Port Blair, February 5
The islands of Andaman and Nicobar will now get another full-fledged air base. The plans are also afoot to increase air connectivity and a newer crop of offshore vehicles.

Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma today said India was planning to revamp the military infrastructure in the islands that are spread across a length of 750 kms in the Bay of Bengal. The northern tip is the hot spot as Coco island, that are lying some 45 kms up north, has been leased out by Myanmar to China which has set up a major reconnaissance base there.

India suspects some intensive spying is being carried out by the Chinese on its assets, including the missile testing facility at Chandipur (Orissa).

“The airstrip up North (Northern Andaman islands) needs to be refurbished. Even for smaller aircraft it is a tight fit,” Admiral Verma told reporters on the sidelines after the commencement of the 13-nation ‘Milan exercise’ here today.

The airfield at Shibpur is around 1,000 feet in length and is inadequate for smaller cargo planes like Dornier and AN-32. Currently, only helicopters are capable of conducting operations from the strip. Sources said the biggest airfield is at Port Blair. It is 11,000 feet long (nearly as long as the landing strip at the International Airport in Delhi)

More airfields and helipads will boost the surveillance and logistics capability of the Indian armed forces along the archipelago, located about 700 nautical miles away from the Indian mainland. At present, there are airbases in Port Blair, Car Nicobar and Campbell Bay and now plans are afoot to spread out air power in other islands like Katchul and Hut Bay.

“We also intend to introduce night-landing facility at the airbases,”, said Admiral Verma, who recently inducted amphibious vessel Landing Ship Tank (LST) in the Andaman and Nicobar command. 

New Delhi, February 5
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with Chief Ministers tomorrow to chalk out a strategy to combat inflation is expected to be a stormy one with the CMs of non-Congress states challenging any attempt by the Centre to put onus on them to contain price rise.

The agenda of the meeting includes short-term and long-term proposals. The Prime Minister will discuss food price situation and review implementation of the Essential Commodities Act to check hoarding of food items while asking the states to actively cooperate with the Centre.

He is also likely to tell the Chief Ministers to improve public distribution system (PDS), asking the states to fully utilise allocations of cereals under the PDS as well as open market sale scheme, put a check on hoarding and black marketing and increase farm productivity.

However, BJP and NDA-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Punjab and Jharkhand are expected to come up with the counter argument that management of food economy and keep a check on price rise is the job of the Centre.

Price rise in recent months has led to a veiled attack on Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar with the BJP saying not enough was being done on this front by the NCP leader. While the Congress appears to be defending him, at least officially, non-Congress CMs will not be so lenient.

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shanker Prasad says management of food economy is primarily the job of the Centre.

This is more or less the line that the CMs of non-Congress ruled states are likely to take. Expecting this, over the past few days the Centre has been preparing to face their barbs. The Prime Minister is understood to have held meetings with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in this context.

While Utter Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is unlikely to attend the conference as a mark of protest, the Chief Minister of Karnataka will also be absent. He will be represented by the state Agriculture Minister.

The CMs meeting follows CWC deliberations on price rise today during which Congress members, including party president Sonia Gandhi, expressed concern over surging inflation and suggested that the government take steps to contain inflation. 

New Delhi, February 5
The CBI has registered two cases against eight public servants, including a professor each from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU), for wilfully violating AICTE norms to grant recognition to two Jaipur-based private colleges allegedly for monitory considerations. Two office-bearers of a Jaipur-based educational society have also been booked along with these eight on charges of corruption and forgery among others.

The accused falsified documents and misrepresented facts pertaining to the Jaipur-based institute, which is located in Renwal village in Phagi tehsil, so that it could get AICTE approval.“These teachers were paid bribes and we have seized incriminating documents in our raids today,” a CBI official said. 

New Delhi, February 5
For four decades until 2006, IITs were not in the practice of making question papers or model answers of IIT-JEEs public. Admissions were naturally not subjected to scrutiny. Even now, IITs publish marks attained by students and model answers only after the admission process is over and not on the day of the exam, as is the norm in exam conducting bodies like the AIEEE.

This leaves students with no scope for grievance redressal as they are required to sign, at the time of filling the application, a declaration that admission decisions can’t be questioned. The declaration, however, doesn’t make the admission system foolproof, as proved by revelations under the RTI Act by Kharagpur IIT professor Rajeev Kumar. It was for the first time in 2006 that IITs issued first set of questions and answers of IIT-JEE 2006 to Kumar, who today met Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal to stress the need for transparency in IIT admissions. Sibal said the related issues be represented before the IIT-JEE reform committee which the government set up yesterday under Prof D. Acharya of the Kharagpur IIT.

The documents, which formed part of Kumar’s representation to the minister today, reveal how in IIT-JEE 2006, about 994 meritorious students were disqualified from admissions because of incorrect application of the cut-off formula for math, physics and chemistry. The subject cut-offs followed by IITs for student selection that year were found to be much higher than the actual cut-offs. Ever since, the IITs have tried several times over to explain their 2006 JEE cut offs, but have been unable to do so.

Detailed analysis of IIT-JEE 2006 questions and model answers hint at another serious possibility - tampering of Optical Response Sheet (ORS). Unlike in some technical exams like AIEEE, which mandate the use of black pens to mark ORS sheets, the IITs allow the use of HB pencils only. There have been complaints of ORS reading machines not being sensitive enough to read faint pencil markings, thereby either failing to record a student’s answer or plainly rejecting it. Some exam conducting bodies like UP SEAT provide students with a carbon copy of ORS sheets to avoid problems. But in JEE, the system does not exist. On the contrary, Kumar’s analysis of admission information of 2006 JEE divulged by IITs revealed that certain faculty wards of at least two IITs (Kanpur and Kharagpur) scored exceptionally high marks and scored extremely typical pattern of marks, which would normally not occur. The faculty wards in question had high profile parents, some of them are still in important positions in the institutes. Data show that these IIT wards scored high marks in the Chemistry paper of JEE 2006, and these marks had a typical pattern like 135, 130, 125 and 120.

“The probability of co-occurrence of such a pattern is negligible unless there has been manual tampering,” Kumar today alleged in his representation, whose copies he sent to the President (visitor of IITs) and all IIT councillors. Documents show that in 2006, chemistry score of 135 was placed at the 33rd rank; 130 was placed at 60th rank and 125 score was placed at 92nd rank among the 2.99 lakh candidates who took the test.

Among the top scoring IIT wards, some were found to have scored marks in the multiples of five in all three subjects. “This is also a very rare phenomenon. In fact, by virtue of high marks in chemistry, these IIT wards had an all-India rank within the top 850. It is alleged that chemistry ORS scripts of these students were manually corrected after machine grading.

In case of some top scoring students in maths and physics, chemistry scores were manually lowered to ensure disqualification. This is serious as this can’t happen without knowing the personal identity of the candidate,” Kumar alleged in his representation, which is based on hard-core statistical analysis and which he hopes to share with the Acharya panel.

Kumar’s apprehensions are not without reason. The reality is IITs never disclosed ORS sheets of the above-mentioned candidates (IIT wards), despite orders from the Chief Information Commissioner under the RTI. They in fact destroyed JEE 2006 specific material (including the ORS sheets sought) by December 18, 2006, even though under their own rules they are supposed to preserve this material till one year of the exam. This they did despite pending RTI applications, which had sought that the specific material be shared with the petitioner - Rajeev Kumar in this case.

(To be concluded)

New Delhi, February 5
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today backed UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chief Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, expressing full confidence in the IPCC assessment process.

Lending support to the beleaguered UN climate change panel and its chief, Manmohan Singh said one error in the IPCC’s 2007AR4 report did not change the science of global warming or the facts regarding harmful impact of greenhouse gases on the planet.

“Some aspects of the science that is reflected in the work of the IPCC have faced criticism. But this debate does not challenge the core projections of the IPCC about the impact of greenhouse gas accumulations on temperature, rainfall and sea level rise. Let me here assert that India has full confidence in the IPCC process and its leadership and will support it in every way that it can,” he said at an international summit on sustainable development - “Delhi Sustainable Development Summit” -organised by Pachauri-led TERI.

In support of Pachauri, under attack for IPCC’s goof up on melting of Himalayan glaciers, Manmohan Singh said he had earned well deserved respect and international acclaim for his contribution in meeting challenges of climate change.

The IPCC, particularly Pachauri, has been under fire since revelations last month that the AR4 had mistakenly predicted Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035 as a result of global warming.

The controversy gave a new lease of life to climate skeptics, who have not just been questioning the process by which the Nobel Prize winning UN body publishes data but also the climate change science. The Himalayan blunder was followed by some more revelations, including those on Amazon forests and mountain ice, which were rejected by the IPCC.

Meanwhile, regretting absence of global consensus on climate issues, the Prime Minister asked industrialised countries to respond with bolder initiatives to contain their future emissions. He also asked the developed nations to recognise “more clearly” their historical role in the accumulation of green house gases.

Guwahati, February 5
Assam Governor JB Patnaik and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi have found themselves in the eye of a storm for cutting a cake and eating it too at Raj Bhawan here in the afternoon of last Republic Day. And the storm is all about the cake that was prepared as a model of the National Tricolour.

Both the Governor and the Chief Minister cut it in front of a host of dignitaries, including top bureaucrats, senior police and Army officials who were invited to the customary Republic Day tea party at Raj Bhawan.

The proverbial hornet’s nest was stirred once the video footage showing the Chief Minister and the Governor cutting the Tricolor look-alike cake was beamed on a few TV channels here a few days after the Republic Day.

The opposition political parties in the state have grabbed the opportunity to launch an attack on the Governor and the Chief Minister accusing them of showing disrespect to the National Flag by cutting a cake that was nothing but a replica of the Tricolour.

Opposition party Asom Gana Parishad president Chandra Mohan Patowary and state BJP chief Ranjit Dutta have appealed to the President to take appropriate action against Assam Governor and the Chief Minister under the appropriate provisions of the constitution. The opposition leaders have demanded that Patnaik and Gogoi should tender an apology.

Meanwhile, Gogoi today stated that the question of showing disrespect to the National Flag did not arise. The very act (of cutting the cake having colours of the national flag on it) was unintentional and not to show any dishonour to the National Flag. Gogoi expressed his regret over the incident. No reaction has come from the Raj Bhawan as yet. 

Guwahati, February 5
The family of the 10-year-old boy Lakhyajyoti Deka, who died in crossfire on Tuesday evening during a fierce gun battle between Army personnel and two militants, who were hiding inside his house at Bhakelikanda in Udalguri district in Assam, will get a house and Rs 6.4 lakh as compensation.

Udalguri district DC SS Meenakshi Sundaram today called on the family and took stock of the damage caused to their tin-roofed house during the encounter. He gave Rs 10,000 and some provisions to the family as immediate relief and assured to get the house rebuilt in few days. Thefamily would get Rs 3 lakh from the state government and another Rs 3 lakh from the Central government as compensation, besides Rs 40,000 under the Rajiv Gandhi Sangthapon Scheme. — TNS

New Delhi, February 5
The Supreme Court today denied bail to Rajasthan cadre IPS officer MN Dinesh, in jail for the past three years for his alleged role in the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausarbi. Dinesh and several other senior Gujarat police officers including DIG DG Vanzara have been arrested for allegedly conducting a fake encounter in which Sohrabuddin was killed. Sohrabuddin’s wife Kausarbi was subsequently eliminated by the Gujarat police. The apex court had handed over the investigation in the killings to CBI on January 12.

The apex court bench of Justice P Sathasivam and Justice HL Dattu, however, gave liberty to Dinesh to move the appropriate court seeking bail. Dinesh had been granted bail by the trial court but the Gujarat HC cancelled it. 

New Delhi, February 5
The Congress today virtually distanced itself from senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s statement at Azamgarh in which he expressed doubts about the Batla House encounter and the inquiry into it by the Human Rights Commission.

“Digvijay Singh said he went there (Azamgarh) to find the facts of the issue. He is a senior Congress leader and the General Secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. You have to ask him the meaning and scope of that statement,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.

Expressing doubts that the Human Rights Commission had heard the aggrieved parties seriously, Singh said yesterday, “After suspicions were raised over the encounter, its enquiry was handed over to the Human Rights Commission, but perhaps it did not hear the kin of the youths killed in the incident seriously.” The controversial statement of Digvijay Singh came before today’s CWC meeting. Party sources said the issue is likely to figure in the meeting, which would be chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

In fact questioning the timing, some Congress leaders said nothing had happened to warrant such a statement, neither was the matter been discussed at the party level. But there is a viewpoint that Digvijay may have made the statement to attract the Muslim vote bank in UP, especially with the SP trying to resurrect itself in the state.

Condemning Singh's statement, the youth wing of the BJP protested at the AICC headquarters here, raising slogans against the Congress and alleged that it was deliberately raising the issue to polarise the issue and insulting the martyrs of the Batla House encounter.

New Delhi, February 5
The BJP has demanded immediate arrest and legal proceedings against a former junior minister and ex-MLA of Delhi, who had allegedly helped Shahzad Alam, who escaped while two other alleged terrorists were gunned down by the anti-terrorist officers of the Delhi Police in Batla House in September 2008.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley was reacting here today to reports that a former junior minister from Bihar and a former ex-MLA had helped Shahzad Alam make good his escape along with his accomplice Junaid after the Batla House encounter.

Jaitely said MCOCA exists in Delhi and under this act anyone who aids and abets a terrorist, is also liable to be charged as a terrorist and jailed and tried to these provisions of the law.

He also questioned AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh’s intent in travelling to Azamgarh ostensibly to establish the veracity of Batla House encounter. “The Delhi police, the IB, the NSA, the Prime Minister, the NHRC and even the High Court were all that it was an encounter. Then why did he go to Azamgarh. He obviously went for political signalling to express his sympathies for the families of terrorists.”

New Delhi, February 5
India might have to enact a fresh legislation for the persons with disabilities. The first hint in this direction came today from Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik who said the proposed amendments to the existing Persons with Disabilities (PWD)Act, 1995, were so wide that a fresh legislation would be more feasible.

This was stated by Wasnik while addressing a meeting of Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the ministry here today. — TNS

Patna, February 5
A young entrepreneur from Bihar has been invited by US President Barack Obama for the 'Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship' to be held in Washington DC in April.

Irfan Alam (28), director of SammaaN Foundation - a Patna-based NGO that works for the socio-economic development of rickshaw pullers - would be one among 80 participants from across the globe and perhaps the first from Bihar to participate in the summit. US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer visited the Patna office of SammaaN to have a first hand experience of the activities undertaken by the organisation. Roemer also rode a rickshaw innovated by Irfan.

A native of Begusarai district in Bihar, Irfan did his Management Development Programme Course from IIM-Ahmedabad. But instead of vying for a plum job in the corporate sector, he decided to start his own social enterprise by setting up the SammaaN Foundation in 2007 with some rickshaw pullers as its stakeholders. The foundation-designed rickshaws require lesser energy than the conventional ones. The brightly coloured rickshaws provide better protection to the passengers from the sun and the rain. Besides, it has facilities to carry newspapers, mineral water bottles and other consumer items that can be purchased by the passengers while riding it.

These rickshaws also have provisions to display advertisements for additional income. About 50 per cent of the revenue earned from these advertisements is given to the pullers and the remaining part goes to the foundation. The rickshaw is initially financed through a bank loan that is repaid in easy instalments ultimately making the pullers their owners. Irfan started up the project with about 100 rickshaws and today there are 10,000 and odd pullers pedalling these special rickshaws across the country. According to Irfan, around three lakh rickshaw pullers are registered with SammaaN and efforts are on to provide each one with a rickshaw. Other than Bihar the SammaaN Foundation is also active in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Jharkhand. 

Kolkata, February 5
The Calcutta High Court today sentenced death penalty to Aftab Ansari and Jamiruddin Nasir, the prime accused in attack on American Center at Chowringhee area here on January 22, 2002, and life imprisonment to three others for their involvement in the incident.

The terrorists included two Pakistani nationals belonging to Al-Qaida. Seven cops were shot dead during the attack.

Incidentally, two other prime accused, Zahir and Mahiruddin, both Pakistani nationals and who could not be detained, were killed in an encounter later at Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, on April 22, 2007.

The terrorists conducted the operation in the high-security zone of the Chowringhee area when there was changing of guards was at the entrance of the US information centre. About 12 terrorists carrying AK 47 rifles and other weapons had attacked the foreign embassy office. The shootout lasted for about six-seven minutes and the terrorists escaped through the adjoining by-lanes. — TNS