New Delhi, October 16
Directors of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and members of their boards will eventually be appointed through an independent collegium of industrialists and academics. Also, IIMs can set up campuses abroad, provided they come up with “workable proposals and preferably function together instead of individually”.

Taking these decisions today, the government said it had no objection, in principle, to offshore campuses of IIMs and would amend the memoranda of association with the institutes to encourage their overseas foray.

“We have asked the institute heads to evolve a proposal. We want to globalise the IIM brand,” said HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who met IIM directors for the first time today after assuming charge of education.

In another major move, the government agreed that a collegium, as mooted for the appointment of vice-chancellors of central universities, would also apply to IIMs, where majority appointments so far are cleared by the HRD ministry, which advertises the positions before short-listing and selecting candidates.

But that is set to change to advance the cause of transparency in appointments to top institutes. IIM boards are also proposed to be restricted in size, with HRD ministry describing them as “unwieldy and huge”.

The membership will be limited to 13 (currently over 20 or so), with Sibal saying, “No one should be present on the IIM board for the purpose of ornamentation. Every member must have a contribution to make.”

The boards are proposed to be reconstituted post January 2010, the deadline which the government has given to IIM directors to present their views on the constitution of the collegium, which will be empowered to recommend names of board members and directors to the government for final selection.

“The government won’t recommend any names for appointments. What more autonomy can we offer to IIMs in terms of selection processes?” asked Sibal, claiming his idea of a collegium was “lapped up”. But IIM directors seemed to differ. Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM, Bangalore, told The Tribune: “We have no idea what such a collegium would be like. We will discuss it.”

That apart, the government and IIM chiefs described the meeting as “constructive and exciting”, one in which no discussions centred on the controversial salary aspect, which fuelled the IIT agitation.

Asked if salaries were a concern, IIM heads said, “We did not discuss that today.” The government, however, claimed the IIMs had accepted the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and were happy with its performance related incentive scheme, which allows them to better the remunerations.

For the IIMs, personally, the big take home today was government’s nod to offshore campuses. On foreign universities coming to India, institution chiefs seem upbeat. “We are ready for competition though we are concerned about faculty crunch,” said Dr Debashis Chatterjee, director, IIM, Kozhikode.

But for the institutes to beat competition, autonomy is the key, feel the directors. Sibal agrees, but with a rider: “We are for IIM autonomy, for letting go, but let’s not forget that the primary responsibility of all education systems is national.”

New Delhi, October 16
The two-day national executive meeting of the BJP, considered to be the last under president Rajnath Singh, scheduled to be held here on October 28 and 29, has been postponed indefinitely.

The BJP parliamentary board-cum-central election committee (CEC) which met here on Thursday decided this. Party leaders refused to state the reasons for the sudden decision but insiders mentioned a couple of reasons why it would not be a happy occasion to summon the party’s highest decision making body now.

Sources said the BJP is apprehensive of another round of defeat in the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh whose results will be out on October 22 and facing the members after one more round of defeat would not be a happy augury at this juncture.

The experience of the last national executive on June 20-21 proving to be stormy is still fresh in the minds of its leaders and therefore the leaders are baulking from a repeat performance.

Though the RSS had expressly asked LK Advani to start receding into the background, Advani and Rajnath — whose term should be ending before the year end — continued as prime campaigners for the BJP. At least some members like former Union minister Arun Shourie and now even Shatrughan Sinha could question the party’s decision in this respect. The national executive was also to take a view on other crucial issues, including Advani’s retirement and Rajnath’s replacements. But these have to precede the replacement of Rajasthan Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is refusing to quit, notwithstanding Rajnath’s two-month old notice.

These are issues that will naturally crop up if they remain unresolved till the national executive meeting and from all accounts none of these is likely to be resolved amicably before October 28 and 29.

Vasundhara issue was discussed animatedly by the parliamentary board yesterday where Advani pressed for rescinding its last order and allowing her to continue arguing that her defiance and leaving the BJP would send a very bad signal to the party cadre. On the other hand Rajnath insisted that since she is refusing to obey the high command directive, the only course open was to initiate disciplinary action against her.

The parliamentary board decided on a middle course and nominated now Sushma Swaraj to mediate and persuade Vasundhara to reach some compromise with Rajnath. The board, however, agreed to sit again on October 22 just to discuss the Vasundhara issue. But in any case leaders did not sound hopeful of an early resolution of Vasundhara issue either.

Another major issue to be tackled is the successor to Rajnath and a couple of leaders opined that Rajnath’s relinquishing office has somehow got linked with Advani’s retirement. But that apart, the organisational election process, which ordinarily culminates in the election of a new national president, has not even begun in most states. In almost all the states, the party has not even completed the membership drive which was supposed to close on September 25, admitted a senior BJP leader.

Mumbai, October 16
The Congress and its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in Maharashtra have begun to tussle over allocation of plum portfolios assuming that they would emerge as victors in the recently concluded Assembly elections. The counting will take place on October 22.

Insisting that the Congress would emerge as the single largest party, its leaders are demanding that the NCP must yield the prime portfolios which

it is holding in the present government. “At present most of the important ministries are being held by the NCP and some of them would have to come to us,” Congress party spokesman Hussain Dalwai told reporters here.

After the 2004 elections when the NCP emerged as the party having more seats than the Congress, the former managed to obtain plum ministries like Home and Finance in return for allowing the latter to hold on to the Chief Minister’s post. Even before the elections, CM Ashok Chavan had indicated that the Home Ministry should vest with the CM. As part of its efforts to build a case against the NCP, Congress leaders have been accusing the NCP leaders of mishandling the Home Ministry. Senior NCP leaders like RR Patil, who held the Home Ministry, are being accused of allowing the police to harass the minorities thus hurting the coalition at the hustings. The Congress also wants finance, irrigation and the PWD ministries.

Meanwhile, the NCP is resisting the Congress’ demand to concede

the Home Ministry. Denying the allegations of the Congress, senior NCP leaders here said they would stake claim for crucial ministries like Home and Finance after the results.

Pallipat (TN), October 16
At least 20 persons were killed and 10 more feared dead when fire swept through a firecracker godown at Pallipat, 90 km from Chennai, on the eve of Diwali on Friday.

Police sources said 20 badly charred bodies have been pulled out of the godown, which was a wholesale point of firecrackers.

The sources said 10 bodies were feared stuck inside the gutted godown and majority of the victims are believed to be from Andhra Pradesh which is very close-by. The cause of the fire could not be ascertained immediately.

Operations to retrieve the bodies were hampered due to the absence of electricity, following power failure in the area after the incident. — PTI

Lucknow, October 16
An FIR has been filed against the high-profile Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and others for an alleged financial fraud at the Babupurwa police station in Kanpur.

According to ADG Law and Order Brij Lal, the FIR lodged on Thursday by one Shivakant Tiwari of New Labour colony, Kanpur, has accused Singh and others of amalgamating companies for converting black money into white.

The name of film actor Amitabh Bachchan also figures in the 30-page complaint, as he is the director of one of the companies, said Brij Lal.

The complaint alleged that between 2003 and 2008, the SP leader and others had reportedly amalgamated their companies with other holdings and had amassed nearly Rs 500 crore in the process.

The companies named in the FIR, included Energy Development Company Limited, EDCL Power Limited, Pankaja Art and Credit Limited, Sarvottam Cap Limited, EDCL Infrastructure Limited and Eastern India Company, all owned or run by Singh and his wife.

According to the ADG, Tiwari, in his complaint, has charged that small utilities were amalgamated in these companies. “For instance, the complainant has claimed that 25 companies were amalgamated in Sarvottam Cap Limited alone,” the ADG underlined. The FIR has been lodged under various sections of IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act etc. Responding to a question, Lal admitted that the state police after initial investigations might hand over the probe to an appropriate Central agency for further action.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to initiate action against people who had hatched the political conspiracy against Amar Singh and actor Amitabh Bachchan.

Charging his political opponents of being envious of Amar Singh’s connections and stature in Indian politics, Yadav said in their eagerness to damage his reputation they have initiated action that is beyond their power.

“If something is wrong with the companies then the Central minister in charge of company affairs should take action and if there is some evidence against a particular individual of any company then the Finance Ministry should probe. In no way is it in the power of a “daroga or thanedar” to investigate such matters,” alleged Yadav.

The Congress today said the FIR filed against Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh for alleged financial fraud in Uttar Pradesh seemed to be a case of political vendetta.

AICC general secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh said: “I am not aware of the details of the case but what I have gathered is that it has been filed on a private complaint ... At the first look, it does look like a case of political vendetta”.

Digvijay said the administration in UP had been very quick in lodging the complaint against Amar and others on receiving the complaint. He added that there was an agency to probe money laundering cases at the Centre and the case against Amar should have come to this agency.

Patna, October 16
It may sound unbelievable but it’s true. Some students desperate to seek admission in Patna University had procured fake recommendation letters from the Governor-cum-Chancellor to get enrolled into the course of their choice. The Chancellor has a quota for admission in all universities of Bihar.

A girl seeking admission to bachelor of education (B.Ed) in Patna University on the forged signature of the Chancellor has been caught by the university authorities. The university Registrar had lodged a case of forgery against the girl student, Premlata, with the Patna police.

In the course of investigation, the accused girl informed the police that a Raj Bhawan employee named Hari Shankar Sharma had assured her admission in the B.Ed course of the university on Chancellor’s quota seat and Sharma handed over the letter having forged signature of the Chancellor to her.

However, the police could not find any one by this name among the employees of the Raj Bhawan. Premlata, according to police, comes from a low income Scheduled Caste family and she earned her bread by giving private tuitions. The SSP said the matter was still being probed and involvement of a gang behind this racket could not be ruled out at this stage.

According to university Vice-Chancellor Shyam Lal, the girl would have got admitted to the course but for the tenor and signature of the letter purported to have been written by the Chancellor’s office.

Apparently, she was also not aware of the fact that the Chancellor had not been availing his quota for admission to the university. Upon getting a letter from the Chancellor’s office, the VC became suspicious and got in touch with the Raj Bhawan. He was in for a shock to find out that the Chancellor had written no such letter. A scrutiny of the letter by Raj Bhawan officials confirmed that it was fake. The VC was directed to lodge a criminal case against the student who had furnished this fake letter.

The VC said having received another such letter with forged signature of the Chancellor making recommendation for admission of 10 students in MBA, BBA, BCA and other profession courses, the letter was referred back to Chancellor’s office which declared it to be fake and asked the VC to lodge criminal cases against all those students who were seeking admission on the basis of such forged letters. The VC has passed on the instruction to the Registrar of the university for compliance.

Hyderabad, October 16
As flood victims in Andhra Pradesh are struggling to pick up threads of life torn by the Nature’s fury, a bitter blame game has broken out between official agencies on who should take the responsibility for failure to check the unprecedented flooding.

The Central Water Commission (CWC) and the state irrigation department are locked in a war of words over the recent floods, pushing the blame on each other.

The controversy started with CWC chairman Arun Kumar Bajaj claiming that the state government had ignored alert bulletins issued by the CWC more than 26 hours in advance, warning about huge inflows into Krishna river.

"On October 2, we had passed on the forecast to the state government that 20 lakh cusecs of water was likely to flow into Srisailam reservoir. They could have evacuated people from Kurnool and other places immediately,” Bajaj said.

This evoked sharp reaction from the government. The Chief Minister K Rosaiah himself refuted the CWC’s claims and said its forecasts were far below the actual inflows. “We were monitoring the floods round-the-clock and the CWC regional officials were also with us throughout the crisis period. During the review meetings, they never gave the correct picture about the inflows,” Rosaiah said.

Rubbishing the CWC chairman’s charge, the state Major Irrigation Minister P Lakshmaiah said the CWC did not issue any specific alert bulletins for Krishna river. It had only alerted about flooding threat to the temple town of Mantralayam.

The state government has decided to seek an explanation from CWC chairman for his remark that the floods were “man-made”.

The minister asserted that there was no human error in handling the unprecedented floods that hit the state following heavy rains in the catchment areas of Krishna river and its tributaries. “On October 2, we received 22 lakh and 25 lakh cusecs at Srisailam as against 10.95 lakh and 15.89 lakh cusecs forecast by the CWC,” the irrigation engineer-in-chief Rehman said.

The CWC chairman maintained that flooding of Kurnool could have been averted had successive governments in the state heeded to the advice given by CWC on doubling the spillway capacity of Srisailam dam. Way back in 1990, the CWC had suggested to government to increase the spillway capacity of the reservoir from 13.5 lakh cusecs to 25 lakh cusecs in order to avoid flash floods.

The opposition parties have also faulted the government for failing to take timely preventive measures as per the CWC bulletins about inflows.

Hyderabad, October 16
The impact of the worst-ever floods in Andhra Pradesh history has not spared even the richest temple of Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara.

As a fallout of the floods, the favourite dishes of the millions of pilgrims visiting the hill shrine have been removed from the temple menu.

The temple authorities have stopped serving “dal” and “ghee” at “Srivari Annadana Satram”, the venue of free meal supply near the popular shrine.

The two commodities - red gram and ghee - are sourced from Kurnool, which is among the worst flood-hit areas. The food contractors have stopped acquiring fresh supplies, due to heavy losses and disruptions.

The existing stock was being used to make “sambar”, the deputy executive officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chenchu Lakshmi said. The TTD is an autonomous body managing the affairs of the country’s richest temple.

The TTD provides meals to the pilgrims free of cost every day under “Annadanam” programme. Around 20,000 devotees avail the facility every day. At present, the menu comprises rice, a curry and sambar.

Lucknow, October 16
Wielding the stick, Chief Minister Mayawati yesterday fixed a target for district officials to conduct at least two big seizures of synthetic milk and milk products in their areas every month and invoke the National Security Act and Gangsters Act against adulterators.

At a review meeting held here to take stock of an ongoing campaign against adulterators during the current festive season Mayawati expressed displeasure over laxity in taking stern action against those indulging in adulteration.

According to an official statement issued here, the Chief Minister asked the district officials to inform the commissioner about their monthly progress. She also enquired into the role of the officials and staff responsible for checking adulteration.

Kolkata, October 16
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today faced protest and demonstrations at the Writers Buildings when he was returning to his office after lunch break around 4 pm.

Opposition leader Partha Chatterjee and three other TMC MLAs, who had been then sitting in front of the CM’s room and raising slogans against his misusing of the police and official machineries against the opposition parties, were soon forcibly lifted. They were allegedly beaten up and dragged out of the state secretariat and then driven to the Alipore Presidency jail in the police vehicle.

The TMC leaders alleged that the Chief Minister himself had masterminded the “atrocities” launched jointly by the police and the CPM at Khanakul (Hooghly), Goaghat (Midnapore), Mongolkot (Burwan) and several other places in the state for facilitating the CPM’s drive for capturing the areas. Hence, they were demonstrating peacefully demanding his arrest. Today’s incident followed the CPM’s rally at Hooghly’s Pursura when CPM minister Anadi Shaw, former MP Anil Basu and two other central committee members Shyamal Chakraborty and Md Selim gave a call to the cadres for launching massive “area capturing drive” against the TMC everywhere.

The police were also warned by them to act as per the CPM’s orders or to face the consequences. Accordingly, during the meeting, two TMC workers were arrested at the instance of the former MP and brought before the leader, which sparked off today’s demonstration.

As soon as the news of Chatterjee’s arrest spread, TMC workers and supporters came out in large number on the streets and organised protests and demonstrations. They organised sit-in-demonstration on roads, railway tracks and others places from 5 pm to 7 pm, which caused enormous inconveniences to the people.

Interestingly, the present Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, then the Union Sports Minister, was also similarly forcibly dragged and taken to Lalbazar by the police in an incident on January 7, 1993, when she was sitting in front of the then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu’s room at Writers Buildings, demanding justice to a poor deaf and dumb girl who was allegedly raped by a cadre and was carrying for four-months. At that time Mamata’s arrest caused an uproar in the political circles and Basu publicly regretted the incident.

But after today’s incident, both Chief Minister and the party secretary, Biman Bose, defended the police action. The Chief Minister said he had instructed the police to take the demonstrators out of the Writers Buildings since he could not allow them to turn the state government’s secretariat into a circus centre.