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IAF chief ‘pleased’ with pay panel proposals
Red tape halts roads along China
Sidhu takes up Amritsar airport issue with Centre
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Assam Blasts
Singur Murder: 2 CPM men get life term
Chandrayaan enters
final lunar orbit
Egyptian Prez to visit India
Six killed in building collapse
President’s Standard for 59 Squadron
MIG-21 crashes in Assam
Jammu & Kashmir
This Kashmiri takes the battle to people’s court
Chhattisgarh
BJP banks on Cong infighting
Madhya Pradesh
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IAF chief ‘pleased’ with pay panel proposals
Bangalore, November 12 The Air Chief Marshal today said the panel’s recommendations on pay packets of the IAF personnel were “attractive” and would help in bringing youngsters to the IAF. The IAF chief, who was here today in connection with a function at the Air Force Technical College, said: “The IAF is an attractive option after the sixth pay commission”. Major was asked by a reporter whether the slump in the aviation industry would be a blessing in disguise for the IAF as it would stop the exodus of IAF pilots to commercial airliners. “I do not wish ill to any industry”, Major said on the slump in the aviation sector. He added that losing pilots to commercial air operators had never been a problem with the IAF. “The IAF had never been really bothered by this”, he said. The IAF is at present having a shortfall of 1,352 officers. Against a sanctioned strength of 12,120 officers, it is having a positioned strength 10,768 officers. Major told reporters that IAF was now going through a stage of massive modernisation. He said during 11th, 12th and 13th plans, a huge amount of technology was going to be brought into the IAF and this would totally change the IAF’s complexion within a few years. With regard to modernisation, Major mentioned introducing new weapons and use of sensors by IAF. The IAF would soon emerge as a major aerospace power, he said. The IAF chief said he was “very pleased” with the three dimensional Rohini radar developed jointly by DRDO and BEL. The IAF had placed orders for 30 such radars, he said. Major also revealed that the IAF would shortly acquire 128 new fighter jets. Evaluation of the jets is at an advanced stage, he said. He replied in the negative when asked whether the police action against an Army officer in the Malegaon blast case would affect the morale of the Army. “The Indian Army is 1.1 million strong. How can one incident affect the morale of the force”, he said.
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Red tape halts roads along China
New Delhi, November 12 All these roads were planned in the past two years as part of
India’s strategic needs projected by the security agencies. These were to connect remote lying areas in India along the Chinese border and aid faster movement of men and material in case of any emergency. The move had come after the Chinese surprised India by building a vast road and rail network in Tibet and in areas very close to the border between the two countries. For the 73 roads, the mandatory clearance from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) is awaited. The ministry of defence was startled after it came to know that the construction of roads had been held up as the mandatory clearances were still awaited. The MoD has now “reminded” the MoEF to speed up the matter in view of the national interest involved in these projects. The target was to progressively complete all the roads by 2012 but the progress was slow, sources said. The matter had come up for discussion in the last conference of the commanders of the armed forces in Delhi a few days ago. On its part the MoEF may be concerned about the geological stability of the mountains or the threat to fragile eco-systems and a depleting forest cover. The Himalayas on the Indian side are also prone to landslides. However, the sources said in most cases kutcha traditional routes exist and it was just a matter of widening them, building bridges over culverts and paving the road to make it motorable. These pending road projects are in all states that border China like Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. In other case new alignments are also being carved out. In India, except the roads, the work on other projects like upgrading airfields in the northeast or opening old disused airstrips in Ladakh are going on as per plan. Out of the 70 roads being built by the government, 20 are in the Arunachal Pradesh area. The road density in Sikkim is only 28.45 km per 100 sq km against the national average of 84 km. Arunachal Pradesh is even worse off, with a road density of just 18.65 km per 100 sq km. On the other hand, almost no rail link exists even as India is now conducting a survey to link areas like Leh with trains. On the Chinese side, the project for new rail lines will bring Chinese trains up to border with Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, two Indian states that figure prominently on the radar of the Sino-Indian disputes. The Indian security agencies opine that road and rail projects in China are completed quickly and often ahead of time while in India these face one hurdle after the other. Sources said the speed of Chinese construction was startling. Citing a few cases, they said infrastructure was right next to the Line of Actual Control.
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Sidhu takes up Amritsar airport issue with Centre
New Delhi, November 12 Sidhu highlighted how the airlines were being asked to pay more than double the landing charges than are payable at the Delhi airport. Patel formed a five-member committee to look into the anomalies being faced by the Amritsar airport. The committee would comprise M.S. Gill, minister of state for sports and youth welfare, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Tarlochan Singh, MP, Rajya Sabha, A.S. Kohli, Regional Director, Air India (North), and Rama Lingham, chairman, Airports Authority of India. The committee would visit the Amritsar airport and would meet all concerned to chalk out a plan to take corrective measures for an early solution. Sidhu said the 32 per cent of all passenger traffic at Delhi was from Punjab. Since the government of India decided to upgrade the Amritsar International Airport it had registered 35 per cent growth annually -- the highest in the country. Giving out figures, he said the passenger traffic at all airports was declining but the Amritsar airport registered a small increase. He wanted that landing charges for airlines be halved. He pointed out that the date of completion of the project was October 31, 2008, but till date only 40 per cent of the work had been completed. More X-ray (luggage scanning) machines were needed, he added. Pointing out to another anomaly, he had said goods could be shipped by road to Delhi or Mumbai for onward airlifting. However, the customs did not allow goods from Delhi to come under shipment to Amritsar. Goods from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Chandigarh should be airlifted from the Amritsar International Airport, he demanded.
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Police enters Bodo camps
Bijay Sankar Bora Tribune News Service
Guwahati, November 12 Official sources said a group of about 20 personnel accompanied by a magistrate and two local village heads entered the NDFB camp at around 4 pm today to carry out identification of militants lodged in the camp, which was under siege by the police and paramilitary forces since Monday night. The police have started verification of the NDFB cadres lodged in the camp and details are being awaited. There is heavy deployment of police commandos and paramilitary force just outside the camp even as tension gripped the villagers in the wake of police action. The NDFB had resisted the police attempt to enter the designated camp since Monday night but relented under mounting pressure and the police continued to keep the cadres under siege and also set up bunkers around the camp. As per the list of cadres submitted by the NDFB to the government, its designated camp at Borbori village was to house 200 members of the outfit. However, only 140 cadres were stated be inside the camp even as the police started the identification parade. As per the ground rules of the ceasefire, militants are not supposed to stay out of their notified designated camps. The NDFB has been under fire from the security forces for frequent violation of ceasefire ground ruled by its cadres. The Assam government yesterday claimed that investigation into the serial blasts had found involvement of some active NDFB members in the terror act. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police has been tracking at least two blasts suspects, suspected to be NDFB cadres, on the basis of their mobile phones.
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Singur Murder: 2 CPM men get life term
Kolkata, November 12 Tapashi was an active member of the Singur Krishi Bachaoo Committee, which was fighting for protecting their farmlands at Singur against the government’s ‘forcible’ acquisition for Tata Motors. Additional chief sessions judicial magistrate Amar Kanti Acharya, who had convicted the two under sections 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC yesterday, awarded the sentence in a packed court room. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them. The charred body of 18-year-old Tapasi, an agriculture labourer's daughter, was recovered from a pit inside the fenced off area for the now abandoned small car project at Bajemelia in Singur on December 18, 2006. This led to protests in Singur against land acquisition for the Nano project as Tapasi was an organiser of the Trinamool Congress led Save Farmland Committee. She had also led a demonstration against Tata officials in Singur. The judgment was certainly a big blow to the ruling CPM and particularly chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who had made the initial blunder in deciding on the land acquiring at Singur without obtaining the approval of the landowners. Neither the chief minister nor party secretary Biman Bose made any comment on the court’s judgment. But senior party leader Benoy Konar alleged that their leaders had been implicated in the case. He said the party would move the high court against the lower court’s judgment. But Mamata Banerjee expressed satisfaction over the judgment and hoped that the higher judiciary would uphold the judgment. |
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Chandrayaan enters
final lunar orbit
Bangalore, November 12 This followed a series of three orbit reduction manoeuvres conducted during the past three days by firing the spacecraft’s 440 Newton liquid engine. The farthest point of Chandrayaan-1’s orbit (aposelene) from the moon’s surface was first reduced from 7,502 km to 255 km and finally to 100 km while the nearest point (periselene) was reduced from 200 km to 182 km and then to 100 km. With this, the complex sequence of operations to carry Chandrayaan-1 from its elliptical earth orbit to a circular lunar orbit with the use of its liquid engine has been successfully completed. In the course of these operations, Chandrayaan-1’s liquid engine built by liquid propulsion systems centre, Thiruvananthapuram, has been fired a total of 10 times. In its present operational orbit, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft takes about two hours to orbit the moon once. From the 100-km high orbit passing over the polar regions of the moon, the scientific equipment aboard the Chandrayaan will do chemical, mineralogical and geological mapping of the moon.
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Balasore (Orissa), November 12 The indigenous missile, being developed by the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisations, was launched from an underground facility with an in-built canister at 11.25 am from Complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, DRDO sources said. The sleek missile, with a range of about 700 km and flight duration of 485 seconds, roared into the sky leaving behind a thick yellow and white smoke on a clear sunny day, they added. The sophisticated missile is capable of carrying conventional warheads with a payload of about one tonne. “With longer shelf-life, as it is stored in a canister just like the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile, the Shaurya is easily transportable and user-friendly. This is a technology development project,” DRDO sources said. — PTI
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Egyptian Prez to visit India
New Delhi, November 12 The President will be accompanied by his wife and a delegation that includes foreign minister Ahmed Aboul
Gheit, information minister Anass Ahmed Nabih El-Fiqqi and other senior ministers. A business delegation will also accompanying him, an official release said. Mubarak, who is visiting India after 25 years, will hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He will also meet President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President M.H Ansari, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and leader of Opposition L.K Advani. Several agreements are expected to be signed during the visit.
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Six killed in building collapse
Mumbai, November 12 The building named Sayyed House, constructed nearly a century ago, was in a dilapidated condition. Most of the residents had vacated the premises and only the family of one Dr Faizan Sayyed was residing in it. Unconfirmed reports said the doctor's family owned the property. Several people living in a part of the building had a miraculous escape as they had not returned home last night, the police said. Dr Faizan
Sayyed, who escaped unharmed, has been searching for his wife, two children and a brother who were in the building. The police said six bodies had been recovered from the debris.
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President’s Standard for 59 Squadron
Bangalore, November 12 The function saw an impressive march past by the recipient units, flag trooping by Mi-8 helicopters, aerial salute by Chetak helicopters and fly pasts by Avro, Dornier and AN-32 aircraft. The Hawks (Advanced Jet Trainers) in a Vic formation added luster to the occasion, which culminated with a breathtaking display by the Sarang helicopter aerobatic
display team. Karnataka Governor Rameswar Thakur and Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major were among the dignitaries present
at the function.
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MIG-21 crashes in Assam
Sibsagar, November 12 The MIG crashed at
Mathurapur near Gariapathar at about 10.45 am within three minutes of flying from Chabua airbase in Dibrugarh district, IAF sources said. Squadron Leader Subhandeep and Wing Commander Nanda, the two pilots of the MIG jet aircraft, ejected and landed safely with the help of their parachutes, the sources said.
— PTI
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Jammu & Kashmir Ehsan Fazili Tribune News Service
Hajin (Sonawari), November 12 The contestants vie against each other on the developmental scenario though they keep themselves mostly outside Hajin township and are engaged in door-to-door campaign in Sumbal and Naidkhai areas. As many as 22 candidates have been fielded from the area. Their fate would be decided in the first phase on November 17. The separatist JKLF chairman, Mohammad Yasin Malik, had launched an anti-election campaign on October 22 that was spearheaded by the coordination committee. Malik was arrested next day along with Showkat Ahmad Shah of the Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadeeth and were lodged under the Public Safety Act. The National Conference patron, Farooq Abdullah, had addressed an election rally at Nowgam, Sumbal, more than 10 km from here on Saturday. “These leaders (mainstream) have hardly ventured in this town because the popular sentiment is not with them,” confided a resident. The candidates have been holding door-to-door campaign in the outer areas, he added, as the normal life through the narrow road in old market place dotted by security personnel goes on. With less than a week left for the polling, no semblance of poll fever or fluttering party flags are visible that can be observed with vehicles fitted with loudspeakers and posters in the outer ridges. “We have been under tremendous pressure for many years,” said another resident as he refers to the “pressure and fear” from Ikhwanis and security forces in the past. He opines that there may be about 10 per cent support for the Independent candidate Imtiyaz Ahmad Parray of the Kukka Parray’s Awami League in the township. The youth support the coordination committee programme and wish to keep many elders away from voting for a traditional or regional party. A former militant leader, Mohammad Yusuf Parray, heading the counter-insurgent movement under Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen, had turned politician and was elected from the Hajin constituency in 1996. He lost to NC candidate Mohammad Akbar Lone in 2002 and was later killed by militants on September 13, 2003. Lone, who later became the deputy speaker of Assembly, is now pitted against Imtiyaz Ahmad Parray, son of Kukka Parray, an Independent (Awami League). “My party is for a comprehensive development and progress,” said Imtiyaz Parray. He is also aware of the large number of contestants and the situation arisen out of polarisation between two blocks of Sonawari and Sumbal.
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This Kashmiri takes the battle to people’s court
Srinagar, November 12 Iqbal Jan, who was arrested in New Delhi in November, 2006, for allegedly carrying hawala money for militants, has thrown his hat in the electoral ring, hoping to carry people with him while projecting him as a victim of India’s alleged highhanded and biased policies against Kashmiris. Separatists are playing up similar charges against India and are channelising public anger for their election-boycott campaign, so Iqbal Jan’s agenda, though confined to a small place and is more personal, is a bit of worry for them. “Fighting elections is not something we will like victims of state’s brute power to do. But we can’t stop people,” Hurriyat (M) leader Javed Mir says. The participation of Iqbal Jan, who hails from an average family and was running a private business before he and a friend were arrested in Delhi, has made elections interesting in this north Kashmir district, more so as the present incumbent of the seat is also a militant-turned-politician, Usman
Majid. Iqbal Jan is fighting on the Panthers Party’s ticket, a Jammu-based regional outfit with little political base in Kashmir. Despite its nationalistic
rantings, Bhim Singh-led Panthers Party has often expressed its displeasure over the arbitrary arrest of Kashmiri youths on subversive charges and has put up Iqbal Jan to register its presence in Kashmir, where it has no representation. “We wanted freedom for Iqbal from jail. We got no support from anybody and then Panthers Party leaders approached us, saying they would help in his release. We grabbed it,” a family member said, not willing to be quoted. As many as 19 candidates are in the fray in Bandipora, where the participation in elections has been much higher compared to urban Kashmir. It will go to the polls along with nine other assembly seats, three in Poonch, four in Ladakh and the rest in Bandipora district, on November 17.
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Election campaign ends for phase-I
Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service
Dentewada, November 12 Waiting for Karma to emerge from the office located in the district headquaters is Santosh Soni, a party supporter from Sarguja, whose apprehension is that the Naxalite movement may intensify if the CPI wins. Even though the BJP and the Congress leaders hate to admit it, the fact is that except for CPI leaders and supporters, no other party has been able to campaign in the interiors of the Bastar region, especially deep inside the Naxalite-infested Bijapur and Dantewada. Karma himself admits that he has not been able to visit all parts in his constituency. He said he had not been able to touch 30 to 35 villages. However, these were those sensitive areas, where Naxalite diktat runs and where polling would not take place at all. “Naxalism has increased…it is our main challenge,” Karma says, admitting that people of these areas will not be able to vote fearlessly due to the Naxal presence. Sources said for this seat, even the BJP wants Congress candidate Karma to win to ensure that the Salwa Judum movement stronger. They fear that if CPI’s Manish Kunjum manages to defeat Karma, it would be benefit the Naxalites. The Naxalite call for poll boycott and their posters, warning dire consequences to those who participate in the polling exercise on November 14, has ensured that there is fear not just amongst people but also officials deputed on election duty. Despite huge presence of paramilitary forces in the area, a police official admits that as far as Bijapur is concerned, the election campaign could take place only within the 10-km radius of the township. In the Dantewada Assembly constituency, situation can be called only slightly better. Meanwhile, the election campaign for the Phase-I 39 seats ended today. Amongst the important seats in this phase includes Rajnandgaon, from where Chief Minister Raman Singh is contesting the elections opposite Congress candidate Uday Mudliyar.
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Cong releases chargesheet against state
govt
Jagdalpur: The Congress today sought to shift gears in its effort to dislodge the BJP government by releasing a chargesheet on the last day of campaign in the first phase of poll for the state assembly. The chargesheet, released by party’s senior leader Charan Dass Mahant at Raipur, lists over 100 acts of omission and commission of the Raman Singh government. It was released on the day when party’s scion Rahul Gandhi was in the state to address two rallies, originally scheduled to be addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Though Rahul was more aggressive in its attack on the BJP, observers felt that the party had been late in releasing the chargesheet, which came only a day before polling to 39 seats of the 90-member assembly. The Congress seemed to pick up pace only on the last day, but the BJP has been making concerted efforts to woo voters by sending almost all its senior leaders to the state over the past one week. BJP president Rajnath Singh addressed a press conference in the state capital today in which he accused the Centre of targeting some Hindu saints even as it had not implemented the Supreme Court orders on execution of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal It now remains to be seen if the Congress is able to
capatilise on the chargesheet it released on Wednesday. Rahul Gandhi, who had earlier addressed rallies at Jagdalpur and
Bhillai, today conveyed the party's message at Dhamtari and Mahasamund. He said the BJP was defending Sangh Parivar activists suspected to be involved in the Malegaon blasts.
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Jumbo poll issue
Raipur, November 12 With the jumbo menace affecting northern part of the state comprising of districts like
Surguja, Koria, Jashpur, Korba and Raigarh, the ruling BJP has in its election manifesto promised a new scheme for development of a corridor for movement of elephants so that they do not stray into human habitations. “A new scheme would be implemented for the development of elephant conserved area (i.e elephant corridor) in the regions affected with the elephants, the manifesto said. The party’s concern stems from the apprehension that frequent attacks by elephants in these primarily agriculture areas could anger the farmers, a sizeable chunk of voters. Elephants have in the last few years repeatedly damaged paddy crops of farmers, besides killing the villagers. Last month, a herd of elephants went wild after entering a village in Surajpur block of Sarjuga district and trampled a septuagenarian woman there, an incident that had triggered a temporary migration of a large number of villagers. “The elephants come from the adjoining forests of Jharkhand and go back after wrecking havoc. Since they cause huge crop damage to the poor villagers, it’s indeed an issue there,” said a resident Manish Kumar Jha. Principal chief conservator of forest of the state R.N. Mishra said more than half a dozen districts falling in Vilaspur and Sarguja forest circles are affected with the elephant menace. “The central government has already accepted the state’s proposal for creation of forest conserved areas in Lemro at Raigarh-Korba border and between Badalkhol and Tamlurpingla, the main centres of elephant herds. Work will start once the state government issues notification regarding it,” Mishra added. Sources, however, say existence of coal blocks in the proposed forest corridor is delaying a decision. Residents take the issue with a pinch of salt. “Elephant menace continues here for decades. Why promise is made only during elections? It’s a political gimmick,” a youth Naresh Sahu says.
— PTI
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BJP banks on Cong infighting
New Delhi, November 12 The BJP’s election campaign is based on old “tried and tested issues”, according to party sources, which may or may not click with the voter. “Nationally, our issues are terrorism and inflation and locally (in Delhi) these are rate of interest and power bills,” said BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, here today. The BJP is ruling in three states and the Congress one, that is Delhi. Thus, if anti-incumbency were to work against the ruling parties as a rule, the BJP should be the bigger sufferer than the Congress. In Delhi, the BJP could have encashed on anti-incumbency against the 10-year rule of Sheila Dikshit, but it suffers from weak and uncharismatic leadership with Vijay Kumar Malhotra finding it difficult to synchronise his tune with the present day demands of the average Delhi citizen, concede BJP sources privately. The BJP leader hoped of a similar situation in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. This third force that the BJP is heavily banking on is none other than the BSP of UP Chief Minister Mayawati, who is entering the electoral fray in a big way in all these states. “She may hardly win anything for herself, but can damage the Congress and benefit us,” said the BJP source. Take the Mayawati factor out and there are similar problems facing both the Congress and the BJP, implying they are evenly matched, political analysts observed. If the Congress is divided in MP over the leadership question, BJP Chief Minster Shivraj Singh Chauhan is hardly a crowd puller. Moreover, he has been accused of serious corruption charges on several occasions. Similarly, if there are charges of selling ticket against Congress leaders then the BJP leaders have also been accused of selling ticket.
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Numbers let Rajnath down
Amrish Herdenia Tribune News Service
Bhopal, November 12 Minister for tourism Tukojirao Pawar has been arrested on charges of “obstructing a government servant in discharging his official duties”. The minister, accompanied by a former BJP Lok Sabha member Phoolchand Verma, verbally abused, threatened and misbehaved with Sanjana Jain, SDM of Sonkatch in Dewas district on Monday. The two leaders were angry because Jain had allegedly accepted the nomination papers of a Congress candidate after expiry of the deadline. Jain filed an FIR along with the video footage of the incident. The EC, impressed by the “courage” of the official, has decided to give her a commendation certificate and has ordered the transfer of the collector and the SP of Dewas district. Another development that has left the BJP leaders red-faced is the Madhya Pradesh High Court directing the CBI to inquire into the murder charges against the son of revenue minister Kamal Patel. The party is also rattled by poor public response to its “campaign blitzkrieg” on Monday and Tuesday. The party had decided to launch its campaign on Monday with over 30 leaders addressing public meetings at 80 different places. However, the plan came a cropper with poor turnout at meetings addressed by Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, former CMs Sunderlal Patwa and Kailash Joshi among others. At many places, public meetings had to convert into “workers’ meetings”. But the biggest embarrassment was in store for the party at Bhopal. Rajnath Singh had to take off for Raipur after waiting for an hour at the Bhopal airport for a respectable crowd to assemble at the venue of his public meeting. Not more than 300 persons had come to hear the party president.
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Srinagar, November 12
