Lucknow, August 5
Elephants adorning memorials are in the traditional welcome pose with their trunks up in the air and have nothing in common with the BSP’s election symbol by any stretch of imagination, clarified BSP national general secretary Satish Mishra today.

“Elephants in such a posture are visible at many temples of the country and are considered auspicious in the Indian tradition and have nothing to do with the party’s election symbol,” said Mishra.

He said elephants in an identical position could be seen in Rashrapati Bhawan, many Raj Bhawans and many places of historic importance in the country.

Mishra was responding to the Election Commission notice to the party to explain why the BSP should not be debarred from contesting elections and the party symbol frozen for jeopardising the concept of free and fair election.

“The party has already made its stand clear to the Election Commission and will soon be doing it once more,” said Mishra, blaming the opposition parties and anti-Dalit forces for instigating such charges.

He said it was absurd to juxtapose two unrelated things. “The BSP is distributing cycles to BPL girls to help them go to school. Cycle is the Samajwadi Party’s election symbol. Wouldn’t it be equally absurd to draw the conclusion that we are doing this to popularise the SP election symbol?”

The EC has sought a reply from the BSP on the complaint of an NGO that alleged that the BSP symbol and the statues of Chief Minister Mayawati were against the spirit of the Constitution that provides for a level-playing field to all political parties.

Around 60 marble elephants have been installed at the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajid Parivartan Sthal at a cost of Rs 52 crore.

Lucknow, August 5
Contrary to reports, the Uttar Pradesh government has no plan to build any kind of corridor behind the 17th century Taj Mahal, a state official said here Wednesday.

State housing principal secretary Harminder Raj Singh flatly denied reports appearing in a section of the media about the Mayawati government's plans to erect a foot overbridge or a ropeway over the Yamuna river, just next to the heritage monument.

"There was no question of building anything in or around the Taj Mahal without the concurrence of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as well as a formal nod by the Supreme Court of India," Singh pointed out.

Agra Development Authority vice chairman Tanveer Zafar Ali has also refuted reports attributed to him.

Contradicting a report appearing in a leading national daily on the issue, Ali said: "It was a figment of imagination of the paper to assume that the Agra Development Authority was ready with a blue print of the plan.

"There was only some loud thinking on a suggestion to build a foot overbridge across the Yamuna river to connect the Mehtab Bagh (across the river bank) with Agra Fort to facilitate tourist movement from one monument to the other.

"Another company had suggested the construction of a ropeway, but that too was
suggested almost a kilometre away from the Taj and under no circumstances could
it be even initiated without an express permission of both the ASI and the apex
court." — IANS

Panaji, August 5
The Goa government today said it would invoke Epidemic Act when chartered flights carrying foreign tourists begin to arrive in the coastal state, in September-end.

“We do not intend to invoke the Epidemic Act at this point of time. But once the tourist season starts, we will put it into effect,” state health minister, Vishwajeet Rane, said here, after commissioning 30 new paramedics in state health services.

“Maharashtra has invoked the Act because there are thousands of international guests arriving at its airport. We don’t feel it is required for Goa at this moment,” he said, adding all the guidelines prescribed by the Union Health ministry are being adhered to strictly, to deal with the flu.

The tourist season would bring in guests from across the world to the state, many of who could be from flu-affected countries, Rane said.

Hence, the state government had asked for additional equipment to be installed at the airport to screen the patients, he said.

“I have spoken to Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel asking for a scanner,” the health minister added.

Goa receives around four lakh foreign tourists annually, mostly coming from European countries. — PTI

Chennai, August 5
The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered the Tamil Nadu State Aids Control Authority (TANSACA) to remove all posters in the state having a photograph of Thilakavathi and her child within a week.

Thilakavathi had petitioned the court claiming the photos were used without obtaining her consent.

The TANSACA had used Thilakavathi and her four-year-old daughter’s picture with a message ‘an HIV+ve woman does not necessarily infect her child with AIDS,’ in their posters for creating awareness.

Supporting Thilakavathi, the court said, “The poster created serious problems for Thilakavathi and her family and made it difficult for family to be a part of society.”

The court asked the State Health Department to evolve rules for using photos from the web in future.

In their petition, Thilakavathi and her husband Magesh explained the mental trauma they were facing as a family.

They said the entire neighborhood was avoiding them due to the poster as it had created a suspicion that she was suffering from AIDS. — ANI

Chennai, August 5
Asserting that electronic voting machines (EVMs) could be tampered with, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa today said many parties, including the BJP and TDP, had raised doubts over the functioning of the EVMs, while the Election Commission was continuously insisting on hard proof against the machines.

The former Chief Minister said she had been repeatedly insisting from the year 2000 that the machines were not infallible.

"With unscrupulous persons holding the reins of power at the Centre and state, doctored EVMs can cause election results to be manipulated to suit ruling parties in a significant number of constituencies, if not all", she said in a statement here.

"When I first raised the clarion call, there were not many takers. This was mainly because the Election Commission obdurately insisted that the EVMs being used by them were tamper-proof, and no political party had the hard proof to contest this.”

After the recent Lok Sabha elections, parties like the BJP, the TDP, the PMK and several others had also taken up the issue of EVM tampering.

The PMK had even filed a case in the Madras High Court in this regard, even as the EC continued to insist that tampering with EVMs was not possible.

"On August 2, Hari Prasad, a software engineer from a Hyderabad firm, demonstrated on behalf of an NGO that the EVMs that were being used today could indeed be tampered with fairly easily.

"This should come as an eye-opener not only to the Election Commission of India and the judiciary but also to the voting public.

"In a democracy, every voter should know whether the vote cast has gone to the candidate and the party it was meant for."

In the absence of any such certainty, the entire democratic process would be rendered a mockery.

Mumbai, August 5
A special court today rejected CBI's demand for further custody of Sarobjit Singh, son of NCSC Chairman Buta Singh, and three others in a bribery case and remanded them in judicial custody till August 12.

The court also posted their bail petitions for hearing tomorrow. "I am rejecting CBI's demand for custody of all accused as sufficient time has been given for probe to the investigating agency...I also feel that further custodial interrogation is not necessary," judge S P Hayatnagarkar observed.

Besides Sarobjit, the other accused arrested in the case are Anup Begi, Dukhsingh Chouhan and Madan Solanki.

They are facing charges of seeking a bribe of Rs one crore from Nashik-based contractor Rama Rao Patil to close a case pending before the National Commission for Scheduled Castes against him.

Patil had allegedly taken Rs 10 crore loan from a bank in the names of 100 conservancy workers without their consent and failed to pay the sum.

CBI said accused Sarobjit Singh, alias Sweety, was not cooperating with the probe and that he had denied his role in the crime.

CBI further said it wanted to take Sarobjit to Delhi for further investigations to ascertain the chain of events and modus operandi of the crime.

The investigating agency said Sarobjit was not revealing the name of the owner of mobile number from which several calls were made to hawala operators in Mumbai and Bangalore. Sarobjit is trying to mislead the investigations, CBI alleged.

CBI informed the court that three more accused - Shamlal Choudhary, an alleged
hawala operator from Bangalore, Ishwar Singh and Chandan Singh -- are wanted
in the case.

Ishwar and Chandan are servants of arrested accused Madan Solanki and Dukhsingh Chouhan, alleged hawala operators from Mumbai.

The CBI said that both Ishwar and Chandan are suspected to be carriers of money in pursuant to the conspiracy hatched in Delhi.

Sarobjit's lawyer Satish Maneshinde said the accused has a right to silence and Sarobjit does not want to answer any questions put forth by the CBI.

Maneshinde alleged that the CBI had threatened to falsely implicate Sarobjit's father Buta Singh in the case if he (Sarobjit) did not confess.

Meanwhile, all the four accused, including Sarobjit, applied for bail and the court asked prosecution to file a reply by tomorrow. — PTI

New Delhi, August 5
The Indian film fraternity is trying to seek 1,00,000 solidarity comments on a social networking website to urge the government to confer the prestigious Bharat Ratna upon Bollywood thespian Dilip Kumar.

A community titled “Dilip Kumar for Bharat Ratna” on Facebook, that now has over
850 members dedicated to the cause, had been started at the behest of film maker
Mahesh Bhatt.

Bhatt said he was not the only one who wishes that the 86-year-old be awarded the country’s highest civilian honour.

“It is the entire industry’s effort. From every region, stalwarts have come out to appeal for him. I am just a foot soldier. It is the Indian film industry’s effort, not an individual's effort,” Bhatt told IANS via SMS.

The group has been primarily created to seek solidarity from people so that the administrators of the website can bind all comments in a book and submit it to the President and Prime Minister.

The members of the community have been asked to “leave a comment or endorse by replying a one liner - I endorse that Dilip Kumar is the most deserving person to be honoured with the Bharat Ratna”.

Dilip Kumar, who is married to actress Saira Bano, is known for his landmark performances in films like “Devdas”, “Ganga Jamuna”, “Mughal-E-Azam”, “Madhumati”, “Shakti” and “Karma”. Many of his fans as well as members of the industry have put out individual comments.

Celebrities supporting the cause include actors like Rajeev Khandelwal, Mukul Dev, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Varun Badola, Randeep Hooda and Urvashi Dholakia.

Film critic and filmmaker Khalid Mohammed, director Prabhakar Shukla and popular Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila have also joined the effort.

Till date no actor has received the Bharat Ratna award. In 1992, acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray was the first person from the entertainment industry to have been conferred the honour. — IANS

New Delhi, August 5
Sharad Yadav’s preeminence as the president of Janata Dal (United) is likely to come under threat when organisational polls of the party are held this month, a formal announcement about which may be made anytime.

Notably, Sharad Yadav has been presiding over Janata Dal and its later day incarnation, the JD(U), ever since the party ousted its then president Lalu Prasad Yadav 12 years ago and elected him as the president.

Last JD(U) organisational polls were held in 2006 when George Fernandes lost badly to Sharad Yadav, the latter then enjoying the support of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The body elections were due in 2008, but had to be put off in view of the impending General Election.

As of now, say JD(U) sources, Nitish Kumar, who enjoys a clout in the party, is in favour of a “change in leadership”, “wanting young person to lead party in Delhi”.

And there are indications that JD(U) deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lallan’, might take over the reins from Sharad Yadav.

Presently, Lallan is the president of JD(U)’s Bihar unit and is considered the “second-in-command” after Nitish Kumar.

Sources say there are two factors guiding Nitish in his desire to seek a change of leadership at the national level: Sharad Yadav has led the party far too long; a section in the party feels there should be some fresh face to lead it now.

The only other leaders of national eminence in JD(U) are George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar himself.

While George was never acceptable to the Sharad-Nitish duo, Nitish himself is too preoccupied in Patna.

But, his supporters cite the instance of Lalu Prasad who led the Janata Dal for about two years while being the Bihar Chief Minister.

Then, Sharad drew strength from enjoying the confidence of Lalu Prasad and was appointed as the working president of the party, until Sharad turned against Lalu and contested against him.

Drawing a parallel, sources said, even if Nitish Kumar himself assumes the presidential office, Lallan could be the working president in Delhi.

Already, Sharad Yadav has been considerably marginalised in the party. As party president, he was expected to lead the JD(U) in Parliament.

But Nitish chose Ram Sunder Das, a 88-year-old leader with hardly any experience in national politics, as parliamentary party leader. As Das hardly comes to the House, in his absence Lallan leads the JD(U).

New Delhi, August 5
The Supreme Court has cautioned high courts against passing interim orders in a casual manner in matters relating to promotion to IAS cadre, saying it will lead to "irreparable injury" to public interest.

"It is beyond any cavil of doubt that before passing any interim order, the courts should not only consider prima facie case, balance of convenience, and irreparable injury but also its effect on public interest," a bench of justices SB Sinha and Cyriac Joseph observed.

The apex court passed the order while setting aside an interim Punjab and Haryana High Court order of March 25, 2008, that had stayed the reversion of Bhagwant Singh and five others promotee officers who were reverted from the IAS cadre by the state government after it was found that their elevation was not done in accordance with the rules.

Singh and other officers challenged their reversion before the high court that stayed the government order but in the process stalled the promotion of six direct recruit officers who were to be elevated to the prestigious IAS.

Aggrieved by the high court's order, the direct recruits Prabhjot Singh Mand and others filed a civil appeal in the apex court.

Upholding their plea, the apex court observed, "It may be true that when an employee is reverted to a lower post, he would suffer civil consequences, but then, it was necessary not only in public interest, but also to give effect to the doctrine of comity and/or amity."

The apex court said the dispute was not between any private parties but between two cadre of senior officers, which has a bearing on public interest.

"Appointment to the cadre of IAS is a matter of public interest. An interim order involving public interest in public law cases must receive different considerations," the apex court said.

The bench said the order of the high court has resulted in a piquant situation in which the direct recruits, who were entitled to promotion, could not be promoted because of the interim order.

"They (direct recruits) could not be denied promotion by another interim order passed in favour of the first respondent (promotee) directing that they could not be reverted as a result whereof the vacancy would not occur," the apex court observed, while setting aside the high court's order. — PTI

New Delhi, August 5
Keeping her Budget promise, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today flagged off two ladies' special trains from Delhi to Palwal and Mumbai to Panvel, which would not only provide safety to women travellers but also cater to the needs of the rising number of women office-goers.

Flagging off the two trains simultaneously from here through a remote control system, the minister dubbed them as a ‘rakhi’ gift on Raksha Bandhan to the women of the country. The Mumbai launching was shown live on a large screen at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus there.

Keeping the safety and security of women travellers in mind, women RPF personnel would be deployed in the ladies’ special trains.

For the National Capital Region this is the first ladies’ train to be launched in the rush hour. Similar trains are already operational in Mumbai. A ladies’ special train was also flagged off recently in Kolkata.

New Delhi, August 5
The government has made it mandatory for all hotels to become more user friendly for the differently abled.

According to the revised guidelines issued by the Ministry of Tourism today, the existing and new hotels of all categories in the country will now have to comply with the requirements for the differently abled in respect of accessibility and having special rooms with bathrooms and facilities in the public area by September 1, 2010.

The Tourism Ministry has tried to address major concerns to make the classification norms friendlier for the differently abled by adopting the best international practices, officials said.

In order to keep abreast with contemporary requirements of the hospitality industry, the ministry recently reviewed norms for approval of hotel projects and guidelines for classification of hotels.

The changing requirements of international and domestic travellers clubbed with emerging safety and security consciousness in view of the recent incidents in the country necessitated a review of the hotel classification norms which were last reviewed in 2003.

The guidelines were finalised by the Tourism Ministry after several rounds of interaction with and inputs from the hotel industry and the related stakeholders. Issues regarding safety and security have also been addressed in the guidelines.

As per star category, hotels should have metal detectors, CCTV, X-ray machines, under belly scanners to screen vehicles and verification of staff and suppliers.

Food and beverage outlets (restaurants) in the hotels have also been rationalised. For this purpose, the minimum number and type of restaurants have been allocated depending on the location of the hotel in the country based on a system of Grade A and Grade B cities.

The Grade A cities would comprise major metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Delhi. Delhi would include the hotels located in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida.

The Grade B cities would comprise all cities not covered in Grade A. Hotels located in the Grade A cities would be required to offer more types of cuisine as compared to Grade B cities.

New Delhi, August 5
The Centre will give financial assistance to states, which have introduced diesel subsidy for farmers to enable them to provide supplementary irrigation in drought and rainfall-deficit areas to protect standing crops.

A communication in this regard was sent to state governments and union territories on Monday. The decision, taken in view of the poor monsoon, will help in mitigating adverse impact of the drought.

The scheme will be implemented with the participation of state governments and UT administrations with a view to offset the cost of diesel used for pumping water for providing supplementary irrigation and will be applicable in districts where the rainfall deficit is more than 50 per cent as on July 15 as reported by IMD or talukas and districts that have been declared as drought-affected areas. Farmers in affected regions will be covered between July 15 and September 30.

It is intended to provide 50 per cent subsidy on the cost of diesel to affected farmers for up to three protective irrigations subject to a maximum total subsidy of Rs 1,000 per hectare, limited to maximum of two hectares per farmer.

Assistance given through subsidy will be shared between the Centre and states on 50:50 basis, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture said.

It will be the responsibility of states and UTs to initially extend the full subsidy amount. In case, states and UTs decide on a higher percentage of subsidy, the Centre’s 50 per cent contribution will be capped to a maximum of 50 per cent cost of diesel, subject further to a cap at Rs 7.50 per litre.

In case states and UTs offer a lower subsidy, then Center’s share will be limited to 50 per cent of the said lower subsidy amount.

Chandigarh, August 5
The Army has initiated disciplinary proceedings against a major-general from Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) for alleged bungling in procurement of equipment and supplies meat for troops proceeding abroad for a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Sources said Major-Gen Anil Swarup, officiating Commandant of the School for Materials Management, Jabalpur, has been attached with Headquarters 9 Corps in Himachal Pradesh for commencement of disciplinary proceedings.

He could face a possible trial by general court martial, depending upon the outcome of further proceedings.

The orders for his attachment came a day before he was to retire from service at the end of last month.

He had challenged the proceedings against him in the Delhi High Court. A stay imposed by the high court on subsequent proceedings was vacated last week.

The Army thereafter invoked Section 123 of the Army Act, which empowers it to take action against individuals who have retired.

Earlier this year, a court of inquiry (COI) presided over by Lt-Gen PC Katoch, Director-General Information Systems at Army Headquarters held General Swarup blameworthy of financial misappropriation in the purchase of items like clothing, accessories, generator sets and associated equipment for a unit deploying overseas on a United Nations mission in 2007.

The COI found that prices of items so procured were heavily inflated vis-à-vis general market rates.

The findings of the COI were forwarded to the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Chandimandir for directions, who ordered disciplinary action against the blameworthy officer.

The alleged misappropriations took place when General Swarup was posted as Additional Director General (ADG), Ordnance Services at Army Headquarters.

Proceedings are also underway against another AOC major-general, who had held
the same post.