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War of words between Cong, NCP
Docs’ stir on; 21 die in Bihar hospital
Kulkarni in UPA fold: SP cries betrayal
Malegaon blast accused in judicial custody till Sept 11
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Jaswant’s expulsion unfair: Maneka
Thefts on the rise on women special trains
Life term for 3 in ’84 riots case
2 CPM men shot dead
H1N1 could hit Haj pilgrimage
Swine flu claims 4 more lives, toll 98
Herbal medicines to combat flu
Swine herders shunned in Orissa villages
Kaziranga faces erosion threat from Brahmaputra
Fear over safety of Tirumala temple offerings
Lankan Tamils to be rehabilitated: PM
Bihar’s no to proposal on class X exams
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War of words between Cong, NCP
Mumbai, August 29 While the Congress insists that the 'ground realities' in Maharashtra have changed since the last Lok Sabha elections thereby making it eligible for contesting more seats than the NCP, the latter insists that it is the dominant player in the state. The latest round in the war of words is an interview of Chief Minister Ashok Chavan who reportedly told a television channel that the Congress should get the lion's share of the seats in Maharashtra. The interview is scheduled to be telecast on Sunday, but Chavan's confidants are pushing what they say are transcripts of the interview in the local media. The psy-war earlier had Congress Working Committee member Satyavrat Chaturvedi who accused NCP leader and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar of misleading the country on sugar prices. The Pawar camp hit back with the insinuation that Chaturvedi was working to break up the Congress' ties with the NCP in Maharashtra like its links with the Samajwadi Party in UP. In an attempt to put Pawar on the backfoot, Congress party leaders are now accusing him of propping up a third front comprising a coalition of all the 14 factions of the Republican Party of India. Congressmen say Pawar was behind this only to cut into the votes of the Congress party so that the NCP emerges as a bigger player after the elections. The NCP has retorted by saying that the Congress wants to give it just about 100 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly. In the 2004 elections the Congress contested 168 seats while the NCP had to make do with 120 seats. Both parties then allotted seats to smaller parties from their respective quotas. Following the Lok Sabha elections where the Nationalist Congress Party lost ground in its traditional strongholds of Western Maharashtra, the Congress has been demanding to go it alone. A clearly bruised Pawar continues to insist on an alliance. "The Congress party is still carrying out internal asessements before approaching us for talks," Pawar told reporters on Friday. His comments came about after reports from Delhi said the Congress was looking at its prospects in each of the 288 seats. However, no one in Maharashtra really expects the Congress to go it alone. A severe drought and a resurgent Shiv Sena-BJP combine in the state are giving sleepless nights to the ruling party politicians. Privately, leaders from both the Congress and the NCP fear that the going would be very tough for them in October.
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Docs’ stir on; 21 die in Bihar hospital
Patna, August 29 "While six patients died Thursday, 15 died in the last 24 hours. Lack of doctors in the emergency ward led to most deaths," a government official said. More than 400 junior doctors are on an indefinite strike from Thursday demanding hike in their stipends. The strike has badly hit the emergency, outdoor and surgery services in the hospital. The hospital authorities have sought the help of the state health department to cope up with the situation. More than 50 doctors have been requisitioned from nearby hospitals but only a dozen have joined. "In last two days, hundreds of patients were forced to shift to private nursing homes. Those who cannot afford treatment outside have been left in the lurch," a senior doctor said. A leader of the junior doctors' association said their demand for a hike in stipend has been pending for some years. "We get stipend of Rs.13,000 in the first year, Rs.14,000 in second and Rs.15,000 in the third year of post-graduation. We are demanding that this amount be increased to Rs.22,500 at par with some neighbouring states," the doctor said. Hundreds of poor patients, who came for treatment from across the state, are the greatest victims of the strike. — IANS
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Kulkarni in UPA fold: SP cries betrayal
New Delhi, August 29 “The Congress dumped us after it felt that we were no more relevant to it. It included Kulkarni, involved in last year’s cash-for-vote controversy, in a Railway Ministry panel and branded me as villain,” SP general secretary Amar Singh said. Addressing mediapersons via video-conferencing from Singapore, he thanked the Kishore Chandra Deo Committee, which probed the cash-for-vote episode, for absolving him of all charges. “Apart from the committee, I would like to thank Jaswant Singh for giving me a clean chit in the episode. But Kulkarni was very much at the house of Ashok Argal (one of the three MPs who displayed wads of currency notes in Parliament in July last year during UPA government’s trust vote),” said the SP leader Jaswant Singh had yesterday accused Advani and Kulkarni of complicity in the cash-for-vote sting operation but did not take the SP leader’s name. Referring to the cash-for-vote scam, Amar Singh said, “As far as I think, Advani and Jaitley had no role to play in it.” At the same time, if Congress wants to probe the scam again, it should look into Kulkarni’s role, he said. Singh said Kulkarni in his resignation letter had clearly mentioned that he will remain emotionally attached to BJP and pointed out that UPA still has taken him in its fold by including him in the government panel. He urged LK Advani to expose Kulkarni, who was with the Left before joining BJP and became and advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and now has been accommodated in a government committee. He said that while lending support to the government last year, SP and especially he, had faced a lot of flak from BJP, BSP and the Left. “Though we defeated BJP in Uttar Pradesh during Lok Sabha polls with the help of former BJP leader Kalyan Singh, we are no more relevant to Congress. If we take Kalyan Singh, we are termed as bad, but if Congress takes Kulkarni, it still remains good,” he added. — PTI
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Malegaon blast accused in judicial custody till Sept 11
Nashik, August 29 While nine of the accused were produced before the court, two others, Pragya Singh Thakur and Sham Sahu, could not appear as the former had been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai and the other had gone to Indore to attend a relative's funeral. A special MCOCA court in Mumbai had on July 31 dropped provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act invoked against the accused, saying none of them were part of an organised crime syndicate. It ruled that the case would be heard by the sessions court in Nashik. The court will hear the pleas on September 1. Sessions Judge Govind Sanap asked prosecutor Ajay Misar whether the case papers have been transferred from Mumbai court to the Nasik court to which he said "not yet". —
PTI
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Jaswant’s expulsion unfair: Maneka
New Delhi, August 29 Gandhi said the decision taken at the Chintan Baithak in Shimla last week was uncalled for. She said the BJP leadership should have read Jaswant Singh's book first before taking a decision to expel him on disciplinary grounds. Gandhi's reaction came a day after Singh filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat Government’s decision to ban his latest book - Jinnah -India, Partition, Independence. Deploring the ban of the book, Singh has already said that books are a medium of expression in the country and professed the right to freedom of speech and expression. He claimed that a ban on books actually means a ban on thinking. "I am greatly saddened by it because the other example takes you to Salman Rushdie and Satanic Verses. The day we start banning books in India, we are banning thinking," Jaswant had said while returning back from Shimla after his expulsion from the BJP last week. The Narendra Modi-led Gujarat Government had banned the sale of Singh’s book in the state last week. The Gujarat Government blamed Jaswant’s book for denigrating the image of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was a Gujarati and held in high esteem by people across Gujarat and the rest of the India for his role during India’s freedom struggle against the British rulers. Jaswant observes in his book that Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel together conceded Pakistan to Jinnah with help from the British. Last week, Singh sharpened his attack on BJP by saying that the party is like the violent white American group, Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Replying to a question on his expulsion from the party, Singh said: “Please don’'t ask me. I am outside the magic circle of advisers or thinkers. Because, I am not from the RSS, is that why? So are we a political party? Is the BJP becoming some kind of an Indian version of Ku Klux Klan?" — ANI
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Thefts on the rise on women special trains
New Delhi, August 29 The complainants -- Archana Raj, 75, from Delhi and Navreet Arora, 35, from Meerut (she was coming from Meerut to see her cancer-afflicted father in Delhi) -- both found themselves in a spot on the morning of August 14 when they realised their purses had been stolen from two different AC tier-2 compartments of the Andhra Pradesh Express train number 2723 from Secunderabad to Delhi. “We had slept with the purses by our side but woke up to find our belongings missing. Both of us lost several thousands in the theft and other precious belongings, including gold chains,” Archana Raj today told The Tribune, showing the copy of the FIR she registered. Significantly, all four passengers in the open cabin in the said AC tier compartment had not got off the train even once. “This points the finger of suspicion to the train attendants,” the complaint states. Similar incidents have been reported in the past on the prestigious Rajdhani Express as well. P Satyaprakash, a Noida resident, also complained recently of how his wife’s stolen bag was traced to a commode of a toilet in the New Delhi-Secunderabad Rajdhani Express train in August last. The theft happened in IInd class AC compartment. “We never travelled by the Rajdhani again,” he says. Enquiries reveal that 19,163 IPC crimes (mainly theft) were reported by the General Railway Police between 2005 and 2007, though post 2007 rough estimates suggest an increase in such cases. Between 2005 and 2007, however, a decline of 2.9 per cent was seen in train thefts nationally. The percentage now again appears to be rising. Among the states less prone to train thefts in India are Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, which showed a declining trend during 2005 and 2007, when the last major study of IPC crimes in railways was done. Maharashtra and Punjab have, however, showed an increasing trend in the last three years, as per GRP records.
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Life term for 3 in ’84 riots case
New Delhi, August 29 While reading out the sentence, Additional Sessions Judge Surinder S. Rathi pronounced that out of the collective fine, Rs 10 lakh shall be given as compensation to injured Jagmohan Singh and Rs 8 lakh to another injured Gurinder Singh. During the arguments on duration of jail term, public prosecutor Irfan Ahmed sought maximum punishment of life imprisonment to the convicts, contending that "they committed the crime without provocation and that the victims had no defence and were taken by surprise”. On their part, the convicts pleaded leniency on the ground of ill-health and old age. The anti-riots cell of the Delhi police had probed the incident in which Joginder Singh and his two sons Jagmohan Singh and Gurvinder Singh were seriously injured while their house was set ablaze by a mob led by the convicts on November 1, 1984. The case was re-investigated by the police on the recommendation of Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission in 1992 following an affidavit filed by Joginder Singh. The court had framed charges under Sections 148, 395, 436, 307 and 149 of the IPC. The prosecution produced nine witnesses, including Joginder’s sons, who had identified the accused during the trial. A high drama was witnessed during the proceedings of the case in the court today with a number of relatives of the victims, and even the convicts, breaking down after the judgement was pronounced. The magistrate also criticised the role played by the police: “The slothful and the quiescent role played by the police and the government, who were at the helm of affairs, resulted in loss of priceless lives and valuable property of riot victims, which could have been saved.”
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H1N1 could hit Haj pilgrimage
New Delhi, August 29 Indian officials said the Saudi government was encouraging vulnerable groups to avoid travelling to the kingdom to perform Haj this year. These vulnerable groups include children below the age of 12, people above the age of 65, those with chronic diseases and pregnant women. The Saudi government has agreed to permit 160,491 Indian pilgrims to travel to Mecca and Medina for the annual Haj pilgrimage between October 20 and November 21. Of these, 115,000 will be sponsored by the Haj Committee and the rest will organise their pilgrimage through private tour operators. The officials were quite appreciative of the fact that the Saudi government had been increasing the quota of Indian Haj pilgrims every year. The quota in 2005 was 72,000. The Indian government has also been simultaneously enhancing the Haj subsidy. It was Rs 360 crores in 2006, Rs 390 crores in 2007 and Rs 600 crores in 2008. The Saudi authorities, meanwhile, are worried that the swine flu could spread in the kingdom if adequate precautions were not taken ahead of the pilgrimage. To date, nearly 600 persons in the kingdom have been affected with swine flu that has resulted in six deaths. Thanks to the swine flu, a unique feature of the Haj this year would be that pilgrims taking part in the circumambulation, stoning of devil at Jamrat and the standing at Arafat would be required to wear face masks in order to reduce the risk of the infection. Pilgrims would also be vaccinated two weeks prior to their departure for the holy cities. Millions of people who flock to the kingdom will be required to provide health certificates showing they do not have chronic diseases. The pilgrims will also be required to show proof that they have received flu shots at home. The authorities in the kingdom say they have adequate medicines and facilities to cope with any emergency during the Haj. In addition to local preparations, the Health Ministry in Saudi Arabia has ordered 4 million vaccines, expected to arrive in October. Quarantine facilities have already been set up at Saudi airports to facilitate the isolation of any pilgrims suspected to have been infected with the virus.
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Swine flu claims 4 more lives, toll 98 New Delhi, August 29 While 28-year-old pregnant woman Roopali Jore died last night at a private hospital in Pune where she was kept on a ventilator, 20-year-old Sunil Kumbhar died at Sassoon hospital this evening, healthofficials said. Kumbhar had been admitted in a critical condition with symptoms of H1N1 virus at the government hospital this morning, they said, adding that the two deaths in Pune, which has suffered the highest number of fatalities, so far due to thedisease. With fatalities on the rise and cases of the viral infection continuing to pour in, authorities in Pune have asked private hospitals to screen patients with swine flu symptoms and not to summarily direct them to the already overburdened civic and governmenthospitals. Meanwhile, two more persons, including a nine-year-old girl, have succumbed to the deadly virus in Karnataka, pushing up the pandemic toll in the southern state to 26. Close on the heels of a three-year-old boy dying of the virus in Bijapur, a nine-year-old girl fell a victim to the H1N1 Influenza at Manipal Hospital here on August 26, health officials said. The other victim, a 30-year-old woman, succumbed to the virus at Bapuji Hospital in Davangere on August 27. —
PTI
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Herbal medicines to combat flu
Guwahati, August 29 Kahanikar who has been practicing herbal medicines for over 25 years to treat various diseases, including jaundice, malaria, diabetes and even cancer, has risen to the occasion and developed a powder mixture as well as tablet with a composition of ‘neem’, ‘tulsi’, ‘amla’ (goose berry), turmeric and ‘amarlata’ (tinospara cordifolia) or ‘gilloy’ in Hindi. “Many people from Hyderabad and other South Indian places have taken the preventive herbal composition from me during the last few days. Many of the clients have taken the medicine before embarking of their journey abroad,” Khanikar said. He claimed that the same composition with addition of black pepper and white’ bahak’ (adhotoda vasika) can also cure patients suffering from swine flu or H1N1 virus infection. He said liquor of ‘bahak’ if consumed like tea could cure respiratory tract infection (RTI) that is associated with swine flu infection. The herbal medicine expert who received award from the Ahmadabad-based National Innovation Foundation (NIF) in the year 2001 for preparing herbal medicines to treat diabetes, malaria and jaundice, recommends doses of ‘Ashwagandha’ roots (withania somnifera) taken with warm milk and sugar to increase immunity against H1N1 infection. He recommended that one tea spoonful of power of ‘Ashwagandha’ roots should be taken with a standard cup of warm milk and one tea spoonful of sugar. He said people should take ‘amla’ regularly to remain resistant against the swine flu besides taking extra care for maintenance of personal hygiene.
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Swine herders shunned in Orissa villages
Bhubaneswar, August 29 Reports of the boycott have been received from Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and other coastal districts of Orissa. In one village, swine herders have been asked to “leave as early as possible”. “There are reports that swine flu is spreading fast in our country. We got to know that the disease has come from pigs. We are scared. We have already told the pig keepers to leave the villages. If they don’t leave the village, we will seek legal help,” said Akshya Parida, councillor of Sandhakud village. After similar reports came in from different parts of the state, worried pig keepers from across the state have decided to get together and face the situation jointly. Following a meeting in the state capital on Wednesday, swine herders gave a memorandum to state Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout seeking help. “We earn our livelihood through this business. There are about 20,000 households in different parts of the state which subsist on swine keeping. But since the swine flu outbreak, our lives have turned hellish. People are after us to relocate outside the villages. It is a double jeopardy for us. Our business has gone down as there are few takers of pig meat, which we used to send to Assam, Siliguri and Kolkata. To top it all, we are now facing social ostracisation," said Madhusudan Patra, president of the Orissa swine keepers association. “Pig keepers from different parts of the state had come to me on Wednesday. They have apprised me of their problems. They have complained that they are being tortured in their villages after the swine flu reports”, said Rout. — IANS
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Kaziranga faces erosion threat from Brahmaputra
Guwahati, August 29 The Brahmaputra River that flows from East to West in Assam valley forms the northern boundary of the core area of Kaziranga National Park spread over 900 sq km in Golaghat and Nagaon district of Assam. Director of the National Park, S N Buragohain told The Tribune that the mighty Brahmaputra had eroded about 37 square km area of the park over the years on the southern bank of the mighty river. He, however, said Kaziranga Park was famous for its dynamic eco-system where the Brahmaputra adds new areas to it through siltation while at the same time it erodes some part of the Park. “Our main concern is erosion threat to an important location between Agartoli and Arimora rang on the eastern side of the core area of the park. For that, the state Water Resources Department has prepared a blueprint to implement an anti-erosion scheme subject to approval from Central Wildlife Board. The scheme has been approved by the State Wildlife Board and is being forwarded to the Central Board,” he said. Kaziranga National Park, which is the most popular tourist destination in the North East India, is a treasure trove of faunal resources. The Park contains about 35 major mammal species, including 15 of India's threatened Schedule I species. It is home to the world's largest population of Indian rhinoceros which has increased from a few dozen in 1908 to 2048 as per the last census carried out this year. The Park lies within one of the world’s Endemic Bird Areas and the avifauna comprises over 300 species. The numerous water bodies are rich reservoirs of food, including fish, and thousands of migratory birds of over 100 species, visit the Park seasonally from as far away as Siberia.
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Fear over safety of Tirumala temple offerings
Hyderabad, August 29 The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), an autonomous body managing the affairs of Tirumala and several other temples under its jurisdiction, has come under scanner for adopting non-transparent procedures for protection of ornaments donated by devotees from across the world. The recent confession by a chief priest to stealing the temple jewellery and mortgaging these with a private money lender for Rs 10 lakhs had evoked public outrage and raised fears over safety of the invaluable ornaments in the absence of a fool-proof monitoring system. Many believe that the admission of guilt by Venkataramana Deekshitulu, chief priest of the TTD-managed Sri Kodandarama Swamy temple for the last four decades, reflected only the ‘tip of the iceberg’. “It is a matter of shame that there is no protection for the temple jewellery. The government should order a CBI probe to unearth the complete facts,” the actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi, who represents Tirupati Assembly constituency, said. Acting on a Public Interest Litigation, Andhra Pradesh High Court had recently directed the TTD to make a comprehensive inventory of all properties, including jewellery, belonging to Lord Venkateswara and other temples and submit it to the Court by the end of October. The world-famous hill shrine has huge reserves of gold and jewellery, estimated to be worth over Rs 55,000 crore. The details of ornaments and assets have not been made public so far. However, according to unofficial estimates, the temple treasury has over 12 tonnes of gold, jewellery, coins and other ornaments. As per the present practice of the TTD Board, the entire treasury is under the supervision of a single official which is against the basic concept of safety, the experts argue. Meanwhile, the Minister for Endowments G Venkat Reddy said the government would launch a website in a couple months which will contain the entire details of jewellery and properties of over 45,000 temples across
the state. The tradition of gold offerings to Lord Venkateswara goes back to several centuries. The ruler of Vijayanagara emprire Krishnadevaraya had visited the temple seven times during the period 1509-1539 and made huge offerings including a diamond-studded crown. Since then, the rulers of various dynasties made gold donations to the temple. From big industrialists to common man, the Lord of Seven Hills receives a steady stream of offerings. Nestled among a string of seven picturesque hills, Tirumala temple attracts an average of 50,000 pilgrims every day and the number swells to over one lakh on special occasions.
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Lankan Tamils to be rehabilitated: PM
Chennai, August 29 Karunanidhi said, “We have been consistently impressing upon the Centre about the rehabilitation of Tamils living in detention camps through our Central ministers
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Bihar’s no to proposal on class X exams
Patna, August 29 The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to make class X examination optional and implement grading system in order to de-stress the students. Yadav said that education being in the concurrent list of constitution, the state governments had the authority to decide about their own pattern of education and evaluation. A National Board of Education can at best work as a coordinating agency between different state boards and issue guidelines pertaining to a common syllabus and set a standard of evaluation suitable to all of them, he added. According to him all the state boards supported the move for a uniform syllabus in mathematics and science subjects and said that the Bihar board had been already following it by using the NCERT books in Science and Arts. Talking about the specific problems of Bihar, Yadav said a large number of students here were first generation learners and passing Class X board examination gives a sense of pride to them and their family. They also seek jobs on the basis of this examination.
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New Delhi, August 29
