New Delhi, January 1
In an indication that India will keep up its pace of buying newer weapons for its armed forces, the Ministry of Defence will spend the entire allocation on new weapons before the financial year ends in March.

A senior defence ministry official today said the pace of spending was on track and the allocated sum would be used.

In the previous years, a portion of the allocation could not be used and had raised questions over the pace of spending. This year Rs 54,824 crore was earmarked for capital acquisition. The ministry said the expenditure on acquisitions had increased. Over the last five years, it set to cumulatively add up to Rs 1,78,000 crore. In the previous five years ( 1999-2004), a sum of Rs 62,672 crore was spent.

In the previous years, some of the allocation could not be used.

Since 2005 till the end of this year, the nation would have spent Rs 1.37 lakh crore on acquisition. This includes choppers, missiles, fighters, tanks and other equipment. The process of modernisation of the forces cannot halt at any cost, said sources.

On the impending decision of fixing cost for the Russian-built sea-based aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, the sources added that the contract negotiation committee had given its report a few days ago. The matter would be referred to the Cabinet. The two countries had been renegotiating the deal since 2007 after Moscow demanded an additional $ 1.2 billion for the warship. Later, the demand was hiked to $ 2.9 billion

Separately, the Rama Rao committee report on re-structuring of the DRDO, was being discussed by the ministry and a few meetings have already been held. The findings of the committee are yet to be submitted. The Director of the DRDO has been asked to give his inputs.

The Defence Ministry is also expecting Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor to take a "responsible decision" on the fate of military secretary Lt Gen Awadesh Prakash, who has been indicted in the Sukhna land scam and is due to retire on January 31.

"We think the Army Chief is aware of that and we are sure that he will take a responsible decision on it," a senior official in the Ministry said when asked about its view on the scam in which an adverse recommendation has reportedly been given to Gen Kapoor and reports that Prakash would be given an "honourable exit" as his retirement is imminent. The Eastern Army Command chief, Lt. Gen. V.K. Singh, had recommended a summary dismissal for Prakash. The Army Chief has to take a decision on the punishment to be awarded under the Army Act. 

Guwahati, January 1
On the first day one of the New Year, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi raised a glimmer of hope about possibility of negotiation with the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) saying that the government has received positive signals from the outfit, whose all top leaders barring the commander-in-chief are now lodged in jail.

“We have received positive signals from the ULFA but negotiation can’t be started unless there is a formal communication. Let them first decide on the issue to be discussed other than the demand for sovereignty, which is not negotiable,” Gogoi said.

The CM reiterated that the ULFA shouldn’t waste time by harping on its demand for “sovereignty” which is not for discussion. “There is no question of discussing the demand for sovereignty as the people of Assam have repeatedly rejected it by participating whole-heartedly in all the national elections,” Gogoi added.

He said negotiation was possible with the outfit without its fugitive commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah. “It will be good if Paresh Baruah comes forward for talks. We can still go ahead even if he doesn’t come,” the Assam CM said.

He further said in case the talks with the ULFA became a reality then it would be held with full dignity.

“My government well understands that confrontation is not going to solve any problem. But at the same time we have be very firm when the need arises to keep the government functioning smoothly,” he said.

Gogoi today said his government was going to announce a special scheme to improve connectivity in far-flung and borer areas of the state to facilitate rapid development. A special ‘rural area employment generation scheme’ will also be launched in backward areas to shield vulnerable unemployed youth from being recruited into militant outfits.

Guwahati, January 1
In the history of two decades of counter-insurgency operations in Assam, the year that has gone by was definitely one among the best for the security forces in terms of outcome of sustained operations.

The year 2009 witnessed en masse surrender of the dreaded Dimasa tribe militant, Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa faction) of the Black Widow which used to run riot in North Cachar hill district of Assam stalling all development activities, including East West Corridor project of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and a hundreds of railway gauge conversion project worth hundreds of crore in rupees.

Total 374 cadres of Black Widow group surrendered with their weapons, including some sophisticated weapons, in middle of September this year to set the stage for peace negotiation. The surrender happened after the arrest of the outfit’s chairman Jewel Garlosa and a senior leader Partha Warisa from Bangalore on June 3 last.

However, the icing on the cake was the arrest of the chairman of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) Arabinda Rajkhowa, along with the deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah in Bangladesh. The government maintains that Rajkhowa, accompanied by ‘deputy commander-in-chief and military spokesman’ of the ULFA, Raju Baruah and their wives, children and others eight surrendered immediately after they had been pushed back to the Indian side from Bangladesh. Earlier, two other senior ULFA leaders Foreign Secretary Sashadhar Choudhury and Finance Secretary Chitrabon Hazarika in Bangladesh in November.

This has virtually pushed the ULFA to the corner much to the glee of security forces that have been operating against it under a unified command structure. With all senior leaders of the outfit now under its custody, the Government of India is now in an advantageous position to launch focused effort to trap the fugitive commander-in-chief of the outfit, Paresh Baruah.

Another significant development in the front in the year is the beginning of the process of negotiation with the pro-talks faction of the Bodo tribe militant group and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) though the anti-talks faction led by fugitive leader Ranjan Daimari has remained a major headache for the forces.

According to official records, more than 200 militants were killed by forces during the year, while, more than 1,600 others were arrested. Around 450 militants surrendered with about 800 weapons, thanks to improved mechanism of intelligence sharing among the forces engaged in the counter-insurgency operations after the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram started taking personal interest in dealing with the situation in the troubled state. 

New Delhi, January 1
The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has ruled that the records with a parliamentary committee can be provided under the RTI Act once the report has been tabled on the floor of the House.

Giving the ruling today in a case where the applicant had sought certain details from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, CIC Wajahat Habibullah, however, said documents which have been declared confidential were exempt from being provided.

The ruling came in a case pertaining to one Patanjali Sharma who had sought a certified copy from the Rajya Sabha of a rule of the Central Secretariat Services furnished to a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs by the Department of Personnel.

“I am seeking the information relating to the inputs supplied by the Department of Personnel and Training, on the basis of which the (committee) prepared its 83rd report,” Sharma told the Rajya Sabha. He said there were gross factual errors in the report which were adversely affecting his career advancement.

He moved the Central Information Commission after the Rajya Sabha Secretariat gave some information but did not allow inspection of record saying these were “considered” confidential.

The CIC has now rejected the arguments saying the report was placed on the floor of the House in 2001 and there was nothing to suggest that it could be withheld from Parliament. In his order the CIC said, “inspection of the file, which is part of access to information... Together with taking certified copies of the documents or records... Is evidently accessible to appellant”.

Habibullah said the committee had decided to place this before Parliament as long ago as 2001. “Once that has been done, it cannot be argued that any component of that committee’s proceedings resulting in the report being placed before Parliament is to be withheld from Parliament, unless so specified”.

The CIC said the report does not stipulate whether Committee has not decided or has decided against placing a report, or any of its components, before Parliament.

He directed the Central Public Information Officer to allow the inspection of the records after seeking permission of the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs within 10 days.

New Delhi, January 1
Indian Railways is carrying on a feasibility study for the running of bullet trains in India and feel that the project could become a reality in the coming few years.

The feasibility study was undertaken soon after former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had returned from his visit to Japan early 2009.

One of the pet projects of Lalu, the feasibility study for running trains at a speed of almost 350 kms per hour is being carried out by the Indian Railways with the help of three companies, including a French and an Italian firm.

Following his return, Lalu had said that the Railways was examining the possibilities of running the bullet train on some routes, including Mumbai-Ahamedabad, Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Patna.

Reports now say that the feasibility study is being conducted on the 533-km long Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad section and a report is expected to be submitted by next month. It will only be after the submission of the feasibility study that a decision would be taken.

A study is especially being conducted to check whether a special protected corridor would have to be created to run this train. Experts believe that with the kind of open traffic available across Indian railway lines, running bullet with a protected corridor would be the only plausible option.

Experts point out that a dedicated corridor would have to be built and officials estimate that each kilometre of such a train would cost about Rs 100-150 crore.

The feasibility study is being carried out for the possible alignment, fare structure and volume of passengers in the proposed high-speed corridor.

Besides the elevated route, study will look at the possibility of underground route for the high-speed corridor.

The deploying of bullet trains on Indian rail lines has come into focus again Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama offered his country's expertise in such modern technology. During his his just-concluded visit,

Hatoyama said he would like to see bullet train technology in India and pointed out that Japanese bullet trains have never been involved in any accident.

The bullet train at 350 km per hour speed aims to reduce the travel time between Pune and Mumbai to just 25 minutes from the present three hours and the travel time from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will shrink to less than two hours from the present seven hours.

The proposed corridor will serve the cities of Pune, Lonavala, Kandla, Kalyan, Mumbai, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand and Gandhinagar.

Officials say that if the feasibility study on the Pune-Ahmedabad sector is positive then a similar study could also be conducted on the Delhi-Amritsar sector also. This would also include deployment of the train on the Delhi-Chandigarh sector.

A similar study may also be carried out on the Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai, the Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulum and the Howrah-Haldia sectors.

New Delhi, January 1
Andhra Pradesh minister K Venkat Reddy appears to be heading for trouble, being in the dock for not withdrawing his resignation after the Centre issued a call for an all-party meting on the Telangana issue.

Congress sources said based on a report given by Andhra Pradesh party in-charge Veerappa Moily to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the erring minister had been issued a show-cause notice to explain his position by the party.

While 11 out of the 13 Telangana Ministers yesterday had withdrawn their resignations in view of the Centre’s decision, two ministers -K Venkat Reddy and D Sridhar Babu- remained struck to their position and refused to take back their resignations.

Clearly, the Centre’s decision to set the dialogue process rolling had triggered differences among Congress ministers from Telangana region who had earlier submitted their resignation, demanding a specific time frame for carving out the new state.

However, what went against Reddy was that he was among the first ones to submit his resignation. Besides he is also understood to have made allegations against K Rosaiah, charging him of bias.

Reddy is learnt to have said Rosaiah. Instead of behaving like the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was being biased by stating that agitation in the Telangana region was creating unnecessary panic among the corporate and film industry.

Taking a strong exception to the remarks made by Reddy, some other ministers in the Rosaiah cabinet had demanded that he should apologise to the Chief Minister. They contended that while Reddy could voice his opinion at a Cabinet meeting or complain to the Congress party high command, he should not have criticised the Chief Minister in the media.

Stating that Reddy’s actions reflected gross indiscipline, sources said, they demanded that he should give an explanation on his statement to the Chief Minister and Congress high command.

Hyderabad, January 1
They represent various hues of political spectrum, ranging from Saffron to Red. But, like all colours merging into white, they have come together to pursue a common goal of statehood for Telangana region.

For the last several weeks, the historic Arts College building at Osmania University campus here, the nerve centre of Telangana agitation, has been bursting at its seams with thousands of students from the city and the rest of Telangana districts gathering to express their solidarity with the statehood cause.

Providing them inspiration is a group of committed and passionate youngsters who have launched indefinite fast demanding creation of Telangana state.

There are no party flags but the sprawling campus is dotted by hundreds of white banners carrying colourful Telangana map and “Jai Telangana” slogan.

The students of Osmania University have risen above party politics.

Till the other day, they were fierce followers of their respective parent parties, be it Congress, the BJP, the CPI or the CPI (M). Now, they have joined hands to form the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of student bodies. It consists of 14 organisations, including those representing Dalit groups, OBC associations and other youth groups from Telangana universities.

Clearly, it is the student power that is driving the ongoing Telangana movement in Andhra Pradesh. Though Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao is credited with reviving a dying movement by embarking on an indefinite fast on November 29, the statehood agitation has since moved beyond political parties with students taking control of it.

In fact, the pro-Telangana leaders of various political parties have been making a beeline to the university campus to express solidarity with the agitating students.

“We do not want political parties to gain mileage out of this people’s agitation. It is the youth which is going to play a crucial role in deciding the course of the new Telangana state,” said P Ravi, a research scholar in economics and a member of the JAC.

Mumbai, January 1
The Maharashtra government today issued notices to eight senior police officials, including former Mumbai police commissioner D N Jadhav, as part of a probe into missing documents pertaining to purchase of bulletproof jackets for the Mumbai police.

The officers have been asked to reply to the notice by January 4, state government sources said.

The file pertaining to the purchase of bulletproof jackets went missing after the terror attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, where senior police officers were killed despite donning the supposedly protective gear.

After the Metropolitan Magistrate's court, hearing a public interest litigation petition, ordered the police to file a First Information Report and probe the missing file, it was traced to an office in the Mumbai police headquarters itself. Three clerks from the purchase department were suspended for misplacing the file. It then transpired that several important pages from the file were missing.

The petitioner who filed the PIL alleged irregularities in the purchase of the bulletproof jackets. Based on information obtained from the accounts department of the police, the petitioner, Santosh Daundkar, submitted that a tender was issued in 2001 for the purchase of 55 bulletproof jackets to a Pune-based firm. The successful bidder, NTB Hi-Tech Ceramics, had no record of making bulletproof vests, the petitioner stated.

The order was doubled to 110 jackets within a month bypassing rules, the petition alleged. However the company was unable to supply the jackets till 2004 and when these were tested at the firing range, the jackets were found to be defective and rejected.

The petitioner alleged that the same jackets were later resupplied by the company after carrying out modifications.

Lucknow, January 1
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has resolved to demolish parks and memorials of Dalit icons built by the BSP government and replace it with schools and hospitals named after the Dalit icons.

"I have chosen Lucknow to lead the jail bharo agitation and court arrest from January 19 since the state capital is the symbol of the arbitrary conduct of the BSP government," he said at a press conference.

Addressing party workers at the SP headquarters after paying homage to socialist leader Raj Narain on his 24th death anniversary, Yadav once again reiterated his resolve to get the parks and memorials of the Dalit icons demolished and replace it with schools and hospitals.

"Mayawati has occupied over 2,500 acres of public land in the capital and all political parties are silent on this issue," remarked Yadav.

"Various parks and memorials have been constructed from the hard-earned money of the poor of the state and we will give these assets back to the people by constructing schools and hospitals in place of the memorials," said Yadav.

"The schools and hospitals will be named after the Dalit icons," he added.

Terming the BSP government as an epitome of arbitrary conduct, bad governance and corruption, Yadav recalled his agitation for the sugarcane farmers after the police firing at Ramkola in Deoria district during the first BJP regime in 1992.

"The Ramkola agitation remains a milestone in the history of the Samajwadi Party, where I was arrested and jailed, but the government had to relent and accept the demands of the farmers," he said.

Patna, January 1
By giving a call for Bihar bandh on January 28 on the issue of price rise, the RJD seems to be in a mood to launch its election campaign. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has given a call to his party men to come out on the streets and launch a decisive battle against the “arrogant” government of Nitish Kumar. Lalu would himself lead the protesters on the streets, said his party sources.

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), RJD’s trusted ally, has also supported the bandh call. LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan has also called upon his party leaders and supporters to join the RJD’s bandh call. After organising the statewide bandh, the RJD and the LJP would launch a “jail bharo abhiyan” against the state government.

Lalu has also called upon other political parties, particularly the Left, to join the Bihar bandh call. Lalu knows that the Centre is mainly responsible for its failure to check the price rise, but he holds the state government guilty for it for not taking action against hoarders.

According to him, fertilisers meant for farmers of the state were being smuggled to Nepal and the farmers here were forced to buy the same at double the price. Lalu also plans to call for Bharat bandh on the issue with the help of other parties, he said.

Political observers say the RJD chief was actually polarising his supporters in order to put them in election mode by organising Bihar bandh and the jail bharo abhiyan. The Assembly elections in Bihar are due in November, 2010. The LJP has also decided to organise a rally of its party workers at the historic Gandhi Maidan of Patna on February 15.

The ruling JD(U) has also started its pre-election exercise and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has started pitching his tent in the countryside. After spending six days in his camp at Rajgir, Nitish has decided to organise similar camps at Vaishali in North Bihar and Bodh Gaya (Central Bihar) very soon.

The state government’s New Year bonanza for its employees by way of revised salaries and pension as per the recommendations of Sixth Pay Panel is also being viewed as a pre-poll exercise of the ruling NDA.

New Delhi, January 1
Endorsing or participating in private studies on efficacy of drugs and accepting any kind of hospitality from pharma companies might be a thing of the past for doctors with the Medical Council of India coming out with a fresh code of conduct for medical practitioners.

The MCI via amendment to the "Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulation 2002" has brought out the code of conduct which includes not accepting any gifts or travel facility from any pharmaceutical company or the health care industry.

According to the new rules, a medical practitioner may carry out, participate in or work in research projects funded by pharmaceutical and allied health care industries, but has to ensure that the particular project has due permission from the competent authorities.

He also has to ensure that the research project gets clearance from an institutional ethics body.

In dealing with pharma and allied healthcare industries, a medical practitioner shall always ensure that there shall never be any compromise either with his or her own professional autonomy or with the autonomy and freedom of the medical institution where he or she is working.

As far as endorsements are concerned, a doctor will not endorse any drug or product of the industry publicly.

Any study conducted on the efficacy or otherwise of such products shall be presented to or through appropriate scientific bodies or published in appropriate journals in a proper way. — PTI