Guwahati, April 3
Sending a clear signal to insurgents in the North-East, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said there would be ‘zero tolerance’ towards militancy and violence.

Addressing a public meeting at Assam Rifles auditorium at Arunachal Pradesh’s Khonsa township , the headquarter of Tirap district which is close to Myanmar border, Chidambaram said: “The Union government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards militancy. We welcome insurgent groups for taks but first they have to shun violence and anti-social activities.”

Chidambaram, who was accompanied by Arunachal Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, told leaders of Tirap and Changlang districts that there should be a concerted effort for development of border belts.

“Money is not the constraint, but the issue is how you spend the money”, he said, calling for close vigil by people and administration to ensure that quality work is undertaken in the name of development.

Chidambaram asked the state government to come up with a special plan for Tirap and Changlang, focusing on roads, electricity and skill development. He also informed that two battalions were being raised.

“The move would provide employments to many deserving youths from the both districts,” said the Home Minister.

Earlier, Chidambaram visited Tawang monastery and was bowled over by the picturesque beauty of the area. “This is my maiden visit to your place. It is beautiful and it has been rightly quoted by many as the hidden paradise on earth,” said Chdambaram while addressing a gathering there.

New Delhi, April 3
Unfazed by the February 25 attacks in Kabul, India is scaling up the security of around 3,500 Indians working in Afghanistan and has made it clear that there is no question of India reaching out to the Taliban.

Reliable sources here said India is aware of the dangers posed by the Taliban, but is “not reaching out” to the hardline militia. New Delhi made it clear that it will await the results of the campaign launched by the US-led forces in Helmand and the military action being planned in Kandahar.

Taking note of the growing operations of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Afghanistan, India has stressed that it will not deter it from continuing the developmental and reconstruction projects worth $1.3 billion there.

India, opposed to artificial distinctions between the good Taliban and bad Taliban, believes that Taliban and Lashkar are morphed together and share a common objective to target Indian interest in Afghanistan, the sources said. — IANS

Patna, April 3
Maoist guerrillas have apologised to students in Bihar for damaging their school buildings and affecting their education.

"Hundreds of copies of the apology have been distributed among schoolchildren. We told them that we were sorry for targeting their schools. We also told them what forced us to target their schools," a Maoist leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.

The letters, written in Hindi, were distributed by the rebels of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) on behalf of the Sone-Ganga-Vindhayanchal zonal committee in their strongholds.

"The damage to schools has affected students' education. We regret the action as this created trouble for the children. We were forced to target the school buildings as they were being used by the central paramilitary forces to launch operations against us," the Maoist leader said.

Also, in a reference to the ongoing Operation Green Hunt, the Maoists informed the children that the government plans to turn all schools into camps of security forces in the coming months.

"The central government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram sold forests, land and mountains to foreign companies at the cost of depriving local people. Maoists are opposing it and will continue to oppose it," the Maoists said in their letter.

Maoists claimed that they were fighting to save the country and were real nationalists.

In December last year, hundreds of poor school children in Aurangabad district appealed to Maoists not to damage or target their schools.

"Maoist uncle, what is our mistake that you blow up schools and deprive us of education? You may have problems with the police but we fail to understand why are we your enemy. What is our mistake that our schools have become a soft target for you?" the school children wrote in their letter to the Maoists.

A police officer here admitted that after railways and mobile towers, schools in rural areas have become the soft target of Maoist guerrillas in Bihar. "Maoists have been targeting school buildings fearing that these buildings were used by central paramilitary forces."

The rebels targeted five schools in Kaimur and Rohtas districts in the last one week.

According to police, more than 25 school buildings were blown up by the Maoists in different districts in the last one year. At least 10 school buildings were blown up or badly damaged in Aurangabad, Gaya, Rohtas and Jehanabad districts which are the worst Maoist-affected districts. — IANS

Haridwar, April 3
“By means of ahimsa and compassion, we can remove all negativities in our society and minds,” said Tibetan guru and His Holiness Dalai Lama while speaking at a conglomeration of religious, spiritual and political leaders here today.

“The bitterness among nations took a heavy toll on humanity in the last century. We saw two World Wars which crippled nations physically, emotionally and economically. We need to make the 21st century a century of non violence and dialogue so that peace and harmony prevails in this world. Religion can play a pivotal role in this endeavour,” he asserted.

“I first came to India during the pre-Independence era.I was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who put to great use his tools of non-violence and compassion. We need to revive them,” said Dalai Lama.

The event saw the likes of Yog guru Swami Ramdev, Hindu ShankaraCharyas and former deputy Prime Minister LK Advani coming on a common platform dwelling on religion and Indian philosophy.

“It’s ironic that the world is looking towards India and we are bent upon aping the West. The diversity of our culture and its vastness cannot be matched,” said Swami Ramdev, while addressing the gathering.

Former deputy Prime Minister and BJP top leader LK Advani termed the religious-spiritual gathering as unprecedented.

Apart from several religious leaders, Uttarakhand CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank,Vishwa Hindu Parishad international chief Ashok Singhal and Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi were also present on the occasion.

New Delhi, April 3
Twenty-six years after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots scarred the souls of the minority community, it turns out that about 4,274 claims for enhanced compensation to victims of the carnage are still pending with different state governments.

Records of the Ministry of Home Affairs reveal that Uttar Pradesh continues to be the biggest defaulter in the category, with 9 per cent of the total enhanced-compensation claims filed in the state yet to be processed.

Documents accessed by The Tribune show that of the total 7,442 cases of riot compensation that were to be cleared by the UP government, 701 are pending. The state government has paid enhanced compensation in 6,741 cases.

The Union Cabinet had, on December 29, 2005, cleared a package comprising enhanced ex gratia and rehabilitation assistance to the victims of 1984 riots. The package amounted to Rs 715 crore. Further, the ex gratia in the case of death, injury assistance per case and compensation for damaged property were also enhanced by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Since the announcement five years ago, the National Minorities Commission, made in charge of monitoring, has been requesting Bihar, Haryana, Himachal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, UP, Delhi and Uttarakhand to pay relief.

Ahmedabad/New Delhi, April 3
A week after seizing eight Indian vessels with about 100 sailors on board, Somalian pirates have released one of the boats, Krishna Jyot, along with 15 people on board.

India has approached Somalian government for help to ensure the release of the remaining dhows and around 85 Indians still in the captivity of pirates.

The spree of hijackings over the last one week has triggered concerns as the incidents took place quite away from the Gulf of Aden near the Somalian coast which is notorious for piracy.

The eight Indian dhows, slow moving vessels, with about 100 sailors on board, were captured by the pirates on March 27-28.

One of those, with 15 sailors on board, has been released and is on its way to India, president of Kutch Vahanvati Association (KVA) Kasam Ali Bholim said in Ahmedabad today.

The vessel ‘Krishna Jyot’, which is registered in Veraval in Gujarat, has been released by Somalian pirates as there was not much fuel in the dhow, he told PTI. — PTI

New Delhi, April 3
India is trying to keep its ties with Iran on track, notwithstanding the American pressure on it for not going ahead with transactions on the gas pipeline with Tehran.

Sources here today denied that that the Americans had ever directly advised New Delhi on how it should conduct its relationship with Iran.

India has also decided to nominate its Ambassador to Iran Sanjay Singh to participate in the meet on nuclear disarmament in Tehran later this month, just four days after the Nuclear Security Summit convened by President Obama.

Faced with threats of crippling sanctions over its nuclear programme, Iran is hosting a two-day conference on April 17 on nuclear disarmament and has sought India’s support for this initiative.

The theme of the conference is “Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for None”.

The sources said India had not withdrawn from the proposed $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, also called the peace pipeline.

“We haven’t shut the door on dialogue. Besides pricing and security issues, the volatile situation in Pakistan also has a bearing on the project,” the sources said.

The sources said India was opposed to sanctions against Iran as they would affect the common people. However, Iran must also abide by its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

New Delhi, April 3
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was today enumerated for Census 2011 and he said the data from this massive exercise will be a 'treasure house' of information to help the government plan its development work.

Census officials visited the Race Course residence of the 77-year-old Prime Minister this morning and collected particulars of him and his wife Gursharan Kaur. Official sources said Singh was enthusiastic in giving out information during the exercise that lasted about 15 minutes.

Minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chauhan, Union Home Secretary GK Pillai and Census Commissioner C Chandramouli were present. Singh asked each and every citizen to participate in the national endeavour and ensure that they are enumerated properly. "This enumeration will constitute a treasure house of information for planning our development work," he said. He said the Census of India is the most massive operation for compiling statistics anywhere in the world.

"Some of this data forms an important base for planning the level of our economic and social activities and it constitutes an important input in the processes of planning and development," the Prime Minister noted. The biggest Census exercise ever to be attempted in human history to cover India's 1.2 billion population began on April one with President Pratibha Patil being the first to be enumerated in the decennial exercise.

The 15th National Census, which will see over 25 lakh officials capturing the socio-economic-cultural profile of its citizens, will also seek information for the creation of the National Population Register. — PTI

Ludhiana, April 3
Amrik Singh Punni (73), Former Chief Secretary and a noted Punjabi writer, passed away following illness at DMC Hospital here this evening.

Born in 1937 in Jindowal village in Nawanshehar (Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar), he was a 1962-batch IAS officer. He served as Deputy Commissioner (DC) at various districts of the state and later retired as Chief Secretary of Punjab in 1996.

New Delhi, April 3
Fatima Bhutto, niece of slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, says her "blood froze" on the day Asif Ali Zardari became the country's President and prompted her to send away her younger brother from the country fearing for his safety.

Zardari was accused of plotting the murder of Fatima's father Murtaza Bhutto but had been acquitted of the charge. "On 20 September, 2008, on the 12th anniversary of Papa's death, Asif Zardari took his oath as the President of Pakistan. The ceremony had been scheduled for the day before, the 19th, but had been moved on the orders of the new President, who rescheduled his big day for Saturday, Papa's barsi," Fatima writes in her just-released memoir "Songs of Blood and Sword".

"As he stood in front of Parliament, he paused in his speech and asked for a moment of silence to mark the occasion of his brother-in-law's death. My blood froze. It was as if he was taunting us. "But that would be nothing compared to what would follow. On Zardari's first Pakistan Day as the President he would honour Shoaib Suddle, one of the most senior police officers present at the scene when my father was killed. Suddle was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz, a national medal in recognition of his services to the people of Pakistan. Shoaib Suddle was then made the head of the Federal Investigation Bureau," Fatima writes.

Murtaza was killed on September 20, 1996, when Fatima was 14, in a shootout with the police near his Karachi residence. On December 3, 2009, a Karachi court acquitted 20 policemen charged with the killing. After Benazir's government was dismissed in 1996, Zardari was detained for having a part in Murtaza's assassination. However, no charges were ever proved for want of evidence as the scene of Murtaza's assassination was wiped clean before police investigators could arrive.

Zardari's ascendancy also saw Fatima packing off her younger brother Zulfi. "When Zardari announced himself as the PPP's unanimously chosen presidential candidate we knew he would stop at nothing to reach the pinnacle of power. There was no turning back for him. Against all odds, he was going to rule Pakistan. We made the decision to take Zulfi out of the country. It was decision we had been avoiding, hoping it would not be necessary, since Benazir was killed in December 2007. "But as Zulfi was the only surviving male heir of the Bhuttos, we couldn't take the risk of leaving him vulnerable. Besides Zulfi, the only remaining Bhuttos are (cousin) Sassi and I," Fatima writes.

The book comes at a time when Zardari is set to be deprived of his sweeping powers through a constitutional amendment being tabled in Parliament on Friday to transfer to the Prime Minister major powers like the appointment of armed forces chiefs and reduce the President to a titular head of state.

The Bhutto family has has had to contend with violence for the last four decades, losing one member every decade. Fatima's grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979 after what many consider to be a kangaroo trial. This was after he had been deposed as the President by the then Army Chief Gen Zia-ul Haq. Her father, Murtaza, Shahnawaz's brother, was killed on September 20, 1996, and her aunt Benazir was assassinated on December 27, 2007. — IANS

Jaipur, April 3
With the state Assembly passing a Bill raising the salary and perks of all the elected representatives, the Chief Minister, his Cabinet colleagues and all the MLAs are all set to get a salary hike.

The salary of all the MLAs, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chief Whip, Deputy Whip, Chief Minister, Cabinet ministers, state ministers and Leader of Opposition has been raised by Rs 5,000. With this the Chief Minister’s salary has been raised to Rs 25,000, while his Cabinet ministers’ salary would now be Rs 22,000. Similarly, the state ministers will now draw Rs 20,000 per month as their salary. The guest allowance of the CM has also been enhanced from Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000. The allowance of ministers has also been increased from Rs 14,000 to Rs 20,000.

Apart from revision of free telephone, furniture and electricity allowance rates, the daily allowance of ministers and the CM has been raised from Rs 400 to Rs 700. The MLAs will now draw a salary of Rs 10,000 per month as compared to Rs 5,000 earlier. Their constituency allowance has also been raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per month. The minimum pension drawn by the former MLAs has also been raised from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000, while the upper limit for pension has been increased to Rs 17,500.

The Assembly Speaker will also benefit from the Bill, as his salary would witness an increase from Rs 18,000 to Rs 22,000, while the deputy would earn Rs 21,000 per month. The Chief Whip's salary would be Rs 22,000 and that of Deputy Whip Rs 20,000. The monthly salary of the Leader of Opposition would also be Rs 22,000 as compared to Rs 17,000 earlier. The monthly allowances of these top functionaries have been raised from Rs 14,000 to Rs 20,000 and it would be effective with retrospective effect from August 1, 2009.