New Delhi, August 14
The national capital will witness unprecedented security arrangements tomorrow when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unfurls the Tricolour and addresses the nation from the ramparts of historic Red Fort on the occasion of 63rd Independence Day.

More than 50,000 Delhi Police personnel are on round-the-clock duty starting today morning on the Capital roads.

Around 8, 000 security men consisting of NSG commandos and members of the paramilitary forces have secured the area around the Red Fort.

Armed with state-of-the-art machine guns and 50 surveillance cams, the security personnel are ready to thwart any terror threat.

As per information, 32 NSG sharpshooters, said to be best in the country would take up key position on the Fort and high-rise building in its vicinity starting midnight today till the end of function.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Home accompanied by Delhi Police Commissioner YS Dadwal took stock of the security arrangements late today evening and are known to have expressed satisfaction at the arrangements.

“Every thing is in place and we assure you of incident-free celebrations tomorrow,” said a senior Delhi Police officer associated with the security arrangements.

A no-fly zone will be in place around the fort during the 90 minutes function while the air space would remain closed for seven hours starting 6 to 10 in the morning and 4 to 7 pm in the evening.

Besides the Red Fort, intense vigil will be maintained at key installations like the Parliament complex, international airport, railway stations, interstate bus terminals and metro stations.

Besides patrolling of the skies by helicopters, an air defence mechanism will also be put in place around the venue to thwart any terror attacks.

According to information, agencies reviewing arrangements at the Red Fort have also zeroed in on 'safety houses' to where the Prime Minister and other VVIP’s could be taken in case of terrorist strike.

More than 30 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in and around the city to assist security arrangements and are keeping entry points to the city under strict vigil.

Teams of specialized officers and commandos have also been created to handle cases of attacks in crowded places or hostage situations.

New Delhi, August 14
The seized North Korean ship does not seem to have any trace of chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear material, the report of two nuclear scientists who carried out preliminary investigations at Port Blair suggests.

In their preliminary investigations at Port Blair, team of nuclear scientists from Kalapakkam has ruled out existence of any “CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear) traces” from the ship.

The security agencies, however, want a thorough investigation of the North Korean ship ‘MV Mu San’ by bringing it to Kakinada port in Andhra Pradesh to find out whether there was any CBRN consignment.

The exhaustive searches will again be conducted with the help of more sophisticated equipment after offloading entire 16,500 kilograms of sugar from the ship, an official, who did not wish to be named, said. Meanwhile, the Port Blair police are yet to send their report about the entire incident.

The Centre yesterday sent a stern letter to the Port Blair police asking them to file their report about the entire chain of events, which led to the interception of the Ship and on investigations into the matter.

The North Korean vessel dropped anchor off Hut Bay island in the Andaman islands on August six without permission and was detained by the coastguard after an over six-hour chase.

The ship’s 39-member crew, which also includes a North Korean government official, will also be questioned at the Kakinada port, official sources said. — PTI

New Delhi, August 14
Mohammed Ali Jinnah did not win Pakistan as Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel “conceded” Pakistan to the Quaid-e-Azam with the British acting as an ever-helpful midwife, says senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh.

In his new book, “Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence”, which will hit the stands on August 17, he recalls the events leading to Partition as well as the “epic journey of Jinnah from being the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, the liberal constitutionalist and Indian nationalist to the Quaid-e-Azam of Pakistan”. Singh raises several questions on Partition.

“...How did you divide geographic (also geo-political) unity? Through a “surgical operation”, Mountbatten (the last British viceroy) had said, and tragically Nehru and Patel and the Congress had assented, Jinnah, in any event having demanded adopting to just a recourse,” he writes in the book.

“...Jinnah did not win Pakistan, as the Congress leaders - Nehru and Patel finally conceded Pakistan to Jinnah, with the British acting as an ever helpful midwife,” Singh says in his 669-page book.

“The cruel truth is that this partitioning of India has actually resulted in achieving the reverse of originally intended purpose; Partition, instead of settling contention between communities has left us a legacy of markedly enhanced Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or other such denominational identities, hence differences...,” the book says.

Singh describes the Partition of India as the “defining event of the 20th century for the entire subcontinent.

“The searing agony of it torments still, the whys and what-fors of it, too. We relive the Partition because we persist without attempts to find answers to the great errors of those years so that we may never, ever repeat them. Also, perhaps by recounting them we attempt to assuage some of our pain,” the former External Affairs Minister writes.

According to Singh, both Jinnah and Nehru wanted special status for Muslims. “It is ironical that among the great constitutionalists of those times, Jinnah and Nehru became the principal promoters of “special status for Muslims”; Jinnah directly and Nehru indirectly.

“...The irony of it is galling when sadly, we observe that both of them, these two great Indians of their times, were either actually or in effect competing to become the “spokesman of Muslims” in India.” — PTI

Hyderabad, August 14
A unique mission is underway to restore a 4,500 year old Egyptian mummy, facing decay at the Andhra Pradesh State Archaeological Museum here.

Following a request from the state government, an expert in restoration of Mummies, Tarek El-Awdy, Head of the Scientific Research Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt, arrived here yesterday to take up restoration works.

The 1.40 metre long mummy is that of Nasihu, the daughter of the Sixth Pharaoh of Egypt of 2500 BC. It is one of the six Egyptian mummies preserved at different museums in India.

More than 4,500 years after her death, mummified visitor from far-away lands faces the risk of slipping into history, forever, in absence of specialised conservation.

With ravages of time taking a heavy toll on the Mummy, which has been on the display at the museum since 1930, the state government has sought the help of Egyptian experts for conservation.

The Egyptian expert met Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy at his chambers in the state Assembly before leaving for the museum.

“Other team members from SCA, Egypt, would be joining him soon to take up the restoration work,” Tourism and Culture Minister J Geetha Reddy said.

At present, the crust of the embalmed body, lying in an airtight enclosure, is
fragmenting at the face, shoulders and around feet and the wrapping has started
to peel off.

The experts will replace the linen bandage of the mummy and also the existing material stuffed inside the mummy with scientifically treated cotton foam, Dr P Chenna Reddy, Director of Archaeology and Museums, said.

The mummy was brought by Nazeer Nawaz Jung, son-in-law of Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, the VIth Nizam ruler of the erstwhile Hyderabad in 1920s and later gifted to the VIIth Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan.

He had in turn donated it to the Hyderabad Museum which was opened in 1930 and since then the Mummy has been on put on display.

New Delhi, August 14
Armed with a six-month extension of her visa to stay in India, controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen said on Friday that she would be travelling to the United States this month.

She would work as a research scholar at the New York University there and would return to her "adopted country" in January next year.

Taslima expressed her gratitude to the Indian government for extending her visa
till February 16.

She said she would return to the United States to continue to work as a research scholar at New York University. — Agencies

New Delhi, August 14
After Congress President Sonia Gandhi, it is now time for son Rahul to reach out to Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and galvanise the party to take on Mayawati government.

Rahul's visit to his Amethi Lok Sabha constituency from Monday assumes significance as it comes close on the heels of his mother's visit to Rae Bareli where she walked the extra mile to listen to the problems of Dalits.

Sonia visited over a dozen Dalit villages during her three-day tour from August 10 and mingled with Dalit women, even entering their huts to see for herself their pathetic living conditions.

During his visit this month, Rahul had spent a night with a Dalit family, and had taken British Foreign Secretary David Milliband to a Dalit village in his constituency.

As Sonia and Rahul have been accusing the Mayawati government of not effectively implementing Central schemes for the poor, the Chief Minister criticised the Congress chief's visit to the villages, calling it a sham.

Rahul's visit will coincide with the national executive meeting of Samajwadi Party in Agra amid reports that party was planning to withdraw support to the Congress-led UPA at the Centre.

The bitterness between the two parties has increased of late with SP terming as
mistake its decision to extend outside support to the UPA, and Congress daring it
to part ways.

As Congress plans to capture power in Lucknow on its own in the 2012 assembly polls, the SP camp is apprehensive that its opposition space in the state will get eroded gradually.

The visits by Sonia and Rahul in quick succession after the end of the Budget session of the Parliament are seen as efforts by Congress to project the two Lok Sabha seats, represented by Nehru-Gandhi family, as role models as far as implementation of UPA government's flagship programmes are concerned.

The Congress President made surprise inspections at a number of work sites of NREGA in her constituency during her visit and even examined the muster roll at a construction work site of the rural job guarantee scheme.

During her meetings with party workers in Rae Bareli, Gandhi asked them to be vigilant over implementation NREGA in the constituency.

Amid complaints that benefits of various Central welfare schemes were not reaching the poor in Amethi, Rahul too is expected to pay surprise visits to some villages in the interior areas of his constituency to review the progress made under the ambitious scheme. — PTI

New Delhi, August 14
Groundwater levels in northern India have fallen about 20 per cent more than expected because of excessive pumping, threatening to spark a major food and water crisis, according to a study based on U.S. space agency data.

The study, led by Matthew Rodell of the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in
Maryland, said groundwater across three states, including the New Delhi region,
dropped at a rate of 1.6 inches (4 centimetres) per year between August 2002
and October 2008.

That depletion is double the capacity of India's largest reservoir and is around 20 per cent higher than previous estimates by Indian authorities.

More than 110 million people live across the three states, or nearly twice the population of Britain.

"If measures are not taken soon to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, the consequences ... may include a reduction of agricultural output and shortages of potable water, leading to extensive socio-economic stresses," the study said.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, come as almost a quarter of India faces drought because of failing monsoon rains this year.

But the drop reported in the study came in years where there was no shortage of rainfall, so decline was caused by excessive demand for irrigation and other uses. The study, nonetheless, only confirms what has been long feared.

Water shortages plague Indian cities and villages alike as a burgeoning population of 1.1 billion people tries to meet growing economic and farming activity, stretching natural resources.

Experts say water availability could impact economic activity in a country trying to beat a downturn and return to 9-10 per cent growth.

The Indian government released an environmental report this week that said a
growing percentage of its groundwater was neither drinkable nor could be used
for irrigation. — IANS

Relevant section under the Andhra Pradesh Prevention of Ragging Act have been slapped on the arrested persons, police added. — PTI

Guwahati, August 14
Women in Manipur have devised an innovative way of protesting against security personnel ready to crack down on people participating in the on-going agitation against the killing of a former militant and a pregnant woman in an alleged “fake encounter” by police commandos in Imphal on July 23.

Phanek, the traditional wraparound skirt worn by women in Manipur, is being used as a new tool of protest.

Women protesters hang these on ropes strung across various roads to block the advance of security personnel deployed to chase away protesters.

Why “phanek” is being used as a tool of protests? The answer lies in the tradition in the conservative society of Manipur.

“Ours is a conservative and patriarchal society where men are not supposed to touch women clothing. If a woman flings a “phanek” at a man, it is construed as extreme humiliation for that man. So, men try their best to keep away from women clothing,” said Anjulika Samom, a prominent women writer from Imphal.

“Symbolism forms the core of this protest. Women have started using “phanek” to express their agony against “fake encounters” and other forms of repressions resorted to by the security forces in the state,” she said.

Meanwhile, night train services in the state will remain suspended for three nights effective from tonight as militants often find train services and railway property a soft target to strike in the insurgency-hit state.

Lucknow, August 14
A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into setting ablaze of a 38-year-old prisoner lodged in Jalaun district jail today, allegedly by his fellow convicts after he refused to shell out extortion money.

He has been admitted to the district hospital where his condition is reported to be critical. Jail sources confirmed that Shobran Singh had suffered 90 per cent burns.

However, they were not ready to divulge more details. “What led to the incident can be only confirmed after an inquiry,” they added.

Additional Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar admitted that a kerosene can has been recovered from the site.

“The recovery of the can reflects the negligent attitude of the officials of the
jail,” he admitted.

SDM Arun Dwivedi assured of stern action against those found involved in the incident. Notably, a murder convict serving life imprisonment in a Lucknow jail had committed suicide by hanging himself on July 16.

Forty-five-year old Badri Prasad Tiwari was lodged in the Lucknow Model Jail since 2002 for killing his stepmother.

Tiwari had hung himself in the printing press inside the jail where he had been working. He had used gunny bags and some jute ropes to hang himself from the ceiling. Police is still trying to ascertain the reason behind the suicide.

Just two days ago, while reviewing the law and order situation in the state, Chief Minister Mayawati had taken a serious view of custodial deaths being reported from various districts.

She said such incidents took place because of the callous attitude of the officers and even warned them to be careful in the future.