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No flip-flop on Telangana: Chidambaram
Maoists using turmoil to stage a comeback in AP
Law taking own course in Sajjan Kumar case: Cong
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Water bodies more vital than housing for poor: Madras HC
Fog sends train time-table off track
Ex-Army men can be employed in BSF
President greets on New Year
Don’t check in passengers with stapled Chinese visa: DGCA
No foul play behind blaze, says BARC
Mayawati’s birthday gesture
BJP council meet likely in Feb
KK Nohwar is Eastern Air Command chief
Air travellers in for stricter scrutiny Delhi girl dies of ‘drug overdose’ in Goa
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No flip-flop on Telangana: Chidambaram
New Delhi, December 31 Having burnt his fingers once, the Home Minister refrained from a commitment and described the meeting as just the first step of consultation on Telengana. “We are not taking any action… we are just responding to the demands of the state. In the first step we have called the recognised parties in the state to devise a mechanism and a roadmap,” he said, adding that Andhra chief minister K Rosaiah had been invited to the meeting in his official capacity and added, more parties could be involved in the consultation process. Yet the announcement of the meeting appears to have had the desired effect. Reports emerging from Hyderabad indicated that 13 Andhra ministers, all from Telangana, are back on board. The ministers had resigned earlier this week demanding an immediate response from the Central Government. Chidambram also saw no contradiction between his December 9 and December 23 statements on Telangana. He said, “We simply responded to the wishes of the people of Andhra Pradesh. I hope you don’t call the January 5 meeting a flip-flop,” he said adding, “The government was simply responding to the altered situation as a result of divisions in the political parties,” he said. Defending the delay he pointed out that the UPA NCMP in 2004 had offered to “consider formation of a Telangana at an appropriate time after consultations and consensus.” Further he explained the change in his stand on December 9 by mentioning that major political parties in Andhra Pradesh contested 2009 Assembly elections on manifestoes which, in one way or the other, declared support for the formation of a separate Telangana and added that the December 9 announcement “to initiate the process of forming the state of Telangana” was further based on the minutes of the all-party meeting held by Rosaiah in Hyderabad on December 7. Chidambaram also mentioned the rider of state Assembly resolution in his December 9 statement saying, “I would like to highlight key words in the statement- they are ‘process’, ‘appropriate resolution’ and ‘moved’. In the background of the minutes of the all-party meeting, I would like to ask “what was wrong with that statement?” The Home Minister said following the announcement major political parties in Andhra Pradesh witnessed deep divisions among their members, especially MPs and MLAs, adding that it was obvious that the situation has altered. “The government tried its best to bridge the differences. Unfortunately, there was no agreement and it was felt that there was a need to hold further consultations with all political parties and groups in Andhra Pradesh.” He, however, refused to call it a ‘U-turn’ by political parties including the Congress, TDP and Praja Rajyam and said, “There is a problem, we have to find a solution. My appeal to political parties is to please help us find a solution. That is all I can say now. I am sure political parties will show goodwill and accommodation to find a solution”. He refused to spell out a time frame reiterating that this was just the first meeting and also clarified that his party Congress had no standard view on smaller states, even as Congress sources ruled out setting up the second SRC. “There is no consensus within UPA constituents on the formation of such a committee,” top party sources said. Meanwhile, the BJP was reluctant to open its cards on the issue, even as it said that M Venkaiah Naidu will be attending the January 5 meeting. Party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said here today, “The government should first come clear on its intent. Much of the problem is because of inner contradictions within the Congress. The all-party meeting can succeed only after the Congress succeeds in resolving its contradictions.”
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Maoists using turmoil to stage a comeback in AP
Hyderabad, December 31 There are fears that Maoists have been trying to infiltrate the Telangana agitation and gain public support as part of a larger strategy to make a comeback. Ever since the launch of People’s War Group (PWG) in 1980 by legendary Naxalite leader late Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, the outfit had a strong presence in the backward Telangana region. At one stage, the Naxalites were in a position to run parallel administration in some pockets of the Telangana region. However, during the past 10 years, they suffered heavy military losses with several top leaders being killed in police encounters and many more surrendering to the police. Apart from facing the heat from the police, the Maoist movement also witnessed significant erosion in its support base over the years. As a result, the residual leadership has shifted its base to the neighbouring states of Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Sensing an opportunity in the Telangana agitation to regain their lost ground, the Maoists have declared their support to the statehood cause. There are reports that Maoists have been trying to regroup in Karimnagar, Adilabad and Warangal districts, hotbeds of the Telangana movement. “There is a move by the Maoists to resurface in Andhra Pradesh in a big way. However, any such attempt will be repulsed with all force at our command,” DGP RR Girish Kumar said. The police, he said, was keeping “utmost guard and vigil” to thwart the Maoists’ plans. Though Maoist activity in the state had come down significantly in the past decade, the DGP said the police remained vigilant in view of developments in neighbouring states. “We are monitoring their activities across the border. We hope to reverse any effort to cross over and set up bases in the state,” the police official said. During 2009, Andhra Pradesh registered only 56 incidents of Maoist violence as against 96 last year. The number of incidents was as high as 576 in 2005. No policeman was killed during the year, while 34 policemen were killed last year. The number of civilians killed in Maoist violence came down to 15, compared to 45 last year.
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Law taking own course in Sajjan Kumar case: Cong
New Delhi, December 31
“It is not the Congress party’s tradition to interfere with judicial and legal matters,” he added Kumar, an MP from the Outer Delhi constituency in the 14th Lok Sabha, was withdrawn by a worried Congress as the party candidate in the April 2009 Lok Sabha elections along with another controversial leader Jagdish Tytler after the ghost of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots returned to haunt the party over their alleged role in the carnage. The party’s decision came amid a raging controversy over fielding the two controversial leaders, brought to the forefront when a Sikh journalist hurled a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram at a press conference. Though the Congress maintained that it was Tytler and Kumar’s decision to withdraw from the race, clearly it was the 10 Janpath that prompted the move. Kumar had been named as a candidate for the newly created South Delhi constituency.
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Water bodies more vital than housing for poor: Madras HC
Chennai, December 31 Disposing a batch of petitions against the eviction of 500 families, who were living on Sirunaickankulam water tank in Palani, the Bench comprising Justice D Murugesan and S Nagamuthu said: “Landless poor have a fundamental right under Article 21 (Right to life) of the Constitution to demand residence. But such right cannot be extended to the level of encroaching water sources”. The court said it expected the encroachers to vacate on their own, so that the irrigation tank could be restored to its original position, while requesting the government to rehabilitate them in a suitable place. “Taking injections is of course a painful process. Nevertheless, the patient has to bear the same if the disease has to go. Likewise, removing these encroachers is really painful but the authorities have no other option,” observed the Bench. The court also criticised the Collector, Revenue Divisional Officer and Palani Municipality for making recommendations to the state government to grant ‘patta’ to the encroachers. The recommendations were in violation of an assurance given by the district administration before the High Court in 1998 to evict all encroachers from the water body, in a case filed by a farmers’ association. “Despite such an assurance and consequential direction issued by the court, steps were not taken for eviction. On the other hand, the officials had provided road, electricity and drinking water facilities so as to encourage the encroachments,” the judges said. The court observed that there were materials to proceed against the officials for contempt of court and said: “We do not propose to do so in the fond hope that at least the order which we pass presently would be complied with.”
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Fog sends train time-table off track
New Delhi, December 31 Separately, in an unrelated incident, the New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi train, along with more than two dozen trains, was delayed by more than two hours at the time of departure. Several other trains were bunched together around Badli in Delhi. Northern Railway officials today advised all passengers travelling from Delhi to confirm the train schedules before arriving at the stations. “Though all arrangements are already in place to make sure that the passengers face minimum inconvenience, all passengers are advised to re-check the train timings before they arrive at stations,” said Anant Swarup, spokesperson, Northern Railways. Hundreds of passengers, who reached in time for their departures, were running around the railway stations in the winter chill. Many complained that they had no information about the changed timings. The New Delhi Railway Station saw many anxious relatives waiting on the platforms. “We could not get through to my brother’s mobile phone and reached directly at the station to receive him. Here I came to know that the train would arrive tomorrow morning at 7 am,” said Pooja Barthakur, who reached the station at 1 pm. Total 22 trains were running late by as much as nine hours. The Nizamuddin Express coming from Thiruvananthapuram was running more than 11 hours late. The train would arrive at Nizamuddin station at 4.30 am tomorrow morning instead of 5 pm today. The North East Express coming from Guwahati would arrive at New Delhi Railway Station at 1.15 am instead of its scheduled time 7.25 pm. As the weather conditions played havoc with train timings, hundreds of confused passengers and relatives were seen running around
the railway stations.
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Ex-Army men can be employed in BSF
New Delhi, December 31
Home Minister P Chidambaram today announced that a scheme has been formulated to re-employ ex-servicemen on a contractual basis in the categories of constables and sub-inspectors. These retired jawans will now be re-employed in the BSF, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB). The CISF that guards the airports and vital industrial installations, including private companies like Infosys, is in a major expansion mode. The SSB guards the India-Nepal border and it needs more men to protect the porous border. Already the CRPF have been permitted to re-employ ex-servicemen.
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President greets on New Year
New Delhi, December 31
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Don’t check in passengers with stapled Chinese visa: DGCA
New Delhi, December 31 The DGCA instruction comes weeks after India declared as “invalid” the standalone paper visas given by the Chinese embassy here and consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata to Indians from Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. A travel advisory issued by the External Affairs Ministry last month asked those going to China to ensure that their visas are pasted on their passports. “Such paper visas stapled to the passport are not considered valid for travel out of the country,” it said. —
PTI
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No foul play behind blaze, says BARC
Mumbai, December 31 “The cause of the fire and the explosion can be ascertained only after forensic examination reports are available and that can take three to four weeks,” ACP Ritesh Kumar said. “There appears to be no foul play or sabotage,” Kumar said. —
PTI
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Mayawati’s birthday gesture
Lucknow, December 31
The decision was taken today at a high-level BSP meeting presided over by the National President herself.
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BJP council meet likely in Feb
New Delhi, December 31 However there is still uncertainty whether the necessary prerequisites for confirming the appointment of Gadkari as party president would be met before that date. Already the new president has ordered the postponement of organisational elections in Rajasthan to mid-February after brokering peace between warring factions in the state BJP. There are similar examples in other states as well. Under the BJP constitution, the necessary prerequisite for national ratification is that a minimum of 50 per cent state units should have completed organisational polls. Meanwhile, there is a considerable debate in the party over the proposed venue for the national council meet. A section proposed that it should be held in Ranchi, since Jharkhand is the latest feather in BJP’s cap. But that was immediately struck down by another section in the party fearing that the media would then recall all through the three-day national council meet what the BJP had to say about Chief Minister Shibu Soren before it joined the Soren-led government yesterday. Therefore, an influential section in the BJP rejected the suggestion. Madhya Pradesh is considered the safest state for the BJP to hold its convention and Indore is considered good both from political and weather aspects.
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KK Nohwar is Eastern Air Command chief
Shillong, December 31
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, the senior officer was inducted in the fighter stream of the IAF on June 24, 1972. A qualified flying instructor and a fighter combat leader, he has 3,400 hours of flying experience to his credit and has flown MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft and commanded a MiG-27 squadron. A graduate from the Defence Services Staff College Course, Wellington, in June 1987 and the Air War College (USA) in June 1998, he was the Commandant, Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment, Deputy Commandant at the College of Air Warfare and Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station, Hasimara. He had held several staff appointments at the Air Headquarters, New Delhi, including that of Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Plans). He was also the Chief of Staff at IAF's Andaman and Nicobar Command Headquarters and Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Forces Command, both tri-services units. —
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Air travellers in for stricter scrutiny Mumbai, December 31 According to sources, an alert issued by the Home Ministry warns about terrorists trying to take on board aircraft explosives in powder form that are odourless and cannot be detected by sniffer dogs. The CISF, therefore, has been asked to carry out frisking of passengers to ensure that such powders are not carried in their person, sources said. The alert follows an attempt by a Nigerian, with links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida, to blow up an aircraft using PETN (pentaerythritol trinitrate) in powder form. Following the incident, any suspicious powder carried by passengers may be seized and rushed to a laboratory for testing, officials said. During the process passengers carrying such baggage may be detained, officials said. New kinds of explosives that are available to terrorists may simply explode when exposed to air or water. The CISF has also been asked to look out for suicide bombers who may check in explosives before boarding the aircraft themselves. So even suspicious looking packages that are sought to be checked in will be subjected to scrutiny. The DGCA and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), said sources, are likely to issue fresh security directives and passengers may be subjected to additional checks before they board the aircraft. The new directives are likely to be issued in the first week of January, officials said.
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Delhi girl dies of ‘drug overdose’ in Goa
Panaji, December 31 It was immediately not known what kind of drug the victim had consumed. The autopsy was done at the Government Medical College hospital. Goa police spokesman Atmaram Deshpande also said the death certificate showed it was a case of drug overdose.Neha came to Goa from Bangalore to participate in `Sunburn Goa Festival-2009' organised at Candolim beach.She was transported from the festival venue to the hospital in a serious condition after she collapsed, the police said. The festival organisers, however, claimed the girl did not consume drugs at the venue. "We had kept a strict surveillance through 40 CCTV cameras and sniffer dogs,” they claimed. —
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New Delhi, December 31
Mumbai, December 31
