New Delhi, November 20
Under severe criticism for repeatedly missing nutrition targets, the government yesterday revised the long-pending norms for the ambitious Midday Meal (MDM) Scheme to make it more nourishing for children. It also rationalized the cooking and transportation costs to make the scheme relevant in these financially-difficult times. The World Bank had recently reported that the scheme was not helping the nutrition cause.

From now on, the government will give every primary school student five grams additional pulses and 10 gram additional vegetables as midday meals at school. The quality of pulses under the scheme stands revised from 25 to 30 grams and that of vegetables from 65 to 75 grams. There will however be lesser oils and fats in children’s food, with the quantities decreased from 10 to 7.5 gram per student per day.

The revision, okayed yesterday by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), will be applicable to 11.77 crore children under the scheme this year (8.41 crore for primary and 3.36 crore for upper primary level) and will be in force from December 1 this year. Not only has the food norms been revised, the cooking cost has also been raised to Rs.2.50 for primary and Rs.3.75 for upper primary children. Pricing will be revised by 7.5 per cent on April 1 next year and again at the start of the 2011 financial year to make it rational. Cooking costs will also be shared between the centre and northeastern states on 90:10 basis and with other states on 75:25 basis. Most importantly, the prices of MDM food products will henceforth be independently determined and won’t be linked to the general price index.

The government has also, for the first time, rationalized transport cost and set aside an honorarium of Rs 1000 per month for each cook-cum-helper (the idea is to discourage loss of teaching hours as teachers often have to cook meals). Now, one cook-cum-helper can be engaged in a school with 25 students, two for a school with 26 to 100 students, and one additional cook-cum-helper for every addition of up to 100 students.

Transportation assistance in 11 special category states (eight northeastern, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Uttarakhand) has been linked to PDS rates in these states - a long-pending demand. Further, the payment of cost of food grains to FCI will now be made at the district level, instead of the central level. The entire revision of norms for MDM scheme will cost the centre an additional Rs10140.33 crore and the states and UTs Rs 4280.79 crore for the balance period of the 11th plan. 

New Delhi, November 20
Meeting at the posh Ramada hotel in the capital today, Communists from across the world predicted the doom of capitalism but agreed that they needed to evolve viable political alternatives if capitalist forces were to be defeated. “Capitalism does not automatically collapse. It needs to be overthrown…,” said senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, setting the tone of the 11th international meeting of the communist and workers’ parties, the first such meet in Asia.

Centred on the theme, “'The International Capitalist Crisis, the workers and people's struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement”, the meeting resolved that the ongoing economic crisis was the finest embodiment of the Marxist prediction that “crisis was inherent in the capitalist system”.

Terming the reigning meltdown as a possible final blow to the edifice of capitalism, the delegates debated the need to reinvent socialism in a way that it could take on capitalism, politically.

It was interesting to see hosts, the Left parties of India, talk of political alternatives at a time when their own bastions have been decimated. There was, however, a surprising (and candid) consensus within the assembly that whereas socialism, as an ideology, was relevant, its political viability remained questionable.

Senior CPM leader M.K. Padhe admitted this to The Tribune, “There is nothing wrong with communism but there is certainly something wrong with the way we are implementing it. We need to correct ourselves from top to bottom.”

Within the CPI also, the view found resonance, with leader D. Raja saying there was a discomforting “mismatch between the influence of socialist ideology and its electoral performance.”

“It is correct that despite the goodness of the ideology, communist parties are not faring well at the hustings. We will debate over two days what we need to do to get closer to the people and halt the march of capitalist forces,” Raja said.

New Delhi, November 20
Unclean air and water could be responsible for the death of eight lakh Indians every year. Not only this, India is losing four per cent of its GDP on account of environmental damage and degradation of natural resources, as per a report released today.

The report, ‘GREEN India 2047’, prepared by The Energy and Resources Institute, says steady loss of wealth in several spheres, including forest and biodiversity, excessive depletion of ground water resources, pollution of rivers and most importantly, air pollution in several parts of the country has imposed heavy costs in the form of expenditure on health and absenteeism from work.

Released today by Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in the presence of TERI Director General RK Pachauri and Finance Commission Chairman Vijay Kelkar, the report mentions: “Our limited analysis suggests that unclean air and water may be taking a toll in terms of over eight lakh deaths in the country each year and morbidity costs amounting to 3.6 per cent of the GDP.”

Ramesh said: “It is time to mainstream environment concerns and its cost needs to be accounted in GDP. It is important to evolve new models of environment governance that is independent of government bodies. MoEF will look into this document and find ways with TERI on how suggestions can be implemented.”

Talking about the importance of the report, Pachauri said it is estimated that four per cent of GDP is lost due to depletion and resource degradation and we are also paying a huge toll in terms of loss of human life. “Our endeavour is to reorient the mindset towards environment,” he said. As per the study, a total of 11 to 26 per cent of agricultural output is being lost on account of soil degradation, part of which was caused by human actions. 

Ramesh: India will win ‘Nobel prize for filth’

Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh has said if there was any Nobel Prize for dirt and filth, India would get it. “Our cities are dirtiest cities of the world. If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt,” he said at a function to release a report of TERI. 

New Delhi, November 20
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travelled to Washington in the summer of 2005 at the invitation of former US President George W Bush, there was considerable buzz about the state visit. The trip was made famous with the signing of the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, which laid the foundation for a qualitative transformation in the relations between the two countries.

Four years later as the Prime Minister gets ready to be accorded a ceremonial reception at the White House by President Barrack Obama on November 24 as his administration’s first state guest, the excitement associated with the Bush visit is clearly missing.

There will be no big ticket announcement forthcoming though a series of agreements on counter terrorism, health, education and agriculture are being lined up for conclusion during the visit. However, India’s strategic role in Washington’s scheme of things has substantially diminished as Pakistan and Afghanistan clearly top the Obama dispensation’s foreign policy agenda.

The controversy fuelled by the reference to India and Pakistan in the US-China joint statement has cast a definite shadow on PM Singh’s visit even as Washington did move in quickly to assuage New Delhi’s hurt feelings.

Nevertheless, the upcoming Singh-Obama meeting does have its positive aspects. As foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said, this will provide the two leaders an opportunity to build and consolidate on their transformed relationship and to have a serious dialogue on regional and global issues ranging from terrorism, the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the state of the world economy to climate change and non-proliferation.

“India and US are now strategic partners and this visit will build further on it to take the relationship to a new level,” she said on the eve of the PM’s departure to the United States of America and Trinidad and Tobago for the Chogm conference. 
Foreign office sources said although New Delhi and Washington have worked closely following last year’s terror attacks, the two will institutionalise this collaboration through an agreement on counter terrorism which will include areas like surveillance and intelligence sharing.

Similarly, the two leaders are also expected to unveil an agreement in the field of education called the Obama-Singh 21st century knowledge initiative, a $10-million fund aimed at improving university linkages and exchanges among junior faculty.

Despite their differences on climate change, New Delhi and Washington are all set to announce a green initiative to cover projects on climate change, which may even include possible US assistance for India’s solar mission.

In an effort to promote India as a hub for a second green revolution in South Asia, the two countries will upgrade the Agriculture Knowledge Initiative. In the area of health, work is on to launch an initiative on disease control, while the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta will set up its first South Asian detection centre in India.

Unlike his last visit to Washington, the Indo-US nuclear deal will not figure prominently this time though the follow-up on the implementation of the deal is yet to be completed. Officials on both sides are working hard to arrive at an agreement on reprocessing US-origin nuclear fuel, a critical component of the 123 agreement but given the Obama administration’s ambivalence on this deal, seen as a Bush legacy, it will not be concluded on this visit. Foreign secretary Rao said as much today.

PM Singh, who arrives in Washington on Sunday, has a hectic schedule. Besides meeting senators and senior officials of the Obama Administration, he will address the US Chamber of Commerce and later the Council of Foreign Relations. The Obama-Singh meting is slated for November 24 morning to be followed by a lunch hosed by US Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The day will end with a state banquet to be hosted for Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur by President Obama.

New Delhi, November 20
Naxal attacks on trains passing through Jharkhand are on the rise. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said here today that she will take up the issue of railway safety with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Talking to reporters outside Parliament House, she said, “Every day there are kidnappings, obstructions and bomb blasts. This issue has to be resolved through talks.” Eight bogies of the Tata-Bilaspur passenger train were derailed last night after Maoists blew up railway tracks in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district. Mamata also said that railway property should not be damaged as the Railways caters to lakhs of people every day.

To a specific question why was the Railway Ministry lacking in providing protection to trains, she said security and law and order was a state subject. “The Railway Protection Force (RPF) cannot even file an FIR. We have Government Railway Police for the purpose. We provide 50 per cent of their salaries and the balance is provided by the state governments,” she said.

To the question, whether it was the failure of the state governments in providing security to the trains, Banerjee said: “I did not say that.” Banerjee said prima facie evidence suggested that last night’s attack was carried out by Naxals. The South Calcutta MP said earlier it was feared that two people had died in the attack but it had now been found that one of them is alive. She said the condition of three of the injured is critical.

New Delhi, November 20
The RSS and the group of four, also called Delhi-4, namely Arun Jaitely, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar, considered camp followers of Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, seem to have called a truce.

In turn, the group seemed ready to toe the Sangh line of denying the Sangh interference in BJP affairs and pretend that the decision to appoint Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari as the party president succeeding Rajnath Singh was done solely by the BJP and Advani. Calling the truce, RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat made the first move by attempting to undo the damage he caused to them in a recent interview to a TV channel wherein he ruled out these four from becoming the next president.

Revising his earlier position, Bhagwat said he had never suggested that the next BJP president should be from outside Delhi.

Seeking solace from Bhagwat’s revision, the Delhi-4 are now touting Gadkari’s candidature as their decision.

According to them, Sushma and Jaitley opted out of the presidential race because while one is already Leader of Parliament (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha, the other is LoP in waiting since she is to take over soon as Advani announces his retirement.

As for Venkaiah, he has served as the party president. That leaves out only Ananth Kumar. He hopes to become Deputy LoP when Sushma is elevated to the LoP position, the group claimed trying to play down the battle of wits taking place between them and the Sangh over Gadkari’s choice for over a week now.

But that will entail Advani stepping down from the office and sources indicated that while none of them knew when he would step down, they might no more shout over the rooftop that he was not going.

The sources said Delhi-4 changed their tune recently after the Karnataka episode in which mining kings of the state, variously called the Bellary brothers, G Janardhana Reddy and G Karunakara Reddy, tried to pull down the government of Chief Minister B.S. Yedyurappa. It was pointed out that Bhagwat’s TV interview wherein he ruled out the Delhi-4 took place in the midst of the Karnataka crisis. The Delhi-4 were rooting for the Reddy brothers and insiders explained that the interview helped the Reddy brothers realised that since the four may go out of power, in the long run they may have do business with Yedyurappa and the Sangh without the backing of their supporters in Delhi.

Srinagar/New Delhi, November 20
As he plans to visit China, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq today kicked up a controversy by saying that Beijing has a “direct link” with the Kashmir issue, drawing strong objection from the government to his views.

The government asserted that there was “no room” for any third country in resolution of the Kashmir issue which was confined to India and Pakistan.

It said it had no objection to Farooq travelling to China or anywhere else but he would be stopped if his visa is stapled on a separate sheet of paper instead of passport.

“I believe that China is not a party to the conflict (over Kashmir) but China has a stake as far as peace in the region is concerned. So, the Hurriyat Conference welcomes the approach adopted by China and America jointly in terms of addressing the issue of Kashmir in South Asia,” he said.

Rejecting the Mirwaiz’s view, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi that “with regard to the Jammu and Kashmir issue, the scope of resolution is restricted between India and Pakistan and there is no room for any third country”. The Mirwaiz said he was visiting China at the invitation of an NGO, which wanted him to speak from the Kashmiri point of view on the Kashmir issue and South Asia.

“I would go and present the Hurriyat point of view which is basically that Hurriyat wants to address the Kashmir issue politically,” he said.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said: “He (Farooq) is free to travel wherever he wants” and that the MEA encourages such visits whether these were to “Pakistan or China”.

Rao said: “We have stated on many previous occasions that we have not prevented Kashmiri leaders from travelling abroad”. She, however, said if the question was in the “context of approach taken by the Chinese government of issuing visas to Indian citizens who are residents of Jammu and Kashmir (on separate sheets of paper instead of passport)”, the Indian government does not “subscribe to this approach which discriminates on the basis of domicile”. — PTI

New Delhi, November 20
Following a tip-off by intelligence agencies and less than a week to go before the first anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the security scenario in the country was reviewed at a high-level meeting here.

The Defence Minister AK Antony reviewed the preparedness and operational capabilities of the three services at the meeting and asked them to remain alert and vigilant around the anniversary of the attacks. Antony asked the Navy, which is the overall in-charge of coastal security, to better its coordination with Coast Guard and other agencies so as to plug gaps.

The recent developments in the 26/11 investigations, especially those concerning David headley and his accomplice Tahhhawur Hussain Rana, were also discussed during the meeting, which lasted for two hours.

New Delhi, November 20
Citing the fundamental right to religious freedom, the Supreme Court has rejected a plea for a ban on immersion of idols in water bodies across the country.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and JM Panchal dismissed a PIL seeking a directive to the states for clamping a ban on such immersions as it polluted water.

Appearing for petitioner Salek Chand Jain, counsel Sugreeva Dubey, however, contended that the practice came in the way people’s right to potable water.

“The court cannot ask to so many states to impose a ban. You may approach appropriate authorities to have your grievance redressed,” the Bench told the petitioner while rejecting the plea.

According to the petitioner, large-scale immersion of idols during festivals like Dussehra and Ganesh Chaturathi is a major source of water pollution. Specifically citing the sorry state of the quality of water in the Yamuna in Delhi, Dubey said the river was getting even more contaminated due to immersions.

“You bring it to the notice of the authorities. We will not issue any direction as it would violate Article 25 of the Constitution that guaranteed religious freedom” as a fundamental right, the Bench explained.

New Delhi, November 20
Taking exception to the “utmost speed” with which parole was granted to Jessica Lall murder case convict Manu Sharma, the Delhi High Court today pulled up the city government for giving preferential treatment to convicts with high connections.

Justice Kailash Gambhir said that in normal cases the government takes three to six months to decide the parole application of a convict but in the case of Manu Sharma it disposed of his plea within 20 days.

“The list (regarding number of parole applications) depicts a dismal picture, showing the government is giving least priority to parole applications of convicts. No doubt, the Home Department has given selective treatment to some convicts because of their high connections,” he said.

“No doubt, one such case is of Siddharth Vashist alias Manu Sharma whose application of parole was disposed of with utmost impromptu,” the court said.

The Court directed the government to take an unbiased approach while dealing with parole pleas and asked it to decide all the 98 pending parole applications within a month.

“The government cannot sit over the application of the convicts for an unduly long time. It cannot favour or disfavour someone and every convict should be treated alike without any favour of disfavour,” the court said pointing out that in some cases the parole application has been pending with the government for the last five months. — PTI 

Chandigarh, November 20
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants lawyers to be above board.

In a candid judgment insightful of their ways of functioning, Justice K Kannan has asserted that public indignation against the fraternity is quite evident, so much so that even the honest advocates are finding it tough to secure accommodation as tenants. As such, they ought to be playing their cards right.

The observations came on a revision petition filed by a Yamunanagar-based lawyer Ameek Singh in a landlord-tenancy dispute case. The lawyer, putting up as a tenant in a house in Adarsh Nagar, was directed to be evicted by the rent controller and the appellate authority; and was in a revision petition before the high court.

Taking up the matter, Justice Kannan observed: “Counsel for the tenant pleaded that since he is a practising lawyer himself, he may be granted at least six months for eviction. The indulgence, that may be appropriate in a usual case where the tenant who is ordered to be evicted, may require some time for relocating himself shall not avail to a tenant, who takes up false pleas and who happens to be 
a lawyer.

“He ought to know his responsibilities and the need for rectitude. A lawyer who takes up a false plea, not merely advocating the cause of a client narrating his version bona fide, but pleadings for himself, does gross injustice to the name of the profession by doing so.

“These are hard times, when the public ire against the legal fraternity is on the ascending. It is not unheard of for even honest lawyers to have harrowing experience for securing accommodation as tenants. Some landlords perceive lawyers seeking properties as tenants as belonging to troublesome genre.

“A lawyer needs to play his cards carefully and ought not to do any act, which is in public gaze that may bring a bad name not merely to the individual, but also to his fellow professionals”.

Dismissing the revision petition with Rs 3,000 as costs, Justice Kannan asserted: “The tenant cannot drag his feet any longer on false pleas. The mandate shall be evict lock, stock and barrel, and the eviction order shall work itself in the right earnest with no further let up.”

Mumbai, November 20
Thirty personnel of the State Reserve Police Force guarding the Taj Mahal Hotel in downtown Mumbai were chased away from the Gateway of India across the road Thursday night after local newspapers published photographs of them using the monument as living quarters. The jawans had to make do with a sulabh shauchalaya for their public conveniences.

The SRPF personnel have been camping at the Gateway since the terrorist attack at the Taj Mahal Hotel on November 26 last year. However, the Maharashtra government was unable to provide them with appropriate accommodation because of which the SRPF personnel were forced to string up clotheslines on the monument and use a corner of it to cook their meals. After they were driven out by men from the Colaba police station nearby, the SRPF personnel were found sleeping on the parapet walls and benches lining the seafront. The brutal eviction of the SRPF personnel sparked outrage in Mumbai after television channels showed footage of policemen throwing out their belongings.

Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil rushed to the spot this morning and ordered tents to be provided to house the SRPF jawans. "There is a shortage of accommodation for police personnel in Mumbai. We are trying our best," Patil said later. 

Mumbai, November 20
American terror suspect David Headley had also stayed at Oberoi besides the Taj-the two hotels attacked on 26/11-before the Mumbai carnage, reinforcing suspicion of his link with the audacious strike, according to investigators today. Sources privy to the investigations said Headley stayed at the Oberoi for four days in April last year after which he left India reportedly for Pakistan through a Gulf country. The exact dates of Headley’s stay were not given.

The CCTV footage of the period mentioned as his stay in the hotel could not be retrieved from the machines installed at the hotel because of the time gap of nearly 19 months. Thirty people were killed in the terror strikes at Oberoi and Trident hotel.

Sources in the Oberoi said hotel records were minutely checked after investigators found that Headley had stayed in the Taj Mahal hotel which witnessed the longest battle between the Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists and security personnel. With fresh evidence of Headley's suspected link with 26/11 emerging, security agencies appeared to be convinced each passing day about his role when the conspiracy to carry out the terror attack was hatched. 183 people were killed in the Mumbai attack.

During the probe it was found that Headley stayed at Taj on two occasions for a total of nine days. The Taj had borne the brunt of the three-day carnage after terrorists struck Mumbai on November 26 last.

His accomplice Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-Candian, who is also under FBI custody, had stayed in a guest house in south Mumbai till November 21, 2008, before he flew to an European destination on the way back to Canada.

The sources said this has raised suspicion that he may have given final touches to the audacious terror strikes that also killed some American, British and Israeli nationals.

National Investigating Agency and central security agencies are now probing the travel details of both the suspects to check if they had any hand in the 26/11 attack or the serial bomb blasts in the country between 2006 and 2008. — PTI

Mumbai, November 20
The second wave of the H1N1 virus has arrived here as a 54-year-old woman died this morning due to Swine flu at a civic-run hospital, taking the death toll in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to 30.

According to civic officials, the woman, identified as Rehana Mohammed Sheikh, resident of Mira Road in neighbouring Thane, died today at Nair Hospital after she was tested positive for H1N1.

"Sheikh was brought in a critical condition to the government-run Nair Hospital and was immediately put on ventilator. She developed breathlessness," executive health officer Jairaj Thanekar said. "Her throat swab was taken and was immediately given Tamiflu," Thanekar said.

The woman had been earlier undergoing treatment at a private hospital on Mira Road since November 11 and as her health was worsening she was transferred to Nair Hospital on November 14 with symptoms of H1N1.

Though experts have predicted a second wave of Swine flu in winter, the MC of Greater Mumbai said it would ensure that the second wave was better managed. 
— PTI 

Chennai, November 20
Having boycotted byelections to five Tamil Nadu Assembly constituencies a few months ago, the AIADMK is all set to challenge the ruling DMK in the bypolls to be held in two Assembly segments on December 19.

Announcing this today, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa said her party’s decision to boycott the previous byelections was only to oppose the alleged irregularities committed by the ruling DMK. Jayalalithaa's statement came immediately after the date for the bypolls was announced by the Election Commission.

Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said the bypolls to Tiruchendur in south Tamil Nadu and Vandavasi in north would be held on December 19 and the filing of nominations would begin on December 2.

Despite Jayalalithaa's boycott call last time, the AIADMK voters cast their votes, which were shared between the DMK and actor Vijaykanth's DMDK, which polled more than 20 per cent votes in all the five seats, threatening to erode the AIADMK vote share.

Bypolls to the temple town of Tiruchendur was necessitated after the resignation of former state minister Anitha Radhakrishna, who quit the AIADMK and joined the ruling DMK. Vandavasi MLA Jayaraman, belonging to the DMK, died of cancer a few weeks ago.

Kolkata, November 20
The sudden strike, called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in Darjeeling, today paralyed the life in the hills. Tourists were stranded. Some of them today missed their flights from Bagdogra, while some others had to cancel the train journey back to Kolkata from New Jalpaiguri.

The GJM was now demanding immediate regularisation of 3,000 temporary workers, which the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council initially agreed. It was also demanding the removal of GHC administrator B.L.Meena. Aggrieved workers yesterday gheraoed District Magistrate Surender Gupta in his office and several senior officials and kept them confined there till late night.

Today, the GJM workers observed a 12-hour bandh in three hill sub-divisions at Kalimpomg, Kurseong and Darjeeling sadar. All government offices, shops and other establishments were closed. There were blockades on the roads and suspension of public transports. There was no traffic movement between Darjeeling and Siliguri.

The DM, however, was allowed to catch the flight from Bagdogra to Kolkata for holding talks with the Chief Secretary AM Chakraborty regarding the GJM’s demands. GJM secretary Roshan Giri said they had called for bandh but if their demand was not met, the strike would continue.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee appealed to GJM leaders for immediately calling off the strike and bringing back normalcy in the hills so that the tourists did not suffer any more.