. Karat was, however, still leaving the resignation decision to him, he added.

Somnath said he was shocked, surprised and depressed at the politburo’s decision of sacking him from the party. But he was not bearing any grudge against anyone in the party.

Somnath said he had no regret and no rancour against anyone in the party. However, he said he had no intention to return to the party any more.

Somnath said during his tenure, he had always tried to uphold the prestige and dignity of the House by maintaining his neutrality as the Speaker. He said he had taken a right decision of not siding with the party he belonged to during the political crisis, when the CPM and the BJP stood on the same platform in moving the resolution against the UPA government.

Referring to the Singur issue, Somnath criticised the Opposition’s role. He said the Nandigram event of March 14 might have angered the Opposition parties, but still there was no justification that the Tatas would be forced to move out of Singur with their Nano car project.

New Delhi, November 9
Sons and daughters are no longer an issue in Indian politics, much less in the Congress.

Whatever might be the grievances of AICC general secretary Margaret Alva, tickets in elections for the kith and kin of leaders has virtually been the rule rather than exception in the grand old party.

The main opposition the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has often accused the Congress of practising ‘dynastic’ politics, is itself slowly seeing the phenomenon.

However, regional parties take the cake when it comes to ‘sonstrokes’, but the Mayawati-led BSP only appears to be a bit different.

The Left parties, known to be cadre-based, are the “odd men out” as their leaders generally are of a different mould and the organisations too have a different structure.

“Why you are pointing fingers towards us and not others?”, a visibly annoyed Congress president Sonia Gandhi had shot back to reporters when asked whether she was not promoting the family by giving her son Rahul a ticket in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

It was over four years ago and Gandhi’s reference was to the several kith and kin of leaders of all parties who were already in politics.

They included Rabri Devi, wife of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, M.K. Stalin, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Chandrababu Naidu, son-in-law of N.T. Rama Rao, A. Ramdoss, son of PMK chief Dr Ramadoss, Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and H.D. Kumaraswamy and H.D. Revanna, sons of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

Incidentally, Raj Thackeray who is currently being targeted for ‘stray’ attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra is the nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who first took up cudgels for the Marathi cause four decades ago.

Raj parted ways with the Shiv Sena sometime back after his uncle started promoting his son Uddhav and made him the executive president of the party.

It was the same reason that prompted former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane to leave the Shiv Sena for the Congress after a four decade old association. His son Nitesh is now in politics and expected to be the Congress candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from the Konkan seat.

Congress leaders recall that Margaret herself is a product of ‘family’ politics as she got the right push being the daughter-in-law of Joachim and Violet Alva, the first couple in the Parliament.

The leaders claim that Nivedith, son of Margaret, could not make it to the Karnataka list of party candidates on the issue of merit.

AICC general secretary Prithviraj Chavan, who is primarily being targeted by Alva, too belongs to a Congress ‘family’.

His mother Premalatai Chavan was a lawmaker for long and also Maharashtra PCC chief and his father D.R. alias Anandrao Chavan was a Union minister. — PTI

New Delhi, November 9
The CPI asked the Centre to change its policy towards Sri Lanka and demanded that India intervene and stop the “war” in the island nation and insist for a political solution to the over 25-year-old ethnic crisis in that country.

Party secretary D. Raja also said India should immediately stop providing all kinds of military assistance to Sri Lanka.

“The war between two sides in Sri Lanka has caused immense hardships to innocent Tamil civilians in the northern part of the island. India should take steps to stop the war,” he told a protest rally organised by the Delhi Tamil Students Federation here.

He said India should tell the Sri Lankan government that the decades-old ethnic conflict can be resolved only through a political solution.

Raja said both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government should come forward to hold negotiations on the issue and resolve it “politically”.

“India should stop providing arms to Sri Lanka. The government says it is providing only non-lethal weapons. But, whatever we provide during a war time will be used against the people in northern Lanka,” he said.

Sri Lankan Tamil MP M.K. Sivajilingam said India should intervene and stop the “killings of innocent civilians” in the country.

Earlier, the students belonging to JNU, DU, PUSA and Jamia Milia Islamia marched from Barakhamba Raod to Jantar Mantar shouting slogans against the Sri Lankan Government. — PTI

Lucknow, November 9
In an attempt to further consolidate her core constituency Chief Minister Mayawati has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to waive off the centre’s share of loans of Rs 116 crore given to the poor Scheduled Castes.

The move came after her government yesterday decided not to claim the state’s share of Rs 120 crore, which had been distributed more than 10 years ago as loan among 7.5 lakh poor people under various schemes of the Anusuchit Jaati Vitta Evam Vikas Nigam. (Scheduled Caste Finance and Development Corporation).

This decision was taken by the state cabinet presided over by the Chief Minister.

These old loans had been distributed under margin money scheme run by the state’s scheduled caste finance and development corporation.

They were mainly self-employment schemes that had over the years become non-performing assets.

According to the decision, the state government yesterday waived off the principal amount of Rs. 86.23 crore and interest totalling Rs. 34.05.

In her letter the Chief Minister has requested the Prime Minister to similarly waive off the central government’s loan share along with interest that together is around Rs 116 crores.

Urging the PM to waive off such loans in other states as well Mayawati pointed out, “Such steps would ensure that lakhs of poor people belonging to scheduled castes could be freed from loans”.

During 1980-81 the UP Anusuchit Jaati Vitta Evam Vikas Nigam was providing 25 per cent margin money of the project costs as loan to the poor and unemployed SC persons under various schemes of economic development for self employment.

Patna, November 9
To keep NCP’s fold intact in Bihar and in Hindi heartland, the party should take action against its leader and deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra R.R. Patil for his statement that bullet would be replied with bullet, Upendra Kushwaha, Bihar NCP president, said today.

Kushwaha demanded that the national executive meeting of the party should be convened to discuss party’s strategy threadbare on the issue of violent attack on North Indians in the aftermath of MNS’s onslaught on railway job aspirants in Mumbai and subsequent remark made by Patil over Rahul Raj's alleged encounter.

He said non-action on the part of party’s leadership against the deputy CM had sent wrong message among the people in Hindi heartland that it was not a Rashtrawadi Congress Party instead it was a Maharashtrawadi Congress Party.

“R.R. Patil’s statement is not only highly objectionable but also against the Constitution of the country and a delegation of the state unit of the party will meet the high command to apprise them of the situation,” Kushwaha said.

He said the party wanted a ban on the MNS, initiation of a criminal case of sedition against Raj Thackeray and a judicial probe into the alleged encounter involving Rahul Raj, the gunman who had boarded the BEST bus in Mumbai on October 27.

The NCP also demanded that the students arrested during the state wide protests against the MNS’s onslaught should be released.

Terming the resignation of JD(U) MPs as ludicrous, he said it was a political gimmick to gain cheap popularity. — PTI

Mangalore, November 9
Aravind Adiga, winner of the Booker Prize for his novel “The White Tiger”, donated a part of the award money to his alma mater — St Aloysius College — here today.

According to an e-mail sent by Adiga to the St Aloysius College director, Fr Denzil Lobo SJ, he had sent Rs 15 lakh to the rector of the college with an appeal that the fund be used to start a special scholarship fund for the higher education of the underprivileged children residing at Aloysian Boys Home, Kotekar near Ullal.

Adiga had expressed his desire that this scholarship be named after his teacher and mentor the late Fr Victor DSouza, who was an excellent teacher of science.

The Aloysian Boys Home for the delinquent children was established by the college to commemorate its centenary in 1981. Meanwhile, the management of St Aloysius College had planned to honour Adiga for winning the Booker Prize on January 4, 2009, during its annual conclave. The conclave will be attended by its alumni from all over the world. — UNI

Jalpaiguri (WB), November 9
A four-year-old child was trampled to death by a wild elephant at Mantagara in Jalpaiguri district today sparking off protest by agitated villagers who gheraoed forest officials.

Forest officials said the hapless baby girl was tossed to the ground by the rampaging tusker, which strayed into the area and barged into the hut of a tribal family.

While the girl's parents scampered to safety mistaking the girl to be away in a neighbour's house, the toddler fell before the jumbo and was trampled to death. As a forest team went to the area they were gheraoed by villagers, who demanded inaction by the department, which had resulted in the straying of pachyderms.

The gherao was lifted after forest officials handed over Rs 5,000 compensation to the affected family on the spot and promised another Rs 95,000 as compensation in future. — PTI

Berhampur, November 9
Two persons were arrested and eight bombs seized after three youths riding on a bike hurled bombs at the CPI office here.

The police said, the youths hurled bombs yesterday at the CPI office when its Ganjam unit secretary Prakash Patra along with some senior leaders of the party were sitting inside the office after attending a party meeting at Seragada.

The bomb hit on the leg of the youth federation president, Ganjam Unit, Pradip Sethi, but failed to explode.

The police swung into action, after Prakash Patra lodged on FIR in the town police station.

Berhampur SP Debadutta Singh today appealed to the public not to panic, and said the incident was the handiwork of a criminal group to create fear-psychosis among the public and mislead the police.

The police has seized gun-powder weighing 200 gm, some stone chips, jute and some quantity of explosives from the two criminals- Sankar Sahu (32) and Balaram Nahak (19), both belonging to Nimakhandi.

The police patrolling has been intensified after the incident and efforts are on to nab the culprits involved, Singh added. — UNI

New Delhi, November 9
Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari will pay a two-day visit to Maldives from tomorrow to represent India at the inaugural swearing-in ceremony of the new President of the Republic of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed.

Nasheed was elected President of the Republic of Maldives in the first ever multi-party Presidential elections held on October 28. At the ceremony, Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hasan will be sworn in Vice-President of the Republic of Maldives.

During the visit, Ansari will call on the new President, the Vice-President and outgoing President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, in addition to meeting members of the Indian community in the Maldives, at a reception hosted by the Indian High Commissioner.

India and the Maldives have traditionally enjoyed close and friendly relations given the historical, ethnic and cultural ties.

Over the years, these bonds of friendship have become multi-dimensional encompassing a wide range of areas.

New Delhi, November 9
As many as 45 civil society organisations from across India converged in the capital to discuss the re-emergence of tuberculosis and work out strategies to counter it. India bears the world’s highest TB burden - one-third of the total global TB burden.

Experts agreed that although much is being said about the success of India’s Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) to meet global goals, much work still remains to be done.

Reports are that Dr Jorge Sampaio, special envoy of the UN secretary-general for the fight against tuberculosis and special representative for the alliance of the civilisations, recently called on health minister Anbumani Ramadoss to discuss issues pertaining to the ongoing RNTCP in India. The biggest challenge right now is to address TB-HIV linkages.

As regards the global burden of TB, India fares rather poorly accounting for 30 per cent of the global TB burden, followed by China at 15 per cent. Other countries contributing to the disease are Indonesia with 10 per cent of the global burden; Bangladesh and Pakistan with 4 per cent each, Phillipines and Nigeria with 3 per cent each; South Africa with 2 per cent and Russia with 1 per cent.

The civil society representatives, meanwhile, resolved to address new emerging challenges at the grassroots and called for understanding the changing nature of the disease.

“While government and civil society has met with the challenge a decade ago, this is the time to renew commitments to address emerging challenges and old threats that have resurfaced. There is no time for complacency,” Dr L.S. Chauhan, deputy director, TB, Health Ministry, warned.

Giving data from the TB control programme, he said so far 40 million people had been examined, more than 9 million patients treated and 1.6 million additional lives had been saved.

“The massive partnership in the RNTCP, comprising more than 2,500 NGOs, 260 medical colleges, 210 corporate houses has enabled the programme to achieve this. There is a need now for close coordination and clear communication while working together to face the challenge of including those who are currently outside the reach of the public health system,” the expert told The Tribune.

The recent reports have identified major challenges for the programme that include limited community awareness, suboptimal community participation and sense of ownership and emerging challenges of TB-HIV co-infection requiring accelerated health system response, and limitations in access to quality-TB care for the hard to reach, marginalised and vulnerable populations.

New Delhi, November 9
Wildlife conservationists may be trying hard to save tigers in India but local politics sometimes throw a dampener in their efforts - as in Maharashtra where the wrong tiger was killed by the Forest Department, which allegedly acted in haste because of political pressure.

The case in point is of Bramhapuri forest in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, where a tiger, mistaken to be a man-eater, was killed by forest department officials under alleged political pressure last year.

This came to light in an RTI reply where it was mentioned that the Forest Department had made a mistake by killing a male tiger instead of the man-eating menace, which was a tigress.

As per the pugmark report given in the RTI reply, the pugmarks of the man-eater did not match with the pug mark of the tiger that was killed.

People living around Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in October 2007 complained of a tigress, who was killing villagers in the area. — PTI

BRIEFLY

‘Taj Mahal’ premier at Cairo Film Fest
MUMBAI: Akbar Khan’s “Taj Mahal”, winner of two National Awards, is set to premier at 32nd Cairo International Film Festival, commencing from November 18. Speaking from Damascus on Saturday, where the film opened for the “Special Indian Night”, director Akbar Khan said, “Taj Mahal monument has become the focus of innumerable romantic stories. It is with this inspiration that I dared to produce and direct the magnum opus on the eternal love story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.” — UNI

Boy falls in borewell, dies
LUCKNOW: A 9-year-old boy, Puneet was brought out dead on Sunday after he fell in a 30-ft deep borewell in Kannauj district on Saturday. The police said all efforts to rescue Puneet failed and he was brought out dead on Sunday morning after surviving for about several hours inside the borewell. Puneet fell into the open borewell in Banwar Gara village in Kannauj while playing. He could not cry out for help as he had a speaking disability, which led to a delay in rescue operations. Meanwhile, the district authorities have announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Puneet’s family. — UNI

Mount Abu ‘eco-sensitive’
NEW DELHI: Industrial and other developmental activities will soon be banned around famous cultural heritage and tourism hotspot Mount Abu nestled in the lapse of the Aravali range in Rajasthan. The environment ministry has issued a draft notification to declare the area around the destination as a eco-sensitive zone so as to restrict industrial and other developmental activities for protecting its fragile environment. The draft notification issued in the past month under the Environment (Protection) Act is applicable to Mount Abu Municipal Council area, sanctuary and adjoining forests regions covering 12 villages. — PTI