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Antony asks Navy to plug gaps
Amar behind party’s fall: Azam
Post-bypolls, Mulayam stands alienated
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Cyclone Phyan toll 7
Winter session: Price rise, Naxal violence to dominate proceedings
Left Front in denial mode over losses
Goa village seeks ban on Sanatan
BJP workers detained
Chinese visas on separate sheets invalid: India
CBI submits fresh status report
Nod to policy on digital cable TV
Kingfisher Fiasco MF Husain’s autobiography launched Eunuchs get ‘other’ identity 2004 Family Suicide Case
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Antony asks Navy to plug gaps
New Delhi, November 12 The two agencies have been carrying out intensive patrolling and surveillance for the past 11 months. Antony while chairing a meeting of coastal security said measures should be taken in a time-bound manner to plug the gaps. "Another Mumbai type attack will not be tolerated at any cost," the minister told the high-level meeting were the National Security Adviser, the Cabinet Secretary, the Defence Secretary and the Chief of Naval Staff were among those who attended. At a 90-minute meeting in south-block here, Antony also did a quick check on the progress made in acquiring new ships, patrol vessels and interceptor boats for the Navy and Coast Guard for strengthening surveillance along the 7,500-km long coastline. He asked all maritime agencies to hasten the process of integration with the coastal security grid and coordination in intelligence gathering and sharing during operations. Coastal security was on top of the government priority. Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar, who spoke on the occasion, said any effective mechanism could be achieved only when there was a combined action involving the Navy, Coast Guard and the state governments. "States have to be integrated into the system for results as involvement of states have produced results in flow of information, which has recently started. In this, the role of fishermen is very important," he added. The meeting was informed that the government would spend Rs 6,000 crore on procurements for Navy and Coast Guard and another Rs 300 crore to establish a chain of 46 radars, a critical component of coastal security.
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Amar behind party’s fall: Azam
Lucknow, November 12 A founder member of the party and its most prominent Muslim face, Azam Khan was one of the most articulate critics of Samajwadi party’s ideological shift of befriending former BJP leader Kalyan Singh on the eve of the Lok Sabha election. A sitting MLA from Rampur he was expelled from the party for six years for anti-party activities in May 2009. During the Lok Sabha campaign he had openly spoken against the party’s betrayal of the Muslim trust by befriending Kalyan Singh responsible for the Babri Masjid demolition. He had accused Amar Singh’s grip on Mulayam Singh Yadav for the drift and had opposed Amar’s protégé Jayaprada’s candidature from Rampur. “Mulayam Singh Yadav’s well-thought out strategy has failed. To keep his pocket borough intact he had gambled away the solid Muslim support in exchange of Kalyan Singh’s imaginary vote bank. Firozabad has the highest concentration of Yadav votes in the state. Considered the safest seat for SP in UP it was Akhilesh Yadav’s first choice after Kannuaj. If even this seat Mulayam could not secure for his daughter-in-law then imagine what remains of the party?” Describing his erstwhile party as the sinking Titanic, Azam Khan predicted that the party would be reduced to 10-12 seats in the next assembly election Single-handedly holding Amar Singh responsible for the downfall in the party, Khan speaks of a dark conspiracy of implanting Singh in the party with the single motive to cause its irreparable destruction. “Imagine the party led by “dhartiputra” (son of the soil) speaking in Parliament in defence of Anil Ambani, the head of one of the biggest industrial empires in the country. Azam Khan substantiated Lucknow West SP candidate Bhukal Nawab’s charge made at an internal meeting of SP yesterday. A bitter Bhukal Nawab squarely blamed Amar remark at a public meeting two days before the election for his defeat. Even the Mulayam family taking over party is a recent trend prompted by Amar Singh, alleges Khan. “Now Mulayam is the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, his cousin Ramgopal in the Rajya Sabha, brother Shivpal is the leader of opposition in the UP Vidhan Sabha and son is the SP president of UP. Maybe Akhilesh’s son would soon head the SP’s Balak Sabha”, quipped Azam Khan. Explaining why despite his campaign the SP did manage 23 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, Azam Khan said that the process of alienation of Muslims had started. “Wasn’t it clear when none of the 12 Muslim candidates fielded by it party managed to win?” According to him it is traumatic for the Muslims to believe what is now unfolding before them as for years they had blindly supported SP to keep the BJP and the sangh parivar at bay. “I would still not say that the Muslims have completely abandoned the Samajwadi Party, but the process has begun and would become increasingly clear in the coming months” anticipated Khan who has personally taken upon himself the task of enlightening the Muslim community on this.
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Post-bypolls, Mulayam stands alienated
New Delhi, November 12 Apart from Firozabad parliamentary constituency, which fell vacant upon his son Akhilesh Yadav vacating the seat, 11 Assembly constituencies in UP also went to polls. Of these, there were four sitting MLAs of SP and while Mulayam lost all four, he did not gain a single anywhere. It was virtually a clean sweep for CM Mayawati’s BSP, with the exception of Lucknow West and Jhansi. A former SP MP pointed out how in this Lok Sabha there are just four Yadav MPs, of which three are immediate family members of Mulayam himself, his son Akhilesh and nephew Dharmendra Yadav. The only Yadav MP in the SP list, not a member of the clan, is the Chandauli MP Ram Kishan Yadav. This is from a man who launched his SP party in 1991-2 on the strength of Yadavs and Muslims and was rewarded by the combine to catapult into power a year later in alliance with the BSP. Also Mulayam had launched his party as a socialist party calling it Samajwadi Party and swearing by the grand-old veteran ideologue of socialism in India Ram Manohar Lohia. Today the number of socialist MPs both in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha can be counted on finger tips. And some of them like Janeshwar Mishra, Rewati Raman Singh, and Brij Bhushan Tiwari are too old to change their habit of associating with the SP. Thanks to party spokesman and general secretary Amar Singh the party mascots are now film actresses Jaya Bachchan and Jayaprada and not to forget the new addition Sanjay Dutt with his new wife Manyata in tow. Raj Babbar is also a film actor but he was associated with student’s movements and with Mulayam Singh Yadav when there was no Amar Singh. Now Raj Babbar is in the Congress and the Amar Singh, Jaya Bachchan and Jayaprada the flag bearers of socialism. Earlier, Mulayam’s friends and party colleagues mentioned how he stuck by friends and cite the example of how he courted disaster in 1990 supporting Chandra Shekhar when Chandra Shekhar split with VP Singh led Janata Dal to form his own government. Mulayam knew in advance and paid a heavy price for that in 1991 elections. But now trusted lieutenants like Raj Babbar, Beni Prasad Verma and Mohammad Azam Khan left Mulayam because he cared more for the glitz and glamour of high society and film world shown to him by the neo-socialists of Amar Singh variety. Instead SP is a private limited company of Mulayam, his brothers, son and nephew and if there is anything left it is handed down to Amar Singh’s friends in the film industry.
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Cyclone Phyan toll 7
Mumbai, November 12 The missing fishermen had left the coastal areas of Gujarat, Daman, Diu, Maharashtra and Goa before the cyclone warning, officials said. So far, seven bodies of fishermen have been recovered from Maharashtra's Konkan region.
Caught in the Whirl GOA
Two fishing trawlers are reported to have sunk from Revdanda and Uran in Maharashtra's Raigad and Ratnagiri districts, which were hit badly by the cyclone. The Coast Guard has deployed four ships and helicopters to search for the missing fishermen. Maharashtra has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the families of the deceased. More than 200 fishing boats and thousands of fishing nets have been damaged in the cyclone, according to various fishermen's organisations in Maharashtra. Also, the government is in the process of putting out a relief package for those affected. A number of persons have also reported injuries in the incident. More than 7,500 homes have been destroyed in Ratnagiri district alone, according to officials here. Parts of the district are still without power after electricity lines were damaged by heavy winds. Roads are still blocked after trees were uprooted. More casualties from the cyclone are coming in from other places. At least two fishermen are feared dead in Goa. The state fisheries department has reported eight trawlers, with more than 40 crew members, missing.
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Winter session: Price rise, Naxal violence to dominate proceedings
New Delhi, November 12
Meeting in the Capital today under Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, leaders of all political parties agreed to debate the rising prices of essential commodities, which affect the “aam aadmi”. All parties, with the exception of the National Conference, also wanted 100-day sittings per year - a target the government will miss this time despite having promised the same. This time, however, the target has already been missed. Records show the winter session will have just 23 sittings with 138 working hours, of which 23 each would be devoted to the question and zero hours; 12 hours and 30 minutes to private members’ business and 80 hours to government business. As for issues, while the CPM urged for debates on the violation of labour laws (with reference to the recent trade union uprising in Gurgaon) and job losses, BJD’s Brahuhari Mahtab wanted discussions on the Bangladeshis and Chinese entering India in search of jobs. Mamata Banerjee of the TMC was largely quiet, except when she sought a review of the Lalgarh situation. Outside of course, she demanded President’s Rule in West Bengal. With the leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee absent, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal represented the government. Back in the meet, the government defended itself on the 100-day sitting issue, saying it would have to curtail the committees sittings to make room for more working days. “Normally there is a gap of three to four weeks between two parts of the budget session to enable the committees to submit their reports for which they need 28 days. We need to curtail this to 21 days to get more sittings,” said a party leader.
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Left Front in denial mode over losses
New Delhi, November 12 While most of the top leadership of the front’s senior partner, the CPM, is out to attend communist congresses across Europe (general secretary Prakash Karat and his wife Brinda are still said to be in London, though Politburo member Sitaram Yechury returned today from his Spain trip), those back home don’t see in the poll reverses any erosion of the Left’s support base. “It would have been surprising had we won the seven seats the opposition was holding in West Bengal. These are the segments we lost even when we swept the state in the last assembly elections. Our sole concern is the defeat of comrade Subhash Chakravarty’s widow in Belgachi segment. We will review the loss shortly,” CPI leader and national executive member Sudhakar Reddy told The Tribune. The CPI will discuss the matter at a two-day national executive meet to be held from November 15 but they don’t subscribe to the “early poll” theory, nor do the Marxists. “We see no occasion for that. It is only constitutionally proper to honour the mandate of the people who elected us to rule for five years. Still, if there is a consensus within the Left Front government in West Bengal to discuss early elections, we can do that,” CPM leader and central committee member Nilotpal Basu said in the capital today. The argument the Leftists are extending against early elections is: “Nowhere in the country has a party in power sought re-election after losing in byelections”. Bengal apart, the front has, in strictly technical terms, somewhat improved its performance in Kerala’s three segments it lost to the Congress this time — Kannur, Ernakulum and Alappuzha. The CPM lost Kannur to expelled member Abdullakutty, now with the Congress, but reduced its margin of loss by 812 votes from the last elections in 2006. At Ernakulum, they are happy to have downed their defeat margins by 151 votes, though in Alappuzha, which the CPI contested, the margin came down by 6,000 votes. The Congress, on the other hand, has seen victories, but with reduced margins this time.
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Goa village seeks ban on Sanatan
Mumbai, November 12 The villagers came out in large numbers and voted against the organisation by adopting a resolution in defiance of minister and local MLA Sudhin Dhavalikar. Ramnathi, the area where the Saunstha is located, falls within the panchayat of Bandora. Sources said there were some allegations of land grab also against the organisation. Meanwhile, the Goa police has confirmed the arrest of five members of the Saunstha in connection with the bomb blasts in Margao on Diwali-eve, which claimed two lives.
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BJP workers detained
Noida, November 12 According to a BJP worker, as soon as the slogan-shouting BJP workers came out of Nagar’s house in Sector 33 at 2.30 pm, cops from the Sector 24 police station across the road herded them into police vehicles and took them to the Surajpur police lines, where the workers were detained till Mayawati had left Noida. It is learnt that the BJP had demanded time for a meeting with the Chief Minister, which was not granted to them, making them angry. According to Nawab Singh Nagar, they wanted to present a seven-point charter of demands to Mayawati on law and order situation, power shortage, fly-over at level crossing in Dadri, restart of weekly market for vegetables, plots for poor etc.
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Chinese visas on separate sheets invalid: India
New Delhi, November 12 “It has come to the attention of the Government of India that the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in New Delhi and the Chinese consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata are issuing visas on a separate piece of paper “stapled” to the passport (rather than “pasted” as is the usual practice), to certain categories of Indian nationals on the basis of their domicile, ethnicity and/or place of issue of the passport. Such paper visas stapled to the passport are not considered valid for travel out of the country,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. The Chinese Embassy here claims that stapling of the visas on a separate piece of paper has been a “usual practice” for the past few years and the problem was from the side of Indian immigration officials at the airport.
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PF Scam
New Delhi, November 12 A three-member Bench, headed by Justice DK Jain, directed the Home Ministry to ensure that the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) completed the job, including verification of judicial officers' handwritings on 8,000 documents, in time.Expressing satisfaction over the progress in the case, the Bench, which included Justices VS Sirpurkar and GS Singhvi, rejected a plea for shifting the trial from Ghaziabad to a CBI court here. The CBI has, meanwhile, filed its fifth status report in the case in a sealed cover. Posting the next hearing for March 31 next year, the Bench, also declined senior counsel MN Krishnamani's plea for access to the five status reports filed by the CBI. The court said even it had not gone through the CBI reports and that the counsel's plea would be considered later. Attorney General GE Vahanvati told the Bench that the CBI Judge, Ghaziabad, was not even recording the statements in some instances and sought the transfer of the trial to Delhi.
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Nod to policy on digital cable TV
New Delhi, November 12 The decision was taken at the meeting of the Union Cabinet here, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.The policy guidelines provide for a framework within which the HITS Service providers have to provide services in the country. The ministry has proposed charging zero annual licence fee from HITS service providers, which allows consumers to have a cheaper option. The policy does not mandate either the cable operators or subscribers to necessarily obtain signals from a HITS platform or network. The subscribers and cable operators can continue with the existing system. Hence, the cable operators have the liberty to switch over to the HITS provider network if desired.The essential difference between a HITS operator and a Multi System Operator (MSO) is that the former transmits the bundle of channels to the cable operators using a satellite, whereas the latter does the same through cable.HITS is a digital delivery mode of distribution of TV channels and it would speed up the process of digitalisation of cable services located in non-CAS areas of the country. HITS would not only help increase the penetration of cable market further into rural areas where it has been absent because of non-viability but will also help in the further reduction of prices of set-top boxes and will also lead to further consolidation of the cable market. No annual fee is prescribed as such to bring down the cost of digitisation of cable services and to ensure financial viability of HITS operators and enable them to compete with the DTH, an official said.DTH players are, however, not too happy with the move, as they have to pay 10 per cent of their annual revenues to the government as licence fee. Senior officials in TRAI said the decision to bring HITS had been taken with the consumers’ interests in mind, as it would enable quality TV transmission at an affordable price. The guidelines finalised by the I&B Ministry are in line with the recommendations of the TRAI, whereby HITS operators will have to obtain a licence from the government by paying an entry fee of Rs 10 crore. The companies will need to have a minimum net worth of Rs 10 crore for applying for a licence. Uplinking will be allowed in both C-Band and Ku-Band only from India. The ministry has permitted HITS players to have up to 74 per cent foreign direct investment.
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Kingfisher Fiasco
New Delhi, November 12 The incident took place on shortened part of one of the runways, which is used only on Tuesdays to facilitate repair work on others. The DGCA, which de-rostered six pilots yesterday, said they had violated guidelines while landing on the shortened runway. One of the planes belonged to Kingfisher airlines, which skidded and overshot the runway. An Air India aircraft also reportedly made a landing, which was not normal. The incident forced the civil aviation regulator to de-roster two pilots each of Kingfisher airlines, Go Air and Air India for the violation of its directives for wet runway operation at the airport. However, airlines are targeting the civil aviation regulator for not issuing the alerting guidelines on time. Airlines say the official notification stopping all operations in rainy conditions came two hours after the Kingfisher incident took place. Kingfisher says its flight from Bhavnagar did not receive any notification advising or alerting about any special conditions prevailing on the runway, where the incident took place. Other airlines are also echoing a similar point of view. However, the civil aviation regulator says the Chief Flight Operations Inspector of the DGCA called up airlines and gave them details of the DGCA circular. This was followed by faxes and emails, DGCA officials say, adding the airlines informed their office that they had communicated the matter to their pilots. It is incorrect to say that the airlines were not informed, the DGCA added. But it was not just the pilots, an Air Traffic Controller was also de-rostered, a move that has prompted the Mumbai Air Traffic Controller (ATC) to join ranks with the airlines. The DGCA issued fresh directives in addition to its earlier directives for operation at Mumbai airport when the runway length is shortened. It asked MIAL to carry out videography of operations every Tuesday when the runway is closed partially to allow re-carpeting of the surface.
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MF Husain’s autobiography launched New Delhi, November 12 Husain’s autobiography ‘MF Husain-Untitled’ was launched telling the artist’s story in art-animation form. Husain, who turned 95 this year, had sent an exclusive message for the occasion from London. “Today, all art forms are merging together and age old sensibilities are finding a fascinating global expression through versatile and wide-reaching new media,” he said. Calling the experiment “very exciting” Husain said the electronic book was an experiment that told his story in a path breaking style, using contemporary medium.
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New Delhi, November 12 A decision to this effect has been taken by the EC following representations from various individuals and interest groups to include the eunuchs in the electoral rolls with an independent identity. “The commission has duly considered the request and has decided to allow eunuchs/transsexuals to indicate their sex as ‘other’ where they do not want to be described as male or female,” the EC said in a press note. Besides the electoral roll, the decision would apply to all other forms used by the EC wherein the provisions of indication of sex of the user was made, including IT based formats and website, it said. Necessary instructions have been issued to all electoral registration officers through the Chief Electoral Officers of all states and Union Territories to give effect to the EC's decision. Enumerators and booth level officers shall be instructed to indicate the sex of eunuchs/ transsexuals as 'O' if they so desire, while undertaking any house-to-house enumeration or verification of any application, the EC said. — PTI
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2004 Family Suicide Case Amritsar, November 12 Other than these two, the court, acting on a complaint filed by the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) and its Chief Justice Ajit Singh Bains (retd), has summoned two others also and have directed them to appear before it on February 25. The court has observed that it was a prima facie case against the two cops since the family had committed suicide following their alleged harassment at the hands of relatives and the police in October 2004. Hardeep Singh, wife Romy, sons Imran and Sanmit and mother Jaswant Kaur had allegedly consumed poisonous substance early in the day on October 31,2004, and they had scribbled their “suicide note” on the walls of their house. Later, more suicide notes were recovered. These were sent by Hardeep Singh to two of his friends — Gurpreet Singh and Harwinderjit Singh — and Congress MLA Harjinder Singh Thekedar. The PHRO alleged that the police officials had deliberately omitted the allegations pertaining to the involvement of the police officials in the crime and an incomplete challan was presented in the court in this regard. But Kultar Singh has been denying all allegations. Hardeep Singh, as per the inquiry conducted by the police in the case, had allegedly murdered his father on August 11, 2004, at their home and Sabreen, one of Hardeep Singh’s relative, had seen the ghastly act being committed. While, the dead body was recovered as unidentified by the police, Sabreen allegedly informed Hardeep’s father-in-law Mohinder Singh and one of relatives and had even allegedly started blackmailing Hardeep. He forced Hardeep to cough up an amount of over Rs 7 lakh. Hardeep shared his plight to friend Manmohan Singh, who, in turn arranged his meeting with Kaka, a relative of Kultar Singh’s wife. Kaka allegedly arranged Hardeep’s meeting with Kultar and it was allegedly agreed upon that the case against Hardeep would be weakened so as to stage his early exoneration. But, instead of helping out Hardeep, the police officials began blackmailing him. Eventually, the family committed suicide. The then DIGs (Border Range) and (Jalandhar range) had conducted a probe into the matter, which was subsequently handed over to IG Jasminder Singh.
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Less than an year after the Mumbai attacks, which were carried out using the sea route, Defence Minister AK Antony today ordered the Navy and Coast Guard to take a fresh look at the gaps, if any, in the coastal security and suggest a new plan to iron out the deficiencies.
New Delhi, November 12
The defeat of his young daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav by one time Mulayam acolyte Raj Babbar, a veteran socialist, has clearly demonstrated that Mulayam Singh is fast losing his grip on his core constituency, the Yadavs and Muslims and apparently not adding much in his kitty.