New Delhi, September 2
While claiming that Islamabad had taken concrete steps in the context of the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik today strongly pitched for the resumption of dialogue with New Delhi to address all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing senior defence and civilian officers at the National Defence College here, Malik emphasised that dialogue was the only way to move forward for both India and Pakistan.

It is significant that Malik was invited to address senior officers despite the continuing stand off between India and Pakistan over Islamabad’s approach in dealing with the perpetrators of the Mumbai mayhem.

India is disappointed with Pakistan for not doing anything concrete to punish the plotters of the Mumbai attacks despite having been handed over as many as six dossiers linking elements in the neighbouring country with the 26/11 incidents.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna reflected India’s growing frustration with Islamabad again today in a statement issued today by the External Affairs Ministry to highlight its achievements during the first 100 days of the UPA regime.

“We do believe that it is in our vital interest to engage and normalise our relations with Pakistan. At the same time we are very clear that any meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can only be based on fulfillment of its commitment, in letter and spirit, not to allow its territory to be used in any manner for terrorist activities against India,” Krishna said.

He also firmly told Islamabad that steps to address the issue of terrorism would be in the interest of bilateral relationship and also in the interest of Pakistan.

It is becoming quite clear that the resumption of bilateral dialogue anytime in the near future is quite a distance away. Malik had recently met Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and invited her to visit Islamabad for talks with her counterpart Salman Bashir ahead of the talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meet.

But India has ruled out a visit by the Foreign Secretary to Islamabad though the meeting between Krishna and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi is on as of now. New Delhi does not have high expectations from this meeting either.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani envoy, in his address, said his country was committed to serving as an anchor of peace and stability in the region. Pakistan was taking resolute action to eliminate terrorism and militancy. It was a regional issue and required a regional solution.

Malik also referred to the Sharm el Sheikh joint statement issued by the Prime Ministers of the two countries, in which they acknowledged that dialogue was the only way forward to discuss all outstanding issues.

Jaipur, September 2
The Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal has started bearing fruits and its result is there for all to see at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station at Rawatbhata in Kota district.

The power station’s 200-MW second unit, shut since July 2007, resumed its operations only yesterday following feeder replacement and getting the supply of required fuel.

The unit produced 140 MW power on Tuesday and its power generation will be gradually increased to 200 MW. The unit will generate 48 lakh units of power daily.

The unit would achieve 100 per cent power level in this month only and it would supply power to Rajasthan.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) synchronised the unit, which is already under international safeguards, to the grid using uranium imported from France and Russia.

Site Director CP Jhamb confirmed that they were awaiting supply of fuel to restart the second unit of the power station. Chief Superintendent RK Aggarwal said after the Indo-US deal, 300 tonnes of uranium fuel has reached from France to Hyderabad, while another 30 tonnes of fuel has been received from Russia.

Apart from it, an agreement has been reached with Russia for the supply of 2,000 tonnes uranium fuel, he said, adding that the power station is under IAEA safeguards and they can use imported fuel.

Meanwhile, the uranium fuel for the fifth unit of the power station is expected to reach here next month and it will start its operation from November. The power station’s third, fourth and sixth unit are also likely to start their operations from March 2010.

The second unit, which came up in 1980 with the help of Canada, had been shut down on July 2, 2007 for performance improvement upgrades and also due to non-availability of the required fuel.

New Delhi, September 2
BJP’s Rajasthan legislative party leader Vasundhara Raje, under notice from the party president to resign her post and return to Delhi, is looking at the stars for turning her fortune and avoid submitting to Rajnath Singh’s diktat.

Sources said she may avoid meeting the high command before September 9, after which she hopes the stars will turn in her favour and a way out may emerge, saving her the pain and suffering of quitting her post. The high command had asked Raje to resign over a month ago. But she has been delaying the process. Initially she and her supporters were in a defiant mood and she sent a delegation of over 50 party MLAs to meet Rajnath and Leader of Opposition in Parliament LK Advani to impress upon them her overwhelming support in the legislative party.

But Rajnath moved the parliamentary board which while endorsing Rajnath’s decision also persuaded him not to press too hard and give her some time to resign. On August 22, Raje met Advani and Rajnath and expressed her willingness to resign her post. She, however, sought time till the special Assembly session in her state concluded. That too passed and she laid a precondition that instead of Rajnath she would prefer to talk to any other senior leader. The high command acceded to her request and delegated M Venkaiah Naidu to interact with her. She arrived in the Capital on August 31, but instead of meeting Venkaiah, she sent a letter with her son Dushyant Singh, the MP from Jhalawar, expressing her inability to come due to health reasons. She also sent in a list of preconditions for agreeing to quit.

Venkaiah on Tuesday said she may take a week or so to recover. Now, sources disclosed Raje has been asked by her well-wishers and astrolgers to wait till September 9, after which her stars may start favouring her. 

Lucknow, September 2
Morning assemblies, sport activities and other group gatherings have been put on hold in schools of Lucknow after some students of a private school tested positive for swine flu.

District Magistrate Chandra Bhanu took the decision to this effect after a review meeting with health officials.

Recently, nearly six students of a private school in Lucknow tested positive for H1N1 infection. In Lucknow alone, 40 cases have been confirmed since Monday taking the number in the state to 120. 

New Delhi, September 2
An experts’ committee, which probed the near-miss incident between a Presidential helicopter and an Air-India plane at Mumbai this February, has found that an IAF chopper of the VVIP entourage landed on the runway making a short circuit and without clearance from the Air Traffic Control.

The three-member committee, headed by Director-General Civil Aviation SNA Zaidi, found that one of the three helicopters of the Presidential entourage narrowly missed collision with an Air-India Airbus A-320 that was given clearance to take off from runway 27.

The Delhi-bound plane, carrying 155 people, was asked to abort take-off when the chopper landed on the same runway.

The panel found that the Air-India aircraft was “at very high speed of approximately 120 knots” when it rejected take-off, swerved to a taxi track to avoid collision with the helicopter and, in the process, got its main wheel tyre deflated and brakes damaged.

The committee has recommended closure of airspace three minutes before and after the take-off and landing of a VVIP aircraft at an airport and strict adherence to instructions in the Bluebook, meant for VVIP security procedures.

The panel has also recommended mandatory coordination meetings with the airport and other officials prior to a VVIP flight. — PTI

New Delhi, September 2
Following days of protests by the faculty of IITs and IIMs, who have been alleging discrimination in pay brackets vis-à-vis the UGC, the HRD Ministry is learnt to have assured the protesters fair play in the matter by bringing some kind of parity of scales between IIT and UGC faculty.

Sources in the ministry said assistant professors in IITs and IIMs might be moved to a higher scale of Pay Band IV (starting Rs 37,000) instead of Pay band III as earlier notified. In the recently announced pay scales for the IIT faculty, an assistant professor had been placed in Pay Band III, similar to the scale of the corresponding faculty under UGC scales recommended by the GK Chadha committee.

Whereas in UGC scales, an assistant professor would automatically move to a higher pay band IV after three years of teaching, the said provision was missing in the notified scales for IITs implying that an assistant professor in IIT would earn less than a professor of a UGC recognised university, besides also having to undergo a selection process to go higher in the career ladder as against his UGC counterpart who would move automatically.

The government is said to have told the IITs that it would go to the Cabinet to resolve some of the proposed issues of parity. The decision followed a day-long meeting with IIT directors. That apart, the government is yet to accept higher education technical and management institutes’ demand for incentive-based and scholastic rewards for their faculty.

New Delhi, September 2
After three months of hectic deliberations on who should succeed the controversial Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) V-C Murshirul Hassan, the government today appointed Najeeb Jung, a leading energy research specialist as the 13th Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious central university.

His appointment was cleared yesterday by the President of India, and notified today by the Human Resource Development Ministry. Jung will assume office tomorrow.

With the confirmation coming late today, the lasting suspense on the name of the new Jamia VC came to an end. It ensued from July 9, when the term of Hassan ended. Also in the race for the slot was Principal Secretary, home, Bihar, Amanullah Khan along with Hassan, who was lobbying hard for a second term. His case was, however, politically not seen as viable given the controversies dotting his reputation.

Jung, who has his PhD in energy economics from Oxford University, has been among the principal advisors on energy issues to Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries. He is currently Director, Energy Research, at the RIL funded Observer Research Foundation besides being senior research advisor at Oxford University. Jung in 2007 unsuccessfully contested for the top slot at the ONGC - a position for which he was supported by the industrial lobby he represents.

Past being past, Jung had fine academic credentials to qualify as the Jamia VC, said HRD Ministry sources. A 1975 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer and former Joint Secretary in the Petroleum Ministry, Jung left the services for academics in 1995 - a point the government used to counter claims that he was a bureaucrat only.

As for qualifications, little would anyone know that Jung comes from a family of illustrious academicians. His uncle Abdul Majeed Khwaja was the longest serving Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia from 1936 to 1962.