New Delhi, September 11
The BJP here today questioned Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily’s pronouncements against the law officer involved in submitting the controversial affidavit supporting the Gujarat government contention in the killing of Ishrat Jehan, Javed Sheikh and two others by the state police in an encounter on June 15, 2004, in Ahmedabad.

The Union Home ministry had submitted the affidavit in the Gujarat High Court on August 6, 2009, in response to a petition filed by Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar, who had alleged that Ishrat, a law abiding citizen, was killed by the Gujarat police in a fake encounter.

Kausar and Javed Sheikh’s father Gopinath Pillai, who had filed a similar petition in the Supreme Court, had questioned the integrity of the state administration and sought an enquiry by an independent agency (like the CBI). However, the Supreme Court turned down the plea.

Shamima and Pillai’s contention was vindicated in the latest report of Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang, in which he established that four innocent Muslims were kidnapped from Mumbra in Mumbai by the Gujarat police and killed in cold blood and an encounter story cooked up by Gujarat encounter specialist DG Vanzara, currently in jail in a similar fake encounter.

The Congress had immediately reacted with glee, calling names to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. But the BJP has put the Congress and the Union government on the backfoot by releasing the copy of the Home ministry affidavit.

Justifying the Gujarat police action, the Home Ministry affidavit says, “To fully appreciate the whole matter, particularly killing of Ishrat Jehan and Javed Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh, in the impugned police action, it is essential to look at the background and linkages of Javed Ghulam Mohammad. Cases were registered against him in Thane district between 1992-1998 when Javed was residing in Mumbra which indicates his criminal background.”

Pleading for dismissing the petitions of Shamima and Pillai, the Union Home ministry argued against them, saying, “It is quite clear that both the petitioners are not stating truthfully and trying to mislead the Hon’ble High Court and Supreme Court… It is evident that Javed and Ishrat were activists of the terrorist organisation, LeT.”

Dismissing the accusation of fake encounter in Shamima’s petition, the affidavit stated, “Ishrat Jehan was killed along with three others in action by Gujarat police on June 15, 2004.”

The Centre also forcefully supported Gujarat government’s contention that since the state had ordered an inquiry into the encounter, a petition for another inquiry need not be entertained.

It concluded by stating, “No proposal for CBI investigation into the case is under the consideration of the Union government, nor does it consider the present case fit for investigation by the CBI… The petition having no merit, therefore, deserves to be dismissed.” 

New Delhi, September 11
A day after several Cabinet Ministers complained about the government’s new austerity drive, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today clarified that the restriction on first-class air travel was confined to domestic and not international flights.

The Finance Minister, who was questioned on these directives at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, played down the controversy and put it down to some misunderstanding. His ministry had recently notified a 10 per cent cut in non-plan expenditure and issued directions that ministers and officials travel by economy class and refrain from holding conferences in five-star hotels.

Speaking to mediapersons at the Indian Women’s Press Corps today, Mukherjee said the measures prescribed by his ministry were already in existence but were not being adhered to strictly because of the comfortable economic situation. He explained that ministers, MPs and officials entitled to travel by executive class had been requested to take the economy class on domestic flights and for international flights they can travel club class instead of the first class.

Referring to the queries raised yesterday, Mukherjee said he had told his Cabinet colleagues that the financial advisors in their respective ministries would guide them through these directives.

The Finance Minister reiterated that ministers and officials should not hold big conferences in five-star hotels and instead use some of their own facilities which are equally good. All ministries, including the External Affairs Ministry and others, have their own conference halls apart from Vigyan Bhavan and Hyderabad House. He, however, added there was no bar on entertaining a foreign dignitary in a five-star hotel.

Mukherjee disclosed that he had also written to the presiding officers of the two Houses of Parliament requesting that the meetings of the various Parliamentary committees be held in Delhi as it would save on air travel and accommodation.

The Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings should be exempt from this directive as its members needed to travel for work, he added.

Regarding salary cuts for MPs and legislators, Mukherjee said this decision was restricted to Congress parliamentarians as this was a party decision and the Congress could not impose it on other parties, including its allies. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had proposed at last month’s meeting of the aprty’s working committee that its MPs and MLAs take a 20 per cent salary cut in solidarity with those suffering because of drought conditions.

New Delhi, September 11
India will seek a $3-billion (Rs 15,000 crore) loan from World Bank to convert 6,376 km of single-lane national highways (NH) to two-lanes.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath would meet World Bank chief Robert Zoellick during his seven-day visit to the USA and put forward the proposal to seek the loan. Nath left for the USA late last night.

Before his departure, Nath told newsmen that he had already held preliminary discussions with the World Bank and “they were willing to do what they were not wanting earlier”.

He said the government would bear 20 per cent equity of the total cost and the rest would be sought from the World Bank. India had 19,702 km single-lane national highways that didn’t fall under the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP).

The ministry had already approved funds to be pumped in as equity (20 per cent of the project cost) for the purpose. Nath said the work would be carried out on cash contract basis. “We are pushing the project and are hopeful of taking it up in the next few months,” he added.

Having made announcement of constructing 20-km road stretch everyday, the minister has been holding road shows abroad with the idea of attracting investment. He is looking at $60 billion in investment over the next three years.

Ever since he took charge, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded nine projects covering 1,324 km involving Rs 12,154 crore. It is looking at awarding another six projects worth Rs 8,600 crore over the next three months for the construction of 577 kms of highways.

As part of efforts to give importance to expressways, Nath said he would be bringing in the Expressway Act in next monsoon session of Parliament to create a separate Expressway Authority. Till then, a separate expressway division had been set up in the NHAI.

In order to avoid delay in land acquisition, there is also a plan to set up 150 special land acquisition units of which 51 are already functional.

The minister expects several recommendations made by the committee headed by BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, to be cleared during the next two weeks. The committee was set up to suggest strategies to improve implementation of the NHDP.

But he declined to comment on whether all recommendations would get a nod. 

Mumbai, September 11
Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested in the 26/11 terror strike, has said Abu Jindal, the LeT ‘commander’ killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir recently, was not involved in the Mumbai attack, a senior police officer said here today.

Pakistani gunman Kasab replied in the negative when photographs of Jindal were shown to him and asked if he was the same person who taught him Hindi, the officer said.

“We have shown him (Kasab) Jindal’s photographs provided by JK police. Kasab nodded in the negative when asked if the person in the photo was the same who taught them Hindi,” the senior police official told PTI.

Jindal, whose real name is Mohammad Owais, was killed in an encounter with 61 Rastriya Rifles and the Police in Bathoi area in JK’s Reasi district on September 4. Jindal is his code-name, but he has also got names like Zaman and Noman.

Kasab, facing trial in the Mumbai attack case, had told a special court in June that an Indian named Jindal had taught him and the nine other terrorists to speak Hindi at an LeT training camp in Pakistan.

However, even after Kasab’s negative reply, the crime branch of Mumbai police has not stopped its probe to ascertain Jindal’s role in the attacks.

A crime branch team has gone to Jammu and Kashmir to verify and examine the evidences against Jindal gathered by its counterpart there, the police officer said. — PTI

Mumbai, September 11
It is not just Bollywood's producers who have postponed all major releases till September 18 when the fortnight long inauspicious period of Pitr Paksha (Shraad) ends. Maharashtra's politicians have also decided to lie low and not undertake any new ventures during this period even if they have to squeeze in several rounds of campaigning in the fortnight before the October 13 Assembly elections.

The Shiv Sena-BJP combine was all set to announce its candidates before September 4, the first day of Pitr Paksha. However, last minute hassles in sharing the Thane and Guhagar seats forced both parties to put off the announcement. "Everything has been sorted out and we are waiting for the announcement to be made," says a Shiv Sena office-bearer from North Mumbai. The BJP has gone one step ahead and asked selected candidates in the seats allotted to it to begin work. The names of several candidates have also been informally leaked to local newspapers to build up their profile ahead of the actual campaigning.

On the other hand, the Congress and its ally the Nationalist Congress Party are still giving finishing touches to their seat-sharing arrangements. However a number of senior Congress leaders are prevailing upon their bosses in Delhi to postpone announcement of candidates by another week.

Surprisingly, even the NCPmay go ahead with the proposal to delay announcement of the alliance even though supremo Sharad Pawar opposes superstitious practices in public. Unlike other politicians, Pawar is not known to patronise godmen though for the first time he kicked off his campaign for the LS elections earlier this year from a temple.

New Delhi, September 11
The India Army has decided to place both its two new upcoming mountain divisions in the north east. One facing China and the other facing Myanmar. Each division will have about 15, 000 men, artillery support and weaponry, among other aspects.

Well placed sources in the defence establishment confirmed that a decision has been taken to place these divisions in the north east. One will be based in Manipur and will be attached to the 3 corps based out of Dimapur in western part of Nagaland the second one will be based in Arunachal Pardesh and will be attached to the 4 crops based out Tezpur, in north-eastern Assam.

Sources also confirmed that the Army has already issued instructions to the first lot of officers and men to start moving to Manipur.

Though raising a division takes a lot of time, the Army is speeding up matters by pulling troops out of “peace postings” and putting them in Manipur. This division will be located on the strategic Bangladesh-India-Myanmar tri-axis that is not only used by insurgents to smuggle in arms, the growing influence of China in Myanmar had added to the worries.

The second division will be placed in Arunachal Pradesh and will have its three brigades located in areas where the present fortification facing China may be weak or needs augmentation.

The decision to place the additional divisions in the north-east was taken after due consultation at the top level of the Armed forces. Senior functionaries scotched reports that a corps will be raised, saying that will need fresh government approval and will add to the time over run besides adding to logistics of the Army. 

Hyderabad, September 11
The shrill campaign to anoint YS Jaganmohan Reddy as the next Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has mellowed down a bit with the Congress high command sending out strong signals that it was in no hurry to take a decision on the succession issue.

Aware that aggressive posturing could be viewed by the high command as defiance, the loyalists of the young MP have decided to lie low even while continuing their efforts to bring to the notice of the central leadership the outpouring of public support for Jagan.

The architect of “Jagan-for-CM” campaign and Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachandra Rao returned to the city today after here days of hectic parleys in Delhi.

Rao, a close friend of the late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy, had met the party president Sonia Gandhi, her political adviser Ahmed Patel and senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee, Digvijay Singh and Veerappa Moily to lobby for installing Jagan, a 36-year -old MP from Kadapa, as the next Chief Minister.

He explained to the central leaders that Jagan would be the best option for the party to carry forward the legacy of YSR since he enjoyed full support of legislators, MPs and party leaders at various levels.

However, the thinking in the high command is that Jagan is too young to take up the mantle and needs to be groomed for the top job. Besides, his immediate elevation would also set a precedent for the other state units.

While assuring that the interests of YSR family would be fully protected, the central leaders asked Rao to rein in the aggressive lobbyists and put an end to pressure tactics like rallies and demonstrations in support of Jagan’s candidature.

The high command was understood to have offered a set of three options to the young MP: a berth in the Union Cabinet, post of the Deputy Chief Minister or the APCC chief. Rao was asked to discuss the options with YSR’s family and return to Delhi on Saturday for further discussions.

Accordingly, soon after his arrival here, Rao, who has emerged as a key player in the emerging political situation, drove to Jagan’s residence and held discussions with him.

Meanwhile, following a stern message from the high command, the state ministers, who were earlier unwilling to attend to their duties till Jagan was made the Chief Minister, have fallen in line and swore loyalty to the central leadership.

“We are confident that the party high command will take note of the overwhelming support for Jagan not only from the party men but also from the general public,” the Municipal Administration Minister A Ramnarayan Reddy said.

Hyderabad, September 11
A high-level team of civil aviation experts has collected vital clues regarding the cause of helicopter crash that killed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and four others in Nallamala forest area on September 2.

“We are hopeful of completing the probe in about two weeks,” the team leader and Director General of Civil Aviation RK Tyagi said here today on return from the crash site.

The team held discussions with officials of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and enquired whether all the procedures were followed before permitting the ill-fated chopper to take off.

The five-member team will again visit the crash site next week for further investigation. The investigators held discussions with the police and revenue officials and spent several hours at the crash site on Pavuralagutta hillock and examined every piece of debris.

They mapped the crash site, the path in which the debris was scattered, location of the five bodies, the place where the engine rested and the trees, which took the impact of the crash. The experts said the ill-fated Bell-430 helicopter crashed from a height of 355 metres and the trees and the debris ploughed to a distance of 80 to 100 meters from the West to the East.

The total crash site measures 100 metres in length and 25 metres width. Such was the damage that all major components of the chopper were broken into small pieces while the fuel and flight instrument panel and other parts melted. The rotor, the blades and its mast were detached from the hub and smashed into pieces.

After hitting the ground, the engine caught fire and a circular area around the wreckage showed charring. Earlier, the DGCA team held discussions with the state Chief Secretary, P Ramakanth Reddy, DGP SSP Yadav and Kurnool district police and revenue officials and inspected the pieces of wreckage and other material recovered from the crash site.

Meanwhile, the police teams recovered the Emergency Locater Transmitter (ELT) of the helicopter from the crash site but it was completely damaged.

On September 5, a team of Greyhounds, an elite anti-Naxalite wing of the state police, had recovered the Black Box during search operations in the area.

New Delhi, September 11
India would soon have a law to curb malpractices in education, with the 100-day report card of the Human Resource Development Ministry showing substantial progress on the front.

The inter-ministerial consultations on the draft note are over as HRD Minister Kapil Sibal yesterday indicated an early cabinet approval for the same. The Foreign Education providers’ Bill has already been pitched for the cabinet approval.

In another major development, the expert UGC committee, reviewing deemed universities, will submit its report in another fortnight, and has gone through 81 of the 92 presentations made by such universities.

Presenting his 100-day report card in the capital yesterday, Sibal, who became the first Union Minister to do so, added that the draft legislations on mandatory assessment of higher education institutions and a tribunal for the adjudication of matters related to the sector were also ready and being consulted within ministries.

He further sounded committed to his urge of getting private players into education, despite strong opposition from several quarters. “A PPP concept note is ready so is the draft note for the National Curriculum Framework for Teachers. Both are now being debated,” he said.

On the policy front, the ministry has already moved ahead with exam reforms as suggested by the National Curriculum Framework, 2005, by deciding to make class X boards optional from 2011 and introducing grades from this year. On school accreditation, the CBSE has proposed to introduce a system of assessment of schools affiliated to it.

New Delhi, September 11
Amid the stand-off over investigations into the 26/11 terror attacks, India today lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over the ‘Gilgistan-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order’ as also against the proposed construction of the Bunji power project in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).

Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner to India Rifat Masood was summoned to the Foreign Office and conveyed India’s displeasure over Islamabad’s actions. The Indian High Commission in Islamabad will also lodge a formal protest with Pakistan's foreign office soon.

“The Government of India protested through diplomatic channels today against the Government of Pakistan’s so called “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order - 2009”, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement this evening.

Pakistan has for the past six decades denied the basic democratic rights to the people in those parts of the state of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation.

The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947. The so-called “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order -2009” is yet another cosmetic exercise intended to camouflage Pakistan’s illegal occupation, the ministry added.

The recently approved reforms and self-governance package is seen as a step towards merger of the Northern Areas with Pakistan. Northern Areas, which are part of PoK, have so far been directly ruled by Islamabad. New Delhi also protested over the proposed construction of the Bunji Hydroelectric Project “in a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir under illegal occupation of Pakistan.’’

The 7,000-MW power project is proposed to be constructed with Chinese help on ‘build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT)’ basis. An MoU in this regard was signed during President Asif Ali Zardari's visit to China last month.

The project has triggered anxieties in India about growing Chinese activities in PoK.

The project is estimated to cost between $ 6-7 billion and all the investment will be made by Chinese entrepreneurs.

Bangalore, September 11
In a move that is likely to annoy the ruling BJP government in Karnataka, Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj today went to St Peter’s pontifical seminary in Bangalore to meet Catholic bishops who had gathered there to discuss yesterday’s fresh attack on a church located on the city’s outskirts.

Eleven bishops led by Archbishop Bernard Moras received Bhardwaj at the seminary. “The bishops and the governor had a closed door meeting. I don’t know what exactly they discussed”, Fr Adolph Washington, PRO in the Bangalore archdiocese, told TNS.

Over 10 window glasses were and two statues were broken at St Francis de Sales church in Hebbagudi on Hosur Road, about 20 km from Bangalore, in the early hours of Thursday. The vandals broke and toppled down the statues of John the Disciple and the Virgin Mary kept outside the church.

Similar incidents in different parts of the state had rocked Karnataka last September also. At that time Hindu right-wing organisations were blamed for the attacks. The identity of the perpetrators of yesterday’s attack, however, has remained a mystery.

New Delhi, September 11
All the four regions in the country — northwest, central, south peninsula and northeast — received good rains, in fact more than they normally do every year in the week between September 3 and 9.

The data released by the Met Department today shows the country received 56.2 mm rains between September 3 and 9 as compared to 46.3 mm last year.

Good rains, albeit late, proved to be a blessing for the country as the data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday showed progress in kharif sowing during the last few days owing to good rains in many parts of the country. But despite the progress, paddy coverage is still down by around 62 lakh hectares as compared to last year.

While the Met Department explains this year’s erratic monsoon a normal variability, experts believe there is extreme variability at a sub-regional level that is making predictions more and more difficult and suggest that India must move quickly to increase its predictive capacities and find coping strategies for people across the country.

In fact, Centre for Science and Environment’s climate change coordinator Kushal Yadav cautions that the amount of useful rainfall available to farmers may decrease in future.

“Instances of extreme rainfall incidences in India are rising and at the same time moderate monsoon rainfall events reducing, by about two incidents per year. For instance, Orissa has experienced 1ºC of average rise in temperature between 1951 and 1990, with more frequent and intense cyclones. On the other coast, Maharashtra now has more rains in May, June and July.

“Also, events like the flooding of Mumbai in 2007 have increased by 10 per cent per decade in the last 50 years. These trends suggest that even if the total rainfall is not decreasing in the country, what is decreasing is the number of rainy days. It means that the same amount of rain will come in lesser days - leading to floods and extreme events,” Kushal Yadav says

Yadav argues this also means the amount of useful rainfall available to farmers will decrease. “But by how much or how badly, it is still not clear. But it seems more definite now that the erratic rainfall and extreme variability at a sub- regional level is making predictions more and more difficult. It also suggests that we must move quickly to increase our predictive capacities and also to find coping strategies for people across the country,” he adds.

The Agriculture Ministry data shows that even though the cropped areas under paddy, total coarse grains and oil seeds showed an improvement due to good rains this week, deficient and delayed monsoon earlier this year means the kharif coverage is still much less as compared to last year.

The IMD predicts heavy to very heavy rain at few places in northwest India up to September 12 and a decrease thereafter both in intensity and distribution. Scattered rainfall activity is likely over northeast India and south peninsula while subdued rainfall activity over central and adjoining east India is expected during second half of the week.

Guwahati, September 11
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Michael (Mike) Fincke today said India’s moon mission Chandrayaan-I was a major milestone for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) despite its premature end. Fincke, whose wife belongs to Assam, is on a personal visit here.

Fincke said, “It is amusing to hear Chandrayaan-I being called a failure. It was rather a fantastic mission for the ISRO given that 95 per cent of its goals have been achieved. India should be very proud of it.”

He lauded the huge capabilities and pool of talents in the ISRO and said NASA would be too happy to work with the ISRO in future missions to make life much better for the people of India. “In fact, NASA and ISRO already have a wonderful history of working together,” he said.

Married to Renita Saikia, an Assamese engineer in NASA, the astronaut said he had been selected by NASA to go to space again for the third time in 2010 as a mission specialist. He served NASA as science officer and flight engineer on Expedition 9 and spent six months abroad the International Space Station (ISS) in 2004. He was the commander for Expedition 18 and spent another six months till April 8 this year.

“The NASA Expedition for 2010 will focus on gaining an insight into the working of the universe. It will basically deal with fundamental physics and try to figure out the presence of some very strange particles in the universe. The mission findings are expected to be important for the future of physics,” Fincke said.