New Delhi/Adampur (Punjab), October 4
In what will create a deterrent against the uneasy neighbours, the Indian Air Force is not only upgrading the Russian-built MiG-29 combat aircraft, but will also deploy all these fighter jets at Adampur in Punjab that is close to both Pakistan and China.

All the three squadrons — around 62 fighters — are to be based at Adampur which is nation’s second largest IAF base. It is around 100 km away from the Indo-Pak border and less than 250 km from the Chinese border on the eastern side. At present, the MiG-29s — inducted in the late 1980s — are stationed at Adampur and Jamnagar in Gujarat.

The upgraded fighters will carry better weapons, a state-of-the-art radar, and advanced avionics. Another important addition would be mid-air refuelling capability. A more powerful and latest series-III version of the existing RD 33 engine of the MiG 29 will be housed in the upgraded planes. Sources say the upgrade will cost India around $ 650 million. The multifunctional radar will guide weapons with better precision. It will also enable the pilot to “see” even small targets like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A new weapon control system will enable better hitting at targets and also enhance the delivery system of a weapon. The existing flying range of the MIG-29 is around 2,100 km. Post add-ons, it will increase to 3,500 km. “After the upgrade, the MiG-29 will be just a shade lower in capability than the Sukhoi-30,” said a senior IAF official, while talking to the Tribune. The IAF already has the Sukhoi-30 — considered one of the deadliest fighters in the world — in its arsenal.

The IAF has dispatched the first lot of six MiG-29s to Russia and it is expected to be delivered back early next year. The entire programme to upgrade the 60-odd planes will be completed in 2013. In the later stage, the upgrade will be carried out in India with the help of Russian technicians. “We are looking forward to induct upgraded MIG-29s which will happen sometime next year,” said the Air officer Commanding, Adampur, Air Commodore HS Arora. The upgrade and the new deployment pattern will assuage the restive feeling occurring due to recent developments alongside the Chinese border. It will also ramp up capacity in case of any conflict or intrusion from the western side. Recently, two new radars have been placed at a strategic location in Punjab. Also, the IAF has announced that two squadrons of the Sukhoi-30 will also be based in Punjab from 2011 onwards.

The MiG-29 were inducted in India at the height of the cold war between the erstwhile USSR and USA. These were seen as answer to the F-16 fighters, which USA had supplied to Pakistan in the 1980s.

Sanawar, October 4
The 162nd Founder’s Day of the Lawrence School, located near the hill station of Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, was celebrated today with former students, including Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla, attending the function.

On the occasion, the CEC, an alumni of the 1959-60 batch, exhorted students and school alumni to come forward to help the under-privileged section of the society.

He said the ethics and philosophy of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi were still relevant and it was the duty of the privileged people to help those who were unable to make both ends meet.

He added that he was greatly inspired by Mother Teresa who spent her whole life serving the suffering humanity.

Speaking on the occasion, another famous school alumni, Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said the school taught him comradeship and built his self-confidence because of which he has been able to make his presence felt in the political arena.

He said the school also taught him to treat everyone equally.

The celebrations, spread over three days, began on October 2. The festivities ended today with a march-past by students and prize distribution function. Over 500 ex-Sanawarians and their family members participated in the parade. The CEC took the salute.

The chief of the army staff’s trophy for best all-round boy in Class XII for the year 2008-09 was clinched by Rishi Srivastava while Anjana Singh was declared the best girl student. The annual report was read out by headmaster Praveen Vasisht. 

Sanawar, October 4
Infiltration bids by various militant groups was a major concern for the security and prosperity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah, who was here today to attend the 162nd Founder’s Day of Lawrence School, while talking to The Tribune said subversive forces from Pakistan wanted to disturb the peace in the state by carrying out their nefarious activities. However, the people were ready to thwart their attempts as they were now fed up with the two-decade long violence in the state and wanted peace at any cost.

Lauding the security forces for effectively guarding the borders, he said the physical defence and sensor systems installed all along the LoC with Pakistan was very strong. He added the police and state security agencies were jointly working to thwart any attempt to disrupt peace.

Queried about the indefinite strike by the roadways staff in the state, Omar termed the strike as unfortunate as it affected the movement of the common people. The matter would soon be resolved after taking the affected parties into confidence.

On the recent induction of former Chief Information Commissioner of India Wajahat Habibullah as the state information commissioner, Omar said Wajahat would be able to bring transparency in the working of various departments..

New Delhi, October 4
The CPI on Thursday said the UPA was seeking to exterminate the communists by using the Army and now the Indian Air Force to fight Naxals in the country.

Slamming the induction of the Army and the Air Force, especially in Chhattisgarh, to battle the Naxals, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan on Friday said, “This is a war of extermination against the communists and against all those who hold the red flag high. Ten CPI cadres have already been shot dead in Chhattisgarh.”

Expressing concerns that the IAF yesterday sought permission to shoot Naxals in retaliation of the latter were to attack them during rescue operations, Bardhan said “mobilisation of the IAF to fight a battle against India’s own people was bemusing to him. They would not end up shooting Naxals alone; others would also die.”

“I don’t understand this strategy. The government has almost inducted the Army to fight Naxals in at least six districts in Bastar area, which is already surrounded by heavily armed paramilitary forces. We warn the government of the consequences of such a war,” Bardhan said, following the two-day national executive meeting of the party in the capital.

The CPI passed a resolution in the meeting against the UPA signing the Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN. On October 5, several farmers from Kerala would be in the capital to protest the move. Also, the Left party on Friday sought India to prevail upon Sri Lanka for freeing the Tamils in refugee camps there. “These camps are worse than Army concentration camps. At least 3.5 lakh people are housed in these camps. They are not combatants and should be allowed to go free,” Bardhan said, criticising the Congress-led UPA for letting Ottavio Quattrochhi, the prime accused in the Bofors scam to go free.

“They have proved what we had long been saying. They were never interested in prosecuting M Q,” Bardhan said.

Meanwhile, at least 114 communist and workers’ parties from across the world will converge in the capital on November 21 for the 11th meeting of the international communist parties. This is the first time such a meeting would happen in India. 

New Delhi, October 4
At least half the 612 districts in the country are affected by trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation, according to a report.The report by the National Commission for Women (NCW) says that in 378 districts, there are 1,794 identified places of origin from where females are trafficked and 1,016 areas where commercial sexual activities take place.

The southern and eastern states are the most vulnerable as far as trafficking is concerned, with states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal having all their districts affected by the problem.

Among other most affected states are - Tamil Nadu (93.33 per cent of all districts), Orissa (86.66 per cent) and Bihar (86.48 per cent).

The report further adds that 2.4 per cent of the total female population in 15-35 age group in the country is engaged in the flesh trade. "The estimated number of commercial sex workers in India is about 28 lakh," it says.

In this, over 43 per cent of the girls are minor at the time they enter the flesh trade.

"The entry of minors in flesh trade is comparatively high in regions where incidence of poverty and hunger are chronic. Reasons like violence against women, high unemployment and lack of options contribute to the vulnerability of trafficking of adults," the report says.

The report says that gender discrimination and gender specific violence and crimes perpetuate the vulnerability of women and children and act as one of the reasons behind trafficking.

The NCW says that the promise of a job is the biggest way of deception and accounts for over 50 per cent of trafficking cases. Presenting a gloomy picture, the report says that more than 22 per cent women in flesh trade are trafficked and forced into it by family members.

"Around 8 per cent (women) are trafficked by husbands or in-laws and 18 per cent are lured by friends or neighbours. More than 51 per cent women in commercial sex were trafficked either by family members or in-laws," it says. — PTI 

New Delhi, October 4
The police, on a complaint filed by an air hostess, today registered a case against two Air India pilots allegedly involved in a scuffle with some cabin crew members during a flight.

“The air hostess sustained bruises and injuries on her hand,” Joint Commissioner of Police (operations) Satyendera Garg said, adding her medical examination had confirmed she had been assaulted.

According to the air hostess's FIR, the pilots — Commander Ranbeer Arora and Capt Aditya Chopra - tried to molest her and when she resisted, they pushed her outside
the cockpit.

The co-pilot and a flight purser, Amit Khanna, allegedly received minor injuries in the exchange of blows in the incident which occurred around 4:30 a.m. Saturday when the flight IC-884 (Sharjah-Lucknow-Delhi) was over Pakistan.

The incident is understood to have originated in verbal exchanges between the two sides during the pre-flight briefing session ahead of take-off from Sharjah, the police said. The Airbus A-320 was carrying 106 passengers and seven crew members and had reached Lucknow when the matter was reported. The case has been registered under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Air India is conducting a separate inquiry into the matter. Its probe panel is questioning the pilots and the cabin crew, including a flight engineer and other staff, on duty.

However, Khanna denied there had been any scuffle during the flight.“I must speak to the Air India management first. Since we are under great shock, I have not been able to talk to them. But there was no fight between us on the flight,” he said.

An airline spokesperson claimed that at no point of time did any of the two pilots come out of the cockpit.

Denying some reports to this effect, he said: “There was never an instance of no pilot being present in the cockpit. The commander of the flight was in his seat throughout the flight and never left it. Thus, there was no question of flight safety being compromised. This could also be corroborated by the recordings of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (or the black box).”Describing the incident as “a clear case of indiscipline”, the spokesperson said the Air India management would take stringent action on the basis of the inquiry report against whoever was found guilty. — PTI

Itanagar, October 4
Going by the atmosphere of carnival prevailing here, the frontier hill state of Arunachal Pradesh looks like a place bestowed with affluence. But the reality is not that rosy. The land of rising sun (Arunachal) had 16 districts spread over 83,743 sq km area inhabited by about 11 lakh people of 20 major tribes.

However, it must be having the poorest road communication network, health facilities, education infrastructure in the country. The state has only 16 district hospitals, but no referral hospital and no medical college even 37 years after attaining statehood. It has only nine community health centre (CHCs) against the requirement of 176 as per official figures.

The literacy rate is only 44.24 per cent while 33.47 per cent people of the state are living below poverty line against national average of 26.10 per cent. The state does not have an industry worth the name and the tourism sector is still in infancy despite the much vaunted potential for eco and adventure tourism.

However, the highpoint in the state that is basically surviving on largess from the Centre is that it has a pool of very resourceful politicians, including ministers, MLAs and former legislators.

For instance, the incumbent Congress Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, who has been elected unopposed for the three consecutive times from Mukto LAC in bordering Tawang district, has emerged the richest politician in the state, since he became the Chief Minister after 2004 Assembly elections. He is now hoping to be the Chief Minister for the second term after the October 13 Assembly elections.

As per the affidavit on personal assets and liabilities filed by Khandu to the Election Commision before 2004 Assembly polls, the worth of movable and immovable property belonging to himself and his wives was about Rs 4.19 crore and that included cash in hand, bank deposits, investments, value of jewelry, land, commercial complexes and building. All his three wives owned one Tata Safari, three Hyundai Santro, two Maruti Gypsy and two Maruti cars among them.

In the affidavit filed before the EC for the forthcoming poll, Khandu has declared movable and immovable property worth about Rs 21.86 crore, including property that are under the name of his wives. His wives also own three Mohindra Scorpios and three Hyundai Santro cars among them.

“Obviously, Khandu has done very well as the CM to amass property worth five times more. That is what the Congress in Arunachal has been doing. They crave for power to acquire personal assets. Money power has strangled democracy here,” said senior BJP leader P Chandrasekhar Rao.

But T Gapak, a young lady on an Itanagar street feels ‘so good to’ see so many swanky and expensive SUVs whisking past carrying election candidates and their supporters. “This feels like, as if we are living in a place that is blessed with affluence and all good things in life. There should always be an election in the air,” she said, describing the atmosphere in the run up to October 13 elections.

Dorjee Khandu has done very well as the Andhra Pradesh CM to amass property worth five times more. That is what the Congress in Arunachal Pradesh is doing. The money power has strangled democracy here

— Senior BJP leader P Chandrasekhar Rao

New Delhi, October 4
The International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation & Disarmament hopes to achieve some success in its objective by 2015, co-chairman Gareth Evans told reporters here Sunday at the conclusion of the commission’s fourth regional meeting for South Asia here today.

The two-day meeting of several commissioners and a number of advisory board members was convened with the support of the Delhi Policy Group.

Evans, who was accompanied by co-chairperson Yoriko Kawaguchi and K Shankar Bajpai of the Delhi Policy Group, said the commission expected to make some progress in putting an end to further proliferation of nuclear weapons by 2015.

“The next stage will be minimising possession of nuclear weapons, and protection against nuclear attack could be achieved by 2025. However, the commission did not make an attempt to put a date to getting from there to zero nuclear weapons”, he added.

The meeting, which discussed all-important issues relating to nuclear disarmament, acknowledged both India and Pakistan would be reluctant to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The commission said the exception that the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has made for India in allowing global nuclear trade and fuel commerce with it could weaken the NPT. “There is a thinking that the India-US (civil nuclear cooperation) agreement would jeopardise the position of NPT,” Kawaguchi, a former Japanese foreign minister, told reporters.

Evans considered the Indo-US nuclear treaty a setback to the process of nuclear nonproliferation but said as “far as India was concerned it got the best deal. We don’t blame India for that”.

“We have a clear understanding of the political dynamics of the region. There are 23,000 nuclear weapons the world over of which 10,000 are actively deployed and 2,000 trigger ready”, he added. The meeting also discussed the potential risks in peaceful uses of nuclear energy even as it recognised the need, especially in developing countries, for greater and cleaner electrical energy. Also the fear of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the Taliban or terrorist groups was discussed at length.

Kawaguchi said the first meeting of this region was held in Sydney, Australia and the fourth and last will be held in Hiroshima, Japan.

Lucknow, October 4
Uttar Pradesh has the lowest per capita power consumption in the country, according to a report by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Officials admit that the lack of power has affected the state's development, but cite ongoing projects that will ensure Uttar Pradesh becomes a power-surplus state by 2014.

"Uttar Pradesh's annual per capita consumption of electricity was the lowest in the country at just about 340 units, which was just about half of the national average of 672 units," according to the general review report of the CEA.

According to the report, consumption is as high as 969 units in western India, 836 units in the southern region and 623 in the northern region. Even in the economically weak eastern region, it was 357 units — still higher than Uttar Pradesh.

Expressing concern over the prevailing situation, Uttar Pradesh Power Corp (UPPC) chairman Navneet Sehgal said the biggest impediment in the path of the state's development was the power shortage.

Sehgal, who took over as UPPC's chief less than a year ago, plans to turn Uttar Pradesh into a power surplus state by 2014.

"For the first time in the history of the state, the government has embarked upon a grand power generation plan to match the national figures in a time-bound manner to provide electricity to the most deprived populace in the state," he said.

The government has already approved setting up a three-way mechanism, as recommended by the Energy Task Force, headed by the chief secretary to identify and establish power projects in the state, he said.

These included power generation through the public private partnership (PPP) route.

Under the model, the financial burden would rest entirely on the private partner and the government would arrange the location, land, fuel (coal), water, environmental clearances through special purpose vehicles.

Under this arrangement, consultants have already been selected for preparing necessary reports for clearances for the 1,320-MW Jawaharpur thermal plant in Etah and the 1,980-MW Dopaha thermal plant in Sonebhadra, Sehgal said.

"Bids have been received for the selection of consultant for the 1,980-MW Lalitpur thermal power plant," 
he added.

Under the second model, the government would procure 5,000 MW power from the private sector. Thirdly, the state intends to generate 5000 MW through its own projects. Work on the Anpara-E plant is under way. — IANS

New Delhi, October 4
The government is on the verge of finalising a scheme for mandatory diabetes and hypertension check-ups of the rural population above 40 years of age. The move comes as the first institutional response to the fact 
that India is the diabetes capital of 
the world.

These compulsory checks would be conducted under the National Rural Health Mission System, with health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad saying that ASHAs would be mobilised for the purpose.

“These grassroots workers would be trained in the job and provided with a diagnostic kit to detect diabetes. Simultaneously, a programme for diabetes control will also be launched,” Azad said, as he addressed the SAARC Diabetes Conference in the Capital today. He added that the scheme for control of the disease was in advanced stages of formulation.

According to WHO projections, India presently has over 30 to 33 million diabetic patients and the number will rise to about 40 million by 2010 and 74 million by 2025.

Since India is basically a rural-based country, a large percentage of these diabetic populations are from the rural areas, believes the health ministry though there had been projections earlier of diabetes being an urban phenomena along with high blood pressure. New evidence, however,, suggests that rural populations are equally at risk. Also, while urban centres are better equipped in terms of healthcare facilities and detection, rural areas are totally neglected.

“Though the urban population has ways and means for regular check-ups, it’s not the same with rural India. They hardly have access to facilities for regular medical checkups,” Azad today said, stressing early detection as the key to prevention.

The minister further exhorted the private sector and associations of medical professionals to come forward and join hands with the government in the fight against diabetes. “We need to work towards this goal to reduce the burden of health costs,” the minister said.

On the possibilities of diabetes treatment through stem cell research, he said stem cells could now be grown and transferred into specialised medical therapies and this could be an answer to diabetes-related problems.

India listed before SAARC representatives the efforts it has made to improve rural healthcare delivery. Needless to say, the minister highlighted how he had prevailed upon the states to send a list of remote and inaccessible rural locations that need priority in primary healthcare.

Hyderabad, October 4
In a grim irony, Andhra Pradesh is in the grip of acute drought and devastating floods at the same time, accentuating the miseries of farmers.At a time when nearly 90 per cent of the state was declared drought-hit and authorities were grappling with the crisis, the flood fury left a trail of destruction in five districts, inundating the standing crops.

Hit by the sudden rush of flood waters following heavy rains in the upper reaches of Krishna river, the farmers in Mahaboobnagar, Kurnool, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda, Krishna and Guntur districts are worried over the fate of their submerged crops.

While the problem of plenty meant evacuation from their homes and destruction of their crops and properties for people facing the fury of floods in Krishna river, the farmers in at least 14 other drought-affected districts are praying for rains.

"We are in a piquant situation. On one hand, the enumeration of loss due to drought is going on and on the other hand we are faced with unprecedented floods," an official of the Agriculture department said.

The state government had last month declared 981 revenue mandals, each comprising five to 10 villages, across 21 out of the total 23 districts as drought-affected and sought an immediate central assistance of Rs 4,000 crore to take up relief measures. The state has a total of 1,128 mandals.

Following 32 per cent deficit rainfall, the crop area has declined drastically.

As against the normal crop area of 79.07 lakh hectares for the kharif season, crops were sown in 61.73 lakh hectares. Of this, 20 per cent of the crops had withered due to severe drought conditions and over 1.1 lakh hectares were submerged in the current floods.

The preliminary estimation of crop loss due to drought has been put at Rs 3,000 crore. Meanwhile, the two major rivers flowing through the state - Krishna and Godavari - set contrasting records this year.

Godavari, which normally receives heavy inflows and floods the region, received only 927 cusecs of flood waters, the lowest in the 100-year recorded history, while Krishna was in full fury, receiving 26.5 lakh cusecs of water, the highest in the century. 

At a time when nearly 90 per cent of the state was declared drought-hit and authorities were grappling with the crisis, the flood fury left a trail of destruction in five districts

Godavari, which normally receives heavy inflows and floods the region, received only 927 cusecs of flood waters, the lowest in the 100-year recorded history, while Krishna was in full fury, receiving 26.5 lakh cusecs of water, the highest in the century

Mumbai, October 4
Heavy rains in parts of Maharashtra have thrown electioneering out of gear. Candidates and their supporters have stayed away from a number of places in Konkan areas bordering Karnataka, parts of Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai following heavy rains.

In Kudal on the Mumbai-Goa route, heavy flooding has been reported after local streams breached their banks Friday night. Two tourist buses with people en route Mumbai were trapped in swirling waters and passengers spent nearly two days atop the vehicles before they were rescued.

According to Congress officials here, campaigning in the entire Sindhudurg district has been affected. Reports say candidates and their supporters out canvassing in the neighbouring Ratnagiri district were jeered forcing some of them to beat a retreat as local residents grappled with landslides and floods.

In Solapur bordering Karnataka, where Praniti Shinde daughter of senior party leader Sushilkumar Shinde is contesting, Congress workers were hastily deployed to carry out rescue and relief measures.

Shinde was said to be networking with party colleagues from her house and did not venture out to campaign for most of the weekend, according to party sources.

Senior party leaders are hastily redrawing their plans so that star campaigners could campaign at other places. Congress president Sonia Gandhi who was to address election rallies in Nashik and Nanded on Monday, followed by Mumbai and other places the day after, has postponed her schedule by a day. Party general secretary Rahul Gandhi is all set to begin campaigning in Maharashtra during the week as well.

However, it is not clear if the Congress president would be able to stick to her revised schedule as well as there are no signs of the rains relenting. According to the Met department, heavy to very heavy rains are likely over the next 48 hours.

Other parties like the Shiv Sena, BJP and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are hastily moving their star campaigners to other parts of the state like Vidarbha, which are unaffected by the rains.

Campaigning comes to an end Sunday next for the October 13 elections.

Both-Bodan (Maharashtra), October 4
It was poignant in its imagery and telling in its impact. A slow procession of widows of farmers who committed suicide in the Vidarbha region in the last couple of years wound its way through rutted village tracks as Bebitai Bais, the first farmer’s widow in Maharashtra to contest the Assembly elections, began her campaign yesterday.

She will contest for the Wani Assembly seat.

The widows’ procession to the hamlet of 90 huts - which got into media spotlight after it saw 18 farmers’ suicides in the past few years - symbolically marked the launch of this brave woman’s poll campaign as a candidate of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) and Shetkari Sanghatana, supported by the Republican Left Democratic Front (RLDF).

VJAS president Kishore Tiwari told IANS that Both-Bodan village was chosen as it “represents the heart of the agrarian crisis in eastern Maharashtra”.

In a prepared statement released here, Bebitai said getting elected in the present murky political scenario would be difficult for a poor woman like her with limited resources at her command.

“I was disturbed when Kalavati Bandurkar was forced to step out of the poll race. My aim would be to unite all 7,000 farmland widows and over 35,000 orphans of Vidarbha whose concerns and problems are common. We must show the world the apathy of the bureaucracy and politicians to our issues and our demand to live a life of dignity,” she said.

Bebitai appealed to the widows and people of Wani to support the cause of the farming community and help her to raise their voice in the Assembly. — IANS

Mumbai, October 4
Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray today described the proposed Rs 350 crore memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the Arabian Sea as "stupidity" and an election gimmick.

"This is stupidity. There is no need for it as there is another memorial of Shivaji near Gateway of India," Thackeray said in an interview to his party mouth piece 'Saamana'.

Asked if the memorial was aimed at wooing voters before the October 13 assembly elections, the 83-year-old Sena chief said, "Yes, definitely.”

"Like the former Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced free electricity for farmers on the eve of elections but reneged on the promise. Same thing will happen as far as the proposed Shivaji memorial is concerned."

To a query on squabble between BJP leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari, Thackeray said, "Don't ask me about their relations. Don't enquire from me about the neighbour's wife."

Thackeray expressed confidence that the Sena-BJP alliance would wrest power from the Congress-NCP combine adding that he would address a victory rally after the October 13 Assembly elections. — PTI