New Delhi, March 24
Separatist Kashmiri leaders were in full attendance at the Pakistan National Day celebrations here last night but most of them appeared crestfallen with Islamabad advising them to postpone their visit to Pakistan by two-three weeks.

Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF chief Yaseen Malik were all there at the Pakistan High Commission along with their band of supporters, mixing freely with the assembled guests and posing for aphotographers.

It is understood that Mirwaiz and his associates like Bilal Lone, Prof Ghani Bhat, and Moulvi Abbas Ansari and JKLF chief Malik were scheduled to leave for Pakistan tomorrow.

An invitation to visit Pakistan was extended to them last month by Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir during his visit to India for the foreign secretary-level talks.Islamabad is believed to have asked the separatists to defer their visit apparently in view of the fact that Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi and the foreign secretary were away in Washington.

Malik, when contacted by The Tribune, said he was unwell but confirmed that he was not leaving for Pakistan tomorrow. “I am not well, I will let you know when I to (to Pakistan),” he said.

Meanwhile, the attendance at the celebrations at the Pakistan mission this time was thin compared to previous years when the lush green lawns of the mission would be overflowing with guests.

Reflecting the low in ties between the two countries, the Government of India was represented by a junior minister (Minister of State for HRD D Purandeshwari) and YK Sinha, Joint Secretary dealing with Pakistan in the External Affairs Ministry. Envoys of various countries, including US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer, French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yan, were among the dignitaries present at the function.

Also awarded on the occasion posthumously was 'Sitara-e-Imtiaz', Pakistan's second highest civilian award, to noted Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande for promoting peace between India and Pakistan.

New Delhi, March 24
After clearing the controversial Foreign Education Providers Bill, the government is now working on relaxing credit lending norms for the private sector to facilitate its entry in education.

The Human Resource Development Ministry is in talks with the Planning Commission to work out ways to draw leading industrialists to invest in education.On the anvil are lower interest rates on credit lending to private players interested in setting up educational institutions and longer repayment time for loans hence taken.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the government was trying to evolve better tax regimes and attractive credit lending structures for private investors in education. To attain the Gross Enrollment Ratio of 30 per cent by 2020 (current ratio is 12 per cent), the government needs additional 600 universities and 35,000 colleges.

“What’s the problem if industrialists want to set up institutes? We need private players for we don’t have the money to meet educational requirements. We are talking to the Planning Commission to explore ways whereby private players don’t have to take credit on commercial rates. The current loan repayment period is seven years. We could look at 20 to 25 years,” Sibal told The Tribune on the sidelines of an interactive session with women journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps here.

It was further learnt that Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani is in talks with Sibal to collaborate in the sector. Ambani met the minister on February 17 to discuss plans of collaboration with the government for a world class university (WCU) that RIL wants to establish under the Reliance Foundation. RIL has committed Rs 500 crore in the foundation and plans to scale up to Rs 1,000 crore.

Asked which industrialists would invest in education, Sibal said: “There are many Indians in the list of top 10 richest people in the world. Some will come.”

In the Forbes richest people list, Mukesh Ambani is fourth, with a net worth of $ 29 billion; Anil Ambani is 36th to get industrialists on board, the government will set up an Education Finance Corporation that will offer cheap loans to students pursuing professional courses.

“If private participation were not to be sought, wewould need Rs 3, 50, 000 crore to nationalise higher education. Our total plan budget is Rs 3, 73, 000 crore. Where is the money? Sibal said, defending UPA’s decision to let private players enter education.

Bangalore, March 24
Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily today ruled out providing reservation for Other Backward Castes in the Women's Reservation Bill, saying data on OBCs is not available at the national level. Moily said there would be no change in the bill compared to that passed in the Rajya Sabha and exuded confidence that it would get through the Lok Sabha also in April.

"There is no provision in the Constitution to provide for OBC reservation, particularly for political reservation, even though for employment and education, reservation is provided," he told reporters here. Moily said census on OBCs was not pursued since 1931. "So unless these data are available, it is not possible to pick up who's OBC and who's not OBC." He opined that if Parliament passed the bill with amendment providing OBC quota in the women's legislation, the court would strike it down "from day one".

Asked about Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's comment that only women belonging to affluent class would get the benefit of the bill, he said a "similar argument" was aired when 73rd and 74th Constitution amendment bill providing reservation for women in Panchayat Raj institutions was enacted. — PTI

Bhubaneswar/Gaya, March 24
Six persons, including three security personnel, were killed by the Maoists in separate incidents in Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal on Wednesday.

The Maoists blew up a government toll plaza in Gaya district of Bihar and looted 16 weapons, including a rifle, 12 double-barrel guns and three regular guns, besides over 100 rounds of ammunition. They also took away Rs 3 lakh from the plaza counters.Bihar DGP Neelmani said around 100 armed Maoists attacked the toll plaza on the GT road around midnight, killing Wakil Singh, guard of a private security agency. They also shot dead a truck driver present at the toll plaza to deposit tax. He was identified as Krishna Kant.

Before leaving the place, they also set on fire three trucks parked on the roadside. According to the DGP, jawans of Bihar Military Police rushed to the spot in an armoured (anti-land mine) vehicle and fired at the fleeing Maoists. Some of the Naxals were reportedly injured in the firing, but could not be traced so far.

The violence occurred as Maoist’ 48-hour bandh in seven states in protest against the government’s operations against the Naxals drew to a close.

The police said three security personnel were killed and six injured, four of them critically, in a fierce encounter with the Maoists in Gajapati district of Orissa this morning.

Acting on a tip-off about the movement of ultras, a team of security personnel, including the elite anti-Naxal special operation group (SOG) and the state police, had launched a combing operation in Ambajari forest in the wee hours. In the exchange of fire, three SOG jawans were killed and six others injured, the police said. Four jawans were shifted to Vishakhapatnam as their condition was stated to be critical.

The dead were identified as Sanjeet K Tirkey, Balram Pradhan and Deepak Sonbhoy, while casualty from the Maoist side, if any, was yet to be ascertained, the police said.

In another incident in nearby Malkangiri district, the Maoists blew up a pump house and a control room near the pipeline of a private industrial house meant for the movement of minerals to the Chitrakonda area. The police said about 50 armed ultras raided the area in the early hours and triggered an explosion after overpowering and assaulting the guards present there.

Kolkata, March 24
With the recovery of 14 more bodies from the debris, the death toll in yesterday’s devastating fire at Stephen Court in Park Street area rose to 24 today.

City police chief GM Chakraborty said the police had been handed over 24 bodies by the fire brigade. But he admitted the death toll could rise further as over 20 persons were still missing. Forensic experts today visited the spot and took samples of devastation for examining the causes of the fire.

Chakraborty said the police could not arrest the promoter of the building, Sanjay Bagaria, who might have already escaped. But they gathered that in that old building, some 44 flats had been rented out to private parties for commercial purposes and the remaining 20 were being utilised for residential purposes.

In the Assembly, Fire Services Minister Pratim Chatterjee denied that there was any delay in undertaking the rescue operation. He, however, regretted that the trapped persons could not rescued in time because of the quick falling of the several half-broken wooden staircases, which should have been dismantled much earlier. He blamed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the police for allowing such old and dilapidated building for residential and commercial purposes.

Not pacified with his statement, both the Congress and Trinamool Congress staged a walkout from the House, demanding Chatterjee’s resignation. While refusing to resign, Chatterjee announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh each for the victims’ families.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today made a brief stopover at the accident spot while on his way to his office at Writers Buildings.

Kolkata, March 24
A ring, a wrist watch, a chain — these were the only symbols by which parents, sweethearts and children could identify their near and dear ones... so charred and mutilated were their bodies in the Stephen Court fire here. Sobs, wails and shrill cries made the atmosphere heavy at the state-run SSKM Hospital since the wee hours of Wednesday as charred bodies started coming in from the Park Street building.

After the Tuesday afternoon blaze, five to six injured people were brought to the hospital, of whom one died. But the body count began rising after midnight as the fire brigade personnel controlled the blaze and managed to enter the upper floors of the office-cum-residential complex.

Seventeen burnt bodies were found from the sixth floor of the eight-storey building, and the toll had mounted to 24 by Wednesday morning.

“We had been searching frantically for our daughter... at last we could identify her,” said the father of a young girl, who used to work in a computer firm in that building. Twins Jay Khandelwal and Vijay Khandelwal had their lives snuffed out in their teens. They were 18 years old. “They were born on the same day and died together,” said the devastated father of the Khandelwal brothers.

For the family members, it was a long wait, as they had assembled in the hospital from Tuesday evening itself. And when at last they saw their dear ones, they could not recognise them.

Ruhi Parvin, in her 20s, used to work for Microsyst Tech enterprise. She could only be identified by the ring she was wearing.

Wintech employee Tajendra Nath Samanta, 25, was slated to marry soon. His fiancée identified his body, courtesy his wrist watch.

Pampa Chatterjee, 21, was also unrecognisable. Finally, her parents managed to identify her after they recognised her chain and salwar. There were also some moments of poignant drama Wednesday afternoon, as there was a virtual tug-of-war between family members of several victims over the bodies. Some of the agitated family members staged a demonstration in front of the hospital because they had to wait for long before they could see the bodies.

SSKM Hospital has set up a help desk to facilitate the identification process. — IANS

Kolkata, March 24
From 18-year-old Arati Dhali to 25-year-old Sourav Barik, the main victims of the fire that gutted Stephen Court in central Kolkata were young professionals working in call centres and other private offices in the heritage building. Sourav, the only son of Kabita and Sailen Barik, had taken up a call centre job in Rawat Engineers sometime back. A resident of Icchapur in North 24 Parganas, Sourav jumped to death from the fourth floor of his office, unable to bear the rising heat and suffocating smoke. “It was very difficult to breathe. Before our very eyes, our accounts officer Pradip Kumar Chokhany died of suffocation. Sourav may have felt the only way to escape death was to jump out. He did so," said one of his colleagues at the private hospital where the youth's body was kept in the morgue.

Sourav's mother was inconsolable. “Why did he jump? Didn't he know that no one can survive after jumping from such a height.”

Thirty-year-old Vivek Upadhyay, a call centre employee, was one of the first victims of the tragedy. He also took the plunge from his fifth floor office in a desperate bid to escape the flames and died of multiple injuries. Upadhyay, who lived in South Kolkata's Panditiya Road, had married only three years back. "Meri munna thik hai na (is my boy okay)?" his aged mother was asking everyone at the SSKM hospital on Tuesday as her relatives tried to keep the tragic news away from her.

“No no, he has gone home. Let us also go home," said one of the relatives, as he hugged her. It was only late in the night that the news was broken to her. “Why did he have to join this office? They have a family business. But he only wanted to do something on his own,” wailed Upadhyay's wife.

Others like Sonali Singh kept moving around aimlessly in front of the building clutching a photograph of her 22-year-old brother Bidyut Acharya who was missing since yesterday and worked in Wiltech Computers, a call centre firm.

According to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation records, there were 128 business establishments and offices in the building that housed the iconic Flurys tea room and restaurant Peter Cat, besides hip eating joints like One Step Up and Café Coffee Day in the happening Park Street, the city's most well known address.

Several of the establishments had small, cramped offices and low floors with false ceiling that proved veritable tinder-boxes. “Our office had no windows. We were squeezed in between beauty parlours, computer training centres, stock broking firms, a heavy engineering company, software companies, doctors' clinics and transport companies, everything was there, besides several call centres," said telecommunication firm employee Tarun Mukherjee. — IANS

New Delhi, March 24
Overlooking US envoy’s remarks here that no decision has been taken for giving Indian investigators direct access to David Headley, India today said it will soon write to the US for interrogating the LeT terrorist.

The Home Ministry will soon communicate to the US Department of Justice seeking a date for having direct access to Headley, currently under American custody, top government sources said. The decision comes close on the heels of Government stating that it was not taking cognisance of the clarification issued by US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer that no decision has been taken and the US has yet to work out how India would be given access. In its communication, likely to be finalised in the next few days by Home Minister P Chidambaram and top officials, the ministry will tell the American authorities that a team of Indian investigators was ready and it could visit the US once a confirmation is given.

The sources said the National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the case of the 49-year-old terrorist who has admitted to plotting the audacious Mumbai terror attack in November 2008, would file the charge sheet against him only after getting direct access to him. According to the American law, the US Department of Justice will have to take permission from the Chicago court, which is hearing Headley’s case, about India’s request to have direct access to him. In London, Chidambaram said he does not think there has been a “turn around” by the US on the issue of Indian investigators getting direct access to Headley, a Pakistani- American LeT operative.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said when asked by reporters whether there was a turn around by the US. “... If you reflect more carefully that sentence (of Roemer) no way (it) contradicts what the US Attorney General (Eric Holder) has told me,” Chidambaram, who is on an official visit, said. “It is my understanding that India would be able to obtain access to Headley to question him in a properly- constituted judicial proceeding. Such judicial proceeding could be pre-trial or during an inquiry or trial,” the Home Minister had said in a statement on Saturday after a telephonic talk with Holder. — PTI

New Delhi, March 24
In a week from now, the government will set out to keep its promise of educating every child in the country.

For the first time in the history of independent India, children between 6 and 14 years will be able to demand secondary education as a right --- free and compulsory --- to be delivered by the state. But the million-dollar question is ---where are these children?

On the eve of implementation of RTE Act (Delhi will be the first to bring in the law from April 1), it turns out that over 60,000 children in the target age group are still trapped as workers in homes and eateries of the Capital alone.

Since 2006, when the government, after Supreme Court’s orders, modified the Child Labour Prohibition Act 1986 to bar children from working as helps at homes or roadside dhabas and motels, the labour department of Delhi government has rescued only 128 children --- a dismal rescue rate of 0.2 per cent!

The department admits that none of the children rescued have been rehabilitated in the past three years. Worst, there were no convictions in cases, despite the authorities concerned framing charges against 136 employers.

Of those challaned, cases were pursued against only 94 employers (20 in domestic sector and 74 in eatery business) The law prescribes punishment of not less than three months which can go up to one year or fine ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 for the violator.

Not even a single violator was jailed and eventually just 18 out of 94 employers were penalised, with the state government pocketing from them Rs 2.40 lakh as fine between 2006 and 2009. But out of the fund collected, just Rs 40,000 were transferred to the child welfare fund meant to rehabilitate child workers.

These shocking findings on the eve of RTE Act implementation in India form part of the report of Pratidhi and Campaign against Child Trafficking, civil rights organisations involved in child rescue tasks in the Capital and the NCR region.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Rajmangal Prasad, a child rights activist, questioned the scenario in other states when the Capital was faring so poorly on the child labour front.

“The law allows police officers to file complaints in courts, but complaints are not being filed. We know of children being employed in homes of political leaders and bureaucrats but no one not even the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is ready to enforce the law,” Bharti Ali of HAQ told The Tribune.

Most worrisome is the situation in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, where bonded child labour remains an issue. In Bihar alone, 40 children were issued release certificates under Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1976, but they didn’t get the mandatory compensation of Rs 20,000 each. The state has been withholding cheques since 2007. “It’s a grave omission,” Prasad says.

With children still out of school, it remains to be seen how RTE Act takes shape from April 1. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today said he had asked states to prepare details of school children and define neighbourhood schools at the earliest. Under the Act, states get three years to conform to rules. But if in three years they couldn’t prohibit children’s employment in homes and eateries, how will they, in another three, get every child to school. The country is watching.

New Delhi, March 24
Appreciative of the action taken by Bangladesh against Indian insurgent groups operating from its soil, India has assured Dhaka that it would not take any unilateral decision on its proposed river-interlinking project that might affect the neighbouring country.

On the controversial Tipaimukh Dam Project also, New Delhi has conveyed to Dhaka its commitment not to take any step having any adverse impact on Bangladesh.

These assurances were given at the just-concluded 37th Indian-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission meeting. The Indian delegation was led by Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, while the Bangladeshi team was headed by his counterpart Ramesh Chandra Sen.

Of great concern to Bangladesh was the proposed 1,500-MW Tipaimukh Dam project that will be located around 500 m downstream the confluence of the Tuivai and Barak rivers in Manipur.

The project is being opposed by environment groups and opposition parties in Bangladesh. Opposition leader Khaleda Zia has used the Tipaimukh Dam controversy to fan anti-India sentiments in the neighbouring country.

The argument being advanced by Dhaka is that the project could cause desertification in Bangladesh.

Sources said India was initially prepared to go ahead with the project, ignoring Dhaka’s “ill-founded” protestations, but the kind of cooperation it has received from Bangladesh since Sheikh Hasina returned to power in January, 2009, New Delhi has decided to go the extra mile in addressing Bangladesh’s concerns.

India has taken an extremely positive view of the fact that the Sheikh Hasina government has relentlessly struck at fanatical and terrorist elements, which pose a threat to both India and Bangladesh.

During the talks between the water resources ministers, India presented a draft statement on principles for sharing Teesta waters.

The two sides agreed to mandate the respective secretaries of water resources to examine the drafts presented by both sides towards an expeditious conclusion of an interim agreement on the issue.

Guwahati, March 24
Even as it has been negotiating with the Government of India for last 13 years to find “honourable and acceptable” solution to decades old Naga political problem, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) is keeping its “army” armed to the teeth besides injecting fresh blood into it.

A large number of teenaged boys and girls dressed in olive green battle fatigues and armed with sophisticated weapons were seen keeping guard at various vantage points in and around the NSCN-IM’s truce-time central headquarters at Camp Hebron about 40 km away from Dimapur in Nagaland on Sunday, when the Naga rebel group’s general-secretary Thuingaleng Muivah was there to address the NSCN-IM “soldiers, officers” and members of civil society on occasion of “30th Republic Day” of the so-called “Government of People’s Republic of Nagalim (GPRN)”.

When drawn to the very young looking newly-recruited soldiers in NSCN-IM ranks, the self-styled “minister of information and publicity (MIP)” of the GPRN and a senior NSCN-IM leader Jacob Saizah admitted, “Yes, some of the soldiers recruited recently were as young as 15 years. But these young soldiers are assigned to soft and lighters jobs to commensurate with their young age.”

Most of these young rebels are school dropouts, who have been employed by the rebel groups in its ranks. Believe it or not, the NSCN-IM has a structured system of paying their soldiers and officers monthly salary according to their status and ranks, besides providing other facilities. During the current truce period with the Government of India since August 1, 2010, the rebel groups have recruited a large number of soldiers by holding recruitment rallies in various parts of Nagaland. The rebel group makes announcements about the recruitment rallies through advertisement published in local newspapers in Nagaland.

“We have recruited 11 new batches of soldiers, since the truce was declared. All these batches have been provided proper military training,” Jacob said, declining to divulge the exact number of new recruits.

“The Government of India should not impose Indian Constitution on us, we will not accept it. Political solution to Naga problem can’t be found through imposition of any condition. Nagas alone will decide their own fate,” said Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) on the occasion of the “30th Republic Day of Government of People’s Republic of Nagaland (GPRN)” on Sunday.

Addressing a crowd of Naga people at the NSCN-IM’s truce-time headquarter at Camp Hebron, about 40 km away from Nagaland’s commercial hub, Dimapur, Muivah said, “The God has created space for Naga race. I firmly believe in Nagalim (Naga inhabited areas across the region). Nagas will be their own masters otherwise we will be a lost nation.”

Stating that Nagas will only accept “honourable” solution, Muivah in reference to his last round of talks with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram held in New Delhi earlier this month said, “This time they seemed (PM and HM) to be more serious in finding an honourable political solution to Naga problem through negotiation. The Prime Minister asked us to forget the past and look towards the future for finding an honourable solution.”

“People of India have to respect Nagas’ reality and then we will reciprocate by respecting Indians” reality by 10 times more,” said the NSCN leader who has been leading the peace process with the Government of India for the last 13 years since declaration of ceasefire on August 1, 1997.

He struck a positive note saying, “Our time of victory is not far away” and called upon leaders and cadres of the NSCN-IM to forsake arrogance and be humble before people and the God. However, Muivah’s somewhat off-colour speech apparently failed to cheer up the crowd who looked visibly confused about what actually has transpired between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM leadership during the negotiation, so far.

The President of the apex Naga civil society organisation, Naga Ho Ho, Kevi Keyhuo, while addressing the gathering, called upon the NSCN-IM to be more transparent about the peace process to keep people properly informed about it. He warned against complacency that is creeping in NSCN-IM before the final solution.

Representatives of Naga people’s groups in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur too spoke in the function besides various civil society groups of Nagaland and all called for reconciliation of Naga underground groups.

Trivandrum, March 24
The crude explosive material detected in the cargo hold of Kingfisher flight on Sunday is suspected to have been placed while the aircraft was parked at the airport here.

According to police sources, an indication to this effect was given in the First Information Report submitted before a local court here yesterday.

The flight from Bangalore arrived here at 8.05 am and the explosive wrapped in a Malayalam newspaper was spotted about 10 minutes later from the cargo section by a cleaning staff engaged by the airline, the FIR submitted in the First Class Judicial Magistrate Court here said.

The suspicion that the incident had a local connection was “reinforced” as the low-intensity material -- a mixture of potassium chloride, ammonia and sulphur -- was wrapped in two layers of paper, first of which was a question paper of Class X model exam that was held in Kerala last year, the sources said.

Since last evening, investigators have zoomed in on three persons, including a cracker dealer, whose statements reportedly offered some clues, the sources said.

They were taken into custody from Palode near Nedumangad town, about 25 km from here, while pursuing a lead in the form of markings in the Malayalam newspaper in which the crude device was wrapped, they said.

Meanwhile, NR Das, director general of CISF, the agency in charge of airport security, would arrive here for a review of the security system at the airport, they said. — PTI

New Delhi, March 24
Rajya Sabha member from Haryana Tarlochan Singh today petitioned Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to commemorate the Martyrs’ Day in Parliament complex from the next year.

Taking objection to the miss that Parliament secretariats gave to the “Shaheedi Divas” yesterday (an issue highlighted yesterday by The Tribune), Singh said if socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia’s birthday could be celebrated officially, why could tributes not be offered at Bhagat Singh statue in Parliament complex on Martyrs’ Day.

“From next year, a formal function should be held in the central hall of Parliament in the memory of the martyr who is a national icon,” Singh petitioned the Speaker. Incidentally, it was this very central hall where Bhagat Singh and his friend BK Dutt had dropped a bomb in a bid to make themselves heard. — TNS

Lucknow, March 24
In a bid to understand rural India firsthand, Melinda Gates, co-chairperson of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, today paid a surprise visit to Bhuli-Ghara-Rampur village in Shivgarh block of Rae Bareli.

Those who interacted with her in the village did not even get the sense of being with the wife of billionaire Bill Gates. She is also the co-chairperson of a foundation, which is among the world’s largest charitable trusts with assets to the tune of $35 billion.

Moving from door to door on an exceptionally hot March day, she spent hours talking to young mothers and families involved in a programme to check infant mortality. Saksham, an NGO under sponsorship of the John Hopkins University, is running the programme.

She was also witness to a traditional “chhathi” ceremony of a newborn child. She was informed that this was a ceremony when the infant and the mother get their first bath and are allowed to step out of their confinement normally on the sixth day after the baby is born.

Later, she paid a courtesy call on Chief Minister Mayawati where both the women spoke of their commitment to work for the poor and downtrodden of the state.