New Delhi, October 24
Just three days after the “shameful” swapping of Maoist prisoners in lieu of the release of West Bengal police officer Atindranath Dutta, state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today termed the exchange as an exception and he promised to teach the Maoists “a lesson in the future”.

The Chief Minister was addressing a press conference at Banga Bhawan in the Capital here today, a day after he met Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to discuss the law and order situation in the state. Yesterday, he had refused to comment on the issue.

He refuted the charge that the state government turned soft in releasing tribal women and men on bail to secure freedom of the abducted police officer.

Bhattacharjee said the decision was taken on humanitarian grounds and the judicial process against the 14 tribal women and nine men, whose bail was not opposed by the state, will go on. Replying to the question if Maoists now knew that abducting the police was a certain way to secure release of its people, the Chief Minister shot back: “If they have assumed this, they are wrong. I will teach them a lesson in the future”.

The Chief Minister rubbished suggestions that the decision of the state government did not go down well with the party. He said the exchange of prisoners with the cop took place after the Maoists offered mediation, and maintained that barring the brief period when Dutta was released, the police and Maoists continued to exchange fire.

As for Maoist leader Kishanji, who was in frequent touch with media, he said the state government was trying to locate and catch him.

Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister P Chidambbaram firmly refused to respond to the comments of Maoist leader Kishanji, who had laid down certain conditions for a dialogue with the government. “He is the leader of an organisation declared as unlawful,” said the Home Minister.

Hyderabad, October 24
The never-seen-before pictures of the top Maoist leader Ganapathi, aired by news channels today, created ripples in his home state of Andhra Pradesh.

Ganapathi, a teacher-turned-Naxalite whose real name is Muppala Lakshman Rao, leads the Maoist movement in the country and is presently its general secretary. The 50-year-old revolutionary hails from Karimnagar district in the backward Telangana region.

A mystic aura surrounds Ganapathi’s personality as no one knows how he looks like and there are no police records of his photographs ever since he went underground three decades ago. In the backdrop of Maoists stepping up their violent activity in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and other states, the police claimed to have seized a CD containing the video footage of the Maoist meetings and other activities.

The local Telugu news channels repeatedly aired the visuals, contained in the CD, which showed Ganapathi in olive green uniform and addressing a party meeting with Mao, Lenin and Karl Marx forming the backdrop of the dais. The footage created a flutter and became an instant talking point in AP as they were the first pictures of Ganapati after he joined the Naxalite movement.

Along with his second-in-command Prashanta Bose alias Kishenda alias Nirbhay Mukherjee, the most wanted Maoist leader was seen addressing the cadre. The intelligence sleuths say the footage was taken in 2007 when Maoist leaders were addressing the Ninth Congress of the CPI (Maoist) outfit somewhere in Bihar. 

However, noted revolutionary poet and a Maoist sympathizer, Varvara Rao, said the visuals could be of the Unity Congress held in September 2003 before finalisation of the merger of the erstwhile People’s War Group (PWG) and Maoist Coordination Committee (MCC).

The two outfits had merged in October 2004 to form CPI (Maoist), which is now most dreaded Naxalite organisation in the country.

Ganapathi had left the teaching job in 1970s to join the Left-wing extremist movement under the leadership of Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, who had founded PWG in 1980.

New Delhi, October 24
President Pratibha Patil will receive the Baton of the Commonwealth Games from the Queen of England at a ceremony in the Buckingham Palace in London on October 29. The 14th Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in India in 2010.

The ceremony will be part of a busy itinerary the President will have during her six-day state visit to the UK and Cyprus from October 27 to 31.While in London, a group of Indians will hand over to the President a piece of khadi spun by Mahatma Gandhi, informed Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.

She said the President who would leave New Delhi for her foreign visit on November 26, would be in the UK from October 27 to 29 and in Cyprus from October 29 to 31.

This will be the third state visit by an Indian President to the UK. The first was by President S Radhakrishnan in 1963 and the second by President R Venkataraman in 1990. This would be the first state visit after the commencement of the strategic partnership between India and the UK in 2009, said Rao.

During her visit, she will interact with Queen Elizabeth of England and will meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown, leader of the opposition David Cameron and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Nick Clegg.

She will address in London a business meeting organised by the UK India Business Council. A business delegation accompanying the President will also participate in these deliberations.

The President will be a guest of honour at the banquet by Lord Mayor of London and interact with the British members of Parliament at the Westminister organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group on India.

The President is going to Cyprus on an invitation of the then President of Cyprus Papadopoulus who visited India in April 2006. The last time an Indian President visited Cyprus was 21 years ago, again R Venkataraman, whereas all former Cyprian Presidents have visited India during their term of office.

Rao said Cyprus had supported India on all crucial issues and expressed its understanding on our nuclear tests in 1998 and supported Indian position during Kargil war too.

New Delhi, October 24
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje may have quit the post of BJP legislative party leader in her home state after three-month-long pressure from party president Rajnath Singh but the spectre of Vasundhara still haunts the BJP and Rajnath.

Therefore, the BJP is inclined to wait for quite a while before it announces her successor. They fear that she still has some damage potential left and if the elections for the new leader of the legislative party were held immediately, she could again contest which may embarrass the party. They pointed out how she has still not sent the copy of her letter to the Rajasthan Speaker, the appropriate office to take formal note of the matter, pointed out a senior party functionary.

Party sources said two assembly by-elections in the state are scheduled for November 7, soon after which local bodies elections are also due anytime next month. In any case, the Winter Session of the Rajasthan assembly is slated only for December and by that time her active supporters in the BJP legislative party might drift back to those in power in the state now. With Vasundhara gone state BJP president Arun Chaturvedi and BJP deputy leader in the legislative party Ghanshyam Tiwari may be able to slowly assert their authority among her loyal MLAs.

But on his part, Rajnath who felt his authority challenged by Vasundhara is not in a mood to oblige Vasundhara by offering her a post here in Delhi either, said sources.

Rajnath is particularly incensed over the leakage of the letter of grievances which she handed over to senior leader L.K. Advani yesterday. Sources close to him suspect that the letter could have been leaked out to the media either by Vasundhara herself, which looks unlikely or from Advani’s end.

In fact, contrary to reports, sources said, the Advani group in the parliamentary board mainly Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar and even Advani himself made one last-ditch effort to make Rajnath agree to let her stay on. Their plea was that now that she has abided by the decision of the high command the matter should be closed amicably and she be allowed to continue. But Rajnath stuck to his guns, and, quite interestingly, he was supported in his assertion by Sushma Swaraj who did not approve of Vasundhara’s delaying tactics.

Ranchi, October 24
Jharkhand, which has seen four chief ministers and six governments in the nine years of its short existence, will be looking for political stability at the end of the Assembly election, which for the first time will be held in five different phases spread over three weeks in November and December.

The state was placed under President’s Rule in January this year but the then Governor, Syed Sibte Razi, was shifted out following allegations of misuse and corruption. A hung House following the last Assembly election -- the state’s first -- in 2005 had led to a string of unholy alliances in which Independent MLAs and fringe political parties with one or two members in the Assembly called the shots. The period had also seen an Independent MLA, Madhu Koda, becoming the Chief Minister.

Since then, two former ministers of the state have been arrested and sent to jail in disproportionate assets cases while the Enforcement Directorate has instituted an adverse preliminary report against Koda and two other former ministers in the state for alleged violation of foreign exchange rules and hawala transactions. As many as seven MLAs in the 81-member House were disqualified in August under the Anti-Defection Act while three members chose to quit the House, which had been kept under suspended animation.

The election will put the Bharatiya Janata Party to yet another severe test. BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the House with 30 seats after the last Assembly election, though the majority eluded it. It also bagged eight out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats from the state earlier this year. But with most of the party stalwarts in the Lok Sabha and the party riven by factionalism, it faces an uphill task to put its act together.

While the party gave the fledgling state two chief ministers, one of them, Babulal Marandi, has parted ways to float a new regional party christened Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) while the other one, Arjun Munda, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jamshedpur in the last general election.

Munda, who would like to contest for the Assembly, is being opposed by a vocal section of the party, which appears as divided in the state as at the Centre. It would also be interesting to see what kind of role is assigned to former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who represents Hazaribagh in the Lok Sabha.

Congress is trying to revive its fortune in the state where it was virtually marginalised, managing to secure just nine seats in the Assembly in 2005. Even in the general election held earlier this year, the party had managed to win only one of the 14 Lok Sabha seats. A weak organisation and absence of leaders with acceptability throughout the state are handicaps which the party hopes to overcome through campaigning by Rahul Gandhi and others.

The election is also crucial for the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, which campaigned for separate statehood but which never managed to get anywhere close to securing the majority in the state Assembly. The virtually one-man party is still a force to reckon with in Santhal Pargana region of the state and the party chief, Shibu Soren, still a big draw among Santhals. But the JMM, which has declared its intention to contest the election alone, may find the going tough in other parts of the state without the support of its old ally, the Congress.

A multiplicity of parties with splinter Jharkhand groups, popularity of Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in areas bordering Bihar, the hold of communist parties among industrial workers and miners and the shadow of Maoists in large parts are other factors that may queer the pitch of the election in the state.

New Delhi, October 24
Disappointed by the outcome of the IIT Council meeting that failed to even discuss the outstanding concerns of the faculty, the IIT Federation today decided to lower its guard for now in the interest of the institutes at large.

Meeting in the capital today to discuss the future course of action, the federation for the first time asked the IIT faculty across India to accept government pay scales for the time being and wait for HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to fulfil the assurances made on the fronts of autonomy and salary appraisal.

“We are hugely disappointed by the fact that the IIT Council did not even discuss our concerns. We will now wait for the individual boards of governors of IITs to take up our issues at the earliest. In the meantime, we have asked the IIT faculty to accept the sixth Pay Commission recommendations that come into effect from 2006. The decision is meant to secure the larger interest of the faculty and IIT system,” Prof M Thenmozhi, federation president, told The Tribune. However, they were keeping all options open, he added.

The federation would wait for some more time for the government to act on its promises. “The HRD Minister gave us several assurances. We hope he fulfils them at the earliest. But that is not to say that we have given up our struggle for better pay scales. We will wait and watch, but we do wish that the government had treated us better,” said Thenmozhi.

The federation is keen that the government should put all its verbal assurances into writing. Meanwhile, its appeal to the IIT faculty to accept the sixth Pay Commission salary is extremely significant as it reflects the federation’s willingness to relent from the path of agitation, at least for now.

It may be recalled that the federation had called off its two-month strike for autonomy and better pay scales following Sibal’s assurances. Though the minister said his promises should be deemed to have been “minuted”, the IIT faculty wants him to make a written commitment.

Chandigarh, October 24
It’s a little known fact but the government of India is paying pension on behalf of the Pakistani authorities to the displaced Pakistan army pensioners who are now residing in India.

Though the exact number of such pensioners is not readily available, they are estimated to number a few hundred. They include those who have served with the Pakistani forces after Partition, but later, for varying reasons, chose to migrate to this side of the border.

Since they served with the other country’s organisations, the responsibility of their post-discharge benefits lies with the Pakistani government. Payment made out to them by India on behalf of Pakistan is termed as ad hoc ex gratia allowance.

The Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PDCA) issued a circular earlier this month revising their pension and benefits in accordance with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. Similar allowance is also being paid to Burmese army pensioners who are Indian nationals and drawing their pension in India.

The PCDA circular states that the ex gratia allowance has been enhanced on compassionate grounds to Rs 3,500 per month with effect from January 2006. In addition, they would also be entitled to dearness allowance as admissible to central government employees. It was earlier Rs 1,275 per month.

As far as Burmese defence pensioners in India are concerned, the government would continue to pay their allowance even if the Government of Myanmar has discontinued their family pension, though this would be subject to certain pension regulations prescribed from time to time.

The extra liability on account of this allowance would be borne by the Indian government, which also pays the difference between the minimum pension amount applicable in India and the amount paid by the Myanmar government.

Mumbai, October 24
Armed with an order from the Chief Information Officer of Maharashtra, 26/11 martyr Ashok Kamte's widow will now be able to scrutinise original transcripts of telephone calls between the control room and police officers on the day of Mumbai terror attacks.

CIO Suresh Joshi has asked the police to provide copies of original transcripts of telephone calls, control room log book and documents to Vinita Kamte within 30 days.

The order was passed on Kamte's appeal after the Deputy Police Commissioner allowed her scrutiny of documents but refused to provide copies of the originals. Ashok Kamte and two other police officers, Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar, were shot dead on November 26 last year.

Vinita Kamte said "there were too many discrepancies in reports on shoot-out in which my husband and two other senior officers were killed. Unfortunately, the police never told us what had happened. According to a news report, the police control room was not aware that bodies of the slain officers were lying for 40 minutes behind Cama Hospital after the shoot-out".

"Only when I went to the spot and talked to people and officers, I learnt that there was an exchange of fire between terrorists and the three officers. The police clarified this later but it was a half-hearted explanation. Therefore, I was curious to know what had happened on that night," she said. — PTI 

New Delhi, October 24
A Delhi court today adjourned its order on the objections raised by a lawyer on CBI’s withdrawal of the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja put the matter for November 6 for order on the application filed by advocate Ajay Agarwal.

The lawyer had challenged the CBI’s move to withdraw the case on October 3, saying it was trying to close the “politically-sensitive” case despite having “sufficient evidence” against him. CBI had sought the legal burial of the case against Quattrocchi, 69, on the ground that “continuance of his prosecution will be unjustified”.

The agency had said it has arrived at this conclusion after its failure on two occasions to extradite the businessman from Malaysia and Argentina to face trial.

The CBI, which also relied on various other factors including the Delhi High Court judgements quashing charges against all other co-accused to justify its decision, had said the application to withdraw the case has been filed in “good faith and in public interest”.

Agarwal, the advocate, raised question of propriety of government counsel and alleged that Solicitor General (SG) Gopal Subramanium and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) PP Malhotra, who are representing the CBI now, had appeared for Win Chaddha, one of the accused, before different courts here. — PTI

New Delhi, October 24
Decades after India first sought foreign help to set up the premiere Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the government is again looking out for guidance from world-class institutes for the proposed 14 innovation universities.

On top of the mentoring probables are the leading US higher education institutes, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, Yale and George Washington University.

With the future of the new institutes chalked out (they will have to accord the highest emphasis to research), union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal today embarked on a week-long tour of the US to meet knowledge leaders associated with the above-mentioned institutes.

“We are hoping to get a great deal of guidance from the best minds in the world, as we set out to launch the innovation universities. In fact, this is not the first time that foreign collaborations are being planned to boost higher education programmes in India. The same earlier happened with IITs,” said top officials in the HRD Ministry.

The first six IITs were set up with foreign collaborations. While IIT Madras is still proud of its German connection (there is no lab or department here that is not influenced by the Germans who helped set up the institute), IIT Kanpur sought guidance from the Consortium of US universities, especially the MIT.

Similarly, IIT Bombay came up with the assistance of UNESCO through the former Soviet Union in 1958, and IIT Delhi took help from Imperial College, London.

“All IITs found support in foreign partners. The institutes then came up on their own but their foundations were already very strong,” ministry sources told The Tribune, adding that the government planned to seek help from leading foreign universities in areas like concept, infrastructure, curriculum and research components.

“The idea is to gain from the existing knowledge and leapfrog on the path of research and development, the primary aims of innovation universities,” said an official.

The universities have been proposed under the XIth Five Year Plan and are to start functioning from 2010. Some areas identified for research at these institutes are health, environment and new technologies for power plants. The plan is also to boost PhDs. While India currently awards 8,000 PhDs a year, China awards 50,000.

Keen to bridge the gap, Sibal had last week discussed collaboration for innovation universities with William Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, US, who called on him. “The US is keen to collaborate on all fronts. I hope to return with something substantial,” the minister said.

He will have secretary, education in the US, and some Indian academics to impress upon the latter to teach in the faculty-starved higher education institutes back home. He is being accompanied on the trip by Director, IIT Kanpur Sanjay Dhande and V-C, JNU Prof B.B. Bhattacharya.

New Delhi, October 24
Government is moving fast towards school education reform, with the CBSE getting the logo and the slogan for its ambitious Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) grading system for classes IX and X in affiliated schools.

While the logo selected by experts out of 80 national entries is by Cambridge International School, Jalandhar, the slogan accompanying it is by the students of Delhi Public School, Greater Noida.

Along with the CCE logo, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal yesterday also launched the CCE trainer manual, CCE report card and school report, which the students will henceforth get at the end of the IX and X.

The CBSE, under new chairman Vineet Joshi, is confident of concluding the training of all school teachers in the CCE by December end. Sibal also inaugurated a special training programme yesterday for master trainers in the capital, who will then train the teachers and principals of all schools in the capital to introduce CCE in the remaining term of class IX and Class X from next year.

CCE, one of the major school reforms introduced by the government, is a process by which the teacher will grade the holistic profile of a student. This will happen through regular assessment of both scholastic and co-scholastic aspects of development.

While the academic performance will be graded in a system of A1 (grade point 10 for marks 91 to 100), A2 (grade 9 for 81-90), B1, B2, C1, C2, D (grade point 4 for marks 33 to 40), E1 and E2 (need improvement), the life skills will be graded through a five-point system.

Training in the CCE evaluation is, however, a challenge for the government, with the CBSE even starting a toll-free helpline for post-training period. Teachers can get their queries on CCE resolved by dialing 180-0118-002. The teachers can also interact with the chairman on the implementation of the CCE through CBSE’s website www.cbse.nic.in.

As regards school curriculum, Sibal said it was “being looked at in order to make it more relevant and job-oriented for students”.

Coimbatore, October 24
Four medical college students have been arrested for allegedly ragging 14 second-year students at the institute's hostel here, the police said.

The fourth-year students were taken into custody last night following a complaint by Dean and Principal of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital Dr Kumaran.

According to the complaint, they allegedly made the men's hostel inmates sing, bite a student and enact swimming actions on the floor, the police said.

The four — two from Dharmapuri, one from Krishnagiri and another from Mettur in Tamil Nadu — were remanded in judicial custody, the police said. — PTI