New Delhi, August 12
A day after presenting his credentials to President Pratibha Patil, US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer today began his new assignment by making positive noises about the future of Indo-US relations and declaring Washington’s firm resolve to back India against terrorism.

“FBI officials are testifying this week in Mumbai in the 26/11 trial. We cannot forget that six Americans were killed along with dozens of Indians and many others in that brutal attack,” he said at a crowded press conference here.

Underlining that President Barack Obama views the Indo-US relationship as one of the most important partnerships for America’s future, Roemer quoted Mark Twain to say “India is the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition.”

Roemer, a former member of the House of Representatives, who served on the 9/11 commission investigating the 2001 terror attacks in the US, asked Pakistan to act against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, including Jamat-ud-Dawaa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed.

“People held in Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai attacks should be brought to justice. We are pressing Pakistan hard on the Mumbai suspects,” said the 52-year-old envoy, while responding to questions.

He promised to work with India in broadening and deepening counter-terror cooperation, saying, “We share a common understanding of the enemy,” while referring to the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other terrorist outfits operating in the region.

Roemer asserted that the Obama administration’s position was resolute and bold. It was committed to shutting down terrorists’ networks and financing of those networks to bring the perpetrators of the “bloodthirsty” attacks to justice.

He said the Home Minister P Chidambaram had been invited to the US for additional discussions with the US authorities on precisely how the two countries could cooperate in the fight against terrorism.

Paying rich tributes to the multi-faceted relationship between the two countries, Roemer said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be going to Washington in November on an official visit. The PM, he noted, had also invited Obama to visit India.

Roemer said the American President had asked him to extend his heartfelt wishes to the Prime Minister and his health. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he said, would be a frequent visitor to India to consult New Delhi on shared concerns of both countries. “We announced at the end of Secretary Clinton’s (recent) visit (to India), a robust agenda that we intend to advance: strategic cooperation; energy and climate change; education and development; economics; trade and agriculture; and science, technology, health and innovation,” he added.

New Delhi, August 12
Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Manipur have send memoranda to the ministry asking for drought-assessment teams to be sent to their respective states, according to Agriculture Commissioner NB Singh. At present, seven states in the country have declared drought in a total of 167 districts. These include Assam (27 districts), Manipur (nine districts), Nagaland (11 districts), Jharkhand (24 districts), Uttar Pradesh (58 districts) Himachal Pradesh (12 districts) and Bihar 
(26 districts).

Punjab and Haryana, also affected by deficient monsoon this year, have not declared drought because of the excellent irrigation network. However, the two states, along with UP, have demanded more power from the Central pool. “Punjab and Haryana are under 100 per cent irrigation and paddy transplantation there has taken place normally. Punjab, Haryana and UP have demanded more power from the Central pool. The Centre has told them that power released from the Central pool should not be diverted for any other purpose,” Singh told The Tribune.

Meanwhile, assessment teams for Manipur, Jharkhand and UP will be visiting the three states soon. Headed by a senior officer, they will assess and submit a report to the ministry. This will be followed by an inter-ministerial meeting to take a final view on how much damage has occurred and how much the states have to be given. “As and when other states send their requests, we will send our teams,” Singh said.

The PM is closely monitoring the drought situation with daily inputs from the Agriculture Ministry. A chief ministers’ meeting on August 17 and state agriculture ministers’on August 21 have been planned to assess the situation.

The focus right now is to protect crops and provide a contingency back-up and if the rains resume, the situation can be brought under control. The reduction in paddy production can be compensated in the rabi season, Singh said.

PMEAC chairman C. Rangarajan warned that farm-sector distress can have consequences on the economy. He asked the government to raise additional resources to provide relief to the drought-hit and increase import of essential commodities to check price rise. He said, “Distress in agriculture (due to drought) will have other serious dimensions. The government may have to find additional resources to meet the requirements of affected people.”

Rangarajan also said the growth rate could slip between 6 and 6.5 per cent from 6.7 per cent in the previous fiscal. 

New Delhi, August 12
A team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) embarked on an expedition today to scale Mount Everest and then ski down the icy slopes in an attempt to create a world record to be the first skiers to do so.

The expedition was flagged off by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram here. He termed it as “vital for honing skills in operational preparedness and crucial for survival strategy.”

The expedition would be led by Harbhajan Singh, a DIG-level officer and experienced mountaineer. The 28-member team would climb Mount Everest from South Col and scale the 8,850 m (29,035 ft) summit before skiing down to the nearest camp, said Vikram Shirvastava, Director-General of the ITBP.

Special equipment and clothing have been procured by the ITBP for the expedition. Two special helmet mounted video cameras were planned to be used to record the skiing-down event. Professional high-altitude photographers were also being hired to record the event.

“Eight of us are skiers, who will ski down the summit, while the rest of us will clear the garbage left behind by mountaineering teams at high altitudes,” said Harbhajan Singh. The team hopes to set up its first base camp at 17,500 feet (5,300 m) by August 26 before starting their month-long expedition.

The team of 28 members has three Everest-scalers, namely Inspector Hira Ram, Constable Pradeep and Constable Pasang T Sherpa, and two international-level skiers, Assistant Commandant Bhag Chand Thakur and Assistant Commandant Nanak Chand Thakur (Olympic skier).

New Delhi, August 12
Stating the obvious, the Commonwealth Human Right Initiative’s, report today said “Irrespective of the party in power, the Government of India has never exhibited the political will to make the police a professional force…..”

The CHRI released a report “Feudal forces reform delayed - Moving from Force to Service in South Asian Policing”. It focuses on the status of the much-delayed police reforms in the country and also other neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Union Minister of Human Resource development Kapil Sibal released the report at function here this evening. It has been authored by Sanjay Patil, consultant with CHRI. Sibal made it clear that his remarks were not in his capacity as minister as he said: “The rot is so endemic that reform is not going to be easy”. The police cannot be reformed in isolation we have to reform several systems around the police. He pointed out that the Congress had included the issue of police reforms in its election manifesto.

Maja Daruwala, Director CHRI, pointed out: “With its manifesto and subsequent statements, this government has committed itself to democratic policing. Therefore, concrete steps must be taken immediately”. The CHRI report said India and other South Asian countries are on “life support”. But instead of having professional law enforcement, poor police performance in South Asia is inevitable because the system of governance in these countries is dysfunctional. The report says in the absence of political will or a committed effort on the part of the police to engage in internal reform, the abusive and corrupt practices of law enforcement throughout South Asia will remain the same. It details how police complaints authorities (PCAs) that deal with police excesses, exist only on paper even in the few states that have set up such authorities. No state has so far enacted a legislation to establish its PCA. The report quoted the finding of torture across 47 district in the country.

“Police throughout South Asia ought to be focused on providing a service as a means to uphold the law, rather than utilising force to impose the law,” said Patil. The police in India have a history of being underfunded and unaccountable. The SC has issued directives compelling the Union and State governments to implement comprehensive police reforms yet all governments continue to undermine the letter and spirit of those instructions.

Tired of the status quo, eminent citizens of India (including former Chief Justice JS Verma, advocate Soli Sorabjee and former DG Ved Marwah) have come together and signed a letter urging the Union government to do the following: Implement in Delhi and the Union Territories the Supreme Court directives compelling police reform; urge and encourage state governments to enact the Court’s directives at the state level; take steps to ensure recruitment and promotions are based only on merit; revise training content so that it places more emphasis on protecting human rights, using minimal force and utilising forensic technology to solve cases. 

New Delhi, August 12
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today high priority would be accorded to the newly constituted Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that would provide a single identity number and card to 1.17 billion people and that it would benefit the poor in particular.

Speaking at the first meeting of the council that will advise the UIDAI, the Prime Minister pointed out, “Providing identities to the poor and the marginalised will enhance their access to the government services, both at the state level and the centre and will enable delivery of direct benefits to the poor and under-served.”

Mumbai, August 12
The National Institute of Virology in Pune is swamped by samples sent in from across the country to be tested for the H1N1 virus. The institution’s resources are completely stretched, its director, Akhilesh Mishra, told The Tribune.

“We would like to have our workload reduced…it is simply not possible to get all the samples tested,” Mishra said. As a research institution, the NIV’s mandate is to study the spread of virus and its impact on people. “The NIV will continue to track the H1N1 virus,” Mishra said. He further added that scientists would henceforth collect samples for testing on a random basis. “We may test samples of only the most severe cases,” Mishra said.

According to Mishra, the government has recommended that all patients showing symptoms of swine flu be given the prescribed treatment without waiting for confirmation.

“The NIV has the resources to test 300 samples per day, but we are testing more than 600 samples daily,” Mishra said. He added that personnel from other departments, including those involved in research of other viruses, have been drafted into working on the swine flu cases.

Considering that Pune, the NIV’s home base, is the epicenter of the swine flu epidemic, the organisation has its hands full. “We have advised the setting up of more testing centres and 22 such centres have come up. We are also advising doctors on providing treatment on a priority basis for those seriously affected,” Mishra said.

He added that the NIV was keeping a close watch on the behaviour of the virus to see if it mutates and becomes resistant to medications like Tamiflu.

Chandigarh, August 12
The panic caused by swine flu pandemic has led to brisk business for traders and suppliers of the N 95 masks. With black marketeers stepping in, these masks are available for Rs 250 a piece, as against its original price of Rs 50.

These disposable masks, which had no demand before the swine flu outbreak in the country, are suddenly in great demand. Among the precautions that one can take against the deadly disease is to wear these masks in crowded areas. But for the past couple of days, these masks are not available in most chemist shops and hospitals in Punjab and Haryana. At a few places that these masks are available, these are being sold for Rs 200- Rs 250 a piece.

Even the normal masks (double layered and three -layered masks) are being sold at a ‘premium’. As against a price of Rs 4 a mask (two layer) earlier, it is now selling at Rs 5-6 a piece, while the three-layered mask is being sold at Rs 8- Rs 25 a piece, as against its earlier price of Rs 5 a piece. In wake of the unavailability of the N 95 masks, these masks are selling like hot cakes now.

These N 95 masks are generally imported from USA and France and are available in a packing of 20 masks. Till a few days back, the masks retailed in India under the brand name of 3 M were being retailed for Rs 95 a mask, while the French masks under the brand na3me “Willson” were selling for Rs 50- RS 55 a piece. But with a huge demand for these masks in Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, and limited stocks, the traders and suppliers are trying to make a quick buck by black marketing these masks.

Inquiries made by The Tribune in Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Panchkula and Ambala has revealed that chemists who have stocks of these masks are selling these for anything between Rs 200- Rs 250. Posing as a relative of a swine flu suspect, the correspondent managed to buy this mask from a chemist shop in Sector 6, Panchkula, for Rs 200.

On demanding a bill, the chemist refused saying that it was an imported item and they could not give a bill for the same. After much persistence, the chemist gave a bill, but by mentioning another item of the same amount.

Most of these masks are being brought in the region from Delhi, through suppliers and middlemen in Bhagirath Palace. When contacted by TNS by posing as an employee of a private hospital in need of 100 masks, a leading supplier in Delhi, Mukesh Bhasin, said that though the MRP of these masks was Rs 50 a piece, he could supply it for Rs 250 a piece. “There is a scarcity and we are not taking huge orders, but we will make an exception for you. But we will not give any bill for this deal,” he said.

In Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Chandigarh, where the N 95 masks are not available, even the two layered and three-layered masks are being retailed at a premium of Rs 3 to Rs 5 a piece. A chemist in Jyoti chowk, Jalandhar, said a three-layered mask was available for Rs 8 a piece. He, too, refused to give any bill for the purchase made from his shop. 

Patna, August 12
Once again law has caught up with some of the law makers in Bihar. The Special CBI Court here on Wednesday convicted nine persons and awarded life imprisonment to eight of them in connection with former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad murder case.

Among the convicts are two MLAs of ruling JD(U) — Munna Shukla and Shashi Kumar Rai — besides Suraj Bhan Singh and Rajan Tiwari , a former MP and an ex-MLA from the LJP, respectively.

Rai has been awarded only two years of imprisonment while all other convicts have been sentenced to life imprisonment. Prasad, a Cabinet minister in both Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi government, was gunned down along with his armed security guard, a Police man, on June 13, 1998, at a super specialty hospital here.

He was admitted under judicial custody. Prasad was sacked from the ministry by the then Chief Minister Rabri Devi after being arrested by the CBI and sent to jail in connection with the Bihar Combined Engineering Entrance Examination Test racket.

He was charged with manipulating the test to get his own candidates selected for admission to government engineering colleges. The candidates selected at the behest of the minister for Science and Technology had reportedly paid a huge amount of money to the minister and other top officials involved in conducting the test.

The racket was busted following a probe ordered by the Patna High Court. Subsequently, the court handed over the investigation of this racket to the CBI. The progress of CBI probe in the said case was regularly being monitored by the court. The trial continued for a decade in the designated CBI Judge court here during which 72 prosecution witnesses were examined by the court. One of the main assailants of this case, Sri Prakash Shukla, aGangster, of UP and Bihar, was killed by the Special Task Force of UP at Ghaziabad soon after the CBI had started the probe.

Another accused in the case, Sunil Singh committed suicide during his incarceration at Beur Jail in course of his trial.

Prasad’s killing as per the prosecution story was a fall out of the ongoing gang war between his gang and that of Munna Shukla and Bhutkun Shukla. Both the Shuklas were gunned down in two separate incidents and Prasad was named as main accused in both the cases. The JD(U) MLA convicted for Prasad’s murder today happens to be the younger brother of slain Shuklas.

The killing of Prasad, then an influential RJD leader and also an alleged gangster from North Bihar, had sparked a lot of political controversy and his widow Rama Devi, a RJD MP at that time had even raised fingers at her own party for the incident.

It was due to her pressure the state government handed over the probe of this case to the CBI. Rama Devi subsequently became a minister in the Rabri Devi government. Prasad’s younger brother Shyam Bihari Prasad was nominated as successor of Prasad by the RJD during the byelection from his assembly constituency following his killing.

He not only won the polls but was also appointed as a state minister in the Rabri Devi government. But in course of time he changed sides and joined the JD(U) to become an MLA from the same constituency . Even Rama Devi, Prasad’s widow, joined the BJP on the eve of the last Lok Sabha elections and was elected to Parliament from the Sheohar constituency as NDA candidate.

By an irony of fate the younger brother of slain Prasad and main prosecution witness of this high profile case, Shyam Bihari Prasad as well as two main convicts of this case -Munna Shukla and Shashi Kumar Rai are all MLAs from the same party, the JD(U). Rama Devi, the complainant of the case is also an MP of the BJP, an alliance partner of ruling JD(U) in the state.