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Petrochemical corridor project fuels dissent
TRS to move trust vote against govt
Soon, toll-free traffic helpline
Vessel with two Indians on board hijacked
Prez to visit UK soon
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Goa Blast
US aircraft forced to
land at Mumbai
Indo-Myanmar border under mounted vigil
K’taka police defends J&K player’s detention
R’sthan mulls law to protect heritage buildings
Here techies care for matters of heart
Prime accused in PF scam found dead in jail
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Petrochemical corridor project fuels dissent
Hyderabad, October 18 The proposed Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) would lead to displacement of over 2.75 lakh persons in several villages and would play havoc with their livelihood and the coastal environs, the local NGOs and environmental experts alleged. Thousands of families of fishermen, agricultural labourers and rural artisans would be the worst-hit and lose their sources of livelihood, a spokesman of Visakhapatnam-based NGO ‘Samatha’ said. However, the officials allayed such apprehensions and argued the project had the potential to transform the region into a thriving industrial hub. Massive investments to the tune of over Rs 3 lakh crore are expected to flow into the ambitious project over a period of seven to 10 years. The PCPIR, approved by the UPA government in March, has a potential to provide employment to about 12 lakh people. The state government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre early this month for implementation of the project. The Centre is expected to sanction Rs 6,334 crore for creation of infrastructure facilities while the state government would spend Rs 2,132 crore towards supply of power and water and other facilities, the officials of the Industries department said. As part of the project, the Visakhapatnam-Rajahmundry road would be developed as a six-lane road. Already, several industries had evinced interest in setting up their units in the proposed Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada with a total estimated investment of Rs 1.63 lakh crore. The PCPIR comprises 603 sq km in 110 villages of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts, with a potential for huge investments and employment generation. The region will have a processing area of 269.44 sq km and 334.14 sq km of non-processing area. The PCPIR will see several mega integrated petrochemical complexes and refineries coming up in the corridor. It envisages having manufacturing facilities for domestic and export-led production in petroleum, chemical and petrochemical sectors with associated services and infrastructure. The Centre would provide rail connectivity, highway network and airports while the state government would provide basic infrastructure, including power and water supply. The government is also expecting foreign investments to flow into the area, which boasts of the Krishna-Godavari Natural Gas Basin, high-quality road, rail and air connectivity, a long coastline, and major ports such as Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram and Kakinada. Big figures
n
275,000 persons are estimated to be displaced n
300,000 lakh crore rupees, the likely investment n
1,200,000 jobs is the employment potential of the project n
6,334 crore rupees will be spent by the Centre n
2,132 crore rupees will be incurred by the AP govt
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TRS to move trust vote against govt
Hyderabad, October 18 The announcement by TRS president and MP K Chandrasekhar Rao came as a surprise for the ruling party which is already grappling with an internal tussle over leadership issue. “This government has lost the faith of Telangana people. We will move the no-confidence motion in the next Assembly session and time has come for Telangana legislators from all parties to spell out their stand,” Rao told a press conference here. The strident posturing by TRS chief came against the backdrop of recent Supreme Court order declaring Hyderabad, which is part of Telangana region, as a “free zone” for the purpose of recruitment of police personnel. This means that the police jobs in Hyderabad are not exclusively reserved for people from Telangana region but candidates from regions can also compete. As per the existing practice, Hyderabad is included under Zone- VI along with some other Telangana districts and certain categories of government jobs are reserved for people from this region. The non-locals recruited in the past will have to be repatriated to their parent zone so that locals could be absorbed in the vacant posts. However, acting on a special leave petition filed by non-Telangana employees, the apex court had last week declared the state capital as a free zone and cancelled the repatriation order. The emotive issue provided the much-needed ammunition for TRS to flex its political muscles after a severe drubbing it had received in the last general elections. The sub-regional party is planning to organise a massive public meeting at Siddipet in Medak district on Oct 21 on “free zone” and other issues concerning the employment sector. “This is going to be the beginning of a long battle to defeat anti-Telangana forces and achieve the statehood goal,” the TRS chief said. But, what has baffled the political circles is the talk of no-confidence motion by the maverick Telangana leader despite the fact that his party has only 10 legislators in the 294-member Assembly. The Congress leaders pooh-poohed the TRS’ threat and said it reflected desperation on the part of Chandrasekhar Rao to prove his political existence. “As per rules, you need at least one-tenth of the total strength of the House to move a no-confidence motion. In this case, it is 30 members. How can TRS think of moving a no-trust motion?” the state Endowments Minister G Venkat Reddy and Medical and Health Minister D Nagender said.
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Soon, toll-free traffic helpline
New Delhi, October 18 The Ministry of Urban Development is all set to launch the first traffic helpline in India which will enable people to access all traffic information from a toll-free number. The National Public Transport Helpline will provide all information on public transport -- like the route number of a particular bus or a metro link, fares, their time of arrival and the frequency of service. Ministry officials say the helpline has already been allotted a nationwide number , 155220, with unrestricted accessibility from all access service providers. Initially, the project is being launched in six cities, out of which Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad have been finalised. Once the pilot project has run successfully in these six cities, the project will be spread to the rest of the country in the next six months. The helpline will also serve as a source of data for transport facilities in different states and cities in the country.
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Vessel with two Indians on board hijacked
New Delhi, October 18 Indian High Commissioner in Singapore TCA Raghavan is in close touch with the Singapore government as well as the shipping company over the issue, the sources said. They said that two Indians are among the crew members of the ship MV Kota Wajar, which was hijacked on Thursday. The shipping company is also touch with the Singapore government and efforts are being made to secure the release of the ship along with the people on board, the sources said. Earlier, confusion prevailed over whether there was any Indian on board the ship with media reports suggesting that there were four Indians in the carrier. The ship was seized by the pirates on October 15 in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometers north of the Seychelles island. Abdulgani Y Serang, general secretary, National Union of Seafarers of India, said in Mumbai that the crew members of the vessel were from countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Pakistan. Dipika
Pathania, wife of Raghuveer Singh, one of the Indians on board the ship, said the company informed that the crew is safe but did not say when they will be freed. “We don’t want money. I just want my husband to be freed. The ship owners won’t act until we put pressure. They don’t care about the crew members,” Pathania told a news channel. Saroj Dev Singh, brother of another Indian on board, said: “I spoke to the Singapore office in the morning. They told me that everyone is safe on the ship and it has reached Somalia. They said that they are trying to speak to the pirates.” Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since 1991 and piracy has flourished off its coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. Pirate attacks around the world have more than doubled to 240 during the first six months of 2009 compared with the same period last year.
— PTI
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Prez to visit UK soon
New Delhi, October 18 She will begin her first leg of tour with the state visit to the UK, where she will be the guest of Queen Elizabeth at the Windor Castle from October 26 to 29. During the visit, she is likely to hold one-on-one talks with the Queen on issues, like terrorism and recession, confronting the world.
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IB had warned editor of attack
Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service
Mumbai,
October 18 The newspaper had been carrying a series of articles against Hindu fundamentalist groups like the Hindu Jagriti Samiti and Sanatan Saunstha which are carrying out a major campaign against noted painter MF Hussain. “Two IB officers, who had come to visit me, told me to be careful after we filed a police complaint about threatening calls from the Sanatan Saunstha,” Raju Nayak, Editor of the Goa edition of Marathi daily Lokmat told The Tribune. According to Nayak, activists of the two organisations have been holding protests outside the offices of Lokmat in Goa’s capital Panjim virtually every day for the past two months. The scooter carrying bomb, which went off on Friday night, was parked just a short distance away from the Margao office of the newspaper. “We have been receiving threatening letters every day from different fictitious addresses. But they all sound similar and seem to be have been written by the same group,” Nayak said. Incidentally, the Sanatan Saunstha has been attracting a lot of followers in Goa with a prominent minister representing a regional ally that is part of the Digambar Kamat government allotting land to the organisation. Even earlier, when the Bharatiya Janata Party government, headed by Manohar Parrikar, was in office, senior ministers and police officials participated in weapon training camps held by the organisation. One such camp was inaugurated by the then DIG Karnal Singh, who headed the Goa Police. Goa’s Home Minister Ravi Naik openly demanded today that investigators should probe the Sanatan Saunstha’s sources of funds. “The police machinery should not cow down under pressure and should expose the political connections of the outfit,” Naik added. Long before they hit the headlines following the setting off of bombs in the Muslim-dominated town of Malegaon, the Sanatan Sanstha has been on a drive to “purify” Hinduism in some towns like Nagpur and Sangli. However, it was in Goa that the body attracted attention after some of its followers began a campaign against “Narkasur celebrations” in the state. The body had via its newspaper, Sanatan Prabhat, urged Hindus not to participate in competitions for ‘Best Effigy of Narkasur’. Such competitions, the group claims, amounts to glorifying a demon even if the effigy is burnt on Diwali midnight.
ATS
joins
in probe
The Anti Terror Squad of the Maharashtra police have
joined the investigations in the case. Joint teams of the ATS and the
Goa police carried out raids on the premises of the Sanatan Saunstha
today. The police officials revealed that the gelignite sticks planted
at all the four spots were sourced from Nagpur. An ATS team also raided
the Saunstha’s premises in Sangli after the owner of scooter was
traced to the town. According to the police, Nishad Bakle, who owned the
scooter, hailed from the town and was an activist of the organisation.
Among the five persons arrested are Virendra Marathe, who heads the
organisation’s ashram in Ponda, Goa and Prithviraj Hazare, editor of
‘Sanatan Prabhat’, the body’s newspaper. Incidentally, the
newspaper says its aim is the “extermination of evil doers.” Goa’s
Home Minister Ravi Naik said the two men — Malgondi Patil and Yogesh
Naik — who were critically injured in the blast, had given a statement
to the police about their links with the Sanatan Saunstha shortly before
they died. Apart from the Malegaon blasts, the group is suspected of
planting bombs in cinema theatres at Thane, Vashi and Panvel in
Maharashtra last year.
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US aircraft forced to
land at Mumbai
Mumbai, October 18 The Boeing 767 aircraft belonging to Northern American airlines chartered to ferry the Marines attached to the US 205 Marine Unit landed at 7.52 this morning. The Air Traffic Control ordered the aircraft to land after its pilot was unable to provide the correct call sign. An Indian Air Force spokesman later told reporters in New Delhi that the commander of the aircraft provided air traffic control with a civilian Air Operations Routing (AOR) clearance sign when it is mandatory for aircraft carrying military personnel to obtain permission from the IAF. Even though it was a civilian aircraft, while transporting military men and material it is classified as a military carrier, according to officials here. On landing, the aircraft was ordered removed to a remote parking bay of the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The aircraft was subsequently given permission to leave after officials of the US embassy completed the paperwork with the Minister for External Affairs, IAF and the Director General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi.
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Indo-Myanmar border under mounted vigil
Rangapahar(Dimapur), October 18 “As a step towards fortifying the India-Myanmar border fencing is being raised along a 10-km stretch between Moreh and Tamu in Manipur by the Borer Roads Organisation (BRO) to check cross border movement of militants and illegal arms,” the GOC 3 Corps of Indian Army Lieutenant General N K Singh informed. The 1643-km Indo-Myanmar border is characterised by rugged and thickly forested terrain and had remained hugely unmanned by security forces. Some parts of the border that touches eastern Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram are marked inaccessible thickly forested areas. Smuggling of arms to India across the India-Myanmar border remains a concern though there has been mounted vigil. “Lots of groups based in the infamous ‘golden triangle’ are involved in the clandestine trade of weapons especially Chinese made arms to cater to the need of North East militants,” the Army commander said. He, however claimed that smuggling in of weapons, especially small arms, to India through Myanmar border had reduced considerable of late due to mounted vigil by the Army, police and paramilitary forces that had led to recovery of average 100 weapons a year. He said there was no report of involvement of any official agencies of China in the clandestine arms trade. He further informed that there were camps of N-E militants in Myanmar. Some of these camps are of transitory in nature while some are bigger and permanent in nature having accommodation, habitat and training facility. “We have taken up this issue with Myanmar authority which has been very cooperative. The issue has been discussed with Myanmar authority at various levels and a joint major operation was carried out some times back some time back and more such operations will be carried out as and when required. Some of the camps are there with local sanctions,” he informed. These militants’ camps were close to the India-Myanmar border till six months back and now have been pulled back deeper inside Myanmar due to vigil mounted by Indian Army. The Army commander denied reports about the commander in chief of the banned ULFA, Paresh Baruah shifting his base to Yunan province of China terming such reports as speculative in nature. He said there were agencies tracking the movement of the militant leader.
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K’taka police defends J&K player’s detention
Bangalore, October 18 “The police had worked diligently. We could not have taken any risk in view of the security of spectators of the T-20 match underway in the stadium,” he told The Tribune. Bidari said the cricketer Parvez Rasool was later released as no conclusive proof could be found against him. The bag has been sent for forensic tests. If the report confirms the presence of explosive, we shall proceed against him,” Bidari said, adding that the report was expected to arrive sometime next week. Top cricketers, including Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid, played in the match that took place between the Delhi and Bangalore teams on Saturday evening. The first match between Victoria and Cape Cobras got delayed by more than one-and-a-half hour as cops carried out a through search of the stadium looking for explosives. Asked if police were alerted about presence of explosive in the stadium, Bidari said, “there was instrumental indication.” “The Karnataka Cricket Association has installed an explosive detecting device and it gave an alert,” he said. “We have acted in the interest of security. If the forensic report is negative, we shall close the case. There is no question of discrimination against anyone,” Bidari said. The detained cricketer is a part of the cricket team from J&K who have come here to participate in the CK Naidu trophy. The team has been given accommodation in a hostel inside the stadium complex. Enraged by the incident, the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) has lodged a strong protest and has demanded an apology from the Bangalore police.
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R’sthan mulls law to protect heritage buildings
Jaipur, October 18 The government move assumes significance in view of the recent High Court order, which said the Amber Development and Management Authority Society (ADMAS), set up by the previous BJP regime, was not entitled to undertake renovation, restoration and conservation work at the historic Amber Fort on the city’s outskirts. The court also quashed all the MoUs signed by the ADMAS authorising private entrepreneurs allowing them to run commercial activities, including a luxury restaurant and coffee shop on lease on the fort premises. The court also ordered that commercial activities on the fort’s premises would be authorised by the director and the Superintendent of Archaeological Department. The order was passed on suo motu public interest litigation registered by the court after a part of the protected monument was damaged in a stampede during the shooting of Salman Khan-starrer ‘Veer’ on February 13.
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Here techies care for matters of heart
Roorkee, October 18 The IIT experts are working on a project with Germany’s top institute KIT, with which the report of ECG would be converted into an image for better analysis of the heart diseases using inverse ECG. The new technology would enable the cardiologists to extract more information about heart problems with an advance image of the ECG. Medical experts are of the view that this would help in early detection and cure of cardiac diseases with more authenticity as ECG imaging can non-invasively detect and map abnormal EP substrates associated with infarction and structural heart disease. “This would not only save money but also the precious time, which so far was spent on various diagnostic tests before the real treatment started,” claims Dr Olaf Dossel of KIT, one of the pioneers in inverse ECG, who is on a visit to the IIT-R for the purpose. Dr Olaf said, “The intentions are to read as much as possible from the cheap ECG… The software would be able to prepare an image of the electrophysiology of the heart through ECG.” He said in some cases an X-ray image of the heart would continue to play an important role in diagnosis. The objective is to extract as much information from ECG to make diagnosis more specific so that doctors can select the best therapy. According to Dr Olaf, the ECG data measured on body surface of the patient is projected directly onto the heart, which pinpoints the problem area with heart rhythm. An advance software for the purpose has already been developed by the KIT, which has been declared Institute of Excellence in Germany, while the IIT-R is working on analysing the inverse ECG signals that would be used to convert the data into an image, said Dr Vinod Kumar, professor of Electrical Engineering Department at the IIT. He maintained that the reliability of ECG diagnosis would increase manifold with this technology. With this development not only the treatment of heart diseases would become cheaper but detection of disease would be more trustworthy, said Dr Vinod Kumar. IIT-R has already developed a software for the analysis of ECG signal and the research studies carried out here have been recognised internationally.
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Prime accused in PF scam found dead in jail
Lucknow, October 18 The district authorities have ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death of the jailed court staffer of the Ghaziabad courts. The DIG (Jail) has ordered a separate probe into the death of Ashutosh in Dasna Jail at Ghaziabad yesterday. The cause of death could be ascertained only after the postmortem report is available, said police sources. However, if it is a case of poisoning, as alleged by the family, then a final word could be said only after the viscera report is available, said police sources. The viscera of Ashutosh have been preserved and would be sent for examination. Ashutosh, who was the central nazir at the Ghaziabad district court and was the prime accused in the over Rs 23 crore scam, had been in jail since January 2008. Yesterday he was found unconscious in cell 5-B barrack. Other criminals occupied the barrack as well. Ashutosh’s immediate neighbour inside the jail was Nithari killings accused Surendra Kohli. According to jail authorities, Ashutosh had some visitors earlier in the day. The jail authorities are claiming that the accused had suffered a massive heart attack as he was profusely sweating when he was rushed to the district government hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. However, the family members allege that someone poisoned him inside his cell as according to them he was under constant threat due to high profile people involved in the case, but the district police ignored the threat. Sources said ever since a magistrate had recorded Ashutosh’s statement last year, he had been under pressure to withdraw his statement. The scam had come to light last year when some employees had lodged a complaint with the then vigilance officer (CBI judge) at Ghaziabad Rama Jain alleging illegal withdrawals of PF funds by employees using fake forms. During preliminary investigation Jain had found that some judges and employees of the Ghaziabad court were involved in the scam. The police registered a named FIR against Ashutosh and 82 others. Later on the direction of the Supreme Court, the state government had ordered a CBI probe into the scam.
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Six firemen die in Diwali blaze
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